WAR WITHOUT QUARTER
He found her where he had left her, but now she was standing and looking
out over the silent prairies, as though searching for someone.
"What are you trying to see?" Bud asked.
"I thought father and some of the cowboys would probably follow the sheep
once they had started them. Oh, what have I said?"
"I imagined it was they who had done it," said Bud quietly, the full
enormity of the thing not yet having sunk deep into his mind. "How did you
get mixed up in it?"
"Simply enough," replied Julie. "Late in the afternoon Chuck, one of the
men on the eastern range, came riding in and said that your sheep were
directly east of the ranch house. Father and Mike Stelton talked a lot
about it at supper, and figured up then that the easiest way--well, to
teach you a lesson, they called it--was to run them over the bank of the
Little River.
"I don't like sheep, Bud, as you know; but that was going too far for me,
and I protested, with the result that father took Mike outside with him,
quite upset that I said anything at all. Both of them looked black as a
silk hat."
"Good little girl!" cried Bud gratefully, and she turned her face directly
toward him and smiled; just such a smile, Larkin remembered, as he had
seen her use on other soft nights years before, in circumstances so
totally different.
"After supper," she continued, "there was a great bustle of getting away,
and I grew curious to see what they would do and how. So as soon as they
left I saddled my calico and set out after them, keeping about abreast but
a couple of miles to the north. The next thing I heard was a terrific lot
of shooting and yelling, and the business was done. I don't wonder the
sheep were in a panic!
"Then I heard the sound of the stampede, but I did not realize it was
driving straight at me. I must have been confused in my idea of where the
Little River was. Anyway, before I had time to think about it I realized I
was directly in their path and with a very small advantage. I could escape
neither to right nor left, for the wings of the running flock were wide,
and all I could do was to run my pony as hard as he could go.
"He seemed to know the danger; all cow ponies do, I guess, for I never saw
him travel like that in all my life; he stretched so flat along the
ground that it almost seemed as though I could reach down and touch it
with my hand. You know what such speed as that is at night with the
gopher-holes and other ankle-breakers! Well, we took the chance, and Billy
actually drew away from the sheep, panicky as they were.
"But I couldn't gain enough to dare to turn to right or left, and I had
just about given up hope because the trees were ahead, when I saw the
flash and heard the report of your gun. Thank God it was you, Bud. I've
never known you to be a coward or to fail in any situation. I can't say
how grateful I am for what you have done to-night."
"I assure you I didn't do it, Julie; it was that man who got sick and left
us. He's disappeared now."
"Who was he? One of the Bar T punchers?"
"No, it was that fellow, Caldwell. Perhaps you don't remember him--he came
to the Bar T for supper the same night I did."
"Yes, I remember him," said Julie in a tone out of which all the impetuous
warmth had gone. Suddenly in this strange situation she found herself face
to face with another chapter in the mystery that baffled her.
"Well, he saved my life to-night, and, though I can't say I admire the
fellow very much, I am mighty grateful to him."
"It is strange you two should be together out here when your sheep were
somewhere else," hazarded Juliet, looking full at Larkin and expecting
some action or word to betray his fear of her suspicions.
"Not at all strange when you know the circumstances," he replied. "Just
listen to this tale of adventure. But first I think we had better start
walking toward the Bar T ranch house. We ought to meet some of the
cowboys. Br-r--it's cold!" and Bud shivered in the piercing chill of the
spring night.
To the plainsman walking is the most refined form of punishment. Your real
cowboy slouches miserably along in his tight-fitting, uncomfortable
high-heeled boots, looking about as much in his element as a stranded
whale. In cowboy parlance his "feet don't track," his backbone wilts, and
his knees bow naturally as a result of early horseback riding. On solid
earth the cowboy is a crestfallen and dejected object.
As the two trudged along beneath the calm stars that had seen a thousand
stampedes since the millions of buffalo roared up and down its length,
Larkin told Juliet of the events that had occurred since they had said
farewell at the fork of Grassy Creek. At the mention of the rustlers and
the activities they were carrying on the girl gave a little, low cry.
"Father must hear that," she said. "He would give a lot to have
descriptions of those men."
"He couldn't give me back two thousand sheep and lambs," rejoined Bud
bitterly.
"No, but I think he would give you their value."
"Yes, and stampede it into another gully when I brought it across his
range. Juliet, I'm not done with this thing. I'll fight your father or any
other man that ever heard a calf bawl for milk, until I get my rights on
the free range."
Larkin's voice was deep and full-throated with the righteous anger that
surged through him over the outrage that had been wrought that night.
As for the girl, she did not recognize this Bud Larkin. The man she had
known had been one of gay pleasantries, but rather ineffectual endeavors;
this man who spoke was one to whom his will was his law, and obstacles
merely helps because of their strengthening of his determination. For the
first time she saw the Bud Larkin that had developed in the last year,
and a kind of admiring thrill at the mental stature of the man went
through her.
And yet she knew that war--hard, tenacious, ugly war--war without quarter,
mercy, or respite, was irrevocably declared between Larkin and her father;
and, even in her instinctive loyalty to her house, she had to admit that
Bud was justified.
"Oh, I wish you would give the whole thing up!" she said plaintively. "It
will only result in ruin to everybody."
Larkin laughed harshly.
"I'll never give it up until I am either dead or haven't a dollar left,"
he replied. "I am determined to have my rights in this matter, and I shall
have them whatever the cost."
For a time there was silence between them, each realizing that further
discussion could only prove unhappy.
They had gone about two miles from the scene of the stampede when suddenly
a man appeared close in front of them and commanded them to halt.
"Hello, Sims!" cried Larkin joyfully, recognizing the other's voice, but
at the same time hoisting his hands above his head.
"Well, chief," said the herder imperturbably, returning his revolver to
its holster, "I allow your vacation has cost you a lot of money."
Bud then outlined his experiences briefly, concluding with his story of
the stampede, and Sims whistled in amazement, his one method of expressing
astonishment.
"Well, what's the story now?" Bud asked.
Juliet had walked ahead when the two men met, and now Larkin dropped far
enough behind to be out of ear-shot and yet keep the girl dimly in sight.
Hurriedly, for him, Sims related the story of the ill-fated expedition up
to the time of the stampede. He and the herders had put up what defense
they could, he said, and, as a result, two of his men were dead and the
others scattered. However, he expected they would return to the now
deserted camp.
"I want you to take them back south to the Badwater River," ordered
Larkin. "The second flock ought to be there by this time, but I want you
to hold them there. In two days the boys from Montana ought to be down,
and when you're ready to start north you will have force enough to fight
any bunch of cowboys old Bissell can scrape together."
"But if we don't move that flock out right away the others will come and
pile up there, and then we shore will have our hands full."
"All right, let 'em pile up. We'll get 'em through just the same. Now,
Sims, we are in this thing for blood from now on, and don't you forget it
for a minute."
"Trust me, boss," drawled the herder. "Are you comin' down to join us?"
"Yes, if I can. As soon as I get Miss Bissell into safe hands I'll come.
But don't count on me; I may never get there. Do whatever you think best,
but bring those sheep through. And tell the herders and the boys from the
north that while this trouble is on I'll pay them five dollars a day
apiece."
"Shore, they'd rassle the devil himself for that," commented Sims.
"And you get ten," supplemented Larkin. "Now go ahead and make all
preparations the way you think best. Everything is in your hands."
Sims faded from sight noiselessly, and Larkin hurried forward to overtake
Juliet. They had not been together five minutes when the rapid trotting of
horses was heard ahead and Larkin, taking the chance of falling into evil
hands, called out to the travelers.
"Who's there?" came a gruff voice, accompanied by the click of hammers
drawn back.
"Oh, father, it's I--Juliet!" cried the girl, recognizing the speaker and
running toward him.
There was a surprised exclamation out of the darkness, and the sound of a
man vaulting from the saddle. The next moment and he had clasped his
daughter in his arms.
Larkin, his mission completed, started to back away from the scene, but
the girl herself wrecked this intention.
"It was Mr. Larkin who called out," she said, evidently in answer to a
question. "He saved my life, father, and he has brought me safely back. He
is standing right over there."
At this Bud turned and ran, but the sound of a pony closing in on him
brought him to a stop.
"Well, what do you want?" he demanded angrily.
"Bissell wants to see you," said the rider whose voice the sheepman
recognized as that of Stelton.
Not deigning to enter an argument with the foreman, Bud walked back to
where Bissell stood beside his horse.
"Now the sheep are out of the way, if you want to learn anything about
rustlers I guess our friend here can tell you," remarked Stelton
suddenly, in a voice exultant as it was ugly.
"Oh, yes, father," added Juliet, "he's been with them for almost two
days."
"Is this so, Mr. Larkin?" asked Bissell.
"Yes."
"Well, we won't discuss it now," said the cowman. "Let's go back to the
ranch house and get something to eat. I have an extra horse here, Larkin,
if you care to ride."
"I don't care to, thanks," answered Bud dryly. "Since you have ruined me,
you will do me a favor by letting me go."
"I allow I'd like to do you a favor," rejoined Bissell with equal
courtesy, "but I've got to find out about them rustlers. We won't keep yuh
long."
"Come on, get up on that horse," said the voice of Stelton close beside
him, and Bud turned to look into the long barrel of the foreman's gun that
was stuck under his nose.
Trembling with suppressed fury, he did as he was told, but on the ten-mile
ride to the Bar T ranch said nothing, and only revolved in his mind one
question: How did Stelton know he had been with the rustlers before Julie
had said anything about them?