CHAPTER XXIII.
EXACTING ROYAL TRIBUTE.
In spite of the optimistic view of the man who said that JeffersonWorth could build a railroad for Barba and the South Central Districtwhenever he wished, there was no little disappointment expressed inWorth's town when it became known that the Company town was to have theroad.
When the grading camps had returned to their former locations and theconstruction train drew every day nearer Kingston, with the timeapproaching when regular trains with passengers and freight would plyto and from the Company town, the feeling of discontent in Barba grew.It even came to be generally understood throughout the Basin that thewhole movement had been cleverly planned by Jefferson Worth to forceThe King's Basin Land and Irrigation Company to make a largecontribution to the railroad builder's personal fortune. The peoplesensed something in the whole transaction that they could not clearlygrasp, an intangible, mysterious something, as great as it wasindefinite. They felt blindly that they were being used without theirconsent in a game played by these master financiers, and they resentedbeing sacrificed as dumb pawns in a move, the purpose of which theycould not know.
In the meantime, while the people were charging him with selling themout to gain his own ends, the man whose purpose was known only tohimself was putting into his enterprise the last dollar of hisresources, and another flood season with its appalling danger was athand.
Because his laborers on the railroad were not as the men who built theSouth Central canals, working for more than their day's wage, andbecause, though no one knew it, Jefferson Worth's finances were sonearly exhausted, work on the road, as on the Company project, wasdiscontinued for the summer months, to be resumed in the fall--perhaps.
Barbara again refused to leave her father and in the closecompanionship and full understanding of his daughter, the man, wholived so much alone behind his gray mask, found inspiration andstrength.
The telephone now connected the heading at the river intake withKingston, and every hour of those hot days and nights Jefferson Worthlistened for a call from Willard Holmes, who also had refused to leavehis work, while three of the fastest saddle horses in the Basin werestabled with El Capitan. Texas, Abe and Pablo were ready to ride at aninstant's notice to rally the pioneers, who were developing theirranches, building their homes and planning their future unconscious ofthe real danger that hung over them.
Vague rumors of the dangerous condition of the Company structuresfloated about and there were not wanting prophecies of disaster. Butnot one in a hundred of the settlers had even visited the intake at theriver, or if they had, what could they judge of conditions there? Thesettlers were ranchers, not civil engineers. The Company zanjerosturned the water into their ditches when they asked for it; theircrops, growing marvelously in the rich soil, demanded constantattention; they had neither time, inclination nor ability toinvestigate every flying rumor. As for the prophets of evil, onlyconfirmed optimists can reclaim a desert or settle a new country andthe croakers received little attention. Besides, the great,all-powerful Company would surely protect its own interests and, inprotecting its own, would protect the interests of the settlers. It wasthe business of the Company engineers to look after the river. Theranchers were looking after the ranches.
Thus another summer went by and the great river, save for the smalltoll taken by those who were reclaiming the desert it had created inthe ages of long ago, continued on its way to the sea. Its time was notyet.
With the return of the cooler weather and the still further increase inthe volume of new life that continued to pour into the Basin from thegreat world outside, work on the railroad was begun again, butJefferson Worth knew that the first pay day would mark the end. He wasas a man with his back to a wall, fighting bravely to the last blow,and he stood alone.
Among the hundreds of pioneers with whom Worth had elected--as he hadtold Abe Lee the night of his arrival in Kingston--to take a chance,there was not one to take a chance with him now. If he lost he wouldlose alone, for those who had built upon the work that he had donewould not suffer through his defeat. Had any of them known thesituation they could have done nothing to help him. But no one knew,and this was the financier's one desperate chance--that no one didknow, not even Barbara.
With his capital exhausted and no resources upon which he couldrealize, he went ahead with the work apparently with the confidence ofone with millions behind him. It was, in the language of the West, alla bluff. But it was a magnificent bluff.
Two weeks of the month were gone when a telegram from the high officialof the S. & C. summoned him to the city.
The railroad man, in the secrecy of his private office, greeted thepromoter with his usual, "Hello, Jeff. I see The King's Basin is stillon the map."
Jefferson Worth smiled, then, as the official's eyes were fixed uponhis face in a way that he understood, he retreated behind his mask."Things are going very well," he answered.
"Working full gangs on that railroad of yours?"
"We have taken on all the men we can handle. We will be ready for thatlast lot of steel in another two weeks."
The other lay back in his chair and laughed with hearty admiration andregard. "Jeff, you are a wonder! How long do you suppose it would takeGreenfield to start something with your creditors if he knew what Iknow?"
Not a line of Jefferson Worth's face changed, only his nervous fingerscaressed his chin and the railroad man, noting the familiar signal,smiled again. Then leaning forward in his chair he said: "Jeff, I havebeen keeping my eye on you ever since those days when our line wasbuilding into Rubio City and you handled the right-of-way for us. Ihave never caught you in a blunder yet. When it comes to sizing up aproposition all around I don't believe you have an equal. Now lookhere." With a quick movement he took a paper from a pigeon-hole in hisdesk and laid it before the other. The paper was a carefully tabulatedstatement of Jefferson Worth's financial condition at that moment. Invain the official tried to see behind that gray mask.
"Well." The word was absolutely colorless.
"Well!" repeated the other savagely, "what I want to know is this: whyin hell you are bucking Greenfield and his crowd to such a limit?"
"Because," said Jefferson Worth carefully, "I believe in the future ofThe King's Basin project, providing--" he paused.
"Providing what?"
"Providing someone bucks Greenfield to the limit."
In one instantaneous flash, the man whose clear brain directedthousands of miles of a great railroad system caught a glimpse of thereal Jefferson Worth--the Jefferson Worth who was not, as the railroadman had himself said, "doing it all for a dinky little power plant."
"Jeff," he said slowly, "when you asked us to build a branch line intothe Basin I told you that we couldn't do it. As I said then, we are notin the insurance business. A railroad's business depends upon theactual development of a country, not upon backing promoters who open upa new country simply as a speculative proposition. You say you believein the future of The King's Basin country providing some one bucksGreenfield and you are sure giving him a run for his money. But youhave reached the end of your pile and I know it. Now, I have beentaking up this matter with our people and we are ready to take a chanceon your judgment. Suppose we take over your road as it stands at a fairprice--what would be your next move? Get out and leave us in theinsurance business?"
"I would build a line from Kingston to Barba, tapping the South CentralDistrict, which is the richest section of the Basin," came the instantreply.
"Good! But perhaps you don't want to sell the line you are building tothe S. & C.," he suggested with a smile.
"I figured that you would be ready to make me a proposition about thetime I had it in shape for the last shipment of steel."
Worth's bluff had won.
The railroad man said again solemnly: "Jeff, you are a wonder!"
With the passing of his nearly completed railroad into the hands of theS. & C. Jefferson Worth began at once to arrange for the building ofthe oth
er line from Barba to Kingston. This new road, to be known asthe King's Basin Central, connecting with what was now the S. & C.,would give an outlet to the rich South Central District, while theSouthwestern and Continental Company announced that its new branchwould not stop at Kingston but would build on south to Frontera.
With a main line branch of a trans-continental railroad buildingstraight through the heart of the new country, and their town locatedjust half way between the junction and the terminal, The King's BasinLand and Irrigation Company saw the value of their property increasedmany times. The day was not far distant now when every quarter sectionof the desert land would be filed on by eager settlers, and the oncebarren waste would rapidly give place to the fertile fields of theranchers, every foot of which should yield tribute to James Greenfieldand his associates. But the reclamation of the desert opened manyavenues for profit other than the irrigation system.
From these also the Company, obeying the law of Good Business, hadplanned to take toll, but the field for investment most closely alliedwith the fields of the ranchers, and therefore keeping even pace withthe increasing wealth of the new country, had been preempted byJefferson Worth. The Company desired to add to their holdings thoseenterprises that had come to be known as the Worth interests. They hadfailed repeatedly to bring about a union of forces. Their only recoursethen was to force the independent operator to sell to them or toeliminate him from The King's Basin project. To this end Greenfield andBurk watched and planned on the well known principle that whateverJefferson Worth wanted was bad for the Company, until the day when theinterests of Worth and those of The King's Basin Land and IrrigationCompany should be the same or Jefferson Worth should be no longer afactor in the new country.
While the Worth enterprises were firmly established in all the centersof activity in the Basin, the Company knew that his largest interestswere in Barba and the South Central District. Worth must have railroadconnections with the S. & C. line before he could even begin to realizeon his largest investments. There was every reason why he should desireto make Kingston the junction point of the road he was now forced tobuild. James Greenfield was not backward in letting Worth understandthat he would need to pay well for a right-of-way with terminalfacilities in the Company town.
For two weeks Jefferson Worth tried to bring the Company president tosome reasonable settlement but his efforts only served to makeGreenfield more determined to exact royal tribute. "I tell you," saidthe president triumphantly to his Manager, "he's forced to build thatline or go to smash with his town and district. No one will settle awayoff there from the railroad as long as they can locate in reach ofKingston or Frontera, and he has got to connect with the S. & C. branchat Kingston, for we are the only place between the main line and theterminal."
When Mr. Worth reminded them that the proposed road would benefitKingston and that in view of its value to their town it would be onlyjust for them to give him the privileges he needed but for which he wasquite ready to pay a reasonable price, Greenfield declared that hisCompany had already given Worth quite enough. Of course, if they couldfind some basis upon which to unite their interests that would beanother matter.
Then the evening mail brought to Mr. Worth certain legal looking papersand the next morning he called again upon Mr. Greenfield. In a springwagon in front of the Company office Texas Joe and Abe Lee waited witha prosperous looking stranger who also had arrived the evening before.
"Mr. Greenfield, I have come for your final answer on this railroaddeal."
On Greenfield's face there was a smile of satisfaction and triumph.There were several reasons why he enjoyed seeing Jefferson Worth in acorner. "I am ready to listen to any other proposition you have tomake, Mr. Worth."
"You have the only proposition I shall make."
"Really, I fear that we can do nothing this morning."
The visitor turned on his heel and left the office.
Later, in describing the interview to Willard Holmes, Burk commentedthoughtfully: "I very much fear your festive Uncle Jim played the gamea little too fine. You can take some things and most men for granted;but a railroad, now, and Jefferson Worth----" he shifted his cigar tothe corner of his mouth and cocked his head in the opposite direction."I think, Willard, that something is going to happen."
What happened was this: When Jefferson Worth left the Company's officehe stepped into the waiting rig beside the stranger. "Go ahead, Abe,"he said. Then the surveyor giving Texas the direction, the team spedaway. Once in the desert they stopped occasionally while the surveyorexamined the four by four redwood stakes. At a point on the S. & C.four miles north of Kingston and therefore between the Company town andthe main line, Abe directed Texas to stop.
The surveyor, taking a note book from his pocket, went to a cornerstake and indicated with outstretched hands the direction of theboundary lines of a tract of land owned by his employer. "Here we are,Mr. Worth."
The place was raw desert and except for the railroad without sign oflife save the life of the hard, desolate land; though in the distancecould be seen the improved ranches, with Kingston in their midst.Standing on the slight elevation of the railroad grade Jefferson Worthlooked around silently. Then, followed by the stranger and Abe, hewalked some distance west of the track.
Pausing and striking his boot-heel into the soft earth, he said withmuch less show of emotion than is exhibited by the average school boyin laying out a ball-ground: "We will build a hotel here; over there abank. The main street will run toward the railroad. The Basin Centralfrom Barba will come in from the southeast."
And this was the beginning of Republic, the town that was built on abarren desert almost in the time it would have taken to prepare theland, plant and grow a crop of corn.
The stranger was the president of a townsite company organized byJefferson Worth while James Greenfield was congratulating himself thathe at last had that gentleman in a trap. Worth had given the companythe land and had entered into an agreement whereby he was to build ahotel and several business blocks and furnish them, rent free, for oneyear.
With the railroad to deliver material in any desired quantity, work wasbegun in a few days. The King's Basin Messenger and the papers inFrontera and Barba, all owned by Worth, gave full accounts of the birthof the new town and the reason why The King's Basin Central would notbe built into Kingston, with glowing accounts of Worth's plans for thefuture of the Company's rival town. The Worth Electric Company movedits plant from Kingston to Republic; the ice-plant, the bank, thetelephone office and every enterprise controlled by Worth followed;while many merchants, lured by the success of the Wizard of the Desertin every undertaking and by the promise of rent free, went with theWorth industries; and from the world outside many, who had hesitated toenter the new country before the railroad, rushed in to locate in thenew town. The first building completed in Republic was a cottage forBarbara and her father.
Meanwhile the work on the road to Barba and the South Central Districtwas begun. The "something" prophesied by Mr. Burk had happened.
The Winning of Barbara Worth Page 25
