The Land of Strong Men

by A. M. Chisholm

  CHAPTER XXV

  CROSS CURRENTS

  Jean Mackay, rustling through the house with broom and duster afterbreakfast, came on her brother reading what at first glance she took tobe a magazine. This gave her what was destined to be the first of astring of surprises, for Angus never loafed around the house.

  "Shoo! Get out of here!" she said. "You'll get all choked with dust. Ideclare I don't know where all the dirt comes from."

  In proof of her words she raised a cloud which made him cough. "Told youso," she said. "Do go somewhere else, Angus. You're only in my way."

  "In a minute," he replied, frowning at his reading.

  "Where did you go last night--to Faith's?"

  "Uh-huh!"

  "You might have asked me to go along."

  "Huh!"

  "You're extra polite this morning!" his sister observed with irony."Whatever are you reading? Well, of all things! A jeweler's catalogue!What on earth--"

  Angus held it out to her.

  "Here," he said, "I know nothing about such things. Pick out a ring."

  "A ring!" Miss Jean exclaimed, astounded. "I don't want a ring, I mean Ican get along without one."

  "That's lucky," said her brother, "because the ring I want you to pickout is for Faith."

  "Good Lord!" cried Miss Jean, and fell limply upon a couch. Recoveringherself she rushed upon him, threw her arms around his neck, andpunctuated her words with emphatic hugs. "You big, old fraud. But I'mglad, really I am. When--where--"

  "Last night," Angus told her. "That was what I was making up my mindabout. I didn't know whether I should ask her just now."

  "Why shouldn't you? If she cares--"

  "It wasn't that. You see I owe a good deal of money."

  "How much?" asked Jean, who knew little about the finances of the ranch.

  "Nearly ten thousand dollars."

  "What?" gasped Jean. "Impossible."

  "Nothing impossible about it. That includes the principal of themortgage father gave Braden when he bought that timber that was burntout afterwards. When I had to run the ranch I couldn't pay muchinterest, and Braden carried it along. Then of course there was the haillast year, and the drouth this. And I had to borrow money from him on mynote, to pay something that wasn't my fault, but couldn't be helped. NowI have just had a letter from Braden saying that the mortgage and noteare past due. I suppose that's a matter of form, and I can makearrangements with him."

  "And with all that you sent me off to get an education," said Jeanbitterly. "Oh, I wish--"

  "That was a mere drop in the bucket. Nobody can take that away from you,no matter what happens. Now about this ring--"

  "Do you think you should buy one--now?"

  "I would buy a ring and a good one now if it took my share of theranch," Angus declared frowning. "You will pick out one that she canwear in any company at all. Find out what she prefers, and get one likeit but a good deal better, and never mind the cost. And to save trouble,you had better order a wedding ring at the same time."

  "Quick work!" beamed Miss Jean. "When _is_ the wedding?"

  "Wedding? I don't know," Angus admitted. "We didn't talk about that."

  "You're going to buy a wedding ring and you don't know when you'll bemarried?" Miss Jean cried scandalized.

  "Well, we'll be married some time. I always order more repair parts ofmachinery than I want, and they always come in handy. So will the ring."

  "Repairs! Machinery! Oh, my grief!" ejaculated Miss Jean. "I suppose you_have_ a soul, but--Oh, well never mind!" She threw her broom recklesslyat a corner, and her dust cap after it. "Go and saddle Pincher for me,will you? And you men will have to get your own dinner. I'm going overto spend the day with my _sister_!"

  When she had gone, burning up the trail toward Faith's ranch, Angussaddled Chief and rode to town, taking with him the notice he hadreceived from Mr. Braden. He looked upon it as a matter of form, andattached little importance to it. With the undoubted security of theranch he anticipated no difficulty in securing an extension.

  "Of course," he said to his creditor, "I don't suppose this means justwhat it says."

  "It means exactly what it says," Mr. Braden informed him. "The loan isvery badly in arrears, and I have made up my mind to call it in."

  "But the security is good for double the money."

  "Security isn't money. You are away behind. Then there is that note,past due. I can't let these things run on indefinitely."

  "You always told me not to worry about interest payments."

  "It doesn't look as if you did worry about them. I carried you alongbecause you were a mere boy, and under the circumstances I couldn'tpress for money. But you have increased your debt instead of decreasingit. I have been easy, that's what I've been--too easy. I can look backat my dealings with you," Mr. Braden continued with virtuoussatisfaction, "and I can truly say that I have dealt tenderly withthe--er--fatherless. But of course there's a limit."

  "Well, if you feel that way about it, the only way I can pay up is toget a loan elsewhere."

  "There's another way," Mr. Braden told him. "I make the suggestion tohelp you out, principally. If you will sell the place I will take itover at a fair price, and pay you the difference in cash."

  "I don't want to sell."

  "Think it over. The ranch is saddled with a heavy debt. _You_ aresaddled with more than a young man should be called on to carry. _You_are the one who will have to pay, if you keep the ranch, by your ownhard work. You will be handicapped for years, deprived of many thingsyou would otherwise have. On the other hand," Mr. Braden continued,warming to his subject, "if you sold this place all debt would be wipedout, you would have a nice lump sum in cash, and you would be as freeas--er--birds. You could take a year's holiday, travel, or," he added,seeing no signs of enthusiasm in Angus' face, "you could go into one ofthe new districts just opening up, buy virgin land, full of--of--er--"

  "Full of alkali?" Angus suggested gravely.

  "Alkali! Not at all," said Mr. Braden frowning. "'Potentialities' wasthe word I had in mind. Yes, full of potentialities. In a new districtyou would become prosperous, free from the ball and chain of debt. Thatis the sensible course. Now what do you think of it?"

  "Not much," said Angus.

  "Huh! Why not?" Mr. Braden inquired, plainly disappointed at thisreception of his disinterested advice.

  "Because I have a good ranching proposition here. And you wouldn't paywhat the land will be worth some day if I hang on."

  "What will it be worth?"

  "About a hundred dollars an acre."

  "You're right, I wouldn't pay it," Mr. Braden concurred. "Ridiculous. Iwould give you say twenty dollars, all around, and that's more than it'sworth."

  "Just as it stands--stock, implements and all?"

  Mr. Braden looked at Angus, but failed to read his face.

  "That's what I had in mind. But if you were making a start elsewhere andneeded some of the implements and stock--why I wouldn't insist. Say forthe land alone."

  Angus laughed.

  "All right, laugh!" said Mr. Braden frowning. "Go and get a new loan,then. And don't lose any time about it, either."

  "You seem to be in a hurry."

  "I never delay business matters," Mr. Braden replied. "Get your loan,and get it at once. Otherwise I shall exercise the rights which themortgage gives me."

  "That is plain enough," said Angus.

  "It's intended to be," said Mr. Braden.

  Thence Angus went to Judge Riley's office and told him the situation.The Judge jotted figures on a pad.

  "To clean up you will want nearly eleven thousand dollars," he said."That's a large sum for this country."

  "The property is worth three or four times that."

  "Yes, on a basis of land at so much per acre. But uncultivated landisn't productive. You have to pay interest out of what you grow. Fewconcerns will lend money on raw land. Then you are borrowing to pay offaccumulated debts, and not to improve property, buy stock or
the like.These things have an important bearing. You may have trouble in gettingmoney. And I think Braden will try to see that you have."

  "What will he have to do with it?"

  "Bless your innocence, he knows the loan companies operating here, andtheir appraisers. They'll ask him what sort of a borrower you have beenand are apt to be, and why he is calling his loan in, and he'll knockyou as hard as he can. He doesn't want the loan paid off. He wants tosell you out, and buy the place in. He is still at the old game. He'lltry to work it now by a mortgage sale."

  "But that would be a public sale. He'd have to bid against others."

  "Nobody in this country has money enough to pay a fair price for theranch as a whole. That would practically knock out competition. That'swhat he is counting on."

  "He hasn't got me yet," said Angus. "It's funny, but old French istrying to buy out Miss Winton, too." He told the lawyer of French'soffer.

  "Then Braden is putting up the money for French," the lawyer deduced. "Idon't understand it any more than you do, but I do know that neither ofthese men would knowingly buy anything valueless. So far as your placeis concerned, the value is there. As to the other it doesn't seem to be.But I think you did right in advising her not to sell."

  Angus rode homeward thoughtfully. His thoughts affected his pace, and sowhen under ordinary circumstances he would have been home, he was littlemore than halfway. Chief suddenly pricked his ears, and Angus becameaware of Kathleen French upon her favorite horse, Finn. She seemed tohave been riding hard, for his coat was wet and his flanks drawn andworking.

  "What's the hurry?" he asked. She brushed her loosened hair away fromher forehead.

  "He wanted to run and I let him. I'll ride along with you now."

  "I suppose you know that your father wouldn't like it?"

  "This isn't the Middle Ages," she replied scornfully. "These familyfeuds make me tired. I have no quarrel with you."

  "I don't want to make trouble for you."

  "You won't," she told him. "I can look after myself."

  They descended a steep grade, which at the bottom made a sharp turnopening upon a flat through which ran a little creek. As they made theturn they came face to face with Blake French, Gerald and Larry. Atsight of Kathleen their faces expressed astonishment. Blake uttered anoath.

  "What the devil are you doing with him?" he demanded.

  "Riding with Angus Mackay!" said his sister. "I'll ride with any one Ilike, when I like. Do you get that, Blake? Pull out. You're blocking thetrail."

  Gerald French laughed. "I thought you were up to something, Kit."

  "That's what I thought about you," she retorted.

  As Angus rode past the French boys, who had not addressed him at all, hemet their eyes. Their stares were level, hard, insolent. He rode on,half angry and much puzzled. Kathleen lifted her horse into a lope andhe followed. Then she pulled to a walk.

  "The boys didn't like you being with me," he said.

  "Never mind what they like. I'm glad I was in time--" She broke off, buta sudden light dawned on Angus.

  "What!" he exclaimed. "Is that what you were running your horse for? Youmean they were waiting for me?"

  He wheeled Chief abruptly, but more quickly she spun Finn on his heels,blocking the back trail.

  "I won't let you go back!" she cried.

  "That was a nice trick to play on a man!" he told her indignantly.

  "And that's a man gratitude!" she retorted bitterly.

  "Gratitude! I know you meant well, and I thank you. But it looks as if Ihad hidden behind your skirts, and I am not that kind of a man. I amgoing back."

  "You are not. I won't have any trouble between you and the boys to-day.You said you didn't want to make trouble. Well, then, don't."

  "I don't want to make trouble, but I am not going to run away from it.If your brothers want to take up their father's quarrel--and I am notsaying they haven't the right to, mind you--I will meet them half way.I am not going to be hunted by them in a pack. I don't have to berounded up. If there is going to be trouble I am going to have some sayabout the time of it."

  "And so am I," Kathleen declared. "I will put a stop to this."

  "Men's affairs must be settled by men," he told her.

  "I believe you are all savages at heart," she said. "This will blow overif you will let it. Whether you like it or not, I am going to interfere.I blame Blake for this."

  "You may be right. I had to put him out of Faith's house the othernight. He was drunk."

  "Pah!" said Blake's sister in disgust. "I'm glad you told me. He hasbeen going there lately, I knew. Well, I'll see that he stops _that_."

  "You need not bother. I will look after that myself. Faith won't bethere long."

  "Is she going to sell? I'm glad of it."

  "I don't know about selling. But she is coming to my ranch."

  "On a visit to Jean?"

  "No, she is going to marry me."

  The girl stared at him. He saw a flood of color rush to her cheeks andrecede, leaving her face white. Her strong hand gripped the saddle hornhard.

  "She is--going--to marry you!" she said in a voice little more than awhisper.

  "Yes," Angus replied, "why shouldn't she? She is too good for me, Iknow, but I hope you don't think, like your father, that I am not fit tomarry her."

  Kathleen French smiled with stiff lips.

  "What rot!" she said. "I didn't know my father thought anything of thekind, and certainly I don't. I hope you will be very happy. When did ithappen?"

  Angus told her, but it was a subject on which he did not care toenlarge. Where the trail forked to the French ranch they parted and herode on. But if he had turned back and ridden half a mile on the othertrail, and two hundred yards to the right behind a thick growth ofcottonwoods, he would have seen a girl lying on the ground, her faceburied in her arms, while a big, bay horse with a sweat-dried coat stoodby flicking the flies and regarding his mistress wonderingly.