CONNIE CALLS A BLUFF
In the agency office, Hogan snapped the receiver onto the hook, and
glared contemptuously at Connie: "Your maw don't care what kind of
company you keep, does she?" he snapped.
"She didn't know I was coming here--to the agency," answered the boy.
"What?"
"I say, she didn't know I was coming over here to see you."
"I was talking about Dick Grey. Didn't you know he's an outlaw?"
"Yes," answered the boy, looking the man squarely in the eye. "And I
know why. That's one of the things I wanted to see you about. There
are some other things, too."
"Well, spit it out."
"About those cattle of mine that I'm pasturing on the reservation.
Mr. Rutledge, here, my man, reports that the Indians have killed
several head for beef."
"Well, what about it?"
"He says they don't kill any PU. stuff on the reservation for beef."
"That's your hard luck. What you going to do about it?"
"I'm going to put in a claim for damages."
The man sneered: "Claim for damages, eh? All right, put it in. But,
I'll tell you before you do, you might as well save yourself the
trouble. The Government don't guarantee you'll take as many head off
the reservation in the fall as you put on in the spring. All your
fifty cents a head buys, is the right to pasturage."
"I'd like to see a copy of the permit, please."
"What permit?"
"Why, the permit under which I am pasturing five hundred head of
cattle on the reservation."
"Oh, you would, eh? Well, you can't."
"I've got a right to see it, haven't I?"
"I'm the agent of this reservation, an' what rights you've got here
are just what I say you've got. You get that, do you?"
Connie nodded: "Yes, I get it. And, now about Dick Grey. I wish you
would call up the sheriff again, or the prosecuting attorney and tell
him that you've decided to drop the case against Grey, and are
withdrawing the reward. You see, I've hired him for a rider, and I
kind of want to get his record cleared up."
The Major glared for a moment as though the boy had taken leave of
his senses. "What! What--what in thunder do you mean? Of all the
impudent young puppies I ever heard of! Look here, if you want to
file any fool complaint, go ahead and write it out and then get out
of here! And let me give you a little advice, young fellow, if you
expect to stay in this country it isn't going to do you any good to
be mixed up with crooks and horse thieves."
"That's good advice, Major. And that's the reason I want to get
Dick's case straightened out. You see, I know all about his claim
that you want to get hold of, and about the hair-branding that you
ordered done in the corral that day, and about your cutting the fence
afterward. One of the boys that did the branding is working for me."
"Look here," roared the Major, "I don't know what you're talking
about! If anybody's been feeding you up on any cock-and-bull story
all I've got to say is to let 'em tell it to the judge when Grey has
his trial. I guess when I get through with what I've got to say, and
the boys on the PU. ranch, any testimony your lone cow-hand brings
out will look kind of sickly. But, I've listened to enough of this
nonsense. Here's a pen and paper. Write out your fool complaint and
get out of here!"
"Oh, I'm not going to file any complaint here," answered the boy.
"When the inspector from Washington comes I'll file it with him."
"Inspector from Washington! What in thunder are you talking about?'
"If he started yesterday he ought to be along in a day or two. You
see, Major, I'm a sort of a green hand around this part of the
country, and I've had to do a lot of enquiring around. I've found
out quite a lot of things, but there are some things that aren't
quite clear yet. And the funny part of it is that the Indian
Department at Washington is almost as much in the dark as I am.
That's why they're going to send this inspector out so you can help
him straighten things out. Why, they haven't any record of any Round
Seven cattle ever having been pastured on the reservation, nor any
other brands except the PU. And, they think there's only about five
thousand head of PU. cattle on the reservation, and of course we know
there's ten or fifteen thousand head. And, maybe you wouldn't
believe it, Major, but they don't even know you're manager of the
PU.!"
At first mention of the inspector the blood had rushed into the
Major's face flushing it a fiery red, but at the next few sentences
the blood slowly receded, and his whole figure seemed to shrink so
that when Connie finished his face was deathly pale, and he sat
slouched down in his chair, speechless, like a man who had been
stunned. "What--what do you--mean?" he asked, in a bewildered tone
that faltered as though his brain groped for words.
"Why, I mean that in a couple of days now, we will have this business
all cleared up, and----"
"And, you say there's a special inspector coming from Washington?
Coming here--without notice!"
"I don't know anything about any notice. But, if he started
yesterday he ought to be here tomorrow, or next day. It's according
to the connections he makes at Chicago and St. Paul."
"Why in thunder didn't you come to me with this instead of taking it
up with the department?" There was a hint of the man's habitual
bluster in the tone, and it was evident that his fright was giving
place to rage. "You've stirred up a nice mess! Young man, do you
know you've ruined me? You young fool! Don't you know that if you'd
come to me first with what you've just told me, you could have forced
me to pay for your dead beef, and let you pasture on the reservation
in the future for nothing, and withdraw my charge against Grey
besides? Now, I've got to skip the country or be hauled up before
the department, and you don't get a cent out of it, one way or
another! That's what comes of a fool kid blundering around without
knowing the first principles of business."
"Where I came from crookedness isn't figured as one of the principles
of business," answered the boy dryly. "You see, since I took hold of
the Round Seven, I've had to kind of jump in and help clean up the
country. Men like you and Bill Harmon have been pulling it pretty
raw around here just because nobody figured it was their business to
call your bluff. You're right about having to either skip the
country, or being hauled up before the department. But you're dead
wrong about it's not doing me a cent's worth of good. It will do me,
and the Indians, and the whole country good, to have you some place
else. But, before you go, you're going to pay me for twelve head of
steers at forty dollars a head, and you're going to turn Dick Grey
loose, and then call up the sheriff and tell him you have withdrawn
your charge against him. Maybe he's started for here, but if he has
you can leave a note for him, before you pull out for somewhere else."
The man's face reddened almost to a purple: "You confounded young
whelp! I'll--I'll--Are you so blamed ignorant you can't get it
through your head that you've lost your only chance of getting paid
for those steers? And, as for Grey, that horse-thieving charge will
hang over him till it outlaws, for all of me! You've forced me out
of the country with your bull-headed blundering--but it will cost you
something to do it!"
"It isn't the money I care about. Ridding the country of a man like
you is worth a whole lot more than the price of a few steers. And,
of course Dick Grey could stand trial and be acquitted if you weren't
here to prosecute him. It isn't that--it's just that I'd hate to see
you go away thinking you had put anything over on me."
"You've got a fat chance of making me do anything you propose!
You've shot your bolt! You're through!"
"Not quite," answered Connie. "Have you stopped to think where you
would have been if I had waited and ridden down here with the
inspector? The way it is, you've got at least a day or two the start
of him. That's a little act of kindness, maybe, on my part. But I
don't expect you will come across on that score. I knew if I came
down here with nothing but bluff and bluster to back my play I
wouldn't have any better chance to win out than you had."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, for instance, I don't suppose you've heard that my foreman,
here, Mr. Rutledge had been appointed deputy sheriff. And maybe you
don't know that putting another man's brand on your own colts with
intent to injure another is a criminal offense. But it is. As you
say, it is possible that when the case came to trial, you and your
paid witnesses could secure your acquittal. Just suppose, though,
that Mr. Rutledge should arrest you on that charge and take you back
to town. With Judge Colter somewhere in the mountains fishing it
might be several days before you could arrange for bail. In the
meantime we will just suppose that the inspector has arrived from
Washington--" The sentence was interrupted by a sharp click, as the
major jerked the telephone receiver from its hook and called central
in a voice that had lost its bluster.
"Hello, this is Major Hogan. Can you get the sheriff again? What?
Horseback? Well, yell at him! It's important." Several moments of
silence followed, and at length the voice spoke again! "Hello,
McLaughlin? Yes. Lucky she caught you. Said you were just riding
by. It's about that Dick Grey case. I want you to fix it up to have
that charge withdrawn. Yes, that's right--withdrawn. I just found
out it was a mistake. Yes. Get it off the books, will you? Yes.
I'll explain next time I see you. Glad I saved you the ride. Good
Bye." Reaching into his desk the man withdrew a check book, and
without looking up, asked: "How much did you say that was--for those
steers?"
"There have been twelve head butchered that we know of, and I figure
them at forty dollars," answered Connie. "That's--let's see--it's
four hundred and eighty dollars, isn't it?"
Without answering, the man wrote out the check and handed it to
Connie who folded it carefully and placed it in his pocket. "Thank
you, Major," he said. "And, now, if you'll turn Dick loose, I guess
we'll be going."
That evening as the three sat down to supper in the Chinaman's
restaurant in Red Bank, the door opened and Sheriff McLaughlin looked
in. Connie motioned him to the empty chair opposite: "Come on,
Sheriff, have supper with us!"
"Don't know but what I will," answered the officer, as he seated
himself, and shook the hand that Dick Grey had outstretched: "Glad to
see you, Dick!"
Dick grinned: "An' I'm gladder to see you, Mac, than any time for the
last six months. You give me a narrow squeak one time. Down in
Black Coulee, it was, about three months ago. You rode past within
arm's reach of me!"
"Uh-huh," answered the sheriff. "An' if I hadn't know'd you wasn't
no more a horse-thief than what I am, I'd of retched out my arm an'
nabbed you. I couldn't hardly keep from laughin' when I was goin'
past."
"You know'd I was there!" cried Grey in such evident surprise that
the others all laughed.
"Say, son," grinned the sheriff, "next time you want to hide from
anyone, an' it's a sunshiney day, jest you either pull them silver
conchos off'n yer chaps, or else cover 'em up. I rode up that coulee
fer a half a mile or more, with about eight of them conchos
a-flickerin' in my eyes like a row of street lamps. But, how come
you an' Morgan hooked up?"
Connie, himself told the story of the poison spring, and Tex followed
it with a glowing account of the interview with Major Hogan. "But,
what I can't figger out," he concluded, turning to Connie, "is how in
thunder you got such quick action with the Indian Department in
Washington?"
"Indian Department?" said the boy, "I never had anything to do with
the Indian Department. All I said was just what your friend the
agency clerk told you--that the department didn't know anything about
the Round Seven cattle being on the reservation, and that they
thought there were only five thousand head of PU. cattle there, and
that they didn't know that the Major was manager of the PU."
"But--you said there would be an inspector----"
"Oh, no, I didn't!" smiled the boy. "Do you know, I believe maybe
the Major thought I said that, too. But what I really said was that
an inspector ought to be along tomorrow or next day if he had started
from Washington yesterday. Which is a perfectly evident fact to
anyone who will take the trouble to figure it out."
"You mean," cried Tex, staring in open-mouthed astonishment, "that it
was all a bluff?"
"Just a bluff," answered the boy. "I told the sheriff that I
believed the easiest man in the world to bluff was the man who
bluffed most himself. Didn't I, sheriff?"
"You sure did," admitted the officer. "But, believe me, I never
thought you could work it on _him_!"
Tex roared with laughter: "An' on top of that he makes him turn Dick
Grey loose, and pay fer the steers the Injuns killed! He told him I
was a deputy sheriff----"
"No, no! Tex! Why, that would have been a lie! All I said was that
I didn't suppose he had heard that you had been appointed deputy
sheriff. In fact, he couldn't have heard it. You never have been
appointed a deputy sheriff."
Another roar of laughter greeted the words, and Tex asked: "But how
did you know that things would break just right, like Judge Colter
bein' off fishin' so it would take several days to get bail."
Connie shook his head, sadly: "Tex, there is something wrong with
your hearing. I didn't say Judge Colter was away fishing. Only that
'with Judge Colter away fishing, it would take several days to get
bail,' and, it would, wouldn't it sheriff?"
"It surely would, son," answered McLaughlin. And, as they all rose
from the table, he turned to Dick Grey, with a grin: "I was jest
a-wonderin', Dick, how you was goin' to like yer new boss."
"Huh!" answered Grey, as he set his Stetson firmly upon his head, "if
he don't fire me first, he's goin' to have to bury me when I git an
old, old man!"