When spring came at last and the willows drooped green and fresh over
the brook and the range rang with bray of burro and whistle of stallion,
old Al Auchincloss had been a month in his grave.
To Helen it seemed longer. The month had been crowded with work, events,
and growing, more hopeful duties, so that it contained a world
of living. The uncle had not been forgotten, but the innumerable
restrictions to development and progress were no longer manifest.
Beasley had not presented himself or any claim upon Helen; and she,
gathering confidence day by day, began to believe all that purport of
trouble had been exaggerated.
In this time she had come to love her work and all that pertained to it.
The estate was large. She had no accurate knowledge of how many acres
she owned, but it was more than two thousand. The fine, old, rambling
ranch-house, set like a fort on the last of the foot-hills, corrals and
fields and barns and meadows, and the rolling green range beyond, and
innumerable sheep, horses, cattle--all these belonged to Helen, to her
ever-wondering realization and ever-growing joy. Still, she was afraid
to let herself go and be perfectly happy. Always there was the fear that
had been too deep and strong to forget so soon.
This bright, fresh morning, in March, Helen came out upon the porch to
revel a little in the warmth of sunshine and the crisp, pine-scented
wind that swept down from the mountains. There was never a morning that
she did not gaze mountainward, trying to see, with a folly she realized,
if the snow had melted more perceptibly away on the bold white ridge.
For all she could see it had not melted an inch, and she would
not confess why she sighed. The desert had become green and fresh,
stretching away there far below her range, growing dark and purple in
the distance with vague buttes rising. The air was full of sound--notes
of blackbirds and the baas of sheep, and blasts from the corrals, and
the clatter of light hoofs on the court below.
Bo was riding in from the stables. Helen loved to watch her on one of
those fiery little mustangs, but the sight was likewise given to rousing
apprehensions. This morning Bo appeared particularly bent on frightening
Helen. Down the lane Carmichael appeared, waving his arms, and Helen
at once connected him with Bo's manifest desire to fly away from that
particular place. Since that day, a month back, when Bo had confessed
her love for Carmichael, she and Helen had not spoken of it or of the
cowboy. The boy and girl were still at odds. But this did not worry
Helen. Bo had changed much for the better, especially in that she
devoted herself to Helen and to her work. Helen knew that all would
turn out well in the end, and so she had been careful of her rather
precarious position between these two young firebrands.
Bo reined in the mustang at the porch steps. She wore a buckskin
riding-suit which she had made herself, and its soft gray with the
touches of red beads was mightily becoming to her. Then she had grown
considerably during the winter and now looked too flashing and pretty to
resemble a boy, yet singularly healthy and strong and lithe. Red spots
shone in her cheeks and her eyes held that ever-dangerous blaze.
“Nell, did you give me away to that cowboy?” she demanded.
“Give you away!” exclaimed Helen, blankly.
“Yes. You know I told you--awhile back--that I was wildly in love with
him. Did you give me away--tell on me?”
She might have been furious, but she certainly was not confused.
“Why, Bo! How could you? No. I did not,” replied Helen.
“Never gave him a hint?”
“Not even a hint. You have my word for that. Why? What's happened?”
“He makes me sick.”
Bo would not say any more, owing to the near approach of the cowboy.
“Mawnin', Miss Nell,” he drawled. “I was just tellin' this here Miss
Bo-Peep Rayner--”
“Don't call me that!” broke in Bo, with fire in her voice.
“Wal, I was just tellin' her thet she wasn't goin' off on any more of
them long rides. Honest now, Miss Nell, it ain't safe, an'--”
“You're not my boss,” retorted Bo.
“Indeed, sister, I agree with him. You won't obey me.”
“Reckon some one's got to be your boss,” drawled Carmichael. “Shore I
ain't hankerin' for the job. You could ride to Kingdom Come or off among
the Apaches--or over here a ways”--at this he grinned knowingly--“or
anywheres, for all I cared. But I'm workin' for Miss Nell, an' she's
boss. An' if she says you're not to take them rides--you won't. Savvy
that, miss?”
It was a treat for Helen to see Bo look at the cowboy.
“Mis-ter Carmichael, may I ask how you are going to prevent me from
riding where I like?”
“Wal, if you're goin' worse locoed this way I'll keep you off'n a hoss
if I have to rope you an' tie you up. By golly, I will!”
His dry humor was gone and manifestly he meant what he said.
“Wal,” she drawled it very softly and sweetly, but venomously,
“if--you--ever--touch--me again!”
At this he flushed, then made a quick, passionate gesture with his hand,
expressive of heat and shame.
“You an' me will never get along,” he said, with a dignity full of
pathos. “I seen thet a month back when you changed sudden-like to me.
But nothin' I say to you has any reckonin' of mine. I'm talkin' for your
sister. It's for her sake. An' your own.... I never told her an' I never
told you thet I've seen Riggs sneakin' after you twice on them desert
rides. Wal, I tell you now.”
The intelligence apparently had not the slightest effect on Bo. But
Helen was astonished and alarmed.
“Riggs! Oh, Bo, I've seen him myself--riding around. He does not mean
well. You must be careful.”
“If I ketch him again,” went on Carmichael, with his mouth lining hard,
“I'm goin' after him.”
He gave her a cool, intent, piercing look, then he dropped his head and
turned away, to stride back toward the corrals.
Helen could make little of the manner in which her sister watched the
cowboy pass out of sight.
“A month back--when I changed sudden-like,” mused Bo. “I wonder what he
meant by that.... Nell, did I change--right after the talk you had with
me--about him?”
“Indeed you did, Bo,” replied Helen. “But it was for the better. Only
he can't see it. How proud and sensitive he is! You wouldn't guess it
at first. Bo, your reserve has wounded him more than your flirting. He
thinks it's indifference.”
“Maybe that 'll be good for him,” declared Bo. “Does he expect me to
fall on his neck? He's that thick-headed! Why, he's the locoed one, not
me.”
“I'd like to ask you, Bo, if you've seen how he has changed?” queried
Helen, earnestly. “He's older. He's worried. Either his heart is
breaking for you or else he fears trouble for us. I fear it's both. How
he watches you! Bo, he knows all you do--where you go. That about Riggs
sickens me.”
“If Riggs follows me and tries any of his four-flush desperado games
he'll have his hands full,” said Bo, grimly. “And that without my cowboy
protector! But I just wish Riggs would do something. Then we'll see what
Las Vegas Tom Carmichael cares. Then we'll see!”
Bo bit out the last words passionately and jealously, then she lifted
her bridle to the spirited mustang.
“Nell, don't you fear for me,” she said. “I can take care of myself.”
Helen watched her ride away, all but willing to confess that there
might be truth in what Bo said. Then Helen went about her work, which
consisted of routine duties as well as an earnest study to familiarize
herself with continually new and complex conditions of ranch life. Every
day brought new problems. She made notes of all that she observed, and
all that was told her, which habit she had found, after a few weeks of
trial, was going to be exceedingly valuable to her. She did not intend
always to be dependent upon the knowledge of hired men, however faithful
some of them might be.
This morning on her rounds she had expected developments of some kind,
owing to the presence of Roy Beeman and two of his brothers, who had
arrived yesterday. And she was to discover that Jeff Mulvey, accompanied
by six of his co-workers and associates, had deserted her without a word
or even sending for their pay. Carmichael had predicted this. Helen had
half doubted. It was a relief now to be confronted with facts, however
disturbing. She had fortified herself to withstand a great deal more
trouble than had happened. At the gateway of the main corral, a huge
inclosure fenced high with peeled logs, she met Roy Beeman, lasso in
hand, the same tall, lean, limping figure she remembered so well.
Sight of him gave her an inexplicable thrill--a flashing memory of an
unforgettable night ride. Roy was to have charge of the horses on the
ranch, of which there were several hundred, not counting many lost on
range and mountain, or the unbranded colts.
Roy took off his sombrero and greeted her. This Mormon had a courtesy
for women that spoke well for him. Helen wished she had more employees
like him.
“It's jest as Las Vegas told us it 'd be,” he said, regretfully. “Mulvey
an' his pards lit out this mornin'. I'm sorry, Miss Helen. Reckon thet's
all because I come over.”
“I heard the news,” replied Helen. “You needn't be sorry, Roy, for I'm
not. I'm glad. I want to know whom I can trust.”
“Las Vegas says we're shore in for it now.”
“Roy, what do you think?”
“I reckon so. Still, Las Vegas is powerful cross these days an' always
lookin' on the dark side. With us boys, now, it's sufficient unto the
day is the evil thereof. But, Miss Helen, if Beasley forces the deal
there will be serious trouble. I've seen thet happen. Four or five years
ago Beasley rode some greasers off their farms an' no one ever knowed if
he had a just claim.”
“Beasley has no claim on my property. My uncle solemnly swore that on
his death-bed. And I find nothing in his books or papers of those years
when he employed Beasley. In fact, Beasley was never uncle's partner.
The truth is that my uncle took Beasley up when he was a poor, homeless
boy.”
“So my old dad says,” replied Roy. “But what's right don't always
prevail in these parts.”
“Roy, you're the keenest man I've met since I came West. Tell me what
you think will happen.”
Beeman appeared flattered, but he hesitated to reply. Helen had long
been aware of the reticence of these outdoor men.
“I reckon you mean cause an' effect, as Milt Dale would say,” responded
Roy, thoughtfully.
“Yes. If Beasley attempts to force me off my ranch what will happen?”
Roy looked up and met her gaze. Helen remembered that singular
stillness, intentness of his face.
“Wal, if Dale an' John get here in time I reckon we can bluff thet
Beasley outfit.”
“You mean my friends--my men would confront Beasley--refuse his
demands--and if necessary fight him off?”
“I shore do,” replied Roy.
“But suppose you're not all here? Beasley would be smart enough to
choose an opportune time. Suppose he did put me off and take possession?
What then?”
“Then it 'd only be a matter of how soon Dale or Carmichael--or I--got
to Beasley.”
“Roy! I feared just that. It haunts me. Carmichael asked me to let him
go pick a fight with Beasley. Asked me, just as he would ask me about
his work! I was shocked. And now you say Dale--and you--”
Helen choked in her agitation.
“Miss Helen, what else could you look for? Las Vegas is in love with
Miss Bo. Shore he told me so. An' Dale's in love with you!... Why, you
couldn't stop them any more 'n you could stop the wind from blowin' down
a pine, when it got ready.... Now, it's some different with me. I'm a
Mormon an' I'm married. But I'm Dale's pard, these many years. An'
I care a powerful sight for you an' Miss Bo. So I reckon I'd draw on
Beasley the first chance I got.”
Helen strove for utterance, but it was denied her. Roy's simple
statement of Dale's love had magnified her emotion by completely
changing its direction. She forgot what she had felt wretched about. She
could not look at Roy.
“Miss Helen, don't feel bad,” he said, kindly. “Shore you're not to
blame. Your comin' West hasn't made any difference in Beasley's fate,
except mebbe to hurry it a little. My dad is old, an' when he talks
it's like history. He looks back on happenin's. Wal, it's the nature of
happenin's that Beasley passes away before his prime. Them of his breed
don't live old in the West.... So I reckon you needn't feel bad or
worry. You've got friends.”
Helen incoherently thanked him, and, forgetting her usual round of
corrals and stables, she hurried back toward the house, deeply stirred,
throbbing and dim-eyed, with a feeling she could not control. Roy Beeman
had made a statement that had upset her equilibrium. It seemed simple
and natural, yet momentous and staggering. To hear that Dale loved
her--to hear it spoken frankly, earnestly, by Dale's best friend, was
strange, sweet, terrifying. But was it true? Her own consciousness had
admitted it. Yet that was vastly different from a man's open statement.
No longer was it a dear dream, a secret that seemed hers alone. How she
had lived on that secret hidden deep in her breast!
Something burned the dimness from her eyes as she looked toward the
mountains and her sight became clear, telescopic with its intensity.
Magnificently the mountains loomed. Black inroads and patches on the
slopes showed where a few days back all bad been white. The snow was
melting fast. Dale would soon be free to ride down to Pine. And that was
an event Helen prayed for, yet feared as she had never feared anything.
The noonday dinner-bell startled Helen from a reverie that was a
pleasant aftermath of her unrestraint. How the hours had flown! This
morning at least must be credited to indolence.
Bo was not in the dining-room, nor in her own room, nor was she in
sight from window or door. This absence had occurred before, but not
particularly to disturb Helen. In this instance, however, she grew
worried. Her nerves presaged strain. There was an overcharge of
sensibility in her feelings or a strange pressure in the very
atmosphere. She ate dinner alone, looking her apprehension, which was
not mitigated by the expressive fears of old Maria, the Mexican woman
who served her.
After dinner she sent word to Roy and Carmichael that they had better
ride out to look for Bo. Then Helen applied herself resolutely to her
books until a rapid clatter of hoofs out in the court caused her to jump
up and hurry to the porch. Roy was riding in.
“Did you find her?” queried Helen, hurriedly.
“Wasn't no track or sign of her up the north range,” replied Roy, as he
dismounted and threw his bridle. “An' I was ridin' back to take up her
tracks from the corral an' trail her. But I seen Las Vegas comin' an' he
waved his sombrero. He was comin' up from the south. There he is now.”
Carmichael appeared swinging into the lane. He was mounted on Helen's
big black Ranger, and he made the dust fly.
“Wal, he's seen her, thet's shore,” vouchsafed Roy, with relief, as
Carmichael rode up.
“Miss Nell, she's comin',” said the cowboy, as he reined in and
slid down with his graceful single motion. Then in a violent action,
characteristic of him, he slammed his sombrero down on the porch and
threw up both arms. “I've a hunch it's come off!”
“Oh, what?” exclaimed Helen.
“Now, Las Vegas, talk sense,” expostulated Roy. “Miss Helen is shore
nervous to-day. Has anythin' happened?”
“I reckon, but I don't know what,” replied Carmichael, drawing a long
breath. “Folks, I must be gettin' old. For I shore felt orful queer till
I seen Bo. She was ridin' down the ridge across the valley. Ridin' some
fast, too, an' she'll be here right off, if she doesn't stop in the
village.”
“Wal, I hear her comin' now,” said Roy. “An'--if you asked me I'd say
she WAS ridin' some fast.”
Helen heard the light, swift, rhythmic beat of hoofs, and then out on
the curve of the road that led down to Pine she saw Bo's mustang, white
with lather, coming on a dead run.
“Las Vegas, do you see any Apaches?” asked Roy, quizzingly.
The cowboy made no reply, but he strode out from the porch, directly
in front of the mustang. Bo was pulling hard on the bridle, and had him
slowing down, but not controlled. When he reached the house it could
easily be seen that Bo had pulled him to the limit of her strength,
which was not enough to halt him. Carmichael lunged for the bridle and,
seizing it, hauled him to a standstill.
At close sight of Bo Helen uttered a startled cry. Bo was white; her
sombrero was gone and her hair undone; there were blood and dirt on
her face, and her riding-suit was torn and muddy. She had evidently
sustained a fall. Roy gazed at her in admiring consternation, but
Carmichael never looked at her at all. Apparently he was examining the
horse. “Well, help me off--somebody,” cried Bo, peremptorily. Her voice
was weak, but not her spirit.
Roy sprang to help her off, and when she was down it developed that she
was lame.
“Oh, Bo! You've had a tumble,” exclaimed Helen, anxiously, and she ran
to assist Roy. They led her up the porch and to the door. There she
turned to look at Carmichael, who was still examining the spent mustang.
“Tell him--to come in,” she whispered.
“Hey, there, Las Vegas!” called Roy. “Rustle hyar, will you?”
When Bo had been led into the sitting-room and seated in a chair
Carmichael entered. His face was a study, as slowly he walked up to Bo.
“Girl, you--ain't hurt?” he asked, huskily.
“It's no fault of yours that I'm not crippled--or dead or worse,”
retorted Bo. “You said the south range was the only safe ride for me.
And there--I--it happened.”
She panted a little and her bosom heaved. One of her gauntlets was gone,
and the bare band, that was bruised and bloody, trembled as she held it
out.
“Dear, tell us--are you badly hurt?” queried Helen, with hurried
gentleness.
“Not much. I've had a spill,” replied Bo. “But oh! I'm mad--I'm
boiling!”
She looked as if she might have exaggerated her doubt of injuries, but
certainly she had not overestimated her state of mind. Any blaze Helen
had heretofore seen in those quick eyes was tame compared to this one.
It actually leaped. Bo was more than pretty then. Manifestly Roy was
admiring her looks, but Carmichael saw beyond her charm. And slowly he
was growing pale.
“I rode out the south range--as I was told,” began Bo, breathing hard
and trying to control her feelings. “That's the ride you usually take,
Nell, and you bet--if you'd taken it to-day--you'd not be here now....
About three miles out I climbed off the range up that cedar slope. I
always keep to high ground. When I got up I saw two horsemen ride out
of some broken rocks off to the east. They rode as if to come between me
and home. I didn't like that. I circled south. About a mile farther on I
spied another horseman and he showed up directly in front of me and came
along slow. That I liked still less. It might have been accident, but it
looked to me as if those riders had some intent. All I could do was head
off to the southeast and ride. You bet I did ride. But I got into rough
ground where I'd never been before. It was slow going. At last I made
the cedars and here I cut loose, believing I could circle ahead of those
strange riders and come round through Pine. I had it wrong.”
Here she hesitated, perhaps for breath, for she had spoken rapidly, or
perhaps to get better hold on her subject. Not improbably the effect she
was creating on her listeners began to be significant. Roy sat absorbed,
perfectly motionless, eyes keen as steel, his mouth open. Carmichael
was gazing over Bo's head, out of the window, and it seemed that he
must know the rest of her narrative. Helen knew that her own wide-eyed
attention alone would have been all-compelling inspiration to Bo Rayner.
“Sure I had it wrong,” resumed Bo. “Pretty soon heard a horse behind. I
looked back. I saw a big bay riding down on me. Oh, but he was running!
He just tore through the cedars. ... I was scared half out of my senses.
But I spurred and beat my mustang. Then began a race! Rough going--thick
cedars--washes and gullies I had to make him run--to keep my saddle--to
pick my way. Oh-h-h! but it was glorious! To race for fun--that's
one thing; to race for your life is another! My heart was in my
mouth--choking me. I couldn't have yelled. I was as cold as ice--dizzy
sometimes--blind others--then my stomach turned--and I couldn't get my
breath. Yet the wild thrills I had!... But I stuck on and held my own
for several miles--to the edge of the cedars. There the big horse gained
on me. He came pounding closer--perhaps as close as a hundred yards--I
could hear him plain enough. Then I had my spill. Oh, my mustang
tripped--threw me 'way over his head. I hit light, but slid far--and
that's what scraped me so. I know my knee is raw.... When I got to my
feet the big horse dashed up, throwing gravel all over me--and his rider
jumped off.... Now who do you think he was?”
Helen knew, but she did not voice her conviction. Carmichael knew
positively, yet he kept silent. Roy was smiling, as if the narrative
told did not seem so alarming to him.
“Wal, the fact of you bein' here, safe an' sound, sorta makes no
difference who thet son-of-a-gun was,” he said.
“Riggs! Harve Riggs!” blazed Bo. “The instant I recognized him I got
over my scare. And so mad I burned all through like fire. I don't know
what I said, but it was wild--and it was a whole lot, you bet.
“You sure can ride,' he said.
“I demanded why he had dared to chase me, and he said he had an
important message for Nell. This was it: 'Tell your sister that Beasley
means to put her off an' take the ranch. If she'll marry me I'll block
his deal. If she won't marry me, I'll go in with Beasley.' Then he told
me to hurry home and not to breathe a word to any one except Nell. Well,
here I am--and I seem to have been breathing rather fast.”
She looked from Helen to Roy and from Roy to Las Vegas. Her smile was
for the latter, and to any one not overexcited by her story that smile
would have told volumes.
“Wal, I'll be doggoned!” ejaculated Roy, feelingly.
Helen laughed.
“Indeed, the working of that man's mind is beyond me.... Marry him to
save my ranch? I wouldn't marry him to save my life!”
Carmichael suddenly broke his silence.
“Bo, did you see the other men?”
“Yes. I was coming to that,” she replied. “I caught a glimpse of
them back in the cedars. The three were together, or, at least, three
horsemen were there. They had halted behind some trees. Then on the way
home I began to think. Even in my fury I had received impressions. Riggs
was SURPRISED when I got up. I'll bet he had not expected me to be who I
was. He thought I was NELL!... I look bigger in this buckskin outfit. My
hair was up till I lost my hat, and that was when I had the tumble. He
took me for Nell. Another thing, I remember--he made some sign--some
motion while I was calling him names, and I believe that was to keep
those other men back.... I believe Riggs had a plan with those other men
to waylay Nell and make off with her. I absolutely know it.”
“Bo, you're so--so--you jump at wild ideas so,” protested Helen, trying
to believe in her own assurance. But inwardly she was trembling.
“Miss Helen, that ain't a wild idee,” said Roy, seriously. “I reckon
your sister is pretty close on the trail. Las Vegas, don't you savvy it
thet way?”
Carmichael's answer was to stalk out of the room.
“Call him back!” cried Helen, apprehensively.
“Hold on, boy!” called Roy, sharply.
Helen reached the door simultaneously with Roy. The cowboy picked up his
sombrero, jammed it on his head, gave his belt a vicious hitch that made
the gun-sheath jump, and then in one giant step he was astride Ranger.
“Carmichael! Stay!” cried Helen.
The cowboy spurred the black, and the stones rang under iron-shod hoofs.
“Bo! Call him back! Please call him back!” importuned Helen, in
distress.
“I won't,” declared Bo Rayner. Her face shone whiter now and her eyes
were like fiery flint. That was her answer to a loving, gentle-hearted
sister; that was her answer to the call of the West.
“No use,” said Roy, quietly. “An' I reckon I'd better trail him up.”
He, too, strode out and, mounting his horse, galloped swiftly away.
It turned out that Bo, was more bruised and scraped and shaken than she
had imagined. One knee was rather badly cut, which injury alone would
have kept her from riding again very soon. Helen, who was somewhat
skilled at bandaging wounds, worried a great deal over these sundry
blotches on Bo's fair skin, and it took considerable time to wash and
dress them. Long after this was done, and during the early supper, and
afterward, Bo's excitement remained unabated. The whiteness stayed on
her face and the blaze in her eyes. Helen ordered and begged her to go
to bed, for the fact was Bo could not stand up and her hands shook.
“Go to bed? Not much,” she said. “I want to know what he does to Riggs.”
It was that possibility which had Helen in dreadful suspense. If
Carmichael killed Riggs, it seemed to Helen that the bottom would
drop out of this structure of Western life she had begun to build so
earnestly and fearfully. She did not believe that he would do so. But
the uncertainty was torturing.
“Dear Bo,” appealed Helen, “you don't want--Oh! you do want Carmichael
to--to kill Riggs?”
“No, I don't, but I wouldn't care if he did,” replied Bo, bluntly.
“Do you think--he will?”
“Nell, if that cowboy really loves me he read my mind right here before
he left,” declared Bo. “And he knew what I thought he'd do.”
“And what's--that?” faltered Helen.
“I want him to round Riggs up down in the village--somewhere in a crowd.
I want Riggs shown up as the coward, braggart, four-flush that he is.
And insulted, slapped, kicked--driven out of Pine!”
Her passionate speech still rang throughout the room when there came
footsteps on the porch. Helen hurried to raise the bar from the door and
open it just as a tap sounded on the door-post. Roy's face stood white
out of the darkness. His eyes were bright. And his smile made Helen's
fearful query needless.
“How are you-all this evenin'?” he drawled, as he came in.
A fire blazed on the hearth and a lamp burned on the table. By their
light Bo looked white and eager-eyed as she reclined in the big
arm-chair.
“What 'd he do?” she asked, with all her amazing force.
“Wal, now, ain't you goin' to tell me how you are?”
“Roy, I'm all bunged up. I ought to be in bed, but I just couldn't sleep
till I hear what Las Vegas did. I'd forgive anything except him getting
drunk.”
“Wal, I shore can ease your mind on thet,” replied Roy. “He never drank
a drop.”
Roy was distractingly slow about beginning the tale any child could have
guessed he was eager to tell. For once the hard, intent quietness, the
soul of labor, pain, and endurance so plain in his face was softened by
pleasurable emotion. He poked at the burning logs with the toe of his
boot. Helen observed that he had changed his boots and now wore no
spurs. Then he had gone to his quarters after whatever had happened down
in Pine.
“Where IS he?” asked Bo.
“Who? Riggs? Wal, I don't know. But I reckon he's somewhere out in the
woods nursin' himself.”
“Not Riggs. First tell me where HE is.”
“Shore, then, you must mean Las Vegas. I just left him down at the
cabin. He was gettin' ready for bed, early as it is. All tired out he
was an' thet white you wouldn't have knowed him. But he looked happy at
thet, an' the last words he said, more to himself than to me, I reckon,
was, 'I'm some locoed gent, but if she doesn't call me Tom now she's no
good!'”
Bo actually clapped her hands, notwithstanding that one of them was
bandaged.
“Call him Tom? I should smile I will,” she declared, in delight. “Hurry
now--what 'd--”
“It's shore powerful strange how he hates thet handle Las Vegas,” went
on Roy, imperturbably.
“Roy, tell me what he did--what TOM did--or I'll scream,” cried Bo.
“Miss Helen, did you ever see the likes of thet girl?” asked Roy,
appealing to Helen.
“No, Roy, I never did,” agreed Helen. “But please--please tell us what
has happened.”
Roy grinned and rubbed his hands together in a dark delight, almost
fiendish in its sudden revelation of a gulf of strange emotion deep
within him. Whatever had happened to Riggs had not been too much for
Roy Beeman. Helen remembered hearing her uncle say that a real Westerner
hated nothing so hard as the swaggering desperado, the make-believe
gunman who pretended to sail under the true, wild, and reckoning colors
of the West.
Roy leaned his lithe, tall form against the stone mantelpiece and faced
the girls.
“When I rode out after Las Vegas I seen him 'way down the road,” began
Roy, rapidly. “An' I seen another man ridin' down into Pine from the
other side. Thet was Riggs, only I didn't know it then. Las Vegas rode
up to the store, where some fellars was hangin' round, an' he spoke to
them. When I come up they was all headin' for Turner's saloon. I seen a
dozen hosses hitched to the rails. Las Vegas rode on. But I got off at
Turner's an' went in with the bunch. Whatever it was Las Vegas said
to them fellars, shore they didn't give him away. Pretty soon more men
strolled into Turner's an' there got to be 'most twenty altogether, I
reckon. Jeff Mulvey was there with his pards. They had been drinkin'
sorta free. An' I didn't like the way Mulvey watched me. So I went
out an' into the store, but kept a-lookin' for Las Vegas. He wasn't in
sight. But I seen Riggs ridin' up. Now, Turner's is where Riggs hangs
out an' does his braggin'. He looked powerful deep an' thoughtful,
dismounted slow without seein' the unusual number of hosses there, an'
then he slouches into Turner's. No more 'n a minute after Las Vegas rode
down there like a streak. An' just as quick he was off an' through thet
door.”
Roy paused as if to gain force or to choose his words. His tale now
appeared all directed to Bo, who gazed at him, spellbound, a fascinated
listener.
“Before I got to Turner's door--an' thet was only a little ways--I heard
Las Vegas yell. Did you ever hear him? Wal, he's got the wildest yell
of any cow-puncher I ever beard. Quicklike I opened the door an' slipped
in. There was Riggs an' Las Vegas alone in the center of the big saloon,
with the crowd edgin' to the walls an' slidin' back of the bar. Riggs
was whiter 'n a dead man. I didn't hear an' I don't know what Las Vegas
yelled at him. But Riggs knew an' so did the gang. All of a sudden every
man there shore seen in Las Vegas what Riggs had always bragged HE was.
Thet time comes to every man like Riggs.
“'What 'd you call me?' he asked, his jaw shakin'.
“'I 'ain't called you yet,' answered Las Vegas. 'I just whooped.'
“'What d'ye want?'
“'You scared my girl.'
“'The hell ye say! Who's she?' blustered Riggs, an' he began to take
quick looks 'round. But he never moved a hand. There was somethin' tight
about the way he stood. Las Vegas had both arms half out, stretched as
if he meant to leap. But he wasn't. I never seen Las Vegas do thet, but
when I seen him then I understood it.
“'You know. An' you threatened her an' her sister. Go for your gun,'
called Las Vegas, low an' sharp.
“Thet put the crowd right an' nobody moved. Riggs turned green then. I
almost felt sorry for him. He began to shake so he'd dropped a gun if he
had pulled one.
“'Hyar, you're off--some mistake--I 'ain't seen no gurls--I--'
“'Shut up an' draw!' yelled Las Vegas. His voice just pierced holes in
the roof, an' it might have been a bullet from the way Riggs collapsed.
Every man seen in a second more thet Riggs wouldn't an' couldn't draw.
He was afraid for his life. He was not what he had claimed to be. I
don't know if he had any friends there. But in the West good men an' bad
men, all alike, have no use for Riggs's kind. An' thet stony quiet broke
with haw--haw. It shore was as pitiful to see Riggs as it was fine to
see Las Vegas.
“When he dropped his arms then I knowed there would be no gun-play. An'
then Las Vegas got red in the face. He slapped Riggs with one hand,
then with the other. An' he began to cuss him. I shore never knowed
thet nice-spoken Las Vegas Carmichael could use such language. It was a
stream of the baddest names known out here, an' lots I never heard of.
Now an' then I caught somethin' like low-down an' sneak an' four-flush
an' long-haired skunk, but for the most part they was just the cussedest
kind of names. An' Las Vegas spouted them till he was black in the face,
an' foamin' at the mouth, an' hoarser 'n a bawlin' cow.
“When he got out of breath from cussin' he punched Riggs all about the
saloon, threw him outdoors, knocked him down an' kicked him till he got
kickin' him down the road with the whole haw-hawed gang behind. An' he
drove him out of town!”