Rimrock Jones Page 12

  CHAPTER XII

  RIMROCK'S BIG DAY

  The white heat of midsummer settled down on the desert and therattlesnakes and Gila monsters holed up. As in the frozen East theyhibernated in winter to escape the grip of the cold, so in sun-cursedPapagueria, where the Tecolotes lie, they crawled as deep to get awayfrom the heat. But in the Geronimo jail with its dead, fetid air,Rimrock Jones learned to envy the snakes. Out on the stark desert,where the men laid the track, the hot steel burned everything ittouched; but the air was clean and in the nights, when he suffocated,they lay cool and looked up at the stars. They did a man's work anddrew their pay; he lay in the heat and waited.

  Then the first cool days came and the Tecolote Mining Company resumedits work in feverish haste. An overplus of freight was jammed in theyards; the construction gangs laid track day and night; and from theend of the line, which crept forward each day, the freight wagonshauled supplies to the mine. There was a world of work, back and forthon the road; and in Tecolote and Gunsight as well. A magnificenthotel, with the offices of the Company, was springing up across thestreet from the Gunsight; at the mine there were warehouses and acompany store and quarters for the men on the flats where Rimrock hadonce pitched his tent. But the man who built them was AbercrombieJepson--the master hand was slack.

  It had killed a man and for that offense Rimrock Jones must wait on thelaw. There was no bail for him, for he had made a threat and thenkilled his man as he fled. And he would not deny it, nor listen to anylawyer; so he lay there till the circuit court convened. All throughthe slow inferno of that endless summer he had cursed the law's delay;but it held him, regardless, until the calm-eyed judge returned for thefall term of court. The jail was full to the last noisome cell-roomand, caught with the rest, was Rimrock.

  Yet if Rimrock had suffered there had been compensation--Mary Fortunehad written him every day. He knew everything that Jepson was doing;and he knew a little more about her. But only a little; there wassomething about her that balked him a thousand times. She eluded him,she escaped him, she ignored his hot words; she was his friend, and yetonly so far. She did not approve of what he was doing, and she hadtaken him at his word. He had asked her, once, not to interfere in hiscase; and from that day she kept her hands off.

  The day of the trial came and Hassayamp Hicks, with L. W. and a host offriends, went to Geronimo to cheer Rimrock by their presence. Thepapers came back full of the account of the case, but Mary Fortune didnot appear in court. Even when the great day came when Rimrock was tomake his appeal to the jury she remained in her office in Gunsight--andthen came the telegram: "Acquitted!"

  He had been right then, after all; he knew his own people! But then,there were other things, too. Mary Fortune was not so innocent thatshe had not noticed the strong interest which the newspapers had takenin his case. They had hailed him, in those last days, the firstcitizen of Geronimo County; and first citizens, as we know, are seldomhanged. The wonderful development of the Tecolote Mining Company hadbeen heralded, month after month; and the name Rimrock Jones was alwaysspoken with a reverence never given to criminals. He was the man withthe vision, the big man of a big country, the man whose touch broughtforth gold. And now he had won; his man-killing had been justified;and he was coming back--to see her.

  She knew it. She even knew what he would hasten to say the firstmoment he found her alone. He was simple, in those matters; which madeit all the more necessary to have the answer thought out in advance.But was life as simple as he insisted upon making it? Was every oneeither good or bad, and everything right or wrong? She doubted it, andthe answer was somewhere in there. That he was a great man, sheagreed. In his crude, forceful way he had succeeded where most menwould have failed; but was he not, after all, a great, thoughtlessgiant who went fighting his way through life, snatching up what hewanted most? And because his eyes were upon her, because she had comein his way, was that any reason why the traditions of her life shouldfall down and give way to his?

  Even when the answer is "no" that is not any reason why a woman shouldnot appear at her best. Mary Fortune met the train in an afternoondress that had made an enemy of every woman in town. She had a friendin New York who picked them out for her, since her salary had becomewhat it was. A great crowd was present--the whole populace of Gunsightwas waiting to see their hero come home--and as the train rolled in andRimrock dropped off, in the excitement she found tears in her eyes.But then, that was nothing; Woo Chong, the restaurant Chinaman, wasweeping all over the place; and Old Hassayamp Hicks, hobbling offthrough the crowd, wiped his eyes and sobbed, unashamed. And thenRimrock seized her by both her hands and made her walk with him back tothe hotel!

  It was no time for discipline, that night; Rimrock was feeling toohappy and gay. He would shake hands with a Mexican with equalenthusiasm, or a Chinaman, or a laborer off the railroad. They wereall his friends, whether he knew them or not, and he called on thewhole town to celebrate. The Mexican string band that had met him atthe train was chartered forthwith for the night, Woo Chong had an orderto bring all the grub in town and feed it to the crowd at the hotel;but Hassayamp Hicks refused to take any man's money, he claimed thatthe drinks were on him. And so, with the band playing "Paloma" on theveranda and refreshments served free to the town, Rimrock Jones cameback, the first citizen of Gunsight, and took up his life with a bang.

  He stood in the rotunda of the Hotel Tecolote and gazed admiringly atthe striped marble pillars that he had ordered at great expense, andhis answer was always the same.

  "Why, sure not! I knowed that jury wouldn't convict. I picked themmyself by the look in their eye, and every man had to be ten years inthe Territory. A fine bunch of men--every one of 'em square--they canhave anything I've got. That's me! You know Rimrock! He neverforgets his friends! And he don't forget his enemies, either!"

  And then came the cheers, the shouts of his friends. The only enemy hehad was dead.

  Mary Fortune had a room on the second floor of the hotel--one of thenicest of them all, now that the painters and paperhangers had finallyleft--and she came down late in an evening gown. The marble steps,which Rimrock had insisted upon having, led up and then turned to bothsides and as she came down, smiling, with her ear-'phone left off andher hair in a glorious coil, Rimrock paused and his eyes grew big.

  "By Joe, like that Queen picture!" he burst out impulsively and wentbounding to meet her half way. And Mary Fortune heard him, in spite ofher deafness; and understood--he meant the Empress Louise. He had seenthat picture of the beloved Empress tripping daintily down the stairsand, for all she knew, those expensive marble steps might have beenbuilt to give point to the compliment.

  "You sure look the part!" he said in her ear as he gallantly escortedher down. "And say, this hotel! Ain't it simply elegant? We'll showthose Gunsight folks who's who!"

  "They're consumed with envy!" she answered, smiling. "I mean thewomen, of course. I heard one of them say, just before I moved over,that you'd built it here just to spite them."

  "That's right!" laughed Rimrock--"hello there, Porfilio--I built itjust to make 'em look cheap. By grab, I'm an Injun and I won't soonforget the way they used to pass me by on the street. But now it'sdifferent--my name is Mister, and that's one bunch I never will know."

  "They know _me_, now," she suggested slyly, "but I'm afraid I'm partIndian, too."

  "You're right!" he said as he guided her through the crowd and led theway out into the street. "Let's walk up and down--I don't dare to goout alone, or the boys will all get me drunk. But that's right," hewent on, "I've been thinking it over--you can forgive, but you neverforget."

  "Well, perhaps so," she replied, "but I don't spend much of my time inplanning out some elaborate revenge. Now those marble steps--do youknow what Mr. Stoddard said when he came out to inspect the mine?"

  "No, and what's more, I don't care," answered Rimrock lightly. "I'mfixed so I don't have to care. Mr. Stoddard is all right--he's a niceab
le provider, but we're running this mine, ourselves."

  He squeezed her hand where she had slipped it through his arm andlooked down with a triumphant smile.

  "We, Us and Company!" he went on unctuously, "fifty-one per cent. ofthe stock!"

  "Does Stoddard know that?" she asked him suddenly, looking up to readthe words from his lips. "I noticed when he was here he treated mevery politely, whereas Mr. Jepson didn't fare nearly so well."

  "You bet he knows it," answered Rimrock explosively. "And Jepson willknow it, too. The first thing I do will be to get rid of our dummy andmake you a Director in the Company. I'm going to take charge here andyour one per cent. of stock entitles you to a bona-fide place on theBoard."

  "Well, I'd think that over first," she advised after a silence,"because I foresee we sha'n't always agree. And if it's a dummy youwant you'd better keep Mr. Buckbee. I'm fully capable of voting youdown."

  "No, I'll take a chance on it," he went on, smiling amiably. "All Iask is that you let me know. If you want to buck me, why, that's yourprivilege--you get a vote with me and Stoddard."

  "Well, we'll talk that over," she said, laughing indulgently, "whenyou're not feeling so trustful and gay. This is one of those timesI've heard you tell about when you feel like walking the wires. Themorning after will be much more appropriate for considering an affairof this kind."

  "No, I mean it!" he declared and then his face reddened. He had usedthat phrase before, and always at an unfortunate time. "Let's go backto the hotel," he burst out abruptly, "these boys are painting the townright."

  They turned back down the street, where drunken revellers hailed theirhero with cheers as he passed, and as they entered the hotel Rimrockcarried her on till they had mounted to the ladies' balcony. This waslocated in the gallery where the ladies of the hotel could look downwithout being observed and for the space of an hour Rimrock leaned overthe railing and gazed at the crowded rotunda. And as he gazed hetalked, speaking close in her ear since he knew she had left off her'phone; and all the time, as the people thinned and dwindled, he stroveto win her over to his mood.

  He was, as she had said, in one of those expansive moods when histhoughts were lofty and grand. He opened up his heart and disclosedhopes and ambitions never before suspected by her; and as she listenedit became apparent that she, Mary Fortune, was somehow involved in themall. Yet she let him talk on, for his presence was like wine to her,and his dreams as he told them seemed true. There was the trip toEurope--he alluded to it very tactfully--but he did not speak as if itwere to be made alone.

  And then he spoke of his plans for the Tecolote, and further conqueststhat would startle the world. There was Mexico, a vast treasure-house,barely scratched by the prospector; his star would soon lead him there.All he needed was patience, to wait the short time till the Tecolotebegan to pour out its ore. He asked her minutely of Jepson and hiswork and of her interview with the great Whitney H. Stoddard, and thenhe struck the stone rail with his knotted fist and told what would haveto be done. And then at last, as the lights grew dim, he spoke of hislong days in jail and how he had looked each day for her letter, whichhad never failed to come. His voice broke a little as he told of thetrial and then he reached out and took her hand.

  "I've learned from you," he said, leaning closer so she could hear him,"I've learned to understand. And you like me; now, don't you? Youcan't tell me different because I can see it right there in your eye?"

  She looked away, but she nodded her head, and her hand still lay quietin his.

  "Yes, I like you," she said. "I can't help but like you--but let's notsay any more. Aren't you happy enough without always havingthings--can't you wait for some things in this world?"

  "Yes, I can," he said. "I can wait for everything--the money, thesuccess and all--but I can't wait for you! No, that's asking too much!"

  He drew her towards him and his strong arm swept about her, but shestraightened rebelliously in his clutch.

  "Remember!" she warned and his arm relaxed though his breath was stillhot on her cheek. "Now I must be going," she said, rising swiftly."Good-night, Rimrock! I'm glad you're here!"

  "Don't I get a kiss?" he demanded hoarsely as his hand reached again."Come on," he pleaded. "Didn't I turn you loose? You kissed meonce--in jail!"

  "But you're free now, Rimrock, and--that makes a difference. You mustlearn to wait, and be friends."

  "Oh--hell!" he burst out as she flitted away from him. But she wasdeaf--she turned back and smiled.