CHAPTER XVIII
ON CHRISTMAS DAY
Christmas came to Keno in a whirling snowstorm that shrouded ShadowMountain in white and, as he stepped out in the morning and looked up atthe peak, Wiley Holman felt a thrill of joy. The black shadow hadbothered him, now that he had come to live under it; and a hundred timesa day as it caught his eye he would glance up to find the dark cloud.But now it was gone and in place of the lava cap there was a mantle ofgleaming snow. He looked down at the town and, on every graceless house,there had been bestowed a crown of white; all the tin cans were buried,the burned spots were covered over, and Keno was almost beautiful. Afamily of children were out in the street, trying to coast in their newChristmas wagons, and Wiley smiled to himself.
He had brought back those children; he had brought the town to life andtenanted its vacant houses; and now, best of all, he had brought thespirit of Christmas, for he had sent a peace-offering to Virginia. Shehad spurned it once in the heat of passion, and called him a coward anda crook; but that package of stock would recall to her mind a time whenshe had known him for a friend. It would bring up old memories of theirboy-and-girl love, which she knew he had never forgotten, and if therewas anything to forgive she would know that he remembered it when hesent this offering by Charley.
He was a crazy old rat, but he had his uses; and he had promised to giveher the stock, without fail. It was to come, of course, from Charleyhimself, in atonement for selling it for nothing; but Virginia wouldknow, even if she missed his flowered Christmas card, that the stock wasa present from him. It had a value now far above the price he had paidfor it when Charley had thrust it upon him and the dividend alone fromthe royalties on his lease would be twelve hundred dollars and more. Andthen her pro rata share, when he paid his fifty thousand dollars, wouldadd another six hundred; and she knew that, for the asking, she couldhave half of what he had--or all, if she would take him, too.
Wiley looked down on the house that sheltered Virginia and smiled tothink of her there. She was waiting on miners, but the time would comewhen someone would be waiting on her. In the back of his brain a boldplan had been forming to feed fat his grudge against Blount and restorethe Huffs to their own--and it needed but a word from her to put theplan into action. He held from Blount two separate and distinct papers;one a bond and lease on the mine, the other an option on his personalstock. But to grant the bond and lease--with its option for fiftythousand--Blount had been compelled to vote the Widow's stock; and ifthat stock was not his and had been illegally voted, then of course thebond and lease would be void.
Yet even so he, Wiley Holman, had fully safeguarded his interests, forby his other option he could buy all Blount's stock for the sum of fivecents a share. The four hundred thousand-odd shares would come to onlytwenty thousand dollars, as against fifty thousand on the bond andlease; and yet, by buying the stock at once, he could effectually debarBlount from any share in the accumulating profits. The small payments onpast royalties and his five cents a share would be all that Blount wouldreceive; and then he would be left, a spectacle for gods and men--abanker who had been beaten by a boy. It was the chicanery of Blountwhich had ruined his father and driven Colonel Huff to his death, andwhat could be better, as poetic justice, than to see him hoist on hisown petard. And if the Colonel was not dead--as would appear fromCharley's maunderings--if he could be discovered and brought back totown, then surely Virginia would forget the old feud and consent to behis wife. All this lay before him, a fairyland of imaginings, waitingonly her magic touch to make it real; just a word, a smile, a promise offorgiveness--and of loyalty and love--and he, Wiley Holman, would gowhirling on the errand that would win him wealth and renown.
It would all be done for her, and yet he would not be the loser, forhis own father held two hundred thousand shares of Paymaster; and hehimself would save a fifty-thousand-dollar payment at an expense of alittle over twenty. And if the Colonel could be found quickly--or hisdeath disproved to make illegal the Widow's transfer of hisstock--then the mine could be claimed at once and Blount deprived evenof his royalties. Of course this could all be done without the help ofVirginia or the co-operation of any of the Huffs for, although hisfather had refused from the first to have anything to do with themine, Wiley knew that he could talk him over and persuade him to poolhis stock. That would make six hundred thousand, a clean votingmajority and a fortune in itself; but for the sake of Virginia, and toheal the ancient feud, it would be better to unite with the Huffs.
Wiley paced up and down in the crisp, dry snow and watched for Virginiato come, and as his mind leapt ahead he saw her enthroned in a mansion,with him as her faithful vassal--when he was not her lord and king. Forthe Huffs were proud, even now in their poverty, and Virginia was theproudest of them all; and in this, their first meeting, he must rememberwhat she had suffered and that it is hard for the loser to yield. Itshould be his part to speak with humility and dwell but lightly on thepast while he pictured a future, entirely free from menial service, inwhich she could live according to her station. All her years of povertyand disappointment and loneliness would be forgotten in this sudden riseto wealth; and to complete the picture, Blount, the cause of all hersuffering, would grovel, very unbankerlike, at their feet.
Blount would grovel indeed when he felt the cold steel that woulddeprive him of all his stock, for he was still playing the game with hisloans and extensions in the hope of winning back what he had lost. Formoney was his god, before whom there was no other, and he worshiped itday and night; and all his fair talk was no more than a pretense to lureWiley into the net. Yet not for a minute would Wiley put up his option,or his bond and lease on the mine; and for all the money that Blount hadloaned him he had given his mere note of hand. It was his promise topay, unsecured by any collateral, and yet it was perfectly good. Themoney came and went--he could pay Blount at any time--but it was betterto rehabilitate the mine.
Wiley had a race before him, a race for big stakes, and he kept his eyeson the goal. To earn fifty thousand dollars in six months' time, earn itclean above all expense, required foresight and careful management, anda big daily output, for every day must count. The ore on the dump was inthe nature of a grub-stake, a bonus for undertaking the game; and whenit was all shipped the profits would drop to nothing unless he couldbring up more ore. So he took his first checks, and what he couldborrow, and timbered and cleaned out the mine; and, to save shipping outmore ore, he had ordered expensive machinery to put the old mill intoshape. It was the part of good judgment to spend quickly at first andbuild up the efficiency of his plant; and then the last few months, whenBlount would begin to gloat, make a run that would put him in the clear.Clear not only of the bond and lease, but on Blount's stock as well, forit would pay for itself with the first dividend; and, to save paying anymore royalties, Wiley was curtailing his wasteful shipments while heprepared to concentrate the ore in his mill.
There were envious people in town who prophesied his failure and claimedthat success had gone to his head, but he was confident he could showthem that a man can take chances and yet play his cards to win. He hadtaken chances with Blount when he had accepted his money, for there wereother banks that would lend on his mine; but in what more harmless waycould he engage his attention and keep him from actual sabotage?
It was that which he dreaded, the resort to open warfare, the fire andvandalism, and dynamite; and day and night he kept his eye on the works,and hired a night-watchman, to boot. But as long as Blount was convincedhe could win back the mine peaceably he would not resort to violenceand, though Stiff Neck George still hung about the camp, he keptscrupulously away from the Paymaster.
As Christmas day wore on and the sun came out gleaming, Wiley swung offdown the trail and through the town. He was a big man now, the man whohad saved Keno after ten years of stagnation and lingering death; andyet there were those who disliked him. They recited old stories of hisshrewd dealings with Mrs. Huff, and with Virginia and Death ValleyCharley; and if any were forgotten t
he Widow undoubtedly recalled them.She was a shrewish woman, full of gossip and backbiting, and she let noopportunity pass; so that even old Charley cherished a certainresentment, though he disguised it as solicitude for the Huffs. And soon Christmas day, as Wiley walked down the street, many greetings lackeda holiday heartiness.
The front room of the Huff house was full of children and, as Wileywalked back and forth, he caught a glimpse of Virginia; but she didnot come out and, after lingering around for a while, he climbed upthe trail to the mine. He had caught but a glimpse, but it wasclean-cut as a cameo--a classic head, eagerly poised; dark hair,brushed smoothly back; and a smile, for some neighbor's child. Thatwas Virginia, high-headed and patrician, but kind to lame dogs andlost cats. She had invited in the children but he, Wiley Holman, whohad loved her since she was a child, had been permitted to passunnoticed. He wandered about uneasily, then went back to his officeand began to run over his accounts.
Over a hundred thousand dollars had passed through his hands in lessthan a calendar month and yet the long haul across the desert from Vegashad put him in the hole. Besides the initial cost of cables andtimbers--and of a rock breaker and the concentrating plant--there was acharge of approximately twenty dollars a ton for every pound of supplieshe hauled out. And, because of the war, all supplies were high and themachinery houses were behind with their orders; yet so eager were thebuyers to get hold of his tungsten that they almost took it out of thebins. He was storing up the ore, preparatory to milling it and shippingonly the concentrates; but if they could have their way they would wrestit from his hands and rush it to the railroad post haste. One mysteriousbuyer had even offered him a contract at seventy dollars a unit--threedollars and a half a pound!
Wiley opened up his notebook and made a careful estimate of what the oreon the dump would bring and his eyes grew big as he figured. At seventydollars a unit it would come to more than he owed; and pay for the mine,to boot. It was a stupendous sum to come so quickly, before the mine washardly opened up; but when the mill was running and the mine was sendingup ore--he smiled dizzily and shook his head. A profit like that, if itever became known, would make his position dangerous. It was too much ofa temptation for Blount and his jumpers, and blackleg lawyers with fakeclaims. They could get out injunctions and tie up the work until he lostthe mine by default!
But would they dare do it? And how long would it take to raise fiftythousand dollars elsewhere? Wiley studied it all over in the silence ofhis office, for the mine was closed down for Christmas; and then oncemore he turned to his notebook and figured the ore underground. Then hefigured the outside cost for installing his machinery, for freight andsupplies and the payroll; and, adding twenty per cent for wear and tearand accidents, he figured the grand total for six months. That wasastounding too but, when he put against it his ore and the price perton, not even the chances that stood out against him could keep downthat dizzy smile. He was made, he was rich, if he could just hold thingslevel and do a day's work every day.
The sun set at last as he sat planning details and, rising up stiffly,he pushed his papers aside and went out into the night. The snow hadmelted fast on the roofs and bare ridges and, as the last rays of sunsettouched the peak with ruddy fingers, he noticed that the shadow had comeback. The barren lava cap had thrown aside its Christmas mantle, meltingthe snow before it could pack; and now, grim and black, it stood outlike a death-head above the white valley below. Lights flashed out fromminers' windows, the scampering children ceased their clamor, and hewandered through the darkness alone.
There was something he had forgotten, something big and significant, buthis tired brain refused to respond. It was part of the scheme to beatBlount out of his stock, and the royalty from the shipments of ore;and--yes, it had to do with Virginia. It was going to make her rich, andboth of them happy; but he could not recall it, at the moment. He wasworn out, weary with the seething thoughts which had rioted through hismind all day, and he turned back dumbly to his office. It was dark andcold and as he groped for his matchbox his hand encountered a strangepackage. And yet it was not so strange--he seemed to remember it,somehow. He struck a hasty match and looked. It was the package of stockthat he had sent to Virginia, but----The match burnt his fingers and hedropped it with a curse. She had refused his offer of peace.