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He dropped all hope of publicly humiliating the horseman and deferred his private vengeance for a time more opportune. Wholly at a loss to cope with a situation wherein he found himself so utterly neglected and unknown, despite the influential position he occupied both in New York and Washington, he resolved to throw himself entirely upon the mercies of McCoppet.
The fervor of her love it was that bore her onward, weary, sore, and drooping. What would happen at the end of day, if Pratt should confirm the Lawrence survey, bestowing the claim on Bostwick and McCoppet, she did not dare to think. Her excitement increased with every chain length moving her onward towards the cove.
The "syndicate" of which he had spoken was entirely comprised of Beth and her money, which he hoped presently to call his own. He had worked his harmless little fiction of big financial men behind him in the certainty of avoiding detection. "Of course, I can call on the money," he said, "but I may need a day or so to get it. How much shall we require?" McCoppet chewed his cigar reflectively.
"I want ten thousand dollars to steer Cayuse away." McCoppet slowly shook his head. "You ain't a hog, Larry, you're a Rockyfeller. Five thousand, cash on the nail, if you show me you can steer Cayuse so far off the trail he'll never get on it again." Five thousand dollars was a great deal of money to Trimmer. Ten thousand was far in excess of his real expectations.
Dick's, not only that Van had lost his claim, and that McCoppet and Searle were its latest owners, but also that Van had run amuck that night after leaving herself. Some vague, half-terrifying intuition that Searle was engaged in a lawless, retaliatory enterprise crept athwart her mind and rendered her intensely uneasy.
One being only departed from the scene Trimmer, the lumberman, swiftly seeking McCoppet. Van, in his heat, had told too much, accusing the prisoner in hand. He silenced Gettysburg abruptly and started to force aside the crowd. "Gentlemen, gentlemen, move aside," he said. "I've got by Jupe! there's Bostwick!" It was Bostwick fleeing to his car that Van had discovered.
Bostwick noted the carefulness of the man's attire, but gained no clue as to his calling. To avoid stupid staring he turned to watch a game of faro. Its fascinations were rapidly engrossing his attentions and luring him onward toward a reckless desire to tempt the goddess of chance, when he presently beheld McCoppet turn away from his man and saunter down the room.
I insist upon the immediate return to me of thirty thousand dollars." If rage at Van Buren consumed his blood, Bostwick's fear was a greater emotion. Before him he could plainly discern the abject failure of his plans the plan to marry this beautiful girl, the plan to go on with McCoppet and snatch a fortune from the earth. It was not a time for defiance. He must fence.
McCoppet imparted his information with the utmost brevity. "Nothing for us to do but to wait till six o'clock, day after to-morrow morning," he concluded, "then play our cards and play 'em quick." "You've taken my car?" said Bostwick, whose personal plans were thrown into utter confusion, for the moment. "I wanted that car for my own use. I've got to go to Starlight to-morrow."
McCoppet and Bostwick, with thousands of dollars at command, could delay him, block his progress, force him into court, and perhaps even beat him in the end. The enginery of dollars was crushing in its might. Nevertheless, if a survey showed that the line had been falsely moved, he felt he could somewhat rely upon himself to make the seat of war too warm for comfort.
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