The Mesa Trail

  CHAPTER XI--THADY SHEA DISCOVERS A PURPOSE

  "What in hell made you run off?" demanded Mrs. Crump in an aggrievedtone.

  "Well," hesitated Thady Shea, "I figured I might get you into troublewith Mackintavers and his crowd; Dorales would be after me, you know.And then I wanted to make up for what I'd done. I wanted to go away andprove to myself that I could do something--without any one else helpingme. It's a little vague, but----"

  "Oh, I savvy," finished Mrs. Crump for him. "My land, Thady! I beenhunting you all over creation, but I never aimed to see you lookin' likethis--never!" Hands on her hips, she surveyed him with appraising,delighted eyes.

  As he stood there awkwardly beside the plow, Thady Shea did look unlikeher last view of him. Also, he sounded different. They had talked atlength, but in all their talk, in all his tale to date, he had not oncebroken into the rolling, rounded phrases which formerly he had so loved.

  He showed the lack of self-consciousness that was upon him. It was notthe bristly beard which had wrought the change, although this disguisedhim startlingly. Perhaps it was the gruelling work which he had beendoing of late, with its effects.

  In this man of fifty-eight there showed a strange boyishness. He was nolonger gaunt and haggard. True, there was a haunting gentleness, asadness, in his eyes, but it was the sadness of time past, not of thepresent. His look, his manner, had taken on a definite personality. Nolonger was he Thaddeus Roscius, the actor who fitted himself into thecharacters of other men; Montalembert was dead and here stood ThadyShea, man of his hands; one whose eyes met the world honestly andearnestly, with wide questioning, with a balanced poise and surety inself.

  "My land!" pursued Mrs. Crump, meditatively. "When I think of theknock-kneed, blear-eyed critter I found layin' up above the Bajadagrade, I can't hardly recognize ye, Thady! Ye look's if ye'd got used toleaning on yourself. Want to come back to Number Sixteen with me?"

  Shea frowned in perplexity. His eyes were serious. He had set forth allthat had happened to him, all that he had done; Mrs. Crump had given himno blame, but in her eyes had shone pride and praise.

  "I--I don't know," he said, slowly. "I'm looking for a purpose in life.I'm trying to find something definite. It's so long since I've hadanything definite! These twenty years, and more, there has seemed to bea knot gripped about my soul, somewhere--stifling me. I don't seemto----"

  "No need for all that," said Mrs. Crump, impatiently. "You're rich now."

  Shea's eyes widened. "You mean--the mine?"

  "No, I don't. That mine is a humdinger, or will be once it gets startedto paying. I got Lewis an' Gilbert workin' there now, they bein' out o'jail and shut o' that old charge. No, Thady; I mean the ten thousand wescrewed out o' that skunk Mackintavers."

  Shea looked blank. "Ten thousand? I don't understand."

  Mrs. Crump sighed in resignation, and set herself to explain.

  "It was a right smart trick to indorse that check Dorales had made readyfor ye--'bout the smartest thing I ever knowed ye to do, Thady. I takesthat check and lights out and cashes it 'fore old Mackintavers heardwhat had happened to Dorales. The money's in your name, down to theFirst National at Silver City; I ain't touched it."

  She fumbled in her bosom and produced a folded check book.

  "Here's the check book they give me, all proper. Sign your checks thesame way ye indorsed that one, savvy? I turned in the note ye left me atthe shack, with your signature on it, to the bank."

  She broke off. She came to a faltering but decided halt.

  For, as she had spoken, a queer look had stolen across the beard-blurredfeatures of Thady Shea, and had settled there. It was such a look as shehad never previously seen upon his face. It was a look of incredulouswonder, of grief, of dismay.

  The personal equation in that look silenced and startled Mrs. Crump. Itconveyed to her that she must have said some terrible thing, somethingwhich had shocked Thady Shea beyond words, something which had struckand hurt him like a blow. She rapidly thought back--no, she had not evensworn!

  "What the devil ails ye?" she demanded.

  "Why--why--that check!" blurted Shea. He drew back from the check bookwhich she was extending to him. His eyes were wide, fixed. "I nevermeant it--that way! I never dreamed you'd do anything with it. I left itthere with the other paper to show you what Dorales had been up to."

  Mrs. Crump laughed suddenly.

  "Oh, then I gave ye too much credit? Never mind, Thady----"

  "You don't understand!" In his voice was a harsh note, a note of pain."Don't you realize what you've done? That money--why, it's stolen! It'llhave to go back to Mackintavers! It isn't ours."

  For the first time in many years Mehitabel Crump was shocked intoimmobile silence. She was absolutely petrified. She could not believethe words she heard.

  "You didn't look at it that way, of course," added Shea hastily.Earnestness grew upon him, and deep conviction. "But it's true. If itwere ten cents or ten dollars, it might not matter. But--ten thousanddollars! It must go back."

  The blue eyes of Mrs. Crump hardened like agates. Her mouth clenchedgrimly. Her wrinkled features tightened into fighting lines. She wasdumbly amazed that the magnitude of the sum did not appeal to ThadyShea's cupidity; but she was vigorously and fiercely determined that themoney was to be his. It was not for herself that she wanted it.

  When she made answer, it was with a virile insistence that drove homeevery word like a blow.

  "You got no call to insult me, Thady Shea, by callin' me a thief; mindthat! Are you crazy or just plain fool? Mackintavers an' Dorales comesalong thinking to trim us right and proper, like they done by other poorfolks, thinking to rob a lone widder woman, thinking to fool you intorobbing me. That there check for ten thousand was the jackpot.Mackintavers signed it as such, knowin' it to be such, stakin' it agin'Number Sixteen to win or lose. You didn't know that the prop'ty wasrecorded in your name--but he knew!

  "He lost, and you can bet he ain't said nothing about losing them tablestakes! What call you got to beef about winning that bet? It's plumblegal, cashed at a bank, sanctified by Sandy hisself over the phone.You'd be a fool not to take money after you'd won it in a game likethat! If ye want----"

  For the second time Mrs. Crump came to a decided and bewildered halt.

  She was entirely convinced that to take the money was legitimate; shewas convinced that it had been lawfully won, that Thady Shea wasactually entitled to it. She had chuckled over the coup a hundred times.She had chuckled a hundred times over the grimly delightful irony ofcashing that check, of giving Mackintavers a counter-thrust that hewould remember. Yet, although she was presenting her argument withentire conviction, she was conscious that it was like presenting herargument in the face of a stone wall.

  Somehow Thady Shea was ignoring her argument. Its point seemed quitelost upon him. He stood before her, flinty, untouched, unheeding. Theslight glint of scorn in his eye, real or fancied, flicked Mrs. Crump onthe raw; it lashed her into real and unassumed anger.

  "All that is quite true," he said. In his manner was a gentleness, afrightful gentleness, a gentleness so entire and calm that it washideous. One would have said that he was speaking to a little child.

  "All that is true, Mrs. Crump. Of course your intentions werewhole-souled and generous, and from your viewpoint the action wasjustified. I didn't mean to call you a thief, heaven knows! I didn'tmean any such thing.

  "But--the money was to be given in exchange for something. The exchangedid not take place. Therefore, to keep the money would be theft. That isthe way I look at it. That is all I can see to it--all! The money mustgo back."

  There was a terrible simplicity in the man's face, in the words he used,in the argument he used. It was a simplicity which nothing could change.It was a simplicity above all argument or question. It was a simplicitythat stood up like a gray naked rock. Against this implacable front Mrs.Crump was impotent and knew it.

  Thady Shea reached out and took the check book from her hand. He openedit
. He stripped one check from the book and placed this check in hispocket. Then he took the check book, tore it across, and flung thepieces away. He did it casually, impatiently, carelessly.

  Now, to tear a check book across is not an easy thing. To do itcarelessly, casually, is a most unusual and significant thing. It jerkedat Mrs. Crump's attention. She wondered just how strong Thady Shea was.Yet, the thought that the one check in Shea's pocket was destined forMackintavers fired the anger within her, and fanned the flame. She coulddeal gently, pityingly, with a weak man. With a strong man, strong asThady Shea was strong, she had but one argument.

  "I'll write out that check----" began Shea.

  "You're a coward!" said Mrs. Crump, savagely. She knew the words werefearfully unjust, but they rose within her and she said them. Thethought that Mackintavers would deem her weak and silly enough to returnthat money maddened her. "You're a coward!"

  She leaned forward and struck him in the mouth. She struck a man's blow,a full, hard-fisted, strong blow, a blow that might have felled anotherman than Thady Shea. Under it he reeled. Then he came upright and stoodmotionless, looking at her. He did not speak. Slowly he lifted his handto his mouth, and his eyes shifted to the red smear upon his hand. Thenhis gaze went again to her face.

  Under his look, Mrs. Crump shivered a little. The anger went out of hersuddenly and utterly. Before his calm, hurt strength she recoiled. Herbrittle, false hardness was broken and shattered. He did not speak, andhis silence frightened her. She went to pieces.

  "Thady!" The words came from her in a breath, a groan. Her burning blueeyes were gone dull and lifeless, dumb with misery, as she realized whatshe had just done. "Oh, Thady! I--Heaven forgive me, Thady, I didn'tmean to do it. I wanted you to have that money."

  "I wonder if you really think I'm a coward?" said Shea, curiously calm."I am one, of course, but I don't see how a desire for justice can becowardly."

  "I don't!" she burst forth impetuously, passionately. "Thady, I'msorry--I never meant it; it didn't come from the heart, Thady! I'm anold fool of a woman, that's what I am. An old fool of a woman! Don'tlook at me that way; I tell ye I can't stand it--it's awful! I'm sorryfor it, bitter sorry."

  "I'm sorry, too," said Shea, simply. "Listen to me, now. You've given mesomething real; a purpose. Maybe Ross was right. Maybe I had to waittill it came to me. Now I'm going to find Mackintavers and give him hismoney, make things right. I may be a coward in physical things, but----"

  "Don't talk that way!" she broke in, harshly. "Thady, I'm sorry. Comeback to the mine with me; forget this foolishness. I'm a fool of an oldwoman, that's all. I need ye at the mine, Thady."

  He smiled a little. "Do you really mean it, Mrs. Crump? May I comeback--after I have seen Mackintavers?"

  "Come now! Don't go chasing off like a dratted mule. Come back with menow!"

  "No." Shea looked away from her. He motioned toward the horses, theirtails switching in the arrogant sunlight. He motioned toward thehalf-plowed field. "I'll finish this job first. Then, in a few days,I'll go and see Mackintavers. You see? I have to do it. The purpose hascome to me; maybe it'll lead into something else. I don't know. Afterthat, I'll come back to Number Sixteen and go to work, if you still wantme."

  "Yes," she said, humbly. "I'll need ye, Thady. I'm sorry ye won't comenow."

  She turned from him and walked down the canon. Around the bend, out ofShea's sight, she leaned against a bowlder. She was a woman, and God hasgiven tears to women. Great sobs shook her for the first time in years.Passionate sobs were they, holding the pent-up emotion of a deep spiritthat had broken through its mask of cynic harshness.

  Presently Mrs. Crump recalled that, although she was beyond the sight ofThady Shea, she was in full view of the distant shack. Muttering thatshe was a dratted old fool, she wiped her eyes. She tucked in loosenedwisps of hair about the edge of her bonnet. She pulled her bonnetstraight and started for the dust-white flivver, beyond the shack.

  Mrs. Crump found Fred Ross cheerfully whistling "Silver Threads Amongthe Gold" and finishing his house-cleaning.

  "That there Thady Shea," she stated, harshly, "is the most amazing humancritter I've ever run up against!"

  Ross grinned amiably. "Meaning, ma'am?"

  "Meaning you can figger it out for yourself. Adios!"

  "Hold on, ma'am. Ain't you goin' to set a while?"

  "I am not. I got work to do. So long, and good luck to ye!"

  Ross insisted upon cranking the dust-white flivver, and she departedwith no more words.

  An hour later Thady Shea brought in the horses, and put them up for thenight. He came into the house and helped Ross get supper. He commentedon the house-cleaning with admiration. He discussed, from an amateur'sstandpoint, fencing the upper end of the canon against the proposedflock of sheep. He seemed to enjoy his supper hugely.

  The meal over, both men lounged outside, smoking and watching thecrimsoned peaks that overhung them.

  "Mrs. Crump," observed Shea at last, "is the most generous, whole-souledwoman I ever knew. She's a wonder, Ross!"

  "She is," assented the rancher, dryly. "I suppose you're goin' to leaveme?"

  "Yes," said Shea, gravely. "After that upper flat is plowed."

  "Tell you what. Wait till Sunday. I'm goin' to Magdalena then, to see alady friend. Take ye in the car if you're goin' that way. Then I'll payyou--got to give you something for the work, Shea. So go to Magdalenawith me Sunday."

  "Mackintavers' ranch lies over there, doesn't it?"

  "North. Yes."

  "All right. That'll suit me."