Businessmen -- Fiction; Children of the rich -- Fiction; Colorado -- Fiction; Mate selection -- Fiction; Short stories
A most appealing luncheon was set forth on the white table cloth
spread on a camp table among the boulders. Halloway, in his shirt
sleeves, was making coffee, opening cans of deviled ham, unpacking a
box of fried chicken, and otherwise endeavoring to be several places
at once. He fell immediately to issuing orders.
“Bring that box of ice with the bottles in it from the wagon, John. I
say, Damron, do you know how to broil bacon? Well, you’ll never learn
younger. Shake those coals down and set to work, my son. And don’t let
the coffee boil over.” His enthusiasm was contagious. I found myself
obeying him mechanically. “You might unpack the sandwiches, Kate.
We’re going to have the jolliest little lunch you ever saw. I suspect
you are hungry. Scudding over these hills is great for the appetite.
By the way, you made a fine run of it.” He was so genial and friendly
to her that one could hardly believe he knew that his confederate had
just brought her back under the menace of his revolver.
Miss Gray probably thought his assurance was akin to cheek. At any
rate she gave him the full benefit of her un-willowy five foot seven.
He met with smiling admiration her level indignant eyes; and indeed
the girl’s long curves, her frank good looks, her flashing sunburnt
beauty, had led captive many a man’s fancy. Turning on her heel, she
joined her father. Simon Gray, multimillionaire, was seated morosely
on a rock, frowning down into the Garden of the Gods with blazing
eyes. Far below a dozen dwarfed carriages might be seen wheeling along
the red ribbon of road, and many burros with tourists on their backs
crawled like ants among the rocks, but for all practical purposes the
grim-eyed captain of industry was as much a prisoner as if the gates
of a jail had closed on him.
His dignity was too precious to be risked in a futile attempt to
escape from the long-legged powerful young athlete. Possibly it was
because I was so interested in the situation that I burnt the bacon to
a crisp. Miss Grey, with one of her sudden changes of humor, drove me
from the fire and broiled the bacon herself. The truth is that despite
her frowns the girl was enjoying herself hugely. The excitement of a
new experience filliped through her blood.
I joined Mr. Gray and we conversed in whispers. He explained to me the
absolute necessity of his being in Denver that afternoon to attend an
important meeting of the Copper Consolidated Corporation. It was the
day of the biennial election of officers. He had bought Consolidated
stock sufficient to win the control from the present management, but
without his presence or his proxies the old management would still be
able to carry the election and reinstate itself. James Halloway was
president of the Consolidated, and the two men had been fighting for
control more years than one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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