第51章

He had, he told me, abandoned mining and taken up farming on a rather large scale.He had prospered.He had other interests at stake, "A flour-mill with some improvements--and--and"--here his eyes wandered to the "Guardian" again, and he asked me somewhat abruptly what I thought of the paper.Something impelled me to restrain my previous fuller criticism, and I contented myself by saying briefly that I thought it rather ambitious for the locality."That's the word," he said with a look of gratified relief, "'ambitious'--you've just hit it.And what's the matter with thet? Ye kan't expect a high-toned man to write down to the level of every karpin' hound, ken ye now? That's what he says to me"-- He stopped half confused, and then added abruptly: "That's one o' my investments.""Why, Captain Jim, I never suspected that you"--"Oh, I don't WRITE it," he interrupted hastily."I only furnish the money and the advertising, and run it gin'rally, you know; and I'm responsible for it.And I select the eddyter--and"--he continued, with a return of the same uneasy wistful look--"thar's suthin' in thet, you know, eh?"I was beginning to be perplexed.The memory evoked by the style of the editorial writing and the presence of Captain Jim was assuming a suspicious relationship to each other. "And who's your editor?" I asked.

"Oh, he's--he's--er--Lacy Bassett," he replied, blinking his eyes with a hopeless assumption of carelessness."Let's see! Oh yes! You knowed Lacy down there at Eureka.I disremembered it till now.Yes, sir!" he repeated suddenly and almost rudely, as if to preclude any adverse criticism, "he's the eddyter!"To my surprise he was quite white and tremulous with nervousness.I was very sorry for him, and as I really cared very little for the half- forgotten escapade of his friend except so far as it seemed to render HIM sensitive, I shook his hand again heartily and began to talk of our old life in the gulch--avoiding as far as possible any allusion to Lacy Bassett.His face brightened; his old simple cordiality and trustfulness returned, but unfortunately with it his old disposition to refer to Bassett."Yes, they waz high old times, and ez I waz sayin' to Lacy on'y yesterday, there is akind o' freedom 'bout that sort o' life that runs civilization and noospapers mighty hard, however high-toned they is.Not but what Lacy ain't right," he added quickly, "when he sez that the opposition the 'Guardian' gets here comes from ignorant low-down fellers ez wos brought up in played-out camps, and can't tell a gentleman and a scholar and a scientific man when they sees him.No! So I sez to Lacy, 'Never you mind, it's high time they did, and they've got to do it and to swaller the "Guardian," if I sink double the money I've already put into the paper.'"I was not long in discovering from other sources that the "Guardian" was not popular with the more intelligent readers of Gilead, and that Captain Jim's extravagant estimate of his friend was by no means indorsed by the community.But criticism took a humorous turn even in that practical settlement, and it appeared that Lacy Bassett's vanity, assumption, and ignorance were an unfailing and weekly joy to the critical, in spite of the vague distrust they induced in the more homely-witted, and the dull acquiescence of that minority who accepted the paper for its respectable exterior and advertisements.I was somewhat grieved, however, to find that Captain Jim shared equally with his friend in this general verdict of incompetency, and that some of the most outrageous blunders were put down to HIM.But I was not prepared to believe that Lacy had directly or by innuendo helped the public to this opinion.

Whether through accident or design on his part, Lacy Bassett did not personally obtrude himself upon my remembrance until a month later.One dazzling afternoon, when the dust and heat had driven the pride of Gilead's manhood into the surreptitious shadows of the temperance hotel's back room, and had even cleared the express office of its loungers, and left me alone with darkened windows in the private office, the outer door opened and Captain Jim's friend entered as part of that garish glitter I had shut out.To do the scamp strict justice, however, he was somewhat subdued in his dress and manner, and, possibly through some gentle chastening of epigram and revolver since I had seen him last, was less aggressive and exaggerated.I had the impression, from certain odors wafted through the apartment and a peculiar physical exaltation that was inconsistent with his evident moral hesitancy, that he had prepared himselffor the interview by a previous visit to the hidden fountains of the temperance hotel.

"We don't seem to have run agin each other since you've been here," he said with an assurance that was nevertheless a trifle forced "but I reckon we're both busy men, and there's a heap too much loafing goin' on in Gilead.Captain Jim told me he met you the day you arrived; said you just cottoned to the 'Guardian' at once and thought it a deal too good for Gilead; eh? Oh, well, jest ez likely he DIDN'T say it--it was only his gassin'.He's a queer man--is Captain Jim."I replied somewhat sharply that I considered him a very honest man, a very simple man, and a very loyal man.

"That's all very well," said Bassett, twirling his cane with a patronizing smile, "but, as his friend, don't you find him considerable of a darned fool?"I could not help retorting that I thought HE had found that hardly an objection.