Heart's Desire

by Emerson Hough

  CHAPTER XII

  THE PRICE OF HEART'S DESIRE

  _Concerning Goods, their Value, and the Delivery of the Same_

  In the morning the travellers arose with the sun, and after breakfastTom Osby began methodically to break camp as though preparing for thereturn up-country. Neither made reference to any event occurring sincetheir arrival, or which might possibly occur in the near future. DanAnderson silently watched his partner as he busied himself gearing uphis horses. All was nearly ready for the start on their journey downthe east side of the Sacramentos, when they heard afar a faint andwheezy squeak, the whistle of a railway train climbing up the oppositeslope.

  "There's the choo-choo cars," said Tom, "comin' a-rarin' anda-pitchin'. The ingine has to side-step and back-track about eighttimes to get up the grade. Didn't notice my old grays a-doin' thatnone, when we come up, did you? I'm the railroad for our town, andI've got that one beat to a frazzle. Now listen to that thing, Dan;that's the States comin' to find us out." Dan Anderson made no reply.

  "Well, let her come," Tom resumed cheerfully; "I come from Georgy, andin that country, it ain't considered perlite to worry if you've got onesquare meal ahead. Which, by the way, reminds me that that's about allwe've got ahead now. You just set here with the team a while, while Itake a _pasear_ down the canon to see if I can get a deer for supperto-night. I hope the old railroad ain't scared 'em all away. Besides,we might as well stay here for a hour or so anyway, now, and see whatthe news is, since the cars has got in."

  He tapped the muzzle of his old rifle against the wagon wheel to shakeout the dust, and then took a squint into the barrel. "I can seethrough her," he said, "or any ways, halfway through, and I reckonshe'll go off." Next he poked the magazine full of cartridges, and sotramped off down the mountain side.

  Dan Anderson sat down on a bundle of bedding, and fell into a halfdream in the warm morning sun. There was time even yet for him toescape, he reflected. He had but to step into the wagon, and drive ondown the canon. Constance Ellsworth--if indeed it were true that shehad come again so near to him--need never know that he had been there.How could he learn if she had indeed come? How could he ever face hernow? Surely she could never understand. She could only despise him.Dan Anderson sat, irresolute, staring at the breakfast dishes pilednear the mess-box ready for packing.

  Meantime, in the dining room at Sky Top hotel, there was a certainflutter of excitement as there entered, just from the train, the partyof Mr. Ellsworth, president of the new railway company now buildingnorthward. Ellsworth beckoned Porter Barkley to him for talk ofbusiness nature, so that Constance sat well-nigh alone when MadameAlicia Donatelli came sweeping in, tall, comely, sombre, and, it mustbe confessed, hungry. Donatelli hesitated politely, and Constance maderoom for her with a smile and gesture, which disarmed the Donatellihostility for all well-garbed and well-poised young women of classother than her own.

  "And you're going up the country still farther?" asked Donatelli,catching a remark made by one of the men. "I wish I could go as well.You go by buckboard?"

  Constance nodded. "I like it," said she. "I am sure we shall enjoythe ride up to Heart's Desire."

  "Heart's Desire?" repeated the diva, with an odd smile.

  Constance saw the smile and challenged it. "Yes," she replied briefly,"I was there once before."

  "What is it like?" asked Donatelli.

  "Like nothing in the world--yet it's just a little valley shut in bythe mountains."

  "A man was here from Heart's Desire last night," began Donatelli. "Youknow, I am a singer. He had heard in some way. My faith! He camemore than a hundred miles, and he said from Heart's Desire. I'vewondered what the place was like."

  The Donatelli face flushed hotly in spite of herself. A queerexpression suddenly crossed that of Constance Ellsworth as well. Shewondered who this man could be!

  "It was just a couple of campers who travelled down by wagon,"explained the diva. "Only one of them came up to the house. Theircamp is by the springs, a half mile or so down the east side. He toldme they had no music at Heart's Desire."

  In the heart of Constance Ellsworth there went on jealous questionings.Who was this man from Heart's Desire, who had come a hundred miles tohear a bit of music? What other could it be than one? And as to thisopera singer, surely she was beautiful, she had charm. So then--

  Constance excused herself and returned to her room. She did not evendescend to say farewell to Donatelli and her bedraggled company, whosteamed away from Sky Top slopes in the little train whose whistlingscame back triumphantly. She admitted herself guilty of ignoble joythat this woman--a singer, an artist, a beautiful and dangerous womanas she felt sure--was now gone out of her presence, as indeed she wasgone out of her life. But as to this man from Heart's Desire, how cameit that he was not here at the hotel, near to his operatic divinity?Why did he not appear to say farewell?

  Ellsworth and Barkley betook themselves to the gallery after breakfast,and paced up and down, each with his cigar. "I ordered our headengineer, Grayson, to meet us," said Ellsworth, "and he ought to becamped not far away. I told him not to crowd the location so thatthose Heart's Desire folks would get wind of our plans. For thatmatter, we don't want to take those men for granted, either. Somehow,Barkley, I believe we've got trouble ahead."

  "Nonsense!" said Barkley. "The whole thing's so easy I'm almostashamed of it."

  "That last isn't usually the case with the Hon. Porter Barkley,"Ellsworth observed grimly.

  Barkley laughed a strong, unctuous laugh. He was a sturdy, thick-setman, florid, confident, masterful, with projecting eyebrows and a chinnow beginning its first threat of doubling. Well known in Easterncorporation life as a good handler of difficult situations, Ellsworthvalued his aid; nor could he disabuse himself of the belief that therewould be need of it.

  "If I don't put it through, Ellsworth," reiterated Barkley, biting anew cigar, "I'll eat the whole town without sugar. If I failed, I'd belosing more than you know about." He turned a half glance inEllsworth's way, to see whether his covert thought was caught by thesuspicion of the other. The older man turned upon him in challenge,and Barkley retreated from this tentative position.

  "Maybe you can do it," said Ellsworth, presently, "but I want to say,if I'm any judge, you've got to be mighty careful. Besides, you'venever been out here before. We'll have to go slow."

  "Why'll we have to? I tell you, we can go in and take what we want oftheir blasted valley, and they can't help themselves a step in theroad."

  "I don't know," demurred Ellsworth. "They're there, and in possession."

  "Nonsense!" snorted Barkley. "How much title have they got? You sayyourself they've never filed a town-site plat. We can go in there andtake the town away from under their feet, and they can't helpthemselves. More than that, I'll bet there's not one mining claim outof fifty that we can't 'adverse' in the courts and take away from itsdinky locater. These fellows don't work assessments. They nevercomplete legal title to a claim. There never was a mine in the RockyMountains that was located and proved up on without a fight, if it wasworth fighting for. Bah! we just walk in and see what we want, andtake it, that's all."

  "Well," said Ellsworth, "it's the best-looking deal I've seen for along while, that's sure, and I don't see how it's been covered up solong. And yet if you come to talk of law-suits, I've noticed it adozen times that when Eastern men have gone against these Westernpropositions, they've got the worst of it. They're a funny lot, thesenatives. They'll live in a shirt and overalls, without a _sou marque_to bless 'emselves with. They'll holler for Eastern Capital, andpromise Eastern Capital the time of its life, if it'll only come; andwhen Eastern Capital does come--why, then they _give_ it the time ofits life!"

  "Nonsense," rejoined Barkley, walking up and down with his hands underthe tails of his coat. "We'll eat 'em up. I'm not afraid of thisthing for a minute. What I want to do now is to get in touch with thatGrayson fellow, the head engi
neer."

  "I'm not so sure about that," commented Ellsworth, seating himself inthe sun at the edge of the gallery. "If you want to see the real headengineer of this whole Heart's Desire situation, the man you want isn'tGrayson, but a young fellow by the name of Anderson, a lawyer up there."

  "Lawyer?"

  "Yes, and I shouldn't wonder if he was a pretty goodish one, too. Oh,don't think these people are all easy, Barkley, I tell you. This isn'tmy own first trip out here."

  "What about this lawyer of yours?"

  "Well, he's a young man that I knew something about before he wentWest. He knows every foot of the ground up there, and every man thatlives there, and I want to tell you, he's got the whole situation bythe ear. That gang will do pretty hear what he tells them to do. He'sgot nerve, too. He's the most influential man in that town."

  "Oh, ho! Well, that's different. I'm always right after the man who'sgot the goods in his pocket. We'll trade with Mr. Anderson mightyquick, if he can deliver the goods. What does he hold out for? Whatdoes he want?"

  "Well, I don't know. He talked to me rather stiff, up there, and wedidn't hitch very well. He sort of drifted off, and I didn't see himat all the day I left, when I'd laid out to talk to him. He's thefellow that put me on to this deal, too. It was through him I got wordthere was coal in that valley."

  "How would it do to charter him for our local counsel? Is he strongenough man for that?"

  "Strong enough! I'm only afraid he's _too_ strong."

  "Well, now, let's not take everything for granted, you know. Let's goat this thing a little at a time. There's got to be a system of courtsestablished in here, and we've got to know our judiciary, as a matterof course. Then we've got to know our own lawyers, as another matterof course. Did you say you knew him before, that is, to get a line onhim, before he came out here?"

  Ellsworth colored just a trifle. "Well, yes," he admitted. "He's aPrinceton man. He comes of good family--maybe a little wild andheadstrong--wouldn't settle down, you know. Why, I offered him a placein my office once, and he--well, he refused it. He started out Westsome five years ago. Of course--well, you know, in a good many casesof this sort, there's a girl at the bottom of the Western emigration."

  "What girl?" asked Porter Barkley, sharply.

  "One back East somewhere," said Ellsworth, evasively.

  Porter Barkley came and seated himself beside the older man, leaningforward, his elbows resting on his knees, meditatively crumbling a bitof bark in his hands.

  "I was just going to say, Mr. Ellsworth," said he, "that a girl in acase like this--always provided that this man is as influential as youthink--may be a mighty useful thing. Maybe you couldn't buy the manfor himself, but you could buy him for the girl. Do you see?"

  Ellsworth did not answer.

  "He wants to make good, we'll say," went on Barkley. "He wants to goback East with a little roll. Now, we give him a chance to make good.We give him more money than he ever saw before in his life, and set himup as leading citizen, all that sort of thing. For the sake of goingback and making a front before that girl, he'll be willing to do a heapof things for us. You've seen it a thousand times yourself. A womancan do more than cash, in a real hard bit of work. Now, Ellsworth, youfurnish the girl, and leave the rest to me. I'll deliver Heart'sDesire in a hand-bag to you, if the man's half as able as you seem tothink he is."

  Porter Barkley never quite understood why Mr. Ellsworth arose suddenlyand walked to the far end of the gallery, leaving him alone, crumblinghis bits of bark in the sunshine.