As he paused on the steps to the hotel, a gust of bitter rage swept over
him. "What can I do against this implacable town? Oh, for a squad of the
boys in blue!"
The street and square were filled with men all running, as to a fire,
from left to right--a laughing, jesting throng. Along the hitching-poles
excited and jocular cowboys were loosing their ponies and leaping to
their saddles. Some excitable citizen had begun to ring the fire-bell,
and women, bareheaded and white with fear, were lining the sidewalks and
leaning from windows. The town resembled an ant-hill into which a
fleeing bison has planted a foot.
"Oh, sir!" cried one young mother as she caught sight of Curtis, "are
the Injuns coming?"
"No," he replied, bitterly, "these marauders are not Indians; they are
noble citizens," and set off at a run towards the corral in which Two
Horns and Crow were camped. The tumult behind him grew fainter, and at
last died to a murmur, and only one or two houses showed a light.
Ladue's was an old ranch on the river, around which the town of Pinon
had for twenty years been slowly growing. The cabin was of stone, low
and strong, and two sides of it formed the corner of a low corral of
cottonwood logs. In this enclosure teamsters (for two bits) were allowed
to camp and feed their horses. A rickety gate some fifty feet south of
the house stood ajar, and Curtis entered the yard, calling sharply for
Crow Wing and Two Horns. No one replied. Searching the stalls, he found
the blankets wherein they had lain, but the tumult had undoubtedly
called them forth into danger.
Hurrying to the house, he knocked most vigorously at the door--to no
effect. The shack was also empty. Closing the door with a slam, the
young officer, now thoroughly alarmed, turned back towards the hotel. A
vast, confused clamor, growing each moment louder, added edge to his
apprehension. The crowd was evidently returning from the jail, jubilant
and remorseless. Upon reaching the corner of the square Curtis turned to
the left, with the design of encircling it, hoping to find the two
redmen looking on from a door-way on the outskirts of the throng.
He had crossed but one side of the plaza, when a band of cowboys dashed
in from the opposite corner with swinging lariats, whooping shrilly, in
close pursuit of a flying footman. A moment later a rope looped, the
fugitive fell and the horsemen closed round him in joyous clamor, like
dogs around a fox.
With a fear that this was one of his men, Curtis raised a great shout,
but his voice was lost in the rush and roar of the throng pouring in
towards the fugitive. In fierce rage he rushed straight towards the
whirling mass of horsemen, but before he had passed half the intervening
space a horseman circled the pavilion, and the popping of a revolver,
swift yet with deliberate pauses, began. Wild yells broke forth, the
pursuers scattered, other revolvers began to crack, and as the press of
horsemen reeled back, Curtis perceived Calvin, dismounted and
bareheaded, with his back against the wall of the little wooden
band-stand, defiant, a revolver in each hand, holding the mob at bay,
while over his head a light sputtered and sizzled.
A lane seemed to open for Curtis as he ran swiftly in towards the
writhing, ensnared captive on the ground. It was Two Horns, struggling
with the ropes which bound him, and just as his Little Father bent over
him the big Tetong freed himself, and, with a sliding rush, entered the
shadow by Calvin's side. Instantly his revolver began to speak.
Curtis, left alone in the full light of the lamp on the pavilion, raised
his arms and shouted: "Hold! Cease firing!" The crowd recognized him and
fell silent. The army blue subdued them, and those who had done the
shooting began to edge away.
For a moment the young soldier could not speak, so furious was he, but
at last he found words: "Cowards! Is this your way of fighting--a
hundred to one? Where is your mayor? Have you no law in this town?" He
turned to Calvin, who stood still, leaning against the pavilion. "Are
you hurt?"
Calvin lifted one dripping hand. "I reckon I'm punched a few. My right
arm feels numb, and the blood is fillin' my left boot. But I'm all here,
sure thing." But even as he spoke he reeled. Curtis caught him; he
smiled apologetically: "That left leg o' mine, sure feels like a
hitchin'-post; reckon some one must o' clipped a nerve somewhere."
Two Horns seized him by the other arm, just as Winters blustered into
the circle. "What's going on here; who's doin' this shootin'?"
"This is a good time to ask that," remarked Curtis. "Where were you
twenty minutes ago?"
Calvin struggled to get his right hand free. "Let me have a crack at the
beast!" he pleaded. "I saw you," he said to Winters: "you were in the
lynching crowd, you sneak! You hung round in the shadow like a coyote."
Curtis tried to calm him. "Come, this won't do, Calvin; you are losing
blood and must have a doctor; come to the hotel."
As they half-carried him away the young rancher snarled back, like a
wounded wolf: "I disown the whole cowardly pack of ye; I put my mark on
some of ye, too."
The crowd was now so completely with Calvin that Winters hastened to
explain: "Cal is my deputy; he was acting inside his duty! He was trying
to keep the peace and you had no business fightin'," and proceeded to
arrest some fairly innocent by-standers, while the wounded desperadoes
were being swiftly hidden away by their friends, and the remaining
citizens of the town talked of what should have been done.
Calvin continued to explain as they hurried him through the excited
throng. "I tried to stand 'em off at the jail," he said, "but I couldn't
get near enough; my cayuse was used up. Oh, you was there!" he called to
a tall man with a new sombrero, "I saw you, Bill Vawney, and I'll get
you for it; I've spotted you!"
He was enraged through every fibre of his strong, young body, and only
the iron grip of the persistent men kept him from doing battle.
As they neared the hotel, Curtis, looking up, glimpsed Elsie's white
face at the window and waved his cap at her. She clapped her hands in
joy of his return, but did not smile. The hotel lobby was packed with a
silent mass of men, but the landlord, with authoritative voice, called
out: "Clear the way, gentlemen!" and a lane opened for them. "Right in
here," he added, and led the way to the parlor bedroom. The Captain and
Calvin were now most distinguished of citizens; nothing was too good for
them.
"Bring a physician," said Curtis.
"Right here," replied a cool, clear voice, and Doctor Philipps stepped
to Calvin's side and relieved Two Horns.
The young rancher sank down on the bed limply, but smiled as he
explained: "I'm only singed a little, doc. They had me foul. You see, I
was in the light, but I handed one or two of them something they didn't
like. I left a keepsake with 'em. They won't forget me soon."
The physician pressed him back upon the bed and began to strip his
clothes from him. "Be quiet for five minutes and I'll have you in shape.
We must close up your gashes."
Curtis, relieved of part of his anxiety, then asked: "How is the
Senator?"
"Pretty comfortable; no danger."
"Don't leave me, Major," called Calvin, as Curtis turned away to seek
Elsie. "Don't let this chap cut me up. I'm no centipede. I need all my
legs."
There was genuine pleading in the boy's voice, and Curtis came back and
took a chair near him while the doctor probed the wounds and dressed
them. The officer's heart was very tender towards the reckless,
warm-hearted young rancher as he watched his face whiten and the lips
stiffen in the effort to conceal his pain. "Calvin, you've been loyal
all through," he said, "and we won't forget it."
At last, when the wounds were bandaged and the worst of the pain over,
Curtis turned to Two Horns and signed:
"Where is Crow and the wife of Cut Finger?"
"I do not know."
"I will go find him; you remain here. Do not fear; you are safe now. Sit
down by Calvin's bed. You will sleep here to-night."
As he made his way through the close-packed mass of excited men in the
lobby and before the hotel, Curtis met no hostile face. It seemed that
all men were become his friends, and eager to disclaim any share in the
mob's action. He put their proffered hands aside and hurried back to
Ladue's, which he found close-barred and dark.
"Who's there?" called a shaking voice as he knocked.
"Captain Curtis. Where is Crow?"
"In here!" was the answer, in joyful voice. As he opened the door, Ladue
reached his hand to the agent. "My God, I'm glad it is you! I was afraid
you'd been wiped out. Where is Two Horns?"
Crow, with his revolver still gripped in his hand, stepped forward, his
face quivering with emotion. "Little Father, it is good to see you; you
are not hurt? Where is Two Horns?"
"Safe in the big house with me. The evil white men are gone; you will
camp here, you and the wife of Cut Finger," he signed as he saw the
cowering form of the little wife.
Ladue, a big, hulking, pock-marked half-breed, began to grin. "I was
a-scared; I sure was. I thought we was all goin' to hang. Old Bill Yarpe
was out for game."
"The better citizens are in control now," replied Curtis. "You are safe,
but you'd better remain in the house till morning."
As Curtis made his way through the crowd some one raised a cheer for
"Major Curtis," and the cry was taken up by a hundred voices. Indignant
citizens shouted: "We'll stand by you, Major. We'll see justice done."
Curtis, as he reached the stair-way, turned and coldly said: "Make your
words good. For four days a mob of two hundred armed men have menaced
the lives of my employes and my wards, and you did nothing to prevent
them. I am glad to see you appreciate the horror and the disgrace of
this night's doings. If you mean what you say, let no guilty man escape.
Make this night the memorable end of lawlessness in your country."
"We will!" roared a big, broad-faced, black-bearded man, and the crowd
broke into another roar of approval.
Elsie was waiting at the top of the stairs, tense and white. Her eyes
burned down into his with a singular flame as she cried out:
"Why didn't you come to me sooner? Why do you walk so slowly? Are you
hurt? Tell me the truth!"
"No, only tired," he answered, as he reached her side.
She put out her hand and touched his breast. "You are; you are all
bloody. Take off your coat; let me see!"
"No, it's not mine; it is poor Calvin's; he was badly wounded; he leaned
against me."
"But I saw you standing in the pistol-fire; take it off, I say!" Her
voice was almost frenziedly insistent.
He removed his coat in a daze of astonishment, and she cried out,
triumphantly: "See! I was right; your shirt is soaked. You are wounded!"
"True enough!" he replied, looking down in surprise at a big stain on
his shoulder. "I've been 'singed,' as Calvin calls it. It can't be
serious, for I have not felt it."
A sudden faintness seized upon Elsie as she gazed fixedly upon the
tell-tale stain. A gray whiteness passed over her face. "Oh, God!
suppose you had been killed!" she whispered.
In that shuddering whisper was the expression of the girl's complete and
final surrender, and Curtis did not question, did not speak; he took her
in his arms to comfort her.
"My sweetheart, you _do_ love me! I doubt no more. My poverty, your
wealth, what do they matter?"
She suddenly started away. "Oh, your wound! Where is the doctor? Go to
him!"
"The touch of your lips has healed me," he protested, but she insisted.
"Go! You are bleeding!" she commanded; and so, reluctantly, lingeringly,
with most unmilitary sloth, he turned away, made numb to any physical
pain by the tenderness in her voice.
As the young surgeon was dressing the gash, he said: "Well, Captain,
things happen in the West."
"Yes, the kind of things which ought not to happen anywhere. I suppose
they lynched poor Cut Finger?"
"No; they merely shot him and dragged him to death, as near as I can
learn."