They crowded close, a little ring of curious faces, about me and the
dead man on the floor, and as a babel of talk uprose a tall, lean man
pushed his way into the circle, Captain Speer of the _Moon_ at his
heels.
"I guess I'll have to take you in just for luck," the stranger said to
me. "I'm town marshal. This killin' business has got t' stop."
He took me by the arm, and as he did so the cowpuncher who had looked
down at Tupper stepped in between us, breaking the marshal's hold.
"Not this time, Bax," he said softly. "Play fair or keep out uh the
game. Yuh stay mighty close in your hole when a gun-fighter hits the
town, and I'll be damned if you build up your reputation by arrestin' a
kid. This red-muzzler came in huntin' trouble, and he found it. It was
on the square, and yuh ain't goin' to put nobody in your stinkin'
calaboose--not to-night. You and me don't hitch on _that_ proposition."
For a second or two it seemed as if there might be another clash. Behind
the two a space cleared at the first words, and I noticed more than one
cowpuncher hitch his gun-belt forward. For myself, I was too dazed to
realize the exact turn of affairs, and I cared less. Tupper, at least,
would trouble me no more, and for that I was truly glad. But there was
no mix-up, nor even a harsh word. The marshal weakened. If he had
intended to take me he changed his mind after a brief glance at the
faces of the men who were watching him with silent intentness.
"If that's the way yuh feel about it, all right," he said--with an
indifference that his flushed face belied. He turned on his heel and
walked out, Captain Speer following.
"Yuh bet it's all right," the cowpuncher flung after him derisively.
Then to me: "Throw a jolt uh Bourbon into yuh, kid, and you'll feel
better. Yuh made a good fight. But let me tell yuh somethin'. Go heeled.
And when one uh these rough-necked fist-fighters jumps yuh, ventilate
him. Show your claws a time or two, and these would-be bad actors'll
leave yuh strictly alone. Say, Mr. Bar-slave let's have one _pronto_."
Three or four of them picked up the carcass of the _Moon's_ mate and
lugged it unceremoniously out to a rear room, and then the crowd lined
up at the bar, the play at the wheel went on, the men at the faro-table
who had turned on their stools to watch the fight again began to place
their bets. Life ran too full and strong there to be long disturbed by
the passing of any man.
My self-appointed champion--who, I now discovered, was just drunk enough
to welcome disturbance in any form whatsoever--and the young fellow with
whom I had been speaking before the row, wiped the blood off my face and
doctored the eye that Tupper had come near gouging from its socket. And
while they were thus ministering to me another stockhand clanked in from
the street.
"Say, Matt, yuh sure stirred up somethin'," he announced. "This the kid
that got action on the St. Louis jasper? Well, there's goin' to be a
healthy ruction round here over that, let me tell yuh. Bax is red-eyed
over yuh runnin' a whizzer on him, and he's collectin' a posse to take
both of yuh in. Don't yuh reckon we better drift for camp, Matt?"
Matt smiled and beckoned to some of the others. "Not by a long shot!" he
drawled. "Whenever old Ed Bax runs me out uh town, it'll be in the
good-by wagon. I'm goin' to see that this kid gets a square deal. If Bax
or anybody else wants me let 'em come and get me. Will the rest uh you
fellows stand pat?"
In varying stages of hilarity they crowded about him and profanely
assured him that they would turn Benton inside out and shake the pockets
if he but said the word. In the midst of their chatter the man who had
brought news of the marshal's action drew closer and lowered his voice.
"Look here, Matt," he argued, "you're runnin' the outfit and you're a
friend of mine and all that sort of thing, and yuh know that all of
us'll back any sort of play yuh make. But it looks to me like we can do
better'n to pull off a big fight. I ain't plumb chicken-hearted, but Bax
is goin' to come down on us with a bunch uh tin-horn gamblers to help
him out, and if this kid's in sight he's goin' to try and take him. Yuh
sabe? He's got to make some kind of a bluff at it, or every pilgrim that
comes along'll run over him. So it's a cinch that there'll be more or
less gun-play, and the Circle'll be shy a man or two when it's over."
"They ain't got the nerve, Dick," Matt declared confidently.
"It don't take much nerve to start anything like that," Dick replied.
"Somebody'll reach for his gun, and it'll be off. Now, Bax ain't goin'
to jump _you_--he's afraid to. If the kid's with yuh he's got to. I move
we stake this kid to a hoss, and let him drift. That lets _him_ out. And
if Bax wants to have it out with yuh on general principles, why, we'll
see it through."
"Dick's right," one of them put in. "The kid's got to hit the trail,
anyhow, and he might as well do it right away quick. That's the main
thing, ain't it. We started in to help him out, and if we can do it
peaceful, we'll live longer. Bax won't tackle us unless he just has to."
"Yuh got me on the run," Matt frowned. "I'd just as soon dehorn this Bax
party to-night as any other time. But I see where the kid better move
out, all right. You pilot him, Wall, and catch up one uh them extra
hosses, and stake him to that saddle Musky left--I'll fix it with old
Musk when he comes back. He can ride my hoss to camp."
It was all arranged offhand in less time than I have taken to tell of
it, and I was hustled out to where a row of cow-ponies patiently awaited
the pleasure of their hard-riding masters. For aught these sons of the
plains knew I was a purely worthless bit of human driftwood. But I don't
think they gave a thought to the matter. There was only one thing to be
done, in their estimation, and they proceeded to do it without
consulting me or doing very much talking about it themselves. So very
shortly I found myself straddle of the Circle foreman's horse and
jogging out of Benton. Beside me, young Wall rode silently until we
reached the top of the long hill that slopes to the town. Then he shook
his horse into a lope, and broke into cheerful whistling.
I, however, was far short of the whistling mood. The thing I should have
done I was afraid to do. Ordinarily, my instinct would have been to face
the music. I was unrepentant for the part I had played in the extinction
of Tupper. Nor would I, if I had calmly weighed the chances for and
against, have felt any fear of consequences before the law. But my
experience with the law, in those days, was a void. That which we do not
understand we usually fear, and that night I was stricken with a swift
fear of the law. I had killed, and there was a penalty. My spirit
revolted at the thought of a jail. Likewise, the quick action of those
Circle cowpunchers made a deep impression on me. If incarceration was so
to be avoided that they were willing to back their deeds with gunpowder,
I wanted no phase of incarceration in my experience. Better the open, an
unknown country, and whatever might befall therein, than to lie in
Benton "calaboose"--which, to my disturbed mind, was a synonym for a
place of vague horrors.
I thought of standing my ground, of taking chances on Bax the marshal
and the Benton jail, until the _Moon_ could reach St. Louis and apprise
Bolton of my need--and then I shuddered at the thought that the thing
might be settled beyond interference before he could make the long river
journey. I had heard and read more or less of hasty trials in the West;
I had killed a man in what seemed to me a barbarous fashion; I did not
know what the authorities, self-constituted or otherwise, might do to
me--and I hadn't the nerve to stay and find out. If they should hang me,
thought I, I shall be a long time dead. Flight, under these
circumstances, made the strongest appeal to my excited imagination.
Such was the chaotic state of my ideas when Wall pulled up his horse,
and I saw the white glimmer of tents close at hand.
"Night-hawk's got the bunch over here, I think," said he. "Seems like I
hear the bells. Anyhow, you stay here and I'll get yuh a _caballo_ that
can drift."
He trotted off, leaving me standing by the clear-cut outline of a wagon.
Away off in the semi-dark--for the moon was now risen--I heard a sudden
scurry of hoofs, an accentuated jangling of two or three small bells.
Presently Wall came loping back leading a blaze-faced sorrel horse.
From under the forward end of the wagon he dragged a saddle, a bridle
and a saddle-blanket.
"There," he said, "there's a good rig, barrin' spurs--which yuh won't
need much. And a good hoss to put it on. Go to it."
The stock saddle, with its high horn and deep seat, was not so different
from what I'd been used to--except as to weight. The double-cinch
apparatus bothered me a little, but when Wall explained the uses of the
latigo and the manner of its tying, I got my horse saddled properly--the
small imps of uneasy haste spurring me on. Then I swung up to try the
stirrups, and found that I had a restive brute under me. He plunged once
or twice, but I kept his head in the air, and finally straightened him
out. Wall nodded approval.
"I wasn't dead sure yuh could ride him," he owned. "But I see you've got
him in your sack, and you'll find him there when it comes to gettin'
over the ground."
"I'm all ready now, I think," said I.
"Wait a minute," Wall laughed. "Don't rush off. Bax wouldn't come into
the Circle camp after yuh to-night for two farms in Iowa. Chances are
he's busy right now figuring a way to get a dead safe whack at Matt
Dunn. Come on over to the cook-tent and get some grub to tie on your
saddle. You'll need it."
By the light of a candle he ransacked the grub boxes on the tail end of
the cook-wagon. A loaf of bread, some fresh-made biscuits, and a big
piece of boiled beef, together with a trifle of pepper and salt this
light-hearted, capable youngster wrapped in a bit of burlap and tied
behind the cantle of my saddle. And while he munched a piece of beef
himself, he gave me explicit directions as to my course.
"Once yuh get over into the MacLeod country," he concluded, "you'll be
all right. Nobody'll care a cuss who yuh are nor where yuh come from, so
long as yuh behave yourself. This red hoss hasn't got the Circle brand,
though he belongs to the outfit, so they won't ask no fool questions
about him. Yuh ought to pick up a job with some uh them Canadian layouts
pretty easy."
"Oh, wait a minute," he exclaimed, when I was again about to mount, and
he ran over to an outspread canvas-covered bed. He fumbled among the
tumbled quilts a moment and came back to me carrying a broad
cartridge-belt, on which a bone-handled Colt swung in its leathern
scabbard.
"I pretty near forgot this," he chuckled. "Yuh ain't heeled, and Lord
knows yuh need to be at this stage uh the game. Say, how are yuh off for
coin?"
"Man alive!" I cried--and I meant it, "you've done more for me now than
I can repay in a thousand years. I don't need money."
"Oh, yes, yuh do," he returned, unruffled. "A dollar or two'll come
mighty handy when yuh hit MacLeod, or wherever yuh land. I ain't goin'
to make yuh rich. Here, and good luck to yuh."
He pressed a ten-dollar gold piece upon me. Then we shook hands as
brothers at parting, and I rode out of the Circle camp on a
high-stepping horse, with the Big Dipper and the North Star to guide me
to the Canada line.