HOW REDMOND CAME HOME
The weather continued pitilessly hot and dry, when, one afternoon,
Trooper Cotton, returning from a tour of fireguard inspection, sat near
the window-seat in which I lay at Gaspard's Trail. I was glad of his
company, because the sight of the parched prairie and bare strip of
plowland was depressing. Barns and granary alike were empty, for the
earth had failed to redeem her promise that season, and an unnatural
silence brooded over Gaspard's Trail.
"I don't know what has come over this country," the trooper said. "One
used to get a cheery word everywhere, but now farmer and stockman can
hardly answer a question civilly, and the last fellow I spoke to about
his fireguards seemed inclined to assault me. Presumably it's the bad
times, and I'll be thankful when they improve. It might put some of you
into a more pleasant humor."
"If you had said bad men you might have been nearer the mark," I
answered dryly. "We are a peaceable people, but there's an oppression
worse than any governmental tyranny, and from the rumors in the air it's
not impossible some of us may try to find our own remedy if we are
pushed too far."
"That's a little indefinite," said Cotton, with a laugh. "If you mean
taking the law into your own hands, there would be very unpleasant work
for me. Still, I'm sorry for all of you, especially those whom that
flabby scoundrel Lane seems to be squeezing. He's been driving to and
from the railroad a good deal of late, and it's curious that twice when
I struck his trail two traveling photographers turned up soon after him.
One was a most amusing rascal, but I did not see the other, who was busy
inside the wagon tent, and who apparently managed the camera. I'll show
you a really tolerable picture of me he insisted on taking."
It struck me that Boone, or Adams, had twice run a serious risk; but I
said nothing, and Cotton, fumbling inside his tunic, tossed a litter of
papers on the table. These were mostly official, but there were odd
letters among them, for the trooper was not remarkable for preciseness,
and I noticed a crest upon some of the envelopes, while, after shuffling
them, he flung me a small card, back uppermost. I was surprised when,
turning it over, the face of Lucille Haldane met my gaze.
"It is a charming picture; but that is only natural, considering the
original. How did you get this, Cotton?" I said.
The trooper snatched it from me, and a darker color mantled his
forehead. "Confound it! I never meant to show you that," he said.
"So I surmised," I answered dryly; and the lad frowned as he thrust the
picture out of sight.
"You will understand, Ormesby, that Miss Haldane did not give me this.
I--well--I discovered it."
"Wasn't it foolish of you?" I asked quietly; and the trooper, who,
strange to say, did not seem to find my tone of paternal admonition
ludicrous, answered impulsively: "I don't know why I should strip for
your inspection, Ormesby, or why I should not favor you with a
well-known reply; but it is perhaps best that you should not
misunderstand the position. I know what you are thinking, but I haven't
forgotten I'm Trooper Cotton--nor am I likely to. It's a strange life,
Ormesby, and the men who live it go under occasionally. This--God bless
her--is merely something to hold on by."
I made no answer, for there was nothing appropriate I could find to say;
but it occurred to me that Lucille Haldane might never receive a higher
compliment than this lad's unexpectant homage.
"Here is the right one, and you will obliterate the other from your
memory," he said, passing me a second photograph. "The fellow who took
it knows how to handle a camera."
It was evident he did; and, knowing who he was, the irony of the
circumstances impressed me as I examined the picture. "He has an
artistic taste and an eye for an effective pose. Are you going to send
any copies to your people in England, Cotton?" I said.
"No," answered the lad quietly; "they might not be pleased with it.
Well, I dare say, you have guessed long ago that I am one of the legion.
Most of my people were soldiers, which was why, when I had two dollars
left, I offered the nation my services at Regina; but I am the first of
them to wear a police private's uniform."
I nodded sympathetically, and the trooper, who looked away from me out
of the window, said: "Talk of the devil! All men, it is said, are equal
in this country, but I fancy there's a grade between most of us and your
acquaintance, Foster Lane. The fellow has passed the corral, and I can't
get out without meeting him."
I nodded with a certain grim sense of anticipation, for I had determined
to speak very plainly to Foster Lane, and knew that Cotton could, on
occasion, display a refined insolence that was signally exasperating.
The next moment Lane came in, red-faced and perspiring, and greeted me
with his usual affability.
"I'm on the way to recovery, but unable to ride far, which explains my
request for a visit," I said; and Lane waved his large hands
deprecatingly.
"Business is business, and you need not apologize, because although I
have come two hundred miles you will find first-class expenses charged
for in the bill. I can't smoke on horseback. Will you and the trooper
try one of these?"
"No, thanks," said Cotton, with an inflection in his voice and a look in
his half-closed eyes that would have warned a more sensitive person; but
Lane, still holding out the cigar-case, added with mild surprise: "By
the price I paid for them they ought to be good."
"I don't doubt it," drawled Cotton, glancing languidly at the speaker.
"But a few of what you would call British prejudices still cling to me,
and I take cigars and things only from my friends--you see?"
The stout man laughed a little, though there was malice in his eye. "And
we are not likely to be acquainted? You are, one might presume, a scion
of the English aristocracy, come out to recruit your health or wait
until it's a little less sultry in the old country."
"I would hardly go so far!"--and Cotton drawled out the words, as he
turned upon his heel. "More unlikely things have happened. At present I
have the honor of serving her Majesty as--a police trooper."
Lane handed me his cigar-case when the lad strolled out of the door, but
I was in no mood to assume an unfelt cordiality. "I am not inclined for
smoking. Hadn't we better come straight to business?" I said.
Lane struck a match, and stretched his legs along the window-seat,
though he closed the case with a snap. "Why, certainly! You are ready to
redeem the mortgage on Gaspard's Trail?"
He spoke pleasantly, though there was a sneer in his eyes, and he had
both lighted his cigar, in spite of my hint, and laid his dusty boots on
the cushions with a cool assurance that made me long to personally
chastise him. "You probably know that I am not," I said.
"I did hear you had lost some cattle," he answered indifferently. "Well,
in that case, I wait your proposition."
"I am open to renew the loan at the original interest until this time
next year, when, no matter what I may have to part with, it will be paid
off. You have already had a very fair return on your money," I said.
"It can't be done," and Lane looked thoughtfully at his cigar. "I'll
carry you on that long at double interest, or make you a bid outright
for Crane Valley."
"There is no reason in your first offer; you asked only fifty per cent.
increase last time, which was enough in all conscience. What do you want
with Crane Valley?"
Lane smiled benignly. "You didn't accept that offer formally. Crane
Valley's a pretty location, and I've taken a fancy to it."
I took time to answer, and set my brain to work. The advantage lay with
the enemy, but, while it appeared certain that he would dispossess me
of Gaspard's Trail, I determined to hold on to Crane Valley. "You can't
have it, and I will not pay the extortionate interest. That, I think, is
plain enough," I said.
The financier shrugged his shoulders. "I hope you won't be sorry. I
haven't quite decided on my program, but you will hear what it is when
I'm ready. Have you got your own fixed?"
"I will have soon," I answered, my indignation gaining the mastery.
"There is no advantage to be gained by further circumlocution, and you
may as well know that I will give you as much trouble as possible before
you plunder me. In the first place, if we find Redmond, I shall try to
strike you for conspiracy."
"Do you know where Redmond is?" and there was a curious note in the
speaker's voice, though I stolidly refrained from any sign of either
negation or assent. "Neither do I; but I have my suspicions that he
won't be much use to you if you do find him. The man is half-crazy,
anyway. Did you ever hear about the fool bullfrog and the ox, Rancher
Ormesby?"
He leaned back against the logs, and chuckled so complacently at his own
conceit that it was hard to believe this easy-tempered creature was
draining half my neighbors' blood; but I was filled with a great
loathing for him.
"Your simile isn't a good one, even if it fits the case. An ox is a
hard-working, honest, and useful kind of beast; but there's no use
bandying words," I said.
"Just so!" and Lane rose lazily. "It's rather a pity you sent for me,
because you have not had much for your money. Being rather pressed just
now, I won't stay."
I had no intention of requesting him to do so, for the air seemed
clearer without him, and presently Cotton returned. For the first time,
I told him all my suspicions concerning Redmond, and he looked grave as
he listened. "It would have saved some people sorrow if I could only
have run that horse-leach in," he commented, gazing regretfully after
the diminishing figure of the rider. "Yes; it's curious about Redmond.
Lane was over at his place a little while before your accident, and I
believe afterwards as well, and since then nobody has seen Redmond. I'll
have a talk with Mackay, and put some of our men on his trail. If he's
still on top of the prairie they'll find him."
Cotton rode away; and late that evening Steel returned from his own
holding with a very grim face, while the eyes of his sister were
suspiciously red.
"I'm to be sold up, and am turned out now," he said. "Lane, who won't
wait any longer, is foreclosing, and he'll fix things so there will be
no balance left. God knows what's to become of Sally and me."
"You need not trouble about Sally," the girl said, with a flash in her
eyes. "We'll worry along somehow, and we'll live to see that devil
sorry."
Practical counsel seemed the best sympathy, and after asking a few
questions, I said: "This is going to be a grain-producing country, and
there are plenty acres ready for breaking and horses idle at Crane
Valley. When Lane seizes Gaspard's Trail, as he probably will, we must
see what can be done with them on the share arrangement; and meantime,
since I paid two hired men off, there is plenty for you to do here
helping me."
Steel eventually agreed, and as soon as I was fit for the saddle I rode
over to Mackay's quarters; but, though he stated that if Redmond were
anywhere in the Territories he would sooner or later be found, nothing
had so far resulted from his inquiries.
It was some weeks later, and towards the close of a sultry afternoon,
when I rode homewards with Cotton and Steel towards the Sweetwater. We
had much thunder that season, and though there had been a heavy storm
the night before, a stagnant, oppressive atmosphere still hung over the
prairie. It suited the somber mood of two of the party, while even
Cotton seemed unusually subdued.
Steel's possessions had been sold off that day, and bought up at
ridiculously inadequate prices by two strangers, who we all suspected
had been financed by Lane. Few of us had a dollar to spare, and the
auctioneer, who was also probably under the money-lender's thumb,
demanded proof of ability to make the purchase when one or two neighbors
attempted to force up the bidding. Steel rode with slack bridle and his
head bent, and I was heavy of heart, for I held Gaspard's Trail only on
sufferance, and the same fate must soon overtake me. The prairie
stretched before us a desolate waste, fading on the horizon into gray
obscurity, and, together with the gloom of the heavens above, its
forlorn aspect increased my depression. So we came moodily to the dip to
the Sweetwater, and I saw Mackay standing beside a deeper pool below. A
rapid flowed into the head of it, and the lines of froth shone with a
strange lividness. The time was then perhaps an hour before sunset. When
we dismounted to water and rest the horses, Mackay turned sharply and
glanced at Cotton.
"All went off quietly?" And the trooper nodded.
"Yes," I said. "We have a long patience, Sergeant; but there were signs
on some of the faces that things may go differently some day."
"Ay?" said the sergeant, fixing his keen eyes on me as he stood, a lean,
bronze-skinned statue beside the river. "What were ye meaning, Rancher
Ormesby?"
"I was merely giving you a hint," I said. "We have paid all demanded
from us and kept the law, but now, when the powers that rule us stand by
and watch us ground out of existence to enrich a few unprincipled
schemers, it is hard to say what might not happen."
"Ye did well," was the dry answer. "It will be my business to see ye
keep it still; but in this country any man has liberty to talk just as
foolishly as it pleases him. Can the law change the seasons for ye, or
protect the careless from their own improvidence? But let be. I'm older
than most o' ye, and have seen that there's a measure set on
oppression."
He concluded with a curious assurance which approached solemnity; but
Steel added, with a Western expletive, that he had already let be until
he was ruined. Then I broke in: "If I can find Redmond and wring the
truth from him I hope to prove that the limit has been reached; and I
purpose, in the first place, to see what the law will do for me. Have
you any word of him?"
"No," and the sergeant's tone was very significant. "If he were still
above the prairie-sod we should have found him. But there was a bit
freshet last night--and I am expecting him."
Steel, I fancied, shivered, and though the speaker might well be
mistaken, anything that served to divert our thoughts was a relief, and
for a while we lay among the grasses, smoking silently. The sky was
heavily overcast, there was no breath of air astir, and the slow gurgle
of the river drifted mournfully down the hollow. For some reason, I felt
strangely restless and expectant, as though something unusual would
shortly happen. A faint drumming of hoofs rose up from somewhere far off
across the prairie, as well as a sound which might have been made by an
approaching wagon.
"That's Lane striking south for the railroad with a few of the boys
behind him," Steel said listlessly. "There'll be thunder before he
reaches it, and Lardeau's team is wild, but there's no use hoping
they'll bolt and break Lane's neck for him. Accidents do not happen to
that kind of man."
A little time had passed, and the beat of horses' feet broke in a
rhythmic measure through the heavy stillness, when Cotton, who had
followed his sergeant along the bank, raised a shout, and I leaped to my
feet, for something that circled with the current was drifting down
stream. We ran our hardest, and, for I was not strong yet, the others
were standing very silent, with tense faces and staring eyes, when I
rejoined them.
"Yon's Redmond," said Sergeant Mackay. "I was expecting him."
The object he pointed to slid slowly by abreast of us, and I felt a
shock of physical nausea as I stared at it. At that distance it was
without human semblance, a mere shapeless mass of sodden clothing, save
for the faint white glimmer of a face; but the shock gave place to a
fit of sullen fury. Heaven knows I cherished no anger against the
unfortunate man. Indeed, from the beginning, I had regarded him as a
mere helpless tool; but death had robbed me of my only weapon, and I
remembered Lane's prediction that Redmond would be of little use to me
if I found him.
"If one of ye has a lariat ye had better bring it," said Sergeant
Mackay.
We followed the object down stream. It floated slowly, now
half-submerged, now rising more buoyantly, with the blanched countenance
turned towards the murky heavens, out of which the light was fading,
until Steel, poising himself upon the bank, deftly flung a coupled
lariat. The noose upon its end took hold, and I shrank backwards when we
drew what it held ashore, for Redmond's face was ill to look upon, and
seemed to mock me with its staring eyes.
"Stan' clear!" said the sergeant, perhaps feeling speech of any kind
would be a relief, for nobody showed the least desire to crowd upon him.
"If it had not been for the regulations a drop of whisky would have been
acceptable, seeing that it's my painful duty to find out how he came by
his end."
The words were excusable, but there was no whisky forthcoming; and
though, perhaps, only one man in a hundred would have undertaken that
gruesome task, the sergeant went through it with the grim thoroughness
which characterized all his actions.
"There's no sign of a blow or bullet that I can find, and I'm thinking
only the Almighty knows whether he drowned himself or it was accidental
death. Ye can identify him, all of ye?"
We thought we could, but had been so intent that nobody noticed the
trampling of horses' hoofs until a wagon was drawn up close by, and
several riders reined in their beasts.
"Here's a man who ought to," said Steel. "Come down and swear to your
partner, Lane."
Turning, I saw my enemy start as he looked over the side of the wagon
at what lay before him. Every eye was fixed upon him, and Steel stood
quietly determined by the wheel.
"I'm in a hurry, and don't fill the post of coroner," the former said.
"Will you come down?" Steel added; and there was a low growl from the
assembly, while Lane shrank back from that side of the vehicle. "I guess
it's certain this man was the last to see Redmond alive."
"Drive on!" said Lane to the teamster; but the man hesitated, while,
when his employer snatched up the reins, there was another murmur deeper
than before, and mounted men closed about the wagon, their figures
cutting blackly against the fading light. Why they were journeying
homewards in such company I did not learn, but, overtaking it, they had
perhaps ridden beside the wagon for the purpose of expressing their
frank opinion of its occupant.
"Ye cannot pass until ye have answered my questions," said Sergeant
Mackay. "If he does not dismount ye have authority to help him, Steel.
Ye will hold the horses, Trooper Cotton."
Lane slowly climbed down the wheel, and neither Mackay nor Cotton
interfered when, as he showed signs of remaining at the foot of it,
Steel's hand closed firmly on his neck and forced him forwards,
apparently much against his wishes. Then the ruined farmer held him,
protesting savagely, beside the body of his victim. It was, in its own
way, an impressive scene--the erect, soldierly figures of the uniformed
troopers, the circle of silent mounted men, who moved only to sooth
their uneasy horses, and the white-faced man who shivered visibly as he
looked down at the sodden heap at his feet. There was also, even had the
two been strangers, ample excuse for him.
"While protesting that this is an outrage, I am ready to answer your
questions," he said huskily.
"Who is this man? Did ye know him?" asked the sergeant, whose face
remained woodenly impassive.
"Rancher Redmond, by his clothing," was the answer. "Yes; if necessary,
I think I could swear to him." And the sergeant asked again: "When and
where did ye last see him?"
"In the birch _coulee_, at dusk, three weeks past Tuesday. That would
make it----" But the financier seemed unable to work out the simple sum,
and concluded: "You can figure the date for yourself."
"What business had ye with him?" and the sergeant smiled dryly at the
answer: "That does not concern you."
"Maybe no. If ye have good reasons for not telling I will not press ye,
though ye may be called upon to speak plainly. Do ye know how he came
into the river?"
"No," said Lane, a trifle too vehemently.
"Do ye know of any reason why he should have drowned himself?" And Lane
turned upon the questioner savagely:
"I'll make you all suffer for your inference! Why should I know? I
challenge the right of anyone but a coroner to detain me."
"I'll let ye see my authority at the station if I find it necessary to
take ye there," said the sergeant grimly. "Noo will ye answer? Do ye
know why this man ye had dealings with should wish to destroy himself?"
"You're presuming a good deal," was the answer; and Lane's face grew
malevolent as he glanced at Steel and me. "How do you know he did
destroy himself, anyway; and if he did, I guess it's an open secret he
had trouble with Ormesby and Steel."
I sprang forward, but Cotton laid a heavy hand on my shoulder, and there
was a threatening ejaculation from one of the bystanders. "Well, to
satisfy you, I solemnly declare I am in no way connected with what has
befallen the deceased rancher, and know of no reason why he should have
attempted his life. This isn't a court; but because I'm in a hurry, and
to stop chattering tongues, I call heaven to witness it is the truth."
I believed that, after a villainous attempt to divert suspicion to me,
the man was deliberately perjuring himself, and several of the
bystanders must have believed it, too. Most of them were not wholly free
from superstition, and their faces were almost expectant as they stood
strung up and intent about the dead man under the deepening gloom. Then
a flicker of pale lightning filled the hollow. Each face was lit up for
a second, and Lane's was livid; and, when the flash faded, the dusk
seemed to deepen suddenly, and a boom of distant thunder rolled from
swelling level to level across the prairie. Thunder had been very
frequent during the last few weeks, but the listeners seemed to find the
coincidence significant.
"Ye can pass," said the sergeant, whose voice seemed a trifle unsteady.
"But it will be on horseback, and we may want ye later. Lardeau--it's a
charity--ye will lend Redmond the wagon."
"You can't have it," said Lane. "I have a long journey before me and a
rheumatic thigh. If you take the wagon I hired what am I to do?"
"You can ride with Redmond. His house is on your way, and you can't hurt
him, anyway. The poor devil's beyond you now," said a stern voice; and
Lane, who allowed the teamster to help him onto one of the horses which
was replaced, departed hurriedly.
"I congratulate ye," said Sergeant Mackay significantly. "He was a
fellow-creature, boys. Who'll help me lift him in? We will e'en need the
same service ourselves some day."
I shuddered, but took my place with Steel among the rest; and when the
task was accomplished, the latter expressed both our feelings as he
said: "I wouldn't for five hundred dollars do that again; but it seemed
the poor devil's due after what we said about him. I guess he wasn't
quite responsible, and was driven to it; but, when it comes to the
reckoning, God help the man who drove him."
It was dark when we gained the level and followed the creaking wagon
that jolted before us across the prairie. Few words were spoken. A low
rumbling of thunder rolled across the great emptiness, while now and
then a pale blue flash fell athwart the lathered horses and set faces of
the men. "The beasts," said one big farmer, "know considerably more than
they can tell. Look at the near one sweating! I guess they find Redmond
or the load he's carrying mighty heavy."
"Then," added another voice, which broke harshly through the thuds of
hoofs, "ten teams wouldn't move the man who rode away."
The ways of the prairie dwellers are in some respects modern and crudely
new; but the Highland servants of the Hudson's Bay Company and the
French half-breed _voyageur_ have between them left us a dowry of quaint
belief and superstition; and the growl of the thunder and the black
darkness made a due impression on most of those who brought Redmond
home. For my part I was thankful when a lonely log-house loomed up ahead
and the wagon came to a standstill. Four men, improvising a stretcher,
took up their burden, and halted as Sergeant Mackay and another, neither
of whom seemed to care about his errand, knocked on the door.
A young woman opened it, holding aloft a lamp, and under its uncertain
light her face showed drawn and pale. I breathed harder, and heard some
of those about me murmur compassionately, for she looked very frail and
young to bear what must follow. The sergeant's words did not reach us,
but a swift glare of blue flame, that left us dazzled, broke in upon
them. The whole space about the building was flooded with temporary
brilliancy, and Redmond's daughter must have seen us standing about the
wagon and the bearers waiting, for she dropped the lantern (which Mackay
seized in time), and caught at the logs which framed the door as if for
support. A minute must have passed before the slight form once more
stood erect upon the threshold.
"Mackay thinks of everything," Steel said in my ear. "He sent Gordon off
to bring his wife along. There's only the half-breed here, and she'll
need a white woman with her to-night, poor soul."
"Bring him in," said a low voice; and before the sergeant could prevent
her, the speaker, snatching up the lantern, moved forward to meet the
bearers. It was no sight for young eyes, and I saw Steel shudder; but
there was wild Erse blood in the girl, and, holding one arm up, she
stood erect, facing us again.
"This was my father, and he was a kind man to me," she said, with a
choking gasp that was not a sob, and from which her voice broke high and
shrill. "For the sake of a few acres and cattle he was driven to his
death, and may black sorrow follow the man who ruined him. Sorrow and
bitterness, with the fear that will drive sleep from him and waste him
blood and bone until he takes the curse of the widow and orphan with him
into the flame of hell!"
Then the eerie voice sank again, and it was with a strange dignity she
concluded: "I thank you, neighbors. You can bring him in."
Another paler flash lit up the prairie as they carried Redmond in, and,
when a wagon came bouncing up to the fence, Steel said: "Here's Mrs.
Gordon; they have lost no time. Are you coming back, Ormesby? I've had
about enough of this."
I had no wish to linger, and when we rode homewards through the deluge
that now thrashed our faces, the sergeant, who overtook us, said: "Man,
I feel creepy! She's no' quite canny, and yon was awesome."
"It was impressive; but you can't attach much importance to that poor
girl's half-distracted raving," I said, partly to convince myself.
"Maybe no," said Sergeant Mackay. "Superstition, ye say; but I'm
thinking there's a judgment here as well as hereafter, and I'd no' care
to carry yon curse about with me."