The stage line swung aside in a huge half-circle, rounding the northern
end of the Comobabi Range and swinging far out to skirt the foothills.
Mr. Peter Johnson had never been to Silverbell: his own country lay far
to the north, beyond the Gila. But he knew that Silverbell was somewhere
east of the Comobabi, not north; and confidently struck out to find a
short cut through the hills. From Silverbell a spur of railroad ran down
to Redrock. Mr. Johnson's thought was to entrain himself for Tucson.
The Midnight horse reached along in a brisk, swinging walk, an optimistic
walk, good for four miles an hour. He had held that gait since three
o'clock in the morning, with an hour off for water and breakfast at
Smith's Wells, the first stage station out from Cobre; it was now
hot noon by a conscientious sun--thirty-six miles. But Midnight did not
care. For hours their way had been through a trackless plain of uncropped
salt grass, or grama, on the rising slopes: now they were in a country of
worn and freshly traveled trails: wise Midnight knew there would be water
and nooning soon. Already they had seen little bands of horses peering
down at them from the high knolls on their right.
Midnight wondered if they were to find sweet water or alkali. Sweet,
likely, since it was in the hills; Midnight was sure he hoped so. The
best of these wells in the plains were salt and brackish. Privately,
Midnight preferred the Forest Reserve. It was a pleasant, soft life in
these pinewood pastures. Even if it was pretty dull for a good cow-horse
after the Free Range, it was easier on old bones. And though Midnight was
not insensible to the compliment Pete had paid him by picking him from
the bunch for these long excursions to the Southland deserts, he missed
the bunch.
They had been together a long time, the bunch; Pete had brought them from
the Block Ranch, over in New Mexico. They were getting on in years, and
so was Pete. Midnight mused over his youthful days--the dust, the
flashing horns, the shouting and the excitement of old round-ups.
It is a true telling that thoughts in no way unlike these buzzed in the
rider's head as a usual thing. But to-day he had other things to think
of.
With Kid Mitchell, his partner, Pete had lately stumbled upon a secret
of fortune--a copper hill; a warty, snubby little gray hill in an
insignificant cluster of little gray hills. But this one, and this one
only, precariously crusted over with a thin layer of earth and windblown
sand, was copper, upthrust by central fires; rich ore, crumbling, soft; a
hill to be loaded, every yard of it, into cars yet unbuilt, on a railroad
yet undreamed-of, save by these two lucky adventurers.
They had blundered upon their rich find by pure chance. For in the
southwest, close upon the Mexican border, in the most lonesome corner
of the most lonesome county of thinly settled Arizona, turning back from
a long and fruitless prospecting trip, they had paused for one last,
half-hearted venture. One idle stroke of the pick in a windworn bare
patch had turned up--this!
So Pete Johnson's thoughts were of millions; not without a queer feeling
that he wouldn't have the least idea what to do with them, and that he
was parting with something in his past, priceless, vaguely indefinable: a
sharing and acceptance of the common lot, a brotherhood with the not
fortunate.
Riding to the northwest, Pete's broad gray sombrero was tilted aside
to shelter from the noonday sun a russet face, crinkled rather than
wrinkled, and dusty. His hair, thinning at the temples, vigorous at the
ears, was crisply white. A short and lately trimmed mustache held a smile
in ambush; above it towered such a nose as Wellington loved.
It was broad at the base; deep creases ran from the corners of it,
flanking the white mustache, to a mouth strong, full-lipped and
undeniably large, ready alike for laughter or for sternness.
The nose--to follow the creases back again--was fleshy and beaked at
the tip; it narrowed at the level bridge and broadened again where it
joined the forehead, setting the eyes well apart. The eyes themselves
were blue, just a little faded--for the man was sixty-two--and there
were wind-puckers at the corners of them. But they were keen eyes,
steady, sparkling and merry eyes, for all that; they were deep-set and
long, and they sloped a trifle, high on the inside corners; pent in by
pepper-and-salt brows, bushy, tufted and thick, roguishly aslant from the
outer corners up to where they all but met above the Wellingtonian nose.
A merry face, a forceful face: Pete was a little man, five feet seven,
and rather slender than otherwise; but no one, in view of that face, ever
thought of him as a small man or an old one.
The faint path merged with another and another, the angles of convergence
giving the direction of the unknown water hole; they came at last to the
main trail, a trunk line swollen by feeders from every ridge and arroyo.
It bore away to the northeast, swerving, curving to pitch and climb in
faultless following of the rule of roads--the greatest progress with the
least exertion. Your cow is your best surveyor.
They came on the ranch suddenly, rounding a point into a small natural
amphitheater. A flat-roofed dugout, fronted with stone, was built into
the base of a boulder-piled hill; the door was open. Midnight perked his
black head jauntily and slanted an ear.
High overhead, a thicket of hackberry and arrow-weed overhung the
little valley. From this green tangle a pipe line on stilts broke
away and straddled down a headlong hill. Frost was unknown; the pipe
was supported by forked posts of height assorted to need, an expedient
easier than ditching that iron hillside. The water discharged into a
fenced and foursquare earthen reservoir; below it was a small corral
of cedar stakes; through the open gate, as he rode by, Pete saw a long
watering-trough with a float valve. Before the dugout stood a patriarchal
juniper, in the shade of which two saddled horses stood droop-hipped,
comfortably asleep. Waking, as Pete drew near, they adjusted their
disarray in some confusion and eyed the newcomers with bright-eyed
inquiry. Midnight, tripping by, hailed them with a civil little whinny.
A tall, heavy man upreared himself from the shade. His example was
followed by another man, short and heavy. Blankets were spread on a
tarpaulin beyond them.
"'Light, stranger," said the tall man heartily. "Unsaddle and eat a small
snack. We was just taking a little noonday nap for ourselves."
"Beans, jerky gravy, and bread," announced the short man, waiter fashion.
"I'll hot up the coffee."
With the word he fed little sticks and splinters to a tiny fire, now
almost burned out, near the circumference of that shaded circle.
"Yes, to all that; thank you," said Pete, slipping off.
He loosened the cinches; so doing he caught from the corner of his eye
telegraphed tidings, as his two hosts rolled to each other a single
meaningful glance, swift, furtive, and white-eyed. Observing which, every
faculty of Pete Johnson's mind tensed, fiercely alert, braced to
attention.
"Now what? Some more of the same. Lights out! Protect yourself!" he
thought, taking off the saddle. Aloud he said:
"One of Zurich's ranches, isn't it? I saw ZK burned on the gateposts."
He passed his hand along Midnight's sweaty back for possible bruise or
scald; he unfolded the Navajo saddle blanket and spread it over the
saddle to dry. He took the _sudaderos_--the jute sweatcloths under the
Navajo--and draped them over a huge near-by boulder in the sun, carefully
smoothing them out to prevent wrinkles; to all appearance without any
other care on earth.
"Yes; horse camp," said the tall man. "Now you water the black horse and
I'll dig up a bait of corn for him. Wash up at the trough."
"_Puesto que si!_" said Pete.
He slipped the bit out of Midnight's mouth, pushing the headstall back on
the sleek black neck by way of lead rope, and they strode away to the
water pen, side by side.
When they came back a nose-bag, full of corn, stood ready near the fire.
Pete hung this on Midnight's head. Midnight munched contentedly, with
half-closed eyes, and Pete turned to the fire.
"Was I kidding myself?" he inquired. "Or did somebody mention the name of
grub?"
"Set up!" grinned the tall man, kicking a small box up beside a slightly
larger one, which served as a table. "Nothing much to eat but food.
Canned truck all gone."
The smaller host poured coffee. Pete considered the boxes.
"You didn't pack these over here?" he asked, prodding the table with his
boot-toe to elucidate his meaning. "And yet I didn't see no wheel marks
as I come along."
"Fetch 'em from Silverbell. We got a sort of wagon track through the
hills. Closer than Cobre. Some wagon road in the rough places! Snakes
thick on the east side; but they don't never get over here. Break their
backs comin' through the gap. Yes, sir!"
"Then I'll just june along in the cool of the evenin'," observed Pete,
ladling out a second helping of jerked venison. "I can follow your wagon
tracks into town. I ain't never been to Silverbell. Was afraid I might
miss it in the dark. How far is it? About twenty mile, I reckon?"
"Just about. Shucks! I was in hopes you'd stay overnight with us. Bill
and me, we ain't seen no one since Columbus crossed the Delaware in
fourteen-ninety-two. Can't ye, now?" urged the tall man coaxingly. "We'll
pitch horseshoes--play cards if you want to; only Bill and me's pretty
well burnt out at cards. Fox and geese too--ever play fox and geese?
We got a dandy fox-and-goose board--but Bill, he natcherly can't play.
He's from California, Bill is."
"Aw, shut up on that!" growled Bill.
"Sorry," said Pete, "I'm pushed. Got to go on to-night. Want to take that
train at seven-thirty in the morning, and a small sleep for myself before
that. Maybe I'll stop over as I come back, though. Fine feed you got
here. Makes a jim-darter of a horse camp."
"Yes, 'tis. We aim to keep the cattle shoved off so we can save the grass
for the saddle ponies."
"Must have quite a bunch?"
"'Bout two hundred. Well, sorry you can't stay with us. We was fixin' to
round up what cows had drifted in and give 'em a push back to the main
range this afternoon. But they'll keep. We'll stick round camp; and you
stay as late as you can, stranger, and we'll stir up something. I'll tell
you what, Bill--we'll pull off that shootin' match you was blowin'
about." The tall man favored Johnson with a confidential wink. "Bill, he
allows he can shoot right peart. Bill's from California."
Bill, the short man, produced a gray-and-yellow tobacco sack and
extracted a greasy ten-dollar greenback, which he placed on the box
table at Johnson's elbow.
"Cover that, durn you! You hold stakes, stranger. I'll show him
California. Humph! Dam' wall-eyed Tejano!"
"I'm a Texan myself," twinkled Johnson.
"What if you are? You ain't wall-eyed, be you? And you ain't been makin'
no cracks at California--not to me. But this here Jim--look at the
white-eyed, tow-headed grinnin' scoundrel, will you?--Say, are you goin'
to cover that X or are you goin' to crawfish?"
"Back down? You peevish little sawed-off runt!" yelped Jim. "I been
lettin' you shoot off your head so's you'll be good and sore afterward.
I always wanted a piece of paper money any way--for a keepsake. You
wait!"
He went into the cabin and returned with a tarnished gold piece and a box
of forty-five cartridges.
"Here, stakeholder!" he said to Johnson.
Then, to Bill: "Now, then, old Californy--you been all swelled-up and
stumping me for quite some time. Show us what you got!"
It was an uncanny exhibition of skill that followed. These men knew
how to handle a sixshooter. They began with tin cans at ten yards,
thirty, fifty--and hit them. They shot at rolling cans, and hit them;
at high-thrown cans, and hit them; at cards nailed to hitching-posts;
then at the pips of cards. Neither man could boast of any advantage. The
few and hairbreadth misses of the card pips, the few blanks at the longer
ranges, fairly offset each other. The California man took a slightly
crouching attitude, his knees a little bent; held his gun at his knee;
raising an extended and rigid arm to fire. The Texan stood erect, almost
on tiptoe, bareheaded; he swung his gun ear-high above his shoulder,
looking at his mark alone, and fired as the gun flashed down. The little
California man made the cleaner score at the very long shots and in
clipping the pips of the playing cards; the Texan had a shade the better
at the flying targets, his bullets ranging full-center where the other
barely grazed the cans.
"I don't see but what I'll have to keep this money. You've shot away all
the cartridges in your belts and most of the box, and it hasn't got you
anywheres," observed Pete Johnson pensively. "Better let your guns cool
off. You boys can't beat each other shooting. You do right well, too,
both of you. If you'd only started at it when you was young, I reckon
you'd both have been what you might call plumb good shots now."
He shook his head sadly and suppressed a sigh.
"Wait!" advised the Texan, and turned to confront his partner. "You make
out quite tol'lable with a gun, Billiam," he conceded. "I got to hand it
to you. I judged you was just runnin' a windy. But have you now showed
all your little box of tricks?"
"Well, I haven't missed anything--not to speak of--no more than you did,"
evaded Bill, plainly apprehensive. "What more do you want?"
Jim chuckled.
"Pausin' lightly to observe that it ought to be easy enough to best you,
if we was on horseback--just because you peek at your sights when you
shoot--I shall now show you something."
A chuck box was propped against the juniper trunk. From this the Texan
produced a horseshoe hammer and the lids from two ten-pound lard pails.
He strode over to where, ten yards away, two young cedars grew side by
side, and nailed a lid to each tree, shoulder-high.
"There!" he challenged his opponent. "We ain't either of us going to miss
such a mark as that--it's like putting your finger on it. But suppose the
tree was shooting back? Time is what counts then. Now, how does this
strike you? You take the lid on the left and I'll take the other. When
the umpire says Go! we'll begin foggin'--and the man that scores six
hits quickest gets the money. That's fair, isn't it, Johnson?"
This was a slip--Johnson had not given his name--a slip unnoticed by
either of the ZK men, but not by Johnson.
"Fair enough, I should say," he answered.
"Why, Jim, that ain't practical--that ain't!" protested Bill uneasily.
"You was talking about the tree a-shootin' back--but one shot will stop
most men, let alone six. What's the good of shootin' a man all to
pieces?"
"Suppose there was six men?"
"Then they get me, anyway. Wouldn't they, Mr. Umpire?" he appealed to
Peter Johnson, who sat cross-legged and fanned himself with his big
sombrero.
"That don't make any difference," decided the umpire promptly. "To shoot
straight and quickest--that's bein' a good shot. Line up!"
Bill lined up, unwillingly enough; they stuffed their cylinders with
cartridges.
"Don't shoot till I say: One, two, three--go!" admonished Pete. "All set?
One--two--three--go!"
A blending, crackling roar, streaked red and saffron, through black
smoke: the Texan's gun flashed down and up and back, as a man snaps his
fingers against the frost; he tossed his empty gun through the sunlight
to the bed under the juniper tree and spread out his hands. Bill was
still firing--one shot--two!
"Judgment!" shouted the Texan and pointed. Six bullet holes were
scattered across his target, line shots, one above the other; and
poor Bill, disconcerted, had missed his last shot!
"Jim, I guess the stuff is yours," said Bill sheepishly.
The big Texan retrieved his gun from the bed and Pete gave him the
stakes. He folded the bill lovingly and tucked it away; but he flipped
the coin from his thumb, spinning in the sun, caught it as it fell, and
glanced askant at old Pete.
"How long ago did you say it was when you began shootin'?" He voiced the
query with exceeding politeness and inclined his head deferentially. "Or
did you say?"
Pete pondered, pushing his hand thoughtfully through his white hair.
"Oh, I began tryin' when I was about ten years old, or maybe seven.
It's been so long ago I scarcely remember. But I didn't get to be what
you might call a fair shot till about the time you was puttin' on your
first pair of pants," he said sweetly. "There was a time, though, before
that--when I was about the age you are now--when I really thought I could
shoot. I learned better."
A choking sound came from Bill; Jim turned his eyes that way. Bill
coughed hastily. Jim sent the gold piece spinning again.
"I'm goin' to keep Bill's tenspot--always," he announced emotionally.
"I'll never, never part with that! But this piece of money--" He threw it
up again. "Why, stranger, you might just as well have that as not. Bill
can be stakeholder and give us the word. There's just six cartridges left
in the box for me."
Peter Johnson smiled brightly, disclosing a row of small, white, perfect
teeth. He got to his feet stiffly and shook his aged legs; he took out
his gun, twirled the cylinder, and slipped in an extra cartridge.
"I always carry the hammer on an empty chamber--safer that way," he
explained.
He put the gun back in the holster, dug up a wallet, and produced a gold
piece for the stakeholder.
"You'd better clean your gun, young man," he said. "It must be pretty
foul by now."
Jim followed this advice, taking ten minutes for the operation. Meantime
the Californian replaced the targets with new ones--old tin dinner plates
this time--and voiced a philosophical regret over his recent defeat. The
Texas man, ready at last, took his place beside Pete and raised his gun
till the butt of it was level with his ear, the barrel pointing up and
back. Johnson swung up his heavy gun in the same fashion.
"Ready?" bawled Bill. "All right! One--two--three--go!"
Johnson's gun leaped forward, blazing; his left hand slapped back
along the barrel, once, twice; pivoting, his gun turned to meet Bill,
almost upon him, hands outstretched. Bill recoiled; Pete stepped aside
a pace--all this at once. The Texan dropped his empty gun and turned.
"You win," said Pete gently.
Not understanding yet, triumph faded from the Texan's eyes at that gentle
tone. He looked at the target; he looked at Bill, who stood open-mouthed
and gasping; then he looked at the muzzle of Mr. Johnson's gun. His face
flushed red, and then became almost black. Mr. Johnson held the gun
easily at his hip, covering both his disarmed companions: Mr. Johnson's
eyebrows were flattened and his mouth was twisted.
"It's loaded!" croaked Bill in a horrified voice. "The skunk only shot
once!"
Peter corrected him:
"Three times. I fanned the hammer. Look at the target!"
Bill looked at the target; his jaw dropped again; his eyes protruded.
There were three bullet holes, almost touching each other, grouped round
the nail in the center of Pete's tin plate.
"Well, I'm just damned!" he said. "I'll swear he didn't shoot but once."
"That's fannin' the hammer, Shorty," drawled Pete. "Ever hear of that?
Well, now you've seen it. When you practice it, hold your elbow tight
against your ribs to steady your gun while you slap the hammer back. For
you, Mr. Jim--I see you've landed your six shots; but some of 'em are
mighty close to the edge of your little old plate. Poor shootin'! Poor
shootin'! You ought to practice more. As for speed, I judge I can do six
shots while you're making four. But I thought I'd best not--to-day. Son,
pick up your gun, and get your money from Shorty."
Mr. Jim picked up his gun and threw out the empty shells. He glared
savagely at Mr. Johnson, now seated happily on his saddle.
"If I just had hold of you--you benched-legged hound! Curse your soul,
what do you mean by it?" snarled Jim.
"Oh, I was just a-thinkin'," responded Pete lightly. "Thinkin' how
helpless I'd be with you two big huskies, here with my gun empty. Don't
snicker, Bill! That's rude of you. Your pardner's feeling plenty bad
enough without that. He looks it. Mr. Bill, I'll bet a blue shirt you
told the Jim-person to wait and see if I wouldn't take a little siesta,
and you'd get me whilst I was snoozing. You lose, then. I never sleep.
Tex, for the love of Mike, do look at Bill's face; and Bill, you look at
Mr. Jim, from Texas! Guilty as charged! Your scheme, was it, Texas? And
Shorty Bill, he told you so? Why, you poor toddling innocents, you won't
never prosper as crooks! Your faces are too honest.
"And that frame-up of yours--oh, that was a loo-loo bird! Livin' together
and didn't know which was the best shot--likely! And every tin can in
sight shot full of holes and testifyin' against you! Think I'm blind,
hey? Even your horses give you away. Never batted an eyelash durin' that
whole cannonade. They've been hearin' forty-fives pretty reg'lar, them
horses have."
"I notice your old black ain't much gun-shy, either," ventured Bill.
"See here--you!" said the big Texan. "You talk pretty biggity. It's
mighty easy to run a whizzer when you've got the only loaded gun in camp.
If I had one damned cartridge left it would be different."
"Never mind," said Johnson kindly. "I'll give you one!"
Rising, he twirled the cylinder of his gun and extracted his three
cartridges. He threw one far down the hillslope; he dropped one on
the ground beside him; he tossed the last one in the sand at the Texan's
feet.
Jim, from Texas, looked at the cartridge without animation; he looked
into Pete Johnson's frosty eyes; he kicked the cartridge back.
"I lay 'em down right here," he stated firmly. "I like a damned fool; but
you suit me too well."
He stalked away toward his horse with much dignity. He stopped halfway,
dropped upon a box, pounded his thigh and gave way to huge and unaffected
laughter; in which Bill joined a moment later.
"Oh, you little bandy-legged old son-of-a-gun!" Jim roared. "You
crafty, wily, cunnin' old fox! I'm for you! Of all the holy shows,
you've made Bill and me the worst--'specially me. 'There, there!' you
says, consolin' me up like I was a kid with a cracked jug. 'There, there!
Never mind--I'll give you one!' Deah, oh, deah! I'll never be able to
keep this still--never in the world. I'm bound to tell it on myself!" He
wiped tears from his eyes and waved his hand helplessly. "Take the ranch,
stranger. She's yours. I wouldn't touch you if you was solid gold and
charges prepaid."
"Oh, don't make a stranger of me!" begged Pete. "You was callin' me by
the name of Johnson half an hour ago. Forgot yourself, likely."
"Did I?" said Jim indifferently. "No odds. You've got my number, anyway.
And I thought we was so devilish sly!"
"Well, boys, thank you for the dinner and all; but I'd best be jogging.
Got to catch that train."
Knitting his brows reflectively he turned a questioning eye upon his
hosts. But Shorty Bill took the words from his mouth.
"I'm like Jim: I've got a-plenty," he said. "But there's a repeating
rifle in the shack, if you don't want to risk us. You can leave it at
Silverbell for us if you want to--at the saloon. And we can ride off
the other way, so you'll be sure."
"Maybe that'll be best--considerin'," said Pete. "I'll leave the gun."
"See here, Johnson," said Jim stiffly. "We've thrown 'em down, fair and
square. I think you might trust us."
Pete scratched his head in some perplexity.
"I think maybe I might if it was only myself to think of. But I'm
representing another man's interest too. I ain't takin' no chances."
"Yes--I noticed you was one of them prudent guys," murmured Jim.
Pete ignored the interruption.
"So, not rubbin' it in or anything, we'd best use Bill's plan. You lads
hike off back the way I come, and I'll take your rifle and drag it. So
long! Had a good time with you."
"_Adiós!_" said Bill, swinging into the saddle.
"Hold on, Bill! Give Johnson back his money," said Jim.
"Oh, you keep it. You won it fair. I didn't go to the finish."
"Look here--what do you think I am? You take this money, or I'll be sore
as a boil. There! So long, old hand! Be good!" He spurred after Bill.
Mr. Johnson brought the repeater from the dugout and saddled old
Midnight. As he pulled the cinches tight, he gazed regretfully at
his late companions, sky-lined as they topped a rise.
"There!" said Mr. Johnson with conviction. "There goes a couple of right
nice boys!"