CHAPTER IV
GORDON LANDS AT SNAKE'S FALL
Gordon sat up and rubbed his eyes. Then one blood-stained hand went upto his head, and its fingers passed through his ruffled hair. Itsmoothed its way down one cheek, and finally dropped to the ground onwhich he was sitting.
Where was he?
Suddenly he became aware of the metal track in front of him,and--remembered. He glanced down the track. Far in the distance hecould see the speeding train. Then his eyes came back to his immediatesurroundings, and discovered that he was sitting on the boarded footwayof a small country railroad depot.
How did he get there? How on earth did he get there?
As no answer to his mute inquiry was forthcoming he explored further.He discovered that his grip and overcoat were beside him, also his hat.And some distance away a number of loungers were idly watching him,with a smile of profound amusement on every face.
The latter discovery filled him with a swiftly rising resentment, and,grabbing his hat and thrusting it on his head, he leaped to his feet.He had no intention of permitting amusement at his expense.
"I guess you sure had some good time," said a deep, musical voice athis elbow.
Gordon swung about and stood confronting the man, One Eye, whom he hadseen in the train. For a moment he had it in mind to make somefuriously resentful retort. But the man's appearance held hiscuriosity and diverted his purpose. The patch had been removed fromhis second eye, which now beamed upon him in company with its fellow.
"Guess these are yours," the man went on, thrusting a roll of bills outtowards him. "That 'sharp' dropped his wad during the scrap. I hatedto think a grafting train boss was goin' to collect it. You see, Iguessed how that scrap would end."
"Are they mine?" Gordon was not quite sure he wasn't dreaming.
"Mostly."
The stranger's reply was full of dry humor. Suddenly Gordon's eyes lit.
"Where is that 'sharp'? I haven't done with----"
The stranger pointed after the train.
"You'll need to hustle some."
The anger died out of Gordon's eyes and he began to laugh. With somediffidence he accepted the money.
"Say, it's--mighty decent of you," he cried cordially. Then, for wantof better means of expression, "Mighty decent."
The two men stood steadily regarding each other. Tall and broad asGordon was, the stranger was no less. But he added to his stature themassiveness of additional years.
Gordon's feelings were under perfect control now. His eyes began tobrighten with their native humor. He was longing to solve the mysteryof that eye-shade which had disappeared from his companion's face, butwas constrained to check his curiosity.
"You said you guessed how the scrap would end?" he said. "There's asort of blank in my--memory. I mean about the finish."
The big stranger began to rumble in his throat. To Gordon the soundwas comforting in its wholesome enjoyment.
"It don't need a heap of guessing when a train 'sharp,' who's got theconductor grafted from his brassbound cap to the soles of his rottenfeet, gets into a scrap how things are going to end. I'd sort of hopedyou'd 'out' him before the crew come along. Guess you'd have done itif there'd been more room. That's the worst of scrappin' in a railroadcar," he added regretfully. "That train boss got along with his crewand threw you out--on your head. They kept the 'sharp' aboard, beingwell grafted, and figgered to hold up your baggage. I guesseddiff'rently. That all your baggage?" he inquired anxiously.
Gordon gazed down at the grip and coat.
"That's all," he said. Then he impulsively threw out a hand, and thestranger took it. "It's decent--mighty decent of you." Again hisbuoyant laugh rang out. "Say, I surely do seem to have had some goodtime."
The twinkling eyes of the stranger nearly closed up in a cordial grin.
"Seems to me you're fixed here till to-morrow, anyway. There ain't anysort of train west till then. You best come along over to the hotel.They call it 'hotel' hereabouts. I'm goin' that way."
Gordon agreed, gathered up his property, and fell in beside hiscompanion.
They moved across the track, and as they went he caught some impressionof the ragged little prairie town at which he had so inadvertentlyarrived. There seemed to him to be but a single, unpaved street,consisting of virgin prairie beaten bare and hard by local traffic.This was lined on one side by a fringe of wooden houses of every sizeand condition, with gaps here and there for roads, yet to be made,turning out of it. These houses were mostly of a commercial nature.Back of this he vaguely understood there to be a sparse dotting ofother houses, but their purpose and arrangement remained a mystery tohim. Still farther afield he beheld the green eminence of foothills,and still farther on, away in the distance, the snowy ramparts of theRocky Mountains. The town seemed to occupy only one side of thetrack--the south side. The depot was beyond it, on the other.
They picked their way across the track and debouched upon the MainStreet, the name of which Gordon discovered painted in indifferentcharacters upon a disreputable signboard. Then they turned westwardsin the direction of an isolated building rather larger than anythingelse in the village.
After awhile, as his companion made no further effort at conversation,Gordon's interest and curiosity refused to permit the continued silence.
"What State are we in?" he inquired.
"Montana."
Gordon glanced quickly at his companion.
"What place is this?"
"Snake's Fall."
The announcement set Gordon laughing.
"What's amiss with Snake's Fall?" inquired the other sharply.
"Why, nothing. I was just thinking. You see, the conductor told me'most everybody was making for Snake's Fall on the train. I'm sorrythat 'sharp' wasn't. Say----"
"What?"
Gordon laughed again.
"I remember you in the smoker, only--you seemed to have a--a patch overyour left eye."
"Sure."
"Now you haven't got it?"
"No."
"I'm not curious, only----"
The stranger's eyes lit ironically.
"Sure you ain't. That's the hotel. Peter McSwain's. He's the boss.He's a friend of mine, an' I guess he'll fix you right for the night."
The snub was decided but gentle. The man's deep, musical voicecontained no suggestion of displeasure. However, he had made the otherfeel that he had been guilty of unpardonable rudeness.
He was reduced to silence for the rest of the journey to the hotel, andgave himself up to consideration of this new position in which he nowfound himself. The one great fact that stood out in his mind was thathe had gained another day on the wrong side of his ledger, and, howeverwrong he had been in his first attempt at fortune, his course had beenhopelessly diverted into a still more impossible channel. Theabsurdity of the situation inclined him to amusement, but the knowledgeof the real seriousness of it held him troubled.
As they neared the hotel his curiosity further made itself felt. Theplace was an ordinary frame building with a veranda. It was square andsquat, like a box. It was two-storied, with windows, five in all, anda center doorway. These were dotted on the face of it like raisins ina pudding. Its original paint was undoubtedly white, but that seemedto have long since succumbed to the influence of the weather, and nowsuggested a hopeless hue which was anything but inspiriting.
Leaning against the door-casing, in his shirt-sleeves, was a smallish,florid man with ruddy hair. His waistcoat was almost as cheerful ashis face, and, judging by the sound of his voice as he talked to anumber of men lounging on the veranda, the latter quite matched thepattern of his violently checked trousers.
"That's Peter," remarked One Eye, the name, failing a better, Gordonstill thought of his companion by. "He's a bright boy, is Peter," headded, chuckling.
"The proprietor of the--hotel?" said Gordon, interested.
"Sure."
Then a hail reached them from t
he veranda.
"Got back, Silas?" cried the loud-voiced hotel-keeper.
"Just what you say yourself," retorted Silas amiably. "Seems to me Ibought a ticket and just got off the train. Still, ther' ain't nothingcertain in this world except--graft."
"That's so," laughed the other. "Still, ther' ain't much of a shadow'bout you, so we'll take it as real. Who's your friend?"
The hotel-keeper eyed Gordon with a view to trade. The man calledSilas laughed and turned to Gordon.
"Guess I didn't get your name. Mine's Mallinsbee--Silas Mallinsbee.I'm a rancher, way out ther' in the foothills."
Gordon thought for a moment. Then he decided to use two of his givennames in preference to his father's.
"Mine's Gordon Van Henslaer. Glad to meet you."
"Van Henslaer?" Mallinsbee's eyes twinkled. "Guess the first and lastletters on your grip are spare. Kind of belong back east. How-do?"Then, without waiting for a reply, he turned to McSwain and the men onthe veranda who were interestedly surveying Gordon. "This is MisterGordon Van Henslaer from New York. Thought he'd like to break hisjourney west and get a look around Snake's Fall."
Gordon laughed.
"I was persuaded at the last minute," he added. "Can you let me have aroom?"
McSwain became active.
"Sure. Guess we're pretty busy these times, with the town gettin'ready to boom. But I guess I ken fix any friend of Silas Mallinsbee.Ther's a room they calculated makin' into a bathroom back of the house,but some slick Alec figured the boys of Snake's Fall were prejudiced,so cut it out. It's small, but we got a bed fixed ther', an' you kenclean yourself at the trough out back. Come right along in."
Gordon was half inclined to protest, but Mallinsbee's voice cameopportunely--
"I told you Peter 'ud fix you right. I've slept in that room myself,and you'll find it elegant sleepin', if you don't get a nightmare andget jumping around. We'll go right in."
Gordon's protest died on his lips. Mr. Mallinsbee had a persuasion allhis own. There was a humorous geniality about him that was quiteirresistible to the younger man, nor could he forget the manner inwhich he had helped him after the debacle on the train. He felt thatit would have been churlish to refuse his good offices.
They passed into the building. The office was plainly furnished. Afew Windsor chairs, a table, an empty stove, a few nigger pictures onthe walls, and a large register for guests' names. This was the wholescheme.
Gordon flung down his grip.
"Well, I'm thankful to be off that train, anyway," he said. "Signhere, eh?" as Peter threw the book towards him. "Say," he added,glancing at the list of names above his, "you sure are busy."
Peter grinned complacently, while Mallinsbee looked on.
"You've hit this city at the psychological moment in its history, sir,"he declared expansively. "You've hit it, sir, when, if I ken beallowed to use the expression, the snow's gone an' all the earth's jestbustin' with new life. You've hit it, sir, when fortunes are justgoing to start right into full growth with all the impetus of virginsoil. Snake's Fall, sir, is about to become the greatest propositionin the Western States, as a sure thing for soaking dollars into it.And here, sir, standing right at your elbow, is the courage, enterpriseand intellect that's made it that way. Mr. Silas Mallinsbee is thefather of this city, sir; he's more--he's the creator of it. And, sir,I congratulate you on the friendship of such a man, a friendship, sir,in which I have the honor to share."
He grabbed a filthy piece of blotting-paper and dabbed it cheerfullyover Gordon's name in the book, while the latter smiled at the monumentof enterprise himself.
"I was quite unaware----" he began. But Mallinsbee cut him short.
"Peter's a good feller," he declared, "but some seven sorts of a galootonce told him he ought to go into Congress, and he's been talking eversince. Ther's jest one thing 'll stop Peter talking, and that'sorderin' a drink. Which I'm doin' right now. Peter, you'll jest handus two cocktails. Your specials. And take what you like yourself."
Peter accepted the order with alacrity. His admiration of andfriendship for Mallinsbee could not be doubted for a moment. Andsomehow Gordon felt it was a good sign. He returned in a few momentswith the cocktails, and a glass of rye whiskey for himself.
"I know a better play than my special cocktails," he said, a huge winkdistorting most of his ginger-hued features. "They're all right forcustomers, but I ain't no use fer picklin' my liver. How?"
"Here's to the extermination of all 'sharps,'" said Mallinsbee in hisdeep, rolling voice, and with a meaning glance in Gordon's direction.
Gordon nodded.
"And here's to the confusion of graft and grafters."
All three drank and set their glasses down.
"Graft?" said Mallinsbee thoughtfully. Then he shrugged his massiveshoulders and laughed. "It's not a heap of use blaming grafters fortheir graft. They can't help it, any more than you can help scrappin'when a feller hits your wad on the crook. Graft--why, I just hate tothink of the ways of graft. But you can't get through life without it;anyway, not life on this earth. I used to think graft a specialty ofthis country, but guess I was wrong. I'd localized. It don't belongto any one country more than another. It belongs to life; to our humancivilization. It's the time limit of life causes the trouble. Naturemakes it a cinch we've all got to be rounded up in the get-rich-quickcorral. We start life foolish. Then for a while we get a sight morefoolish. Then for a few mousy years we take on quite a nice bunch ofsense. After that we start getting foolish again, and then the timelimit comes right down on the backs of our necks like an ax. Well, Iguess those years of sense are so mighty few we've got to get richquick against the time we start on the foolish racket again, and graft,of one sort or another, is the short cut necessary.
"You see, there's every sort of graft. All through life we're lookingaround for something we ain't got. Did you ever see a kid around hisparents? Graft; it's all graft. No kiddy ever acted right because hefancied that way. He's lookin' ahead fer something he's needing, andhis pop or his momma are the folks to pass it along to him. Did youever know a kid take his physic without the promise of candy, or thecertainty it would come his way? That's graft. Say, ain't the gal youfancy the biggest graft of all? You don't get nowhere with her withoutgraft. She'll eat up everything you can hand her, from automobiles andjewels down to five-cent candy. Then when you've started getting oldand sick and foolish again, having grafted a pile out of life yourself,don't every grafter you ever knew come around an' hand you cures andlisten to your senile wisdom just as though they thought you thegreatest proposition ever and hated to see you sick? That's graft.You've got a pile and they're needin' it."
The twinkle in the big man's eyes while he was talking found a joyousresponse in Gordon's. The tongue in the cheek of this native ofSnake's Fall pleased him mightily. But the wide-eyed sunset of PeterMcSwain's features was one of sober earnestness and admiration.
"Gee!" he cried, with prodigious appreciation. "He orter write a book!"