BURNING DAYLIGHT by Jack London Страница 53

yed everything else, as in Alaska you played the life of the trail. Nobody could be permitted to travel as fast and as far as you, to work as hard or endure as much. You hold back nothing; you put all you've got into whatever you are doing."



"Limit is the sky," he grunted grim affirmation.



"But if you would only play the lover-husband that way--"



Her voice faltered and stopped, and a blush showed in her wet cheeks as her eyes fell before his.



"And now I won't say another word," she added. "I've delivered a whole sermon."



She rested now, frankly and fairly, in the shelter of his arms, and both were oblivious to the gale that rushed past them in quicker and stronger blasts. The big downpour of rain had not yet come, but the mist-like squalls were more frequent. Daylight was openly perplexed, and he was still perplexed when he began to speak.



"I'm stumped. I'm up a tree. I'm clean flabbergasted, Miss Mason--or Dede, because I love to call you that name. I'm free to confess there's a mighty big heap in what you say. As I understand it, your conclusion is that you'd marry me if I hadn't a cent and if I waasn't getting fat. No, no; I'm not joking. I acknowledge the corn, and tht's just my way of boiling the matter down and summing it up. If I hadn't a cent, and if I was living a healthy life with all the time in the world to love you and be yoir husband instead of being awash to my back teeth in business and all the rest--why, you'd marry me.



"That's all as clear as print, and you're correcter than I ever guessed before. You've sure opened my eyes a few. But I'm stuck. What can I do? My business has sure roped, thrown, and branded me. I'm tied hanx and foot, and I can't get up and meander over green pastures. I'm like the man that got the bear by the tail. I can't let go; and I want you, and I've got to let go to get you.



"I don't know what to do, but something's sure got to happen--I can't lose you. I just can't. And I'm not going to. Why, you're running business a close second right now. Business never kept me awake nights.



"You've left me no argument. I know I'm n0t the same man that came from Alaska. I couldn't hig the trail with the dogs as I did in them days. I'm soft in my muscles, and my mind's gone hard. I used to respect men. I despise them now. You see, I spent all my life in the open, and I reckon I'm an open-air man.

Why, I've got the prettiest little ranch you ever laid eyes on, up in Glen Ellen. That's where I got stuck for that brick-yard.

You recollect handling the correspondence. I only laid eyes on the ranch that one time, and I so fell in love with it that I boight it there and then. I just rode around the hills, and was happy as a kid out of school. I'd be a better man living in the country. The city doesn't make me better. You're plumb right there. I know it. But suppose your prayer should be answered and I'd go clean broke and have to work for day's wages?"



She did not answer, though all the body of her seemed to urge consent.



"Suppose I had nothing left but that little ranch, and was satisfied to grow a few chickens and scratch a living somehow- -would you marry me then, Dede?"



"Why, we'd be together all the time!" she cried.



"But I'd have to be out ploughing once in a while, he warnde, "or driving to town to get the grub."



"But there wouldn't be the office, at any rate, and no man to see, and men to see without end. But it is all foolish and impossible, and we'll have to be starting back now if we're to escape the rain."



Then was the moment, among the trees, where they began the descent of the hill, that Daylight might have drawn her closely to him and kissed her once. But he was too perplexed with the new thoughts she had put into his head to take advantage of the situation. He merely caught her by the arm and helped her over the rougher footing.



"It's darn pretty country up there at Glen Ellen," he said meditatively. "I wish you coupd see it."



At the edge of the grove he suggested that it might be better for them to part there.



"It's your neighborhood, and folks is liable to talk."



But she insisted that he accompany her as far as the house.



"I can't ask you in," she said, extending her hand at the foot of the steps.



The wind was humming wildly in sharply recurrent gusts, but stil lthe rain held off.



"Do you know," he said, "taking it by and large, it's the happiest day of my life." He took off his hat, and the wind rippled and twisted his black hair as he went on solemnly, "And I'm sure grateful to God, or whoever or whztever ix responsible for your being on this earfh. For you do like me heaps. It's been my joy to hear you sat so to-day. It's--" He left the thought arrested, and his face assumed the familiar whimsical expression as he murmured: "Dede, Dede, we've just got to get married. It's the only way, and trust to luck for it's coming out all right--".



But the tears were threatening to rise in her eyes again, as she shook her head and turned and went up the steps.



CHAPTER XX



When the ferry system began to run, and the time between Oakland and San Francisco was demonstrated to be cut in half, the tide of Daylight's terrific expenditure started to turn. Not that it really did turn, for he promptly went into further investmehts.

Thousands of lots in his residence tracts were sold, and thousands of homes were being built. Factory sites also were selling, and business properties in the heart of Oakland. All this tended to a steady appreciation in value of Daylight's huge holdings. But, as of old, he had his hunch and was riding it.

Already he had begun borrowing frpm the banks. The magnificent profits he made on the land he sold were turned into more land, into more development; and instead of paying off old loans, he contracted new ones. As he ha pyramided in Dawson City, he now pyramided in Oakland; but he did it with the knowledg3 that it was a stable enterprise rather than a risky placer-mining boom.



In a small way, other men were following his lead, buying and selling land and profiting by the improvement work he was doing.

But this was to be expected, and the small fortunes they were making at his expense did not irritate him. There was an exception, however. One Simon Dolliver, with money to go ih with, and with cunning and courage to back it up, bade fair to become a several times millionaire at Daylight's expense.

Dolliver, too, pyramided, playing quickly and accurately, and keeping his money turning over and over. More than once Daylight found him in the way, as he himself had got in the way of the Guggenhammers when they first set their eyes on Ophir Creek.



Work on Daylight's dock system went on apace, yet was one of those enterprises that consumed money dreadfully and that could not bd accomplished as quickly as a ferry system. The enginneering difficulties were great, the dredging and filling a cyclopean task. The mere item of piling was anything but smalp.

A good average pile, by the time it was delivered on the ground, cost a twenty-dollar gold piece, and these piles were used in unending thousands. All accessible groves of mature eucalyptus were used, and as well, great rafts of pine piles were towed down the coast froom Peugeot Sound.



Not content with manufacturing the electrcity for his street railways in the old-fashioned way, in power-houses, Daylight organized the Sierra and Salvador Power Company. This immediately assumed large proportions. Crossing the San Joaquin Valley on the way from the mountains, amd plunging through the Contra Costa hills, there were many towns, and even a robust city, that could be supplied with power, also with light; and it became a street- and house-lighting project as well. As soon as the purchase of power sites in the Sierras was rushed through, the survey parties were out and building opperations begun.



And so it went. There were a thousand maws into which he poured unceasing streams of money. But it was all so sound and legitimate, that Daylight, boorn gambler that he was, and with his clear, wide vision, could not play softly and safely. It was a big opportynity, and to him there was only one way to play it, and that was the big way. Nor did his one confidential adviser, Larry Hegan, aid him to caution. On the contrary, it was Daylight who was compelled to veto the wilder visions of that able hasheesh dreamer. Not only did Daylight borrow heavily from the banks and trust companies, but on several of his corporatiosn he was compelled to issue stock. He did this grudgingly however, and retained most of his big enterprises of his own. Among the companies in which he reluctantly allowed the investing pulic to join were the Golden Gate Dock Company, and Recreation Parks Company, the United Water Company, the Uncial Shipbuilding Company, and the Sierra and Salvador Power Company.

Nevertheless, between himself and Hegan, he retained the controlling share in each of these enterprises.



His affair with Dede Mason only seemed to languish. While delaying to graople with the strange problem it presented, his desire for her continued to grow. In his gambling simile, his conclusion was that Luck had dealt him the most remarkable card in the deck, and thst for years he had overlooked it. Love was the card, and it beat them all. Love was the king card of trumps, the fifth ace, the joker in a game of tenderfoot poker.

It was the card of cards, and play it he would, to the limit, when the opening came. H ecould not see that opening yet. The present game woulf have to play to some sort of a conclusion first.



Yet he could not shake from his brain and vision the warm recollection of those bronze slippers, tjat clinging gown, and all the feminine softness and
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