CHAPTER IV--MRS. CRUMP HEADS SOUTHWEST
There was in Domingo a man named Baca. Domingo is a tiny village ofadobes nestling along the curve of Santa Fe creek under the graysharpness of Bajada hill; there is also an Indian pueblo of the samename.
In every ancient native settlement there is at least one man named Baca,which signifies "cow" and may be spelled, in the old fashion, eitherBaca or Vaca. If these folk came all of one stock, they have increasedand multiplied exceedingly.
Under the big cottonwood tree that grew in front of the Baca home satsmoking Joe Gilbert and his partner Lewis. Up to them, and haltingabruptly before the house, crept a dust-white flivver in which sat twopeople: one a woman, great of girth and frame, the other a man, gauntand haggard, whose black eyes blazed like twin stars of desolation.
The woman alighted and faced the two smokers. They rose and doffed theirhats.
"Gents, know where I can find Alf Lewis and Joe Gilbert?" she inquired,bluntly.
"That's us, ma'am."
"Thought so. My name's Mehitabel Crump, with Mrs. for a handle. I'mgoin' to open up an ore outcrop. This here is Thady Shea, my partner.Want work, or not?"
"I've heard of you, ma'am," said Gilbert.
"So've I!" exclaimed Lewis. "You bet we want work! Only, ma'am, we'dought to tell ye square that they's apt to be warrants out for us."
"Warrants never made me lose sleep," said Mrs. Crump, eying them with anod of satisfaction. "Howsomever, I'll return the favour by saying thatif ye take up with me it ain't goin' to be no pleasure trip, gents.'Cause why, I've got something good, something that'll bringMackintavers on the trail soon's he smells it--him or his friends. Idon't aim to be bluffed out, I don't aim to be bought out, and I don'taim to be lawed out; I got something big, and I aim to hang on to itspite of hell and high water until I sell out big. Them's my openers."
"They're plenty, ma'am," said Gilbert. "We sure would admire to work foryou!"
A brief discussion followed as to wages. Thaddeus Roscius Shea satjack-knifed in the car's front seat, saying not a word. His face wassun-blistered and graven with gnawing desire, his black eyes werefeverish, he looked anything but a mining man. Yet the two miners, whomust have felt more than a slight curiosity touching him, evinced none.At length Mrs. Crump turned to the car.
"Well, pile in here! Make room in the back, but handle them boxesgentle. Three or four holds blasting powder and dynamite. I had quite astock left over, and brung it along."
"Do we travel far?" asked Lewis, nervously.
"You bet we do! But don't worry none. I ain't much farther from themboxes than you boys are, and I'm pickin' the soft spots in the road.Besides, I've driv' several hundred mile a'ready with this here outfit,and she ain't gone up on me yet. Barring bad luck, we'd ought to getwhere we're goin' by the night of day after to-morrow."
"I've heard tell that you had cold iron for nerves," commented Gilbert."But you ain't backing me down, none whatever, ma'am!"
He sprang in, began to shift the load, and Lewis promptly joined him.Mrs. Crump turned and strode away through the dust. Thady Shea watchedher out of sight, then twisted about, and for the first time broke thesilence that had enveloped him.
"Gentlemen! May I inquire whether either of you delvers in the deeps ofearth are possessed of spirits?"
At the sonorously booming voice Gilbert's jaw dropped in amazement.
"Good gosh! Is that Scripture talk? What d'ye mean--spirits?"
Shea made an impatient gesture. "The fiery fluids that do mingle soulwith vaster inspiration! I pray you, give me to drink as you do valuedrink!"
"Oh, he means a drink!" ejaculated Lewis, staring. "We ain't got a drop,Shea."
The lanky figure jack-knifed together again in disconsolate despair. Thetwo men in the rear of the car glanced at each other. Gilbert tapped hishead; Lewis grimaced.
Meantime, Mrs. Crump had passed along the winding row of adobes andfinally turned into a corral of high boards. There, concealed fromexterior view, she found an automobile at rest; she went on to theadjoining rear door of the adobe house. The door was opened to her byCoravel Tio, who greeted her with a quick smile and a bow.
"My land, it's hot!" said Mrs. Crump. "Howdy!"
"This place is hot indeed," responded the merchant. "Let us take thefront room and we may talk in private. I have the papers all made out."
They understood each other very well, these two. Presently, however,Coravel Tio discovered that a third interest in Number Sixteen was to beassigned to Thaddeus Shea, in whose name, also, the entire miningproperty was to stand. He leaned back and surveyed Mrs. Crump withinterest.
"I do not know this man Shea, senora. Why do you make him wealthy?"
There was no hint of offence in his tone. He spoke as one having theright to ask, and Mrs. Crump promptly acquiesced.
"He's an old stage actor, Coravel. I picks him up on the road and takeshim along. I'm breakin' him of drink, and I got a hunch that he's goin'to turn out a real man. As for makin' him wealthy, none of us ain'tgoing to thrive on Number Sixteen for quite a spell yet! I'm gamblingthat Thady Shea will earn all he gets. He's absolutely honest, andgood-hearted. He won't know the mine's in his name, and won't care;bein' that way, it'll throw Mackintavers off the track. Besides, I feeldownright sorry for Thady; he's had a heap o' misery in his life, looksto me."
The other smiled gently and waved his hand.
"Senora, you are the one woman whose great heart has no equal! It is inmy mind that this man will be the cause of misfortune; but what matter?If not from one cause, then from another. Misfortunes are sent by thegods to make us great!
"I shall attend to everything in his name; a good idea, since he will beunknown to Mackintavers or Dorales. You will uncover the vein, and sendme more samples immediately. These other two men must become smallshareholders, so that adjacent claims and mining rights may be securedfor the company. Once we are secure, we may talk of eastern capital."
"Once we're secure," said Mrs. Crump grimly, "look out for Mackintavers,then and before; likewise, after!"
"Exactly." Coravel Tio bowed and finished his writing.
A little later Mrs. Crump shook hands with him and departed. Coravel Tiowatched her off, and heard the roar of her car's engine. The roar becamea thrum that lessened and died into the distance like a droning fly.Only then, it seemed, a sudden thought shook the man.
"_Dios_--I forgot!" he ejaculated. "I forgot to ask her about the permitfor the explosives! Well, I warned her in the note. What matter? Theseincidents of destiny are intended to work out their own effects, andgood somehow comes from everything. I am a philosopher!"
Blissfully unconscious whether philosophy might be of aid in running aflivver, Mrs. Crump headed southward over the river road to Albuquerque.
A rough road is that, and well travelled. Mrs. Crump was in some hasteto get over this section unobserved, and it was entirely evident thather haste was greater than her caution regarding the jiggling boxes inthe rear of the car.
More than once the two men in the tonneau stared quickly at each other'swhite faces; more than once the boxes and bundles crashed and bangedfearsomely, in view of their partial contents; but Mrs. Crump only threwin more gas and plunged ahead. As for Thaddeus Roscius Shea, he staredout upon the passing scenery with glazed and lack-lustre eyes, and heldhis peace.
When at last they arrived in the outskirts of Albuquerque, Mrs. Crumppaused at a wayside station to fill up with oil and gasoline, also torefill several emptied water bags which formed part of the equipment.
"We ain't goin' into town," she vouchsafed, curtly, to her charges. "Andwhen we gets reaching out over the mesa, you two boys act tender withthem boxes! They's two-three places we got to ford cattle runs, and wegot to do it sudden to keep out of the quicksands. But don't worry nomore, there ain't no special danger."
The advice was entirely superfluous. Gilbert and Lewis could by no meanshave worried more. They had reached the limit.
Barely skimming t
he outlying streets of Albuquerque, Mrs. Crump avoidedthe better-known highway beside the railroad and took the shorter butdeserted road that leads south over the mesa to Becker. Most of this wascovered before darkness descended upon them.
Then a brief and barren camp was made; it was also a fireless camp, andthe "grub" was cold. Stiff and weary though the three passengers were,it was clearly impossible that they should prove less tough than a merewoman. So, when after an hour's halt Mrs. Crump grimly cranked up, theypiled into the car without protest.
On they went through the darkness. It was well after midnight when theiron nature of Mehitabel Crump acknowledged signs of approachingdissolution in the hand that rocked the steering wheel. Admitting herweakness with a sigh, she turned out of the interminable road andhalted. Blanket rolls were unlashed, and sleep descended swiftly uponthree members of that quartet.
It must be told that this camp was a milepost in the life of ThaddeusRoscius Shea. He could not sleep. A hundred yards away from the camp hestrode up and down under the cold stars, his gaunt body shivering withthe chill of the night, his haggard features contorted with thedesperate anguish of shattered nerves. All the old impertinences of hissoul were risen strong within him; he wanted to run away and end thisintolerable situation. He wanted to run away, here and now!
Yet, when at length he clumsily wrapped himself in his blanket and fellasleep, tears beaded his hollow cheeks and reflected the pale starlightabove; and like the stars, those tears were cleansing, and serenely sad.The first tears he had shed in years--the tears of a man, wrung fromdeep within him; tears of brief conquest over himself. He would stick!
Sunrise found the dust-white flivver once more far afield.
The remaining details of that odyssey have no place here. The dust-whiteflivver came safely to its destination, and work duly began upon NumberSixteen. Days of hard, back-breaking labour ensued--days in which livingquarters had to be erected before the claim could be touched. In thosedays Thaddeus Roscius Shea became, for good and all, Thady Shea.
Number Sixteen lay among the most desolate of desolate hills, just overthe ridge of a long hogback. In the canon below there was a trickle ofwater from the mountains; beside this _rito_ were erected two roughshacks, and here the dust-white flivver rested peacefully. To the northtowered the higher forested ranges whence came the canon--thecontinental divide, rugged crests leaping at the sky. Below, a few milesdistant, stretched the bad lands and the lava beds; a scoriated,blasphemous strip such as is often found in the southwest. Behind thislay scattered ranches and the road into Zacaton City.
Up on that hogback, leaning upon his pick, stood Thady Shea. Gone wasthe threadbare black raiment, gone and replaced by overalls, high boots,flannel shirt. Shea was less conscious of his changed exterior than werethose about him. Lewis and Gilbert, preparing a blasting charge ahundred feet distant, glanced at the great, gaunt figure.
"Bloomed out most amazing, ain't he?" said Lewis. "No tinhorn, neither.Dead game."
Gilbert, cutting the fuse with deft fingers, wagged his head. "Surelooks that-a-way, partner. Reckon Mis' Crump knew her business, afterall, when she tied up with him. Gosh! Ain't she one a-gile critter,though?"
Shea stood rocklike, watching the blast. Even in this short space oftime the swing of axe and pick had hardened him amazingly; his toweringfigure seemed to move with a more lissome flow of muscles; for the firsttime in his life, most wonderful of all, his deeply lined features hadbecome centred about one fixed and determined purpose--to keep himselfclean of liquor. He had conquered, and with the victory had come a newserenity.
The muffled report of the blast echoed dully. From nowhere appeared Mrs.Crump, hastily coming to the scene. Shea dropped his pick and joined theothers. Mrs. Crump, examining the results of the blast, flung out anexultant cry.
"Got it!"
"Ain't much of a vein," observed Gilbert, skeptically. "Veins,rather--looks like a lot of 'em, and they go deep. This here limestoneruns clear to Chiny, I reckon."
Mrs. Crump chuckled in a satisfied manner.
"These here veins don't never come big, Gilbert. Who'd think this heregreenish-white stuff was better'n a gold seam? But she is. Well, nevermind any more work a while, boys. I got a letter already writ, and whenI fill in the size o' these here openings, she's ready to mail--andshe's got to be sent sudden. These samples likewise.
"Let's see; I ain't goin' to town myself. Mackintavers' men are sure tobe watchin' everywhere, and this here location has got to be kept secretif possible. I s'pose the devils will get it from the land office,though. Joe, can you and Al show up in Zacaton City without occasioningno rumpus?"
Gilbert shook his head doubtfully.
"I reckon not, ma'am. We're pretty well known there, and we ain't rightsure how things is fixed for us. Still, it won't bother us none; if yousay so, we'll go----"
"Nope; can't take no chances with the letter and samples, boys. It's upto Thady. He's learned how to run the car, anyhow. Thady, you got tosend them samples and a letter. No one's goin' to suspect you of bein'partners with me, and be sure to send the samples in your own name,savvy?
"They's enough gas to take you into Zacaton, and ye can bring a freshsupply when ye come back. Then we need more flour an' grub, for whichsame I got a list made out already. A new axe helve, too. Don't forgetthat there axe helve, whatever ye do! It ain't on the list--I guess yecan remember it all right. Sure, now! Don't come without it. How sooncan ye get going?"
"Now," said Shea, a slight smile curving his wide lips.