Brand Blotters - Page 103/180

As a lake ripples beneath a summer breeze, so Mesa was stirred from its

usual languor by the visit of Simon West. For the little Arizona town was

dreaming dreams. Its imagination had been aroused; and it saw itself no

longer a sleepy cow camp in the unfeatured desert, but a metropolis, in

touch with twentieth-century life.

The great Simon West, pirate of finance, empire builder, molder of the

destinies of the mighty Southwestern Pacific system, was to touch the

adobe village with his transforming wand and make of it a hive of

industry. Rumors flew thick and fast.

Mesa was to be the junction for the new spur that would run to the big

Lincoln dam. The town would be a division point; the machine shops of the

system would be located there. Its future, if still a trifle vague, was

potentially immense. Thus, with cheerful optimism, did local opinion

interpret the visit of the great man.

Whatever Simon West may have thought of Mesa and its prospects, he kept

behind his thin, close-shut lips. He was a dry, gray little man of

fifty-five, with sharp, twinkling eyes that saw everything and told

nothing. Certainly he wore none of the visible signs of greatness, yet at

his nod Wall Street trembled. He had done more to change the map of

industrial America than any other man, alive or dead. Wherefore, big

Beauchamp Lee, mayor of Mesa, and the citizens on the reception committee

did their very best to impress him with the future of the country, as they

motored out to the dam.

"Most promising spot on earth. Beats California a city block on oranges

and citrons. Ever see an Arizona peach, Mr. West? It skins the world," the

big cattleman ran on easily.

The financier's eye took in the girl sitting beside the chauffeur in the

front seat, and he nodded assent.

Melissy Lee bloomed. She was vivid as a wild poppy on the hillsides past

which they went flashing. But she had, too, a daintiness, a delicacy of

coloring and contour, that suggested the fruit named by her father.

"You bet we raise the best here," that simple gentleman bragged

patriotically. "All we need is water, and the Lincoln dam assures us of

plenty. Yes, sir! It certainly promises to be an Eden."

West unlocked his lips long enough to say: "Any country can promise. I'm

looking for one that will perform."

"You're seeing it right now, seh," the mayor assured him, and launched

into fluent statistics.

West heard, saw the thing stripped of its enthusiasm, and made no comment

either for or against. He had plenty of imagination, or he could never

have accomplished the things he had done. However, before any proposition

appealed to him he had to see money in the deal. Whether he saw it in this

particular instance, nobody knew; and only one person had the courage to

ask him point-blank what his intentions were. This was Melissy.