Part 12 (1/2)

d.i.c.k paused for a moment or two, remembering how he had confronted his judges in a tent in an English valley. The scene came back with poignant distinctness.

He could hear the river brawling among the stones, and feel his Colonel's stern, condemning gaze fixed upon his face. For all that, his tone was resolute as he asked: ”What was the brand of the cement you bought?”

”The _Tenax_, senor,” Oliva answered with a defiant smile.

Then d.i.c.k turned to the others with a gesture which implied that there was no more to be said, and quietly sat down. _Tenax_ was not the brand that Fuller used, and its different properties would have appeared in the tests. The sub-contractor had betrayed himself by the lie, and his accomplice looked at him with disgust.

”You've given the thing away,” he growled. ”Think they don't know what cement is? Now they have you fixed!”

There was silence for the next minute while Stuyvesant studied some figures in his pocket-book. Then he wrote upon a leaf, which he tore out and told d.i.c.k to give it to Oliva.

”Here's a rough statement of your account up to the end of last month, Don Ramon,” he said. ”You can check it and afterwards hand the pay-clerk a formal bill, brought up to date, but you'll notice I have charged you with a quant.i.ty of cement that's missing from our store. Your engagement with Mr. Fuller ends to-day.”

Oliva spread out his hands with a dramatic gesture. ”Senores, this is a scandal, a grand injustice! You understand it will ruin me? It is impossible that I submit.”

”Very well. We'll put the matter into the hands of the _Justicia_.”

”It is equal,” Oliva declared with pa.s.sion. ”You have me marked as a thief. The port officials give me no more work and my friends talk. At the _Justicia_ all the world hears my defense.”

”As you like,” said Stuyvesant, but the storekeeper turned to Oliva with a contemptuous grin.

”I allow you're not such a blamed fool,” he remarked. ”Take the chance they've given you and get from under before the roof falls in.”

Oliva pondered for a few moments, his eyes fixed on Stuyvesant's unmoved face, and then shrugged with an air of injured resignation.

”It is a grand scandal, but I make my bill.”

He moved slowly to the door, but paused as he reached it, and gave d.i.c.k a quick, malignant glance. Then he went out and the storekeeper asked Stuyvesant: ”What are you going to do with me?”

”Fire you right now. Go along to the pay-clerk and give him your time. I don't know if that's all we ought to do; but we'll be satisfied if you and your partner get off this camp.”

”I'll quit,” said the storekeeper, who turned to d.i.c.k. ”You're a smart kid, but we'd have bluffed you all right if the fool had allowed he used the same cement.”

Then he followed Oliva, and Stuyvesant got up.

”That was Oliva's mistake,” he remarked. ”I saw where you were leading him and you put the questions well. Now, however, you'll have to take on his duties until we get another man.”

They left the testing-house, and as Bethune and d.i.c.k walked up the valley the former said: ”It's my opinion that you were imprudent in one respect.

You showed the fellows that it was you who found them out. It might have been better if you had, so to speak, divided the responsibility.”

”They've gone, and that's the most important thing,” d.i.c.k rejoined.

”From the works. It doesn't follow that they'll quit Santa Brigida.

Payne, the storekeeper, is of course an American tough, but I don't think he'll make trouble. He'd have robbed us cheerfully, but I expect he'll take his being found out as a risk of the game; besides, Stuyvesant will have to s.h.i.+p him home if he asks for his pa.s.sage. But I didn't like the look Oliva gave you. These dago half-breeds are a revengeful lot.”

”I'm not in the town often and I'll be careful if I go there after dark.

To tell the truth, I didn't want to interfere, but I couldn't let the rogues go on with their stealing.”