Money Magic: A Novel Page 2

  CHAPTER II

  MARSHALL HANEY CHANGES HEART

  It was well for Haney that Bertie did not see him as he sat above hisgambling boards, watchful, keen-eyed, grim of visage, for she would havetrembled in fear of him. "Haney's" was both saloon and gambling hall. Inthe front, on the right, ran the long bar with its shining brass andpolished mahogany (he prided himself on having the best bar west ofDenver), and in the rear, occupying both sides of the room, stood twolong rows of faro and roulette outfits, together with card-tables anddice-boards. It was the largest and most prosperous gambling hall in thecamps, and always of an evening was crowded with gamesters and those whocame as lookers-on.

  On the right side, in a raised seat about midway of the hall, Haneyusually sat, a handsome figure, in broad white hat, immaculate linen,and well-cut frock-coat, his face as pale as that of a priest in theglare of the big electric light. On the other side, and directlyopposite, Williams kept corresponding "lookout" over the dealers and thecrowd. He was a bold man who attempted any shenanigan with Mart Haney,and the games of his halls were reported honest.

  To think of a young and innocent girl married to this remorselessgambler, scarred with the gun and the knife, was a profanation ofmaidenhood--and yet, as he fell now and then into a dream, he took on akind of savage beauty which might allure and destroy a woman. Whateverelse he was, he was neither commonplace nor mean. The visitors to whomhe was pointed out as "a type of our modern Western desperado"invariably acknowledged that he looked the part. His smile was ofsingular sweetness--all the more alluring because of its rarity--and thewarm clasp of his big, soft hand had made him sheriff in San JuanCounty, and his bravery and his love of fair play were well known andadmired among the miners.

  The sombre look in his face, which resembled that of a dreaming leopard,was due to the new and secret plans with which his mind was now engaged."If she takes me, I quit this business," he had promised himself. "Shedespises me in it, and so does the mother, and so I reckon 'tis up to meto clean house."

  Then he thought of his own mother, who had the same prejudice, and whowould not have taken a cent of his earnings. "I see no harm in thebusiness," he said. "Men will drink and they will gamble, and I might aswell serve their wish as any other--better, indeed, for no man canaccuse me of dark ways nor complain of the order of me house. I am abusiness man the same as him that runs a grocery store; but 'tis nomatter, she dislikes it, and that ends it. She's a clear-headed wan," hethought, with a glow of admiration for her. "She's the captain."

  He no longer thought of her as his victim--as something to be ruthlesslyenjoyed--he trembled before her, big and brave and relentless as he wasin the world of men. "What has come over me?" he asked himself. "Sureshe has me on me knees--the witch. Me mind is filled with her."

  All through the week his agents were at work attempting to sell hissaloons. "I'm ready to close out at a moment's notice," he declared.

  At times, as he sat in his place, he lost consciousness of the crowding,rough-hatted, intent men and the monotonous calls of the dealers. Theclick of balls, the buzz of low-toned comment died out of his ears--hewas back in Troy, looking for his father, whom he had not seen orwritten to in twenty years. He saw himself, with a dainty little womanon his arm, taking the boat to New York. "I will go to the biggest hotelin the city; the girl shall have the best the old town has. Nothing willbe too good for her--"

  He roused himself to a touch on his elbow. One of his agents had a newoffer for the two saloons. It was still less than he considered thebusiness worth, but in his softened mood he said, "It goes!"

  "Make out your papers," replied the other man, with almost equalbrevity.

  During the rest of the evening the gambler sat above his lay-out withmingled feelings of relief and regret. After all, he was in commandhere. He knew this business, and he loved the companionship and theadmiration of the men who dropped round by his side to discuss the campor the weather, or to invite him to join a hunting trip. He felt himselfto be one of the chief men of the town, and that he could at any timebecome their Representative if he chose. For some years (he couldn'thave told why) he had taken on a thrift unknown to him before, and hadbeen attending strictly to business. He now saw that it must have beenfrom a foreknowledge of Bertha. In him the superstitions of both minerand gambler mingled. The cards had run against him for three years, nowthey were falling in his favor. "I will take advantage of them," hedeclared.

  Slowly the crowd thinned out, and at one o'clock only a few inveteratepoker-players and one or two young fellows who were still "bucking" theroulette wheel remained and, calling one of his men to take charge,Haney nodded to Williams and they went out on the street.

  As he reached the cold, crisp, deliciously rarefied air outside, he tookoff his hat and involuntarily looked up at the stars blazing thick inthe deep-blue midnight sky. With solemn voice he said to his partner:"Well, 'Spot,' right here Mart Haney's saloon business ends. We're allin."

  Williams felt that his partner was acting rashly. "Oh, I wouldn't saythat! You may get into it again."

  "No--the little girl and her mother won't stand for it, and, besides,what's the use? I don't need to do it, and if I'm ever going to see theworld now is my chance. I'm goin' back East to discover how manybrothers and sisters I have livin'. The old father is dodderin 'roundsomewheres back there. I'll surprise him, too. Now, have those papersall made out ready to sign by eleven o'clock to-morrow. I'm goin' downthe valley on the noon train."

  "All right, Mart, but you're makin' a mistake."

  "Never you mind, me bucko. 'Tis me own game, and the mines will take allthe gray matter you can spare."

  As the big man was walking away towards his hotel a woman met him."Hello, Mart!"

  "Hello, Mag; what's doing?"

  She was humped and bedraggled, and her face looked white in themoonlight. "Nothing. Stake a fellow to a hot soup, won't you?"

  "Sure thing, Mag." He handed her a five-dollar gold piece. "Is it as badas that? What's t' old man doin' these days?"

  "Servin' time," she answered, bitterly.

  "Oh, so he is!" replied Haney, hastily. "I'd forgotten. Well, take careo' yourself," he added, genially, walking on in instant forgetfulness ofthe woman's misery, for his mind was turned upon the talk which hisyounger brother Charley had given him not long before in Denver.

  It was not a cheerful conversation, for Charley flippantly confessedthat he didn't hold any family reunions, and that all he knew of hisbrothers he gained by chance. "They're all great boozers," he said, insumming them up. "Tim is a ward heeler in Buffalo--came to see me at thestage-door loaded to the gunnels. Tom is a greasy, three-fingeredbrakeman on the Central. Fannie married a carpenter and has aboutseventeen young ones. Mary died, you know?"

  "No, I didn't know."

  "Yes, died about four years ago. She was like mother--a nice girl. Dadsent me a paper with a notice of her death. He never writes, but now andthen, when Tim has a fight or Tom gets drunk and slips into the criminalcolumn, I hear of them."

  Charles did not say so, but Mart knew that he was lumped among the otherpoverty-stricken, worthless members of the family. He did not at thetime undeceive his brother, but now that he was no longer a gambler andsaloon-keeper, now that he was rich, he resolved not only to let hisfather know of his good-fortune and his change of life, but also (andthis was due to Bertie's influence) he earnestly desired to help hisfamily out of their mire.

  "We had good stuff in us," he said, "but we went wrong after the motherleft us."

  As he walked on down the street a strange radiance came into the world.The distant peaks of the Sangre de Cristo range rose in dim and shadowymajesty to the south, and, wondering, astonished at the emotion stirringin his heart, the regenerated desperado turned to see the moon liftingabove the crown of the great peak to the east. For the first time inmany years his heart was filled with a sense of the beauty of the world.