THE ROUND-UP by John Murray and Mills Miller

THE ROUND-UP
A Romance of Arizona
Novelized from Edmund Day's Melodrama
by John Murray and Mills Miller
Chapter
I. The Cactus Cross
II. The Heart of a Girl
III. A Woman's Loyalty
IV. The Hold-up
V. Hoover Bows to Hymen
VI. A Tangled Web
VII. Josephine Opens the Sluices
VIII. The Sky Pilot
IX. What God Hath Joined Together
X. The Piano
XI. Accusation and Confession
XII. The Land of Dead Things
XIII. The Atonement
XIV. The Round-up
XV. Peruna Pulls His Freight
XVI. Death of McKee, Disappointed Desperado
XVII. A New Deal
XVIII. Jack!
THE ROUND-UP
CHAPTER I
The Cactus Cross
Down an old trail in the Ghost Range in northwestern Mexico, just
across the Arizona border, a mounted prospector wound his way,
his horse carefully picking its steps among the broken granite
blocks which had tumbled upon the ancient path from the mountain
wall above. A burro followed, laden heavily with pack, bed-roll,
pick, frying-pan, and battered coffee-pot, yet stepping along
sure-footedly as the mountain-sheep that first formed the trail
ages ago, and whose petrified hoof-prints still remain to afford
footing for the scarcely larger hoofs of the pack-animal.
An awful stillness hung over the scene, that was broken only by
the click of hoofs of horse and burro upon the rocks, and the
clatter of the loose stones they dislodged that rolled and
skipped down the side. Not a breath of air was stirring, and the
sun blazed down from the zenith with such fierce and direct
radiation that the wayfarer needed not to observe the shadows to
note its exact position in the heavens. Singly among the broken
blocks, and in banks along the ledges, the cactus had burst under
the heat, as it were, into the spontaneous combustion of flowery
flame. To the traveler passing beside them their red blooms
blazed with the irritating superfluity of a torch-light
procession at noonday.
The trail leads down to a flat ledge which overlooks the desert,
and which is the observatory whither countless generations of
mountain-sheep have been wont to resort to survey the strange
world beneath them--with what purpose and what feelings, it
remains for some imaginative writer of animal-stories to inform
us. From the ledge to the valley below the trail is free from
obstructions, and broader, more beaten, and less devious than
above, indicating that it has been formed by the generations of
men toiling up from the valley to the natural watch-tower on the
heights. Reaching the ledge, the prospector found that what
seemed from the angle above to be an irregular pile of large
boulders was an artificial fortification, the highest wall being
toward the mountains. Entering the enclosure the prospector
dismounted, relieved his horse of its saddle and his burro of its
pack, and proceeded to prepare his midday meal. Looking for the
best place where he might light a fire, he observed, in the most
protected corner, a flat stone, marked by fire, and near it, in
the rocky ground, a pot-hole, evidently formed for grinding
maize. The ashes of ancient fires were scattered about, and in
cleaning them off his new-found hearth the man discovered a
potsherd, apparently of a native olla or water-jar, and a chipped
fragment of flint, too small to indicate whether it had formed
part of an Indian arrowhead or had dropped from an old flintlock
musket.
"Lucky strike!" observed the prospector. "I was down to my last
match." And, gathering some mesquit brush for fuel, and rubbing
a dead branch into tinder, he drew out a knife and, rapidly and
repeatedly striking the back of its blade with the flint,
produced a stream of sparks, which fell on the tinder. Blowing
the while, he started a flame. When the fire was ready the man
shook his canteen. "Precious little drink left," he said. "I
wish that potsherd carried water as the flint-chip does fire.
However, there's lots of cactus around here, and they're natural
water-jars. My knife may get me a drink out of the desert's
thorns, as well as kindle a fire from its stones. And right
here's my watermelon, the bisnaga, the first one I've found in
months," he exclaimed, going over to the edge of the cliff, above
the level of which peered the fat head of a cactus covered with
spines that were barbed like a fish-hook. Its short tap-root was
fixed in a crevice a few feet below the parapet. Lying on the
edge of the cliff, the man sliced off the top of the cactus, and
began jabbing into its interior, breaking down the fibrous walls
of the water-cells, of which the top-heavy plant is almost
entirely composed. In a few moments he arose.
"Now I can empty my canteen in the coffee-pot, sure of a fresh
supply of water by the time I am ready to mosey along."
He filled the pot, set it on the fire, and then pressed the
uncorked and empty canteen down into the macerated interior of
the bisnaga.
While his coffee was boiling, the prospector continued his
examination of the fortification, beginning, in the manner of his
kind, with the more minute "signs," and ending with what, to a
tourist, would have been the first and only subject of
observation--the view. On the inner side of the large boulder in
the wall he discerned, the faint outline of a cross, painted with
red ochre.
Scraping with his pick beneath the rock, to see if the emblem was
the sign of hidden treasure or relic, he unearthed a rattlesnake.
Before it could strike, with a quick fling of his tool he sent
the reptile whirling high in the air toward the precipice. But
from the clump of cactus growth along the parapet arose a
sahuaro, with branching arms, and against this the snake was
flung. Wrapped around the thorny top by the momentum of the
cast, it hung, hissing and rattling with pain and hatred.
The prospector looked up at the impaled rattlesnake with a smile.
Reminiscences of Sunday-school flashed across his mind.
"Gee, I'm a regular Moses," he ejaculated. "First I bring water
from the face of the rock, and then I lift up the serpent in the
wilderness. The year I've spent in the mountains and desert seem
like forty to me, and now,, at last, I have a sight of the
Promised Land. God, what a magnificent view!"
Dropping his pick, he stretched out his arms with instinctive
symbolization of the wide prospect, and expression of an exile's
yearning for his native land.
"Over there is God's country, sure enough," he continued, giving
the trite phrase a reverential tone, which he had not used in his
first expression of the name of Deity. "Thank Him, the parallel
with old Moses stops right here. Many a time I thought I would
never get out of the mountains alive, and that my grave would be
unmarked by so much as a boulder with a red cross upon it. But
now, before night, I'll be back in States, and in three more days
at home on the ranch. I promised to return in a year, and I'll
make good to the hour. I sure did hate to leave that strike,
though, after all the hard luck I had been having. Sixty dollars
a day, and growing richer. But the last horn was blowing. No
tobacco, six matches, and nothing left of the bacon but rinds.
Well, the gold is there and the claim'll bring whatever I choose
to ask for it. And Echo shall have a home as good as Allen
Hacienda, and a ranch as fine as Bar One--yes, by God, it'll be
Bar None, my ranch!"
Out of the sea of molten air that stretched before him, that
nebulous chaos of quivering bars and belts of heated atmosphere
which remains above the desert as a memorial of the first stage
of the entire planet's existence, the imagination of the
prospector created a paradise of his own. There took shape
before his eyes a Mexican hacienda, larger and more beautiful
even than that of Echo's father, the beau-ideal of a home to his
limited fancy. And on the piazza in front, covered with
flowering vines, there stood awaiting him the slender figure of a
woman, with outstretched arms and dark eyes, tender with yearning
love.
"Echo--Echo Allen!" he murmured, fondly repeating the name. "No,
not Echo Allen, but Echo Lane, for Dick Lane has redeemed his
promise, and returns to claim you as his own."
As he gazed upon the shimmering heat waves which distorted and
displaced the objects within and beneath them, a group of
horsemen suddenly appeared to him in the distance, and as
suddenly vanished in thin air.
"Rurales!" ejaculated Lane. "I wonder if they are chasing
Apaches? That infernal mirage gives you no idea of distance or
direction. If the red devils have got away from Crook and
slipped by these Greaser rangers over the border, they'll sure be
making straight for the Ghost Range, and by this very trail. If
so, I'm at the best place on it to meet them, and here I stay
till the coast is clear." Turning to the red cross on the rock,
he reflected: "Perhaps, after all, it's a case of 'Nebo's lonely
mountain.'"
Lane had hardly reached this conclusion before he found it
justified by the sight of a mounted Apache in the regalia of war
emerging from a hidden dip in the trail below the fortification.
Lane dropped behind the parapet, evidently before he was
observed, as the steadily increasing number and loudness of the
hoof-beats on the rocky trail indicated to the listener.
Crawling back to his horse and burro, he made them lie down
against the upper wall, and picketed them with short lengths of
rope to the ground, for he foresaw that danger could come only
from the mountainside. Taking his Winchester, he returned to the
parapet, and, half-seated, half-reclining behind it, opened fire
on the unsuspecting Apaches. The leader, shot through the head,
fell from his horse, which reared and backed wildly down the
trail. Other bullets must have found their billets also, but,
because of the confusion which ensued among the Indians, the
prospector was unable to tell how many of them he had put out of
action. In a flash every rider had leaped off his horse, and,
protecting himself by its body, was scrambling with his mount to
the protecting declivity in the rear. The prospector was sorely
tempted to pump his cartridges into the group as it poured back
over the rim of the hollow, but he desisted from the useless
slaughter of horses alone, knowing that he could be attacked only
on foot, and that every one of his slender store of cartridges
must find a human mark if he would return to the States alive.
"They've got to put me out of business before they can go on," he
ruminated. "An Apache is a good deal of a coward when he's
fighting for pleasure, but just corner him, and, great snakes and
spittin' wildcats, what a game he does put up! I must save my
cartridges; for one thing's sure, they won't waste any of theirs.
They're not as good shots as white men, for ammunition is too
scarce with them for use in gun practise; so they won't fire till
they've got me dead to rights. Let me see; there's about a dozen
left in the party, and I have fifteen cartridges--that's three in
reserve for my own outfit, if some of the others fail to get
their men. Those red devils enjoy skinning an animal alive as
much as torturing a man, and you can bet they won't save me any
bullets by shooting Nance and Jinny."
Reasoning that the Indians would not dare to attack by way of the
open trail in front, and that it would take some time for them to
make the detour necessary to approach him from above, since they
would have to leave their ponies below and climb on hands and
knees over jutting ledges and around broken granite blocks, Lane
coolly proceeded to drink his coffee, and eat his lunch of hard
bread and cold bacon-rind. After he had finished, he gave a lump
of sugar to each of his animals, and pressed his cheek with an
affectionate hug against the side of his horse's head.
"Old girl," he said. "I'm sorry we can't take a parting drink,
for I'm afraid neither of us will reach our next water-hole. But
you can count on me that the red devils won't get you."
Then, going to his pack, he undid it, and took out a double
handful of yellow nuggets and a number of canvas bags. These he
deposited in the pot-hole, and, prying up the flat stone of the
fireplace, laid it over them, and covered the stone with embers.
"It's a ten to one shot that they finish me," he reflected; "but
the wages I've paid for by a year of hard work and absence from
her side, stay just as near Echo Allen as I can bring them alive,
and, if there's any truth in what they say about spirits
disclosing in dreams the place of buried treasure, with the
chance of my getting them to her after I am dead."
Taking the useless boulders from the edge of the cliff, but
carefully, so as not to expose himself to the fire of the
Apaches, he piled them on top of the upper wall in such a fashion
as to form little turrets. He left an opening in each, through
which he could observe, in turn, each point of the compass whence
danger might be expected, and could fire his Winchester without
exposing himself. Then he began going from post to post on a
continuous round of self-imposed sentinel duty. "If I could only
climb the sahuaro," he thought, "and fly my red shirt as a flag,
to let the Rurales know I've flanked the enemy, it might hurry
them along in time to put a crimp in these devils before they get
me. But it'll have to be 'Hold the Fort' without any 'Oh, Say
Can You See?' business. Anyhow, I'm flying the rattlesnake flag
of Bunker Hill, 'Don't Tread on Me!' Whether the Rurales see it
or not, I've saved their hides. If the Apaches had got to this
fort first, gee, how they would have crumpled up the Greasers as
they came along the trail!"
Rendered thirsty by his exertions, Lane remembered the canteen in
the bisnaga, which he had forgotten among his other preparations
for defense. He cautiously reached his hand over the ledge, and
secured the precious vessel, but, as he was withdrawing it, PING!
came a bullet through the canteen, knocking it out of his hand.
As it fell clattering down the side of the ledge, he groaned:
"Damned good shooting,! They've probably left their best
marksman below with the ponies. No hope for escape on that side.
Well, there's some consolation in the thought that they'll
undoubtedly finish me before I get too damned thirsty. Glad it
wasn't my hand."
Although the period he spent waiting for the attack was less than
an hour by his watch, it seemed to last so long that he had hopes
that the Rurales would appear in time to rescue him. His spirits
rose with the prospect. Looking about him at the walls, the
fireplace, and the red cross, he reflected: "I am not the first
man, or even the first white man, that has withstood an attack in
this place." In imagination he constructed the history of the
fort. Here, in ages remote, a tribe of Indians, defeated and
driven to the mountains had constructed an outpost against their
enemies of the plain, but these had captured the stronghold, and
fortified it against its former occupants. Later, a band of
Spanish gold-seekers had made a stand here against natives whom
they had roused against them by oppression. Or, perhaps, as
indicated by the cross, it had afforded refuge to the Mission
Fathers, those heroic souls who had faced the horrors of the
infernolike desert in their saintly efforts to convert its
fiendish inhabitants.
With the symbol of Christianity in his mind, Lane turned toward
the giant cactus, which he had heretofore regarded chiefly in the
aspect of a flagpole, and saw in its columnar trunk and opposing
branches a distinct resemblance to a cross. The plant was dead,
and dry as punk. Suddenly there flashed into his mind a hideous
suggestion. More cruel than even the Romans, the inventors of
crucifixion, the Apaches are wont to bind their captives to these
dead cacti, which supply at once scourging thorns, binding stake,
and consuming fuel, and, kindling a fire at the top, leave it to
burn slowly down to the victim, and, long before it despatches
him, to twist his body and limbs into what appear to the Apache
sense of humor to be exquisitely ludicrous contortions.
With his mind occupied by these horrible apprehensions, Lane
looked at the rattlesnake upon the sahuaro whose struggles by
this time had diminished to a movement of the tail.
"Poor old rattler," he thought. "I wish I could spare a
cartridge to put you out of your misery."
At length, as Lane peered up the mountainside, he saw a bush on a
ledge a little to the left of the trail quiver, as if stirred by
a passing breath of wind. He aimed his Winchester through a
crack in the wall at the spot, and when a moment later an Apache
rose up from the ground and leaped toward the shelter of a rock
below, Lane fired, and the savage fell crumpling. Like an echo
of the explosion a rifle on the right spoke, and a bullet struck
the rock by Lane's head. He marked the spot whence the shot
came, and quickly ran to another part of the wall. From here he
saw the edge of an Indian's thigh exposed by the side of the
boulder he had noted. CRACK! went Lane's Winchester; the leg was
suddenly withdrawn, and at the same moment a head appeared on the
other side of the rock, as if the Indian had stretched himself
involuntarily. CRACK! again, and Lane had got his man.
"Two shots to an Indian is expensive," thought the prospector,
"otherwise this game of tip-jack would be very interesting."
There was a cry in the Apache tongue, and suddenly nine
half-naked bodies arose from behind rocks and bushes extending in
an irregular crescent above the fort, and rushed forward ten,
fifteen, and even twenty, yards to the next cover. Lane did not
count number or distance at the time, but he figured these out in
his next period of waiting from the photograph flashed on his
subconscious mind. At the time of the rush he was otherwise
occupied. CRACK! CRACK! and two of the Indians fell dead in
mid-career. CRACK! and a third crawled, wounded, to the cover he
had almost safely attained. CRACK! and an eagle-feather in the
head of the fourth Indian shot at was cut off at the stem, and
fell forward on the rock behind which its wearer had dropped just
in time to save his life. There was an answering volley from the
rifles of the remaining Apaches, which was directed against the
lookout of loose stones from which the prospector's fire had
come. One of the bullets penetrated the opening and plowed a
furrow through Lane's scalp, toppling him to his knees. He
scrambled quickly to his feet, and, hastily pressing his long
hair back from his forehead, to stanch the bleeding wound, sought
the protection the middle lookout. He congratulated himself.
"Lucky for me they didn't follow the first rush immediately with
a second. Now I know to wait for their signal. Six, and
possibly seven of them, are left, and they will storm my works in
two more attempts. Here they come!"
The call again sounded. Six Apaches leaped forward, and from the
rock that concealed the wounded warrior, a shot rang out in
advance of the first discharge from Lane's Winchester. The
Indian's bullet scored the top of the turret, and filled the eyes
of the man behind it with powdered stone. The prospector,
already dazed by his wound, fired wildly, and missed his mark.
Quickly recovering himself, he fired again and again, severely
wounding two Apaches. These lay clawing the ground within twenty
yards of the wall. The four remaining Indians were safely
concealed at the same distance, protected no less by the
fortification than by the loose boulders behind which they
crouched for the final spring. Lane realized the fact that his
next shots, to be effective, must be at a downward angle, and to
fire them he must expose himself.
"This is my finish," he thought to himself. "Better be killed
instantly than tortured. I hope all four will hit me. Good-by,
Jinny"--CRACK! went his rifle. "Good-by, Nance"--CRACK! again.
At the two shots, surmising that the prospector had shot himself
and his horse, the Apaches did not wait for the signal, but
sprang forward and climbed upon the wall before Lane had had time
to mount it. Two of them he shot as they leaped down within the
enclosure. As he reversed his Winchester to kill himself with
the last cartridge, he noted that the two remaining Apaches had
dropped their rifles and were leaping upon him to take him alive.
He brought his clubbed weapon down upon the head of one of them,
crushing his skull. At the same instant Lane was borne to the
ground by the other Apache, who, seizing him by the throat, began
throttling him into insensibility. In desperation, Lane
bethought himself of the cliff, and, by a mighty effort, whirled
over upon his captor toward the precipice. The ground sloped
slightly in that direction, and the combatants rolled over and
over to the very edge of the cliff, where the Indian, for the
first time realizing that the prospector's purpose was to hurl
both of them to destruction, loosened his hold upon the
prospector's throat that he might use his hands to brace himself
against the otherwise inevitable plunge into the valley below. In
an instant Lane's hands were at the Indian's throat, and in
another turn he was uppermost, and kneeling upon his foe at the
very verge of the precipice.
Both combatants were now thoroughly exhausted. Lane concentrated
all his remaining strength in throttling the savage. But, just
as the tense form beneath him grew lax with evident
unconsciousness, and head fell limply back, extending over the
edge of cliff, his own head was jerked violently backward by a
noose cast around his lacerated neck.
When Lane recovered consciousness he found himself lying on his
back, bound hand and foot by a lariat, and looking up into a
grinning face that he recognized.
"Buck McKee!" he gasped. "This is certainly white of you
considering the circumstances of our last meeting. Did you come
with the Rurales?"
"Hell, no! I come ahead of 'em. In fact, Dick Lane, you air jist
a leetle bit off in your idees about which party I belong to.
When you damned me fer a thievin' half-breed, and run me off the
range, an' tole me to go to the Injun's, whar I belonged, I tuk
yer advice. I'm what you might call the rear-guard of the outfit
you've jist been havin' your shootin'-match with. Or I was the
rear-guard, for you've wiped out the whole dam' battalion, so fur
as I can see. Served 'em right fur detailin' me, the only decent
shooter in the bunch, to watch the horses. I got one shot in as
it wuz. Well, as the last of the outfit, I own a string of ten
ponies. All I need now to set up in business is to have some
prospector who hain't long to live, leave me his little pile uv
dust an' nuggets, an' the claims he's located back in the
mountains. You look a leetle mite like the man. It'll save
vallible time if you make yer dear friend, Buck McKee,
administrater uv yer estate without too much persuadin'. You had
some objection oncet to my slittin' a calf's tongue. Well, you
needn't be scared just yet. That's the last thing I'll do to
you. Come, where's your cache? I know you've got one
hereabouts, fer I foun' signs of the dust in your pack."
Lane set his teeth in a firm resolutions not to say a word. The
taunts of his captor were harder to bear in silence than the
prospects of torture.
"Stubborn, hey? Well, we'll try a little 'Pache persuadin'." And
the renegade dragged his helpless captive up to the thorny
sahuaro, and bound his back against it with the dead horse's
bridle. McKee searched through Lane's pockets until he found a
match.
"Last one, hey? Kinder 'propriate. Las' drink from the old
canteen, las' ca'tridge, last look at the scenery, and las' will
an' testyment. Oh, time's precious, but I'll spare you enough to
map out in yer mind jes' where them claims is located. The
Rurales won't be along fer an hour yet, if they hain't turned
back after our other party."
McKee pulled off Lane's boots. "It 'ain't decent fer a man to
die with 'em on," he said. He then kindled a fire on the stone,
beneath which, if he but knew it, lay the treasure he sought. He
returned with a burning brand to the captive. For the first time
he observed the snake impaled on the sahuaro, writhing but
feebly. "Hullo, ole rattler," he exclaimed; "here's somethin' to
stir you up;" and he tossed the brand upon the top of the cactus.
Taking another burning stick from the fire, he applied it to the
soles of his victim's feet. Lane writhed and groaned under the
excruciating torture, but uttered no word or cry. McKee brought
other brands, and began piling them about his captive's feet.
In the meantime the sahuaro had caught fire at the top, and was
burning down through the interior. A thin column of smoke rose
straight above it in the still air. The Rurales in the valley
below, who had reached the beginning of the ascending trail, and
were on the point of giving up the pursuit, saw the smoke, and,
inferred that the Apaches, either through overconfidence or
because of their superstitious fear of the mountains, which they
supposed inhabited by spirits, had camped on the edge of the
valley, and were signaling to their other party. Accordingly the
Mexicans renewed the chase with increased vigor.
As McKee bent over his captive's feet, piling against them the
burning ends of the sticks, the rattlesnake on the sahuaro,
incited by the fire above, struggled free from the impaling
thorns by a desperate effort, and dropped on the back of the
half-breed. It struck its fangs into his neck. McKee, springing
up with an energy that scattered the sticks he was piling, tore
the reptile loose, hurled it upon the ground, and stamped it into
the earth. Then he picked up one of the brands and with it
cauterized the wound. All the while he was cursing volubly--the
snake, himself, and even Dick Lane, who was now lying in a dead
faint caused by the torture.
"Damn such a prospector! Not a drop of whisky in his outfit! I'd
slit his tongue fer him if he wasn't already done fer. I must
keep movin'--movin', or I'm a dead man. I must hustle along to
the mountains, leadin' my horse. Up there I'll find yarbs to
cure snake-bite that my Cherokee grandmother showed me. The
Rurales will have to get the other ponies but some day I'll come
back after Lane's cache."
A half-hour later the Mexican guards appeared upon the scene, and
unbound Lane's unconscious form from the sahuaro, which the fire
had consumed to a foot of his bowed head. They deluged his face
and back, and bathed his tortured feet with the contents of their
canteens, and brought him back to life, but, alas! not to reason.
Six months later there limped out of Chihuahua hospital a
discharged patient, wry-necked, crook-backed, with drawn
features, and hair and beard streaked with gray. It was Dick
Lane, restored to old physical strength, so far as the distortion
of his spine, caused by his torture, permitted, and to the full
possession of his mental faculties. He mounted one of the
captured ponies, and rode off with the proceeds of the sales of
the others in his pocket, to purchase provisions for a return to
his prospecting.
Before plunging into the wilderness he wrote a letter:
Chihuahua, Mexico
"Mr. John Payson,
"Sweetwater Ranch,
"Florence, Arizona Territory, U.S.A.
"Dear Jack: I have been sick and out of my head in the hospital
here for the last six months. Just about the time you all were
expecting me home, I had a run in with the Apaches. And who do
you think was with them? Buck McKee, the half-breed that I ran
off the range two years ago for tongue-slitting. After I had
done for all the rest, he got me, and--well, the story's too long
to write. I rather think McKee has made off with the gold I had
cached just before the fight. I'm going back to see, and if he
did, I'll hustle around to find a buyer for one of my claims. I
don't want to sell my big mine, Jack. I tell you I struck it
rich!--but that story can wait till I get back. Your loan can't,
though, so expect to receive $3,000 by express some time before I
put in an appearance. I hope you got the mortgage renewed at the
end of the year. If my failure to show up then has caused you
trouble, you'll forgive me, old fellow, I know, under the
circumstances. I'll make it up to you. I owe you everything.
You're the best friend a man ever had. That's why I'm writing to
you instead of to Uncle Jim, for I want you to do me another
friendly service. Just break it gently to Echo Allen that I'm
alive and well though pretty badly damaged by that renegade McKee
and tell her that it wasn't my fault I wasn't home the day I
promised. She'll forgive me, I know, and be patient a while
longer. It's all for her sake I'm staying away. Give her the
letter I enclose.
"Your old bunkie,
Dick Lane"
CHAPTER II
The Heart of a Girl
Jim Allen was the sole owner and proprietor of Allen Hacienda.
His ranch, the Bar One, stretched for miles up and down the
Sweetwater Valley. Bounded on the east and west by the
foot-hills, the tract was one of the garden spots of Arizona.
Southward lay the Sweetwater Ranch, owned by Jack Payson.
Northward was the home ranch of the Lazy K, an Ishmaelitish
outfit, ever at petty war with the other settlers in the
district. It was a miscellaneous and constantly changing crowd,
recruited from rustlers from Wyoming, gamblers from California,
half-breed outlaws from the Indian Territory; in short, "bad men"
from every section of the Western country. They had a special
grudge against Allen and Payson, whom they held to be accountable
for the sudden disappearance, about a year before, of their
leader, Buck McKee, a half-breed from the Cherokee Strip.
However, no other leader had arisen equal to that masterful
spirit, and their enmity expressed itself only in such petty
depredations as changing brands on stray cattle from the Bar One
and Sweetwater Ranches, and the slitting of the tongues of young
calves, so that would be unable to feed properly, and, as a
result, be disowned by their mothers, whereupon the Lazy K outfit
would slap its brand on them as mavericks.
Allen was a Kentuckian who had served in the Confederate Army as
one of Morgan's raiders, and so had received, by popular brevet,
the title of colonel. At the close of the war he had come to
Arizona with his young wife, Josephine, and had founded a home on
the Sweetwater. He was now one of the cattle barons of the great
Southwest. Prosperity had not spoiled him. Careless in his
attire, cordial in his manner, he was a man who was loved and
respected by his men, from the newest tenderfoot to the veteran
of the bunkhouse. His wife, however, was not so highly regarded,
for she had never been able to recognize changes in time or
location and so was in perpetual conflict with her environment.
She attempted to make the free and independent cowboys of the
Arizona plains "stand around" like the house servants of the
Kentucky Bluegrass; and she persisted in the effort to manage her
husband by the feminine artifice of weeping. In days of her
youth and beauty this had been very effective, but now that these
had passed, it was productive only of good-humored raillery from
him, and mirth from the bystanders.
"No wonder Jim has the finest ranch in Arizony," the cowboys were
wont to say, "with Josephine a irrigatin' it all the time."
Allen Hacienda was certainly a garden spot in that desert
country. The building was of the old Mexican style, an
architecture found, by centuries of experience, to be suited best
to the climate and the materials of the land. The house was only
one story in height. The rooms and outbuildings sprawled over a
wide expanse of ground. The walls were of native stone and adobe
clay; over them clambered grape-vines. In front of the home Mrs.
Allen had planted a garden. A 'dobe wall cut off the house from
the corral and the bunk-house. A heavy girder spanned the
distance from the low roof to the top of the barrier.
Latticework, supporting a grave-vine, formed, with a girder, a
gateway through which one could catch from the piazza a view of a
second cultivated plot. Palms and flowering cacti added color
and life to the near prospect. Through the arbor a glimpse of
the Tortilla Mountains, forty miles away, held the eye. The
Sweetwater, its path across the plains outlined by the trees
fringing its banks, flowed past the ranch. Yucca palms and
sahuaroes threw a scanty shade over the garden.
Shortly after the arrival of the Allens in Arizona they were
blessed with a daughter, the first white child born in that
region. They waited for a Protestant clergyman to come along
before christening her, and, as such visits were few and far
between, the child was beginning to talk before she received a
name. From a "cunning" habit she had of repeating last words of
questions put to her, her father provisionally dubbed her Echo,
which name, when the preacher came, he insisted upon her
retaining.
As Echo grew older, in order that she might have a companion,
Colonel Allen went to Kentucky and brought back with him a little
orphan girl, who was a distant relative of his wife. Polly Hope
her name was, and Polly Hope she insisted on remaining, though
the Allens would gladly have adopted her.
Colonel Allen trained the girls in all the craft of the plains,
just as if they were boys. He taught them to ride astride, to
shoot, to rope cattle. They accompanied him everywhere he went,
cantering on broncos by the side of his Kentucky thoroughbred.
Merry, dark-eyed, black-haired Echo always rode upon the off
side, and saucy Polly, with golden curls, blue eyes, and
tip-tilted nose, upon the near. The ex-Confederate soldier
dubbed them, in military style, his "right and left wings." As
the three would "make a raid" upon Florence, the county town, the
inhabitants did not need to look out of doors to ascertain who
were coming, for the merriment of the little girls gave
sufficient indication. "Here comes Jim Allen ridin' like the
destroyin' angel," said young Sheriff Hoover, on one of these
occasions, "I know him by the rustlin' of his 'wings.'"
The household was again increased a few years later by the
generous response of the Allens to an appeal from a Children's
Aid Society in an Eastern city to give a home to two orphaned
brothers, Richard and Henry Lane. "Dick" and "Buddy" (shortened
in time to Bud), as they were called, being taken young, quickly
adapted themselves to their new environment, and by the time they
arrived at manhood had proved themselves the equals of any cowboy
on the range in horsemanship and kindred accomplishments. Dick,
the elder brother, was a steady, reliable fellow, modest as he
was brave, and remarkably quick-witted and resourceful in
emergencies. He gave his confidence over readily to his fellows,
but if he ever found himself deceived, withdrew it absolutely. It
was probably this last characteristic that attracted to him Echo
Allen's especial regard, for it was also her distinguishing
trait. "You have got to act square with Echo," her father was
wont to say, "for if you don't you'll never make it square with
her afterward."
Bud was a generous-hearted, impetuous boy, who responded warmly
to affection. He repaid his elder brother's protecting care with
a loyalty that knew no bounds. The Colonel, who was a strict
disciplinarian, frequently punished him in his boyhood for
wayward acts, and the little fellow made no resistance--only
sobbed in deep penitence. Once, however, when Uncle Jim, as the
boys and Polly called him, felt compelled to apply to rod to
Dick-- unjustly, as it afterward appeared--Bud burst into a
tempest of passionate tears, and, leaping upon the Colonel's
back, clung there clawing and striking like a wildcat until Allen
was forced to let Dick go. It is shrewdly indicative of the
Colonel's character that not only did he refrain from punishing
Bud on that occasion, but, when floggings were subsequently due
the little fellow, laid on the rod less heavily out of regard for
the loyalty to his brother he had then displayed.
This attack also won the admiration of Polly Hope, who was
something of a spitfire herself. A little jealous of Dick for
the chief place he held in Bud's affection, she openly claimed
the younger brother as her sweetheart, and attempted to
constitute him her knight--though with repeated discouragements,
for Bud was a bashful lad, and, though he had a true affection
for the girl, boylike concealed it by a show of indifference.
The tender relations of these boys and girls persisted naturally
into young manhood and womanhood. No word of love passed between
Dick and Echo until that time when the "nesting impulse," the
desire to have a home of his own, prompted the young man to go
out into the world and win his fortune. For a year he had acted
as foreman of the Allen ranch, working in neighborly cooperation
with Jack Payson, of Sweetwater Ranch, a man of about his own
age. The two young men became the closest of comrades. When the
fever of adventure seized upon Lane, and he became dissatisfied
with the plodding career of a wage-earner, Payson insisted on
mortgaging Sweetwater Ranch for three thousand dollars and in
lending Dick the money for a year's prospecting in the mountains
of Sonora, Mexico, in search of a fabulous rich "Lost Mine of the
Aztecs."
Traditions of lost mines are plentiful in Arizona and northern
Mexico. First taken up by the Spanish invaders of three hundred
years ago from the native Indians, they have been passed down to
each subsequent influx of white men. The directions are always
vague. The inquirer cannot pin his informant down to any
definite data. Over the mountains always lies the road. Hundreds
of lives have been sacrificed, and cruelty unparalleled practised
upon innocent men women, and children, by gold-seekers in their
lust for conquest. Prosperous Indian villages have been laid
waste, and whole bands of adventurers have gone into the desert
in the search of these mines, never to return.
When the time for Lane's departure came Echo wept at the thought
of losing for so long a time the close companion of her childhood
and the sympathetic confidant of her youthful thoughts and
aspirations. Dick, in whom friendship for Echo had long before
ripened into conscious love, took her tears as evidence that she
was similarly affected toward him, and he allowed all the
suppressed passion of his nature full vent in a declaration of
love. The girl was deeply moved by this revelation of the heart
of a strong man made tender as a woman's by a power centering in
her own humble self, and, being utterly without experience of the
emotion even in its protective form of calf-love, which is the
varioloid of the genuine infection, she imagined through sheer
sympathy that she shared his passion. So she assented with
maidenly reserve to his plea that she promise to marry him when
he should return and provide a home for her. Her more cautious
mother secured a modification of this pledge by limiting the time
that Echo should wait for him to one year. If at the expiration
of that period Lane did not return to claim her promise, or did
not write making satisfactory arrangements for continuance of the
engagement, Echo was to be considered free to marry whom she
chose.
Soon after Lane's departure Mrs. Allen persuaded the Colonel to
send Echo east to a New England finishing-school for girls, where
her mother hoped that her budding love for Lane might be nipped
in the frigid atmosphere of intellectual culture, if not, indeed,
supplanted by a saving interest in young men in general, and,
perhaps, in some particular scion of a blue-blooded Boston
family.
The plan succeeded in part only. The companionship of her
schoolfellows, her music and art-lessons, her books (during the
limited periods allotted to serious study and reading), and,
above all, her attrition at receptions with another order of men
than that she had known in the rough, uncultured West, occupied
her mind so fully that poor Dick Lane, who was putting a thought
of Echo Allen in every blow of his pick, received only the scraps
of her attention.
Dick had few opportunities to mail a letter, and none of them for
receiving one. Unpractised in writing, his epistolary
compositions were crude in the extreme, being wholly confined to
bald statements of fact. Had he been as tender on paper as he
was in his words and accents when he kissed away her tears at
parting, her regard for him would have had fuel to feed on and
might have kindled into genuine love. As it was, she was forced
to admit that, in comparison, with the brilliant university men
with whom she conversed, Dick Lane, intellectually, was as quartz
to diamond.
On the other band, she contrasted Dick in the essential point of
manliness most favorably with the male butterflies of society
that hovered around her. What one of them was so essentially
chivalrous as the Western man; so modest, so self-sacrificing, so
brave and resolute and resourceful? Dick Lane, or Jack Payson,
for that matter, in all save the adventitious points of education
and culture was the higher type of manhood, and Jack, at least,
if not poor Dick, could hold his own in mental and artistic
perception with the brightest, most cultured of Harvard
graduates.
At the end of the year she came back home to await Dick's return
from the wilds of Mexico. There was great anxiety about his
safety, for Geronimo, attacked by Crook in the Apache stronghold
of the Tonto Basin, had escaped to the mountains of northwestern
Mexico with his band of fierce Chiricahuas.
Now Dick Lane had not been heard from in this region. When he
neither made appearance nor sent a message upon the day appointed
for his return, his brother, Bud, was for setting out instantly
to find him and rescue him if he were in difficulties.
Then it was that Echo Allen discovered the true nature of her
affection for her lover, that it was sisterly regard, differing
only in degree, but not in kind, from that which she felt for his
brother. She joined with Polly in opposing Bud's going, urging
his recklessness as a reason. "You are certain to be killed,"
she said, "and I cannot lose you both." Jack Payson, for whom
Bud was working, then came forward and offered to accompany him,
and keep him with bounds. Again there was a revelation of her
heart Echo, and one that terrified her with a sense of
disloyalty. It was Jack she really loved, noble, chivalric,
wonderful Jack Payson, whom, with a Southern intensity of
feeling, she had unconsciously come to regard as her standard of
all that makes for manhood. Plausible objections could not be
urged against his sacrificing himself for his friend. With an
irresistible impulse she cast herself upon his breast and said:
"I cannot BEAR to see you go."
Payson gently disengaged her arms.
"I must, Echo. It is what Dick would do for me if I were in his
place."
However, while Payson and Bud were preparing for their departure,
Buck McKee appeared in the region and reported that Dick Lane had
been killed by the Apaches. He told with convincing details of
how he had met Lane as each was returning from a successful
prospecting trip in the Ghost Range, and how they had sunk their
differences in standing together against an attack of the
Indians. He extolled Dick's bravery, relating how, severely
wounded, he had stood off the savages to enable himself to
escape.
When he handed over Dick's watch to Echo--for he had learned on
his return that she was betrothed to Lane--as a last token from
her lover, no doubt remained in the minds of his hearers of the
truth of his story, and Payson and Bud Lane gave up their
purposed expedition.
The owner of Sweetwater Ranch, while accepting McKee's account,
could not wholly forget the half-breed's former evil reputation,
and was reserved in his reception of the advances of the
ex-rustler who was anxious to curry favor. Warm-hearted,
impulsive Bud, however, whose fraternal loyalty had increased
under his bereavement to the supreme passion of life, took the
insinuating half-breed into the aching vacancy made by his
brother's death. The two became boon companions, to the great
detriment of the younger man's morals. McKee had plenty of money
which he spent liberally, gambling and carousing in company with
Bud. Polly was wild with indignation at her sweetheart's
desertion, and savagely upbraided him for his conduct whenever
they met, which may be inferred, grew less and less frequently.
It was in revenge she made advances to another man who long
"loved her from afar."
This was William Henry Harrison Hoover, sheriff of the county,
known as "Slim" Hoover by the humorous propensity of men on the
range to give nicknames on the principle of contraries, for he
was fattest man in Pinal County. Slim was one of those fleshy
men who have nerves of steel and muscles of iron. A round,
boyish face, twinkling blue eyes, flaming red hair gave him an
appearance entirely at variance with his personality. A vein of
sentiment made him all the more lovable. His associates--
ranchers, men of the plains, soldiers, and the owners and
frequenters of the frontier barroom--respected him greatly.
"He's square as Slim" was the best recommendation ever given of a
man in that region.
Pinal County settlers had made Slim sheriff term after term
because he was the one citizen supremely fitted for the place. He
had ridden the range and "busted" broncos before election After
it he hunted wrong-doers. Right was right and wrong was wrong to
him. There was no shading in the meaning. All he asked of men
was to ride fast, shoot straight, and deal squarely in any game.
He admitted that murder, horse-stealing, and branding another
man's calves were subjects for the unwritten law. But in his
code this law meant death only after a fair trial, with neighbors
for a jury. He was not scrupulous that a judge should be
present. His duties were ended when he brought in his prisoner.
Hoover's rule had been marked by the taming of bad men in
Florence, and a truce declared in the guerrilla warfare between
the cattlemen and the sheepmen on the range.
Slim's seemingly superfluous flesh was really of great advantage
to him: it served as a mask for his remarkable athletic
abilities, and so lulled the outlaws with whom he had to deal
into a false sense of superiority and security.
Slow and lethargic in his ordinary movements,in an emergency he
was quick as a panther, never failing to get the drop on his man.
Furthermore, his fat exerted a beneficial influence on his
character in keeping him humble-minded. Being the most popular
man in the county, he would probably have been swollen with
vanity had there been any space left vacant for it in his huge
frame. He was especially admired by the women, but was at ease
only in the company of those who were married. It was his fate
to see the few girls of the region, with every one of whom, by
turns, he was in love, grow up to marry each some less diffident
wooer.
"Dangnation take it!" he used to say, "I don't git up enough
spunk to cut a heifer out o' the herd until somebody else has
roped her and slapped his brand onto her. Talk about too many
irons in the fire, why, I've only got one, and it's het up red
all the time waitin' fer the right chanct to use it; but some how
I never git it out o' the coals. Hell! what's the use, anyhow?
Nobody loves a fat man."
Slim was inordinately puffed up by Polly's preference of him,
which she showed by all sorts of feminine tyrannies, and he was
forced continually to slap his huge paunch to remind himself of
what he considered his disabling deformity. "Miss Polly," he
would apostrophize the absent lady, "you don't know what a
volcano of seethin' fiery love this here mountain of flesh is
that your walkin' over. Some day I'll erupt, and jest eternally
calcify you, if you don't look out!"
The sheriff took no stock in Buck McKee's professed reformation,
and was greatly worried over the influence he had acquired over
Bud Lane, who had before this been Slim's protege. Accordingly,
he readily conspired with her to break off the relations between
the former outlaw and the young horse-wrangler, but thus far had
met with no success.
Payson, feeling himself absolved by the death of Dick Lane from
all obligations to his friend, began openly to woo Echo Allen,
but without presuming upon the revelation of her love for him
which she had made at his proposition to go into the desert to
Lane's rescue. She responded to his courteous advances as
frankly and naturally as a bud opens to the gentle wooing of the
April sun. Softened by her grief for Dick as for a departed
brother, as the flower is by the morning dew, the petals of her
affection opened and laid bare her heart of purest gold. The
gentle, diffident girl expanded into a glorious woman, conscious
of her powers, and proud and happy that she was fulfilling the
highest function of womanhood, that of loving and aiding with her
love a noble man.
Jack Payson, however, failed to get the proper credit for this
sudden flowering of Echo's beauty and charm. These were ascribed
to her year's schooling in the East, and her proud mother was
offended by the way in which she accepted the young ranchman's
advances. "You hold yourself too cheap," she said. "It is at
least due to the memory of poor Dick Lane (whom, now that he was
safely dead, she idealized as a type of perfect manhood) "that
you make Jack wait as long as you did him." When Payson
reasonably objected to this delay by pointing out he was fully
able to support a wife, as Lane had not been, and proposed, with
Echo's assent, six months as the limit of waiting, Mrs. Allen
resorted to her expedient--tears.
"BOO-HOO! you are going to take away my only daughter!"
The Colonel, however, though he had loved Dick as if he were his
own son, was delighted to the bottom of his hospitable soul that
it was a man not already in the family circle who was to marry
Echo, especially when he was a royal fellow like Jack Payson; so
he arranged a compromise between the time proposed by Mrs. Allen
and that desired by the lovers, and the date of the wedding was
fixed nine months ahead.
"It will fall in June," said the old fellow, who knew exactly how
to handle his fractions wife; "the month when swell folks back in
the East do all their hitchin' up. Why, come to think of it, it
was the very month I ran off with you in, though I didn't know,
then that we was elopin' so strictly accordin' to the Book of
Etikwet."
CHAPTER III
A Woman's Loyalty
The first instinctive thought of a man reveals innate character;
those that follow, the moral that he has acquired through
environment and circumstances. That Jack Payson was at bottom
good man is shown by his first emotion, which was joy, and his
first impulse, which was to impart the glad news to everybody,
upon receiving the letter from Dick Lane telling that he was
alive and soon to come home. He was in his house at the time.
Bud Lane had just brought in the packet of mail from Florence,
and was riding away. Jack uttered a cry of joy which brought the
young man back to the door. "What is it?" asked Bud. But Jack
had already had time for his damning second thought. He was
stunned by the consideration that the promulgation of the news in
the letter meant his loss of Echo Allen. He dissembled, though
as yet he was not able to tell an outright falsehood:
"It's a letter telling me that I may expect to receive enough
money in a month or so to pay off the mortgage. Now your
brother's debt needn't trouble you any longer, Bud."
"Whew-w!" whistled Bud. "That's great! Where does it come from?"
"Oh, from an old friend that I lent the money to some time ago.
But, say, Bud, there's another matter I want to talk with you
about. You've got to shake Buck McKee. I've got it straight
that he is the worst man in Arizona Territory, yes, worse than an
Apache. Why, he has been with Geronimo, torturing and massacring
lone prospectors, and robbing them of their gold."
"That's a damned lie, Jack Payson, and you know it!" cried the
hot-headed young man. "It was Buck McKee who stood by Dick's
side and fought the Apaches. And I'll stand by Buck against all
the world. Everybody is in a conspiracy against him, Polly and
Slim Hoover and you. Why are you so ready now to take a
slanderer's word against his? You were keen enough to accept his
story, when it let you out of going to Dick's rescue, and gave
you free swing to court his girl. Let me see the name of the
damned snake-in-the-grass that's at the bottom of all this!" And
he snatched for the letter in Payson's hand.
The ranchman quickly thrust the missive into pocket. The
injustice of Bud's reflections on former actions gave to his
uneasy conscience just the pretext he desired for justifying his
present course. His cause being weak and unworthy, he whipped up
his indignation by adopting a high tone and overbearing manner,
even demeaning himself by using his position as Bud's employer to
crush the younger man. Indeed, at the end of the scene which
ensued he well-nigh convinced himself that he had been most
ungratefully treated by Bud while sincerely attempting to save
the boy from the companionship of a fiend in human guise.
"No matter who told me, young man," he exclaimed; "I got it
straight, and you can take it straight from me. You either give
up Buck McKee or the Sweetwater Ranch. Snake-in-the-grass!" he
was working himself up into false passion; "it is you, ungrateful
boy, who are sinking the serpent's tooth in the hand that would
have helped you. I tell you that I intended to make you foreman,
though Sage-brush Charley is an older and better man. It was for
Dick's sake I would have done it."
"No!" Bud burst forth; "for your guilty conscience's sake. It
would have been to pay for stepping into Dick's place in the
heart of a faithless girl. To hell with your job; I'm through
with you!"
And, leaping on his horse, Bud rode furiously back to rejoin Buck
McKee in Florence.
Jack Payson's purpose was now cinched to suppress Dick Lane's
letter until Echo Allen was irrevocably joined to him in
marriage. He argued with himself that she loved him, Jack
Payson, yet so loyal was she by nature that if Dick Lane returned
before the wedding and claimed her, she would sacrifice her love
to her sense of duty. This would ruin her life, he reasoned, and
he could not permit it. There was honesty in this argument, but
he vitiated it by deferring to act upon the suggestion that
naturally arose with it: Why, then, not take Jim Allen, Echo's
father, to whom her happiness was the chief purpose in life, into
confidence in regard to the matter? There will be time enough to
tell the Colonel before the wedding, he thought. In the meantime
something might happen to Dick,, and he may never return. He is
certain not to get back ahead of his money.
After the time that the note secured by the mortgage fell due,
the young ranchman had already secured two extensions of it for
three months each. He arranged a third, and began negotiating
for the sale of some of his cattle to take up the note at the
time of payment. "I can't take the money from Dick," he thought,
"even if he does owe it to me. And yet if I refuse it, it will
be like buying Echo--"paying for stepping into Dick's place,' as
Bud expressed it. What to do I don't know. Well, events will
decide." And by this favorite reflection of the moral coward,
Jack Payson marked the lowest depths of his degradation.
That afternoon Payson rode to Allen Hacienda to see Echo, and to
sound her upon her feelings to Dick Lane. He wished thoroughly
to convince himself that he, Jack Payson, held complete sway over
her heart. Perhaps he might dare to put her love to the test,
and fulfil the trust his friend had imposed on him, by giving her
Dick's letter.
Payson overtook Polly riding slowly on her way home from
Florence. She barely greeted him. "Has she met Bud, and has he
been slurring me?" he thought. He checked his pacing horse to
the half-trot, half-walk, of Polly's mount, and, ignoring her
incivility, began talking to her.
"'D'yeh see Bud in Florence?"
"Yep. Couldn't help it. Him an' Buck McKee are about the whole
of Florence these days."
"Too bad about Bud consorting with that rustler. I've had to
fire him for it."
"Fire him? Well you ARE a good friend. Talk about men's
loyalty! If women threw men down that easy you all would go to
the bowwows too fast for us to bake dog-biscuit. Now, I've
settled Buck McKee's hash by putting Slim Hoover wise to that
tongue-slittin'. Oh, I'll bring Bud around, all right, all
right, even if men that ought to be his friends go back on him."
"But, Pollykins--"
"Don't you girlie me, Jack Payson. I'm a woman, and I'm goin' to
be a married one, too, in spite of all you do to Bud. Yes,
sirree, bob. I've set out to make a man of him, and I'll marry
him to do it if he ain't a dollar to his name. But money'd make
it lots quicker an' easier. He was savin' up till he run in with
Buck McKee."
A sudden thought struck Payson. Here was a way to dispose of
Dick Lane's money when it came.
"All right, Mrs. Bud Lane to be. Promise not tell Bud, and
through you I'll soon make good to him many times over for the
foreman's wages he's lost. It's money that's coming from an
enterprise that his brother and I were partners in, and Bud shall
Dick's share. He's sore on me now, and I can't tell him.
Besides, he'd gamble it away before he got it to Buck McKee. Bud
isn't strictly ethical in regard to money matters, Polly, and you
must manage the exchequer."
"Gee, what funny big words you use, Jack! But I know what you
mean; he's too free-handed. Well, he'll be savin' as a trade rat
until we get our home paid for. And I'll manage the checker
business when we're married. No more poker and keno for Bud.
Thank you, Jack. I always knew you was square."
Polly's sincere praise of his "squareness" was the sharpest
thrust possible at Payson's guilty conscience. Well, he resolved
to come as near being square and level as he could. He had told
half-truths to Bud and Polly; he would present the situation to
Echo as a possible, though not actual, one. If Polly were wrong,
and Echo loved him so much that she would break the word she had
pledged to Dick Lane, then he would confess all, and they would
do what could be done to make it right with the discarded lover.
Echo, observing from the window who was Polly's companion, ran
out to Jack with a cry of joy. He looked meaningly at Polly. She
said: "Oh, give me your bridle; I know how many's a crowd." Jack
leaped to the ground and took Echo in his arms while Polly rode
off with the horses to the corral, singing significantly:
"Spoon, spoon, spoon,
While the dish ran away with the spoon."
Jack and Echo embraced clingingly and kissed lingeringly. "It
takes a crazy old song like that to express how foolish we lovers
are," said Jack. "Why, I feel that I could outfiddle the cat,
outjump the cow, outlaugh the dog, and start an elopement that
would knock the performance of the tableware as silly as--well,
as I am talking now. I'm living in a dream--a Midsummer Night's
Dream, such as you were reading to me."
"The lunatic, the lover, and the poet," quoted Echo suggestively.
Dusk was falling. From the bunk-house rose the tinkling notes of
a mandolin; after a few preliminary chords, the player, a
Mexican, began a love-song in Spanish. The distant chimes of
Mission bells sounded softly on the evening air.
Jack and Echo sat down upon the steps of the piazza. Jack
continued the strain of his thought, but in a more serious vein:
"Echo, I'm so happy that I am frightened."
"Frightened?" she asked wonderingly.
"Yes, scared--downright scared," he answered. "I reckon I'm like
an Indian. An Indian doesn't believe it's good medicine to let
the gods know he's big happy. For there's the Thunder Bird--"
"The Thunder Bird?"
"The evil spirit of the storm," continued Jack. "When the
Thunder Bird hears a fellow saying he's big happy, he sends him
bad luck--"
Echo laid her hand softly on the mouth of her sweetheart. "We
won't spoil our happiness, then, by talking about it. We will
just feel it--just be it."
She laid her head upon jack's knee. He placed his arm lightly
but protectingly over her shoulder. They sat in silence
listening to the Mexican's song. Finally Jack bent over and
whispered gently in her ear:
"Softly, so the Thunder Bird won't hear, Echo; tell me you love
me; that you love only me; that you will always love me, no
matter what shall happen; that you never loved, until you loved
me."
Echo sat upright, with a start. "What do you mean?" she
exclaimed. "Of course I love you, and you only, but the future
and the past are beyond our control. Unless you know of
something that is going to happen which may mar our love, your
question is silly, not at all like your Mother Goose nonsense--
that was dear. And as for the past, you mean Dick Lane."
"Yes, I mean Dick Lane," confessed Payson, in a subdued tone. "I
am jealous of him--that is--even of his memory."
"That is not like Jack Payson. What has come over you? It is
the shadow of your Thunder Bird. You know what my feeling was
for Dick Lane, and what it is, for it remains the same, the only
difference being that now I know it never was love. Even if it
were, he is dead, and I love you, Jack, you alone. Oh, how you
shame me by forcing me to speak of such things! I have tried to
put poor Dick out of my mind, for every time I think of him it is
with a wicked joy that he is dead, that he cannot come home to
claim me as his wife. Oh, Jack, Jack, I didn't think it of you!"
And the girl laid her face within her hands on her lover's knee
and burst into a fit of sobbing.
Jack Payson shut his teeth.
"Well, since I have lowered myself so far in your esteem, and
since your mind is already sinning against Dick Lane, we might as
well go on and settle this matter. I promise I will not mention
it again. I, too, have troubles of the mind. I am as I am, and
you ought to know it. I said I was jealous of Dick Lane's
memory. It is more. I am jealous of Dick Lane himself. If he
should return, would you leave me and go with him--as his wife?"
Again she sat upright. By a strong effort she controlled her
sobbing.
"The man I admired does not deserve an answer, but the child he
has proved himself to be and whom I cannot help loving, shall
have it. Yes, if Dick Lane returns true to his promise I shall
be true to mine."
She arose and went into the house. Payson rode homeward through
the starlight resolved of tormenting doubt only to be consumed by
torturing jealousy. He now had no thought of confiding in Jim
Allen. He regretted that he had touched so dangerously near the
subject of Dick Lane's return in talking to Bud and Polly. His
burning desire was to be safely married to Echo Allen before the
inevitable return of her former lover.
"Fool that I was not to ask her one more question: Would she
forgive her husband where she would not forgive her lover? What
will she think of me when all is discovered, as it surely will
be? Well, I must take my chances. Events will decide."
On his return to Sweetwater Ranch he put the place in charge of
his new foreman, Sage-brush Charlie, and went out to a
hunting-cabin he had built in the Tortilla Mountains. Here he
fought the problem over with his conscience--and his selfishness
won. He returned, fixed in his decision to suppress Dick Lane's
letter, and to go ahead with the marriage.
CHAPTER IV
The Hold-up
Riding hard into Florence from Sweetwater Ranch Bud Lane hunted
up Buck McKee at his favorite gambling-joint, and, in a white
heat of indignation informed him in detail of everything that had
passed between Payson and himself. At once McKee inferred that
the writer of the letter was none other than Dick Lane. Realizing
that Payson was already informed of his villainy, and that in a
very short time Dick Lane himself would make his appearance on
the Sweetwater, the half-breed concluded to make a bold move
while he yet retained the confidence of Bud.
"Bud," he said, "I know the man who is sendin' the money to
Payson. It's Dick, your brother."
"But," stammered Bud, his brain whirling, "if that's so, you lied
about the Apaches killing him you--why you--must have been the
renegade, the devil who tortured prospectors."
"Why, Bud, Dick never wrote all that dime-novel nonsense about
the man who stood by him to--well, not the very last, for Dick
has managed somehow to pull through--probably he was saved by the
Rurales that were chasin' the band that rounded us up. No, it's
Payson, Jack Payson, that made up that pack of lies, just to keep
you away from me, the man that was last with Dick and so may get
on to Jack's game and block it."
"Game! what game?" asked Bud, bewildered.
"Why, you told me it yourself--to marry Dick's girl, and live on
Dick's hard-earned money."
"But Dick borrowed the three thousand of Jack," objected Bud.
"Well, the dollars he borrowed have all gone, ain't they? And
the money he's sendin' back Dick dug out of the ground by hard
work, didn't he? Leastways, Payson hadn't ort 'o use the money
to rope in Dick's girl. It ort 'o be kep' from him, anyhow, till
Dick comes on the ground his own self. That 'u'd hold up the
weddin', all right, if I know Josephine. It 'u'd be easy to
steer her into refusin' to let Echo go into a mortgiged home."
Simple-minded Bud readily accepted the wily half-breed's
explanations and surmises, and fell into the trap he was
preparing. This was to hold up the express-agent and rob him of
the money Payson was expecting, on securing which it was McKee's
intention to flee the country before Dick Lane returned to
denounce him. To ascertain just when the money came into the
agent's hands, and to act as a cover in the robbery itself, an
accomplice was needed. For this purpose no man in all the
Sweetwater region was better adapted than Bud Lane. Frank and
friendly with every one, he would be trusted by the most
suspicious and cautious official in Pinal County. The fact that
he had chosen Buck McKee as an associate had already gone far to
rehabilitate this former "bad man" in the good graces of the
community. Under cover of this friendship, McKee hoped to escape
suspicion of any part in the homicide he contemplated. For it
was murder, foul, unprovoked murder that was in the black soul of
the half-breed. He intended to incriminate Bud so deeply as to
put it beyond all thought that he would confess.
Young Lane, passionately loyal to his brother, was ready for
anything that would delay Payson's marriage to Echo Allen.
Together with the wild joy that sprang up in his heart at the
thought that his brother was alive, was entwined a violent hatred
against his former employer. In the fierce turbulence within his
soul, generated by the meeting of these great emotions, he was
impelled to enter upon a mad debauch, in which McKee abetted and
joined him. Filling up on bad whisky, they rode through the
streets of Florence, yelling and shooting their "guns" like crazy
men. It was while they were engaged in this spectacular
exhibition of horsemanship, gun-play, and vocalization that Bud's
sweetheart rode into town to execute some commissions in
preparation for Echo Allen's wedding. Already "blue" over the
thought that her own wedding was far in the dim future, poor
Polly was cast into the depths of despair and disgust by the
drunken riot in which her prospective husband was indulging with
her particular aversion, the cruel, calf-torturing half-breed,
McKee. Thoroughly mortified, she slipped out of town by a side
street, and moodily rode back to Allen Hacienda, meeting on the
way, as we have seen, Jack Payson.
After the debauch was over, and the merry, mad devil of nervous
excitement was succeeded by the brooding demon of nervous
depression, McKee broached to Bud the idea of robbing the
express-agent of the money coming to Payson. This fell in
readily with the young man's revengeful mood. He unreservedly
placed himself under the half-breed's orders.
In accordance with these, Bud hung about the road-station a great
deal, cultivating the friends of Terrill, the agent. 'Ole Man'
Terrill, as he was called, although he was a vigorous specimen of
manhood on the under side of sixty, was ticket and freight agent,
express-messenger, and telegraph-operator,in fact, the entire
Bureau of Transportation and communication at Florence station.
Bud frankly told him he was out of a job, and had, indeed,
decided in view of his coming marriage, to give up
horse-wrangling for some vocation of a more elevating character.
So Terrill let him help about the station, chiefly in the
clerical work. While so engaged, Bud learned that a package
valued at three thousand dollars was expected upon a certain
train. Although consignee was mentioned, the fact that the
amount tallied exactly with the sum Payson was expecting caused
him to conclude it was Dick's repayment of his loan. Accordingly
he informed McKee that the time they were awaiting had arrived.
Florence had grown up as a settlement about a spring of water
some time before the advent of the railroad. Builders of the
line got into trouble with the inhabitants, and in revenge
located the station half a mile away from the spring, thinking
new settlers would come to them. In this they were disappointed.
The point was an isolated one, and the station a deserted spot
between trains.
Eastward and westward the single track of railroad drifted to
shimmering points on the horizon. To the south dreary wastes of
sand, glistening white under the burnished sun and crowned with
clumps of grayish green sage-brush, stretched to an encircling
rim of hills. Cacti and yucca palms broke the monotony of the
roll of the plains to the uplands.
Sahuaroes towered over the low station, which was built in the
style of the old Spanish missions. Its red roof flared above the
purple shadows cast by its walls. In the fathomless blue above a
buzzard sailed majestically down an air current, and hovered
motionless over the lonely outpost of civilization.
Within the station a telegraph-sounder chattered and chirruped.
'Ole Man' Terrill was at the instrument. His duties were over
for the forenoon, the east-bound express, which, with the
west-bound, composed the only trains that traversed that section
of the road each day, having arrived and departed a half-hour
before, and he had cut in on the line to regale himself with the
news of the world. But there was a dearth of thrilling events,
such as his rude soul delighted in. The Apache uprising, that
was feared, had not taken place. Colonel Hardie, of Fort Grant,
had the situation well in hand. The Nihilists were giving their
latest czar a breathing-spell. No new prize-fighter had arisen
to wrest the championship of the world from John Sullivan, who
had put all his old rivals 'to sleep.' 'Ole Man' Terrill
proceeded to follow their example. He had been up late the night
before at a poker game. His head fell forward with a jerk.
Aroused by the shock, he glanced drowsily about him. Heat-waves
danced before the open window. Deep silence hung over his little
world. Again his eyelids closed; his head dropped, and slowly he
slipped into sleep.
Tragedy was approaching him now, but not along the wire. Down an
arroyo, or "draw" (the dry bed of a watercourse), that wound in a
detour around the town of Florence, and debauched into the open
plain near the station, crept two men in single file, each
leading a horse. They were Buck McKee and Bud Lane, who had
ridden north from the town that morning with the declared purpose
of going to Buck's old ranch, the Lazy K. They had circled about
the town, timing their arrival at the station a little after the
departure of the train which was expected to bring Dick Lane's
money.
McKee emerged first from the mouth of the draw. He wore a coarse
flannel shirt, loosened at the throat. About his neck was a
handkerchief. His riding-overalls were tucked into high boots
with Spanish heels and long spurs. A Mexican hat with a bead
band topped a head covered with coarse black hair, which he
inherited from his Cherokee mother.
Save for the vulture floating high in air not a living thing was
in sight. With the caution of a coyote, McKee crept to the
station door and peered blinkingly through the open door into the
room. The change from the dazzling light without to the shaded
interior blinded him for a moment. He heard the heavy breathing
of the sleeper before he saw him.
Returning to the mouth of the arroyo, McKee motioned to his
companion to bring out the horses. When this was done, the two
men cinched the saddles and made every preparation for sudden
flight. Lane and the horses remained outside the station behind
a freight-car on a siding, while McKee stole softly through the
open door to 'Ole Man' Terrill's side.
Now, the agent used as a safe-deposit vault his inside waistcoat
pocket, the lock upon which was a huge safety-pin. For further
defense he carried a revolver loosely hung at his hip, and easily
reached. His quickness on the draw in the hour of need, and his
accuracy of aim made him a formidable antagonist.
Some men are born into the world to become its watch-dogs; others
to become its wolves. The presence of a human wolf is, as it
were, scented by the human watch-dog, even when the dog is
asleep. McKee was known instinctively as a man-wolf to the born
guardians of society; Slim Hoover, himself a high type of the
man-mastiff, used to say of the half-breed: "I can smell that
b'ar-grease he slicks his hair with agin' the wind. He may be
out o' sight an' out of mind, when somethin' tells me 'McKee's
around'; then I smell b'ar-grease, and the next thing, Bucky
shows up. with his ingrasheatin' grin. It's alluz 'grease before
meet, as the Sky Pilot would say."
'Ole Man' Terrill was of the watch-dog breed. Whether warned by
the instinct of his kind or wakened by the scent of McKee's
bear-grease, he suddenly opened his eyes. Like all men
accustomed to emergencies, he was instantly in full possession of
his wits, yet he pretended to be slightly confused in order to
get a grasp upon the situation before greeting his visitor.
"Howdy, Buck," he said, adjusting his revolver as he swung
half-round in his chair, that he might reach his weapon more
readily in an emergency. "Bustin' or busted?"
"Well, I'm about even with the game," replied McKee, pulling from
his pocket a bag of tobacco and papers, and deftly rolling a
butterfly cigarette. "Goin' to shake it before I lose my pile.
It's me for the Lazy K. Dropped in to say good-by."
Terrill, who had recently had an expensive seance with McKee at
poker, remonstrated:
"Yuh ought 'o give me another chanct at yuh, Buck. Yo're goin'
away with too much of my money."
"Well, 'Ole Man,' I'm likely to rob yuh of a lot more ef you
ain't keerful," answered McKee.
"Yuh can't jet yeta while," said Terrill. "Dead broke."
"Aw, come off! everybody knows ye're a walkin' bank. Bet yuh got
three thousan' in that inside pocket o' your'n this minute."
Terrill started at McKee's naming the exact amount he was
carrying. He forgot his customary caution in his surprise.
"Well, you did just hit it, shore enough. I believe ye're halfgipsy
instid o' half-Injun. Jus' like yer knowin' I stood pat on
four uv a kind when you had aces full, and throwin' down yer
cyards 'fore I c'u'd git even with yuh. How do yuh do it, Buck?"
McKee gave a smile of cunning, inscrutable superiority. "Oh,
it's jes' a power I has. 'Keen sabby,' as the Greasers say--I'm
keen on the know-how. Why, I kin tell yuh more about the money.
It's fer Jack Payson--"
"Now, there's whur ye're way off as a cleervoyant, Buck," said
Terrill triumphantly. "Yuh guessed oncet too often, as yer old
pard on the Lazy K said to the druggist. 'Peruna?' ast the
druggist. 'Yep,' said yer pard. 'Beginnin' mild on a new jag?'
ast the druggist a second time. 'Hell, no!' said yer pard they
calls Peruna now from the in-sih-dent, 'ending up strong on an
old one.' Nope, the three thousan' is county money, consigned to
Sheriff Hoover. Jack Payson has jes' lef' with a package from K.
C., but it wasn't money. It was a purty, gilt chair--a
weddin'-present fer the gal he's go'n' to marry."
At that moment the sounder of the telegraph began clicking the
call of the station. Terrill whirled about in his swivel-chair
and faced the table.
McKee stood close behind him. His lips twitched nervously. His
eyes narrowed as he watched every movement of the agent's big
shoulders as he operated the key. At the same time the
half-breed drew his revolver and covered the back of Terrill's
head.
The agent completed his message and turned to continue his
interrupted conversation. He found himself gazing into the
muzzle of a .44, big, it seemed, as a thirteen-inch gun. "Why--
what?" he stammered.
"I'm actin' jes' now as Slim's deppity," said McKee. "Unbutton
an' han' that money over."
Once having his victim in his power, all the innate cruelty of
the Indian blood of his maternal ancestors flashed to the
surface. Terrill was at his mercy. For one desperate moment he
would play with him; even torture him as his forefathers had once
made miserable the last moments of a captive. He knew that
unless he silenced Terrill his life must pay the forfeit. Death
was the penalty of detection. The arm of the express company was
long. Ultimate capture was certain. Pursued out of Arizona by
the sheriff, he would be trailed through every camp and town in
the far West.
With an oath, Terrill tried to rise and face his antagonist,
reaching for his revolver as he did so. The butt of his weapon
had caught in the arm of the chair hampering his movements.
McKee threw him roughly back into the chair.
"Throw up your han's," he cried. "Don't try that."
Up went Terrill's hands high over his head. He faced the open
window. Not a sign of help was in sight.
Quickly the agent turned over in his mind various schemes to foil
McKee, who now stood behind him with the muzzle of his revolver
pressing into the middle of his back. Each was rejected before
half-conceived.
McKee laughed sneeringly, saying: "You oughtn't to be so keerless
to show where you cache your roll. Worse than a senorita with a
stocking. She never keeps a whole pair when Manuel is playing
faro."
Terrill made no reply. His hope of escape was slowly fading.
McKee had reached his left hand over his prisoner's shoulder to
disarm Terrill, who moved slightly away from him, drawing in his
feet as he did so.
One chance had come to him. He knew that, if he failed, death
was certain, yet he determined to take the risk in order to
retrieve the slip he had made in admitting that he had money in
his possession to a gambling crony; and so to keep clean his
record for trustiness, of which he was so proud. This last
desperate resource was an old wrestler's trick; one with which he
had conquered others in the rough games of the corral.
Again Terrill moved to the right and farther under McKee, who had
to extend his arm and body far beyond an upright position.
Holding his revolver against Terrill handicapped the half-breed
in his movements.
With a quick turn, Terrill grasped McKee's left arm, jerking it
down sharply on his shoulder. With his right hand he grasped the
back of his antagonist's neck, pulling his head downward and
inward. Using his shoulder for a fulcrum, with a mighty heave of
his legs and back he sought to toss McKee over his head.
So surprised for an instant was the cowboy by suddenness of the
attack that he made no effort escape the clutches of the
desperate express-agent.
His feet had left the floor, and he was swinging in the air
before his finger pressed the trigger.
There was a muffled report.
The two men fell in a heap on the floor, McKee on top. Dazed and
shaken, McKee scrambled to his feet. The air was pungent with
odor of powder smoke. Terrill rolled over on his side, trembled
convulsively, and died. He had paid the penalty for a moment's
indiscretion with his life.
McKee quickly unfastened the pin and seized the roll of bills.
Skimming through the package, he smiled with satisfaction to see
that the most of it was in small bills, and none of them stained.
Carefully avoiding the fast-forming pool of blood which was
oozing from the hole in the dead man's head, he hurried to the
door.
A glance showed him the coast was clear. Running across the
tracks, he joined Lane, who was waiting for him behind the
freight-car with impatience. In silence they mounted their
horses. For a short distance McKee led the way upon the
railroad-track, in order to leave no hoof-prints, and then struck
across the desert toward the hills in the south.
"Why did you shoot?" gasped Lane.
"He drew on me," snarled McKee. "It wasn't Dick's money, but
you'll get half. Shut up."
The burning sun rose higher and higher. The buzzard dropped
lower in the sky. The silence of death brooded over the
railroad-station.
CHAPTER V
Hoover Bows to Hymen
Unknown to Bud Lane and Buck McKee, who were rioting in Florence,
Jack Payson had hurried up the wedding. Colonel Jim had wheedled
Josephine into consenting that it should take place two months
ahead of the time that had been fixed. "April is the month fer
showers, Josie, an' we'll let you weep all you please."
Two weeks' notice, however, gave scant time for preparation for
the important ceremony that Mrs. Allen deemed necessary. During
this period the busiest spot in Arizona was the kitchen of Allen
hacienda. An immense cake, big as a cheese, was the crowning
effort of Josephine, who wept copiously at the thought of losing
her daughter as she measured and mixed the ingredients. A layer
of frosting an inch in thickness encrusted this masterpiece of
the art of pastry-making. Topping the creation were manikins of
a bride and bridegroom.
This climax of the bridal cake had been brought up by wagon from
Tucson with more caution than if it were a month's clean-up of a
paying mine. Mrs. Allen allowed no one to go near the artistic
achievement. Others might look at it from afar, but at the
slightest movement to get close to it, she would push the
observer back, with the warning: "Keep yer dirty fingers off'n
it.
"'Tain't common icin'; that's confectionary."
Enough chickens to feed a darky camp-meeting were killed for the
feast. Fried, roasted, cold or minced as tamales, the dishes
filled ovens and tables, and overflowed into the spring-house.
Favorite recipes carried across the plains by the wives of the
Argonauts met in rivalry with the dishes of the cooks of old
Mexico.
Colonel Allen wandered aimlessly about the ranch, while the
preparations for the feast were in progress. The women folk
drove him from one favorite loafing-place to another. His advice
was scorned and his wishes made a subject for jests.
Defiantly he had taken full charge of the liquid refreshments. A
friendly barkeeper in Tucson, acting under his orders, had
shipped him cases of champagne, a barrel of beer, and a siphon of
seltzer. Why the seltzer he never could explain. Later the
unlucky bottle marred the supper and nearly caused a tragedy. A
guest picked it up and peered into the metal tube to see "how the
durned thing worked."
As he gazed and pondered, shaking the bottle in effort to solve
the mystery, he pressed the handle. The stream struck him fairly
between the eyes. Shocked, surprised, and half-blinded, he
pulled his gun and declared immediate war on the "sheep-herder
who had put up the job on him." Allen's other supplies were of
the kind taken straight in the Southwest, and were downed with a
hasty gulp.
Driven from the house on the day of the wedding he took refuge on
the piazza. From behind the hacienda floated dreamily on the
sun-drenched air the music of guitars and mandolins played by
Mexicans, practising for the dance which would follow the
ceremony.
The Colonel dozed and dreamed.
Suddenly the peace of the afternoon was shattered by the wild
"yip-yips" of a band of cowboys, riding up the trail.
Revolver-shots punctuated their shrill cries.
Allen bounded from his chair, shaking himself like a terrier.
This riotous sound was the music he longed to hear.
When the staccato beats of the ponies' hoofs ceased, he shouted:
"Come on, boys, make this your home. Everything goes, and the
Sweetwater outfit is always welcome."
The foreman was the first to pull up in front of the house.
"Hullo, Uncle Jim!" he cried.
"Hello, Sage-brush," answered the Colonel, a broad smile
illuminating his face. Holding his pipe in one hand, he licked
his lips at the thought of "lickering up" without the invention
of an excuse for his wife.
Then he joined in a hearty laugh with the men about the corral as
he heard the grunts and stamping of a plunging mustang. A
cow-pony had entered into the spirit of the occasion and was
trying to toss his rider over his head.
Fresno was the victim of the horse's deviltry.
His predicament aroused wild shouts of mirth and sallies of the
wit of the corral.
"Hunt leather, Fresno, or he'll buck you clean over the wall,"
shouted Sage-brush.
"Grab his tail," yelled Show Low, with a whoop.
"All over," was the chorus, as Fresno, with a vicious jab of his
spurs and a jerk of the head, brought the animal into subjection.
"Come right in, boys!" called Allen. "Let the Greasers take the
hosses."
With shrill shouts, whoops, and much laughter the guests crowded
about the ranchman.
Each wore his holiday clothes; new handkerchiefs were knotted
about their necks. Fresno had stuck little American flags in the
band of his hat, the crown, of which he had removed. "I want
head-room for the morning after," he had said.
Show Low's chaps were conspicuously new, and his movements were
heralded by the creaking of unsoftened leather.
Last of the band was Parenthesis, short, bow-legged, with a face
tanned and seamed by exposure.
The cowboys ran stiffly, toeing slightly inward. Long hours in
the saddle made them apparently awkward and really ungraceful
when on the ground.
They greeted Allen with hearty enthusiasm, slapping him on the
back, poking him in the ribs, and swinging him from one to the
other, with cries of: "Howdy, Uncle Jim!"
"Howdy, Sage-brush? Hello, Fresno! Waltz right in, Show Low.
Glad to see you all!" cried Allen, as he, in turn, brought his
hand down with ringing slaps upon shoulder and back. Meantime
Parenthesis hopped about the outer edge of the ring, seeking an
entrance. Failing to reach his host, he crowed: "How de doddle
do," to attract his attention.
Allen broke from the ring. Grasping Parenthesis by the hand, he
said: "I'm tolerable, thankee, Parenthesis. Where's Jack?--
didn't he come over with you?"
"What! the boss? Ain't he got here yet?" asked the foreman. Tall
and lean, with hardened muscles, Sage-brush Charley was as lithe
as a panther on horseback. His first toy had been a rope with
which, as a toddler, he had practised on the dogs and chickens
about the ranch-yard. He could not remember when he could not
ride. Days on the round-up, hours of watching the sleeping herd
in the night-watch, had made him quiet and self-contained in his
dealings with men. His eyes looked out fearlessly on the world.
All of his life he had handled cattle. Daily facing dangers on
the long drives or in the corral, he schooled himself to face
emergencies. Acquiring self-control, he was trusted and admired.
When Lyman, the old foreman of the Sweetwater resigned, Jack
Payson promoted Sage-brush, although next to Bud Lane he was at
the time the youngest man in the outfit. He made his employer's
interests his own. At the mention of Payson's name he always
became attentive. With a shade of anxiety he awaited Allen's
answer.
"No," replied the ranchman, looking from one of his guests to the
other.
"Why, he started three hours ahead of us!" explained Parenthesis.
With a challenging note in his tones, as if his word was
disputed, the host answered: "Well, he ain't showed up."
The little group had become silent. Arizona was in a period of
unrest. Rumors of another Apache uprising were growing stronger
each day. Then Payson was successful, and, therefore, despised
by less fortunate men ever eager for a quarrel.
After a moment's thought Sage-brush brushed aside his fears and
brightened up his comrades with the remark: "Mebbe he rid over
to Florence station to get a present for Miss Echo. He said
somethin' about gettin' an artickle from Kansas City."
"Mebbe so," agreed Allen, eager to cast out any forebodings.
"It's time," he continued, "he wuz turnin' up, if this weddin's
to be pulled off by the clock."
"Has the Sky Pilot got here yet?" asked Sage-brush.
"No," replied Allen. "He's started, though. There's one thing
sartin, we can't tighten up the cinches till the bridegroom gits
here."
The absence of Jack Payson and the failure of the minister to
arrive aroused the suspicions of Sage-brush. Coming closer to
Allen, he smiled knowingly, and, speaking in a confidential tone,
asked:
"Say, Jim, they ain't figgerin' on gittin' away on the sly-like,
are they?"
Show Low interrupted with the explanation: "You see, we're goin'
to decorate the wagon some."
The suggestion that any one connected with Allen Hacienda would
ride in anything on wheels, except the driver of the chuck-wagon
out on round-up, aroused the indignation of the old cattleman.
For him the only use to which a wheeled vehicle drawn by a horse
should be put was to haul materials that could not be packed on a
horse.
"They ain't using any wagon!" he fairly shouted; "they're goin'
away in the leather."
The idea of carrying out the traditions of the horse in Pinal
County even to a wedding-journey tickled the boys immensely.
Slapping one another on the back and nodding their heads in
approbation, they shouted: "That's the ticket. Hooray!"
"This ain't no New York idea, where the bride and groom hits the
life-trail in a hired hack," cried Fresno.
Allen's feelings apparently were not yet fully soothed. Turning
to Sage-brush, he said: "Wheels don't go in my family. Why, her
ma and me were married on hossback. The preacher had to make a
hurry job of it, but it took."
"Hush, now," was Parenthesis' awed comment.
"For her pop was a-chasin' us, and kept it up for twenty miles
after the parson said 'Amen.'"
"Did he ketch you?" asked Fresno, with great seriousness.
"He sure did," answered Allen, with a twinkle in his eye, "an'
thanked me for takin' Josephine off his hands."
The boys laughed. The joke was upon themselves, as they had
expected to hear a romantic story of earlier days.
When the laughter had subsided, Show Low suggested: "If we can't
decorate the wagon, let's put some fixin's on the ponies."
The proposal was received with more whoops, shouting, and
yipping. They waltzed about the smiling rancher.
"That's what!" cried Sage-brush enthusiastically.
Allen grew sarcastic, remarking: "I reckon you-all must have
stopped some time at the water-tank."
Renewed laughter greeted this sally.
"This is my first wedding," explained Sage-brush, rather
apologetically.
"I want to know!" exclaimed Allen, in surprise.
"I'm tellin' you. I never seed a weddin' in all my life,"
replied Sage-brush, as seriously as if he was denying a false
accusation of a serious crime. "Mother used to tell me about
her'n, an' I often wisht I had been there."
Fresno shouted with amusement. He had Sage-brush rattled. The
coolest man on the ranch was flustered by the mere thought of
attending a wedding-ceremony.
"He's plum locoed over this one. Ain't you, Sage-brush?" he
drawled tauntingly.
Sage-brush took his jibing in the best of humor. It was a
holiday, and they were with people of their own kind. Had a
stranger been present the remarks would have been resented
bitterly. On this point cowboys are particularly sensitive. In
the presence of outsiders they are silent, answering only in
monosyllables, never leading in any conversation, and if any
comment is necessary they make it indirectly.
"Well, I ain't no society-bud like you are," laughed Sage-brush.
The others joined with him in his merriment over Fresno's
discomfiture. "Weddin's ain't so frequent where I come from as
they is in Californy."
"It's the climate," answered Fresno, with a broad grin.
"So you ain't never been at a weddin'?" asked Allen, who was
looking for another opening to have more fun with Sage-brush.
Again the cowboy became serious and confessed: "Nope; I've
officiated at several plain killin's, an' been chief usher at a
lynchin', but this yere's my first weddin', an' I'm goin' to turn
loose some and enjoy it."
Sage-brush grinned in anticipation of the good times that he knew
lay in store for him at the dance.
"You're fixed up as if you was the main attraction at this
event," said Allen, looking Sage-brush over carefully and
spinning him around on his heel.
"Ain't I mussed up fine?" answered Sage-brush.
"You're the sure big turkey," interrupted Parenthesis.
"Served up fine, with all the trimmin's," laughed Fresno, taking
another jab at his friend.
Their sport was broken up for the time being by the appearance of
Polly at the door of the ranch-house. "Hello, boys," she
shouted, with the fascinating cordiality of the Western girl,
wherein the breath of the plains, the purity of the air, and the
wholesomeness of life is embraced in a simple greeting and the
clasp of a hand.
The cowboys took off their hats, and made elaborate bows to the
young woman. "Howdy, Miss Polly!" they cried.
"You sure do look pert," added Sage-brush, with what he
considered his most winning smile. Fresno snickered and hastily
brushed back the hair from his forehead.
"Where's Jack?" she asked the two men, who at once ranged
themselves one on each side of her.
"He did not start with the boys," explained Allen. "He'll be
along soon, Polly."
"Well, now when it comes to lookers, what's the matter with Polly
Hope?" exclaimed Sage-brush slyly.
Glances of admiration were cast at the girl, who was dressed
simply and plainly in a little white gown which Mrs. Allen had
made for her for the wedding. Polly's youth, good nature, and
ability to take care of herself made her a favorite on the ranch.
She had no need of defenders, but if an occasion should arise
that Polly required a knight, there were a score of guns at her
service at an hour's notice.
"Looks like a picture from a book," said Fresno, hoping to win
back the ground he had lost by Sage-brush's openly expressed
admiration.
Polly was flattered by the comments and the glances of the boys,
which expressed their approval of her appearance more loudly than
spoken words. She pretended, however, to be annoyed. "Go
'long," she said. "Where's Bud Lane? Didn't you give him his
invite?"
The boys turned from one to the other with feigned glances of
disgust at being slighted by Polly for an absent one. The
one-sided courtship of Bud and Polly was known up and down the
valley, and indefinite postponement of their wedding-day was one
of the jests of the two ranches.
"Oh, we sent it on to him at Florence. He'll git it in time, if
he ain't gone to the Lazy K with Buck McKee," said Sage-brush;
then, turning to the other cowboys, he added in an aggrieved
tone: "Polly ain't got no eyes for no one excep' Bud."
Polly stepped to Allen's side, and, laying her head on his
shoulder, said: "Ain't I?" Allen patted the girl's head. He
was very fond of her, looking upon her as another daughter.
Polly smiled back into his face, and then, with a glance at the
cowboys, said: "Say, Uncle Jim, there's some bottles to be
opened."
The invitation was an indirect one, but all knew what it meant,
and started for the house.
"Root-beer," added Polly mischievously; "the corks pull awful
hard."
Allen glanced at her in feigned alarm.
"What do you want to do--stampede the bunch?"
Before she could answer, the approach of a horse attracted the
attention of the group.
"There's Jack, now!" cried Sage-brush, in tones which plainly
showed his relief; "no, it ain't," he added reflectively, "he
rode his pacin' mare, and that's a trottin' horse."
The cry of the rider was heard quieting his mount. Allen
recognized the voice. "It's Slim Hoover," he cried.
Polly clapped her hands, and said mischievously to Sage-brush:
"Now you'll see me makin' goo-goo eyes to somebody besides Bud
Lane. I ain't a-going to be the only girl in Pinal County Slim
Hoover ain't set up to."
"An' shied off from," added Sage-brush, a little nettled by
Polly's overlooking him as a subject for flirtation. "But what's
Slim doin' over this way?"
"Come to Jack's weddin', of course," replied Polly, adding
complacently: "And probably projectin' a hitch-up of his own."
Slim ran around the corner of the house directly into the crowd,
who seized him before he could recover from his surprise, and
proceeded to haze him, to their intense delight and the Sheriff's
embarrassment, for he knew that Polly was somewhere near,
enjoying his discomfiture. Polly waited until her victim was
fully ready for her particular form of torture. The reception of
the cowboys was crude to her refined form of making the fat
Sheriff uncomfortable.
With the velvety cruelty of a flirt she held out her hand,
saying: "Hello, Slim."
The Sheriff flushed under his tan. The red crept up the back of
his neck to his ears. He awkwardly took off his hat. With a bow
and a scrape he greeted her: "Howdy, Miss Polly, howdy." Meantime
he shook her hand until she winced from the heartiness of the
grip.
"What's the news?" she asked, as she slowly straightened out her
fingers one by one.
"There's been a killin' over Florence way," announced the
Sheriff, putting on his hat and becoming an officer of the law
with duty to perform.
"Who is the misfortunate?" asked Sage-brush, as they gathered
about Hoover and listened intently.
Murder in Arizona was a serious matter, and punishment was meted
out to the slayer or he was freed by his fellow citizens. Far
from courts of justice and surrounded by men to whom death was
often merely an incident in a career of crime, the settlers were
forced to depend upon themselves to keep peace on the border.
They acted quickly, but never hastily. Judgment followed quickly
on conviction. Their views were broad, and rarely were their
decisions wrong.
"'Ole Man' Terrill," replied the Sheriff. "Happened about ten
this mornin'. Some man caught him alone in the railroad-station
and blowed his head half-off."
"Do tell!" was Allen's exclamation.
"Yep," continued the Sheriff. "He must have pulled a gun on the
fellow. He put up some sort of a fight, as the room is some
mussed up."
"Robbery?" queried Polly, with wide-open eyes.
"That's what!" answered Slim, turning to her. "He had three
thousan' dollars pinned in his vest--county money for salaries.
You know how he toted his wad around with him, defyin' man or the
devil to get it 'way from him? Well, some one who was both man
an' devil was too much for him."
"Who found him?"
"I did myself. Went over around noon after the money. Didn't
stop to go back to town fer a posse. Trail was already too cold.
Could tell it was a man that rode a pacin' horse."
His auditors looked at each other, striving to remember who of
their acquaintance rode a pacing horse. Sage-brush Charley shook
his head. "Nobody down this way, 'ceptin', of course, the boss,
rides a pacer. Must be one of the Lazy K outfit, I reckon."
"Most likely," said the Sheriff; "he struck out south, probably
to throw me off scent. Then he fell in with two other men, and
this balled me up. I lost one of the tracks, but follered the
other two round Sweetwater Mesa, till I came where they rode into
the river. Of course I couldn't follow the trail any farther at
that p'int, so, bein' as I was near Uncle Jim's, I rode over fer
help to look along both banks an' pick up the trail wherever it
comes out of the river. Sorry I must break up yer fun, boys, but
some o' yuh must come along with me. Duty's duty. I want
Sage-brush, anyhow, as I s'pose I can't ask fer Jack Payson."
Sage-brush pulled a long face. At any other time he would have
jumped at the chance of running to earth the dastardly murderers
of his old friend Terrill. But in the matter of this, his first
experience a wedding, he had tickled his palate so long with the
sweets of anticipation that he could not bear to forgo the
culminating swallow of realization.
"I don't see why I shouldn't be let off as well as Jack," he
grumbled; "our cases are similar. You see it's my first
weddin'," explained the foreman to the sheriff.
The other cowboys howled with delight. The humor of the
situation caught their fancy, and they yelled a chorus of
protestation in Hoover's ears. In this Colonel Allen joined.
"Don't spile the weddin'," he pleaded. "This event has already
rounded up the Sweetwater outfit fer yuh, an' saved yuh more time
than you'll lose by waitin' till it's over. Then we'll all jine
yuh."
Hoover commanded silence, and, rolling a cigarette, gravely
considered the proposition. He realized that the murderers
should be followed up at once, but that if he forced the cowboys
by the legal power exercised to forego the pleasure they had been
anticipating so greatly, they would not be so keen in pursuit as
if they had first "given the boss his send-off." The
considerations being equal, or, as he put it, "hoss an' hoss," it
seemed to him wise to submit to Allen's proposition, backed as it
was by the justice of his plan that the occasion of the wedding
had already saved valuable time in assembling the posse. He
assented, therefore, but, to maintain the dignity of his office
and control of the situation, with apparent reluctance.
"Well, hurry up the sacreements an' ceremonies, then, an' the
minute the preacher ties the knot, every man uv yuh but Jack an'
the parson an' Uncle Jim gits on his boss an' folluhs me. I'll
wait out in the corral."
At this there was another storm of expostulation, led this time
by Allen. Of course Hoover was to come to the wedding, and be
its guest of honor. "You shall be the first to wish Jack and
Echo lucky" said Allen. "That means you'll be the next one to
marry."
The ruddy-faced Sheriff blushed to the roots of his auburn hair.
"Much obliged, but I ain't fixed up fer a weddin'," and he looked
down at his travel-stained breeches tucked in riding-boots white
with alkali-dust, and felt of his buttonless waistcoat and
gingham shirt open at the throat, with the bandanna handkerchief
his neck in lieu of both collar and tie.
Polly assured him that he would do very well as he was, that for
her part she "wouldn't want no better-dressed man than he to be
present at her wedding, not even the feller she was goin' to be
hitched up to;" whereat Slim Hoover was greatly set at ease.
Polly was bounding up the piazza steps to tell Echo of the
accession to her party, when Hoover held up his hand. A
terrifying suggestion had flashed through his mind.
"Hold on a minute!" he exclaimed, and, turning to Allen, he asked
anxiously: "Does this yere guest of honor haf to kiss the
bride?"
The question was so foreign to the serious topic which had just
been under discussion that everyone laughed in relief of the
nervous tension.
Allen's fun-loving nature at once bubbled to the surface. With
an air of assumed anger he said to the Sheriff: "Of course;
every guest has to do it." Then, turning to the cowboys, he
asked: "Is there any one as holds out strong objection to
kissin' my daughter?"
"Not me," laughed Sage-brush, "I'm here to go the limit."
"I'm an experienced kisser, I am," said Parenthesis, "I don't
lose no chance at practise."
"I'll take two, please," simpered Fresno.
Show Low interrupted the general sally which followed this
remark, saying: "I strings my chips along with Fresno."
"Slim's afraid of females!" drawled Polly provokingly.
"Oh, thunder!" exclaimed Slim to Polly. "No, I ain't, nothin' of
the sort. I'm a peaceful man, I am. I never likes to start no
trouble."
"Get out, what's one kiss?" laughed Allen.
"I've seen a big jack-pot of trouble opened by chippin' in just
one kiss," wisely remarked the Sheriff.
Sage-brush, at this point, announced decisively: "The bride has
got to be kissed."
Slim tried to break through the group and enter the house,
thinking that by making such a move he would divert their
attention, and that in the excitement of the wedding he could
avoid kissing the bride, an ordeal which to him was more terrible
than facing the worst gun-fighter in Arizona.
"I deputize you to do the kissin' for me," he said to
Parenthesis, who had laid his hand shoulder to detain him.
"No, siree," the cowboy replied. "Every man does his own kissin'
in this game." Slim half-turned as if undecided. Suddenly he
turned on his heel, started for the corral. "I'll wait outside,"
he shouted.
"No, you don't!" cried his companions. He turned to face a
semicircle of drawn revolvers. He looked from one man to
another, as if puzzled what move to make next. Allen was annoyed
by the sheriff's actions, taking it as an insult that he would
not kiss his daughter, although he had started to twit the
Sheriff in the beginning.
"You ain't goin' to insult me and mine that way. No man
sidesteps kissin' one of my kids," he said angrily.
Slim was plaintively apologetic: "I ain't kissed a female since I
was a yearlin'."
"Time you started," snapped Polly.
"You kiss the bride, or I take it pussenel," said Allen,
thoroughly aroused.
"Well, if you put it that way, I'll do it," gasped Slim, in
desperation.
The agreement restored the boys to their good nature.
"You will have to put blinders on me, though, and back me up,"
cautioned Hoover.
"We'll hog-tie you and sit on your head," laughed Sage-brush, as
the guests entered the house.
CHAPTER VI
A Tangled Web
After fording Sweetwater River several times to throw pursuit off
the track, Buck McKee and Bud Lane entered an arroyo to rest
their mounts and hold council as to their future movements.
During the flight both had been silent; McKee was busy revolving
plans for escape in his mind, and Bud was brooding over the
tragic ending of the lawless adventure into which he had been led
by his companion. When McKee callously informed him that the
agent had been killed in the encounter, Bud was too horrified to
speak. A dry sob arose in his throat at the thought of his old
friend lying dead, all alone, in the station. His first impulse
was to turn back to Florence and surrender himself to the
Sheriff. Had this entailed punishment of himself alone, he would
have done it but he still retained a blind loyalty in his
associate and principal in the crime. Murder, it seemed, was to
be expected when one took the law in his own hands to right an
injustice. He didn't clearly understand it. It was his first
experience with a killing. The heartlessness of McKee both awed
and horrified him. Evidently the half-breed was used to such
actions. It appeared to be entirely justified in his code. So
Bud followed in dull silence the masterful man who had involved
him in the fearful deed.
When they dismounted, however, his pent-up emotion burst forth.
"You said there would be no killing," he gasped, passing his hand
wearily across his forehead as if to wipe out the memory of the
crime.
"Well, what did the old fool pull his gun for?" grumbled McKee
petulantly, as if Terrill was the aggressor in the encounter.
Bud threw himself wearily on the ground.
"I'd give the rest of my life to undo to-day's work," he groaned,
speaking more to himself than to his companion.
McKee heard him. His anger began to arise. If Bud weakened
detection was certain. Flight back to Texas must be started
without delay. If he could strengthen the will of the boy either
by promise of reward or fear of punishment, the chances of
detection would lessen as the days passed.
"And that would be about twenty-four hours if you don't keep
quiet. Why didn't he put up his hands when I hollered? He
starts to wrastle and pull gun, and I had to nail him." McKee
shuddered spite of his bravado.
Pulling himself together with an apparent effort, he continued:
"We'll hold the money for a spell--not spend a cent of it till
this thing blows over--they'll never get us. Here, we'll divide
it."
"Keep it all. I never want to touch a penny of it," said Bud
earnestly, moving along the ground to place a greater distance
between him and the murderer.
"Thanks. But you don't git out of your part of the hold-up that
easy. Take your share, or I'll blow it into you," said McKee,
pulling his revolver.
Bud, with an effort, arose and walked over to Buck. With
clenched fists, in agonized tones, he cried: "Shoot, if you want
to. I wish I'd never seen you--you dragged me into this--you
made me your accomplice in a murder."
McKee looked at him in amazement. This phase of human character
was new to him, trained as he been on the border, where men
rarely suffered remorse and still more rarely displayed it.
"Shucks! I killed him--you didn't have no hand in it," answered
Buck. "This ain't my first killin'. I guess Buck McKee's pretty
well known in some sections. I took all the chances. I did the
killin. You git half. Now, brace up and take yer medicine
straight."
"But I didn't want to take the money for myself," replied Bud, as
if to soothe his conscience. "Oh! Buck, why didn't you let me
alone?" he continued, as the thought of his position again
overwhelmed him.
Buck gasped at the shifting of the full blame upon his shoulders.
"Well, I'll be darned!" he muttered. "You make me sick, Kid."
His voice rose in anger and disgust. "Why, to hear you talk, one
would think you was the only one had right feelin's. I'm goin'
to take my share and start a decent life. I'm goin' back to
Texas an' open a saloon. You take your half, marry your gal, and
settle down right here. 'Ole Man' Terrill's dead; nothin' will
bring him back, an' you might as well get the good o' the money.
It's Slim Hoover's, anyhow. If Jack Payson can marry your
brother Dick's gal on Dick's money--fer there's no hope o'
stoppin' that now--you can cut Slim out with Polly, on Slim's
salary. Aw, take the money!" and McKee pressed half of the bills
into Bud's lax fingers.
The young man's hand closed upon them mechanically. A vague
thought that he might some day make restitution conspired with
McKee's insidious appeal to his hatred and jealousy to induce him
to retain the blood-money, and he thrust it within an inside
pocket of his loose waistcoat.
"Now," said McKee, thoroughly satisfied that he had involved Bud
in the crime too deeply for him to confess his share in it,
"we'll shake hands, and say 'adios.' Slim Hoover's probably on
our track by this time, but I reckon he'll be some mixed in the
trail around the mesa, and give the job up as a bad one when he
reaches the river. I'll show up on the Lazy K, where the whole
outfit will swear I've been fer two days, if Hoover picks on me
as one of the men he's been follerin'. You're safe. Nobody'd
put killin' anybody on to you, let alone your ole frien' Terrill.
Why, yuh ain't a man yet, Bud, though I don't it to discurrudge
yuh. You've made a start, an' some day yuh won't think no more'n
me of killin' a feller what stan's in yer way. I shouldn't be so
turribly surprised if Jack Payson got what's comin' to him
someday. But what have you got there, Bud?" he inquired, as he
saw the young man holding a letter he had withdrawn from the
pocket into which he had put the bills.
"Letter I got in Florence yesterday when I was too full to read
it," said Bud. He opened it. "Why, it's from Polly!" he
exclaimed, "it's an invite--by God! it's an invite to Jack an'
Echo's wedding! It's today! That damned scoundrel has hurried
the thing up for fear Dick will get back in time to stop it! Buck
McKee, I believe you're right! I could kill Jack Payson with no
more pity than I would a rattler or Gila monster!"
At this exhibition of hatred by his companion, a new thought
flashed suddenly through the satanic mind of the half-breed. It
involved an entire change of his plans, but the devilish daring
of the conception was irresistible.
"Say," he broke in, with seeming irrelevance, "don't Payson ride
a pacin' mare?"
"Yes," answered Bud, "what of it?"
"Oh, nothin'," said McKee; "it jus' struck me as sorter funny.
PAYSON and PACIN', don't you see."
Bud was mystified. Had his companion gone daft?
McKee saw instantly that it would be very easy to fix the charge
of murdering the station-agent upon Payson. The ranchman had
evidently left the station a short time before the murder, and
had gone straight south to the Sweetwater. Unless it had become
confused with their own tracks, the trail would be a plain one,
owing to the fact that it was made by a pacing horse, and the
pursuit would undoubtedly follow this.
Payson rode the only pacing horse in the Sweetwater and Bar One
outfits, and it was certain to come to light, from Terrill's
receipts, that he had been with the agent about the time of the
killing. The motive for the robbery would be evident. Payson
was in need of three thousand dollars to pay off the mortgage on
his ranch.
McKee said to Bud: "I've changed my mind. I think I'll see a
little fun before I break for Texas. I'll go with you to the
weddin'."
"But you ain't got no invite," objected Bud.
"Oh, I reckon they'll take me along on yours. I know too much
fer Payson to objeck to me too strenuous."
They rode up to Allen Hacienda shortly after Slim Hoover had
arrived. They could hear the merriment of the wedding-guests in
the kitchen. Loud laughter was punctuated by the popping of
corks, and McKee, who rode in advance of Bud, distinguished the
voice of the Sheriff in expostulation against the general
raillery concentrated upon him.
The half-breed grinned wolfishly. It was evident that the
bloodhound of the law had tracked the supposed murderer just as
the real criminal had conjectured and desired.
Polly ran out on the piazza. She saw the man whom she regarded
as her lover's evil genius. As he greeted her ingratiatingly:
"Howdy, Miss Polly," she replied sharply:
"You ain't got no invite to this weddin'."
"I come with my friend Bud," he explained, with an elaborate bow.
"I didn't see you, Bud," answered Polly slightly mollified, as
she crossed the door-yard to shake hands with her sweetheart.
Buck offered her his hand, but she ignored him. McKee shrugged
his shoulders, and started for the house.
"Bud, he's some cast down because it's not his weddin'," was
McKee's parting shot at the young couple. "I 'low I'll go in and
join the boys. Excuse me."
"With pleasure," coldly replied the girl.
The half-breed ignored the sarcasm and, answering innocently,
"Much obliged," he entered the house.
Polly turned on Bud, displaying her resentment. "You an' him
always kick up the devil when you're together. What did you
bring him along fer?" she demanded.
"It's his last chance to see any fun around here; he's leavin'
for Texas," explained Bud.
"Fer how long?"
"Fer good."
"Fer our good, you mean. There's too many of his kind comin'
into this country. Did you hear about 'Ole Man' Terrill?"
Bud did not wait for her to explain, but nervously answered:
"They told us about it in Florence when we were coming through,
We've been at the Lazy K."
"Wasn't it dreadful?" rattled on Polly. "Slim's here--the boys
are goin' to turn out with him after the weddin' to see if they
can ketch the feller who did the killin'."
Bud paled as he heard the news. To conceal his distress he moved
toward the door. Anywhere to get away from the girl to whom he
feared he would betray himself. "I'll join 'em," he huskily
answered.
Polly, however, could see no reason for his evident haste to
leave her.
She felt hurt, but thought his actions were due to her scolding
him for being with McKee.
"You ain't ever ast me how I look," she inquired, seeking to
detain him.
"You look fine," complimented Bud perfunctorily.
"W'en a feller ain't seen a feller in a week, seems like a feller
ought to brace up and start something," replied Polly, in an
injured tone.
Bud smiled in spite of his fears. Catching the girl in his arms,
he kissed her, and said: "I was a-waitin' for the chance."
Polly disengaged herself from his embrace, and sighed
contentedly. "That's something like it. What's the use of bein'
engaged to a feller if you can't have all the trimmin's that goes
with it. You look as if you wasn't too happy."
Bud pulled himself together with an effort. He realized that if
he did not show more interest in the girl and the wedding he
might be suspected of connection with the murder.
He trumped up an explanation of his moodiness. "Well, what call
have I to be happy? Ain't I lost my job?"
"Yes, but that's because you were hot-headed, gave your boss too
much lip. But everything will come out all right. Jack says--"
"Has that low-down liar an' thief been comin' it over you, Polly?
Did he tell you how he gave the place he promised me to
Sage-brush?"
"That wasn't until you gave him slack, Bud. I'm sure he ain't a
thief; why--"
"Thief, of course he is, an' a blacker-hearted one than the man
that killed Terrill. Ain't he going to steal my brother Dick's
girl this very night?"
"But Dick is dead," expostulated Polly.
"Dick ain't dead; I know it--that is," he stammered, "I feel it
in my bones he ain't dead. An' Jack feels it, too; that's why
he's hurried up this weddin'."
"But your own friend, Buck McKee, saw Dick just before the
'Paches killed him."
"But not after it. An' Buck now thinks the Rurales may have come
up in time to save him."
"Seems to me if that's so he has had time enough since then to
write," objected Polly. who was, nevertheless, impressed by Bud's
vehemence.
"How do you know that he has not written?"
Polly could only gasp. These accusations were coming too fast
for her to answer.
"You can't tell what a man might do in a case like that. Perhaps
Dick's 'way in the mountains, away from the railroad, prospectin'
down in the Ghost Range, where he has been tryin' to locate the
lost lode. There's lots of reasons for his not writing to Echo.
But Echo doesn't seem to mind. A year an' a half is enough to
mend any woman's heart."
"Now, you--" began Polly, who was growing angry under the charges
which were being heaped on her two best friends by the
overwrought boy.
Bud would not let her finish, but cried: "Echo never loved him.
If she did she would not be acting like she is goin' to
to-night."
Rushing to Echo's defense Polly answered: "She may or may not
have loved Dick Lane, but I know that she loves Jack Payson now
with all her heart and, even if the 'Paches did not get your
brother, he's as dead to her as if they had."
Polly was startled and confused by Bud's accusations.
Accordingly, it was a relief to her when Payson appeared on the
scene. They had been so interested in their conversation that
they did not hear him ride up to the house. "Hello, Polly!
Hello, Bud!" were his cordial greetings, for he was determined to
ignore his former employee's hostility. Bud did not answer, but
looked moodily on the ground.
To Eastern eyes Payson's wedding-attire would appear most
incongruous. About his waist was strapped a revolver. His
riding-trousers, close-fitting and corded, were buttoned over the
calves of his legs. Soft, highly polished leather boots reached
to his knees. His shirt was of silk, deeply embroidered down the
front and at the collar. His jacket gave him ample
breathing-room about the chest, but tapered at the waist and
clung closely over the hips. He wore a sombrero and a knotted
silk handkerchief. His face was deeply sunburned, except a spot
shaped like crescent just below the hairline on the forehead,
which was protected from the sun by the hat and the shade of the
brim. A similar line of fairer skin ran around the edge of the
scalp, beginning over the ears. His hair shaded the upper part
of his neck from the sun's rays. When his hair was trimmed the
untanned part showed as plainly as if painted. It is the mark of
the plainsman in a city or on a holiday.
"Well, it's about time that you got here," said Polly, with a
sigh of relief. "Where have you been?"
"I stopped over to Sam Terrill's to see about something that I
ordered from Kansas City. Then I had to go back to my ranch--"
Bud started guiltily. Forgetting his determination to ignore
Payson, he asked anxiously. "You didn't see Terrill, did you?"
"Oh, yes. Why do you ask?"
Polly laid her hand on Payson's arm and told him briefly of the
shooting of Terrill.
"Who shot him?" he asked, when she had finished.
"They don't know--he was robbed of a pile of money--Slim Hoover's
just rode over to get a posse," she replied, looking toward the
door. At this bit of information Payson became anxious about the
plans for his wedding. The ceremony was uppermost in his mind at
the time.
"Well, he can get one after the wedding." Then he asked: "Is
the minister here yet?"
Polly laughingly replied: "You're feelin' pretty spry now, but
you'll be as meek as a baby calf in a little while. In this
section a bridegroom is treated worse than a tenderfoot."
Payson smiled. He knew he was in for a thorough hazing by the
boys. "That's all right. I'll get back at you some day--when
you and Bud--"
Polly interrupted him with a remark about minding his own
business.
Bud avoided entering into the conversation. He had walked toward
the door and was standing on the steps when he answered for
Polly.
"Looks as if you're chances of gettin' even with us is a long way
off," he said. Turning, he entered the house, to join the other
guests who, by the noise, were enjoying Allen's importations from
Tucson to the bottom of every glass.
Polly looked after Bud, smiling quizzically. "Bud's mighty
hopeful, ain't he? Ain't you happy?"
"You bet! Don't I look it?" cried Jack, rubbing his hands.
"Never thought I could be so happy. A fellow doesn't get married
every day in the week."
"Not unless he lives in Chicago; I hear it's the habit there,"
answered Polly.
"The sweetest girl in the Territory--" began Jack.
"You bet she is," Polly broke in. "If you just want to keep her
lovin' and lovin' you--all you've got to do is to treat her white
and play square with her."
"Play square with her," thought Payson. Was he playing square
with her? He knew that he was not, but the chance of losing her
was too great for him to risk.
"For if you ain't on the level with Echo Allen, well--you might
as well crawl out of camp, that's the kind of girl she is," Polly
exclaimed loyally.
CHAPTER VII
Josephine Opens the Sluices
Entering the living-room, Bud found Echo surrounded by several
girls from Florence and the neighboring ranches, who were driving
her almost distracted with their admiring attentions, for she
was greatly disturbed about her lover's inexplicable absence. Had
she been free from the duties of hospitality, she would have
leaped on her horse and gone in search of him.
Echo's wedding-attire would seem as incongruous as Jack's to the
eyes of an Easterner, yet it was entirely suited to the
circumstances, for the couple intended, as soon as they were
married, to ride to a little hunting-cabin of Jack's in the
Tortilla Mountains, where they would spend their honeymoon.
She was dressed in an olive-green riding-habit, which she had
brought from the East. The skirt was divided, and reached just
below the knee; her blouse, of lighter material, and brown in
color, was loose, allowing free play for her arms and shoulders.
High riding-boots were laced to the knee. A sombrero and
riding-gloves lay on the table ready to complete her costume.
Bud coldly acknowledged Echo's affectionate and happy greeting,
and curtly informed her that Jack had arrived.
She rushed out of doors with a cry of joy.
Running across the courtyard toward her lover, who awaited her
with outstretched arms, she began:
"Well, this is a nice time, you outrageous--" when Polly stopped
her with a mock-serious look. "Wait a minute-wait a minute" (the
girl drawled as if reining in a too eager horse) "don't commence
calling love-names before you get the hitch--time enough after.
He has been actin' up something scandalous with me."
Jack threw up his hands in protest, hastily denying any probable
charge that the tease might make. "Why, I haven't been saying a
word!" he cried.
Polly laughed as she ran to the door.
"No, you haven't," she answered mockingly, as one agrees with a
child whose feelings have been hurt. "He's only been tellin' me
he loved--" Pausing an instant, she pointed at Echo, ending her
sentence with a shouted "you."
With her hand on Jack's shoulder, Echo said: "Polly, you are a
flirt. You've too many strings to your bow."
"You mean I've too many beaux to my string!" laughingly answered
the girl.
"You'll have Slim Hoover and Bud Lane shooting each other up all
on your account," chided Echo.
"Nothing of the kind," pouted Polly. "Can't a girl have friends?
But I know what you two are waiting for?"
"What?" asked Jack.
"You want me to vamose. I'm hep. I'll vam."
And Polly ran into the kitchen to tell the men that the
bridegroom had arrived, but couldn't be seen until the bride was
through with an important interview with him. So she hustled
them all into the living-room, where the girls were.
This room was a long and low apartment, roughly plastered. The
heavy ceiling-beams, hewn with axes, were uncovered, giving an
old English effect, although this was not striven for, but made
under the stress of necessity. The broad windows were trellised
with vines, through which filtered the sunshine. A cooling
evening breeze stirred the leaves lazily. The chairs were broad
and comfortable--the workmanship of the monks of the neighboring
mission. In the corners stood squat, earthen water-jars of
Mexican molding. On the adobe walls were hung trophies of the
hunt; war-bonnets and the crudely made adornments of the Apaches.
Navajo blankets covered the window-seats, and were used as
screens for sets of shelves built into the spaces between the
windows.
Polly carried in on a tray a large bowl of punch surrounded by
glasses and gourds. This was received with riotous
demonstrations. She placed it in the center of a table made of
planks laid on trestles, and assisted by the other girls, served
the men liberally from the bowl.
The guests showed the effects of outdoor life and training. Their
gestures were full and free. The tones of their voices were
high-pitched, but they spoke more slowly than their Eastern
cousins, as if feeling the necessity, even when confined, of
making every word carry. No one lolled in his seat, but sat
upright, as if still having the feel of the saddle under him.
Toward women in all social gatherings, the cowboys act with
exaggerated chivalry, but, as Sage-brush would describe it, they
"herd by their lonesome." There is none of the commingling of
sexes seen in the East. At a dance the girls sit at one end of
the room, the men group themselves about the doorway until the
music strikes up. Then each will seize his partner after the
boldest has made the first move. When the dance-measure ends the
cowboy will rarely escort partner to her seat, but will leave her
to find her way back to her chum, while he moves sheepishly back
to the doorway, to be received by his fellows with slaps on the
back and loud jests. At table cowboys carry on little
conversation with the girls. They talk amongst themselves, but
at the women. The presence of the girls leads them to play many
pranks on one another. The ice is long in breaking, for their
habitual reserve is not easily worn off. Later in the evening
this shyness is less marked.
As Jack and Echo entered the doorway, Parenthesis had arisen from
his seat at the head of table and was beginning: "Fellow
citizens--"
Confused cries of "Sit down," "Let him talk!" greeted him.
Sage-brush held up his hand for silence: "Go ahead, Parenthesis,"
he cried encouragingly.
Parenthesis climbed on a chair and put a foot on the table. This
was too much for the orderly soul of Mrs. Allen. "Take your
dirty feet off my tablecloth!" she commanded, making a
threatening move toward the offender.
Allen restrained her, and Fresno caused Parenthesis to subside by
yelling: "Get down offen that table, you idiot. There's the
bride an' groom comin' in behind you. We CAN see 'em through yer
legs, but we don't like that kin' of a frame."
Jack had slipped his arm about Echo's waist. She was holding his
hand, smiling at the exuberance of their guests. Buck McKee, who
had been drinking freely, staggered to his feet and hiccoughed:
"Here, now, this,yere don't go--this spoonin' business--there
ain't goin' to be no mush and milk served out before the
weddin'--"
"Will you shut up?" admonished Slim Hoover.
"No, siree," cried the belligerent McKee. "There ain't no man
here can shut me up. I'm Buck McKee, I am, and when I starts in
on a weddin'-festivities--I deal--"
"This is one game you are not in on," answered Jack quietly,
feeling that he would have to take the lead in the settlement of
the unfortunate interruption of the fun.
"That's all right, Jack," McKee began, holding out his hand--"let
bygones--"
Jack was in no mood to parley with the offender. McKee had not
been invited to the wedding. The young bridegroom knew that if
the first offense were overlooked it would only encourage him,
and he would make trouble all evening. Moreover, he disliked
Buck because of his evil habits and ugly record.
"You came to this weddin' without an invite," claimed Jack.
"I'm here," he growled.
"You're not wanted."
"What?" shouted McKee, paling with anger.
Turning to his friends, speaking calmly and paying no attention
to the aroused desperado, Jack said: "Boys, you all know my
objection to this man. Dick Lane caught him spring before last
slitting the tongue of one of Uncle Jim's calves."
"It's a lie!" shouted McKee, pulling his revolver and attempting
to level it at his accuser. Hoover was too quick for him.
Catching him by the wrist, he deftly forced him to drop the
muzzle toward the floor.
With frightened cries the girls huddled in a corner. The other
cowboys upset chairs, springing to their feet, drawing revolvers
half-way from holsters as they did so.
Hoover had pressed his thumb into the back of McKee's hand,
forcing him to open his fingers and drop his gun on the table.
Picking it up, Hoover snapped the weapon open, emptied the
cylinders of the cartridges.
Jack made no move to defend himself. He was aware his friends
could protect him.
"That'll do," he said to the raging, disarmed puncher. "You can
go, Buck. When I want you in any festivities, I'll send a
special invite to you."
"I'm sure much obliged," sneered McKee, making his way toward the
door.
"Here's your gun," cried Slim, tossing the weapon toward him.
McKee caught the weapon, muttering "Thanks."
"It needs cleaning," sneered the Sheriff.
Turning at the doorway, McKee said; "I ain't much stuck on
weddin's, anyway." Looking at Jack, he continued threateningly:
"Next time we meet it'll be at a little swaree of my own."
"Get," was Jack's laconic and ominous command.
With assumed carelessness, McKee answered: "I'm a-gettin'. Well,
gents, I hopes you all'll enjoy this yere pink tea. Say, Bud,
put a piece of weddin'-cake in your pocket for me. I wants to
dream on it."
"Who brought him here?" asked Jack, facing his guests.
"I did," answered Bud defiantly.
"You might have known better," was Jack's only comment.
"I'm not a-sayin' who's to come and go. This ain't none of my
weddin'."
Polly stopped further comment by laying her hand over his mouth
and slipping into the seat beside him.
"Well, let it go at that," said Jack, closing the incident.
He rejoined Echo as he spoke. The guests reseated themselves.
Mrs. Allen laid her hand on Jack's shoulder and said: "Just the
same, it ain't right and proper for you to be together before the
ceremony without a chaperonie."
"Nothin' that's right nice is ever right proper," laughed Slim.
"Well 'it ain't the way folks does back East," replied Mrs. Allen
tartly, glaring at the Sheriff.
"Blast the East," growled Allen. "We does things in our own way
out here."
With a mischievous smile, Slim glanced at his comrades, and then
solemnly observed: "Still, I hear they does make the two
contractin'-parties sit off alone by themselves--"
"What for?" asked Jack.
"Why, to give them the last bit of quiet enjoyment they're goin'
to have for the rest of their lives," chuckled Slim.
The cowboys laughed hilariously at the sally, but Mrs. Allen,
throwing her arms about Echo's neck, burst into tears, crying:
"My little girl."
"What's the use of opening up the sluices now, Josephine?"
"Let her alone, Jim," drawled Slim; "her feelin's is harrowed
some, an' irrigation is what they needs most."
The outburst of tears was incomprehensible to the bridegroom.
Already irritated by the McKee incident, he took affront at the
display of sentiment.
"I don't want any crying at MY wedding."
"It's half my wedding," pouted Echo tearfully.
"Ain't I losin' my daughter," sobbed Mrs. Allen.
"Ain't you getting my mother's son?" snapped Jack.
The men howled with glee at the rude badinage which only called
forth a fresh burst of weeping on the part of Mrs. Allen, in
which the girls began show symptoms of joining.
Polly sought to soothe the trouble by pushing Jack playfully to
one side, and saying: "Oh, stop it all. Look here, Echo Allen,
you know your hair ain't fixed yet."
"An' the minister due here at any minute," added Mrs. Allen.
"Come along, we will take charge of you now," ordered Polly. The
girls gathered in a group about the bride, bustling and
chattering, telling her all men were brutes at time and, looking
at the fat Sheriff, who blushed to the roots of his hair at the
charge, that "Slim Hoover was the worst of the lot." Mrs. Allen
pushed them away, and again fell weeping on Echo's shoulder.
"Hold on now, They ain't a soul goin' to do nothin' for her
except her mother," she whimpered.
"There she goes again," said Jack in disgust.
"He's goin' to take my child away from me," wailed the mother.
Tears were streaming down Echo's cheek. "Don't cry, mother," she
wept.
"No, no, don't cry," echoed the girls.
"It's all for the best," began Polly.
"It's all for the best, it's all for the best," chorused the
group.
"Well, I'll be--" gasped Jack.
"Jack Payson you just ought to be ashamed of yourself," said
Polly, stamping her foot. "You nasty, mean old thing," she threw
in for good measure.
Mrs. Allen led Echo from the room. The girls followed, crying
"You nasty, mean old thing to the unfortunate bridegroom.
The cowboys enjoyed the scene immensely. It was a bit of human
comedy, totally unexpected. First they imitated the weeping
women, and then laughed uproariously at Jack.
"Did you ever see such darned carryings on," said the bridegroom,
in disgust. "What have I done?"
"Shucks! All mothers is like that," remarked Allen
sympathetically. "They fuss if their girls marry and they fuss
if they don't. Why, my ma carried on something scandalous when
Josephine roped me."
All of the men chuckled except Jack.
"I'm appointed a committees" continued the old rancher, "to sit
up with you till the fatal moment.
"I'm game," responded Jack grimly. "I know what's coming, but I
won't squeal."
"You'll git all that's a-comin' to you," grinned Allen.
Slim had maneuvered until he reached the door blocking Jack's
way. As the bridegroom started to leave the room he took his
hand, and with an assumption of deep dejection and sorrow bade
him "Good-bye."
"Oh, dry up!" laughed Jack, pushing the Sheriff aside. Halting,
he requested: "One thing I want to understand right now, if
you're goin' to fling any old boots after me remove the spurs."
"This yere's a sure enough event, an' I'm goin' to tap the
barrel--an' throw away the bung. Wow!" shouted Sage-brush.
CHAPTER VIII
The Sky Pilot
With the waves of immigration which have rolled Westward from the
more populous East, the minister of the gospel has always been in
the van. Often he combined the functions of the school-teacher
with the duties of the medical missionary. Wherever a dozen
families had settled within a radius of a hundred miles, the
representative of a church was soon to follow. He preached no
creed. His doctrines were as wide as the horizon. Living in the
open air, preaching to congregations gathered from the ends of
the country, dealing with men more unconventional than immoral,
his sermons were concerned with the square deal rather than with
dogma. His influences were incalculable. He made ready the field
for the reapers who gathered the glory with the advance of
refinement. On the frontier he married the children, buried the
dead, consoled the mourners, and rejoiced with those upon whom
fortune smiled. His hardships were many and his rewards nothing.
Of all the fields of human endeavor which built up the West, the
ministry is the only one in which the material returns have not
been commensurate with the labor expended.
The Reverend Samuel Price was the representatives of the
Christian army in Pinal County, Arizona, at the time of our
story. He was long and lank, narrow in the chest, with sloping
shoulders. Even life on the plains could not eradicate the
scholarly droop. His trousers were black, and they bagged at the
knees. When riding, his trousers would work up about his calves,
showing a wide expanse of white socks. For comfort he wore an
alpaca coat, which hung loosely about him, and, for the dignity
of his profession, the only boiled shirt in the county, with a
frayed collar and white string-tie.
The Reverend Mr. Price was liked by the settlers. He never
interfered with what they considered their relaxations, and he
had the saving grace of humor.
The guests were performing a scalp-dance about the table when he
entered the room. For a tom-tom, Parenthesis was beating a
bucket with a gourd, and emitting strange cries with each thump.
The noise and shouts confused the minister. As he was blundering
among the dancers, they fell upon him with war-whoops, slapping
him on the back and crushing his straw hat over his ears.
Slim was the first to recognize the minister. He dashed into the
group, and, swinging several aside, cried to the others to
desist.
"Pardon me, but do I intrude upon a scalp-dance?" smilingly asked
the parson.
"You sure have, Mr. Price," laughed Slim. "We hain't got to the
scalpin'-part yet, but we're fixin' to dance off Payson's scalp
to-night."
Peering at him with near-sighted eyes, Mr. Price extended his
hand, saying: "Ah, Mr. Hoover, our sheriff, is it not?"
Slim wrung the parson's hand until the preacher winced. Hiding
his discomfort, he slowly straightened out his fingers with a
painful grin. Slim had not noticed that he had hurt the parson
by the heartiness of his greeting. With a gesture he lined up
the cowboys for introduction.
"Yes, sir, the boys call me Slim because I ain't." Pointing to
the first one in the group, he exclaimed: "This is Parenthesis."
Mr. Price looked at the awkwardly bowing cowboy in amazement. The
name was a puzzle to him. He could not grasp the application.
"The editor of the Kicker," explained Slim, "called him that
because of his legs bein' built that way." Mr. Price was forced
to smile in spite of his efforts to be polite. The editor had
grasped the most striking feature of the puncher's physical
characteristics for a label.
Parenthesis beamed on the minister. "I was born on horseback,"
he replied.
"That fellow there with a front tooth is Show Low," began Slim,
speaking like a lecturer in a freak-show. "The one without a
front tooth is Fresno, a California product. This yere chap with
the water-dob hair is Sage-brush Charley. It makes him sore when
you call him plain Charley."
"Charley bein' a Chink name," supplemented its owner.
Silence fell over the group, for they did not know what was the
proper thing to do next. A minister was to be respected, and not
to be made one of them. He must take the lead in the
conversation. Mr. Price was at a loss how to begin. He had not
recovered fully from the roughness of his welcome, so Slim took
the lead again.
"I heard you preach once up to Florence," he announced, to the
profound astonishment of his hearers.
"Indeed," politely responded Mr. Price, feeling the futility of
making any further observations. He feared to fall into some
trap. The answers made by the boys did not seem to fit
particularly well with what he expected and was accustomed to.
The parson could not make out whether the boys were joking with
him, or whether their replies were unconscious humor on their
part.
"Yep, I lost an election bet, and had to go to church," answered
Slim, in all seriousness.
The cowboys laughed, and Mr. Price lamely replied: "Oh, yes, I
see."
"It was a good show," continued Slim, doing his best to appear at
ease. The frantic corrections of his companions only made him
flounder about the more.
"Excuse me," he apologized, "I mean that I enjoyed it."
"Do you recall the subject of my discourse," inquired Mr. Price,
coming to his assistance.
"Your what course?" asked Slim.
"My sermon?" answered the parson.
"Well, I should say yes," replied the Sheriff, greatly relieved
to think that he was once more out of deep water. "It was about
some shorthorn that jumped the home corral to maverick around
loose in the alfalfa with a bunch of wild ones."
The explanation was too much for Mr. Price. Great student of the
Bible as he had been, here was one lesson which he had not
studied. As told by Slim, he could not recall any text or series
of text from which he might have drawn similes fitted for his
cowboy congregation, when he had one. "Really, I--" he began.
Slim, however, was not to be interrupted. If he stopped he never
could begin again, he felt. Waving to the preacher to be silent,
he continued his description: "When his wad was gone the bunch
threw him down, and he had to hike for the sage-brush an' feed
with the hogs on husks an' sech like winter fodder."
The minister caught the word "husks." Slim was repeating his own
version of the parable of the Prodigal Son.
"Husks? Oh, the Prodigal Son," smiled Price.
"That's him," Slim sighed, with relief. "This yere feed not
being up to grade, Prod he 'lows he'd pull his freight back home,
square himself with the old man and start a new deal--"
Sage-brush was deeply interested in the story. Its charm had
attracted him as it had scholars and outcasts alike since first
told two thousand years ago on the plains of Old Judea.
"Did he stand for it?" he interrupted.
"He sure did," eloquently replied Slim, who was surprised and
delighted with the great impression he was making with his
experience at church. "Oh, he was a game old buck, he was. Why,
the minute he sighted that there prodigious son a-limpin' across
the mesa, he ran right out an' fell on his neck--"
"An' broke it," cried Fresno, slapping Sage-brush with his hat in
his delight at getting at the climax of the story before Slim
reached it.
The narrator cast a glance of supreme disgust at the laughing
puncher. "No, what the hell!" he shouted. "He hugged him. Then
he called in the neighbors, barbecued a yearlin' calf, an' give a
barn-dance, with fireworks in the evenin'."
"That's all right in books," observed Sage-brush, "but if I'd
made a break like that when I was a kid my old man would a fell
on my neck for fair."
"That was a good story, Parson--it's straight, ain't it?" asked
Slim, as a wave of doubt swept over him.
"It's gospel truth," answered the minister. "Do you know the
moral of the story?"
"Sure," replied Slim. With a confidence born of deep
self-assurance, Slim launched the answer: "Don't be a fatted
calf."
At first his hearers did not grasp the full force of the
misapplication of the parable. Mr. Price could not refrain from
laughing. The others joined with him when the humor of the reply
dawned upon them. Pointing scornfully at the fat Sheriff, they
shouted gleefully, while Slim blushed through his tan.
"Now, if you'll kindly show me where--" began Mr. Price.
"Sure. All the liquor's in the kitchen--" said Sage-brush,
expanding with hospitality.
Slim pushed Sage-brush back into his chair, and Parenthesis
tapped the minister on the shoulder to distract his attention.
"Thanks. I meant to ask for a place to change clothes."
"Sure you mustn't mind Sage-brush there," apologized Parenthesis;
"he's allus makin' breaks. Let me tote your war-bag. Walk this
way."
"Good day, gentlemen," smiled Mr. Price. "When you are up my
way, I trust you will honor my church with your presence--"
adding, after a pause--"without waiting to lose an election bet."
The entrance of a Greaser to refill glasses diverted the
attention of the guests until the most important function for
them was performed. With "hows" and "here's to the bride," they
drank the toast. Slim, as majordomo of the feast, felt it
incumbent upon himself to keep the others in order. Turning
angrily upon Sage-brush, he said. "Why did you tell the Sky
Pilot where the liquor was?"
"I was just tryin' to do the right thing," answered Sage-brush
defiantly.
"Embarrassin' us all like that. You ought to know that parsons
don't hit up the gasoline--in public," scolded Slim.
Sage muttered sulkily: "I never herded with parsons none."
Parenthesis diplomatically avoided any further controversy by
calling: "They're gettin' ready. Jim's got Jack in the back room
tryin' to cheer him up. Boys, is everything ready for the
getaway?"
"Sage-brush, did you get that rice?" demanded Slim.
"That's so--I forgot. I couldn't get no rice though. Dawson
didn't have none."
Without telling what he did get, Sage-brush ran from the room to
the corral.
"I told you not to let him have anything to do with it," said
Fresno, glaring at his fellow workers. Each was silent, as the
accusation was general, and none had been taken into the
confidence of Sage-brush and Fresno when arrangements were being
made for the feast. Fresno had to blame some one, however. By
this time Sage-brush had returned, carrying a bag.
"What did you get?" asked Slim.
"Corn," replied Sage-brush laconically.
"Ain't he the darndest!" Show Low expressed the disgust which the
others showed.
"Why, darn it," shouted Slim, shaking his fist at the unfortunate
Sage-brush, "you can't let the bride and groom hop the home ranch
without chuckin' rice at 'em--it's bad medicine."
"Ain't he disgustin'!" interrupted Fresno.
"What does rice mean, anyhow?" asked the bewildered Sage-brush.
"It means something about wishin' 'em good luck, health, wealth,
an' prosperity, an' all that sort of thing--it's a sign an'
symbol of joy," rattled off Slim.
"Well, now, ain't there more joy in corn than in rice?"
triumphantly asked Sage-brush.
Slim jerked open the top of the bag while Sage-brush stood by
helplessly. "Well, the darned idiot!" he muttered, as he peered
into it. "If he ain't gone and got it on the ear," he continued,
as he pulled a big ear out.
"All the better," chuckled Sage-brush. "We'll chuck 'em joy in
bunches."
"Don't you know that if you hit the bride with a club like this--
you'll put her plumb out?" cried Slim.
Sage-brush was not cast down, however. Always resourceful, he
suggested: "We'll shell some for the bride, but we'll hand Jack
his in bunches."
The idea appealing to the punchers, each grabbed an ear of corn.
Some brandished the ears like clubs; others aimed them like
revolvers.
"I'll keep this one," said Slim, picking out an unusually large
ear. "It's a .44. I'll get one of the Greasers to shell some
for the bride."
The bride was arrayed in her wedding-gown. Mrs. Allen was ready
for a fresh burst of weeping. The girls had assembled in the
large room in which the ceremony was to be performed. Polly
acted as her herald for the cowboys. Appearing in the doorway,
she commanded: "Say, you folks come on and get seated."
Slim stood beside Polly as the boys marched past him. His
general admonition was: "The first one you shorthorns that makes
a break, I'm goin' to bend a gun over your head."
The guests grinned cheerfully as they marched past the couple.
"There's a heap of wickedness in that bunch," remarked Slim
piously to the girl. Tossing a flower to him as she darted away,
she cried: "You ain't none too good yourself, Slim."
"Ain't she a likely filly," mused the love-sick Sheriff. "If
there's anybody that could make me good, it's her. I'm all in.
If ever I get the nerve all at once--darn me if I don't ask her
right out."
But Slim's courage oozed as quickly as it had arisen, and with a
sigh he followed his companions to the wedding.
CHAPTER IX
What God Hath Joined Together
Dick Lane, on leaving the hospital at Chihuahua, went straight to
the fortified ledge where he had made his heroic defense. As he
conjectured, the renegade, McKee, had got there first, and found
and made off with the buried treasure. So Dick manfully set to
work to replace his lost fortune. It seemed too slow work to go
to his mine and dig the gold he immediately required out of the
ground, so he struck out for civilization to sell some of his
smaller claims. In the course of a month, at the end of which
his wanderings brought him to Tucson, he had sold enough of his
holdings to give him three thousand dollars in ready cash. As he
was near the Sweetwater, he resolved not to express the money to
Payson, but to take it himself.
He entered the courtyard of Allen Hacienda while the wedding was
taking place within. None of his friends would have recognized
him. His frame was emaciated from sickness; his head was drawn
back by the torture which he had suffered; he limped upon feet
that had been distorted by the firebrands in McKee's hands; and
his face was overgrown by an unkempt beard.
Sounds of laughter fell upon his ears as he mounted the steps. He
heard Fresno shout to Slim to hurry up, as he was telling the
story "about a fellow that was so tanked up he could not say
"sasaparilla."
Dick halted. "There must be some sort of a party going on here,"
he thought to himself. "It won't do to take Echo too much by
surprise. If Jack got my letter and told her, it's all right,
but if it miscarried--the shock might kill her. I'll see Jack
first."
Dick had ridden first to Sweetwater Ranch, but found the place
deserted. The party, he mused, accounted for this. While he was
planning a way to attract the attention of some one in the house,
and to get Payson to the garden without letting Echo know of his
presence, Sage-brush Charley, who had espied the stranger through
the window, sauntered out on the porch to investigate. Every
visitor to the Territory needed looking over, especially after
the trouble with Buck McKee.
Sage-brush was bound that there should be no hitch at the wedding
of his boss.
"Howdy," greeted Lane pleasantly. "I'm looking for Jack Payson."
"That so?" answered Sage-brush. "Who may you be?"
"I'm a friend of his."
The foreman could see no danger to come from this weak, sickly
man. "Then walk right in," he invited; "he's inside."
Sage-brush was about to reenter the house, when Dick halted him
with the request: "I want to see him out here--privately."
"What's the name," asked Sage-brush, his suspicions returning.
"Tell him an old friend from Mexico."
Sage-brush did not like the actions of the stranger and his
secrecy. He was there to fight his boss's battles, if he had
any. This was not in the contract, but it was a part read into
the paper by Sage-brush.
"Say, my name's Sage-brush Charley," he cried, with a show of
importance. "I'm ranch-boss for Payson. If you want to settle
any old claim agin' Jack, I'm actin' as his substitoot for him
this evenin'."
"On the contrary," said Lane, with a smile at Sage-brush's
outbreak, "he has a claim against me."
It was such a pleasant, kindly look he gave Sage-brush, that the
foreman was disarmed completely.
"I'll tell him," he said over his shoulder.
Dick mused over the changes that had occurred since he had left
the region. Two years' absence from a growing country means new
faces, new ranches, and the wiping out of old landmarks with the
advance of population and the invasion of the railroad. He
wondered if Jack would know him with his beard. He knew--his
mirror told him- -that his appearance had changed greatly, and he
looked twenty years older than on the day he left the old home
ranch.
His trend of thought was interrupted by the entrance of Jack on
the porch from the house.
"My name's Payson," Jack began hurriedly, casting a hasty glance
backward into the hallway, for the ceremony was about to begin.
"You want to see me?"
"Jack!" cried Dick, holding out his hand eagerly. "Jack, old
man, don't you know me?" he continued falteringly, seeing no sign
of recognition in his friend's eyes.
Payson gasped, shocked and startled. The man before him was a
stranger in looks, but the voice--the voice was that of Dick
Lane, the last man in the world he wanted to see at that moment.
Frightened, almost betraying himself, he glanced at the half-open
door. If Dick entered he knew Echo would be lost to him. She
might love him truly, and her love for Dick might have passed
away, but he knew that Echo would never forgive him for the
deception that he had practised upon her.
Grasping his friend's hand weakly, he faltered, "Dick! Dick
Lane!"
Jack realized he must act quickly. Some way or somehow Dick must
be kept out of the house until after the marriage. Then he,
Jack, must take the consequences. Dick saw his hesitation. It
was not what he had expected. But something dreadful might have
happened while he was away, there had been so many changes.
"Why, what's the matter?" he asked anxiously. "You got my letter?
You knew I was coming?"
"Yes, yes, I know," lamely answered Jack. "But I expected
notice-- you know you said--"
"I couldn't wait. Jack, I'm a rich man, thanks to you--"
"Yes, yes, that's all right," said Payson, disclaiming the praise
of the man he had so grievously wronged with a hurried
acknowledgment of his gratitude.
"And I hurried back for fear Echo--"
"Oh, yes. I'll tell her about it, when she's ready to hear it."
"What is the matter, Jack? Are you keeping something from me?
Where is she?"
"In there," said Payson feebly, pointing to the door.
Dick eagerly started toward the house, but Jack halted him,
saying: "No--you mustn't go in now. There's a party-you see, she
hasn't been well, doesn't expect you to-night. The shock might
be too much for her."
Jack grasped at the lame excuse. It was the first to come to his
mind. He must think quickly. This experience was tearing the
heart out of him. He could not save himself from betrayal much
longer.
"You're right," acquiesced Dick. "You tell her when you get a
chance. Jack, as I was saying, I've made quite a bit of money
out of my Bisbee holdings. I can pay back my stake to you now."
"Not now," said Jack nervously.
Would this torture never end? Here was his friend, whom he had
betrayed come back in the very hour of his marriage to the woman
who had promised first to marry him. Now he was offering him
money, which Jack needed badly, for his prospective mother-in-law
was complaining about his taking her daughter to a mortgaged
home.
"Sure, now," continued Dick, pulling a roll of bills from his
pocket. "It's three thousand dollars--here it is, all in one
bundle."
"Not now, let that wait," said Jack, pushing the money aside.
"It's waited long enough," cried Dick doggedly. "You put the
mortgage on your ranch to let me have the money, and it must be
about due now."
"Yes, it will be due, but let it wait."
"What's the use? I'm all right now. I brought the cash with me
on purpose. I wanted to square it with you on sight."
Dick pressed the money into Jack's hand, closing his fingers over
the roll of bills. With a sigh of relief, as if a disagreeable
task was completed, he questioned: "How's Bud?"
Jack replied shortly: "All right; he's inside."
"I didn't write to him," cheerfully resumed Dick. "I didn't want
the kid to know. He is so excitable, he would have blabbed it
right out. I'll sure be glad to see the boy again. He's
impulsive, but his heart's all right. I know you've kept a
lookout over him."
This trust in him was getting too much for Jack to bear, so the
voice of Polly crying to him to hurry up was music to his ears.
"I'm coming," he shouted. "I'll see you in a few minutes," he
told Dick. "I've something to tell you. I can't tell you now."
"Go in, then," answered Dick. "I'll wait yonder in the garden.
Don't keep me waiting any longer than you can help."
Dick turned and walked slowly toward the gate which lead to the
kitchen-garden, a part of every ranch home in Arizona. It was
cut off from the house by a straggling hedge, on which Echo had
spent many hours trying to keep it in shape.
Jack hesitated about going into the house. Even if Echo married
him, he knew that she would never forgive him when she learned of
his dastardly conduct from Dick Lane's own mouth. It was better
to sacrifice the life of one to save three lives from being
ruined.
Jack followed Lane up, partly drawing his gun. It would be so
easy to shoot him. No one would recognize Dick Lane in that
crippled figure. Jack's friends would believe him if he told
them the stranger had drawn on him, and he had to shoot him in
self-defense.
Then the thought of how dastardly was the act of shooting a man
in the back, and he his trusting friend, smote him suddenly, and
he replaced the pistol in its holster. "It is worse than the
murder of 'Ole Man' Terrill," he muttered.
Dick walked on entirely unconscious of how close he had been to
death, with his friend as his murderer.
So interested had the two men been in their conversation, that
neither had noticed Buck McKee hiding behind the hedge, listening
to their talk, and covering Jack Payson, when he was following
Dick with his hand on his revolver. McKee heard Payson's
ejaculation, and smiled grimly.
Jack's absence had aroused Jim Allen, who hurried out on the
porch, storming. "Say, Jack, what do you mean by putting the
brakes on this yere weddin'?"
"Jim--say, Jim! I-- want you to do something for me," cried
Jack, as he rushed toward his future father-in-law, greatly
excited.
"Sure," answered Allen heartily.
"Stand here at this door during the ceremony, and no matter what
happens don't let any one in."
"But--" interrupted Allen.
"Don't ask me to explain," blurted Jack. "Echo's happiness is at
stake."
"That settles it--I've not let any one spile her happiness yet,
an' I won't in the few minutes that are left while I'm still her
main protector. Nobody gets in."
"Remember--no one--no matter who it is," emphasized Jack, as he
darted into the house.
Jim Allen lighted his pipe. "Now, what's eatin' him?" he
muttered to himself. Then, "They're off!" he cried, looking
through the window.
The Reverend Samuel Price began to drone the marriage-service.
It is the little things in life that count, after all. Men will
work themselves into hysteria over the buzzing of a fly, and yet
plan a battle-ship in a boiler-shop. A city full of people will
at one time become panic-stricken over the burning of a
rubbish-heap, and at another camp out in the ruins of fire-swept
homes, treating their miseries as a huge joke.
Philosophers write learnedly of cause and effect. In chemistry
certain combinations give certain results. But no man can say:
"I will do thus and so, this and that will follow." All things
are possible, but few things are probable.
Dick Lane had planned to shield Echo by writing to Jack Payson,
letting him break the news of his return. Fate would have it
that she would not know until too late of his escape. A letter
sent directly to her might have prevented much unhappiness and
many heartaches. Not till months later, when happiness had
returned, did Jack realize that his one great mistake was made by
not telling Echo of Dick's rescue.
Both Dick and Echo might have had a change of heart when they met
again. Echo was young. Dick had wandered far. Both had lost
touch with common interests. Jack Payson had entered her life as
a factor. He was eager and impetuous; Dick was settled and
world-worn by hardship and much physical suffering. Now Jack was
at the altar racked with mental torture, while Dick waited in the
garden for his traitorous friend. The innocent cause of the
tragedy was sweetly and calmly replying to the questions of the
marriage-ritual, while Jack was looking, as Allen said to
himself, "darned squeamish."
"According to these words, it is the will of God that nothing
shall sever the marriage-bond," were the words that fell upon
Allen's ears as he stooped to look in the window at the
wedding-party.
"The Sky Pilot's taking a long time to make the hitch. Darned if
I couldn't hitch up a twenty-mule team in the time that he's
takin' to get them two to the pole," said Allen, speaking to
himself.
Dick had grown impatient at Jack's absence, and wandered back
from the garden to the front of the house. Spying Allen, he
greeted him with "Hello, Uncle Jim."
"That's my name," answered Allen suspiciously. "But I ain't
uncle to every stranger that comes along."
"I'm no stranger," laughed Dick. "You know me."
"Do I?" replied Allen, unconvinced. "Who are you?"
"The poor orphan you took from an asylum and made a man of--Dick
Lane."
"Dick Lane!" repeated the astonished ranchman. "Come back from
the dead!"
"No, I ain't dead yet," answered Dick, holding out his hand,
which Allen gingerly grasped, as if he expected to find it thin
air. "I wasn't killed. I have been in the hospital for a long
time. I wrote Jack--he knows."
"My God!" Allen cried. "Jack knows--you wrote to him--he knows."
Over and over he repeated the astonishing news which had been
broken to him so suddenly. Here was a man, as if back from the
dead, standing in his own dooryard, telling him that Jack knew he
was alive. No word had been told him. What could Echo say?
This, then, explained Jack's strange request, and his distress.
"And Echo?" Dick questioned, glancing toward the house.
"Echo." The name aroused Allen. He saw at once that he must act
definitely and quickly. Echo must not see Dick now. It was too
late. The secret of his return on the wedding-day must be known
only to the three men.
"Look here, Dick," he commanded. "You mustn't let her see
you--she mustn't know you are alive."
Dick was growing confused over the mystery which was being thrown
about Echo Allen. First Jack had told him he must wait to see
her, and now her father tells him he must never see her again, or
let her know that he is alive. His strength was being overtaxed
by all this evasion and delay.
"Dick," said Allen, with deep sympathy, laying his hand upon the
man's shoulder. "She's my daughter an' I want her life to be
happy. Can't you see? Do you understand? She thinks you're
dead."
"What are you saying?" cried Dick, trying to fathom the riddle.
"You've come back too late, Dick," sadly explained Allen.
"Too late," echoed Dick. "There's something back of all this.
I'll see her now."
He started to enter the door, but Allen restrained him. "You
can't go in," he shouted to the excited man, and pushed him down
the steps. It was an easy task for him for Dick was too weak to
offer much resistance. "No, you won't," he gently told him. His
heart bled for the poor fellow, whom he loved almost as a son,
but Echo's happiness was at stake, and explanations could come
later. More to emphasize his earnestness than to indicate
intention to shoot, he laid his hand on the butt of his revolver,
saying: "Not if I have to kill you."
Dick began to realize that whatever was wrong was of the greatest
consequence. It was a shock to him to have his oldest, his best
friend in the West treat him in this fashion.
"Jim!" he cried in his anguish.
"You've got to go back where you came from, Dick," sternly
answered the ranchman. "If ever you loved my daughter, now's
your chance to prove it--she must never know you're livin--"
"But--"
"It's a whole lot I'm askin' of you, Dick," continued Allen. "But
if you love her, as I think you do, it may be a drop of comfort
in your heart to know that by doin' this great thing for her,
you'll be makin' her life better and happier."
"I do love her," cried Dick passionately; "but there must be some
reason--tell me."
Allen held up his hand to warn Dick to be silent. He beckoned
him to follow him. Slowly he led him to the door, and, partly
opening it, motioned him to listen.
"Forasmuch as John Payson and Echo Allen have consented together
in holy wedlock" were the words that fell upon his ears.
As the doomed man stands, motionless, before his judges, and
hears his death-sentence read without a tremor, ofttimes thinking
of some trifle, so Dick stood for a moment. At first he did not
fully realize what it all meant. Then the full depth of his
betrayal flooded him. "What?" he cried. "Payson!" Allen held
him back.
Again the minister's voice fell upon their ears repeating the
solemn words. "And have declared the same before God and in the
presence of these witnesses, I pronounce them husband and wife.
What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder."
Dick, shaken and hurt, slowly sank to his knees, covering his
face with his hands. A dry sob shook his frame. Here was the
end of all his hopes. Here was the sad reward for years of toil
and waiting.
"Now you know why you can't stay here," said Allen, his tones
full of pity.
"Now I know."
Dick staggered to his feet, and started blindly from the house.
"Dick!" cried Allen, in a broken voice, "forgive me. She's my
child, she loves him now."
The betrayed friend took his hand without looking at him. In
vain he tried to hide his deep emotion. "I know," he faltered,
"I'll never trouble her. I'll go away never to return."
"Where'll you go?" asked Allen.
"Back where I came from, back into the desert--into the land of
dead things. Good-by!"
As he wrung the ranchman's hand and turned to walk out of the
life of his old comrades and the woman he loved, he heard the
minister repeat: "The blessing of the Almighty Father rest upon
and abide with you, now and forevermore. Amen."
"Evermore. Amen!" faltered Dick, bidding a last mute farewell to
Allen.
The old ranchman watched him quietly as he mounted his horse and
rode down the trail.
His reverie was interrupted by the bursts of laughter of the
wedding-guests, and the cries of Fresno: "Kiss the bride, Slim!
Kiss the bride!"
CHAPTER X
The Piano
Five weeks had passed since the marriage of Echo and Jack. On
her return from the honeymoon in the little hunting cabin in the
Tortilla Range, the young wife set to work, and already great
changes had been made in the ranch-house on the Sweetwater. Rooms
were repapered and painted. The big center room was altered into
a cozy living-room. On the long, low window, giving an outlook
on fields of alfalfa, corn and the silver ribbons of the
irrigation ditches, dainty muslin curtains now hung. Potted
geraniums filled the sill, and in the unused fireplace Echo had
placed a jar of ferns. A clock ticking on the mantelpiece added
to the cheerfulness and hominess of the house. On the walls,
horns of mountain-sheep and antlers of antelope and deer
alternated with the mounted heads of puma and buffalo. Through
the open window one caught a glimpse of the arms of a windmill,
and the outbuildings of the home ranch. Navajo blankets were
scattered over the floors and seats.
Echo had taken the souvenirs of the hunt and trail which Jack had
collected, and, with a woman's touch of refinement, had used them
for decorative effects. She had in truth made the room her very
own. The grace and charm of her personality were stamped upon
the environment.
The men of the ranch fairly worshiped Echo. Sending to Kansas
City, they purchased a piano for her as a birthday-gift. On the
morning when the wagon brought it over from Florence station,
little work was done about the place. The instrument had been
unpacked and placed in the living-room in Echo's absence. Mrs.
Allen, Polly, and Jim rode over to be present at the
presentation. The donors gathered in the living-room to admire
the gift, which shone bravely under the energetic polishing of
Mrs. Allen.
"That's an elegant instrument," was her observation, as she
flicked an imaginary speck of dust from the case.
Polly opened the lid, saying: "Just what Echo wanted."
Jim cocked his head, as if he were examining a new pinto pony.
"Sent all the way up to Kansas City for it, eh?"
"That's right, Uncle Jim," chorused the punchers.
"Now the room's complete," announced Polly. "Echo's made a big
change around here." The group gravely followed Polly's
approving glances.
"That she has," assented Mrs. Allen. "Looked a barn when Jack
was a bachelor. This certainly is the finest kind of a
birthday-present you all could have thought of."
"Josephine'll cry in a minute, boys," chuckled Allen.
"You hesh up," snapped his wife, glaring at the grinning
ranchman.
Sage-brush poured oil on the roughening waters by changing the
conversation. Speaking as if making a dare, he challenged:
"What I want to know is, is there anybody here present as can
rassle a tune out of that there box?"
No one came forward.
"Ain't there none of you boys that can play on a pianny?" he
demanded.
"I've played on the big square one down at the Lone Star,"
gravely piped up Show Low.
"What did you play," asked the inquisitive Polly.
"Poker," answered Show Low seriously, his face showing no trace
of humor.
"Poker!" Polly repeated, in disgust.
"That's all they ever plays on it," explained Show Low
indignantly.
Polly grew impatient. This presentation was a serious affair and
not to be turned into an audience for the exploitation of Show
Low's adventures. Moreover, she did not like to be used even
indirectly as a target for fun-making, although she delighted in
making some one else a feeder for her ideas of fun.
Fresno modestly announced he was something of a musical artist.
"I 'low I can shake a tune out of that," he declared.
"Let's hear you," cried Polly, rather doubtful of Fresno's
ability.
"Step up, perfesser," cried Allen heartily, slapping him on the
back.
Fresno grinned and solemnly rolled up his sleeves. His comrades
eyed his every move closely. He spat on his hands, approached
the piano, and glared fiercely at the keyboard.
"My ma had one of them there things when I was a yearlin'," he
observed.
Fresno spun the seat of the piano-stool until it almost twirled
off the screw. His actions created greatest interest, especially
to Parenthesis, who peered under the seat, to see the wheels go
round. Fresno threw his leg over the seat as if mounting a horse.
"Well, boys, what'll you have?" he asked, glancing from one to
the other in imitation of the manner of his friend, the pianist
in the Tucson honkytonk, on a lively evening.
"The usual poison," absently answered Show Low.
Sage-brush struck him in the breast with the with the back of his
hand. "Shut up," he growled.
Turning to Fresno, he said: "Give us the--er--'The Maiden's
Prayer.'"
Fresno whisked about so quickly that he almost lost his balance.
Gazing at the petitioner in blank amazement, he shouted: "The
what?"
Sage-brush blushed under his tan. In a most apologetic voice he
said: "Well, that's the first tune my sister learned to play, an'
she played it continuous--which is why I left home."
"I'd sure like to oblige you, but Maiden's Prayers ain't in my
repetory," explained the mollified musician.
Fresno raised his finger uncertainly over the keyboard searching
for a key from which to make a start. The group watched him
expectantly. As he struck a note each member of his audience
jumped back in surprise at the sound. Fresno scratched his head
and gingerly fingered another key. After several false starts,
backing and filling, over the keyboard, he began to pick out with
one finger the air "The Suwanee River."
"That's it. Now we're started," he cried exultantly.
His overconfidence led him to strike a false note.
"Excuse me," he apologized. "Got the copper on the wrong chip."
Once more he essayed playing the old melody, but became
hopelessly confused.
"Darn the tune!" he mumbled.
Sage-brush, ever ready to cheer up the failing courage of a
performer, chirruped: "Shuffle 'em up ag'in and begin a new
deal."
Fresno spat on his hands and ruffled his hair like a musical
genius. Again he sought the rhythm among the keys. He tried to
whistle the air. That device failed him.
"Will you all whistle that tune? I'm forgettin' it," was his
plaintive request.
"Sure, let her go boys," cried Sage-brush.
Falteringly, with many stops and sudden they tried to accompany
Fresno's halting pursuit over the keyboard after the tune that
was dodging about in his mind. All at once the player struck his
gait and introduced a variation on the bass notes.
"That ain't in it," shouted Show Low indignantly.
"Shut up!" bellowed Sage-brush.
With both hands hammering the keys indiscriminately, Fresno made
a noisy if not artistic finish, and whirled about on the stool,
to be greeted by hearty applause.
"Well, I reckon that's goin' some!" he boasted, when the
hand-clapping subsided, bowing low to Polly and Mrs. Allen.
"Goin'?" laughed Polly. "Limpin' is what I call it. If you don't
learn to switch off, you'll get a callous on that one finger of
yourn." Fresno looked at that member dubiously.
"Ain't music civilizin'?" suggested Show Low to Jim Allen.
"You bet!" the ranchman agreed. "Take a pianny an' enough
Winchesters an' you can civilize the hull of China."
"Fresno could kill more with his pianny-play than his gun-play,"
suggested Show Low.
Mrs. Allen bethought herself that there was a lot of work to be
done in preparation for the party. Even if everything was ready,
the dear old soul would find something to do or worry about.
"Come, now, clear out of here, the hull kit an' b'ilin' of you,"
she ordered.
The men hastily crowded out on the piazza.
"Take that packin'-case out of sight, if you mean this pianny to
be a surprise to Echo. She'll be trottin' back here in no time,"
she added.
Fresno had lingered to assure Jim: "This yere birthday's goin'
to be a success. Would you like another selection?" he eagerly
asked.
"Not unless you wash your finger," snapped Mrs. Allen, busy
polishing the keys Fresno had struck. "You left a grease-spot on
every key you've touched," she explained.
Fresno held up his finger for Allen's inspection. "I've been
greasin' the wagon," was his explanation.
"Git out with the rest of them," she commanded. "I've got enough
to do to look after that cake." Mrs. Allen darted into the
kitchen. Jim slowly filled his pipe and hunted up the most
comfortable chair. After two or three trials he found one to
suit him, and sank back with a sigh of content.
"Jack ain't back yet?" Polly put the question.
Polly rearranged the chairs in the room, picking up and replacing
the articles on the table to suit her own artistic conceptions.
She straightened out a war-bonnet on the wall. She was flicking
off a spot of dust in the gilt chair that Jack had got as a
wedding present for Echo on the day of the station-agent's
murder, and, being reminded of the tragedy, she asked: "That
posse didn't catch the parties that killed Terrill, did they?"
"Not that I hear on. Slim Hoover he took the boys that night an
tried to pick up the trail after it entered the river, but they
couldn't find where it come out."
"One of them fellers, the man that left the station alone, and
probably done the job, rode a pacin' horse," answered Jim,
between puffs of his pipe.
"Then he's a stranger to these parts. Jack's pinto paces--it's
his regular gait. It's the only pacing hoss around here."
"That's so," he assented, but made no further comment. The full
force of the observation did not strike him at the time.
Polly began to pump Colonel Jim. There were several recent
happenings which she did not fully comprehend. At the
inquisitive age and a girl, she wanted to know all that was going
on.
"Jack's been acting mighty queer of late," she ventured. "Like
he's got something on his mind."
Jim smiled at her simplicity and jokingly replied: "Well, he's
married."
The retort exasperated Polly. She was not meeting with the
success she desired. "Do hush!" she cried, in her annoyance.
"That's enough on any man's mind," Jim laughed as he sauntered
out of the door.
"Something queer about Jack," observed Polly, seating herself at
the table. "He ain't been the same man since the weddin'. He's
all right when Echo's around, but when he thinks no one is
watchin' him he sits around and sighs."
Jack entered the room at this moment. Absent-mindedly he hung
his hat and spurs on a rack and leaned his rifle against the
wall, sighing deeply as he did so. So engrossed was he in his
thoughts that he did not notice Polly until he reached the table.
He started in surprise when he saw her. "Hello, Polly!" was his
greeting. "Where is Echo?"
Polly rose hastily at the sound of his voice.
"Didn't you meet her?" she asked. "We got her to ride over
toward Tucson this morning to get her out of the way so's to
snake the pianny in without her seein' it." Polly glided over to
the instrument and touched the keys softly.
With admiration Jack gazed at the instrument.
"I came around by Florence," answered Jack, with a smile.
Eagerly Polly turned toward him. "See anything of Bud Lane?" she
queried.
"No." Again Jack smiled--this time at the girl's impetuosity.
"He'll lose his job with me if he don't call more regular," she
said.
"Say, Jack, you ain't fergettin' what you promised--to help Bud
with the money that you said was comin' in soon, as Dick's share
of a speculation you and him was pardners in? I'm powerful
anxious to get him away from McKee."
Jack had not forgotten the promise, but, alas, under the goading
of Mrs. Allen that he should clear off the mortgage on his home,
he had used Dick Lane's money for this purpose. In what a mesh
of lies and broken promises he was entangling himself! Now he
was forced further to deceive trusting little Polly in the matter
that was dearest to her heart.
"No, Polly, but the fact is--that speculation isn't turning out
so well, after all."
The disappointed girl turned sadly away, and went out to Mrs.
Allen in the kitchen.
Jack removed his belt and gun and hung them on the rack by the
door. Spying his father at the corral, he called to him to come
into the house.
"Hello, Jack!" was Allen's greeting as he entered, shaking the
younger man's hand.
"When did you come over?"
"This morning," Allen told him. "Echo's birthday, you know, and
the old lady allowed we'd have to be here. Ain't seen you since
the weddin'--got things lookin' fine here." Allen slowly
surveyed the room.
Jack agreed with him with a gesture of assent. A more important
topic to him than the furnishing of a room was what had become of
Dick Lane. After the wedding ceremony no chance had come to him
to speak privately to Allen.
The festivities of the wedding had been shortened. Slim had
gathered a posse and taken up the trail of the slayers. Jim
Allen had joined them. The hazing of Jack, and the hasty
departure of the bridal pair on horseback in a shower of corn,
shelled and on cob, prevented the two men from meeting.
The older man had volunteered no explanation. Jack knew that in
his heart Allen did not approve of his actions, but was keeping
silent because of his daughter.
Jack could restrain himself no longer. "Jim--what happened that
night?" he asked brokenly.
Allen showed his embarrassment. "Meanin'--" Then he hesitated.
"Dick," was all Jack could say.
"I seed him. If I hadn't, he'd busted up the weddin' some," was
his laconic answer.
"Where is he?"
Allen relighted his pipe. When he got the smoke drawing freely,
he gazed at Jack thoughtfully and answered: "He's gone. Back
where he came from--into the desert." Jim puffed slowly and then
added: "Looks like you didn't give Dick a square deal."
Allen liked his son-in-law, and was going to stand by him, but in
Arizona the saying "All's fair in love and war" is not accepted
at its face value.
"I didn't," acknowledged Jack. "I was desperate at the thought
of losing her. She loved me, and had forgotten him--she's happy
with me now."
"I reckon that's right," was Jim's consoling reply.
To clinch his argument and soothe his troublesome conscience,
Jack continued: "She never would have been happy with him."
"That's what I told him," declared Allen. "He knew it, an'
that's why he went away--an' Echo--no matter what comes, she must
never know. She'd never forgive you--an', fer that matter, me,
neither."
Jack looked long out of the window toward the distant mountains--
the barrier behind which Dick was wandering in the great desert,
cut off from the woman he loved by a false friend.
"How I have suffered for that lie!" uttered Jack, in tones full
of anguish. "That's what hurts me most--the thought that I lied
to her. I might have killed him that night," pondered Jack. He
shuddered at the thought that he had been on the point of adding
murder to the lie. He had faced the same temptation which Dick
had yet to overcome.
"Mebbe you did. There's more'n one way of killin' a man,"
suggested Allen.
Jack swung round and faced him. The observation had struck home.
He realized how poignantly Dick must have endured the loss of
Echo and thought of his betrayal by Jack. As he had suffered
mentally so Dick must be suffering in the desert. In
self-justification he returned to his old argument.
"I waited until I was sure he was dead. Six months I waited
after we heard the news. After I had told Echo I loved her and
found that I was loved in return--then came this letter. God!
What a fight I had with myself when I found that he lived--was
thinking of returning home to claim her for his own. I rode out
into the hills and fought it out all alone, like an Indian--then
I resolved to hurry the wedding--to lie to her--and I have been
living that lie every minute, every hour."
Jack leaned heavily on the table. His head sank. His voice
dropped almost to a whisper.
Allen slapped him on the back to cheer him up. Philosophically
he announced: "Well, it's got to be as it is. You'll mebbe
never hear from him again. You mustn't never tell her. I ain't
a-goin' to say nothin' about it--her happiness means everything
to me."
Jack grasped his hand in silent thankfulness.
The two men walked slowly out of the room to the corral.
As Echo galloped across the prairie in the glorious morning air,
the sunshine, the lowing of the cattle on the hills, and the
songs of the birds in the trees along the Sweetwater had banished
all depressing thoughts, and her mind dwelt on her love for Jack
and the pleasantness of the lines in which her life had fallen.
Only one small cloud had appeared on the horizon. Jack had not
shared with her his confidences in the business of the ranch. He
told her he did not want to worry her with such cares. True,
there were times when he was deeply abstracted; but in her
presence his moroseness vanished quickly. Carefully as he had
tried to hide his secret, she had, with a woman's intuition, seen
beneath the surface of things and realized that something was
lacking to complete her happiness.
As Echo turned toward home a song sprang to her lips. Polly
spied her far down the trail.
"Boys, she's coming," she shouted to the men, who were at the
bunk-house awaiting Mrs. Payson's return. As they passed the
corral they called to Jack and Allen to join them in the
living-room to prepare for the surprise for Echo.
The party quickly reassembled.
"Good land!" shouted Allen, "get something to cover the pianny
with!"
The punchers rushed in confusion about the room in a vain search.
"Ain't there a plagued thing we can cover the pianny with?" cried
the demoralized Allen, renewing his appeal.
Polly came to the rescue of the helpless men by plucking a Navajo
blanket from the couch. Tossing one end of it to Show Low, she
motioned to him to help hold it up before the instrument like a
curtain.
"Stand in front of it, everybody," ordered Mrs. Allen, who had
left her cake-baking and hurried in from the kitchen. "Polly,
spread your skirts--you, too, Jim."
Allen ran in front of the piano, holding out an imaginary dress
in imitation of Polly. "Which I ain't got none," he cried.
Parenthesis jumped in front of the piano-stool, trying vainly to
hide it with his legs.
"Parenthesis, put your legs together," Mrs. Allen cried.
"I can't, ma'am," wailed the unfortunate puncher. He fell on his
knees before the stool, spreading out his waistcoat for a screen.
Mrs. Allen helped him out with her skirts.
"Steady, everybody!" shouted Jack.
"Here she is!" yelled Sage-brush, as the door opened and the
astonished Echo faced those she loved and liked.
Echo made a pretty picture framed in the doorway. She wore her
riding-habit of olive-green--from the hem of which peeped her
soft boots. Her hat, broad, picturesque, typical of the
Southwest, had slipped backward, forming a background for her
pretty face. An amused smile played about the corners of her
mouth.
"Well, what is it?" she smiled inquiringly.
The group looked at her sheepishly. No one wanted to answer her
question.
"What's the matter?" she resumed. "You're herded up like a bunch
of cows in a norther."
Sage-brush began gravely to explain. He got only as far as:
"This yere bein' a birthday," when Echo interrupted him: "Oh!
then it's a birthday-party?"
Once stopped, Sage-brush could not get started again. He cleared
his throat with more emphasis than politeness; striking the
attitude of an orator, with one hand upraised and the other on
his hip, he hemmed and hawed until beads of perspiration trickled
down his temples.
Again he nerved himself for the ordeal.
"Mebbe," he gasped.
Then he opened and dosed his mouth, froglike, several times,
taking long, gulping breaths. At last, looking helplessly about
him, he shouted: "Oh, shucks! you tell her, Jack." He pushed
him toward, Echo. Jack rested his hand on the table and began:
"We've a surprise for you--that is, the boys have--"
"What is it?" asked Echo eagerly.
"You've got to call it blind," broke in Sage-brush.
"Guess it," cried Fresno.
"A pony-cart," hazarded Echo.
"Shucks! no," said Show Low at the idea of presenting Echo with
anything on wheels.
Echo then guessed: "Sewing-machine."
Sage-brush encouraged her, "That's something like it--go on--go
on."
"Well, then, it's a--"
Sage-brush grew more excited. He raised and lowered himself on
his toes, backing toward the piano. "Go it, you're gettin'
there," he shouted.
"It's a--"
Again she hesitated, to be helped on by Sage-brush with the
assurance: "She'll do it--fire away--it's a--"
"A--"
"Go on."
Sage-brush in his enthusiasm backed too far into the blanket
screen. His spurs became entangled. To save himself from a
fall, he threw out his hand behind him. They struck the polished
cover of the instrument, slid off, and Sage-brush sat down on the
keys with an unmistakable crash.
"A piano!" cried Echo exultantly.
"Who done that?" demanded Show Low angrily.
Parenthesis, from his place on the floor, looked at the
mischief-maker in disgust. "Sage-brush!" he shouted.
"Givin' the hull thing away," snarled Fresno.
Show Low could contain himself no longer. Going up to
Sage-brush, he shook his fist in his face, saying: "You're the
limit. You ought to be herdin' sheep."
The victim of the accident humbly replied: "I couldn't help it."
Mrs. Allen smoothed out the differences by declaring: "What's
the difference, she wouldn't have guessed, not in a million
years--stand away and let her see it."
Fresno swept them all aside with the blanket.
"Oh, isn't it beautiful, beautiful!" cried Echo.
"Who--what--where--" she stammered, glancing from one to the
other, her eyes finally resting on Jack.
"Not guilty," he cried. "You'll have to thank the boys for
this."
With happy tears welling up in her eyes, Echo said: "I do thank
them, I do--I do--I can't tell how delighted I am. I can't say
how much this means to me--I thank you--I say it once, but I feel
it a thousand times." She seized each of the boys by the hand
and shook it heartily.
"Would you like to have another selection?" asked Fresno,
relieving the tension of the situation.
"No!" shouted the punchers unanimously. Fresno looked very much
crestfallen, since he considered that he had made a deep
impression by his first effort.
"Mrs. Payson's goin' to hit us out a tune," announced Sage-brush.
Echo seated herself at the piano. Jack leaned against the
instrument, gazing fondly into her eyes, as she raised her face
radiant with happiness. Allen had taken possession of the best
rocking-chair. Mrs. Allen sat at the table, and the boys ranged
themselves about the room. Their faces reflected gratification.
They watched Echo expectantly.
Echo played the opening bars of "The Old Folks at Home." Before
she sang Fresno, holding up his right index-finger, remarked to
no one in particular: "I washed that finger."
The singing deeply affected her little audience. Echo had a
sweet, natural voice. She threw her whole soul into the old
ballad. She was so happy she felt like singing, not lively airs,
but songs about home. Her new home had become so dear to her at
that moment.
Mrs. Allen as usual began to cry. Polly soon followed her
example. There were tears even in the of some of the punchers,
although they blinked vigorously to keep them back.
When she repeated the chorus, Sage-brush said to Fresno: "Ain't
that great?"
That worthy, however, with the jealousy of an artist, and to hide
his own deeply moved sensibilities, replied: "That ain't so
much."
Jack had become completely absorbed in the music. He and Echo
were oblivious to surroundings. His arm had slipped about his
wife's waist, and she gazed fondly into his face. Sage-brush was
the first to notice their attitude. On his calling the attention
of the boys to their happiness, these quietly tiptoed from the
room. Polly signaled to Mrs. Allen, and followed the boys.
Josephine awoke Jim as if from a dream and lead him slowly out,
leaving the young couple in an earthly paradise of married love.
When Echo finished, she turned in surprise to find themselves
alone.
"Was it as bad as that?" she naively asked Jack.
"What?"
"Why, they've all left us."
Jack laughed softly. "So they have--I forgot they were here," he
said, looking fondly down at his wife.
Echo began to play quietly another ballad. "I've always wanted a
piano," she said.
"You'd found one here waiting, if I'd only known it," he chided.
"You've given me so much already," she murmured. "I've been a
big expense to you."
Jack again slipped his arm about her waist and kissed her. "There
ain't any limit on my love," he declared. "I want you to be
happy--"
"Don't you think I am," laughed Echo. "I'm the happiest woman on
earth, Jack, and it's all you. I want to be more than a wife to
you, I want to be a helpmate--but you won't let me."
A wistful expression crept over Echo's countenance.
"Who says so?" he demanded playfully, as if he would punish any
man who dared make such an accusation.
Echo turned on the stool and took his hand. "I know it," she
said, with emphasis. "You've been worried about something for
days and days--don't tell me you haven't."
Jack opened his lips as if to contradict her. "We women learn to
look beneath the surface; what is it, Jack?" she continued.
Jack loosened his wife's handclasp and walked over to the table.
"Nothing--what should I have to worry about?" He spoke
carelessly.
"The mortgage?" suggested Echo.
"I paid that off last week," explained Jack.
Echo felt deeply hurt that this news should have been kept from
her by her husband.
"You did, and never told me?" she chided. "Where did you get the
money?" she inquired.
"Why, I--" Jack halted. He could not frame an excuse at once,
nor invent a new lie to cover his old sin. Deeper and deeper he
was getting into the mire of deception.
Echo had arisen from the seat. "It was over three thousand
dollars, wasn't it?" she insisted.
"Something like that," answered Jack noncommittally.
"Well, where did you get it?" demanded his wife.
"An old debt--a friend of mine--I loaned him the money a long
time ago and he paid it back--that's all."
Jack took a drink of water from the olla to hide his confusion.
"Who was it?" persisted Echo.
"You wouldn't know if I told you. Now just stop talking
business."
"It isn't fair," declared Echo. "You share all the good things
of life with me, and I want to share some of your business
worries. I want to stand my share of the bad."
Jack saw he must humor her. "When the bad comes I'll tell you,"
he assured her, patting her hand.
"You stand between me and the world. You're like a great big
mountain, standing guard over a little tree in the valley,
keeping the cold north wind from treating it too roughly." She
sighed contentedly. "But the mountain does it all."
Jack looked down tenderly at his little wife. Her love for him
moved him deeply.
"Not at all," he said to her. "The little tree grows green and
beautiful. It casts a welcome shade about it, and the heart of
the mountain is made glad to its rocky core to know that the
safety of that little tree is in its keeping."
Taking her in his arms, he kissed her again and again.
"Kissing again," shouted Polly from the doorway. "Say, will you
two never settle down to business? There's Bud Lane and a bunch
of others just into the corral--maybe they want you, Jack."
Jack excused himself. As he stepped out on the piazza he asked
Polly: "Shall I send Bud in?"
"Let him come in if he wants to. I'm not sending for him." Polly
spitefully turned up her nose at him. Jack laughed as he closed
the door.
Echo reseated herself at the piano, fingering the keys.
"How are you getting on with Bud?" she asked the younger girl.
"We don't get on a little bit," she snapped. "Bud never seems to
collect much revenue an' we just keep trottin' slow like--wish I
was married and had a home of my own."
"Aren't you happy with father and mother?"
Polly glanced at Echo with a smile. "Lord, yes," she replied,
"in a way, but I'm only a poor relation--your ma was my ma's
cousin or something like that."
Echo laughed. "Nonsense," she retorted. "Nonsense--you're my
dear sister, and the only daughter that's at the old home now."
"But I want a home of my own, like this," said Polly.
"Then you'd better shake Bud and give Slim a chance."
Polly was too disgusted to answer at once. "Slim Hoover, shucks!
Slim doesn't care for girls--he's afraid of 'em," she said at
length. "I like Bud, with all his orneriness," she declared.
"Why doesn't he come to see you more often?"
"I don't know, maybe it's because he's never forgiven you for
marryin' Jack."
"Why should he mind that?" she asked, startled.
"Well, you know," she answered between stitches, drawing the
needle through the doth with angry little jerks, "Bud, he never
quite believed Dick was dead."
Echo rose hastily. The vague, haunting half-thoughts of weeks
were crystallized on the instant. She felt as if Dick was trying
to speak to her from out of the great beyond. With a shudder she
into a chair at the table opposite Polly.
"Don't," she said, her voice scarcely above a whisper, "I can't
bear to hear him spoken of. I dreamed of him the other night--a
dreadful dream."
Polly was delighted with this new mystery. It was all so
romantic.
"Did you? let's hear it."
With unseeing eyes Echo gazed straight ahead rebuilding from her
dream fabric a tragedy of the desert, in which the two men who
had played so great a part in her life were the actors.
"It seems," she told, "that I was in the desert, such a vast,
terrible desert, where the little dust devils eddied and swirled,
and the merciless sun beat down until it shriveled up every
growing thing."
Polly nodded her head sagely.
"That's the way the desert looks--and no water."
Echo paid no heed to the interruption. Her face became wan and
haggard, as in her mind's eye she saw the weary waste of
waterless land quiver and swim under the merciless sun. Not a
tree, not a blade of grass, not a sign of life broke the monotony
of crumbling cliffs and pinnacled rocks. Onward and ever onward
stretched yellow ridges and alkali-whitened ravines, blinding the
eye and parching the throat.
"Then I saw a man staggering toward me," she continued; "his face
was white and drawn, his lips cracked and parched--now and then
he would stumble and fall, and lie there on his face in the hot
sand, digging into it with his bony fingers seeking for water."
Echo shut her eyes as if to blot out the picture. Its reality
almost overpowered her.
"Suddenly he raised his eyes to mine," she resumed, after a
pause. "It was Dick."
In her excitement she had arisen, stretching out her arms as if
to ward off an apparition.
"He tried to call me. I saw his lips move, framing my name.
Dragging himself to his feet, he came toward me with his arms
outstretched. Then another form appeared between us fighting to
keep him back. They fought there under the burning sun in the
hot dust of the desert until at last one was crushed to earth.
The victor raised his face to mine, and--it was Jack."
Echo buried her face in her hands. Dry sobs shook her bosom.
Awe-stricken, Polly gazed at the over-wrought wife.
"PFEW!" she laughed, to shake off her fright. "That was a sure
enough nightmare. If I'd a dream like that I'd wake up the whole
house yapping like a coyote."
As the commonplace ever intrudes upon the unusual, so a knock on
the door relieved the tension of the situation. It was Slim. He
did not wait for an invitation to enter, but, opening the door,
asked: "Can I come in?"
"Sure, come in," cried Polly, glad to find any excuse to shake
off the depression of Echo's dream.
"Howdy, Mrs. Payson, just come over to see Jack," was the jolly
Sheriff's greeting.
"He's down at the corral," she informed him.
Mrs. Allen hurried in from the kitchen at this moment, calling:
"Echo, come here, and look at this yere cake. It looks as if it
had been sot upon."
Echo closed the lid of the piano and called her mother's
attention to the presence of Slim Hoover.
"How d'ye do, Slim Hoover?--you might have left some of that dust
outside."
The Sheriff was greatly embarrassed by her chiding. In his ride
from Florence to the Sweetwater, the alkali and sand stirred up
by the hoofs of the horses had settled on his hat and waistcoat
so freely that his clothing had assumed a neutral, gray tone
above which his sun-tanned face and red hair loomed like the moon
in a fog. Josephine's scolding drove him to brush his shoulders
with his hat, raising a cloud of dust about his head.
"Stop it!" Mrs. Allen shouted shrilly. "Slim Hoover, if your
brains was dynamite you couldn't blow the top of your head off."
Polly was greatly amused by Slim's encounter with the cleanly
Mrs. Allen. Slim stood with open mouth, watching Mrs. Allen
flounce out of the room after Polly, who was trying in vain to
suppress her laughter. Turning to the girl, he said: "Ain't seen
you in some time."
Slim was thankful that the girl was seated at the table with her
back to him. Somehow or other he found he could speak to her
more freely when she was not looking at him.
"That so?" she challenged. "Come to the birthday?"
"Not regular," he answered.
Polly glanced at him over her shoulder. It was too much for
Slim. He turned away to hide his embarrassment. Partly
recovering from his bashfulness, he coughed, preparatory to
speaking. But Polly had vanished. As one looks sheepishly for
the magician's disappearing coin, so Slim gazed at floor and
ceiling as if the girl might pop up anywhere. Spying an empty
chair behind him, he sank into it gingerly and awkwardly.
Meantime Polly returned with a broom and began sweeping out the
evidences of Slim's visit. She spoke again:
"Get them hold-ups yet that killed 'Ole Man' Terrill?" she asked.
"Not yet. But we had a new shootin' over'n our town yesterday."
Slim was doing his best to make conversation. Polly did not help
him out very freely.
"That so?" was her reply.
"Spotted Taylor shot two Chinamen."
Polly's curiosity was aroused.
"What for?" she asked, stopping her sweeping for a moment.
"Just to give the new graveyard a start," Slim chuckled.
Polly joined in his merriment.
"Spotted Taylor was always a public-spirited citizen," was her
comment.
"He sure was," assented Slim.
"Get up there. I want to sweep under that chair." Polly brushed
Slim's feet with the broom vigorously. With an elaborate "Excuse
me," Slim arose, but re-seated himself in another chair directly
in the pathway of Polly's broom.
"Get out of there, too," she cried.
"Shucks, there ain't any room for me nowhere," he muttered
disgustedly.
"You shouldn't take up so much of it."
Slim attempted to take a seat on the small gilt chair which was
Jack's wedding-present to Echo.
Polly caught sight of him in time. "Look out," she shouted.
"That chair wasn't built for a full-grown man like you."
Slim nervously replaced the chair before a writing-desk. Polly
wielded her broom about the feet of the Sheriff, who danced
clumsily about, trying to avoid her.
"You're just trying to sweep me out of here," he complained.
"Well, if you will bring dust in with you, you must expect to be
swept out," Polly replied, with a show of spirit.
Polly was shaking the mat vigorously at the door when Slim said:
"I see they buried Poker Bill this mornin'."
"Is HE dead?" It was the first Polly had heard of the passing
away of one of the characters of the Territory. She had
expressed her surprise in the of an interrogation, emphasizing
the "he," a colloquialism of the Southwest.
Slim, however, had chosen to ignore the manner of speech, and
with a grin answered: "Ye-es, that's why they buried him."
Polly laughed in spite of herself. "What did he die of?" she
asked.
As Slim was about to take a drink at the olla, he failed to hear
her.
"Eh?" he grunted.
"What did he die of?" she repeated.
"Five aces," was the sober reply of the Sheriff, before he
drained the gourd.
Polly put the broom back of the door, and was rearranging the
articles on the table, before Slim could muster up enough courage
to speak on the topic which was always uppermost in his mind when
in her presence.
"Say, Miss Polly," he began.
"If you've anything to say to me, Slim Hoover, just say it--I
can't be bothered to-day--all the fixin's and things," saucily
advised the girl.
"Well, what I want to say is--" began the Sheriff.
At this moment Bud Lane, laboring under heavy excitement, burst
open the door.
"Say, Slim, you're wanted down at the corral," he cried, paying
no heed to Polly.
"Shucks!" exclaimed the disappointed Sheriff. "What's the row?"
"I don't know--Buck McKee--he's there with some of the Lazy K
outfit. They want to see you."
Slim threw himself out the door with the mild expletive: "Darn
the luck!"
Bud turned quickly to Polly. "Did Jack pay off the mortgage last
week?" he almost shouted at the girl.
Polly stamped her foot in anger at what seemed to her to be a
totally irrelevant question to the love-making she expected: "How
do I know?" she angrily replied. "If that is all you came to see
me for, you can go and ask him. It makes me so dog-gone mad!"
Polly, with flushed face and knitted brow, left the bewildered
Bud standing in the center of the room, asking himself what it
was all about.
The sound of the voices of disputing men floated in from the
corral. Bud heard them, and comprehended its significance.
"It's all up with me," he cried, in mortal terror. "Buck McKee
has stirred up the suspicion against Jack Payson. Jack paid off
his mortgage, and they wanted to know where he raised the money.
Well, Jack can tell. If he can't, I'll confess the whole
business. I won't let him suffer for me. Buck sha'n't let an
innocent man hang for what we've done."
The sound of footsteps on the piazza and the opening of the door
drove Bud to take refuge in an adjoining room, where he could
overhear all that was happening. He closed the door as the
cow-punchers entered with Slim at their head.
CHAPTER XI
Accusation and Confession
Buck McKee had not been idle in the days following the slaying of
'Ole Man' Terrill. Having learned that Slim and his posse had
discovered only the fact that the murderer had ridden a pacing
horse to the ford, McKee took full advantage of this fact. In
the cow-camps, the barrooms, and at the railroad-station he
hinted, at first, that a certain person every one knew could tell
a lot more about the death of the old man than he cared to have
known. After a few days he began to bring the name of Payson
into the conversation. His gossip became rumor, and then common
report. When it became known that Jack had paid off the mortgage
on his ranch, Buck came out with the accusation that Payson was
the murderer. Finding that he was listened to, Buck made the
direct charge that Payson had killed the station-agent, and with
the proceeds of the robbery was paying off his old debts.
Gathering his own men about him, and being joined by the idle
hangers-on, which are to be found about every town, Buck lead his
party to the ranch on the Sweetwater to accuse Jack, and so throw
off, in advance, any suspicions which might attach to himself.
Fortunately, Slim happened to be at Jack's ranch at the time.
When he entered the corral he found Jack's accusers and defenders
rapidly nearing a battle.
Jack was taking the charges coolly enough, as he did not know
what support McKee had manufactured to uphold the charges he
made. Slim informed McKee he would listen to what he had to say,
and if afterward he thought Jack guilty, he would place him under
arrest. For all concerned it would be better to go into the
house. The Sweetwater boys surrounded Jack as they followed Slim
into the living-room. Lining up in opposing groups, Slim stood
in the center to serve as judge and jury, with Buck and Jack at
his right and left hand.
Inside the door Jack said: "Keep as quiet as you can, boys. I
don't want to alarm my wife. Now what is it?"
The punchers hushed their discussion of the charge, and listened
attentively to what the men most interested had to say.
"Well, darn it all," apologized the Sheriff to Jack, "it's all
darn fool business, anyway. Buck here he started it."
Jack smiled sarcastically, and, glancing at McKee, remarked:
"Buck McKee's started a good many things in his day--"
Buck began to bluster. He could not face Jack fairly. Already
placed on the defense, when he had considered he would be the
accuser, McKee took refuge in the plea of being wronged by false
suspicion.
"I ain't goin'," he whined, "to have folks suspicion me of any
such doin's as the killin' of 'Ole Man' Terrill. I got a witness
to prove I wasn't in twenty miles of the place."
"Who's your witness?" asked Slim, in his most judicial tones.
"Bud Lane--me an' him rode over to the weddin' together--from the
Lazy K, an' I was put out as not fittin' to be there, an' by that
very man there that did the killin'."
The punchers had to grin, in spite of the seriousness of the
occasion. Buck appeared to be deeply hurt at the unceremonious
way he had been left out at the feast.
"What makes you point to me as the man?" asked Jack quietly.
"You was late gettin' to your own weddin'."
Fresno could not repress his feelings any longer. He started
angrily toward McKee, but Jack and Sage-brush held him back. The
others were about to follow his lead, when Slim motioned them
back with the caution: "Keep out of this, boys!"
"I was late," explained Jack, "but I told you I rode around to
the station to get a wedding-present I ordered for my wife--"
Jim interrupted him to substantiate the statement. Pointing to a
chair, he said: "That's so. There it is, too--that there
chair."
The Sweetwater outfit nodded in acquiescence, but the others
looked incredulous.
Buck sneered at the defense which Jack made. "Nobody saw you
over that way, did they?"
"I saw Terrill. It must have been just before he was killed. I
didn't meet anybody else." Jack showed no trace of temper under
the inquisition.
"Of course you saw him before he was killed--about a minute.
Mebbe you didn't plug him the next minute with a .44."
The charge roused Sage-brush's fighting blood. Drawing his gun,
he attempted to get a fair shot at the accuser. Fresno and Show
Low grabbed him by the arms, holding him back. The foreman
shouted: "There'll be some one plugged right now if you-all make
another break like that."
Slim waved his hands over his head, driving the men backward, as
if he were shooing away a flock of chickens.
"Easy now--easy," he drawled. "There ain't a-goin' to be nothin'
doin' here, 'cept law an' justice."
Buck laughed sneeringly at the wavering of his men. He would
have to do something to put more heart into them and regain the
ground he had lost by his single-handed conduct of the case.
"There ain't, eh?" he asked contemptuously. "Well, it's lucky I
brought some of my own outfit with me."
"Mebbe you'll need them if you get too careless with your talk,"
answered the unruffled Sheriff.
Turning to Jack, Slim said: "This fool thing can be settled with
one word from you."
The young ranchman listened to the Sheriff earnestly. He wished
to clear himself forever of all suspicion. He did not want Echo
ever to hear that there was a false impression abroad that she
was the wife of a slayer. "What is it?" he asked simply.
"Why, you paid off a mortgage of an even three thousan' dollars
last week, didn't you?"
"Yes, what has that to do with it?" he asked.
Buck broke in at this point. Here was the strongest card that he
had in his hand, and the Sheriff had played it to McKee's
advantage.
"Plenty," Buck shouted. "Old Terrill was shot and killed and
robbed, an' the man who did it got just three thousan' dollars."
"An' you mean to say that the boss here--" began Sage-brush, in
his anger making a rush at McKee. He was held back, but the
disturbance attracted Echo and Mrs. Allen from the kitchen. Echo
hurried to her husband's side. He slipped his arm about her
waist, and together they faced his accuser.
"All you got to say is where did you get that money," cried Buck,
who had seen Dick Lane pay it to Payson, and conjectured that
Payson did not dare to reveal the fact of this payment, with all
the disclosure it implied.
"Why, it was paid to me by--" Then Jack stopped. He could not
tell who gave him the money without revealing to Echo the return
of Dick. The whole miserable lie would then come out. Echo
noticed jack's hesitancy.
"What is it--what's the matter?" she asked, in frightened tones.
"Nothing, nothing," he answered lightly, to lessen her terror.
"Hats off, everybody," commanded Slim, in deference to the
presence of Echo.
"Who are these men--what's wrong?" pleaded Echo.
Buck bowed to the trembling woman, who had thrown her arms about
her husband's neck.
"Nothin'," he exclaimed. "Only we want to know where your
husband got the money to pay off the mortgage on this ranch."
The request seemed a very simple one to Echo. All the talk of
harming Jack, the high words, the threats, could be silenced
easily by her hero. Smiling into his eyes, Echo said: "Tell
them, Jack."
"I can't," he faltered.
"It was paid to him by a friend," bravely began Echo. "A friend
to whom he lent it some time ago."
Buck interrupted her explanation. "Then let him tell his
friend's name, and where we can find him." Turning to Jack, he
bullied: "Come on--what's his name?"
Jack closed his eyes to shut out the sight of his wife. In his
agony he clenched his fists, until his nails sank into the flesh.
"I can't tell you that," he cried, in misery.
"Of course he can't," sneered Buck, smiling evilly in his
triumph.
"He can't account for himself on the night of the weddin'; he
rides a pacin' horse--rode on that night; he gets three thousan'
dollars paid him, and he can't tell who paid it; what's the
verdict?" Buck did not wait for an answer. Raising his voice,
he shouted: "Guilty."
"Damn you," bellowed Sage-brush, lunging toward him, only to be
held in restraint by his associates.
"Jack! Jack! what have you to say?" begged Echo.
"Nothing," was his only answer.
"Tell him he lies!" cried Sage-brush. "Jack, we all know you--
you're as white a man as ever lived, an' they ain't one of this
outfit that ain't ready to die for you right now--"
"You bet!" chorused his men.
"He ain't goin' to get off like that," declared Buck. Looking
confidently at his own followers, he said: "The Lazy K can take
care of him."
Buck's men moved closer to him, preparing to draw their guns, if
need be, and open fire on Jack's defenders.
"Look out, boss!" warned Sage-brush, at the hostile movement of
Buck and his punchers.
"Hold on!" drawled the Sheriff, who, as the danger grew more
real, became more deliberate in his movements. "They ain't goin'
to be nothin' done here unless it's done in the law--you all know
me, boys--I'm the sheriff--this man's my prisoner." Pointing to
Jack, he added: "There ain't nobody goin' to take him from me--
an' live."
Buck saw Jack slipping from his clutches. "You're not goin' to
be bluffed by one man, are you, boys?"
"No," his punchers answered in unison, crowding toward Jack, who
held up his hand and cried: "Stop! I want a fair deal, and I'll
get it."
"I'll settle this thing all right. All I ask is a few words
alone with my wife."
Jack clasped Echo to his breast as he begged this boon from the
men who sought his life.
"No!" blustered Buck.
"Yes," ordered Slim quietly but emphatically. "Payson--you'll
give me your word you won't try to escape?"
"Yes," agreed Jack.
"His word don't go with us," shouted Buck.
Slim laid his hand on the butt of his revolver, ready to draw, if
necessary, to enforce his command. Buck saw the movement, and
shouted to him: "Keep your hand away from that gun, Sheriff. You
know I am quick on the draw." He significantly fingered his
holster as he spoke.
"So I've heard tell," agreed Slim, hastily withdrawing his hand
from his revolver.
Slim appeared to agree to the surrender of Jack to Buck and his
punchers, permitting them to deal with him as they saw fit. He
fumbled in his left-hand waistcoat pocket, pulling out a bag of
tobacco and a package of rice paper. Ostentatiously he began to
roll a cigarette. Then, with the quickness of a cat, his left
hand was plunged in the inside right-hand pocket of his
waistcoat. Grasping a revolver by the muzzle he deftly jerked it
upward, and seized the handle in its flight. He covered Buck
McKee before that worthy realized what had happened. With his
right hand Slim pulled the weapon which swung at his hip, and
aimed it at the other boys of the Lazy K. The guns moved up and
down the line, backed by the Sheriff's usually mild blue eyes,
coldly steady now at the call to battle.
"I'll give you a lesson in pullin' guns, though," he declared,
his voice as steady as his hands. "Don't move, Buck," he warned,
as McKee wavered. "Nor any others of you. I'm playin' this hand
alone. Buck McKee, you've been flirtin' with a tombstone for
some time. Hands up, gents," he ordered, raising the pistols
significantly.
"I said GENTS," he repeated, when Buck McKee did not obey him
with alacrity. The balked leader of the Lazy K outfit
reluctantly held his hands aloft.
"Sage-brush!" called Slim.
"Here," answered the foreman, covering a man with his revolver.
"Parenthesis!" summoned the Sheriff.
"Here," the man of the bowlegs replied, as he drew his gun.
"Me, too," cried Fresno, while Show Low came to the front with
"An' likewise here."
When the Lazy K outfit was thoroughly under subjection, Slim
stepped forward and said: "Now, gentlemen, if you please. You
see, this yere's my party an' I regalate it my way. Jack here
gave his word to stay and face this thing out. He's a-goin' to
do it. I'm responsible for him--Sage-brush, you will collect at
the door sech articles of hardware as these gentlemen has in
their belts--I deputize you. Gents, as you walk out the do', you
will deposit yo' weapons with Mr. Sage-brush Charley--the same to
be returned to you when the court sees fit and proper."
"You ain't goin' to let him--" Buck did not finish the sentence,
for Slim, thoroughly aroused, shouted: "Buck McKee, if you say
another word, I'm goin' to kill you. Gents, there's the door--
your hosses are in the corral--get."
Preceded by some of the Sweetwater boys, the Lazy K outfit filed
out, Sage-brush taking their guns as they passed him. Fresno and
Parenthesis brought up the rear.
"He needn't think he'll escape. We're bound to have him,"
declared Buck.
"Are you goin'?" demanded Slim, his voice full of menace.
"Can't you see me?" sneered Buck.
Sage-brush relieved him of his gun as he passed, handing it to
Fresno. Buck paused in the doorway long enough to lament: "Talk
of hospitality. I never get in but what I am put out."
Slim watched McKee from the window until he disappeared through
the gate of the corral. Then walking down to Jack, he took him
by the hand.
"It'll be all right in an hour--thank you, boys," Payson assured
them.
"We all know you are the whitest man on the Sweetwater," assured
Sage-brush, speaking for the punchers, as they left Jack a
prisoner with Slim.
Speaking in a low tone, Jim asked Jack: "Where did you get that
money?"
"Don't you know?" he asked, in surprise.
"From--"
Jack nodded his head.
"I'll wait for you in the other room," said Slim.
"Maw, Polly, we all better leave 'em alone."
As the woman and the girl left the room, the old ranchman paused
at the doorway, leading to the kitchen, to advise his son-in-law
earnestly: "I 'low you better tell her; it's best."
The two young people were left alone in the room in which they
had passed so many happy hours to face a crisis in their lives.
The day which had begun sunnily was to end in darkest clouds. The
awful accusation was incredible to Echo. Her faith in her
husband was not shaken. Jack, she felt, could explain. But, no
matter what the outcome might be, she would be loyal to the man
she loved. On this point she was wholly confident. Had she not
pledged her faith at the marriage altar?
"Jack?" a volume of questions was in the word. Taking her hands
in his and looking searchingly in her eyes, he said:
"Before I tell you what's been on my mind these many weeks--I
want to hold you in my arms and hear you say: "Jack, I believe
in you."
Echo put her arms about his neck and, nestling close to his
breast, declared: "I do believe in you--no matter what
circumstances may be against you. No matter if all the world
calls you guilty--I believe in you, and love you."
Jack seated himself at the table, and drew his wife down beside
him. Putting his arms about her as she knelt before him, he
murmured: "You're a wife--a wife of the West, as fair as its
skies and as steadfast as its hills--and I--I'm not worthy--"
"Not worthy--you haven't--it isn't--" gasped Echo, starting back
from him, thinking that Jack was about to confess that under some
strange stress of circumstances he had slain the express-agent.
"No, it isn't that," hastily answered Jack, with a shudder at the
idea. "I've lied to you," he simply confessed.
"Lied to me--you?" cried Echo, in dismay.
"I've been a living lie for months," relentlessly continued Jack,
nerving himself for the ordeal through which he would have to
pass.
"Jack," wailed Echo, shrinking from him on her knees, covering
her face with her hands.
"It's about Dick."
Echo started. Again Dick Lane had arisen as from out the grave.
"What of him?" she asked, rising to her feet and moving away from
him.
"He is alive."
Jack did not dare look at his wife. He sat with his face white
and pinched with anguish.
The young wife groaned in her agony. The blow had fallen. Dick
alive, and she now the wife of other man? What of her promise?
What must he think of her?
"I didn't know it until after we were engaged," pursued Jack;
"six months. It was the day I questioned you about whether you
would keep your promise to Dick if he returned. I wanted to tell
you then, but the telling meant that I should lose you. He wrote
to me from Mexico, where he had been in the hospital. He was
coming home--he enclosed this letter to you."
Jack drew from his pocket the letter which Dick enclosed in the
one which he had sent Jack, telling of his proposed return.
She took the missive mechanically, and opened it slowly.
"I wanted to be square with him--but I loved you," pleaded Jack.
"I loved you better than life, than honor--I couldn't lose you,
and so--"
His words fell on unheeding ears. She was not listening to his
pleadings. Her thoughts dwelt on Dick Lane, and what he must
think of her. She had taken refuge at the piano, on which she
bowed her head within her arms.
Slowly she arose, crushing the letter in her hand. In a low,
stunned voice she cried: "You lied to me."
Jack buried his face in his hands. "Yes," he confessed. "He
came the night we were married. I met him in the garden. He
paid that money he had borrowed from me when he went away."
Horror-struck, Echo turned to him. "He was there that night?"
she gasped. "Oh, Jack. You knew, and you never told me. I had
given my word to marry him--you, knowing that, have done this
thing to me?" Her deep emotion showed itself in her voice. The
more Jack told her the worse became her plight.
"I loved you." Jack was defending himself now, fighting for his
love.
"Did Dick believe I knew he was living?" continued the girl
mercilessly.
"He must have done so."
"Jack! Jack!" sobbed Echo, tears streaming down her face.
"What could I do? I was almost mad with fear of losing you. I
was tempted to kill him then and there. I left your father to
guard the door--to keep him out until after the ceremony."
Jack could scarcely control his voice. The sight of Echo's
suffering unmanned him.
"My father, too," wailed Echo.
"He thought only of your happiness," Jack claimed.
"What of my promise--my promise to marry Dick? Where is he?"
moaned the girl.
"He's gone back to the desert."
Over her swept the memory of the terrible dream. Dick dying of
thirst in the desert, calling for her; crushed to the earth by
Jack after battling the awful silence. She moved to the middle
of the room, as if following the summons.
"The desert, my dream," she whispered, in awe.
"He is gone out of our lives forever," cried Jack, facing her
with arms outstretched.
"And you let him go away in the belief that I knew him to be
living?" accused the wife.
"What will not a man do to keep the woman he loves? Dick Lane
has gone from our lives, he never return," argued Jack.
"He must," screamed Echo. "There is a crime charged against
you--he must return to prove your story as to the money--He must
know through your own lips the lie that separated us."
"You love him--you love him." Jack kept repeating the words,
aghast at the knowledge that Echo seemed to be forcing upon him.
"Bring him back to me." Firmly she spoke.
Jack gazed at her in fear. Chokingly he cried again: "You love
him!"
"I don't know. All I know is that he has suffered, is suffering
now, through your treachery; bring him back to me, that I may
stand face to face with him, and say: 'I have not lied to you, I
have not betrayed your trust.'"
"You love him," he repeated.
"Find him--bring him back."
Jack was helpless, speechless. Echo's attitude overpowered him.
The wife staggered again to the piano, slowly sinking to the
seat. She had turned her back on him. This action hurt him more
than any word she had spoken. Her face was buried in her hands.
Deep sobs shook her shoulders.
Jack followed her, to take her again in his arms, but she made no
sign of forgiveness. Turning, he strode to the rack, and took
down his hat and cartridge-belt. Picking up his rifle, he firmly
declared: "I will go. I'll search the plains, the mountains,
and the deserts to find this man. I will offer my life, if it
will serve to place the life you love beside you. Good-bye."
The sound of the closing of the door roused Echo to a full
realization of what she had done. She had driven the one man she
really loved out of her life; sent him forth to wander over the
face of the earth in search of Dick Lane, for whom she no longer
cared. She must bring her husband back. She must know that he
alone had her heart in his keeping.
"No, no, Jack--come back!" she called. "I love you, and you
alone--come back! come back!"
Before she could throw open the door and summon him back to
happiness and trust, Bud, who had heard the full confession from
the room in which he had taken refuge when he thought Buck would
throw the blame on Jack, caught her by the arm.
"Stop!" he commanded.
"Bud Lane!" exclaimed Echo, "you have heard--"
"I've heard--my brother--he is alive!"
Bud spoke rapidly. His belief was confirmed. He would have full
revenge for what his brother had suffered at Payson's hands.
To Echo's plea of "Don't stop me I" he shouted: "No!" and caught
the young wife, and pulled her back from the doorway. Echo
struggled to free herself, but the young man was too strong.
"He had ruined Dick's life, stolen from him the woman he loved,"
he hissed in her ear.
"Jack! Jack!" was her only answer.
"No, he sha'n't come back--let him go as he let my brother go,
out of your life forever."
"I can't--I can't. I love him!"
Throwing Bud off, she ran to the door. Bud pulled his revolver,
and cried: "If he enters that door I'll kill him."
Outside Echo heard Jack inquiring: "Echo! Echo! you called me?"
Echo laid her hand on the knob to open the door, when she heard
the click of the pistol's hammer as Bud raised it.
With a prayer in her eyes, she looked at the young man. He was
obdurate. Nothing could move him.
Turning, she shrieked: "No, I did not call. Go! in God's name,
go!"
"Good-bye!" was Jack's farewell. The rapid beat of horse's hoofs
told of his mounting and riding away.
"Gone. Oh, Bud, Bud, what have you done?"
"I should have killed him," was Bud's answer, a gazed after the
retreating form galloping down trail.
Mrs. Allen, hearing Echo's calls, hastened in from the kitchen.
She found her daughter sobbing at the table. "What is the
matter, child?"
Then, turning to Bud, she fiercely demanded of him: "What have
you been saying to her?"
"Nothin'," he replied, as he left the house.
"Oh, mother, mother!" wailed Echo. "Jack--I have sent him away."
"Sent him away," repeated the startled Mrs. Allen.
"Yes," assured Echo.
"You don't mean to say he is guilty--you don't mean--"
"No, no!" interrupted Echo. "Oh, I never thought of that--he
must come back--call Dad, call Slim."
Echo had forgotten Jack's promise to Slim. He, too, in his
period of stress had overlooked the fact that he was a suspected
murderer. Now he had fled. He must be brought back to clear his
good name.
Mrs. Allen called her husband and the Sheriff into the room.
"What's the row?" shouted the Sheriff.
"Jack's gone," cried Mrs. Allen.
In amazement the two men could only repeat the news, "Gone!"
"Gone where?" crisply demanded the Sheriff.
"Don't stand there starin'; do something," scolded Mrs. Allen.
"He gave me his word to stay and face this thing out," shouted
the bewildered Slim.
"It's all my fault. I sent him away." Echo seized Slim's hand
as she spoke.
"You sent him away?"
She fell on her knees before him. Lifting her hands as in
prayer, she implored: "I never thought of his promise to you. He
never thought of it. Go find him--bring him back to me!"
"Bring him back?" howled the excited Sheriff, his eyes bulging,
his cheeks swelling, his red hair bristling, and his voice
ringing in its highest key. "Bring him back? You just bet I
will. That's why I'm sheriff of Pinal County."
Slim whirled out of the door as if propelled by a gigantic blast.
Echo fell fainting at her mother's feet.
CHAPTER XII
The Land of Dead Things
Forth to the land of dead things, through the cities that are
forgotten, fared Dick Lane. Tricked by his friend, with the
woman he loved lost to him, he wandered onward.
Automatically he took up again his quest for buried treasure.
That which in the flush of youthful enthusiasm and roseate
prospects of life and love had seized him as a passion was now a
settled habit. And fortunately so, for it kept him from going
mad. He had no thought of gain--only the achievement of a
purpose, a monomania.
With this impulse was conjoined a more volitional motive--he
wished to revenge himself upon the Apaches, and chiefly upon the
renegade McKee, whom he supposed still to be with them. Somehow
he blamed him, rather than Jack Payson, as being the chief cause
of his miseries. "If he had not stolen the buried gold, I would
have returned in time," he muttered, "He is at the bottom of all
this. As I walked away from Jack in the garden, I felt as if it
was McKee that was following me with his black, snaky eyes."
Accordingly, Dick directed his way to a region reputed to be both
rich in buried treasure and infested by hostile Indians.
The fable of the Quivira, the golden city marked now by the ruins
of the Piro pueblo of Tabiri, south of the salt-deposits of the
Manzano, is still potent in Arizona and New Mexico to lure the
treasure-seeker. Three hundred and fifty years ago it inspired a
march across the plains that dwarfs the famous march of the
Greeks to the sea. It led to the exploration of the Southwest
and California before the Anglo-Saxon settlers had penetrated
half a hundred miles from the Atlantic coast. The cities are
forgotten to-day. The tribe which gave it a name proved to be
utter barbarians, eaters of raw meat, clad only in skins, without
gold, knowing nothing of the arts; Teton nomads, wandering
through Kansas. Yet each decade since witnesses a revival of a
wonderful story of the buried treasures of the Grand Quivira.
The myth originated in New Mexico in 1540. Antonio de Mendoza
was the viceroy of New Spain. Having practically conquered the
New World, the adventurers who formed his court, having no
fighting to do with common enemies, began to hack each other.
Opportunely for the viceroy, Fra Marcos discovered New Mexico and
Arizona. Gathering the doughty swordsmen together, Mendoza
turned them over to the brilliant soldier and explorer, Francisco
Vasquez de Coronado, with strict orders to get them as far from
the viceroy as he could, and then lose them.
Coronado and his band were the first to see the Grand Canon of
the Colorado. In the latter weeks of 1540 they were in the town
of Tiguex. As they were less welcome than the modern tourists,
who are now preyed upon where these preyed, the natives sent them
on to the pueblo of the Pecos. Mendoza had sent Coronado into
New Mexico on the strength of the trimmings of the myth of the
"Seven Cities of Cibola." The fabled cities of gold proved to be
peaceful settlements. Coronado attempted to lose his cut-throats
by having them settle in the country. A plains Indian, captive
among the Pecos, changed his plans, and led him to undertake his
wonderful march. The Pecos wished to get rid of the guests, so
they concocted a marvelous story of buried treasures, and made
the poor captive father it. To the gold-chasers the captive was
known as "The Turk," his head being shaven and adorned only with
a scalp-lock, a custom noticeable because of its variance from
that of the long-haired Pueblos.
"The Turk" told of a tribe of plainsmen who had a great store of
the yellow substance. They were called the Quivira. He would
lead them to the ancient Rockefellers. Coronado put him at the
head of his band, and followed him eastward over the plains. For
months they plodded after him, the Indian trying to lose
Coronado, and that valiant warrior endeavoring to obey orders to
"shake" his band. About the middle of what is now the Indian
Territory, Coronado began to suspect that "The Turk" was selling
him a gold brick instead of a bonanza. Landmarks began to look
strangely alike. "The Turk," as he afterward confessed, was
leading them in a circle. Coronado sent the most of his band
back to the Mexican border, retaining about thirty followers.
With the help of heated bayonets and sundry proddings, he then
impressed upon "The Turk" that it was about time for him to find
the Quiviras, or prepare to go to the happy hunting-grounds of
his ancestors. After many hardships, "The Turk" located the
tribe they were seeking near the present site of Kansas City. All
that Coronado found in the way of metal was a bit of copper worn
by a war-chief. Not only was the bubble burst, but the bursting
was so feeble that Coronado was disgusted. He beheaded the guide
with his own hands as a small measure of vengeance. With his
followers he retraced his weary road to Tiguex. The lesson
lasted for half a century, when the myth, brighter, more alluring
than ever, arose and led others on to thirsty deaths in the bad
lands and deserts of the Southwest.
It was to the modern version that Lane had succumbed. From the
Sweetwater he roved to the south of Albuquerque, where the narrow
valley of the Rio Grande is rimmed on the east by an arid plateau
twenty miles wide; and this is, in turn, walled in by a long
cordillera. Through the passes, over the summit, Lane climbed,
descending through the pineries, park-like in their grandeur and
immensity, to the bare, brown plains which stretch eastward to
the rising sun. In the midst of the desert lies a chain of
salines, accursed lakes of Tigua folk-lore. Beyond them the
plain melts and rebuilds itself in the shimmering sun.
To the south and southeast spectral peaks tower to the clouds.
Northward the blue shadows of the Sante Fe fall upon the
pine-clad foot-hills.
Along the lower slopes of the Manzano are the ruins of the
ancient pueblos. Abo and Cuarac are mounds of fallen buildings
and desert-blown sand. Solemn in their grandeur, they dominate
the lonely landscape in a land of adobe shacks.
Thirty miles from Cuarac, to the southeast, lies Tabiri, the
"Grand Quivira." Huddled on the projecting slopes of the rounded
ridges, access to it is a weary, dreary march. The nearest water
is forty miles away. Toiling through sand ankle-deep, the
traveler plods across the edge of the plains, through troughlike
valleys, and up the wooded slope of the Mesa de los Jumanos. A
mile to the south a whale-back ridge springs from the valley,
nosing northward.
No sound breaks the stillness of the day. From the higher ridges
the eye falls upon the pallid ghost of the city. Blotches of
juniper relieve the monotony of the brown, lifeless grass. Grays
fade into leaden hues, to be absorbed in the ashy, indeterminate
colors of the sun-soaked plains. No fitter setting for a
superstition could be found. Once a town of fifteen hundred
inhabitants, the topography of ridge gave it an unusual shape.
Ruins of three four-story terrace houses face one another across
narrow alleys. Six circular cisterns yawn amid mounds of fallen
walls. At the center of the southerly blocks towers a gray
quadrangular wall, the last of a large building. At the western
terminus of the village, where the slope falls away to the
valley, is a gigantic ruin. Its walls are thirty feet high and
six feet thick. The roof has fallen, and the topmost layers of
the bluish-gray limestone are ragged and time-worn.
The building had a frontage of two hundred and two feet, and its
greatest depth was one hundred thirty-one feet. Flat-faced
prisms, firmly laid in adobe mortar, are placed at irregular
intervals in the walls.
The northern part of the ruin is one great cross-shaped room,
thirty-eight feet wide and one hundred and thirty-one feet long.
A gate fifteen feet wide and eleven feet high opens to the
eastward. A mighty timber forms an arch supporting fifteen feet
of solid masonry.
South of this is a great chamber cut up into smaller rooms, with
long halls, with walls twenty feet in height. In one of the
rooms is a fireplace, and over the doorways are carved wood
lintels. An entrance from the south is given through a spacious
antechamber. The rafters, hauled fifteen miles, must have
weighed a ton.
Here lies the Colchis of the modern Argonaut. At first the
Mexican pried through the debris-choked rooms, or feebly tunneled
under the walls. With the coming of the white races and the
drill, holes have been sunk into the original bed-rock. To the
simple stories of the natives, fable-bearers have added maps,
dying confessions, and discovered ciphers.
This ruin, which has caused so many heart-breaks and
disappointments, are but the fragments of an old mission founded
by Francisco de Atevedo in 1628. Tabiri was to be the central
mission of Abo and Cuarac. The absence of water leads the modern
explorer to believe that when the town was deserted the spring
was killed. The gentle fathers who built the church supervised
the construction of a water-works. On a higher ride are three
crudely made reservoirs, with ditches leading to the village. The
Piros had no animals save a few sheep, and the water supply was
needed only for domestic uses, as the precipitation furnished
moisture for small crops of beans and corn.
All these towns were wiped out by the Apaches, the red plague of
the desert. First they attacked the outlying forts of the
Salines, once supposed to be well-watered, teeming with game, and
fruitful. Tradition again takes the place of unrecorded history,
and tells that the sweet waters were turned to salt, in
punishment of the wife of one of the dwellers in the city, who
proved faithless. In 1675 the, last vestige of aboriginal life
was wiped out. For a century the Apaches held undisputed control
of the country; then the Mexican pioneer crept in. His children
are now scattered over the border. The American ranchman and
gold-seeker followed, twisting the stories of a Christian
conquest into strange tales of the seekers of buried treasures.
Through this land Dick had wandered, finding his search but a
rainbow quest. But he kept on by dull inertia, wandering
westward to Tularosa, then down to Fort Grant, and toward the
Lava Beds of southwestern Arizona. In all that arid land there
was nothing so withered as his soul.
Jack, well mounted, with a pack-mule carrying supplies, had
picked up Dick's trail, after it left Tularosa, from a scout out
of Fort Grant.
Slim Hoover headed for Fort Grant in his search for Jack.
Although the ranchman had only a brief start of him, Slim lost
the track at the river ford. Knowing Dick had gone into the
desert, Jack headed eastward, while Slim, supposing that Jack was
breaking for the border to escape into a foreign country turned
southward.
From the scout who had met Jack and Dick, the Sheriff learned
that the two men were headed for the Lava Beds, which were
occupied by hostile Apaches.
Detachments of the 3d Cavalry were stationed at the fort, with
Colonel Hardie in command of the famous F troop, a band of Indian
fighters never equaled. In turn, they chased Cochise, Victoria,
and Geronimo with their Apache warriors up and down and across
the Rio Grande. Hard pressed, each chieftain, in turn, would
flee with his band first to the Lava Beds, and then across the
border into Mexico, where the United States soldiers could not
follow. Hardie fooled Victoria, however. Texas rangers had met
the Apache chief in an engagement on the banks of the Rio Grande.
Only eight Americans returned from the encounter. Hardie took up
his pursuit, and followed Victoria across the river. The Indians
had relaxed their vigilance, not expecting pursuit and despising
the Mexican Rurales. Troop F caught them off guard in the
mountains. The fight was one to extermination. Victoria and his
entire band were slain.
This was the troop which was awaiting orders to go after the
Apaches.
Colonel Hardie told Slim that the Indians were bound to head for
the Lava Beds. If the men for whom he was looking were in the
desert, the troops would find them more quickly than Slim and his
posse.
Slim waited at Fort Grant for orders, writing back to Sage-brush,
telling him of his plans.
Fort Grant followed the usual plan of all frontier posts. A row
of officers' houses faced the parade-grounds. Directly opposite
were the cavalry barracks fort. On one side of the quadrangle
were the stables, and the fourth line consisted of the
quartermaster's buildings and the post-trader's store. Small
ranchmen had gathered near the fort for protection, and because
of the desire of the white man for company. In days of peace
garrison life was monotonous. But the Apaches needed constant
watching.
As a soldier, the Apache was cruel and cowardly. He always
fought dismounted, never making an attack unless at his own
advantage. As infantryman he was unequalled. Veteran army
officers adopted the Apache tactics, and installed in the army
the plan of mounted infantry; soldiers who move on horseback but
fight on foot detailing one man of every four to guard the
horses. Methods similar to those used by the Apaches were put
into use by the Boers in the South African War.
Indeed, the scouting of these Dutch farmers possessed many of the
characteristics of the Apaches. So, too, the Japanese soldiers
hid from the Russians with the aid of artificial foliage in the
same way that an Indian would creep up on his victim by tying a
bush to the upper part of his body and crawling toward him on his
knees and elbows.
Mounted on wiry ponies inured to hardships, to picking up a
living on the scanty herbage of the plains, riding without
saddles, and carrying no equipment, the Indians had little
trouble in avoiding the soldiers. Leaving the reservation, the
Apaches would commit some outrage, and then, swinging on the arc
of a great circle, would be back to camp and settled long before
the soldiers could overtake them. Hampered by orders from the
War Department, which, in turn, was molested by the sentimental
friends of the Indians, soldiers never succeeded in taming the
Apache Crook cut off communications and thrashed them thoroughly
in these same Lava Beds that they never recovered.
In Slim's absence, Buck McKee and his gang had taken possession
of Pinal County. Rustlers and bad men were coming in from Texas
and the Strip. Slim's election for another term was by no means
certain. He did not know this, but if he had, it would not have
made any difference to him. He was after Jack, and, at any cost,
would bring him back to face trial. The rogues of Pinal County
seized upon the flight of Jack as a good excuse to down Slim. The
Sheriff was more eager to find Jack and learn from him that
Buck's charge was false than to take him prisoner. He knew the
accusation would not stand full investigation.
Slowly the hours passed until the order for "boots and saddles"
was sounded, and the troops trotted out of the fort gate. Scouts
soon picked up their trail, but that was different from finding
the Indians. Oft-times the troopers would ride into a hastily
abandoned camp with the ashes still warm, but never a sight of a
warrior could be had. Over broad mesas, down narrow mountain
trails, and up canons so deep that the sun never fully penetrated
them, the soldiers followed the renegades.
For a day the trail was lost. Then it was picked up by the print
of a pony's hoof beside a water-hole. But always the line of
flight led toward an Apache spring in the Lava Beds.
Slim and his posse took their commands from the officers of the
pursuers. The cow-punchers gave them much assistance as scouts,
knowing the country, through which the Indians fled. Keeping in
touch with the main command, they rode ahead to protect it from
any surprise. The chief Indian scout got so far ahead at one
time in the chase that he was not seen for two days. Once, by
lying flat on his belly, shading his eyes with his hands, and
gazing intently at a mountainside so far ahead that the soldiers
could scarcely discern it, he declared he had seen the fugitives
climb the trail. The feat seemed impossible, until the second
morning after, when the scout pointed out to the colonel the
pony-tracks up the Mountainside. The Apache scouts kept track of
the soldiers' movements, communicating with the main body with
blanket-signals and smoke columns.
The sign-language of the Indians of the South is an interesting
field of study. On the occasion of a raid like the one
described, the warriors who were to participate would gather at
one point and construct a mound, with as many stones in it as
there were warriors. Then they would scatter into small bands.
When any band returned to the mound, after losing a fight and the
others were not there, the leader would take from the mound as
many stones as he had lost warriors. Thus, the other bands, on
returning, could tell just how many men had fallen.
In the arid regions of the West, water-signs are quite frequent.
They usually consist of a grouping of stones, with a longer
triangular stone in the center, its apex pointing in the
direction where the water is to be found. In some cases the
water is so far from the trail that four or five of these signs
must be followed up before the water is found.
Only the Indian and the mule can smell water. This
accomplishment enabled the fleeing Apaches to take every
advantage of the pursuing troopers, who must travel from spring
to spring along known trails.
In the long, weary chase men and horses began to fail rapidly.
Short rations quickly became slow starvation fare. Hardie fed
his men and horses on mesquit bean, a plant heretofore considered
poisonous. For water he was forced to depend upon the cactus,
draining the fluid secreted at the heart of the plant.
With faces blistered by the sun and caked with alkali, blue
shirts faded to a purple tinge, and trousers and accouterments
covered with a gray, powdery dust, the soldiers rode on silently
and determinedly. Hour after hour the troop flung itself across
the plains and into the heart of the Lava Beds, each day cutting
down the Apache lead.
CHAPTER XIII
The Atonement
False dawn in the Lava Beds of Arizona. The faint tinge on the
eastern horizon fades, and the stars shine the more brilliantly
in the brief, darkest hour before the true daybreak. An icy wind
sweeps down canons and over mesas, stinging the marrow of the
wayfarer's bones. In the heavens, the innumerable stars burn
steadily in crystal coldness. Shadows lie in Stygian blackness
at foot of rock and valley. Soft and clear the lights of night
swathe the uplands. An awesome silence hangs over the desert.
Hushed and humbled by the immensity of space, one expects to hear
the rush of worlds through the universe. At times the bosom
swells with a wild desire to sing and shout in the glory of pure
living.
The day comes quickly; the sun, leaping edge of the world, floods
mesa and canon, withering, sparing no living thing, lavishing
reds and purples, blues and violets upon canon walls and
wind-sculptured rocks. But a remorseful glare, blinding,
sight-destroying, is thrown back from the sand and alkali of the
desert. Shriveled sage-brush and shrunken cactus bravely fight
for life.
A narrow pathway leads from the mesa down the canon's wall,
twisting and doubling on itself to Apache Spring. The trail then
moves southward between towering cliffs, a lane through which is
caught a far-distant glimpse of the mountains. Little whirlwinds
of dust spring up, ever and anon, twirling wildly across the
sandy wastes. The air suffocates, like the breath of a furnace.
Ever the pitiless sun searches and scorches, as conscience sears
and stings a stricken soul.
Down the narrow trail, past the spring, ride in single file the
Apaches, slowly, on tired horses, for the pursuing soldiers have
given them no halting space. Naked, save for a breech-clout,
with a narrow red band of dyed buckskin about his forehead, in
which sticks a feather, each rides silent, grim, cruel, a hideous
human reptile, as native to the desert as is the Gila monster.
The horse is saddleless. For a bridle, the warrior uses a piece
of grass rope twisted about the pony's lower jaw. His legs droop
laxly by the horse's sides. In his right hand he grasps his
rifle, resting the butt on the knee. The only sound to break the
stillness of the day is the rattle of stones, slipping and
sliding down the pathway when loosened by hoofs of the ponies.
Creeping down the canon wall, they cross the bottom, pass the
spring, and disappear at a turn in the canon walls. Nature and
Indian meet and merge in a world of torture and despair.
Dick had fared badly in the Lava Beds. One spring after the
other he found dry. His horse fell from exhaustion and thirst;
he ended the sufferings of his pack-mule with a revolver-bullet.
Dick staggered on afoot across the desert, hoping to find water
at Apache Spring. His blue shirt was torn and faded to a dingy
purple. Hat and shoulders were gray with alkali dust. Contact
with the rocks and cactus had rent trousers and leggings. His
shoes, cut by sharply pointed stones, and with thread rotted by
the dust of the deserts, were worn to shreds. Unshaven and
unshorn, with sunken cheeks and eyes bright with the delirium of
thirst, he dragged his weary way across the desert. He reached
Apache Spring shortly after the passage of the Indians, but
craving for water was so great that he did not observe their
trail.
Reeling toward the spring, he cast aside his hat and flung down
his rifle in his eagerness to drink. Throwing himself on his
face before the hollow in the rock from which the water trickled,
he first saw that the waters had dried up. With his bony fingers
he dug into the dry sand, crying aloud in despair. Stiffly he
arose and blundered blindly to a rock, upon which he sank in his
weakness.
"Another day like this and I'll give up the fight," he moaned.
"Apache Spring dry--the first time in years; Little Squaw Spring,
nothing but dust and alkali; it is twenty miles to Clearwater
Spring--twenty-miles--if I can make it."
Dick trembled with weakness. His swollen tongue clove to the
roof of his mouth. His lips were cracked and blackened. Bits of
foam flickered about the corners of his mouth. The glare blinded
his eyes, which were half-closed. At times fever-waves swept
over him; again he shuddered with cold.
Sounds of falling waters filled his ears. The sighing of the
wind through the canon walls suggested the trickling of
fountains. Rivers flowed before his eyes through green meadows,
only to fade into the desert as he gazed.
"What a land! what a land! It is the abode of the god of thirst!
He tempts men into his valley with the lure of gold, and saps the
life-blood from their bodies--drop by drop. Drop by drop I hear
it falling. No, it is water I hear! There it is! How cool it
looks!"
Dick rose and staggered toward the cliff. In his delirium of
thirst he saw streams of water gush down the mountainside.
Holding out his arms, he cried: "Saved, saved!"
His hands fell limply by his sides as the illusion faded. He
then doubled them into fists, and shook them at the cliff in a
last defiance of despair. "You sha'n't drive me mad!"
He seized his empty canteen, pressing it to his lips.
"No, I drained that two days ago--or was it three?" he whispered
in panic, as he threw it aside.
Picking up his gun, he falteringly attempted the ascent. "I
won't give up--I won't," he shouted huskily. "I've fought the
desert before and conquered. I'll conquer again--I'll--"
His will-power ebbed with his failing strength. Blindness fell
upon him. Oblivion swept over him. He sank, dying of thirst, in
the sands of the desert.
As the buzzard finds the dead, so an Apache crept upon Dick as he
lay prostrate. But as the Indian aimed, he heard footsteps from
a draw. He saw a man approaching the spring. Silently he fled
behind the rocks.
It was Jack. He had entered the Lava Beds from the east, closely
following the man for whom he had searched for so many weary
months. Others of the Apaches had marked him already. Knowing
he would go to the spring, they waited warily to learn if he were
alone. The band had scattered to surround him at the water-hole.
Jack's horse and burro, which he had left at the head of the
canon, were already in the Indians' possession. With him he
carried his rifle and a Colt revolver. A canteen of water was
slung over his shoulder. The desert had placed its stamp upon
him, turning his clothes to gray. The tan of his face was
deepened. Lines about the eyes and mouth showed how much he had
suffered physically and mentally in his search for the man he
believed was his successful rival in love. Reaching the spring,
he looked about cautiously before he laid down his Winchester. He
tugged at the butt of his revolver to make certain that it could
be pulled quickly from the holster. Taking off his hat, he knelt
to drink. He smiled, and confidently tapped his canteen when he
found the spring dry. He was raising his canteen to his lips
when he spied Dick's body.
Jumping behind a rock, he pulled his revolver, covering the
insensible man. It might be a trap. He scanned the trail, the
cliff, the canon. Hearing and seeing nothing, he slipped his
revolver into his holster and hurried to Dick's side. At first
he did not recognize him. The desert and thirst had wrought many
changes in his friend's face.
When recognition came, he threw his arms about the prostrate
form, crying: "Dick, at last, at last!"
His voice was broken with emotion. The search had been so long,
so weary, and the ending so sudden. He had found Dick, but it
looked as if he came too late.
Gathering Dick up in his arms, he raised him until his head
rested on his knees. Forcing open his mouth, he poured a little
water down his throat.
Then with a moistened handkerchief he wetted temples and wrists.
Slowly Dick struggled back to life.
"Water--water--it's water!" he gasped, struggling for more of the
precious fluid.
"Easy," cautioned Jack. "Only a little now--more when you're
stronger."
"Who is it?" cried Dick. Not waiting for Jack to enlighten him,
he continued: "No matter--you came in time. I couldn't have
held out any longer. All the springs are dry--I figured on
reaching Clearwater."
Jack helped Dick to his feet. Taking his stricken friend's right
arm, he drew it across his shoulders. With his left arm about
his waist, Jack led him to a seat upon a convenient rock.
"I came by Clearwater yesterday," explained Jack. "It is nothing
but mud and alkali."
"My horse dropped three days ago. I had to shoot the pack-mule.
I--" Dick opened his eyes under the ministrations of Jack.
Gazing upward into his face, he shouted joyfully:
"Why--it's Jack--Jack Payson."
"Didn't you know me, Dick?" asked Jack sympathetically.
"Not at first--my eyes went to the bad out yonder in the glare."
The effort had been too much for Dick. He sat weakly over Jack's
knees. Jack turned him partly on his back, and let more water
trickle down his throat.
Dick clutched madly at the canteen, but Jack drew it back out of
his reach. With his handkerchief he moistened lips and neck.
When Dick's strength returned, Jack helped him to sit up.
"I've been hunting you for months," he told him.
"Hunting for me?" echoed Dick.
"Yes," answered Jack. "I traced you through the Lost Cities,
then to Cooney, then up in the Tularosas. At Fort Grant they put
me on the right trail."
As the clouds break, revealing the blue of the heavens, so Dick's
memory came back to him. He shrank from the man at his side.
"Well?" he asked, as he stared at his betrayer.
Jack gazed fixedly ahead. He dared not look in the face of him
he had wronged so bitterly.
"She wants you," he said, in a voice void of all emotion.
"Who wants me?" asked Dick, after a pause.
"Echo."
"Your wife?" gritted Dick. He fingered his gun as he spoke.
Huskily Jack replied: "Yes."
Bitter thoughts filled the mind of one; the other had schooled
himself to make atonement. For the wrong he had done, Jack was
ready to offer his life. He had endured the full measure of his
sufferings. The hour of his delivery was at hand. Hard as it
was to die in the midglory of manhood, it was easier to end it
all here and now, than to live unloved by Echo, hated by Dick,
despised by himself.
"She sent me to find you. 'Bring him back to me.' That's what
she said," Jack cried, in his agony.
"Your wife--she said that?" faltered Dick.
Fiercely in his torture Jack answered: "Yes--my wife--my wife
said it. 'Bring him back to me.'"
"Back?" Dick paused. "Back to what?" he asked himself. "She's
your wife, isn't she?" he demanded.
"That's what the law says," answered Jack.
With the thought of the evening in the garden when he heard Jack
and Echo pronounced man and wife surging over him, Dick murmured:
"What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder."
"That's what the Book says," answered Jack. "But when hands
alone are joined and hearts are asunder, it can't go on record as
the work of God."
Dick bowed his head in his hands. "I don't understand."
Stubbornly Jack pursued his message to Dick. "She doesn't love
me. I thought I had won her, but she married me with your image
in her heart. She married me, yet all the while you were the man
she loved--you--you--and in the end I found it out."
Jack's voice sank almost into a whisper as he finished his
revelation to Dick, who raised his head and cried: "And yet she
broke her faith with me--"
Jack arose in his misery. His task was harder than he expected.
Dick was forcing him to tell all without concealing even the
smallest trifle of his shame.
"She thought--you were dead. I never told her otherwise. I lied
to her--I lied to her."
"She never knew?" asked Dick joyfully. "The letter--?"
"I never gave it to her," answered Jack simply.
Dick leaped to his feet, pulling his revolver from his holster.
"And I thought her false to her trust!" He aimed his gun at
Payson's heart. "I ought to kill you for this!"
Jack spread out his arms and calmly replied: "I'm ready."
Dick dropped his gun and slipped it into the holster with a
gesture of despair. "But it's too late now, too late!"
In his eagerness to tell Dick the way he had solved the problem,
Jack spoke nervously and quickly. "No, it isn't too late.
There's one way out of this--one way in which I can atone for the
wrong I've done you both, and I stand ready to make that
atonement. It is your right to kill me, but it is better that
you go back to her without my blood on your hands--"
"Go--back--to her?" questioned Dick, as the meaning of the phrase
slowly dawned upon him.
"Yes," said Jack, holding out his hands. "Go back with clean
bands to Echo Allen. It is you she loves. There's my horse up
yonder. Beyond, there're the pack-mule loaded with water and
grub. Plenty of water. We'll just change places, that's all.
You take them and go back to her and I'll stay here."
Dick walked toward the spring, but, a spell of weakness came over
him and he almost sank to the ground. Jack caught him and held
him up.
"It would be justice," muttered Dick, as if apologizing for his
acceptance of Jack's renunciation.
Leaning over his shoulder, Jack said: "Sure, that's it, justice.
Just tell her I tried to work it out according to my lights--ask
her to--forgive, to forgive, that's all."
Jack took off his canteen and threw the strap around Dick's neck.
As Lane weakly staggered toward the mouth of the canon, where the
horse had been staked out, Jack halted him with a request:
"There's another thing; I left home under a cloud. Buck McKee
charged me with holding up and killing 'Ole Man' Terrill for
three thousand dollars. Tell Slim Hoover how you paid me just
that sum of money."
"I will, and I'll fix the murder where it belongs, and then fix
the real murderer."
Jack stepped to Lane's side and, holding out his hand, said:
"Thank you. I don't allow you can forgive me?"
"I don't know that I could," coldly answered Dick.
"You'd better be going."
Again Dick started for the horse, but a new thought came to him.
Pausing, he said. "She can't marry again until--"
"Well?" asked Jack; his voice was full of sinister meaning, and
he fingered his gun as he spoke.
Dick realized at once that Jack's plan was to end his life in the
desert with a revolver-shot.
"You mean to--" he shuddered.
Jack drew his gun. "Do you want me to do it here and now?" he
cried.
Staggering over to him the weakened man grappled with his old
friend, trying to disarm him. "No, no, you sha'n't!" he shouted,
as Jack shook him free.
"Why not?" demanded Jack. "Go. There's my horse--he's yours--
go! When you get to the head of the canon, you'll hear and
know--know that she is free and I have made atonement."
"Why should I hesitate?" argued Dick with himself. "I wanted to
die. I came here in the desert to make an end of it all, but when
I met death face to face, the old spirit of battle came over me,
and fought it back, step by step. Now--now you come and offer me
more than life--you offer to restore to me all that made life
dear, all that you have stolen from me by treachery and fraud.
Why should I hesitate? She is mine, mine in heart, mine by all
the ties of love--mine by all its vows--I will go back, I will
take your place and leave you here--here in this land of dead
things, to make your peace with God!"
Beads of sweat broke out on Jack's forehead as he listened. He
bit his lips until they bled. Clenching his fingers until the
nails sank into the palms of his hands, he cried warningly in his
agony: "I wouldn't say no more, if I was you. Go--for God's
sake, go!"
Dick slowly moved toward the mouth of the canon, still
hesitating.
From the hillside a rifle-shot rang out. The ball struck Dick in
the leg. He fell, and lay motionless.
Pulling his revolver, Jack stooped and ran under the overhanging
ledge, peering about to see where the shot had come from. He
raised his gun to fire, when a volley of rifle-shots rang through
the canon, the bullets kicking up little spurts of dust about him
and chipping edges off the rocks. Jack dropped on his knees and
crept to his rifle, clipping his revolver back into his holster.
Crouching behind a rock with his rifle to his shoulder, he waited
for the attackers to show themselves.
Experience on the plains taught them that the fight would be a
slow one, unless the Apaches sought only to divert attention for
the time being to cover their flight southward. After the one
shot, which struck Dick, and the volley directed at Jack, not a
rifle had been fired. Peering over the boulder, Jack could see
nothing.
The Lava Beds danced before his eyes in the swelter of the
glaring sunshine. Far off the snow-capped mountains mockingly
reared their peaks into the intense blue of the heavens. Since
the attackers were covered with alkali-dust from the long ride, a
color which would merge into the desert floor when a man lay
prone, detection of any movement was doubly difficult. Behind
any rock and in any clump of sage-brush might lie an assailant.
Dick had fallen near the spring. He struggled back to
consciousness, to find his left leg numb and useless. When the
ball struck him he felt only a sharp pinch. His fainting was
caused by a shock to his weakened body, but not from fear or
pain. With the return to his senses came a horrible, burning
thirst, and a horrible sinking sensation in the pit of his
stomach. He lay breathing heavily until he got a grip on
himself. Then he tore the bandanna handkerchief from his neck
and bound up the wound, winding the bandage as tightly as his
strength permitted to check the blood-flow.
"What is it?" asked Jack, over his shoulder.
"Indians--the 'Paches are out. I'm hit," gasped Dick. He
crawled painfully and slowly to Jack's side, dragging his leg
after him. He pulled with him his rifle, which he picked up as
he passed from the spot where it had fallen in his first wild
rush for water.
"The soldiers told me at Fort Grant about the 'Paches being out,"
Jack whispered hoarsely. "I thought they'd crossed the border
into Mexico."
Seeing a spasm of pain sweep over Dick's face, he asked: "Are you
hurt bad?"
"I don't know. My left leg is numb."
Both men spoke scarcely above a whisper, fearing to betray their
positions by the sound of their voices. Dick lay on his back
gathering strength to ward off with rifle and revolver the rush
which would come sooner or later.
Jack caught the sound of a falling stone. Peering cautiously
over the rock, he saw an Indian creep up a draw toward them.
Throwing his rifle to his shoulder, he took quick aim and fired.
The Apache jumped to his feet, ran a few steps forward, and fell
sprawling. A convulsive shudder shook him, and he lay still.
"I got him!" cried Jack exultantly, as he saw the result of the
shot.
But the exposure of his head and shoulders above their barricade
had drawn forth more shots from other members of the band.
The bullets struck near the two men, showing that the Apaches had
the range.
Dick's wound was bleeding freely, but the shock of the blow had
passed away, and his strength returned. Drawing his revolver, he
crept closer to Jack, crying: "I can shoot some."
"I reckon you haven!t more than a flesh-wound," encouraged Jack.
"Can you crawl to the horse?"
"I think I can," answered Dick.
"Then go. Take the trail home. I'll keep these fellows busy
while you get away."
The Apaches were showing themselves more as they darted from rock
to rock, drawing closer to the entrapped men down the
boulder-strewn draws or ravines leading into the canon. An
Apache had crawled to the head of a draw, and crossed the butte
into a second ravine, which led to the trail down the cliffside.
On his belly he had wormed his way up the pathway until he
overlooked the rear of the defensive position the two men
occupied. Screened by a hedge he awaited a favorable shot.
Jack again cautiously raised his head and peered over the
barricade. Still not an enemy was in sight. As the Apaches had
ceased to fire, he knew they were gathering for another
simultaneous rush. The purpose of these dashes was twofold:
While one or two men might be killed in the advance, the whole
party was nearer the object of attack at the finish, and the
defenders were demoralized by the hopelessness of all resistance.
For the silent rising of naked, paint-daubed Indians from out of
the ground, the quick closing in of the cordon, similar to the
turn of a lariat around a snubbing-post when a pony weakens for a
moment, is calculated to shake the nerves of the strongest of
Indian-fighters.
In the breathing-space which the Apaches had given them Jack, who
had resigned himself to die, took a new grip on life. His dream
of atonement had worked out better than he had planned. Selling
his life bravely fighting in a good cause was far, far better
than ending it by his own hand. It was a man's death. Fate had
befriended him in the end.
Reaching his hand out to Dick, he touched his shoulder, rousing
him from a stupor into which he was sinking.
"Quick, Dick, they're coming closer. Go," he ordered. "Don't be
a fool, only one of us can escape. One of us alone. Let it be
you, Dick, go back to her, back to home and happiness."
Dick struggled to a sitting posture, offering a fair target for
the Indian hidden behind the ledge on the cliff trail. The
Apache took full advantage and fired, but missed. Dick returned
the shot with his revolver before the warrior could sink back
behind the rock. The Apache lurched forward in his
death-blindness, with the last convulsive obedience of the
muscles ere the will flees. Then his legs crumpled up beneath
him and he toppled forward off the ledge. His breech-clout
caught in a rocky projection, causing the body to hang headlong
against the side of the cliff. His rifle fell from his nerveless
hands, clattering and breaking on the rocks below.
The sight served as a tonic to Dick. His success braced his
strength and will. The old battle-spirit surged over him. Only
with an effort did he suppress the desire to laugh and shout. He
would have left Jack to fight it out alone but a minute before,
but the one shot drove all such ideas from his mind.
"No. I'll be damned if I'll go!" he shouted. "I'll stay and
fight with you," and, seizing his rifle joined Jack in stopping a
rush of the Apaches.
"We stopped them that time," Jack cried, with satisfaction. In
the lull he again urged his comrade to escape to the horse and
return to Echo. "Take the horse," he insisted. "Go while
there's a chance."
"No," shouted Dick determinedly. It was as much his fight as
Jack's now.
Jack thought more for Echo in that moment than he did for
himself. Here was the man she loved. He must go back to her.
The woman's happiness depended upon it. But Jack realized that
while he was alive, Dick would stay. One supreme sacrifice was
necessary.
"Go," he cried, "or I'll stand up and let 'em get me"
"No, we can hold them off," begged Dick, firing as he spoke.
Jack's hour had struck. It was all so supremely simple. There
were no waving flags, no cheering comrades. He was only one of
two men in the desert, dirty, grimy, and sweaty; his mouth dry
and parched, his eyes stinging from powder-fumes, his hands numb
from the effects of rapid firing. His mind worked automatically;
he seemed to be only an onlooker. The man who first fought off
the Apaches and who was now to offer himself as a sacrifice was
only one of two Jack Paysons, a replica of his conscious self.
Swiftly Jack Payson arose and faced the Indians.
"Good-bye!" he cried to his comrade.
Dick struggled to his feet and threw himself on Jack to force him
down behind the barricade. For a moment both men were in full
view of the Apaches. A volley crashed up and across the canon.
Both men fell locked in each other's arms, then lay still.
The Indians awaited the result of the shots. The strange actions
of the men might be only a ruse. Silence would mean they were
victorious.
Both Jack and Dick had been struck. Jack was the first to
recover. Reviving, he struggled out of the clasp of his
unconscious comrade. "He's hit bad," he said to himself, "and so
am I. I'll fight it out to the last, and if they charge they
won't get us alive."
Dick groaned and opened his eyes.
"I'm hit hard," he whispered, "you'd better go."
Jack was on his hands and knees crawling toward his rifle when
his comrade spoke.
"Listen," he replied. "We're both fixed to stay now, so lie
close. I'll hold 'em off as long as I can, but if they rush,
save one shot for yourself--you understand?"
"Yes, not alive!" answered Dick weakly, his voice thin and his
face ashen white with pain.
Jack reached the boulder, and with an effort raised himself and
peered over the edge.
"They're getting ready. Will you take my hand now?" he asked, as
he held it out to Dick.
"I sure will," his wounded comrade cried, grasping it with all
the strength he possessed.
Jack smiled in his happiness. He felt he had made his peace with
all men and at last was ready to meet death with a clear
conscience.
"It looks like the end. But we'll fight for it."
The shrill war-whoops of the Indians, the first sound they had
made in the fight, showed they felt confident of overcoming the
men in the next rush.
Jack and Dick had abandoned the rifles and were now fighting the
Indians off with their revolvers as they closed in on them.
Hardie had halted the night before at Clearwater Spring. Finding
it but mud and alkali, he had merely rested his men and horses
for a few hours, and then pushed on for Apache Spring, where he
hoped to strike water. The troop rode through the early morning
hours, full of grit, and keen to overtake the Apaches, traces of
whose flight were becoming more evident every mile. All
weariness had vanished. Even the horses felt there was something
in the air and answered the bugle-call with fresh vigor and go.
A scout first heard the firing at the spring. He did not wait to
investigate, knowing he could do nothing alone. The volleys, the
difference in the reports of the rifles, proved to him that one
party was firing Springfields and the other Winchesters. He knew
that the Apaches were being held off. Galloping back to the
troop, he reported the fight to its commander.
The bugles sounded. The horses were forced into a gallop. With
clashing accouterments and jingling spurs and bits, they dashed
across the mesa to the head of the trail. Here they met Slim
Hoover and his posse coming from an opposite direction.
The firing in the canon was more intermittent now. Dick and Jack
were saving their revolver-shots. The Indians were closing in
for the last rush.
Hardie dismounted his men and threw his troops as groups of
skirmishers down the draws leading into one side of the canon.
Slim and his posse were on the left flank, armed with revolvers.
Hardie, with a section, dashed down the trail.
They came upon the Apaches with the rush of a mountain torrent,
striking them in the front and on the flank. The cavalrymen
fired at will, each plunging from one cover to another as he
picked out his man.
The Indians, for a few moments, replied shot for shot. Their
stand was a short one, however, and they began to fall back.
Slim entered the canon at the head of the scouts, driving the
Apaches before him. Both Jack and Dick had fallen. Across the
bodies a wave of the battle flowed.
Once the Indians rallied, but so sudden was the attack, so
irresistible the forward dash of the cavalrymen, that they became
discouraged, and broke and fled toward their horses, with the
soldiers in pursuit.
Slim hurried to Dick's side, seeing he was the worst hurt. As he
knelt beside him, the dying man opened his eyes and smiled.
Leaning over him, Slim heard him gently whisper: "Tell her I
know she was true, and not to mind."
With a deep sigh, his eyelids fluttered, and all was still.
The scouts had taken charge of Jack, who was unconscious, and
bleeding freely.
From the spring the fighting had drifted southward. Few of the
Indians reached the horses, and fewer still got away. Scattering
shots showed the hunt for those who fled on foot was still on.
Then soft and mellow over canon and mesa and butte floated the
bugle-call, recalling the cavalrymen to the guidon. Back they
came, cheering and tumultuous, only to be silenced by the
presence of their dead.
They buried Dick's body near the spring, and carved his name with
a cavalry saber on a boulder near-by.
At dawn the next day they began the long march back to Fort
Grant.
Slim took charge of Jack, nursing him back to life.
CHAPTER XIV
The Round-up
Much has been written of the passing of the cowboy. With the
fenced range, winter feeding,and short drives his occupation once
appeared to be gone. But the war of the sheep and cattlemen in
the Western States has recently caused the government to compel
the cattlemen to remove the fences and permit the herds of sheep
and cattle to range over public lands, and this means a return of
the regime of the cowboy, with its old institutions.
Chief among these is the round-up.
A sheepman can shear wherever he happens to be. He can entrain
at the nearest shipping-point to his grazing-bed. But a herd of
cattle will range four hundred miles in a season, so the
cattlemen will be forced to revive the round-up, and make the
long drives either back to the home ranch, or to the railroad.
More cowboys will have to be employed. All the free life of the
open will return. At work the cow-puncher is not of the
drinking, carousing, fight-hunting type; nor again is he of the
daring romantic school. He is a Western man of the plains. True,
after loading up his cattle and getting "paid off," he may spend
his vacation with less dignity and quiet than a bank clerk. But
after a year of hard work with coarse fare he must have some
relaxation. He takes what he finds. The cattle-towns cater to
his worst passions. He is as noisy in his spending as a college
boy, and, on the average, just as good natured and eager to have
a good time.
Only a man of tried and proved courage can hold his job. Skill
and daring are needed to handle the half-wild beasts of the
herds. The steer respects no one on foot, but has a wholesome
fear for a mounted man. Taken separately, neither man nor horse
has the smallest chance with range cattle, but the combination
inspires the fear noticeable among the Apaches for cavalryman as
compared with their contempt for foot-soldiers.
The longhorned steer will fight with the ferociousness of a
tiger. A maddened cow will attack even a man on horseback. The
most desperate battles of the range are with cows who have lost
their calves.
The cow-puncher first comes in contact with his cattle at the
round-up. The outfit consists of a foreman with eight men to
each thousand head as drivers. Each man has from six to ten
mounts. The broncos are only half-broken. But they follow a
steer like a terrier does a ball. They delight in the game as
much as a polo-pony.
A chuck-wagon accompanies each outfit. This is usually of the
United States Army type, solidly built and hauled by four mules.
The cook of the outfit is the driver. He has a helper, a
tenderfoot, or a boy learning the trade. In the field only the
bravest dares defy the cook. His word on the camp is law. All
the men are subject to his call. In the wagon are carried a
tent, the men's bedding, sleeping-bags, and stores consisting of
pork, navy beans, flour, potatoes, canned tomatoes, and canned
peaches. At the rear end of the wagon bed is a built-up
cupboard, the door of which can be lowered with straps to make a
table. Dishes, the lighter food supplies, and a small
medicine-chest are stored there. A water-barrel is strapped to
the side of the wagon. Enough fire-wood for emergency use is
packed under the driver's seat. No wagon is complete without a
bucket hanging from the axle.
The spare horses are driven with the herd, the men taking turns
at the task. At daybreak each morning the cowboys scatter from
the mess-wagon, riding up and down the draws and over the hills,
driving in the cattle for branding and the "cutting out," or
separating from the herd, of marketable beeves. These are known
as "dogies," "sea-lions," and "longhorns." The size as well as
the nickname depends upon the location of the range. The cattle
of the Sweetwater valley were smaller than the northern stock.
From four to six thousand were driven at a time. The calves are
lassoed and thrown, and the owner's brand is burned into the
hide, leaving a scar which, if the work is well done, will last
until the beef is sold. Branding is hard work. The dust, the
odor of burning flesh, the heat of the corral fire for heating
the irons, the bellowing of frightened mother cows, and the
bleating of the calves, the struggles with the victims, these try
men's strength and tempers severely. Once branded, the calf is
turned loose and not touched again until it is four years old and
ready for the market. Stray unbranded cattle over a year old are
known as "mavericks," and become the property of any person
branding them.
Having cut out the stock for the drive, a road mark, a
supplementary brand for identification burned into the hides. The
long march then begins.
A start is made usually in the late spring to reach the railroad
in the fall. The drive is as orderly as the march of an army.
By natural selection the leaders of the cattle take the head of
the herd. They are especially fitted for the place. The same
ones are found in the front every day, and the others fall into
position, so that throughout the drive the cattle occupy the same
relative position each day.
A herd of a thousand beef will stretch out for two miles. The
leaders are flanked by cowboys riding upon Mexican saddles with
high backs and pommels. The stirrups are worn long, the riders
standing in them in emergency. The Mexican is the only saddle
fitted for rough work. The cowboy's seat, his ease in the
saddle, would make a poor showing in a riding academy or in a
cavalry school. Yet the park rider and the soldier would be
helpless on the range. The cow-puncher of the plains and the
Cossack of the steppes are said to be the best riders in the
world, yet each has a different saddle and seat. An exchange of
equipment makes poor riders of both of them.
The cow-puncher of Texas and Arizona wears chaps of leather or
sheepskin to protect his legs from the mesquit-bushes or the
thorns of the cactus. These plants not being found in the
northern plains, chaps are not worn there. The cowboy wears a
handkerchief about the neck, not for protection from the sun, but
to cover the mouth while riding through sand and windstorms.
Flankers ride on each side of the herd at regular intervals. The
chuck-wagon and the spare horses follow far enough in the rear to
avoid the dust.
For the first few days the drives are long and hard, averaging
from twenty-five to thirty miles a day, until the cattle are well
tired. Then the pace is set at twelve to fifteen miles.
From dawn until noon the herd is allowed to water and graze along
the trail toward their destination. About noon they become
restive. The cowboys then drive them steadily forward for eight
or ten miles, until early evening, when they are halted for
another graze. As night falls they are turned into the bedding
grounds. The men ride slowly around the herd, crowding them into
a compact mass. As the circle lessens the beasts lie down to
rest and chew their cuds.
About midnight the cattle usually get up, stand a while, and then
lie down again, having changed sides. The night-guard slowly
circles the herd, the men relieving each other at stated
intervals.
On rainy, stormy nights, the guard has to double, as the cattle
are restless and easily stampeded. Under a clear sky, breathing
the bracing air of the plains, with the herd well in hand, the
day's work is a pleasant one. But in a steady downpour, with the
thunder rolling and the animals full of fear, the task is one to
tax the stoutest heart.
The cause of a stampede is always some trifle. A heavy clap of
thunder, a flash of lightning, the breaking of a stick, the howl
of a wolf, will start the herd off in a blind rush in any
direction, heedless of cliffs over which they may tumble, or of
rivers whose current will sweep hundreds of the frightened beasts
to death.
Once the cattle are off on a stampede, the cowboys ride
recklessly, madly to the head of the herd, getting to one side of
the leaders. With shouts and pistol-shots they turn the leaders
to one side, gradually at first, and then into the arc of a great
circle. Blindly racing after the leaders the other cattle
follow; and round they plunge until head and tail of the herd
meet, and "milling" begins. Any that fall are ground to death by
the hoofs of the others. This mighty grind continues until the
animals are exhausted or they have recovered from the fight.
To soothe the hysterical beasts, the men begin to sing. Any song
will do, but the drawling old hymn tunes of the Methodist
camp-meetings have the best effect. Ofttimes the more hysterical
members of the herd are shot, as a stampede means a great loss.
Animals that stampede once are prone to do it again. The
mingling of herds increases the danger. In old days the approach
of a herd of buffalo was sure to start a stampede among cattle.
Men were detailed to turn the shaggy monsters aside whenever they
came within hearing.
Rivers are crossed by one of the cow-punchers swimming his horse
in the lead and the other men driving the animals after him.
Once near the shipping-point, the herd is allowed to rest up and
fatten, while the owner makes his deal with the cattle-buyers of
Omaha or Chicago.
The animals are driven or decoyed into the cars, and the last
journey, to the packing-house, begins. Punchers accompany them
to feed and water the beasts on the trip. They help turn them
into the pens. One night in Chicago, one meal, a dinner ending
with a "Lillian Russell" (peaches or apple pie covered with
ice-cream) as dessert, and the punchers start West again to begin
anew the work of the fall roundup, which is on a smaller scale
than the spring one.
It is dawn in the valley of the Sweetwater. The spring rains
have freshened the verdure of the plain. Clumps of coarse grass
fringe the river's brink. Cacti and Spanish bayonets nod in the
morning breeze, which sweeps down from the mountains. Yucca
palms and sahuaroes glisten with the dew. In the distance rise
the foot-hills crowned with stunted live-oaks. On the horizon
tower the mountains, pine-clad to the timber-line, bare and
desolate above.
The outfit of Sweetwater Ranch has gathered for the round-up and
the drive to the railroad. In the absence of her husband, Echo
Payson had assumed complete charge of the ranch, and with, the
help of Sage-brush had carried on the work just as she thought
Jack would do, hoping against hope for his return in safety, and
hiding her sorrow from those about her.
Under a clump of cottonwood, a chuck-wagon has halted. Many of
the boys on the round-up are still asleep, the night herders
returning to camp. The cook has started his preparations for
breakfast. His wagon has a covered top like a prairie-schooner.
The tail-board has been lowered to form a table, supported by
rawhide straps. About him are scattered tin cups and kitchen
utensils. A thin spiral of smoke arises from the fire which has
been made in a shallow pit to prevent a spread of flames. The
flickering flashes illumine the cook's face as he bends over a
steaming pot of coffee, and reveal the features of Parenthesis.
Parenthesis is mixing dough in a dish-pan set on the tail-board.
Sage-brush kneels near him, putting on his spurs, preparatory to
saddling up as he goes on the first relief.
"Wake up Texas and the other boys, Fresno," ordered Sage-brush.
The Californian threw away the butt of his cigarette and shook
each man by the shoulder. With much yawning and rubbing of eyes
the men crawled from their sleeping-bags. Dashing cold water
into their faces from a basin beside the water-barrel, they drank
copiously of the coffee which Parenthesis poured out for them.
"Mostly all the boys are in now, ain't they?" asked Parenthesis,
looking about the group.
"Yep," answered Sage-brush, "we'll finish brandin' the calves
to-day. I reckon Fresno will have to take charge of the drive.
I can't leave the ranch until Jack gets back."
Show Low was the only sleeper who had not responded to
Parenthesis' call. That worthy walked over and gave him a kick
which brought forth a grunt but no other sign of an awakening.
Returning to the fire, Parenthesis took a tin cup and poured
himself out a cup of coffee.
"Heard any word from him yet?" he asked, as he gulped the
beverage.
"Nothin'," replied Sage-brush grimly. "Slim wrote from Fort
Grant he was on the trail, but the 'Paches were out an' they
wouldn't let him leave the fort till the soldiers went with him."
"Slim hadn't oughter gone and left things the way he did. Buck
McKee is gettin' a lot of bad men together, and 'lows he is goin'
to run for sheriff himself," growled Fresno.
"He's sure got a tough outfit with him; Slim being away ain't
doin' us any good. All the rustlers from Texas an' New Mexico
came trailin' into the country just as soon as they heard he was
gone. Won't surprise me if we have a run in with the bunch afore
we git through with this round-up."
"I got my eye on that Peruna," interjected Fresno.
"Peruna! who's he?" asked Texas.
"One of Buck's outfit," answered Fresno. "He is mighty slick
with the runnin'-iron and brandin' other folks' calves."
"We can't be too careful," warned Sage-brush. "Things is
strained to the bustin'-point, and any promise of gun-play is
goin' to set off a whole lot of fireworks.
Show Low was on the verge of waking up. This he did, by
gradually increasing the volume of each snore and breaking it off
with a whistle.
At the very moment Sage-brush suggested gunplay, Show Low snorted
his loudest.
"What's that?" asked Sage-brush, grabbing his revolver.
"Show Low. He's a regular brass band when he gets started--from
the big trombone down to the tin whistle," laughed Fresno.
"It's a wonder he can sleep alongside of that noise."
"He can't," Fresno volunteered. "He'll wake himself up in a
minute. He's off now."
The snores of Show Low grew more frequent until he climaxed his
accompaniment to sleep with one awful snort, which awakened him.
"Eh, what's that?" he yelled, as he bounded to a sitting posture.
"Didn't I tell you?" queried Fresno.
Sage-brush grinned and slowly arose, gathering up his saddle and
rope.
Swinging one over each arm, he started toward the corral, saying:
"Come on, boys, we got a lot to do to-day. Git your hosses."
The night riders, were coming into camp greeting their comrades
with grunts, or in a few words telling them what to guard against
in some particular part of the grazing herd.
The sun had risen. The cattle were on their feet browsing the
short, sweet grass, moving slowly toward the river.
"Work," growled Show Low, "darn me if I ain't commenced to hate
it."
Fresno picked up his saddle to follow his foreman, but paused
long enough to fire this parting shot at the cook: "Say,
Parenthesis, if them biscuits you're makin' is as hard as the
last bunch, save four of 'em for me. I want to shoe that pony of
mine."
Parenthesis threw a tin cup at Fresno, who dodged it. Punching
the dough viciously, he said: "Darn his housekeepin'. Gets a
feller's hands all rough,--it's enough to spile the disposition
of a saint."
His soliloquy was interrupted by Buck McKee riding up to the
wagon from Lazy K outfit, which was camping a mile below them.
"Hello, Cookie! How goes it?" was his greeting.
"You wind it up, and it goes eight days." Parenthesis bellowed,
his temper fast reaching the breaking-point.
"Jack Payson ain't back yet?" Buck asked, paying no attention to
the bad humor of Parenthesis.
"Not that I knows on."
The cook rolled the dough with elaborate care.
"Nor Hoover?"
"Ain't seen him," he replied curtly.
"Well, they ain't comin' back, either. They pulled it off pretty
slick on us fellers. Hoover he lets Payson go and makes a bluff
at chasin' after him. Then they gets off somewhere, splits up
the money, and gives us the laugh."
Parenthesis turned on him in anger and shouted: "'I'll bet my
outfit against a pair of green socks either one of 'em or both
will be back here before this round-up is over."
"You will, eh?" snarled Buck. "Well, we're just waitin' for
'em. We'll swing Payson so high he'll look like a buzzard, and
as for Hoover--well, he's served his last term as sheriff in this
yere county, you hear me shouting."
McKee cut his pony with his quirt and dashed away in time to
escape an unwelcome encounter with several members of the
Sweetwater outfit who were riding back to camp.
"S-t-a-y with him, Bud, s-t-a-y with him," shouted Parenthesis,
as the first of the cowboys pitched on a bucking horse past the
chuck-wagon, the rider using quirt and spurs until he got the
bronco into a lope. The other boys followed, each cayuse
apparently inventing some new sort of deviltry.
For two weeks before the round-up the outfit had been busting
broncos at the home ranch. Each morning at dawn they started,
working until the heat of the day forced them to rest. When the
temperature crawls to 104 in the shade, and the alkali-dust is so
thick in the corral that the hoofs raise a cloud in which horses
can hide themselves twenty feet away, when eyes smart and the
tongue aches in the parched mouth, it becomes almost impossible
to handle yourself, let alone a kicking, struggling bronco.
As one day is like another, and one horse differs from another
only in the order of his tricks to avoid the rope and the saddle,
a glimpse of the horsemanship of Bud Lane and his fellows will
serve as a general picture of life on any Western ranch.
The breaking of the ponies was the work of Bud Lane, who, through
the influence of Polly, had broken with McKee and returned to
work on Sweetwater Ranch in order to assist Echo, with whom he
had become reconciled on discovering that she had been loyal to
his brother even to the extent of sending her husband into the
desert to bring Dick back.
Bud was the youngest of the hands, but a lad born to the saddle
and rope. "Weak head and strong back for a horse-fighter" is a
proverb on the plains, and Bud had certainly acted the part.
Fresno and Show Low, with four flankers, had driven into the
corral a half-dozen horses untouched by man hands since the days
of colthood. A shout, a swing of a gate, and the beasts were
huddled in the round corral, trembling and snorting. This corral
has a circular fence slightly higher than a man's head with a
snubbing-post in the center.
While this is going on, Bud has laid out his cow-saddle,
single-rigged, his quirt, and pieces of grass rope for
cross-hobbling.
"Ready, Bud?" asks Sage-brush.
"Yep," he replies, as he drops into the corral.
Bud adjusts the hondo and loop of his lariat, keeping his eye on
the circling horses, and picking out his first victim. The rope
snakes through the air, and falls over the head of a pony.
Leaping, bucking, striking with his hoofs at the rope about his
neck, the horse fights and snorts. As the rope tightens,
shutting off his wind, he plunges less viciously.
Bud, with the help of Fresno and Show Low, takes a turn about the
snubbing-post, easing up the rope to prevent the horse from
breaking his neck when he falls.
The pony, with braced feet, hauls on the lariat, until choking,
it throws itself. Bud in a twinkling has his knee on the
bronco's neck. Grasping the under jaw, he throws the head up in
the air until the nose points skyward. The turn is slipped from
the post, and the noose is slackened and pulled like a bridle
over the animal's head, to be fastened curbwise to his under jaw.
Stunned and choked, the horse fights for breath, giving Bud time
to hobble his front feet and bridle it. Bud jumps aside as the
bronco struggles to his feet. But every move of the beast to
free itself results in a fall.
Meantime the hind foot has been noosed and fastened to the one in
front. Bud has cross-hobbled the horse, preparing it for the
saddle and the second lesson. Holding the pony by the reins and
rope, Bud, after many failures, throws a saddle-blanket across
its back. With one hand he must also toss a forty-pound saddle
into place. Every move Bud makes is fought by the bronco, every
touch of blanket resented. With his free hand, Bud must now slip
the latigo strap through the cinch-ring. Dodging, twisting,
struggling, covered with sweat, the horse foils Bud's quick
movements. Finally he succeeds, and with one tight jerk the
saddle is in place.
No time to think is given the beast. Fresno and Show Low remove
the hobbles, but Bud is twisting an ear to distract its
attention. This new torture must be met with a new defense, and
the horse is so dazed that it stands still to puzzle out the
problem.
This is what Bud has been waiting for. With the agility of a
cat, he swings himself into the saddle. The pony arches its back
like a bow-string, every muscle taut.
Bud jerks the reins. The horse moves forward, to find that its
legs are free. Up it goes in a long curve, alighting with his
four feet stiffly planted together. The head is down. Maddened
and frightened, the bronco bawls, like a man in a nightmare. Up
in air the animal goes again, drawing up its hind feet toward the
belly, as if it would scrape off the cinch-strap. The fore feet
are extended stiffly forward. Every time the bronco hits the
ground, the jar is like the fall of a pile-driver's weight. Bud
watches every move. When the feet hit the earth, he rises in
stirrups to escape the jolt. But always he is in the saddle, for
any unexpected move.
The horse rises on its hind legs to throw the rider. Should it
fall backward, the wind will be knocked of the animal, but Bud
will be out of the saddle before he strikes the ground, and into
it again before horse can struggle erect.
If it tries the trick again, Bud uses the quirt, lashing it about
the ears, the flanks, and under the belly. There is not a part
of the body into which the biting leather does not cut. Lashing
the flanks drives the horse forward.
The struggle has been going on for twenty minutes. Bud is
covered with sweat and dust. The horse has begun to sulk. It
will not respond to rein or quirt.
Now is the time for the steel. Bud drives the spurs deep into
its flanks. The horse plunges forward with a bounding leap.
Again the spurs rasp, and again it plunges. The bronco finds
that going ahead is the only way in which to avoid punishment.
Round and round the corral it gallops until exhausted. The sweat
is pouring off the brute in rivulets. It has taken Bud forty
minutes to give the first lesson. Easing up the bronco, Bud
swings out of the saddle, and then remounts. This is done a
half-dozen times, as the horse stands panting and blowing. Then,
with a quick movement, the saddle and bridle are flung against
the post. Bud pats the bronco on the neck and the flank, and
turns it loose for a second lesson in a couple of days. A third
will follow before the end of the week. Then he will saddle the
horses, unaided, ride them once or twice about the corral, and
finally let one of the hands give each the first lesson on the
open plains. This means a wild dash anywhere away from the
ranch. The rider must avoid holes in the ground, and keep up the
pace until the horse slows up on its own account. Four or five
of these lessons with a post-graduate course in dodging a waving
slicker, and Sage-brush will declare all of the broncos are
"plumb gentle."
The men were riding out their new string to-day. As each passed,
Parenthesis flung a jibe at him. He had resumed his bread-making
when Polly rode to the wagon.
"Hello, Parenthesis!" was her greeting. "What's the matter with
you?"
"Nothin'. This yere housekeepin' is gettin' on my nervous system
some fearful." Parenthesis struck the dough a savage whack, and
added: "I ain't cut out for housekeepin'."
"You've been cut out all right," retorted Polly, glancing at his
legs, "whatever it's for."
Parenthesis was not abashed. "Yep, fer straddlin' a hoss," he
proudly replied, as if that were the chief end of man.
Polly, thus balked in her teasing, tried a new form of badinage.
"Say, the, boys are all braggin' on your bread-makin'. Won't you
give me your receipt?"
"Good cooks," said Parenthesis, "never give away their receipts.
Brings bad luck to 'em next time."
"Aw, come now, Parenthy, tell me, an' I'll let you make my
weddin'-cake."
"Will you? an' let me put in whatever I want fer jokes on the
boys?"
"Yep, everything goes."
"Oh, I'll give 'em somethin' to dream on, you can bet yer sweet
life! Soap fer Fresno's finger, clothes-pin fer Show Low's nose,
bottle o' anty-fat fer Slim. It's a swop, Miss Polly!"
"Well, out with yer great secret o' bread-makin'."
"Well, Miss Polly, I take flour, an' water, an' sourin's, an' a
pinch o' salt--"
"Flour an' water, an' sourin's, an' a pinch o' salt," repeated
Polly, totting the list off on her fingers. "Why, so do I, an'
so does every one. It must lie in the workin'. How long do you
work the dough, Parenthesis?"
"It must lie in the workin'," repeated Parenthesis solemnly.
"Why, I work it, an' work it--" he continued, with exasperating
slowness.
"How long do you work it?" asked Polly impatiently.
"Till my han's look purty clean like!" said Parenthesis, holding
up his floury paws.
"Then you've got a day's work still before you!" snapped Polly,
huffed at seeing herself the victim of a chaffing that she
herself had begun. "I won't bother you any longer. So long!"
Parenthesis, however, desired to continue the conversation.
"When is this yere hitch between you and Bud comin' off?" he
asked.
Polly drew herself up proudly, and, speaking assumed haughtiness,
replied: "We're figurin' on sendin' out the cards next month."
The cowboy's eyes twinkled. "Well, I'm a-goin' to give up
cigaroot-smokin'."
"What for?" asked Polly, in surprise.
"Goin' in trainin' to kiss the bride."
"That's nice!" said Polly, beaming.
"Yep, have to take up chawin', like Bud Lane."
Polly was saved from having to answer by Sage-brush galloping up
to the wagon.
"Put on your gun!" he shouted to Parenthesis.
Asking no questions, the cow-puncher obeyed his foreman. Trouble
was brewing, that he could plainly see. All he had to do was to
obey orders, and shoot when any one tried to point a gun at him.
Turning to Polly, he cried: "Where's Mrs. Payson?"
"She came over with me, but stopped to look over the tally for
those cows that are goin' with the drive."
More to himself than to Parenthesis or Polly, Sage-brush said: "I
wish she'd stayed at the ranch. This range is no place for women
now. Buck McKee and his outfit has tanked up with Gila whisky,
an' they're just pawin' for trouble."
"What's come over people lately?" asked Polly.
"It's all along of Hoover goin' away like he did, and leavin' us
without a sheriff, or nobody that is anybody makin' a bluff at
law and order," cried Sage-brush.
"It's sot this section back twenty years," observed Parenthesis.
"That's what it has," agreed the foreman. "Fresno reports that
he found that Peruna slappin' the Lazy K brand on one of our
calves. There ain't nobody can maverick no calves belongin' to
this outfit. Not so long as I'm ranch boss an' captain of the
round-up. We've got to take the law in our own han's an' make an
example of this bunch, right now."
Sage-brush meant what he said. He was gathering reenforcements
from his own men. He knew that the boys of the Allen ranch would
side with him, and he felt that there were enough lovers of law
and order in the county to declare themselves against the
high-handed methods of Buck McKee and his followers.
"Come on, you fellows!" shouted Show Low, as he rode past the
wagon up the range.
"What is it now?" asked Sage-brush.
Over his shoulder Show Low shouted: "We all had a run in with
that Buck McKee's bunch. Fresno's laid out with a hole in his
shoulder. Billie Nicker's cashed in. I've got some of the
Triangle boys, and we're goin' to make a clean-up."
"You ain't goin' to do nothin' unless I say so. We don't want no
range-war--we'll git the man that did the killin'. Come on,"
commanded Sage-brush.
Polly galloped after the men, saying: "Gee, I'll miss something
if I don't hurry up."
CHAPTER XV
Peruna Pulls His Freight
When Jack closed the door behind him to follow and find Dick Lane
and bring him back to the woman who, the restorer believed, loved
him, Echo Payson realized the supremacy over her soul--her pure
ideals, her lofty sense of justice--of its tenement, the woman's
body--that fair but fragile fabric which trembled responsive to
the wild wind of emotional desire, and the seismic shock of the
passion of sex. Ever since Jack had revealed to her his jealousy
of Dick Lane, she knew that he was living on a lower moral and
spiritual plane than herself, and that no longer could she look
up to him as the strong protector, the nobler being than herself
that had been her girlish ideal of a husband. Instead of this,
another love sprang instantly into her heart, that of the
stronger soul for the weaker, like to the feeling of the mother
toward the child. The moral side of her desire toward Jack now
became fixed in the purpose to lift him up to her own level.
Now that he had gone from her on a mission that was fulfilling
this very purpose of regeneration, although she had not sent him
upon it for his own sake, but her own--Echo knew that, after all,
she was a woman. She loved Jack Payson with the unreasoning and
unrestrained passion that sways even the highest of her sex. By
the balance of natural law she was lowering herself to meet him
as he was coming up in the moral scale, and thus preparing for
herself and her husband a happy union of a mutual understanding
of weaknesses held in common. Were Echo to remain always on the
heights and Jack in the valley, sooner or later a cloud would
have separated them, a ghostly miasma rising from the grave of
Dick Lane, whom Echo would have idealized as the nobler man.
She very sensibly took refuge from these perplexing problems by
jumping into the active life of the ranch.
Faithfully she tried to perform all that she thought Jack would
have done. Her father and mother wanted her to come back to her
old home until he returned. There she would have more company
and fewer memories of Jack surrounding her. Each offer, each
suggestion was kindly but firmly put aside. When Jack returned
she must be the first to welcome him, the first to greet him at
his threshold, whether it was broad daylight or in the silent
watches of the night. From her lips he must learn he had been
forgiven; she alone must tell him how much she loved him, and
that together they must go through life until the last round-up.
Echo and her father, who was looking after his own cattle on the
round-up, rode up to the chuck-wagon, after Parenthesis and
Sage-brush crossed the valley to mete out justice to Peruna and
fight out any attempts at a rescue.
Dismounting, Echo walked wearily to the fire and sat down on a
box. Bravely though she tried to conceal it, the strain was
beginning to tell upon her. The tears would come at times,
despite her efforts to fight them off. The burden was so heavy
for her young shoulders to bear.
A note from Slim, written at Fort Grant, with a lead-pencil, on a
sheet of manila paper, told her briefly that he was going into
the Lava Beds with the troops--as the Apaches were out. Dick and
Jack, he wrote, were somewhere in the Lava Beds, and he would
bring them back with him. She dared not let herself think of the
Apaches and the horrors of their cruelties.
"Better let me get you somethin' to eat," said her father,
returning from picketing the horses.
Echo smiled wanly at her father's solicitude. "I am not hungry,
Dad."
Jim seated himself by the fire. He recognized his helplessness
in this trouble. There was nothing he could do. If one of the
boys was what Allen would have called it, "down on his luck," he
would have asked him to have a drink, but with Josephine and the
girls he was at his wit's end. The sufferings of his loved
daughter cut deeply into his big heart.
"You been in the saddle since sunup," he said. "You hain't had
nuthin' to eat since breakfast--I don't see what keeps you
alive."
"Hope, Dad, hope. It is what we women live upon. Some cherish
it all their lives, and never reap a harvest. I watch the sun
leap over the edge of the world at dawn, and hope that before it
sinks behind the western hills the man I love will come home to
my heart. Oh, Dad, I'm not myself! I haven't been myself since
the day I sent him away--my heart isn't here. It's out in the
desert behind yon mountains--with Jack."
"Thar, thar, don't take on so, honey."
Kneeling beside her father, she laid her head on his lap, as she
did in childhood when overwhelmed with the little troubles of the
hour. Looking into his eyes, she sighed: "Oh, Dad, it's all so
tangled. I haven't known a peaceful moment since he went away.
I've sent him away into God knows what unfriendly lands, perhaps
never to return--never to know how much I loved him."
Patting her head, as if she were a tired child, he said: "It'll
all come out right in the end. You can't never tell from the
sody-card what's in hock at the bottom of the deck."
Further confidences between father and daughter were interrupted
by the boys of the round-up dashing up to the wagon, with Peruna
in the midst of the group. Peruna had been disarmed. Dragging
the prisoner from his bronco, they led him before Allen, who had
risen from his seat.
"What's all this, boys?" asked the ranchman.
Sage-brush, as foreman, explained: "This yere's Peruna of the
Lazy K outfit."
Allen looked at the prisoner, who maintained a sullen silence.
"What's he been doin'?"
"Mostly everything, but Fresno caught red-handed brandin' one of
our yearlin's," cried Sage-brush.
"It's a lie!" broke in Peruna, glancing doggedly from one to
another of his guards. He knew death was the penalty of the
crime of which he stood accused. He felt that a stout denial
would gain him time, and that Buck and his outfit might come up
and save him.
"Polite your conversation in the presence of a lady," cried
Parenthesis, nodding toward Echo.
"That calf was follerin' my cow," answered Peruna sullenly.
"It was follerin' one of our longhorned Texas cows with the
Sweetwater brand spread all over her," shouted Show Low, moving
menacingly toward the cowering Peruna.
"Fresno he calls him," continued Sage-brush, taking up the story;
"an' this yere Peruna--drinking bad turns loose his battery and
wings Fresno some bad--then little Billie Nicker comes along, and
Peruna plugs him solid."
Poor Billie had been Show Low's bunkie on many a long drive.
That veteran now paid this last tribute to his friend. "Billie,
who ain't never done no harm to no one--"
"He reached for his gun--" began Peruna. Sage-brush would not
let him finish his lame defense.
"You shet up!" he cried. "We don't want your kind on this range,
an' the quicker that's published the quicker we'll get shet of
ye. We're goin' to take the law in our own hands now--come on,
boys."
Two of the boys seized Peruna, dragging him toward his horse.
Echo halted them, however, with the query: "What are you going
to do with this man?"
"Take him down to the creek and hang him to that big
cottonwood--" cried Show Low savagely.
Before Echo could answer, Peruna demanded a hearing. "Hol' on a
minute, I got something to say about that!"
"Out with it," growled Sage-brush.
"Las' time there was an affair at that cottonwood the rope broke,
an' the hoss-thief dropped into the creek, swum acrost, and got
away."
Sage-brush glared grimly at Peruna. "Well, we'll see that the
rope don't break with you."
In all seriousness Peruna replied: "I hope so. I can't swim."
Polly, glancing down the valley, saw Buck McKee with a half-dozen
of his outfit, riding furiously to the rescue of Peruna.
"Look out, boys, here comes Buck McKee now!" she shouted.
Unconsciously the men laid their hands on their guns and assumed
offensive attitudes.
Allen cried sharply: "Keep your hands off your guns, boys. One
bad break means the starting of a lot of trouble."
Buck and his band threw themselves off their horses, ranging
themselves opposite Sage-brush the Sweetwater boys.
Swaggering up to Sage-brush, the half-breed insolently demanded:
"Who's the boss of this yere Payson outfit?"
"I reckon you are talkin' to him now," coolly replied the
foreman.
"You've got one of my boys over here," bellowed Buck, adding with
the implied threat: "an' we've come for him."
Sage-brush was not bluffed by Buck's insolence or his swaggering
manners. "I reckon you can't have him just yet."
"What's he been doing?" demanded Buck.
"He killed Billie Nicker--that's one thing."
"Self-defense," loftily replied Buck. "He was 'tendin' to his
own business when your two men come up and begin pickin' on him."
Bursting with anger, Parenthesis strode up to Buck, and shouted:
"He was brandin' one of our yearlin's, that's what his business
was."
Sage-brush suggested, in addition: "Perhaps you mean that
brandin' other folks' cattle is the reg'lar business of the Lazy
K outfit."
"Anythin' with hide and no mark is Lazy K to you all--" growled
Show Low.
"Your goin' strong on reg'lar proceedin's, I see," said Buck to
Sage-brush. "You ain't sheriff of this yere county, air you?"
"That's jest it. Somebody's got to act sooner or later, an' if
there ain't no reg'lar law, we'll go back to the old times, an'
make our own."
The Sweetwater outfit assented unanimously to Sage-brush's
declaration of freedom from outlaw rule in the county.
"You're a fine lot to set up as law-abidin' citizens--" sneered
Buck.
"Workin' for a man that had to hop the country to keep clear of
the rope," interjected Peruna, who, heartened up by the advent of
McKee, began pouring oil on a smoldering fire.
Sage-brush turned savagely upon him: "That'll do for you."
Echo walked hastily to Sage-brush's side. She felt her presence
might help to avoid the outbreak which she saw could not long be
avoided.
Peruna had lost control of tongue and discretion by this time.
"You'll never see him back in this section again. You all know
where he is--across the line in Mexico--why, she's fixin' to make
a clean-up now, an' sell out and join him!"
Sage-brush reached for his gun, but Echo restrained him.
"You--" he cried.
Buck turned angrily on Peruna. "You keep your mouth shet," he
shouted.
Peruna subsided at his boss' command, mumbling: "There ain't no
female can pull the forelock over my eyes."
"Take care," warningly called Buck.
Peruna fired up again, regardless of consequences. "Why, I see
through her game. She's glad to get rid of him, so's she can
play up to her ranch boss, Handsome Charley there."
Buck had to act instantly to preserve his supremacy over his men.
Before any of the Sweetwater outfit could reach Peruna's side, or
pull a gun to resent the insult, Buck was on top of him. With a
blow full in the mouth, he knocked him sprawling. Echo had
seized Sage-brush's hand, preventing him from firing. The other
men moved as if to kick Peruna as he lay prostrate.
"Let him alone. He's goin' to ask the lady's pardon," snarled
Buck, covering him with his gun.
Peruna raised himself on one arm.
"No, I'll be--" he began.
Buck bent over him, speaking in a low tone, tensely and quickly.
"Quick! I don't want to have to kill you. You damn' fool, don't
you see what I'm playin' fer?"
"He ain't fit to live!" shouted Show Low.
Buck turned on the cowboy. It was his fight, and he was going to
handle it in his own fashion.
"Lem me handle this case," he interrupted. "Ther' ain't no man
can travel in my outfit and insult a woman--you ask her
pardon--right smart."
Peruna struggled to his feet. Buck commanded:
"On your knees."
A glance at Buck showed Peruna how deadly in earnest he was.
Reluctantly he sank to his knees.
"I didn't mean what I said. I hope you will excuse me--" he
whined.
"That's enough. Now git up. Pull your freight," Buck ordered.
"By God, no!" interposed Sage-brush.
The cowboys seized Peruna.
Buck saw that his bluff at bossing the situation was called. He
turned appealingly to Echo, and rapidly fabricated a moving tale
about Peruna's heroic rescue of himself from drowning in the Gila
River. "An I swore I would do as much fer him some day. Now I
perpose that we all give him a kick, an' let him go; let him
have two hours' start, after which the game-laws will be out on
him."
Sage-brush cried out against the plan, but Echo was moved by
McKee's appeal for his comrade, and, speaking low and
beseechingly to Sage-brush, said: "It will save a range-war that
we can't afford to have till Jack and Slim get back." Sage-brush
finally assented.
"Two hours' start. Well, he'll have to go some, if he gets away.
Kick him and let him go," he commanded.
Echo turned away.
The cowboys who held Peruna threw him to the ground, and every
man of the Allen and Payson ranches gave him a vicious kick, Show
Low putting in an extra one for his murdered bunkie. Last of
all, McKee approached the prostrate man, and made the mistake
which was to cost him his life by booting Peruna cruelly. The
man was a stupid fellow by nature, and what wits he had were
addled by the habit he had acquired of consuming patent-medicines
containing alcohol, morphin, and other stimulating and stupefying
drugs. He was as revengeful as stupid, and could have forgiven
McKee's putting the rope around his neck more easily than Buck's
joining in the humiliation which saved his life.
Rising from the ground and trembling with anger, Peruna turned on
the half-breed, saying: "I'll square this deal, Buck McKee."
"Losin' vallyble time, Peruna. Git!" was all that his former
boss deigned to answer.
Peruna limped over to his horse, which Parenthesis had been
holding in custody, mounted it, and rode off at a lope for the
river ford. He crossed it in sight of the Sweetwater outfit, and
disappeared behind the riverbank. Here he dismounted, and,
picking a small branch of cactus, put it under his horse's tail.
The poor beast clapped the tail against it, and, with a scream,
set off on a wild gallop across the mesa. Peruna hobbled up the
river a mile or so, half-waded, half-swam, to the other side, and
entered an arroyo, whose course led back near the camp of the
Sweetwater outfit. He had been disarmed by the cowboys of his
revolver, but not of his knife.
After Peruna had been visited with his punishment, Echo retraced
her steps.
Bowing to her, hat in hand, Buck made his apologies. "Ma'am, I'm
plumb sorry. My mother was a Cherokee squaw, but I'm white in
some spots. If you'll let your ranch boss come along with us,
we'll settle this brandin'-business right now."
Sage-brush did not care to accept the offer, but Echo ordered him
to go with the Lazy K outfit. Seeing it was useless to argue
with her, he said: "Come on, boys."
Ere they had ridden out of sight, Echo sank, exhausted, on the
seat by the fire. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
Polly played the role of comforter.
"Don't mind 'em," she said. "Better come to the ranch with me.
You're all tuckered out. You've been runnin' this ranch fer a
month like a man."
"I'll take your advice, Polly, and ride home. Tell Dad I want
him, will you?"
CHAPTER XVI
Death of McKee, Disappointed Desperado
Bud's conscience was not troubling him so much now. In fact, he
was rather proud of his conduct of late. He had "shaken" Buck
McKee, and he had forgiven Echo for all the hard thoughts he had
against her--without considering that she would be more than
woman if she failed to harbor resentment against the man who had
prevented her from calling her husband back from the desert.
In the absence of Slim, both Bud and McKee attained a feeling of
security in the matter of Terrill murder. McKee had already
ventured to use some of his share of the robbery in gambling.
Bud had not yet convinced himself either of the right or the
advisability of spending his share. Both conscience and fear
advised him to keep the blood-money intact. He carried it with
him wherever he went, and became, in time, quite pleased with
himself because of his compunctions in doing so. He was even
pharisaical about McKee's gambling. No, when his mind had come
clear about keeping it, he would make an honest use of it, such
as investing it in a saloon in Florence. When, however, he
suggested to Polly that dispensing liquors over a bar and running
a faro-game on the side would be a congenial occupation, suited
to their talents, she sat down forcibly upon his aspiration, and
they finally compromised on Polly's proposition to conduct a
livery-stable in Tucson, where, Polly felt, though she did not
say so to Bud, that Sheriff Hoover, with whom she had been
flirting too dangerously, would not be in evidence, as in
Florence.
Polly, however, was greatly puzzled over Bud's confidence in his
ability to raise the wind that would launch this delectable, but
to her mind illusory, enterprise. In a moment of weakness he
intimated that he already had the money in hand.
How had he got it? she demanded.
"Saved it," he said.
When she asked him how he could have saved the thousand dollars
demanded for the stable out of his salary of forty dollars a
month, he replied:
"By economizin'. I've cut off my chawin-tobacco."
"That cost you two bits a week, an' you've taken up cigarettes at
a dime a day," said observant Polly. "I know what you've been
doin', you've been gamblin'."
"Cross my heart, Polly, I haven't," said Bud, and Polly, who had
no great objection to using money won at cards, so long as she
did not positively know the fact, discontinued her objections,
and resumed the delightful occupation of castle-building. The
home she had in view consisted of three rooms over the
livery-stable.
"I want a red carpet in the front room, and wallpaper like that
at Bowen's store, with hosses jumpin' gates on it--"
"Don't you think there will be a leetle too much hoss there,
Polly, with the stable under us, an' the smell a-comin' up--"
"Sho, Bud, you can't have too much hoss. Why, it was the hoss
smell about your clothes that made me fall in love with you,"
exclaimed the enthusiastic horsewoman. She continued:
"An' I want a yellow plush furniture set, an' a photograph-album
to match, an' a center-table, an' a Rock-of-Ages picture, an' a
boudoir--"
A boudoir was beyond the ken of Bud. He knew nothing of
housekeeping. This must be one of those strange articles, the
mystery of which he would have to solve before he could feel that
he was really a married man.
"What the devil is a boudoir?" he asked.
"I don't know what it is, but all rich women have them."
Bud took both of Polly's hands in his. Looking her fondly in the
eyes, he said: "Then, by thunder, I'll get you two of 'em.
We'll raise the limit when we furnish that shack. I'm the
happiest man in the country."
"Well you ought to be," laughed Polly. "Just see what you are
gettin'."
"I've got to chase myself back to the house. You're ridin' night
herd to-night, ain't you?" she added.
"Yes. I'm on the cocktail to-night. I am goin' to bunk down
here. I'll be up to the house at sunup, and we can go over to
Florence together."
"I'll have breakfast ready for you. Rope my pony for me, will
you?"
Bud was smiling and happy again. All of his troubles were
forgotten. "All right!" he cried, as he started to mount.
"Say, you're awful forgetful, aren't you?" asked Polly demurely.
Bud looked about him slightly bewildered. Then he realized his
oversight. He ran to Polly's and tried to kiss her, but she
motioned him aside, saying: "Too late--you lose."
"But I didn't know," stammered Bud.
"Next time you'll know. On your way," airily commanded the girl.
Bud's face darkened. "Oh, well, good-by."
Polly looked after him perplexed and angry. His surrender to her
whims without a fight nettled her.
"Good-by, yourself," she snapped. "He's the most forgetful man I
ever loved. If I thought he was a gamblin'-man, I'd get a
divorce from him before I married him. I would sure," murmured
Polly, as Bud disappeared toward the corral.
Polly's musing was interrupted by the return of Buck McKee.
"Is Bud Lane over yere?" he asked.
"You must have passed him just now. He's just got in from
night-herdin'."
"I thought I seed him comin' this way. When's the weddin'-bells
goin' to ring?"
Polly flushed. "Next month. Then you'll lose Bud's company fer
good," she answered defiantly.
"Well, I ain't been doin' him much good," Buck assented. "I'm
goin' back home, though."
Polly gazed at Buck in surprise. Here was a new view of the man;
one she had never considered. It was strange to hear this outlaw
and bad man talk of a home. The repetition of the word "home" by
Polly, led him to continue:
"Yep. Up to the Strip, where I was borned at. This yere
climate's a leetle too dry to suit me. I'm goin' to get a leetle
ranch and a leetle gal, an' settle down for sure."
"I wish you may," said Polly heartily. "You sure acted mighty
fine about that Peruna insultin' Mrs. Payson."
Harshly as Polly had felt toward Buck, his actions in the recent
incidents had softened her feelings toward him.
"I admire to hear you say it," said Buck, bowing. "I've played
square with women all my life. I ain't never slipped a card nor
rung in a cold deck on any one of 'em yet."
Buck sat down on the step of the wagon. He hesitated for a
moment, and then asked: "Say, did you ever have a premonition?"
"Nope! The worst I ever had was the hookin'-cough."
Buck smiled, but did not explain to Polly the meaning of the
word.
"Well, this premonition," he continued, "hits me hard, an' that's
what makes me start for home. Thought I'd like to say good-by to
you an' Bud. I go north with the big drive in the mornin', an'
won't see you ag'in."
"Well, good luck and good-by to you." Polly held out her hand in
her most friendly fashion.
Buck arose and took off his hat. As he stepped toward her, he
cried: "Same to you. Good-by." Grasping her by the hand, he
added warmly: "An'--happiness."
"I'll tell Bud you're here," cried Polly over her shoulder.
Buck looked after the girl as she swung across the prairie to
find Bud.
"She's a darned fine leetle gal, she is," mused Buck. "Seein'
Bud so happy, kinder makes me homesick. Things is gettin' too
warm for me here, anyway. If Payson gets back, he'll be able to
clear himself about that Terrill business, an' things is likely
to p'int pretty straight at me an' Bud. I'm sorry I dragged Bud
into that. I could have done it alone just as well--an' kep' all
the money."
McKee sat down to wait for Bud. His mind was filled with
pleasant thoughts. Having assumed a chivalrous role in the
Peruna incident, he was tasting something of the sweet sensations
and experiences that follow a sincerely generous action. Smiles
and pleasant greetings from Polly, who had heretofore met him
with venomous looks and stinging words, were balm to his soul.
He felt well-satisfied with himself and kindly toward the whole
world. The fiendish torturer of helpless men and harmless
beasts, the cold-blooded murderer, the devilish intriguer to
incriminate an innocent man, thought that he was a very good
fellow, after all; much better than, say, such a man as Jack
Payson. He had at least always treated women white, and had
never gone back on a friend. When he thought how Payson had
drawn his pistol on trusting, unsuspecting Dick Lane in the
garden, he was filled with the same pharisaic self-righteousness
that inflated Bud when comparing himself with McKee.
His enjoyment in contemplating his own virtues was overclouded,
however, by a vague presentiment of impending danger, the
"premonition" he had of to Polly--a word he had picked up from
fortune-tellers, whom he often consulted, being very
superstitious, as are most gamblers.
And Nemesis in the person of Peruna was indeed approaching. The
outlaw crept up out of the draw behind the contemplative
half-breed, and, leaping upon his back, plunged his knife in
McKee's neck,, with a fierce thrust, into which he concentrated
all his hatred for the humiliation he had endured.
With a stifled cry Buck struggled to his feet to face his
assailant, drawing his gun instinctively. The knife had bitten
too deeply, however. With a groan he fell; weakly he tried to
level his gun, his finger twitching convulsively at the trigger.
Peruna waited to see if he had strength enough to fire. A
sneering smile added to the evil appearance of his face. Seeing
Buck helpless, he snatched the gun from his hand. Then he turned
his victim over so he could reach the pocket of his waistcoat.
With the blood-stained knife he ripped open the cloth and
extracted a roll of paper and money. Peruna was kneeling beside
the body of his former friend, when a voice drawled:
"Drop that knife!"
Peruna jumped up with a grunt of dismay to see Slim Hoover
sitting on horseback, with his revolver held upright, ready for
use.
Peruna hesitated: "Drop it!" ordered Slim sharply, slightly
lowering the gun.
Peruna tossed away the knife with a snarl.
"I'll take care of your friend's bundle, and the papers and money
you took from his pocket. Drop them. I didn't figure on gettin'
back to business as soon as I got home, but you never can tell.
Can you?"
The last remark was addressed to his deputy, Timber Wiggins, who
had joined him.
"This yere's Timber Wiggins, deputy sheriff from Pinal County,"
explained Slim, for Peruna's enlightenment. "Mr. Wiggins, will
you take care of this friend of mine?" continued the Sheriff,
glancing from Peruna, who looked at him stolidly, to Wiggins. "I
reckon he's been doin' something naughty."
The two men dismounted, keeping the outlaw covered and watching
his every glance.
"Anything to oblige," replied Wiggins, who had solemnly entered
with Slim into his assumed formality.
Wiggins stepped behind Peruna, and reaching forward, removed
Buck's gun from the outlaw's holster, which had been empty since
Buck, earlier in the day, had taken his revolver after he had
insulted Echo.
"Anything to oblige," said Wiggins to Slim. Then to Peruna he
commanded: "Let's take a walk. You first. I'm noted for my
politeness."
"You might tie him up some," suggested Slim.
"I sure will," answered the deputy, as he marched his prisoner
toward the corral.
Slim hastened to the side of the fallen man, and turned him over
on his back to get a glimpse of Peruna's victim. He saw that
Buck was still breathing although mortally wounded, the blood
gushing from his mouth.
McKee recognized the Sheriff. "Hullo! when did you git back?" he
asked.
"Jes' now. Is this your money?" said Slim, holding the roll in
front of McKee's eyes.
"No; it's your'n. Part o' what I took from 'Ole Man' Terrill.
The idee o' not recognizin' your own property!" McKee grinned at
his joke on the Sheriff. "I held the old man up, and that's all
there is to it."
"Who was with you?" asked Slim. "There was two."
McKee was silent.
"Bud Lane was the other man," hazarded Slim.
"No--" began Buck, but Slim interrupted him.
"He was with you that night. He came to the weddin' with you.
It ain't no use in denyin' it. I've been thinkin' it all out. I
was fooled by Jack's pacing hoss. You and Bud--"
Here McKee interrupted with a solemn denial. Whether from a
desire to foil the Sheriff, whom he knew was Bud's rival in love,
and so thought him the young man's enemy, or from the benevolent
spirit induced by the recent contemplation of his virtues, McKee
was impelled to give an account of the murder which very
convincingly indicated Bud as a protesting catspaw, rather than a
consenting accomplice.
At the end of the story he smiled grimly:
"So while you were out o' the county on a wil'-goose chase after
an inercent man, Peruna, he goes loco on paten'-medicine, an'
gits the guilty party. Joke's on you, Slim. I nomernate Peruna
fer nex' sheriff."
Exhausted with the effort and pain of talking, McKee dropped his
head upon Hoover's broad breast in a faint. Hoover bore him down
to the spring, and bathed his wound and mouth. McKee revived,
and in broken phrases, which were accompanied with blood from his
pierced lungs frothing out of his mouth, continued his
observations on the ridiculous and unfortunate mistake Peruna
made in killing him.
"Damn' fool--'s bes' fren'--I would herd--'th low-down
intellecks--nev' 'preciated--no chance--to be firs'-class--bad
man."
And so Buck McKee, desperado, died like many another ambitious
soul, with expressions of disappointment on his lips.
CHAPTER XVII
A New Deal
Bud Lane, returning to camp, saw the returned Sheriff supporting
the dying murderer of Terrill, and listening to what was
undoubtedly his confession. He stole away before he was
observed.
"It's all up with me," he thought. "Buck has told him. Slim
hates me along o' Polly. I'll get away from here' to-night."
He met Polly by the mess-wagon.
At once she saw that something had happened. Bud was deathly
pale. He trembled when she spoke to him.
"Why, what on earth is the matter?" she asked.
"Nothing. I--" answered Bud, glancing about him, as if seeking
some way to escape.
"You're looking mighty pale--are you sick?" persisted the girl.
"Slim Hoover--he's back--" Bud could scarcely speak. His throat
was parched. Beads of perspiration stood on his forehead.
"What!" cried Polly joyfully. "Is Jack with him?"
"Listen here," exclaimed the young wooer. "Slim's heard about
our goin' to get married, and he's sworn to shoot me at sight--"
It was a lame, halting explanation, but the best Bud could invent
on the spur of the moment. He wanted to get away to have time to
think.
"I don't' believe it!" replied Polly indignantly. "Why, Slim--"
In his excitement Bud would not let her continue her defense of
the Sheriff.
"It's so. He's plum locoed. The sun mus' have tetched his
brains out in the desert," he explained, with rapid invention.
"I don't want no run-in with a crazy man. I might have to shoot,
an' Slim's been a good fr'en' of mine. So I'm going to keep out
of his way for a while. I'll ride over to the railroad."
Polly could not comprehend this strange behavior of Bud.
Thinking to make him tell her his trouble by taunting him with
cowardice, she asked:
"Say, look here, are you scared of Slim Hoover? Just let me
handle him."
"No, no," expostulated Bud. "Can't you understand? We've been
such good friends and--and--I can't pull a gun on him--"
Polly was speechless with surprise.
"Here he comes now," shouted Bud. "I'll hide in the wagon
here--"
"Don't hide!" counseled Polly. "Why?"
Bud gave her no answer, for he had already disappeared under the
cover of the mess-wagon.
"I don't like that a little bit. Slim never acted locoed before.
I'll have to be mighty careful, I s'pose, for I think a heap of
both Slim and Bud."
Slim came up to the wagon with his face wreathed in smiles. "If
it ain't Miss Polly--" he yelled.
Polly, having heard that crazy people had to be humored, ran to
meet him, and threw her arms about his neck.
"You dear, sweet, old red-headed thing!" she cried; "when did you
get back? Where have you been? Where's Jack? Have you seen
Echo?" One question was piled upon the other by the
enthusiastic girl--Slim had tried to stop her talking that he
might answer her, but he might as well have tried to check a
sand-storm. Out of breath and puffing, he finally gasped:
"Whoa! whoa! Yes'm. I've heard of them Kansas cyclones, but I
ain't never got hit with one afore."
Polly started all over again. "And Jack, did you find him?--tell
me all about it."
"See yeah," answered Slim, "I ain't goin' to say nuthin' to
nobody till I see Mrs. Payson."
"Oh, pshaw!" pouted Polly; "not even me?"
"Not even--what I've got to say she must heah first. I'm kinder
stiff--if you don't mind, I'll set down a spell."
Slim's face was drawn and worn. Although he had lost none of his
weight, he showed the effects of the siege of hard riding and
fighting through which he had passed.
The mental strain under which he had labored had also worn him
down. Polly was more than solicitous for his comfort. Not only
did she like the Sheriff, but she was now fencing with him to
protect her sweetheart from his wrath. She had concluded that
Bud's charge that the Sheriff was locoed and jealous was a cover
to conceal some genuine apprehension.
"You look tuckered out," she said.
"Well, I 'low as maybe I am. Been in the saddle for two weeks.
Kin I have a cup of coffee?"
Polly began to mother him. This appeal for bodily comforts
aroused all her womanly instincts. She made him sit down and
poured the coffee for him saying: "You sure can. With or
without?"
"I'll play it straight," grinned Slim.
"I reckon you'll have to, anyway. Here you are."
Slim took the cup with a "thankee."
He drank long and deeply. Then he paused, made a wry face, and
danced his feet up and down, as a child does in anger or
excitement.
"What's the matter?" asked the girl, with a laugh.
"If this yeah's coffee give me tea, an' if it's tea give me
coffee." The Sheriff put down his cup with a shrug of the
shoulders.
"It's the best we've got," replied Polly. "Sage-brush got it."
"Oh, that's it. I thought it tasted like sage-brush. How's
Bud?" he suddenly demanded.
Polly glanced nervously at the speaker.
"All right, I s'pose." She tried to be noncommittal.
Her nervousness almost betrayed her.
"Ain't you seen him lately?" Slim insisted.
Polly peeped into the wagon before she answered the question.
"Yes--I see him every once in a while."
In an effort to change the subject of conversation, and get him
away from all thoughts of Bud, she asked: "Say, Slim, what's a
boudoir?"
"A what whar?" stuttered Slim.
"A boudoir," Polly repeated.
Slim was puzzled, and looked it. Then a new thought lighted up
his face.
"You don't mean a Budweiser, do you?"
Polly, deeply serious, replied: "No--that ain't it--boudoir."
Slim ransacked his memory for the word. "Boudoir," he continued
reflectively. "One of them 'fo' de wah' things we ust to have
down in Kentucky?"
An explanation was demanded of him, and he proceeded to invent
one. "Well, first you get a--get a--" Polly had fooled him so
many times that he became suspicious in the midst of his
creation, and asked:
"Look a here--you're sure you don't know what boudoir is?"
"Why, of course not," answered Polly simply.
Slim was relieved by her reply.
"All right," he resumed, crossing his legs, as if the position
would help him better to think. "A boudoir is a see-gar."
"A see-gar?" echoed Polly, distinctly disappointed. Bud's offer
to duplicate the boudoir was now reduced to the proportions of
"two fer a nickel."
"Yep," assured the Sheriff. "They are named after a Roosian--one
of them diplomat fellers."
"What's a diplomat?" Polly was finding Slim a mine of
information, but all of the sort that needed plenty of expansion.
Slim chuckled, and with a twinkle in his eye drawled: "A
diplomat is a man that steals your hat and coat, and then
explains it so well that you give him your watch and chain.
Sabe?"
Polly did not understand. She felt that Slim was laughing at
her, but she could not see any fun in his remark. To end the
discussion, however, she said: "I sabe."
Polly sauntered away from the wagon. As she passed Slim, he
tried to put his arm about her waist. She skilfully evaded him.
The Sheriff joined her in the shade of cottonwood. "You know
I've been thinking a lot of you lately, Miss Polly?"
"Only lately?" she asked mischievously.
"Well, yes--that is--"
This conversation was becoming too personal for Bud, who in an
effort to hear all Slim had to say moved incautiously in the
wagon. Slim heard him.
"Who's in that wagon?" he cried, moving toward it. "Show Low
asleep?"
"No. Buddy," said Polly, thinking she might as well confess the
deception first as last, and using the childish nickname of her
lover in order to soften Slim's anger against him.
"Nobody," repeated Slim, not fully convinced that he was
mistaken, but stopping in deference to Polly's apparent denial.
"Who do you s'pose," asked Polly pertly, taking courage when she
found that Slim did not continue his investigation. "You ain't
after any Buddy, are you?"
"No, but I'll just take a look in here, 'cause I got somethin'
particular to say to you, Miss Polly, an' I don't want no
listeners." And he moved forward again.
At this juncture Polly began to ply her arts as a coquette.
Looking shyly at Slim, she murmured, "Are you sure you are not
after ANYbody?" The emphasis on the last word was so plain that
a shrewder love-maker than Slim would have been deceived.
"Eh? What's that?"
Polly turned her back to him with assumed bashfulness. Slim's
courage arose at the sight. "Well, I reckon this is a pat hand
for me, and that's the way I'm a-goin' to play it, if I've got
the nerve."
Slim smoothed down his tangled hair, and brushed off some of the
dust which whitened his shoulders. "Look yeah, Miss Polly--"
Then his courage failed him, and he stopped. Polly glanced at
him, to help him over the hard places. Slim was greatly
embarrassed. "My heart is right up in any throat. Well, I might
as well spit it out," he thought aloud.
Again Slim started toward the girl to tell her of his love, and
again his courage failed him, although Polly was doing her best
to help him.
"Look yeah, Miss Polly, I've been after somebody for a long time
now--"
"Horse-thief?" asked Polly coquettishly.
"No, heart-thief," blurted Slim.
"Stealing hearts ain't no harm."
"Well, just the same, I'm goin' to issue a writ of replevin, an'
try for to git mine back," laughed Slim.
He was about to slip his arm about her waist when she turned and
faced him. The action so disconcerted him that he jumped
backward, as if the girl was about to attack him.
"Where is it?" asked Polly.
Slim, deeply in earnest, replied: "You know it's hid. You know
just as well as I kin tell you."
Polly became remorseful. She realized how much Slim was
suffering, and she was sorry that her answer to him would be a
disappointment.
"Please don't say any more, Slim"--as she stepped away from him.
Slim followed her up, and, speaking over her shoulder, said: "I
can't help it. You've got my feelin's stampeded now, an' they
sure has to run. I've had an itchin' in my heart for you ever
since I first knowed you. You come from Kentucky--well, I was
kinder borned up that way myself--in Boone County, an' that
sorter makes--well, if it did, what I want to know is--"
Slim hesitated, and nervously hauled at his chaps.
"Will you be my--"
Frightened at his boldness, he clapped his hand over his mouth.
"Can I be your--" he began again.
Angry at himself, he said under his breath: "I'll never get this
damn' thing out of my system." In his earnestness he doubled up
his fist and shook it behind the girl's back. Suddenly she
turned, and found his clenched hand directly under her nose. She
started back in dismay.
"Excuse me," humbly apologized Slim. "I didn't mean for to do
that, ma'am--deedy, I didn't--I was only--that's--well, I reckon
I'm a little bit--"
Slim looked directly at the girl for the first time. She was
trying to restrain her hearty laughter. Slim's face broadened in
a grin. "You're a mighty fine piece of work, you are, an' I've
got an 'awful yearnin' to butt into your family."
Polly was greatly moved by Slim's sincerity.
"Don't, please don't!" she pleaded. "Why, I've known all along
that you love me, but--"
"But what?" he asked, when she hesitated.
"I've always liked you real well, and I've been glad that you
liked me. I don't want to lose your friendship, though--and, oh,
please forgive me, please do." Polly was very repentant, showing
it by the tones of her voice and in her eyes.
Slim was puzzled at first. Then it came to him that the girl had
refused to marry him. "Oh! I 'low you-all ain't a-goin' to say
you love me, then."
"I don't believe I am." Polly smiled through her tears.
Slim paused, as if steadying himself to meet the full force of
the blow.
"Mebbe it's along of my red hair?"
"It is red, isn't it?" Polly smiled kindly.
Slim ran his fingers through his locks, and looked at his
fingers, as if expecting the color would come off on his hands.
"Tain't blue," he said.
Another thought came to him. "Freckles," he asked laconically.
Polly only shook her head.
"There's only one cure for freckles--sandpaper," grinned Slim.
"But it isn't freckles," replied the girl.
Slim looked at his hands and feet. "Maybe it's fat?" he hazarded.
"Oh, I know I'm too fat! It beats all how I do keep fat."
Slim looked into his hat and sighed. "Well, I suppose we don't
get married this year, do we?"
"No, Slim," said Polly gently.
"Nor any other year to come?" Slim was still hopeful.
"That's the way it looks now."
Slim put on his hat and tried to walk jauntily to the fire,
whistling a bit of a tune. The effort was a sad failure.
"Here's where I get,off. I'm in sure bad luck. Somebody must
have put a copper on me when I was born. I 'low I gotter be
movin."
"You won't hate me, will you, Slim?"
The Sheriff took the girl's hands in his and kissed them. "Hate
you?" he almost shouted. "Why, I couldn't learn to do that; no,
siree! Not in a thousand years."
Polly slapped Slim on the back. "I'm glad of that," she cried.
"Brace up. You'll get a good wife some day. There's lots of
good fish in the sea."
Slim glanced at her ruefully. "I don't feel much like goin'
fishin' jest now. Would you mind tellin' me if I lose out on
this deal along of somebody else a-holdin' all the cards?" Slim
waited for Polly's answer.
"Why, don't you know?"
"No," he said simply.
"But he told me--"
"Who is it?" he insisted.
"No--if you don't know his name, I won't tell you," decided
Polly.
"Mebbe it's jest as well, too," assented Slim. "I don't think
I'd feel any too friendly toward him."
Slim moved toward the wagon. The action was purely involuntary,
but it frightened Polly so that she cried aloud.
Slim grasped at once the reason for her fear. "Is the feller in
that wagon?" he shouted.
"You wouldn't do him any harm, would you?" cried Polly.
"Is he in that wagon?" Slim repeated angrily.
Polly caught hold of his arm.
"What's he hiding for?" he demanded.
Slim pulled his gun and covered the opening. "Come out, you
coward," he shouted. Polly caught Slim by the right wrist, so he
could not fire.
Bud leaped from the wagon, drawing his gun as he did so. "You
sha'n't call me a coward," he shouted to Slim.
Polly ran behind Bud, and, reaching her arms about his waist,
held down his hands, depressing the muzzle of his revolver. Slim
danced up and down in the excitement with his revolver in his
hand. Polly kept calling on both of the men not to shoot.
"Let him alone," shouted Slim excitedly. "Let him alone, Miss
Polly. He's only four-flushin', and I ain't gun shy."
"Now, look a yeah, sonny," he cried to Bud, "if that squirt-gun
of yours goes off an' hits me, an' I find it out--well, I reckon
I'll have to spank you."
Bud tried to break away from Polly, begging her to "Let go."
The girl laid her hands on his shoulder, gazing pleadingly into
his flushed face. "Don't, don't," she cried; "it's all right.
Slim knows all about it. He knows I love you, and he wouldn't
hurt any one that I love, would you, Slim?"
Polly smiled at the Sheriff, completely disarming him.
Shoving his gun back into the holster, Slim grinned, and said:
"I reckon I wouldn't."
"We've been engaged forever so long now, waitin' for Bud to get
rich, and now--and now it's come."
Her face radiated her happiness. Bud showed his alarm, motioning
her to be silent, but Polly rattled on: "Bud's been saving and
saving, 'till he's got over a thousand dollars and--" Slim could
not contain his indignation at the deception practised by the
boy.
"You derned thief," he shouted. Then he plainly showing his
annoyance at his lack of repression.
Bud's hand dropped to his gun. "You--" he began, but Polly
stopped him with a gesture, looking from one to the other of the
men, dazed and frightened.
"A thief. Bud a thief ? What does it mean? Tell me," she
gasped. Turning to Bud, she demanded: "Bud, you heard what he
said?"
Dropping his head, fearing to look at either of them, he muttered
sullenly: "He lied."
Slim checked his first betrayal of his anger a kept himself well
in hand.
"Oh, Slim," pleaded Polly, "say you didn't mean it."
Simply and sadly Slim answered: "I didn't. I reckon as how I'm
some jealous, an'--an'--I lied."
His voice dropped, and he turned aside, stepping away from the
young couple.
Polly was still in doubt. Slim's actions were so strange. It
was not like this big-hearted, brave Sheriff to accuse a man of
stealing without being sure of his charges. Then Slim's accusing
himself of lying was entirely at variance with his character.
"I'm sorry," she said. "Please forgive me. It was all my fault.
I didn't know that you--"
Slim held up his hand to silence her.
"Wouldn't you mind leavin' us together a bit," he requested. In
answer to Polly's frightened glance, he continued: "There hain't
goin' to be no trouble, only me an' him's got a little business
to talk over. Ain't we, Bud? Eh?"
Slim led Polly toward the corral, glancing at Bud over his
shoulder with a reassuring smile. "Just you step out yonder a
bit and wait" he said to Polly.
"Now, you won't--"
"Can't you trust me any more?" he asked sincerely.
Grasping him by the hand, she looked him fairly and fearlessly in
the eye, saying: "I do trust you. I trust you both."
As the girl strode out of ear-shot, Slim, absent-mindedly, kept
shaking the hand she had held. Awakening suddenly to the fact
that his hand was empty, he looked at it curiously, and sighed.
Turning quickly, he slapped his hat on his head, hitched up his
chaps, and stepped up to Bud, who stood with a sneer on his lips.
"So you're the man that Polly loves," he said. "She's a good
girl, and she loves a thief."
Bud turned on him fiercely, drawing his gun. "Take care!" he
warned.
"You won't shoot. If you meant to shoot, you'd 'a' done it long
ago, when you pulled your gun," exclaimed Slim coolly.
"I might do it now." Bud held his gun against Slim's breast.
Slim threw up his hands to show he was not afraid of the boy.
"Go ahead. Squeeze your hardware. I reckon I'm big enough to
kill," he said.
Then he took Bud's hand and gently slid the revolver back into
the holster. The action broke down Bud's bravado. All barriers
fell before the simple action."
"It's all up with me," he said brokenly.
Slim sympathized with the boy in his trouble.
"Buck, he told me. Buck, he 'lowed you had your share of that
money," he explained.
The boy drew the money from his pocket and handed it to Slim,
remarking: "Here it is--all of it, I never touched it--I was
goin'--" Bud was about to lie again, but he realized the futility
of more falsehoods. "Take it," he added.
Slim counted the money and slipped it in his pocket.
"Bud," he said to that young man. "Me an' you have been pretty
good friends, we have. I learned you how to ride--to throw a
rope, an' Bud--Bud--what did you take it for? I know you didn't
murder Terrill for it, but what did you keep the money for?" He
asked the question with anger and annoyance.
Slim had seated himself by the fire. He spoke to the boy as he
would to a comrade.
"Can't you see?" the boy asked. "Polly. I wanted to make a home
for her--and now she'll know me for what I am, a thief--a thief."
Bud buried his face in his hands, the tears trickling through his
fingers, although he fought strongly against showing his
weakness.
Slim rose and stepped to his side, laying his hand on the boy's
shoulder. "Mebbe she won't have to know. Buck, he's dead, and
only you and I know."
Bud looked at the speaker in amazement. A lovable smile crept
over Slim's face. "I'm goin," he said, "to slip you a new deck,
an' give you a fresh deal. That was part my money that was
stole. I never came back at the county fer it. Buck, he's paid
half. I'll let 'em all think it was the whole. I'll put in a
thousan' I have at home, that I was savin' to buy in with the
Triangle B, in case I don't git elected nex' time. So, Bud, I'm
going to lend a thousan' o' this to you, just to give you a
chance at that little home."
"You're the whitest man I ever knew!" cried Bud.
"I reckon I ain't colored, 'cept a little red mite on top,"
laughed Slim. He disliked any show of feeling by the boy over
the offer he had made.
"But I can't take your money," Bud protested.
"Yes, you can," assured Slim. "You pay it back when you get on
your feet again. I'm going to take your word."
Slim's generosity overwhelmed the boy. "Take my word!" he cried.
Slim laid his hands on the boy's shoulders. "Yes," he declared,
"You've made your first bad break, but you've had your first
lessor. An' you ain't going to forget it," he added
emphatically.
"And Polly?" he faltered.
"There ain't nobody going to tell her." Speaking sternly to Bud,
he added: "You make her a good husband."
Bud seized the Sheriff's hand, wringing it warmly. "I will,
Slim; I will," he promised.
The wait had been too long for Polly. She returned before Slim
called her, saying: "I'm tired of waiting on you-all. Haven't
you finished up that business yet?"
"Yes, ma'am, it's finished," replied Slim.
"Did Bud tell you about it?" inquired Polly.
"He told me. Seems like you two are going to get married."
"Uh-huh," laughed Polly happily. "And, oh, say, will you stand
up for Bud?"
"I reckon Bud can stand up for himself now, with you to help
him," answered Slim emphatically.
"We'll run over and tell the boys you're back," shouted Bud.
Slim took the hands of the young people in his own big ones.
"I'm right glad you two are going to hitch up," he said. "I am
dead sure you'll make a even runnin' team."
Polly glanced shyly at Slim. "Bud won't mind if you kiss me,"
she hinted. Slim grinned sheepishly. In his embarrassment he
rubbed one foot on his other leg. "Well--I ain't--never--that
is--" he stammered, "Bud, if you-all don't mind," he boldly
asserted, after his bashfulness had waned, "I reckon I will play
one little bet on the red."
The Sheriff never did anything in a small way. The kiss he gave
her full on the lips was a resounding one.
Bud took Polly by the hand, and silently led her to the house.
Slim sat down on a keg behind the fire. Taking some loose
tobacco and a film of rice-paper from his pocket, he deftly
rolled a cigarette, and lighted it with a brand from the blaze.
With a sigh he removed his hat. He was the picture of dejection.
For several moments he sat in deep thought. Then, with a deep
in-drawing of his breath, and a shrug of the shoulders, he cried:
"Hell! nobody loves a fat man."
CHAPTER XVIII
Jack!
When Polly told the boys in the corral that Slim had returned and
was waiting for them at the mess-wagon, they dropped their work
and made for him with wild whoops and yells. Slim smiled as he
heard the coming.
Show Low made a running jump, throwing his arms about the
Sheriff's neck. Parenthesis and Sage-brush each grabbed a hand,
pumping up and down emphatically. The others slapped him on the
back. All talked at once, asking him the news, and whether Jack
had returned.
"Did you nip it up with the 'Paches," asked Parenthesis.
"Talk, durn ye, talk!" shouted Show Low, "or we'll hang out your
hide."
Slim shook the hands of his comrades, in turn, affectionately.
For each he had his own, particular form of greeting. "No,
boys," he said, when the group became more orderly, "I ain't
a-goin' to say a word 'till I see Mrs. Payson first."
Polly had ridden at once to the house to tell the joyful news of
Slim's return to Echo, who hurried at once to the boys about the
wagon.
Parenthesis spied her riding down the trail. "She's comin' now,"
he cried.
"Boys," requested Slim, "would you mind herdin' off yonder a
bit?"
The cow-punchers strolled over to the cottonwood, leaving Echo to
meet Slim alone.
"Where is he?" was Echo's tearful greeting.
"Well, ma'am, there's a man out yonder that's been through fire
and brimstone for you!"
Echo stared over the prairies. Then Jack was still searching for
Dick. Slim had failed to find him. "Out yonder," she moaned,
wringing her hands.
"Wait a minute," says Slim. "He says to me," says he: "'Break
it to her, Slim; tell her gentle--an' if she wants me--call, and
I'll come.' Ma'am, Dick Lane is dead."
Echo shuddered. "Dead," she repeated. "By his--"
"No, no," interrupted Slim; "not that way. Indians. Jack found
Dick, an' the Indians found 'em both. When I come up with the
soldiers from Fort Grant they was havin' the derndest mixup with
Indians you ever did see. Both men were bad hurted, an'
Dick--well, ma'am--I leaned over him jest in time to hear him
say: 'Tell her I know she was true--and not to mind.' Then he
gave a little ketch of his breath, and dropped back into my
arms."
Echo sighed. The tragedy of the desert was very real to her. In
the many months that the two men had been away she had lived
through it with them in poignant imagination.
"Great-hearted Dick," she said. "I was not worthy of his love.
And Jack, where is he?"
"Wait a minute--he wants to know if you can forgive him--if you
will take him back."
"Slim!" was the only word Echo uttered, but the volume of love it
contained told him everything.
"You needn't say nothin' more--I see it shinin' in your eyes,"
cried Slim.
"Jack! Jack!" he shouted, "you derned idiot, come a-runnin--"
Payson hurried up from the arroyo within which he had been
waiting.
"Echo, I have not altogether failed in my mission. I have not
brought Dick Lane back, but I hope I come from him bearing
something of his loyalty and simple faith. If you ever can learn
to trust me again--if you ever can learn to love me--" he said to
Echo humbly.
"Don't be a derned fool, Jack," blurted Slim; "can't you see she
ain't never loved no one else?"
"Echo, is it so?" asked Jack eagerly.
Slim grinned. Going over to Echo's side, he gave her a slight
push, saying: "Go tell him."
"Jack!" was her only cry, as her husband enfolded her in his
arms.
* * * * * * *
With the next election for sheriff in Pinal County, William Henry
Harrison Hoover had no opposition, for Buck McKee's nomination
for that office of one Peruna, formerly of the Lazy K outfit, was
not ratified for several reasons, the chief of which was that W.
H. H. Hoover, alias Slim, had, just previous to election,
officially declared that the said Peruna was deceased, having
come to his death in the jail-yard of Pinal County, by a sudden
drop at the end of a new hempen rope, which did not break, as
Slim, before the ceremony, had assured the apprehensive Peruna it
would not.
The sudden and successive removals of its two most honored and
influential members, Buck McKee and Peruna, greatly demoralized
the Lazy K outfit, and the demoralization was completed by the
pernicious activity of the reelected Sheriff in interfering with
the main purpose of that industrial organization, which was the
merger of the Sweetwater cattle-business through a gradual
amalgamation of all brands into the Lazy K. One by one the
captains or cavaliers of this industry sought more congenial
regions, where public inquisition into such purely private
concerns as theirs was not so vigorously prosecuted.
It must not be thought that the social graces and persuasive
abilities of Sheriff Hoover were confined to the conduct of
legalized necktie-parties and the dispersion of outlaws. In its
extended account of the "Lane-Hope Nuptials," the Florence Kicker
devoted much of the space to the part taken by the "best man" in
the ceremony, "our genial and expansive boniface of the new
county apartment hotel." And soon after it recorded that the
same Sheriff Hoover had induced the "charming Miss Wiggins,
sister of our deputy sheriff, to be his partner for life, as she
had been for the dance at the Lane-Hope nuptials, described in
our issue of June 15," and that "the happy couple receive their
friends--which we are instructed our readers is an 'invite' to
the entire county--at their future home, the new county jail, on
the Fourth of July."
And in a "local" paragraph of the issue containing the latter
notice, the editor of the Kicker remarks:
"Remember the Sheriff's Round-up on the Fourth. As ( ), our
friend from the Sweetwater with the 'all round understanding,'
says: '} up, Slim; all the boys will be there to [pointing
finger] you a few; you'll sure see * * *.'"