CHAPTER XXXII
A HUFF
The Colonel was sitting in the shade of a wild grapevine rapping out aseries of questions at Charley, but at sight of the young people comingback hand in hand, he paused and smiled understandingly.
"What now?" he said. "Is there a new earth and a new heaven? Ah, well;then Virginia's trip was worth while. But Charley here is so full ofsigns and wonders that my brain is fairly in a whirl. The Germans, itseems, have made a forty-two centimeter gun that is blasting down citiesin France; and the Allies, to beat them, are constructing still largerones made out of tungsten that is mined from the Paymaster. Yes, yes,Charley, that's all right, I don't doubt your word, but we'll call onWiley for the details."
He laughed indulgently and poured Charley out a drink which made hiseyes blink and snap and then he waved him graciously away.
"Take your burros up the canyon," he suggested briefly, and when Charleywas gone he smiled. "Now," he said, as Virginia sat down beside him,"what's all this about the Paymaster and Keno?"
"Well," began Virginia as Wiley sat silent, "there really was tungstenin the mine. Wiley discovered it first--he was just going through thetown when he saw that specimen in my collection--and since then,--oh,everything has happened!"
"By the dog!" exclaimed the Colonel starting quickly to his feet. "Doyou mean that Crazy Charley spoke the truth? Is the mine really open andthe town full of people and----"
"You wouldn't know it!" cried Virginia, triumphantly. "All that heavy,white quartz was tungsten!"
"What? That waste on the dump? But how much is it worth? Old Charleysays it's better than gold!"
"It is!" she answered. "Why, some of that rock ran five thousand dollarsto the ton!"
"Five--thousand!" repeated the Colonel, and then he whirled on Wiley."What's the reason, then," he demanded, "that you're hiding out here inthe hills? Didn't you get possession of the mine?"
"Under a bond and lease," explained Wiley shortly. "I failed to meet thefinal payment."
"Why--how much was this payment?" inquired the Colonel cautiously, as hesensed the sudden constraint. "It seems to me the mine should have paidit at once."
"Fifty thousand," answered Wiley, gazing glumly at the ground and theColonel opened his eyes!
"Fifty thousand!" he exclaimed. "Only fifty thousand dollars? Well! Whatwere the circumstances, Wiley?"
He stood expectant and as Wiley boggled and hesitated Virginia rose upand stood beside him.
"He got the bond and lease from Blount," she began, talking rapidly,"and when Blount found that the white quartz was tungsten ore, he didall he could to block Wiley. When Wiley first came through the town andstopped at our house he knew that that white quartz was tungsten; but hecouldn't do anything, then. And then, by-and-by, when he tried to bondthe mine, Blount came up himself and tried to work it."
"He did, eh?" cried the Colonel. "Well, by what right, I'd like to know,did he dare to take possession of the Paymaster?"
"Oh, he'd bought up all the stock; and Mother, she took yours and----"
"What?" yelled the Colonel, and then he closed down his jaw and hisblue eyes sparkled ominously. "Proceed," he said. "The information,first--but, by the gods, he shall answer for this!"
"But all the time," went on Virginia hastily, "the mine belonged toWiley. It had been sold for taxes--and he bought it!"
"Ah!" observed the Colonel, and glanced at him shrewdly for he saw nowwhere the tale was going.
"Well," continued Virginia, "when Blount saw Wiley wanted it he came upand took it himself. And he hired Stiff Neck George to herd the mine andkeep Wiley and everybody away. But when he was working it, why Wileycame back and claimed it under the tax sale; and he went right up to themine and took away George's gun--and kicked him down the dump!"
"He did!" exclaimed the Colonel, but Wiley did not look up, for his mindwas on the end of the tale.
"And then--oh, it's all mixed up, but Blount couldn't find any gold andso he leased the mine to Wiley. And the minute he found that the whitequartz was tungsten, and worth three dollars a pound, he was mad asanything and did everything he could to keep him from meeting thepayment. But Wiley went ahead and shipped a lot of ore and made a lot ofmoney in spite of him. He cleaned out the mine and fixed up the mill andoh, Father, you wouldn't know the place!"
"Probably not!" returned the Colonel, "but proceed with your story. Whoholds the Paymaster, now?"
"Why Blount, of course, and he's moved back to town and is simplyshoveling out the ore!"
"The scoundrel!" burst out the Colonel. "Wiley, we will return to Kenoimmediately and bring this blackguard to book! I have a stake in thismatter, myself!"
"Nope, not for me!" answered Wiley wearily. "You haven't heard all thestory. I fell down on the final payment--it makes no difference how--andwhen I came back Blount had jumped the mine and Stiff Neck George was incharge. But instead of warning me off he hid behind a car and--well, Idon't care to go back there, now."
"Why, certainly! You must!" declared the Colonel warmly. "You wereacting in self defense and I consider that your conduct was justified.In fact, my boy, I wish to congratulate you--Charley tells me he had thedrop on you."
"Yes, sure," grumbled Wiley, "but you aren't the judge--and there's awhole lot more to the story. It happens that I took an option onBlount's Paymaster stock, but when I offered the payment he protestedthe contract and took the case to court. Now--he's got the town of Vegasin his inside vest pocket, the lawyers and judges and all; and do youthink for a minute he's going to let me come back and take away thosefour hundred thousand shares?"
"Four hundred thousand?" repeated the Colonel incredulously, "do youmean to tell me----"
"Yes, you bet I do!" said Wiley, "and I'll tell you something else.According to the dates on the back of those certificates it was Blountthat sold you out. He sold all his promotion stock before the panic; andthen, when the price was down to nothing, he turned around and bought itback. I knew from the first that he'd lied about my father and I keptafter him till I got my hands on that stock--and then, when I'd provedit, he tried to put the blame on you!"
"The devil!" exclaimed the Colonel, and paced up and down, snapping hisfingers and muttering to himself. "The cowardly dastard!" he burst outat last. "He has poisoned ten years of my life. I must hurry back atonce and go to John Holman and apologize to him publicly for thisaffront. After all the years that we were pardners in everything, andthen to have me doubt his integrity! He was the soul of honor, one manin ten thousand; and yet I took the word of this lying Blount againstthe man I called My Friend! I remember, by gad, as if it were yesterday,the first time I really knew your father; and Blount was squeezing me,then. I owed him fifteen thousand dollars on a certain piece of propertythat was worth fifty thousand at least; and at the very last moment,when he was about to foreclose, John Holman loaned me the money. Hemortgaged his cattle at the other bank and put the money in my hand, andBlount cursed him for an interfering fool! That was Blount, the Shylock,and Honest John Holman; and I turned against my friend."
"Yes, that's right," agreed Wiley, "but if you want to make up for it,make 'em quit calling him 'Honest John'!"
"No, indeed," cried the Colonel, his voice tremulous with emotion. "Heshall still be called Honest John; and if any man doubts it or speaksthe name fleeringly he shall answer personally to me. And now, aboutthis stock--what was that, Virginia, that you were saying about myholdings?"
"Why, Mother put them up as collateral on a loan, and Blount claimedthem at the end of the first month."
"All my stock? Well, by the horn-spoon--how much did your mother borrow?Eight--hundred? Eight hundred dollars? Well, that is enough, on the faceof it--but never mind, I will recover the stock. It is certainly arevelation of human nature. The moment I am reported dead, thesevultures strip my family of their all."
"Well, I was one of them," spoke up Wiley bluntly, "but you don't needto blame my father. When I was having trouble with Mrs. Huff he wrote upand pract
ically disowned me."
"So you were one of them," observed the Colonel mildly. "And you hadtrouble with Mrs. Huff? But no matter?" he went on. "We can discuss allthat later--now to return to this lawsuit, with Blount. Do I understandthat you had an option on his entire four hundred thousand shares?"
"For twenty thousand dollars," answered Wiley, "and he was glad to getit--but, of course, when I opened up that big body of tungsten, thestock was worth into millions. That is, if he could keep me from makingboth payments. He fought me from the start, but I put up the twentythousand; and the clerk of the court is holding it yet, unless the caseis decided. But Blount knew he could beat it, if he could keep me frombuying the mine under the terms of my bond and lease; and now that he'sin possession, taking out thirty or forty thousand every day, I'm lickedbefore I begin. In fact, the case is called already and lost by defaultif I know that blackleg lawyer of mine."
"But hire a good lawyer!" protested the Colonel. "A man has a right tohis day in court and you have never appeared."
"No, and I never will," spoke up Wiley despondently. "There's a wholelot to this case that you don't know. And the minute I appear they'llarrest me for murder and railroad me off to the Pen. No, I'm not goingback, that's all."
"But Wiley," reasoned the Colonel, "you've got great interests atstake--and your father will help you, I'm sure."
"No, he won't," declared Wiley. "There isn't anybody that can help me,because Blount is in control of the courts. And I might as well add thatI was run out of Vegas by a Committee appointed for the purpose." Herose up abruptly, rolling his sullen eyes on Virginia and the Colonelalike. "In fact," he burst out, "I haven't got a friend on the east sideof Death Valley Sink."
"But on the west side," suggested the Colonel, drawing Virginia to hisside, "you have two good friends that I know----"
"Wait till you hear it all," broke in Wiley, bitterly, "and you'relikely to change your mind. No, I'm busted, I tell you, and the bestthing I can do is drift and never come back."
"And Virginia?" inquired the Colonel. "Am I right in supposing----"
"No," he flared up. "Friend Virginia has quit me, along with----"
"Why, Wiley!" cried Virginia, and he started and fell silent as he mether reproachful gaze. For the sake of the Colonel they were supposedto be lovers, whose quarrel had been happily made up, but this wasvery unloverlike.
"Well, I don't deserve it," he muttered at last, "but friend Virginiahas promised to stay with me."
"Yes, I'm going to stay with him," spoke up Virginia quickly, "becauseit was all my fault. I'm going to go with him, father, wherever he goesand----"
"God bless you, my daughter!" said the Colonel, smiling proudly, "andnever forget you're a Huff!"
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