CHAPTER V
For perhaps half an hour the women tried on one piece of jewelry afteranother, exclaiming, admiring, arguing, then the mother realized with astart that meal time was near and that the menfolks would soon be home.Leaving Allie to entertain their guest, she hurried out, and the soundof splitting kindling, the clatter of stove lids, the rattle ofutensils came from the kitchen.
Gray retired to the patent rocker, Miss Briskow settled herself upon astraight-backed chair and folded her capable hands in her lap; anoppressive silence fell upon the room. Evidently the duties of hostesslay with crushing weight upon the girl, for her face became stony, hercheeks paled, her eyes glazed; the power of speech completely failedher and she answered Gray with nods or shakes of her head. The mostthat he could elicit from her were brief "yeps" and "nopes." It was notunlike a "spirit reading," or a ouija-board seance. He told himself, interms of the oil fields, that here was a dry well--that the girl was a"duster." Having exhausted the usual commonplace topics in the courseof a monologue that induced no reaction whatever, he voiced a perfectlynatural remark about the wonder of sudden riches. He was, in a way,thinking aloud of the changes wrought in drab lives like the Briskows'by the discovery of oil. He was surprised when Allegheny responded:
"Ma and me stand it all right, but it's an awful strain on Pa," saidshe.
"Indeed?"
The girl nodded. "He's got _more_ nutty notions."
Gray endeavored to learn the nature of Pa's recently acquiredeccentricities, but Allie was flushing and paling as a result of hersudden excursion into the audible. Eventually she trembled upon theverge of speech once more, then she took another desperate plunge.
"He says folks are going to laugh _at_ us or _with_ us, and--and richpeople have got to _act rich_. They got to be elegant." She laughedloudly, abruptly, and the explosive nature of the sound startled her asgreatly as it did her hearer. "He's going to get somebody to teachBuddy and me how to behave."
"I think he's right," Gray said, quietly.
"Why, he's sent to Fort Worth for a piano, already, and for a lady tocome out for a coupla days and show me how to play it!" There wasanother black hiatus in the conversation. "We haven't got a spare room,but--I'm quick at learnin' tunes. She could bunk in with me for a nightor two."
Gray eyed the speaker suspiciously, but it was evident that she was insober earnest, and the tragedy of such profound ignorance smote the mansharply. Here was a girl of at least average intelligence and ofsensitive makeup; a girl with looks, too, in spite of her size, and nodoubt a full share of common sense--perhaps even talents of somesort--yet with the knowledge of a child. For the first time he realizedwhat playthings of Fate are men and women, how completely circumstancecan make or mar them, and what utter paralysis results from thestrangling grip of poverty.
History hints that during the Middle Ages there flourished anassociation known as Comprachicos--"child-buyers"--which traded inchildren. The Comprachicos bought little human beings and disfiguredtheir features, distorted their bodies, fashioned them into ludicrous,grotesque, or hideous monstrosities for king and populace to laugh at,and then resold them. Soft, immature faces were made into animallikenesses; tender, unformed bodies were put into wicker forms orporcelain vases and allowed to grow; then when they had become thingsof compressed flesh and twisted bone, the wicker was cut, the vase wasbroken, leaving a man in the shape of a bottle or a mug.
That is precisely what environment does.
In the case of Allegheny Briskow, poverty, the drought, the grindinghardships of these hard-scrabble Texas counties, had dwarfed theintellect, the very soul of a splendid young animal. Or so, at least,Gray told himself. It was a thought that evoked profound consideration.
Now that the girl was beginning to lose her painful embarrassment, sheshowed to somewhat better advantage and no longer impressed him, asbovine, stolid, almost stupid; he could not but note again her fullyoung figure, her well-shaped, well-poised head, and her regularfeatures, and the pity of it seemed all the greater by reason thereof.He tried to visualize her perfectly groomed, clad in a smart gownmolded over a well-fitting corset, with her feet properly shod and herhair dressed--but the task was beyond him. Probably she had never worna corset, never seen a pair of silk stockings. He thought, too, of whatwas in store for her and wondered how she would fit into the new worldshe was about to enter. Not very well, he feared. Might not this proveto be the happiest period of all her new life, he asked himself. As yetthe wonder and the glory of the new estate left room in her imaginationfor little else; the mold was broken, but the child was not consciousof its bottle shape. Nevertheless the shape was there. When that childlearned the truth, when it heard the laughter and felt the ridicule,what then? He could not bring himself to envy Allegheny Briskow.
"First off, Ma and me are goin' over to Dallas to do some tradin'," thegirl was saying. "After that we're goin' to the mountains."
"Your mother mentioned mountains."
"Yep. Her and Pa have allus been crazy about mountains, but they neverseen 'em. That's the first thing Ma said when Number One blowed in.When we saw that oil go over the crown block, and when they told usthat black stuff was really oil, Ma busted out cryin' and said she'dsee the mountains, after all--then she wouldn't mind if she died. Pa hecried, too, we'd allus been so pore--You see, Ma's kind of marked aboutmountains--been that way since she was a girl. She cuts out stories andpictures of 'em. And that's how me and Buddy came to be named Alleghenyand Ozark. But we never expected to _see_ 'em. The drought burned usout too often."
Allegheny and Ozark. Quaint names. "Times must have been hard." Theremark was intended only as a spur.
"_Hard!_" There was a pause; slowly the girl's eyes began to smolder,and as she went on in her deliberate way, memory set a tragic shadowover her face. "I'll say they was hard! Nobody but us nesters knowswhat hard times is. Out west of here they went three years withoutrain, and all around here people was starvin'. Grown folks was thin andtired, and children was sickly--they was too peaked to play. Why, wetook in a hull family--wagon-folks. Their hosses died and they couldn'tgo on, so we kep' 'em--'til _we_ burned out. I don't know how wemanaged to get by except that Pa and Buddy are rustlers and I can domore 'n a hired man. We _never_ had enough to eat. Stuff just wouldn'tgrow. The stock got bonier and bonier and finally died, 'count of nograss and the tanks dryin' out. And all the time the sun was a-blazin'and the dust was a-blowin and the clouds would roll up and then driftaway and the sun would come out hotter 'n ever. Day after day, monthafter month, we waited--eighteen, I think it was. People got so theywouldn't pray no more, and the preachers moved away. I guess we was asbad off as them pore folks in Beljum. Why, even the rattlesnakes pulledout of the country! Somehow the papers got hold of it and bime-by somegrub was shipped in and give around, but--us Briskows didn't get none.Pa'd die before he'd beg."
The girl was herself now; she was talking naturally, feelingly, and hervoice was both deep and pleasing.
"The thinner Ma got, the more she talked about the mountains, wherethere was water--cool, clear water in the criks. And timber on thehills--timber with green leaves on it. And grass that you could laydown in and smell. I guess Ma was kind of feverish. We was drier 'n alime-burner's boot when the rain did come. I'll never forget--we allstood out in it and soaked it up. It was wonderful, to get all wet andsoaky, and not with sweat."
"Then on top of that the oil came, too. It _must_ have been wonderful."
"Yep. Now we're rich. And buyin' di'mon's and pianos and goin' toDallas for pretty fixin's. Seems kinda dreamy." Allegheny Briskowclosed her eyes, her massive crown of damp, disordered hair droopedbackward and for a moment Gray was able, unobserved, to study her.
She had revealed herself to him, suddenly, in the space of a fewmoments, and the revelation added such poignancy to his previousthoughts that he regarded her with a wholly new sympathy. There wasnothing dull about this girl. On the contrary, she had intelligence andfeeling. There had been a rich vibrance in her v
oice as she told ofthat frightful ordeal; a dimness had come into her eyes as she spoke ofher mother gabbling feverishly of the green hills and babbling brooks;she had yearned maternally at mention of those wretched littlechildren. No, there was a sincere emotional quality concealed in thisyoung giantess, and a sensitiveness quite unexpected.
Gray remained silent until she opened her eyes; then he said: "When youand your mother come to Dallas to do your shopping, won't you let metake you around to the right shops and see that you get the rightthings?" Then, prompted by the girl's quick resentment, he added,hastily, "--at the right prices?"
Allie's face cleared. "Why, that's right nice of you!" she declared."I--I reckon we'd be glad to."
Gus Briskow was a sandy, angular man; a ring of air holes cut in thecrown of his faded felt hat showed a head of hair faded to match thecolor of his headgear; his greasy overalls were tucked into boots, anda ragged Joseph's coat covered his flannel shirt. Both the man and hismakeup were thoroughly typical of this part of the country, except inone particular--Pa Briskow possessed the brightest, the shrewdest pairof blue eyes that Calvin Gray had ever seen, and they were surroundedby a network of prepossessing wrinkles.
He came directly in to greet his visitor, then said: "I never expectedyou'd come 'way out here an' bring your plunder with you. Ma says yougot a hull gripful o' di'mon's."
"I have, indeed." Gray pointed to the glittering display still spreadout upon the varicolored counterpane.
Briskow approached the bed and gazed curiously, silently down at thetreasure, then his face broke into a sunshiny smile. He wiped his handsupon his trousers legs and picked up a ring. But instead of examiningthe jewel, he looked at the price mark, after which his smile broadened.
Ozark had entered behind his father, and his sister introduced him now.He was a year or two younger than Allegheny, but cast in the sameheroic mold. They formed a massive pair of children indeed, and, as inher case, a sullen distrust of strangers was inherent in him. He staredcoldly, resentfully, at Gray, mumbled an unintelligible greeting, thenrudely turned his back upon the visitor and joined his father.
The elder Briskow spoke first, and it was evident that he feared tobetray lack of conservatism, for he said, with admirable restraint:
"Likely-lookin' lot of trinkets, eh, Bud?"
Bud grunted. After a moment he inquired of Gray, "How much is that hulllot wuth, Mister?"
"Close to a hundred thousand dollars."
Brother and sister exchanged glances; the father considered briefly,smilingly, then he said, "With oil at three an' a quarter, it wouldn'ttake long for a twelve-hundred bar'ler to get the hull caboodle, wouldit?"
"Is your well producing twelve hundred barrels a day?"
"Huh!" Briskow, junior, grinned at his sister, exposing a mouth full ofteeth as white and as sound as railroad crockery, but his next wordswere directed at Gray: "We got _four_ wells and the p'orest one ismakin' twelve hundred bar'l."
The guests' mental calculations as to the Briskow royalties wereinterrupted by an announcement that dinner was ready, whereupon thefather announced:
"Mister, it looks like you'd have to stay overnight with us, 'cause Igot important business after dinner an' I wouldn't trust Ma to pick outno jewelry by herself--them prices would skeer her to death. We'reignorant people and we ain't used to spendin' money, so it'll take timefor us to make up our minds. Kin you wait?"
"I'll stay as long as you'll keep me," Gray declared, heartily.
A moment later, having learned that a place at the table had been setfor his driver as well as himself, Gray stepped out to summon the manand to effect the necessary change in his arrangements. He was notsurprised to find the chauffeur with nose flattened against a pane ofthe front-room window, his hands cupped over his eyes. Ignoring thefellow's confusion at being discovered, Gray told him of his change ofplan and instructed him to drive back to Ranger and to return late thefollowing afternoon. Then he led the way toward the kitchen.
That stay at the Briskows' turned out to be less irksome than thevisitor had anticipated, for the afternoon was spent with Buddyexamining the Briskow wells and others near by. It was an interestingexperience, and Gray obtained a deal of first-hand information that hebelieved would come in handy. Buddy's first mistrust was not long inpassing, and, once Gray had penetrated his guard, the boy was woncompletely, the pendulum swung to the opposite extreme, and erelongsuspicion changed to liking, then to approval, and at last to open,extravagant admiration.
And Gray liked the youthful giant, too, once the latter had dropped hishostility and had become his natural self, for Ozark was a lad withtemper and with temperament. They got along together swimmingly; infact, they grew thicker than thieves in the course of time. The elderman soon became conscious of the fact that he was being studied,analyzed, even copied--the sincerest form of flattery--and it pleasedhis vanity. Buddy's mind was thirsty, his curiosity was boundless,questions popped out of him at every step, and every answer, every bitof information or of philosophy that fell from the visitor's lips hepounced upon, avidly examined, then carefully put away for future use.He was like a magpie filling its nest. Gray's personal habits,mannerisms, tricks--all were grist for Buddy's mill. The stranger'ssuit, for instance, was a curiosity to the boy, who could notunderstand wherein it was so different from any other he had ever seen;young Briskow attributed that difference to the fact that it hadprobably come from a bigger store than any he had known. It amazed himto learn, in answer to a pointed question, that it had been cut andfitted to the wearer by expert workmen. It disappointed him bitterly tobe informed that there was not another one exactly like it which hecould buy.
And the visitor's silk shirt, with double cuffs and a monogram on thesleeve! Fancy "fixin's" like this, Buddy confessed, he had alwaysassociated with womenfolks, but if Gray wore them there could benothing disgraceful, nothing effeminate about the practice. There was adecided thrill in the prospect of possessing such finery, all initialedwith huge, silken O. B's. Life was presenting wholly novel and excitingpossibilities to the youth.
When Gray offered him a cigarette, Buddy rudely took the gold case outof his hand and examined it, then he laughed in raucous delight.
"Gosh! I never knew men had _purty_ things. I--I'm goin' to get me onelike that."
"Do you like it?"
"Gee! It's _swell_!"
"Good! I'll make you a present of it."
Buddy stared at the speaker in speechless surprise. "What--what for?"he finally stammered.
"Because you admire it."
"Why--it's solid gold, ain't it?"
"To be sure."
"How much d'it cost?"
"My dear fellow," Gray protested, "you shouldn't ask questions likethat. You embarrass me."
Buddy examined the object anew, then he inquired, "Say, why'd you offerto gimme this?"
"I've just told you." Gray was becoming impatient. "It is a custom insome countries to present an object to one who is polite enough toadmire it."
"Nobody never give _me_ a present," Buddy said. "Not one that I wanted.I never had _nothing_ that I didn't have to have and couldn't get alongwithout. This cigareet case is worth more 'n all the stuff I everowned, an' I'm sure obliged to you." He replaced the article in Gray'shand.
"Eh? Won't you accept it? Why not?"
"I--Oh, I dunno."
Gray pondered this refusal for a moment before saying, "Perhaps youthink I'm--trying to make a good impression on you, so you'll buy somediamonds?"
"Mebbe." Buddy averted his eyes. He was in real distress.
"Um-m! I ought to punch your head." Gray slipped the case into youngBriskow's pocket. "I don't have to bribe people. Some day you'llrealize that I like you."
"_Honest?_"
"Cross my heart."
The boy laughed in frank delight, his brown cheeks colored, his eyessparkled. "Gosh!" said he. "I--like _you!_" For some time thereafter heremained red and silent, but he kept one big hand in the pocket wherelay the gold cigarette
case. There was a wordless song in BuddyBriskow's heart, for--he had made a friend. And such a friend!
The Briskow children possessed each other's fullest confidence, henceOzark took the first occasion to show his gift to Allegheny, and totell her in breathless excitement all about that wonderful afternoon.
"He said he'd a mind to lick me, an' I bet he could 'a' done it, too,"the boy concluded.
"Lick you? Hunh!"
"Oh, he's hard-boiled! That's why I like him. He's been 'round theworld and speaks furrin language like a natif. That suit of clo's was_made_ for him, an' he's got thirty others, all better 'n this one.Shoes, too! Made special, in New York. Forty dollars a pair!"
"What's he doin' here if he's so rich?" It was the doubting female ofthe species speaking. "Drummers is terrible liars."
Buddy flew to the defense of his hero. "He's doin' this to he'p afriend. Told me all about it. I'm goin' to have thirty suits--"
"Shoes don't cost forty dollars. _Clo's_ don't cost that much." Allieregarded her brother keenly, understandingly, then she said, somberly,"It ain't no use, Buddy."
"What ain't?"
"It ain't no use to wish. Mebbe you can have thirty suits--if the wellshold out, but they won't look like his. And me, too. We're too big,Buddy, an' the more money we got, the more clo's we put on, the morefolks is goin' to laugh at us. It shames me to go places with anybodybut you."
"_He_ wouldn't laugh. He's been all over the world," the boy asserted.Then, after some deliberation, "I bet he's seen bigger people than us."
As a matter of fact, Allegheny's sensitiveness about her size had beenquickly apparent to Gray, and during that day he did his utmost toovercome it, but with what success he could not know. Buddy was his,body and soul, that much was certain; he made the conquest doublysecure by engaging the young Behemoth in a scuffle and playfullyputting him on his back. Defeat, at other hands than Gray's, would haveenraged Ozark to the point of frenzy, it would have been considered byhim an indignity and a disgrace. Now, however, he looked upon it as anatural and wholly satisfactory demonstration of his idol's supremeprowess, and he roared with delight at being bested. Gray promptlytaught him the wrestling trick by which he had accomplished the feat,and flattered the boy immensely by refusing to again try his skill. Theolder man, when he really played, could enter into sport withtremendous zest and he did so now; he taught Buddy trick after trick;they matched each other in feats of strength and agility. They wound upfinally on opposite sides of the Briskow kitchen table, elbows planted,fingers interlocked, straining furiously in that muscle-racking,joint-cracking pastime of the lumber camps known as "twisting arms."Here again Gray was victorious, until he showed Buddy how to gaingreater leverage by changing the position of his wrist and by slightlyaltering his grip, whereupon the boy's superior strength told. Theywere red in the face, out of breath, and soaked with perspiration, whenPa Briskow drove up in his expensive new touring car.
By this time Buddy's admiration had turned to adulation; he had passedunder the yoke and he gloried shamelessly in his captive state. Atsupper time he appeared with his hair wetly combed in imitation ofGray's. He wore a necktie, too, and into it he had fastened a cheapbrass stickpin, much as Gray wore his. During the meal he watched howthe guest used his knife and fork and made awkward attempts to dolikewise, but a table fork was an instrument which, heretofore, Buddyhad looked upon as a weapon of pure offense, like a whaler's harpoon,and conveniently designed either for spearing edibles beyond his reachor for retrieving fragments of meat lurking between his back teeth. Heeven did some hasty manicuring under the edge of the table with hisjack-knife.
Pa Briskow was scarcely less observant than his son. He watched Gray'severy move; he sounded him out adroitly; he pondered his lightest word.After the supper things had been cleared away and the dishes washed,the entire family adjourned to the front room and again examined thejewelry. It was an absorbing task, they did not hurry it. Not until thefollowing afternoon, in fact, did they finally make their selections,and then they were guided almost wholly by the good taste of theirguest. Gray did not exploit them. On the contrary, his effort was tolimit their extravagance; but in this he had little success, for PaBriskow had decided to indulge his generous impulses to the full andinsisted upon so doing. The check he finally wrote was one of fivefigures.
By this time the visitor had become aware of arousing a queer reactionin Allegheny Briskow. He had overcome her diffidence early enough; hehad unsealed her lips; he had obtained an insight into her character;but once that was done, the girl retired within herself again and hecould get nothing more out of her. He would have believed that sheactually disliked him, had it not been for the fact that whatever hesaid, she took as gospel, that wherever he chanced to be there she was,her ears open, her somber, meditative eyes fixed upon him. Evidentlyshe did not actually dislike him; he decided finally that she wasstudying him, striving to analyze and to weigh him to her own completesatisfaction before trusting him further than she had.
When it drew near the time for him to leave, and he announced that thedriver of his hired car had been instructed to return for him, therewas protest, loud and earnest, from the Briskows, father and son. Buddyactually sulked at being denied the pleasure of driving his hero totown in the new car, and told about a smooth place on a certain detourwhere he could "get her up to sixty mile an hour."
"If it was longer, she'd do a hundred," he declared.
Pa Briskow was worried for the security of the diamonds, and assuredGray that it was unsafe to trust those service-car drivers.
But the latter, seeing a threat to his carefully matured plans, refusedto listen. "There's one thing you can do for me," he told them. "Youcan give me a pint of cream."
"Cream? What for?" The family regarded him with amazement.
"I'm fond of it. If you have no cream, milk will do."
"Pshaw! I'll put up a hull basket of lunch for you," Mrs. Briskowdeclared. "Buddy, go kill a rooster, an' you, Allie, get them eggs outof the nest in the garden, an' a jar of them peach preserves, while Imake up a pan of biscuits."
Protest was unavailing.
When the others had hurried away, Pa Briskow said: "I been studyin'you, Mister Gray, and I got you down as a first-class man. When Ma andAllie come over to Dallas to get rigged out, I'd like you to help 'em.They 'ain't never been fu'ther from home than Cisco--that's thirtymile. I'll pay you for your time."
Gray's hearty acceptance of the first and his prompt refusal of thesecond proposal pleased the speaker.
"Bein' rich is mighty fine, but--" Gus Briskow shook his headdoubtfully. "It takes a lot of thinkin', and I ain't used to thinkin'.Some day, mebbe, I'll get you to give _me_ a hand in figgerin' out someworries."
"Business worries?"
"No. I got enough of them, an' more comin', but it ain't that. We'regoin' to have a heap of money, and"--he looked up with straightforwardeyes--"we ain't goin' to lose it, if I have my way. We've rubbed along,half starved, all our lives, an' done without things till we're--Well,look at us! I reckon we've made you laugh. Oh, I bet we have! Ma an' mecan stand it, but, mister, I don't want folks to laugh at my children,and there's other things I don't want to happen to 'em. Buddy's a wildhoss and he's got a streak of the Old Nick in him. And Allie ain'tbroke no better 'n him. I got a feelin' there may be trouble ahead,an'--sometimes I 'most wish we'd never had no oil in Texas."