Part 18 (2/2)

”If you had accepted my hand you'd not find me adopting the tone that I have.”

”Just so!” Selden drawled. ”Well, then, I'll accept her now--if I ain't too bold.”

”You will not,” clicked Oliver. ”Will you please state your business and ride on?”

”Friendly cuss, ain't he, Dad?” remarked one of the Selden boys--which one Oliver did not know.

”You close yer face!” admonished Selden smoothly, in his deep ba.s.s.

”Well, Mr. Drew, if ye want to stay here an' starve to death, that's none o' my concern. And if ye got money to live on comin' from somewheres else, that's none o' my concern either. But when ye stop the run o' water from a spring that I'm dependin' on to water my critters in dry months, it _is_ my concern--an' that's why I dropped off for a word with ye.”

”How do you know I have done that?” Oliver asked.

”Well, 'tain't likely that a spring like Sulphur Spring would go dry the last o' May. Most o' these springs along here are fed from the same vein. You move in, and Sulphur Spring goes dry. So that's what I dropped off to talk to ye about. Just so!”

”I suppose,” said Oliver, ”that the work I did on my spring has in reality stopped the flow of Sulphur Spring. But--”

”Ye do? What _makes_ ye suppose so?--if I ain't too bold in askin'.”

Oliver's lips straightened. Plainly Selden suspected that Jessamy had told him of the peculiarity of the canon springs, and was trying to make him implicate her. But the old man was not the crafty intriguer he seemed to fancy himself to be. He already had said too much if he wished to make Oliver drag the girl's name into the quarrel.

”Why, what you have just told me, added to my knowledge of what I did to clean out my spring, leads to that supposition,” he replied. ”But, as I was about to remark when you interrupted me, I can't see that that is any concern of mine. That's putting it rather bluntly, perhaps; but I am entirely within my rights in developing all the water that I can on my land, regardless of how it may affect land that lies below me.”

”Right there's the point,” retorted Selden. ”I'm a pretty good friend o'

the prosecutin' attorney down at the county seat. He tells me ye can't take my water away from me like that.”

”Then I should say that your legal friend is not very well posted on the laws governing the development and disposition of water in this state,”

Oliver promptly told him.

”I wrote him,” said Selden, ”an' I'll show ye the letter if ye'll invite me in.”

For the first time Oliver hesitated. Why did Selden wish to enter the cabin? Could not the letter be produced and read on the porch? It flashed through his mind that the old fox wished to get him inside so that some of his gang might investigate the spring and find out the volume of the water that was flowing, and what had been done to increase it. This only added to his belief that the Poison Oakers were responsible for the wall of stones that had choked the stream. Well, why not let them find out all that they wished to know in this regard?

”Certainly,” he invited. ”Come in.” And he stood back from the door.

Selden clanked his spur rowels across the threshold. At the same time he was reaching into his s.h.i.+rtfront for the letter.

Then an odd thing occurred. He was about to take the chair that Oliver had pushed forward when his blue eyes fell upon the saddle and bridle which had come to stand for so much in Oliver's life, hanging from a thong in one corner of the room.

The old Poison Oaker's eyes grew wide, and, as was their way when he was moved out of his customary brooding mood, his thick nostrils began dilating. But almost instantly he was his cold, insolent self again.

”I heard some of 'em ga.s.sin' about that rig o' yours,” he remarked.

”Said she was a hummer all 'round. That it there? Mind if I look her over?”

”Not at all.” Oliver was quick to grasp at any chance that might lead to the big question and its answer.

Old Man Selden's leather chaps whistled his legs to the corner, where he stood, long arms at his sides, gazing at the saddle, the bridle, and the martingales. His deep breathing was the only sound in the room. Outside, Oliver heard foot-steps, and suspected that the investigation of his spring was on.

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