H Three Parine HARJZ ill! REESE LIBRARY IRSITY OF CALIFORNIA laesswns NoJ/fy-fyQ . Class No. THREE PARTNERS BRET HARTE'S BOOKS. BRET HARTE'S COLLECTED WORKS. Revised by the Author Library Edition. In Nine Volumes, crown 8vo. cloth extra, 6s. each. Complete Poetical and Dramatic Works. With Steel-plate Portrait. The Luck of Roaring Camp— Bohemian Papkrs— American Legends. Tales of the Argonauts— Eastern Sketches. Gabriel Conrov. Stories— Condensed Novels, &c. Tales of the Pacific Slope. Tales of the Pacific Slope— II. With Portrait by John Pettie, R.A. Tales of the Pine and the Cypress. Buckeye and Chapparel. Vol. I. Vol. II. Vol. Vol. Vol. Vol. Vol. III. IV. V. VI. VII. Vol. Vol. VIII. IX. THE SELECT WORKS OF BRET HARTE, in Prose and Poetry. With Introductory Essay by J. M. Bellew, Portrait of the Author, and 50 Illustrations. Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 7s. 6d. BRET HARTE'S POETICAL WORKS. Printed on hand-made paper.~"Crown 8vo. buckram, 4s. 6d. A NEW VOLUME OF POEMS. Crown 8vo. buckram, $s. [Preparing. THE QUEEN OF THE PIRATE ISLE. With 28 Original Drawings by Kate Greenaway, reproduced in Colours by Edmund Evans. Small 4to. cloth, ss. Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 3s. 6d. each ; post 8vo. picture boards, -zs. each. A WAIF OF THE PLAINS. With 60 Illustrations by Stanley L. Wood. A WARD OF THE GOLDEN GATE. With 59 Illustrations by Stanley L. Wood. Crown 8vo. cloth extra, 3s. 6d. each. A SAPPHO OF GREEN SPRINGS, &c. With 2 Illustrations by Hume Nisbet. COLONEL STARBOTTLE'S CLIENT, AND SOME OTHER PEOPLE. With a Frontispiece. SUSY : a Novel. With Frontispiece and Vignette by J. A. Christie. SALLY DOWSi &c. With 47 Illustrations by W. D. Almond and others. A PROTEGEE OF JACK HAMLIN'S, &c. With 26 Illustrations by W. Small and others. THE BELL-RINGER OF ANGEL'S, &c. With 39 Illustrations by Dudley Hardy and others. CLARENCE : a Story of the American War. With 8 Illustrations by A. Jule Goodman. BARKER'S LUCK, &c. With 39 Illustrations by A. Forestier, Paul Hardy, &c. DEVIL'S FORD, &c. With a Frontispiece by W. H. Overend. THE CRUSADE OF THE 'EXCELSIOR.' With a Frontispiece by J. Bernard Partridge. THREE PARTNERS. With 8 Illustrations by J. Gulich. Post 8vo. illustrated boards, 2s. each. GABRIEL CONROY. I The LUCK of ROARING CAMP, &c. AN HEIRESS OF RED DOG, &c. | CALIFORNIAN STORIES. Post 8vo. illustrated boards, 2s. each ; cloth, 2s. 6d. each. FLIP I MARUJA. I A PHYLLIS OF THE SIERRAS. London : CHATTO & WINDUS, in St. Martin's Lane, W.C. She leaned upon his guests arm, chatting confidentially. [p. 95. THREE PARTNERS OR THE BIG STRIKE ON HEAVY TREE HILL BY BRET J-IARTE WITH EIGHT ILLUS TRATIO NS BY J. GULICH LONDON CHAT TO & W INDUS 1897 7/4* fo PRINTED BY SP0TT1SW00DE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON Jvj, ILLUSTRATIONS SHE LEANED UPON HIS GUEST'S ARM, CHAT- TING confidentially .... Frontispiece WHISKEY DICK, LIFTING HIS TIN CUP WITH A DANGEROUSLY UNSTEADY HAND . . to face p. 1 8 HE TOOK FROM A FOLD OF HIS SCARLET SASH A SMALL PARCET „ 55 ' where's the mo^ey?' he said . . . „ no THE ROOM REELED AROUND HER . . . ,, 135 THEY WERE ALL STARTLED AT THE APPARI- TION OF MRS. BARKER . . . . „ 208 THEY SAT, LOOKING DOWN UPON THE ROAD . „ 23 1 THEY EMERGED, HOLDING EACH OTHER'S HAND „ 250 114- *\0 THREE PARTNERS PROLOGUE The sun was going down on the Black Spur Range. The red light it had kindled there was still eating its way along the serried crest, show- ing through gaps in the ranks of pines, etching out the interstices of broken boughs, fading away and then flashing suddenly out again like sparks in burnt-up paper. Then the night wind swept down the whole mountain side, and began its usual struggle with the shadows upclimbing from the valley, only to lose itself in the end and be absorbed in the all-conquering darkness. Yet for some time the pines on the long slope of Heavy Tree Hill murmured and protested with swaying arms ; but as the shadows stole upwards, and cabin after cabin and tunnel after tunnel were swallowed up, a complete silence followed. Only the sky remained visible— a vast concave mirror 2 THREE PARTNERS of dull steel, in which the stars did not seem to be set, but only reflected. A single cabin door on the crest of Heavy Tree Hill had remained open to the wind and darkness. Then it was slowly shut by an in- visible figure, afterwards revealed by the embers of the fire it was stirring. At first only this figure brooding over the hearth was shown, but as the flames leaped up, two other figures could be seen sitting motionless before it. When the door was shut, they acknowledged that interrup- tion by slightly changing their position ; the one who had risen to shut the door sank back into an invisible seat, but the attitude of each man was one of profound reflection or reserve, and apparently upon some common subject which made them respect each other's silence. How- ever, this was at last broken by a laugh. It was a boyish laugh, and came from the youngest of the party. The two others turned their profiles and glanced inquiringly towards him, but did not speak. ' I was thinking,' he began in apologetic explanation, ' how mighty queer it w r as that while we w r ere working like niggers on grub wages, without the ghost of a chance of making a strike, how w r e used to sit here, night after night, and flapdoodle and speculate about what we'd do if THREE PARTNERS 3 we ever did make one ; and now, Great Scott ! that we have made it, and are just wallowing in gold, here we are sitting as glum and silent as if we'd had a wash out ! Why, Lord ! I remember one night — not so long ago, either — that you two quarrelled over the swell hotel you were going to stop at in 'Frisco, and w T hether you wouldn't strike straight out for London and Rome and Paris, or go away to Japan and China and round by India and the Red Sea.' * No, we didn't quarrel over it,' said one of the figures gently ; ' there was only a little discussion.' *. Yes, but you did, though,' returned the young fellow mischievously, ' and you told Stacy, there, that we'd better learn something of the world before we tried to buy it or even hire it, and that it was just as well to get the hayseed out of our hair and the slumgullion off our boots before we mixed in polite society.' 4 Well, I don't see what's the matter With that sentiment now,' returned the second speaker good-humouredly, ' only,' he added gravely, ' we didn't quarrel — God forbid 1' There was something in the speaker's tone which seemed to touch a common chord in their natures, and this was voiced by Barker with sudden and almost pathetic earnestness. ' I tell b 2 4 THREE PARTNERS i you what, boys, we ought to swear hereto-night to always stand by each other — i n luck and out of it ! We ought to hold ourselves always at each others call. We ought to have a kind of j>as£- wordor signal, you know, by which we could summon each other at any time from any quarter of the globe ! ' ' Come off the roof, Barker,' murmured Stacy, without lifting his eyes from the fire. But Demorest 'smiled and glanced tolerantly at the younger man. [ ' Yes, but look here, Stacy,' continued Barker, I ' comrades like us, in the old days, used to do that in times of trouble and adventures. Why ^shouldn't we do it in our luck ? ' ' There's a good deal in that, Barker boy,' said Demorest, ' though, as a general thing, pass- words butter no parsnips, and the ordinary, every- day, single yelp from a wolf brings the whole pack together for business about as quick as a password. But you cling to that sentiment, and put it away with your gold dust in your belt.' ' What I like about Barker is his com- modiousness,' said Stacy. ' Here he is, the only man among us that has his future fixed and his pre-emption lines laid out and registered. He's already got a girl that he's going to marry and settle down with on the strength of his luck. THREE PARTNERS 5 And I'd like to know what Kitty Carter, when she's Mrs. Barker, would say to her husband being signalled for from Asia or Africa. I don't seem to see her tumbling to any password. And when he and she go into a new partnership I reckon she'll let the old one slide.' ' That's just where you're wrong ! ' said Barker, with quickly rising colour, ' She's the sweetest girl in the world, and she'd be sure to understand our feelings. Why, she thinks every- thing of you two ; she was just eager for you to get this claim, which has put us where we are, when I held back, and if it hadn't been for her, by Jove ! we wouldn't have had it.' 1 That was only because she cared for you, 1 returned Stacy, with a half-yawn, ' and now that you've got your share she isn't going to take a breathless interest in us. And, by the way, I'd rather you'd remind us that we owe our luck to her than that she should ever remind you of it.' 1 What do you mean ? ' said Barker quickly. But Demorest here rose lazily, and, throwing a gigantic shadow on the wall, stood between the two with his back to the fire. ' He means,' he said slowly, ' that you're talking rot, and so is he. However, as yours comes from the heart and his from the head, I prefer yours. But you're both making me tired. Let's have a fresh deal' 6 THREE PARTNERS Nobody ever dreamed of contradicting De- morest. Nevertheless, Barker persisted eagerly : * But isn't it better for us to look at this cheerfully and happily all round ? There's nothing criminal in our having made a strike! It seems to me, boys, that of all ways of making money it's the squarest and most level ; nobody is the poorer for it ; our luck brings no misfortune to others. The gold was put there ages ago for anybody to find ; we found it. It hasn't been tarnished by man's touch before. I don't know how it strikes you, boys, but it seems to me that of all gifts that are going it is the straightest. For whether we deserve it or not, it comes to us first-hand — from God!' The two men glanced quickly at the speaker, whose face flushed and then smiled embarrassedly as if ashamed of the enthusiasm into which he had been betrayed. But Demorest did not smile, and Stacy's eyes shone in the firelight as he said languidly, \ I never heard that prospecting was a religious occupation before. But I shouldn't wonder if you're right, Barker boy. So let's liquor up.' Nevertheless he did not move, nor did the others. The fire leaped higher, bringing out the rude rafters and sternly economic details of the rough cabin, and making the occupants in their seats before the fire look gigantic by contrast. THREE PARTNERS 7 * Who shut the door ? ' said Demorest after a pause. \ I did,' said Barker. \ I reckoned it was getting cold.' 1 Better open it again, now that the fire's blazing. It will light the way if any of the men from below want to drop in this evening.' Stacy stared at his companion. ' I thought that it was understood that we were giving them that dinner at Boomville to-morrow night, so that we might have the last evening here by ourselves in peace and quietness.' ' Yes, but if anyone did want to come it would seem churlish to shut him out,' said Demorest. * I reckon you're feeling very much as I am,' said Stacy, ' that this good-fortune is rather crowding to us three alone. For myself, I know,' he continued, with a backward glance towards a blanketed, covered pile in the corner of the cabin, 1 that I feel rather oppressed by — by — its specific gravity, I calculate — and sort of crampy and twitchy in the legs, as if I ought to " lite " out and do something, and yet it holds me here. All the same, I doubt if anybody will come up — except from curiosity. Our luck has made them rather sore down the hill, for all they're coming to the dinner to-morrow.' 1 That's only human nature/ said Demorest. 8 THREE PARTNERS ' But,' said Barker eagerly, ' what does it mean ? Why, only this afternoon, when I was passing the M Old Kentuck " tunnel, where those Marshalls have been grubbing along for four years without making a single strike, I felt ashamed to look at them, and as they barely nodded to me I slinked by as if I had done them an injury. I don't understand it.' • It somehow does not seem to square with this "Gift o' God" idea o' yours, does it?' said Stacy. ■ But we'll open the door and give them a show.' As he did so it seemed as if the night were their only guest, and had been waiting on the threshold to now enter bodily and pervade all things with its presence. With that cool, fragrant inflow of air they breathed freely. The red edge had gone from Black Spur, but it was even more clearly defined against the sky in its towering blackness. The sky itself had grown lighter, although the stars still seemed mere reflections of the solitary pin-points of light scattered along the concave valley below. Mingling with the cooler, restful air of the summit, yet penetratingly distinct from it, arose the stimulating breath of the pines below, still hot and panting from the daylong sun. The silence was intense. The far-off barking of a dog on the invisible river-bar THREE PARTNERS 9 nearly a mile beneath them came to them like a sound in a dream. They had risen, and, stand- ing in the doorway, by common consent turned their faces to the east. It was the frequent^ attitude of the home-remembering miner, and it gave him the crowning glory of the view. For, beyond the pine-hearsed summits, rarely seen except against the evening sky, lay a thin, white cloud like a dropped portion of the milky way. Faint with an indescribable pallor, remote yet distinct enough to assert itself above and beyond all surrounding objects, it was always there. It was the snow-line of the Sierras. They turned away and silently reseated themselves, the same thought in the minds of each. Here was something they could not take away — something to be left for ever and irre- trievably behind — left with the healthy life they had been leading, the cheerful endeavour, the undying hopefulness which it had fostered and blessed. Was what they were taking away worth it ? And oddly enough, frank and outspoken as they had always been to each other, that common thought; remained unuttered. Even Barker was silent ; perhaps he was also thinking of Kitty. Suddenly two figures 'appeared in the very doorway of the cabin. The effect was startling upon the partners, who had only just reseated 10 THREE PARTNERS themselves, and for a moment they had forgotten that the narrow band of light which shot forth from the open door rendered the darkness on either side of it more impenetrable, and that out of this darkness, although themselves guided by the light, the figures had just emerged. Yet one was familiar enough. It was the Hill drunkard, Dick Hall, or, as he was called, ■ Whiskey Dick,' or indicated still more succinctly by the Hill humourists, ' Alkey Hall.' Everybody had seen that sodden, puffy, but good-humoured face ; everybody had felt the fiery exhalations of that enormous red beard, which always seemed to be kept in a state of moist, un- kempt luxuriance by liquor ; everybody knew the absurd dignity of manner and attempted precision of statement with which he was wont to disguise his frequent excesses. Very few, however, knew* or cared to know, the pathetic weariness and chilling horror that sometimes looked out of those bloodshot eyes. He was evidently equally unprepared for the three silent seated figures before the door, and for a moment looked at them blankly with the doubts of a frequently deceived perception. Was he sure that they were quite real ? He had not dared to look at his companion for verification, but smiled vaguely. THREE PARTNERS n * Good-evening,' said Demorest pleasantly. Whiskey Dick's face brightened. ' Good- evenin', good-evenin' yourselves boys — and see how you like it ! Lemme interdrush my ole frien' William J. Steptoe, of Red Gulch. Stepsho — Steptoe — is shtay — ish stay " He stopped, hicupped, waved his hand gravely, and with an air of reproachful dignity concluded, ' sojourning for the present on the Bar. We wish to offer our congrashulashen and felish — felish ' he paused again and, leaning against the door-post, added severely, ■ itations.' II is companion, however, laughed coarsely, and, pushing past Dick, entered the cabin. He was a short, powerful man, with a closely cropped crust of beard and hair that seemed to adhere to his round head like moss or lichen. He cast a glance — furtive rather than curious — around the cabin, and said, with a familiarity that had not even good-humour to excuse it, ' So you're the gay galoots who've made the big strike ? Thought I'd meander up the Hill with this old bloat Alky, and drop in to see the show. And here you are, feeling your oats, eh ? and not caring any particu- lar G — d d — n if school keeps or not.' * Show Mr. Steptoe — the whiskey/ said Demorest to Stacy. Then quietly addressing Dick, but ignoring Steptoe as completely as 12 THREE PARTNERS Steptoe had ignored his unfortunate companion, he said, ' You quite startled us at first. We did not see you come up the trail.' 1 No. We came up the back trail to please Steptoe, who wanted to see round the cabin,' said Dick, glancing nervously yet with a forced indif- ference towards the whiskey which Stacy was offering to the stranger. ' What yer gettin' off there ? ' said Steptoe, facing Dick almost brutally. ' You know your tangled legs wouldn't take you straight up the trail, and you had to make a circumbendibus. Gosh ! if you hadn't scented this licker at the top you'ld have never found it.' 1 No matter ! I'm glad you did find it, Dick/ said Demorest, ' and I hope you'll find the liquor good enough to pay you for the trouble.' Barker stared at Demorest. This extraordinary toler- ance of the drunkard was something new in his partner. But at a glance from Demorest he led Dick to the demijohn and tin cup which stood on a table in the corner. And in another moment Dick had forgotten his companion's rudeness. Demorest remained by the door looking out into the darkness. 'Well,' said Steptoe, putting down his emptied cup, ' trot out your strike. I reckon our eyes are strong enough to bear it now.' Stacy drew the THREE PARTNERS 13 blanket from the vague pile that stood in the corner, and discovered a deep tin prospecting pan. It was heaped with several large fragments of quartz. At first the marble whiteness of the quartz and the glittering crystals of mica in its veins were the most noticeable, but as they drew closer they could see the dull yellow of gold filling the decomposed and honeycombed portion of the rock as if still liquid and molten. The eyes of the party sparkled like the mica — even those of Barker and Stacy, who were already familiar with the treasure. 1 Which is the richest chunk ? ' asked Steptoe in a thickening voice. Stacy pointed it out. 1 Why, it's smaller than the others.' 1 Heft it in your hand,' said Barker with boyish enthusiasm. The short, thick fingers of Steptoe grasped it with a certain aquiline suggestion ; his whole arm strained over it until his face grew purple, but he could not lift it. 1 Thar uster to be a little game in the 'Frisco Mint,' said Dick, restored to fluency by his liquor, 1 when thar war ladies visiting it, and that was to offer to giv' 'em any of those little boxes of gold coin, that contained five thousand dollars, ef they would kindly lift it from the counter and take it away ! It wasn't no bigger than one of these 14 THREE PARTNERS chunks; but, Jimminy ! you oughterhave seed them gals grip and heave on it, and then hev to give it up ! You see they didn't know anything about the paci — (hie) the speshif ' He stopped with great dignity, and added with painful precision, 1 the specific gravity of gold.' 1 Dry up ! ' said Steptoe roughly. Then turn- ing to Stacy he said abruptly : 'But where's the rest of it ? You've got more than that.' 1 We sent it to Boomville this morning. You see we've sold out our claim to a company who take it up to-morrow, and put up a mill and stamps. In fact, it's under their charge now. They've got a gang of men on the claim already.' 1 And what mout ye hev got for it, if it's a fair question ? ' said Steptoe with a forced smile. Stacy smiled also. ' I don't know that it's a business question,' he said. ' Five hundred thousand dollars/ said De- morest abruptly from the doorway, 'and a treble interest.' The eyes of the two men met. There was no mistaking the dull fire of envy in Steptoe's glance, but Demorest received it with a certain cold curiosity, and turned away as the sound of arriving voices came from without. * Five hundred thousand's a big figger,' said Stacy with a coarse laugh, 'and I don't wonder THREE PARTNERS 15 it makes you feel so d d sassy. But it was a fair question.' Unfortunately it here occurred to the whiskey- stimulated brain of Dick that the friend he had introduced was being treated with scant courtesy, and he forgot his own treatment by Steptoe. Leaning against the wall he waved a dignified rebuke. ' I'm sashified my ole frien' is akshuated by only businesh principles.' He paused, re- collected himself and added with great precision : i When I say he himself has a valuable claim in Red Gulch and to my shertain knowledge has received offers — I have said enough.' The laugh that broke from Stacy and Barker, to whom the infelicitous reputation of Red Gulch was notorious, did not allay Steptoe's irritation. He darted a vindictive glance at the unfortunate Dick, but joined in the laugh. ! And what was ye goin' to do with that?' he said, pointing to the treasure. ' Oh, we're taking that with us. There's a chunk for each of us as a memento. We cast lots for the choice and Demorest won. That one which you couldn't lift with one hand, you know,' said Stacy. ' Oh, couldn't I ? I reckon you ain't goin' to give me the same chance that they did at the Mint, eh?' i6 THREE PARTNERS Although the remark was accompanied with his usual coarse, familiar laugh, there was a look in his eye so inconsequent in its significance that Stacy would have made some reply, but at this moment Demorest re-entered the cabin, ushering in a half-dozen miners from the Bar below. They were, although youngish men, some of the older locaters in the vicinity, yet, through years of seclusion and uneventful labours, they had acquired a certain childish simplicity of thought and manner that was alternately amusing and pathetic. They had never intruded upon the reserve of the three partners of Heavy Tree Hill before; nothing but an infantine curiosity, a shy recognition of the partners' courtesy in inviting them with the whole population of 1 Heavy Tree ' to the dinner the next day, and the never-to-be-resisted temptation of an evening of ' free liquor ' and forgetfulness of the past, had brought them there now. Among them, and yet not of them, was a young man who, although speaking English without accent, was distinctly of a different nationality and race. This, with a certain neatness of dress and artificial suavity of address, gained him the nickname of ' the Count ' and ' French y,' although he was really of Flemish extrac- tion. He was the Union Ditch Company's THREE PARTNERS 17 agent on the Bar, by virtue of his knowledge of languages. Barker uttered an exclamation of pleasure when he saw him. Himself the incarnation of naturalness, he had always secretly admired this young foreigner, with his lacquered smoothness, although a vague consciousness that neither Stacy nor Demorest shared his feelings had restricted their acquaintance. Nevertheless, he was proud now to see the bow with which Paul Van Loo entered the cabin as if it were a drawing-room, and perhaps did not reflect upon that want of real feeling in an act which made the others uncomfortable. The slight awkwardness their entrance pro- duced, however, was quickly forgotten when the blanket was again lifted from the pan of treasure. Singularly enough, too, the same feverish light came into the eyes of each as they all gathered around this yellow shrine. Even the polite Paul rudely elbowed his way between the others, though his artificial ' Pardon ' seemed to Barker to condone this act of brutal instinct. But it was more instructive to observe the manner in which the older locators received this confirmation of the fickle Fortune that had overlooked their weary labours and years of waiting to lavish her favours on the new and inexperienced amateurs. Yet as they c lS THREE PARTNERS turned their dazzled eyes upon the three partners there was no envy or malice in their depths, no reproach on their lips, no insincerity in their wondering satisfaction. Rather there was a touch- ing, almost childlike resumption of hope as they gazed at this conclusive evidence of Nature's bounty. The gold had been there — they had only missed it ! And if there, more could be found ! Was it not a proof of the richness of Heavy Tree Hill ? So strongly was this reflected on their faces that a casual observer, contrasting them with the thoughful countenances of the real owners, would have thought them the lucky ones. It touched Barker's quick sympathies, it puzzled Stacy, it made Demorest more serious, it aroused Steptoe's active contempt. Whiskey Dick alone re- mained stolid and impassive in a desperate attempt to pull himself once more together. Eventually he succeeded, even to the ambitious achievement of mounting a chair and lifting his tin cup with a dangerously unsteady hand, which did not, how- ever, affect his precision of utterance, and said : 1 Order, gentlemen ! We'll drink success to — to- 4 The next strike ! ' said Barker, leaping im- petuously on another chair and beaming upon the old locators, ' and may it come to those who have so long deserved it ! ' Whiskey Dick, lijting his tin cup with a dangerously unsteady hand. THREE PARTNERS 19 His sincere and generous enthusiasm seemed to break the spell of silence that had fallen upon them. Other toasts quickly followed. In the general good feeling Barker attached himself to Van Loo with his usual boyish effusion, and in a burst of confidence imparted the secret of his engagement to Kitty Carter. Van Loo listened with polite eittention, formal congratulations, but inscrutable eyes, that occasionally wandered to Stacy and again to the treasure. A slight chill of disappointment came over Barker's quick sensitiveness. Perhaps his enthusiasm had bored this superior man of the world. Perhaps his confidences were in bad taste ! With a new sense of his inexperience he turned sadly away. Van Loo took that opportunity to approach Stacy. 1 What's all this I hear of Barker being engaged to Miss Carter ? ' he said, with a faintly superior smile. ' Is it really true ?' • 'Yes. Why shouldn't it be?' returned Stacy bluntly. Van Loo was instantly deprecating and smil- ing. ■ Why not, of course ? But isn't it sudden ? ' 1 They have known each other ever since he's been on Heavy Tree Hill,' responded Stacy. ' Ah, yes ! True,' said Van Loo. ' But now ' c 2 20 THREE PARTNERS < Well— he's got money enough to marry, and he's going to marry.' ' Rather young, isn't he ? ' said Van Loo, still deprecatingly. 'And she's got nothing. Used to wait on the table at her father's hotel in Boomville, didn't she ? ' 4 Yes. What of that ? We all know it.' ' Of course. It's an excellent thing for her — and her father. He'll have a rich son-in-law. About two hundred thousand is his share, isn't it ? I suppose old Carter is delighted ? ' Stacy had thought this before, but did not dare to have it corroborated by this superfine young foreigner. 'And I don't reckon that Barker is offended if he is,' he said curtly as he turned away. Nevertheless, he felt irritated that one of the three superior partners of Heavy Tree Hill should be thought a dupe. Suddenly the conversation dropped, the laughter ceased. Every one turned round, and, by a common instinct, looked towards the door. From the obscurity of the hill slope below came a wonderful tenor voice, modulated by distance and spiritualised by the darkness : * When at some future day I shall be far away, Thou wilt be weeping-, Thy lone watch keeping.' THREE PARTNERS 21 The men looked at one another. ' That's Jack Hamlin,' they said. ' What's he doing here ? ' 1 The wolves are gathering around fresh meat,' said Steptoe, with his coarse laugh and a glance at the treasure. ' Didn't ye know he came over from Red Dog yesterday ? ' 'Well, give Jack a fair show and his own game,' said one of the old locators, 'and he'd clean out that pile afore sunrise.' 1 And lose it next day,' added another. 1 But never turn a hair or change a muscle in either case,' said a third. ' Lord ! I've heard him sing away just like that when he's been leaving the board with five thousand dollars in his pocket, or going away stripped of his last red cent.' Van Loo, who had been listening withapeculiar smile, here said in his most deprecating manner, 1 Yes, but did you never consider the influence that such a man has on the hard-working tunnel men, who are ready to gamble their whole week's earnings to him ? Perhaps not. But I know the difficulties of getting the Ditch rates from these men when he has been in camp.' He glanced around him with some importance, but only a laugh followed his speech. ' Come Frenchy,' said an old locator, ' you only say that ^cciE LI BP. 22 THREE PARTNERS because your little brother wanted to play with Jack like a grown man, and when Jack ordered him off the board and he became sassy, Jack scooted him outer the saloon.' Van Loo's face reddened with an anger that had the apparent effect of removing every trace of his former polished repose, and leaving only a hard outline beneath. At which Demorest interfered : 4 1 can't say that I see much difference in gambling by putting money into a hole in the ground and expecting to take more from it, than by putting it on a card for the same purpose.' Here the ravishing tenor voice, which had been approaching, ceased, and was succeeded by a heart-breaking and equally melodious whistling to finish the bar of the singer's song. And the next moment Jack Hamlin appeared in the doorway. Whatever was his present financial condition, in perfect self-possession and charming sang-froid he fully bore out his previous description. He was as clean and refreshing looking as a Madrono tree in the dust-blown forest. An odour of scented soap and freshly ironed linen was wafted from him ; there was scarcely a crease in his white waistcoat, nor a speck upon his varnished shoes. He might have been an auditor of the previous THREE PARTNERS 23 conversation, so quickly and completely did he seem to take in the whole situation at a glance. Perhaps there was an extra tilt to his black- ribboned Panama hat, and a certain dancing devilry in his brown eyes — which might also have been an answer to adverse criticism. ■ When I, his truth to prove, would trifle with my love,' he warbled in gentle continuance from the doorway. Then dropping cheerfully into speech, he added, ' Well, boys, I am here to wel- come the little stranger, and to trust that the family are doing as well as can be expected. Ah ! there it is ! Bless it ! ' he went on, walking leisurely to the treasure. ' Triplets, too ! — and plump at that. Have you had 'em weighed ? ' Frankness was an essential quality of Heavy Tree Hill. 'We were just saying, Jack,' said an old locator, ' that, giving you a fair show and your own game, you could manage to get away with that pile before daybreak.' 'And I'm just thinking,' said Jack cheerfully, ' that there were some of you here that could do that without any such useless preliminary.' His brown eyes rested for a moment on Steptoe, but turning quite abruptly to Van Loo, he held out his hand. Startled and embarrassed before the others, the young man at last advanced his, when Jack coolly put his own, as if forgetfully, in his 24 THREE PARTNERS pocket. ' I thought you might like to know what that little brother of yours is doing,' he said to Van Loo, yet looking at Steptoe. ' I found him wan- dering about the Hill here quite drunk.' 1 I have repeatedly warned him ' began Van Loo reddening. 1 Against bad company — I know,' suggested Jack gaily ; ' yet, in spite of all that, I think he owes some of his liquor to Steptoe yonder.' 1 I never supposed the fool would get drunk over a glass of whiskey offered in fun,' said Steptoe harshly, yet evidently quite as much dis- concerted as angry. * The trouble with Steptoe,' said Hamlin, thoughtfully spanning his slim waist with both hands as he looked down at his polished shoes, 1 is that he has such a soft-hearted liking for all weaknesses. Always wanting to protect chaps that can't look after themselves, whether it's Whiskey Dick there when he has a pull on, or some nigger when he's made a little strike, or that straying lamb of Van Loo's when he's puppy drunk. But you're wrong about me, boys. You can't draw me in any game to-night. This is one of my nights off, which I devote exclusively to contemplation and song. But,' he added, suddenly turning to his three hosts with a bewildering and fascinating change of THREE PARTNERS 25 expression, ' I couldn't resist coming up here to see you and your pile, even if I never saw the one or the other before, and am not likely to see either again. I believe in luck! And it comes a mighty sight oftener than a fellow thinks it does. But it doesn't come to stay. So I'd advise you to keep your eyes skinned and hang on to it while it's with you, like grim death. So-long ! ' Resisting all attempts of his hosts— who had apparently fallen as suddenly and unaccountably under the magic of his manner — to detain him longer, he stepped lightly away, his voice pre- sently rising again in melody as he descended the hill. Nor was it at all remarkable that the others, apparently drawn by the same inevitable magnetism, were impelled to follow him, naturally joining their voices with his, leaving Steptoe and Van Loo so markedly behind them alone that they were compelled at last in sheer embarrass- ment to close up the rear of the procession. In another moment the cabin and the three partners again relapsed into the peace and quiet of the night. With the dying away of the last voices on the hillside the old solitude reasserted itself. But since the irruption of the strangers they had lost their former sluggish contemplation, and now busied themselves in preparation for their 2G THREE PARTNERS early departure from the cabin the next morning. They had arranged to spend the following day and night at Boomville and Carter's Hotel, where they were to give their farewell dinner to Heavy Tree Hill. They talked but little together; since the rebuff his enthusiastic confidences had received from Van Loo, Barker had been grave and thoughtful, and Stacy, with the irritating recollection of Van Loo's criticisms in his mind, had refrained from his usual rallying of Barker. Oddly enough, they spoke chiefly of Jack Ham- lin — till then personally a stranger to them, on account of his infelix reputation — and even the critical Demorest expressed a wish they had known him before. ' But you never know the real value of anything until you're quittin' it or it's quittin you,' he added sententiously. Barker and Stacy both stared at their com- panion, It was unlike Demorest to regret any- thing—particularly a mere social diversion. ' They say,' remarked Stacy, 'that if you had known Jack Hamlin earlier and professionally, a great deal of real value would have quitted you before he did.' 1 Don't repeat that rot flung out by men who have played Jack's game and lost,' returned Demorest derisively. ' I'd rather trust him than ' He stopped, glanced at the meditative THREE PARTNERS 27 Barker, and then concluded abruptly, ' the whole caboodle of his critics.' They were silent for a few moments, and then seemed to have fallen into their former dreamy mood as they relapsed into their old seats again. At last Stacy drew a long breath. ' I wish we had sent those nuggets off with the others this morning.' ? Why ? ' said Demorest suddenly. 'Why? Well, d m it all! they kind o' oppress me, don't you see. I seem to feel 'em here, on my chest — all the three,' returned Stacy only half-jocularly. \ It's their d -d specific gravity, I suppose. I don't like the idea of sleep- ing in the same room with 'em. They're alto- gether too much for us three men to be left alone with.' 4 You don't mean that you think that anybody would attempt- ' said Demorest. Stacy curled a fighting lip rather superciliously. 'No; I don't think that—\ rather wish" I did. It's the blessed chunks of solid gold that seem to have got ?is fast, don't you know, and are going to stick to us for good or ill. A sort of Franken- stein monster that we've picked out of a hole from below.' 1 1 know just what Stacy means,' said Barker breathlessly, rounding his grey eyes. • I've felt it, too. Couldn't we make a sort of cache of it 28 THREE PARTNERS — bury it just outside the cabin for to-night? It would be sort of putting it back into its old place, you know, for the time being. It might like it.' The two others laughed. ' Rather rough on Providence, Barker boy,' said Stacy, ' handing- back the Heaven-sent gift so soon ! Besides, what's to keep any prospector from coming along and making a strike of it ? You know that's mining law — if you haven't pre-empted the spot as a claim.' But Barker was too staggered by this material statement to make any reply, and Demorest arose. ■ And I feel that you'ld both better be turning in, as we've got to get up early.' He went to the corner of the cabin and threw the blanket back over the pan and its treasure. 1 There ! that'll keep the chunks from getting up to ride astride of you like a nightmare.' He shut the door and gave a momentary glance at its cheap hinges and the absence of bolt or bar. Stacy caught his eye. ' We'll miss this security in San Francisco — perhaps even in Boomville,'he sighed. It was scarcely ten o'clock, but Stacy and Barker had begun to undress themselves, with intervals of yawning and desultory talk, Barker continuing an amusing story with one stocking off and his trousers hanging on his arm, until at last THREE PARTNERS 29 both men were snugly curled up in their respective bunks. Presently Stacy's voice came from under the blankets : 1 Hallo ! aren't you going to turn in, too ? ' * Not yet,' said Demorest from his chair before the fire. ' You see, it's the last night in the old shanty, and I reckon I'll see the rest of it out.' ' That's so,' said the impulsive Barker, struggling violently with his blanket. ' I tell you what, boys. We just ought to make a Watch Night of it — a regular vigil, you know — until twelve at least. Hold on ! I'll get up, too ! ' But here Demorest arose, caught his youthful partner's bare foot which went searching painfully for the ground in one hand, tucked it back under the blankets, and heaping them on the top of him, patted the bulk with an authoritative, paternal air. 1 You'll just say your prayers and go to sleep, sonny. You'll want to be fresh as a daisy to appear before Miss Kitty to-morrow early, and ,. you can keep your vigils for to-morrow night, r 1 after dinner, in the back drawing-room, I said " Good-night," and I mean it!' Protesting feebly, Barker finally yielded in a nestling shiver and a sudden silence. Demorest walked back to his chair ; a prolonged snore came from Stacy's bunk. Then everything w as quiet ; Demorest stirred up the fire, cast a huge root 3 o THREE PARTNERS upon it, and leaning back in his chair, sat with half-closed eyes and dreamed. It was an old dream that for the past three years had come to him daily, sometimes even overtaking him under the shade of a buckeye in his noontide rest on his claim— a dream that had never yet failed to wait for him at night by the fireside when his partners were at rest. A dream of the past, but so real that it always made the present seem the dream through which he was moving towards some sure awakening. It was not strange that it should come to him to-night, as it had often come before, slowly- shaping itself out of the obscurity as the vision of a fair young girl seated in one of the empty- chairs before him. Always the same pretty, childlike face, fraught with a half-frightened, half- wondering trouble; always the same slender, graceful figure, but always glimmering in diamonds and satin, or spiritual in lace and pearls, against his own rude and sordid surroundings. Always silent with parted lips, until the night wind smote some chord of recollection, and then mingled a remembered voice with his own. For at those times he seemed to speak also, albeit with closed lips, and an utterance inaudible to all but her. ' Well ? ! he said sadly. THREE PARTNERS 3 t ' Weil ? ' the voice repeated, like a gentle echo blending with his own. 'You know it all now,' he went on. 'You know that it has come at last — all that I had worked for, prayed for. All that would have made us happy here ; all that would have saved you to me has come at last, and all too late ! ' ! Too late ! ' echoed the voice with his. 'You remember,' he went on, 'the last day we were together. You remember your friends and family would have you give me up — a penni- less man. You remember when they reproached you with my poverty, and told you that it was only your wealth that I was seeking, that I then determined to go away and never to return to claim you until that reproach could be removed. You remember, dearest, how you clung to me and bade me stay with you, even fly with you, but not to leave you alone with them. You wore the same dress that day, darling ; your eyes had the same wondering childlike fear and trouble in them ; your jewels glittered on you as you trembled, and I refused. In my pride, or rather in my weakness and cowardice, I refused. I came away and broke my heart among these rocks and ledges, yet grew strong ; and you, my love, you sheltered and guarded by those you loved, you ! He stopped and buried his face in his 32 THREE PARTNERS hands. The night wind breathed down the chimney and from the stirred ashes on the hearth came the soft whisper : ' I died.' * And then,' he went on, ' I cared for nothing. Sometimes my heart awoke for this young partner of mine in his innocent, trustful love for a girl that even in her humble station was far beyond his hopes, and I pitied myself in him. Home, fortune, friends, I no longer cared for — all were forgotten. And now they are returning to me — only that I may see the hollowness and vanity of them, and taste the bitterness for which I have sacrificed you. And here, on this last night of my exile, I am confronted with only the jealousy, the doubt, the meanness and selfishness that is to come. Too late ! Too late ! ' The wondering, troubled eyes that had looked into his here appeared to clear and brighten with a sweet prescience. Was it the wind moaning in the chimney that seemed to whisper to him : ' Too late, beloved, for me, but not for you ? / died, but Love still lives. Be happy, Philip. And in your happiness I too may live again.' He started. In the flickering firelight the chair was empty. The wind that had swept down the chimney had stirred the ashes with a sound like the passage of a rustling skirt. There was a chill in the air and a smell like that of THREE PARTNERS 33 opened earth. A nervous shiver passed over him. Then he sat upright. There was no mistake ; it was no superstitious fancy, but a faint, damp current of air was actually flowing across his feet towards the fireplace. He was about to rise when he stopped suddenly and became motionless. He was actively conscious now of a strange sound which had affected him even in the pre- occupation of his vision. It was a gentle brush- ing of some yielding substance like that made by a soft broom on sand, or the sweep of a gown. But to his mountain ears, attuned to every wood- land sound, it was not like the gnawing of gopher or squirrel, the scratching of wild cat, nor the hairy rubbing of bear. Nor was it human ; the long, deep respirations of his sleeping companions were distinct from that monotonous sound. He could not even tell if it were in the cabin or without. Suddenly his eye fell upon the pile in the corner. The blanket that covered the treasure was actually moving ! He rose quickly, but silently — alert, self- contained, and menacing. For this dreamer, this bereaved man, this scornful philosopher of riches had disappeared with that midnight trespass upon the sacred treasure. The movement of the blanket ceased ; the soft, swishing sound recom- menced. He drew a glittering bowie-knife from his D 34 THREE PARTNERS boot-leg, and in three noiseless strides was beside the pile. There he saw what he fully expected to see — a narrow, horizontal gap between the log walls of the cabin and the adobe floor, slowly widen- ing and deepening by the burrowing of unseen hands from without. The cold outer air which he had felt before was now plainly flowing into the heated cabin through the opening. The swishing sound recommenced and stopped. Then the four fingers of a hand, palm downwards, were cautiously introduced between the bottom log and the denuded floor. Upon that intruding hand the bowie-knife of Demorest descended like a flash of lightning. There was no outcry. Even in that supreme moment Demorest felt a pang of admira- tion for the stoicism of the unseen trespasser — but the maimed hand was quickly withdrawn, and as quickly Demorest rushed to the door and dashed into the outer darkness. For an instant he was dazed and bewildered by the sudden change. But the next moment he saw a dodging, doubling figure running before him, and threw himself upon it. In the shock both men fell, but even in that contact Demorest felt the tangled beard and alcoholic fumes of Whiskey Dick, and felt also that the hands which were thrown up against his breast, the palms turned outward with the instinctive movement of a timid, THREE PARTNERS 33 defenceless man, were unstained with soil or blood. With an oath he threw the drunkard from him and dashed to the rear of the cabin. But too late ! There, indeed, was the scattered earth, there the widened burrow as it had been ex- cavated apparently by that mutilated hand — but nothing else ! He turned back to Whiskey Dick. But the miserable man, although still retaining a look of dazed terror in his eyes, had recovered his feet in a kind of angry confidence and a forced sense of injury. What did Demorest mean by attacking 'innoshent' gentlemen on the trail outside his cabin ? Yes ! outside his cabin, he would swear it! 'What were you doing here at midnight?' demanded Demorest. What was he doing ? What was any gentle- man doing? He wasn't any mollycoddle to go to bed at - ten o'clock ! What was he doing ? Well — he'd been with men who didn't shut their doors and turn the boys out just in the shank of the evening. He wasn't any Barker to be wet- nursed by Demorest. • Some one else was here ! ' said Demorest sternly, with his eyes fixed on Whiskey Dick, The dull glaze which seemed to veil the outer world from the drunkard's pupils shifted suddenly D 2 36 THREE PARTNERS with such a look of direct horror that Demorest was fain to turn away his own. But the veil mercifully returned, and with it Dick's worked- up sense of injury. Nobody was there — not ' a shole.' Did Demorest think if there had been any of his friends there they would have stood by like ' dogsh ' and seen him insulted ? Demorest turned away and re-entered the cabin as Dick lurched heavily forward, still muttering, down the trail. The excitement over, a sickening repugnance to the whole incident took the place of Demorest's resentment and indignation. There had been a cowardly attempt to rob them of their miserable treasure. He had met it and frustrated it in almost as brutal a fashion ; the gold was already tarnished with blood. To his surprise, yet relief, he found his partners unconscious of the outrage, still sleeping with the physical immobility of over-excited and tired men. Should he awaken them ? No ! He should have to awaken also their suspicions and desire for revenge. There was no danger of a further attack ; there was no fear that the culprit would disclose himself, and to-morrow they would be far away. Let oblivion rest upon that night's stain on the honour of Heavy Tree Hill. He rolled a small barrel before the opening, THREE PARTNERS 37 smoothed the dislodged earth, replaced the pan with its treasure, and trusted that in the bustle of the early morning departure his partners might not notice any change. Stopping before the bunk of Stacy he glanced at the sleeping man. He was lying on his back, but breathing heavily, and his hands were moving towards his chest as if, indeed, his strange fancy of the golden incubus were being realised. Demorest would have wakened him, but presently, with a sigh of relief, the sleeper turned over on his side. It was pleasanter to look at Barker, whose damp curls were matted over his smooth, boyish forehead, and whose lips were parted in a smile under the silken wings of his brown moustache. He, too, seemed to be trying to speak, and remembering some previous revelations which had amused them, Demorest leaned over him fraternally with an answering smile, waiting for the beloved one's name to pass the young man's lips. But he only murmured, ■ Three — hundred — thousand dollars ! ' The elder man turned away with a grave face. The influence of the treasure was paramount. When he had placed one of the chairs against the unprotected door at an angle which would prevent any easy or noiseless intrusion, Demorest threw himself without undressing on 3 8 THREE PARTNERS his bunk and turned his face towards the single window of the cabin that looked towards the east. He did not apprehend another covert attempt against the gold. He did not fear a robbery with force and arms, although he was satisfied that there was more than one concerned in it, but this he attributed only to the encumbering weight of their expected booty. He simply waited for the dawn. It was some time before his eyes were greeted with the vague opaline brightness of the firmament which meant the vanishing of the pallid snow-line before the coming day. A bird twittered on the roof. The air was chill ; he drew his blanket around him. Then he closed his eyes, he fancied only for a moment, but when he opened them the door was standing open in the strong daylight. He sprang to his feet, but the next moment he saw it was only Stacy who had passed out, and was returning fully dressed bringing water from the spring to fill the kettle. But Stacy's face was so grave that, recalling his disturbed sleep, Demorest laughingly inquired if he had been haunted by the treasure. But to his surprise Stacy put down the kettle and with a hurried glance at the still sleeping Barker, said in a low voice : 1 1 want you to do something for me without asking why. Later I will tell you.' THREE PARTNERS 39 Demorest looked at him fixedly. ( What is it ?' he said. ' The pack mules will be here in a few moments. Don't wait to close up or put away anything here, but clap that gold in the saddle bags and take Barker with you and lite out for Boomville at once. I will overtake you later.' 1 Is there no time to discuss this ? ' asked Demorest. 1 No,' said Stacy bluntly. ■ Call me a crank ! Say I'm in a blue funk' — his compressed lips and sharp black eyes did not lend themselves much to that hypothesis — ' only get out of this with that stuff and take Barker with you ! I'm not responsible for myself while it's here.' Demorest knew Stacy to be combative but practical. If he had not been assured of his partner's last night slumbers he might have thought he knew of the attempt. Or if he had discovered the turned-up ground in the rear of the cabin his curiosity would have demanded an explanation. Demorest paused only for a moment, and said, \ Very well, I will go.' 'Good ! I'll rouse out Barker, but not a word to him — except that he must go.' The routing out of Barker consisted of Stacy's lifting that young gentleman bodily from his bunk and standing him upright in the open doorway. 40 THREE PARTNERS But Barker was accustomed to this Spartan process, and after a moment's balancing with closed lids like an unwrapped mummy, he sat down in the doorway and began to dress. He at first demurred to their departure except all together ; it was so unfraternal ; but eventually he allowed himself to be persuaded out of it and into his clothes. For Barker had also had his visions in the night, one of which was that they should build a beautiful villa on the site of the old cabin and solemnly agree to come every year and pass a week in it toget her. * I thought at first,' he said, sliding along the floor in search of different articles of his dress, or stopping gravely to catch them as they were thrown to him by his partners, ' that we'd have it at Boomville, as being handier to get there ; but I've concluded we'd better have it here, a little higher up the hill, where it could be seen over the whole Black Spur Range. When we weren't here we could use it as a Hut of Refuge for broken-down or washed-out miners or weary travellers, like those hospices in the Alps, you know, and have some- body to keep it for us. You see I've thought even of that, and Van Loo is the very man to take charge of it for us. You see he's got such good manners and speaks two languages. Lord ! if a German or Frenchman came along, poor and THfc THREE PARTNERS 41 distressed, Van Loo would just chip in his own language. See ? You've got to think of all these details, you see, boys. And we might call it " The Rest of the Three Partners," or " Three Partners' Rest." ' ' And you might begin by giving us one,' said Stacy. ' Dry up and drink your coffee.' 1 I'll draw out the plans. I've got it all in my head,' continued the enthusiastic Barker, unheed- ing the interruption. ' I'll just run out and take a look at the site, it's only right back of the cabin.' But here Stacy caught him by his dangling belt as he was flying out of the door with one boot on, and thrust him down in a chair with a tin cup of coffee in his hand. * Keep the plans in your head, Barker boy,' said Demorest, * for here are the pack mules and packer.' This was quite enough to divert the impressionable young man, who speedily finished his dressing, as a mule bearing a large pack-saddle and two enormous saddle-bags or pouches drove up before the door, led by a muleteer on a small horse. The transfer of the treasure to the saddle-bags was quickly made by their united efforts, as the first rays of the sun were beginning to paint the hill-side. Shading his keen eyes with his hand, Stacy stood in the doorway and handed Demorest the two rifles. Demorest hesitated. 42 THREE PARTNERS ' Hadn't J4?tt better keep one?' he said, looking in his partner's eyes with his first challenge of curiosity. The sun seemed to put a humorous twinkle into Stacy's glance as he returned, ' Not much ! And you'd better take my revolver with you, too. I'm feeling a little better now,' he said, looking at the saddle-bags, 'but I'm not fit to be trusted yet with carnal weapons. When the other mule comes and is packed I'll overtake you on the horse.' A little more satisfied, although still wondering and perplexed, Demorest shouldered one rifle, and with Barker, who was carrying the other, followed the muleteer and his equipage down the trail. For a while he was a little ashamed of his part in this unusual spectacle of two armed men convoying a laden mule in broad daylight, but, luckily, it was too early for the Bar miners to be going to work, and as the tunnel men were now at breakfast the trail was free of wayfarers. At the point where it crossed the main road Demorest, however, saw Steptoe and Whiskey Dick emerge from the thicket, apparently in earnest conversation. Demorest felt his re- pugnance and half-restrained suspicions suddenly return. Yet he did not wish to betray them before Barker, nor was he willing, in case of an emergency, to allow the young man to be entirely unprepared. Calling him to follow, he ran quickly THREE PARTNERS 43 ahead of the laden mule, and was relieved to find that, looking back, his companion had brought his rifle to a ' ready,' through some instinctive feeling of defence. As Steptoe and Whiskey Dick, a moment later discovering them, were evidently surprised, there seemed, however, to be no reason for fearing an outbreak. Suddenly, at a whisper from Steptoe, he and Whiskey Dick both threw up their hands, and stood still on the trail a few yards from them in a burlesque of the usual recognised attitude of helplessness, while a hoarse laugh broke from Steptoe. * D d if we didn't think you were road agents ! But we see you're only guarding your treasure. Rather fancy style for Heavy Tree Hill, ain't it ? Things must begettin' rough up thar to hev to take out your guns like that ! ' Demorest had looked keenly at the four hands thus exhibited, and was more concerned that they bore no trace of wounds or mutilation than at the insult of the speech — particularly as he had a distinct impression that the action was intended to show him the futility of his suspicions. 1 I am glad to see that if you haven't any arms in your hands you're not incapable of handling them,' said Demorest coolly, as he passed by them and again fell into the rear of the muleteer. But Barker had thought the 44 THREE PARTNERS incident very funny, and laughed effusively at Whiskey Dick. ' I didn't know that Steptoe was up to that kind o' fun,' he said, 'and I suppose we did look rather rough with these guns as we ran on ahead of the mule. But then you know that when you called to me I really thought you were in for a shindy. All the same, Whiskey Dick did that u hands up " to perfection ; how he managed it I don't know, but his knees seemed to knock together as if he was in a real funk.' Demorest had thought so too, but he made no reply. How far that miserable drunkard was a forced or willing accomplice of the events of last night, was part of a question that had become more and more repugnant to him as he was leaving the scene of it for ever. It had come upon him, desecrating the dream he had dreamt that last night, and turning its hopeful climax to bitterness. Small wonder that Barker, walking by his side, had his quick sympathies aroused, and as he saw that shadow, which they were all familiar with, but had never sought to penetrate, fall upon his companion's handsome face, even his youthful spirits yielded to it. They were both relieved when the clatter of hoofs behind them, as they reached the valley, announced the approach oi Stacy. ' I started with the second mule and the THREE PARTNERS 45 last load soon after you left,' he explained, ' and have just passed them. I thought it better to join you and let the other load follow. Nobody will interfere with that! * Then you are satisfied ? ' said Demorest, re- garding him steadfastly. ' You bet ! Look ! ' He turned in his saddle and pointed to the crest of the hill they had just descended. Above the pines circling the lower slope, above the bare ledges of rock and outcrop, a column of thick black smoke was rising straight as a spire in the windless air. * That's the old shanty passing away,' said Stacy complacently. ' I reckon there won't be much left of it before we get to Boomville.' Demorest and Barker stared. ' You fired it ? ' said Barker, trembling with excitement. 1 Yes,' said Stacy. ' I couldn't bear to leave the old rookery for coyotes and wild cats to gather in, so I touched her off before I left' < But ' said Barker. 1 But,' repeated Stacy composedly. * Hallo ! what's the matter with that new plan of " The Rest " that you're going to build, eh ? You don't want them both! 1 And you did this rather than leave the dear old cabin to strangers ? ' said Barker with kindling 4 6 THREE PARTNERS eyes. ' Stacy, I didn't think you had that poetry in you ! ' 1 There's heaps in me, Barker boy, that you don't know, and I don't exactly sabe myself.' 1 Only,' continued the young fellow eagerly, ' we ought to have all been there ! We ought to have made a solemn rite of it, you know— a kind of sacrifice. We ought to have poured a kind of libation on the ground ! ' 1 I did sprinkle a little kerosene over it, I think,' returned Stacy, 'just to help things along. But if you want to see her flaming, Barker, you just run back to that last corner on the road beyond the big red wood. That's the spot for a view.' As Barker — always devoted to a spectacle — swiftly disappeared the two men faced each other. * Well, what does it all mean ? ' said Demorest gravely. 'It means, old man,' said Stacy suddenly, 1 that if we hadn't had nigger luck, the same blind luck that sent us that strike, you and I and that Barker over there would have been swirling in that smoke up to the sky about two hours ago ! ' He stopped and added in a lower, but earnest voice, ' Look here, Phil ! When I went out to fetch water this morning I smelt something queer. I went round to the back of the cabin and found THREE PARTNERS 47 a hole dug under the floor, and piled against the corner wall a lot of brushwood and a can of kero- sene. Some of the kerosene had been already poured on the brush. Everything was ready to light, and only my coming out an hour earlier had frightened the devils away. The idea was to set the place on fire, suffocate us in the smoke of the kerosene poured into the hole, and then to rush in and grab the treasure. It was a systematic plan ! ' ' No ! ' said Demorest quietly. ' No ? ' repeated Stacy. ' I told you I saw the whole thing and took away the kerosene, which I hid, and after you had gone used it to fire the cabin with, to see if the ones I suspected would gather to watch their work.' ■ It was no part of their first plan,' said Demorest, ' which was only robbery. Listen ! ' He hurriedly recounted his experience of the preceding night to the astonished Stacy. ' No, the fire was an afterthought and revenge,' he added sternly. 1 But you say you cut the robber in the hand ; there would be no difficulty in identifying him by that.' * I wounded only a handy said Demorest. ' But there was a head in that attempt that I never saw.' He then revealed his own half 4 8 THREE PARTNERS suspicions, but how they were apparently refuted by the bravado of Steptoe and Whiskey Dick. 1 Then that was the reason they didn't gather at the fire/ said Stacy quickly. * Ah ! ' said Demorest, ' then you too sus- pected them ? ' Stacy hesitated, and then said abruptly, 'Yes.' Demorest was silent for a moment. ' Why didn't you tell me this this morning ? ' he said gently. Stacy pointed to the distant Barker. ' I didn't want you to tell him. I thought it better for one partner to keep a secret from two than for the two to keep it from one. Why didn't you tell me of your experience last night ? ' ' I am afraid it was for the same reason,' said Demorest with a faint smile. ' And it sometimes seems to me, Jim, that we ought to imitate Barker's frankness. In our dread of tainting him with our own knowledge of evil we are sending him out into the world very poorly equipped, for all his three hundred thousand dollars.' 1 I reckon you're right,' said Stacy briefly, extending his hand. ■ Shake on that ! ' The two men grasped each other's hands. * And he's no fool either,' continued Demorest ; 'when we met Steptoe on the road, without a THREE PARTNERS 49 Word from me, he closed up alongside, with his hand on the lock of his rifle. And I hadn't the heart to praise him or laugh it off.' Nevertheless they were both silent as the object of their criticism bounded down the trail towards them. He had seen the funeral pyre. It was awfully sad, it was awfully lovely, but there was something grand in it ! Who could have thought Stacy could be so poetic ? But he wanted to tell them something else that was mighty pretty. ' What was it ? ' said Demorest. 'Well,' said Barker, 'don't laugh! But you know that Jack Hamlin ? Well, boys, he's been hovering around us on his mustang, keeping us and that pack mule in sight ever since we left. Sometimes he's on a side trail off the right, some- times off to the left, but always at the same dis- tance. I didn't like to tell you, boys, for I thought you'd laugh at me ; but I think, you know, he's taken a sort of shine to us since he dropped in last night. And I fancy, you see, he's sort of hanging round to see that we get along all right. I'd have pointed him out before only I reckoned you and Stacy would say he was making up to us for our money.' 'And we'd have been wrong, Barker boy,' said Stacy, with a heartiness that surprised E 5 o THREE PARTNERS Demorest, ' for I reckon your instinct's the right on> ' There he is now,' said the gratified Barker, 1 just abreast of us on the cut-off. He started just after we did, and he's got a horse that could have brought him into Boomville hours ago. It's just his kindness.' He pointed to a distant fringe of buckeye from which Jack Hamlin had just emerged. Although evidently holding in a powerful mustang, nothing could be more unconscious and utterly indifferent than his attitude. He did not seem to know of the proximity of any other traveller, and to care less. His handsome head was slightly thrown back, as if he was carolling after his usual fashion, but the distance was too great to make his melody audible to them, or to allow Barker's shout of invitation to reach him. Suddenly he lowered his tightened rein, the mustang sprang forward, and with a flash of silver spurs and bridle fripperies he had dis- appeared. But as the trail he was pursuing crossed theirs a mile beyond, it seemed quite possible that they should again meet him. They were now fairly into the Boomville valley, and were entering a narrow arroyo bordered with dusky willows which effectually excluded the view on either side. It was the bed THREE PARTNERS 5i of a mountain torrent that in winter descended the hill-side over the trail by which they had just come, but was now sunk into the thirsty plain between banks that varied from two to five feet in height. The muleteer had advanced into the narrow channel when he suddenly cast a hurried glance behind him, uttered a ' Madre de Dios ! ' and backed his mule and his precious freight against the bank. The sound of hoofs on the trail in their rear had caught his quicker ear, and as the three partners turned they beheld three horsemen thundering down the hill towards them. They were apparently Mexican vaqneros of the usual common, swarthy type, their faces made still darker by the black silk handkerchief tied round their heads under their stiff sombreros. Either they were unable or unwilling to restrain their horses in their headlong speed and a collision in that narrow passage was imminent, but suddenly before reaching its entrance they diverged with a volley of oaths, and dashing along the left bank of the- a?vvyo, disappeared in the intervening willows. Divided between relief at their escape and indignation at what seemed to be a drunken feast-day freak of these roystering vaqueros, the little party re-formed, when a cry from Barker arrested them. He had just perceived a horse- man motionless in the arroyo who, although un- e 2 ;| THREE PARTNERS noticed by them, had evidently been seen by the Mexicans. He had apparently leaped into it from the bank, and had halted as if to witness this singular incident. As the clatter of the vaqueros hoofs died away he lightly leaped the bank again and disappeared. But in that single glimpse of him they recognised Jack Hamlin. When they reached the spot where he had halted, they could see that he must have approached it from the trail where they had previously seen him, but which they now found crossed it at right angles. Barker was right. He had really kept them at easy distance the whole length of the journey. But they were now reaching its end. When they issued at last from the arroyo they came upon the outskirts of Boomville and the great stage road. Indeed, the six horses of the Pioneer coach were just panting along the last half-mile of the steep up grade as they approached. They halted mechanically as the heavy vehicle swayed and creaked by them. In their ordinary working dress, sunburnt with exposure, covered with dust, and carrying their rifles still in their hands, they, perhaps, presented a sufficiently characteristic appearance to draw a few faces — some of them pretty and intelligent — to the windows of the coach as it passed. The sensitive Barker was THREE PARTNERS 53 quickest to feel that resentment with which the Pioneer usually met the wide-eyed criticism of the Eastern tourist or 'greenhorn,' and reddened under the bold scrutiny of a pair of black inquisitive eyes behind an eye-glass. That annoyance was communicated, though in a lesser degree, even to the bearded Demorest and Stacy. It was an unexpected contact with that great world in which they were so soon to enter. They felt ashamed of their appearance, and yet ashamed of that feeling. They felt a secret satisfaction when Barker said, ' They'd open their eyes wider if they knew what was in that pack-saddle,' and yet they corrected him for what they were pleased to call ' his snobbishness.' They hurried a little faster as the road became more frequented, as if eager to shorten their distance to clean clothes and civilisation. Only Demorest began to linger in the rear. This contact with the stage coach had again brought him face to face with his buried past. He felt his old dream revive, and occasionally turned to look back upon the dark outlines of Black Spur, under whose shadow it had returned so often, and wondered if he had left it there for ever, and it were now slowly exhaling with the thinned and dying smoke of their burning cabin. His companions, knowing his silent moods, 54 } RTNER$ had preceded him at some distance when he heard the soft sound of ambling hoofs on the thick dust, and suddenly the light touch of Jack Hamlin's gauntlet on his shoulder. The mustang- Jack bestrode was reeking with grime and sweat, but Jack himself was as immaculate and fresh as ever. With a delightful affectation of embarrass- ment and timidity he began flicking the side buttons of his velvet vaquero trousers with the thong of his riala. ' I reckoned to sling a word along with you before you went,' he said, looking down, 'but I'm so shy that I couldn't do it in company. So I thought I'd get it off on you while you were alone.' 'We've seen you once or twice before this morning,' said Demorest pleasantly, 'and we were sorry you didn't join us.' ' I reckon I might have,' said Jack gaily, 'if my horse had only made up his mind whether he was a bird or a squirrel, and hadn't been so various and promiscuous about whether he wanted to climb a tree or fly. He's not a bad horse for a Mexican plug, only when he thinks there is any devilment around he wants to wade in and take a hand. However, I reckoned to see the last of you and your pile into Boomville. And I did. When I meet three fellows like you that are clean white all through I sort of cotton to 'em, even if "S THREE PARTNERS 55 /';;/ a little of a brunette myself. And I've got something to give you.' He took from a fold of his scarlet sash a small parcel neatly folded in white paper as fresh and spotless as himself. Holding it in his fingers, he went on : ■ I happened to be at Heavy Tree Hill early this morning before sun up. In. the darkness I struck your cabin, and I reckon — I struck some- body else ! At first I thought it was one of you chaps down on your knees praying at the rear of the cabin, but the way the fellow lit out when he smelt me coming made me think it wasn't entirely fasting and prayer. However, I went to the rear of the cabin, and then I reckoned some kind friend had been bringing you kindlings and fire- wood for your early breakfast. But that didn't satisfy me, so I knelt down as he had knelt, and then I saw — well, Mr. Demorest, I reckon I saw just iv hat you have seen I But even then I wasn't quite satisfied, for that man had been grubbing round as if searching for something. So I searched too — and I found it. I've got it here. I'm going to give it to you, for it may some day come in handy, and you won't find anything like it among the folks where you're going. It's something unique, as those fine art collecting sharps in 'Frisco say — something quite matchless, unless you try to match it one day yourself! 5 6 THREE PARTNERS Don't open the paper until I run on and say " So long " to your partners. Good-bye.' He grasped Demorest's hand and then dropped the little packet into his palm, and ambled away towards Stacy and Barker. Holding the packet in his hand with an amused yet puzzled smile, Demorest watched the gambler give Stacy's hand a hearty farewell shake and a supplementary slap on the back to the delighted Barker, and then vanish in a flash of red sash and silver buttons. At which Demorest, walking slowly towards his partners, opened the packet, and stood suddenly still. It contained the dried and bloodless second finger of a human hand, cut off at the first joint ! For an instant he held it at arm's length, as if about to cast it away. Then he grimly re- placed it in the paper, put it carefully in his pocket, and silently walked after his companions. END OF PROLOGUE THREE PARTNERS 57 CHAPTER I AFTER THREE YEARS A strong south-wester was beating against the windows and doors of * Stacy's Bank ' in San Francisco, and spreading a film of rain between the regular splendours of its mahogany counters and sprucely dressed clerks and the usual passing pedestrian. For Stacy's new banking house had long since received the epithet of ' palatial ' from an enthusiastic local press fresh from the ' opening ' luncheon in its richly decorated directors' rooms, and it was said that once a homely would-be depositor from One Horse Gulch was so cowed by its magnificence that his heart failed him at the last moment, and mumbling an apology to the elegant receiving teller, fled with his greasy chamois pouch of gold-dust to deposit his treasure in the dingy Mint around the corner. Perhaps there was something of this feeling, mingled with a certain simple-minded fascination, in the hesitation of a stranger of a higher class ^esE us/OS* 53 THREE PARTNERS who entered the bank that rainy morning and finally tendered his card to the important negro messenger. The card preceded him through noiselessly swinging doors and across heavily carpeted passages until it reached the inner core of Mr. James Stacy's private offices, and was respectfully laid before him. He was not alone. At his side, in an attitude of polite and studied expectancy, stood a correct- looking young man, for whom Mr. Stacy was evidently writing a memorandum. The stranger glanced furtively at the card with a curiosity hardly in keeping with his suggested good-breeding ; but Stacy did not look at it until he had finished his memorandum. * There,' he said, with business decision, ' you can tell your people that if we carry their new debentures over our limit we will expect a larger margin. Ditches are not what they were three years ago when miners were willing to waste their money over your rates. They don't gamble thai way any more, and your company ought to know it, and not gamble themselves over that prospect.' He handed the paper to the stranger, who bowed over it with studied politeness, and backed towards the door. Stacy took up the waiting card, read it, said to the messenger, 4 Show him in,' and in the same breath turned to THREE PARTNERS 59 his guest : ' I say, Van Loo, it's George Barker ! You know him.' \ Yes,' said Van Loo with a polite hesitation as he halted at the door. ■ He was — I think — er ■ — in your employ at Heavy Tree Hill.' 'Nonsense! He was my/^r/^r. And you must have known him since at Boomville. Come ! He got forty shares of Ditch stock —through you — at no, which were worth about 80 ! Somebody must have made money enough by it to remember him.' 1 I was only speaking of him socially,' said Van Loo, with a deprecating smile. ' You know he married a young woman — the hotel- keeper's daughter, who used to wait at the table — and after my mother and sister came out to keep house for me at Boomville it was quite impossible for me to see much of him, for he seldom went out without his wife, you know.' 4 Yes,' said Stacy drily, 'I think you didn't like his marriage. But I'm glad your disinclina- tion to see him isn't on account of that deal in stocks.' % Oh, no,' said Van Loo. 'Good-bye.' But, unfortunately, in the next passage he came upon Barker, who with a cry of unfeigned pleasure, none the less sincere that he was feel- ing a little alien in these impressive surroundings, 60 THREE PARTNERS recognised him. Nothing could exceed Van Loo's protest of delight at the meeting ; nothing his equal desolation at the fact that he was has- tening to another engagement. ' But your old partner,' he added with a smile, ' is waiting for you ; he has just received your card, and I should be only keeping you from him. So glad to see you ; you're looking so well. Good-bye ! Good-bye ! ' Reassured, Barker no longer hesitated, but dashed with his old impetuousness into his former partner's room. Stacy, already deeply absorbed in other business, was sitting with his back towards him, and Barker's arms were actually encircling his neck before the astonished and half-angry man looked up. But when his eyes met the laughing grey ones of Barker above him he gently disen- gaged himself with a quick return of the caress, rose, shut the door of an inner office, and return- ing pushed Barker into an arm-chair in quite the old suppressive fashion of former days. Yes ; it was the same Stacy that Barker looked at, albeit his brown beard was now closely cropped around his determined mouth and jaw in a kind of grave decorum, and his energetic limbs already attuned to the rigour of clothes of fashionable cut and still more rigorous sombreness of colour. 1 Barker boy,' he began, with the familiar THREE PARTNERS 61 twinkle in his keen eyes which the younger partner remembered, ' I don't encourage stag dancing among my young men during bank hours, and you'll please to remember that we are not on Heavy Tree Hill.' 1 Where,' broke in Barker enthusiastically, * we were only overlooked by the Black Spur Range and the sierran snow-line ; where the nearest voice that came to you was quarter of a mile away as the crow flies and nearly a mile by the trail.' 1 And was generally an oath ! ' said Stacy. ' But you're in San Francisco now. Where are you stopping ?' He took up a pencil and held it over a memorandum pad awaitingly. 1 At the Brook House. It's ' 1 Hold on! Brook House/ he repeated as he jotted it down. ■ And for how long ? ' ' Oh, a day or two. You see, Kitty ' Stacy checked him with a movement of his pencil in the air, and then wrote down, ' Day or two. Wife with you ? ' 1 Yes ; and oh, Stacy, our boy ! Ah ! ' he went on with a laugh, knocking aside the re- monstrating pencil, 'you must listen! He's just the sweetest, knowingest little chap living. Do you know what we're going to christen him ? Well, he'll be Stacy Demorest Barker. Good 6 2 THREE PARTNERS names, aren't they ? And then it perpetuates the clear old friendship.' Stacy picked up the pencil again, wrote 1 Wife and child S. D. B.,' and leaned back in his chair. ' Now, Barker,' he said briefly, ' I'm coming to dine with you to-night at 7.30 sharp. Then we'll talk Heavy Tree Hill, wife, baby, and S. D. B. But here I'm all for business. Have you any with me ? ' Barker, who was easily amused, had extracted a certain entertainment out of Stacy's memo- randum, but he straightened himself with a look of eager confidence and said, ' Certainly ; that's just what it is— business. Lord ! Stacy, I'm all business now. I'm in everything. And I bank with you, though perhaps you don't know it ; it's in your branch at Marysville. I didn't want to say anything about it to you before. But Lord ! you don't suppose that I'd bank anywhere else while you are in the business— cheques, dividends, and all that ; but in this matter I felt you knew, old chap. I didn't want to talk to a banker nor to a bank, but to Jim Stacy, my old partner.' 4 Barker,' said Stacy curtly, ( how much money are you short of ? ' At this direct question Barker's always quick colour rose, but, with an equally quick smile, he said, ' I don't know yet that I'm short at all.' THREE PARTNERS ( ?} 'But/do!' 1 Look here, Jim, why I'm just overloaded with shares and stocks,' said Barker smiling. 1 Not one of which you could realise on with- out sacrifice. Barker, three years ago you had three hundred thousand dollars put to your account at San Francisco.' 1 Yes,' said Barker with a quiet reminiscent laugh. ' I remember I wanted to draw it out in one cheque to see how it would look.' ' And you've drawn out all in three years, and it looks d d bad.' 'How did you know it?' asked Barker, his face beaming only with admiration of his com- panion's omniscience. * How did I know it?' retorted Stacy. 'I know you, and I know the kind of people who have unloaded to you.' 'Come, Stacy,' said Barker, 'I've only in- vested in shares and stocks like everybody else, and then only on the best advice I could get. Like Van Loo's, for instance— that man who was here just now, the new manager of the Empire Ditch Company. And Carter, my own Kitty's father. And when I was offered fifty thousand West Extensions, and was hesitating over it, he told me you were in it too — and that was enough for me to buy it.' 64 THREE PARTNERS i Yes, but we didn't go into it at his figures.' 1 No,' said Barker with an eager smile, ' but you sold at his figures, for I knew that when I found that yon, my old partner, was in it ; don't you see, I preferred to buy it through your bank, and did at no. Of course, you wouldn't have sold it at that figure if it wasn't worth it then, and neither I nor you are to blame if it dropped the next week to 60, don't you see ? ' Stacy's eyes hardened for a moment as he looked keenly into his former partner's bright grey ones, but there was no trace of irony in Barker's. On the contrary, a slight shade of sadness came over them. ' No,' he said re- flectively, 'I don't think I've ever been foolish or followed out my own ideas, except once, and that was extravagant, I admit. That was my idea of building a kind of refuge, you know, on the site of our old cabin, where poor miners and played-out prospectors waiting for a strike could stay without paying anything. Well, I sunk twenty thousand dollars in that, and might have lost more, only Carter — Kitty's father — persuaded me — he's an awful clever old fellow — into turning it into a kind of branch hotel of Boomville, while using it as an hotel to take poor chaps who couldn't pay at half prices, or quarter prices, privately, don't you see, so as to spare their pride ; THREE PARTNERS 65 awfully pretty, wasn't it ? and make the hotel profit by it.' ' Well ? ' said Stacy as Barker paused. 'They didn't come,' said Barker. 'But,' he added eagerly, ' it shows that things were better than I had imagined. Only the others did not come either.' 4 And you lost your twenty thousand dollars/ said Stacy curtly. 1 Fifty thousand,' said Barker, 'for, of course, it had to be a larger hotel than the other. And I think that Carter wouldn't have gone into it except to save me from losing money.' * And yet made you lose fifty thousand instead of twenty. For I don't suppose he advanced anything.' 4 He gave his time and experience,' said Barker simply. ' I dcn't think it worth thirty thousand dollars,' said Stacy drily. ' But all this doesn't tell me what your business is with me to-day.' 1 No,' said Barker brightening up, ' but it is \ business, you know. Something in the old style - — as between partner and partner — and that's why I came to you, and not to the "banker." And it all comes out of something that Demorest once told us ; so you see it's all us three again ! Well, you know, of course, that the Excelsior Ditch F 66 THREE PARTNERS Company have abandoned the Bar and Heavy Tree Hill. It didn't pay.' 1 Yes ; nor does the company pay any dividends now. You ought to know, with fifty thousand of their stock on your hands.' Barker laughed. \ But listen. I found that I could buy up their whole plant and all the ditching along the Black Spur Range for ten thousand dollars.' 1 And, Great Scott ! you don't think of taking up their business ?' said Stacy aghast. Barker laughed more heartily. \ No. Not their business. But I remember that once Demorest told us, in the dear old days, that it cost nearly as much to make a water ditch as a railroad, in the way of surveying and engineering and levels, you know. And here's the plant for a railroad. Don't you see ? ' ' But a railroad from Black Spur to Heavy Tree Hill— what's the good of that ? ' \ Why, Black Spur will be in the line of the new " Divide " Railway they're trying to get a Bill for in the Legislation.' 1 An infamous piece of wild-cat jobbing that will never pass,' said Stacy decisively. ■ They said becatise it was that it would pass,' said Barker simply. ' They say that Watson's Bank is in it, and was bound to get it through. THREE PARTNERS 67 And as that is a rival bank of yours, don't you see, I thought that if ive could get something real good or valuable out of it- — something that would do the Black Spur good — it would be all right.' ' And was your business to consult me about it ? ' said Stacy bluntly. \ No/ said Barker, \ it's too late to consult you now, though I wish I had. I've given my word to take it, and I can't back out. But I haven't the ten thousand dollars, and I came to you.' Stacy slowly settled himself back in his chair and put both hands in his pockets. ' Not a cent, Barker; not a cent' ' I'm not asking it of the bank,' said Barker, with a smile, ' for I could have gone to the bank for it. But as this was something between us, I am asking you, Stacy, as my old partner.' ■ And I am answering you, Barker, as your old partner, but also as the partner of a hundred other men, who have even a greater right to ask me. And my answer is— not a cent ! ' Barker looked at him with a pale, astonished face and slightly parted lips. Stacy rose, thrust his hands deeper in his pockets and standing before him went on. ' Now look here ! It's time you should under- stand me and yourself. Three years ago, when f 2 THREE PARTNERS our partnership was dissolved by accident, Or mutual consent, we will say, we started afresh, each on our own hook. Through foolishness and bad advice you have in those three years hopelessly involved yourself as you never would have done had we been partners, and yet in your difficulty you ask me and my new partners to help you out of a difficulty in which they have no concern.' 1 Your new partners ? ' stammered Barker. 1 Yes. My new partners ; for every man who has a share, or a deposit, or an interest, or a dollar in this bank is my partite >r — even you, with your securities at the Branch are one ; and you may say that in this I am protecting you against yourself.' 1 But you have money — you have private means.' * None to speculate with as you wish me to — on account of my position ; none to give away foolishly as you expect me to — on account of precedent and example. I am a soulless machine taking care of capital entrusted to me and my brains, but decidedly n oi to, my he art nor my sgmiment. So my ans wer is, nnt- a_ronf j ' BarCer T s~face had changed ; his colour had come back, but with an older expression. Presently, however, his beaming smile returned, THREE PARTNERS 69 with the additional suggestion of an affectionate toleration which puzzled Stacy. 1 1 believe you're right, old chap,' he said, ex- tending his hand to the banker, ■ and I wish I had talked to you before. But it's too late now and I've given my word.' 1 Your word, 1 said Stacy. ' Have you no written agreement ? ' ' No. My word was accepted.' He blushed slightly as if conscious of a great weakness. 1 But that isn't legal nor business. And you couldn't even hold the Ditch Company to it if they chose to back out.' \ But I don't think they will,' said Barker simply. 4 And you see my word wasn't given entirely to them. I bought the thing through my wife's cousin, Henry Spring, a broker, and he makes something by it, from the company on commission. And I can't go back on him. What did you say ? ' Stacy had only groaned through his set teeth. 1 Nothing,' he said briefly, 'except that I'm coming, as I said before, to dine with you to-night ; but no more business. I've enough of that with others, and there are some waiting for me in the outer office now.' Barker rose at once, but with the same affectionate smile and tender gravity of counte- 7 o THREE PARTNERS nance, and laid his hand caressingly on Stacy's shoulder. ' It's like you to give up so much of your time to me and my foolishness and be so frank with me. And I know it's mighty rough on you to have to be a mere machine instead of Jim Stacy. Don't you bother about me. I'll sell some of my Wide West Extension and pull the thing through myself. It's all right, but I'm sorry for you, old chap.' He glanced around the I , room at the walls and rich panelling, and added, * I suppose that's what you have to pay for all this sort of thing ? ' Before Stacy could reply, a waiting visitor was announced for the second time, and Barker with another hand-shake and a reassuring smile to his old partner passed into the hall, as if the onus of any infelicity in the interview was upon himself alone. But Stacy did not seem to be in a particularly accessible mood to the new caller, who in his turn appeared to be slightly irritated by having been kept waiting over some irksome business. ' You don't seem to follow me,' he said to Stacy after reciting his business perplexity. 1 Can't you suggest something ? ! 1 Well, why don't you get hold of one of your Board of Directors?' said Stacy abstractedly. c There's Captain Drummond ; you and he are old friends. You were comrades in the Mexican War, weren't you ? ' THREE PARTNERS 71 1 That be d d ! ' said his visitor bitterly-. * All his interests are the other way, and in a trade of this kind, you know, Stacy, tha t a man would sacrifice his own brother. Do you suppose that he'd let up on a sure thing that he's got just because he and I fought side by side at Cerro Gordo f m Come ! what are you giving us ? You're the last man I ever expected to hear that kind of flapdoodle from. If it's because your bank has got some other interest and you can't advise me, why don't you say so ? ' Nevertheless, in spite of Stacy's abrupt disclaimer, he left a few minutes later, half-convinced that Stacy's lukewarmness was due to some adverse influence. Other callers were almost as quickly disposed of, and at the end of an hour Stacy found himself again alone. But not apparently in a very satisfied mood. After a few moments of purely mechanical memo- randa making, he rose abruptly and opened a small drawer in a cabinet, from which he took a letter still in its envelope. It bore a foreign post- mark. Glancing over it hastily, his eyes at last became fixed on a concluding paragraph. ' I hope,' wrote his correspondent, ' that even in the rush of your big business you will sometimes look after Barker. Not that I think the dear old chap will ever go wrong — indeed, I often wish I was as certain of myself as of him and his insight ; but 72 THREE PARTNERS I am afraid we were more inclined to be merely amused and tolerant of his wonderful trust and simplicity than to really understand it for his own good and ours. I know you did not like his marriage, and were inclined to believe he was the victim of a rather unscrupulous father and a foolish, unequal girl, but are you satisfied that he would have been the happier without it or lived his perfect life under other and what you may think wiser conditions ? If he wrote the poetry that he lives everybody would think him wonderful ; for being what he is we never give him sufficient credit.' Stacy smiled grimly and pencilled on his memorandum, ■ He wants it to the amount of ten thousand dollars.' 'Anyhow,' continued the writer, 'look after him, Jim, for his sake, your sake, and the sake of — Phil Demorest.' Stacy put the letter back in its envelope, and tossing it grimly aside went on with his calculations. Presently he stopped, restored the letter to his cabinet, and rang a bell on his table. ' Send Mr. North here,' he said to the negro messenger. In a few moments his chief book-keeper appeared in the doorway. 1 Turn to the Branch ledger and bring me a statement of Mr. George Barker's account' ' He was here a moment ago,' said North, essaying a confidential look towards his chief. THREE PARTNERS 1 I know it,' said Stacy coolly, without looking up. • He's been running a good deed on wild cat lately,' suggested North. ' I asked for his account, and not your opinion of it,' said Stacy shortly. The subordinate withdrew somewhat abashed but still curious, and returned presently with a ledger which he laid before his chief. Stacy ran his eyes over the list of Barker's securities ; it seemed to him that all the wildest schemes of the past year stared him in the face. His finger, however, stopped on the Wide West Extension. - Mr. Barker will be wanting to sell some of this stock. What is it quoted at now ? ' ' Sixty.' 4 But I would prefer that Mr. Barker should not offer in the open market at present. Give him seventy for it — private sale ; that will be ten thousand dollars paid to his credit. Advise the Branch of this at once, and to keep the transac- tion quiet.' 1 Yes, sir,' responded the clerk as he moved towards the door. But he hesitated, and with another essay at confidence said insinuatingly, ' I always thought, sir, that Wide West would recover.' Stacy, perhaps not displeased to find what 74. THREE PARTNERS had evidently passed in his subordinate's mind, looked at him and said drily, ' Then I would advise you also to keep that opinion to yourself.' But, clever as he was, he had not anticipated the result. Mr. North, though a trusted employ^ was human. On arriving in the outer office he beckoned to one of the lounging brokers, and in a low voice said, ' I'll take two shares of Wide West, if you can get it cheap.' The broker's face became alert and eager. { Yes, but I say, is anything up ? ' 1 I'm not here to give the business of the bank away,' retorted North severely ; ' take the order or leave it.' The man hurried away. Having thus vindi- cated his humanity by also passing the snub he had received from Stacy to an inferior, he turned away to carry out his master's instructions, yet secure in the belief that he had profited by his superior discernment of the real reason of that master's singular conduct. But when he returned to the private room, in hopes of further revelations, Mr. Stacy was closeted with another financial magnate, and had apparently divested his mind of the whole affair. THREE PARTNERS 75 CHAPTER II When George Barker returned to the outer ward of the financial stronghold he had pene- trated, with its curving sweep of counters, brass railings, and wire work screens defended by the spruce clerks behind them, he was again impressed with the position of the man he had just quitted, and for a moment hesitated, with an inclination to go back. It was with no idea of making a further appeal to his old comrade, but — what would have been odd in any other nature but his — he was affected by a sense that he might have been un- fair and selfish in his manner to the man panoplied by these defences, and who was in a measure forced to be a part of them. He would like to have returned and condoled with him. The clerks, who were heartlessly familiar with the anxious bearing of the men who sought inter- views with their chief, both before and after, smiled with the whispered conviction that the fresh and ingenious young stranger had been 1 chucked ' like others until they met his kindly, 76 THREE PARTNERS tolerant, and even superior eyes, and were puzzled. Meanwhile Barker, who had that sublime, natural quality of abstraction over small impertinences which is more exasperating than studied indifference, after his brief hesitation passed out unconcernedly through the swinging mahogany doors into the blowy street. Here the wind and rain revived him ; the bank and its curt refusal was forgotten ; he walked onward with only a smiling memory of his partner as in the old days. He remembered how Stacy had burned down their old cabin rather than it should fall into sordid or unworthy hands — this Stacy who was now condemned to sink his impulses and become a mere machine. He had never known Stacy's real motive for that act ; both Demorest and Stacy had kept their knowledge of the attempted robbery from their younger partner ; it always seemed to him to be a precious revela- tion of Stacy's inner nature. Facing the wind and rain, he recalled how Stacy, though never so enthusiastic about his marriage as Demorest, had taken up Van Loo sharply for some foolish sneer about his own youthfulness. II e was affectionately tolerant of even Stacy's dislike to his wife's rela- tions, for Stacy did not know them as he did. Indeed, Barker, whose own father and mother had died in his infancy, had accepted his wife's THREE PARTNERS yy relations with a loving trust and confidence that was supreme, from the fact that he had never known any other. At last he reached his hotel. It was a new one, the latest creation of a feverish progress in hotel building which had covered five years and as many squares with large sh^a^-ei^cjUon^s, utterly beyond the needs of the community, yet each superior in size and adornment to its pre- decessor. It struck him as being the one evidence of an abiding faith in the future of the metropolis that he had seen in nothing else. As he entered its frescoed hall that afternoon he was suddenly reminded, by its challenging opulency, of the bank he had just quitted, without knowing that the bank had really furnished its capital and its original design. The gilded bar-rooms, flash- ing with mirrors and cut glass ; the saloons, with their desert expanse of Turkey carpet and oasis of clustered divans and gilded tables ; the great dining-room, with porphyry columns, and walls and ceilings shining with allegory — all these things which had attracted his youthful wonder without distracting his correct simplicity of taste he now began to comprehend. It was the bank's money ' at work.' In the clatter of dishes in the dining-room he even seemed to hear again the chinking of coin. 7 8 THREE PARTNERS It was a short cut to his apartments to pass through a smaller public sitting-room popularly known as ' Flirtation Camp,' where eight or ten couples generally found refuge on chairs and settees by the windows, half concealed by heavy curtains. But the occupants were by no means youthful spinsters or bachelors ; they were generally married women, guests of the hotel, receiving other people's husbands whose wives were ! in the States,' or responsible middle-aged leaders of the town. In the elaborate toilettes of the women, as compared w T ith the less formal business suits of the men, there was an odd mingling of the social attitude with perhaps more mysterious confidences. The idle gossip about them had never affected Barker ; rather he had that innate respect for the secrets of others which is as inseparable from simplicity as it is from high breeding, and he scarcely glanced. at the different couples in his progress through the room.- He did not .even, notice a rather striking and hand- some woman who, surrounded by two or three admirers, yet looked up at Barker as he passed with self-conscious lids, as if seeking a return of her glance. But he moved on abstractedly, and only stopped when he suddenly saw the familiar skirt of his wife at a further window and halted before it. THREE PARTNERS 79 1 Oh, it's you' said Mrs. Barker, with a half- nervous, half-impatient laugh. * Why, I thought you'ld certainly stay half the afternoon with your old partner, considering that you haven't met for three years.' There was no doubt she had thought so ; there was equally no doubt that the conversation she was carrying on with her companion — a good- looking, portly business man — was effectually in- terrupted. But Barker did not notice it. * Cap- tain Heath, my husband,' she went on, carelessly rising and smoothing her skirts. The Captain, who had risen too, bowed vaguely at the intro- duction, but Barker extended his hand frankly. ! I found Stacy busy,' he said in answer to his wife, ' but he is coming to dine with us to-night.' 1 If you mean Jim Stacy, the banker,' said Captain Heath, brightening into greater ease, .-he's the busiest man in California. I've seen men standing in a queue outside his door as in the old days at the Post Office. And he only gives you five minutes and no extension. So you and he were partners once ? ' he said, looking curiously at the still youthful Barker. But it was Mrs. Barker who answered, ' Oh, yes ! and always such good friends. I was awfully jealous of him.' Nevertheless, she did not respond to the affectionate protest in Barker's 80 THREE PARTNERS eyes nor to the laugh of Captain Heath, but glanced indifferently around the room as if to leave further conversation to the two men. It was possible that she was beginning to feel that Captain Heath was as de trop now as her husband had been a moment before. Standing there, however, between them both, idly tracing a pattern on the carpet with the toe of her slipper, she looked prettier than she had ever looked as Kitty Carter. Her slight figure was more fully developed. That artificial severity covering a natural virgin coyness with which she used to wait at table in her father's hotel at Boomville had gone, and was replaced by a satisfied con- sciousness of her power to please. Her glance was freer, but not as frank as in those days. Her dress was undoubtedly richer and more stylish ; yet Barker's loyal heart often reverted fondly to the chintz gown, coquettishly frilled apron, and spotless cuffs and collar in which she had handed him his coffee with a faint colour that left his own face crimson. Captain Heath's tact being equal to her in- difference, he had excused himself, although he was becoming interested in this youthful husband. But Mrs. Barker, after having asserted her hus- band's distinction as the equal friend of the millionaire, was by no means willing that the THREE PARTNERS 81 Captain should be further interested in Barker for himself alone, and did not urge him to stay. As he departed she turned to her husband and, indicating the group he had passed the moment before, said : 1 That horrid woman has been staring at us all the time. I don't see what you see in her to admire.' Poor Barker's admiration had been limited to a few words of civility in the enforced contact of that huge caravansery and in his quiet, youthful recognition of her striking personality. But he was just then too preoccupied with his interview with Stacy to reply, and perhaps he did not quite understand his wife. It was odd how many things he did not quite understand now about Kitty, but that he knew must be his fault. But Mrs. Barker apparently did not require, after the fashion of her sex, a reply. For the next moment, as they moved towards their rooms, she said im- patiently : ' Well, you don't tell what Stacy said. Did you get the money ? ' I grieve to say that this soul of truth and frankness lied, only to his wife. Perhaps he con- sidered it only lying to himself, a thing of which he was at times miserably conscious. ' It wasn't necessary, dear,' he said ; ' he advised me to sell G 82 THREE PARTNERS my securities in the bank ; and if you only knew how dreadfully busy he is.' Mrs. Barker curled her pretty lip. ' It don't take very long to lend ten thousand dollars ! ' she said. ' But that's what I always tell you. You have about made me sick by singing the praises of those wonderful partners of yours, and here you ask a favour of one of them and he tells you to sell your securities ! And you know, and he knows, they're worth next to nothing.' 1 You don't understand, dear ' began Barker. 4 1 understand that you've given your word to poor Harry,' said Mrs. Barker in pretty indigna- tion, ' who's responsible for the Ditch purchase.' 'And I shall keep it. I always do,' said Barker very quietly, but with that same singular expression of face that had puzzled Stacy. But Mrs. Barker, who, perhaps, knew her husband better, said in an altered voice : 1 But hozv can you, dear ? ' 1 If I'm short a thousand or two I'll ask your father.' Mrs. Barker was silent. ' Father's so very much harried now, George. Why don't you simply throw the whole thing up ? ' * But I've given my word to your cousin Henry.' THREE PARTNERS 83 ' Yes, but only your word. There was no written agreement. And you couldn't even hold him to it.' Barker opened his frank eyes in astonishment. Her own cousin, too ! And they were Stacy's very words. 1 Besides,' added Mrs. Barker audaciously, 1 he could get rid of it elsewhere. He had an- other offer, but he thought yours the best. So don't be silly.' By this time they had reached their rooms. Barker, apparently dismissing the subject from his mind with characteristic buoyancy, turned into the bedroom and walked smilingly towards a small crib which stood in the corner. * Why, he's gone ! ' he said in some dismay. 'Well,' said Mrs. Barker a little impatiently, * you didn't expect me to take him into the public parlour, where I was seeing visitors, did vou ? I sent him out with the nurse into the lower ball to play with the other children.' A shade momentarily passed over Barker's face. He always looked forward to meeting the child when he came back. He had a belief, based on no grounds whatever, that the little creature understood him. And he had a father's doubt of the wholesomeness of other people's children who were born into the world indiscriminately and not G 2 8 4 THREE PARTNERS under the exceptional conditions of his own. ' I'll go and fetch him,' he said. 1 You haven't told me anything about your interview ; what you did and what your good friend Stacy said,' said Mrs. Barker, dropping languidly into a chair. ' And really if you are simply running away again after that child, I might just as well have asked Captain Heath to stay longer.' < Oh, as to Stacy,' said Barker dropping beside her and taking her hand, 'well, dear, he was awfully busy you know, and shut up in the inner- most office like the agate in one of the Japanese nests of boxes. But,' he continued brightening up, 'just the same dear old Jim Stacy of Heavy Tree Hill, when I first knew you. Lord! dear, how it all came back to me ! That day I pro- posed to you in the belief that I was unexpectedly rich and even bought a claim for the boys on the strength of it, and how I came back to them to find that they had made a big strike on the very claim. Lord! I remember how I was so afraid to tell them about you — and how they guessed it — that dear old Stacy one of the first' ' Yes,' said Mrs. Barker, ' and I hope your friend Stacy remembered that but for me, when you found out that you were not rich, you'ld have THREE PARTNERS 85 given up the claim, but that I really deceived my own father to make you keep it. I've often worried over that, George,' she said pensively, turning a diamond bracelet around her pretty wrist, ' although I never said anything about it.' ' But Kitty, darling,' said Barker, grasping his wife's hand, ' I gave my note for it ; you know you said that was bargain enough, and I had better wait until the note was due, and until I found I couldn't pay, before I gave up the claim. It was very clever of you, and the boys all said so, too. But you never deceived your father, dear,' he said, looking at her gravely, 'for I should have told him everything.' ' Of course, if you look at it in that way,' said his wife languidly, ' it's nothing, only I think it ought to be remembered when people go about saying papa ruined you with his hotel schemes.' ' Who dares say that ? ' said Barker in- dignantly. 4 Well, if they don't say it they look it,' said Mrs. Barker, with a toss of her pretty head, 'and I believe that's at the bottom of Stacy's refusal,' 1 But he never said a word, Kitty,' said Barker flushing. 'There, don't excite yourself, George,' said Mrs. Barker resignedly, ' but go for the baby. I S6 THREE PARTNERS know you're dying to go, and I suppose it's time Norah brought it upstairs.' At any other time Barker would have lingered with explanations, but just then a deeper sense than usual of some misunderstanding made him anxious to shorten this domestic colloquy. He rose, pressed his wife's hand, and went out. But yet he was not entirely satisfied with himself for leaving her. ' I suppose it isn't right my going off as soon as I come in,' he murmured reproachfully to himself, ' but I think she wants the baby back as much as I ; only, woman-like, she didn't care to let me know it.' He reached the lower hall, which he knew was a favourite promenade for the nurses who were gathered at the farther end, where a large window looked upon Montgomery Street. But Norah, the Irish nurse, was not among them ; he passed through several corridors in his search, but in vain. At last, worried and a little anxious, he turned to regain his rooms through the long saloon where he had found his wife previously. It was deserted now ; the last caller had left — even frivolity had its prescribed limits. He was consequently startled by a gentle murmur from one of the heavily curtained window recesses. It was a woman's voice — low, sweet, caressing, and filled with an almost pathetic tenderness. And THREE PARTNERS 87 it was followed by a distinct gurgling, satisfied crow. Barker turned instantly in that direction. A step brought him to the curtain, where a singular spectacle presented itself. Seated on a lounge, completely absorbed and possessed by her treasure, was the ' horrid woman ' whom his wife had indicated only a little while ago, holding a baby — Kitty's sacred baby — in her wanton lap ! The child was feebly grasp- ing the end of the slender jewelled necklace which the woman held temptingly dangling from a thin, white, jewelled finger above it. But its eyes were beaming with an intense delight, as if trying to respond to the deep, concentrated love in the handsome face that was bent above it. At the sudden intrusion of Barker she looked up. There was a faint rise in her colour, but no loss of self-possession. ' Please don't scold the nurse,' she said, 'nor say anything to Mrs. Barker. It is all my fault. I thought that both the nurse and child looked dreadfully bored with each other, and I borrowed the little fellow for a while to try and amuse him. At least I haven't made him cry, have I, dear ? ' The last epithet, it is needless to say, was addressed to the little creature in her lap, but in its tender modulation it touched the father's 83 THREE PARTNERS quick sympathies as if he had shared it with the child. ' You see,' she said softly, disengaging the baby fingers from her necklace, ' that our sex is not the only one tempted by jewellery and glitter.' Barker hesitated ; the madonna-like devotion of a moment ago was gone ; it was only the woman of the world who laughingly looked up at him. Nevertheless he was touched. ' Have you — ever — had a child, Mrs. Horncastle?' he asked gently and hesitatingly. He had a vague recollection that she passed for a widow, and in his simple eyes all women w r ere virgins or married saints. 4 No,' she said abruptly. Then she added with a laugh, \ Or perhaps I should not admire them so much. I suppose it's the same feeling bachelors have for other people's wives. But I know you're dying to take that boy from me. Take him, then, and don't be ashamed to carry him yourself just because I'm here ; you know you would delight to do it if I weren't' Barker bent over the silken lap in which the child was comfortably nestling, and in that attitude had a faint consciousness that Mrs. Horncastle was mischievously breathing into his curls a silent laugh. Barker lifted his first-born with proud skilfulness, but that sagacious infant evidently THREE PARTNERS 89 knew when he was comfortable, and in a paroxysm of objection caught his father's curls with one fist while with the other he grasped Mrs. Horncastle's brown braids and brought their heads into contact. Upon which humorous situa- tion Norah, the nurse, entered. ' It's all right, Norah,' said Mrs. Horncastle laughing, as she disengaged herself from the link- ing child. ' Mr. Barker has claimed the baby, and has agreed to forgive you and me and say nothing to Mrs. Barker.' Norah, with the in- scrutable criticism of her sex on her sex, thought it extremely probable, and halted with exasper- ating discretion. * There,' continued Mrs. Horn- castle, playfully evading the child's further advances, ' go with papa, that's a dear. Mr. Barker prefers to carry him back, Norah.' 1 But,' said the ingenuous and persistent Barker, still lingering in hopes of recalling the woman's previous expression, ' you do love children, and you think him a bright little chap for his age ? ' 1 Yes,' said Mrs. Horncastle, putting back her loosened braid, ' so round and fat and soft. And such a discriminating eye for jewellery. Really you ought to get a necklace like mine for Mrs. Barker — it would please both, you know.' She moved slowly away, the united efforts of Norah rise ubr2 9 o THREE PARTNERS and Barker scarcely sufficing to restrain the struggling child from leaping after her as she turned at the door and blew him a kiss. When Barker regained his room he found that Mrs. Barker had dismissed Stacy from her mind, except so far as to invoke Norah's aid in laying out her smartest gown for dinner. ' But why take all this trouble, dear ? ' said her simple- minded husband ; ' we are going to dine in a private room so that we can talk over old times all by ourselves, and any dress would suit him. And, Lord, dear ! ' he added, with a ' quick brightening at the fancy, ' if you could only just rig yourself up in that pretty lilac gown you used to wear at Boomville — it would be too killing, and just like old times. I put it away myself in one of our trunks — I couldn't bear to leave it behind — I know just where it is. Ill ' But Mrs. Barker's restraining scorn withheld him. 1 George Barker, if you think I am going to let you throw away and utterly waste Mr. Stacy on us, alone, in a private room with closed doors — and I dare say you'd like to sit in your dressing- gown and slippers — you are entirely mistaken. I know what is due, not to your old partner, but to the great Mr. Stacy, the financier, and I know what is due from him to us ! No ! We dine in THREE PARTNERS 91 the great dining-room, publicly, and, if possible, at the very next table to those stuck-up Peter- burys and their Eastern friends, including that horrid woman, which, I'm sure, ought to satisfy you. Then you can talk as much as you like, and as loud as you like about old times — and the louder and the more the better — but I don't think he'f/\\ke it.' ' But the baby ! ' expostulated Barker. ' Stacy's just wild to see him — and we can't bring him down to the table — though we might J he added, momentarily brightening. ' After dinner,' said Mrs. Barker severely, 'we will walk through the big drawing-rooms, and then Mr. Stacy may come upstairs and see him in his crib. But not before. And now, George, I do wish that to-night, for once, you would not wear a turn-down collar, and that you would go to the barber's and have him cut your hair and smooth out the curls. And, for Heaven's sake! let him put some wax or gum or something on your moustache and twist it up on your cheek like Captain Heath's, for it positively droops over your mouth like a girl's ringlet. It's quite enough for me to hear people talk of your inexperience, but really I don't want you to look as if I had run away with a pretty schoolboy. And, considering the size of that child, it's positively disgraceful. 92 THREE PARTNERS And one thing more, George. When I'm talk- ing to anybody, please don't sit opposite to me, beaming with delight and your mouth open. And don't roar if by chance I say something funny. And — whatever you do — don't make eyes at me in company whenever I happen to allude to you, as I did before Captain Heath. It is positively too ridiculous.' Nothing could exceed the laughing good- humour with which her husband received these cautions, nor the evident sincerity with which he promised amendment. Equally sincere was he, though a little more thoughtful, in his severe self- examination of his deficiencies, when, later, he seated himself at the window with one hand softly encompassing his child's chubby fist in the crib beside him, and, in the instinctive fashion of all loneliness, looked out of the window. The Southern Trades were whipping the waves of the distant bay and harbour into yeasty crests. Sheets of rain swept the side walks with the regularity of a fusilade, against which a few pedestrians struggled with flapping waterproofs and slanting umbrellas. He could look along the deserted length of Montgomery Street to the heights of Telegraph Hill and its long-disused semaphore. It seemed lonelier to him than the mile-long sweep of Heavy Tree Hill, writhing THREE PARTNERS 93 against the mountain wind and its yEolian song. He ha d never felt so lonely there.^ Ax\ his rigid selF-examination he thought Kitty right in pro- testing against the effect of his youthfulness and optimism. Yet he was also right in being him- self. There is an egoism in the highest simplicity ; and Barker, while willing to believe in others' methods, never abandoned his own aims. He was right in loving Kitty as he did ; he knew that she was better and more lovable than she could believe herself to be ; but he was willing to believe it pained and discomposed her if he showed it before company. He would not have her change even this peculiarity — it was part of herself — no more than he would have changed himself. And behind what he had conceived was her clear, practical common sense, all this time had been her belief that she had deceived her father! Poor dear, dear Kitty! And she had suffered because stupid people had conceived that her father had led him away in selfish speculations. As