OGER DRAKE caught his breath.
"Sir, do you inhale it or do you use a needle? Can you prove any of that?"
"Prove it!" returned Neighbor indignantly. "I don't have to prove it—I know it. It's just gemimini-mentally got to be that way. There ain't no proofs—the kind to convince a jury of peers; but there's no other way to account for what's happened, and, if you're not a natural-born peer, I can show you."
"Among the many beauties that add luster to my character are an aptitude to be shown and a simple willingness to try anything—once. Go to it, old summit! Wise me up!"
"Ver-ree well! Let us examine the simple and jolly facts—well known, but not to you. Tavy Baca is abso-lute-ly the Big Noise in Saragossa County—accent on loot. Nominations and appointments f. o. b. for cash with order. Special terms for convictions and acquittals. Try our land-office decisions. Small graft of all kinds. Corpses to order in neat hardwood boxes. Very Roycrofty. See us before trying elsewhere.
"Laying all juries aside, he's a smart lawyer—Baca. He might be immensely wealthy, but every Mexican within a radius, when he's sick, lazy or in trouble, makes a beeline for Baca and comes away with a jingle in his pocket. It's like packin water in a sieve.
"Gambling, as perhaps you know, is completely stamped out in New Mexico since she joined the glorious sisterhood. Baca would be getting a juicy rake-off from Beck's game. Or, since Baca was your uncle's lawyer, uncle made the necessary arrangements himself, likely."
"But how do you know my uncle was behind Beck?"
"I don't—that comes later. I am now giving you known facts only, and you can build for yourself wherever they'll fit.
"Bennett owns a heap of other people's property. He began life by ruining Brown and Almandares—take thy bill and write down fifty—deliberately smashed 'em so he could get the wreckage. As he began, he kept on—a wrecker. He has no heart, lungs, lights or liver. I knew Almandares; and the good Lord never made a better man than that old Mexican.
"Let me at once show you the impassable gulf between Bennett and a common cheat like Beck, or like Scanlon—s, card sharps, flimflammers. With the Beck kind, you lose only what they win. The Bennett kind gladly makes you lose ten dollars so he can get one. To end with, Beck and Scanlon showed a tenderness toward you not wholly explained by your many charms of face and form. It was magnificent, hut it was not poker. And there's where I first got the hunch.
"Having stolen the big bundle, they, or either of them, felt a certain delicacy about cheating you for your small change; so what they won from you they won fair. But banker Bennett, with his share put up in moth balls, he's so scared you might find out and pry it away from him that he wants to hire you killed!"
Ducky Drake made an impassioned remark. It was a household word.
"What makes it a good deal worse," added Jones with exceeding bitterness, "is that he picked on me to let the contracts to."
"Well, but"
"But, nothing! That is one word I can't bear. He offered to cancel the mortgage on my stuff if I d expurgate you. That means nearly two thousand perfectly good bucks. Why? Would Bennett do that from civic pride? Nary! He's got a big bunch of your money—that's why. Is there any other possible reason?"
"Mere as I am," said Ducky, "I can see that. There is not. But how does all this involve the others? And what makes you hook up my uncle with the kitty industry?"
"When a man loves money and not work; when a man has run through three fortunes, two of 'em his own; when he turns up with a taxable income made in Saragossa County—how did he make it? How can he make it? Openly, in mines, sheep, cattle, store-keeping, liquor or law. But, except for one cattle ranch, misses size, your uncle had no business relations—openly.
"What kind of business is done secretly? Business that is very profitable and not well thought of; counterfeiting—smuggling— gambling. This wasn't smuggling—too far from the border. Nor counterfeiting—else he might have printed off enough to let him live in New York. Also, it couldn't possibly be counterfeiting, because it was gambling.
"Now, Beck and Scanlon run the only dens in Saragossa and at Ridgepole. Because they are all involved, your uncle must have been hooked up with gambling; and, because your uncle was hooked up with gambling, they're all involved."
Ducky looked dazed; with tolerable reason.