THE TEXAN HEARS SOME NEWS
Bat had pitched the tent upon a little knoll, screened by a jutting
shoulder of rock from the sleeping place of the others. When Alice
awoke it was broad daylight. She lay for a few moments enjoying the
delicious luxury of her blankets which the half-breed had spread upon a
foot-thick layer of boughs. The sun beat down upon the white canvas
and she realized that it was hot in the tent. The others must have
been up for hours and she resented their not having awakened her. She
listened for sounds, but outside all was silence and she dressed
hurriedly. Stepping from the tent, she saw the dead ashes of the
little fire and the contents of the packs apparently undisturbed,
covered with the tarp. She glanced at her watch. It was half past
nine. Suddenly she remembered that dawn had already began to grey the
east when they retired. She was the first one up! She would let the
others sleep. They needed it. She remembered the Texan had not slept
the day before, but had ridden away to return later with the clothing
for Endicott--and the whiskey.
"I don't see why he has to drink!" she muttered, and making her way to
the spring, dipped some water from the catch-basin and splashed it over
her face and arms. The cold water dispelled the last vestige of
sleepiness and she stood erect and breathed deeply of the crystal air.
At the farther side of the bowl-like plateau the horses grazed
contentedly, and a tiny black and white woodpecker flew from tree to
tree pecking busily at the bark. Above the edge of the rim-rocks the
high-flung peaks of the Bear Paws belied the half-night's ride that
separated them from the isolated Antelope Butte.
"What a view one should get from the edge!" she exclaimed, and turning
from the spring, made her way through the scraggly timber to the rock
wall beyond. It was not a long climb and five minutes later she stood
panting with exertion and leaned against an upstanding pinnacle of
jagged rock. For a long time she stood wonder-bound by the mighty
grandeur of the panorama that swept before her to lose itself somewhere
upon the dim horizon. Her brain grasped for details. It was all too
big--too unreal--too unlike the world she had known. In sheer
desperation, for sight of some familiar thing, her eyes turned toward
the camp. There was the little white tent, and the horses grazing
beyond. Her elevation carried her range of vision over the jutting
shoulder of rock, and she saw the Texan sitting beside his blankets
drawing on his boots. The blankets were mounded over the forms of the
others, and without disturbing them, the cowboy put on his hat and
started toward the spring. At the sight of the little tent he paused
and Alice saw him stand staring at the little patch of white canvas.
For a long time he stood unmoving, and then, impulsively, his two arms
stretched toward it. The arms were as quickly withdrawn. The Stetson
was lifted from his head and once more it seemed a long time that he
stood looking at the little tent with the soft brim of his Stetson
crushed tightly in his hand.
Evidently, for fear of waking her, the man did not go to the spring,
but retraced his steps and Alice saw him stoop and withdraw something
from his war-bag. Thrusting the object beneath his shirt, he rose
slowly and made his way toward the rim-rock, choosing for his ascent a
steep incline which, with the aid of some rock ledges, would bring him
to the top at a point not ten yards from where she stood.
It was with a sense of guilt that she realized she had spied upon this
man, and her cheeks flushed as she cast about desperately for a means
to escape unseen. But no such avenue presented itself, and she drew
back into a deep crevice of her rock pinnacle lest he see her.
A grubby, stunted pine somehow managed to gain sustenance from the
stray earth among the rock cracks and screened her hiding-place. The
man was very close, now. She could hear his heavy breathing and the
click of his boot heels upon the bare rocks. Then he crossed to the
very verge of the precipice and seated himself with his feet hanging
over the edge. For some moments he sat gazing out over the bad lands,
and then his hand slipped into the front of his shirt and withdrew a
bottle of whiskey.
The girl's lips tightened as she watched him from behind her screen of
naked roots and branches. He looked a long time at the bottle, shook
it, and held it to the sun as he contemplated the little beads that
sparkled at the edge of the liquor line. He read its label, and seemed
deeply interested in the lines of fine print contained upon an oval
sticker that adorned its back. Still holding the bottle, he once more
stared out over the bad lands. Then he drew the cork and smelled of
the liquor, breathing deeply of its fragrance, and turning, gazed
intently toward the little white tent beside the stunted pines.
Alice saw that his eyes were serious as he set the bottle upon the rock
beside him. And then, hardly discernible at first, but gradually
assuming distinct form, a whimsical smile curved his lips as he looked
at the bottle.
"Gosh!" he breathed, softly, "ain't you an' I had some nonsensical
times? I ain't a damned bit sorry, neither. But our trails fork here.
Maybe for a while--maybe for ever. But if it is for ever, my average
will be right honourable if I live to be a hundred." Alice noticed how
boyish the clean-cut features looked when he smiled that way. The
other smile--the masking, cynical smile--made him ten years older. The
face was once more grave, and he raised the bottle from the rock. "So
long," he said, and there was just that touch of honest regret in his
voice with which he would have parted from a friend. "So long. I've
got a choice to make--an' I don't choose you."
The hand that held the bottle was empty. There was a moment of silence
and then from far below came the tinkle of smashing glass. The Texan
got up, adjusted the silk scarf at his neck, rolled a cigarette, and
clambering down the sharp descent, made his way toward the grazing
horses. Alice watched for a moment as he walked up to his own horse,
stroked his neck, and lightly cuffed at the ears which the horse laid
back as he playfully snapped at his master's hand. Then she scrambled
from her hiding-place and hurried unobserved to her tent, where she
threw herself upon the blankets with a sound that was somehow very like
a sob.
When the breakfast of cold coffee and biscuits was finished the Texan
watched Endicott's clumsy efforts to roll a cigarette.
"Better get you a piece of twine to do it with, Win," he grinned; "you
sure are a long ways from home when it comes to braidin' a smoke. Saw
a cow-hand do it once with one hand. In a show, it was in Cheyenne,
an' he sure was some cowboy--in the show. Come out onto the flats one
day where the boys was breakin' a bunch of Big O Little O
horses--'after local colour,' he said." The Texan paused and grinned
broadly. "Got it too. He clum up into the middle of a wall-eyed
buckskin an' the doc picked local colour out of his face for two hours
where he'd slid along on it--but he could roll a cigarette with one
hand. There, you got one at last, didn't you? Kind of humped up in
the middle like a snake that's swallowed a frog, but she draws all
right, an' maybe it'll last longer than a regular one." He turned to
Alice who had watched the operation with interest.
"If you-all don't mind a little rough climbin', I reckon, you'd count
the view from the rim-rocks yonder worth seein'."
"Oh, I'd love it!" cried the girl, as she scrambled to her feet.
"Come on, Win," called the Texan, "I'll show you where God dumped the
tailin's when He finished buildin' the world."
Together the three scaled the steep rock-wall. Alice, scorning
assistance, was the first to reach the top, and once more the splendour
of the magnificent waste held her speechless.
For some moments they gazed in silence. Before them, bathed in a pale
amethyst haze that thickened to purple at the far-off edge of the
world, lay the bad lands resplendent under the hot glare of the sun in
vivid red and black and pink colouring of the lava rock. Everywhere
the eye met the flash and shimmer of mica fragments that sparkled like
the facets of a million diamonds, while to the northward the Bear Paws
reared cool and green, with the grass of the higher levels reaching
almost to the timber line.
"Isn't it wonderful?" breathed the girl. "Why do people stay cooped up
in the cities, when out here there is--this?" Endicott's eyes met
hers, and in their depths she perceived a newly awakened fire. She was
conscious of a strange glow at her heart--a mighty gladness welled up
within her, permeating her whole being. "He has awakened," her brain
repeated over and over again, "he has----"
The voice of the Texan fell upon her ears softly as from a distance,
and she turned her eyes to the boyish faced cow-puncher who viewed life
lightly and who, she had learned, was the thorough master of his
wilderness, and very much a man.
"I love it too," he was saying. "This bad land best of all. What with
the sheep, an' the nesters, the range country must go. But barbed-wire
can never change this," his arm swept the vast plain before him. "I
suppose God foreseen what the country was comin' to," he speculated,
"an' just naturally stuck up His 'keep off' sign on places here an'
there--the Sahara Desert, an' Death Valley, an' the bad lands. He
wanted somethin' left like He made it. Yonder's the Little Rockies,
an' them big black buttes to the south are the Judith, an' you can
see--way beyond the Judith--if you look close--the Big Snowy Mountains.
They're more than a hundred miles away."
The cowboy ceased speaking suddenly. And Alice, following his gaze,
made out far to the north-eastward a moving speck. The Texan crouched
and motioned the others into the shelter of a rock. "Wish I had a pair
of glasses," he muttered, with his eyes on the moving dot.
"What is it?" asked the girl.
"Rider of some kind. Maybe the I X round-up is workin' the south
slope. An' maybe it's just a horse-thief. But it mightn't be either.
Guess I'll just throw the hull on that cayuse of mine an' siyou down
and see. He's five or six miles off yet, an' I've got plenty of time
to slip down there. Glad the trail's on the west side. You two stay
up here, but you got to be awful careful not to show yourselves. Folks
down below look awful little from here, but if they've got glasses
you'd loom up plenty big, an' posse men's apt to pack glasses." The
two followed him to camp and a few moments later watched him ride off
at a gallop and disappear in the scrub that concealed the mouth of the
precipitous trail.
Hardly had he passed from sight than Bat rose and, walking to his
saddle, uncoiled his rope.
"Where are you going?" asked Endicott as the half-breed started toward
the horses.
"Me, oh, A'm trail long behine. Mebbe-so two kin see better'n wan."
A few minutes later he too was swallowed up in the timber at the head
of the trail, and Alice and Endicott returned to the rim-rocks and from
a place of concealment watched with breathless interest the course of
the lone horseman.
After satisfying himself he was unobserved, the Texan pushed from the
shelter of the rocks at the foot of the trail and, circling the butte,
struck into a coulee that led south-eastward into the bad lands. A
mile away he crossed a ridge and gained another coulee which he
followed northward.
"If he's headin' into the bad lands I'll meet up with him, an' if he's
just skirtin' 'em, our trails'll cross up here a piece," he reasoned as
his horse carried him up the dry ravine at a steady walk. Presently he
slanted into a steep side coulee that led upward to the crest of a long
flat ridge. For a moment he paused as his eyes swept the landscape and
then suddenly a quarter of a mile away a horseman appeared out of
another coulee. He, too, paused and, catching sight of the Texan, dug
in his spurs and came toward him at a run.
The cowboy's brows drew into a puzzled frown as he studied the rapidly
approaching horseman. "Well, I'll be damned!" he grinned, "ain't he
the friendly young spirit! His ma had ought to look after him better'n
that an' teach him some manners. The idea of any one chargin' up to a
stranger that way in the bad lands! One of these days he's a-goin' to
run up again' an abrupt foreshortin' of his reckless young career."
The rider was close now and the Texan recognized a self-important young
jackass who had found work with one of the smaller outfits.
"It's that mouthy young short-horn from the K 2," he muttered,
disgustedly. "Well, he'll sure cut loose an' earful of small talk. He
hates himself, like a peacock." The cowboy pulled up his horse with a
vicious jerk that pinked the foam at the animal's mouth and caused a
little cloud of dust to rise into the air. Then, for a moment, he sat
and stared.
"If you was in such a hell of a hurry," drawled the Texan, "you could
of rode around me. There's room on either side."
The cowboy found his voice. "Well, by gosh, if it ain't Tex! How they
stackin', old hand?"
"Howdy," replied the Texan, dryly.
"You take my advice an' lay low here in the bad lands an' they won't
ketch you. I said it right in the Long Horn yeste'day mornin'--they
was a bunch of us lappin' 'em up. Old Pete was there--an' I says to
Pete, I says, 'Take it from me they might ketch all the rest of 'em but
they won't never ketch Tex!' An' Pete, he says, 'You're just right
there, Joe,' an' then he takes me off to one side, old Pete does, an'
he says, 'Joe,' he says, 'I've got a ticklish job to be done, an' I
ain't got another man I kin bank on puttin' it through.'"
The Texan happened to know that Mr. Peter G. Kester, owner of the K 2,
was a very dignified old gentleman who left the details of his ranch
entirely in the hands of his foreman, and the idea of his drinking in
the Long Horn with his cowboys was as unique as was hearing him
referred to as "Old Pete."
"What's ailin' him?" asked the Texan. "Did he lose a hen, or is he
fixin' to steal someone's mewl?"
"It's them Bar A saddle horses," continued the cowboy, without noticing
the interruption. "He buys a string of twenty three-year-olds offen
the Bar A an' they broke out of the pasture. They range over here on
the south slope, an' if them horse-thieves down in the bad lands has
got 'em they're a-goin' to think twict before they run off any more K 2
horses, as long as I'm workin' fer the outfit."
"Are you aimin' to drive twenty head of horses off their own range
single handed?"
"Sure. You can do it easy if you savvy horses."
The Texan refrained from comment. He wanted to know who was supposed
to be interested in catching him, and why. Had someone told the truth
about the lynching, and was he really wanted for aiding and abetting
the pilgrim's escape?
"I reckon that's true," he opined. "They can't get me here in the bad
lands."
The other laughed: "You bet they can't! Say, that was some ride you
put up down to Wolf River. None of us could have done better."
"Did you say they was headin' this way?"
"Who?"
"Who would I be thinkin' about now, I wonder?"
"Oh! Naw! They ain't ready to make any arrests yet. The grand jury
set special an' returned a lot of indictments an' you're one of 'em,
but the districk attorney, he claims he can't go ahead until he digs up
the cripus delinkty----"
"The what?"
"Oh, that's a nickname the lawyers has got fer a pilgrim."
"Wasn't one stranglin' enough for spreadin' out Purdy? What do they
want of the pilgrim?"
"Spreadin' out Purdy!" exclaimed the other, "don't you know that Purdy
didn't stay spread? Wasn't hardly hurt even. The pilgrim's bullet
just barely creased him, an' when Sam Moore went back with a spring
wagon to fetch his remains, Purdy riz up an' started cussin' him out
an' scairt Sam so his team run away an' he lost his voice an' ain't
spoke out loud since--an' them's only one of the things he done. So,
you see, you done your lynching too previous, an' folks is all stirred
up about it, holdin' that lawless acts has got to be put a stop to in
Choteau County, an' a pilgrim has got as good a right to live as the
next one. They're holdin' that even if he had got Purdy it would of
be'n a damn good thing, an' they wasn't no call to stretch a man for
that. So the grand jury set, an' the districk attorney has got a gang
of men diggin' up all the coulees for miles around, a-huntin' for the
pilgrim's cripus delinkty so he kin go ahead with his arrests."
The eyes of the Texan were fixed on the mountains. He appeared not
interested. Twenty feet away in a deep crevice at the edge of the
coulee, Bat Lajune, who had overheard every word, was convulsed with
silent mirth.
"You say they've dug up all the coulees? Red Rock an'--an' all,
Buffalo, Six-mile, Woodpile, Miller's?" The Texan shot out the names
with all appearance of nervous haste, but his eye was sombre as before
as he noted the gleam of quick intelligence that flashed into the
cowboy's eyes. "You're sure they dug up Buffalo?" he pressed shrewdly.
"Yes, I think they finished there."
The Texan gave a visible sigh of relief. "Say," he asked, presently,
"do you know if they're fordin' at Cow Island this year?"
"Yes, the Two Bar reps come by that way."
"I'm right obliged to you. I reckon I'll head north, though. Canada
looks good to me 'til this here wave of virtue blows over. So long."
"So long, Tex. An', say, there's some of us friends of yourn that's
goin' to see what we kin do about gettin' them indictments squashed.
We don't want to see you boys doin' time fer stretchin' no pilgrim."
"You won't," answered the Texan. "Toddle along now an' hunt up Mr.
Kester's horses. I want room to think." He permitted himself a broad
smile as the other rode at a gallop toward the mountains, then turned
his horse into the coulee he had just left and allowed him his own pace.
"So Purdy ain't dead," he muttered, "or was that damned fool lyin'? I
reckon he wasn't lyin' about that, an' the grand jury, an' the district
attorney." Again he smiled. "Let's see how I stack up, now: In the
first place, Win ain't on the run, an' I am--or I'm supposed to be.
But, as long as they don't dig Win up out of the bottom of some coulee,
I'm at large for want of a party of the first part to the alleged
felonious snuffin'-out. Gosh, I bet the boys are havin' fun watchin'
that diggin'. If I was there I'd put in my nights makin' fresh-dug
spots, an' my days watchin' 'em prospect 'em." Then his thoughts
turned to the girl, and for miles he rode unheeding. The sun had swung
well to the westward before the cowboy took notice of his surroundings.
Antelope Butte lay ten or twelve miles away and he headed for it with a
laugh. "You must have thought I sure enough was headin' for Cow Island
Crossing didn't you, you old dogie chaser?" He touched his horse
lightly with his spurs and the animal struck into a long swinging trot.
"This here's a mixed-up play all around," he muttered. "Win's worryin'
about killin' Purdy--says it's got under his hide 'til he thinks about
it nights. It ain't so much bein' on the run that bothers him as it is
the fact that he's killed a man." He smiled to himself: "A little
worryin' won't hurt him none. Any one that would worry over shootin' a
pup like Purdy ought to worry--whether he done it or not. Then,
there's me. I start out with designs as evil an' triflin' as
Purdy's--only I ain't a brute--an' I winds up by lovin' her.
Yes--that's the word. There ain't no mortal use beatin' around the
bush to fool myself. Spite of silk stockin's she's good clean through.
I reckon, maybe, they're wore more promiscuous in the East. That Eagle
Creek Ranch, if them corrals was fixed up a little an' them old cattle
sheds tore down, an' the ditches gone over, it would be a good outfit.
If it was taken hold of right, there wouldn't be a better proposition
on the South Slope." Gloom settled upon the cowboy's face: "But
there's Win. I started out to show him up." He smiled grimly. "Well,
I did. Only not just exactly as I allowed to. Lookin' over the
back-trail, I reckon, when us four took to the brush there wasn't only
one damned skunk in the crowd--an' that was me. It's funny a man can
be that ornery an' never notice it. But, I bet Bat knew. He's pure
gold, Bat is. He's about as prepossessin' to look at as an old gum
boot, but his heart's all there--an' you bet, Bat, he knows."
It was within a quarter of a mile of Antelope Butte that the Texan,
riding along the bottom of a wide coulee met another horseman. This
time there was no spurring toward him, and he noticed that the man's
hand rested near his right hip. He shifted his own gun arm and
continued on his course without apparently noticing the other who
approached in the same manner.
Suddenly he laughed: "Hello, Curt!"
"Well, I'm damned if it ain't Tex! Thought maybe I was going to get
the high-sign."
"Same here." Both men relaxed from their attitude of alertness, and
Curt leaned closer.
"They ain't dug him up yet," he said, "but they sure are slingin'
gravel. I hope to God they don't."
"They won't."
"Anything I can do?"
The Texan shook his head: "Nothin', thanks."
"Hot as hell fer June, ain't it."
"Yes; who you ridin' for?"
"K 2."
"K 2! Mister Kester moved his outfit over to the south slope?"
"Naw. I'm huntin' a couple of old brood mares Mister Kester bought
offen the Bar A. They strayed away about a week ago."
"Alone?"
"Might better be," replied the cowboy in tones of disgust. "I've got
that damned fool, Joe Ainslee, along--or ruther I had him. Bob
Brumley's foreman of the K 2, now, an' he hired the Wind Bag in a
moment of mental abortion, as the fellow says, an' he don't dast fire
him for fear he'll starve to death. They wouldn't no other outfit have
him around. An' I'm thinkin' he'll be damn lucky if he lives long
enough to starve to death. Bob sent him along with me--said he'd do
less harm than with the round-up, an' would be safer--me bein' amiable
enough not to kill him offhand."
"Ain't you found your mares?"
Curt snorted: "Yes. Found 'em couple hours ago. An' now I've lost the
Wind Bag. Them mares was grazin' right plumb in plain sight of where
I'd sent him circlin', an' doggone if he not only couldn't find 'em,
but he's lost hisself. An' if he don't show up pretty damn _pronto_ he
kin stay lost--an' the K 2 will win, at that."
The Texan grinned: "Go get your mares, Curt. The short-horn has
stampeded. I shouldn't wonder if he's a-foggin' it through the
mountains right now to get himself plumb famous for tippin' off the
district attorney where to do his minin'."
"You seen him!"
"Yes, we had quite a little pow-wow."
"You sure didn't let him git holt of nothin'!"
"Yes. He's about to bust with the information he gathered. An' say,
he might of seen them mares an' passed 'em up. He ain't huntin' no
brood mares, he's after twenty head of young saddle stock--forgot to
mention there was any one with him. Said it was easy to run
three-year-olds off their own range single handed if you savvied
horses. Called Mister Kester 'Old Pete' an' told of an orgy they had
mutual in the Long Horn."
Curt burst out laughing: "Can you beat it?"
"I suppose they'll have Red Rock Coulee all mussed up," reflected the
Texan, with a grin.
"You wait 'til I tell the boys."
"Don't you. They'd hurt him. He's a-whirlin' a bigger loop than he
can throw, the way it is."
Curt fumbled in his slicker and produced a flask which he tendered.
Tex shook his head: "No thanks, I ain't drinkin'."
"You ain't _what_?"
"No, I'm off of it"; he dismounted and tightened his cinch, and the
other followed his example.
"Off of it! You ain't sick, or nothin'?"
"No. Can't a man----?"
"Oh, sure, he could, but he wouldn't, onless--you got your camp near
here?"
Tex was aware the other was eyeing him closely.
"Tolerable."
"Let's go camp then. I left my pack horse hobbled way up on Last
Water."
The Texan was thinking rapidly. Curt was a friend of long standing and
desired to share his camp, which is the way of the cow country. Yet,
manifestly this was impossible. There was only one way out and that
was to give offence.
"No. I'm campin' alone these days."
A slow red mounted to the other's face and his voice sounded a trifle
hard: "Come on up to mine, then. It ain't so far."
"I said I was campin' alone."
The red was very apparent now, and the other took a step forward, and
his words came slowly:
"Peck Maguire told me, an' I shut his dirty mouth for him. But now I
know it's true. You're ridin' with the pilgrim's girl."
At the inference the Texan whitened to the eyes. "_You're a damned
liar_!" The words came evenly but with a peculiar venom.
Curt half drew his gun. Then jammed it back in the holster. "Not
between friends," he said shortly, "but jest the same you're goin' to
eat them words. It ain't a trick I'd think of you--to run off with a
man's woman after killin' him. If he was alive it would be different.
I'd ort to shoot it out with you, I suppose, but I can't quite forget
that time in Zortman when you----"
"Don't let that bother you," broke in the Texan with the same evenness
of tone. "_You're a damned liar_!"
With a bound the man was upon him and Tex saw a blinding flash of
light, and the next moment he was scrambling from the ground. After
that the fight waxed fast and furious, each man giving and receiving
blows that landed with a force that jarred and rocked. Then, the Texan
landed heavily upon the point of his opponent's chin and the latter
sank limp to the floor of the coulee. For a full minute Tex stood
looking down at his victim.
"Curt can scrap like the devil. I'm sure glad he didn't force no gun
play, I'd have hated to hurt him." He recovered the flask from the
ground where the other had dropped it, and forced some whiskey between
his lips. Presently the man opened his eyes.
"Feelin' better?" asked the Texan as Curt blinked up at him.
"Um-hum. My head aches some."
"Mine, too."
"You got a couple of black eyes, an' your lip is swol up."
"One of yours is turnin' black."
Curt regained his feet and walked slowly toward his horse. "Well, I'll
be goin'. So long."
"So long," answered the Texan. He, too, swung into the saddle and each
rode upon his way.