"You"ve got her sized up right in that way, Dago. I know a fellow that was sick and had to cache the chocolate and things his folks sent him from the East under the mattress when he saw her coming and he always locked the fruit in his trunk after she had cleaned him out a dozen times as though a flock of seventeen-year locusts had swarmed down upon him. One night about two or three in the morning when she couldn"t sleep, she called on a typhoid patient under the pretext of making a professional visit, and got the nurse to fry her some eggs. She"s as regular as a boarder at Andy P. Symes"s when meal-time rolls around. I wonder sometimes that he stands for it."
The Dago Duke looked at him oddly, but observed merely:
"Do you?"
"And you don"t think the dagos made a mistake or misunderstood something through not talkin" English much? It sounded straight to me the way they told it, but a thing like this is something you don"t want to repeat unless you just about saw it for yourself."
"If they told you they had $5.50 taken from them you can bet it"s so.
Italians of that cla.s.s know to a penny what they have sent home, what they have in the bank, what there is in their pockets to spend.
Generations of poverty have taught them carefulness and thrift.
Americans call them ignorant and stupid because their unfamiliarity with the language and customs make them appear so, but they are neither too ignorant nor stupid to misunderstand an incident like this. Are the men still on the works?"
The deputy nodded.
"If you"ll loan me your horse I"ll ride out and see them myself. My understudy can perhaps stand another day with the sheep without going crazy. When I come back I may be in a better position to call upon the lady doc and talk it over. She"s fond of me, you know."
"So I"ve noticed." Dan Treu grinned as he recalled the invariable exchange of personalities when they met.
XXV
CROWHEART DEMANDS JUSTICE
The utterly insignificant telegraph operator at an equally insignificant railway station in Mexico loomed a person of colossal importance to Ogden Van Lennop, who had calculated that the reply to his telegram was considerably more than a week overdue. As he went once more to the telegraph office, the only reason of which he could think for being glad that he was the princ.i.p.al owner in the only paying mine in the vicinity was that the operator did not dare laugh in his face.
"Anything for me?"
"Nothing; not yet, sir."
The operator"s voice and manner were respectful, but Van Lennop saw his teeth gleam beneath his dark mustache. He had found it quite useless to a.s.sure Van Lennop that he need not trouble himself to call as any telegram would be delivered immediately upon its receipt, also he had been long enough in the service to know that young Americans of Van Lennop"s type did not ordinarily become so intense over a matter of business.
"Could it have gone astray--this infernal name--it looks like a piece of barbed wire when it"s spelled out--is there another place of the same name in Mexico?"
"Not in the world, sir."
"I didn"t think so," returned Van Lennop grimly. He continued: "I want you to telegraph the operator in Crowheart and find out positively if the message was delivered to the person to whom it was sent."
"I"ll get it off at once, sir."
So this was being "in love?"--this frenzy of impatience, this unceasing anxiety which would not let him sleep! It seemed to Van Lennop that he had nearly run the emotional gamut since leaving Crowheart and all that remained to be experienced was further depths of doubt and dark despair.
Had he been too sure of her, he asked himself; had something in his letter or the sending of his telegram displeased her? Was she ill?
He reproached himself bitterly for not telling her before he left, and thought with angry impatience of the caution which had kept him silent because he wanted to be sure of himself.
"Sure of myself!" he repeated it contemptuously. "I should have been making sure of her! The veriest yokel would have known that he was completely--desperately in love with her, but I, like the spineless mollusk that I am, must needs wait a little longer--"to be sure of myself"!"
To shorten the long hours which must intervene before he could expect a reply from Crowheart, Van Lennop ordered his saddle horse and rode to the mine, where a rascally superintendent had stripped the ore shoot and departed with everything but the machinery. Van Lennop had the tangled affairs of the mine fairly well straightened out and the new superintendent was due that day, so the end of his enforced stay was in sight in a day or two more--three at the most.
As his horse picked its way over the mountain trail the fresh air seemed to clear his brain of the jumble of doubts and misgivings and replace them with a growing conviction that something had gone wrong--that all was not well with Essie Tisdale. His unanswered letter and telegram was entirely at variance with her sweet good-nature. What if she were needing him, calling upon him now, this very minute? He urged his horse unconsciously at the thought. Some accident--he could think of nothing else--unless a serious illness.
The employees at the mine observed that the young American owner was singularly inattentive that day to the complaints and grievances to which heretofore he had lent a patient ear.
His horse was sweating when upon his return he threw the reins to an idle Mexican in front of his hotel and hurried into the office.
Yes; there was a telegram for Senor Van Lennop--two, in fact.
He tore open the envelope of one with fingers which were awkward in their haste. The telegram read:
Message addressed to Miss Essie Tisdale received and delivered.
OPERATOR
Van Lennop stood quite still and read it again, even to the unintelligible date-line. He felt suddenly lifeless, listless, as though he wanted to sit down. It was all over, then. She had received his letter and his telegram, and her reply to his offer of his love and himself was--silence? It was not like her, but there seemed nothing more for him to do. He could not force himself and his love upon her. She knew her own mind. His conceit had led him into error. It was done.
He opened the other telegram mechanically. It was from Prescott and partially in code. It was a long one for Prescott to send, but Van Lennop looked at it without interest. He would translate it at his leisure--there was no hurry now--the game had lost its zest.
Van Lennop turned to the dingy register. A train had arrived in his absence and perhaps Britt, the new superintendent, had come. His name was there--that was something for which to be grateful, as he could the sooner get back into the world where he could find in business something better than his own wretched thoughts to occupy his mind.
He walked languidly over the stone flagging to his room and dropped listlessly into a chair. It was not long before he heard Britt"s alert step in the corridor quickly followed by his brisk rap upon the door. He always had liked the ambitious young engineer and they shook hands cordially.
"I"m more than glad to see you."
Britt laughed.
"I dare say. A week in a place like this is much like a jail sentence unless you"re hard at work. Are things in pretty much of a mess?"
Van Lennop went over the situation briefly, and concluded--
"I"ll stay over a day or so, if you desire."
"There"s no necessity, I think," said Britt, rising. "I"ll keep in touch with you by wire. Crowheart again?"
Van Lennop shook his head.
"I"m going east from here."
"Here"s a late paper; perhaps you"d like to look it over. When I"m in a place like this I can read a patent medicine pamphlet, and enjoy it."
Van Lennop smiled.
"Much obliged. There"s the supper gong. Don"t wait for me; I"ll be a little late."
Van Lennop had no desire for food, much less for conversation, so he picked up the travel-worn newspaper which Britt had tossed upon the table and glanced at the headlines.
The stock market was stronger. Nevada Con was up three points. The girl with the beautiful eyebrows had married that French jackanapes after all. Another famine in India. A Crowheart date-line caught his eye.