Part 46 (1/2)
”And what else?” relentlessly.
”Prospected a little. Ran out of provisions and went two days without a bite to eat. Returned to find a strike on at the mine--and the strikers in possession.” He halted reminiscently. ”I knocked a man down that day: the leader. He dared me and there were a dozen others backing him up. It was him or me and it couldn't be avoided. In the affair I hurt my hand; while it was healing I went to 'Frisco and took in the theatres.” He held up the member indicated, reversed this time for inspection. A white jagged scar ran diagonally over the knuckles. ”It's entirely well now.”
The girl caught her breath. No query this time.
The hand returned idly to the man's lap. He looked away.
”It's a rough life out there,” he resumed evenly, ”wild and primitive; but it's fascinating in a way. Besides, it's one of the things I wanted to know. I think I do know it. I don't believe any one could fool me on a mine now.”
Elice Gleason looked at him steadily, until perforce he returned her gaze.
”Granted,” she admitted steadily; ”but is it worth while?”
”Worth while? How do I know--or any one. It's necessary for some one to know. It's part of the big game. Farther than that--My hair is all gray now--and I don't know.”
His companion looked away, with a little gesture of impatience.
”Last of all, the mine itself?” she suggested.
Roberts hesitated, his face inscrutable as a book closed.
”If I knew what you wanted to know,” he said at last, ”I'd tell you; but I don't. It's fabulous, if that answers your question. It's like Aladdin's lamp: there's nothing material on the face of the earth it won't give for the asking. It's producing enough now daily to keep a sane man a year. It's power infinite for good or evil, and creating more power day by day.” He halted, then unconsciously repeated himself. ”Yes, power infinite, neither more nor less.”
There was a long silence before his companion spoke.
”And power, you said once, was the thing you wanted most. You have it at last.”
”Yes, I have it at last, that's true. I can command the services of a thousand men, to work for me or amuse me; or for another if I direct. I can pa.s.s current anywhere at any time, and make any one I care to name pa.s.s current with me. The master key is in my possession tight. I can choose my tools for whatever I wish done from a mult.i.tude. The material is limitless, for I can pay. Besides, as I said before, this power is increasing inevitably, whether I'm asleep or awake, growing by its own momentum. I have it at last, yes; but it neither is nor ever was what I wanted most, Elice. I said I wanted it, you're right; but I never said I wanted it most. You know what I want most in the world, Elice.”
Listening, Elice Gleason folded her hands tight, until the blood left the fingers.
”Yes, I know,” she said steadily. ”We understand each other; it's useless to pretend otherwise. I've tried, and you've seen through the disguise and smiled. It's simply useless.” The clasped hands opened in a gesture of dismissal. ”But don't let's speak of it now. I want to hear your plans for the future. What are you going to do now that you have--power?”
”Do?” Roberts looked at her steadily. ”That depends upon one condition absolutely. It's superfluous for me to name that one.”
The girl flashed him a look from eyes unnaturally bright.
”Please,” she pleaded, ”leave it alone for a time. You have two courses outlined, an option. It would be unlike you otherwise. What are those two?”
”I didn't mean to be insistent, Elice,” said Roberts, gently. ”Take my word for it, I shan't be again, whatever you decide. Yes; I see two ways ahead. In one, work will be secondary, another's happiness first, always first. In the other, I shall work--to forget. The incentive of the game itself is gone. I've won the game. But there is no other way to forget and retain self-respect; so I shall work--to the end.”
”And you must decide soon?”
”Yes, at once. I can't remain longer in uncertainty. Nothing is so bad as that. It's like a bungling execution: infinitely better for all concerned to be complete. To-morrow I take up the trail one way or the other.”
Opposite, the girl caught her breath for an instant; but though the other saw he said nothing. He had promised he would not.
”You'll leave then to-morrow, if--” That was all.
”Yes.”