"Take fossils--a school boy would know that the demand for fossils is limited, and who is sure that the bed is inexhaustible until it's tested. When the government is taking nitrates out of the air in Prouty to make ammunition, you and I will be under the daisies, Governor."

If looks could kill, Toomey would have died standing. But he continued emphatically:

"The salvation of Prouty is water. By water I mean the completion of the irrigation project. Gentlemen--I am here to state unreservedly that I can put that enterprise through, providing the stockholders will give me an option upon fifty-one per cent. of the stock. I must have the controlling interest."

Could he have an option? _Could_ he! Only the restraining hand of a neighbor upon his coat tail prevented Walt Scales from hurdling the intervening chairs to reach Toomey to thrust his shares upon him. Hope and skepticism of the genuineness of his a.s.sertions commingled in the faces upon which Toomey looked, while he waited for an answer. He saw the doubt and took Prentiss's letter from his pocket. Shaking it at them, he declared impressively:

"This communication is from a party I have interested--an old friend of mine of wealth and standing, who will finance the project providing it is as represented, and under the condition I have just mentioned."

Toomey himself so thoroughly believed what he said that he carried conviction, although nowadays his veracity under oath would have been questioned.

The prospect of unloading his stock made Hiram Butefish as thirsty as if he had eaten herring, and, overlooking the gla.s.s in his excitement, he drank long and deep from the water pitcher before he said tremulously:

"Undoubtedly that can be arranged, Mr. Toomey."

It was obvious that the Boosters Club shared its president's opinion.

Each quivered with an eagerness to get at Toomey which was not unlike that of a race horse fretting to be first over the starting line. They crowded around him when the meeting was ended, offering their congratulations and their stock to him, but taking care to avoid any mention of the various sums that he owed each and all.

As for Toomey, it was like the old days when his appearance upon the streets of Prouty was an event, when they called him "Mister" and touched their hat-brims to him, when he could get a hearing without blocking the exit.

He left the Boosters Club with his pulses bounding with pride and importance. He had "come back"--as a man must who has imagination and initiative. They could "watch his smoke," could Prouty.

There was not a member present who did not reach his home panting, to shake his wife out of her slumbers to tell her that, at last, Toomey had "got into something."

CHAPTER XXV

THE CHINOOK

Emblazoned on the front page of the Omaha paper upon which Mr. Pantin relied to keep him abreast of the times was the announcement that both mutton and wool had touched highwater mark in the history of the sheep-raising industry.

Mr. Pantin moved into the bow window where the light was better and read the article carefully. The Australian embargo, dust-storms in the steppes of Russia, rumors of war, all had contributed to send prices soaring. When he had concluded, he took the stub of a pencil from his waistcoat pocket and made a computation in neat figures upon the margin.

As he eyed the total his mouth puckered in a whistle which changed gradually to a grin of satisfaction.

"You can't keep a squirrel down in a timbered country," Mr. Pantin chuckled aloud, ambiguously.

A pleased smile still rested upon his face when Mrs. Pantin entered.

"Priscilla, will you do me a favor?"

"Abram," reproachfully, "have I ever failed you? What is it?"

"The next time you have something going on here I want you to invite Kate Prentice."

Mrs. Pantin recoiled.

"What!"

"Don't squawk like that!" said Mr. Pantin, irritably. "You do it often, and it's an annoying mannerism."

"Do you quite realize what you are asking?" his wife demanded.

"Perfectly," replied Mr. Pantin, calmly. "I've pa.s.sed the stage when I talk to make conversation."

"But think how she's been criticised!"

Mr. Pantin got up impatiently.

"Oh, you virtuous dames--"

Mrs. Pantin's thin lips went shut like a rat-trap.

"Abram, are you twitting me?"

Mr. Pantin ignored the accusation, and observed astutely:

"I presume you've done your share of talking, and that's why--"

"She is impossible, and what you ask is impossible," Mrs. Pantin declared firmly.

"It's not often that I ask a favor of you, Prissy." His tone was conciliatory.

Mrs. Pantin met him half way and her voice was softer as she answered:

"I appreciate that, Abram, but there are a few of us who must keep up the bars against such persons. Society--"

"Rats!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mr. Pantin coa.r.s.ely.

The hand which she had laid tenderly upon his shoulder was withdrawn as if it harbored a hornet.

"I don't understand this at all--not at all," she said, icily.

"However," very distinctly, "it is not necessary that I should, for I shall not do it." She folded her arms as she confronted him.

Mr. Pantin was silent so long that she thought the battle was over, and purred at him:

"You can realize how I feel about it, can't you, darling?"

"No, by George, I can't! And I'm not going to either." He slapped the table with Henry Van d.y.k.e in ooze leather for emphasis. "I want Kate Prentice invited here the next time she's in town. If you don't do as I ask, Priscilla, you shan't go a step--not a step--to Keokuk this winter."

"Is that an ultimatum?" Mrs. Pantin demanded.

Mr. Pantin gave a quick furtive look over either shoulder, then declared with emphatic gusto:

"I mean every d.a.m.n word of it!"

Mrs. Pantin stood speechless, thinking rapidly. There was nothing for it evidently but to play her trump card, which never yet had failed her.

She wasted no breath in further argument, but threw herself full-length on the davenport and had hysterics.