Part 44 (1/2)
Mrs. Flynn wiped her eyes on her ap.r.o.n. ”G.o.d knows I'm an old fool,” she said. ”Change that dirty khaki suit so's I can wash it.”
Jim chuckled and turned to Pen. She was watching the little tableau with all her hungry heart in her eyes.
”Pen! Oh, my dearest!” breathed Jim. Then he paused with a glance at his near-mother, who immediately began to rattle the stove lids.
”Get out and take a walk, the two of you. G.o.d knows I'm a good Catholic, but there's some things--get out, the two of you! Let your nerves ease up a bit. Sure we all pound and tw.a.n.g like a wet tent in the wind.”
Out on the trail Jim spoke a little breathlessly: ”Pen! If you would just let me put my head down on your shoulder, if you'd put your dear cheek on mine and smooth my hair, the heaven of it would carry me through the next few weeks. Just that much, Pen, is all I'd ask for!”
Tears were in Pen's eyes as she looked up into the fine, pleading face.
”Jim, I can't!”
”You wouldn't be taking it from Sara.”
”Sara! Poor Sara! He wants no embraces from anyone! I'm no more married to Sara than a nurse to her patient. But I mean that as long as things are as they are, the honest thing, the safe thing, is for me not to--to--Oh, Jim, it's not square to any of us. We must keep on the straight, clear basis of friends.h.i.+p!”
But Jim had seen Pen's heart in her eyes and the call of it was almost more than his lonely heart could bear.
”Great heavens, Pen!” he cried. ”Life is so short! We need each other so! What does it profit us or the world that all your wealth of tenderness should go untouched and all my hunger for it unsatisfied? If your touch on my hair will brace me for the fight of my life, why should you deny it to me?”
Pen tried to laugh. ”Still, what's happened to your morals?”
Jim replied indignantly: ”You can't apply a system of ethics to your cheek against mine except to say it's all wrong that I can't have you now, in my great need. And I warn you, Pen, I shall come to you thirsty until at last you give me what is mine. Only your cheek to mine is all I ask for, Penny.”
Pen looked up at the pleading beauty of Jim's eyes. ”Don't plead with me, Jim,” she half whispered, ”or I think my heart will break.”
The two looked away from each other to the Elephant. The great beast seemed to sleep in the afternoon sun.
”Tell me about your plans, Still,” said Pen, her voice not altogether steady.
”Murphy thinks I'm a fool,” said Jim. ”Perhaps I am. But Oscar Ames has been a good deal of a surprise to me: Just as soon as I took the trouble to explain the concrete matter to him, he got it instantly. And in a way he got my talk about the new social obligations you showed me.”
Pen interrupted eagerly: ”You don't know how much you did in that talk, Jim. Oscar has discovered you and he's as proud as Columbus. He has made me tell him everything I know about you. You see you have that rare capacity for making anyone you will take the trouble to talk to feel as if he was your only friend and confidant. Oscar has discovered that you are misunderstood, that he is the only person that really understands you and he's out now explaining to his neighbors how little they really know about concrete.”
Jim looked surprised. ”I don't know what I did, except to follow your instructions, but if it worked on Ames, it ought to work on the rest. I believe that after a few more talks with Ames, he will work against Fleckenstein, Pen, and that I will accomplish it by just talking the dam to him until he understands the technical side of it and the ideal I have about it. And if it will influence him, why not the others?”
Pen looked at him thoughtfully. ”I believe you can do it, Jim. A sort of silent campaign, eh? And then what?”
”Well, if I can keep Fleckenstein out of Congress by those means, I believe that this project will never repudiate its debt! I am going to get the Department of Agriculture to send a group of experts out here at once. They will help not only the old farmers who over-irrigate but the new farmers who can't farm. And I'm going to get the farmers who have been successful to co-operate with the farmers who have failed. If I only had more time!
”You have three months before election,” said Pen. ”A lot can be done in three months.”
Jim shrugged his shoulders. ”I can only do my limit. Among other things I'm going to try to get the bankers and business men in Cabillo to fight the inflation of land values here on the Project. Incidentally, I'm going to keep on building my dam.”
”How can I help?” asked Pen.
”I've told you how,” said Jim, quietly.
”Oh, Still, that's not fair!” exclaimed Pen.
”Why not?” asked Jim, coolly. Pen flushed and looked away. They were nearing the tent house and she spoke hastily: