Starr, of the Desert | Page 8

because I was not compelled to wait
until Monday to get it for young Calvert. You will have the
relinquishment of his right to the claim, Babe, and a small adobe house
with sheds and yards and a good spring of living water. In building up
the place into a profitable investment you will be building up your
health, which is the first and greatest consideration. I--you must not go
the way your mother went. You will not, because you will live in the
open and throw off the--ah--incipient--"
"Dad--Stevenson!" Helen May was sitting with her arms lying loose in
her lap, palms upward. Her lips had been loose and parted a little with
the slackness of blank amazement. In those first awful minutes she
really believed that her father had suddenly lost his mind; that he was
joking never occurred to her. Peter was not gifted with any sense of
humor whatsoever, and Helen May knew it as she knew the color of his
hair.
"You will no longer be a wage slave, doomed to spend eight hours of
every day before a typewriter in that insurance office. You will be
independent--a property owner who can see that property grow under
your thought and labor. You will see Vic growing up among clean,
healthful surroundings. He will be able to bear much of the burden--the
brunt of the work. The boy is in a fair way to be ruined if he stays here
any longer. There will be six weeks of grace before the claim can be
seized--ah--jumped, the young man called it. In that time you must be
located upon the place. But you should make all possible haste in any
case, on account of your health. Monday morning we will go together
with young Calvert and attend to the legal papers, and then I should
advise you to devote your time to making preparations--"
"Dad--Stevenson!" Helen May's voice ended in an exasperated,
frightened kind of wail. "I and Vic! Are you crazy?"

"Not at all. It is sudden, of course. But you will find, when you stop to
think it over, that many of the wisest things we ever do are done
without dawdling,--suddenly, one may say. No, Babe, I--"
"But two hundred dollars just for the rights to the claim! Dad, look at it
calmly! To build up a ranch takes money. I don't know a thing about
ranching, and neither do you; but we both know that much. One has to
eat, even on a ranch. I wouldn't have my ten a week, remember, and
you wouldn't have your salary, unless you mean to stay here and keep
on at the New Era. And that wouldn't work, dad. You know it wouldn't
work. Your salary would barely keep you, let alone sending money to
us. You can't expect to keep yourself and furnish us money; and you've
paid out all you had in the bank. The thing's impossible on the face of
it!"
"Yes, planning from that basis, it would be impossible." Peter's eyes
were wistful. "I tried to plan that way at first; but I saw it wouldn't do.
The expense of getting there, even, would be quite an item in itself. No,
it couldn't be done that way, Babe."
"Then will you tell me how else it is to be done?" Helen May's voice
was tired and exasperated. "You say you have paid the two hundred.
That leaves us just the furniture in this flat; and it wouldn't bring
enough to take us to the place, let alone having anything to live on
when we got there. And my wages would stop, and so would yours.
Dad, do you realize what you've done?" She tilted her head forward and
stared at him intently through her lashes, which was a trick she had.
"Yes, Babe, I realize perfectly. I'm--not counting on just the furniture.
I--think it would pay to ship the stuff on to the claim."
"For heaven's sake, dad! What are you counting on?" Helen May gave a
hysterical laugh that set her coughing in a way to make the veins stand
out on forehead and throat. (Peter's hands blenched into fighting fists
while he waited for the spasm to wear itself out. She should not go the
way her mother had gone, he was thinking fiercely.) "What--are--you
counting on?" she repeated, when she could speak again.

"Well, I'm counting on--a source that is sure," Peter replied vaguely.
"The way will be provided, when the time comes. I--I have thought it
all out calmly, Babe. The money will be ready when you need it."
"Dad, don't borrow money! It would be a load that would keep us
staggering for years. We are going along all right, better than hundreds
of people all around us. I'm