CHAPTER XXIV
SOMETHING NEW
There are compensations for everything, even for being given up fordead, and as he was welcomed back to life by a sweet kiss fromWilhelmina, Wunpost was actually glad he had been shot. He was glad hewas hungry, for now she would feed him; glad he was wounded, for shewould be his nurse; and when Cole Campbell and his wife took him in andmade much of him he lost his last bitterness against Lynch. In the firstplace, Lynch was dead, and not up on the ridge waiting to pot him forwhat money he had; and in the second place Lynch had shot right past hisheart and yet had barely wounded him at all. But the sight of thatcrease across his breast and the punctured hole through his arm quitedisarmed the Campbells and turned their former disapproval to a hoveringadmiration and solicitude.
If the hand of Divine Providence had loosed the waterspout down theircanyon to punish him for his overweening pride, perhaps it had now savedhim and turned the bullet aside to make him meet for repentance. It wassomething like that which lay in their minds as they installed him intheir best front room, and when they found that his hardships had lefthim chastened and silent they even consented to accept payment for hishorse-feed. If they did not, he declared, he would pack up forthwith andtake his whole outfit to Blackwater; and the fact was the Campbells wereso reduced by their misfortunes that they had run up a big bill at thestore. Only occasional contributions from their miner sons in Nevadakept them from facing actual want, and Campbell was engaged in packingdown his picked ore in order to make a small shipment. But if he figuredhis own time in he was not making day's wages and the future held out nohope.
Without a road the Homestake Mine was worthless, for it could never beprofitably worked; but Cole Campbell was like Eells in one respect atleast, and that was he never knew when he was whipped. A guardedsuggestion had come from Judson Eells that he might still be persuadedto buy his mine, but Campbell would not even name a price; and now thestore-keeper had sent him notice that he had discounted his bill at thebank. That was a polite way of saying that Eells had bought in theaccount, which constituted a lien against the mine; and the Campbellswere vaguely worried lest Eells should try his well-known tactics andsuddenly deprive them of their treasure. For the Homestake Mine, in ColeCampbell's eyes, was the greatest silver property in the West; and yeteven in this emergency, which threatened daily to become desperate, herefused resolutely to accept tainted money. For not only was Wunpost'smoney placed under the ban, but so much had been said of Judson Eellsand his sharp practises that his money was also barred.
This much Wunpost gathered on the first day of his home-coming, when,still dazed by his welcome, he yet had the sense to look happy and sayalmost nothing. He sat back in an easy chair with Wilhelmina at his sideand the Campbells hovering benevolently in the distance, and to allattempts to draw him out he responded with a cryptic smile.
"Oh, we were so worried!" exclaimed Wilhelmina, looking up at himanxiously, "because there was blood all over the saddle; and when thetrailers got to Wild Rose they found your pack-mule, and Good Luck withthe rope still fast about his neck. But they just couldn't find youanywhere, and the tracks all disappeared; and when it became known thatMr. Lynch was missing--oh, _do_ you think they killed him?"
"Search me," shrugged Wunpost. "I was too busy getting out of there todo any worrying about Lynch. But I'll tell you one thing, about thosetracks disappearing--them Apaches must have smoothed 'em out, sure."
"Yes, but why should they kill _him_? Weren't they supposed to beworking for him? That's what Mr. Eells gave us to understand. But wasn'tit kind of him, when he heard you were missing, to send all thosesearch-parties out? It must have cost him several hundred dollars. Andit shows that even the men we like the least are capable of generousimpulses. He told Father he wouldn't have it happen for anything--Imean, for you to come to any harm. All he wanted, he said, was themine."
"Yes," nodded Wunpost, and she ran on unheeding as he drew down thecorners of his mouth. But he could agree to that quite readily, for heknew from his own experience that all Eells wanted was the mine. It wasonly a question now of what move he would make next to bring about theconsummation of that wish. For it was Eells' next move, since, accordingto Wunpost's reasoning, the magnate was already whipped. His plans fortracing Wunpost to the source of his wealth had ended in absolutedisaster and the only other move he could possibly make would be alongthe line of compromise. Wunpost had told him flat that he would not gonear his mine, no one else knew even its probable location; and yet,when he had gone to him and suggested some compromise, Eells had refusedeven to consider it. Therefore he must have other plans in view.
But all this was far away and almost academic to the lovelorn John C.Calhoun, and if Eells never approached him on the matter of theSockdolager it would be soon enough for him. What he wanted was theprivilege of helping Billy feed the chickens and throw down hay to hismules, and then to wander off up the trail to the tunnel that opened outon the sordid world below. There the restless money-grabbers wererushing to and fro in their fight for what treasures they knew, but onekiss from Wilhelmina meant more to him now than all the gold in theworld. But her kisses, like gold, came when least expected and weredenied when he had hoped for them most; and the spell he held over herseemed once more near to breaking, for on the third day he forgothimself and talked. No, it was not just talk--he boasted of his mine,and there for the first time they jarred.
"Well, I don't care," declared Wilhelmina, "if you have got a rich mine!That's no reason for saying that Father's is no good; because it is, ifit only had a road."
Now here, if ever, was the golden opportunity for remaining silent andlooking intelligent; but Wunpost forgot his early resolve and gave wayto an ill-timed jest.
"Yes," he said, "that's like the gag the Texas land-boomer pulled offwhen he woke up and found himself in hell. 'If it only had a little morerain and good society----'"
"Now you hush up!" she cried, her lips beginning to tremble. "I guesswe've got enough trouble, without your making fun of it----"
"No. I'm not making fun of you!" protested Wunpost stoutly. "Haven't Ioffered to build you a road? Well, what's the use of fiddling around,packing silver ore down on burros, when you know from the start it won'tpay? First thing you folks know Judson Eells will come down on you andgrab the whole mine for nothing. Why not take some of my money that I'veburied under a rock and put in that aerial tramway?"
"Because we don't want to!" answered Wilhelmina tearfully; "my fatherwants a _road_. And I don't think it's very kind of you, after allwe have suffered, to speak as if we were _fools_. If it wasn't forthat waterspout that washed away our road we'd be richer than you are,today!"
"Oh, I don't know!" drawled Wunpost; "you don't know how rich I am. Ican take my mules and be back here in three days with ten thousanddollars worth of ore!"
"You cannot!" she contradicted, and Wunpost's eyes began to bulge--hewas not used to lovely woman and her ways.
"Well, I'll just bet you I can," he responded deliberately. "What'll youbet that I can't turn the trick?"
"I haven't got anything to bet," retorted Wilhelmina angrily, "but if Idid have, and it was right, I'd bet every cent I had--you're alwaysmaking big brags!"
"Yes, so you say," replied Wunpost evenly, "but I'll tell you what I'lldo. I'll put up a mule-load of ore against another sweet kiss--like yougive me when I first came in."
Wilhelmina bowed her head and blushed painfully beneath her curls andthen she turned away.
"I don't sell kisses," she said, and when he saw she was offended he putaside his arrogant ways.
"No, I know, kid," he said, "you were just glad to see me--but why can'tyou be glad all the time? Ain't I the same man? Well, you ought to beglad then, if you see me coming back again."
"But somebody might kill you!" she answered quickly, "and then I'd be toblame."
"They're scared to try it!" he boasted. "I've got 'em bluffed out. Theyain't a man left in the hills. And besides, I told Eells I wouldn't g
onear the mine until he came through and sold me that contract. They'snobody watching me now. And you can take the ore, if you should happento win, and build your father a road."
She straightened up and gazed at him with her honest brown eyes, and atlast the look in them changed.
"Well, _I_ don't care," she burst out recklessly, "and besides,you're not going to win."
"Yes I am," he said, "and I want that kiss, too. Here, pup!" and hewhistled to his dog.
"Oh, you can't take Good Luck!" she objected quickly. "He's my dog now,and I want him!"
She pouted and tossed her pretty head to one side, and Wunpost smiled ather tyranny. It was something new in their relations with each other andit struck him as quite piquant and charming.
"Well, all right," he assented, and Billy hid her face; becausetreachery was new to her too.