A Man of Two Countries Part 20

"Phil! You?" Latimer sprang from his chair. "Why--why----"

Danvers was shocked at the haggard face.

"I ran up from Fort Benton, Arthur, just to see you. I've been looking for you all the afternoon." He gently pushed the trembling man back into his chair.

"Why--why did you stop me? It would have been over--now--if----"

"Life is not so bad as that, old friend."

"Isn't it?" bitterly. "If you----"

"I can understand--I know. But you must promise me that you will not attempt this--again." Danvers spoke firmly, feeling that he could never leave his friend if he were not given a pledge.

The broken man looked into the kind eyes opposite. "You think me a coward, don't you? I promise."

"No," refuted Danvers, warmly. "You are worn out, mentally and physically; that is all. Take a run to the coast with me for a month or two----"

Latimer began to laugh, mirthlessly. "I couldn't take a run to Fort Benton, Phil. I haven't a dollar--not a dollar. I'm a ruined man!"

"Arthur!"

Latimer took a paper-knife and checked off his sentence. His voice was impersonal.

"You made a mistake, Phil, when you interrupted me. No, do not speak,"

he raised his hand. "I was in possession of what sanity I've had since Arthur----" He did not complete the sentence. "I've deliberately decided that a quick shot was the only solution of my problem. Boy gone; home gone; my dearest ambition frustrated; hopelessly in debt----"

"I can help you in that."

"And disbarment proceedings about to be inst.i.tuted," finished Latimer.

"What!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Danvers. "Who will inst.i.tute them? On what grounds?"

"Burroughs. He has trumped up some infamous charge. I got a hint of it only this morning--a straight tip."

"He shall not do it! I shall have something to say to him--to the papers. He would not like to have them get hold of Moore's interviews with you and me on the matter of that Supreme Court decision. I----"

"Papers!" Latimer threw out his hands with a helpless gesture.

"Burroughs _owns_ every paper in the State!"

"Well, then, I have another card to play. You leave this matter to me.

You are not going under, and you are not going to--die--not yet! Bob will drop the disbarment proceedings, I promise you; and if he is not amenable to reason--why--he does not own the a.s.sociated Press!" grimly.

"N-no. But I'm broke--ruined."

"What do you think a friend is for, Arthur?" said Danvers, reproachfully. "If I had had any idea that financial matters were troubling you, I would have fixed you out in short order!"

"I can't accept favors."

"Favors!" slightingly, to cover his feeling. "I shall be a Shylock--never you fear!" Then a hand, heavy with love, fell on Latimer's shoulder. "What is mine is yours, Arthur."

Within a week, not only were the judge's difficulties relieved, but the proposed disbarment proceedings were dropped.

"I had means," said Danvers, sternly, when pressed for details by the grateful judge, and none but Burroughs ever knew of the threatened exposure.

Before Danvers returned to Fort Benton, he had the pleasure of seeing Judge Latimer off for the East on legal work and knew that his low mental condition was replaced by a more healthy one. Mrs. Latimer he avoided. The grat.i.tude of Winifred Blair came as a surprise, and strengthened their sympathy in this common cause. He called to say good-bye, but found her not at home, and he left Helena with a distinct feeling of disappointment.

The state election in November gave Danvers a handsome majority, and it was as the senator from Chouteau County that, early in the new year, he attended the governor's reception to the legislators. He came in late, and after paying his respects to the governor and his wife, wandered rather helplessly toward the hall, seeing many whom he knew, but finding little pleasure in their casual greetings.

Mr. and Mrs. Burroughs, as well as the Hon. William Moore, had come from b.u.t.te to attend the brilliant society function. Other acquaintances who now lived at the capital were among the guests whom Danvers recognized.

His sister he seldom saw, and the lack of any common interest between them made it possible to meet her husband in only the most formal way.

Presently he saw Winifred Blair at the salad table, who, chancing to look up from her task, smiled invitingly.

"May I not serve you with salad?" she asked, as he approached.

"If you will make the dressing," recalling their lunch of the late summer.

"It is already dressed," laughed the girl.

"Then you will let me get you some punch; come with me for it."

She was peris.h.i.+ng of thirst (by her own statement), and Danvers finding some one to take her place for a time, discovered a quiet corner of the library past which swept the tide of callers. Hither he enticed Miss Blair, and soon brought the refres.h.i.+ng drink. She sank on the window couch.

"How nice to be looked after," she said, gratefully. "I believe that you knew I was tired of the silly things one must say to men whom one never expects--or wants--to meet again."

"Never say silly things to me or I shall think I am in the category."

"Very well, I will not. I've always had to be to other people what they wanted me to be--what they expected. Somehow, with you--I am myself."

"You could not pay me a higher compliment."

For some minutes they chatted of the coming a.s.sembly and then wandered to the discussion of a book which denied love to be the greatest thing in the world. By that instinct which prompts men and women to talk of this one subject they enlarged on the topic, impersonally at first, as if it were a matter of the price of cattle.

"Then you do believe in the great pa.s.sion?"

"Certainly; don't you?"

"I used to think that I did--years ago. But one sees the counterfeit so often."

"There could be no counterfeit unless the real existed."

"You are right. The real is so rare, then, that one despairs of knowing it." The subject grew more personal. "But we all want the genuine."

"I don't care for paste diamonds myself, no matter how well they imitate."

"You have had opportunity to discriminate?" tentatively.