The Octopus : A Story of California

d was low and covered with a second growth of grey green willows. Along the borders of the creek were occasi

shimmering levels of the ranches above, down here one always found one's self enveloped in an odorous, moist coolness. From time to time, the incessant murmur of the creek, pouring over and around the larger stones, was in

because of a wrenched ankle. As Hilma descended into the gravel flats and thickets of willows underneath the trestle, she decided that she would gather some cresses for her supper that night. She found a spot around the base of one of the supports of the trestle where the c

she chose to drink from the creek, lying prone on the ground, her face half-buried in the water, and this, not because she was thirsty, but because it was a new way to drink. She imagined herself a belated traveller, a poor gir

s near the bank! She had worn low shoes that afternoon, and the dust of the trail had filtered in above the edges. At times, she felt the grit and grey sand on the soles of her feet, and the sensation had set

bed-room terrified her, and in the end her mother had taken over that part of her work. Of the two meetings with the master of Quien Sabe, one had been a mere exchange of good mornings as the two happened to meet over by the artesian well; the other, more complicated, had occurred in the dairy-house again, Annixter, pretending to look over the new cheese press, asking about details of her work. When this had happened on that previous occasion, ending with Annixter's attempt to kiss her, Hilma had been talkative enough, chattering on from

tinually. He was absent sometimes for weeks, making trips to San Francisco, or to Sacramento, or to Bonneville. Perhaps he was forgetting her, overlooking

n the barn, seemed to her the pitch of sublimity. She refused to see any auxiliaries aiding him in his fight. To her imagination, the great League, which all the ranchers were joining, was a mere form. Single-handed, Annixter fronted the monster. But for him the corporation would gobble Quien Sabe, as a whale would a minno

d a swirl of smoke, in a long succession of way-coaches, and chocolate coloured Pullmans, grimy with the dust of the great deserts of the Southwest. The quivering of the trestle's supports set a tremble in the ground underfoot. The thunder of wheels drowned all

y. He had taken off his campaign hat to her, and though his stiff, yellow hair was twisted into a bristling mop,

" he exclaimed, getting down from th

er feet, dusting her skirt wi

d of the heat of the day, the bad condition of the Lower Road, over which he had come on his way from a committee meeting of the

y, "never you marry a ranchma

tly, a certain, inexplicable guiltiness overpowered her with incredible confusion. Her

ter another, had he forgotten the look in Hilma's face as he stood with one arm around her on the floor of his barn, in peril of his life from the buster's revolver. That dumb confession of Hilma's wide-open eyes had been enough for him. Yet, somehow,

tion, the moment had come for something definite, he could not say precisely what. Readjusting his cigar between his teeth, he resumed his speech. It suited his humo

ailroad fuss in general? Think Shelgrim and his rushers are

d Hilma, still breathle

what

le uncertain move

't kno

es were lost in the Supreme Court-you know we've app

ig

, fi

Mr. Delaney that time w

led Annixter vaguely.

"Fighting-with guns-that's so terrible. Oh, those revolvers in the barn! I

elaney have possession, and S. Behrman, a

e exclaimed, her g

Quien Sabe is your home isn't it? You've lived here ever since you were as big as

No, I shouldn't like th

take care of you, right enough. Look here," he demanded abruptly, "you've no use for that roaring lush, Delaney, have you?" "I think he is a wick

ht you wouldn't

among the pebbles, nosing for grass, and Annixter

ow, I got the idea that you didn't want Delaney to do for me one little bit; that if he'd got me then you would have been sorrier than if he'd got any one else. Well, I felt just that way about you. I would rather have had him shoot any other girl in the room than you; yes, or in the whole State. Why, if anything should happen to you, Miss Hilma-well, I wouldn't care to go on with anything. S. Behrman could jump Quien Sabe, and welcome. And Delaney could shoot me full of holes whenever he got good and ready. I'd quit. I'd lay right down. I wouldn't care a whoop about anything any more. You are the only girl for me in the whole world. I didn't think so at first. I didn't want to. But seeing you around every day, and seeing how pretty you

in her handkerchief bundle with elaborate p

?" Annixter repeated. "How a

whisper, Hi

don't

't you think we could

n't k

t mean to scare you. What are y

day, lock, stock, and barrel, and I'm fighting now for my home, my land, everything I have in the world. If I win out, I want somebody to be glad with me. If I don't-I want somebody to be sorry for me, sorry with me,-and that somebody is you. I am dog-tired of going it alone. I want some one to back me up. I want to feel you alongside of me, to give me a touch of the shoulder now and then. I'm tired of fighting for THINGS-land, property, money. I want to fight for some PERSON-somebody beside myself. Understand? want

n't k

, Hilma?"

t of infinite tenderness and affection she slid

. He bent his head and kissed her upon the nape of her neck, where the delicate amber tint melted into the thick, sweet smelling mass of her dark brown hair. She shivered a little, holding him closer, ashamed

s it a go?" demande

he said, and the velvety huskiness of h

crockery smashing goat of

, dear! I think it mus

t is good to have you, my girl," he exclaimed, delighted beyond words

think of you-to, well, to think about-I mean to rememb

n wh

n't thought-that way

thought it must ha

n so many ways, and I've given myself to you, all in a minute, and I can't go back of it now, and it's for always. I don't know how it happened or why. Sometimes I think I didn't wish it, but now it's done, and I am glad and happy. But NOW if you weren't good to me-oh, think of how it would be

echless. No words that he had at his comm

you be frightened. I'll take care of y

in, finding no feed to her taste, took the trail stablewards, the bridle dragging. Annixter let her go. Rather than to take his arm from around Hilma's

lma, what are

y, must we do anything?

wouldn't do. There's always a lot of yaps about there that know us, and they would begin to cackle first off. How about San Francisco. We mi

Wouldn't it be better-oh, I tell you, we could go to Monterey after we were married, for a little week, where mamma's people live, and then

and his face

e said,

planned in the least. He had supposed all the time that Hilma took his meaning. His old suspicion that she was trying to get a hold on him stirred a

t?" said Hilma,

w," he mutte

t back to Quien Sabe without going to M

of it in just that

at way

wait about this m

s too soon. There would be so much to do betwee

y w

rriage,

thing upon a minister puddling round in my affairs. What's the difference, anyhow

ning. She rose to her feet, her eyes wide, her face paling with terr

deep breath, and again "Oh!" the

physical anguish. Her eyes brimmed

said, awkwa

re of defence, fearing she knew not what. There was as yet no sense of insult in her mind, no outraged mode

, darting across the plank that served for a foot bridge over the creek, gaining the opposite bank and disa

and put it on his head and stood for a moment, looking vaguely at the ground on both sides of him. He went away without uttering a word, w

ue called him to Bonneville to confer with Magnus and the firm of lawyers retained by the League to fight the land-grabbing cases. An appeal was

kersfield-Fresno local at Guadalajara, and went to Bonneville by rail, arriving there at twenty minutes after

clerk, who made a stenographic report of the proceedings and took carbon copies of all letters written. The conference was long and

ened from the lobby of the Yosemite into the bar of the same name. Dyke was there-even at a distance they could hear the reverberation of his deep-toned vo

signment of his hop poles from the north had arrived at the freight office of the P. and S. W. in

his mother pulled his ear to

fter five already. Your b

moved, his huge legs in the air, hoisted the little tad on the soles of his stockinged feet like a circus acrobat, dandling her there, pretending he was about to let her fall. Sidney, choking with delight, held on nervously, with little screams and chirps of excitement, while he shifted her gingerly from one foot to another, and thence, the final act, the great gallery play, to the palm of one great hand. At this point Mrs. Dyke was called in, both father and daughter, children both, crying out that she was to come in and look, look. She arrived out of breath from the kitchen, the potato masher in her hand

r head, her lips parted. With infinite precaution he kissed her twice, and then finding one little stocking, hung with its mate very neatly over the back o

s, and half an hour later took himself off in his springless, skeleton wagon, humming a tun

ville was glinting radiant in the first rays of the sun, while a few miles distant, toward the north, the venerable campanile of the Mission San Juan stood silhouetted in purplish black against the flaming east. As he proceeded, the great farm horses jogging forward, placid, deliberate, the country side waked to another day. Crossing the irrigating ditch further on, he met a gang of Portug

hepherd, Vanamee, coming across Quien Sabe, by a trail from one of Annixter's division houses. Without kn

s an alien, a vagabond, a strange fellow who came and went in mysterious fashion, making no friends, keeping to himself. Why did he never wear a hat, why indulge in a fine, black, pointed beard, when either a round beard or a mustache was the in

n of the Mission, overlooking the Seed ranch, in the little valley. Tuesday evening had found him miles away from that spot, in a deep arroyo in the Sierra fo

ng. Vanamee had come over to Los Muertos and spent most of his days on horseback, riding the range, rounding up and watching the cattle in the fourth division of the ranch. But if the vagabond instinct now roused itself in the strange fellow's nature, a counter influence had also set in. More and more Vanamee frequented the Mission garden after nightfall, sometimes remaining there till the dawn began to whiten, ly

the Mission garden, the mystery of the Other, Vanamee's flight to the deserts of the southwest, his periodic returns, his strange, reticent, solitary character, but, l

him to indulge in an hour's lounging about the streets. It was seldom he got into town, and when he did he permitted himself the luxury of enjoying his evident popularity. He met friends e

'n have

don't car

y. Dyke, however, was a strictly temperate man. His life on the engine had trained him well

" a child's toy, where upon a little pane of frosted glass one could trace with considerable elaboration outline fi

oda-water fountain; "I know a little tad that would just about j

ng?" the other asked, whi

of his little girl a cele

y became voluble, asser

lare County, and more fun! A r

ps?" inquir

a daisy. Jim, I'm going to make money in that deal. After I've paid off the mortgage-you know I had to mortgage, yes, crop and homestead both, but I can pay it off and all the interest to boot, lovely,-well, and as I was saying, after all expenses are paid off I'll clear big money, m' son. Yes, sir. I KNEW there wa

hat'll

e tad and mother up and show 'em the city-'Frisco-until it's time for the sch

'll stay right

a regular industry hereabouts. I'm planning ahead for next year already. I can let the foreman go, now that I've learned the game myself, and I think I'll buy a piece of

followed no one's lead. He had struck out unaided for himself, and his success was due solely to his own intelligence, industry, and foresight. He squared his great shoulders till the blue gingham of his jumper all but cracked. Of late, his great blond beard had grown and the work in the sun had made his face very red. Under the visor o

assing. He turned about, and, crossing the street, took his way to Ruggles's offi

clerk to make out the order for the freight agent at the depot, Dyke was surprised to

od out big and tremulous on either side of his face; the roll of fat on the nape of his neck, sprinkled with sparse, stiff hairs, bulged out with greater prominence. His great stomach, covered with a light brown linen vest, stamped with innumerable interlocked horseshoes, protruded far in advance, enormous, aggressive. He wore

the wheat-growers. He heard their denunciations, their growls of exasperation and defiance. Here was the other side-this placid, fat man, with a stiff straw hat and linen vest, who never lost his temper, who smiled affably upon his enemies, giving them good advic

, irresistible. Abruptly Dyke received the impression of the multitudinous ramifications of the colossus. Under his feet the ground seemed mined; down there below him in the dark the huge tentacles went silen

der that the other had handed him. He remembered perfectly well that he had arranged the matter of transporting his crop some mont

to me. There'll be a big wheat crop to move this ye

your cars," mu

of others going into the business next season. Suppose," he continued, struck with an idea, "suppose we went into some

her lo

cents and a half and maybe

d Dyke, "I don't see it. Why, th

clerk, looking him gravely

look it up. You'll find the freight on hops from Bonneville to 'Frisco is

e was a silence. Dyke shot a glance of suspici

up. You'll se

and shook hands polite

can do for y

speaking, the clerk turned to S.

rate on hops

ausing to reflect; "yes, Mr.

It was inscribed at the top "Tariff Schedule No. 8," and underneath these

ehrman. He indicated an item

1, and will remain in force until superseded by a later tariff. Those quoted beyond Stockt

that the rate for hops between Bonneville or

matter became clear in his mind. The Railroad had

ight rate of two cents a pound. He was under contract to deliver his crop. He coul

d me a rate of two cents and I went ahead with my b

watched him from the ot

cents," declared t

stand? I won't make fifty cents. MAKE! Why, I will

, raised

ip. You can do as you lik

deliver. What am I going to do? Why, you

hops have gone up. I know the German crop was a failure and that the crop in New York wasn't worth the

ce of hops got

he freight rate has gone up to meet the price. We're not doing business for our health.

t, the audacity of the affair was what most appe

ere. What's your basis of applying freight rates, anyhow?" he suddenly voc

abruptly forward. For the only time in his knowledge, Dyke saw his face inflamed with ange

t's your basis?" demanded D

f his reply with a tap of one for

traffic-w

he counter, to steady himself. He felt himself grow pale, his hear

foreclose. Not only would the Railroad devour every morsel of his profits, but also it would take from him his home; at a blow he would be left penniless and without a home. What would then become of his mother-and what would become of the little tad? She, whom he had been planning to educate like a veritable lady. For all that year he had talked of his ambition for his little daughter to every one he me

hot wrath that leaps to the attack with prehensile finger

man in a pink shirt, who entered, carrying in

his go?" inqu

do duty in Ruggles's office. On the back of a yellow envelope he made some vague figures w

at the top panel of the door. The man who had come to fix the apparatus was unwilling to guarantee it, unless a sign was

e thing was ordered," declared S. Behrman. "No,

"that just because you are dealing with

d the counter and engaged in conversation with these two. Genslinger introduced Delaney. The buster had a string of horses he was shipping southward.

ope, came forward again. Absorbed only in his own d

ed, "how about t

angrily. "That's all the arrangement we will make. Take it or leave

ent in the centre of the room, star

what I'm going to do. No, I don'

Los Muertos and Osterman ranchos. They brushed by him, jostling his elbow, and as he went out

d aimlessly in the direction of the Yosemite House, fingeri

ers. His great arms dangled loosely at

, every one recognised the unsuccessful man in the very way he slouched along. The young girls in lawns, muslins, and garden h

he dark beneath his feet, coiling around his throat, throttling him, strangling him, sucking his blood. For a moment he thought of the courts, but instantly laughed at the idea. What court was immune from the power of the monster? Ah, the rage of helplessness, the fury of impotence! No help, no hope,-ruined in a brief instant-he a veritable giant, built of great sine

lenched. Oh, for a moment to have his hand upon the throat of S. Behrman, wringing the breath from him,

im. A group formed about him. In his immediate vicinity business for the instant was suspended. The group swelled. One after another of his friends added themselves to it. Magnus Derrick joined it, and Annixter. Again and again, Dyke recounted the matter, beginning with the time when he was discharged from the same

wever, prevailed. It was voiced by Annixter: "You're stuck. You can roar till you're black in the face, but you can't buck against the Railroad. Ther

mmented Annixte

y over in his mind from end to end. Advice, suggestion, even offers of financial aid had been showered upon him from all directions. Friends were not wanti

ger lapsed, and the numbness of bewilderment returned. He could not look one hour ahead into the

ngers, his eyes fixed, staring between the horses' heads, he allowed himself to be carried aim

e, they took the county road towards Derrick's ranch house. Dyke, all abroad, was unaware of the fa

id not matter. Now that he had come so far it was as short to go home by this route as to retu

uttered, "just what

red beard, and flaming cravat standing sharply out from

o, Ca

, nodding his

raher," he

keeper, coming forward a ste

er colour. The red glint in his eyes shot from under his

e morning, the man that's got guts in him, that will hit back when he's kicked and that will talk to 'em with a torch in one hand and a stick of dynamite in the other." He raised his clenched fists in the air. "So help me, God," he cried, "when I think it all

ver the details of this new outrage. Dyke, still a little dazed, sat down by one of the tables, pr

stopped in at the grocery to buy some black lead for his bicycle. In the saloon, on the other side of the narrow pa

bout it, Dyke,

ecame set. Thus he would tell it to any one who would listen from now on, week after week, year after year, all the rest of his life-"And I based my calculations on a two-cent rate. So soon a

ve-board fury of his mind coagulated, thickened, and sunk to a dull, evil hatred, a wic

ty anarchist, ain't I? Wait till you've seen your wife brought home to you with the face you used to kiss smashed in by a horse's hoof-killed by the Trust, as it happened to me. Then talk about moderation! And you, Dyke, black-listed engineer, discharged employee, ruined agriculturist, wait till you see your little tad and your mother turned out of doors when S. Behrman forecloses. Wait till you see 'em getting thin and white, and till you hear your little girl ask you why you all don't eat a little mo

is face was a dark red, his head had sunk, bull-like, between his massive shoulders; without winking he gazed long a

hrough the open door he caught a glimpse of Dyke's back,

? Constantly this sort of thing must occur-little industries choked out in their very beginnings, the air full of the death rattles of little enterprises, expiring unobserved in far-off counties, up in canyons and arroyos of the foothills, forgotten by every

the cork grips of the handle bars of his bicycle. His lips were white. In

to Derrick's ranch house, he saw the master of Quien Sabe and Harran in conversa

back to Guadalajara and Quien Sabe. Accordingly, he had accepted the Governor's invitation to return with him on his buck-board to Los Muertos, and before leaving Bonneville had telephoned to his ranch t

bserved Harran when his first out

lared Annixter

"He has been ten years saving them. Oh, I told him to make sur

er's. I only saw his back. He was drinking at a table and his back was toward

er's, was he?" d

es

king,

. Yes, I sa

claimed Annixter, rancorous

othing more was to be said. They pause

, contemplated the slow sinking, the inevitable collapse and submerging of one of their companions, the wreck of a career, the ruin of an i

r. "Exit Dyke, and score another tal

the tie-rope with which the buckski

"and the devil take the hindmost. Good-bye, I'm

grove of cypress and eucalyptus about the ranch house, and coming out upon the bare brown

f the Mission San Juan was glinting radiant in the last rays of the sun, while behind him, towards the north and west, the gilded dome of the courthouse at Bonneville stood silhouet

nute and cautious planning of the final campaign in the great war of the League and the Trust, the idea of her and the recollection of her h

of her carriage, the statuesque evenness of the contours of her figure, the single, deep swell of her bosom, the solid masses of her hair. He remembered the small contradictory suggestions of feminine daintiness he had so often remarked about her, her slim, narrow

tand? What was the matter with these women, always set upon this marrying notion? Was it not enough that he wanted her more than any other girl he knew and that she wanted him? She had said as much. Did she think she was going to be mistress of Quien Sabe? Ah, that was it. She was after his p

oor time to think of marrying him for his property when all Quien Sabe hung in the issue of the next few months. Suppose she had been sincere. But he caught himself up. W

would not inform her parents of what had passed between them the previous evening under the Long Trestle. He had no idea that matters were at an end between himself and the young woman. He must apologise, he saw that clearly enough, must eat crow, as he told himself. Well, he would eat crow. He was not afraid of her any longer, now that she had made her confession to him. He would see her as soon as possible and get this business straightened out, and begin again from a new starting point. What he wanted wi

l sat on the porch of his house, smoking and enjoying the twilight. The evening was beautiful, warm, the sky

distasteful to him. Annixter got up and descending from the porch began to walk aimlessly ab

tood ajar. He pushed it open, and stepped into the odorous darkness of its interior. The pans and deep cans of polished metal glowed faintly from the corners and from the walls. The smell of new cheese was pungent i

ouse, on the other side of the kitchens, and crossed over to

back. By the way," he added, speaking as though the matter was already known to Annixter, "I see

aimed. "When did they go? Di

ll their trunks. Yes, all three went-the young lady, too. They gave me notice early this morning. They ain't ought to

m here till I got back? Why didn't you find out if they were going for good? I can't be

m the group of ranch buildings; holding on over the open reach of his ranch, his teeth set, his heels diggin

by the Lord. By the Lord

e could not steady his wits to consider thi

e exclaimed. "By the L

ruck off at right angles over the rugged surface of the ranch land, to where a great white stone jutted from the ground. There he sat dow

are earth-two immensities-widened around and above him like illimitable se

him, and the recollection of her assailed him with unconquerable vehemence. Much as she had occupied his mind, he had never real

her abruptly recoiled against him with cruel force. Now, he was sorry for it, infinitely sorry, passionately sorry. He had hurt her. He had brought the tears to her eyes. He had so flagrantly insulted her that she could no

r felt before. He did not know what was the matter with him. He could not find his way out of the dark and out of the turmoil that wheeled around him. He had

f to him. Everything should have been easy after that, and instead, here he was alone in the nigh

ty, almost as vague and as remote as his death,-a thing that happened to some men, but that would surely never occur to him, or, if it did, it would

ept it at an immense distance from him. It had never been

act. Before he could think of the two as one; before he could consider the idea of marriage, side by side with the idea of Hilma, measureless distances

oportionately. He began to think less, and feel more. In that rugged composition, confused, dark, harsh, a furrow had been

red the notion of marriage from the point of view of his own comfort, his own wishes, his own advantage. He realised that in his newfound desire t

horizon. The tower of the Mission stood black against it. The dawn was coming. The

, noble with the inborn nobility of dawning womanhood? An overwhelming sense of his own unworthiness suddenly bore down upon him with crushing force, as he thought of this. He had gone about the whole affair wron

tween Hilma and the idea of his marriage. Instantly, like the swift blending of beautiful colours, like the harmony of beautiful chords of music, the two ideas melted into one, and in that moment into his harsh, unlovely world a new idea was born. Annixter stood suddenly upright, a mighty tenderness, a gentleness of spirit, such as he had never conceived of, in his heart strained, swelled, and in a moment seemed to burst. Out of the dark furrows of his soul, up

lanted, gathering strength qu

growing light of the new day that had just dawned for him, Annix

d it occurred to him. Never until then, in all his t

arsh image of man, rough-hewn, flinty, granitic, ut

change seemed to him, at first, elusive, almost fanciful, unreal. But now as the light spread, he looked again at the gigantic scroll of ranch lands unrolled before him from edge to edge of the

ter brownness of the ground was overlaid with a little shimmer of green. The promise of the sowing was being fulfilled. The earth, the loyal mother, who never failed, who never disappointed, was keeping her faith again. Once more the strength of nations was renewed. Once more the force of the wor