DIPLOMACY
Worried Mrs. Dale raised a work-scarred hand and pushed back a lock of
gray hair that had fallen over one eye. "It's a forgery," she said,
wretchedly. "I know it's a forgery. He--he wouldn't sign such a paper.
I know he wouldn't."
Molly Dale, all unmindful of Racey Dawson sitting in a chair tilted
back against the wall, slipped around the table and slid her arm about
her mother's waist.
"There, there, Ma," she soothed, pulling her mother's head against
her firm young shoulder. "Don't you fret. It will come out all right.
You'll see. You mustn't worry this way. Can't you believe what Racey
says? Try, dear, try."
But unhappy Mrs. Dale was beyond trying. She saw the home which she
had worked to get and slaved to maintain taken from her and herself
and her daughter turned out of doors. There was no help for it. There
was no hope. The future was pot-black. She broke down and wept.
"Oh, oh," she sobbed, "if only I'd watched him closer that day. But I
was washing, and I sort of forgot about him for a spell, and when I'd
got the clothes on the line he wasn't anywhere in sight, and--and it's
all my fuf-fault."
This was too much for Racey Dawson. He got up and went out. Savagely
he pulled his hat over his eyes and strode to where his horse stood in
the shade of a cottonwood. But he did not pick up the trailing reins.
For as he reached the animal he saw approaching across the flat the
figures of a horse and rider. And the man was Luke Tweezy.
With the sight of Mrs. Dale's tears fresh in his memory and the rage
engendered thereby galvanizing his brain he went to meet Mr. Tweezy.
"Howdy, Racey," said the lawyer, pulling up.
"Whadda you want?" demanded Racey, halting a scant yard from Luke
Tweezy's left leg.
"I come to see Mrs. Dale," replied Tweezy, his leathery features
wrinkling in a grimace intended to pass for a propitiating smile.
Racey's stare was venomous. "Tweezy," he drawled, "I done told you
something about admiring to see you put these women off this ranch,
didn't I?"
"Oh, you was just a li'l hasty. I understand. That's all right. I've
done forgot all about it."
"So I see. So I see. I'm reminding you of it. After this, Luke, I'd
hobble my memory if I was you, then it won't go straying off thisaway
and get you into trouble."
"Trouble?"
Racey did not deign to repeat. He nodded simply.
"I ain't got no gun," explained the lawyer.
"Alla more easy for me, then. You can't shoot back."
Luke Tweezy choked. Choked and spat. "---- ----" he began in a violent
tone of voice.
"Careful, careful," cautioned Racey, promptly kicking the lawyer's
horse in the ribs. "There's ladies in the house. You get a-holt of
yore tongue."
Luke Tweezy obeyed the command literally. For, his horse going into
the air with great briskness at the impact of Racey's toe, even as the
puncher had intended it should, he, Luke Tweezy, bit his tongue so
hard that he wept involuntary tears of keenest anguish.
"You stop that cussin'," resumed Racey, seizing the bridle short and
yanking the bouncing horse to a standstill with a swerve and a jerk
that almost unseated its rider. "You be careful how you talk, you--hop
toad!"
"Leggo that bridle!" yammered Tweezy, almost distraught with anger.
His tongue pained him exquisitely and he was otherwise physically
shaken. "Leggo that bridle!"
"I'll let it go!" Racey grated through set teeth, and he let it go
with a backward flip to the lower branches of the severe curb bit that
instantly sent the horse on its hind legs. If Luke Tweezy had not
quickwittedly smacked the animal between the ears with the butt of his
quirt it would have continued the motion to a backfall and rolled its
rider out.
"Tough luck," mourned Racey, sorry to observe that Luke had contrived
to ward off an accident. "I was expecting to see that horn dislocate
yore latest meal. If you ain't quite so set on going to the house you
can flit."
"I wanna see Mrs. Dale," persisted the lawyer in a strangled voice.
"I come to offer her money. I wanna do her a favour, can't you
understand?"
"I can't," was the frank reply. "I can't see you doing anybody a
favour or giving away any money. C'mon, get a-going."
It was then that the lawyer lifted up his voice and shouted aloud for
Mrs. Dale. Undoubtedly Racey would have done Tweezy a mischief had he
been given time. But unfortunately Molly Dale came to the lawyer's
rescue precisely as she had once come to the rescue of his partner in
evil, the bulldozer Lanpher. As it was Racey had contrived to pull
Luke Tweezy partly from the saddle when Molly arrived and forced her
defender to release his victim.
Reluctantly Racey dropped the leg he held and allowed Tweezy to come
to earth on his hands and knees.
"What do you want?" inquired Molly, regarding Tweezy much as she would
have regarded a poisonous reptile.
"I want to see yore mother," snuffled Tweezy, applying his sleeve to
his nose. He had in the mixup smote his swell fork with the organ in
question and it had begun to bleed.
"Why?"
"I want to pay her money to go away quietly," said Tweezy, switching
from his sleeve to his handkerchief. "I--"
"Here she is," interrupted Molly. "Tell her."
"How do, ma'am," said Luke to the wet-eyed widow. "I guess it ain't
necessary for me to go through a lot of explanations with you. You
know what's what, and you know we'll take possession just as soon as
the sheriff serves the eviction papers on you."
At this Racey Dawson made a noise in his throat. Molly laid cool
fingers on his wrist.
"Steady, boy, steady," she whispered under her breath.
Despite the seriousness of the moment Racey's heart skipped a beat and
the pleasantest shiver in the world ran about his body. "Boy!" she had
called him. "Boy." Her hand was actually touching his own. He--
"I don't want to be hard on you, Mis' Dale," resumed Luke, after an
apprehensive glance at Racey Dawson. "I don't like to be hard on
anybody that's sittin' into a run of hard luck, but business is
business, ma'am. You know that. And after all I'm--we're only asking
for what we're by rights entitled to. We got title to this place fair
and square, and--"
"Title, huh?" struck in Racey, unable to keep silent. "Not yet you
ain't."
"S-s-sh," breathed Molly, tightening her grip on his wrist.
"It's like I say, Mis' Dale," Luke Tweezy burred on from behind his
handkerchief, "I ain't got any wish to add to yore troubles, and so I
got my partner to agree for me to give you five hundred dollars cash
money if you'll pack up and clear out quiet and peaceful."
"Don't you do it, Mis' Dale!" urged Racey. "There's a trick in that
offer."
"They ain't any trick!" contradicted Luke Tweezy, vehemently. "I just
wanna save trouble, thassall."
Save trouble! That had been Lanpher's reason for coming the day he
rode through the garden. Save trouble, indeed.
"If yo're so shore the sheriff is going to serve those eviction
papers," said Racey as calmly as he could because of the warning
pressure on his wrist, "if yo're so shore why are you giving away five
hundred?"
"Because I don't like to be hard on Mis' Dale. Then, again, I'll admit
we wanna get in here soon as we can."
"You admit it, huh? That's a good one, that is. Don't you do it, Mis'
Dale. You stand pat."
"I don't want your five hundred dollars," said Mrs. Dale.
"Seven-fifty," climbed up Tweezy.
Mrs. Dale shook her head. "No."
"One thousand," Tweezy raised his ante.
"Lemme throw him out, Mis' Dale?" begged Racey Dawson. "Just lemme
throw him out, and I'll guarantee he'll never bother you again."
Again Mrs. Dale shook her head, and the pressure on Racey's wrist
increased. "You mustn't touch him," said Mrs. Dale. "He'll go."
"Think it over," Tweezy blundered on. "One thousand dollars gratis
cash money in yore hands if you'll leave at once."
"I'll wait awhile," said Mrs. Dale. "Please go."
Luke Tweezy opened his mouth to speak. Racey broke from Molly's
detaining grasp and stepped between him and Mrs. Dale, and Tweezy
closed his mouth without speaking.
"You heard what she said," Racey drawled, softly. "Git."
And Tweezy got.
"Do you think the sheriff will put us out?" asked Mrs. Dale, twisting
a corner of her apron between her hands.
"He'll take all the time to it he can," Racey evaded the direct reply.
"But whatever happens don't think of taking any offer like that of
Tweezy's. It's a trick, thassall. No matter who comes to you nor what
he offers don't you move till--Well, anyway, Judge Dolan and Jake Rule
are with you from soda to hock, and they'll do all they can to hold
things at a stand-still till I can fix it all up. You must remember
that I know what you dunno, and when I say that everything will end
fine and daisy you better believe I know what I'm talking about."
Molly looked at him keenly. "Racey, that's the third or fourth time
you've said that. I wonder if you really have something up your
sleeve."
"Of course I have," Racey insisted. "You wait. You'll see."
"What do you know? Tell us."
"Never mind, and I won't. It might spoil everything if I told you. You
just leave it to me."
He had definitely made his bluff. He would have to make good. And he
no more knew how to make good in the business than the year-old baby
busy with its toes. But ere this men have killed dragons and made
wonders come to pass all for the sake of their ladies' eyes. Men as
prosaic and matter-of-fact as the puncher, Racey Dawson. Quite so.
Half-an-hour after the departure of Luke Tweezy Mr. Saltoun and Tom
Loudon rode in on lathered horses. They were, it seemed, journeying
homeward from the 88 whither they had gone in an endeavour to persuade
Lanpher and Tweezy to sell the Dale mortgage.
"Tweezy, huh?" said Racey. "He's just left here."
"He must 'a' rode like the devil," said Mr. Saltoun. "He was in the
office with Lanpher when we left."
"I thought I noticed a feller off to the south of us as we come
along," observed Loudon. "He was just a-boilin'. I only saw him the
once as he slid by the mouth of a draw. Looked like he was trying to
keep out of sight. Rode a gray hoss."
"Tweezy rode a gray," nodded Racey.
"Him, all right. What did he want here, Racey?"
"Offered Mis' Dale one thousand cold if she'd pull her freight."
"She ain't gonna do it, is she?" demanded the alarmed Mr. Saltoun.
Racey shook his head. "She's gonna stick."
"She must. Hell, yes. Those papers of Luke's are forged. I know they
are."
"So does everybody else," put in Tom Loudon, "but if something don't
turn up damn quick--" He broke off, shaking a dubious head.
"Something will," declared Racey, making his bluff a second time with
an air of supreme confidence.
"You know something, Racey," prodded Mr. Saltoun who prided himself on
his perspicacity. "Whadda you know?"
"I ain't telling it," answered Racey, coolly. "I ain't coming back to
the ranch to-day, neither."
"Oh, you ain't. Listen to the new owner, Tom."
"That's all right," said Racey. "If I'm going to do the world any good
I've got to have a free hand."
"You can have two of 'em," conceded Mr. Saltoun. "The bridle's off."
"Aw right, I'll take Swing Tunstall," Racey hastened to say.
"I meant yore own two hands," demurred Mr. Saltoun.
"I know you did, but I meant the other kind. Listen, do you want
Lanpher and Tweezy to get this ranch?"
"---- it, no!"
"Then gimme Swing Tunstall."
"Take him. Need anybody else? Wouldn't you like all the rest of the
outfit, and me, too?"
"My Gawd, no. This is a job requirin' brains."
"Say, lookit here, Racey--"
"When you get to the ranch tell Swing to come along soon as he can,"
interrupted Racey. "I'll be expecting him."
Tuckety-tuck! Tuckety-tuck! Somewhere beyond the cottonwood grove
surrounding Moccasin Spring a galloping horse was coming in. A moment
later horse and rider shot past the tail of the cottonwood grove, and
bore down on the house.
"Marie!" exclaimed Racey.
"And riding one of my hosses," observed Mr. Saltoun.
At that instant Marie caught sight of the three men and swerved her
mount toward them.
"They said at the Bar S you was here," panted the lookout, pulling up
in front of Racey Dawson. "So I borrowed a fresh hoss and kep' on.
Somethin's happened in Farewell, Racey. Swing Tunstall's shot."
"Downed?" Racey did not usually jump at conclusions, but Swing
Tunstall was his friend.
Marie shook her tousled head. "Nicked--shoulder and leg. But it ain't
their fault he wasn't rubbed out."
"Who's responsible?" demanded Racey.
"Doc Coffin."
"You said 'their'."
"Honey Hoke bumped into Swing just as he went after his gun, so Swing
couldn't get his gun out a-tall. Swing said Honey grabbed his wrist,
but Peaches Austin and Punch-the-breeze Thompson was on the other side
in the way so none of the boys seen what happened to Swing exactly
till after it had."
"Austin, Thompson, Hoke, and Coffin," said Racey. "What began the
fuss?"
"Doc Coffin upset a glass of whiskey over Swing's arm, and then cussed
him for getting his arm in the way."
"And Swing called him a liar, huh?"
"And a ---- one, too," elaborated Marie.
"Put-up job." Gruffly Mr. Saltoun gave his opinion.
"Shore." Tom Loudon nodded gravely.
"Where are those four men now?" Racey asked, quietly, looking at
Marie.
"They were in the Starlight when I left town--and _they weren't
drinkin_'."
"No, they wouldn't be."
"And the sheriff and Kansas went to Dogville this morning, and the
marshal is sick. I thought you ought to know. My Gawd, I thought you'd
hear the news from somebody else before I got here and go bustin' in
regardless, and--"
"I guess I'll go in all right," he told her with a slight smile, "but
it won't be regardless."
With that he turned on a spurred heel and crossed springily to where
his horse stood.
"Aw, the devil!" exclaimed Marie, looking helplessly at Tom Loudon and
Mr. Saltoun. "And he'll do it, too."
Then she "kissed" to her horse and rode into the cottonwood grove for
a drink at the spring.
Racey, sticking foot in stirrup, found Molly Dale at his elbow. She
was looking at him the way women do when they either don't understand
or think they understand only too well.
"Who is that woman?" asked Molly Dale.
"Huh?" Thus Racey, stupidly. He was thinking of his friend lying
wounded in Farewell. "What woman you mean?... Oh, her, that's Marie,
she's--she's lookout in the Happy Heart."
"Oh, yes, Marie. I--I've seen you with her--one evening when you and
she were crossing the street and I drove past. I--I, yes, indeed."
And as she spoke her eyes were very bright, and her figure was stiffer
than the proverbial poker. Which was odd. And at the tail of her words
she gave a stiff nod and hurried into the house. Which was odder. The
species of nod and the hurry--both.
But Racey was in no mood to speculate on the idiosyncrasies of woman.
Even _the_ woman. So he topped his mount and rejoined Tom Loudon and
Mr. Saltoun. They regarded him silently.
"I guess," said Racey, whirling an empty tobacco-bag by it's
draw-string, "I'll borrow some of yore smokin', Tom. I'm plumb afoot
for tobacco at the present writing."
Tom Loudon handed over his pouch without a word. But Mr. Saltoun was
fidgety. Unlike his son-in-law, he felt that he must speak.
"Lookit here, Racey," he said, hurriedly, "you ain't going to Farewell
alone, are you?"
"Why, no, certainly not," Racey replied, solemnly. "I'm going to send
word to Yardly for the troops. Hell's bells, there's only four of
them, man!"
"Yes, well--Who's this? One of our boys?"
But it was not one of "our" boys. It was Rack Slimson, the proprietor
of the Starlight Saloon. But he was riding in from the direction of
the Bar S.
He rode soberly, as one bound on a journey of length. Even as Marie
had done he glimpsed the three men and turned his horse toward them.
Ten feet from the flank of Racey Dawson's mount he pulled in and
nodded. There was spite--spite and something else--in the gaze he
fixed on Racey Dawson.
"Yore friend's hurt," said he. "Got in a fight."
"Hurt bad?" asked Racey.
"Not _too_ bad. I've seen worse."
"Where's he hurt?"
Rack Slimson merely corroborated what Marie had said. So far he seemed
to be telling the truth. And it was natural that there should be spite
in his eyes. He had no cause to feel affection for either man. But
there was the "something else" besides the spite in those eyes. That
was what interested Racey.
"You come here special to tell me this?" said Racey, staring.
"Not me," denied Rack Slimson. "I was just passing by, and I thought
I'd let you know."
"Just bein' neighbourly, huh?"
"I dunno as I'd go so far as to say that."
"Well, I'm obliged to you, Slimson. I'm shore a heap obliged to you.
Is Swing Tunstall being taken care of all right?"
"He's in Mike Flynn's house. Joy Blythe is a-nursin' him."
"Then I ain't needed in Farewell right now." Racey's tone was casual.
Rack Slimson rose to the bait immediately. "He's asking for you alla
time," said he.
"He is, is he? Why didn't you say so at first?"
"I didn't know it was necessary."
"Which is true more ways than one. Lookit here, Slimson, where might
you happen to be going when you run into me so providential here at
Moccasin Spring?"
"I might be going most anywhere," Rack Slimson replied with a flash of
temper.
"No call to get het, Rack, no call to get het. What I'm asking is a
fair question: Where might you be going to-day."
"Marysville."
"Ain't you off the trail some?"
"Shore I am, some. I remembered something I gotta see about at the
88 before I go to Marysville. That's how I'm going west instead of
south."
"When did you first remember this here something of yores?"
"When I stopped at the Bar S for a drink of water."
"And after you'd just happened to remember this something, I s'pose
you just happened to ask where I was and they told you Moccasin
Spring. Is that the how of it?"
"Yo're a good guesser," replied Rack Slimson with sarcasm.
"Sometimes I do make a centre shot," Racey admitted, modestly.
It was then that Marie, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand,
rode forth from the cottonwood grove. At sight of her Rack Slimson's
eyes opened wide, then they narrowed.
"Hell," he muttered, turning a slightly worried look on Racey.
"What you hellin' about?" Racey inquired, pleasantly.
"You knowed about Swing Tunstall alla time," complained Rack Slimson.
"What makes you think so?" Racey sidled his horse closer to Rack.
"She told you." Thus Rack, bluntly.
"'She?' What she you mean?"
"Aw, her." Rack Slimson jerked his head toward the approaching girl.
"He's got 'em again," said Racey to Mr. Saltoun and Tom Loudon. "I
don't see any 'her' anywhere. Do you?"
"Not me," chorussed both men.
"You see how yo're mistaken, Rack," pointed out Racey. "Yore eyes are
deceivin' you. Don't you trust 'em. You don't see any girls round
here, exceptin' maybe Miss Dale over at the house. You might 'a' seen
her according to whether she came to the kitchen door or not. But you
ain't seen any other girl here. And you better be shore you ain't."
"Why had I?" blustered Rack Slimson, without, however, making any
hostile motion with his hands.
"Because I say so."
"Whatell's it to you?"
"All you have to do is say in Farewell that you saw Marie here at
Dale's and you'll find out. I'll even go farther than that. I'm
tellin' you, Rack, that if anybody finds out in Farewell that
Marie was here, or if any accident happens to her--any accident,
y'understand--I'll have to take it as evidence that you had to blat.
Fair enough, huh?"
"But supposing somebody else sees her and tells about it?" protested
Rack Slimson.
"In that case yo're out of luck," was the unfeeling reply.
"But--" began again Rack Slimson.
"You might try prayer," Racey interrupted. "It would maybe help. You
can't tell."
The unhappy Rack Slimson looked toward Mr. Saltoun and Tom Loudon. But
there was no aid for him in that quarter. In fact, both men eyed him
with frank hostility.
"So you see Marie is kept out of it." Racey laid his final injunction
on Rack as the girl in question joined them. "You don't guess this
girl is her, do you?"
"Nun-no," declared Rack, hastily. "I don't. She's somebody else for
all I care."
"That's the way to talk," Racey said, nodding approvingly. "You keep
right on holding to those sentiments and I wouldn't be surprised if
you lived quite a long while."
Marie showed her teeth in a laugh. "I ain't a-scared of any such breed
of chunker as Rack Slimson," said she, calmly. "I can manage him my
own self. You goin' back to Farewell, Racey?"
"Right now."
"Then I'll be going with you."
"You'll do no such a thing. There's no sense in yore running into
trouble thataway. You'll come in to Farewell after me and from another
direction."
"Shore, I was going to. I was only gonna ride along with you part
way."
Racey shook his head. "Wouldn't be sensible, that wouldn't. Somebody
might see you. You come along later like I told you. Me and Rack will
travel together."
"I was goin' to the 88," protested Rack.
"Yo're mistaken," Racey told him, firmly. "Yo're going to
Farewell--with me. Ain't you?"
"I s'pose so," Rack Slimson capitulated.
"Then c'mon. Get a-goin'."
Marie watched the two men ride away together. "Ain't he the hellion?"
she said, admiringly, to Tom and Old Salt. "Bound to have his own way
if it kills him."
At this there was a slight sound from the direction of the garden.
Marie and the two men turned to look. Trowel in hand Molly Dale was
kneeling on one knee between the brook and a row of blue camass. But
she was not doing any weeding. She was staring fixedly at Marie. While
a man could breathe twice Molly stared at Marie, then she dropped her
head and became very busy with the trowel.
Marie's sniff was audible at thirty feet. She picked up her reins and
nodded to Tom Loudon and Mr. Saltoun.
"See you later," said she, and started her horse in the direction of
Farewell. But she whirled him back before he had taken three steps.
"I clean forgot he was yore hoss," she said, apologetically, to Mr.
Saltoun. "I'll have to go back to the Bar S first."
"Thassall right," Mr. Saltoun made haste to assure her. "You take him
right along. One of the boys can ride yore hoss to town on the next
trip an' ride this one back."
"That _will_ save me a lot of trouble," said Marie, turning her
bewildered mount a second time.
"She ain't ridin' straight toward Farewell," said Tom Loudon, rolling
a slow cigarette.
"Aw, she's sensible," yawned Mr. Saltoun. "She'll do like Racey says
all right. She must like him a lot. I--Whatsa matter with _you_?"
For Tom Loudon had contrived to make a long leg and give Mr. Saltoun a
vigorous kick on the ankle.
"I guess we'll be goin'," dodged Tom Loudon, and then took off his hat
to Miss Dale. "So long, miss. If you--uh--You know where the Bar S is
in case--just in case, y' understand."
He touched his horse with the spur and moved off with as much dignity
as a colonel of cavalry. Not so Mr. Saltoun. He had been kicked,
and the kick hurt, and he was very red and ruffled in consequence.
Swearing under his breath he followed his son-in-law.
"Here," he demanded, crowding his horse alongside, "what did yuh kick
me for?"
Tom Loudon looked over his shoulder before replying. The ranch-house
was a hundred yards in the rear and Molly Dale was not in sight. He
deliberately turned his head and looked his father-in-law straight in
the eye. "What did I kick you for?" he repeated. "I kicked you because
you didn't have any sense."
This was too much. "Huh? Because I--Lookit here, you--"
"'Tsall right, 'tsall right. You didn't have any sense. Here's Molly
Dale thinks Racey is the only fellah ever rode a cayuse, and you have
to blat out so she can hear you, 'Marie must shore like him a lot'."
"Well, what of it? I don't see--"
"You don't? Wait till I tell Kate."
"It ain't necessary to tell my daughter," Mr. Saltoun remonstrated,
hurriedly. "I suppose my saying that about Marie might give Molly a
wrong idea maybe about Racey. But how do you know she likes Racey? You
been talking to her? Did she tell you so?"
"I ain't, and she didn't. I been talking to Kate. She told me. Don't
ask me how she knows. She says she knows, and that's enough for me.
You can't fool a woman in things like that."
"You can't fool 'em in anything," Mr. Saltoun corroborated, bitterly.
"I shore oughtn't to said that about Racey and Marie. I'll go right
back and tell Molly it ain't so."
Mr. Saltoun started to wheel his horse, but Tom Loudon halted that
manoeuvre.
"You gotta let it go now," said he. "If you tell her you didn't mean
what you said she shore _will_ think it's true."
"We-ell, if you think I'd better not, I won't," Mr. Saltoun assented,
doubtfully. "But I wouldn't say anything to Kate if I was you."
"Then I won't," said Tom Loudon, his tongue in his cheek.
"Where you think yo're going?" Mr. Saltoun queried presently. "This
ain't the way to the ranch."
"I know it ain't. It's the way to Farewell."
"Whyfor Farewell?"
"It's just possible Racey may need a li'l help before he's through
with this job."
"You're right," Mr. Saltoun said, contritely. "I've been so took up
with this Dale mortgage and the idea of Luke Tweezy and that skunk
Lanpher getting this land that I ain't give much thought to anything
else. Of course Racey will need help, and you and I are the fellers to
give it to him."