MONEY MAGIC By HAMLIN GARLAND SUNSET EDITION HARPER & BROTHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON COPYRIGHT 1907 BY HAMLIN GARLAND [Illustration: HE ROSE AND WALKED UP AND DOWN] CONTENTS I. THE CLERK OF THE GOLDEN EAGLE II. MARSHALL HANEY CHANGES HEART III. BERTHA YIELDS TO TEMPTATION IV. HANEY MEETS AN AVENGER V. BERTHA'S UPWARD FLIGHT VI. THE HANEY PALACE VII. BERTHA REPULSES AN ENEMY VIII. BERTHA RECEIVES AN INVITATION IX. BERTHA MEETS BEN FORDYCE X. BEN FORDYCE CALLS ON HORSEBACK XI. BEN BECOMES ADVISER TO MRS. HANEY XII. ALICE HEATH HAS A VISION XIII. BERTHA'S YELLOW CART XIV. THE JOLLY SEND-OFF XV. MART'S VISIT TO HIS SISTER XVI. A DINNER AND A PLAY XVII. BERTHA BECOMES A PATRON OF ART XVIII. BERTHA'S PORTRAIT IS DISCUSSED XIX. THE FARTHER EAST XX. BERTHA MEETS MANHATTAN XXI. BERTHA MAKES A PROMISE XXII. THE SERPENT'S COIL XXIII. BERTHA'S FLIGHT XXIV. THE HANEYS RETURN TO THE PEAKS XXV. BERTHA'S DECISION XXVI. ALICE VISITS HANEY XXVII. MARSHALL HANEY'S SENTENCE XXVIII. VIRTUE TRIUMPHS XXIX. MARSHALL HANEY'S LAST TRAIL MONEY MAGIC CHAPTER I THE CLERK OF THE GOLDEN EAGLE Sibley Junction is in the sub-tropic zone of Colorado. It lies in a hot, dry, but immensely productive valley at an altitude of some four thousand feet above the sea, a village laced with irrigating ditches, shaded by big cotton-wood-trees, and beat upon by a genial, generous-minded sun. The boarders at the Golden Eagle Hotel can sit on the front stoop and see the snow-filled ravines of the mountains to the south, and almost hear the thunder crashing round old Uncompahgre, even when the broad leaves above their heads are pulseless and the heat of the mid-day light is a cataract of molten metal. It is, as I have said, a productive land, for upon this ashen, cactus-spotted, repellent flat men have directed the cool, sweet water of the upper world, and wherever this life-giving fluid touches the soil grass and grain spring up like magic. For all its wild and beautiful setting, Sibley is now a town of farmers and traders rather than of miners. The wagons entering the gates are laden with wheat and melons and peaches rather than with ore and giant-powder, and the hotels are frequented by ranchers of prosaic aspect, by passing drummers for shoes and sugars, and by the barbers and clerks of near-by shops. It is, in fact, a bit of slow-going village life dropped between the diabolism of Cripple Creek and the decay of Creede.