Arizona, like a pouting child, was indulging in one of her periodic
drouths, and cattle were slowly succumbing to starvation. The winter
snows and rains had been insufficient to start the Spring grass, and
though it was now late in August and the summer rains usually began in
June, not a drop had fallen.
Most of the water-holes were dry, and water in the wells of ranches sank
further from the surface each day. Many springs considered permanent,
degenerated into mere mudholes where cattle bawled and crowded one
another into the bogs till the weakest fell and were suffocated or
trampled to death. The country was not only devoid of green grass, but
what dry feed was left contained no nutriment whatever.
Ranchers fortunate enough to own permanent springs, or wells that were
not yet dry, guarded the water jealously, notifying neighbours to come
and care for the stray cattle that lingered bellowing around the closed
watering places, or walked aimlessly for miles beside the barbed wire
fences that kept them from the water they could smell. Tiny calves
trailed weakly behind skeleton cows; other cows abandoned their young;
and all added hysterically to the din of constant bellowing wherever
there was a pool of water to lure them.
Sulphur Springs Valley was over a hundred miles long. It spread twenty
miles across from the Grahams to the Galiuros, and was broken by groups
of cottonwood trees clustering about small ponds of water supplied by
windmills. Ordinarily these ponds were open to all stock, but now the
gates were closed. Unless the water were used economically there would
soon be none in reserve, as a few days without wind would cut off the
daily supply from the windmills, and dry up the ponds.
Each day at ten o'clock the gates were opened. Cowboys stood guard,
allowing the cattle bearing the ranch brands to enter the water-corrals,
all other stock being "cut" away from water. The owners of these strays,
having been notified, sent men to drive their own cattle home; but the
animals would not remain away. Accustomed to ranging and watering in a
certain locality, they would return and stand dumbly watching other
cattle drink, waiting patiently for their own turn. When night fell,
they lay down by the fence, lowing pitifully until morning, when they
would again stagger to their feet. Sometimes, in frenzy, an animal tried
to break through the wire fence, cutting itself on the barbs and growing
steadily weaker hour by hour, till at last there was another carcass to
be hauled away from the fence about the water corrals.
The August heat was intensified by the drouth, and a discussion in the
corrals had annoyed Traynor. With the mood still on him, he entered the
living-room of the Diamond H, where his wife was sitting beside a couch
on which Jamie was sleeping. The boy had grown listless of late, and
Nell tried to deceive herself by blaming the weather. Doctor Powell had
been with them almost constantly, battling with all his skill for the
waning life.
Traynor stooped over the child, then paced restlessly up and down the
room. "I wish I could see a way to get you and the boy off to
California, Nell, until this drouth is over. You both need the change.
You have been a plucky little woman, never making a single complaint;
yet I know how much the boy means to you. He is as dear as an own son to
me, and it is maddening to be tied hand and foot, so that I cannot help
you. I was a fool that I did not accept the offer of that Eastern
syndicate last Fall--but cattlemen are all fools! None of us will sell
during a good year. When the drouth hits us we curse ourselves for
letting a sale slip. Drouth or no drouth, the men have to be paid;
grain bought for the horses and provisions for us all. Where the money
is coming from, the Lord only knows--I don't."
He flung himself moodily into a chair. Rising swiftly, Nell went to his
side and slipped her arm about his neck, looking down into his face as
he tried to smile up at her.
"Can't you pay the men with checks on the stores as you have always
done?" she asked. "You told me once the stores carried all bills for
five or six months, and accounts were settled when cattle were sold at
the regular shipping season."
"That would be all right, ordinarily; but unfortunately the stores don't
see it that way just now. They not only refuse further credit for cash
or merchandise, but are asking settlements of all accounts in full,
saying they are being pressed by their own creditors. Of course, one
cannot very well blame them. They have to 'save their own bacon;' as the
boys say."
"Is there any chance of getting money from the Tuscon bank?" asked his
wife, hopefully. "When Mr. Eisenbart was here he said this ranch was the
finest piece of property--not only in the Territory--but in the entire
west."
"That did not cost him anything," retorted Traynor bitterly. "You see,
like most cattlemen, I have never established a credit at any bank,
being satisfied to do all my business through the stores which cash my
checks. Consequently, now that the stores are closing down on me, I have
no other place to turn!" He paced the floor restlessly and Nell watched
him with troubled eyes, realizing how little she could help.
"I should have opened an account with some California bank long ago," he
continued. "However, there's no use crying over spilled milk. I did not
fully understand how critical my position was until I wrote to Eisenbart
two weeks ago. I offered a mortgage on the ranches and all the stock, at
twelve per cent. for a five thousand dollar loan! Why, this place is
worth five hundred thousand dollars! He answered they were not making
any new loans and were calling in all outstanding notes. No one wants a
mortgage on dead or dying cattle, but the land would have been ample
security for ten times what I needed."
Traynor stood by the window, staring out at the sky. He turned and
resumed his restless walking to and fro, "God! If it would only rain!
It's not just myself, but you and Jamie, and I want to get you two away
to the Coast for a while. Then I got Powell into the mess, too. This
drouth hits his plans pretty hard. All his money is now tied up in the
Springs and the PL herd that he bought from Paddy!"
"But the Springs are not affected?" said Nell, "Limber told me that
nothing can influence that water supply."
"No; there is that much to be thankful for, at least," he admitted
wearily, sinking down into a chair, and letting his head drop into his
hands. Nell crossed softly, and her hand caressed the bowed head, until
Traynor's face looked up at her. The haggard, drawn lines about eyes and
mouth, distinct in the glaring light from the window, smote her heart
with pity and longing to comfort him.
"Dearest, I don't care how poor we are, so long as I have you and
Jamie;" she was looking into his eyes bravely. "You did not marry a rich
girl; but one who knew what poverty meant, and poverty where there was
no one to speak an encouraging word. We have a roof that is our own.
Even if the cattle die, the drouth cannot last for ever. When the rains
come again we can mortgage the land, and get--why we can get a few
chickens and a milk-cow, maybe," she laughed. "I have learned to make
dandy butter, so we can sell butter and eggs if we can't get money
enough to buy a bunch of cattle. We won't stay down, if we do get bowled
over!"
"Nell! Bless your heart, you'd help any man get on his feet. Someday,
please God, I will be able to give you everything money can buy."
"Nothing you could buy would make me as happy as knowing I am able to
help you," she smiled through a mist of tears.
"I must go out and see what the boys are doing," and with head erect
Allan Traynor passed through the door. Soon Nell heard his whistle--the
first time for many days.
The regular round-up had been deferred until Fall, as the cattle were
too weak to be handled and branded. The Diamond H men were kept busy,
however, working the cattle at the watering places or riding the range
where the weakest stock was "cut out" and driven slowly to the ranch and
fed at the big stacks of native hay, or in the pastures that Traynor's
foresight had reserved for such an emergency. Other ranchers, who had
been amused at his idea of fencing pastures when the whole country was
an open range, now saw his plans had been good judgment, and looked with
chagrin at their own dying cattle which might have been saved by such
measures.
One afternoon near sunset, Paddy Lafferty appeared at the Diamond H
stables. Tying his dejected, flea-bitten grey horse in a stall, he
unbuckled his rusty spurs and hung them over the horn of his saddle.
"Whar's Limber?" he asked Bronco, who passed the door of the building.
"Hot Springs," Bronco returned, in gasps of lighting a cigarette. "Doc's
at--Tucson."
"Whar's the bye?"
"Inside the house."
Paddy waited no longer, but stalked through the Court and knocked at the
door of the sitting-room.
Nell met him and her eyes lighted with pleasure, for his quaint, Irish
humour was never tiresome to her. Then, too, she saw the sincerity under
the surface. Paddy stepped with awkward care across the room and seated
himself on the edge of a chair.
"How do he bye a doin'?" he asked in his customary hoarse whisper,
jerking his head toward the lounge where Jamie lay in uneasy sleep.
"Not as well as usual, Paddy. He tires easily," she answered sadly,
knowing only too well that the little life was slipping away hour by
hour, though she had kept the thought to herself, believing that Traynor
was still blind to the truth and not wishing to add to his many
anxieties. She was unaware that Powell and Traynor had warned the boys
not to speak to her of the child's serious condition.
Paddy had also been told of the deception, and had given his word to
Traynor. He sat looking at Nell intently, knitting his shaggy eye-brows,
and trying to think what to say without betraying his knowledge.
"Mebbe it's the weather do be a doin' it. Misthress Thraynor. Whin the
rain comes he will be afther falin' betther."
"Oh, if we could only get rain!" she cried. "Do you think the cattle
blame us for their suffering when they look at us with their pitiful,
patient eyes? I want to tell them we are suffering, too. Yesterday I
watched a cow, standing by her dying calf, licking its face. It was like
something human. After it died the mother stood there--and this morning
she would not leave it until I asked Bronco to take it away from her. I
couldn't stand it. Please don't think I am crazy, Paddy, but it seemed
so cruel that a tiny, helpless creature should come into the world for a
few weeks, only to suffer and die."
"Yez ain't the only wan that do be a worritin' over the sayson,
Misthress Thraynor," rejoined Paddy, who had found conversational
bearings at last. "Paple passes on the road widout savin' ache ither,
becoz they're all so busy lookin' up at the sky--" he was trying hard to
tide her over the danger point. "They're all a boyin' linnyments to rub
their necks, becoz of the kinks from lookin' for the clouds." Nodding
approval at a faint smile he had evoked, he went on: "Yez was talkin'
about cattle havin' rayson, Misthress Thraynor. Did yez be afther
knowin' whin ould cows on the range have young calves too wake to walk
fur, they all put their heads together and talk it over, loike a lot of
women-folks does, an' thin wan of thim cows sthays and takes care of
four or foive calves, whilst the ither cows goes off to wather, mebbe
tin miles away. Thin she takes her turn whin the ithers comes back. Now,
if that ain't rayson, be jabers, phwat is it?"
"I believe all animals have some reason, Paddy. It is human beings who
do not understand them. We call them dumb brutes, because we lack the
patience or intelligence to comprehend. I have learned a great deal
since coming here to live."
"Did yez iver say a cow funeral, Misthress Thraynor?" asked Paddy.
"No, but I have heard the boys speak of them," she answered.
"It's a funny thing," went on Paddy. "Sometoimes a critter's been killed
a wake or two, and no soign of it to be seen. Thin an ould cow will come
along wid her nose to the ground, loike a dog on a trail, shniffin', and
suddenly she raises up her head and lits out a yell loike an Apache
Injun. As soon as she does thot all the cattle that are nigh enough to
hear comes a runnin' to beat the divvle, an' yellin' as loud as they
can. Thin they all sthand around ashniffin' and bawlin' and pawin' up
the ground to beat the band. They don't seem to moind if a cow dies
natural, but when wan of thim is killed so its blood touches the ground,
it upsets the bunch of thim as soon as they find out about it. There was
a tinder-foot that committed suicide three years ago, when he laughed at
one of the Erie outfit that was tellin' about a cow funeral. The Erie
boys had things pretty much their own way, them days."
"Suicide?" asked Nell, wonderingly.
"Well, it figured out that way. He killed hisself by bein' too slow
drawin' his gun."
"How much longer do you think the cattle will hold out, Paddy?" she
asked anxiously.
"Oi belave the strongest wans kin hould out six wakes, but the poorest
wans can't last over two. Yez say, afther the rains comes it beats down
the dry fade that is lift, and there won't be any strength to the new
fade for siveral wakes, so thot makes it harder for a whoile afther the
rains stharts. Thin's the toime cattle gives up." Paddy paused and
smoked reflectively, while Nell rocked slowly, immersed in anxious
thoughts. Paddy squinted at her from under his heavy eyebrows, then
broke the silence, saying, "Did yez iver say ould man Brandther?"
Nell shook her head.
"Will," resumed Paddy, "he's the only wan in Arizony I'm not sorry for.
He's gittin' it in the nick, now, an' Oi'm dumned glad of it! Oi till
yez, he's a genywine hypercrit! Always says grace at male toimes; and
whin he gits out of bed mornin's he goes on his knaze wid his
noight-shirt a floppin' around his shanks and t'umps his craw and tills
the Good Lard what a fine man ould Brandther is! Thin, he goes on the
range and swoipes a couple of calves; and when noight comes, he gits on
his knaze agin an t'umps his craw, and t'anks the Good Lard for all the
marcies He has besthowed that day."
Despite her heavy heart, Nell's eye twinkled, her mouth twitched and a
dimple began to show. The dimple had been hidden away for many days.
Paddy saw and approved it.
"He sthayed to my place wan noight the last toime he come to his ranch,
and thot's how I know about his religious belafes of hisself. Afther he
had lift, Oi flopped on my knaze and t'anked the Saints and the Good
Lard that thar wasn't but wan real good and holy man in Arizony so long
as I was in the cattle raising business."
In spite of her anxiety, Nell's laughter rang through the room, as she
pictured the pompous Mr. Brander thumping his "craw." The man was very
wealthy, and only visited his ranch at intervals, but was so rabidly
anti-Catholic that he never missed any opportunity to harangue on the
topic, and he allowed no Mexicans employed on his ranch, because of
their religion.
"It seems pitiful that we need rains so badly here, while the farmers in
the East are complaining of too much," Nell said, unable to avoid the
topic that was so vital to them all.
"Oi'm siventy-foive years ould, Misthress Thraynor, and Oi've found
things ginerally works that way. Boy-the-boy, have yez iver been to Nye
Yark?"
"I was born there and lived there with my parents till they died, then
the money went and I worked, Paddy. I had to earn enough for Jamie and
myself, you see. There was no one to help us. You get frightened when
you know you are only one in the four millions people around you."
"The nixt toime yez go to Nye Yark," said Paddy, "there's a little
restyrant yez want to be afther thryin'. Oi disremember the name of the
strate yez sthart from, but ony way, yez go tin strates to the roight,
thin thray strates to the lift, and thin yez kape straight on till yez
say the place, and there yez are. Yez can't miss it. Yez can git the
best male yez iver ate in your loife," he leaned over and dropped his
voice more confidentially, "and they only charge tin cints!"
In order to hide the twitching corners of her mouth, as she conjured up
a vision of turning cannibal and devouring "the best male yez iver ate
in your loife," Nell moved to the window and stood picking dead leaves
from a common geranium growing in a crude window box on the inner ledge
formed by the thick adobe walls of the house.
"It's growing beautifully, Paddy," she said to the old man, "and Jamie
and I love to watch it. Only, I hate to have you give it up yourself
after you have had it so long. It's a beautiful geranium."
"Oh, well," Paddy replied carelessly, waving his hand with the pipe, "I
was away from the house so much that half the toime I'd fergit to wather
it. It's a long ways betther since you took care of it. Only, yez
remimber, yez mustn't give it away to anybody ilse. Yez see, it belonged
to the ould Dootch woman I married, and she thought a lot of it. Oi
wouldn't give it to any wan ilse but you and Jamie."
Nell's face was sympathetic. She had heard of the strange wife of old
Paddy, who spoke only Holland Dutch, while Paddy spoke not one word of
the language; but they had managed to get along together till she passed
away. Paddy had never called her anything except "The ould Dootch
woman."
"It needs water now," Nell spoke after prodding in the earth. "I'll get
some from the well."
When she left the room, Paddy laid his beloved pipe aside, then drew his
chair near the sleeping boy. As he watched the pale, parted lips, the
faint breath, the dark rings under the half-closed eyes, something warm
and moist slipped down the old man' cheek and dropped upon his wrinkled,
calloused hand. "Lard," he whispered hoarsely, "I can't see why yez let
an ould useless bag o' bones like me kape on livin' and take the little
lad that iverywan wants and loves. Can't ye swap us?"
Then Nell returned, and Paddy straightened up. "He never even peeped,"
he announced, turning to watch her water the plants. There was a
peculiar expression on his face as he walked slowly over to where Nell
let the water flow gently on the dry soil, then taking a pair of
scissors from her work-box she pruned the plants carefully, saying,
"Jamie usually takes care of them himself, but the last week I have done
it for him. He is so easily tired. Did you ever think that life is just
like a plant, Paddy? It starts out so bravely, sending its roots deep
into the soil, and spreading its tender leaves to the sunshine--Happy,
just because it is alive. Then the Gardener comes and prunes the stalks,
and the plant does not understand why it is treated so cruelly.
Sometimes it seems as though the leaves would never start again, but
after a while the blossoms are more beautiful than ever, for pruning
makes it stronger." She paused, looking down at the plants, then her
voice trembled a little, "I am trying so hard, Paddy, to believe that
the Gardener knows what is best."
He knew she was thinking of the child on the couch, and he held out his
rough hand; "Oi giss yez are roight, Misthress Thraynor. Things wurrk
out in the ind, if we do be doin' the bist we know how. Oi've lived
among the cattle so long that I don't know anything ilse but cows and
cow-talk, but if iver yez nade a frind, jist yez remimber ould Paddy."