The Mask Ball

: Still Jim

"I have seen in the coyote pack that coyotes who will not

hunt and fight for the pack must starve and die."



MUSINGS OF THE ELEPHANT.





"You are not!" returned Pen flatly. "You don't see the human side of

your problem at all. You have made Oscar Ames hate you. Yet no man could

live the life and do the things that Oscar has and not have developed a br />
fine big side to his nature. You never see that. And the dam is more

Oscar's than it is yours. It is for him. Still, somehow you have got

to make every farmer on the Project your partner. Make them feel that

you and the dam are theirs. Show them how to take care of the things the

dam will produce. Jim, dear, make your thumb print in the hearts of men

as well as in concrete, if you would have your work endure."



Jim paced the floor steadily. Old visions were passing before his eyes.

Once more he saw the degraded mansions on the elm-shaded streets. Old

Exham, with its lost ideals. Ideals of what? Was Pen right? Was it the

ideal of national responsibility that Exham had lost--the ideal that had

built the town meeting house and the public school, that had produced

the giants of those early days, giants who had ruled the nation with an

integrity long lost to these later times.



"My father said to me, 'Somehow we Americans have fallen down on our

jobs!'" said Jim, pausing before Pen, finally. "Pen, I wonder if he

would have thought your reason the right one?"



Then he lifted Pen's chin to look long into her eyes. Slowly his wistful

smile illumined his face. "Thank you, dear," he said and, turning, he

went out into the night.



The next night was given the Mask Ball in honor of the committee. Nobody

knew what conclusion the eminent gentleman had reached in regard to Jim

and his associates. But everyone did his best to contribute to the

hilarity of the occasion.



The gray adobe building where the unmarried office men and engineers

lived was gay with colored lights and cedar festoons. The hall in the

rear of the building had an excellent dancing floor. The orchestra was

composed of three Mexicans--hombres--with mandolins and a guitar, and an

Irish rough-neck who brought from the piano a beauty of melody that was

like a memory of the Sod. The four men produced dance music that New

York might have envied.



Several Cabillo couples attended the dance. Oscar Ames and Jane and one

or two other ranchers and their wives were there. All the wives of the

officers' camp came and the bachelors searched both the upper and lower

camps for partners, with some very charming results. Mrs. Flynn sat with

Sara, and Jim insisted that instead of going with Jane and Oscar, as she

had planned, that he be allowed to take Pen to the first ball she had

attended since her marriage.



Henderson had ordered that the costumes be kept a great secret. Through

a Los Angeles firm he provided dominoes for the five committeemen. But

there were half a dozen other dominoes at the ball, so the committee

quickly lost its identity. Oscar Ames came as a hobo. Henderson had a

policeman's uniform, while the two cub engineers wore, one, a cowboy

outfit; the other, an Indian chief's. Mrs. Henderson was dressed as a

squaw.



Penelope wore a flower girl's costume, improvised from the remains of

the chintz she had brought from New York. Jim viewed her with great

complaisance. No one could look like Pen, he thought, and he would dance

with her all the evening. Jim went as a monk. To his chagrin, when they

reached the hall he found that Pen had made Mrs. Ames a costume exactly

like her own, and with the complete face masks they wore, they might

have been twins. They were just of a height and Mrs. Ames danced well.

The children and the phonograph had long ago attended to that.



There was nothing stupid about the ball from the very start. The

policeman ended the grand march by arresting the hobo, who put up a

fight that included two of the dominoes. The orchestra swung into "La

Paloma" and in a moment the hall was full of swaying colors, drifting

through the golden desert dust that filled the room. There were twice as

many men at the ball as women. The latter were popular to the point of

utter exhaustion.



Henderson looked over the tallest domino, seized him by the throat and

with wild flourishes of his club, backed him into a corner.



"Say, Boss Still Jim," he whispered, "that old nut of a chairman

doesn't look as if he had anything but skim milk in his veins. But do

you sabez he's danced three times with that little fat ballet girl and

he's hugging the daylights out of her. He'd ought to be investigated."



The tall domino looked at the couple indicated. "I'll start

investigating, myself," he whispered.



"Wish I could get a dance with her, but I can't," said Henderson. "My

Missis knows who I am. I ain't got her spotted yet, though. Yes, I have.

That flower girl's her. I'd know the way she jerks her shoulders

anywhere."



He cut neatly in and separated the flower girl from the monk. "Look

here, Minnie," he said gently. "You ain't called on to dance like a

broncho, you know. Remember, you're the mother of a family! Cut out

having too many dances with that monk. He holds you too tight. I think

he's one of the committee men. You floss up to the tallest domino and

give him a good time. That's the Boss."



The flower girl sniggered and Henderson pushed her from him with marital

impatience and took an Indian squaw away from the hobo.



"Come on, little girl," he said. "You can dance all right. If my wife

wasn't here I'd show you a time."



The squaw stiffened and the monk swung her away from Jack, who

immediately arrested old Dad Robins, the night watchman, who was taking

a sly peak off his beat at the festivities. Henderson forced the

delighted old man through a waltz, with himself as a very languishing

partner.



The hobo, dancing with one of the flower girls, said: "Jane, I've been

trying to get a chance to warn you not to say anything to Mrs. Penelope

about that deal with Freet. I was a fool to let you see that letter

tonight. Now I'm getting into national politics, you've got to learn to

keep your mouth shut."



"How'd you know me?" whispered the flower girl.



"You don't dance as good as Mrs. Pen," he replied.



Here the monk stole the flower girl and danced off with her, firmly.



"Remember the dance at Coney Island and how mean you were to me?" he

whispered.



"And how bossy and high-handed you were about the bathing? How did you

know me?"



The monk hugged the flower girl to him. "You haven't lived in my heart

for all these years without my getting to know you!"



And the flower girl sighed ecstatically.



The tall domino, dancing with the other flower girl, felt the strains of

Espanita creeping up his backbone, and he said,



"There is something in the air out here that is almost intoxicating!"



The flower girl answered: "It'll do more than that for you, if you'll

give it a chance. It will make you see things."



"I don't understand you," replied the domino in a dignified way.



"I mean you'd see if you stayed here long enough that what Jim Manning

needs is help, not investigating."



"How do you know I'm not Manning?"



The flower girl sniffed. "I'm an old woman so I can tell you that no

woman would ever mistake him for anyone else after she'd once danced

with him."



"He is making a most regrettable record here," very stiffly from the

domino.



"Shucks! Why don't you fire Arthur Freet? I warn you right now that he's

trying to get his hooks into this dam."



"The Service might well dispense with both of them, I believe," said the

domino.



The flower girl sniffed again. "You politicians--" she began, when she

was interrupted by a call at the door.



The music stopped. A white-faced boy had mounted a chair and was

shouting hysterically: "Where's the Boss? The hombres have shot my

father!"



"It's Dad Robins' boy! Why, the old man was here a bit ago!" cried

someone.



The monk pulled off his mask and flung his robe in the corner. "Oscar,"

he said to the hobo, who had unmasked, "see to Mrs. Penelope."



Then he grasped young Robins by the arm and rushed with him from the

hall.



Oscar hurried Pen and Jane up to the tent house with scant ceremony,

then ran for the lower town. Mrs. Flynn and Sara were greatly surprised

by the early return of the merrymakers. The four waited eagerly for

news. Sara would not let any of the women stir from the tent, saying

that it was unsafe until they knew what had happened. At midnight Oscar

returned.



"They got poor old Dad. After he left the hall, he was going past a

lighted tent in the lower town when he heard sounds of a fight. He went

in and found two drunken Mexicans fighting over a flask of whiskey. He

took the whiskey and told them to go to bed. He started out into the

street and the two jumped him and started to stab him to death. He

yelled and the sheriff and his boy was the only folks in all that town

dared to go help him. The two hombres shot the sheriff in the arm before

he located them and got away. They had finished poor old Dad, though.

Mr. Manning's got posses out and will start more at daylight. If you'll

put Jane up for the night, Mrs. Flynn, I'll go back to the lower town.

You'd ought to see those committeemen. Three of them would have gone out

with a posse, I'll bet, if they hadn't remembered their dignity in

time!"



Jim had his hands full. By daylight the next morning there was every

prospect of a wholesale battle between the Americans and the Mexicans.

The camp was at fever pitch with excitement. The two shifts not at work

swarmed the streets of the lower camp, the Mexicans at the far end, the

Americans at the upper end near Dad Robins' house, whence came the sound

of an old woman's hard sobs. After a hurried breakfast at the lower

mess, Jim joined this crowd. The men circled round him, all talking at

once. Jim listened for a time, then he raised his arm for silence. "It

was booze did it! Booze and nothing else! Am I right?"



Reluctant nods went around the crowd. "And yet," Jim went on, "there's

hardly a white man in the camp who hasn't fought me on my ruling that

liquor must not come within the government lines. You all know what

booze means in a place like this. Those of you who were with me at Makon

know what we suffered from it up there. I know you fellows, decent,

kindly men now, in spite of your threats to lynch the hombres. But if

you could get booze, you'd make this camp a hell on earth right now. No

better than a drunken Mexican is a drunken white. Am I right?"



Again reluctant nods and half-sheepish grins.



"Now, you fellows forget your lynching bee. Commons, Ralston, Schwartz,

you make a committee to raise enough money to send Mrs. Robins and the

boy back to New Hampshire with the body. Here is ten to start with. They

must leave this noon. Tom Weeks, you make the funeral arrangements. I'll

see that transportation is ready at noon. Bill Underwood, you get a

posse of fifty men and quarantine this camp for booze."



A little laugh went through the crowd. Billy Underwood had been the

chief malcontent under Jim's liquor ruling. Bill did not laugh. He began

to pick his men with the manner of a general.



"One word more," said Jim. "You all know that the United States

Reclamation Service is under the suspicion of the nation. They call you

and me a bunch of grafters. It's up to you as much as it is to me to

show today that we are men and not lawless hoboes."



A little murmur of applause swept through the crowd as Jim turned on his

heel. He made his way into the Mexican end of the camp. There was noise

here of talking and quarreling. Jim walked up to a tall Mexican who was

in a way a padrone among the hombres.



"Garces," said Jim, "send the night shift to bed."



Garces eyed Jim through half-shut eyes. Jim did not move a muscle.

"Why?" asked the Mexican.



"Because I shall put them to bed unless they are gone in five minutes."



Jim pulled out his watch. In just four minutes, after a shouted order

from Garces, the street was cleared of more than half the hombres.



"Now," said Jim, "except when the shifts change, you are to keep your

people this side of the ditch," pointing to the line that separated the

Mexican and American camps. "I have fifty men scouring the camp for

whiskey. Anybody found with liquor will be arrested. If there is a

particle of trouble over it in your camp, I'll let the Gringos loose.

Sabez?"



Garces shivered a little. "Yes, senor," he said.



Jim took a turn up and down the street on his horse, then started for

the dam site. As he cantered up the road, Billy Underwood, mounted on a

moth-eaten pony, saluted with dignity.



"Boss, that saloon keeper up the canyon has got a billion bottles of

booze. Worst whiskey you ever smelled. He says he's laying for you and

if you cross his doorstep, he'll shoot you up."



Jim looked at Bill meditatively. "Bill, I'm going to call his bluff!"



"Us fellows in my posse'll shoot his place up if you say the word,"

cried Bill eagerly.



"No, that won't do," replied Jim. "But I have an idea that he's a

four-flusher. Keep your eye on 'Mexico City,' Bill. I am afraid of

trouble, though I've got Garces buffaloed so far."



Jim turned his horse and cantered back through Mexico City along the

narrow river trail to Cactus Canyon. Just off the government reserve was

a tent with a sheet iron roof. The trail to the tent was well worn. Jim

dropped the reins over the pony's head and walked into the tent. There

was a rough bar across one end, behind which stood a quiet-faced man

with a black mustache. Drinking at the bar were two white men whom Jim

recognized as foremen.



"You two fellows are fired," drawled Jim. "Turn in your time and leave

camp this afternoon."



The Big Boss is king on a project. The two men meekly set down their

glasses and filed out of the tent. It was something to have been fired

by the big boss himself.



"And who are you?" asked the saloonkeeper.



"Don't you recognize me, Murphy?" asked Jim, pleasantly. "I have the

advantage of you there. My name is Manning."



The saloonkeeper made a long-armed reach for a gun that stood in the

corner.



"One moment, please," said Jim. As he spoke he jumped over the bar,

bearing the saloonkeeper down with him before the long-armed reach

encompassed the gun. Jim removed Murphy's knife, then picked up the gun

himself.



Murphy started for the door with a jump. "Break nothing!" he yelled.

"I'll have the law of New Mexico on you for this."



Murphy leaped directly into Bill Underwood's arms. "Hello, sweetie,"

said Bill, holding Murphy close. "Thought I'd come up and see how you

was making it, Boss."



"Nicely, thanks," said Jim. "I'll be finished as soon as he breaks up

his stock."



"It'll be some punishment for me to watch a job like that," said Bill,

"but I'm with you, Boss."



He shifted his gun conspicuously as he released Murphy. Bill owed the

saloonkeeper something over six weeks' pay. The occasion had an unholy

joy for him. Murphy looked Jim over, scratched his head and started to

whistle nonchalantly. In ten minutes he had destroyed his stock in

trade. When he had finished, he handed Jim the key of the tent with a

profound bow.



"Now," said Jim, "drop a match on the floor."



When the flames were well caught Jim said, "See that he leaves camp,

Bill." Then he mounted and rode away.



Murphy looked after him curiously. "Some man, ain't he?" he said to

Bill.



"I'll eat out of his hand any time," replied Bill. "Get your pony,

Murphy."



"I'll join your posse," suggested Murphy. "I bet I can ferret out more

booze than any three of you."



"Nothing doing!" growled Bill. "Should think you would have better taste

than to wanta do that."



Murphy shrugged his shoulders. "I want you to let me go up to that Greek

fellow's place before I go," he said.



Bill stared but made no comment.



As Jim rode back through the lower town he stopped young Hartman, the

government photographer.



"Hartman," he asked, "have the films for the movies come in yet?"



"Came in yesterday, Mr. Manning."



"Good work! Hartman, will you give us a show this evening?"



"The hall's in pretty rough shape but if you want it----"



"I want it to keep things quiet, Hartman, till we find those hombres and

get them in jail at Cabillo."



The young fellow nodded. "I'll have things ready at seven. After the

funeral, I'll get the word out."



Jim rode on to his neglected work at the office. There he found the

members of the committee awaiting him. Even the chairman was eager to

know details of occurrences since they had gone reluctantly to bed after

midnight.



When Jim had finished his story, the Vermont man said pompously: "You

seem to manage men rather well, Mr. Manning. In behalf of my colleagues

I wish to thank you for your hospitality to us. As you know, we must

leave this afternoon."



Jim nodded. "I shall have my superintendent take you over to the train.

You will understand that I do not want to leave the camp myself."



"I wish we could stay and see the end of this," said one of the members.

"It's like life in a dime novel."



"My chief regret is that we only had half of the Mask Ball. After this,

when my constituents are tempted to give me a dinner, I shall urge a

Mask Ball instead. Never had one given for me before and no debutante

ever had anything on my feelings last night," said another.



"Henderson should have been a country squire," said Jim. "He's a perfect

host."



The camp was quiet during the afternoon. Jim saw the committee off at

five o'clock, then went up to the tent house. Sara and he glanced at

each other coolly and nodded. Pen started the conversation hurriedly.



"What word from the two hombres?"



Jim shook his head. "One posse got away last night before I warned them.

I'm afraid that if the murderers are brought into camp I can't avert a

lynching bee."



Pen shivered. Sara grunted. "You'd think Pen had lived in a convent all

of her life instead of a death pen like New York."



"It's so lonesome out here, human life means more to you," said Jim.



"Some philosopher you are," sneered Sara. "Fine lot of drool you got off

at the hearing. Why didn't you keep to the main issue? The yokels are

still saying with the rest of us, He must be dishonest or he'd give an

honest 'No' to our accusations."



Jim answered slowly: "When a man says that sort of thing to me I usually

knock him down, or completely ignore him."



"You can't knock us all down and the time is rapidly coming when we will

be ignoring you, minus a job."



"Still," pleaded Pen, "he couldn't understand your speech. Once and for

all, Jim, give him and all the rest the lie."



Jim ground his teeth and did not speak. Sara was obviously enjoying

himself.



"You are mistaken, Pen. Jim and I have often discussed the divine origin

of the New Englander. They are a pathetic lot of pifflers. They have no

one to blame but themselves that they are going. Everywhere else the

Anglo-Saxon has gone he has insisted that he had the divine right to

rule and has kept it. Outsiders have had to conform or get out. But over

here he promulgated the Equality idea. Isaac Gezinsky and Hans Hoffman

and Pedro Patello are as fit to rule according to the Equality idea as

anyone else. It didn't take much over two hundred years of this to

crowd the New Englander out of the running. And who cares?"



"I do," said Jim, "because I believe in the things my race has stood

for. Emerson says it's not chance but race that put and keeps the

millions of India under the rule of a remote island in the north of

Europe. Race is a thing to be reckoned with. Nations progress as their

race dictates."



"Emerson!" jibed Sara. "Another inefficient highbrow!"



"I can't help believing," replied Jim doggedly, "that the world will

lose in the submerging of the New England element in America."



"And yet right here, in your America," said Sara, "the leaders of the

money trust are descendants of Puritans."



Jim winced. "'The strength of the pack is the wolf,' When we produced

men of that type we should have recognized them and have controlled

them. They are helping the pack down hill, all right. Be satisfied,

Sara! Only you will not get me off this Project until it is finished."



"No?" sneered Sara.



Pen interrupted nervously: "A couple of men are coming up the trail."



Bill Underwood appeared at the tent door. Murphy was with him. "Boss,"

said Bill, "Murphy has got to see your Greek friend. I got him started

south this noon, but he circled on me and I just picked him up on the

mesa, headed this way. He wanted to come here on the quiet, but I

brought him up in the open."