_Canned._
The foreman came in, blinking at the sudden change from bright light
to half twilight, and Charming Billy took the opportunity to kick a
sardine can of stove-blacking under the stove where it would not be
seen. Some predecessor with domestic instincts had left behind
him half a package of "Rising Sun," and Billy had found it and was
intending to blacken the stove just as soon as he finished the dishes.
That he had left it as a crowning embellishment, rather than making it
the foundation of his house-cleaning, only proved his inexperience in
that line. Billy had "bached" a great deal, but he had never blacked a
stove in his life.
The foreman passed gloved fingers over his eyes, held them there
a moment, took them away and gazed in amazement; since he had been
foreman of the Double-Crank--and the years were many--Charming
Billy Boyle had been one of its "top-hands," and he had never before
caught him in the throes of "digging out."
"Fundamental furies!" swore he, in the unorthodox way he had. "Looks
like the Pilgrim was right--there's a lady took charge here."
Charming Billy turned red with embarrassment, and then quite pale with
rage. "The Pilgrim lied!" he denied sweepingly.
The foreman picked his way over the wet floor, in deference to its
comparative cleanliness stepping long so that he might leave as few
disfiguring tracks as possible, and unbuttoned his fur coat before the
heat of the stove.
"Well, maybe he did," he assented generously, gleaning a box from
the pile on the bunk and sitting down, "but it sure looks like
corroborative evidence, in here. How about it, Bill?"
"How about what?" countered Billy, his teeth close together.
"The girl, and the dawg, and the fight--but more especially the girl.
The Pilgrim--"
"_Damn_ the Pilgrim! I wisht I'd a-killed the lying ---- The girl's
a lady, and he ain't fit to speak her name. She come here last night
because her hoss fell and got crippled, and there wasn't a hoss I'd
trust at night with her, it was storming so hard, and slippery--and
at daylight I put her on the gentlest one we had, and took her home.
That's all there is to it. There's nothing to gabble about, and if the
Pilgrim goes around shooting off his face--" Billy clicked his teeth
ominously.
"Well, that ain't _just_ the way he told it," commented the foreman,
stooping to expectorate into the hearth and stopping to regard
surprisedly its unwonted emptiness. "He said--"
"I don't give a damn what he said," snapped Billy. "He lied, the
low-down cur."
"Uh-huh--he said something about you shooting that dawg of his. I saw
the carcass out there in the snow." The foreman spoke with careful
neutrality.
"I did. I wisht now I'd laid the two of 'em out together. The dawg
tried to feed offa my leg. I shot the blame thing." Charming Billy
sat down upon the edge of the table--sliding the dishpan out of his
way--and folded his arms, and pushed his hat farther back from his
forehead. His whole attitude spoke impenitent scorn.
"I also licked the Pilgrim and hazed him away from camp and told him
particular not to come back," he informed the other defiantly. He did
not add, "What are you going to do about it?" but his tone carried
unmistakably that sentiment.
"And the Pilgrim happens to be a stepbrother uh the widow the Old Man
is at present running after, and aiming to marry. I was sent over here
to put the can onto you, Billy. I hate like thunder to do it, but--"
The foreman waved a hand to signify his utter helplessness.
The face of Billy stiffened perceptibly; otherwise he moved not a
muscle.
"The Old Man says for you to stay till he can put another man down
here in your place, though. He'll send Jim Bleeker soon as he comes
back from town--which ain't apt to be for two or three days unless
they're short on booze."
Billy caught his breath, hesitated, and reached for his smoking
material. It was not till he had licked his cigarette into shape and
was feeling in his pocket for a match that he spoke. "I've drawed
wages from the Double-Crank for quite a spell, and I always aimed
to act white with the outfit. It's more than they're doing by me,
but--I'll stay till Jim comes." He smoked moodily, and stared at his
boots. "Yuh ain't going back tonight, are yuh?"
The foreman said he must, and came back to the subject. "Yuh don't
want to think I'm firing yuh, Billy. If it was my say-so, I'd tell the
Pilgrim to go to hell. But he went straight to headquarters with his
tale uh woe, and the Old Man is kinda uncertain these days, on account
uh not being right sure uh the widow. He feels just about obliged to
keep the Pilgrim smoothed down; he ain't worth his grub, if you ask
me."
"Oh, I ain't thinking nothing at all about it," Billy lied proudly.
"If the Old Man feels like canning me, that there's his funeral. I
reckon maybe he likes the Pilgrim's breed better for a change. And
I wouldn't be none surprised if I could get a job with some other
outfit, all right. I ain't aiming to starve--nor yet ride grub-line."
"When you analyze the thing right down to fundamentals," observed the
foreman, whom men called "Jawbreaker" for obvious reasons, "it's a
cussed shame. You're one of the oldest men with the outfit, and the
Pilgrim is the youngest--and the most inadequate. The Old Man oughta
waited till he heard both sides uh the case, and I told him so. But
he couldn't forget how the widow might feel if he canned her
stepbrother--and what's a man, more or less, in a case uh that kind?"
"Now look here, Jawbreaker," Billy protested cheerfully, "don't yuh go
oozing comfort and sympathy on my account. I don't know but what I'm
tickled to death. As yuh say, I've worked for this outfit a blame long
while--and it's maybe kinda hard on other outfits; they oughta have a
chance to use me for a spell. There's no reason why the Double-Crank
should be a hog and keep a good man forever."
The foreman studied keenly the face of Charming Billy, saw there an
immobility that somehow belied his cheerful view of the case, and
abruptly changed the subject.
"You've got things swept and garnished, all right," he remarked,
looking at the nearly clean floor with the tiny pools of dirty water
still standing in the worn places. "When did the fit take yuh? Did it
come on with fever-n'-chills, like most other breaking-outs? Or, did
the girl--"
"Aw, the darned dawg mussed up the floor, dying in here," Billy
apologized weakly. "I was plumb obliged to clean up after him." He
glanced somewhat shamefacedly at the floor. After all, it did not
look quite like the one where Miss Bridger lived; in his heart Billy
believed that was because he had no strip of carpet to spread before
the table. He permitted his glance to take in the bunk, nakedly
showing the hay it held for a softening influence and piled high with
many things--the things that would not go beneath.
"Your soogans are gathering frost to beat the band, Bill," the foreman
informed him, following his glance to the bunk. "Your inexperience
is something appalling, for a man that has fried his own bacon and
swabbed out his own frying-pan as many times as you have. Better go
bring 'em in. It was thinking about snowing again when I come."
Billy grinned a little and went after his bedding, brought it and
threw it with a fine disregard for order upon the accumulation of
boxes and benches in the bunk. "I'll go feed the hosses, and then I'll
cook yuh some supper," he told the foreman still humped comfortably
before the stove with his fur coat thrown open to the heat and his
spurred boots hoisted upon the hearth. "Better make up your mind to
stay till morning; it's getting mighty chilly, outside."
The foreman, at the critical stage of cigarette lighting, grunted
unintelligibly. Billy was just laying hand to the door-knob when the
foreman looked toward him in the manner of one about to speak. Billy
stood and waited inquiringly.
"Say, Bill," drawled Jawbreaker, "yuh never told me her name, yet."
The brows of Charming Billy pinched involuntarily together. "I thought
the Pilgrim had wised yuh up to all the details," he said coldly.
"The Pilgrim didn't know; he says yuh never introduced him. And seeing
it's serious enough to start yuh on the godly trail uh cleanliness,
I'm naturally taking a friendly interest in her, and--"
"Aw--go to hell!" snapped Charming Billy, and went out and slammed the
door behind him so that the cabin shook.