girl was visibly alarmed, but as she still stood fascinated by his eyes and voice, struggling to recover her serenity, another group of diners came noisily past, and the big man, with a parting look, went out and took a seat on one of the chairs which stood in a row upon the walk. The hand which held the cigar visibly trembled, and his companion said:
"Be careful, Mart – "
Haney silenced him with a look. "You're on the outside here, partner."
"I didn't mean to butt in – "
"I understand, but this is a matter between that little girl and me," replied the big man in a tone that, while friendly, ended all further remark on the part of his companion, who rose, after a little pause, and walked away.
Haney remained seated, buried in thought, amazed at the fever which his encounter with the girl had put into his blood.
It was true that he had been coming down every Saturday for weeks – leaving his big saloon on the best evening in the week for a chance to see this child – this boyish school-girl. In a savage, selfish, and unrestrained way he loved her, and had determined to possess her – to buy her if necessary. He knew something of the toil through which the weary mother plodded, and he watched her bend and fade with a certainty that she would one day be on his side.
When at home and afar from her, he felt capable of seizing the girl – of carrying her back with him as the old-time savage won his bride; but when he looked into her clear, calm eyes his villiany, his resolution fell away from him. He found himself not merely a man of the nearer time, but a Catholic – in training at least – and the words he had planned to utter fell dead on his lips. Libertine though he was, there were lines over which even his lawlessness could not break.
He was a desperate character – a man of violence – and none too delicate in his life among women; but away back in his boyhood his good Irish mother had taught him to fight fair and to protect the younger and weaker children, and this training led to the most curious and unexpected acts in his business as a gambler.
"I will not have boys at my lay-out," he once angrily said, to Williams, his partner, "and I will not have women there. I've sins enough to answer for without these. Cut 'em out!" He was oddly generous now and then, and often returned to a greenhorn money enough to get home on. "Stay on the farm, me lad – 'tis better to milk a cow with a mosquito on the back of your neck than to fill a cell at Cañon City."
In other ways he was inexorable, taking the hazards of the game with his visitors and raking in their money with cold eyes and a steady hand. He collected all notes remorselessly – and it was in this way that he had acquired his interests in "The Bottom Dollar" and "The Flora" mines – "prospects" at the time, but immensely valuable at the present. It was, indeed, this new and measurably respectable wealth which had determined him upon pressing his suit with Bertha. As he sat there he came to a most momentous conclusion. "Why not marry the girl and live honest?" he asked himself; and being moved by the memory of her sweetness and humor, he said, "I will," and the resolution filled his heart with a strange delight.
He presented the matter first to the mother, not with any intention of doing the right thing, but merely because she happened into the room before the girl returned, and because he was overflowing with his new-found grace.
Mrs. Gilman came in wiping her face on her apron – as his mother used to do – and this touched him almost like a caress. He rose and offered her a chair, which she accepted, highly flattered.
"It must seem warm to you down here, Captain?" she remarked, as she took a seat beside him.
"It does. I wouldn't need to suffer it if you were doing business in Cripple. I can't leave go your Johnny-cake and pie; 'tis the kind that mother didn't make – for she was Irish."
"I've thought of going up there," she replied, matter-of-factly, "but I can't stand the altitude, I'm afraid – and then down here we have my son's little ranch to furnish us eggs and vegetables."
"That's an advantage," he admitted; "but on the peak no one expects vegetables – it's still a matter of ham and eggs."
"Is that so?" she asked, concernedly.
"'Tis indeed. I live at the Palace Hotel, and I know. However, 'tis not of that I intended to speak, Mrs. Gilman. I'm distressed to see you working so hard this warm weather. You need a rest – a vacation, I'm thinkin'."
"You're mighty neighborly, Captain, to say so, but I don't see any way of taking it."
"Furthermore, your daughter is too fine to be clerkin' here day by day. She should be in a home of her own."
"She ought to be in school," sighed the mother, "but I don't see my way to hiring anybody to fill her place – it would take a man to do her work."
"It would so. She's a rare little business woman. Let me see, how old is she?"
"Eighteen next November."
"She seems like a woman of twenty."
"I couldn't run for a week without her," answered the mother, rolling down her sleeves in acknowledgment that they had entered upon a real conversation.
"She's a little queen," declared Haney.
It was very hot and the flies were buzzing about, but the big gambler had no mind to these discomforts, so intent was he upon bringing his proposal before the mother. Straightened in his chair and fixing a keen glance upon her face, he began his attack. "'Tis folly to allow anything to trouble you, my dear woman – if anny debt presses, let me know, and I'll lift it for ye."
The weary mother felt the sincerity of his offer, and replied, with much feeling: "You're mighty good, Captain Haney, but we're more than holding our own, and another year will see the ranch clear. I'm just as much obliged to you, though; you're a true friend."
"But I don't like to think of you here for another year – and Bertie should not stand here another day with every Tom, Dick, and Harry passin' their blarney with her. She's fitter to be mistress of a big house of her own, an' 'tis that I've the mind to give her; and I can, for I'm no longer on the ragged edge. I own two of the best mines on the hill, and I want her to share me good-fortune with me."
Mrs. Gilman, worn out as she was, was still quick where her daughter's welfare was concerned, and she looked at the big man with wonder and inquiry, and a certain accusation in her glance.
"What do you mean, Captain?"
The big gambler was at last face to face with his decision, and with but a moment's hesitation replied, "As my wife, I mean, of course."
She sank back in her chair and looked at him with eyes of consternation. "Why, Captain Haney! Do you really mean that?"
"I do!" He had a feeling at the moment that he had always been honorable in his intentions.
"But – but – you're so old – I mean so much older – "
"I know I am, and I'm rough. I don't deny that. I'm forty, but then I'm what they call well preserved," he smiled, winningly, "and I'll soon have an income of wan hundred thousand dollars a year."
This turned the current of her emotion – she gasped. "One hundred thousand dollars!"
He held up a warning hand. "Sh! now that's between us. There are those younger than I, 'tis true, but there is a kind of saving grace in money. I can take you all out of this daily tile like winkin' – all you need to do is to say the wan
