THE MARK OF THE BEAST
As he rode slowly up the little squalid street, seemingly lost in a
brown study and gazing abstractedly straight between his horse's ears,
he was in reality keenly alive to his surroundings. Not a face or
movement escaped him, and his mouth hardened ever so slightly as he
noted a couple of C Bar horses tied to the hitching rail before the door
of the Alcazar saloon. Dismounting leisurely before the grimy little
shack which did combined duty as stationery store and post office, he
nodded casually to the crowd of loafers about the entrance; if he
noticed significant glances toward the horses tied to the railing across
the street, he made no sign. And when the old postmaster quietly
volunteered the information, "Matlock is in town," he merely smiled his
comprehension and rolled a fresh cigarette. Matlock was the man whom he
had so ignominiously dragged at his rope's end a month ago. And Matlock
had been indiscreet of speech since.
At the door he turned and came back with his hand extended to his
friend, "I am sure grateful to you for your interest, Hank," he said
gravely. "I noticed his horse as I came in. Well, so-long!" and
thrusting into his pocket the bundle of mail at which he had scarcely
glanced, went out, mounted his horse and rode unconcernedly toward the
one hotel which the embryo metropolis boasted.
Hank Williams scratched his head thoughtfully as he turned again to the
task of assorting the afternoon's mail. "Of course he must play his own
hand," he ruminated, "an' he'll come mighty nigh to winnin' out. But all
the same I'd like to set in the game a deal or two myself. Guess I'll
look in at the Alcazar to-night."
"I ain't got no call to butt in," he continued as he puzzled over an
unusually illegible address, "but that Matlock is a treacherous coyote
an' there's no tellin' what lowdown play he'll make. I just nacherally
have to keep cases to-night." His work finished, the old man proceeded
to carefully fill the empty loops of his cartridge belt and there was a
grim determination on his handsome hard old face as he spun the cylinder
of his ".45" to test its perfect action.
Up at the hotel an ambuscade was laid into which Douglass walked
unwittingly. As his foot reached the first of the three low steps
leading up to the rickety veranda, an arm shot around the corner of the
house, there was a soft swis-h-h, a chuckle of tense triumph, and the
folds of a lasso encircled his throat. Involuntarily his hand leaped to
his holster on his hip and the ready gun came flashing half way up. But
after a lightning glance at the chubby fist holding the other end of the
reata, the twinkle in his eyes accorded but illy with his subsequent
plunging and yelling as he sprawled on all fours and bawled like a
choking calf.
Then from around the corner rushed a sturdy little boy of five,
gathering up the slack of the rope as he came, followed by a
red-cheeked, star-eyed girl of four, who brandished a huge branding
iron. Upon the prostrate cowpuncher they precipitated themselves with a
yell, the boy deftly throwing a bight of the rope about Ken's feet and
drawing up the slack. Then placing one foot on Douglass's neck he
laconically announced:
"Tied! Put the iron to 'im, Yule."
The little girl thrust the end of the brand against the brawny shoulder
now quivering with the suppressed laughter of its owner and made a
quaint sizzling noise with her puckered lips. The cowboy emitted an
agonized bawl wonderfully like that of a calf in the throes of the
red-hot iron's bite and the boy stooped to a critical examination.
Bueno! he said approvingly, and then he untied the restraining coils,
stepped back a pace and gave Ken the ethical kick in the ribs.
"Get up, you chump!" he ejaculated in comical imitation of Ken's accent
and manner when at work in the branding corrals. Douglass was his model
in everything, and only the week before he had the beatitude of seeing
his hero actively engaged In a similar employment of the branding iron.
But the little girl laid her soft cheek against the bronzed one of the
cowboy and whispered sweetly, "Oh! Ten, youse is weally mine vewy own
now, ain't youse? Buddy said youse would be if ve doed it."
The man made two attempts before he could answer. Then he laid his lips
reverently on the rosebud mouth. "Yes, honey, I'm sure in your brand
now," he said gently. And he quietly but firmly declined the glass of
whiskey proffered him by her father as he sat her on the end of the
dingy counter. The sweetness of those little lips was too fresh for
that. Old Blount gave him a keen look of approval as he set the bottle
back. "Your head's level," he said, misinterpreting Douglass's motive.
"Matlock is a quick mover even if he is a cur. And he's ugly to-night."
"That so?" said Douglass indifferently, playing with the curls of the
little child nestling against his breast. Mrs. Blount, coming to
announce that supper was ready, shivered slightly and her kind brown
eyes were filled with an unspoken entreaty. But he evaded their
wistfulness and a certain doggedness gloomed in his own. All throughout
the meal he held the child in his lap, and when he relinquished her to
the troubled woman he said not unkindly: "I am not going to get drunk
to-night and I shall do all I can to avoid trouble. Of course I am not
going to let him kill me."
"Ask him to go back to the ranch, dearie, to go back at once for your
sake," the woman said to the child, nervously. "Just this once, Ken,"
she pleaded. "You are so young--and life certainly holds so much for
you!" But the child here interposed tearfully: "Ten shan't do home! Ten
tate me widin' to-mov-ver."
"That's what, honey!" said Douglass, with quieting assurance. "Out of
the mouth of babes--" he quoted whimsically and the woman turned away
with a sigh. But all that night a light burned in her room and when
little Eulalie said her prayers she knelt beside her with dumbly moving
lips. She had known so much misery and heartache in this dreadful
place--and this young man had once told her that his mother was dead.
Strangely enough, she did not include Matlock in her appeal. Which was
manifestly unfair and essentially feminine.
Hank Williams, dropping casually into the Alcazar that night, noted with
no small satisfaction that Douglass occupied that seat at the poker
table which commanded the whole room with the minimum of exposure in his
own rear. "Trust him for that!" he chuckled, but his nod of greeting was
anything but demonstrative. All the same he unobtrusively sat down at a
point where he could see in profile every man in the room and likewise
catch the first view of all who entered at either rear or front doors.
Matlock was not in the room, but leaning against the counter of the bar
were three of the C Bar outfit talking earnestly together. At the other
end of the counter Blount was lighting an unusually refractory pipe
which persisted in going out at every third puff. Williams, noting a
sharp projection in the side pocket of Blount's coat, smiled
quizzically.
"Derringer," he speculated. "Well, there ain't no accountin' for tastes.
An' I've heard that Blount got two men in one scrap down in No Man's
Land afore he come here. Guess Ken's good for a square deal all right.
But I don't like Matlock's dodging the play in this way. Wonder what
skunk trick he will try this time?"
Nearly every other man in the room was indulging in a like speculation.
The only possible exceptions were the C Bar men at the counter and a
slight, well-dressed young fellow who was watching the faro game at the
other side of the room. The latter was evidently a stranger both to Tin
Cup and to the game in which he was so thoroughly absorbed. Williams
looked him over indifferently.
"Tenderfoot," he opined, "takin' in the sights. Maybe he'll see suthin'
worth while if he hangs around a bit longer." And he smiled grimly and
renewed his watch of the doors.
Less than a year before, Matlock had an altercation with a sheep herder
over a game of cards in this very room and had been soundly thrashed by
the unarmed man. The next night the shepherd's camp had been raided by a
masked mob, his sheep ruthlessly slaughtered, despite the fact that he
was on the right side of the "dead line," therefore entirely within his
rights, and himself shot to death by the merciless marauders. Of course
there was no positive proof of their identity, but the consensus of
opinion pointed to the C Bar outfit, and the decent element among the
range men had held significantly aloof from Matlock ever since.
Douglass's escapade had in nowise affected his popularity among the
resentful cattle owners who had been seriously involved by the outrage
on the sheepman; the law of the range demands fair play and the feeling
against Matlock was further intensified by a dastardly trick perpetrated
by him a few days before Douglass's unceremonious man-handling of him.
Among the men working for the C Bar had been a quiet inoffensive German
named Braun, whose ambition was to acquire a small ranch of his own.
With this end in view he had allowed salary to accumulate in Matlock's
hands until it had attained very respectable proportions. Upon this
little hoard Matlock had long had designs, and one night he seduced
Braun--who was a mere boy--into a game of cards where with the
assistance of one of his confederate creatures he had deliberately
robbed him of every cent. This in itself would have aroused but little
comment; every man must protect himself in card play and any means that
can be enforced to one's end in poker are admissible. But with the
malicious brutality characteristic of all cowardly bullies, Matlock had
subsequently taunted his victim with his lack of perspicuity, boasting
openly of the means he had employed, until the boy, lashed into
ungovernable fury, had fumblingly drawn his revolver, whereupon Matlock
shot him through the head.
In the light of self-defense even this would have been condoned, but one
of the dead man's friends, collecting his effects for transmission to
his widowed mother, had discovered that Braun's revolver had been
rendered absolutely useless by having its hammer point shortened in such
a way that it could not reach the primers of the cartridges, the weapon
being therefore undischargeable. It was evident that the point had been
first broken off and the fracture cunningly ground smoothly round so as
to avoid detection. And it was whispered significantly among the C Bar
boys that Braun's gun had hung for the better-part of a day in the ranch
blacksmith shop while he was employed on a distant irrigation ditch, and
that Matlock had been refurbishing some branding Irons in the smithy
during the interim. And one of the boys who had been friendly with the
dead man found on the edge of the grindstone a deeply-cut indentation
such as is made by the bite of casehardened steel.
It was now ten o'clock and Matlock had not put in his appearance; the
smoke-dimmed atmosphere was heavy with expectancy but Douglass sat
unconcernedly rolling cigarettes, occasionally making a bet and
exchanging the rude badinage inseparable from the game. His face was
sphinx-like in its immobility but the cold lethality of his eyes was
apparent even to the inexperienced tenderfoot, who was growing strangely
uncomfortable for some indefinable reason. The raucous clamor of the
preceding hours had become unaccountably subdued and the soft flutter of
the cards as they were dealt was distinctly heard. A sudden gust of wind
slammed the insecurely fastened door with a sharp bang and a man sprang
quickly behind the precarious shelter of the stove; even Williams
stiffened perceptibly in his chair. The C Bar men had their hands on the
butts of their revolvers. The gray-eyed man alone smiled contemptuously
at the disconcerted fellow grinning behind the stove and said
humorously:
"Better take a little bromide, Jim. This night air is hell on the
nerves."
The tenderfoot was wavering between a conviction that it was time to go
home and a morbid inclination to stay and see what all this portended.
Impelled by an irresistible impulse, he went over and sat down beside
Douglass, who courteously shoved back the chair for his better
convenience. It was the one just vacated by the man behind the stove.
Then of a sudden it happened. In through the door walked Matlock, his
bloated face working ominously and an evil glitter in his closely-set
eyes. The player opposite Douglass, immediately between him and the
newcomer, rose with exaggerated deliberation and strolled over to the
counter, asking for a match. There was a perfect litter of matches on
the table about the very respectable heap of chips and coin which he had
accumulated but these were curiously overlooked, and what was even more
remarkable, he displayed no unseemly celeritude in returning to what was
plainly a very profitable divertisement.
Then the tenderfoot, comprehending, was obsessed by a great desire to go
somewhere and he moved nervously in his chair. The hand of the man
beside him had dropped carelessly to his side and involuntarily he
shifted his chair a little farther away. He wished now that he had gone
home. But the pride inherent in every man worthy of the name chained him
to his seat. He paled perceptibly, but Williams, watching him cynically
out of the corner of his eye, gave a grin of appreciative surprise at
the resolute squaring of his jaw and firm compression of lips.
"Blamed if the kid isn't game!" he ejaculated under his breath. "But all
the same, if I was him I'd mosey off a leetle to one side--and that _muy
pronto_. The work's apt to be a bit wild in all this yere durned smoke."
Then Douglass did a generous thing.
"I think," said he quietly to the young stranger, "that Blount over
there wants to speak to you."
The youngster looked him squarely in the eyes. "I don't know Blount--and
if I did it can wait." He was going to see it out side by side with this
man, come what might.
Matlock was no fool. As he halted with a swagger beside his men, one of
them spoke quickly in an undertone and he looked calculatingly about the
room. Something in the unfriendly silence warned him that this time his
metal would be fairly put to the test and the sheer cowardice of the man
shrank from the ordeal. He would wait for more propitious conditions and
with a well-simulated nonchalance he ordered drinks for the house. The
scant acceptance of his hospitality flooded his bloodshot eyes with
impotent rage, but he made no comment thereon. He merely remarked that
it was time to hit the trail, ignoring the titter of contemptuous
surprise and disgust which greeted the announcement. Was this the thing
he had foresworn so rabidly a scant four hours before! Someone laughed
jeeringly and he whirled like a kicked cur, the fires of hell in his
eyes.
"If anyone here's got any objections--!" he began furiously but he had
been weighed and found wanting and the strain had been relaxed. The
whole room was broadly smiling. Douglass's vis-a-vis had returned to his
seat, and even the tenderfoot was laughing in pure relief.
Matlock's undoing was so complete that he did not even resent Blount's
deep-toned "Buffaloed, by God!" He groped unseeingly for the door,
followed by the scowling trio whose faces were flushed with the awful
shame of his cowardice. At the threshold they stopped as one man, these
three; they were brave men, if evil ones, and their sense of ethics had
been outraged unpardonably.
"I'll take my time right now!" said one of them thickly. "I don't work
for no d----d coward!" And the others acquiesced: "Same here!"
Matlock glared at them fiendishly for an eternal moment, one hand
fumbling at his throat, the other fiercely gripping his gun; but they
stared at him with somber contempt and deliberately turned their backs.
It was the last straw, and mumbling insanely through frothed lips, the
now thoroughly discredited and wholly disgraced wretch stumbled pitiably
out into the night of an ostracism more terrible than death.
Never again would man of these ranges take order from him. Never again
would women--even the sordid trollops of the slums--give him aught but a
pitying glance. And even the little children, awed by his shame, would
shrink wide-eyed from his contamination. For the one sin unpardonable,
the one foul specter against which range mothers invoke the intercession
of their gods, is Cowardice.