CHAPTER XVII
TWENTIETH CENTURY
"And there that hulking Prejudice Sat all across the road.
* * * * *
"I took my hat, I took my coat, My load I settled fair, I approached that awful incubus With an absent-minded air-- And I walked directly through him As if he wasn't there!"
--_An Obstacle_: CHARLOTTE PERKINS STETSON.
Johnny Dines rode with a pleasant jingle down the shady street of LosBanos de Santa Eulalia del Norte. His saddle was new, carven, wroughtwith silver; his bridle shone as the sun, his spurs as bright stars; heshed music from his feet. Jeff saw him turn to Casa Escobar: appleblossoms made a fragrant lane for him. He paused at Jeff's tree.
"_Alto alli!_" said Johnny. The words, as sharp command, can be managedin two brisk syllables. The sound is then: "_Altwai!_" It is a crisp andstartling sound, and the sense of it in our idiom is: "Hands up!"
Jeff had been taking a late breakfast _al fresco_; he made glad room onhis bench.
"Light, stranger, and look at your saddle! Pretty slick saddle, too.Guess your playmates must 'a' went home talking to themselves lastnight."
"They're going to kill a maverick for you at Arcadia and give abarbecue," said Johnny. The cult of _nil admirari_ reaches its highestpitch of prosperity in the cow-countries, and Johnny knew that it wasfor him to broach tidings unasked.
"Oh, that reminds me--how's old Lars Porsena?" said Jeff, now free toquestion.
"Him? He's all right," said Johnny casually. "Goin' to marry one or moreof the nurses. They're holdin' elimination contests now."
"Say, Johnny, when you go back, I wish you'd tell him I didn't do it.Cross my heart and hope to die if I did!"
"Oh, he knows it wasn't you!" said Johnny.
Jeff shook his head doubtfully.
"Evidence was pretty strong--pretty strong! Who was it then?"
"Why, Lake himself--the old hog!"
"If Lake keeps on like this he's going to have people down on him," saidJeff. "Who did the holmesing--John Wesley?"
"Oh, John Wesley! John Wesley!" said Dines scornfully. "You think thesun rises and sets in old John Wesley Pringle. Naw; he didn't get backtill it was all over. I cannot tell a lie. I did it with my littlehatchet!"
"Must have had it sharpened up!" said Jeff. "Tell it to me!"
"Why, there isn't much to tell," said Dines, suddenly modest. "Come tothink of it, I had right considerable help. There was a young collegechap--he first put it into my head that it wasn't you."
"That would be the devil?" said Jeff, ignoring the insult.
"Just so. Name's White--and so's he: Billy White, S. M. and G. P."
"I don't just remember them degrees," said Jeff.
"Aw, keep still and you'll hear more. They stand for Some Man and GoodPeople. Well, as I was a-saying, Billy he seemed to think it wasn't you.He stuck to it that Buttinski--that's what he calls you--was in a gardenjust when the bank was robbed."
Johnny contemplated the apple tree over his head. It was a wandering andsober glance, but a muscle twitched in his cheek, and he made no furtherexplanation about the garden.
"And then I remembered about Nigger Babe throwin' you off, and I beganto think maybe you didn't crack the safe after all. And there was someother things--little things--that made Billy and Jimmy Phillips--he wastakin' cards in the game too--made 'em think maybe it was Lake; but itwasn't no proof--not to say proof. And there's where I come in."
"Well?" said Jeff, as Johnny paused.
"Simple enough, once you knowed how," said Johnny modestly. "I'd beenreading lots of them detective books--Sherlock Holmes and all themfellows. I got Billy to have his folks toll Lake's sister away for thenight, so she wouldn't be scared. Then me and Billy and Jimmy Phillipsand Monte, we broke in and blowed up Lake's private safe. No trouble atall. Since the bank-robbin' every one had been tellin' round just how itought to be done--crackin' safes. Funny how a fellow picks up littlescraps of useful knowledge like that--things you'd think he'd remembermight come in handy most any time--and then forgets all about 'em. Iwrote it down this time. Won't forget it again."
"Well?" said Jeff again.
"Oh, yes. And there was the nice money--all the notes and all of thegold he could tote."
Jeff's eye wandered to the new saddle.
"I kept some of the yellow stuff as a souvenir--half a quart, or maybe apint," said Johnny. "I don't want no reward for doin' a good deed....And that's all."
"Lake is a long, ugly word," said Jeff thoughtfully.
"Well, what do you say?" prompted Johnny.
"Oh, thank you, thank you!" said Jeff. "You showed marvelouspenetration--marvelous! But say, Johnny, if the money hadn't been therewouldn't that have been awkward?"
"Oh, Billy was pretty sure Lake was the man. And we figured he hadn'tbothered to move it--you being the goat that way. What made you be agoat, Jeff? That whole performance was the most idiotic break I everknew a grown-up man to get off. I knew you were not strictlyaccountable, but why didn't you say, 'Judge, your Honor, sir, at thetime the bank was being robbed I was in a garden with a young lady,talking about the hereafter, the here and the heretofore?'"
"On the contrary, what made your Billy think it was Lake?"
Johnny told him, in detail.
"Pretty good article of plain thinking, wasn't it?" he concluded. "Yethe mightn't have got started on the right track at all if he hadn't hadthe straight tip about your bein' in a garden." Johnny's eye reverted tothe apple tree. "Lake found your noseguard, you know, where you left it.I reckon maybe he saw you leave it there.--Say, Jeff! Lake's grandfathermust have been a white man. Anyhow, he's got one decent drop of blood inhim, from somewhere. For when we arrested him, he didn't say a wordabout the garden. That was rather a good stunt, I think. Bully forLake, just once!"
"Right you are! And, Mr. J. Dines, I've been thinking----" Jeff began.
Johnny glanced at him anxiously.
"----and I've about come to the conclusion that we're some narrowcontracted and bigoted on Rainbow. We don't know it all. We ain't theonly pebble. From what I've seen of these Arcadia men they seem to bepretty good stuff--and like as not it's just the same way all along thebeach. There's your Mr. White, and Griffith, and Gibson--did I tell youabout Gibson?"
Johnny flashed a brilliant smile. His smiles always looked larger thanthey really were, because Johnny was a very small man.
"I saw Griffith and he gave me his version--several times. He's realupset, Griffith.... Last time he told me, he leaned up against my neckand wept because there was only ten commandments!"
"Didn't see Gibson, did you? You know him?"
"Nope. Pappy picked him up--or he picked Pappy up, rather. Hasn't beenseen since. I guess Gibby, old boy, has gone to the wild bunch. Hewouldn't suspect you of bein' innocent, and he dreamed he dwelt inmarble walls, makin' shoes for the state. So he gets cold feet and hejust naturally evaporates--good night!"
"Yes--he said he was going to hike out, or something to that effect,"responded Jeff absently--the fact being that he was not thinking ofGibson, at all, but was pondering deeply upon Miss Ellinor Hoffman. Hadshe gone to New York according to the original plan? It did not seemprobable. Her face stood out before him--bright, vivid, sparkling, as hehad seen her last, in the court room of Arcadia. Good heavens! Was thatonly a week ago? Seven days? It seemed seven years!--No--she had notgone--at least, certainly not until she was sure that he, Jeff, had madegood his escape. Then, perhaps, she might have gone. Perhaps her motherhad made her go. Oh, well!--New York wasn't far, as he had told her thatfirst wonderful day on Rainbow Rim. What a marvelous day that was!
Jeff was suddenly struck with the thought that he had never seenEllinor's mother. Great Scott! She had a father, too! How annoying! Hemeditated upon this unpleasant theme for a space. Then, as if groping ina dark room, he had suddenly turned on the light, his t
hought changedto--_What a girl! Ah, what a wonderful girl! Where is she?_
Looking up, Jeff became once more aware of Johnny Dines, leg curledaround the horn of the new saddle, elbow on knee, cheek on hand,contemplating his poor friend with benevolent pity. And then Jeff knewthat he could make no queries of Johnny Dines.
Johnny spake soothingly.
"You are in North America. This is the Twentieth Century. Your name isBransford. That round bright object is the sun. This direction is East.This way is called 'up.' This is a stream of water that you see. It iscalled the Rio River Grand Big. We are advertised by our loving friends.I cannot sing the old songs. There's a reason. Two of a kind flocktogether. Never trump your pardner's ace. It's a wise child that dreadsthe fire. Wake up! Come out of it! Change cars!"
"I ought to kill you," said Jeff. "Now giggle, you idiot, and makeeverybody hate you!--Wait till I say _Adios_ to my old compadre and therest of the Escobar _gente_ and I'll side you to El Paso."
"Not I. Little Johnny, he'll make San Elizario ferry by noon and Helm'sby dark. Thought maybe so you'd be going along."
"Why, no," said Jeff uneasily. "I guess maybe I'll go up to El Paso andjune around a spell."
"Oh, well--just as you say! Such bein' the case, I'll be jogging."
"Better wait till after dinner--I'll square it with Don Francisco if ...anything's missing."
"No--that makes too long a jaunt for this afternoon. Me for SanElizario. So long!"
But beyond the first _acequia_ he turned and rode back.
"Funny thing, Jeff! Remember me telling you about a girl I saw onMayhill, the day Nigger Babe throwed you off? Now, what was that girl'sname?--I've forgotten again. Oh, yes!--Hoffman--Miss Ellinor Hoffman.Well--she's at Arcadia still. The mother lady was all for going back toNew York--but, no, sir! Girl says she's twenty-one, likes Arcadia, andshe's going to stay a spell. Leastwise, so I hear."
"I _will_ kill you!" said Jeff. "Here, wait till I saddle my nag and saygood-by."
* * * * *
Beyond San Elizario, as they climbed the Pass of All the Winds, the twofriends halted to breathe their horses.
"Jeff," said Johnny, rather soberly, "you can kick me after I say mylittle piece--I'll think poorly of you if you don't--but ain't youmaking maybe a mistake? That girl, now--nice girl, and all that--butthat girl's got money, Jeff."
"I hate a fool worse than a knave, any day in the week," said Jeff: "andthe man that would let money keep him from the only girl--why, Johnny,he's so much more of a fool than the other fellow is a scoundrel----"
"I get you!" said Johnny. "You mean that a submarine boat is betterbuilt for roping steers than a mogul engine is skilful at paintingsteeples, and you wonder if you can't get a fresh horse somewhere andgo on through to Arcadia to-night?"
"Something like that," admitted Jeff. "Besides," he added lightly,"while I'd like that girl just as well if I didn't have a cent--why, asit happens, I'm pretty well fixed, myself. I've got money to throw atthe little dicky-birds--all kinds of money. Got a fifty-one-per-centinterest in a copper mine over in Harqua Hala that's been payin' me allthe way from ten to five thousand clear per each and every year for thelast seven years, besides what I pay a lad for lookout to keep anybodybut himself from stealing any of it. He's been buyin' real estate for mein Los Angeles lately."
Johnny's jaw dropped in unaffected amazement.
"All this while? Before you and Leo hit Rainbow?"
"Sure!" said Jeff.
"And you workin' for forty a month and stealin' your own beef?--thensaving up and buying your little old brand along with Beebe and Leo andold Wes', joggin' along, workin' like a yaller dog with fleas?"
"Why not? Wasn't I having a heap of fun? Where can I see any better timethan I had here, or find better friends? Money's no good by itself. Ihaven't drawn a dollar from Arizona since I left. It was fun to make themine go round at first; but when it got so it'd work I looked forsomething else more amusing."
"I should think you'd want to travel, anyhow."
"Travel?" echoed Jeff. "Travel? Why, you damn fool, I'm here now!"
"Will you stay here, if you marry her, Jeff?"
"So you've no objection to make, if I've got a few dollars? That squareseverything all right, does it? Not a yeep of protest from you now? Seehere, you everlasting fool! I'm just the same man I was fifteen minutesago when you thought I didn't have any money. If I'm fit for her now, Iwas then. If I wasn't good enough then, I'm not good enough now."
"But I wasn't thinking of her--I was thinking of--how it would look."
"Look? Who cares how it looks? Just a silly prejudice! 'They say--whatsay they--let them say!' Johnny, maybe I was just stringin' you. If Iwas lying about the money--how about it then? Changed your mind again?"
"You wasn't lyin', was you?"
"Shan't tell you! It doesn't really make any difference, anyhow."