Unheeding the drama that was rapidly and invisibly (except for the
incident of Braman and the window) working itself out in its midst, Manti
lunged forward on the path of progress, each day growing larger, busier,
more noisy and more important. Perhaps Manti did not heed, because Manti
was itself a drama--the drama of creation. Each resident, each newcomer,
settled quickly and firmly into the place that desire or ambition or greed
urged him; put forth whatever energy nature had endowed him with, and
pushed on toward the goal toward which the town was striving--success;
collectively winning, unrecking of individual failure or tragedy--those
things were to be expected, and they fell into the limbo of forgotten
things, easily and unnoticed. Wrecks, disasters, were certain. They
came--turmoil engulfed them.
Which is to say that during the two weeks that had elapsed since the
departure of Judge Graney for Washington, Manti had paid very little
attention to "Brand" Trevison while he haunted the telegraph station and
the post-office for news. He was pointed out, it is true, as the man who
had hurled banker Braman through the window of his bank building; there
was a hazy understanding that he was having some sort of trouble with
Corrigan over some land titles, but in the main Manti buzzed along, busy
with its visions and its troubles, leaving Trevison with his.
The inaction, with the imminence of failure after ten years of effort, had
its effect on Trevison. It fretted him; he looked years older; he looked
worried and harassed; he longed for a chance to come to grips in an
encounter that would ease the strain. Physical action it must be, for his
brain was a muddle of passion and hatred in which clear thoughts, schemes,
plans, plots, were swallowed and lost. He wanted to come into physical
contact with the men and things that were thwarting him; he wanted to feel
the thud and jar of blows; to catch the hot breath of open antagonism; he
yearned to feel the strain of muscles--this fighting in the dark with
courts and laws and lawyers, according to rules and customs, filled him
with a raging impotence that hurt him. And then, at the end of two weeks
came a telegram from Judge Graney, saying merely: "Be patient. It's a long
trail."
Trevison got on Nigger and returned to the Diamond K.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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