“Anyway, I still think that I may be able to hold the thing. What it will cost to try my plan will be as nothing compared with the money that is being expended now in fruitless efforts. So, to make good with you, I’m going to give you my plan right now, and you can put it up to the engineers and see what they think of it. And the reward, of course, will be yours. Will you see if you can find a piece of paper and a pencil out in that lean-to that the doctor calls his office and dispensary?”
“Joshua,” she said, “I will do nothing of the sort. Your plan is yours, whatever it is, and, knowing you as I do, I fully believe that it is worth something or you would not consider it. In other words, boy, you convinced me years ago, when you told me about the stars, that you are not given to talking through your hat. I firmly believe”—she forced a wan smile—“that—in how many centuries is it?—the big dipper will look like a steamer chair, simply because you told me so. And now the reward for stopping that famous slide has been raised to five thousand, and if you can win it we’ll let her slide until you’re ready to show us. That’s that!”
“But, Madge, listen to me. Take my plan now and, if it works, stop the thing at once. A pile of money will have been spent before I’m out of this confounded shack. Take it, and save your outfit. Then if you care to split the reward with me—”
“I’ll split nothing with you, young feller! Neither will I take your plan and present it to anybody! And as for losing the outfit, let her rip! I’m through—me! Trying to stop the slide has cost so much that, even if we pulled through, we’d be so badly in debt that it would require years to get on our feet again. No, the outfit must go to give us a clean slate, and we’ll let the future take care of itself.
“I’ve been too cocksure—too swell-headed. And now I’m being slapped on the wrist for my presumption in strutting around with old-time railroaders, old enough to be my grandfather, and talking wisely about this and that thing about which I knew nothing. How they must have laughed in their sleeves at me. Oh, it makes me sick now! I tell you the past few weeks have taken all the pep and bravado out of me. I’m whipped, and I’m through.
“And Ma tells me that you and she connived together against me and got her a homestead here in the mountains. Well, I’m glad. I’m for that. And I’m going to get out while the gettin’s good, and save what I can of tools and teams and cash to run the homestead with. Back to the farm for little Madge!”
“But—”
“I tell you I’m through—stubbornly through, Joshua. I bit off a chunk and couldn’t swallow it. Now let’s drop that aspect of the matter. When can you totter around, does the doctor think?”
“Why, Doc doesn’t think at all, except when he’s over the roulette wheel. I can go any time I myself think that I can, and the sooner the better for him. It’s a great strain for him to carry my meals to me three times a day. I guess I’ll try it in about a week. I’ve been up four times, I believe, and walked about a little. I won’t be able to work myself, but I can put others to work. Three men will be enough to put my idea across.”
“Then you get on the job as soon as you can and stop that slide. You need the money.”