THE FOURTH MAN
ROSS stood motionless until Weston, muttering and turning his head from
side to side, gradually came to rest again and fell into a deeper sleep.
Then the boy went outside and sat down on the bench.
"It's easy enough to put two and two together," he muttered.
Leaning forward, he dropped his elbows on his knees and taking his head
between his hands, proceeded to do some adding satisfactory in its
results. He longed for the presence of Sheepy. Now he would question
him with interest on the subject of the puncher whose face was free
from a beard and whose hair was tow color. He wanted more information
on the subject of that cattle round-up and of the process of getting
those three guilty cow punchers. Still, he believed that Sheepy had
told him enough to make it clear that Weston was the fourth that old man
Quinn was after.
"Some one that looked like Weston and rode like him," Ross enumerated
the points in the evidence, "only the man in Oklahoma had no beard and
his hair was tow color."
What was easier than to grow a beard--the hair was already accounted
for--it had been tow-colored before its owner stained it a chestnut
brown. And why should he have colored it unless for purposes of disguise?
And why a disguise unless he was guilty of a crime such as driving old
man Quinn's sheep into the North Fork?
At this point in his reasoning, another fact flashed into the boy's
mind--the strange way in which Weston had acted about his name.
"Ha, ha!" exclaimed Ross aloud and then checked his voice. "Probably he
didn't want us to know his name, his real name," he thought. "How all
that dovetails together. If I could only get hold of Sheepy now!"
On further reflection, however, he decided that Sheepy could throw no
more light on the subject. It was evident that the herder did not know
the name of the puncher who had ridden alone past his wagon, for he had
not connected Weston's name with the other. Nor would Weston, if he
were the same puncher, be likely to recognize Sheepy who, as he himself
said, was in his wagon preparing supper when the puncher, his eyes on
his horse's ears, passed.
That night, when Ross rolled up in his blankets beside Weston he was sure
he was lying beside the fourth cowboy of old man Quinn's search. But
in the cold clear dawn he was not so sure. It might have been vanity that
had led Weston to stain his hair, tow not being a manly color. Then,
too, even if he had been on the North Fork, so were dozens of other
cow punchers. As to his name, Weston would naturally have been astonished
at perfect strangers addressing him rightly where he believed himself
unknown.
Ross, eating his breakfast, and only half listening to Hank, looked down
at the prostrate man speculatively, his mind full of suspicion, but not
so sure as on the previous day that there was no flaw in his reasoning.
He had not had an opportunity, the day before, of speaking to Hank about
the matter, and now he decided to keep his suspicions to himself for
the present.
His suspicions, however, during the two weeks which followed, were
swallowed up in the anxiety that attended this, the first "case"
where he had been obliged to assume all responsibility. The care and
interruptions to his rest wore on him. Never had one of Aunt Anne's
hair mattresses invited sleep as did the blankets laid on the dirt
floor when he found time to lie on them. Often he fell asleep sitting
on the hard bench, his head on his arms crossed on the table, while
Hank was frying flapjacks and boiling thick black coffee.
As for the patient, he accepted Ross's ministrations with but few
remarks. As his thigh bone began to knit, he became querulous, and
finally passively enduring.
"When you goin' to let me out of this?" he asked on the day when Ross
last measured the injured leg.
The boy settled back on his heels. "I have sent for some plaster of
Paris," he explained, "and, by the time it gets here, your leg will be
healed and ready for a cast. Then you can be taken back to Cody and
let the doctor there see you. If it was not for that ugly fracture you
would have been out of here before. If you'd only have the Cody doctor
to look you over now----"
The man grunted, and worked restlessly at the sand-bag, which, on the
outside of his leg, reached his armpit.
"Cody doctor be hanged!" he remarked unaffably. "He don't know half as
much as you do."
It was the nearest approach to thanks or praise he had given Ross.
"That Cody doctor ain't worth shucks," confirmed Hank, who occupied a
box beside the stove. "He tended a feller that I knew, and let 'im die."
The speaker looked from Ross to his patient with an expression which
plainly said that the former could not be guilty of any such charge.
The brown eyes of the patient rolled slowly in their sockets until their
gaze could rest on Ross. Then the lids dropped over them. "The Cody
doctor be hanged!" he remarked again more affably, and fell asleep.
Ross continued to sit on his heels until his patient commenced to snore.
Then he glanced at the occupant of the box seat and asked softly:
"Hank, has Weston ever told you where he came from?"
"Nope," responded Hank absently. "Not where he hails from ner where
he's started fer, ner why, ner what fer. That's nothin' though, Doc."
Here Hank looked sidewise at Ross. "You'll find, if ye stay in these
parts long, that there's lots of men who ain't partin' with every
fact they know within ten minutes after ye're introduced to 'em. And
you'll find, too, that it ain't always healthy to ask questions. Ye
have th' sort of sense who ye can question and who ye can't."
"And this fellow----" Ross jerked his head in the direction of the
sleeper.
Hank yawned and reached for the poker and a stick of wood. "I ain't
aimin' to inquire fer into his history--unless I could inquire of
some one else besides himself, that is. Hello!" he interrupted himself
suddenly with the stick held over the stove. "Who's that hikin' over
the Creek?"
Ross arose with alacrity and went to the door. The first snow had fallen
on the bad lands, but in an hour it had been whisked away by a warm
northwest wind, leaving the ground soft and a little stream of water in
Dry Creek across which rode a man who proved to be a prospector from the
mountains.
"Must have had a bit of snow here," he called as he turned his horse into
the corral. "Up t' Miners' Camp it's two inches deep and driftin'."
As this prospector was eating his dinner, he most unexpectedly gave Ross
his first news of Weimer. The boy, finding Hank both intelligent and
sympathetic, had talked freely concerning his mission in the mountains
and his desire to return East at an early date. To the latter subject,
in all its details of study and college-attendance, Hank listened and
questioned in open interest. But, when Ross touched the subject of
Weimer and the McKenzies, the other was non-committal and guarded,
as became a landlord who might be called upon any day to serve flapjacks
and coffee to all of the parties under discussion.
"I hope," he had observed cautiously on two or three occasions, "that
you'll get on all right with Uncle Jake Weimer."
And, although his tone implied a doubt, Ross could not prevail on him
to explain it.
But the prospector, who had ridden through from the mountains, and knew
nothing of Ross or of his origin, spoke more freely. He had passed along
Meadow Creek but a few days before.
"Dutch Weimer," he told Hank as he bolted boiled cabbage and flapjacks,
"was settin' at the door of his shack, a-smokin' as though his claims
was all patented and secure. He says that Eastern pal of hisn is
a-sendin' some one t' help 'im out."
Hank coughed behind his hand, and motioned toward Ross, busy with his
patient; but at first the prospector was too intent on his food to notice.
"And there," he observed with a chuckle, "are them two McKenzie boys
a-settin' on their claims next door and waitin'." He gave another
chuckle. "Curious how that snow-blindness should have touched Dutch
Weimer."
Then he saw Hank's restraining gesture, and paused. Glancing down, he
met Lon Weston's veiled brown eyes and Ross's wide gray ones; but the
prospector had suddenly become as non-committal as Hank himself, nor did
Ross's persistent questioning wring from him any further details. He
had but passed that way, he assured Ross, had stopped but a moment in
front of Weimer's cabin and that was all.
But what he had said was enough to leave Ross troubled, and impatient
to start for Meadow Creek and his delayed work.
Finally the plaster of Paris came. The stage from Cody brought it one
noon, and Ross's spirits arose at the prospect of release from his
unwelcome charge.
"If it wa'n't fer yer Uncle Samuel's long arm of the law, Doc," the
stage-driver informed him as he was disposing of potatoes and pork, "I'd
leave my stage right here and see ye wind all them stiff rags around
that there leg. I'd like t' see th' finish s' long as I seen the
beginnin'. But the trouble with bein' stage skinner is, ye've got
t' hike along no matter what shows ye come acrost on the trail. Hand
them spuds acrost, Doc, will ye? Hank, if ye'd let 'em smell fire a
minute 'r two mebby I could drive my fork int' 'em."
A few minutes later, he arose from the bench, drew the back of his hand
across his mouth and addressed Weston. "Wall, I suppose you'll be ready
t' be boosted onto the stage when I come back in th' mornin'? S'
long."
Scarcely had his four bronchos topped the hill on the further side of Dry
Creek before a procession, the like of which Ross had never seen,
appeared on the trail the other side of the dugout. It was a pack
outfit on horses accompanied by a man and a boy. It slowly rounded the
shoulder of the hill behind the corral. The man rode ahead whistling
gaily, his sombrero pulled low over his eyes, a purple tie knotted
under the turn-over collar of his flannel shirt. His horse's tail
was tied to a rope which, in turn, was tied loosely about the neck of
the first pack animal. In similar fashion the five bronchos were held
together on the trail, and after them came a horse ridden by a boy about
Ross's height. On the pack animals were wooden saddles piled high
with supplies for a camp, boxes and bags securely roped to the saddles.
Hank, in the act of clearing the dishes from the bare board table,
stopped with a platter of boiled turnip and pork suspended in the air.
"By the great horn spoon!" he yelled, "if there don't come Wishin'
Wilson! And a pack outfit! Is my eyes a-foolin' me? Doc, look out. Is
it a five bronc outfit, or ain't it?"
"It certainly is," confirmed Ross.
He arose from his seat on the floor where he was working in the plaster
and stepped to the door. But Hank was before him holding up the platter
of food.
"Hey, there, Wishin'! Here's some come-backs hot fer ye! Where'd ye
come from? Where ye goin' and what fer and how long and why and all the
rest?" Evidently the newcomer was one of the kind that could safely be
questioned, for Hank turned himself into a great interrogation point as
he set the platter down, and rushing out, pulled the stranger from his
horse, shaking him in familiar bear play.
Ross watched while the train filed slowly up to the dugout, bringing the
boy's mount to rest in front of the door.
The young rider wore a new brown corduroy suit, and a long fur coat, the
skirts of which were drawn up awkwardly above a pair of high riding
boots and tucked under the rider's legs. A pair of shining silver
spurs adorned the heels of the boots, while a sealskin cap crowned a
head covered with closely cropped hair darker than Ross's. His eyes
also were darker and his figure, although of the same height, was more
slender than Ross's. He was also, apparently, a couple of years younger.
The two boys nodded at each other, Ross with awkward cordiality and
interest, the stranger carelessly and with unmistakable condescension.
Swinging himself out of the saddle he said pleasantly but commandingly:
"Take my coat inside, please."
He shed his fur coat and pulled off his fur-lined gloves and tossed both
into Ross's arms, while Hank, watching the proceeding out of the tail
of an amused eye, talked with Wilson.
Ross, biting his lips, backed into the shack and tossed coat and gloves
on the end of the table near Weston. The boy, following his moves from
the doorway, pointed at the prostrate man, asking in a surprised and
subdued voice:
"What ails him?"
"Broke his leg," responded Ross shortly, not relishing the touch of
lordliness in the other's manner.
"How did he do it?" demanded the stranger.
"Horse fell on him," answered Ross, and returned abruptly to his work
with the plaster.
Weston lay with his blanket drawn up to his chin and one arm thrown over
his face and ear, his face turned to the wall. He was breathing regularly
as though in sleep, although Ross knew he was wide awake. This was a
favorite position with him when Hank was entertaining guests. It saved
him the trouble of responding to inquiries, and, as Ross had come to
suspect, might also serve to avert a chance recognition.
Presently Wilson approached the dugout, leaving the boy in the corral
rubbing down his mount. One arm was thrown in rough affection over
Hank's shoulder while the two pulled each other about like two boys
at play.
"I tell you, Hank!" Wilson exclaimed at the door, "this is what ye might
call God's country, and I always have a feelin' of gettin' home in
these parts. But, Jehoshaphat! it didn't look a spell ago as if I'd
ever strike the trail to the mountains again. It looked like as if I'd
have to throw up my claims and----"
"Sh!" interrupted Hank tiptoeing into the shack. "Guess he's asleep,
ain't he?" He explained over his shoulder in a hoarse whisper. "Chap
named Weston that come this way three weeks ago and bust his leg out in
front, here. Hoss fell on him."
Wilson, who followed at Hank's heels, looked Weston over with friendly
but detached interest. "On the mend, is he?" asked the newcomer subduing
his voice with difficulty.
Hank forgot to continue his whisper. "You bet!" he exclaimed heartily.
"Doc here is a-mendin' him t' beat anything I ever seen from a full
sized doctor." He jerked his thumb toward Ross. "Doc's goin' to have
him all plastered up and out of here to-morrow."
Wishing looked at Ross with a pleasant nod, stepped over the bench and
was about to seat himself at the table when he bethought him suddenly
of his riding companion. Leaning forward he looked out of the doorway.
Then with a nod he sat down and forgetting that Weston was supposedly
sleeping, raised his voice again to its normal high key.
"Fetch on them come-backs, Hank. My pard'll be here in a minute. I need
t' git the start of him in eating always, fer he ain't long on grub
such as we shake out here. I expect," with an amused chuckle, "that it
ain't exactly what he's used to."
Hank slapped his knee and leaned forward. "Say, Wishin', how d'ye come
t' be hikin' over the country with Queen Victory's youngest? My eyes!
Ain't he a reg'lar ornament t' th' landscape?"
Wishing Wilson laughed softly and then glancing hastily from Ross to
Weston, shook his head at Hank. "Less is all right!" he declared
cautiously. "He's young yet. Lots of time to learn--more time 'n
you and me have, Hank."
Hank set coffee before his guest, asking, "Who is he and where does he
hail from?"
Wilson squared himself before the table, both arms resting thereon and
began to eat noisily, talking between knifefuls.
"Luckiest thing for me that ever struck the trail, that young feller
is," he began. "I was stranded down in Omaha without a red cent in my
pocket and no way of raisin' one. If you'll believe me I couldn't
find a man in Omaha with brains enough to believe in them claims of
mine, no, not with the ore assay report before their eyes. I tell ye,
Hank, times have changed down in Omaha. There wa'n't no grub-stakers
waitin' around like there used to be fer prospectors to snatch up--no,
not one. And just as I was gettin' plum used up talkin', this young
feller, Less Jones, fell onto me outer a clear sky. It was in a hotel
where I went t' talk with a drummer, but not t' eat. Why, Hank, yer
Uncle Wilson didn't have the price of a hotel dinner handy, and that
drummer never treated me! Well, I stood tryin' to persuade him that his
salary was burning fer investment in my claims, when in comes Less
and lined up 'longside me listenin'. I hadn't any kind of objection
to his hearin', but he looked like such a cub that I never paid no
attention t' 'im, but when the drummer said a final 'Nix,' Less he
stepped up and asked me about the claims, and, t' make a long story
short, before the end of the day I was hikin' over town hot footed on
the trail of supplies with Less at my heels with an open pocketbook."
"Does he stay up t' the Creek with you?" asked Hank wonderingly.
"Says he will," laughed Wilson. "Says he's wanted for years t' try his
luck with quartz!"
"Must 'a' begun wantin' then when he was a baby," remarked Hank
succinctly. "Where's his ma and pa?"
Wishing shrugged his shoulders and balanced a quantity of pork and
potatoes on the blade of his knife. "Search me! He says there's no one
to hender him doin' what he pleases, and so I take it he's dropped
out of some fairy orphanage som'ers where they have gold t' burn.
I'm fallin' on his neck more'n I'm askin' him questions that he
don't want t' answer. Less is an all right sort, you'll find, but
he ain't long on information."
At this point Wishing's garrulity suffered an interruption from the
entrance of his young partner.
Leslie Jones walked with the erect bearing that Aunt Anne coveted for
Ross. Buttoning his short corduroy jacket over a soft flannel shirt,
across the front of which was suspended a large gold chain, he ran his
fingers around inside his collar and looked about impatiently.
Ross, attending strictly to his work, did not look up. Hank, sitting on
a bench opposite Wilson, spread his elbows yet further apart on the table
and indicated a place beside him.
"Set down and fall to, young feller!"
"I'll wash up first," returned Leslie in a tone which had a decided
edge. His manner plainly indicated his desire to be waited on.
Hank raised his eyebrows and waved a hand vaguely toward the stove.
"There's pans 'n' water. Help yerself. Guess there's a towel hikin'
about som'ers in the corner. My dozen best handmade 'uns ain't come
in yet from the laundry!"
Every one laughed except Weston and Leslie. The former breathed
regularly, apparently unconscious of all that was said and done in the
room. The latter flushed, and plunging into the corner tumbled the pans
about angrily like a spoiled child, spilling as much water on the
floor as he could. Then he sat down beside his partner and asked
shortly for some hot coffee, with an emphasis on the adjective.
Hank leisurely pushed the coffee-pot across the table. "Help yerself.
This was hot a spell ago and will be again at supper time." Hank's voice
having acquired an edge by this time, "Victory's youngest" poured the
coffee angrily but wordlessly into his thick cup and ate in silence,
listening to Wilson, who was too much occupied with a vision of riches
to come to allow such scenes to disturb his equanimity.
"As I told Less," he went on, raising his voice to drown opposition,
"we'll leave part of the sticks and the grub up the canon to the coal
claims and then when it comes winter and the mountains are impassable,
we'll just strike the trail over from the Creek to the canon and work
the coal till things open up in the spring. That Creek is a mean place to
drop into this late."
"What Creek?" asked Ross, suddenly awakening to the conversation.
"Meadow Creek," returned Wishing.
"That's where Doc is bound fer, Wishing'," volunteered Hank. "Doc is
come out t' help Jake Weimer."
Wishing surveyed the boy with cordial eyes. "Jake Weimer, hey? We'll be
neighbors, then. My claims ain't two miles up the Creek."
"Doc, he's Grant's boy," supplemented Hank. "But I bet my last year's
hat that he can't mine it as well as he can doctor."
"Doctor!" exclaimed Leslie Jones curiously. "Are you a doctor?"
"He's fixed him up all right," interrupted Hank pointing to Weston.
"Stretched his leg over my best chicken-coop and needled his arm and
made 'im walk a chalk line generally. Oh, I tell ye Doc is better than
the Cody doctor."
Ross laughed. "I know something about medicine and surgery," he
confessed. "I've read and helped my uncle, Dr. Grant. That's all."
"All!" echoed Leslie Jones. His manner was touched with disbelief as he
looked from Weston to Ross. "And did you, alone, set a leg?"
Ross sought to change the subject. "Aw--that's not much--when you know
how. I'm glad I'm to have neighbors up on Meadow Creek. Hope I don't
have to stay there any longer than you do."
"Expect to clean up the title this year, do you?" asked Wilson.
"That's what I came for."
"Well, all I can say now is that you'll be mighty glad you come. I tell
ye what, Doc, Meadow Creek is the mining deestrict of the future,"
whereupon Wishing launched on a glowing account of the future of Meadow
Creek claims as he saw the future. His eyes lighted up and he forgot
to eat as he told of the wonderful value of the gold and silver that he
expected to pull out of the claims he had staked the previous year.
He believed so thoroughly in his own vision that even Ross, whose
interests were far removed from gold mining, felt a thrill of expectancy
as to the outcome of his work in Meadow Creek, while Leslie, whose
appetite was slight for the coarse, ill-cooked food, dropped his fork
to listen although he must have heard the recital many times before.
Shortly after dinner, the two saddled up and departed in the order in
which they had come.
"So long!" yelled Wilson, waving his hat. "We expect t' strike it rich
before a month."
"Good luck!" shouted Hank and Ross together, the latter adding, "I'll
see you again in a few days."
Hank, stuffing his hands into his pockets, pursed up his lips and
whistled shortly as the pack outfit disappeared in a cloud of dust.
"If Wishin' is cal'latin' that he has enough there to last two men all
winter he's about as far off in his cal'lations as--well, as Wishin'
usually is. Wishin' ain't no lightnin' cal'later on any subject, but
he's a mighty likely chap t' have around."
"Judging from the small amount his pard ate to-day he has food enough,
I should say," returned Ross, adding hastily, "but then I realize that I
know nothing about it."
"Huh!" laughed Hank, "he must know that when that there young chap
has been in the mountings a few days he'll eat mulligan 'n' spotted
pup 'n' bacon with the best of 'em. His will be a good, lively
comin' appetite--but huh! I should hate mightily t' have t' feed
'im. Wonder if Wishin' has packed some bibs along 'n' silk socks
'n' hand-warmers! Huh!"
When Ross reentered the cabin he found Weston staring out of the doorway,
his arm stretched by his side.
"Guess you didn't sleep much," remarked Hank noisily gathering up the
dishes.
"All I wanted to," returned Weston shortly.
Hank piled the dishes into a pan and poured boiling water over them.
"M-m," he soliloquized, "all the time I was lookin' at him I was
thinkin' I'd seen that young Jones before. M-m--where, I wonder?"
No one answered, and he washed dishes in silence while Ross returned to
his work and Weston lay staring out-of-doors.
The following day Ross saw his patient depart on the stage headed toward
Cody, and prepared to take the next one himself in the opposite direction.
When he assisted Weston out of the door of the dugout, he knew exactly as
much about him as when he followed his prostrate figure in at the same
door three weeks before--and no more, unless the name be excepted.
Hank watched the stage off with a scowl, and then departed from his usual
custom of cautious speech, where possible customers were concerned.
"Guess that feller must 'a' hailed from som'ers beside Wyoming," he
grumbled. "Now, a Wyoming chap would 'a' paid his bill, or if he was
on the hog's back, he'd owned up and passed his promise. But that
there maverick never even said, 'Thank ye,' to you or me; and here
you're knocked out of three weeks' work along of him, to say nothin'
of the work day and night you've put in on 'im. Well, good riddance;
'tain't no ways likely we'll set eyes on 'im again."