THE FIRST DAY
Mile after mile of the rough trail fell behind him, and still the pony
shambled along at a loose trot or a swinging canter; the steep upgrades
it took at a steady jog and where the slopes pitched sharply down, it
wound among the rocks with a faultless sureness of foot.
Certainly the choice of Nash was well made. An Eastern horse of blood
over a level course could have covered the same distance in half the
time, but it would have broken down after ten miles of that hard trail.
Dawn came while they wound over the crest of the range, and with the sun
in their faces they took the downgrade. It was well into the morning
before Nash reached Logan. He forced from his eye the contempt which all
cattlemen feel for sheepherders.
"I s'pose you're here askin' after Bard?" began Logan without the
slightest prelude.
"Bard? Who's he?"
Logan considered the other with a sardonic smile.
"Maybe you been ridin' all night jest for fun?"
"If you start usin' your tongue on me, Logan you'll wear out the snapper
on it. I'm on my way to the A Circle Y."
"Listen; I'm all for old man Drew. You know that. Tell me what Bard has
on him?"
"Never heard the name before. Did he rustle a couple of your sheep?"
Logan went on patiently: "I knew something was wrong when Drew was here
yesterday but I didn't think it was as bad as this."
"What did Drew do yesterday?"
"Came up as usual to potter around the old house, I guess, but when he
heard about Bard bein' here he changed his mind sudden and went home."
"That's damn queer. What sort of a lookin' feller is this Bard?"
"I don't suppose you know, eh?" queried Logan ironically. "I don't
suppose the old man described him before you started, maybe?"
"Logan, you poor old hornless maverick, d'you think I'm on somebody's
trail? Don't you know I've been through with that sort of game for a
hell of a while?"
"When rocks turn into ham and eggs I'll trust you, Steve. I'll tell you
what I done to Bard, anyway. Yesterday, after he found that Drew had
been here and gone he seemed sort of upset; tried to keep it from me,
but I'm too much used to judgin' changes of weather to be fooled by any
tenderfoot that ever used school English. Then he hinted around about
learnin' the way to Eldara, because he knows that town is pretty close
to Drew's place, I guess. I told him; sure I did. He should of gone due
west, but I sent him south. There is a south trail, only it takes about
three days to get to Eldara."
"Maybe you think that interests me. It don't."
Logan overlooked this rejoinder, saying: "Is it his scalp you're after?"
"Your ideas are like nest-eggs, Logan, an' you set over 'em like a hen.
They look like eggs; they feel like eggs; but they don't never hatch.
That's the way with your ideas. They look all right; they sound all
right; but they don't mean nothin'. So-long."
But Logan merely chuckled wisely. He had been long on the range.
As Nash turned his pony and trotted off in the direction of the A
Circle Y ranch, the sheepherder called after him: "What you say cuts
both ways, Steve. This feller Bard looks like a tenderfoot; he sounds
like a tenderfoot; but he ain't a tenderfoot."
Feeling that this parting shot gave him the honours of the meeting, he
turned away whistling with such spirit that one of his dogs,
overhearing, stood still and gazed at his master with his head cocked
wisely to one side.
His eastern course Nash pursued for a mile or more, and then swung sharp
to the south. He was weary, like his horse, and he made no attempt to
start a sudden burst of speed. He let the pony go on at the same
tireless jog, clinging like a bulldog to the trail.
About midday he sighted a small house cuddled into a hollow of the hills
and made toward it. As he dismounted, a tow-headed, spindling boy
lounged out of the doorway and stood with his hands shoved carelessly
into his little overall pockets.
"Hello, young feller."
"'Lo, stranger."
"What's the chance of bunking here for three or four hours and gettin' a
good feed for the hoss?"
"Never better. Gimme the hoss; I'll put him up in the shed. Feed him
grain?"
"No, you won't put him up. I'll tend to that."
"Looks like a bad 'un."
"That's it."
"But a sure goer, eh?"
"Yep."
He led the pony to the shed, unsaddled him, and gave him a small feed.
The horse first rolled on the dirt floor and then started methodically
on his fodder. Having made sure that his mount was not "off his feed,"
Nash rolled a cigarette and strolled back to the house with the boy.
"Where's the folks?" he asked.
"Ma's sick, a little, and didn't get up to-day. Pa's down to the corral,
cussing mad. But I can cook you up some chow."
"All right son. I got a dollar here that'll buy you a pretty good store
knife."
The boy flushed so red that by contrast his straw coloured hair seemed
positively white.
"Maybe you want to pay me?" he suggested fiercely. "Maybe you think
we're squatters that run a hotel?"
Recognizing the true Western breed even in this small edition, Nash
grinned.
"Speakin' man to man, son, I didn't think that, but I thought I'd sort
of feel my way."
"Which I'll say you're lucky you didn't try to feel your way with pa;
not the way he's feelin' now."
In the shack of the house he placed the best chair for Nash and set
about frying ham and making coffee. This with crackers, formed the meal.
He watched Nash eat for a moment of solemn silence and then the foreman
looked up to catch a meditative chuckle from the youngster.
"Let me in on the joke, son."
"Nothin'. I was just thinkin' of pa."
"What's he sore about? Come out short at poker lately?"
"No; he lost a hoss. Ha, ha, ha!"
He explained: "He's lost his only standin' joke, and now the laugh's on
pa!"
Nash sipped his coffee and waited. On the mountain desert one does not
draw out a narrator with questions.
"There was a feller come along early this mornin' on a lame hoss," the
story began. "He was a sure enough tenderfoot--leastways he looked it
an' he talked it, but he wasn't."
The familiarity of this description made Steve sit up a trifle
straighter.
"Was he a ringer?"
"Maybe. I dunno. Pa meets him at the door and asks him in. What d'you
think this feller comes back with?"
The boy paused to remember and then with twinkling eyes he mimicked:
"'That's very good of you, sir, but I'll only stop to make a trade with
you--this horse and some cash to boot for a durable mount out of your
corral. The brute has gone lame, you see.'
"Pa waited and scratched his head while these here words sort of sunk
in. Then says very smooth: 'I'll let you take the best hoss I've got,
an' I won't ask much cash to boot.'
"I begin wonderin' what pa was drivin' at, but I didn't say
nothin'--jest held myself together and waited.
"'Look over there to the corral,' says pa, and pointed. 'They's a hoss
that ought to take you wherever you want to go. It's the best hoss I've
ever had.'
"It was the best horse pa ever had, too. It was a piebald pinto called
Jo, after my cousin Josiah, who's jest a plain bad un and raises hell
when there's any excuse. The piebald, he didn't even need an excuse. You
see, he's one of them hosses that likes company. When he leaves the
corral he likes to have another hoss for a runnin' mate and he was jest
as tame as anything. I could ride him; anybody could ride him. But if
you took him outside the bars of the corral without company, first thing
he done was to see if one of the other hosses was comin' out to join
him. When he seen that he was all laid out to make a trip by himself he
jest nacherally started in to raise hell. Which Jo can raise more hell
for his size than any hoss I ever seen.
"He's what you call an eddicated bucker. He don't fool around with no
pauses. He jest starts in and figgers out a situation and then he gets
busy slidin' the gent that's on him off'n the saddle. An' he always used
to win out. In fact, he was known for it all around these parts. He
begun nice and easy, but he worked up like a fiddler playin' a favourite
piece, and the end was the rider lyin' on the ground.
"Whenever the boys around here wanted any excitement they used to come
over and try their hands with Jo. We used to keep a pile of arnica and
stuff like that around to rub them up with and tame down the bruises
after Jo laid 'em cold on the ground. There wasn't never anybody could
ride that hoss when he was started out alone.
"Well, this tenderfoot, he looks over the hoss in the corral and says:
'That's a pretty fine mount, it seems to me. What do you want to boot?'
"'Aw, twenty-five dollars is enough,' says pa.
"'All right,' says the tenderfoot, 'here's the money.'
"And he counts it out in pa's hand.
"He says: 'What a little beauty! It would be a treat to see him work on
a polo field.'
"Pa says: 'It'd'be a treat to see this hoss work anywhere.'
"Then he steps on my foot to make me wipe the grin off'n my face.
"Down goes the tenderfoot and takes his saddle and flops it on the
piebald pinto, and the piebald was jest as nice as milk. Then he leads
him out'n the corral and gets on.
"First the pinto takes a look over his shoulder like he was waiting for
one of his pals among the hosses to come along, but he didn't see none.
Then the circus started. An' b'lieve me, it was some circus. Jo hadn't
had much action for some time, an' he must have used the wait thinkin'
up new ways of raisin' hell.
"There ain't enough words in the Bible to describe what he done. Which
maybe you sort of gather that he had to keep on performin', because the
tenderfoot was still in the saddle. He was. An' he never pulled
leather. No, sir, he never touched the buckin' strap, but jest sat there
with his teeth set and his lips twistin' back--the same smile he had
when he got into the saddle. But pretty soon I s'pose Jo had a chance to
figure out that it didn't do him no particular harm to be alone.
"The minute he seen that he stopped fightin' and started off at a gallop
the way the tenderfoot wanted him to go, which was over there.
"'Damn my eyes!' says pa, an' couldn't do nuthin' but just stand there
repeatin' that with variations because with Jo gone there wouldn't be no
drawin' card to get the boys around the house no more. But you're
lookin' sort of sleepy, stranger?"
"I am," answered Nash.
"Well, if you'd seen that show you wouldn't be thinkin' of sleep. Not
for some time."
"Maybe not, but the point is I didn't see it. D'you mind if I turn in on
that bunk over there?"
"Help yourself," said the boy. "What time d'you want me to wake you up?"
"Never mind; I wake up automatic. S'long, Bud."
He stretched out on the blankets and was instantly asleep.