Wrinkled, grizzled old half-breed José, his hands trembling with
eagerness, stood in the smaller rose-garden culling the perfect buds, a
joyous tear running its zigzag way down each cheek.
"_La señorita_ ees come home!" he announced triumphantly as Lee drew
near on his way to the bunk-house. "_Jesús Maria_! Een my heart it is
like the singing of leetle birdies. _Mira, señor_. My flowers
bloomin' the brighter, already--no?"
Bud Lee paused. "So you know Miss Sanford then?" he asked.
José threw out his hands and opened his night-black eyes to their most
enormous extent. "Do I know God?" he demanded.
"Well," smiled Bud, "as to that. . . ."
"But, señor," cried the devout José, "like on holy days I feel that
Dios comes to sit down in the corner of my heart, so without seeing _la
señorita_ I know she ees come home! She ees in the air like the light
of sun, like the sweetness of my roses!"
"You've known her a long time, Joe?"
"Seence she ees born!" and José, unashamed, wiped away a tear upon the
back of a leathery hand. "Señor Sanford and me, señor, we teach her
when she ees so leetle!" José's shaking hand was lowered until it
marked the stature of a twelve-inch pigmy. In all things must the old
fellow gain his emphasis by exaggeration which more often than not took
the form of plain lying. "Never at all unteel one year ago does she
leave us and the _rancho_. We, us two who love her, señor, learn her
to walk and to ride and to shoot and to talk. You shall hear her say,
'_Buenos dias, José, mi amigo_!' You shall see her kees the cheek of
old José."
Again his leathery hand was put in requisition, this time to wipe clean
the cheek to be honored. "And one theeng I tell you, señor," he added
confidentially. "Her papa was a wild devil before her. Her mama ees
grow up on the ranch; and when she marry _el señor_ Sanford was like a
wild boy. And _mi señorita_, she ees the cross be tween a wild devil
and a sweet saint, señor _Madre de Dios_! I would go down to hell for
her to bring back fire to warm her leetle feet een weenter!"
Lee went thoughtfully on his way to the bunk-house. The cook, an
importation of Bayne Trevors, a big, upstanding fellow with bare arms
covered with flour, was putting on the breakfast to which a dozen
rough-garbed men were sitting down.
"I've got orders for you fellows," said Lee from the doorway. "The
boss of the outfit, the real owner, you know, just blew in. Up at the
house. Says you boys are to stick around to take orders straight from
headquarters. You, Benny," to the cook, "are to have a man's-size
breakfast ready in a jiffy."
Naturally Benny led the clamor with a string of oaths. What in blazes
did the owner of the ranch have to show up for anyway?--he wanted to
know. He accepted the fact as a personal affront. Who was this
owner?--demanded Ward Hannon, the foreman of the lower ranch, where the
alfalfa-fields were.
Bud Lee explained gravely that the newcomer was some sort of relative
of old Luke Sanford, who had recently acquired a controlling interest
in the ranch. Ward Hannon grunted contemptuously. "The Lord deliver
us!" he moaned. "Eastern jasper! One of the know-all-about-it brand,
huh, Bud? I'll bet he combs his hair in the middle and smokes
cigareets out'n a box! The putty-headed loons can't even roll their
own smokes."
"Don't believe," hazarded Lee indifferently, "from the looks of our
visitor that--that the owner smokes anything!"
"Listen to that!" grunted Ward Hannon.
"Softy, huh?"
"Well," Bud admitted slowly, "looks sort of like a girl, you know!"
"Wouldn't that choke you?" demanded Carson, the cow foreman, a thin,
awkward little man, gray in the service of "real men." "Taking orders
off'n a fool Easterner's bad enough. But old man or young, Bud?"
"Just a kid," was Lee's further dampening news. And as he nonchalantly
buttered his hotcakes he added carelessly: "Something of a scrapper,
though. Just put two thirty-two calibers into Trevors."
They stared at him incredulously. Then Carson's dry cackle led the
laughter.
"You're the biggest liar, Bud Lee," said the old man good-naturedly, "I
ever focussed my two eyes on. I'll lay an even bet there ain't nobody
showed a-tall up this morning."
"You, Tommy," said Lee to the boy at his side, "shovel your grub down
lively and go hitch Molly and old Pie-face to the buckboard. That's
orders from headquarters," he grinned. "Trevors is to be hauled away
first thing."
Tommy looked curiously at his superior. "On the level, Bud?" he asked
doubtingly.
"On the level, laddie," was the quiet response.
And young Burkitt, wondering, but doubting no longer, hastened with his
breakfast.
The others, looking at Lee's sober face questioningly, fired a
broadside of inquiries at him. But they got no further information.
"I've told you boys all the news," he announced positively. "Lordy!
Isn't that an earful for this time of day? The real boss is on the
job: Trevors is winged; you are to stick around for orders from
headquarters. If you want to know any more'n that, why--just go up to
the house and ask your blamed questions."
Out of the tail of his eye he saw the swift approach of Bayne Trevors.
The general manager's face was black with rage and through that dark
wrath showed a dull red flush of shame. He walked with his two arms
lax at his sides.
"Give me a cup of coffee, Ben," he commanded curtly, slumping into a
chair. "Hurry!"
Benny, looking at him curiously, brought a steaming cup and offered it.
Trevors moved to lift a hand; then sank back a little farther in his
chair, his face twisting in his pain.
"Put some milk in it," he snarled. "Then hold it to my mouth. For the
love of Heaven, hurry, man!"
Then no man there doubted longer the mad tale Bud Lee had brought them.
Down from Trevors's sleeves, staining each hand, there had come a
broadening trickle of blood. Trevors set his teeth and waited. Benny
at last cooled the coffee and held it to his lips. Trevors drank
swiftly, draining the cup.
"Get this coat off me," he commanded. "Curse you, don't tear my arms
off! Slit the sleeves."
Benny's big, razor-edged butcher-knife cut away coat and shirt sleeves.
And at last, to the eager gaze of the men in the bunk-house, there
appeared the two wounds, one upon the outer right shoulder, the other
upon the left forearm.
It was Lee who, pushing the clumsy cook aside, silently made the two
bandages from strips of Trevors's shirt. It was Lee who brought a
flask of brandy from which Trevors drank deep.
And then came Judith.
They stared at her as they might have done had the heavens opened and
an angel come down, or the earth split and a devil sprung up. She
looked in upon them with quick, keen eyes which sought to take every
man's measure. They returned her regard with a variety of amazed
expressions. Never since these men had come to work for Bayne Trevors
had a woman so much as ridden by the door. And to have her stand
there, composed, utterly at her ease, her air vaguely authoritative, a
vitally vivid being who might, suddenly, have taken tangible form from
the dawn, bewildered them. Bud Lee had told of the coming of the Blue
Lake owner; he had not mentioned that that owner had brought his
daughter with him.
"I am Judith Sanford," she said in her abrupt fashion, quite as she had
made the announcement to Lee and Trevors. "This outfit belongs to me.
I have fired Trevors. You take your orders straight from me from now
on. Cookie, give me some coffee."
She came in without ceremony and sat down at the head of the table.
Benny gasped, stood for a moment rooted to the floor, and then,
Judith's eyes hard upon him, hastily brought the coffee. From some
emotion certainly not clear to him he went a violent red. Perhaps the
emotion was just sheer embarrassment. He brought hot cakes with one
hand while with the other he buttoned his gaping shirt-collar over a
bulging, hairy chest.
Men who had finished their breakfasts rose hastily with a marked
awkwardness and ill-concealed haste and went outside, whence their low
voices came back in a confused consultation. Men who had not finished
followed them. In an amazingly short time there were but the girl,
Lee, Trevors and the cook in the room. Then Trevors went out, Benny at
his heels. Bud Lee, moving with his usual leisureliness, was following
when Judith's cool voice said quietly:
"You, Lee, wait a moment. I want to talk with you."
Lee hesitated. Then he came back and waited.
The men outside naturally grouped about the general manager. His angry
voice, lifted clearly, reached the two in the room.
"I'm fired," said Trevors harshly. "As soon as I can get going I am
leaving for the Western Lumber camp. Every one of you boys holds his
job here because I gave it to him. Do you want to hold it now, with a
fool girl telling you what to do? Do you want men up and down the
State to laugh at you and jeer at you for a pack of softies and
imbeciles? Or do you want to roll your blankets and quit? To every
man that jumps the job here and follows me to-day I promise a job with
the Western. You fellows know the sort of boss I've been to you. You
can guess the sort of boss that chicken in there would be. Now I'm
going. It's up to you. Stick to a white man or fuss around for a
woman?"
He had said what he had to say and, cursing when his shoulder struck a
form near him, made his way down to the stables. Burkitt was ahead of
him, going for the team.
"Well, Lee," said Judith sharply, "where do you get off? Do you want
to stick? Or shall I count you out?"
"I guess," said Bud very gently, "you'd better count me out."
"You're going with that crook?"
"No. I'm going on my own."
"Why? You're getting good money here. If you're square I'll keep you
at the same figure."
But Bud shook his head.
"I'm game to play square," he said slowly. "I'll stick a week, giving
you the chance to get a man in my place. That's all."
"What's the matter with you?" she cried hotly. "Why won't you stay
with your job? Is it because you don't want to take orders from me?"
Then Lee lifted his grave eyes to hers and answered simply: "That's it.
I'm not saying you're not all right. But I got it figured out, there's
just two kinds of ladies. If you want to know, I don't see that you've
got any call to tie into a man's job."
"Oh, scat!" cried the girl angrily. "You men make me tired. Two kinds
of ladies! And ten thousand kinds of men! You want me to dress like a
doll, I suppose, and keep my hands soft and white and go around like a
brainless, simpering fool! There _are_ two kinds of _ladies_, my fine
friend: the kind that can and the kind that can't! Thank God I'm none
of your precious, sighing, hothouse little fools!"
Gulping down a last mouthful of coffee, she was on her feet and passed
swiftly out among the men.
"You men!" she cried, and they turned sober eyes upon her, "listen to
me! You've heard that big stiff rant; now hear me! I'm here because I
belong here. My dad was Luke Sanford and he made this ranch. I was
raised here. It's two-thirds mine right now. Trevors there is a crook
and I told him so. He's been trying to sell me out, to make such a
failure of the outfit that I'd have to let it go for a comic song. He
got gay and I fired him. He tried to manhandle me and I plugged him.
And now I am going to run my own outfit! What have you got to say
about it, you grumbling old grouch with the crooked face! Put up or
shut up! I'm calling you!"
The men turned from her to Ward Hannon, the field foreman, who had been
Trevors's right-hand man and who now was sneering openly.
"I'm saying it's no work for a kid of a girl," grumbled Hannon. "You
run an outfit like this?" He laughed derisively. "It can't be did."
"It can't, can't it?" cried Judith. "Tell me why, old smarty. Spit it
out lively."
Jake Carson's shrill cackle cut through a low rumble of laughter.
"That's passing it to him straight," said the old cattleman. "What's
the word, Ward?"
Ward Hannon shrugged his shoulders and spat impudently. "I ain't
saying nothing," he growled, "only this: I got a right to quit, ain't
I? Well, I'm quitting. Any time you ketch me working for a female
girl that can't ride a horse 'thout falling off, that can't see a pig
stuck 'thout fainting, that can't walk a mile 'thout getting laid up,
that can't. . . ."
"Slow up there!" called Judith. "Didn't I stick a pig already this
morning, and have I keeled over yet? Didn't I ride the forty miles
from Rocky Bend last night and get here before sun-up? Listen to me,
chief kicker: If you've got a horse on the ranch I can't ride I'll quit
right now and give you my job! How's that strike you? I tell you the
word on this ranch is going to be: 'Put up or shut up!' Which is it,
Growly?"
Again the men laughed and Hannon's face showed his anger.
"Mean that, lady?" he demanded briefly.
"You can just bet your eyes I mean it!"
Hannon turned toward the stable. "All right. We'll see who's going to
put or shut up!" he jeered over his shoulder. "You ride the Prince
just two little minutes and I'll stay and work for you!"
Bud Lee from the doorway interfered. He was a man who loved fair play
and he knew the Prince. "None of that, Ward," he called sternly. "Not
the Prince!"
But Judith, her eyes aflame, whirled upon Lee, her voice like a whip as
she said: "Lee, you keep out of this. The sooner you learn who's
running things here the better for you."
"Maybe so," said Lee quietly. "But don't you fool yourself you can
ride Prince. There's not a man on the job except me that can ride
him." It was not boastfully said, but with calm assurance. "He's an
outlaw, Miss Judith. He's the horse that killed Jimmy Carpenter last
spring, and Jimmy----"
"Go ahead, Ward," ordered Judith. "You don't have to stop every time
the wind blows, do you?"
Even Bud Lee smiled. But old Carson spoke up, saying: "Bud's right,
miss. And if Ward wants to know, he's a low-down dawg to try to turn a
trick like this. . . ."
"Go ahead, Ward," Judith repeated. "I've got something to do to-day
besides play pussy-wants-a-corner with you boys."
Ward went, his eyes filled with malice. Two or three of the other men
joined their voices to Bud's and Carson's, expostulating, telling of
that fearful thing, an outlaw horse. Judith maintained a scornful
silence.
In due time Ward came back. He was leading a saddled horse, a great,
wild-eyed roan that snapped viciously as he came on, walking with the
wide, spreading stride of a horse little used to the saddle. Judith
measured him with her eyes as she had measured the men in the
bunk-house.
"He's an ugly devil," she said, and Lee, at her side, smiled again.
But the girl had not altered her intention. She stepped closer,
looking to cinch, bit, and reins. She commanded Ward to draw the
latigo tighter, and Ward did so, dodging back as the big brute snapped
at him.
Judith laughed. "Look out, Ward," she taunted him. "He's after your
hair!"
Two men held the Prince. At Judith's command they shortened the
stirrups and then blinded him with a bandanna handkerchief. Then,
moving with almost incredible swiftness, she was in the saddle, the
reins firmly gripped. The Prince, a sudden trembling thrilling through
him, stood with his four feet planted. The girl leaned forward and
whipped the blind from his red-rimmed eyes.
"There's a good boy!" said Judith coolly. "Buck a little for the lady,
Prince!"
Slowly the great muscles of Prince's leg and shoulder and flank corded.
The trembling passed; he was like a horse carven in bluish granite. He
shook his head a little. Judith, her hand tightening upon the reins,
held his head well up, the severe bit thwarting the attempt to get his
nose down between his forelegs.
Then suddenly, without sign of warning, the horse whirled, leaping far
out to the left, striking with hard hoofs bunched, gathering himself as
he landed, swerving with the quickness of light, plunging again to the
right. And again he stood still. Judith, sitting securely on his
rebellious back, laughed. Her laughter, cool and unafraid, sent a
strange little thrill through Bud Lee--who, with fear in his heart, was
watching her.
"Look out for him now!" he called warningly.
In truth the Prince had not yet begun. He had tried a trick which
would have unseated any but one who rode well. He knew that he had to
do with something more than a rank amateur.
Now he plunged toward the corral, his purpose plain, the one desire in
his heart to crush his rider against the high fence. But Judith's
spurs answered him, and the bit, savage in his jaws, brought him about,
whirling, sidling, striking, bucking as only a strong, fearless,
devil-hearted horse knows how to buck. He doubled up under her; he
rose and fell in a quick series of short jumps which tore and jerked at
her body, which strove to tear her knees away from his sides and break
the grip of her hand on the reins. But it seemed to the men watching
that the girl knew before the horse which way he would jump, that she
knew how to sway her body with his so that she and he were not two
separate beings but just one, moving together in some mad devil's
dance. The Prince, in the midst of the vicious bucking, tried to rear,
seeking to throw himself backward; a quick, sharp blow of a loaded
quirt between his ears brought his forefeet back to earth.
"Can she ride!" whispered Bud Lee. "I want to know!"
Again the maddened Prince reared and again she brought him to earth.
Again he resumed the terribly tearing series of short, sharp bucks.
And still, her hair tumbling, blown about her shoulders, she rode him.
Old Carson was muttering and pulling at his lip nervously. Out of the
corner of his mouth in a voice that was almost a whimper, he kept
cursing and saying to Ward Hannon: "You skunk! You ornery skunk! Hunt
your hole after this!"
Suddenly, with a quick, concerted action of spur, whip, and rein,
Judith swung the Prince about so that he was headed for the open
valley, running toward the west, giving him his head only a little,
driving him. He broke into a thundering run, snorting as, with mane
and tail flying, he dashed through the men who fell away from his
furious rush. And as he ran, Judith spurred him so that his only
thought lay in running away from the menace upon his back.
"She ain't giving him time to buck!" laughed old Carson hysterically.
"Mama! Ain't she sure enough--God! She's goin' to get a fall."
For horse and rider had come to the wide irrigating ditch which, since
Judith Sanford had lived here, had been constructed to carry the water
of Blue Lake River down to the alfalfa-fields. She saw it when she was
too close to swerve.
The men watching saw her lean forward in the saddle, gather her reins,
lift her whip. Then the lifted whip came down, the spurs touched the
Prince's sweating sides, the big horse leaped far and clear of the
ditch and there floated back Judith's laughter.
Three minutes later she rode back to the bunkhouse and slipped from the
saddle. Bud Lee, going to her, had his hat in his hand.
"Now, Ward," she said quickly, her breathing hurried, her cheeks red,
"what do you say?"
"I said I'd stick if you rode him," muttered Ward. "And----"
"And," cried the girl with quick passion, "I'll tell you something.
You're a great big lumbering coward! Stick with me?" She laughed
again, a new laugh, ringing with her scorn. "Here's your outlaw; I've
gentled him a bit. You ride him!"
His fellows laughed at Ward; for the field foreman was no horseman and
the timorous way in which he had brought out this snapping, vicious
animal had testified to the fact. He drew back now, muttering.
"Ride him!" cried Judith, her voice stinging him. "Ride him or get off
the ranch! Which is it?"
Ward Hannon, glad of the opening, answered surlily: "Aw! think I want
to take orders off'n a woman? You're right, I'll get off'n the ranch!"
"That's two down," said Judith. "Now, take this horse back to the
stable; I'm going up to the office. You men come there in five
minutes. If you want to stay, and are worth your salt, you can. Or
I'll give you your time. It's up to you: it's a free country. But--"
and she said it slowly, confronting them--"if you all throw me down and
leave me short-handed without giving me time to take on another set of
men, you are a pretty low-lived bunch!"
Then, without turning, she went swiftly to the ranch-house. Old man
Carson wiped the sweat from his forehead.
"I remember hearing about Luke Sanford's girl," he said simply. "This
is her, all right."