THE ORPHAN GOES TO THE A-Y
The A-Y had been a very busy place for the past two weeks because of the
cattle which had to be re-branded and taken care of, and of other things
which had to be done about the ranch. The sheriff had taken title and
had persuaded Crawford to remain in nominal charge for a month at the
most so as to keep the sale a secret until the new owner would be ready to
make it known. So word went around that Crawford had hired the sheriff to
put things on a paying basis and that half of the old outfit had left,
their places being filled by Charley, the two Larkin brothers and two
men from a northern ranch.
Shields had been very much pleased with the cattle which The Orphan
had bought for him and had asked Blake if he could borrow the new
puncher to help him get things in good running shape. Blake had told The
Orphan of the sheriff's request and had advised him to accept, which the
puncher was very glad to do. So this is how the former outlaw became
temporary foreman of the A-Y under the sheriff. Only the sheriff's most
intimate friends knew his plans, one of whom was Charley Winter, who
found food for mirth in the unique position things had taken. The
sheriff's deputies who had lain out-doors all night on the Cross Bar-8
waiting to capture or kill the outlaw were now working under him, and
the best of feelings prevailed. The man who had hunted The Orphan now
employed him as the bearer of the responsibilities of the new ranch.
Truly, a change!
While The Orphan was busy with his duties on the A-Y the sheriff rode to
the Star C and sought out the foreman, whom he finally found engaged in
freeing a cow that had become mired in a quicksand. As the terror-stricken
animal galloped wildly away from the scene of torture and indignities to
its person Blake mopped his face and began to scrape the quicksand from
him.
"Playing life-saver, eh?" laughed the sheriff.
The foreman looked up and smiled sheepishly: "Yes," he replied as he shook
hands with the sheriff. "One cow more or less won't make nor break no
ranch, but I just can't see 'em suffer. The boys and I were passing, so
we stopped and got to work. But cows ain't got no gratitude, not nohow!
That ornery beast will be all ready to charge me the first time he sees
me afoot. Did you see him try to horn me when I let go?"
His friend laughed, and when they had ridden some distance from the others
he turned in his saddle:
"Well, The Orphan is working like a horse, and he likes it, too," he
said. "You ought to hear him giving orders--he just asks a man to do a
thing, don't order it done. When he talks it sounds like the puncher
would be doing him the greatest possible favor to do the work he is paid
to do, but there is a suggestion that if any nastiness develops, hell
will be a peaceful place compared to the near vicinity of the foreman
of the A-Y. He sizes up a thing with one look, and then tells how it
should be done. Everything has gone off so fine that I'm going to ask
you to lose a good man, and real soon, too. What do you say, Tom?"
Blake laughed: "Why, we were a-plenty before he came and we'll be a-plenty
after he goes. That's for your asking me to turn him over to you. The
boys will be both sorry and glad to have him leave, because they like
him a whole lot. But of course they want to see him land everything
that he can, so they'll give him a good send-off. That reminds me to
say that I know they will want to be on hand when you break the news to
him. It'll be a circus for your Eastern friend, Miss Ritchie."
"Now you're talking!" enthused the sheriff. "I want to have as many
fireworks at the ceremony as I can possibly get. Oh, it'll be a great
day, all right. We are all going out and take a bang-up lunch, just
like we're going on that picnic that Bill's been so worried about, and
Bill is going to drive the women over in his coach. The first surprise
will be the announcement of the new ownership of the A-Y, and right on
top of it I'm going to fire the second gun. I hope none of your boys
know anything about it," he added with anxiety.
"Not a thing," hastily replied the foreman. "You have your wife send a
message to me by Joe when he rustles our mail to-morrow and ask us to come
to the picnic at the A-Y on the day which you will decide on. They'll go,
all right, no fear about that. Nothing more than your wife's cooking is
needed to attract them," and he laughed heartily at how suddenly they
would come to life at such a summons.
Shields thought intently for a few seconds and then slapped his thigh:
"I've got it!" he exulted. "I'll ride over to your place with you and
write a letter to my wife telling her just what to do. Joe can deliver
it and bring back the invitation. You see, I won't be home to-night, but
that will do the trick, all right. Now, what do you say to this coming
Saturday?--this is, let me see: Wednesday. Will that be time enough for
you to make any arrangements you may want to make?"
"Shore, plenty of time," Blake laughed. "It's good all the way. Joe will
be delighted to have a real good excuse to call at your house. He's a
bashful cuss, like all the rest. They talk big, but they're some bashful
all the same. He's been worrying about it, for one day he came to me
with a funny expression on his face and acted like he didn't know how
to begin. So I asked him what was troubling him, and he blurted out like
this, as near as I can remember:
"'Well, you know Mrs. Shields said we was to go to her house when any of
us hit town?' he asked.
"'I shore do,' I answered, wondering what was up.
"'Well, I go to town a lot, and it takes a h--l of a lot of gall to do
it,' he complained, looking so serious that it was funny.
"'Gall!' said I, surprised-like, and trying to keep my face straight.
'Gall! Well, I can't see that it takes such a brave man to call at a
friend's house when he's been told to do it.'
"'Oh, that part of it is all right," he replied. 'But she'll think I only
call to get my face fed, and it makes me feel like a--I don't know what.
You see, I always get away quick.'
"'Well, stay longer, there ain't no use of being in a hurry,' I said.
'Stay and talk a while.'
"'Then they'll think I ain't got enough and push more pie at me, like they
did once,' he complained.
"'Suppose I give Silent your terrible ordeal to do,' I suggested
tentatively, 'or Bud, he's dead anxious for your job.'
"'Oh, it ain't as bad as that!' he cried quickly. 'I only thought that
I'd speak to you about it. I thought you could suggest something.'
"'Well,' I replied, 'every time you call you say I sent you over to ask
about the sheriff's health. How'll that do?'
"He grinned sheepishly and then swore: 'H--l, that would make a shore
enough mess of it,' he cried. 'I'd be a royal American idiot to say a
thing like that, now, wouldn't I?'"
The sheriff laughed heartily, and they talked about the picnic until they
had reached the ranch-house, where he wrote the note to his wife. Bidding
his friend good-by, he rode out past the corrals and headed for the A-Y.
When about half-way to his own ranch, and on A-Y ground, he surmounted a
rise and saw a figure flit from sight behind a thicket, and his curiosity
was immediately aroused. Not knowing who the man might be, he stalked his
quarry and finally found Bucknell standing beside his horse.
"Well, what's the trouble now?" the sheriff asked as he came out into
sight. He was dangerously near angry, for Bucknell was on forbidden ground
and was flushed as if from liquor. "What's the trouble?" he repeated.
Bucknell looked confused: "Nothing, Sheriff. Why?" he asked, evading the
searching gaze of the peace officer.
"Oh, I thought something might have gone wrong on the Cross Bar-8, and
that you were looking for me," Shields coldly replied.
Bucknell looked at the ground and coughed nervously before he replied,
which only made the sheriff all the more determined to get at the matter
in a true light.
"No, nothing's wrong," replied the puncher. "I was just riding out this
way--I was some nervous, that's all."
"That don't go with me!" the sheriff said sharply. "I've lived too long
to bite on a yarn like that. Why, you can't look at me!"
The puncher did not reply and the sheriff continued:
"Now, look here, Bucknell, take some good advice from me--stay on your
ranch, mind your own business and let liquor alone. As sure as you
monkey around the Star C Blake will give you a d----n sound licking, and
he's man enough to do it, too, make no error. And as for the A-Y, well,
the temporary foreman of that ranch is the cleverest man with a gun that I
ever saw, and I've seen some good ones in my time. If you go up against
him you'll get shot, for he'd think you were about the easiest proposition
he ever met. As sure as you drink you'll get drunk, and as sure as you
get drunk you'll work up an appetite for a fight, and if you pick a
fight with him you'll never know what hit you. You stick to water and
the Cross Bar-8."
"Oh, I reckon I can take care of my own business," sullenly replied
Bucknell. "I can come out here drunk or sober if I wants to, I reckon."
"You can do nothing of the kind," rejoined the sheriff. "And you certainly
ought to be able to take care of your own business, as you say," he
retorted, holding his temper with an effort. "But in the past you didn't,
and you may not in the future. And when your business gets too big for you
to handle it gets into my hands, and if you make any trouble I'll d----n
soon convince you that I can handle your surplus. Now, get out of here and
think it over."
Bucknell swung into his saddle and then turned, the liquor making him
reckless.
"D----n it!" he cried. "The Orphant killed Jimmy and a whole lot more good
cow-punchers! He's nothing but a murdering thief, a d----d rustler, that's
what he is! And you are his best friend, it seems!"
The wan smile flickered across the sheriff's face, but still he refrained,
for such is the foolish consideration given by brave men to liquor. A
drunkard may do much with impunity, for the argument states he is not
responsible, forgetting that in the beginning he was responsible enough
to have left liquor alone, and that injury, whether unintentional or
not, is still injury.
"There is no seem about it!" he retorted. "I _am_ his best friend, and
he needs friends bad enough, God knows. But speaking of murder, those
four good cow-punchers that stopped me in the defile tried hard enough to
qualify at it, and The Orphan not only saved me, but also some of them,
for I'd a gotten some of them before I cashed. You're a h--l of a fine
cub to talk about murders, you are!"
"That's all right," retorted Bucknell, "he's just what I said he was. And
a side pardner of our brave sheriff, too!"
"D----n you!" shouted Shields, his face dark with passion. "You have
said enough, any more from you and I'll break your dirty neck! Just
because I felt sorry for you when you got half killed in the saloon
and let you stay in the country don't think you are the boss of this
section. When I saw what a pitiful, drunken wreck you were, I felt sorry
for you, but not any more. You don't want decent treatment, you want
to get clubbed, and you're right in line to get just what you need, too!
Now, I'm not going to stand any more of your d----d foolishness--my
patience is played out. And if you were half a man you wouldn't sit there
like a bump on a log and swallow what I'm saying--you'd put up a fight
if you died for it. You are no good, just a drunken, lawless fool of a
puncher; just a bag of wind, and it's up to you to walk a chalk line or
I'll give you a taste of what I carry around with me for bums of your
kind. What in h--l do you think I am? No, you don't, you stay right
where you are 'til I get good and ready to have you go! You've come
d----d near the end of your rope and there is just one thing for you
to do, and that is, get out of this country and do it quick! You stay on
your own side of the Limping Water, for if I catch you riding off any
nervousness off of Cross Bar-8 ground without word from your foreman,
I'll shoot you down like I'd shoot a coyote! And for a dollar I'd wipe up
the earth with you right now! You d----d, sneaking, cowardly cur, you
tin-horn bully! Pull your stakes and get scarce and don't you open your
mouth to me--come on, lively! Pull your freight!"
Bucknell slowly rode away, his eyes to the ground and not daring to say
what seethed in his heart. He swore to himself that he would get square
some day on both, not realizing in his anger that when sober he feared
them both.
The sheriff stared after him and then returned to the point where he
had left his horse. As he mounted he shook his head savagely and swore.
Glancing again after the puncher he struck into a canter and rode toward
the ranch.