CHAPTER XI
BEN BECOMES ADVISER TO MRS. HANEY
Bertha was astir early the next morning, and quite ready to join theFordyces as soon as breakfast was over; but they did not come. Shewaited and watched the whole forenoon, and when at twelve o'clock theyhad neither called nor sent word, her day suddenly sank intonothingness, like a collapsed balloon, and she faced her tasks with aweakness of will not native to her.
Haney and Williams were both down street discussing some business matterwith Crego, and this left her hours the more empty and unsatisfactory.As the dinner-hour drew near she drove to fetch her husband, hoping fora glimpse of the Fordyces on the way, but even this comfort was deniedher, and she ached with dull pain which she could not analyze.
As Haney settled himself in the carriage, he said: "Well, little woman,did ye have a good ride?"
"I didn't go," she responded, with curt emphasis.
"Ye did not--Why not?"
"I had too much to do." This was a prevarication which she instantlyrepented. "Besides, they didn't turn up."
"I'm sorry. I was hoping you'd had a good try at the new horse. Ye mustmount him for me to see this afternoon." Later he said: "I'm feelingbetter each day now; soon I'll be able to take that trip East. Do youget ready at your ease."
The thought of this trip, hitherto so wonderful in its possibilities,afforded her no pleasure; it scarcely interested her. And when anotherday went by with no further call or word from Ben Fordyce, she began tolose faith in her new-found friends and in herself.
"They had enough of me," she said, bitterly. "I'm not their style." Andin this lay her first acknowledgment of money's inefficiency: it cannotbuy the friends you really care for.
On the third day Fordyce called her up on the 'phone to say that Alicehad been ill. "Our ride that day was a little too much for her," heexplained, "but she will be all right again soon. I think we can goagain to-morrow."
This explanation brought sunshine back into the Haney castle, and itsmistress went about the halls singing softly. In the afternoon, as sheand Mart were starting on their "constitutional" she proposed that theycall to see how Alice was. This Haney was glad to do. "I liked thelittle woman," said he; "she's sharp as a tack. And, besides, shelistened to me gabble," he added.
Miss Heath was stopping in the home of a friend--a rather handsomehouse, in the midst of thick shrubbery; and they found her wrapped in ablanket and sitting on the porch in a steamer-chair, with Ben reading toher. They were both instant and cordial in their demands that theCaptain alight and come in, and Ben went down the walk to get him, whileAlice, with envious, wistful eyes answered the glowing girl: "Oh no, Idon't think the ride did me any harm. I have these little back-sets nowand then. I'm glad you came."
"How thin her hands are," thought Bertha. And she saw, too, that thedelicate face was wrinkled and withered.
Reading compassion in the girl's glance, Alice continued, brightly:"I'll be up to-morrow. I'm like a cork--nothing permanently depressesme. I'm suffering just now from an error of thought!"
Bertha only smiled, and the gleam of her teeth, white and even as rowsof corn, produced in her face the effect of innocent humor like that ofa child. Then she said: "I've bought a new horse."
"Have you, indeed?"
"Yes, and I've been expecting you to ride up to the line fence and callme out--I wanted to show him to you. He's a cracker-jack, all right."
"We'll come over in a day or two. I never stay _down_ more than threedays."
Haney, lumbering round the corner of the house, called out, mellowly:"Here you are! Now don't move a hair." He bent and offered a broad whitehand. "How are ye the day?"
"Better, thank you. Ben, put a chair beside me; I want to talk toCaptain Haney. He was interrupted the other night in the very middle ofone of his best stories, and I'm going to insist on his finishing it."
Haney faced Bertha with a look of humorous amazement on his face. "Thinko' that, now! She remembers one of my best."
"Indeed I do, Captain, and I can tell you just where you left off. Youhad just sighted the camp of the robbers."
Haney clicked with his tongue, as if listening to a child. "There now! Imust have been taking more grape-juice than was good for me to start onthat story, for it's all about meself and the great man I thought I wasin those days."
"I love to hear about people who can ride a hundred miles in a night,and live on roots and berries, and capture men who bristle withrevolvers. Please go on. Ben, you needn't listen if you don't want to.You can show Mrs. Haney the automobile or the garden."
Ben laughed. "I like to hear Captain Haney talk quite as well asanybody, but I'll be glad to show Mrs. Haney any of your neighbors'things she cares to see."
Alice turned to Bertha. "I suppose the Captain's tales are all old songsin your ears?"
"No, they're mostly all new to me. The Captain never tells stories tome."
Haney winked. "She knows me too well. She wouldn't believe them."
"Go on, please," said Alice. And so Haney took up the thread, though heprotested. "'Tis a tale for candle-light," he explained.
Ben was studying Bertha with renewed admiration. "Where did she get thatexquisite profile?" he thought.
The story was again interrupted by a group of callers, among them Mrs.Crego, and though Alice loyally stood by the Haneys and introduced themboldly, Mrs. Crego's cold nod and something that went out from the eyesof her companions made Bertha suffer, and she went away with a feelingof antagonism in her heart. Did these people consider her beneath theirrespect?
Haney remarked as they rode away: "If black eyes could freeze, sure we'dbe shiverin' this minute. Did ye see Mrs. Crego pucker up when shesighted us?"
"I did, and it settled her for me," replied Bertha.
The intimacy thus established between the Haneys and the Congdon circlefurnished the gossip of the "upper ten" with vital material fordiscussion. Mrs. Crego most decidedly disapproved of their calling, andadvised Alice Heath against any further connection with the gambler'swife.
"What good can it possibly lead to? It's only curiosity on your part,and it isn't right to disturb the girl's ideals--if she has any."
To this Alice made no reply, but Ben stoutly defended the young wife."She would have been as good as any of us with the same education. Thepoor little thing has had to work since her childhood, and that has cutoff all training. As for Haney, he isn't a bad man. I suppose he arguesthat as some one must keep a gambling-house, it is best to have a goodman do it."
The sense of being to a degree freed from the ordinary restraints ofsocial life made Alice very tolerant. But, as it chanced, they did notgo out the next day; indeed, it was several days before they again rodeup to the Haney gate. They found Bertha dressed and ready for them (asshe had been each morning), and when she came out to them her heart wasglowing and her face alight.
"We've come to see the new horse!" called Ben.
Haney was at the gate with a smile of satisfaction on his face when thehorse was brought round. "There is a steed worth the riding!" heboasted. "I told Bertie to get the best. I would not have her riding a'skate' like that one the other morning. She'll keep ye company thisday."
Ben exclaimed, with admiration: "I see you know horse-kind, Captain!"
"I do," responded Haney. "And now be off, and remember you take dinnerwith us to-day."
As they moved away he took his customary seat on the porch to wait fortheir return--patient in outward seeming, but lonely and a littleresentful within.
Bertha suggested a ride up the Bear Canon, but Ben was quick to say:"That is too far, I fear, for Alice."
Bertha's glance at Alice revealed again, but in clearer lines, thesickness and weariness and the hopelessness of the elder woman's face,and Ben's consideration and watchful care of her took something out ofthe ride. The rapture, the careless gayety, of their first gallop wasgone.
An impatience rose in the girl's soul. With the cruelty of youth sheunconsciously accused the ot
her, resenting the interference with her ownplans and pleasures. She felt cheated because Ben permitted himself noracing, no circuits with her--and yet outwardly and in reality she wasdeeply sympathetic. She pitied while she accused and resented.
Their ride was short and unsatisfying. But as her guests remained forluncheon--Bertha was learning to call it that--the outing ended in arare delight; for while "the two invalids" sat on the piazza, Berthashowed Ben her garden and stables, and the greenhouses she was building,and this hour was one of almost perfect peace.
Ben, once outside Alice's depressing presence, grew gay andsingle-minded in his enjoyment of his hostess and her surroundings.
"It must seem like Aladdin and his wonderful lamp to you," he said, asthey stood watching the workmen putting in the glass to the greenhouses."All you have to do is rub it, and miracles happen."
"That's just what it does," she answered, with gravity. "I give myself aknock in the head every time I write out a check, just to see if I amawake; but I can see I'll get used to it in time. That's the funnything: a feller can get used to anything. The trouble with me is I don'tknow what to do nor how to do it. I ought to be learning things: I oughtto go to school, but I can't. You see, I had to buckle down to workbefore I finished the high-school, and I don't know a thing exceptrunning a hotel. I wish you'd give me a few pointers."
"I'll do what I can, but I am afraid my advice wouldn't be verypertinent. What can I help you on?"
"Well, I don't know. Alice"--she spoke the word with a littlehesitation--"said something to me the other day about charity, and allthat. Well, now, I'm helping mother's church--a little--and I'm helpingup at Sibley, but I don't know what else to do. I suppose I ought to dosome good with the money that's rolling in on us. I've got my housepretty well stocked and fitted up, and I'm about stumped. I can't sitdown, and just eat and sleep, ride and drive, can I?"
"There are women who do that and nothing else."
"Well, I can't. I've always had something to do. I like to play as wellas the next one, but I don't believe I could spend my time here justsitting around."
"It's no small matter to run such a house as this."
"Well, there's something in that; but the point is, what's it all for?We're alone in it most of the time, and it don't seem right. Anotherthing, most of our old friends fight shy of us now. I invite 'em in, andthey come, but they don't stay--they don't seem comfortable. They areall wall-eyed to see the place once, but they don't say 'hello' as theyused to. And the people next door here--well, they don't neighbor atall. You and the Congdons are the only people, except a few of mother'schurch folks, who even call. Now, what's the matter?"
He was now quite as serious as she. "I suppose your own folks feel thatyour wealth is a barrier."
"Why should they? I treat 'em just the same as ever. I'm not the kind togo back on my friends because I'm Marshall Haney's wife. If I'd earnedthis money I might put on airs; but I haven't--I've just married intoit."
"How did you come to do it?" he asked, quickly--almost accusingly.
Her tone again faltered, and her eyes fell. "Well, it was like this:Mother was sick and getting old, and I was kind o' tired anddiscouraged, and the Captain was mighty nice and kind to us; and thenI--And so when the word came that he was hurt--and wanted me--I went."Here she looked up at him. "And I did right, don't you think so?"
He was twisting a twig in his fingers. "Oh yes, certainly. You've been agreat comfort to him. You saved his life probably, and he really is afine man in spite of--" He broke off.
She took up his phrase. "In spite of his business. I know, that wasmother's main objection to him. But, you see, he cleaned all out of thatbefore I married him. He hasn't touched a card since."
He was almost apologetic. "I've been brought up to despise gamblers--I'ma Quaker, you know, by family. But I like Captain Haney, and I can seethat from his point of view a 'straight game,' as he calls it, is not acrime."
"Yes, that's one good thing in his favor--he never let a crooked dealpass in his place. But, after all, I can't forget that he was a gambler,and other people can't, and his record is dead against us here." Herface was dark as she resumed. "I'm a gambler's wife. Ain't that so?Didn't you hear of me in that way? Weren't you warned against us?"
His honest eyes quailed a little. "It is true your husband is called agambler rather than a miner."
"Well, he was. That's right, but he isn't now. I'm not complaining aboutthe part that can't be helped, but I want to do something to show we arein line to-day, and so does the Captain. We want to make our moneycount, and if you can tell us what to do we'll be mightily obliged."
The young Quaker was more profoundly enthralled by this unexpectedconfession of the girl than by any other word she could have uttered.His own knowledge of life was neither wide nor deep, and his sense ofresponsibility not especially keen; and yet he experienced a thrill ofpleasure and a certain lift of spirit as he stood looking down ather--the attitude of confidential spiritual adviser began at the momentto yield a sweet satisfaction as well as an agreeable realization ofpower. How much Haney's mines were pouring forth he did not know, buttheir wealth was said to be enormous. Every day added to thepotentiality of this gray-eyed girl who stood so trustfully, so like apupil, before him.
He spoke with emotion. "I'll do what I can to advise you and help you,and so will Alice. Allen Crego is a good man--he has your legalbusiness, I believe?"
"Yes, I think he's square, and I like him. But I can't go to Mrs. Crego;she despises us--that's one good reason." She smiled faintly. "But itain't legal advice I want--it's something else. I don't know what it is.Our minister isn't the man, either. I guess I want somebody that knowslife, and that ain't either a lawyer or a minister. I want some one totake our affairs in hand. I need all kinds of advice. Won't you give itto me?"
He smiled. "I'd like to help, but I am only a lawyer--and a very youngone at that."
"I don't think of you as a lawyer; you're more than that to us."
"What am I, then?"
The color danced along her cheek as she uttered a phrase so current inthe West that it has a certain humorous sound: "You're a gentleman and ascholar."
"Thank you. But I fear you mean by that that I take life very easily."
She grew serious again. "No, I don't. Anybody can see you're honest. Itrust you more than I do Judge Crego, and so does the Captain. You cantell us things we want to know. We both know a little about business,but we don't know much about other things. That's where we both falldown."
This frank expression of regard brought about a moment of emotionaltension, and Ben hesitated before replying. At last he said: "I hope Ishall always deserve your confidence. I wish I had the wisdom you creditme with. I wonder what I can tell you?"
"Tell me what you would do if you were in my place."
Quick as a sunbeam his smile flashed out. "Be your own good, joyousself. Whatever you do, don't lose what you are now--the quality whichattracted Alice and me to you. Don't try to be like other rich people."
The sight of the Captain and Alice walking slowly towards them cut shortthe further admission of his own careless inexperience, and they alltook seats beneath a big pear-tree which shaded a semicircular wiresettee.
Haney had been confessing a little of his loneliness. "I will notbelieve that me work in the world is done. 'Tis true, I took very littlecare of me good days; but I was happy in me business, such as it was. Melittle wife there saves me from the blue divils when she's about, butwhen I'm alone, sure it's deep in the dumps I go. Sometimes me mindmisgives me, to think of her tied to an old stump of a tree like me! Butmaybe she's right--maybe I'm to recover me powers and be of use."
To this Alice could only reply, as comfortingly as she could: "You'vegiven her a good deal, Captain."
"So I have, but I mean to give more. As soon as I'm able to travel we'regoing down the hill to see the world. Sometimes when we sit on our porchand talk of it, it seems as if I could see the whole of the Statesspread out befo
re us--Chicago, Washington, New York, and all to choosefrom. I can't get over the surprise of having the stream of money keepcomin'. I used to work hard--you may not believe that, but 'twas so. Iused to have long days and nights of watching. 'Twas work of a kind,though you may not admire the kind. And now I have nothing to do but sitand twist me two thumbs--and one of them bog-spavined, at that."
To this Alice had made no reply, for they were within earshot of Ben andBertha. Haney called out: "Sure, it must be near dinner-time, Bertie!--Imean luncheon, ma'am--I'm lately instructed."
They all laughed in tune to his humor, and Bertha replied: "No moretwelve-o'clock dinners for us, Captain."
Haney groaned. "This fashionable life will be the death of me. Sure, Ieat and talk by rule a'ready. Where it will end I dunno."
Happily the bell soon relieved the strain, but the talk at the tablecontinued to be very personal--it could not be prevented, for each ofthese four people was at a turning-point in his or her life. Haney,feeling the slow tide of returning vigor in his limbs, was in troublethinking of what he was to do. Bertha, just beginning to tremble beneaththe mysterious stir of an all-demanding love, was uneasy, feverish, andself-conscious. Alice, sensing the approach of weakness and decay, yetstruggling against it, was inwardly in despair. While Ben, hithertocareless, facing life with unwrinkled brow, was appreciating, for thefirst time, the positive responsibilities of manhood. Bertha's expressedwish to employ his best judgment exalted him while it troubled him.
For a time the burden of the conversation was his. Haney was in areflective mood, and Bertha busied with the table service, which she wastrying to raise to the level of her honored guests, was distracted.Alice, tired and a little dispirited, added nothing to the youthfulspirit of the meal.
At last, just when the conversation seemed about to flag out, Haney,lifting his head, began in a new tone: "Mr. Fordyce, my little girl andI have decided we want you to take Crego's place as our lawyer. I hopeyou'll be able to do it."
Alice looked up in surprise. "But you don't mean to take it from Mr.Crego?"
Haney's face grew hard. "I am under no obligation to Crego, and I preferto have as me lawyer a man who can neighbor with me, and whose wife isnot above nodding when me own wife passes by."
Alice hastened to defend the Cregos. "You mustn't be unjust to Mrs.Crego."
"I'm not," said Haney, "nor to Crego either. I've paid for his time, andpaid well--as I'm willing to pay for yours." He turned to Ben. "I needadvice, and I want to feel free to go for it."
Ben replied: "I'd like to accept your business, Captain, but you see itwould not be professional for me to profit at the expense of my friend,and, besides, I haven't really settled here yet."
Haney looked disappointed. "I thought ye had. Well, I am going to cutloose from Crego anyhow, and I shall tell him why."
Bertha cried out: "No, don't do that."
He acquiesced. "Very well, then I won't tell him why; but I'm going toquit him! So if you don't care to take on me business, I'll give it toJim Beringer. It pays a good bit of money, and will pay more. I'll makeit profitable to ye."
Alice looked at Ben. "Of course, if he is going to leave Mr. Cregoanyway--"
"But that would mean making our permanent home here, and setting up anoffice."
"Well, why not? I can't live in the East any more; that we have tested.I am willing to decide now. It would give you a start here, and,besides, I think you can be of use to the Captain."
Ben still hesitated. "It seems rather treacherous to Crego some way. Butif you have definitely decided against him--"
"We have," said Bertha. "We talked it all over yesterday. We want you."
Haney's face was very grave now. "There is one thing more, Mr. Fordyce.Mart Haney's reputation must be taken into account. It won't do you annygood to be associated with him. I don't know that it will do you annyharm, but I'm dom sure it will do you no good to be associated with me."
Alice interposed, quickly. "A lawyer can't choose his clients--at least,a _young_ lawyer can't."
Haney ignored the implications of her speech. "I'm not tryin' to coverup me tracks," said he. "I was a gambler for thirty years. Me whole lifehas been a game of chance. There are many who think gambling one of thehigh crimes an' misdemeanors, but I think a square game between men isdefensible. I am a gambler by nature. Why shouldn't I be? I grew up afat squab of a boy rollin' about on the pavin'-stones of Troy. 'Twas allluck, bedad, whether I lived or died. I lived, it fell out, and when Ihad learned to read I read wild-West stories. Of course, that led me togo West and jine the Indians, and by stealin' rides and beggin' me breadI reached Dodge City. 'Twas all chance that I didn't die on the way. Memother, poor soul, was worried and I knew it, and finally I put me fistto it and wrote her a letter to say I was all right. She wrote beggin'me to return, which I did a couple of years later; but Troy was too slowfor me then, and again I pulled out. I was always takin' risks. Dangerwas me delight. I had no trade, but I had faith in me luck. I won--Ialmost always won. And so I came to be a gambler along with bein'sheriff and city marshal, and the like o' that, in one mountain town oranother, but I always played fair. A man who plays a square game is agambler. The man who deals underhand is a crook. I'm no crook. I lovethe game. To know that the cards are stacked against the other playertakes all the fun out of the deck for me. I want the other felly to havean equal chance with me--else 'tis no game, but a hold-up. No man everrightfully accused me of dealing against him. Yes, 'tis true, me worldis a world of risk." He looked at Alice. "Sure, the Look-Out upabove--if there is such--is there to see that we all have a show for ourace. If anything interferes with that the game is a crooked one."
Alice began to perceive something big and admirable in this man'sspirit. She was not of his faith--quite the contrary. She was afatalist. Nothing happened in her world. But she was imaginative enoughto understand his point of view.
Haney went on. "I know all the tricks. I lairned them, not to use in thegame, but to keep them _out_ of the game. I had too much faith in meluck to ever weaken."
"Did you never lose?" asked Ben.
"Many the time, indeed, but only for a short streak. Take this mine, forinstance. A man comes into me house full of confidence in himself,plays, and goes broke. The fury of the game bein' in him, he says: 'I'llput me prospect hole against five hundred dollars.' 'Roll the wheel,'says I, and I won his hole in the ground. 'Twas me luck. That prospectturned out a mine. 'Twas his luck to lose. He was a full-grown man; heknew the game and went into it with his eyes open. Truth was, heconsidered the mine a 'dead horse,' and was hopin' to take a fall out o'me. Me little girl here is disturbed about the way the mine came to us,but she needn't be. 'Twas all in the game. I'm sayin' 'twas in the gamethat another crazy fool should blow me to pieces--I don't complain. Itake me chances. Now"--here he faced Ben, and his grave tonelightened--"as I understand it, you're not a rich man?"
Ben flushed a little. "No, I haven't earned much so far; but it's up tome to get busy."
"And ye expect to marry soon?"
This question sent a thrill to the heart of each of the three youngpeople listening--a thrill of fear, of doubt. And Ben said, slowly,perceiving Haney's fatherly good-will: "Yes, we expect to set uphousekeeping, as the old-fashioned people say, as soon as Alice is alittle stronger."
"Very well, then," Haney went on like one who has made his point,"here's _your_ chance. Your fee with me will pay your coal bills anyway.We're likely to take a good dale of your time, but you'll lose nothingby that."
Bertha, with big yearning eyes fixed upon Ben's face, waited in a quiverof hope as he replied: "Of course, Captain Haney, I can't subscribe toyour defense of gambling, and if you were still a gambler, in the strictsense of the word, I couldn't accept this position, for it is somethingmore than legal. But as you have given up all connection with cards andliquor selling, I see no reason why I should not accept youroffer--provided I can be of service in the manner you expect." He lookedacross the table at Bertha, and readi
ng there the same entreaty whichshe had expressed in the garden, he added, firmly and definitely: "Yes,I will accept, and be very much obliged to you."
Haney extended his hand, and they silently clasped palms in the compact.
They parted in a glow of mutual confidence and liking, and Alice's voicequivered as she thanked their host. "I think it very fine of you,Captain Haney. This may be the means of establishing Mr. Fordyce inbusiness here."
His eyes twinkled in reply. "I will do all I can to help him, for hetakes me eye."
Ben's last glance and the pressure of his hand left in Bertha's brain aglow which remained with her all the rest of the day, and she carolledlike a robin as she trod her swift way about the house.
The next morning, as they sat at breakfast, Mart briskly said: "Well,little woman, I've decided, now that I have a man I can trust with mebusiness, to make the trip East. As soon as he has the mines in handwe'll start. Can you be ready to go Monday week?"
"Sure thing," she answered, quickly. But even as she spoke a namelesspang that was neither joy nor exultation shot through her heart. For thefirst time she realized that she had lost her keen desire to explore theglittering plain which lay below her feet. A fairer world, a perfectlysatisfying world, was opening before her in the high country which washer home.
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