THE BEDLOE BOYS
All thoughts of denouncing Buck Thornton before these people fled before
the girl had followed the rancher's wife into the cabin. They spoke of
him only in tones warm with friendship and with something more than mere
friendship, an admiration that was tinged with respect. They had known
him since first he had come into this country, and although that had
been only a little more than a year ago, they had grown to know him as
men and women in these far-out places come to know each other, swiftly,
intimately.
He was a favourite topic of conversation and they talked of him
naturally, readily, and Mrs. Smith, fluently. She recounted, not
guessing how eagerly the girl was listening to every word, many an
episode which in the aggregate had given him the reputation he bore
throughout these wild miles of cattle land, the reputation of a man who
was hard, hard as rock "on the outside," as she put it, hard inside,
too, when they drove him to it, but naturally as soft-hearted as a baby.
She wished _she_ had a boy like him! Why, when she and John hit hard
luck, last year, what with the cattle getting diseased first and her and
John getting laid up next, flat of their backs with the grip, that man
was an angel in britches and spurs if there ever was an angel in
anything! He'd nursed them and cooked for them, and lifted her out of
her bed while he made it up himself, just as smooth and nice as you
could have done, Miss. And he rode clean into town for a doctor, and
brought him out and a lot of store stuff that was nice for sick folks to
eat. And he'd paid the doctor, too, and laughed and said he'd come some
day and borry the money back when he got busted playing poker!
"And then, all of a sudden, when you'd have thought he was soft that way
clean through," she went on, her eyes blazing now at the memory of it,
"them Bedloe boys come over lookin' for trouble. An' Buck sure gave it
to them!"
"Tell me about it," the girl said quickly. "Who are the Bedloe boys?
What did they do?"
"The Bedloe boys," Mrs. Smith ran on, eager in the recounting, "belong
over to the Corners. Or the Corners belongs to them, I don't know which
you'd say. Never heard of them boys? Well, most folks has. There used to
be lots like the Bedloe boys when I was a girl, Miss, but thank gracious
they're getting thinned out powerful fast. First an' last an' all the
time they're rowdies an' gunfighters an' bad men. There's more of their
kind in Hill's Corners, but these are the worst of the outfit. They keep
close in to the Corners, seeing it's right on the state line, where they
can dodge from one state to another when it comes handy. Which is right
often.
"There's three of 'em. Charley an' Ed an' the youngest one everybody
calls the Kid. That's three an' I guess there's a good many more would
be glad of the chance to shoot Buck up. I guess the Bedloes heard that
time that John was sick. Anyway, they come over, all three of 'em,
hunting trouble. Buck was out in the barn, feeding the horses, an' they
didn't know he was on the ranch. The Kid, he's the youngest of the mess
an' the worst an' the han'somest, with them little yeller curls, an' his
daredevil blue eyes, come on ahead, riding his horse right up to the
door, yelling like a drunk Injun an' cussing so it made a woman wonder
how any woman could ever have a son like him. He tried to ride his horse
right in the door, an' when it got scared of me an' John lyin' in bed,
an' rared up, the Kid hit it over the head with the gun in his hand, an'
slipped out'n the saddle, laughin' at it stagger.
"But he come on in an' Charley come in, too. Ed Bedloe was out in the
far corral, gettin' ready to throw the gate open an' turn out the cows
an' stampede 'em off'n the ranch. What for?" She lifted her bony
shoulders. "Oh, nothin'. They'd jus' had trouble with my John about six
months before, an' was taking a good chance to smash up things in
general about the ranch. They swore they was going to burn the cabin an'
the barn an' scatter the stock an' do anything else they could put their
hands to. An' while they was in here, cussing an' abusing my John, who
couldn't even get up an' grab his shotgun in the corner, an' insulting
me all they could lay their dirty tongues to, there's a step at the
door right behind 'em, light as a cat, an' here's Buck come in from the
barn.
"I wish you'd seen that man's eyes! Then you'd know what I mean when I
say he gets hard, hard an' bitter sometimes. An' his voice--it was so
low an' soft you might 'a' thought he was putting a baby to sleep with
it! There was two of them boys, big an' ugly-mean, an' they both had
guns on, in sight. There was jus' one of Buck Thornton, an' I didn't
know yet he ever toted a gun. He uses his hands, mostly, I reckon, Buck
does. He didn't say much. He just got them two hands of his on Charley
Bedloe's neck, an' I thought he was goin' to break it sure. An' Charley
got flung clean out in the yard before the Kid had finished going for
his gun! You wouldn't believe a man could be that quick.
"Quick? It wasn't nothin' to his next play. I tell you the Kid's hand
was on the way to his gun an' Buck didn't have a gun _on_ him, you'd
have said. An' then he _did_ have a gun, an' John an' me didn't even see
where he got it, an' he didn't seem to be in a hurry, an' he'd shot
before the Kid could more'n pull his gun up!"
"He killed him?"
"He could have killed him just as easy as a man rolls a cigareet! There
wasn't six feet between 'em. Only men like Buck Thornton don't kill men
unless they got to, I guess. But he shot the Kid in the arm, takin' them
chances as cool as an icicle; an' when the Kid dropped his gun an' then
grabbed at it with his other hand, Buck shot him in the left arm the
same way. An' then, using his hands, he threw _him_ out. An' I don't
believe Charley Bedloe more'n got on his hands an' knees outside! An'
then somehow Buck has a gun in each hand, and has stepped outside, too.
And I reckon the Bedloe boys saw the same thing in his eyes me an' John
saw there when he come back in. Anyway, they got on their horses an' we
ain't seen hide nor hair of 'em since."
Miss Waverly sat very still, leaning forward a little, her eyes big and
bright upon the eyes of this other woman. The man, despite her calmer
judgment, appealed to her imagination....
"You'd think," Mrs. Smith went on, "that that man would be tired enough
for one day, wouldn't you? Ridin' all day, walking seven mile toting
that big saddle on his back; an' now he goes an' starts out to ride the
Lord knows how far. What do you suppose a man like him is made out'n?"
Smith answered her out of the corner of his mouth from which a slow curl
of smoke was mounting:
"Sand, mostly."
* * * * *
No, the girl could not say to these people that which she had to say of
Buck Thornton. She switched the conversation abruptly, asking them to
tell her of Hill's Corners.
She knew something of the place already. Mr. Templeton had told her a
great deal when insistently urging her not to do the thing she had
determined to do and she had thought that he exaggerated merely in order
to turn her aside from her purpose. She had even heard far-reaching
rumours of the border town in Crystal City, where her own home had been
for the five years since the deaths of her parents. These rumours, too,
she had supposed inflated as rumours will be when they are bad and have
travelled far. Now it was a little anxiously that she asked for further
information, and not altogether because she sought some new topic.
"She's Henry Pollard's niece, Mary," Smith said rather hurriedly. The
girl glanced at him sharply. There was something in his tone which told
her that he was warning his wife, cautioning her to speak guardedly of
Pollard or not at all.
When, an hour later, she went to bed, she lay long sleepless, wondering,
nervously dreading the morrow. For these people who should know gave
Hill's Corners the same name that Mr. Templeton had given it, the same
name it bore as far as Crystal City and beyond. It was one of those far
removed towns which are the last stand of the lawless, the ultimate
breastwork before the final ditch into which in his hour the gunfighter
has finally gone down. Desperate characters, men wanted in two states
and perhaps in many more, flocked here where they found the one chance
to live out their riotous lives riotously. Here they could "straddle"
the line, and when wanted upon one side slip to the other. And
hereabouts, for very many miles in all directions, the big cattle men,
the small ranchers, the "little fellows," all slept "with their eyes
open and their gunlocks oiled."
But, she tried to tell herself, Henry Pollard had sent for her, he was
her own mother's brother, he would not have had her come here if it were
not safe. He had written clearly enough, had told her in his letter that
he could not leave the Corners, that he must have the money, that there
were hold-up men in the country who would not hesitate to rob the stage
if they learned that he had five thousand dollars in it, that she could
bring the bills which Templeton would have ready for her and that there
would be no suspicion, no danger for her. And she would believe her
uncle, would believe that these people had had trouble with the Bedloes
and perhaps others in the town, and that they warped the truth in the
telling. For was any more faith to be put in the word of the Smiths than
in that of Buck Thornton himself? And did she not know him for what he
was, a man who was not above assaulting a defenceless girl, not above
robbery?
Wearied out, she went to sleep, her last waking thoughts trailing off
through the night after a man who could laugh like a boy, whose eyes
could grow very gentle or very, very hard and inexorable.
In the morning John Smith's first words to her drove again a hot, angry
flush into her face. For he told her that Thornton, before he would ride
away last night, had made sure that Smith would accompany her, showing
her the way and "taking care of her." She bit her lip and turned away.
She was grateful that soon breakfast was eaten, the horses saddled and
once more she was riding out toward the south-east. Smith rode at her
elbow.
All morning they rode slowly, over rough trails in the mountains where a
horse found scant foothold, where they wound down into deep, close
walled canyons where the sunlight was dim at noon, where the pines stood
tall and straight in thick ranks untouched by an ax. They came out into
little valleys, past a half dozen ranch houses, saw many herds of cattle
and horses, crossed Indian Gully, topped another steep ridge and at last
looked down upon the Poison Hole ranch.
The ranch lay off to the east as they looked down upon it, a great sweep
of rolling hills sprinkled with big oaks looking like shrubs from their
vantage point, cut in two by the Big Little River, along the banks of
which and out in the meadow lands many herds of cattle ranged free.
Rising in his stirrup Smith pointed out to her the spot near the centre
of the big range where Buck Thornton's "range house" was, a dozen miles
away over the rolling country. And then he swung about and pointed to
the south, saying shortly:
"Yonder's the country you're lookin' for. We strike due south here along
the edge of the Poison Hole ranch. When we get to that next string of
lulls you can see the hills of three states, all at once and the same
time. And you can see the town you're headed for; it sets on top a sort
of hill. Down yonder," and he swung his long arm off to the south-west,
"is the Bar X outfit; that's as far as I'm going. But, if you want
company, one of the boys will sure be glad to ride on with you. The
Corners is only about a dozen mile from there on."