_ CHAPTER XXVIII. THE HOLE IN THE WALL
A paper come out, with a picture of the Wisner fence, showing the place where the hole had been broke through. It was marked with a star to show where it was at. The man that wrote the story said here was a modern case of Pyramus and Thisbe. Who they was I don't know; but like enough they lived on the South Side. There was pictures this time of our William and their Emmy. I didn't read any more about the thing, for I was sore on the whole business, and considerable worried about Old Man Wright, what he was going to do. But at part of the piece it said something I happened to see.
Evidently [it says] though it may be difficult for a young man to kiss a girl through a four-foot wall, this aperture, opening or orifice, without doubt or question originally was intended as an avenue for Mr. Pyramus to achieve access occasionally, if not to the lips, at least to the ears of little Miss Thisbe. Which leaves it only a question of who was Mr. Pyramus and who Miss Thisbe. As to this, Alderman Wright has steadily denied himself to the press, while Mrs. Wisner, the only member of the family at home on the north side of the wall, also refuses to talk. It is well known that Mr. Wisner has been absent in Europe on important business connected with the war loan--
I read that far to Old Man Wright and then he broke out.
"War loan!" says he. "It's a loan for his own self that he's looking for. He's lost four million dollars on that irrigation scheme of his when he bought our ranch. Now I'm going to foreclose and he knows it. He's got his funds tied up in cargoes of meat and grain that ain't cashed in. He's short, and damn short! And I know it; and these are times when banks ain't loosening much. War--yes; I'll show him war! There can't nobody get title to a foot of that land till Old Man Wisner gets his title from me--and he ain't never going to get it. If it's my last act I'll ruin him. I trusted you, and you turned me down. I trusted her, and she threw me down. I won't trust nobody no more, except myself.
"What's it come to?" says he to hisself after a while, looking around at the big rooms. "What did it all come to, what I done for her? And I give up the ranch for her and give up the life I loved!"
"The sun was on the hills when I was out there, Colonel," says I to him, sudden, happening to think of something, "and the sky was blue as it ever was; and the wind was just carrying the smell of the sage, like it used to; and the river was running white on the riffles, same as it did before. And the cows----"
"Don't, Curly!" says he. "Don't!"
"I won't no more, Colonel," says I. "I won't be on your pay roll much longer; but them old days----"
"Don't!" says he. "I can't think about the old days no more. I'm closing the books now, Curly."
"So'm I," says I.
"What do you mean?" says he. "I ain't right clear about some things."
"No; you ain't," says I. "So long as it's fair war I'm in with you; but when it comes to making war on women and children--I ain't in."
"Children! Curly, what do you mean?"
"Children," says I, "is all there is to things. Buck the game the way you want to, Colonel," says I; "but when you buck the child game you're bucking God Almighty His own self. He's got it framed up so He can't lose. Them two couldn't help theirselfs. I've got to finish some day, same as you. All right; I'll finish with them."
Then I shooked hands with him and he done so with me. He looks me keen in the eyes and I looks him keen back. We didn't neither of us weaken. This was a heap the hardest thing we'd ever faced together, but we didn't neither of us flicker. We'd both decided what we thought was right.
"Son," says he after a while, "you're some man after all." And he puts his hand on my shoulder; like he used to.
"She ain't got no ma," says I to him the last thing. "I'm half her pa, the only half she's got left; and I'll stick if her father don't. But she ain't got no ma. That's what makes me so sorry for the kid," says I.
He looks at me, with his eyes wide open, but he don't talk none.
"I seen her setting right there, Colonel," says I, "in this room, on our old hide lounge--her wringing her hands like she'd tear 'em apart. She was bucking a hard game then, and doing her best to play it fair--her just a kid, with no special chance to be so very wise, and not having no ma. She didn't have a soul to go to, and all that was worrying her was which side of the game she really was on. For she knowed, even if we didn't, like I told you just now--she must of knowed it somehow--there's one particular game that God Almighty plays so He can't lose."
He groaned like I hated to hear. But he didn't weaken. I knowed he couldn't quit. _