CONTENTIONS
Two horsemen met on the backbone of the ridge that separated Clinker
Creek and the green American.
Obed Pence was a tall individual with a small mouth, a great Roman nose,
close-set black eyes over which black brows met so that they formed a
continuous line, and large, tangled front teeth.
The man who met him in the trail--a boy who had just turned
twenty-one--was sandy-haired, freckled, snub-nosed, and blue-eyed. His
face was too boyish to show marked wickedness, but Chuck Allegan was not
the least important member of the Poison Oaker Gang.
"Howdy, Pencie?" he drawled, crooking his leg about his saddle horn as
his black horse stopped to rub noses with the bay that the other rode.
"Where you headin' for?" asked Obed Pence.
"Down toward Lime Rock. There's some cows o' mine and a bunch o' calves
down there. That breechy old roan devil steered 'em up thataway. She's
always wanderin' off with a bunch like that. Come on down with me--I
want to move 'em up with the rest o' the bunch. Soil's thin down
thataway, an' grass's already gettin' brown."
"Any o' mine in that bunch?"
"I dunno. Like's not. Come on--you ain't got nothin' to do."
"Maybe I have and maybe I ain't," retorted Pence half truculently.
"What you doin', then?"
"Watchin' out for that fella Drew."
"Who told you to? Old Man?"
Pence spat a stream of tobacco juice. "Not a-tall," he replied. "I guess
you ain't heard what's new."
"I ain't heard nothin' new. Spring it!"
"Foss is the one told me to keep my eye on Drew. Said for me to keep to
this ridge over here and try to get a line on what he's up to if he come
up this way. Digger's over in the hills on the other side o' the canyon,
watchin'. He's got glasses."
"What's the good o' watchin' this guy? Why don't we get in and fire 'im
out o' the country, like we said we was goin' to do?"
Obed Pence's irregular teeth twisted off another chew of tobacco.
"That's the funny part of it," he observed. "Digger's workin' alone, it
seems. Old Man tells him not to bother Drew at all. Says he'll tend to
'im 'imself, when he gets 'round to it. First time I ever saw Old Man
Selden hang back on puttin' a bur under anybody's tail when he wanted to
get rid of 'im. An' now he passes the word for nobody to bother Drew
till he says to. Digger don't like it. He's sore on the old man."
"What'd Digger say?"
"I just know mostly by the way he acts. There's somethin' funny goin'
on. Ever since that day we all rode down to Drew's cabin and heard the
shot inside, Old Man's been actin' funny. Digger an' me was wonderin'
what them two was talkin' about in the cabin, that made the old man
change the way he done. Why, say, he went down there to scare the ticks
outa Drew that day. And after that, you know, we had it all made up to
turn cows in on Drew's garden when he was away, an' let 'em get at his
spring. Then Jay Muenster was goin' to slip in sometime and put a live
rattlesnake in Drew's bed. And if all that didn't start 'im, we was
gonta begin plunkin' at him from the chaparral, you know--just drop a
few bullets at his feet when he was workin' in his garden. Wasn't that
right?"
"Sure was, Pencie."
"An' we rode down there to start things goin'," Pence continued. "And
when Old Man come outa the cabin he was bowin' and scrapin', and this
and that and the other, like him and Drew had been pals all their lives.
There's somethin' funny. Digger don't like it a-tall!"
"Does Ed know anything?" asked Chuck after a pause.
"No, he don't," answered Obed Pence. "It was Ed told Old Man 'bout
Digger takin' a crack at Drew when he was monkeyin' 'round Sulphur
Spring. And Old Man told Ed to tell Digger to cut it out, and that he
was runnin' the gang and would tell anybody when he wanted 'em to throw
down on Drew."
"I know."
"And Digger asks 'im when he sees 'im did he want Drew monkeyin' about
the spring and gettin' onto the pipe that took water to the still. And
Old Man says to hell with the still; he was gonta cut out makin' booze,
anyway."
"Cut it out?"
"That's what he told Digger Foss."
"Hell, he makes more money sellin' monkey rum to Standard than outa
anything else! And it's always been safe. Pro'bition didn't cut no ice
with us--just give us ten times the profit!"
Pence shrugged his ridgy shoulders. "I'm just tellin' you how things are
goin'. Drew made us loose the Sulphur Spring water to run the still
with, and Old Man didn't seem to give a whoop about it. Drew finds the
pipe, like as not, and that don't seem like it worried the boss. Just
says he'll cut out distillin'. Why, he's layin' right down to this fella
Drew. Drew's got Old Man buffaloed!"
"Not a-tall," disagreed Chuck Allegan. "You know better'n that, Pencie.
Man don't live that c'n buffalo Old Man Selden. He's double-crossin'
us--that's what! There's somethin' behind all this. What's Digger
watchin' Drew for? Is that any way to run a man outa the country? I'm
askin' you!"
"That runnin'-out-o'-the-country business has got to be an old gag.
Le'me tell you somethin': I wasn't goin' to, but I will. Digger said not
to mention it. But listen! You know Old Man took Drew home with 'im
after the fiesta."
Chuck nodded his boyish head.
"Well, Digger wasn't asleep at the switch. When it got dark he rides
across the river and into the ranch to see if he c'n find out what's
stirrin'. He ain't liked the way things 'a' been goin' since he got outa
jail. Course it's Jess'my that's got his goat. Drew's cuttin' 'im out;
and since the day we rode into Drew's Digger thinks Old Man's ag'in 'im,
an's helpin' Drew get Jess'my.
"Anyway, whatever's the reason, Digger leaves his horse in the chaparral
and sneaks in and sees 'em at supper. And he sticks 'round till supper's
over and Old Man steers Drew out to the corrals for a talk. They set
down on that old felled pine in the ferns below the spring, and Digger
snakes up through the ferns and hears 'em talkin'."
"What'd he say they said?" Chuck asked eagerly.
"Didn't have any too much to say about it," Pence replied. "Just said
Old Man and Drew was nice as pie to each other; and Old Man told Drew
there wasn't any use him bein' scared o' the Poison Oakers, 'cause there
wasn't no such outfit."
"Said there wasn't no such outfit?"
"That's what I said!"
"And Digger wouldn't tell no more?"
"No, he wouldn't. And I'll bet you there was a lot more to tell. I
savvied Digger wasn't springin' all he heard. But he don't like it."
"Maybe they was talkin' 'bout Jess'my. Then he wouldn't have nothin' to
say, you can bet yer life!"
"I got my doubts," Pence ruminated. "No, there was somethin' else. I
know that shifty little bullet eye o' Digger's. He was keepin' somethin'
back that he ought to told the rest of us. I don't like the way things
are goin'. Since this Drew showed up, seems like we all got somethin' to
keep from one another. Old Man's tryin' to double-cross the gang
someway. Foss is tryin' to get in on it, or else he's aimin' to
double-cross us an' Old Man, too, all on his lonesome. An' we can't make
any more booze 'cause o' Drew; an' Old Man says, We sh'd worry! A hell
of a mess! We're due for a big bust-up, I'm thinkin'. What's Foss
sneakin' about watchin' Drew for? Huh! Answer me that? An' why'd he tell
me to watch up here an' trail 'im if I saw 'im, without tellin' me why?
I'm gettin' about sick o' the whole dam' deal! I ain't takin' orders
from Digger Foss!"
"Me, too," agreed Allegan. "And that fire dance--that's 'at gets me!
Funny about this guy Drew, comin' here a stranger, an' dancin' the fire
dance right away. Somethin' funny, all right! Most folks thought maybe
he'd hooked up with a squaw, but it ain't that. Gets _my_ goat! But how
'bout the Selden boys?"
"They ain't said a word. I reckon they're in with Old Man, whatever he's
got on his chest. If we come to a split-up, that'll make Old Man and the
four boys on one side, and me an' you an' Ed Buchanan and Jay Muenster
on the other side. Five to four."
"But how 'bout Digger? He's always been strong with Old Man Selden.
He'll stick with him."
"Maybe--maybe. He won't be with us, though. An' I'm doubtin' if he'll be
with Selden, either. He's out fer Foss!"
"Fer Jess'my, ye mean!"
"'Sall the same," shrugged Obed Pence. "Le's ride down an' get a couple
o' drinks, an' then I'll fog it down to Lime Rock with ye. T'hell with
Digger Foss an' his orderin' me 'round!"
They rode away in silence, winding their way down into Clinker Creek
Canyon when a mile or more below the forty acres of Oliver Drew. They
dismounted at Sulphur Spring and pushed through the growth surrounding
it.
Only a little water now remained in the clay-lined reservoir. The
protruding end of the three-quarter-inch pipe was now plainly visible,
eight inches above the surface of the tiny pool.
"Just think," Obed Pence observed: "That pipe's took water down the
canyon for us for years; and s'long's the pool was full o' water nobody
ever found the end of it here. At least they never let on they did. An'
now comes this Drew an' puts the kibosh on everything! I'll tell a man
I'm gettin' sore about it, Chuck. I want my booze, and I want my share
o' what we could get out of it. I'm bettin' Standard'll be wild when he
learns Old Man won't distil any more."
"Can't," corrected Chuck.
"Can't, eh? Who's stoppin' 'im? Drew, that's who, and nobody else! And
he won't send Drew over the hills talkin' to 'imself, like he's done to
many a better man before 'im. I'm sore, I tell you. And I'm gonta find
out what's doin', or know the reason why."
"Le's get clay an' cover the end o' the pipe," suggested Chuck. "Some
deer hunter's likely to see it if we don't, now that the water's pretty
near gone."
They solemnly administered this rite in remembrance of dead days, and
rode on down the canyon single-file.
Over three-quarters of a mile from the spring they left their horses in
the creek bottom and clambered up a steep slope, slipping on the
polished pine needles underfoot. Near the summit the trees thinned, and
heavy chaparral usurped the land. On hands and knees they plunged into
it, and presently were crawling on their stomachs over an unmarked
route.
In the heart of the chaparral they came suddenly upon a circular opening
made by the hand of man. Here was a high ledge of schist, and under it a
small cave. Grass grew here, for the spot marked the other end of the
pipe line from Sulphur Spring, and the water that had represented the
spring's overflow had trickled out to cool the copper coil of the Poison
Oakers' still, incidentally refreshing the barren land.
The pipe line represented a great amount of toil and patience, but, as
the pipe had been stolen from a railroad shipment, no great outlay of
funds. Clinker Creek Canyon dipped so steadily below Sulphur Spring that
it had been possible to lay the pipe to this hidden spot in the heart of
the chaparral, far up on the hillside, and still maintain a goodly fall
for the flow of water.
Only by crawling flat on his face could one reach this secluded
rendezvous; and in all the years that they had made molasses rum here
the Poison Oakers had not been disturbed. Not even a hunter would find
it necessary to penetrate this fastness. Men would have laughed if told
that water was flowing up here on the dry, rocky eminence.
Before the cave's mouth was an adobe furnace for the fire, and over it
the now dry end of the pipe hung uselessly. The still was removable, and
was now in the cave, together with distilled stock on hand and kegs of
molasses that had been packed into the canyon on burros' backs, then
trundled laboriously up into the chaparral.
Chuck and Obed entered the open cave and sat themselves down beside a
barrel with a wooden spigot. They found glasses and wiped soil and
cobwebs from them with their thumbs, and soon the water-coloured liquor
flowed to the temporary gladdening of their hearts.
But as it flowed again and again they began renewing their grievances,
and shook their heads over "the good old days," and mouthed vague
threats, and forgot all about Lime Rock and the breachy cow.
In the midst of their maudlin conversation Obed Pence heard a sound,
despite his rum-dulled sensibilities.
"Cut it out!" he husked. "Somebody's beatin' it in here."
He lay flat in the mouth of the cave and looked down the hillside under
the chaparral.
"Old Man and Bolar," he announced.
"Le's get out an' beat it over the hill, and back down to our
_caballos_--and they won't know we been here," Chuck suggested.
"Huh! Not me!" retorted Pence. "They already seen our horses, I'll bet.
Anyway, I'm liquored up just right to tell Old Man how the war broke
out. I'm glad he's comin'. I'm gonta know what's what right pronto!"