“Paula[1],” Dick Forrest[2], a rich rancher, said to his wife, a vivacious, athletic, and self-aware woman. “My best friend, Evan Graham[3], will arrive tomorrow morning. Tell the servant to put him in the watchtower[4]. I hope he will work on his book.”
“Graham?—Graham?” Paula asked. “Do I know him?”
“You met him once two years ago, in Santiago[5]. He had dinner with us.”
“Oh, one of those naval officers?”
Dick shook his head.
“The civilian[6]. Don’t you remember that big blond fellow—you talked about music with him for half an hour?”
“Oh, to be sure,” Paula vaguely recollected. “He’d met you somewhere before … South Africa[7], wasn’t it? Or the Philippines[8]?”
“That’s right. South Africa, it was. Evan Graham. Next time we met was on the boat on the Yellow Sea[9].”
“But who about him[10], and what about him?” Paula queried. “And what’s the book?”
“Well, first of all, beginning at the end[11], he’s broke[12]—that is, for him, he’s broke. He’s got an income of several thousand a year left, but all that his father left him is gone. But he doesn’t whimper. He’d graduated from the university. His book covers last year’s trip across South America[13], West coast to East coast. The Brazilian government voluntarily gave him an honorarium of ten thousand dollars for the information concerning unexplored portions of Brazil[14]. Oh, he’s a man, a real man! You know the type—clean, big, strong, simple; been everywhere, seen everything, knows most of a lot of things, straight, looks you in the eyes—well, in short, a real man, indeed!”
Ernestine[15], Paula’s sister, clapped her hands, and exclaimed: “And he will come tomorrow!”
Dick shook his head reprovingly.
“Oh, nothing in that direction[16], Ernestine. Many nice girls like you have tried to hook Evan Graham. And, between ourselves, I couldn’t blame them. But he’s had fast legs, and they’ve always failed to get him into a corner[17], where, dazed and breathless, he could mechanically mutter ‘Yes’ and come out of the trance to find himself roped, thrown, and married. Forget him, Ernestine. Graham is not for you. He’s old like me—just about the same age, forty years old—and, like me, he’s seen a lot. He knows how to run away in time. He doesn’t care for young ladies. He is merely old, and very wise.”
“Where’s my little boy?” Dick shouted, walking through the Big House in quest of its Little Lady.
He came to the door that gave entrance to the long wing. It was a door without a knob, a huge panel of wood in a wood-paneled wall. But Dick knew the secret; he pressed the spring, and the door swung wide.
“Where’s my little boy?” he called again.
A glance into the bathroom was fruitless, as were the glances he sent into Paula’s wardrobe room and dressing room. He passed the short, broad stairway that led to her empty divan. He noticed a drawing easel[18].
“Where’s my little boy?” he shouted out to the sleeping porch; and found only a demure Chinese woman of thirty, who smiled with embarrassment.
This was Paula’s maid. Dick had taken her, as a child almost, for Paula’s service, from a fishing village on the Yellow Sea.
“Where is your mistress?” Dick asked.
“She maybe with young ladies—I don’t know,” she stammered; and Dick swung away on his heel.
“Where’s my little boy?” he shouted, just as a big limousine pulled up.
“I wish I knew,” a tall, blond man in a light summer suit responded from the car; and the next moment Dick Forrest and Evan Graham were shaking hands.
The servants carried in the hand baggage, and Dick accompanied his guest to the watch tower quarters. The two men were almost of a size. Graham was a clearer blond than Forrest, although both were equally gray of eye, and equally and precisely similarly bronzed by sun. Graham’s features were in a slightly larger mold; his eyes were a little longer. His nose was a little straighter as well as larger than Dick’s, and his lips were a little thicker, and a little redder.
Forrest threw a glance at his wrist watch.
“Eleven-thirty,” he said. “Come along at once, Graham. We don’t eat till twelve-thirty. I am sending out a shipment of bulls[19], three hundred of them, and I’m proud of them. You simply must see them. What saddle do you prefer?”
“Oh, anything, old man[20].”
“English?—Australian?—Scottish?—Mexican?” Dick insisted.
“Scottish, if you please,” Graham surrendered.
They sat their horses by the side of the road and watched the herd.
“I see what you’re doing—it’s great,” Graham said with sparkling eyes.
They turned their horses back for the Big House. Dick looked at his watch again.
“Lots of time,” he assured his guest. “I’m glad you saw those bulls. They are nice indeed. Over there are the fish ponds, you’ll have an opportunity to catch a mess of trout, or bass, or even catfish. You see, I love to make things work. The water works twenty-four hours a day. The ponds are in series, according to the nature of the fish. The water starts working up in the mountains. It irrigates a score of mountain meadows before it makes the plunge and is clarified to crystal clearness in the next few rugged miles; and at the plunge from the highlands it generates half the power and all the lighting used on the ranch. Then it subirrigates lower levels, flows in here to the fish ponds.”
