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EMERSON'S WIFE AND OTHER WESTERN STORIES
by
FLORENCE FINCH KELLY
Author of "With Hoops of Steel," "The Delafield Affair," Etc.
With Illustrations in Color by Stanley L. Wood
[Frontispiece: "Want my guns?" shouted Nick derisively. "Then come and
take 'em!"]
Chicago
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1911
Copyright
A. C. McClurg & Co.
1911
Published September, 1911
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England
CONTENTS
EMERSON'S WIFE
COLONEL KATE'S _Protegee_
THE KID OF APACHE TEJU
A BLAZE ON PARD HUFF
HOW COLONEL KATE WON HER SPURS
HOLLYHOCKS
THE RISE, FALL, AND REDEMPTION OF JOHNSON SIDES
A PIECE OF WRECKAGE
THE STORY OF A CHINEE KID
OUT OF SYMPATHY
AN OLD ROMAN OF MARIPOSA
OUT OF THE MOUTH OF BABES
POSEY
A CASE OF THE INNER IMPERATIVE
ILLUSTRATIONS
"Want my guns?" shouted Nick derisively. "Then
come and take 'em!" . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
Wemple dug his spurs into its sweating side and
the beast sprang forward at a faster gallop
Out on the plain we saw the Kid yelling like a
wild man, with Dynamite at his highest speed,
chasing a jackrabbit
"I'd hate to have to spile your hide, but I'll do
it if you don't get out o' this trail"
EMERSON'S WIFE
AND OTHER WESTERN STORIES
EMERSON'S WIFE
Nick Ellhorn awoke and looked around the room with curiosity and
interest, but without surprise. He had no recollection of having
entered it the night before, and he was lying across the bed fully
clothed. But he had long ago ceased to feel surprise over a matter of
that sort. His next movement was to reach for his revolver, and he
gave a grunt of satisfaction on finding that it hung, as usual, from
his cartridge belt. He was aware of a deep, insistent thirst, and as
he sat up on the edge of the bed he announced aloud, in a tone of
conviction, "I sure need a cocktail!"
Glancing out of the window, he saw a little plaza, fresh in the morning
sunlight with its greening grass and budding trees, and beyond it the
pink walls and portalled front of a long adobe building. He nodded
approvingly.
"I reckon I pulled my freight from Albuquerque all right. And I had a
good load too," he reflected with a chuckle. "And I reckon I sure
bunched myself all right into Santa Fe; for if this ain't the Plaza
Hotel, I 'm drunker 'n a feller has any right to be who 's been total
abstainin' ever since last night. But I 've sure got to have a
cocktail now, if it busts a gallus!"
He stared wistfully at the door; but drunken lethargy was still upon
him, and his disinclination to move was stronger than his thirst. His
eyes, roving along the wall, fell upon the electric call button.
Stretching a sinewy arm to its full length he made dumb show of
pressing it, as he said, "One push, one cocktail; two pushes, two
cocktails!" Then he shook his head despairingly. "Too far, can't
reach it," he muttered. But his face brightened as his hand
accidentally touched his revolver. Out it flashed, and there was no
tremor in the long brown hand that held it in position. Bang! Bang!
Bang! went the gun, three shots in quick succession, and then three
more. "Six pushes, six cocktails!" he announced, triumphantly.
The button had been driven into the wall, and several holes hovered
close upon its wreck. A clatter of hurrying feet on the stairway and
the din of excited voices told him that his summons had at least
attracted attention. "Push button's a sure handy thing!" he exclaimed
aloud as he fell back on the bed, laughing drunkenly.
The footsteps halted outside and the voices sunk to whispers.
Presently Ellhorn, gazing expectantly at the door, saw a pair of
apprehensive eyes peering through the transom. At sight of the face he
waved his hand, which still grasped the gun, and called out, "Say, you,
I want six cocktails!" The face quickly dodged downward and the feet
and the whispering voices moved farther away. Then came the sound of a
rapid stride down the hall and a deep voice bellowed, "Nick, let me in!"
Nick called out "Tommy Tuttle!" and in walked a big bulk of a man, six
feet and more tall, with shoulders broad and burly and legs like tree
trunks. Ellhorn turned toward him a beaming face and broke into a
string of oaths. But his profanity was cordial and joyous. It bloomed
with glad welcome and was fragrant with good fellowship and brotherly
love.
"Nick, you 're drunk," said Tuttle reprovingly.
"You 're away off, Tom! I was yesterday, but I 've been teetotallin'
ever since I came into this room last night, and the whole Arizona
desert ain't in it with my throat this mornin'! I want six cocktails!"
"No, you don't," the other interrupted decisively. "You-all can have
some coffee," and he stepped back to the door and gave the order.
Ellhorn sat up and looked with indignant surprise at his friend. "Tom
Tuttle--" he began.
"Shut up!" Tuttle interrupted. "Come and soak your head."
Ellhorn submitted to the head-soaking without protest, but drank his
coffee with grumblings that it was not coffee, but cocktails, that he
wanted.
"Nick, ain't you-all ashamed of yourself?" Tuttle asked severely. But
it was anxiety rather than reproof that was evident in his large, round
face and blue eyes. His fair skin was tanned and burned to a bright
red, and against its blazing color glowed softly a short, tawny
mustache.
"No, Tommy, not yet," Nick replied cheerfully. "It's too soon. It's
likely I will be to-morrow, or mebbe even this afternoon. But not now.
You-all ought to be more reasonable."
"To think you 'd pile in here like this, when I 'm in a hole and need
you bad," Tuttle went on in a grieved tone.
The fogs had begun to clear out of Ellhorn's head, and he looked up
with quick concern. "What's up, Tom?"
"The Dysert gang 's broke loose again, and Marshal Black 's in San
Francisco, and Sheriff Williamson 's gone to Chicago. I 've got to
ride herd on 'em all by myself."
"What have they done?"
"Old man Paxton was found dead by his front gate yesterday morning. He
'd been killed by a knife-thrower, and a boss one at that--cut right
across his jugular. I went straight for Felipe Vigil, and last night I
got a clue from him, and he promised to tell me more to-day. But this
morning he was found dead under the long bridge with his tongue cut
out. That's enough for 'em; not another Greaser will dare open his
mouth now. I wired you yesterday at Plumas to come as quick as you
could."
"Then what you gruntin' about, Tom? I left Plumas before your wire got
there, and how could I be any quicker 'n that?"
"I wish Emerson was here. I 'd like to have his judgment about this
business. Emerson 's always got sure good judgment."
"Send for him, then," was Nick's prompt rejoinder.
Tuttle looked at him with surprise and disapproval. "Nick, are you
drunker than you look? You-all know he 's just got back from his
wedding trip."
"But he 's back, all right, ain't he! Neither one of us has ever got
into a hole yet that Emerson did n't come a-runnin', and fixed for
whatever might happen. And he's never needed us that we did n't get
there as quick as we could. You-all don't reckon, Tom, that Emerson
Mead's liver 's turned white just because he 's got a wife!"
Tom Tuttle fidgeted his big bulk and cleared his throat. Words did not
come so easily to him as deeds, but Ellhorn's way of putting it made
explanation necessary. "I don't mean it that way, Tom. Once, last
year, down in Plumas, when Emerson would n't let us shoot into that
crowd that wanted to hang him, I wondered for just a second if he was
afraid, and it made me plumb sick. But I saw right away that it was
just Emerson's judgment that there ought n't to be any shootin' right
then, and he was plumb right about it. No, Tom, I sure reckon there
ain't a drop of blood in Emerson's veins that would n't be ready for a
fight any minute, if 't was his judgment that there ought to be a
fight, even if he has got married. But we-all must remember that he 's
got a wife now, and can't cut out from his family and go rushin' round
the country like a steer on the prod every time you get drunk and raise
hell, or every time I need help. We 'll have to pull together after
this, Tom, and leave Emerson out. It would be too much like stackin'
the cards against Mrs. Emerson if we didn't."
As Tuttle ended he saw a gleam in the other's eyes that caused him to
add with emphasis, "And I 'm not goin' to call him up here, and don't
you do it, either!"
Nick got up, shook himself, and winked at the hole in the wall where
had been the electric button. He was a handsome man, as tall as
Tuttle, but more slenderly built, with clean-cut features, dancing
black eyes, and a black mustache that swept in an upward curve over his
tanned cheek. His friend scrutinized him anxiously as he slid
cartridges into the empty chambers of his revolver.
"Sure you 're sober, Nick?"
Ellhorn laughed. "How the devil can I tell? I can walk straight and
see straight and shoot straight; and if that ain't sober enough to
tackle any four-spot Greaser, I might just as well get drunk again!"
"Well, I reckon you 're sober enough to jump into this job with me now;
and if you stay sober, it's all right. But if I catch you drinkin'
another drop till we get through with this business, I 'll run you back
into this room and sit on your belly till you 're ready to holler
quits!"
It was a dangerous solidarity of crime and mutual protection against
which the two deputy marshals started out alone. The Dysert gang had
been organized originally as a secret society to further the political
ambitions of men who were not overscrupulous as to instruments or
methods. But gradually it had drifted into a means of wreaking private
revenge and compelling money tribute. Those of its early members who
were of the law abiding sort had left it long before, and its
membership had dwindled to a handful of Mexicans of the recklessly
criminal sort. They were credited, in the general belief, with thefts,
assaults, and murders; but so closely had they held together, so potent
was their influence with men in public station, and so general was the
fear of the bloody revenges they did not hesitate to take, that not one
of them had yet been convicted of crime.
Faustin Dysert, who had organized the society and was still its head,
combined in himself the worst tendencies of both Mexicans and
Americans, his mother having been of one race and his father of the
other, and both of the sort that reflect no credit upon their
offspring. But he owned the house in which he lived and two or three
other adobes which he rented, and was therefore lifted above the
necessity of labor and held in much regard by his fellow Mexicans. The
combination of that influence and the favor of the political boss of
his party, to whom he had been of use, had made him chief of police of
Santa Fe and had kept him in that office for several years. And he had
been careful to recruit his force from the membership of his society.
Tuttle knew that he could not count on any open help or sympathy from
the public, for no one would dare to invite thus frankly the disfavor
of the gang. And he knew, too, that he could expect to get no more
information from leaky members of the society or their friends, since
that swift punishment had been meted out to the wagging tongue of
Felipe Vigil. He was well aware also that his chief, the United States
Marshal, had not been zealous in the pursuit of Dysert's criminals, and
that Black's friend, Congressman Dellmey Baxter, was known to have
under his protection several members of the society. Therefore, if he
bungled the job, he was likely to lose his official head; and if he
were not swift and sure in his movements against the gang, his physical
head would not be worth the lead that would undoubtedly come crashing
into it from behind, before the end of the week.
"The thing for us to do, Tommy," advised Ellhorn, "is to take in all
the gang we can get hold of. We 'll herd 'em all into jail first, and
get the evidence afterwards. There 'll be some show to get it then,
and there ain't now. We 'll load up with warrants, and arrest every
kiote that's thought to be a member of the gang; and we 'll start in
with Faustin Dysert himself!"
Tuttle looked perplexed. He had in his veins a strain of German blood,
which showed in his frank, sincere, blonde countenance and in his
direct and unimaginative habit of mind. But Ellhorn supplemented his
solidity and straightforwardness with an audacity of initiative and a
disregard of consequences that told of Celtic ancestry as plainly as
did the suggestion of a brogue that in moments of excitement touched
his soft Southern speech.
"Marshal Black would be dead agin goin' at it that way," said Tuttle
doubtfully.
"Of course he would! But he ain't here, and we 'll run this round-up
to suit ourselves; and if we don't bunch more bad steers than was ever
got together in this town before, I 'll pull my freight for hell
without takin' another drink!"
"Mebbe you 're right," said Tuttle slowly, "and I think likely that
would be Emerson's judgment too. If he hadn't got married we 'd be all
right. Us three could go up agin the whole lot of 'em and win out in
three shakes!"
"Then let's send for him, and see if he 'll come!"
But Tuttle shook his head. "No," he said positively, "that would n't
be a square deal for Mrs. Emerson, and we won't do it. We 'll stack up
alone against this business, Nick. We 'll put on all the guns we 've
got and keep together. We might get Willoughby Simmons--he 's deputy
sheriff now; but he 's got no judgment, and he 's likely to get rattled
and shoot wild if things get excitin'. We 'll get the warrants and
start out right away, for we 've got to keep the thing quiet and nab
'em before they find out we 're on the warpath. You-all remember you
're sure goin' to keep sober!"
"Well," said Nick with a laugh, "I 'll be sober enough to stack up with
any measly kiote that's pirootin' around this town!"
Tuttle went for the warrants, and Ellhorn said he would get some
breakfast. But first he waited until his friend was out of sight and
then paid a visit to the bar-room. Next he went to the telegraph
office. The message that he sent was addressed to Emerson Mead, Las
Plumas, New Mexico, and it read:
"Tommy and me are up against the Dysert gang alone, and I 'm drunk.
Nick."
He came out of the telegraph office smiling joyously and humming under
his breath the air of "Bonnie Dundee." "I did n't ask him to come," he
said to himself, "and if he wants to now, that's his affair. Well, I
reckon he ain't any more likely to have daylight let through him now
than he was before he got married; and nobody's gun has made holes in
him yet!"
It was early afternoon when the two friends started out on their
round-up of bad men. To attract as little notice as possible they took
a closed hack and drove rapidly toward the Mexican quarter. Nick's
manner showed such recklessness and high spirits that Tuttle regarded
him with anxiety and began to wonder if it would not be wiser to carry
out his threat of the morning before attempting anything else. But he
caught sight of two Mexicans coming toward them, one handsome and well
built and the other slouching and ill-favored.
"There come two of 'em now! Liberate Herrera and Pablo Gonzalez!" he
exclaimed, with sudden concentration of interest and attention.
"Liberate is a boss knife-thrower, and I think likely he 's the one
that did the business for old man Paxton. Look out for 'im, Nick!"
The carriage came abreast of the two men and Tuttle jumped out, with
Ellhorn close behind him. But quick as they were, Herrera, the
handsome one of the two, understood what was happening and leaped to
one side, a long knife flashing from his sleeve, before Tuttle's hand
could descend upon him. The other was slower and Ellhorn had him by
the arm before he could thrust his hand into his pocket for his
revolver. Herrera's knife slid into position against his wrist and
Tuttle's revolver clicked. The Mexican looked dauntlessly into its
black muzzle, but saw that his companion was submitting, and that both
were covered by the guns of the officers.
"It's all right, Senor Tuttle," he said coolly. "You 've got the best
of me. I give up."
They drove back to the adobe jail; and while Tuttle was turning his
prisoners into the custody of Willoughby Simmons, the deputy sheriff,
Ellhorn slipped out, crossed the street, and went into a saloon. The
men already there had watched the arrival of the hack and the two
prisoners at the jail, and two of them, when they saw Nick coming,
hurried into the back room, leaving the door open.
"What's up, Nick?" the proprietor asked as he poured the whiskey
Ellhorn had ordered.
"Tommy and me," answered Nick jauntily, pushing his glass across the
bar to be filled a second time. "We 're on top now, and I sure reckon
we 're goin' to stay there!"
"After the Dysert gang?"
"You bet! Hot and heavy! We'll have 'em all bunched in the jail by
night!"
Ellhorn stood with his back toward the middle door; and the two men in
the rear room cautiously made their way into the front again, revolvers
in their hands. Nick turned and found himself facing Faustin Dysert
and Hippolito Chavez, a policeman and member of Dysert's society. His
two revolvers flashed out, the triggers clicked, and he stood waiting
for the next move of the others, for he saw at once that they did not
intend to shoot at that moment.
"You 'll have to give me your guns, Nick," said Dysert. "You 're drunk
and disorderly, and I 'm going to arrest you."
"Want my guns?" shouted Nick derisively. "Then come and take 'em!"
"I 'm going to take them, and I 'll give you two minutes in which to
decide whether or not you 'll give them up peaceably."
"You will, will you! Let me tell you, it's yourself that's goin' to be
taken, dead or alive, and not for any common 'drunk and disorderly,'
either! You-all are goin' to swing, you are! Whoo-oo-ee-ee!"
Across the street, Tuttle had come out of the jail and was looking for
his friend. Ellhorn's peculiar yell came bellowing from the saloon,
and he knew that trouble of some sort was brewing. Dysert and Chavez
saw him leaping across the street, and rushed into the back room and
slammed the door as he entered at the front. With a glance Tuttle took
in the group of men with tense, excited faces, gathered at one side of
the room, Ellhorn, with a revolver in each hand, at the other, and the
saloon-keeper emerging from underneath the bar.
"Nick, you 're drinkin' again! Put up your guns!" Tom exclaimed
angrily.
"After 'em, Tommy! They went in there! Whoo-oo-ee-ee!" yelled Nick,
rushing toward the middle door. It gave before his weight and he
dashed in. Tuttle followed, not knowing what was happening, yet sure
that his friend was daring some danger. But the room was empty.
Through the back door Dysert and his companion had gained a corral,
into which opened several other houses, and in some one of these had
disappeared and found concealment.
"Huh!" grunted Nick. "Tom, if you'd only had sense enough to stay away
a minute longer I 'd have got both of 'em myself!"
They started forth on another raid, but the members of the Dysert gang
seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth. Neither in the
streets, the plaza, their homes, nor their usual haunts could the
officers of the law find one of those for whom they had warrants.
"It's what I was afraid of," said Tuttle. "The hint got out too quick
for us, and now they 're all hiding."
"They've holed up somewhere, all in a bunch, and we 've got to smoke
'em out. Whoo-oo-ee-ee!"
The several whiskies with which Nick had succeeded in eluding his
friend's vigilance were beginning to have manifest effect, and Tuttle
decided that, whatever became of the Dysert gang, there was only one
thing to do with Nick Ellhorn, and that would have to be done at once.
He drove back to the Plaza Hotel, took Nick to his room, locked the
door, and put the key in his pocket.
"Now, Nick, you-all don't get out of here till you 're plumb
sober--sober enough to be sorry!"
Nick protested, but Tuttle threw him down on the bed and then
deliberately sat down on his chest. Ellhorn swore valiantly and
threatened many and dire revenges. But Tom sat still, in unheeding
silence, and after a little Nick shut his mouth with a snap and gazed
sullenly at the ceiling. He labored for breath for a while, and at
last broke the silence by asking impatiently: "Say, Tom, how long you
goin' to make an easy chair of me?"
"You know, without askin'!"
Nick relapsed into silence again until his face grew purple and his
breath came in gasps. "Tom," he began, and there was no backbone left
in his voice, "what do you-all want me to promise?"
"Not to drink another drop of whiskey, beer, wine, brandy, or anything
intoxicatin', till we get the Dysert gang corralled--or they get us."
"All right, Tommy. I promise."
Tattle got up and looked at his friend with an expression of mingled
apology and triumph on his big, red face. "I 'm sorry I had to do it.
Nick. You-all know that. But I had to, and you know that, too. We
can't do another thing now till to-morrow, and you 're sober again. I
don't see," he went on grumblingly, "as long as they were goin' to kill
old man Paxton anyway, why they did n't do it before Emerson got
married!"
Nick had been soaking his head in the wash-bowl and he wheeled around
with the water streaming over his face. "Tom, I sure reckon Emerson
would come if you 'd send for him!"
"Mebbe he would, Nick, but I ain't goin' to do it. For he sure had n't
ought to go and get himself killed now, just on our account. But if he
was here," Tommy went on wistfully, "we 'd wipe up the ground with that
Dysert gang too quick!"
Nick rolled over on the bed, sleep heavy on his eyelids. "Well, I gave
Emerson the chance this mornin' to let us know whether he 's goin' to
keep on bein' one of us, or whether he 's goin' to bunch alone with
Mrs. Emerson after this!"
Tuttle gazed in open-mouthed and wide-eyed astonishment.
"What--what--do you mean, Nick? You did n't wire him to come?"
"No, I did n't! I told him you and me was up against the Dysert
gang--" Nick's voice trailed off into a sleepy murmur--"alone, and
I--was drunk--and likely to get--disorderly."
"You measly, ornery--" Tuttle began. But he saw that Ellhorn was
already asleep and he would not abuse his friend unless Nick could hear
what he said. So he shut his mouth and considered the situation. He
knew well enough that in the days before Emerson's marriage any such
message would have brought Mead to their aid as fast as steam could
carry him. But now, if he did not come--well, what Nick had said was
true, and they would know that the end of the old close friendship had
come. But, for the young wife's sake, if he should come, he and Nick
must not let him do anything foolhardy and they must try to keep him
out of danger.
Tuttle waited up for the midnight train, on which, if Mead heeded
Nick's telegram, he would be likely to arrive. In the meantime, he did
some spying out of the land and learned that Dysert and some of his
followers had hidden themselves, with arms, ammunition, and provisions,
in an empty adobe house belonging to the head of the band. The deputy
marshal knew this meant that the criminals would resist to the last,
and that any attempt to take them would be as perilous an adventure as
he and his friends had ever faced. If Emerson came and anything
happened to him--and it was very unlikely, if they carried the thing
through, that any one of them would come out of it without at least
serious injury--then he and Ellhorn would feel that they had been the
cause of the young wife's bereavement. And yet, with Mead's help, they
might succeed. And success in this enterprise would be the biggest,
the crowning achievement in all their experience as officers of the law.
As midnight approached, Tuttle scarcely knew whether he more hoped or
dreaded that Mead would come. He had faced the muzzle of loaded guns
with less trepidation and anxiety than he felt as he stepped out on the
sidewalk when he heard the rattle of the omnibus. A tall figure, big
and broad-shouldered, swung down from the vehicle.
"Emerson--Emerson--" Tuttle stammered, his voice shaking and dying in
his throat into something very like a sob. Then he gripped Mead's hand
and said casually, "How 's Mrs. Emerson?"
Mead replied merely, "She's well"; but Tom caught an unwonted
intonation of tenderness in his voice and saw his face soften and glow
for an instant before he went on anxiously, "What's up?--and where 's
Nick?"
Tuttle wavered a little the next morning in his purpose of attacking
the Dysert retreat. He took Ellhorn aside and asked his opinion about
letting the matter rest until the return of Marshal Black and Sheriff
Williamson.
Nick was quite sober again and looked back over his misdeeds of the day
before with a jaunty smile and a penitent shake of the head. "Sure,
Tom," he said, and the Irish roll in his voice showed that his
contrition was sincere enough to move him deeply, "sure and I was a
measly, beastly, ornery kiote to go back on you like that, and you 'd
have served me right if you 'd set on me twice as long as you did!"
But against Tuttle's suggestion of postponing the conflict he presented
a surprised and combative front. "What you-all thinkin' of, Tom? Why,
we 've got 'em holed up now, and all that's to do is to smoke 'em out!"
"It's Emerson I 'm thinkin' of--and Mrs. Emerson. He--he wrote her a
letter this mornin', and put it in his pocket, and asked me if anything
happened to him to see that she got it. Nick, I--I don't like to think
about that! If we put this thing off, he 'll go home, and then we-all
can fight it through without him, mebbe. Nick, you was a sure kiote to
send for him yesterday."
"Yes, I sure was," said Nick with sorrowful conviction. Then he added,
with an air of cheerful finality, "Well, I would n't 'a' done it if I
had n't been drunk! But you 're right, Tommy. It ain't the square
deal to Mrs. Emerson for us to take him into this business. It 'll be
a fight to a finish, for one side or the other, and it's just as likely
to be us as them."
At that moment Mead came up, saying briskly, "Well, boys, had n't we
better be starting out?"
Like his two friends, Emerson Mead was Texan born and bred; but a New
England strain in his blood, with its potent strength and sanity, had
given him such poise and force of character as had made him the leader
of the three through their long and intimate friendship and strenuous
life.
"I 've just been sayin' to Nick," Tom replied, his eyes evading those
of his friend, "that mebbe we 'd better let this thing slide till Black
and Williamson get back."
"Well, Tom, this is your shindy, and whatever you say goes. But I sure
think that if you really want to get this Dysert gang, the thing to do
is to trot in and get 'em, right now. You know yourself that Black
ain't any too warm about it, and Williamson is so under Dell Baxter's
thumb that he 's more likely to trip you up, if he can, than he is to
help. You-all won't get another chance as good as this!"
Ellhorn's martial ardor, and his buoyant belief that Mead's marriage
had in no wise lessened his immunity from bullets, obscured for the
moment his anxiety about Mrs. Mead. He slapped his thigh, exclaiming,
"Them's my sentiments, boys! Come on! Let's pull our freight!"
Tuttle's manner still showed some reluctance, but he said no more, and
the three Texans, each of them six feet three or more in his stockings,
broad-shouldered, and straight as an arrow, swung into the street.
They took with them Willoughby Simmons, the deputy sheriff for whose
judgment Tom had so little esteem. Tuttle sent him to guard the rear
of the house, a small, detached adobe, in which Dysert and an unknown
number of his followers had fortified themselves. Some twenty feet in
front and toward one corner of the house grew a large old apple tree,
its leaves and pink-nosed buds just beginning to make themselves
manifest, and underneath it were some piles of wood. It was the only
position that offered cover. Tuttle asked Mead to station himself
there, where he could command one end of the house, a view toward the
rear, and the whole front. Ellhorn he placed similarly at the other
front corner. His own position he took midway between the two, facing
the door and two small windows that blinked beneath the narrow _portal_.
Mead saw that he was the only one for whom protection was possible, and
exclaimed, "Say, Tom, this ain't fair!"
But Tuttle paid no attention to his protest, and began to call loudly:
"Dysert! Faustin Dysert! We know you 're in there, you and your men,
and if you 'll give yourselves up you won't get hurt. But we 're goin'
to take you, dead or alive! If there 's anybody in there that don't
belong in your gang, send 'em out, and we 'll let 'em go away
peaceable!"
There was no reply from the house. Evidently those within meant to
play a waiting game until they could get the officers of the law under
their hands, or perhaps take them unawares. Tuttle glanced at Mead and
saw that he was standing apart from the tree and the piles of wood.
Tom thought of the letter in his friend's pocket and remembered the
look that had crossed his face at the mention of his wife. Great beads
of sweat broke out on Tom's forehead. With his lips set and his eyes
on those squinting front windows he walked across to his friend and
said in a low tone:
"I reckon, Emerson, we 'd better just stand here and guard the place
till they see they 'll starve to death if they don't give up."
Mead turned upon him a look of supreme astonishment. "It's your fight,
Tom," he answered coolly, "and if you-all think that's the best way of
fightin' it, I 'll stand by and help as long as I 'm needed. But I did
n't come up here expectin' to take part in any cold-feet show!"
Tuttle wiped his face vigorously and did not answer. "I think there's
only one thing to do," Mead went on, "and that is to rush 'em and make
'em show their hand!"
Tuttle shook his head. "No, no," he exclaimed hurriedly, "that
wouldn't do at all, Emerson!"
Mead left him and, keeping the front of the house in the tail of his
eye, hurried across the yard to Ellhorn. "Nick," he demanded, "what's
the matter with Tommy? Does he want to take these Greasers or not?"
"Well, Emerson," said Nick hesitatingly, "I sure reckon the truth is
that he's afraid you 'll get hurt!"
The ruddy tan of Mead's face deepened to purple, and a yellow light
blazed in his brown eyes. He strode back to where Tuttle had resumed
his post, his fist shot out, and Tom went staggering backward. "So
you-all think I 'm a coward, do you?" he shouted. Then, wheeling, with
a revolver in each hand, he rushed toward the front door. Nick saw
what he purposed to do, and dashed after him with a wild "Whoo-oo-ee!"
Tuttle was left without support. For a moment he was so dazed by
Mead's blow that he stared about him bewilderedly. The men inside the
house were quick to take advantage of so unexpected a situation. The
windows flashed fire and Tom heard the thud of bullets against the
ground at his feet. One bit his cheek. With loud and angry oaths he
dropped to one knee, rifle in hand, and sent bullets and insults
hurtling together through the crashing windows. Springing to his feet
he ran a few steps forward, dropped to his knee again, and with bullets
pattering all around him emptied the magazine of his rifle.
Mead and Ellhorn were trying to batter down the door, but it was
strongly built and had not yielded to their shoulders. Throwing down
his empty rifle, Tuttle ran into the _portal_, thrust Ellhorn to one
side as if he had been a boy, and lunged against the door with all his
ox-like weight. Mead threw himself against it at the same instant, and
it cracked, split, and flew into splinters.
The three big Texans, each with a revolver in either hand, surged
through the opening. The Mexicans met them in mid-floor, and the room
was full of the whirr of flying bullets, the thud of bullets against
the walls, the spat of bullets upon human flesh. The officers rushed
forward, their guns blazing streams of fire, and Dysert and his men
backed toward the corner. Mead emptied both of his revolvers and,
pressing the leader closely, raised one of them to batter him over the
head. Dysert threw up his hands, exclaiming, "We give up!" and the
battle was over.
On the floor were the bodies of four Mexicans, either dead or badly
wounded. Dysert and three of his followers were still alive, although
each had been hurt. Tuttle, besides the gash in his cheek, had a
bullet in his left arm, and Ellhorn a wound in his thigh. Mead's hat
and clothing had been pierced, but his body was untouched.
They sent for physicians to attend to the wounded Mexicans and, having
handcuffed their prisoners, hurried them to the jail. As Simmons led
the men from the sheriff's office and the three friends were left
alone, Mead turned to Tuttle.
"Tom," he said, "I 'm sure sorry I struck you just now. I was so mad I
hardly knew what I was doing. You 'd been acting queer, and when I
found it was because you thought I was afraid, I just boiled over. I
had no business to do it, Tom, and I 'm sorry."
The red of Tom's face went a shade deeper, and he fidgeted uneasily.
"No, Emerson, you 're wrong," he protested. "I did n't think you was
afraid. You-all ought to know better than that. But--well--the truth
is, Emerson, I could n't help thinkin' what hard lines it would be for
Mrs. Emerson if anything--should happen to you."
The tears came into Mead's eyes, and he turned away as Tuttle went on:
"I told Nick not to send for you, but the darned kiote went and done it
without me knowing it!"
"No, I didn't," Nick exclaimed. "I just told him we was in a hole and
I was drunk! And, anyway, it's a good thing I did; for now we 've got
the Dyserts, and Emerson did n't get a scratch!"
"Boys," said Mead, and his voice was thick in his throat, "you 're the
best friends any fellow ever had; but you-all don't know what a brick
Marguerite is! She 'd rather die than come between us, I know she
would! She would n't have any more use for me if she thought I 'd kept
a whole skin by going back on you! It's the truth, boys, and don't you
forget it!"
COLONEL KATE'S _PROTEGEE_
"Colonel Kate," as both the Select and the Unassorted of Santa Fe society
were accustomed to speak of Mrs. Harrison Winthrop Coolidge, had long ago
proved her right to do whatever she chose, by always accomplishing
whatever she attempted. She had done so many startling things, and
always with such dashing success, since Governor Coolidge had brought
her, a bride, to the old town, that people had become accustomed to her,
just as they had grown used to the climate, and expected her deeds of
daring as unthinkingly as they did cool breezes in summer, or sunshine in
winter. Besides, everybody liked her; for she had both the charm which
makes new friends and the tact which holds them loyal.
When, finally, Colonel Kate brought an Indian girl from the pueblo of
Acoma and made it known that she intended her _protegee_ to grace the
innermost circles of Santa Fe society, it is possible that some of the
Select may have shrugged their shoulders a trifle; but, if they did, they
were careful to have no witnesses. For Governor Coolidge was the
richest, the most influential, and the most prominent American in New
Mexico, and his wife could make and unmake social circles as she chose.
The Santa Fe _Blast_, which was the organ of the Governor's party,
announced the event as follows:
"Mrs. Governor Coolidge and guests returned yesterday from a trip to
Acoma. As always, Mrs. Coolidge was the life of the party and charmed
all by her wit and beauty and vivacity. . . . She even persuaded old
Ambrosio, the grizzled civil chief of the pueblo, to entrust to her care
his most precious treasure, his lovely and charming daughter, Miss
Barbara Koitza. This beautiful and talented young lady, whom Mrs.
Coolidge has installed as a friend and guest in her hospitable and
interesting home, where she is soon to be introduced to Santa Fe society,
is as cultured as she is handsome. She has spent a year in the Indian
school at Albuquerque and two years at Carlyle, and is well fitted to
adorn the choicest social circles in the land. She will no doubt be
warmly welcomed by Santa Fe society and will at once take that position
in its midst to which her beauty, grace, and talents entitle her."
If she had known of it, poor little Barbara would have been overwhelmed
by this flourish of trumpets. But Colonel Kate did not allow it to fall
under her eye. And the girl did not even know that, whatever she was
not, she certainly was interesting and picturesque on the day when she
first entered her new friend's door.
She wore her Indian costume, and was neat and clean as any white maiden
with a heritage of bath-tubs. Spotlessly white were her buckskin
moccasins and leggings, which encased a pair of tiny feet and then wound
round and round her sturdy legs until they looked as shapeless as
telegraph posts. Her scant, red calico skirt met her leggings at the
knee; and her red mantle, of Navajo weave, fell back from her head, but
wrapped closely her waist and arms, and then dropped long ends down the
front of her dress. Her coal-black hair, heavy and shining, was combed
smoothly back from her forehead and fastened in a _chongo_ behind. Her
brown face was handsomer than that of most Indian maidens, being longer
in proportion to its width than is the pueblo type, the cheek bones less
prominent, the forehead broader, and the lips fuller and more delicately
chiselled. It is possible that, far back in Barbara's ancestry, perhaps
even as far back as the times of the _Conquistadores_, there had been
some admixture of the white man's race which, after generations of
quiescence, in her had at last made its influence felt again.
As Mrs. Coolidge led the girl into her new home she looked down at her
with approving eye and inwardly exclaimed, the conqueror's joy already
filling her heart, "She 'll be a success! A tremendous success! The
Colonel's wife can do what she pleases now!"
For in the days of which this chronicle tells, Santa Fe was still a
military post, and the wife of the commanding officer had been all winter
a thorn in the flesh of Mrs. Coolidge. The Colonel had been recently
transferred from an Eastern post; and his wife, who had never been West
before, had supposed that of course she would at once become the social
leader of Santa Fe. Her disappointment was bitter when she found that
place already firmly held and learned that she, the wife of a colonel in
the army, and just from the East, would have to yield first place to the
wife of a mere civilian who had lived in the West for a dozen years. She
rebelled and tried to start a clique of her own, and all winter she had
made trouble among the Select by getting up affairs which clashed with
Colonel Kate's plans, and by introducing innovations of which Colonel
Kate did not approve. Mrs. Coolidge had no fears for her social
supremacy,--she had reigned too long for the thought of downfall to be
possible,--but she was tired of being crossed and annoyed, and she
purposed with one audacious blow to humble the Colonel's wife and put an
end to her pretensions.
The plan came to her suddenly while she talked with old Ambrosio's
daughter in the street at Acoma. She saw that Barbara was discontented
and unhappy, and that she longed to return to even so much of the life of
the whites as she had found in the Indian schools. Colonel Kate pitied
her and determined to help her. She was saying to herself that the girl
was certainly intelligent and attractive, when she suddenly realized that
this Indian maid was gifted with that indefinable but most potent of
feminine attractions--personal charm. And then, like an inspiration, the
idea took possession of her mind. She turned impulsively to Barbara:
"Will you go home with me and be my guest for all this spring and summer?"
The joy that beamed in the girl's face told how gladly she would go. But
it faded quickly and she shook her head sadly, as she answered:
"I can not. My father would not allow it. He will not even let me go
back to school. He says that I am an Indian, and that I must stay in
Acoma and be an Indian."
When Mrs. Coolidge saw that look of eager desire leap into Barbara's eyes
she determined that the thing should be brought to pass and set herself
to the task of overcoming old Ambrosio's determination that his daughter
should never again leave Acoma. It was not an easy thing to do, but
Colonel Kate finally accomplished it, on condition that Barbara should
return whenever he wished her to do so.
During the remaining days of Lent, dressmakers were busy with Barbara's
wardrobe; and Mrs. Coolidge carefully schooled her in a hundred little
particulars of manner and deportment. And meanwhile the Select of Santa
Fe waited with impatience for a first view of the Indian girl. For
Colonel Kate was too shrewd a manager to discount the sensation she
intended to produce, and so she kept Barbara at home, away from the front
doors and windows, and out of sight of curious callers. In the meantime
she diplomatically helped on the growing interest and excitement, and
lost no opportunity of arousing curiosity about her _protegee_.
And at last, when Barbara had been three weeks in her home, and no one
outside her own household had even seen the girl's face; when the town
was full of rumors and chatter and all manner of romantic stories about
the Indian girl; when everybody was wondering what she could be like, and
why Colonel Kate had taken such a fancy to her, then Mrs. Coolidge gave
her a coming-out party which eclipsed everything in Santa Fe's social
annals.
All the Select were there, including the Colonel's wife, who had not even
thought of trying to have a card party the same night. The doors had
been opened wide, also, for the Unassorted. All the most eligible of
these had received invitations, and not one had sent regrets. The editor
of _The Blast_, which was the mouthpiece of the Governor's party, and the
editor of _The Bugle_, the organ of the opposition, were both there; and
each of them published a glowing account of the occasion, the former
because he considered it his duty to "stand in" with whatever concerned
the Governor; and the latter because he hoped the Governor's wife would
make it possible for him to be transferred from the Unassorted to the
Select.
_The Blast_ said: "The Governor's palatial mansion was a dream of
Oriental magnificence, and the beautiful and artistic _placita_, lighted
by sparkling eyes of ladies fair and Japanese lanterns, was a vision of
fairy land." _The Bugle_ declared: "No, not even in the marble
drawing-rooms of Fifth Avenue and adjoining streets, nor in the luxurious
mansions of Washington, could be gathered together a more cultured, a
more polished, a more interesting, a more _recherche_ assemblage than
that which filled the Governor's palatial residence and vied with one
another in doing homage to the winsome Indian maiden."
To call the Governor's residence "palatial" was part of the common law of
Santa Fe journalism. In actual fact, it was a one-story, flat-roofed,
adobe house, enclosing a _placita_, or little court, and having a
_portal_, or roofed sidewalk, along its front.
When she first went to New Mexico, Mrs. Coolidge enjoyed transports of
enthusiasm over the quaintness and picturesqueness of its alien modes of
living. So she hunted all over Santa Fe for a house of the requisite
age, dilapidation, and eventful history, to transform into her own home.
And when at last she found this one, with an authenticated age of two
hundred years, and a romance, a crime, or a startling event for almost
every year in its history; with rough, irregular walls four feet thick;
with tiny, unglazed, iron-barred windows,--then time stopped, it seemed
to her, until the deed was recorded in her name.
With much sadness of heart she made sentiment give way to civilization
and renovated the interior. Wooden floors, instead of the packed earth,
hardened and glazed by the tread of many generations, plastered and
papered ceilings and walls and ample windows gave to the inside of the
house a modern air which its mistress deeply regretted, but accepted
mournfully as a necessary evil. But she did not allow a weed or a blade
of grass to be plucked from its roof; and upon the suggestion that the
old brown adobe walls should be treated to a coat of gray plaster she
frowned as if it had been blasphemy.
Upon the _placita_, which had been given over to weeds, tin cans, rags,
and broken dishes, she lavished loving care and made it the blooming,
fragrant heart of her home. In the centre was a locust tree of lusty
growth, plumy of foliage and brilliant of color; and underneath the tree
a little fountain shot upward a thin stream, which broke into a diamond
shower and fell plashing back into a pool whose rim was outlined by a
circle of purple-flowered iris. Around this spread a velvet turf, dotted
with dandelions and English daisies. An irregular, winding path inclosed
the tiny lawn, and all the space between the path and the narrow stone
walk that hugged the four sides of the house was rich with roses. La
France and American Beauty and Jacqueminot and many others were there in
profusion and made the placita a thing of beauty from the time the frosts
ended until they came again. A hand rail covered with climbing roses
guarded the stone walk on three sides of the court, while the fourth side
of the house was screened by a _portal_ over which roses and honeysuckles
clambered to the roof. Facing the wide, roofed passage which gave
entrance from the street, stood an arch loaded with honeysuckle vines.
Mrs. Coolidge's enthusiasm over New Mexican history, and her admiration
for the heroic times of the _Conquistadores_, had caused her to make the
interior of her home almost a museum of antiquities. On the floors
Navajo blankets--fifty, a hundred, a hundred and fifty years old, and
each one with its own dramatic tale--served as rugs. Silken _rebozos_,
worn by high-hearted cavaliers riding in search of "_la gran Quivera_"
draped her windows. Pueblo pottery, dug from villages that were in ruins
when the first white men saw them, filled cabinets and shelves. Saddle
skirts of embroidered leather, which had pleased the fancy of some brave
_capitan_ leading a handful of men against a rebellious pueblo two
centuries ago, made a background for the huge silver spurs of cunning
workmanship with which some other daring _caballero_ had urged his horse
in search of adventures and of gold. And beside them lay the stone axe
with which a courageous senora, a heroine of the Southwest, had cleft the
skull of a Navajo chief and saved her townspeople from falling into the
hands of the savage enemy. On the walls were old, old paintings of
_Nuestra Senora de_ this and that, proud of neck and sad and sweet of
face, which had been brought from the City of Mexico on the backs of
burros, and adored in little adobe churches by generations of men, women,
and children, and pierced by the arrows of angry and revengeful Indians
during the pueblo rebellion, or scarred by fires of destruction, from
which they had been saved by brave and pious devotees.
Such things as these made a picturesque setting for the Indian maid on
the night of her debut. It might have been a painful ordeal for her had
she known that all these people were there mainly to satisfy their
curiosity concerning her. But Mrs. Coolidge had carefully kept from her
the knowledge that she was of especial interest and was expected to
produce a sensation. So she knew only that she was having a delightful
time and that everybody was so kind and cordial and took so much interest
in her that she did not have a minute during the whole evening in which
to think about herself. Everybody was eager to dance, or talk, or stroll
in the _placita_ with her, and all who were not engaged with her were
talking enthusiastically in praise of her appearance, her manner, or her
conversation.