Hooper's ranch proved to be entirely enclosed by a wall of adobe ten
feet high and whitewashed. To the outside it presented a blank face.
Only corrals and an alfalfa patch were not included. A wide, high
gateway, that could be closed by massive doors, let into a stable yard,
and seemed to be the only entrance. The buildings within were all
immaculate also: evidently Old Man Hooper loved whitewash. Cottonwood
trees showed their green heads; and to the right I saw the sloped
shingled roof of a larger building. Not a living creature was in sight.
I shook myself, saying that the undoubted sinister feeling of utter
silence and lifelessness was compounded of my expectations and the time
of day. But that did not satisfy me. My aroused mind, casting about,
soon struck it: I was missing the swarms of blackbirds, linnets, purple
finches, and doves that made our own ranch trees vocal. Here were no
birds. Laughing at this simple explanation of my eerie feeling, I passed
under the gate and entered the courtyard.
It, too, seemed empty. A stable occupied all one side; the other three
were formed by bunk houses and necessary out-buildings. Here, too, dwelt
absolute solitude and absolute silence. It was uncanny, as though one
walked in a vacuum. Everything was neat and shut up and whitewashed and
apparently dead. There were no sounds or signs of occupancy. I was as
much alone as though I had been in the middle of an ocean. My mind, by
now abnormally sensitive and alert, leaped on this idea. For the same
reason, it insisted--lack of life: there were no birds here, not even
_flies_! Of course, said I, gone to bed in the cool of evening: why
should there be? I laughed aloud and hushed suddenly; and then nearly
jumped out of my skin. The thin blue curl of smoke had caught my eye;
and I became aware of the figure of a man seated on the ground, in the
shadow, leaning against the building. The curl of smoke was from his
cigarette. He was wrapped in a _serape_ which blended well with the cool
colour of shadow. My eyes were dazzled with the whitewash--natural
enough--yet the impression of solitude had been so complete. It was
uncanny, as though he had materialized out of the shadow itself. Silly
idea! I ranged my eye along the row of houses, and I saw three other
figures I had missed before, all broodingly immobile, all merged in
shadow, all watching me, all with the insubstantial air of having as I
looked taken body from thin air.
This was too foolish! I dismounted, dropped my horse's reins over his
head, and sauntered to the nearest figure. He was lost in the dusk of
the building and of his Mexican hat. I saw only the gleam of eyes.
"Where will I find Mr. Hooper?" I asked.
The figure waved a long, slim hand toward a wicket gate in one side of
the enclosure. He said no word, nor made another motion; and the other
figures sat as though graved from stone.
After a moment's hesitation I pushed open the wicket gate, and so found
myself in a smaller intimate courtyard of most surprising character. Its
centre was green grass, and about its border grew tall, bright flowers.
A wide verandah ran about three sides. I could see that in the numerous
windows hung white lace curtains. Mind you, this was in Arizona of the
'nineties!
I knocked at the nearest door, and after an interval it opened and I
stood face to face with Old Man Hooper himself.
He proved to be as small as I had thought, not taller than my own
shoulder, with a bent little figure dressed in wrinkled and baggy store
clothes of a snuff brown. His bullet head had been cropped so that his
hair stood up like a short-bristled white brush. His rather round face
was brown and lined. His hands, which grasped the doorposts
uncompromisingly to bar the way, were lean and veined and old. But all
that I found in my recollections afterward to be utterly unimportant.
His eyes were his predominant, his formidable, his compelling
characteristic. They were round, the pupils very small, the irises large
and of a light flecked blue. From the pupils radiated fine lines. The
blank, cold, inscrutable stare of them bored me through to the back of
the neck. I suppose the man winked occasionally, but I never got that
impression. I've noticed that owls have this same intent, unwinking
stare--and wildcats.
"Mr. Hooper," said I, "can you keep me over night?"
It was a usual request in the old cattle country. He continued to stare
at me for some moments.
"Where are you from?" he asked at length. His voice was soft and low;
rather purring.
I mentioned our headquarters on the Gila: it did not seem worth while
to say anything about Box Springs only a dozen miles away. He stared at
me for some time more.
"Come in," he said, abruptly; and stood aside.
This was a disconcerting surprise. All I had expected was permission to
stop, and a direction as to how to find the bunk house. Then a more or
less dull evening, and a return the following day to collect on my
"dare." I stepped into the dimness of the hallway; and immediately after
into a room beyond.
Again I must remind you that this was the Arizona of the 'nineties. All
the ranch houses with which I was acquainted, and I knew about all of
them, were very crudely done. They comprised generally a half dozen
rooms with adobe walls and rough board floors, with only such
furnishings as deal tables, benches, homemade chairs, perhaps a battered
old washstand or so, and bunks filled with straw. We had no such things
as tablecloths and sheets, of course. Everything was on a like scale of
simple utility.
All right, get that in your mind. The interior into which I now stepped,
with my clanking spurs, my rattling _chaps_, the dust of my
sweat-stained garments, was a low-ceilinged, dim abode with faint, musty
aromas. Carpets covered the floors; an old-fashioned hat rack flanked
the door on one side, a tall clock on the other. I saw in passing framed
steel engravings. The room beyond contained easy chairs, a sofa
upholstered with hair cloth, an upright piano, a marble fireplace with a
mantel, in a corner a triangular what-not filled with objects. It, too,
was dim and curtained and faintly aromatic as had been the house of an
old maiden aunt of my childhood, who used to give me cookies on the
Sabbath. I felt now too large, and too noisy, and altogether mis-dressed
and blundering and dirty. The little old man moved without a sound, and
the grandfather's clock outside ticked deliberately in a hollow silence.
I sat down, rather gingerly, in the chair he indicated for me.
"I shall be very glad to offer you hospitality for the night," he said,
as though there had been no interim. "I feel honoured at the
opportunity."
I murmured my thanks, and a suggestion that I should look after my
horse.
"Your horse, sir, has been attended to, and your _cantinas_[B] are
undoubtedly by now in your room, where, I am sure, you are anxious to
repair."
He gave no signal, nor uttered any command, but at his last words a
grave, elderly Mexican appeared noiselessly at my elbow. As a matter of
fact, he came through an unnoticed door at the back, but he might as
well have materialized from the thin air for the start that he gave me.
Hooper instantly arose.
"I trust, sir, you will find all to your liking. If anything is lacking,
I trust you will at once indicate the fact. We shall dine in a half
hour----"
He seized a small implement consisting of a bit of wire screen attached
to the end of a short stick, darted across the room with the most
extraordinary agility, thwacked a lone house fly, and returned.
"--and you will undoubtedly be ready for it," he finished his speech,
calmly, as though he had not moved from his tracks.
I murmured my acknowledgments. My last impression as I left the room was
of the baleful, dead, challenging stare of the man's wildcat eyes.
The Mexican glided before me. We emerged into the court, walked along
the verandah, and entered a bedroom. My guide slipped by me and
disappeared before I had the chance of a word with him. He may have been
dumb for all I know. I sat down and tried to take stock.