Headed as they were, and having no other special objective point in
view, it was only natural for the two fugitives to drift into Sheridan.
This was at that time the human cesspool of the plains country, a
seething, boiling maelstrom of all that was rough, evil, and brazen
along the entire frontier. Customarily quiet enough during the hours
of daylight, the town became a mad saturnalia with the approach of
darkness, its ceaseless orgies being noisily continued until dawn. But
at this period all track work on the Kansas Pacific being temporarily
suspended by Indian outbreaks, the graders made both night and day alike
hideous, and the single dirty street which composed Sheridan, lined with
shacks, crowded with saloons, the dull dead prairie stretching away on
every side to the horizon, was congested with humanity during every hour
of the twenty-four.
It was a grim picture of depravity and desolation, the environment
dull, gloomy, forlorn; all that was worthy the eye or thought being
the pulsing human element. All about extended the barren plains, except
where on one side a ravine cut through an overhanging ridge. From the
seething street one could look up to the summit, and see there the
graves of the many who had died deaths of violence, and been borne
thither in “their boots.” Amid all this surrounding desolation was
Sheridan--the child of a few brief months of existence, and destined to
perish almost as quickly--the centre of the grim picture, a mere cluster
of rude, unpainted houses, poorly erected shacks, grimy tents flapping
in the never ceasing wind swirling across the treeless waste, the ugly
red station, the rough cow-pens filled with lowing cattle, the huge,
ungainly stores, their false fronts decorated by amateur wielders of
the paint brush, and the garish dens of vice tucked in everywhere. The
pendulum of life never ceased swinging. Society was mixed; no man cared
who his neighbor was, or dared to question. Of women worthy the name
there were few, yet there were flitting female forms in plenty, the
saloon lights revealing powdered cheeks and painted eyebrows. It was
a strange, restless populace, the majority here to-day, disappearing
to-morrow--cowboys, half-breeds, trackmen, graders, desperadoes,
gamblers, saloon-keepers, merchants, generally Jewish, petty officials,
and a riff-raff no one could account for, mere floating debris. The town
was an eddy catching odd bits of driftwood such as only the frontier
ever knew. Queer characters were everywhere, wrecks of dissipation,
derelicts of the East, seeking nothing save oblivion.
Everything was primitive--passion and pleasure ruled. To spend easily
made money noisily, brazenly, was the ideal. From dawn to dawn the
search after joy continued. The bagnios and dance halls were ablaze; the
bar-rooms crowded with hilarious or quarrelsome humanity, the gambling
tables alive with excitement. Men swaggered along the streets looking
for trouble, and generally finding it; cowboys rode into open saloon
doors and drank in the saddle; troops of congenial spirits, frenzied
with liquor, spurred recklessly through the street firing into the air,
or the crowd, as their whim led; bands played popular airs on balconies,
and innumerable “barkers” added their honeyed invitations to the
perpetual din. From end to end it was a saturnalia of vice, a babel of
sound, a glimpse of the inferno. Money flowed like water; every man was
his own law, and the gun the arbiter of destiny. The town marshal,
with a few cool-headed deputies, moved here and there amid the chaos,
patient, tireless, undaunted, seeking merely to exercise some slight
restraint. This was Sheridan.
Into the one long street just at dusk rode Keith and Neb, the third
horse trailing behind. Already lights were beginning to gleam in the
crowded saloons, and they were obliged to proceed slowly. Leaving the
negro at the corral to find some purchaser for the animals, and such
accommodations for himself as he could achieve, Keith shouldered his
way on foot through the heterogeneous mass toward the only hotel, a long
two-storied wooden structure, unpainted, fronting the glitter of the
Pioneer Dance Hall opposite. A noisy band was splitting the air with
discordant notes, a loud-voiced “barker” yelling through the uproar, but
Keith, accustomed to similar scenes and sounds elsewhere, strode through
the open door of the hotel, and guided by the noisy, continuous clatter
of dishes, easily found his way to the dining-room. It was crowded
with men, a few women scattered here and there, most of the former in
shirt-sleeves, all eating silently. A few smaller tables at the back of
the room were distinguished from the others by white coverings in place
of oil-cloth, evidently reserved for the more distinguished guests.
Disdaining ceremony, the newcomer wormed his way through, finally
discovering a vacant seat where his back would be to the wall, thus
enabling him to survey the entire apartment.
It was not of great interest, save for its constant change and the
primitive manner in which the majority attacked their food supply,
which was piled helter-skelter upon the long tables, yet he ran his
eyes searchingly over the numerous faces, seeking impartially for either
friend or enemy. No countenance present, as revealed in the dim light
of the few swinging lamps, appeared familiar, and satisfied that he
remained unknown, Keith began devoting his attention to the dishes
before him, mentally expressing his opinion as to their attractiveness.
Chancing finally to again lift his eyes, he met the gaze of a man
sitting directly opposite, a man who somehow did not seem exactly in
harmony with his surroundings. He was short and stockily built, with
round rosy face, and a perfect shock of wiry hair brushed back from a
broad forehead; his nose wide but stubby, and chin massive. Apparently
he was between forty and fifty years of age, exceedingly well dressed,
his gray eyes shrewd and full of a grim humor. Keith observed all this
in a glance, becoming aware at the same time that his neighbor was
apparently studying him also. The latter broke silence with a quick,
jerky utterance, which seemed to peculiarly fit his personal appearance.
“Damn it all--know you, sir--sure I do--but for life of me can't tell
where.”
Keith stared across at him more searchingly, and replied, rather
indifferently:
“Probably a mistake then, as I have no recollection of your face.”
“Never make a mistake, sir--never forget a face,” the other snapped with
some show of indignation, his hands now clasped on the table, one stubby
forefinger pointed, as he leaned forward. “Don't tell me--I've seen you
somewhere--no, not a word--don't even tell me your name--I'm going to
think of it.”
Keith smiled, not unwilling to humor the man's eccentricity, and
returned to his meal, with only an occasional inquiring glance across
the table. The other sat and stared at him, his heavy eyebrows wrinkled,
as he struggled to awaken memory. The younger man had begun on his pie
when the face opposite suddenly cleared.
“Damn me, I've got it--hell, yes; hospital tent--Shenandoah--bullet
imbedded under third rib--ordinary case--that's why I forgot--clear
as mud now--get the name in a minute--Captain--Captain Keith--that's
it--shake hands.”
Puzzled at the unexpected recognition, yet realizing the friendliness of
the man, Keith grasped the pudgy fingers extended with some cordiality.
“Don't remember me I s'pose--don't think you ever saw me--delirious when
I came--hate to tell you what you was talking about--gave you hypodermic
first thing--behaved well enough though when I dug out the lead--Minié
bullet, badly blunted hitting the rib--thought you might die with blood
poison--couldn't stay to see--too damn much to do--evidently didn't
though--remember me now?”
“No, only from what you say. You must have been at General Waite's
headquarters.”
“That's it--charge of Stonewall's field hospital--just happened to ride
into Waite's camp that night--damn lucky for you I did--young snip there
wanted to saw the bone--I stopped that--liked your face--imagined you
might be worth saving--ain't so sure of it now, or you wouldn't be
out in this God forsaken country, eating such grub--my name's
Fairbain--Joseph Wright Fairbain, M.D.--contract surgeon for the
railroad--working on the line?”
Keith shook his head, feeling awakening interest in his peculiar
companion.
“No; just drifted in here from down on the Arkansas,” he explained,
briefly. “Did you know General Waite was dead?”
The doctor's ruddy face whitened.
“Dead?--Willis Waite dead?” he repeated. “What do you mean, sir? Are you
sure? When?”
“I ought to be sure; I buried him just this side the Cimmaron Crossing
out on the Santa Fé trail.”
“But do you know it was General Waite?” the man's insistent tone full of
doubt.
“I have no question about it,” returned Keith, conclusively. “The man
was Waite's size and general appearance, with gray beard, similar to the
one I remember he wore during the war. He had been scalped, and his face
beaten beyond recognition, but papers in his pockets were sufficient to
prove his identity. Besides, he and his companion--a young fellow named
Sibley--were known to have pulled out two days before from Carson City.”
“When was this?”
“Ten days ago.”
Fairbain's lips smiled, the ruddy coloring sweeping back into his
cheeks.
“Damn me, Keith, you came near giving me a shock,” he said, jerkily.
“Shouldn't be so careless--not sure my heart's just right--tendency
to apoplexy, too--got to be guarded against. Now, let me tell
you something--maybe you buried some poor devil out at Cimmaron
Crossing--but it wasn't Willis Waite. How do I know? Because I saw him,
and talked with him yesterday--damn me, if I didn't, right here in this
town.”