Moran turned his savage eyes on the young man’s face. What he saw made him hesitate. He ceased to struggle; stood glaring venomously.
“Now listen,” said Jim, unconscious of the knot of Diversity’s citizens who had gathered about. “You’ve been needing to hear a few facts and opinions, and to-day’s the date of delivery. You and your railroad have been a blight on this county. You’re trying to turn the Diversity Company into another blight. So far as I can learn you haven’t a decent hair on your head. You’re never guilty of a fair and decent act if hard work will show you a crooked way out of it. You’ve gouged citizens and shippers with your railroad; you’ve robbed your laborers in the woods. If you have any associates I expect you’ve cheated them.
“Now you’re trying to grab all Diversity and run it as you run your business. You’re trying to steal a well-governed, honest town, and turn it into the sort of thing you admire. You came to me and asked me to help you. You want to make this county a little principality, with you as the autocrat. It would be a sad day for Diversity. If the people of this town have the sense the Almighty gave doodle-bugs they’ll see what you’re up to. You want the courts. You want the machinery of the law, so you can sack the place. Not a man here, not a man in your woods, would be safe in life or property. You could wrong without fear of redress. So far you’ve been able to get away with it, but I’m thinking the folks here will wake up in time. If you’ve been a crook with men you’ve been a miserable brute with women.”
Moran cursed again, but Jim quelled his struggle promptly.
“It’s astonishing,” he went on, “that some woman’s brother or father hasn’t seen to it you got what you deserve. Some day one of them will.”
Jim was surprised into a moment’s silence by the sudden grayness that shaded Moran’s face, by the expression of furtiveness, of fear, that crept into his eyes.
“Oh, you’re a bit afraid of that, eh? You ought to be. Now for personal matters. You think the Ashe Clothespin Company would be a fine property to add to your holdings, so you mixed up with Welliver and his gang to break me. You hired the Kowterskis to spike my logs and to tamper with my machinery, and you saw what happened to one Kowterski. You’ve tried to hold back cars so I couldn’t ship; now you’re planning to cut me off on timber. Well, you aren’t going to do it.” He thought of Marie Ducharme. “And there’s another matter, which we won’t discuss publicly. If you think hard perhaps you’ll guess. That’s what made me despise you first. I don’t suppose it matters to you how many decent folks despise you, Moran, but it gives me some satisfaction to tell you there are a lot of them. I guess that’s about all, except that I’ve got to have logs—and I’m going to have them.” He loosened his hold. Moran moved his head in his released collar, drew a long breath.
“Through, are you? Well, Ashe, see if you’re man enough to listen to me without using the strong arm. You’ve made your talk. Maybe you think you can talk that way to Michael Moran and get away with it. I’ve a few things to settle with you, and this isn’t the least.” His partially restrained passion burst its bonds in fury. “I’ll get you!” he shouted. “I’ll bust you if it takes every dollar I own. Logs! See how many logs you get. Where’ll you be by the time the courts give you damages—and by that time the courts will belong to me. You’ve started in to crowd me, too, you infernal fool. What good do you think that Le Bar option is going to do you? Do you think I’ll buy from you? Don’t you suppose I can stop a sale to anybody else? You just lose your thousand, that’s all. And that last thing that you didn’t describe. I know what it is, Ashe, and take a warning from me. Change your boarding-house and get out of my way.” He turned, pushed his way violently through the little crowd, and almost ran down the street.
As Jim followed more slowly he heard a man say: “Gosh! I wouldn’t be him for consid’able. Wait till Moran gits at him.”
Jim rather longed for that moment. He went at once to Grierson’s desk.