“And now I won’t say another word,” she added. “I’ve delivered a
whole sermon.”
She rested now, frankly and fairly, in the shelter of his arms,
and both were oblivious to the gale that rushed past them in
quicker and stronger blasts. The big downpour of rain had not
yet come, but the mist-like squalls were more frequent. Daylight
was openly perplexed, and he was still perplexed when he began to
speak.
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196
“I’m stumped. I’m up a tree. I’m clean flabbergasted, Miss
Mason–or Dede, because I love to call you that name. I’m free
to confess there’s a mighty big heap in what you say. As I
understand it, your conclusion is that you’d marry me if I hadn’t
a cent and if I wasn’t getting fat. No, no; I’m not joking. I
acknowledge the corn, and that’s just my way of boiling the
matter down and summing it up. If I hadn’t a cent, and if I was
living a healthy life with all the time in the world to love you
and be your husband instead of being awash to my back teeth in
business and all the rest–why, you’d marry me.
“That’s all as clear as print, and you’re correcter than I ever
guessed before. You’ve sure opened my eyes a few. But I’m
stuck. What can I do? My business has sure roped, thrown, and
branded me. I’m tied hand and foot, and I can’t get up and
meander over green pastures. I’m like the man that got the bear
by the tail. I can’t let go; and I want you, and I’ve got to let
go to get you.
“I don’t know what to do, but something’s sure got to happen–I
can’t lose you. I just can’t. And I’m not going to. Why,
you’re running business a close second right now. Business never
kept me awake nights.
“You’ve left me no argument. I know I’m not the same man that
came from Alaska. I couldn’t hit the trail with the dogs as I
did in them days. I’m soft in my muscles, and my mind’s gone
hard. I used to respect men. I despise them now. You see, I
spent all my life in the open, and I reckon I’m an open-air man.
Why, I’ve got the prettiest little ranch you ever laid eyes on,
up in Glen Ellen. That’s where I got stuck for that brick-yard.
You recollect handling the correspondence. I only laid eyes on
the ranch that one time, and I so fell in love with it that I
bought it there and then. I just rode around the hills, and was
happy as a kid out of school. I’d be a better man living in the
country. The city doesn’t make me better. You’re plumb right
there. I know it. But suppose your prayer should be answered
and I’d go clean broke and have to work for day’s wages?”
She did not answer, though all the body of her seemed to urge
consent.
“Suppose I had nothing left but that little ranch, and was
satisfied to grow a few chickens and scratch a living somehow-
-would you marry me then, Dede?”
“Why, we’d be together all the time!” she cried.
“But I’d have to be out ploughing once in a while, he warned, “or
driving to town to get the grub.”
“But there wouldn’t be the office, at any rate, and no man to
see, and men to see without end. But it is all foolish and
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197
impossible, and we’ll have to be starting back now if we’re to
escape the rain.”
Then was the moment, among the trees, where they began the
descent of the hill, that Daylight might have drawn her closely
to him and kissed her once. But he was too perplexed with the
new thoughts she had put into his head to take advantage of the
situation. He merely caught her by the arm and helped her over
the rougher footing.
“It’s darn pretty country up there at Glen Ellen,” he said
meditatively. “I wish you could see it.”
At the edge of the grove he suggested that it might be better for
them to part there.
“It’s your neighborhood, and folks is liable to talk.”
But she insisted that he accompany her as far as the house.
“I can’t ask you in,” she said, extending her hand at the foot of
the steps.
The wind was humming wildly in sharply recurrent gusts, but still
the rain held off.
“Do you know,” he said, “taking it by and large, it’s the
happiest day of my life.” He took off his hat, and the wind
rippled and twisted his black hair as he went on solemnly, “And
I’m sure grateful to God, or whoever or whatever is responsible
for your being on this earth. For you do like me heaps. It’s
been my joy to hear you say so to-day. It’s–” He left the
thought arrested, and his face assumed the familiar whimsical
expression as he murmured: “Dede, Dede, we’ve just got to get
married. It’s the only way, and trust to luck for it’s coming
out all right–“.
But the tears were threatening to rise in her eyes again, as she
shook her head and turned and went up the steps.
CHAPTER XX
When the ferry system began to run, and the time between Oakland
and San Francisco was demonstrated to be cut in half, the tide of
Daylight’s terrific expenditure started to turn. Not that it
really did turn, for he promptly went into further investments.
Thousands of lots in his residence tracts were sold, and
thousands of homes were being built. Factory sites also were
selling, and business properties in the heart of Oakland. All
this tended to a steady appreciation in value of Daylight’s huge
holdings. But, as of old, he had his hunch and was riding it.
Already he had begun borrowing from the banks. The magnificent
profits he made on the land he sold were turned into more land,
Burning Daylight
198
into more development; and instead of paying off old loans, he
contracted new ones. As he had pyramided in Dawson City, he now
pyramided in Oakland; but he did it with the knowledge that it
was a stable enterprise rather than a risky placer-mining boom.
In a small way, other men were following his lead, buying and
selling land and profiting by the improvement work he was doing.
But this was to be expected, and the small fortunes they were
making at his expense did not irritate him. There was an
exception, however. One Simon Dolliver, with money to go in
with, and with cunning and courage to back it up, bade fair to
become a several times millionaire at Daylight’s expense.
Dolliver, too, pyramided, playing quickly and accurately, and
keeping his money turning over and over. More than once Daylight
found him in the way, as he himself had got in the way of the
Guggenhammers when they first set their eyes on Ophir Creek.
Work on Daylight’s dock system went on apace, yet was one of
those enterprises that consumed money dreadfully and that could
not be accomplished as quickly as a ferry system. The
engineering difficulties were great, the dredging and filling a
cyclopean task. The mere item of piling was anything but small.
A good average pile, by the time it was delivered on the ground,
cost a twenty-dollar gold piece, and these piles were used in
unending thousands. All accessible groves of mature eucalyptus
were used, and as well, great rafts of pine piles were towed down
the coast from Peugeot Sound.
Not content with manufacturing the electricity for his street
railways in the old-fashioned way, in power-houses, Daylight
organized the Sierra and Salvador Power Company. This
immediately assumed large proportions. Crossing the San Joaquin
Valley on the way from the mountains, and plunging through the
Contra Costa hills, there were many towns, and even a robust
city, that could be supplied with power, also with light; and it
became a street- and house-lighting project as well. As soon as
the purchase of power sites in the Sierras was rushed through,
the survey parties were out and building operations begun.
And so it went. There were a thousand maws into which he poured
unceasing streams of money. But it was all so sound and
legitimate, that Daylight, born gambler that he was, and with his
clear, wide vision, could not play softly and safely. It was a
big opportunity, and to him there was only one way to play it,
and that was the big way. Nor did his one confidential adviser,
Larry Hegan, aid him to caution. On the contrary, it was
Daylight who was compelled to veto the wilder visions of that
able hasheesh dreamer. Not only did Daylight borrow heavily from
the banks and trust companies, but on several of his corporations
he was compelled to issue stock. He did this grudgingly however,