AN INCIPIENT LOVE AFFAIR
In the afternoon Johnson called on Miss Hawes at the Cowboys' Rest,
where she bathed dishes and did other useful tasks. She was wearing a
pink dress with the neck cut low, and looked very neat and wholesome.
Nobody but a woman would have guessed that she had expected him.
The sight of her put the finishing touches to Lafe. Within half an hour,
he was lost in speculation as to whether he could command sixty dollars
a month if he went to work for the Lazy L. And perhaps he might be given
the Ajos camp, with its comfortable adobe house and rosebushes in the
yard? He pictured her there. Lafe could almost hear the wild doves
cooing in the scrub-oak canon.
Grace made him sing.
Come, all you wild rovers, pay 'tention to me
While I tell to you my sad historee.
I'm a man of experience, no favors to gain;
Love's been the ruin of many a man.
He droned it through his nose, with sharp yelps at the end of each line,
like a coyote in the full swing of his nightly paroxysm.
"I don't like that song," she said decidedly. "Cut it out. It's fierce."
"I reckon it ain't true," Lafe admitted lamely, and tried another, a
plaintive ditty of Little Joe, the horse wrangler.
Hardly had he finished than Moffatt knocked and was admitted. Steve had
on a new, yellow silk neckerchief, and Johnson cursed his want of
foresight in not purchasing some finery. To-morrow that would be
rectified: he recalled a green one he had seen in the store window.
The gunfighter let two six-shooters slip from his waist when he entered,
depositing them carefully on a chair. Local ordinances do not permit the
carrying of firearms in Badger, and Johnson was interested.
"You travel well heeled?" he remarked.
"Yes," said Moffatt, "but I don't talk about it."
"Do you know, I'm always scared to pack a gun," Lafe went on pleasantly.
"You'll never see me with one, Miss Hawes."
"Why not? I like them. They look so cute."
"I'm always scared somebody'll twist the sights off'n it, or take the
doggone thing away and slap me."
"Some fellers do get hurt trying for to pack a gun," Steve said. He
added critically: "You look stout enough."
"I'm feeling pretty tol'able fair, thanks."
When Lafe got home that night, Jim was sitting up for him, thumping his
heels against the edge of the bed. He was so much concerned for his
friend that he did not feel like sleep. After a tentative puff or two on
a cigarette, and some coughing, he got it out. Did Lafe know that Grace
Hawes--Johnson silenced him curtly, and they lay down, back to back. But
Buffalo was undaunted by a sleepless night. His was a staunch soul, and
early next morning he repaired to the Cowboys' Rest to interview Miss
Hawes.
"You say he's been married before?" Grace cried. "Lafe Johnson is
married now, you say?"
"Shore," said Jim, with a friendly smile. "That's a way ol' Lafe has. He
don't mean no harm, Miss Grace. He's just naturally playful. It's sort
of a habit he's got, getting married--sort of a hobby like."
"Hobby? I'll hobby him--hobby him good. How often has he had the habit?
How many wives has he got now, Mr. Buf'lo?"
"Oh, not a great many. I don't rightly know, but--"
"And these--these wives and fam'lies? Where are they?"
"There ain't many fam'lies," Jim corrected, beginning to regret his
interference. "Not a great many fam'lies, Miss Hawes. Just a few,
scattered here and there."
"Get out!" said Miss Hawes. "Get out, and don't you never show your face
round here again. Married? Huh, you can't go to fool me! You quit
trying to crowd into my affairs or it'll be the worse for you, Mr.
Buf'lo."
"Certainly, ma'am. Certainly, Miss Grace," Jim said, seizing his hat.
"Excuse me, ma'am, will you, please?"
He decided to say nothing of the visit to Lafe.
When Johnson reached the Cowboys' Rest that evening, Moffatt was already
ensconced in the wicker rocking-chair. Lafe was momentarily cast down. A
conference had revealed that he and Buffalo had no more money. They must
go in search of work without delay.
"Oh, Mr. Lafe," was Grace's greeting, "guess what! I've been asking
Steve about shooting, and he done promised to keep a can in the air for
five shots to-morrow."
"That's good shooting," said Johnson, accepting a chair.
"Ain't it wonderful? I do love a man who can shoot. When I marry, I want
a man who knows how to keep other men scared. I used to tell my sister
back in Abilene--she ain't like me. No, indeed. She's a society lady, my
sister is. I done said to her, 'Mary Lou, when--'"
"Yes, it takes nerve to be a gunfighter," Lafe interrupted.
"Oh, it's grand, I think." Miss Hawes clasped her hands and rolled her
eyes.
"Yes, sir; yes, ma'am, it sure takes nerve. A gunfighter always gives
the other feller an even break. And he don't care how even it is, does
he, Moffatt?"
"I don't take you," Moffatt said doubtfully.
"Why, there's all kinds of nerve in this world, Miss Hawes," said Lafe.
"When a man knows he's better at a thing than the next man, he's liable
to be awful nervy. Take a bronc buster, now. He knows he can clean a
horse, and he ain't scared so you could notice it. And a gunman. If the
other feller was a mite quicker, I wonder if he'd--What do you think?"
Said Moffatt: "I don't know what you're driving at."
"Well, look a-here. Supposing I was to put it up to a gunfighter--to Mr.
Moffatt here, say--'Let's go into that back room with just our bare
hands and lock the door and lay the key on the table.'"
"What for?" Miss Hawes asked breathlessly.
"The best man to open it--I wonder now what a gunman--what Mr. Moffatt
here--would say to that?"
"I ain't a fool," was what Moffatt had to say to that.
"Or," Lafe resumed, "what if I put it up this way to some of them
terrible fighters? What if I said, 'Let's put two guns on a table, draw
off to opposite sides of the room, let another feller count three, and
the man who gets to 'em first, lives?'"
None of the three moved when Johnson had finished. The alarm clock on
the flimsy, draped mantel-shelf ticked loudly. Miss Hawes's breathing
sounded strained.
"Ol' man Haverty wanted to see you down at the Fashion, Moffatt," Lafe
said at last.
"You coming, too?"
"I reckon so."
"You're on," said Moffatt.