days of honest work and virtuous toil evolved a new bill hobbs—a grimy individual streaked with sweat and daubed with printer's ink, yet as absorbedly delighted in his new task as a child with a fresh toy.
for the first time in his life, willyum was his own boss at actual labor. the financial aspect of his travail had not yet arisen to trouble him. naturally swift to comprehend things mechanical, he set himself to learn type, and succeeded more or less. he had found enough old job stuff set up to show him the use of the quoins, sticks, and furniture—although these names meant nothing to him—and after various attempts in which some type was sadly ruined, he managed to get the hang of the job press. the flatbed was a simpler proposition.
"gee!" he observed, standing in his doorway one noon with a fine air of proprietorship, and watching the dusty stage roll in from the south. "here's another stranger comin' to town. and the doc ain't back yet with sandy! well, i guess i'd better eat an' then begin to get out the first issue of the paper. we'll see who this stranger is, huh?"
he walked across to the hotel, where already most of two palms was assembling with avid curiosity to watch the debarkation of the new arrival. bill hobbs took one square look at the stranger, then he suddenly became inconspicuous.
the arrival was a tall man, well dressed, his luggage expensive and heavy. his features were very remarkable; they were features, once seen, never to be forgotten. he seemed fairly young, virile and energetic. when he removed his straw hat to wipe the dust from his face, he displayed a high, narrow brow that was white with the pallor of the city.
beneath this brow were straight black eyebrows like a bar across his face. the eyes, too, were black—an intense and glittering black, luminous as black crystal. a finely trimmed black vandyke shaded his mouth, but accentuated the high, thin lines of his countenance. the whole face was undeniably aristocratic, very handsome in a mesmeric way, yet it held an indefinable hint of vulpine. the stranger's hands were long, white, powerful.
"i have a friend, a mr. lee," said the stranger to piute tomkins. his voice was smooth and very self-assured, pregnant with authority. "he has, i believe, engaged a room in advance of my coming?"
"he ain't," returned piute, surveying the stranger. "but come in and eat, 'less ye want to miss dinner. i guess we can rustle a room somehow. we're havin' a treemenjous boom right now and all the bellhops is off to the gold rush, but i s'pose we can put ye up."
the spectators grinned at this elaborate irony. the stranger, however, fastened his black eyes upon piute, and after a few seconds piute began to look uncomfortable.
"ah, you are a very facetious gentleman!" said the stranger coolly. "may i inquire if mr. lee is stopping here?"
"yep," said piute, reddening a trifle. "he's up in his room with a busted leg—but ye'd better pile in to dinner 'fore seein' him. dinner don't last long here."
"i hope not," said the stranger, going toward the hotel doorway, while the crowd guffawed at the confusion of piute tomkins.
bill hobbs, with incredulity in his eyes, slid into the hotel office and listened unashamedly while the stranger conversed with piute. the conversation was largely concerned with tom lee, and piute got some information which made his eyes widen. willyum got the same information; and, when the stranger was gone from the office, he sidled up to the desk and inspected the register. he saw that the stranger had signed as "james scudder, m.d." of san francisco.
"gee!" bill hobbs grinned suddenly. "he ain't even usin' a alleyas, huh? gee! i got a real story to write up now——"
forgetful of dinner, he turned and put for his office across the street in a burst of feverish energy. once there, he seized a pencil and began to scribble down what he had overheard, and then grabbed a stick and turned to the nearest type-case. in another moment the butchery was going forward merrily.
in the meantime, doctor scudder finished a hasty meal and then was taken to the room of tom lee. presently he was sitting beside the latter's bed and inquiring into the accident.
in the adjoining room sat claire lee, busy with some sewing; but there was a flutter of fear in her eyes, and from time to time her lips trembled, as though she were fighting down some inner repulsion, some frightful and unspeakable horror whose talons were gripping at her from that inner room. and yet the two men, whose conversation came clearly to her, were not speaking of her at all.
"you wired me that you had found the place—the place which exactly suited you," said scudder calmly. "so i came right along."
"good!" said tom lee, who was sitting up in bed. "good! i am eager to get to work. did you arrange for a contractor as i ordered?"
the doctor nodded.
"yes. i stopped in meteorite and got hold of a good man there. he's coming over this afternoon—drives his own car—and you can go over the plans with him to-night. of course, you'll have to figure on expensive work, for men and supplies will have to be shipped from meteorite by truck."
tom lee waved his hand negligently, as though the question of expense were one to be waived altogether.
"that goes without saying," he responded. "but i am glad that you came; i need you very badly. the allowance of opium that you gave me ran out four days ago."
scudder laughed, and relaxed in his chair.
"and how are you doing without it?" he inquired. "can you get along?"
"not here in bed," he rejoined. "if i were outside, actively engaged, at work upon our plans, i think that the activity would help me tremendously. when i was busy with claire looking up the place, i found this to be true."
scudder's black eyes narrowed very slightly, as though inwardly he were a bit astonished. but his words gave the lie to this supposition.
"that's exactly what i calculated on," he returned easily, "and it proves that my theories have been correct. fortunately, i brought along a good supply. by the way, i'm interested in this fellow who fixed you up—did you say his name was murray? what did he look like?"
tom lee described murray very accurately. from scudder broke a word of astonishment.
"by george!" he exclaimed. "do you know, that's very remarkable!"
"what?" demanded tom lee, gazing at him with heavy-lidded calm.
"that he should turn up here!" scudder was animated, vigorous.
"you know him, then?"
"no, but i know of him. why, that fellow was one of the greatest surgeons in the country until a year ago! he went all to pieces in a hurry and dropped out of sight; it was more or less hushed up, of course, but in professional circles the truth is known. it was caused by morphia; the poor fellow; must have been a hopeless victim."
"he does not look it now," said tom lee. his features contracted slightly. "morphia! and that goes back to opium again. all the more need of our getting to work without further delay, doctor scudder! you will remain here for a time?"
scudder's eyes went for an instant to the door of the other room.
"yes, as long as you want me," he rejoined. "in fact, i think i'll remain here until things shape up right, then return to san francisco for my things, and come back here for good. i'll want to keep an eye on the building work."
silently, without a word, tom lee took from a table beside the bed a little round cup of horn. once it had contained a brownish substance, but now it was scraped clean inside, scraped down to the very horn. silently, he held it out to the doctor. it was an opium toy.
scudder smiled and nodded as he took the little cup. "i'll attend to it at once," he said, and rose. "do you like this desert country as much as you expected?"
"yes," said tom lee gravely. "it is wonderful; it is ideal! i like it for itself, no less than for our purpose. i am an american; i love this country, i am part of it—and this desert is to me like the great wilderness of my own shensi, the very heart of the ancient land, full of great unguessed things and strange powers! yes, i like this desert."
scudder, shrugging his shoulders as though to indicate that it was all a matter of choice, turned away. at the door of the other room, claire halted him.
"doctor! is it true—what you said about doctor murray?"
for a moment scudder looked into her eyes as though reading what lay behind her eagerness, her compassionate words. beneath his beard, his lips tightened.
"yes," he said. "i'm sorry to say that's quite true, miss lee. of course, this murray may not be the same man. i'm delighted by your father's improvement; i think this country is going to do wonders for him! if you'll excuse me, i'll get him a little opium now. it'll help him greatly and put him in shape to go over things with the contractor tonight."
he left for his own room, which was across the hall. when the door had closed behind him, claire lee stood motionless, both hands at her breast. in her eyes was a numbed, wondering look, the look of one who was inwardly fluttering with fear of the unknown and the intangible. then, as tom lee called her, the look vanished and she turned to the other room.
tom lee looked up at her, then held out his hand. she took it, silently, and his strong fingers closed upon hers in a mutely significant gesture. it was an endearment, that quiet touching of the hands, but it was more than an endearment. from the massive personality of the man there went out to the girl a quiet force, a compellant for poise; a reassurance of strength and faith and love unassailable.
"you are not glad he has come?" asked tom lee, watching her eyes.
"no," she answered simply. "i do not believe in him!" a wistful smile came to her lips, as she touched his coarse black hair with caressing fingers.
"my dear," said tom lee gravely, "he has done great things for me; his treatment is helping me tremendously. he is efficient, that man!"
claire said no more. she turned away and opened a box that lay upon the table. from it she took a lamp, filled the bowl with peanut oil—which is odorless—and lighted it. she laid out a bamboo opium pipe, a needle, a set of the simple, but ingenious scales, and then turned again as doctor scudder knocked and entered the room.
late that afternoon, two other men drifted into two palms. one came from the north, and this was deadoak stevens. he tramped disconsolately into the hotel and sought out piute tomkins, with whom he was closeted for some time. the two men emerged from their talk with an air of hopelessness; piute had chewed at his ragged mustache until it had become a wisp.
the other arrival was the meteorite contractor, by name patrick hennesy. he greeted piute jovially; a brawny, red-faced man, and registered for the night. then he inquired for doctor scudder, and was directed to the latter's room. as he turned from the register, he was frowning.
"what's this?" he said, beckoning to piute and pointing with one stubby finger to the register. "who's this guy mackintavers? he don't go by the front name o' sandy, i suppose?"
piute assented with a trace of surprise. patrick hennesy broke into a lurid oath and inquired as to the whereabouts of said mackintavers. when informed that sandy was then somewhere to northward, he doubled up one huge fist.
"what's bitin' you?" inquired piute with interest. "know him, do you?"
"know him?" hennesy glared for a minute, then relaxed. "well, i used to know him—and i sure want to see if he comes back to-night! if he don't—then don't say nothin' about me, savvy? i'll connect with that cuss later."
piute assented, not knowing just what to make of all this. he felt too hopeless over the report of deadoak stevens, however, to push his inquiries into the matter.
bill hobbs, in the interim, was working feverishly through the hot afternoon in his printing office across the street. he had already evolved some principles of type setting, and now he was alternately cursing and blessing the implements to his hand, as he set up a grotesque and fearful array of words.
toward sunset he viewed his labors with a marvelling satisfaction. the late proprietor had left a front-page form already in shape to receive news articles, and bill hobbs hung over the stone with an admiring eye as he studied the news article which he had supplied in part.
"gee!" willyum sucked in his breath admiringly. "i'll break off for supper, then do some more. tomorrow i'll have her done. gee! ain't she great!"
that evening he continued his labors by lamplight.
in the room of tom lee across in the hotel, patrick hennesy was that evening poring over blue prints and architect's plans, discussing them with tom lee and doctor scudder, while claire listened and made occasional comments. hennesy looked completely stumped and extremely mystified. he was unable to arrive at the purpose of the buildings which tom lee wished him to erect, and the probable cost of them staggered him. but when tom lee calmly extended him a check which ran into four large figures, and told him to take it on account, he was forced to accept matters.
"then i'll be back later," he said in conclusion. "i'll run out to that place soon's you got the deed, and see just what gradin' will have to be done, and git a shovel to work."
early in the morning, the contractor departed back to meteorite, repulsing all efforts of piute and deadoak to penetrate his mysterious business with tom lee.
through the morning, bill hobbs slaved in his printing office. at noon, he announced jubilantly to piute and other citizens of two palms, over the dinner table, that his forms were locked and on the press, and that he'd run off a newspaper that afternoon that would sure make 'em sit up some when they read it!
at two o'clock, after some slight delays incidental to inking and other complicated matters, the helngon star went to press.
"gee!" exclaimed willyum as he drew the first sheet away and looked it over with humble devotion in his eyes. "gee! ain't that wonderful, now?"
he was right. it was wonderful.
