CHAPTER XXVI--THREATENING WEATHER
Joe Hurley had taken a new lease on cheerfulness; yet he scarcely couldhave explained why his condition of mind had so suddenly improved. Butit was not difficult for him to put a digit upon that very moment oftime when this new feeling had dawned in his mind.
It was when, with Hunt, he had plowed his way through the driving stormto the nook under the sheltering cliff and had, seemingly, by instinct,found Betty Hunt rather than Nell Blossom.
Joe told himself that this very fact--that he had stumbled upon Bettyrather than Nell--was a miracle of love.
All the time they were beating through the blizzard, crossing the icyriver and climbing the steep path, it seemed to Joe that Betty had beencalling to him. It had been the most natural thing in the world that atthe end of the fearful struggle he should find in his arms the girl whomhe loved and whose peril had caused him such anguish.
And Betty did, quite of her own volition, enter that shelter. It was nomistake, no chance happening. Betty did not think he was her brother."Oh, Joe! I was sure you would find us," she had said.
Joe did not overlook the confession Betty had made that there was a manback East who must, in some way, hold her promise if not her affections.But Joe hoped that by now Betty had taken time to compare that unknownwith himself; and that he, Joe, had a chance. He decided to awaitBetty's good pleasure.
At least, Joe Hurley's recklessness was submerged once more in thosebetter qualities that the Reverend Willett Ford Hunt warmly liked. Joewas bound to be the parson's chief assistant and backer in all hisefforts for the betterment of Canyon Pass. And Hunt faced now--he hadseen it coming of course--a situation that must practically makeeffective or mar seriously all that he had striven for since he had comeWest.
This emergency came up for discussion that Saturday night in BillJudson's Three Star Grocery. The interest of the more decent element ofthe town's population was centering in the church and in Parson Hunt'swork. This was a rallying point for all progressive effort anddetermination in Canyon Pass.
In addition, the happenings of the past week seemed to have focused onHunt and the good work the eyes of all those Passonians who possessedvision at all. The almost tragic brawl in Tolley's Grub Stake hadaroused a great deal of warm discussion. What did Canyon Pass and CanyonCounty have a sheriff for, if roughnecks were to go armed--and use thosearms--just as they had been wont to do in the old days?
"Why, we're plumb civilized now. We ain't supposed to go around wearin'shootin'-irons and pluggin' holes in store-fronts and citizens' hats. Ifa bunch of cow-punchers came riotin' in yere and started to shoot up thecamp, Sheriff Blaney would show 'em what-for, blame sudden."
"Youbetcha!" agreed one of the storekeeper's listeners. "That's a trueword, Bill. If a man means to be peaceable, why go ironed at all?"
"That's just it," complained the gangling Smithy. "There's them thatain't for peace. That's why the rest of us hafter go heeled."
Smithy had been waiting on customers with a gun belted to his waist eversince the night he had lost two teeth and gained a black eye. Perhapsthe evidence of this gun so prominently displayed had saved the ganglingclerk from much hectoring comment that he might otherwise have sufferedfrom some of the patrons of the Three Star.
However, Smithy basked in a certain heroic light. He had been the firstto resent Tolley's scurrilous tale about Nell Blossom, and no matterwhat Joe Hurley and the parson had done later, Smithy's small share ofglory could not be ignored. On this very afternoon Nell herself had comeinto the Three Star Grocery and thanked Smithy very sweetly for hiscourageously expressed opinion on her behalf, the result of which hadrather marred what good looks Smithy had ever been able to lay claim to.
"Layin' off whatever that boy's mother said about him when he was aninfant," drawled Judson, "nobody ever could honestly say that Smithyshould take a medal for good looks. Now he looks plumb woeful! I comepretty near bustin' out crying when I look at him."
"Oh, it's not as bad as all that, Bill Judson, and you know it," Nelldeclared. "Don't you believe him, Smithy. I don't think it hurts yourlooks any."
"It couldn't," was Judson's grim comment.
But this missed Smithy. He fairly gasped with pleasure at Nell'sstatement.
"Don't you mind about it, Miss Nell," he said. "I was goin' to have themteeth drawed, anyway. I'll get gold ones. And I'd have 'em all knockedout if 'twould do you a mite of good."
Now that the conclave between the serious-minded citizens had begun,even Smithy was listened to with some respect. Besides, the gangling oneput forward an unmistakably pregnant fact.
"If it wasn't for Tolley and his gang, wouldn't none of us hafter toteguns," Smithy observed.
"Surest thing you know!" exclaimed Collins. "Run them out o' town andthe decent men here wouldn't hafter develop saddle-galls from wearingten pound or more of iron and lead belted around their waists. Yes, sir!I'm in favor of reviving the old vigilance committee and running theseyere undesirable citizens out into the Topaz."
"What would become of them?" put in Hunt mildly.
"Let 'em 'root, hog, or die'!" muttered Judson. "Tolley, of course, hasgot a stake yere. We can't take a man's property away from him. Butthose hangers-on of his----"
"It is a part of Tolley's stake that is the immediate cause of thisdiscussion, gentlemen," put in the parson again. "Tolley still owns theplace in which we hold our meetings, and Judson's lease will soon runout."
"Run Tolley out," said Smithy, who had now enthusiastically taken sideswith the church people, "and you needn't worry about that shack."
"Maybe he would sell," Hurley suggested.
"You try to buy it," and Judson grinned. "His eye teeth has done beencut a far time back. Tolley ain't that kind of a fool. He is wise to theidea that we'd like to buy that place. If you paved the shack floor withgold eagles Tolley wouldn't bite."
"He'd like to bust up the church and run the parson out, if you ask me,"was the comment of another bystander. "And he's got a sharp side-pardnernow, boys. I hear tell Dick the Devil is a-hintin' that things will godifferent in Canyon Pass, now that he's come back."
"How's that?" asked Hurley quickly, his eyes sparkling as they alwaysdid when his temper was ruffled. "What's Dick got to say about it?"
"He don't favor no parson. He says so."
"Looks to me," drawled Judson, "that it's comin' close to a show-down.Either we folks that want a church and decency has got to cave in, or wegot to fight."
"The right kind of fighting, I hope," said Hunt quickly. "We must holdour own without open quarreling."
"Well, it won't be peaceful when we try to hold onto Tolley's shack,"growled Jib Collins.
"Look yere," queried a voice from the dark end of the store, "what haveyou shorthorns been doin' all this time you've had a parson? Why ain'tye built him a church?"
"Another county heard from!" snapped Judson, as old Steve Siebert cameforward. "Easy enough to ask that."
"Why don't ye answer it?" asked the old prospector. "I see you have gotyere in Canyon Pass a blame good parson. I never seen one I likedbetter. I ain't heard him preach, and I ain't been to your meetin's. Butany parson that can walk barehanded up to a gang like that Boss Tolleyand his whelps gets my vote, and he can have everything I've got when hewants it for his church."
"Them that ain't got nawthin' can easy give it away," muttered Judson.
But it was another voice that ruffled the serenity of Steve Siebert. Ona box by the door the hooped figure of Andy McCann straightened up.
"I reckon," he sneered, "that that old gray-backed lizard has got him apoke full o' nuggets out in the Topaz, and he's goin' to hand it overfor to pay for a church edifice," and his senile giggle was moremaddening than the laughter of the crowd.
"I likely brought in full as much as yonder ground-owl ever scooped outo' the ground. But ye don't answer my question, neither. Why ain't youfellers made some preparation for buildin'?"
"Mr. Siebert," said the parson soot
hingly, "the men and women interestedin our work have subscribed several hundred dollars toward a buildingfund. But we are none of us prepared to finance such a work as yet. Wewish to put up a fairly good structure when we get at it. We cannotfreight in the frame and heavier timbers. They must be cut and sawn onthe spot. The expense of getting in a mill, aside from the labor, isenormous."
"I reckon these hard-shells have tol' you that because their pocketssqueal ev'ry time they put their hands in 'em," growled Siebert. "I know'em."
"Look here, old-timer," said Joe Hurley, sharply, "we figure it willcost close to ten thousand dollars to put up a church. What do you sayto that?"
"Put your hand in your poke and hand over ten thousand in dust, youmiser'ble desert rat!" cackled Andy McCann.
"And how much of it can you rake up, after prospectin' this country fornigh on to thutty years?" was Steve's answer, glowering at his enemy.
"Wal, dern your hide! there was a time when I might ha' done my share ofit without weepin' none," muttered Andy. "And if it hadn't been foryou----"
"Is that so?" cried the other old man, his face ablaze with wrath. "Andhow about me bein' right in sight once't of the most promisin' lead thatever was uncovered in Canyon County?"
"If it hadn't been for you," rejoined Andy, "I would ha' been rollin' inwealth. And you know it--dad burn your hide!"
"Look here," interjected Joe Hurley, interested rather than amused. "Ifyou both tell the truth, you must have together struck a rich streak.Why didn't you develop it? You were partners, weren't you?"
"Me, pardners with that yere!" croaked Steve.
"D'ye think for one moment," demanded Andy, "that I'd help make thatfeller's fortune? Not on your tintype!"
Here Judson, with enormous disgust, broke into the discussion. "Dad burnit!" he exclaimed, "this ain't helpin' none to build the parson achurch."
The others were laughing uproariously. Steve and Andy glared at eachother like two angry dogs with a strong fence between them. But slowlytheir fierce expressions changed. Hunt, who was watching them withsomething more than idle curiosity, saw that both old men began to lookslyly at each other as they calmed down. The others paid no furtherattention to Steve and Andy, the flurry of their verbal battle beingover. But in the rheumy eyes of Andy there grew a light which seemed toregister some secret amusement, while Steve's toothless grin displayed ahumorous appreciation of a phase of the argument that the bystanders ingeneral quite failed to catch.
"Now," thought the Reverend Willett Ford Hunt, "I wonder, to use one ofJoe's favorite expressions, what those two old fellows have up theirsleeves. Perhaps the joke is on Canyon Pass, rather than on these twoqueer old prospectors. I wonder!"