The Invaders | Page 2

valley road. At the first farm he saw dark, plump women in billowing dresses, wearing peasant scarves over their heads. They moved about the barnyard, raking dead leaves and scratching busily at the baked earth of the old truck gardens. Chickens and ducks strayed, and Jerry caught a glimpse of children. He waved to the group and was answered by nods and flashing smiles.
Then he had a shock. One of the women was working the handle of a pump that had been bone-dry for fifteen years--and a slender stream of clear water spilled into her wooden tub!
Somewhat dazedly, Jerry drove on. He saw more of the Merklos people at other farms. Men were working in the withered orchards. New fence posts and rails were going up; bright axes flashed in the dry and scraggly wood lots.
Jerry's thoughts kept returning to the water in that first pump. Could it be that they had learned the valley had a supply again? That would be a mighty joke on Hammond and the First National Bank.
The road, badly rutted by erosion and drifted over with sand and dry leaves, began to rise. Jerry shifted into low gear. Then, suddenly, he stopped. He'd had another shock. He had just realized this road was unused. He recalled the twin ruts, patterned with rabbit and bird tracks, clear back to the turn-off. Without question, his car had been the first to mark the road since winter.
Then how had these dozens of people come, with their chickens and ducks and children and tools? He had seen no cars, no wagons, no carts. How had these people come?
Jerry sat back in the seat and grinned. He fished out his tobacco pouch and filled his pipe. There were times when he considered himself fairly mature, fairly well balanced. Yet he was as ready as the next to build a house of mystery out of the insubstantial timber of ignorance.
Of course there was a reasonable explanation. They must have walked from the railroad. It was a good many miles, but it was perfectly possible.
Feeling better, Jerry followed the tortuous road to the western crest. His long legs hadn't taken him far from the car when he heard a harsh, "Hold up!"
First one, then the other Carver brother stepped out from a scrub oak thicket--short, leathery old men, with ragged whiskers and dirt seamed into their faces and wrists. They eyed him malevolently over raised shotguns.
"Came to talk to you," Jerry said mildly.
One of them--he thought it was Ed--spat.
"Ah, now," Jerry went on in an aggrieved tone, "that's a fine way to treat a son of Jack Bronson."
The Carver brothers glanced at one another, then the shotguns lowered. "Come along," they said gruffly. In the littered yard by their cabin, they pointed to a bench and squatted down before it on their thin old shanks.
"New people in Dark Valley."
They nodded.
"They've bought it from the bank. They own it clear to the ridge line, including your place, here."
"We been here forty years," said Ed.
"If I owned it you could stay forty more."
"They send you?" the voice was sharp, suspicious.
Jerry shook his head. "I just thought you'd like to know about it."
For a couple of minutes the Carver brothers chewed tobacco in unison. They stood up, reached for their guns. "We'll see," they said.
Jerry nodded. They walked beside him, kicking thoughtfully at the leaves. The brother named Mike rubbed his whiskers. "Get much of a look at 'em when ye passed through?"
"Some."
"They furriners?"
Jerry sighed inwardly. "Maybe. They look like hard workers."
The Carver brothers cackled suddenly. "They better be! To farm that land."
Jerry passed back through the valley. A man knocking out stumps waved to him. A woman in a barnyard swished out her big skirts, shooing chickens. At that first farm, a trickle of water still ran from the pump....
* * * * *
Wide Bend was a normal community. Along with its natural curiosity there was a genuine feeling of neighborliness--heightened by the conviction that these hardworking strangers had thrown their money away on a hopeless venture. So, one way and another, a fair percentage of the town's population found excuses in the next few days to get out to Dark Valley. Bit by bit the reports filtered back to Jerry, and they all added up about the same.
Joe Merklos and his people were incredibly industrious. Already they had cleaned up the yards, repaired sagging barns and roofless sheds. Curtains fluttered at the windows. Cows had appeared, and sheep, even a few horses. Somehow, perhaps from accumulated seepage, they were still bringing water from the rusty pumps. And--though it was surely an illusion--Dark Valley seemed to have taken on a tinge of green again.
Wide Bend's womenfolk brought gifts of home-made preserves, jelly, canned vegetables ... and came away puzzled. No, they hadn't been badly