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It is all deep water now. There are no more shoals." "But," anxiously, "can we land when we reach there? Isn't it a bad coast?" "Not very. If we can make Mackerel Island we may be able to get ashore at the light or anchor in the lee of the land. It is all right, Miss Colton. I am telling you the truth. Strange as it may seem to you, I really am." I could not help adding the last bit of sarcasm.
What's it worth, by the acre, say?" I did not answer. All at once I was beginning to see a light. Captain Jed Dean's mysterious conversation at the post-office was beginning to lose some of its mystery. "Well?" asked Colton, impatiently. Then, without waiting longer, he added: "By the way, before you name a figure, answer me one more question.
He raised his eyes from the coals and looked directly at Gwynne, who was relighting his pipe. "I don't like Tom Colton," he said, abruptly. "And it's not so much because he is the son of that old skinflint, neither. He is a little too much the product of the times a sort of polished up descendant of that hoodlum element that terrorized San Francisco in the Seventies.
Who is it? Why, hello, Paine! is that you?" "Mr. Colton," said I, "I am sorry to disturb you at such a late hour, but " "Come in, come in," he interrupted. "What are you standing out there for? Johnson, why didn't you ask Mr. Paine in? What do you mean by keeping him out there?" Mr. Johnson looked troubled. "It was so late, sir," he stammered, "I thought " "You thought!
As a citizen of that town I owed it a a "Look here, Captain Dean," I interrupted, "there's no use in our arguing the matter. I have decided not to sell." "Don't talk so foolish. Course you'll sell if you get money enough." "So Colton said, but I shan't." "Ros, I ain't got any authority to do it, but I shouldn't wonder if I could get you three hundred dollars for that strip."
"The Judge is holding the reins over my little prospects too. They've tangled your interests and mine up all along the line it seems. You drop a line to Judge Colton and sort of outline the plan. Maybe he'll see it our way." They mounted and rode back to the wagon and the girl went straight to Waddles with the proposition Harris had urged.
He was thinking rapidly. So this was the daughter of Benito's partner the murdered miner of the Eldorado tragedy. He recalled the letter from Colton; the hint of McTurpin's infatuation and its menace. Things became clear to him suddenly. The door gave as he pressed his knee against it. Presently the flimsy lock capitulated and he walked into the room.
"You can't close the Lane by that kind of bribery, Mr. Colton." "Bribery be hanged! Come, come, Paine! Wake up, or I shall think your brains aren't up to standard, after all. When I bribe I bribe. When I ask a man to work for me there are no strings tied to the offer. Forget your picayune land for a minute. Time enough to remember that when I've got it, which will be some day or other, of course.
Captain Jed had been boss of Denboro self-appointed to that eminent position, but holding it nevertheless and to be pushed from his perch by a city rival was disagreeable. If I knew him he would not be dethroned without a fight. There were likely to be some interesting and lively times in our village. I could understand Dean's dislike of Colton, but his interest in the Shore Lane was a mystery.
His difference with you is purely a business one, as you know." Some of the "business" had been oddly conducted, but I did not raise the point. I could not reason just then. That this spoiled, city-bred daughter of "Big Jim" Colton should wish to know my mother was beyond reasoning. She said good morning and we parted. I walked home, racking my brains to find the answer to this new conundrum.
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