Copper Streak Trail

by Eugene Manlove Rhodes

  CHAPTER V

  Something Dewing, owner of Cobre's Emporium of Chance, sat in his room inthe Admiral Dewey Hotel. It was a large and pleasant room, refitted andover-furnished by Mr. Dewing at the expense of his fellow townsmen,grateful or otherwise. It is well to mention here that, upon the tonguesof the scurrile, "Something," as a praise-name and over-name for Mr.Dewing, suffered a sea change to "Surething"--Surething Dewing; just asthe Admiral Dewey Hotel was less favorably known as "Stagger Inn."

  Mr. Dewing's eye rested dreamily upon the picture, much praised ofconnoisseurs, framed by his window--the sharp encircling contours ofCobre Mountain; the wedge of tawny desert beyond Farewell Gap. Rousinghimself from such contemplation, he broke a silence, sour and undulyprolonged.

  "Four o'clock, and all's ill! Johnson is not the man to be cheated out ofa fortune without putting up a fight. Young Mitchell himself is neitherfool nor weakling. He can shoot, too. We have had no news. Therefore--aconclusion that will not have escaped your sagacity--something has goneamiss with our little expeditionary force in the Gavilan. Johnson isquite the Paladin; but he could hardly exterminate such a bunch as that.It is my firm conviction that we are now, on this pleasant afternoon,double-crossed in a good and workmanlike manner.

  "The Johnson-Mitchell firm is now Johnson, Mitchell & Company, our latefriends, or the survivors, being the Company."

  These remarks were addressed to the elder of Mr. Dewing's two tablemates. But it was Eric Anderson, tall and lean and lowering, whomade answer.

  "You may set your uneasy mind at rest, Mr. Something. Suspectin'treachery comes natural to you--being what you are."

  "There--that's enough!"

  This was the third man, Mayer Zurich. He sprang up, speaking sharply; atall, straight man, broad-shouldered, well proportioned, with a handsome,sparkling, high-colored face. "Eric, you grow more insolent every day.Cut it out!"

  Mr. Dewing, evenly enough, shifted his thoughtful gaze upon tall Eric,seemingly without resentment for the outburst.

  "Well, wasn't he insultin' the boys then?" demanded Eric.

  "I guess you're right, there," Mayer Zurich admitted. "I was not at allin favor of taking so many of them in on this proposition; but I'm notafraid of them doin' me dirt, now they're in. I don't see why the threeof us couldn't have kept this to ourselves--but Something had to blab itout! Why he should do that, and then distrust the very men he chose forso munificent a sharing of a confidence better withheld--that is quitebeyond my understanding. Dewing, you would never have clapped an eye onthat nugget if I had suspected in you so unswerving a loyalty to thegang. I confess I was disappointed in you--and I count you my right-handman."

  The speech of the educated man, in Mr. Zurich, was overlaid withcolloquialism and strange idiom, made a second tongue by longfamiliarity.

  "Your left-hand man!" Dewing made the correction with great composure."You come to me to help you, because, though you claim all the discreditfor your left-handed activities, I furnish a good half of the brains.And I blabbed--as you so elegantly phrased it--because I am far toointelligent to bite a bulldog for a bone. Our friends in the Gavilanpride themselves on their nerve. They are fighting men, if youplease--very fearless and gallant. That suits me. I am no gentleman.Quite the contrary. I am very intelligent, as afore-said. It was the partof prudence--"

  "That is a very good word--prudence." The interpolation came from tallEric.

  "A very good word," assented the gambler, unmoved. "It was the part ofprudence to let our valiant friends and servants pull these chestnutsfrom the fire, as aforetime. To become the corpse of a copper king is aprospect that holds no attractions for me."

  "But why--why on earth--did you insist on employing men you now distrust?you bewilder me, Dewing," declared Zurich. "What's the idea--to swindleyourself?"

  "You will do me the justice to remember," observed Dewing with athin-lipped smile, "that I urged upon you, repeatedly and most strongly,as a desirable preliminary to our operations, to remove Mr. Peter Johnsonfrom this unsatisfactory world without any formal declaration of war."

  "I won't do it!" declared Zurich bluntly. "And--damn you--you shan't doit! He's a dangerous old bow-legged person, and I wish he was farther. AndI must admit that I am myself most undesirous for any personal bickeringwith him. To hear Jim Scarboro relate it, old Pete is one wiz with asix-gun. All the same, I'll not let him be shot from ambush. He's toogood for that. I draw the line there. I'm not exactly afraid of thelittle old wasp, either, when it comes down to cases; but I have greatrespect for him. I'll never agree to meet him on a tight rope overNiagara and make him turn back; and if I have any trouble with him he'sgot to bring it to me. You have no monopoly of prudence."

  "There it is, you see!" Something Dewing spread out his fine hands. "Youmade no allowance for my loyalty and I made none for your scruples. As aresult, Mr. Johnson has established a stalemate, held a parley, andbought off our warriors. They've been taken in on the copper find, onsome small sharing, while we, in quite another sense of the word, aresimply taken in. Such," observed Mr. Dewing philosophically, "is theresult of inopportune virtues."

  "Bosh! I told you all along," said Anderson heavily, "that there's nomineral in the Gavilan. I've been over every foot of it--and I'm a miner.We get no news because no man makes haste to announce his folly. You'llsee!"

  "Creede and Cripple Creek had been prospected over and over again beforethey struck it there," objected Zurich.

  "Silver and gold!" retorted Eric scornfully. "This is copper. Copperadvertises. No, sir! I'll tell you what's happened. There's been nobattle, and no treachery, and no mine found. We've been trapped. ThatGavilan location was a fake, stuck up to draw our fire. We've tipped ourhand. Mr. Johnson can now examine the plans of mice or men that yourcombined sagacities have so obligingly placed face upward before him, anddecide his policies at his leisure. If I were in his shoes, this is whatI would be at: I'd tell my wondrous tale to big money. And then I wouldemploy very many stranger men accustomed to arms; and when I went afterthat mine, I would place under guard any reasonable and obligingtravelers I met, and establish a graveyard for the headstrong. And that'swhat Johnson will do. He'll go to the Coast for capital, at the sametime sendin' young Stanley back to his native East on the same errand."

  "You may be right," said Zurich, somewhat staggered. "If you are, theirfind must be a second Verde or Cananea, or they would never have taken aprecaution so extraordinary as a false location. What on earth can havehappened to rouse their suspicions to that extent?"

  "Man, I wonder at you!" said tall Eric. "You put trust in your brains,your money, and your standing to hold you unstained by all yourleft-handed business. You expect no man to take heed of you, when thereek of it smells to high heaven. Well, you deceive yourself the more.These things get about; and they are none so unobserving a people, southof the Gila, where 't is fair life or death to them to note betweenwhilesall manner of small things--the set of a pack, the tongue of a buckle,the cleat of a mine ladder. And your persecution of young Stanley, now.Was you expectin' that to go unremarked? 'T is that has made PeterJohnson shy of all bait. 'T was a sorry business from the first--hazingthat boy; I take shame to have hand in it. And for every thousand of thatdirty money we now stand to lose a million."

  "'T was a piker's game," sneered Dewing. "Not worth the trouble and risk.We had about three thousand from Zurich to split between us; littleenough. Of course Zurich kept his share, the lion's share."

  "You got the middleman's chunk, at any rate," retorted Zurich.

  "I did the middleman's work," said the gambler tranquilly. "Now,gentlemen, we have not been agreeing very well of late. Eric, inparticular, has been far from flattering in his estimates of my socialand civic value. We are agreed on that? Very well. I may have mentionedmy intelligence? And that I rate it highly? Yes? Very well, then. I shallnow demonstrate that my self-appraisal was justified by admitting that myjudgment on this occasion was at fault. Eric's theories as to our delayednews from our expeditio
n are sound; they work out; they prove themselves.The same is true of his very direct and lucid statement as to the natureand cause of the difficulties which now beset us. I now make the directappeal to you, Eric: As a candid man or mouse, what would you do next?"

  Tall Eric bent his brows darkly at the gambler.

  "If you mean that I fear the man Johnson at all, why do you not usetongue and lips to say that same? I am not greatly chafed by an openenemy, but I am no great hand to sit down under a mock."

  "It was your own word--the mice," said Dewing. "But this time you take mewrongly. I meant no mockery. I ask you, in good faith, for your opinion.What ought to be done to retrieve the false step?"

  "Could we find this treasure-trove by a painstaking search of the hills?"asked Zurich doubtfully. "It's a biggish country."

  "Man," said Eric, "I've prospected out there for fifteen years and I'vescarce made a beginning. If we're to find Johnson's strike before Johnsonmakes a path to it, we have a month, at most. Find it, says you? Sure, wemight find it. But if we do it will be by blind fool-hog luck and not bypainstakin' search. Do you search, if you like. My word would be to trynegotiations. Make a compromise with Johnson. And if your prudence doesnot like the errand, I will even take it upon myself."

  "What is there to compromise? We have nothing to contribute."

  "We have safety to sell," said Eric. "Seek out the man and state the casebaldly: 'Sir, we have protection to sell, without which your knowledge isworthless, or near it. Protection from ourselves and all others. Maketreaty with us; allot to us, jointly, some share, which you shall nameyourself, and we will deal justly by you. So shall you avoid delay. Youmay avoid some risk. _Quien sabe?_ If you refuse we shall truly endeavorto be interestin'; and you may get nothing.' That's what I would say."

  "A share, to be named by Johnson and then be divided between ten? Well, Iguess not!" declared Zurich. "To begin with, we'll find a way to stop KidMitchell from any Eastern trip. Capital is shy; I'm not much afraid ofwhat Johnson can do. But this boy has the inside track."

  "With my usual astuteness," remarked Something Dewing, "I had divined asmuch. And there is another string to our bow if we make a completefailure of this mine business--as would seem to be promised by theGavilan fiasco. When such goodly sums are expended to procure thedownfall of Kid Mitchell--an event as yet unexpectedly delayed--there'smoney in it somewhere. Big money! I know it. And I mean to touch someof it. My unknown benefactor shall have my every assistance to attain hishellish purpose--hellish purpose, I believe, is the phrase proper to thecomplexion of this affair. Then, to use the words of the impulsiveHotspur, slightly altered to suit the occasion, I'll creep upon him whilehe lies asleep, and in his ear I'll whisper--Snooks!"

  "You don't know where he lives," said Zurich.

  "Ah, but you do! I beg your pardon, Zurich--perhaps in my thoughtlessnessI have wounded you. I used the wrong pronoun. I did not mean to say'I'--much less 'you'--in reference to who should hollo 'Halves!' to oursleeping benefactor. 'We' was the word I should have used."

  Zurich regarded Mr. Dewing in darkling silence; and that gentleman, in noway daunted, continued gayly:

  "I see that the same idea has shadowed itself to you. You must considerus--Eric and I--equals in that enterprise, friend Mayer. Three goodfriends together. I begin to fear we have sadly underestimated Eric--youand I. By our own admission--and his--he is a better fighting man thaneither of us. You wouldn't want to displease him."

  "I think you go about it in an ill way to remedy a mistake, Dewing," saidZurich. "Don't let's be silly enough to fall out over one chance gonewrong. We've got all we can attend to right now, without such a folly asthat. Don't mind him, Eric. Tell me, rather, what we are going to doabout this troublesome Johnson? Violence is out of the question: we needhim to show us where he found that copper. Besides, it isn't safe to killold Pete, and it never has been safe to kill old Pete. As for the Kid,I'll do what I have been urged to do this long time by the personage whotakes so kindly an interest in his fortunes--I'll railroad him off tojail, at least till we get that mine or until it is, beyond question,lost to us. It isn't wise to let him go East; he might get hold ofunlimited money. If he did, forewarned as he is now, Johnson would fix itso we shouldn't have a look-in. You turn this over and let me know yourideas."

  "And that reminds me," said Dewing with smooth insolence, equallymaddening to both hearers, "that Eric's ideas have been notably justifiedof late; whereas your ideas--and mine--have been stupid blunders fromfirst to last. You see me at a stand, friend Mayer, doubtful if it werenot the part of wisdom to transfer my obedience to Eric hereafter."

  "For every word of that, Johnson would pay you a gold piece, and have arare bargain of it." Zurich's voice was hard; his eye was hard. "Is thisa time for quarreling among ourselves? There may be millions at stake,for all we know, and you would set us at loggerheads in a fit of spleen,like a little peevish boy. I'm ashamed of you! Get your horse and rideoff the sulks. If you feel spiteful, take it out on Johnson. Get yourselfa pack outfit and go find his mine."

  "I'm no prospector," said the gambler disdainfully.

  "No. I will tell you what you are." Tall Eric rose and towered aboveDewing at the window; the sun streamed on his bright hair, "You are acrack-brained fool to tempt my hands to your throat! You will do it oncetoo often yet. You a prospector? You never saw the day you had themakin's of a prospector in you."

  "Let other men do the work and take the risk while I take the gain, andit's little I care for your opinion," rejoined Dewing. "And you would dowell to keep your hands from my throat when my hand is in my coatpocket--as is the case at this present instant."

  "This thing has gone far enough," said Zurich. "Anderson, come back andsit down. Dewing, go and fork that horse of yours and ride the blackdevil out of your heart."

  "I have a thing to say, first," said Eric. "Dewing, you sought to begowkme by setting me up against Zurich--or perhaps you really thought to useme against him. Well, you won't! When we want the information about theman that has been harryin' young Mitchell, Zurich will tell us. We knowtoo much about Zurich for him to deny us our askings. But, for your mockat me, I want you both to know two things: The first is, I desire noheadship for myself; the second is this--I take Zurich's orders becauseI think he has the best head, as a usual thing; and I follow those ordersexactly so far as I please, and no step more. I am mean and worthlessbecause I choose to be and not at all because Mayer Zurich led me astray.Got that, now?"

  "If you're quite through," said Dewing, "I'll take that ride."

  The door closed behind him.

  "Disappointed! Had his mouth fixed for a million or so, and didn't getit; couldn't stand the gaff; made him ugly," said Zurich slowly. "Andwhen Dewing is ugly he is unbearable; absolutely the limit."

  "Isn't he?" agreed Eric in disgust. "Enough to make a man turn honest."