Youre quite sure? asked Torrance, and his face was stern.
Well, said Clavering languidly, I saw him, and bantered him a little on his prepossessing friends. Asked him why, when he was at it, he didnt go to Manitoba for Canadians. Larry didnt take it nicely.
Im sorry, said one of the older men. Larry is one of us, and the last man Id figure on committing that kind of meanness would be the son of Fremont Grant. Quite sure its not a fit of temper? You have not been worrying him, Torrance?
Torrance closed one hand. Grant of Fremont was my best friend, and when he died I most brought the lad up as a son. When he got hold of his foolish notions it hurt me considerably, and I did what I could to talk him out of them.
There was a little smile in the faces of some of the men, for Torrances draconic fashion of arguing was known to them.
You put it a little too straight, and he told you something that riled you, said one.
He did, said Torrance grimly. Still, for most two years I kept a curb on my temper. Then one evening I told him he had to choose right then between his fancies and me. I could have no dealings with any man who talked as he did.
Do you remember any of it? asked another man.
Yes, said Torrance. His fathers friends were standing in the way of progress. Land that would feed a thousand families was keeping us in luxury no American was entitled to. This was going to be the poor mans country, and the plough was bound to come!
Clavering laughed softly, and there were traces of ironical amusement in the faces of the rest. Very similar predictions had more than once been flung at them, and their possessions were still, they fancied, secure to them. They, however, became grave again, and it was evident that Larry Grant had hitherto been esteemed by them.
If it had been any one else, we could have put our thumb on him right now, said one. Still, I dont quite figure it would work with Larry. There are too many folks who would stand in with him.
There was a little murmur of approbation, and Clavering laughed. Buy him off, he said tentatively. We have laid out a few thousand dollars in that way before.
Some of the men made gestures of decided negation, and Torrance looked at the speaker a trifle sternly.
No, sir, he said. Larry may be foolish, but hes one of us.
Then, said somebody, weve got to give him time. Let it pass. You have something to tell us, Torrance?
Torrance signed to one of them. You had better tell them, Allonby.
A grey-haired man stood up, and his fingers shook a little on the table. My lease has fallen in, and the Bureau will not renew it, he said. Im not going to moan about my wrongs, but some of you know what it cost me to break in that place of mine. You have lived on the bitter water and the saleratus bread, but none of you has seen his wife die for the want of the few things he couldnt give her, as I did. I gave the nation my two boys when the good times came, and theyre dead buried in their uniform both of them and now, when Id laid out my last dollar on the ranch, that the one girl Ive left me might have something when Id gone, the Government will take it away from me. Gentlemen, is it my duty to sit down quietly?
There was a murmur, and the men looked at one another with an ominous question in their eyes, until Torrance raised his hand.
The lands not open to location. I guess theyre afraid of us, and Allonbys there on toleration yet, he said. Gentlemen, we mean to keep him just where he is, because when he pulls out we will have to go too. But this thing
has to be done quietly. When the official machinery moves down here its because we pull the strings, and we have got to have the law upon our side as far as we can. Well, thats going to cost us money, and we want a campaign fund. Ill give Allonby a cheque for five hundred dollars in the meanwhile, if hell be treasurer; but as we may all be fixed as he is presently, well want a good deal more before were through. Who will follow me?
Each of them promised five hundred, and then looked at Clavering, who had not spoken. One of them also fancied that there was for a moment a trace of embarrassment in his face; but he smiled carelessly.
The fact is, dollars are rather tight with me just now, he said. Youll have to wait a little if Im to do as much as the rest of you. I am, however, quite willing.
Ill lend you them, said Torrance. Allonby, Ill make that cheque a thousand. You have got it down?
Allonby accepted office, and one of the other men rose up. Now it seems to me that Torrance is right, and with our leases expired or running out, were all in the same tight place, he said. The first move is to get every man holding cattle land from here to the barren country to stand in, and then, one way or another, well freeze out the homesteaders. Well, then, well constitute ourselves a committee, with Torrance as head executive, and as we want to know just what the others are doing, my notion is that he should start off to-morrow and ride round the country. If there are any organizations ready, it might suit us to affiliate with them.