by Jack London
CHAPTER XVII
For months Daylight was buried in work. The outlay was terrific, andthere was nothing coming in. Beyond a general rise in land values,Oakland had not acknowledged his irruption on the financial scene. Thecity was waiting for him to show what he was going to do, and he lostno time about it. The best skilled brains on the market were hired byhim for the different branches of the work. Initial mistakes he had nopatience with, and he was determined to start right, as when he engagedWilkinson, almost doubling his big salary, and brought him out fromChicago to take charge of the street railway organization. Night andday the road gangs toiled on the streets. And night and day thepile-drivers hammered the big piles down into the mud of San FranciscoBay. The pier was to be three miles long, and the Berkeley hills weredenuded of whole groves of mature eucalyptus for the piling.
At the same time that his electric roads were building out through thehills, the hay-fields were being surveyed and broken up into citysquares, with here and there, according to best modern methods, windingboulevards and strips of park. Broad streets, well graded, were made,with sewers and water-pipes ready laid, and macadamized from his ownquarries. Cement sidewalks were also laid, so that all the purchaserhad to do was to select his lot and architect and start building. Thequick service of Daylight's new electric roads into Oakland made thisbig district immediately accessible, and long before the ferry systemwas in operation hundreds of residences were going up.
The profit on this land was enormous. In a day, his onslaught ofwealth had turned open farming country into one of the best residentialdistricts of the city.
But this money that flowed in upon him was immediately poured back intohis other investments. The need for electric cars was so great that heinstalled his own shops for building them. And even on the rising landmarket, he continued to buy choice factory sites and buildingproperties. On the advice of Wilkinson, practically every electricroad already in operation was rebuilt. The light, old fashioned railswere torn out and replaced by the heaviest that were manufactured.Corner lots, on the sharp turns of narrow streets, were bought andruthlessly presented to the city in order to make wide curves for histracks and high speed for his cars. Then, too, there were themain-line feeders for his ferry system, tapping every portion ofOakland, Alameda, and Berkeley, and running fast expresses to the pierend. The same large-scale methods were employed in the water system.Service of the best was needed, if his huge land investment was tosucceed. Oakland had to be made into a worth-while city, and that waswhat he intended to do. In addition to his big hotels, he builtamusement parks for the common people, and art galleries and club-housecountry inns for the more finicky classes. Even before there was anyincrease in population, a marked increase in street-railway traffictook place. There was nothing fanciful about his schemes. They weresound investments.
"What Oakland wants is a first class theatre," he said, and, aftervainly trying to interest local capital, he started the building of thetheatre himself; for he alone had vision for the two hundred thousandnew people that were coming to the town.
But no matter what pressure was on Daylight, his Sundays he reservedfor his riding in the hills. It was not the winter weather, however,that brought these rides with Dede to an end. One Saturday afternoon inthe office she told him not to expect to meet her next day, and, whenhe pressed for an explanation:
"I've sold Mab."
Daylight was speechless for the moment. Her act meant one of so manyserious things that he couldn't classify it. It smacked almost oftreachery. She might have met with financial disaster.
It might be her way of letting him know she had seen enough of him.Or...
"What's the matter?" he managed to ask.
"I couldn't afford to keep her with hay forty-five dollars a ton," Dedeanswered.
"Was that your only reason?" he demanded, looking at her steadily; forhe remembered her once telling him how she had brought the mare throughone winter, five years before, when hay had gone as high as sixtydollars a ton.
"No. My brother's expenses have been higher, as well, and I was drivento the conclusion that since I could not afford both, I'd better letthe mare go and keep the brother."
Daylight felt inexpressibly saddened. He was suddenly aware of a greatemptiness. What would a Sunday be without Dede? And Sundays withoutend without her? He drummed perplexedly on the desk with his fingers.
"Who bought her?" he asked. Dede's eyes flashed in the way long sincefamiliar to him when she was angry.
"Don't you dare buy her back for me," she cried. "And don't deny thatthat was what you had in mind."
"I won't deny it. It was my idea to a tee. But I wouldn't have doneit without asking you first, and seeing how you feel about it, I won'teven ask you. But you thought a heap of that mare, and it's prettyhard on you to lose her. I'm sure sorry. And I'm sorry, too, that youwon't be riding with me tomorrow. I'll be plumb lost. I won't knowwhat to do with myself."
"Neither shall I," Dede confessed mournfully, "except that I shall beable to catch up with my sewing."
"But I haven't any sewing."
Daylight's tone was whimsically plaintive, but secretly he wasdelighted with her confession of loneliness. It was almost worth theloss of the mare to get that out of her. At any rate, he meantsomething to her. He was not utterly unliked.
"I wish you would reconsider, Miss Mason," he said softly. "Not alonefor the mare's sake, but for my sake. Money don't cut any ice in this.For me to buy that mare wouldn't mean as it does to most men to send abouquet of flowers or a box of candy to a young lady. And I've neversent you flowers or candy." He observed the warning flash of her eyes,and hurried on to escape refusal. "I'll tell you what we'll do.Suppose I buy the mare and own her myself, and lend her to you when youwant to ride. There's nothing wrong in that. Anybody borrows a horsefrom anybody, you know."
Agin he saw refusal, and headed her off.
"Lots of men take women buggy-riding. There's nothing wrong in that.And the man always furnishes the horse and buggy. Well, now, what's thedifference between my taking you buggy-riding and furnishing the horseand buggy, and taking you horse-back-riding and furnishing the horses?"
She shook her head, and declined to answer, at the same time looking atthe door as if to intimate that it was time for this unbusinesslikeconversation to end. He made one more effort.
"Do you know, Miss Mason, I haven't a friend in the world outside you?I mean a real friend, man or woman, the kind you chum with, you know,and that you're glad to be with and sorry to be away from. Hegan isthe nearest man I get to, and he's a million miles away from me.Outside business, we don't hitch. He's got a big library of books, andsome crazy kind of culture, and he spends all his off times readingthings in French and German and other outlandish lingoes--when he ain'twriting plays and poetry. There's nobody I feel chummy with except you,and you know how little we've chummed--once a week, if it didn't rain,on Sunday. I've grown kind of to depend on you. You're a sortof--of--of--"
"A sort of habit," she said with a smile.
"That's about it. And that mare, and you astride of her, coming alongthe road under the trees or through the sunshine--why, with both youand the mare missing, there won't be anything worth waiting throughthe week for. If you'd just let me buy her back--"
"No, no; I tell you no." Dede rose impatiently, but her eyes weremoist with the memory of her pet. "Please don't mention her to meagain. If you think it was easy to part with her, you are mistaken.But I've seen the last of her, and I want to forget her."
Daylight made no answer, and the door closed behind him.
Half an hour later he was conferring with Jones, the erstwhile elevatorboy and rabid proletarian whom Daylight long before had grubstaked toliterature for a year. The resulting novel had been a failure.Editors and publishers would not look at it, and now Daylight was usingthe disgruntled author in a little private secret service system he hadbeen compelled to establish for himself. J
ones, who affected to besurprised at nothing after his crushing experience with railroadfreight rates on firewood and charcoal, betrayed no surprise now whenthe task was given to him to locate the purchaser of a certain sorrelmare.
"How high shall I pay for her?" he asked.
"Any price. You've got to get her, that's the point. Drive a sharpbargain so as not to excite suspicion, but buy her. Then you deliverher to that address up in Sonoma County. The man's the caretaker on alittle ranch I have there. Tell him he's to take whacking good care ofher. And after that forget all about it. Don't tell me the name of theman you buy her from. Don't tell me anything about it except thatyou've got her and delivered her. Savvee?"
But the week had not passed, when Daylight noted the flash in Dede'seyes that boded trouble.
"Something's gone wrong--what is it?" he asked boldly.
"Mab," she said. "The man who bought her has sold her already. If Ithought you had anything to do with it--"
"I don't even know who you sold her to," was Daylight's answer. "Andwhat's more, I'm not bothering my head about her. She was your mare,and it's none of my business what you did with her. You haven't gother, that's sure and worse luck. And now, while we're on touchysubjects, I'm going to open another one with you. And you needn't gettouchy about it, for it's not really your business at all."
She waited in the pause that followed, eyeing him almost suspiciously.
"It's about that brother of yours. He needs more than you can do forhim. Selling that mare of yours won't send him to Germany. And that'swhat his own doctors say he needs--that crack German specialist whorips a man's bones and muscles into pulp and then molds them all overagain. Well, I want to send him to Germany and give that crack aflutter, that's all."
"If it were only possible" she said, half breathlessly, and whollywithout anger. "Only it isn't, and you know it isn't. I can't acceptmoney from you--"
"Hold on, now," he interrupted. "Wouldn't you accept a drink of waterfrom one of the Twelve Apostles if you was dying of thirst? Or wouldyou be afraid of his evil intentions"--she made a gesture of dissent"--or of what folks might say about it?"
"But that's different," she began.
"Now look here, Miss Mason. You've got to get some foolish notions outof your head. This money notion is one of the funniest things I'veseen. Suppose you was falling over a cliff, wouldn't it be all rightfor me to reach out and hold you by the arm? Sure it would. Butsuppose you needed another sort of help--instead of the strength of arm,the strength of my pocket? That would be all and that's what they allsay. But why do they say it. Because the robber gangs want all thesuckers to be honest and respect money. If the suckers weren't honestand didn't respect money, where would the robbers be? Don't you see?The robbers don't deal in arm-holds; they deal in dollars. Thereforearm-holds are just common and ordinary, while dollars are sacred--sosacred that you didn't let me lend you a hand with a few.
"Or here's another way," he continued, spurred on by her mute protest."It's all right for me to give the strength of my arm when you'refalling over a cliff. But if I take that same strength of arm and useit at pick-and-shovel work for a day and earn two dollars, you won'thave anything to do with the two dollars. Yet it's the same oldstrength of arm in a new form, that's all. Besides, in thisproposition it won't be a claim on you. It ain't even a loan to you.It's an arm-hold I'm giving your brother--just the same sort ofarm-hold as if he was falling over a cliff. And a nice one you are, tocome running out and yell 'Stop!' at me, and let your brother go onover the cliff. What he needs to save his legs is that crack inGermany, and that's the arm-hold I'm offering.
"Wish you could see my rooms. Walls all decorated with horsehairbridles--scores of them--hundreds of them. They're no use to me, andthey cost like Sam Scratch. But there's a lot of convicts making them,and I go on buying. Why, I've spent more money in a single night onwhiskey than would get the best specialists and pay all the expenses ofa dozen cases like your brother's. And remember, you've got nothing todo with this. If your brother wants to look on it as a loan, allright. It's up to him, and you've got to stand out of the way while Ipull him back from that cliff."
Still Dede refused, and Daylight's argument took a more painful turn.
"I can only guess that you're standing in your brother's way on accountof some mistaken idea in your head that this is my idea of courting.Well, it ain't. You might as well think I'm courting all thoseconvicts I buy bridles from. I haven't asked you to marry me, and if Ido I won't come trying to buy you into consenting. And there won't beanything underhand when I come a-asking."
Dede's face was flushed and angry. "If you knew how ridiculous youare, you'd stop," she blurted out. "You can make me more uncomfortablethan any man I ever knew. Every little while you give me to understandthat you haven't asked me to marry you yet. I'm not waiting to beasked, and I warned you from the first that you had no chance. And yetyou hold it over my head that some time, some day, you're going to askme to marry you. Go ahead and ask me now, and get your answer and getit over and done with."
He looked at her in honest and pondering admiration. "I want you sobad, Miss Mason, that I don't dast to ask you now," he said, with suchwhimsicality and earnestness as to make her throw her head back in afrank boyish laugh. "Besides, as I told you, I'm green at it. I neverwent a-courting before, and I don't want to make any mistakes."
"But you're making them all the time," she cried impulsively. "No manever courted a woman by holding a threatened proposal over her headlike a club."
"I won't do it any more," he said humbly. "And anyway, we're off theargument. My straight talk a minute ago still holds. You're standingin your brother's way. No matter what notions you've got in your head,you've got to get out of the way and give him a chance. Will you letme go and see him and talk it over with him? I'll make it a hard andfast business proposition. I'll stake him to get well, that's all, andcharge him interest."
She visibly hesitated.
"And just remember one thing, Miss Mason: it's HIS leg, not yours."
Still she refrained from giving her answer, and Daylight went onstrengthening his position.
"And remember, I go over to see him alone. He's a man, and I can dealwith him better without womenfolks around. I'll go over to-morrowafternoon."
