Chapter 21
Franklin Royce Surprises Everybody

All day Thursday after Almeda and I had our long talk, neither of us could concentrate on work. About three in the afternoon, Almeda suggested we go on home.

We hadn’t been back more than forty or fifty minutes when Alkali Jones rode up as fast as his stubborn mule Corrie’s Beast could carry him—which wasn’t very fast!

Pa was just walking down from the mine to wash up and have a cup of coffee. We’d been inside the house, but hadn’t yet seen Pa since getting home. Mr. Jones spoke to all of us at once as he climbed down off the Beast.

“Ye left Miracle too blamed early!” he said to me and Almeda. “Weren’t five minutes after ye was gone, ol’ Royce come out o’ his bank, an’ starts talkin’ to a few men who was hangin’ around the Gold Nugget. Told ’em he was gonna be givin’ kinda like a speech tomorrow mornin’, though not exactly campaignin’. But he said whatever men owed his bank money oughta be sure an’ be there. He said he’d like to notify ’em all by letter, but there weren’t enough time, so would the men spread the word around town.”

“And what else?” asked Pa.

“That’s it,” said Mr. Jones. “He’s gonna be sayin’ something he says is mighty important an’ folks oughta be there.”

Pa looked at Almeda. “Well, I reckon this could be it,” he said. “Looks like he’s gonna call our bluff and foreclose on the whole town at once.”

“He wouldn’t dare,” said Almeda.

“As long as you’ve known Franklin Royce,” said Pa, “you still think he’d be afraid to do anything? Nope, that’s what he’s gonna to do all right. One last threat to finalize his election on Tuesday.”

“I just can’t believe he’d have the gall.”

“He’ll do anything to win.”

Everybody was silent a minute.

“Well, I can’t be there,” said Almeda finally. “I wouldn’t be able to tolerate that conniving voice of his addressing the men of this town. I’m afraid I would scream!”

“I’m not gonna be there, that’s for sure!” added Pa. “I’d be afraid I’d clobber him, and then Simon’d have to throw me in the pokey. Alkali, you want to go and hear what the snake has to say? You’d be doing us a favor.”

“You bet. Maybe I’ll clobber the varmint fer ye! Hee, hee, hee! I don’t owe him nuthin’. He cain’t do a thing to me!”

“No, you just stand there and listen. Won’t be doing our cause no good for anybody to clobber him, as much as I’d like to!”

They went into the house and had some coffee and talked a while longer, and then went back to the mine where Pa worked for another couple of hours.

That evening was pretty quiet. It felt as if a cloud had blown over the house and stopped, a big black thundercloud. I think Pa and Almeda were afraid that whatever Royce did in the morning would send a dozen or more men running to them for help with their loans, and then the cat would be out of the bag that they didn’t have enough money to help them all. They didn’t actually have any money at all! Once they were forced to admit that fact, like Pa said, the jig was up. Royce would then have everyone over a barrel and could do whatever he liked.

The next morning we all tried to keep busy around the house, but it was no use. We were on pins and needles waiting for some news from town. I think Pa was halfway afraid that he’d suddenly see ten or twenty men riding up, all clamoring for help with their loans, and when he had to level with them and say there was no way they could back them all up, that they’d turn on him and lynch him from the nearest tree!

The morning dragged on. Two or three times I could tell from Pa’s fidgeting that he was thinking of riding into town himself to see what was up. But he stuck with his resolve, and attempted to busy himself in the barn or around the outside of the house.

The first indication we had that word was on the way wasn’t the sight of dust approaching or the sound of galloping hoofbeats rounding the bend. Instead it was the high-pitched voice of Mr. Jones shouting at his mule as he whipped it along. Long before he came into view, his voice echoed his coming.

“Git up, ye dad-blamed ornery varmint!” he yelled. “Ye’re nuthin’ but a good-fer-nuthin’ heap o’ worn-out bones! If ye don’t git movin’ any faster, I’m gonna drive ye up the peak o’ Bald Mountain an’ leave ye there fer the bears an’ wolves—ye dad-burned cuss! Why, I shoulda left ye in that drift o’ snow last winter! Ye’re slower than a rattlesnake in a freeze!”

By the time he rounded the bend and came in sight, Pa was already running toward him, and the rest of us were waiting outside the house for news.

Seeing Pa and the rest of us, Alkali’s jabbering changed and his face brightened immediately.

“Ya done it!” he shouted out. “Ya done it, ye wily rogue!”

“Done what?” said Pa. “Who’s done what?”

“You done it!” repeated Mr. Jones. “Ya made the rascal blink, that’s what! Hee, hee, hee!”

“Alkali, I don’t have a notion what you’re babbling on about!”

“He backed down, I tell ye! Your bluff worked!”

“What did he say, Mr. Jones?” said Almeda, “Are you telling us he didn’t call all the men’s notes due like we feared?”

“He didn’t do nuthin’ o’ the sort, ma’am. Why, he plumb was trippin’ over his own tongue tryin’ to be nice, ’cause he ain’t used enough to it.”

“What did he say, Alkali? Come on—out with it!” said Pa.

“Well, the varmint got up on top of a table so everybody could hear him. There was likely thirty, forty men gathered around, all of ’em that owes the rascal money. An’ they was all worried an’ frettin’, and your name came up amongst ’em afore Royce even got started, and they was sayin’ as how they’d have to be over t’ see you next.

“But then Royce climbed up there, all full of smiles, and said he’d been thinkin’ a heap ’bout the town an’ its people and about his obligation as the banker an’ the future mayor. An’ he said he had come t’ the realization that ye gotta have friends ye can trust when times get rough—”

“He stole that from you, Pa,” I interrupted.

Pa just nodded, and Mr. Jones kept going.

“An’ he said that as Miracle Springs’ banker, he was proud of bein’ a man folks could trust. An’ then came the part that jist surprised the socks clean off everybody listenin’. He said that he’d been thinkin’ an’ was realizin’ maybe he’d been a mite too hard on folks hereabouts. An’ so he said he was gonna do some re-figurin’ of his bank’s finances and had decided fer the time bein’ t’ call no more loans due. An’ he wanted t’ git folks together ’cause he knew there’d been some worry around town and he wanted t’ put folks’ minds at ease.

“An’ then blamed if he didn’t hold up a piece a paper, an’ he said that it was the call notice on Rolf Douglas’s note. An’ he said he’d reconsidered it too, an’ then all of a sudden he ripped that paper in half right afore our eyes! An’ then he said he wanted them all to remember that he was their friend, an’ a man they could trust.”

“That was all?” asked Pa, stunned by the incredible news.

“The men was jist standin’ there with their mouths hangin’ open, an’ no one knew whether t’ clap fer him or what t’ do, they was all so shocked. An’ then he said he hoped they’d remember him on election day. But if ye ask me, gatherin’ from the gist of what I heard as the men was leavin’, I figure the only person they’s gonna be rememberin’ next Tuesday is this here missus of yours, Drum, now that they don’t figure they need to be afeared of Royce!”

He stopped and looked around at all our silent amazed faces.

“Hee, hee, hee!” he cackled. “Ye all look like a parcel of blamed ghosts! Don’t ye hear what I’m tellin’ ye? Mrs. Hollister, ma’am, I think you jist about got this here election in the dad-burned bag!”

Pa finally broke out in a big grin, then shook Alkali Jones’ hand, and threw his arm around Almeda.

“Well, maybe we have done it after all, Mrs. Hollister!” he exclaimed. “I just don’t believe it.”

But Almeda wasn’t smiling. One glance over in my direction told me this latest news was like a knife piercing her heart. Knowing that suddenly she had a chance after all was going to make what she had to do all the more difficult.