_An Unexpected Recruit_
Like the majority of men in the West, Jake Studley took the view that
all men are equal, and that the interests of one are the concerns of
all. A civil answer to what in other climes would be considered
impertinent curiosity was the unmistakable shibboleth of the coequal
fraternity. Hartwell's manner had been interpreted by Jakey as a
declaration of heresy to his orthodox code and the invitation to mind
his own business as a breach of etiquette which the code entailed. Jakey
thereupon assumed the duties of a defender of the faith, and, being
prepared for action, moved immediately upon the enemy. The attack
developed the unexpected. Hartwell's bill, tendered in desperation, was
accepted in error, not as a bribe, but as an apology. Jakey sounded
"cease firing" to his embattled lines, and called in his attacking
forces. He had taken salt, henceforth he was Hartwell's friend and the
friend of his friends.
Jakey took neither himself nor his life seriously. He was station agent,
freight agent, express agent, and telegraph operator at Rainbow Station,
R. G. S., and he performed his various duties with laudable promptness,
when nothing more promising attracted his attention. Just now the "more
promising" was in sight. The company had no scruples in dismissing
employees without warning, and Jakey had no quixotic principles which
restrained him for a moment from doing to others what they would do to
him if occasion arose.
Jakey did not hold that the world owed him a living, but he considered
that it possessed a goodly store of desirable things and that these were
held in trust for those who chose to take them. Being "broke" did not
appal him, nor the loss of a job fill him with quaking. The railroad was
not the whole push, and if he could not pump electric juice he could
wield a pick or rope a steer with equal zeal. Just now the most
desirable thing that the world held in trust was the coming fight at the
Rainbow. Accordingly he wired the R. G. S. officials that there was a
vacancy at Rainbow Station. The said officials, being long accustomed to
men of Jakey's stamp, merely remarked, "Damn!" and immediately wired to
the nearest junction point to send another man to take the vacant
position.
Jakey admired Firmstone, and this admiration prepossessed him in
Firmstone's favour. The prepossession was by no means fixed and
invulnerable, and had not Hartwell cleared himself of suspected heresy,
he would have lent the same zeal, now kindling within him, to the Blue
Goose rather than the Rainbow.
In what he recognised as the first round of the opening fight Jakey
realised that the Blue Goose had scored. But, before the special pulled
in, he was ready, and this time he was sure of his move.
"By the Great Spirit of the noble Red Man," Jakey was apostrophising the
distant mountains in ornate language; "what kind of a low-down bird are
you, to be gathered in by a goose, and a blue one at that?" Jakey
paused, gazing earnestly at the retreating figure of the miner. Then,
shaking his fist at the man's back, "Look here, you down-trodden serf of
capitalistic oppression, I'll show you! Don't you fool yourself! Tipped
me the grand ha-ha; did you? Well, you just listen to me! 'Stead of
milking the old cow, you've just rubbed off a few drops from her calf's
nose. That's what, as I'll proceed to demonstrate."
Jakey's loyalty had been wavering, passive, and impersonal. Now his
personal sympathies were enlisted, for the path of self-vindication lay
through the triumph of the Rainbow.
Before the special had come to a standstill its animated cargo began to
disembark. Coatless men with woollen shirts belted to trousers, the
belts sagging with their heavy loads of guns and cartridges, every man
with a roll of blankets and many with carbines as well, testified to the
recognition of the fact that the path of the miner's pick must be
cleared by burning powder.
Jakey, thrusting his way through the boisterous crowd, forced upon the
resentful conductor his surrendered insignia of office, then mingled
with his future associates. He met a hilarious welcome, as the knowledge
spread from man to man that he was with them. Its practical expression
was accompanied by the thrusting of uncorked bottles at his face and
demands that he should "drink hearty" as a pledge of fellowship. Jakey
waved them aside.
"Put them up, boys, put them up. Them weapons ain't no use, not here.
They're too short range, and they shoot the wrong way."
The leader pushed his way through the crowd around Jakey.
"That's right, boys. It's close to tally now. Where's the Rainbow
trail?"
With elaborate figures, punctuated by irreverent adjectives, Jakey
pointed out the trail and his reasons against taking it.
"It's good medicine to fight a skunk head on," he concluded; "but when
you go up against a skunk, a coyote, and a grizzly wrapped up in one
skin, you want to be circumspect. Morrison's a skunk, Pierre's a coyote,
and the rest are grizzlies, and you don't want to fool yourselves just
because the skin of the beast grows feathers instead of fur."
The leader listened attentively and, from the thick husk of Jakey's
figures, he stripped the hard grains of well-ripened truth. Jakey laid
small emphasis on the manner in which the envoy of the Blue Goose had
gained his information. He had personal reasons for that, but the fact
that the information was gained sufficed.
The men grew silent as they realised that the battle was on and that
they were in the enemy's country. Under the guidance of Jakey they
tramped up the track, turned toward what appeared as a vertical cliff,
and clambered slowly and painfully over loose rocks, through stunted
evergreens, and at last stood upon the rolling surface of the mesa
above. From here on, the path was less obstructed. It was near midnight
when the dull roar of the mill announced the proximity of their goal. As
silently as they had followed the tortuous trail, so silently each
wrapped himself in his blankets and lay down to sleep.