THE PASSING OF LONG BILL KEARNEY
It was yet dark when the Texan rolled from the blankets at the edge of
McWhorter's haystack, and dumped a liberal measure of oats into the blue
roan's feed box. While the animal ate, the man carefully examined his
outfit by the light of the waning moon. Gun, cinch, bridle, saddle,
rope, each came in for its bit of careful scrutiny, and when he had
finished he saddled and bridled the horse in the stall and led him out
just as the first faint hint of dawn greyed the east. As he swung into
the saddle, the horse tried to sink his head, but the Texan held him up,
"Not this mornin', old hand," he said, soothingly, "it wastes strength,
an' I've got a hunch that maybe I'm goin' to need every pound you've got
in you." As if recognizing the voice of a master, the horse gave one or
two half-hearted jumps, and stretched into an easy lope. As the coulee
began to slant to the bench the man pulled him down to a walk which
became a steady trot when the higher level was gained.
The Texan rode with a much lighter heart than he had carried on the
previous day. The words of Janet McWhorter had kindled a ray of hope--a
hope that had grown brighter with the dawning of the day. He even smiled
as he thought of the girl back there in the cabin. "I didn't think there
was her like in the world. She's--she's the kind of woman a man dreams
about, an' knows all the time they ain't real--they couldn't be. Hair as
black an' shiny as the wing of a crow. An' eyes! Sometimes you can see
way down into 'em--like deep, clear water an' when they laugh, the
surface seems to ripple an' throw back flashes of sunshine. An' there's
other times, too. They can look at you hard an' grey--like a man's eyes.
An' they can get black an' stormy--with lightnin' flashes instead of
sunshine. There's a woman for some man--an' believe me, he better be
_some man_! He'd have to be to get her." The man dreamed a jumbled, rosy
dream for a mile or more. "An' she can ride, an' shoot, leastwise she
packs a gun--an' I bet she can use it. I've seen these ridin', shootin'
kind--lots of 'em--an' mostly, they don't sort of stack up to what a man
would want to marry--makes you kind of wonder if they wouldn't expect
the man to rock the cradle--but not her--she's different--she's all
girl. After Win's wife--I never expected to see another one--but,
shucks--she said there was more--an' she was right--partly--there's one
more. I'm goin' to hunt a job over on this side--" his train of thought
halted abruptly, and involuntarily, his gaze fastened upon the
blue-black peaks of the Judith range to the southward across the river.
His gloved hand smote his leather chaps with a crack that made the blue
roan jump sidewise: "I'll be damned if I do!" he exclaimed aloud, "I'll
go straight back to Dad Colston! I'll tell him the whole thing--he'll
know--he'll understand an' if he'll give me my job back I'll--I'll buy
me a mile of cable an' rig up Long Bill's ferry right plumb across to
the mouth of Red Sand! I don't want her till I've earnt her--but there
ain't no one else goin' to come snoopin' around--not onless he's a
better man than I am--an' if he is, he ought to win."
At the edge of the bad lands the Texan pulled up in the shelter of a
twisted bull pine that grew from the top of a narrow ridge, and
banishing all thought of the girl from his mind, concentrated upon the
work at hand. He knew Purdy for just what he was. Knew his base
brutishness of soul--knew his insatiable greed--and it was upon this
latter trait that he based his hope. Carefully he weighed the chances.
He knew how Purdy must hate the pilgrim for the shooting back at Wolf
River. He knew that the man's unreasoning hate would extend to the girl
herself. He knew that Purdy hated him, and that if he found out through
Long Bill that he had been with her, the man's hate would be redoubled.
And he knew that even in the absence of any hatred on the part of Purdy,
no woman would be safe in his hands. To offset unreasoning hate and
bestial desire was only the man's greed. And greed would be a factor
only if Purdy knew of the reward. The fact that Long Bill had ridden
one of Purdy's horses added strength to the assumption that they had
been in touch. "A thousan' dollars is too much money for Purdy to pass
up," muttered the Texan as his eyes swept the dead plain. "He knows he'd
have to deliver her safe an' unharmed, an' the chances are he'd figure
he could make Win shell out a good bit more'n the thousan'. Anyhow, if
Long Bill ain't got back across the river yet, I've got two chances of
locatin' her instead of one."
The Texan's attention riveted upon a spot less than a quarter of a mile
away. Above the edge of a low cutbank, that formed the wall of a shallow
coulee a thin curl of smoke rose and was immediately dispersed. So
fleeting was the glimpse that he was not sure his eyes had not played
him false. Long and intently he stared at the spot--yes, there it was
again,--a gossamer wraith, so illusive as to be scarcely distinguishable
from the blue haze of early dawn. Easing his horse from the ridge, he
worked him toward the spot, being careful to keep within the shelter of
a coulee that slanted diagonally into the one from which the smoke rose.
A hundred yards from his objective he dismounted, removed his spurs, and
crawled stealthily toward the rim of the cutbank. When within arm's
reach of the edge he drew his gun, and removing his hat, wriggled
forward until he could thrust his face into a tuft of bunch grass that
projected over the edge.
Not ten feet below him Long Bill Kearney squatted beside a tiny fire
and toasted a strip of bacon upon the point of a long knife. Long Bill
was alone. A short distance away a cayuse stood saddled and bridled.
Noiselessly the Texan got to his feet and stood looking down at the man
by the fire. The man did not move. Grease dripped from the bacon and
little tongues of red flame curled upward, licking at the strip on the
knife. The strip curled and shrivelled, and slipping from the point,
dropped into the fire. Cursing and grumbling, the man fished it out with
the knife, and removing the clinging ashes upon his sleeve, conveyed it
to his mouth with his fingers. From a greasy paper beside him he drew
another strip and affixed it on the point of the knife. As he thrust it
toward the fire he paused, and glanced uneasily toward the cayuse which
dozed with drooping head and one rear foot resting upon the toe.
Apparently satisfied, he resumed his toasting, but a moment later
restlessly raised his head, and scrutinized the lower reach of the
coulee. Looking over his shoulder he submitted the upper reach to like
scrutiny. Then he scanned the opposite rim while the bacon shrivelled
and the little red flames licked at the knife blade. Finally as if drawn
by some unseen force he deliberately raised his face upward--and found
himself staring straight into the eyes of the Texan who had thrust the
gun back into its holster. Seconds passed--long tense seconds during
which the man's hands went limp, and the knife dropped unheeded into
the fire, and the bacon burned to a charcoal in the little red flame.
His lower jaw had sagged, exposing long yellow fangs, but his eyes held
with terrible fascination upon the cold stare of the Texan.
"My Gawd!" he muttered, thickly when he could endure the silence no
longer, "I--we--thought you was drownded."
"Oh, we did, did we? But we was afraid I wasn't so we went ahead an'
spread those bills. Well, I'm here--do you want that reward?"
The question seemed to inspire Long Bill with a gleam of hope. He
struggled to his feet: "Lord, no! Not me, Tex. I just tuck them papers
'long 'cause----"
"Where's the girl?"
"What girl--you mean the pilgrim's woman? I donno--s'elp me--I donno
nawthin' 'bout it."
"Where's Purdy?"
"Who? Purdy? Him? I donno. I ain't seen him. I ain't seen him fer--it's
goin' on a hell of a while. Last time I seen him----"
The sentence was never finished. Lightly as a cat the body of the Texan
shot downward and hardly had his feet touched the ground than a gloved
fist drove straight into Long Bill's face. The man crashed heavily
backward and lay moaning and whimpering like a hurt puppy. Stepping to
his side the Texan kicked him in the ribs: "Get up!" he commanded.
With a grunt of pain, the man struggled to a sitting posture. A thin
trickle of blood oozed from the corner of his mouth. He raised a shaky
hand to his face and inserting a long black nailed forefinger between
his puffed lips, ran it along the inner edge of his gums and drew forth
a yellow tooth. Leaning forward he spat out a mouthful of blood, and
another tooth clicked audibly upon the rocks. With the other hand he
felt gingerly of his side: "You've knocked out my teeth," he snivelled,
"an' broke my rib."
"An' I ain't only just started. I'm goin' to knock out the rest of 'em,
an' break the rest of your ribs--one at a time. You've got your guns on,
why don't you shoot?"
"You'd kill me 'fore I c'd draw," whined the man.
"You've got me--exact. Stand on your feet--it's too far to reach when I
want to hit you again." The man got to his feet and stood cowering
before the Texan.
"Now you answer me--an' answer me straight. Every time you lie I'm goin'
to knock you down--an' every time you drop, I'm goin' to kick you up
again. Where's that girl?"
"Purdy's got her."
"Where?"
"Over--over to the hang-out."
"What hang-out?"
"Cass Grimshaw's--" Again the Texan's fist shot out, again Long Bill
crumpled upon the floor of the coulee, and again the Texan kicked him
to his feet, where he stood shrinking against the cutbank with his hands
pressed to his face. He was blubbering openly, the sound issuing from
between the crushed lips in a low-pitched, moaning tremolo--a disgusting
sound, coming from a full-grown man--like the pule of a brainless thing.
The Texan shook him, roughly: "Shut up! Where's Purdy? I know Cass
Grimshaw. Don't try to tell me he's into any such dirty work as this."
"Purdy's in Grimshaw's gang," yammered the man, "Grimshaw ain't in on
it--only Purdy. If she ain't in the hang-out, I don't know where she's
at. Purdy wouldn't tell me. He'd be afraid I'd double-cross him."
"What's he goin' to do with her?"
"Git the reward."
"An', you're in on it? You're the go-between?"
The man shrank still farther back against the wall: "Yes."
"When are you goin' to collect it?"
"Yeste'day a week----"
Once more the Texan's fist drew back, but the man grovelled against the
dirt wall, holding his hands weakly before his battered face: "Not agin!
Not agin! Fer Gawd's sakes! I kin prove it! Here's the paper! Kill me
when you read it--but fer Gawd's sakes don't hit me no more!" Fumbling
in his shirt pocket, he drew out the note Purdy had written and signed
with the Texan's name. Carefully Tex read it and thrust it into his
pocket.
"Where's Grimshaw's hang-out?" he asked, in a voice of deadly quiet.
"It's in a coulee--ten miles from here. A coulee with rock sides, an' a
rock floor. A deep coulee. Ride straight fer Pinnacle Butte an' you'll
come to it. It's up the coulee, in a cave."
The Texan nodded: "All right. You can go now. But, remember, if you've
lied to me, I'll hunt you down. I ought to kill you anyway--for this."
He tapped the pocket where he had placed the note.
"Purdy writ it--I can't write. I ain't lyin'. It's there--the cave--west
side--crack in the rock wall." The man was so evidently sincere that the
Texan grinned at him:
"An' you think when I go bustin' in on 'em, they'll just naturally fill
me so full of holes my hide won't hold rainwater--is that it? You wait
till I tell Cass Grimshaw you're sneakin' around tippin' folks off to
his hang-out. Looks to me like Long Bill Kearney's got to kiss the bad
lands good-bye, no matter which way the cat jumps."
A look of horror crept into the man's face at the words. He advanced a
step, trembling visibly: "Fer Gawd's sakes, Tex, you wouldn't do that!
I'm a friend of yourn. You wouldn't double-cross a friend. Cass, he'd
kill me just as sure as he'd kill a rattlesnake if it bit him!"
"An' that's jest about what's happened." Both men started at the sound
of the voice and glancing upward, saw a man standing at almost the
exact spot where the Texan had stood upon the edge of the cutbank. He
was a squat, bow-legged man, and a tuft of hair stuck grotesquely from a
hole in the crown of his hat. With a shrill yaup of terror Long Bill
jerked a gun from its holster and fired upward. The report was followed
instantly by another and the tall form in the coulee whirled half
around, sagged slowly at the knees, and crashed heavily forward upon its
face.
"Glad he draw'd first," remarked Cass Grimshaw, as he shoved a fresh
cartridge into his gun. "It give him a chanct to die like a man, even if
he ain't never lived like one."