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<h2>II</h2> Tesno turned into a pine-wrapped road that wound the short quarter-mile to the construction camp. The cool and fragrant solitude touched some deeply hidden need in him and pulled at him, but he shook off the mood and strode ahead, tense and swaggering, eager to see Ben Vickers. He found him in a cabin behind the bunkhouse, hunched over a table cluttered with papers held down by rocks. Ben was talking with a dapper, white-bearded man who paced the room. When he saw Tesno, Ben snatched off bent spectacles and leaped to his feet. "Never was so glad to see a man!" he exclaimed, bouncing around the table to shake hands. He had a bland face and a topknot of gray hair that gave him the look of a kewpie doll. This look, Tesno knew, was deceptive. Ben Vickers had his failings, but blandness wasn't one of them. "You can start in the morning." "Not so fast," Tesno said, grinning. "I'm not sure I'll like the work. Your letter gave no details." "I've no time to chit-chat." Ben nodded toward the white-bearded man. "You ever met Jack Tesno, Mr. Jay?" "Never had the pleasure." Clear blue eyes measured Tesno as they shook hands. Tesno had known of Jerome J. Jay for years. The man had made a reputation by taking over jobs other contractors had found too tough to finish. His being here might be a bad sign. "If I barged in on something, I'll come back," Tesno said. "I think we've finished our talk," Mr. Jay said, turning to Ben. "I'll see you again in a few days." "If you can make better sense," Ben said. "I've offered you a chance to get out with your shirt. Think damned good and hard about it." Mr. Jay touched his gray derby, nodded to Tesno, and strode out of the cabin. "Sounds like he's trying to move in on you," Tesno said. Ben strolled to his chair and sat down heavily. "I never cut a tunnel before. He has." "He wants to buy your contract?" "You could call it that. I'd lose what I've already sunk into the job—which is a fortune." Tesno sat down and tilted his chair back against the log wall, his boot heels hooked over a rung. "This job is do-or-die," Ben said. "I've mortgaged every horse, wagon, and harness snap I own. On top of everything else, I guaranteed the railroad I'd dig their damn tunnel in twenty-eight months. I backed up the guarantee by posting a one-hundred-thousand-dollar bond; cash money. If I hit daylight one hour late, I forfeit the bond. "Mr. Jay offered to buy the contract for a hundred thousand, the amount of the bond. He would also take over my debts, but he'd save the cost of building the camp and a road and hauling men and equipment up here." Ben sighed, blowing upward at his kewpie-doll topknot. "He knows I'm forty days behind schedule and maybe can be tempted to pull out before I'm a complete pauper." "Forty days!" Tesno said. "What cost you that much time?" Ben made a sweeping gesture. "I had to build forty-five miles of mountain road. Had to build an all-weather camp. Set up an electric plant so we can light the bore with arc lamps. Got a sawmill going. Then there's the tunnel itself. Right at the exact spot marked on the map for the east portal, there was a damn waterfall. Had to move it—the waterfall. That cost me a week." "You working from both ends toward the middle?" "Naturally," Ben said. "But we're drilling by hand and the daily footage isn't half what it should be.... I've ordered a seven-ton boiler from Connecticut, Jack. With that, I can get compressors working and use Ingersoll drills. If it gets here soon enough, I might make it. If you can get the town in line...." "I wondered when you'd get around to the town." Ben wagged his head sadly, then smoothed his topknot. "Duke Parker got the jump on me there. Took out a townsite claim before I ever thought of such a thing. Jack this is the only spot within five miles that isn't practically straight up and down!" "What happened to Duke, Ben?" "The fool tried to skid a log down an icy slope. It ran over him. I guess they picked him up in a bucket." "Seems like you might buy out his widow, run the town to suit yourself." "Persia. She's got some kind of grudge against me, won't even set a price. Anyhow, it would be sky high. The saloons and faro tables are making her rich." "And ruining you." "You know what booze and gambling will do to a construction gang, Jack. And you've seen it bad, I know, but you've never seen anything like what I've got right now. Short crews every day: fights, accidents. Men broke all the time and grumbling. Best foreman I ever had got lucky at faro and got stabbed on his way back to camp. I've got a Swede tool-dresser in the hospital in Ellensburg, shot by a blackleg in a gambling argument." "I don't know," Tesno said, scowling into the brightness as Ben lighted a lamp. "If this was the usual fly-by-night, tent-city type of operation, I'd know what to do. But a patented town with its own officials is a different animal." "You cleaned up Spokane Falls." "Sure, with a sizable group of decent businessmen to back me up. I'd guess there are precious few of those in Tunneltown." Ben smiled mirthlessly. "You looked it over?" "I ran into Pinky Bronklin and that candy-striped marshal." "Madrid? He made a reputation as an express guard on the OR & N. Killed two bandits who tried to rob his car." "I've heard the story," Tesno said. "I also heard they were half-frozen hoboes looking for a place to get warm." Ben nodded grimly, then he spread his palms above the littered tabletop. "I'm not asking for miracles, Jack. I'll settle for midnight closing, no Sunday sales, no sales to drunks. Get rid of the knockout-drop artists and the drunk rollers. And the gambling. It causes as much trouble as the booze. There's a territorial statute that forbids casino gambling, but the county sheriff is the nearest law officer—sixty miles away at Ellensburg. The best he could do was agree to deputize any troublebuster I hire." "Damned if I'll ride down there just to get a badge." "Suit yourself. I'll put you on the payroll as of tomorrow." "I figure to start tonight," Tesno said. "What you going to do tonight?" Tesno grinned one-sidedly. "Call on Persia Parker." Ben pursed his lips and made a little gesture of resignation. Both men got to their feet. "There's room in the east bunkhouse," Ben said. "How's that hotel in town?" "Fair enough. No bugs." "I'll stay there, send you the bill." "Now hold your horses," Ben said. "When did you get too persnickety to sleep in a bunkhouse?" "Hotel's handier." Ben glared. "All right, you damn bandit. Anything else?" "Just tell me where to find the Parker woman." "Lady," he corrected. "She runs a rotten town, she hates my liver, but she's a lady." Ben appraised Tesno narrowly. "If you don't know what that is, Jack, you're damn well going to get educated." <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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