第51章

It was the end of the rainy season, and a wet night.Brace and Parks were looking from the window over the swollen river, with faces quite as troubled as the stream below.Nor was the prospect any longer the same.In the past two years Buckeye had grown into a city.They could now count a half dozen church spires from the window of the three-storied brick building which had taken the place of the old wooden Emporium, but they could also count the brilliantly lit windows of an equal number of saloons and gambling-houses which glittered through the rain, or, to use the words of a local critic, "Shone seven nights in the week to the Gospel shops'

ONE!" A difficulty had arisen which the two men had never dreamed of, and a struggle had taken place between the two rival powers, which was developing a degree of virulence and intolerance on both sides that boded no good to Buckeye.The disease which its infancy had escaped had attacked its adult growth with greater violence.

The new American saloons which competed with Jovita Mendez' Spanish venture had substituted a brutal masculine sincerity for her veiled feminine methods.There was higher play, deeper drinking, darker passion.Yet the opposition, after the fashion of most reformers, were casting back to the origin of the trouble in Jovita, and were confounding principles and growth."If it had not been for her the rule would never have been broken." "If there was to be a cleaning out of the gambling houses, she must go first!"The sounds of a harp and a violin played in the nearest saloon struggled up to them with the opening and shutting of its swinging baize inner doors.There was boisterous chanting from certain belated revelers in the next street which had no such remission.

The brawling of the stream below seemed to be echoed in the uneasy streets; the quiet of the old days had departed with the sedate, encompassing woods that no longer fringed the river bank; the restful calm of Nature had receded before the dusty outskirts of the town.

"It's mighty unfortunate, too," said Brace moodily, "that Shuttleworth and Saunders, who haven't been in the place since their row, have come over from Fiddletown to-day, and are banging around town.They haven't said anything that I know of, but their PRESENCE is quite enough to revive the old feeling against her shop.The Committee," he added bitterly, "will be sure to say that not only the first gambling, but the first shooting in Buckeye took place there.If they get up that story again--no matter how quiet SHE has become since--no matter what YOU may say as mayor--it will go hard with her.What's that now?"They listened breathlessly.Above the brawling of the river, the twanging of the harp-player, and the receding shouts of the revelers, they could hear the hollow wooden sidewalks resounding with the dull, monotonous trampling of closely following feet.

Parks rose with a white face.

"Brace!"

"Yes!"

"Will you stand by me--and HER?"

"Stand by YOU AND HER? Eh? What? Good God! Parks!--you don't mean to say you--it's gone as far as THAT?""Will you or won't you?"

The sound of the trampling had changed to a shuffling on the pavement below, and then footsteps began to ascend the stairs.

Brace held out his hand quickly and grasped that of Parks as the door opened to half a dozen men.They were evidently the ringleaders of the crowd below.There was no hesitation or doubt in their manner; the unswerving directness which always characterized those illegal demonstrations lent it something of dignity.Nevertheless, Carpenter, the spokesman, flushed slightly before Parks' white, determined face.

"Come, Parks, you know what we're after," he said bluntly."We didn't come here to parley.We knew YOUR sentiments and what YOUthink is your duty.We know what we consider OURS--and so do you.