Ridgway of Montana (Story of To-Day, in Which the Hero Is Also the Villain), Page 2

  CHAPTER 2. THE FREEBOOTER

  When next Virginia Balfour saw Waring Ridgway she was driving her trapdown one of the hit-or-miss streets of Mesa, where derricks,shaft-houses, and gray slag-dumps shoulder ornate mansions conglomerateof many unharmonious details of architecture. To Miss Balfour thesecomposites and their owners would have been joys unalloyed except forthe microbe of society ambition that was infecting the latter, andtransforming them from simple, robust, self-reliant Westerners into aclass of servile, nondescript newly rich, that resembled theirunfettered selves as much as tame bears do the grizzlies of their ownRockies. As she had once complained smilingly to Hobart, she had notcome to the West to study ragged edges of the social fringe. She mighthave done that in New York.

  Virginia was still a block or two from the court-house on the hill,when it emptied into the street a concourse of excited men. That thiswas an occasion of some sort it was easy to guess, and of what sort shebegan to have an inkling, when Ridgway came out, the center of a circleof congratulating admirers. She was obliged to admit that he acceptedtheir applause without in the least losing his head. Indeed, he took itas imperturbably as did Hobart, against whom a wave of the enthusiasmseemed to be directed in the form of a jeer, when he passed down thesteps with Mott, one of the Consolidated lawyers. Miss Balfour timedher approach to meet Hobart at a right angle.

  "What is it all about?" she asked, after he had reached her side.

  "Judge Purcell has just decided the Never Say Die case in favor of Mr.Ridgway and against the Consolidated."

  "Is that a great victory for him?"

  "Yes, it's a victory, though, of course, we appeal," admitted Hobart."But we can't say we didn't expect it," he added cheerfully.

  "Mayn't I give you a lift if you are going down-town?" she saidquickly, for Ridgway, having detached himself from the group, wasworking toward her, and she felt an instinctive sympathy for the manwho had lost. Furthermore, she had something she wanted to tell himbefore he heard it on the tongue of rumor.

  "Since you are so kind;" and he climbed to the place beside her.

  "Congratulate me, Miss Balfour," demanded Ridgway, as he shook handswith her, nodding coolly at her companion. "I'm a million dollarsricher than I was an hour ago. I have met the enemy and he is mine."

  Virginia, resenting the bad taste of his jeer at the man who sat besideher, misunderstood him promptly. "Did you say you had met the enemy andwon his mine?"

  He laughed. "You're a good one!"

  "Thank you very much for this unsolicited testimonial," she saidgravely. "In the meantime, to avoid a congestion of traffic, we'll bemoving, if you will kindly give me back my front left wheel."

  He did not lift his foot from the spoke on which it rested. "Mycongratulations," he reminded her.

  "I wish you all the joy in your victory that you deserve, and I hopethe supreme court will reaffirm the decision of Judge Purcell, if it isa just one," was the form in which she acceded to his demand.

  She flicked her whip, and Ridgway fell back, laughing. "You've beensubsidized by the Consolidated," he shouted after her.

  Hobart watched silently the businesslike directness with which the girlhandled the ribbons. She looked every inch the thoroughbred in herwell-made covert coat and dainty driving gauntlets. The grace of thealert, slender figure, the perfect poise of the beautiful little tawnyhead, proclaimed her distinction no less certainly than the finemodeling of the mobile face. It was a distinction that stirred thepulse of his emotion and disarmed his keen, critical sense. Ridgwaycould study her with an amused, detached interest, but Hobart'sadmiration had traveled past that point. He found it as impossible todefine her charm as to evade it. Her inheritance of blood and herenvironment should have made her a finished product of civilization,but her salty breeziness, her nerve, vivid as a flame at times,disturbed delightfully the poise that held her when in repose.

  When Virginia spoke, it was to ask abruptly: "Is it really his mine?"

  "Judge Purcell says so."

  "But do YOU think so--down in the bottom of your heart?"

  "Wouldn't I naturally be prejudiced?"

  "I suppose you would. Everybody in Mesa seems to have taken sideseither with Mr. Ridgway or the Consolidated. Still, you have an option.Is he what his friends proclaim him--the generous-hearted independentfighting against trust domination? Or is he merely an audaciousore-thief, as his enemies say? The truth must be somewhere."

  "It seems to lie mostly in point of view here the angle of observationbeing determined by interest," he answered.

  "And from your angle of observation?"

  "He is the most unusual man I ever saw, the most resourceful and themost competent. He never knows when he is beaten. I suppose that's thereason he never is beaten finally. We have driven him to the wall ascore of times. My experience with him is that he's most dangerous whenone thinks he must be about hammered out. He always hits back then inthe most daring and unexpected way."

  "With a coupling-pin," she suggested with a little reminiscent laugh.

  "Metaphorically speaking. He reaches for the first effective weapon tohis hand."

  "You haven't quite answered my question yet," she reminded him. "Is hewhat his friends or what his enemies think him?"

  "If you ask me I can only say that I'm one of his enemies."

  "But a fair-minded man," she replied quickly.

  "Thank you. Then I'll say that perhaps he is neither just what hisfriends or his foes think him. One must make allowances for histraining and temperament, and for that quality of bigness in him.'Mediocre men go soberly on the highroads, but saints and scoundrelsmeet in the jails,'" he smilingly quoted.

  "He would make a queer sort of saint," she laughed.

  "A typical twentieth century one of a money-mad age."

  She liked it in him that he would not use the opportunity she had madeto sneer at his adversary, none the less because she knew that Ridgwaymight not have been so scrupulous in his place. That Lyndon Hobart'sfastidious instincts for fair play had stood in the way of his successin the fight to down Ridgway she had repeatedly heard. Of late, rumorshad persisted in reporting dissatisfaction with his management of theConsolidated at the great financial center on Broadway which controlledthe big copper company. Simon Harley, the dominating factor in theoctopus whose tentacles reached out in every direction to monopolizethe avenues of wealth, demanded of his subordinates results. Methodswere no concern of his, and failure could not be explained to him. Hewanted Ridgway crushed, and the pulse of the copper productionregulated lay the Consolidated. Instead, he had seen Ridgway risesteadily to power and wealth despite his efforts to wipe him off theslate. Hobart was perfectly aware that his head was likely to fall whenHarley heard of Purcell's decision in regard to the Never Say Die.

  "He certainly is an amazing man," Virginia mused, her fiancee in mind."It would be interesting to discover what he can't do--alongutilitarian lines, I mean. Is he as good a miner underground as he isin the courts?" she flung out.

  "He is the shrewdest investor I know. Time and again he has leased orbought apparently worthless claims, and made them pay inside of a fewweeks. Take the Taurus as a case in point. He struck rich ore in afortnight. Other men had done development work for years and foundnothing."

  "I'm naturally interested in knowing all about him, because I have justbecome engaged to him," explained Miss Virginia, as calmly as if herpulse were not fluttering a hundred to the minute.

  Virginia was essentially a sportsman. She did not flinch from the gunswhen the firing was heavy. It had been remarked of her even as a childthat she liked to get unpleasant things over with as soon as possible,rather than postpone them. Once, _aetat_ eight, she had marched in toher mother like a stoic and announced: "I've come to be whipped,momsie, 'cause I broke that horrid little Nellie Vaile's doll. I did iton purpose, 'cause I was mad at her. I'm glad I broke it, so there!"

  Hobart paled slightly beneath his outdoors Western tan, but his eyesmet hers very steadily and fai
rly. "I wish you happiness, Miss Balfour,from the bottom of my heart."

  She nodded a brisk "Thank you," and directed her attention again to thehorses.

  "Take him by and large, Mr. Ridgway is the most capable, energetic, andfar-sighted business man I have ever known. He has a bigger grasp ofthings than almost any financier in the country. I think you'll find hewill go far," he said, choosing his words with care to say as much forWaring Ridgway as he honestly could.

  "I have always thought so," agreed Virginia.

  She had reason for thinking so in that young man's remarkable career.When Waring Ridgway had first come to Mesa he had been a draftsman forthe Consolidated at five dollars a day. He was just out of Cornell, andhis assets consisted mainly of a supreme confidence in himself and animposing presence. He was a born leader, and he flung himself into theraw, turbid life of the mining town with a readiness that had not alittle to do with his subsequent success.

  That success began to take tangible form almost from the first. Asmall, independent smelter that had for long been working at a loss wasabout to fall into the hands of the Consolidated when Ridgway bought iton promises to pay, made good by raising money on a flying trip he tookto the East. His father died about this time and left him fiftythousand dollars, with which he bought the Taurus, a mine in whichseveral adventurous spirits had dropped small fortunes. He acquiredother properties; a lease here, an interest there. It began to beobserved that he bought always with judgment. He seemed to have thetouch of Midas. Where other men had lost money he made it.

  When the officers of the Consolidated woke up to the menace of hispresence, one of their lawyers called on him. The agent of theConsolidated smiled at his luxurious offices, which looked more like awoman's boudoir than the business place of a Western miner. But thatwas merely part of Ridgway's vanity, and did not in the least interferewith his predatory instincts. Many people who walked into that parlorto do business played fly to his spider.

  The lawyer had been ready to patronize the upstart who had ventured soboldly into the territory of the great trust, but one glance at theclear-cut resolute face of the young man changed his mind.

  "I've come to make you an offer for your smelter, Mr. Ridgway," hebegan. "We'll take it off your hands at the price it cost you."

  "Not for sale, Mr. Bartel."

  "Very well. We'll give you ten thousand more than you paid for it."

  "You misunderstand me. It is not for sale."

  "Oh, come! You bought it to sell to us. What can you do with it?"

  "Run it," suggested Ridgway.

  "Without ore?"

  "You forget that I own a few properties, and have leases on others.When the Taurus begins producing, I'll have enough to keep the smeltergoing."

  "When the Taurus begins producing?"--Bartel smiled skeptically. "Didn'tJohnson and Leroy drop fortunes on that expectation?"

  "I'll bet five thousand dollars we make a strike within two weeks."

  "Chimerical!" pronounced the graybeard as he rose to go, with an air offinality. "Better sell the smelter while you have the chance."

  "Think not," disagreed Ridgway.

  At the door the lawyer turned. "Oh, there's another matter! It hadslipped my mind." He spoke with rather elaborate carelessness. "Itseems that there is a little triangle--about ten and four feetacross--wedged in between the Mary K, the Diamond King, and the MarcusDaly. For some reason we accidentally omitted to file on it. Our chiefengineer finds that you have taken it up, Mr. Ridgway. It is really ofno value, but it is in the heart of our properties, and so it ought tobelong to us. Of course, it is of no use to you. There isn't anypossible room to sink a shaft. We'll take it from you if you like, andeven pay you a nominal price. For what will you sell?"

  Ridgway lit a cigar before he answered: "One million dollars."

  "What?" screamed Bartel.

  "Not a cent less. I call it the Trust Buster. Before I'm through,you'll find it is worth that to me."

  The lawyer reported him demented to the Consolidated officials, whodeclared war on him from that day.

  They found the young adventurer more than prepared for them. If he hada Napoleonic sense of big vital factors, he had no less a genius fordetail. He had already picked up an intimate knowledge of the hundredsof veins and crossveins that traverse the Mesa copper-fields, and hehad delved patiently into the tangled history of the litigation thatthe defective mining laws in pioneer days had made possible. When theConsolidated attempted to harass him by legal process, he countered byinstituting a score of suits against the company within the week. Thesehad to do with wills, insanity cases, extra lateral rights, minetitles, and land and water rights. Wherever Ridgway saw room for anentering wedge to dispute the title of the Consolidated, he drove a newsuit home. To say the least, the trust found it annoying to be enjoinedfrom working its mines, to be cited for contempt before judges employedin the interests of its opponent, to be served with restraining orderswhen clearly within its rights. But when these adverse legal decisionsbegan to affect vital issues, the Consolidated looked for reasons whyRidgway should control the courts. It found them in politics.

  For Ridgway was already dominating the politics of Yuba County,displaying an amazing acumen and a surprising ability as astumpspeaker. He posed as a friend of the people, an enemy of thetrust. He declared an eight-hour day for his own miners, and calledupon the Consolidated to do the same. Hobart refused, acting on ordersfrom Broadway, and fifteen thousand Consolidated miners went to thepolls and reelected Ridgway's corrupt judges, in spite of the fight theConsolidated was making against them.

  Meanwhile, Ridgway's colossal audacity made the Consolidated's copperpay for the litigation with which he was harassing it. In following hisore-veins, or what he claimed to be his veins, he crossed boldly intothe territory of the enemy. By the law of extra lateral rights, a manis entitled to mine within the lines of other property than his own,provided he is following the dip of a vein which has its apex in hisclaim. Ridgway's experts were prepared to swear that all the best veinsin the field apexed in his property. Pending decisions of the courts,they assumed it, tunneling through granite till they tapped the veinsof the Consolidated mines, meanwhile enjoining that company fromworking the very ore of which Ridgway was robbing it.

  Many times the great trust back of the Consolidated had him close toruin, but Ridgway's alert brain and supreme audacity carried himthrough. From their mines or from his own he always succeeded inextracting enough ore to meet his obligations when they fell due. Hispowerful enemy, as Hobart had told Miss Balfour, found him mostdangerous when it seemed to have him with his back to the wall. Thenunexpectedly would fall some crushing blow that put the financial kingsof Broadway on the defensive long enough for him to slip out of thecorner into which they had driven him. Greatly daring, he had thesuccessful cavalryman's instinct of risking much to gain much. Agambler, his enemies characterized him fitly enough. But it was alsotrue, as Mesa phrased it, that he gambled "with the lid off," playingfor large stakes, neither asking nor giving quarter.

  At the end of five years of desperate fighting, the freebooter was morestrongly entrenched than he had been at any previous time. Therailroads, pledged to give rebates to the Consolidated, had been forcedby Ridgway, under menace of adverse legislation from the men hecontrolled at the State-house, to give him secretly a still better ratethan the trust. He owned the county courts, he was supported by thepeople, and had become a political dictator, and the financial outlookfor him grew brighter every day.

  Such were the conditions when Judge Purcell handed down his Never SayDie decision. Within an hour Hobart was reading a telegram in cipherfrom the Broadway headquarters. It announced the immediate departurefor Mesa of the great leader of the octopus. Simon Harley, the Napoleonof finance, was coming out to attend personally to the destruction ofthe buccaneer who had dared to fire on the trust flag.

  Before night some one of his corps of spies in the employ of the enemycarried the news to Waring Ridgway. He smiled grimly,
his bluegray eyeshardening to the temper of steel. Here at last was a foeman worthy ofhis metal; one as lawless, unscrupulous, daring, and far-seeing ashimself, with a hundred times his resources.