He fumbled in his pocket and Denver's heart stood still, but it was only his check from the smelter. He slipped it into his s.h.i.+rt without even glancing at the big total and looked up at Bunker expectantly.

"Well?" he prompted and Old Bunk twisted in the saddle before he began to talk.

"How much did you get for your s.h.i.+pment?" he inquired but Denver shrugged impatiently.

"What do I give a d.a.m.n?" he demanded. "What's up? What you got on your mind?"

"Big stuff," replied Bunker, "but I want you to listen to me--they's no use running off at the head."

"Who's running off at the head? Go on and shoot your wad. Is it something about my mine?"

"Yes--and mine," answered Bunker. "I don't know whether you know it, but your property apexes the Lost Burro. And another thing, silver has gone up. But Pinal is just as dead as it was a year ago. The whole camp is waiting on you."

"Well, what do you want me to do? Get a parole and give Murray my mine?"

"No, just get a parole--and then we'll get you a pardon. I'll tell you, Denver, the Dutchman has begun to talk and it seems he saw your fight.

He's told several people that you never pulled your gun, just struck out at the crowd with your fists. And if hints and winks count for anything with him he knows who it was that killed Meacham. He says he was. .h.i.t from behind. I've tried everything, Denver, to make that Dutchman talk or put something down on paper; but he's scared so bad of Murray, and mebbe of his gun-men, that he won't say a word, unless he's drunk. Now here's the proposition--old Murray has had you railroaded, and he's sure going to squeeze you until you let go of that claim. Why not sell out for a good price, if he'll make the Professor talk and help get you a pardon from the Governor? You know the Governor, he'll pardon most anybody, but you've got to give him some excuse. Well, the Professor has got the evidence to get you out to-morrow--if Murray will just tell him to talk."

"What d'ye call a good price?" inquired Denver suspiciously. "Did Murray put you up to this?"

"No!" snapped Bunker, "but he named ten thousand dollars as the most he could possibly give. He owns the Colonel Dodge's interest in the Lost Burro Mining Company now."

"Your pardner, eh?" sneered Denver. "Well, where would I get off if I took this friendly tip? I'd lose my mine, that's worth a million, at least; and get ten thousand dollars and a parole. A paroled man can't locate a claim--nor an ex-convict, neither. The Silver Treasure is the last claim that I'll ever get; and I'm going to hold onto it, by grab!"

"You're crazy," declared Bunker, "didn't I say we'd get you a pardon?

Well, a pardon restores you to citizens.h.i.+p--you can locate all the claims you want."

"Yes, sure; _if_ I'm pardoned! But I know that danged Dutchman--he wouldn't turn a hand to get me out of the Pen' if you'd give him a hundred thousand dollars. He's got it in for me, for not buying his claim when I took the Silver Treasure from you; and more'n that, he's afraid of me, because if I ever get out----"

"Oh, don't be a dammed fool all the rest of your life," burst out Bunker Hill impatiently. "If you'd quiet down a little and quit fighting your head, maybe your friends would be able to help you. I might as well tell you that I've been to the Governor and told him the facts of the case; and he's practically promised, if the Professor will come through, to give you a full pardon with citizens.h.i.+p. Now be reasonable, Denver, and quit trying to whip the world, and we'll get you out of this jack-pot.

Give old Murray your mine--you can never law it away from him--and take your ten thousand dollars; then move to another camp and make a fresh start where there's n.o.body working against you. Of course I'm Murray's pardner--he put one over on me--but at the same time I reckon I'm your friend. Now there's the proposition and you can take it or leave it--I ain't going to bother you again."

"Nope, it don't look good to me," answered Denver promptly, "there's too many ifs and ands. And I'll stay here till I rot before Bible-Back Murray will ever get that mine from _me_. He hired that bunch of gun-men to jump my claim twice when he had no t.i.tle to the mine, and then he hired Chatwourth and Slogger Meacham to get me in the door and kill me. They made a slight mistake and got the wrong man, then sent me to the Pen' for murder. That's the kind of a dastard you've got for a pardner but you can tell him I'll never give up. I'll fight till I die, and if I ever get out----"

"Yes, there you go again," burst out Bunker Hill bitterly, "you ain't got the brain of a mule. If I wasn't to blame for loaning you that gun and leaving you out of my sight, I'd pa.s.s up your case for good. But I didn't have no better sense than to slip you my old six-shooter, and now Mrs. Hill can't hardly git over it so I'll give you another try. My daughter, Drusilla, is coming home next week and she hasn't even heard about this trouble. Now--are you going to stay here and meet her as a convict, or will you come and meet her like a gentleman. This ain't my doin's--I'd see you in h.e.l.l, first--but Mrs. Hill says when you get out on parole we'll be glad to receive you as our guest."

Denver stopped and considered, smiling and frowning by turns, but at last he shook his head mournfully.

"No," he muttered, "what will she care for a poor ex-con? No, I'm down and out," he went on to Bunker, "and she'll hear about it, anyhow. It's too late now to pretend I'm a gentleman--my number has burned in like a brand. All these other prisoners know me and they'll turn me up anywhere; if I go to the China Coast one of 'em would show up, sooner or later, and bawl me out for a convict. No, I'm ruined as a gentleman, and old Murray did it; but by G.o.d, if I live, I'll teach him to regret it--and he won't make a dollar out of me. That claim is tied up till John D. Rockefeller himself couldn't get it away from me now; and it'll lay right there until I serve out my sentence or get a free pardon from the Governor. I won't agree to anything and----"

He stopped abruptly and looked away, after which he reached out his hand.

"Well, much obliged, Bunk," he said, trying to smile, "I'm sorry I can't accommodate you. Just thank Mrs. Hill for what she has done and--and tell her I'll never forget it."

He went back to his work and old Bunk watched him wonderingly, after which he rode solemnly away. Then the road-making dragged on--clearing away brush, blasting out rock, filling in, grading up, making the crown--but now the road-boss was absent minded and oblivious and his pride in the job was gone. He let the men lag and leave rough ends, and every few moments his eyes would stray away and look down the canyon for the stage. And as the automobiles came up he scanned the pa.s.sengers hungrily--until at last he saw Drusilla. There was the fluttering of a veil, the flash of startled eyes, a quick belated wave, and she was gone. Denver stood in the road, staring after her blankly, and then he threw down his pick.

"Send me back to the Pen'" he said to the guard, "I'm going to apply for parole."

CHAPTER XXIX

THE INTERPRETATION THEREOF

After all his suffering, his oaths, his refusals, his rejection of each friendly offer, Denver had changed his mind in the fraction of a second when he saw Drusilla whirl past. He forgot his mine, the fierce battles, the prophecy--all he wanted was to see her again. Placed on his honor for the trip he started down the road, walking fast when he failed to catch a ride, and early the next morning he reported at the prison to apply for an immediate parole. But luck was against him and his heart died in his breast, for the Board of Prison Directors had met the week before and would not meet again for three weeks. Three weeks of idle waiting, of pacing up and down and cursing the slow pa.s.sage of time; and then, perhaps, delays and disappointments and obstructions from Bible-Back Murray. He sat with bowed head, then rose up suddenly and wrote a brief letter to Murray.

"Get me a pardon," he scrawled, "and I'll give you a quit-claim. This goes, if you do it quick."

He put it in the mail, with a special delivery stamp, and watched the endless hours creep by. She was there in Pinal, running her scales, practicing her exercises, singing arias from the operas at night; and he was shut in by the gray concrete walls where the guards looked down from the towers. He could not trust himself now outside of the yard, his nerve was gone and he would head for Pinal like a homing bird to its mate. And then it came, quicker than he had ever thought or hoped for, though he had offered the Silver Treasure in return for it--a full pardon from the Governor, with his citizens.h.i.+p restored and a letter expressing confidence in his innocence. Denver clutched it to his breast and started out across the desert with his eyes on distant Pinal.

It lay in the shadow of Apache Leap, that blue wall that loomed to the east, and he hardly stopped to shake hands with the Warden in his haste to get out on the road. There he stopped the first automobile that was going up the canyon and demanded a ride as his right, and so earnest was his manner that the driver took him in and even speeded up his machine.

But at the fork of the ways, where the new road turned off to Murray, Denver thanked him and got off to walk. The sun was low but he did not hurry--he had begun to doubt his welcome. A hot shame swept over him at his convict's s.h.i.+rt, his worn shoes and battered hat; and he wondered suddenly if it was not all a mistake, if he had not thrown his mine away. She was an opera singer now, returning from a season which must have given her a taste of success--what use would she have for him?

Up the wash to the west, where the automobile road went, a big camp had sprung up in his absence; but when he topped the hill and gazed down on Pinal nothing had changed, it was just the same. The street was broad and empty, the houses still in ruins, his cave still there across the creek; and from the chimney of Bunker's house a column of smoke mounted up to show that supper was being cooked. Yes, it was the same old town that he had entered the year before when Old Bunk had taken him for a hobo; but now he was hobo and ex-convict both, though the pardon had restored him to citizens.h.i.+p. His broad shoulders drooped, he turned back and crossed the creek and slunk like a thief to his cave.

The door was chained but he wrenched it open and slipped in out of sight. Bunker Hill had closed up the cave and covered all his things, and his bed was spread with clean, white sheets; the floor was swept and the dishes washed, and he knew whose hands had done it. It was Mrs.

Hill's, that kindest of all women; who had even invited him to their home. Denver started a fire and cooked a hasty supper from the canned goods that were left in his boxes and then he looked down on the town.

The sun had set now and a single bright star glowed solemnly in the west, but the valley was silent except for the frogs that made the air palpitate with their chorus. Old Bunk came out and went over to the store; someone struck a chord in the house, and as Denver listened hungrily a voice rose up, clear and flute-like, yet somehow changed.

It was her's, it was Drusilla's, and yet it was not; the year had made a change. There was a difference in her singing; a new note of tenderness, of yearning, of sadness, of love. Yes, he recognized it now, it had the quality of the Cradle Song that she had listened to so enviously on his phonograph. She had caught it, at last, that secret, subtle something which gives Schumann-Heink her power; and which comes only from love--and suffering. Denver rose up, startled; he had not thought of it before, but Drusilla must have suffered, too. Not as tragically as he but in other ways, fighting her way against the whole world. He went in hastily and lit his lamp but even when he was dressed his courage failed him and he bowed his head on the table. He dared not face her--now.

The singing had ceased, the frog chorus seemed to mock him, to din his convict's shame into his ears; but as he yielded to despair a hand fell on his shoulders and he looked up to see Drusilla. She was more beautiful than ever, dressed in the soft yellow gown that she had worn when first he saw her, but her eyes were reproachful and near to tears and she drew her hand away.

"What is it?" she asked. "Can't you ever care for me? Must I make every single advance? Oh, Denver, after I'd come clear home to see you--why wouldn't you come down to the house?"

He roused up startled, unable to comprehend her, his mind in a whirl of emotions.

"I was afraid you didn't want me," he said at last and she sank down on the bench beside him.

"Not want you?" she repeated. "Why, haven't I done everything to get you out of prison? Didn't I go to the Professor and beg and plead with him and sing all my German songs; didn't I go to the Governor and take him with me, and go through everything to have you pardoned?"

"Pardoned!" burst out Denver and then he stopped and shook his head regretfully. "No," he said, "I wish you had, though. I traded my mine for it--to Murray!"

"Why, Denver!" she cried, "you did nothing of the kind. I got you that pardon myself! And then, after all that--and after I'd played, and sung, and waited for you--you wouldn't even come down to see me!"

"Why, sure I would!" he protested brokenly, "I'd do anything for you, Drusilla! But I was afraid you wouldn't want me. I've been in prison, you know, and it makes a difference. They call me an ex-con now."

"No, but Denver," she entreated, "surely you didn't think--why, we _asked_ you to come and stay with us."

"Yes, I know," he said but the sullen look had come back; he could not forget so soon. "I know," he went on, "but it wouldn't be right--I guess we've made a mistake. I wanted to see you, Drusilla; I gave everything I had, just to get here before you went----"

"Did you really?" she asked taking him gently by the hand and looking deep into his eyes, "did you give up your mine--for me?"

"Just to see you," answered Denver, "but after I got here----"

"Oh, I'm so glad!" she sighed, "and you haven't lost your mine. I got to the Governor first."