Acres of Unrest by Max Brand Read Free Book Online

only a game, after all, and not an infernal gladiatorial combat.”
    “I don’t understand what you’re driving at!” cried Ross Hale. “There was a chance for you to make yourself famous, and you threw it away.”
    “Christian didn’t understand, either,” Peter admitted. “I believe he thought that I was nervous when I had the chance to do the big thing. When I said that I had remembered it was only a game, he looked a bit stunned and a bit disgusted. And then he walked away. However, that was my biggest day, though the team thought that it was my very worst one. People said that I was off form. Well, let it go at that.”
    “Your biggest day? Your biggest day?” cried Ross Hale. “And what about the time when you scored three touchdowns in…?”
    But Peter had forgot to listen, for he was looking back too far into the old days, and it seemed to his father that, for just an instant, a hint of despair showed in the eyes of his son. He was not sure of it. The darkness was gone in an instant. Then they were interrupted by the arrival of Andy Hale.
    He came in briskly, with a sort of determined good humor and high cheer, as though he feared lest the condition in which he found Peter might throw a damper on him in spite of himself. He came to welcome Peter home, to invite them both to dinner whenever they would come. He cameabove all to excuse the absence of Charlie from this family call.
    “But Charlie is sort of celebrating this day himself,” said Andy. “Because Ruth McNair has promised to marry him.”

Chapter Eight
    So Ruth McNair was to marry Charlie Hale.
    When Andy Hale had gone, Ross Hale sat in a brown study for some time. “Well,” he said at last, “Charlie was well off before, but he’s a made man now. He’s a made man now…lucky young devil!”
    “A made man?” queried Peter in the same calm voice.
    “Oh, his father has him pretty well fixed. His dad ain’t blowed in all of his money the way that I have. Charlie’s father has made his ranch the finest place that you ever laid eyes on, nearly. Maybe I ain’t told you about the way that Andy had fixed up his ranch?”
    “You haven’t written to me about it,” said Peter, “but I could guess a good deal from the appearance of Uncle Andy. I could see that he thinks better of himself than he used to.”
    “He does, and he has a reason for it, I can tell you. He has a good reason for it. He’s made that place of his bloom, but what does it all matter…all that work of his…compared with what Ruth McNair will bring him?”
    “Is she rich?” asked Peter.
    “Oh, her dad has got more money than you could shake a stick at. A lot more money.”
    “A million, eh?”
    “What’s a million?” asked Ross Hale, shrugging his shoulders. “No, I don’t suppose that he could sell out for a million. He ain’t got that much improved land or such a lot of cows as all of that, but he’s got enough range to really be worth more than that, and he could run three times as many cows as he’s got now. Besides, will you look at all of the trimmings that old McNair has got? There’s a company back in Denver that wants to buy the water rights to that big creek that goes busting through the McNair place. They don’t mean the rights of watering their cows from that stream. That would be different. All that they mean is the right to dam up some of that water and turn it into electricity.
    “McNair looked into the thing and liked it so mighty well that he said he would let them build the dam, not for any cash price, but for a share in the company. They put up the dam and do all of the work, and he gets fifty percent of the holdings. They say that the company will accept the business even at that figure. That alone might make McNair a millionaire. But it goes to show you what sort of a position the man will be in that marries McNair’s heir.” He threw back his head and uttered a faint groan. “Once there was a time, Peter…”
    “Well?” Peter