AN INVOLUNTARY BATH
Jackpot Number Three hooked its tools the second day after Sanders's
visit to that location. A few hours later its engine was thumping merrily
and the cable rising and falling monotonously in the casing. On the
afternoon of the third day Bob Hart rode up to the wildcat well where
Dave was building a sump hole with a gang of Mexicans.
He drew Sanders to one side. "Trouble to-night, Dave, looks like. At
Jackpot Number Three. We're in a layer of soft shale just above the
oil-bearin' sand. Soon we'll know where we're at. Word has reached me
that Doble means to rush the night tower and wreck the engine."
"You'll stand his crowd off?"
"You're whistlin'."
"Sure your information is right?"
"It's c'rect." Bob added, after a momentary hesitation: "We got a spy in
his camp."
Sanders did not ask whether the affair was to be a pitched battle. He
waited, sure that Bob would tell him when he was ready. That young man
came to the subject indirectly.
"How's yore shoulder, Dave?"
"Doesn't trouble me any unless something is slammed against it."
"Interfere with you usin' a six-shooter?"
"No."
"Like to take a ride with me over to the Jackpot?"
"Yes."
"Good enough. I want you to look the ground over with me. Looks now as if
it would come to fireworks. But we don't want any Fourth-of-July stuff if
we can help it. Can we? That's the point."
At the Jackpot the friends walked over the ground together. Back of the
location and to the west of it an arroyo ran from a cañon above.
"Follow it down and it'll take you right into the location where Steelman
is drillin'," explained Bob. "Dug's gonna lead his gang up the arroyo to
the mesquite here, sneak down on us, and take our camp with a rush. At
least, that's what he aims to do. You can't always tell, as the fellow
says."
"What's up above?"
"A dam. Steelman owns the ground up there. He's got several acres of
water backed up there for irrigation purposes."
"Let's go up and look it over."
Bob showed a mild surprise. "Why, yes, if you want to take some exercise.
This is my busy day, but--"
Sanders ignored the hint. He led the way up a stiff trail that took them
to the mouth of the cañon. Across the face of this a dam stretched. They
climbed to the top of it. The water rose to within about six feet from
the rim of the curved wall.
"Some view," commented Bob with a grin, looking across the plains that
spread fanlike from the mouth of the gorge. "But I ain't much interested
in scenery to-day somehow."
"When were you expectin' to shoot the well, Bob?"
"Some time to-morrow. Don't know just when. Why?"
"Got the nitro here yet?"
"Brought it up this mo'nin' myself."
"How much?"
"Twelve quarts."
"Any dynamite in camp?"
"Yes. A dozen sticks, maybe."
"And three gallons of nitro, you say."
"Yep."
"That's enough to do the job," Sanders said, as though talking aloud to
himself.
"Yep. Tha's what we usually use."
"I'm speaking of another job. Let's get down from here. We might be
seen."
"They couldn't hit us from the Steelman location. Too far," said Bob.
"And I don't reckon any one would try to do that."
"No, but they might get to wondering what we're doing up here."
"I'm wonderin' that myself," drawled Hart. "Most generally when I take a
pasear it's on the back of a bronc. I ain't one of them that believes the
good Lord made human laigs to be walked on, not so long as any broomtails
are left to straddle."
Screened by the heavy mesquite below, Sanders unfolded his proposed plan
of operations. Bob listened, and as Dave talked there came into Hart's
eyes dancing imps of deviltry. He gave a subdued whoop of delight,
slapped his dusty white hat on his thigh, and vented his enthusiasm in
murmurs of admiring profanity.
"It may not work out," suggested his friend. "But if your information is
correct and they come up the arroyo--"
"It's c'rect enough. Lemme ask you a question. If you was attacktin' us,
wouldn't you come that way?"
"Yes."
"Sure. It's the logical way. Dug figures to capture our camp without
firin' a shot. And he'd 'a' done it, too, if we hadn't had warnin'."
Sanders frowned, his mind busy over the plan. "It ought to work, unless
something upsets it," he said.
"Sure it'll work. You darned old fox, I never did see yore beat. Say,
if we pull this off right, Dug's gonna pretty near be laughed outa the
county."
"Keep it quiet. Only three of us need to know it. You stay at the well to
keep Doble's gang back if we slip up. I'll give the signal, and the third
man will fire the fuse."
"Buck Byington will be here pretty soon. I'll get him to set off the
Fourth-of-July celebration. He's a regular clam--won't ever say a word
about this."
"When you hear her go off, you'd better bring the men down on the jump."
Byington came up the road half an hour later at a cowpuncher's jog-trot.
He slid from the saddle and came forward chewing tobacco. His impassive,
leathery face expressed no emotion whatever. Carelessly and casually he
shook hands. "How, Dave?"
"How, Buck?" answered Sanders.
The old puncher had always liked Dave Sanders. The boy had begun work
on the range as a protégé of his. He had taught him how to read sign and
how to throw a rope. They had ridden out a blizzard together, and the
old-timer had cared for him like a father. The boy had repaid him with
a warm, ingenuous affection, an engaging sweetness of outward respect.
A certain fineness in the eager face had lingered as an inheritance from
his clean youth. No playful pup could have been more friendly. Now Buck
shook hands with a grim-faced man, one a thousand years old in bitter
experience. The eyes let no warmth escape. In the younger man's
consciousness rose the memory of a hundred kindnesses flowing from Buck
to him. Yet he could not let himself go. It was as though the prison
chill had encased his heart in ice which held his impulses fast.
After dusk had fallen they made their preparations. The three men slipped
away from the bunkhouse into the chaparral. Bob carried a bulging
gunnysack, Dave a lantern, a pick, a drill, and a hammer. None of them
talked till they had reached the entrance to the cañon.
"We'd better get busy before it's too dark," Bob said. "We picked this
spot, Buck. Suit you?"
Byington had been a hard-rock Colorado miner in his youth. He examined
the dam and came back to the place chosen. After taking off his coat he
picked up the hammer. "Le's start. The sooner the quicker."
Dave soaked the gunnysack in water and folded it over the top of the
drill to deaden the sound. Buck wielded the hammer and Bob held the
drill.
After it grew dark they worked by the light of the lantern. Dave and Bob
relieved Buck at the hammer. They drilled two holes, put in the dynamite
charges, tamped them down, and filled in again the holes. The
nitroglycerine, too, was prepared and set for explosion.
Hart straightened stiffly and looked at his watch. "Time to move back to
camp, Dave. Business may get brisk soon now. Maybe Dug may get in a hurry
and start things earlier than he intended."
"Don't miss my signal, Buck. Two shots, one right after another," said
Dave.
"I'll promise you to send back two shots a heap louder. You sure won't
miss 'em," answered Buck with a grin.
The younger men left him at the dam and went back down the trail to their
camp.
"No report yet from the lads watchin' the arroyo. I expect Dug's waitin'
till he thinks we're all asleep except the night tower," whispered the
man who had been left in charge by Hart.
"Dave, you better relieve the boys at the arroyo," suggested Bob.
"Fireworks soon now, I expect."
Sanders crept through the heavy chaparral to the liveoaks above the
arroyo, snaking his way among cactus and mesquite over the sand. A
watcher jumped up at his approach. Dave raised his hand and moved it
above his head from right to left. The guard disappeared in the darkness
toward the Jackpot. Presently his companion followed him. Dave was left
alone.
It seemed to him that the multitudinous small voices of the night had
never been more active. A faint trickle of water came up from the bed of
the stream. He knew this was caused by leakage from the reservoir in the
gulch. A tiny rustle stirred the dry grass close to his hand. His peering
into the thick brush did not avail to tell him what form of animal life
was palpitating there. Far away a mocking-bird throbbed out a note or
two, grew quiet, and again became tunefully clamorous. A night owl
hooted. The sound of a soft footfall rolling a pebble brought him to taut
alertness. Eyes and ears became automatic detectives keyed to finest
service.
A twig snapped in the arroyo. Indistinctly movements of blurred masses
were visible. The figure of a man detached itself from the gloom and
crept along the sandy wash. A second and a third took shape. The dry
bed became filled with vague motion. Sanders waited no longer. He crawled
back from the lip of the ravine a dozen yards, drew his revolver, and
fired twice.
His guess had been that the attacking party, startled at the shots, would
hesitate and draw together for a whispered conference. This was exactly
what occurred.
An explosion tore to shreds the stillness of the night. Before the first
had died away a second one boomed out. Dave heard a shower of falling
rock and concrete. He heard, too, a roar growing every moment in volume.
It swept down the walled gorge like a railroad train making up lost time.
Sanders stepped forward. The gully, lately a wash of dry sand and baked
adobe, was full of a fury of rushing water. Above the noise of it he
caught the echo of a despairing scream. Swiftly he ran, dodging among the
catclaw and the prickly pear like a half-back carrying the ball through
a broken field. His objective was the place where the arroyo opened to
a draw. At this precise spot Steelman had located his derrick.
The tower no longer tapered gauntly to the sky. The rush of waters
released from the dam had swept it from its foundation, torn apart the
timbers, and scattered them far and wide. With it had gone the wheel,
dragging from the casing the cable. The string of tools, jerked from
their socket, probably lay at the bottom of the well two thousand feet
down.
Dave heard a groan. He moved toward the sound. A man lay on a sand
hummock, washed up by the tide.
"Badly hurt?" asked Dave.
"I've been drowned intirely, swallowed by a flood and knocked galley-west
for Sunday. I don't know yit am I dead or not. Mither o' Moses, phwat was
it hit us?"
"The dam must have broke."
"Was the Mississippi corked up in the dom cañon?"
Bob bore down upon the scene at the head of the Jackpot contingent. He
gave a whoop at sight of the wrecked derrick and engine. "Kindlin' wood
and junk," was his verdict. "Where's Dug and his gang?"
Dave relieved the half-drowned man of his revolver. "Here's one. The rest
must be either in the arroyo or out in the draw."
"Scatter, boys, and find 'em. Look out for them if they're hurt. Collect
their hardware first off."
The water by this time had subsided. Released from the walls of the
arroyo, it had spread over the desert. The supply in the reservoir was
probably exhausted, for the stream no longer poured down in a torrent.
Instead, it came in jets, weakly and with spent energy.
Hart called. "Come here and meet an old friend, Dave."
Sanders made his way, ankle deep in water, to the spot from which that
irrepressibly gay voice had come. He was still carrying the revolver he
had taken from the Irishman.
"Meet Shorty, Dave. Don't mind his not risin' to shake. He's just been
wrastlin' with a waterspout and he's some wore out."
The squat puncher glared at his tormentor. "I done bust my laig," he said
at last sullenly.
He was wet to the skin. His lank, black hair fell in front of his tough,
unshaven face. One hand nursed the lacerated leg. The other was hooked by
the thumb into the band of his trousers.
"That worries us a heap, Shorty," answered Hart callously. "I'd say you
got it comin' to you."
The hand hitched in the trouser band moved slightly. Bob, aware too late
of the man's intention, reached for his six-shooter. Something flew past
him straight and hard.
Shorty threw up his hands with a yelp and collapsed. He had been struck
in the head by a heavy revolver.
"Some throwin', Dave. Much obliged," said Hart. "We'll disarm this bird
and pack him back to the derrick." They did. Shorty almost wept with rage
and pain and impotent malice. He cursed steadily and fluently. He might
as well have saved his breath, for his captors paid not the least
attention to his spleen.
Weak as a drowned rat, Doble came limping out of the ravine. He sat down
on a timber, very sick at the stomach from too much water swallowed in
haste. After he had relieved himself, he looked up wanly and recognized
Hart, who was searching him for a hidden six-shooter.
"Must 'a' lost yore forty-five whilst you was in swimmin', Dug. Was the
water good this evenin'? I'll bet you and yore lads pulled off a lot o'
fancy stunts when the water come down from Lodore or wherever they had it
corralled." Dancing imps of mischief lit the eyes of the ex-cowpuncher.
"Well, I'll bet the boys in town get a great laugh at yore comedy stuff.
You ce'tainly did a good turn. Oh, you've sure earned yore laugh."
If hatred could have killed with a look Bob would have been a dead man.
"You blew up the dam," charged Doble.
"Me! Why, it ain't my dam. Didn't Brad give you orders to open the
sluices to make you a swimmin' hole?"
The searchers began to straggle in, bringing with them a sadly drenched
and battered lot of gunmen. Not one but looked as though he had been
through the wars. An inventory of wounds showed a sprained ankle, a
broken shoulder blade, a cut head, and various other minor wounds. Nearly
every member of Doble's army was exceedingly nauseated. The men sat down
or leaned up against the wreckage of the plant and drooped wretchedly.
There was not an ounce of fight left in any of them.
"They must 'a' blew the dam up. Them shots we heard!" one ventured
without spirit.
"Who blew it up?" demanded one of the Jackpot men belligerently. "If you
say we did, you're a liar."
He was speaking the truth so far as he knew. The man who had been through
the waters did not take up the challenge. Officers in the army say that
men will not fight on an empty stomach, and his was very empty.
"I'll remember this, Hart," Doble said, and his face was a thing ill to
look upon. The lips were drawn back so that his big teeth were bared like
tusks. The eyes were yellow with malignity.
"Y'betcha! The boys'll look after that, Dug," retorted Bob lightly.
"Every time you hook yore heel over the bar rail at the Gusher, you'll
know they're laughin' at you up their sleeves. Sure, you'll remember
it."
"Some day I'll make yore whole damned outfit sorry for this," the big
hook-nosed man threatened blackly. "No livin' man can laugh at me and get
away with it."
"I'm laughin' at you, Dug. We all are. Wish you could see yoreself as we
see you. A little water takes a lot o' tuck outa some men who are feelin'
real biggity."
Byington, at this moment, sauntered into the assembly. He looked around
in simulated surprise. "Must be bath night over at you-all's camp, Dug.
You look kinda drookid yore own self, as you might say."
Doble swore savagely. He pointed with a shaking finger at Sanders, who
was standing silently in the background. "Tha's the man who's responsible
for this. Think I don't know? That jail bird! That convict! That killer!"
His voice trembled with fury. "You'd never a-thought of it in a thousand
years, Hart. Nor you, Buck, you old fathead. Wait. Tha's what I say.
Wait. It'll be me or him one day. Soon, too."
The paroled man said nothing, but no words could have been more effective
than the silence of this lean, powerful man with the close-clamped jaw
whose hard eyes watched his enemy so steadily. He gave out an impression
of great vitality and reserve force. Even these hired thugs, dull and
unimaginative though they were, understood that he was dangerous beyond
most fighting men. A laugh snapped the tension. The Jackpot engineer
pointed to a figure emerging from the arroyo. The man who came dejectedly
into view was large and fat and dripping. He was weeping curses and
trying to pick cactus burrs from his anatomy. Dismal groans punctuated
his profanity.
"It stranded me right on top of a big prickly pear," he complained. "I
like never to 'a' got off, and a million spines are stickin' into me."
Bob whooped. "Look who's among us. If it ain't our old friend Ad Miller,
the human pincushion. Seein' as he drapped in, we'll collect him right
now and find out if the sheriff ain't lookin' for him to take a trip on
the choo-choo cars."
The fat convict looked to Doble in vain for help. His friend was staring
at the ground sourly in a huge disgust at life and all that it contained.
Miller limped painfully to the Jackpot in front of Hart. Two days later
he took the train back to the penitentiary. Emerson Crawford made it a
point to see to that.