CHAPTER XX
HUME PLAYS A TRUMP
Before Wanda and Wayne had finished making merry over their littleluncheon in the cave, each striving bravely to look at the futurehonestly and unafraid, to look upon the present contentedly, an eventhad happened that was already shaping their lives in a way which theycould not foresee. Sledge Hume had come to the Echo Creek.
During the past night, shortly after the arrival of Garth Conway, Jimhad ridden from the range house to the nearest village, something lessthan a dozen miles down the valley, with orders to telephone a messageto Hume. The message, a mystery in itself to Jim, had been clearenough to the man to whom it was sent and had brought him hasteningacross the fifty miles lying between his ranch in the Dry Lands and theEcho Creek. In the darkness he had come on as far as he could, untilthe snow stopped him. He had spent the night at a house twenty milesfrom Leland's place and now, hours before he could reasonably have beenexpected, he entered Martin's study unceremoniously.
"So there's hell to pay," he said shortly by way of greeting. "The redheaded fool has discovered something, has he?"
He flung off his coat and strode to the fireplace. Garth and Lelandwere together, had been together all morning, planning what was to bedone. Hume stared at Leland frowningly and then slowly transferred hisregard to Conway.
"I suppose your brains have been leaking out of your mouth again," hesaid contemptuously.
Garth, his agitation of last night having left him nervous andirritable, retorted hotly.
"Gentlemen," said Leland gravely, "may I remind you that this is hardlya time for personal recriminations? We are not here to quarrel withone another. I sent you word immediately, Mr. Hume, not because I sawany necessity for your coming here but that you might know what we haveto expect at the earliest possible moment. Garth and myself have beentalking it over--"
"Talking!" exploded Hume angrily. "Well, I didn't come to talk.There's going to be something besides a puling string of words now."
"If you have a suggestion--"
"You bet I have! I've been expecting just this thing ever since youbegan playing the game with Conway there as a stool pigeon. If we'dhave sent him on a trip to Paris and paid his expenses we'd have savedtrouble and money. Can I have a drink and something to eat? I'm halfstarved."
"Certainly. But your suggestion--"
"Is already working. I'm going to make it so hot for Red Shandon thathe'll come to time the first show he gets. MacKelvey is on the jumpand not over an hour or two behind me. It's time for trumps now,Leland."
Martin jerked his head up at MacKelvey's name and stared at Hume withkeen, hard eyes.
"You're making a bold play, Mr. Hume."
"Well?" challenged Hume. "Isn't it high time for it? We might havebought the water from Shandon before and have been better off. Youwouldn't stand for it; you had to gobble everything for nothing. Wetook the chance. It wasn't a bad gamble either, considering Shandonwas away the first year and is a fool to boot. But you've lost on it.Now when you go to him and ask for the water he's going to laugh atyou. But lock him up, charged with murder, make him believe that wecan stretch his neck for him and he'll hang, or by God, he will come totime. Now I want a drink and something to eat. You and Conway canspend the day talking if you like; I've got a day's work cut out aheadof me."
"You're going with MacKelvey?"
Hume laughed and threw back his coat, showing the deputy sheriff's starunder it.
"I had Mac swear me in six months ago," he answered. "Yes, I'm goingwith him."
Martin Leland rose and preceded Hume to the door.
"I shall ask my wife to see that you have something to eat right away,"he said quietly. "First, Mr. Hume, I want you to know that Garth hasnot been doing any talking, as you have suspected."
Hume merely lifted his heavy shoulders.
"And," Leland added, a little more sharply, "I want you to know alsothat there is a woman here, a Miss Hazleton, whom we don't knowanything about excepting that she went to Shandon's last night, andafter her talk with him he rushed out to Garth demanding to be toldabout the mortgage. Just where she fits in I don't know. She might beanything from a chorus girl to a Reno widow."
"Oho," cried Hume, his brows suddenly drawn blackly. "He's getting awoman mixed up in his affairs, is he? That shows how much sense hehas. Where is she now?"
"Here. She has asked to go out with us tomorrow."
Hume made no answer but shoving his hands into his pockets strode afterLeland into the living room. He stopped at the door, a little startledby the vision which confronted him as Helga Strawn turned quickly fromthe window, where she had been frowning at the blinding glare of thesnow without, and faced him.
She wore the clothes in which she had gone through the storm, but a hotiron had taken the wrinkles out and they fitted her superb figureadmirably. Hume did not notice the clothes, he saw only the woman.She inclined her head just a little to her host, with no softening ofthe cold features. Upon Hume she bestowed a casual glance that cameand went indifferently.
"Miss Hazleton," said Martin curtly, "this is Mr. Hume."
The eyes of the two men were keen upon her as the name was spoken. AsMartin had said they did not know where this woman fitted in; it wastheir business to find out.
Again she bowed, very slightly. If she felt any flicker of interest,of surprise, that Hume was here, she did not betray it.
"How do you do, Mr. Hume?" was what she said, as indifferently asthough in reality she had no interest in the man or knowledge of him.
Martin left the room and went to the kitchen in search of Mrs. Leland.Hume came to the window where Helga was standing.
"So you are a friend of Red Shandon's, are you?" he said bluntly.
"Am I?" The lift of her brows asked him very plainly what he meant bythat and what business it was of his.
"Yes," he retorted a little warmly, perhaps for the mere reason thather very carriage hinted at a will ready to cross swords with his, andSledge Hume was not a man to tolerate opposition in a woman. "You toldhim that the mortgage had been foreclosed."
"Did I?" coolly.
"And, if you care to know," he went on roughly, "you have thereby piledup a lot of trouble for your friend Shandon."
There was rare impudence in the laughter with which she answered him.
"I have a way of judging a man when I first see him," she said, hersmile now flashing her amusement at him. "I didn't think that you weregoing to be as stupid as the rest."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean," and she turned back to the window, "that what happens toShandon or any other man in the world is absolutely immaterial so faras I am concerned. Please don't think that I'm a tender hearted littlething who is going to cry if you slap another man's face."
"You mean that you are not a friend of Shandon?" cynically.
"Your way of opening a conversation with a woman you have just met ischarmingly unique! If you are trying to get something out of me youare going the wrong way about it, aren't you? You have already let outtwice as much as I have!"
"Have I?"
"Yes. You have told me that there was a mortgage of which I knewnothing; that it has been concealed from Shandon; that he has learnedabout it; that it upsets your kettle of fish in some way; that you aregoing to make things hot for him because of it. All that is a gooddeal of information to give a stranger in less than a minute's time,don't you think, Mr. Hume?"
He laughed and yet his eyes hardened and narrowed upon her.
"You are welcome to what I have told you," he retorted. "It will becommon talk in twenty-four hours."
She gave no sign of having heard. Her indifference vaguely irritatedhim.
"Look here, Miss Hazleton," he said significantly. "I'll tell yousomething else as long as I am pouring out my heart to you," a sneerunder the words. "Before I'm done with Shandon he won't have a bootfor his foot or a leg to walk on. And anybody who ties up with him
isgoing to get smashed the same way!"
"It is very kind of you to warn me beforehand," she laughed softly."The fact that I have no interest whatever in Mr. Shandon certainlyshould not lessen my gratitude to you, should it?"
"You want me to believe that?"
"Really there is only one thing which I do want you to believe," shesaid in return. "Just that it would be very strange if I should careone way or the other what you think. Isn't it perfectly glorious theway the sun strikes the snow?"
Helga Strawn's keen womanly perception had in no way misled herconcerning her relative's nature. A compelling, masterful dispositionlike Sledge Hume's grows accustomed to having its way. She was coollytreating him as it was his role to treat others; and he did not likethe change of roles. He realised that the conversation had come to anend. At the same time he knew that if he turned and left her, hisusual way when all had been said, he would be taking his dismissal likea schoolboy. And he knew that as she looked out over the snow shewould be smiling.
"I have heard," he went on stubbornly, "of a woman going to seeEttinger and Norfolk. It was you. Now you come to see Shandon. Doyou think that I am fool enough to believe that you are not interestedin the same thing I am?"
"Ah!" she said, turning swiftly. "But I did not say that I was notinterested in the irrigation of Dry Valley. I am!"
"And," his old weapon, a sneer, coming back, "you are not interested inShandon?"
"Not that much." She snapped her white fingers and Hume saw thesparkle of rings. "Shandon is a fool. So is Ettinger. I am notinterested in fools." She paused a moment, her brilliant eyes meetinghis. "Are you a fool like the rest, Sledge Hume?"
She puzzled him, this woman who should have been that weak, inefficientthing which Hume's conceit pictured all of her sex. He began to be alittle more upon his guard in talking with her.
"No." He contented himself with the one word, only his eyes demandingan explanation.
"I don't think much of your associates," she informed him.
"You mean Leland?"
"He is bad enough. Garth Conway is worse. They are poor sort of mento swing a big deal."
"They are not swinging it," he said bluntly.
"You are?"
"Yes."
Again she paused, her tapering fingers drumming idly upon the glassthrough which once more she was looking out upon the shining snow.
"I was coming to talk with you anyway in a day or so," she said after alittle. "I have fifty thousand dollars available. Can you use it?"
In spite of him he started. She spoke of the matter so coolly, soindifferently. And there had never been the time yet when Sledge Humecould not use fifty thousand dollars very readily.
"Go on," he said.
"I saw the other side first," she returned. "They have a bigger chancethan you. But there is not a man among them. If you know what you aredoing, if you know _how_ to do it, you will make and they will break.I want to get in on the winning side. That's all."
"And if we can't make a place for you?"
"Then I'll make one for myself. I'll see the farmers again. I'll makethem organise instead of bickering. I'll swing the controlling votemyself. If fifty thousand won't do it I'll put the rest in. And thenwe'll buy you and your crowd out or we'll sell you water or you'll goto pieces so badly that the sheriff will sell you out!"
Hume laughed. And yet he recognised swiftly that here was a woman toreckon with, that a fresh element had entered the game he was playing.
"You have a wonderful amount of confidence," he said.
"In myself," she retorted meaningly.
"I think," he said thoughtfully, passing over her remark withoutanswer, "that I can make a place for you, if you've really got themoney."
"I think that you can," she assured him.
And so Helga Strawn played the first card in the game with herrelative, Sledge Hume.
The sheriff, armed with a warrant for the arrest of Wayne Shandon, andaccompanied by two deputies arrived at the Echo Creek a little beforenoon. They had left their horses at the same ranch house where Humehad stayed last night, coming on up the valley on snowshoes. They wentimmediately to Martin's study, from there to the dining room, then backto the study. Martin, Hume and Garth Conway remained with them, theirvoices coming in a low drone to the three women in the other part ofthe house. The nervousness and anxiety of both Mrs. Leland and Juliadid not escape the sharp eyes of Helga Strawn.
"Hume is beginning his dirty work," she mused. "A trumped up charge ofsome kind to get Shandon out of the way for a while."
"I got your message," MacKelvey told Hume half angrily. "And I gotbusy because it's my sworn duty, not because I hankered after the job.Your man in El Toyon swore out the warrant as you said he would. Butit looks damn' funny to me that if you fellows believe that Shandonkilled his brother you had to wait until now to say so. And you cantake my word for it I'd have taken my time about getting here if Ihadn't known that Mr. Leland was with you in the matter."
A little after noon, the sheriff with his men left for the Bar L-M.Garth assured them that Wayne could hardly get away before the lateafternoon or the following morning, for the reason that when he leftthe ranch there had been a number of things yet to do before the placewas closed up for the winter. MacKelvey and one of the men with himwent on webs; Hume and the other man on skis.
A hundred yards from the house they came upon Willie Dart. He hadtravelled thus far on a pair of skis which he had found in the attic,had struggled manfully but hopelessly to manage the narrow strips ofwood which pigeon toed and tripped him or interfered with each otherbehind him, refusing the parallelism to which Mr. Dart strove wildly torestrain them. He had fallen when they reached him and was standing tohis waist in the snow, his face red, the perspiration trickling downhis cheeks.
"Oho!" laughed Hume loudly. "So you were on your way to warn him, wereyou?"
"You big boob, you!" shrieked Dart. "Get down and I'll shove your facein for you!"
So they left him to struggle his way back to the house, Hume's laughterbooming back above the shrill imprecations of the little man. Therewere tears, genuine tears in Willie Dart's eyes.