Heart's Desire

by Emerson Hough

  CHAPTER XVI

  THE PARTITION OF HEARTS DESIRE

  _Concerning Real Estate, Love, Friendship, and Other Good and ValuableConsiderations_

  "You see, it's just this-a-way," began Tom Osby, the morning afterCurly's osteopathic horse saga; "I've got to go on up to Vegas after aload of stuff, and I'll be gone a couple of weeks. Now, you know, fromwhat we heard down at Sky Top about this railroad, a heap of things canhappen in two weeks. Them fellers ain't showin' their hands any, but forall we know their ingineers may come in any day, and start in to doin'things."

  "They've got to make arrangements first," replied Dan Anderson.

  "That's all right; and so ought we to make arrangements. We seen thisplace first. Now, Dan--" and he extended a gnarled and hairyhand--"you've always done like you said you would. You took care of medown there to Sky Top. I want you to keep on a-takin' care of me,whether I'm here or not. Now, there's my house and yard, right at thehead of the canon, where they've got to come if they get in. That littleold place, and my little old team, is about all I've got in the world.If old Mr. Railroad comes up this _arroyo_, what happens to me? Youtell 'em to go somewheres else, because I seen this place first, and Ilike it. Ain't that the law in this country? Ain't it _always_ beenthe law?"

  Dan Anderson nodded. He held out his hand to Tom Osby and looked himstraight in the eye. "I'll take care of you, Tom," he promised.

  "Then that'll be about all," said Tom; "giddup, boys!"

  In some way news of the early advent of the railroad had gotten about inHeart's Desire, and Dan Anderson found talk of it on every tongue, talkvery similar to that of Tom Osby. Uncle Jim Brothers, owner of theone-story hotel and restaurant, the father and the feeder of all Heart'sDesire when the latter was in financial stress, was the next to come tohim; and Uncle Jim was grave of face.

  "See here, man," said he, "how about this here new railroad? Do we wantit, or _do_ we? Seems to me like we always got along here pretty wellthe way things was."

  Dan Anderson nodded again. Uncle Jim shifted from one large foot to theother, and thrust a great hand into the pocket of one trouser leg.

  "All I was going to say to you, Dan," he went on, "is, if it comes totakin' any sides, we all know which side you're on. You're with _us_.Now, there's my place down there, where you've et many a time with therest of the boys. You've helped me build the tables in the diningroom--done a lot of things which makes me feel obliged to you." (Ah!lovable liar, Uncle Jim, who could feed a man broke and hungry, and stilllet him feel that the operation was a favor to the feeder!) "Now, I justwanted to say, Dan, I was sure, in case any railroad ever did comecavortin' around here, you'd sort of look after the old place. Will youdo that?"

  "Of course he will," broke in Doc Tomlinson, who had strolled down thestreet and overheard the conversation. "Dan Anderson, he's our lawyer.We've got him retained permanent, ain't we, Dan? Now, there's my olddrug store--ain't much in it, but it's where I settled when I first drivinto the valley, and I like the place. Ain't no railroad going to boostme out without a scrap."

  Dan Anderson turned away, sick at heart. For three days he kept to hiscabin on the far side of the _arroyo_.

  But if hesitation sat on the soul of any man of the community, if doubtor questionings harassed the minds of any, there was no uncertainty onthe part of the management of the railroad, whose coming was causing thisuneasiness. One day Dan Anderson was startled to hear a knock at hisdoor, and to see the dusty figure of Porter Barkley, general counsel ofthe A. P. and S. E., just from a long buckboard ride from the head of therails. With him came Grayson, chief engineer. Dan Anderson invited themin.

  "Well, Mr. Anderson," said Barkley, "here we are, close after you. We'refollowing up the right-of-way matters sharp and hard now. We can't holdback our graders, and before the line gets abreast of this canon, we'vegot to know what we can do here. Now, what can you tell us by this time?"

  "I can tell you, as I said, the status of every town lot and every miningclaim in this valley," replied Dan Anderson. "It's all simple so far asthat is concerned."

  "How about that town site? Grayson, here, is ready to go ahead with thenew plat. If you never had any town site filed, how were real-estatetransfers made?"

  "There never were any transfers made. There has not been a town lot soldin ten years."

  "Real estate just a little dull?" laughed Barkley, sarcastically.

  "We hadn't noticed it," said Dan Anderson, simply.

  "But how about your courts? Next thing you'll be telling me there wasn'tany court."

  "There never was, except when we acquitted a man for shooting a pig. Iwas his counsel, by the way."

  "Nor any town election?"

  "Why should there be?"

  "No government--no nothing? for five years?"

  "Over twelve years altogether, to be exact. I'm rather a newcomermyself."

  "No organization--no government--" Barkley summed it up. "Good God!what kind of a place is this?"

  "It's Heart's Desire," said Dan Anderson. No man of that valley was everable to say more, or indeed thought it needful to say more.

  Porter Barkley gave a contemptuous whistle, as he turned on his heel,hands in pockets, his bulky form filling the doorway as he looked out."So you were a lawyer here," he said. "You must have had rather moreleisure than law practice, I should think."

  "It left me all the more time for my reading," said Dan Anderson,gravely. "You've no idea how much a law practice interferes with one'slegal studies." Barkley looked at him, but could discover no sign oflevity.

  "Well, there is one thing mighty sure," said he, shutting his heavy jawstight; "this valley is, or was, open to settlement under the UnitedStates land laws."

  "Certainly," assented Dan Anderson. "The first men in here were miningmen from every corner of the Rockies, and they knew their business. Allthese mountains were platted, and 'adversed,' and litigated. Then,before the second discoveries, and before any coal veins were located onthe other side of the valley, the gold veins pinched out. Everybody gotbroke, and nearly everybody got up and walked away. Meantime, the courtshad only been sitting over at Lincoln once in a while--when Billy the Kidallowed it. I'll have to admit that things were a trifle tangled as totitle."

  "Well, I should say so!" Barkley was irritable, Grayson, the engineer,silent and smiling.

  "There was so much room after the mining boom broke, that nobody caredfor a town lot. Every fellow just picked out the place he liked, builtwhere he liked, and went in as his own butler, chambermaid, and cook.

  "You are seeing this country now, gentlemen," he went on, "pretty much asGod made it, and as Coronado saw it three hundred years ago. I deprecateany undue haste on your part. We've been three hundred years in gettingthis far along. We've done very well without either a town site or acity council."

  Barkley was utterly unable to comprehend either Dan Anderson or Heart'sDesire. "This is the absolute limit!" he rapped out. "At least we'llend this now. Come on, Grayson, we three'll go out and have a look atthe place, and see what is the best way to lay out the streets. Isuppose, Anderson, you can tell us how we can get title under governmentpatent--mineral lands--coal lands--desert lands--homestead--whatever wecan dig out the quickest?"

  "Oh, yes," said Dan Anderson, "but don't dig too deep, or you may runagainst a land grant from Ferdinand and Isabella to some well-beloved_hidalgo_ whose descendants may now be herding sheep on the Pecos, orowning the earth along the Rio Grande. Cabeza de Vaca may own thisvalley, for all I know. Maybe Coronado owns it. _Quien sabe_? We onlyborrowed the place. We thought that probably Charles IV, or Philip II,or whoever it was, wouldn't mind very much, seeing that he's dead anyhow,in case we returned the valley in good condition, reasonable wear andtear excepted, after we were dead ourselves. Of course, this railroadcoming in complicates matters a good deal. Do I make all this clear toyou, gentlemen? I never did see a place just like this, myself."

  "
No?" snapped Barkley.

  "So we called it Heart's Desire."

  "We'll call it Coalville now," retorted Barkley.

  They passed out into the bright sunlit street of Heart's Desire.Stern-browed Carrizo, guardian through centuries of calm and secrecy,gazed down on them unwinking. Dan Anderson looked up at the grimsentinel of the valley, and mockery left his speech. He looked about atthe wide and vacant spaces of the little settlement, lying content,secure, and set apart, and a horror came upon his soul. He was about tobe a traitor, a traitor to Heart's Desire! Law--title--security--whatmore of these could these men bring to Heart's Desire than it had longhad already? What wrong here had ever been left unrighted? Truth, andjustice, and fairness, and sincerity, those priceless things--why, he hadknown them here for years. Were they now to be made more obvious, ormore strong? He had believed his friends, had had friends to believe;would these walking at his side be better friends? These men of Heart'sDesire, these simple children who had left the smother of civilization toseek out for themselves a place of strength and simplicity, these strongand fearless giants, these friends of his--had he not promised them thatthey would be safe in his hands? Hitherto there had never been a traitoramong all the men of Heart's Desire. Was he, their accepted friend, tobe the first? Dan Anderson passed his hand over a forehead suddenlygrown moist. He dared not look up at the chiding front of old Carrizo.

  "I was saying," said Porter Barkley, turning from the taciturn engineeras they walked along the hillside, "that this place seems to have beenlaid off with a circular saw. I can't see any idea of streets at all."

  "There is a sort of a street along the _arroyo_," said Dan Anderson,dully. "There never were any cross streets. The boys just built wherethey felt like it."

  "And great builders they were! I didn't know men ever lived in suchplaces. What's that joint there?" He pointed out a ruined _jacal_ ofupright mud-chinked logs, now leaning slantwise far to one side. "Wasthat a house, too? It hasn't even a chimney,"

  "That was the residence and law office of a former supreme judge of theState of Kansas," replied Dan Anderson. "He didn't need any chimney.You've no idea how useless a chimney really is. He never stopped to cutany wood, but just fed a log in through the front door into the fire, andlet the smoke go out the window. He had a pet wildcat that shared hislegal studies--oh, I admit that some of our ways may seem strange to you,just fresh from New York."

  "But didn't you live in New York once yourself?"

  "Yes, once."

  "What made you come away?"

  "Objected to, as irrelevant, immaterial, and incompetent; and objectionsustained," replied Dan Anderson. "The first thing I learned in thiscountry was not to inquire about any man's past. That's a useful thingfor _you_ to learn, too."

  Porter Barkley, accustomed to dominating those around him, flushed red,but managed to suppress his rising choler for the time. "And by the way,what's that old shell over there, across the ditch?" he asked.

  "I regret your irreverence," said Dan Anderson. "That's the New JerseyGold Mills. Eighty thousand of Eastern Capital went in there at onetime. They didn't understand the ways of the country."

  "Humph! Well, it's a more practical layout you've got in here this time.You can gamble that Ellsworth and our gang are not going to sink theirroll here, by a long ways, unless they get something for it."

  "You'll get a run for your money, in all likelihood," remarked DanAnderson.

  "As I said, now, Grayson, don't pay any attention to this gully here,"went on Barkley. "We'll fill this ditch and put in drains at thecrossings, and run the main street north and south. We'll take theramshorn crooks out of this town in about two days, when we get started."

  "I see no reason why we could not run the cross streets at right angles,"said Grayson, the constructive. "Of course, we'll catch a good many ofthese buildings--" he hesitated, pointing at the time to Doc Tomlinson'sdrug store.

  "The corner of this fence would be inside the line of the main street,"he went on, sighting along his lead pencil to the angle of Whiteman'scorral. It was the very spot where Dan Anderson had sat in council withhis cronies many a time. He bit his lip now as he followed the gaze ofthe engineer.

  "How about the stone house down the _arroyo_?" asked he of Grayson.This was Uncle Jim Brothers's hotel, sanctuary for the homeless ofHeart's Desire, a temple of refuge, a place where the word "Friendship,"unspoken, never written, was known and understood among men gathered fromall corners of this unfriendly world.

  "That would have to go," replied Grayson.

  "As to that shanty down below, at the head of the canon," growledBarkley, pointing to Tom Osby's adobe, "that's going to be the firstthing we'll tear down, street or no street. We need that place for ourdepot yard, and we're going to take it. Besides, there was somethingabout that Osby fellow I didn't like when we met him over at Sky Top.He's too damned independent to suit me."

  Dan Anderson straightened up as though smitten, his face a dull red. Thedancing heat mist blurred before his eyes. He said nothing. They turnedpresently and strolled down toward the foot of the _arroyo_. Barkleypushed his hat back on his furrowed forehead.

  "There is a lot in this thing for me, Andersen," said he, "and there'llbe a lot in it for you. Have you got any claims of your own in here?Mineral, I mean?"

  "Of course," Dan Anderson replied. "We all have claims. This is theonly valley in the West, so far as I know, where there is good coal onone side, and paying gold quartz on the other. But that's the case here.We haven't overlooked it."

  Barkley whistled. "I wouldn't ask a better show than you'll have here,"said he, contemplatively. "The only wonder to me is that some one hasn'tbroken into this long ago."

  "There might be some few difficulties," suggested Dan Anderson.

  "Difficulties! What do you care about that? We'll wear 'em out, pound'em out, break 'em up, I tell you. We're the first ones to find thiscountry--"

  "Except maybe Coronado, De Vaca and Company."

  "Who were they?"

  "The same as you and me," replied Dan Anderson, enigmatically. "Ask themountains."

  "Oh, rot!" said Barkley. "I'll tell you, once for all, I'm notinterested in dreams or foolishness. Now, if you want to go in with us,that's one thing. If you don't, we want to find it out mighty quick."

  "You might do worse," said Dan Anderson. "The other lawyer is worse thanmyself. At times I suspect him of being lazy."

  "Well, well, let's get together," urged Barkley, impatiently. "Now,Grayson thinks it will take about three hundred and fifty acres for thefirst plat, without additions; we'll supersede the old Jack Wilsonpatent. He's dead, you say? Never left a will, or any heirs? Never didget his town site platted and filed? Well, he never will, now. You gowith Grayson to-morrow and run out these lines quietly, and help him getan idea of the best mining claims on both sides of the valley, too.There'll be plenty for you to do."

  Dan Anderson nodded, but made no comment. Many things were revolving inhis mind.

  "Meantime," concluded Barkley, "I've got to get back down the line tomeet Mr. Ellsworth. We'll come up again. You can readily see that we'vegot to have a town meeting before very long. Get things in line for it.Will you attend to this?"

  "Yes," replied Dan Anderson, slowly and musingly; "yes, I'll attend toit."

  Barkley looked once more upon the impassive face of his local counsel,and departed more than ever puzzled and exasperated. He liked DanAnderson as little as he understood him. "I'll handle him, though," hemuttered to himself. "There's a way to handle every man, and I ratherthink that this one'll come to his feed before we get done with him."