It would have been impossible. Let"s look this thing over. Drive past the club-house to the extreme west side."
Once more they traversed the mud of Burnit Avenue, and upon the dry, sloping ground the young engineer, cursing his inexperience, alighted and walked along the edge of the property, seeking a solution to the mystery. Still perplexed, he ascended the rising ground and looked musingly across at the yet swollen and clay-red river. Suddenly an exclamation escaped his lips.
"There"s your enemy," he said to Bobby who had climbed up beside him, and pointed to the river. "The river bank, I am sure, must edge upon a tilted shale formation which dips just below this basin. Probably at all times some of the water from the river seeps down between two sand-separated layers of this formation to find its outlet in the marsh, and it is this water which, through a geological freak, has supplied that swamp for ages. In the spring, however, and in extraordinary flood times, it probably finds a higher and looser stratum, and rushes down here with all the force of a hydraulic stream. This spring it took it a long time to wet thoroughly all our made ground from the bottom upward. The frost, sinking deeper in this loose, wet soil than elsewhere, held it back, too, for a time, but as soon as this was thoroughly out of the ground the river overflow came up like a geyser.
"Mr. Burnit, your Applerod Addition is ruined, and it can never be saved, unless by some extraordinary means. Nature picked out this spot, centuries and centuries ago, for a swamp, and she"s going to have one here in spite of all that we can do. In five years this basin won"t be a thing but black water and weeds, with only that club-house as a decaying monument to your enterprise."
Bobby controlled himself with an effort. His face was drawn and white; but part of that was from the anxiety of the past two days, and he took the blow stiff and erect, as a good soldier stands up to be disciplined. His eye roved over the work in which he had taken such pride, and already he could see in fancy the dank weeds growing up, and the croaking frogs diving into the oily surface, and the clouds of mosquitoes hovering over it again. Over the top of his retaining wall still poured the foul water which was to leaven all this, and he gazed upon it with a sharp intake of the breath.
"And to think that Silas Trimmer must have known all this, and led me to waste a fortune just so that he could reap the benefit of my advertising for his own vulture advantage!"
That, at first, was the part which hurt more than the overthrow of his plans, more than the loss of his money, more than the failure of his fight to carry out his father"s wishes for his success: that any one could play the game so unfairly, that there could be in all the world people so detestable, so unprincipled, so _unsportsmanlike_!
Slowly the vanquished pair descended the hill to where the automobile stood upon the solid, level sward, but before they climbed in Bobby shook hands with his engineer.
"Don"t blame yourself too much, old man," he said. "It wasn"t a condition that you could foresee, and I"m mighty sorry if it hurts your reputation."
"It ought to!" exclaimed Platt with deep self-revilement. "I should have investigated. I should not have taken anything for granted. I ought to have enough money so that you could sue me for damages and recover all you lost."
"It couldn"t be done," said Bobby miserably. "I"ve lost so much more than money."
He did not tell Platt of Agnes, but that was the one thought into which all his failure had finally resolved. Agnes! How much longer must he wait for her? They had just pa.s.sed the club-house when a light buggy turned into Burnit Avenue, driven furiously by a white-haired man in a white vest and a high silk hat.
"I accept your offer!" cried Applerod, as soon as he came within talking distance, his usually ruddy face now livid white.
"My offer," repeated Bobby wonderingly.
"Yes; your offer of ten thousand dollars for my share in the Applerod Addition."
Bobby was forced to laugh. It had needed but this to make the bitter jest of fortune complete.
"You refused that offer the day it was made, Applerod!" put in Platt indignantly. "I heard you. Anyhow, you dragged Mr. Burnit into this thing!"
"He"s not to blame for that," said Bobby. "But still, I don"t think I care to buy any more of this property." And he smiled grimly at the absurdity of it all.
"I"ll sue you for it!" shrieked Applerod, frantic from thwarted self-interest. "You prevented me from selling out at a profit when I had a chance! You bound me hand and foot when I knew that if Silas Trimmer had anything to gain by it we would lose! He knew all the time that this swamp was fed by underground springs. He bragged about it to me this morning as I pa.s.sed him on the road. He told me last night I"d better come out here this morning."
"I see," said Bobby coldly, and he reached for his lever.
"Then you won"t hold good to your offer?" gasped the other.
Pale before, he had turned ashen now, and Bobby looked at him with quick compunction. Applerod, always so chubbily youthful for a man of his years, was grown suddenly old. He seemed to have shrunk inside his clothes, his face to have turned flabby, his eyes to have dimmed.
After all, he was an old man, and the little that he had sc.r.a.ped together represented all that he could hope to ama.s.s in a none too provident lifetime. This day made him a pauper and there was no chance for a fresh start. Bobby himself was young and strong, and, moreover, his resources were by no means exhausted.
"I"ll tell you what I"ll do, Applerod," said he, after a moment of very sober thought. "Your property cost you in the neighborhood of four thousand. Interest since the time you first began to invest in it would bring it up to a little more than that. I"ll give you five thousand."
"I won"t accept it.--Yes, I will! yes, I will!" he cried as Bobby impatiently reached again for his lever.
"Very well," said Bobby, "wait a minute." And tearing a leaf from his memorandum-book he wrote a note to Johnson to see to the transfer of the property and deliver to Applerod a check for five thousand dollars.
"That was more than generous; it was foolish," protested Jimmy Platt, as they whirled away.
"No doubt," admitted Bobby dryly. "But, if I"m forced to be a fool, I might as well have a well-finished job of it."
CHAPTER XII
AGNES DECIDES THAT SHE WILL WAIT
Applerod, his poise nearly recovered, bounded into the office where Johnson sat stolidly working away, his sense of personal contentedness enhanced by the presence of Biff Bates, who sat idly upon the flat-top desk, dangling his legs and waiting for Bobby. Mr. Applerod paid no attention whatever to Mr. Bates, that gentleman being quite beneath his notice, but with vast importance he laid down in front of Mr.
Johnson the note which Bobby had given him.
"_Mr._ Johnson," he pompously directed, "you will please attend to this little matter as soon as possible."
"Applerod," said Johnson, glancing at the note and looking up with sudden fire, "does this mean that you are no longer even partially my employer?"
"That"s it exactly."
"Then you, Applerod, don"t you dare call me _Mr._ Johnson again!" And he shook a bony fist at his old-time work-fellow.
Biff Bates nearly fell off the desk, but with rare presence of mind restrained his glee.
Mr. Applerod, smiling loftily, immediately wielded his bludgeon.
"We should not quarrel over trifles," he stated commiseratingly. "We are once more companions in misfortune. There is no Applerod Addition.
It is a swamp again."
"What do you mean?" asked Johnson incredulously, but suspending his indignation for the instant.
"This," said Applerod: "that the entire addition is a hundred-acre mud puddle this morning. You couldn"t sell a lot in it to a blind man.
Every cent that was invested in it is lost. The whole marsh was fed from underground springs that have come up through it and overflowed the place."
"Trimmer again," said Biff Bates, and slid off the desk; then he looked at his watch with a curious speculative smile.
"But if it is all lost," protested Johnson, looking again at the note and pausing in the making out of the check, "how do you come to get this?"
"He owed it to me," a.s.serted Applerod. "I wanted to sell out when I first found that we were competing with Silas Trimmer, and young Burnit kept me from it by an injunction. He offered me ten thousand dollars for my interest once, but this morning when I went to accept that offer he would only give me this five thousand. It"s just five thousand dollars that he"s robbed me of."
"_Robbed!_" shrilled Johnson, jumping from his chair. "Applerod, you weigh a hundred and eighty pounds and I weigh a hundred and thirty-seven, but I can lick you the best day you ever lived; and by thunder and blazes! if you let fall another remark like that I"ll knock your infernal head off!"
Mr. Johnson had on no coat, but he felt the urgent need to remove something, so he tore off one false sleeve, wadded it up in a little ball and slammed it on the floor with great vigor, tore off the other one, wadded it up and slammed that down. Biff Bates, quivering with joy, rang loudly upon a porcelain electric-light shade with his pencil and called: "Time!"
There was no employment for a referee, however, for Mr. Applerod, with astonishing agility, sprang to the door and held it half open, ready for a hurried exit in case of any other demonstration. It was shocking to think that he might be drawn into an undignified altercation--and with a mere clerk! Also, it might be dangerous.
"Nothing doing, chum," said Biff Bates disgustedly to his friend Johnson. "This bunch of mush-ripe bananas ain"t even a quitter. He"s a never-beginner. But you"ll do fine, old scout. Come along with me. I got a treat for you."