Taggart

“ There was a short lull while men murmured among themselves, and yet, digesting Taggart's statement, impressed by his manner, hesitated to speak the thought which was forming in dozens of brains simultaneously. ”

“ Taggart was speaking, growling into her ear:
"We followed Mexicali; we saw him come up here; Deveril followed him into camp. He told where his gold was. And you heard it all!"
"Well?" said Lynette, striving with herself for calmness. She was thinking: "If only I can have a little time. He will come for me.... If only I can have a little time."
"What do you mean by that?" demanded Taggart. "The whole earth ain't Joe's because he picked up a nugget or two. Anybody's got a right to stake a claim; I got a right and so has the boys ... and so have you." ”

“ They knew where Taggart and Gallup were, or at least were confident that there was no immediate danger of Taggart and Gallup overhauling them; they knew where Mexicali Joe was and where he was going. For the moment they were freed from that crushing sense of uncertainty welded to menace which had borne down upon them ever since they fled from Big Pine. And consequently joy of life sprang up as a spring leaps the instant that the weight is plucked from it. ”

“ Jim Taggart represented the law; further, he was no man at any time to trifle with. He had offered them an explanation and the worst of it was that it might be the truth. Discussions began on every hand; those who believed were in the minority and lost voice as the other voices, becoming heated, grew louder. Babe Deveril was turning away when a man caught at his sleeve.
"You know those men, Taggart and Gallup and the rest. What do you make of it? What had we ought to do?"
Deveril shook the man off.
"Go slow until you know what you're doing," he admonished curtly. "Then go like hell." ”

“ Standing stiffened; she felt a tremor run through his big body. A voice again, an evil voice in evil laughter; a deeper voice, too far away for the words to carry any meaning, not too far for the voice itself to be recognized by a man who hated it.
"Taggart and Young Gallup," Standing muttered. "They've got Joe! They'd cut his throat for ten cents!... Look here; what do you know about all this?"
She answered hurriedly; that thin scream still echoed in her ears; she remembered only too vividly Taggart's treatment of Joe at the dugout and Taggart's threats ”

“ Still she temporized, saying:
"Bruce Standing and Billy Winch and Joe have horses. We are on foot. Tell me how we can hope to come to the spot first?"
"We'll have horses ourselves in a jiffy," said Taggart. "Stepping lively, we're not more than a couple of hours from a cattle outfit over the ridge. We'll get all the horses we want and we'll ride like hell!" ”

“ He heard a laugh, mocking, discordant, followed by a voice—Taggart's voice.
"Clean miss," it said. "You're nervous."
"Like you was in town today," jeered Calumet.
"Then you know me?" returned Taggart. "I ain't admittin' that I was any nervous."
"Scared of the dark, then," said Calumet. "You left town a whole lot punctual."
"Well," sneered Taggart; "mebbe I ain't much on the shoot. I don't play any man's game but my own."
"You're right," mocked Calumet; "you don't play no man's game. ”

“ I tell you, we got the money to devil-him-up, we all rich like hell!..."
"Get going, Joe," growled Taggart. "Where? Down Light Ladies' Cañon, and not more'n three or four miles from Big Pine?"
Joe cackled his derision at Taggart's guess.
"Me, I fool ever'body!" he said gleefully. "Me, I'm damn smart man, Señor Taggart! Nowhere near Light Ladies'. The other way. We go all day to-morrow, way back up in the mountains. One long, hard day, walkin'. Maybe day an' a half. You know where Buck Valley? All right; you know, on other side, Big Bear Creek? ”

“ Out of Georgie Grebe’s name; out of the chief’s name below the devilled leaders—a pretty penny! Well, what harm in making the most of a big name? Taggart frowned. [Pg 195] Suppose a man went into a shop and bought a box of pills, marked ‘Holloway,’ made up from a recipe of ‘Tompkins’—did it matter that the man thought they were Holloway’s, if they were just as good pills, perhaps better? Taggart laid down his pen and took his pipe out of his mouth. ‘Gosh!’ he thought, ‘never looked at it this way before! I believe it does matter. A man ought to get the exact article he pays for. ”

“ They startled, in a tiny meadow, three deer, which shot away through a tangle of brush, leaping, plunging, shooting forward and down a slope like great, gleaming, graceful arrows. "A man could live like a king here, with a rifle," said Deveril longingly. They saw a tall, thin wisp of smoke an hour before noon; it stood against the sky to the southwest of them, at a distance of perhaps two miles. "Taggart's noonday camp," they decided, deciding further that Taggart must have insisted on an early start, and therefore had found his stomach demanding lunch well before midday. ”

“ But I can tell you you'll find some good men and true, men of your own kind, since they shoot in the back, down below my other cabin; Taggart and Gallup and Shipton.... No, your friend Baby Devil isn't there! And Mexicali Joe has skipped out. If you like to take your chances with those birds...." He jerked out the revolver which recently had been Taggart's and tossed it to the bunk. "You can take that along, if you like."
She flushed up, her face as hot as fire, as he jeered at her, saying: "Men of your own kind, since they shoot in the back!" ... ”

“ If it had been any other man in the world there confronting him! Any man but Bruce Standing! Jim Taggart was near weeping. But he drew out his second revolver and saw it bestowed as its fellow had been.
"Four times you've said it, plainer than words!" cried Standing ringingly. "Gallup will never forget; and he'll tell the tale! Shipton will remember and will blab! And, what's worse for the soul of a man, Jim Taggart, you'll remember to the last day you live!... And now you three can consider yourselves as so many mongrel curs whose back-biting teeth I've knocked down your throats for you! ”

“ I'll bet a thousand dollars he has a hundred men down there already and that they'll be riding by all day; they'll be staking claims which he will buy back from them at the price of a day's work; he'll work a clean shut-out for Gallup and Taggart. That's what he'd give his right hand to do. You watch a minute."
They watched. Once Taggart shouted up to them.
"Down in a minute, Taggart." Deveril called back.
Before long Lynette saw another cloud of dust; this time three or four men rode into sight and sped away after the others; before the dust had cleared another two or three men rode by. ”

“ Am in touch with Taggart. Await him at Smyrna. Carol bearing up bravely. In the wheelhouse of the little yacht which was shearing the blue waters of the Ægean, Mustapha and I discussed the situation.
“Mr. Taggart is a rich American financier,” I said hopefully, “and no doubt a man of quick action. And the count, although at odds with the present government, has still a lot of influence. So it ought not be long before Mr. Taggart gets to Smyrna with the ransom money.” ”

“ I asked, “that your relations with Taggart have suffered any from this calamity?”
“No,” said the count. “He is too big a man. Almost any European might be ugly or suspicious, but you breed them differently in America. They seem to be able to look straighter and more clearly into the soul of things. We seem, if anything, to be united by a bond of mutual sympathy, and we have each tried to keep up the courage of the other.” ”

“ Deveril followed him, and saw the looks on the faces of Taggart and Gallup and some of their following.
"I stepped in to buy the drinks for the crowd," Timber-Wolf said quietly, all the while his eyes flashing back and forth. "Gents, the treats are on me."
Jim Taggart, his hands on his hips, was eying him like a hawk, and in Taggart's face was a dull, hot flush. [Pg 43] Gallup, however, standing close at Taggart's side, was the first to speak. He cried out angrily:
"No man drinks with you in my house! Not as long as I live. And...."
Bruce Standing drew a wallet from his pocket. ”

“ But Taggart, though his face grew hotter and his eyes seemed burning in their sockets, demanded further:
"And why not, Bruce Standing? You and me have been pardners. You know and I know and a thousand men know what sort of a bond and an understanding has [Pg 48] always, for more than a dozen years, been between us. And now, if that is busted and wiped out, I ask you, as man to man: 'Why?'"
"And as man to man," cried Timber-Wolf, his eyes brightening, "I'll answer you, Jim Taggart. ”

“ Her eyes were full of moisture from suppressed laughter, yet her lips were tremulous and her eyes, dewy though they were, shone with happiness.
"Hast heard?" demanded Dame Eliza.
"I could not help it," said Constance. "I left Damaris at Priscilla's and ran back to ask you, for Priscilla, to lend her the pattern of the long wrapping cloak that you made for our baby when he was tiny. Pris's baby seems cold, she thinks. And as I entered I heard John. I near died of laughing! I had thought a lover always felt his beloved to be so fair and fine that he scarce dared look at her! Not so John! ”

“ I can't understand men ... I thought there never was another man like him, a hard [Pg 318] man who could be tender, a man who ... I don't know; I want to go."
"Go?" There came a sudden gleam into his eyes. "And where? Back to Bruce Standing maybe?"
"No! Anywhere on earth but back to him. To the stage which will be leaving Big Pine in a little while; back to a land where trains run, trains which can take me a thousand miles away. Oh, Babe Deveril...."
Taggart's voice rose up to them, sounding savage.
"What in hell's name are you doing up there?"
Then Deveril released her hands. ”

“ Cis sprang; leaped the last lap of her race against suicide; threw herself, as a ball player throws himself against the base, and struck the woman’s elbow. The bottle fell in myriad pieces on the walk, scenting the air with the odor of peach stones. The woman crumbled up and slid to the ground. For one instant she and her rescuer were beside each other upon the walk. Then Cis regained her feet and stood looking down upon the degraded figure before her, horror, loathing, yet divine pity in her flushed face. This was the tableau which Tom, hastening after Cis, saw as he came up. ”

“ They print only what we want on the corn question. They mold public opinion, as it were. The other papers copy our news, and there you are—see?”
Mr. Taggart thought he saw, for he rubbed his hands and laughed.
“But in dealing with such an artful old fox as Jared Whitemore we have to provide against the unusual and the unexpected. It was distinctly unusual for him to send a boy like Vance Thornton to close up his options—yet that is what he has done, and we should never have got on to it if it had not been for the uncommon shrewdness of our man Vyce. ”

“ But I know one thing: I can not possibly rest till I find out exactly what it is that is in my mind. Isn't Lester fine; don't you like him?"
"How can I help it, when he is so like his uncle?" retorted Rob. "There is no other man in the world equal to your father, Hester, or whom I love so much."
"Not Battalion B?" suggested Hester, fearing to narrow her question to one member of that battalion.
"Battalion B are boys," retorted Rob. "Your cousin seems to find our Prudy beautiful."
"Lester is an artist," said Hester. "Prue is the handsomest girl I ever saw, but she isn't Roberta." ”

“ Rob smiled to herself as she paced the platform, thinking how Hester's pale face was that moment lighting up with joy, for the train whistled around the bend, and in an instant would be in sight.
Hester, her cousin, an old woman, and the mail-bag were the only passengers for Fayre. The tall girl leaving the car would have been conspicuous, however, among many, and the young man, browned by Eastern suns, who followed her, not less so. Hester was as tall as Prue Grey. She had a keen, restless face, with hungry, eager grey eyes, and rather a melancholy droop to her well-cut lips. ”

“ Everything can not be done in a day; let me turn over in my mind what you have said, and we shall see, we shall see."
"We will do all we can to help you, Hessie," said Mrs. Grey, her eyes beaming with longing to begin that instant to mother all the maimed waifs whom Hester could offer her.
"Father will help; I know he will," cried Frances, eagerly.
"Our father, too," said Basil quietly. "Some day he is coming to Fayre, not too long hence, I hope."
"It is lovely!" cried Prue, her imagination picturing vividly the attractive rôle of Lady Bountiful to forlorn and grateful childish hearts. ”

“ Of course, Taggart was trying to make a fool of Betty—that was all too evident. A man who has serious intentions—honorable intentions—toward a girl does not talk about her to his friends as Taggart had talked. ”

“ Placid by nature, she did not fret over discomfort or danger. Trim and neat, she was a pleasant sight among the distressed, pallid faces about her, like a bit of English sky, a green English meadow, a warm English hearth in the waste of waters that led to the waste of wintry wilderness.
"What am I do to for thee, Constance?" Priscilla asked in her deep, alto voice.
"Help me get these children up into the air in a sheltered nook on deck," said Constance. "They are suffocating here."
"No, no!" cried two or three mothers. "They will be washed away, Constantia." ”