And the road that nobody ever calculated would ever have a
rail of it laid was pushed on as soon as folks knew that the Ditch plant
had been bought up, for they thought there was a big thing behind it.
Even the hotel was, at first, simply a kind of genteel alms-house that
this yer Barker had built for broken-down miners!"
"Nevertheless," continued Demorest, smiling, "you admit that it is a
great success?"
"Yes," said the other, a little irritated by some complacency in
Demorest's smile, "but the success isn't HIS'N. Fools has ideas, and
wise men profit by them, for that hotel now has Jim Stacy's bank behind
it, and is even a kind of country branch of the Brook House in 'Frisco.
Barker's out of it, I reckon. Anyhow, HE couldn't run a hotel, for all
that his wife--she that's one of the big 'Frisco swells now--used to
help serve in her father's. No, sir, it's just a fool's luck, gettin'
the first taste and leavin' the rest to others."
"I'm not sure that it's the worst kind of luck," returned Demorest,
with persistent gravity; "and I suppose he's satisfied with it." But so
heterodox an opinion only irritated his antagonist the more, especially
as he noticed that the handsome woman in the back seat appeared to be
interested in the conversation, and even sympathetic with Demorest. The
man was in the main a good-natured fellow and loyal to his friends; but
this did not preclude any virulent criticism of others, and for a moment
he hated this bronze-faced stranger, and even saw blemishes in the
handsome woman's beauty.
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