Books: The Long Chance

P >> Peter B. Kyne >> The Long Chance

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His letter sealed and stamped, Bob slipped it into his pocket, lifted
his long legs to the top of his rented desk, tilted back his chair, lit
a cigar and gave himself up to the contemplation of his future.
Providentially, his future, as he viewed it there in that lonely
office, waiting to see what the dawn would bring to him of wealth or
woe, was sufficiently indefinite to keep his fertile brain actively
employed until, far off in the city, he heard a clock booming the hour
of six; when he yawned, closed down his desk, picked up his suit-case
which stood, packed with, his few poor possessions in one corner, and
departed.

In an all-night restaurant he ate a hurried breakfast; then, suit-case
in hand, walked over to the capitol building. The capitol grounds were
deserted as he strolled through, entered the State House and passed
down a dim deserted corridor until he came to the door of the state
land office. He had definitely located the office, the previous day, in
order to provide against possible fatal delay in finding it this
morning. Apparently he was the sole applicant for desert lands that
morning, and anticipating that there would be no great rush to file
entries he set his suit-case down in the corridor, sat himself on the
suit-case and waited for the office to open for business. In order to
make certain that he would not be usurped in line, however, when the
office opened for business, he had placed his suitcase directly in
front of the door, against which he leaned his weary back. The door, he
noticed, opened from within. In case it opened secretly, Mr. McGraw
would thus fall into the surveyor-general's office, and hardy, indeed,
would be he who could dispute his claim to priority in the line. In
fact, so satisfied was he with this strategic position, and so tired
and drowsy was he withal, that presently he relaxed his determination
to remain wide awake.

CHAPTER XII

The first intimation that Bob received of this laxity came in the shape
of a sharp dig in the ribs from the index finger of a young man who
demanded to know why Mr. McGraw didn't wake up and pay for his lodging.
Bob turned his startled sleepy eyes up at the stranger. He had expected
to confront a janitor, but his first glance informed him that he was
mistaken. The individual before him evidently was a state employee; but
for all that Bob could advance no excuse for his free and easy action
in assaulting him with his index finger. No one except the janitor or
the night watchman had a right to such familiarity with Mr. McGraw's
ribs and he resented being told to wake up before he was ready.

"You'll have to get out of my way, friend" the stranger informed him.

"Not if I know it, old-timer" replied Bob. "I'm first in line, with
orders to stick here and maintain my position at all hazards. I'll
share the suit-case with you, but you mustn't try to crush in in
advance of me."

The stranger eyed him curiously. "I'm an employee of the state land
office" he said coolly. "Please permit me to get into the office."

Bob looked at his watch. It was just eight o'clock, and he knew that
the land office did not open until nine. He wondered who this
industrious individual might be and what reason he had for getting down
to work an hour beforehand; and then; like a bolt from the blue, The
Big Idea flashed into Bob McGraw's brain.

He yawned sleepily. "Great snakes!" he said, "I've been waiting here an
hour for you. I beg your pardon, old-timer. I didn't recognize you at
first, although I should have known you right off by that little mole
on your left cheek."

He scrambled to his feet and picked up his suit-case, while the
stranger looked at him sharply.

"Why are you here so early?" he demanded. Bob McGraw would have liked
to ask him the same question but he refrained.

"There's been an inquisitive stranger investigating the old man and--
well, you know what a fox Carey is? At the last moment it didn't seem
wise to come through on the original programme, so I came up instead.
I'm used to taking chances and I'm going to be well paid for this."

Was it fancy, or did Bob really detect a more friendly light in the
man's eyes? He decided that he had not overplayed his hand, so, fearful
that he might, he remained discreetly silent and waited for the door to
be opened. The stranger inserted the key in the lock and stepped into
the room. Bob followed him uninvited, turned carefully and sprung the
lock on the door. The deputy (for such Bob guessed him to be) passed
through a gate in the counter and on into an inner office. He returned
a moment later, pulling on his office coat. At the counter he paused
and faced Bob. There was still a suspicious look in his alert
intelligent eyes.

Bob drew the fifty applications from his suit-case and passed them over
the counter. "Hurry with them" he said. "There isn't any time to lose.
Did Carey tell you anything about that fellow McGraw, who filed on the
Cottonwood lake water?"

The deputy nodded.

"He's dangerous" warned Mr. McGraw. "He's tumbled to the little
combination and he'll upset the apple-cart if you don't beat him to it.
He may attempt to bully the old man into a consolidation by threatening
to mandamus your chief and force him to accept the filings. McGraw's
dangerous and he's got big influence behind him. The old man's
worried."

The deputy arched his eyebrows cynically. "Where do you come in?" he
queried.

Bob drew back the lapel of his coat and showed the butt of his
automatic gun nestling under his left arm.

"I'm playing a purely professional engagement, my friend. If McGraw
should show up here this morning it is my business to take care of
him."

The deputy's suspicions were allayed at last. He smiled in friendly
fashion.

"Keep him away until nine-thirty and there's no danger" he said. He
scooped up Bob's applications and skimmed through them. "Did you bring
the coin?"

Bob placed twelve hundred and fifty dollars on the counter and shoved
it toward the deputy.

"I won't wait for the receipts. It's too risky. Make them out as fast
as you can and I'll call for them after the office opens." He grinned
knowingly. "I'm going out in the corridor to keep inquisitive people
away and give you time to work."

"You didn't bring the instruments of abandonment for the old filings--"

"I know it. Carey has them. He'll probably bring them over himself
later in the day. Too risky--getting over here so early. There's a
gumshoe man on his trail."

"All right" said the deputy, and hastened to his desk with the bundle
of applications. Bob unlatched the door, peered cautiously up and down
the deserted corridor, and apparently finding the coast clear stepped
out into the hall.

For fifteen minutes he walked up and down the corridor without meeting
any one more formidable than the janitor, and presently the janitor,
having completed the sweeping of the corridor, betook himself and his
brooms elsewhere. He came back a few minutes later, however, and
disappeared in a small room at the end of the corridor, only to
reappear again with a bucket of wet sawdust in his hand.

Bob McGraw walked to the main entrance of the State House and back
again to the door of the land office. Still nobody came. He was
approaching the main entrance to the State House a second time when he
heard an automobile chugging through the capitol grounds and pause
outside the main entrance. Half a minute later a man appeared at the
head of the corridor and approached rapidly. As he came nearer Bob saw
that he was about fifty years old. He wore a carefully trimmed imperial
and a gold pince-nez and seemed to exude a general air of pomposity and
power. He had glittering cold gray eyes and they snapped now with anger
and apprehension as he half walked, half ran, down the corridor. Bob's
keen glance, roving over the man for details, observed that he carried
a small Gladstone bag in his right hand, but inasmuch as the front end
of the bag carried no initials, Bob waited until the man had passed him
and then cast a sidelong glance at the other end of it. In small gold
letters across its base he read the initials: T. M. C.

"T. Morgan Carey!"

In a bound Bob was at the stranger's side and laid a firm detaining
grip on the latter's arm. The man turned angrily and glared at Bob.

"Mr. T. Morgan Carey?" said Bob McGraw quietly, "you're wanted!"

The man trembled. Bob could feel a distinct quiver pass up the arm he
was holding.

"Wha--what--who wants me?" he said.

"Your dear old Uncle Samuel. He'd like to have you explain a delicate
matter in connection with the public domain. Give me the little grip
and come along quietly. I think that would be the better way. If you
make a row about it, of course I'll have to put the bracelets on you;
and I'm sure neither of us wishes that to happen, Mr. Carey."

Bob spoke kindly, almost regretfully, but there was no mistaking the
fact that he meant business. T. Morgan Carey's face was ghastly. He
surrendered the grip without protest, the while he gazed at Bob like a
trapped animal. Presently he managed to pull himself together
sufficiently to demand in a trembling voice:

"But--why--I don't understand. Where's your authority? Have you a
warrant for--this--this outrageous procedure?"

"I have no warrant for you, Mr. Carey. I--"

"Then let me pass about my business, sir. How dare--"

"Easy, easy! You are not arrested in the commonly accepted sense of
that term, but if you play horse with me you will be. I came here this
morning to find you and ask you to come quietly with me and answer a
few questions; also to let me see what you're carrying in this grip.
Come along now, Carey. You only make out a case against yourself by
resisting. I suppose you are aware of the fact that a secret service
agent requires no warrant to make an arrest. (Bob did not know that
such was the case, but he made the statement at any rate.) You are
temporarily--apprehended--upon information and belief. If you are
worried about the publicity that may attach, I give you my word the
newspapers shall not hear of this unless a formal charge is entered
against you. Come with me if you please, Mr. Carey."

He drew Carey's right arm through his own strong left and marched him
down the corridor. It had been his first intention to escort T. Morgan
Carey to the office of the now defunct Desert Development Company and
lock him up there for the good of his soul--but a more convenient means
of marooning his enemy now presented itself. The door to the janitor's
room was open; an electric light burned within, and from the keyhole of
the half open door a bunch of keys was suspended.

Bob's brain worked with the rapidity of a camera-shutter. He threw
Carey's bag into the room, whirled and clamped his right hand over
Carey's mouth, while with his powerful left arm around the land-
grabber's body he gently steered his victim into the room. Carey
struggled desperately, but Bob held him powerless. Finding himself as
helpless as a child in that grizzly-bear grip, he ceased his struggles.
Instantly he was tripped up and laid gently on the floor, on his back,
with Bob McGraw's one hundred and eighty pounds of bone and muscle
camped on his torso, holding him down. With his right hand effectually
silencing Carey's gurgling cries for help, and a knee on each arm to
hold Carey still, with his left hand Bob drew a bandanna handkerchief
from his pocket and gagged his man with as much ease as he would have
muzzled a little dog. Then he searched through his victim's pockets
until he found the land-grabber's handkerchief; whereupon he flopped
Carey on his face and bound his hands behind him. It was but the work
of an instant for Bob to tear off his own suspenders and bind Carey's
ankles together. Next he rooted through a bin of waste paper and found
some stout cord with which he bound Carey at the knees. Then, leaving
his victim helpless on the floor, he picked up the little bag, turned
off the light, stepped softly out, closed and locked the door behind
him, slipped the bunch of keys into his pocket, and returned to the
land office. He knocked, and presently the door of the private office
further down the hall opened gently and the deputy glanced warily out.
Seeing Bob at the main entrance he went around and let him in.

"I took a chance" Bob explained, "and went out after the balance of the
dope. Any sign of the other gang around?"

"Not a soul."

"Good news. I had an idea Carey put those abandonment papers in this
little bag" and he held up the bag in such a manner that the deputy
could not fail to see the initials T. M. C. on one end. This had the
effect of allaying any lingering suspicion which the deputy may have
been entertaining, and without waiting to see the contents of the bag
he hurried back to his desk to complete the work of filing Bob's fifty
applications.

In the meantime Bob had opened the bag. It contained applications for
seventy-odd sections of land in Owens River Valley, together with an
equal number of instruments of abandonment of filings on land
throughout the state.

It was as Bob had suspected. The corrupt deputy had informed Carey
where the loss of school land would occur. Carey's dummy entrymen had
tied up for him these bases of exchange for lieu lands by instantly
applying for _worthless_ lieu lands, and these applications had
been held up in the land office unacted upon, in order that the bases
might show of record as used; then, at the word from Carey, these
filings on worthless land had been abandoned, in order that Carey might
use the bases for the acquisition of the lands he really desired.

"I'm a fool for luck" murmured Bob McGraw, as he counted off fifty of
these instruments of abandonment, closed the bag and set it in the
corner with his suit-case. He approached the counter and tossed the lot
over to the deputy.

"Here are the instruments of abandonment, old-timer," he said casually.
"I had a notion Carey put them in that grip. Better get 'em on record
right away and let those receipts for the filings slide until the
office opens for business. I'll go outside and lean up against the
door. Don't worry. I'll be first in line, and if the other gang should
be at my heels I'll slip you over a bunch of dummies, to throw 'em off
the scent, and you can hand me back the receipts for the real thing."
He winked comically and went out into the corridor again.

Slowly the minutes dragged by. Bob looked at his watch. It was a
quarter of nine. Five minutes passed and still the corridor was
deserted. Two minutes more flitted by and then the janitor came around
the corner from the next corridor, a bucket in one hand and a mop in
the other. Bob grinned as he saw the man try the door of the room where
T. Morgan Carey lay trussed up. He rattled the knob several times, then
searched his pockets for his keys. Not finding them, he went away
grumbling.

It was just nine o'clock when the janitor returned. Bob McGraw was
close enough, to him now to see that he carried a key, which he slipped
into the lock, opened the door and passed into the gloom of the room
beyond. Bob trembled lest he step on T. Morgan Carey's face. While the
janitor was fumbling for the electric switch, Bob stepped softly in
after him, and as softly closed the door behind him, just as the
janitor switched on the light. He turned at the slight sound of the
closing door and found himself gazing down the long blue barrel of an
automatic gun.

"No unnecessary noise, if you please" said Bob McGraw gently. "This is
one of those rare occasions where silence is golden. Observe that man
on the floor, my friend? He tried to make a noise and just see what
happened to him."

The janitor's mouth had opened to emit a yell. He closed it now,
slowly, and licked his lips.

"What do you want?" he demanded, and Bob McGraw realized instantly that
in the janitor he had not met a poltroon.

"The pleasure of your society for half an hour" murmured Bob, and
smiled. "I'm not going to hurt you if I can avoid it, but if you make a
row I'll tap you back of the ear with the butt of this gun. The
individual on the floor has been poking his nose into my business and I
had to put him in storage for a while. Unfortunately you discovered
him, so, much to our mutual displeasure, I must ask you to bear him
company until nine-thirty, after which you may return to your
janitorial labors. Don't worry. I'm not a hold-up man. Have a cigar.
Also a five-spot to pay you in advance for the inconvenience I am
subjecting you to."

The janitor's face became normal at once. He accepted the cigar and the
five-dollar piece, seated himself on an upturned bucket and set himself
patiently to await the moment of his liberation. He sat there grinning
and blowing smoke at Bob McGraw.

At nine-thirty, Bob, judging that the deputy had had ample time in
which to place his affairs in shape, decided to raise the siege. He put
up his gun, unlatched the door and backed out, motioning to the janitor
to accompany him. The latter obeyed with alacrity.

"Come on into the land office with me, old man" Bob invited him. "When
my business is finished there I'll give you back your keys and ask you
to unwrap the gentleman we just left."

They entered the land office together.

"Did that friend o' mine leave something with you for me?" Bob queried
of the deputy, and flashed him a lightning wink.

"Waiting for you" responded the deputy, and handed Bob McGraw a large
manila envelope. "All O. K." he added, and returned the wink.

"Sure you recorded those abandonments?" he queried. The deputy nodded.

"Then we're all O. K. on the matter of designating the basis, are we?"

Again the deputy nodded. Bob turned and handed the keys to the janitor.

"That being the case" he announced cheerfully but in a low tone of
voice, "our friend, the janitor, will immediately proceed to release
Mr. T. Morgan Carey and bring him into court. Permit me to introduce
myself. I am Mr. Robert McGraw, and I have you by the short hair, you
crooked little sneak. You should have looked up and down the corridor
and noticed all the witnesses I had posted to observe you letting me
into your office before it was officially opened. Oh, I'm not worried
about what you can do now. It's only nine-thirty and I can easily prove
that it is a physical impossibility for one man to do the work you've
done this morning, and do it in one short half hour. You have entered
fifty instruments of abandonment, so there are that number of bases
open to permit of the exchange of fifty sections of lieu land, the
filing receipts for which I hold in my hand. Old-timer, I dare you to
attempt the job of falsifying a public record, even at the command of
our esteemed old friend, T. Morgan Carey. By the way, here he is.
Gracious, what a hurry we're in! Howdy, T. Morgan?"

T. Morgan Carey had fairly leaped into the room.

"You--you scoundrel!" he cried, and shook his fist at Bob McGraw. "I'll
get you for this" he said in low trembling tones, "if it takes my last
dollar."

"No, you won't" retorted the smiling Bob, "at least, not after you've
had a heart-to-heart talk with your obliging friend here. I've waited
here to square him with you, Carey. He isn't to blame. I just bluffed
him out of his boots. You mustn't be hard on him, T. Morgan. You know
how easily I bluffed you. Be reasonable. Charity covers a multitude of
sins, and there's a lot of land still left in the lower part of Owens
Valley, although my friends have had their pick of it. There's your
little old bag with your applications still untouched, although I will
admit that I was mean enough to help you file some of those instruments
of abandonment from your dummy entrymen. I must hurry along now. Thank
you so much--"

The janitor entered. In his hand he held Mr. McGraw's suspenders.

"You might need these" he interrupted, "more particular if you're goin'
to do any runnin', an' I'll bet you are."

"Thank you" murmured Mr. McGraw. "You're very thoughtful," and quite
calmly he proceeded to remove his coat and vest and replace the
suspenders. When he was once more arrayed for the street he thrust his
sun-tanned hand through the grilled window to the trembling deputy; he
smiled his gay lazy whimsical inscrutable smile.

"_Buenos dias,_ amigo" he said; and so astounded was the unhappy
deputy that he actually accepted the proffered hand and shook it
limply.

"You scoundrel!" hissed T. Morgan Carey, "you--" and then he applied to
Bob the unpardonable epithet.

The devil leaped to life in Bob McGraw. His right arm shot out, his
open palm landed with a resounding thwack on the side of Carey's head.
As the land-grabber lurched from the impact of that terrific slap,
McGraw's left palm straightened him up on the other ear, and he
subsided incontinently into a corner.

But his natural lust for a fight had now reached high-water mark in Bob
McGraw's soul. He whirled, reached that terrible right arm through the
window and grasped the deputy by the collar. Right over the counter,
through the window, he snaked him, landing him in a heap on the floor
outside. He jerked the frightened official to his feet, cuffed him
across the room and back again to the window.

"That," he said, "for your broken oath of office, and that! for your
cheap office rule that has no foundation in law but serves to frighten
away the weaklings that want to file on lieu land. I must designate the
basis, must I? All right, you little crook. Watch me designate it."

He landed a remarkably accurate kick under the official coat-tails,
picked the deputy up bodily and hurled him in a heap in the same corner
where T. Morgan Carey sprawled, blinking (for his glasses had been
shaken off in the melee) and weeping with fear and impotent rage.

For a moment Bob towered above them like a great avenging red angel.
Then his anger left him as suddenly as it had come. Carey and the
deputy presented such a pitiable sight, although ludicrous withal, that
he was moved to shame to think that he had pitted his strength against
such puny adversaries. He picked T. Morgan Carey out of the corner, set
him on his feet, dusted him off, gave him his hat and restored to him
his gold pince-nez. The deputy needed no aid from Bob McGraw, but
hastened to the protection of his sanctuary back of the counter. Bob
stood looking at Carey, smiling his old bantering debonair smile. He
waited until Carey had recovered his composure.

"Carey," he said, "you will remember hereafter, I trust, that it is the
early bird that gets the worm, that promptness is a virtue and lying in
bed mornings a heinous crime. Now, the next time you run up against a
Reuben like me you want to remember the old saying that a stump-tailed
yellow dog is always the best for coons. An easy conscience is to be
preferred to great riches, Carey. Be honest and you will stay out of
jail. Before I go, permit me to introduce myself. I'm Bob McGraw, of No
Place In Particular, and a lunatic by nature, breed and inclination.
Mr. Man-who-flies-through-the-window, here are duplicate copies of my
power of attorney from my fifty clients, authorizing and instructing
the surveyor-general to transact all of his official business with them
through me. Before I go I want to say that as a usual thing I try to be
a gentleman; which, fact induces the utmost regret that I was forced to
gag you and truss you up in that filthy little room. If I hurt you
physically then I am sorry. I tried to do the unpleasant job gently.
However, this is no parlor game that you and I are playing, and
desperate circumstances sometimes necessitate desperate measures. As
for the blows I struck you--that is too bad, because you're old enough
to be my father, but you displayed excessively bad taste in your choice
of expletive. Even then I merely slapped you. But I'm sorry it had to
come to that."

He paused and gazed calmly about him for a moment.

"I guess that's all" he added innocently. "Good morning."

With a chuckle that mingled triumph, deviltry and the sheer joy of
living, Mr. McGraw picked up his suit-case, backed to the door, opened
it and fled along the corridor. On the driveway in front of the capitol
he saw an automobile standing, throbbing. He ran to it and leaped into
the tonneau.

"This is Carey's car, isn't it?" he demanded.

The chauffeur nodded. He would have saluted any one not so distinctly
rural as Bob McGraw.

"You're to take me over to Stockton right away. Turn her wide open and
fly. Great Scott, we're all in a hurry this morning. Git!
_Vamoose,_ and scorch the gravel."

Now, it is a curious psychological fact that when a robust
authoritative-looking man gives an order with the air of one used to
commanding, ninety-nine per cent of the people to whom he gives his
orders will hasten to obey without pausing to question his authority.
The chauffeur threw in his clutch and the car glided away, while Bob
McGraw, glancing back, saw T. Morgan Carey and a uniformed, watchman
dashing down the capitol steps.

They were too late. T. Morgan Carey shouted to his chauffeur, but it
was not a day of silent motors, and legislation affecting muffler cut-
outs was still in the dim and distant Not-Yet.

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