CHAPTER V—THE UNEXPECTED

The train pulled out again presently, and the water-tank and the cut

were rapidly left in the rear. Taylor returned to the smoking-room and

resumed his seat, and while the girl looked out of the window, some

men of the train-crew removed the body of the train-robber and

obliterated all traces of the fight. And Carrington and Parsons,

noting the girl’s abstractedness, again left her to herself.

It had been the girl’s first glimpse of a man in cowboy raiment, and,

as she reflected, she knew she might have known Taylor was an unusual

man. However, she knew it now.

Cursory glances at drawings she had seen made her familiar with the

type, but the cowboys of those drawings had been magnificently arrayed

in leather _chaparajos_, usually fringed with spangles; and with

long-roweled spurs; magnificent wide brims—also bespangled, and

various other articles of personal adornment, bewildering and awe

inspiring.

But this man, though undoubtedly a cow-puncher, was minus the

magnificent raiment of the drawings. And, paradoxical as it may seem,

the absence of any magnificent trappings made _him_ seem magnificent.

But she was not so sure that it was the lack of those things that gave

her that impression. He did not _bulge_ in his cowboy clothing; it

fitted him perfectly. She was sure it was he who gave magnificence to

the clothing. Anyway, she was certain he was magnificent, and her eyes

glowed. She knew, now that she had seen him in clothing to which he

was accustomed, and which he knew how to wear, that she would have

been more interested in him yesterday had he appeared before her

arrayed as he was at this moment.

He had shown himself capable, self-reliant, confident. She would have

given him her entire admiration had it not been for the knowledge that

she had caught him eavesdropping. That action had almost damned him in

her estimation—it would have completely and irrevocably condemned him

had it not been for her recollection of the stern, almost savage

interest she had seen in his eyes while he had been listening to

Carrington and Parsons.

She knew because of that expression that Carrington and Parsons had

been discussing something in which he took a personal interest. She

had not said so much to Carrington, but her instinct told her, warned

her, gave her a presentiment of impending trouble. That was what she

had meant when she had told Carrington she had seen _fighting_ in

Taylor’s eyes.

Taylor confined himself to the smoking-compartment. The negro porter,

with pleasing memories of generous tips and a grimmer memory to exact

his worship, hung around him, eager to serve him, and to engage him in

conversation; once he grinningly mentioned the incident of the

cast-off clothing of the night before.

“I ain’t mentionin’ it, boss—not at all! I ain’t givin’ you them duds

till you ast for them. You done took me by s’prise, boss—you shuah

did. I might’ near caved when you shoved that gun under ma nose—I

shuah did, boss. I don’t want to have nothin’ to do with your gun,

boss—I shuah don’t. She’d go ‘pop,’ an’ I wouldn’t be heah no more!

“I didn’t reco’nize you in them heathen clo’s you had on yesterday,

boss; but I minds you with them duds on. I knows you; you’re ‘Squint’

Taylor, of Dawes. I’ve seen you on that big black hoss of yourn, a

prancin’ an’ a prancin’ through town—more’n once I’ve seen you. But I

didn’t know you in them heathen clo’s yesterday, boss—’deed I didn’t!”

Later the porter slipped into the compartment. For a minute or two he

fussed around the room, setting things to order, meanwhile chuckling

to himself. Occasionally he would cease his activities long enough to

slap a knee with the palm of a hand, with which movement he would seem

to be convulsed with merriment, and then he would resume work,

chuckling audibly.

For a time Taylor took no notice of his antics, but they assailed his

consciousness presently, and finally he asked:

“What’s eating you, George?”

The query was evidently just what “George” had been waiting for. For

now he turned and looked at Taylor, his face solemn, but a white gleam

of mirth in his eyes belying the solemnity.

“Tips is comin’ easy for George this mornin’,” he said; “they shuah

is. No trouble at all. If a man wants to get tips all he has to be is

a dictionary—he, he, he!”

“So you’re a dictionary, eh? Well, explain the meaning of this.” And

he tossed a silver dollar to the other.

The dollar in hand, George tilted his head sidewise at Taylor.

“How on earth you know I got somethin’ to tell you?”

“How do I know I’ve got two hands?”

“By lookin’ at them, boss.”

“Well, that’s how I know you’ve got something to tell me—by looking at

you.”

The porter chuckled. “I reckon it’s worth a dollar to have a young

lady interested in you,” he told himself in a confidential voice,

without looking at Taylor; “yassir, it’s sure worth a dollar.” He

slapped his knee delightedly. “That young lady a heap interested in

you, ’pears like. While ago she pens me in a corner of the platform.

‘Porter, who’s that man in the smoking-compartment—that cowboy? What’s

his name, an’ where does he live?’ I hesitates, ’cause I didn’t want

to betray no secrets—an’ scratch my haid. Then she pop half a dollar

in my hand, an’ I tole her you are Squint Taylor, an’ that you own the

Arrow ranch, not far from Dawes. An’ she thank me an’ go away,

grinnin’.”

“And the young lady, George; do you know her name?”

“Them men she’s travelin’ with calls her Marion, boss.”

He peered intently at Taylor for signs of interest. He saw no such

signs, and after a while, noting that Taylor seemed preoccupied, and

was evidently no longer aware of his presence, he slipped out

noiselessly.

At nine thirty, Taylor, looking out of the car window, noted that the

country was growing familiar. Fifteen minutes later the porter stuck

his head in between the curtains, saw that Taylor was still absorbed,

and withdrew. At nine fifty-five the porter entered the compartment.

“We’ll be in Dawes in five minutes, boss,” he said. “I’ve toted your

baggage to the door.”

The porter withdrew, and a little later Taylor got up and went out

into the aisle. At the far end of the car, near the door, he saw

Marion Harlan, Parsons, and Carrington.

He did not want to meet them again after what had occurred in the

diner, and he cast a glance toward the door behind him, hoping that

the porter had carried his baggage to that end of the car. But the

platform was empty—his suitcase was at the other end.

He slipped into a seat on the side of the train that would presently

disclose to him a view of Dawes’s depot, and of Dawes itself, leaned

an elbow on the window-sill, and waited. Apparently the three persons

at the other end of the car paid no attention to him, but glancing

sidelong once he saw the girl throw an interested glance at him.

And then the air-brakes hissed; he felt the train slowing down, and he

got up and walked slowly toward the girl and her companions. At about

the same instant she and the others began to move toward the door; so

that when the train came to a stop they were on the car platform by

the time Taylor reached the door. And by the time he stepped out upon

the car platform the girl and her friends were on the station

platform, their baggage piled at their feet.

Dawes’s depot was merely a roofless platform; and there was no shelter

from the glaring white sun that flooded it. The change from the

subdued light of the coach to the shimmering, blinding glare of the

sun on the wooden planks of the platform affected Taylor’s eyes, and

he was forced to look downward as he alighted. And then, not looking

up, he went to the baggage-car and pulled his two prisoners out.

Looking up as he walked down the platform with the two men, he saw a

transformed Dawes.

The little, frame station building had been a red, dingy blot beside

the glistening rails that paralleled the town. It was now gaily draped

with bunting—red, white, and blue—which he recognized as having been

used on the occasion of the town’s anniversary celebration.

A big American flag topped the ridge of the station; other flags

projected from various angles of the frame.

Most of the town’s other buildings were replicas of the station in the

matter of decorations—festoons of bunting ran here and there from

building to building; broad bands of it were stretched across the

fronts of other buildings; gay loops of it crossed the street,

suspended to form triumphal arches; flags, wreaths of laurel, Japanese

lanterns, and other paraphernalia of the decorator’s art were

everywhere.

Down the street near the Castle Hotel, Taylor saw transparencies, but

he could not make out the words on them.

He grinned, for certainly the victor of yesterday’s election was

outdoing himself.

He looked into the face of a man who stood near him on the

platform—who answered his grin.

“Our new mayor is celebrating in style, eh?” he said.

“Right!” declared the man.

He was about to ask the man which candidate had been victorious—though

he was certain it was Neil Norton—when he saw Marion Harlan, standing

a little distance from him, smiling at him.

It was a broad, impersonal smile, such as one citizen of a town might

exchange with another when both are confronted with the visible

evidences of political victory; and Taylor responded to it with one

equally impersonal. Whereat the girl’s smile faded, and her gaze,

still upon Taylor, became speculative. Its quality told Taylor that he

should not presume upon the smile.

Taylor had no intention of presuming anything. Not even the porter’s

story of the girl’s interest in him had affected him to the extent of

fatuous imaginings. A woman’s curiosity, he supposed, had led her to

inquire about him. He expected she rarely saw men arrayed as he

was—and as he had been arrayed the day before.

The girl’s gaze went from Taylor to the street in the immediate

vicinity of the station, and for the first time since alighting on the

platform Taylor saw a mass of people near him.

Looking sharply at them, he saw many faces in the mass that he knew.

They all seemed to be looking at him and, with the suddenness of a

stroke came to him the consciousness that there was no sound—that

silence, deep and unusual, reigned in Dawes. The train, usually merely

stopping at the station and then resuming its trip, was still standing

motionless behind him. With a sidelong glance he saw the train-crew

standing near the steps of the cars, looking at him. The porter and

the waiter with whose faces he was familiar, were grinning at him.

Taylor felt that his own grin, as he gazed around at the faces that

were all turned toward him, was vacuous and foolish. He _felt_

foolish. For he knew something had attracted the attention of all

these people to him, and he had not the slightest idea what it was.

For an instant he feared that through some mental lapse he had

forgotten to remove his “dude” clothing; and he looked down at his

trousers and felt of his shirt, to reassure himself. And he gravely

and intently looked at his prisoners, wondering if by any chance some

practical joker of the town had arranged the train robbery for his

special benefit. If that were the explanation it had been grim

hoax—for two men had been killed in the fight.

Looking up again, he saw that the grins on the faces of the people

around him had grown broader—and several loud guffaws of laughter

reached his ears. He looked at Marion Harlan, and saw a puzzled

expression on her face. Carrington, too, was looking at him, and

Parsons, whose smile was a smirk of perplexity.

Taylor reddened with embarrassment. A resentment that grew swiftly to

an angry intolerance, seized him. He straightened, squared his

shoulders, thrust out his chin, and shoving his prisoners before him,

took several long strides across the station platform.

This movement brought him close to Marion Harlan and her friends, and

his further progress was barred by a man who placed a hand against his

chest.

This man, too, was grinning. He seized Taylor’s shoulders with both

hands and looked into his face, the grin on his own broad and

expanding.

“Welcome home—you old son-of-a-gun!” said the man.

His grin was infectious and Taylor answered it, dropping his suitcase

and looking the other straight in the eyes.

“Norton,” he said, “what in hell is the cause of all this staring at

me? Can’t a man leave town for a few days and come back without

everybody looking at him as though he were a curiosity?”

Norton—a tall, slender, sinewy man with broad shoulders—laughed aloud

and deliberately winked at several interested citizens who had

followed Taylor’s progress across the platform, and who now stood near

him, grinning.

“You are a curiosity, man. You’re the first mayor of this man’s town!

Lordy,” he said to the surrounding faces, “he hasn’t tumbled to it

yet!”

The color left Taylor’s face; he stared hard at Norton; he gazed in

bewilderment at the faces near him.

“Mayor?” he said. “Why, good Lord, man, I wasn’t here yesterday!”

“But your friends were!” yelped the delighted Norton. He raised his

voice, so that it reached far into the crowd on the street:

“He’s sort of fussed up, boys; this honor being conferred on him so

sudden; but give him time and he’ll talk your heads off!” He leaned

over to Taylor and whispered in his ear.

“Grin, man, for God’s sake! Don’t stand there like a wooden man;

they’ll think you don’t appreciate it! It’s the first time I ever saw

you lose your nerve. Buck up, man; why, they simply swamped Danforth;

wiped him clean off the map!”

Norton was whispering more into Taylor’s ear, but Taylor could not

follow the sequence of it, nor get a coherent meaning out of it. He

even doubted that he heard Norton. He straightened, and looked around

at the crowd that now was pressing in on him, and for the first time

in his life he knew the mental panic and the physical sickness that

overtakes the man who for the first time faces an audience whose eyes

are focused on him.

For a bag of gold as big as the mountains that loomed over the distant

southern horizon he could not have said a word to the crowd. But he

did succeed in grinning at the faces around him, and at that the crowd

yelled.

And just before the crowd closed in on him and he began to shake hands

with his delighted supporters, he glanced at Marion Harlan. She was

looking at him with a certain sober interest, though he was sure that

back in her eyes was a sort of humorous malice—which had, however, a

softening quality of admiration and, perhaps, gratitude.

His gaze went from her to Carrington. The big man was watching him

with a veiled sneer which, when he met Taylor’s eyes, grew open and

unmistakable.

Taylor grinned broadly at him, for now it occurred to him that he

would be able to thwart Carrington’s designs of “getting hold of the

reins.” His grin at Carrington was a silent challenge, and so the

other interpreted it, for his sneer grew positively venomous.

The girl caught the exchange of glances between them, for Taylor heard

her say to Parsons, just before the noise of the crowd drowned her

voice:

“Now I _know_ he overheard you!”

Meanwhile, the two prisoners were standing near Taylor. Taylor had

almost forgotten them. He was reminded of their presence when he saw

Keats, the sheriff, standing near him. At just the instant Taylor

looked at Keats, the latter was critically watching the prisoners.

Keats and Taylor had had many differences of opinion, for the

sheriff’s official actions had not merited nor received Taylor’s

approval. Taylor’s attitude toward the man had always been that of

good-natured banter, despite the disgust he felt for the man. And now,

pursuing his customary attitude, Taylor called to him:

“Specimens, eh! Picked them up at Toban’s this morning. They yearned

to hold up the train. There were four, all together, but we had to put

two out of business. I came pretty near forgetting them. If I hadn’t

seen you just now, maybe I would have walked right off and left them

here. Take them to jail, Keats.”

Keats advanced. He met Taylor’s eyes and his lips curved with a sneer:

“Pullin’ off a little grand-stand play, eh! Well, it’s a mighty clever

idea. First you get elected mayor, an’ then you come in here, draggin’

along a couple of mean-lookin’ hombres, an’ say they’ve tried to hold

up the train at Toban’s. It sounds mighty fishy to me!”

Taylor laughed. He heard a chuckle behind him, and he turned, to see

Carrington grinning significantly at Keats. Taylor’s eyes chilled as

his gaze went from one man to the other, for the exchange of glances

told him that between the men there was a common interest, which would

link them together against him. And in the dead silence that followed

Keats’s words, Taylor drawled, grinning coldly:

“Meaning that I’m a liar, Keats?”

His voice was gentle, and his shoulders seemed to droop a little as

though in his mind was a desire to placate Keats. But there were men

in Dawes who had seen Taylor work his guns, and these held their

breath and began to shove backward. That slow, drooping of Taylor’s

shoulders was a danger signal, a silent warning that Taylor was ready

for action, swift and violent.

And faces around Taylor whitened as the man stood there facing Keats,

his shoulders drooping still lower, the smile on his face becoming one

of cold, grim mockery.

The discomfiture of Keats was apparent. Indecision and fear were in

the set of his head—bowed a little; and a dread reluctance was in his

shifting eyes and the pasty-white color of his face. It was plain that

Keats had overplayed; he had not intended to arouse the latent tiger

in Taylor; he had meant merely to embarrass him.

“Meaning that I’m a liar, Keats?”

Again Taylor’s voice was gentle, though this time it carried a subtle

taunt.

Desperately harried, Keats licked his hot lips and cast a sullen

glance around at the crowd. Then his gaze went to Taylor’s face, and

he drew a slow breath.

“I reckon I wasn’t meanin’ just that,” he said.

“Of course,” smiled Taylor; “that’s no way for a sheriff to act. Take

them in, Keats,” he added, waving a hand at the prisoners; “it’s been

so long since the sheriff of this county arrested a man that the

jail’s gettin’ tired, yawning for somebody to get into it.”

He turned his back on Keats and looked straight at Carrington:

“Have you got any ideas along the sheriff’s line?” he asked.

Carrington flushed and his lips went into a sullen pout. He did not

speak, merely shaking his head, negatively.

Keats’s glance at Taylor was malignant with hate; and Carrington’s

sullen, venomous look was not unnoticed by the crowd. Keats stepped

forward and seized the two prisoners, hustling them away, muttering

profanely.

And then Taylor was led away by Norton and a committee of citizens,

leaving Carrington, the girl and Parsons alone on the platform.

“Looks like we’re going to have trouble lining things up,” remarked

Parsons. “Danforth——”

“You shut up!” snapped Carrington. “Danforth’s an ass and so are you!”