PUNISHMENT
The cattleman strode into the bunk house, where young Sanderson sat
sulkily on a bed under the persuasion of Curly's rifle.
"Have this boy's horse saddled and brought around, Curly."
"You're the doctor," answered the cowboy promptly, and forthwith
vanished outdoors to obey instructions.
Phil looked sullenly at his captor, and waited for him to begin. One of
his hands was under the pillow of the cot upon which he sat. His fingers
circled the butt of a revolver he had found there, where one of the
riders had chanced to leave it that morning.
"I'm going to turn you loose to go home to the hills," Weaver told him.
"And my sister?"
"She stays here."
"Then so do I."
"That's up to you. There's no law against camping on the plains--that
is, out of range of the Twin Star."
"What are you going to do with her?" the boy demanded ominously.
"If you ask no questions, I'll tell you no lies."
"You'll let her go home with me--that's what you'll do," cried Phil.
"I reckon not. You've got a license to feel lucky you're going
yourself."
"By God, I say you shall!"
The cattleman's eyes took on their stony, snake-like look. His hand did
not move by so much as an inch toward the scabbarded revolver at his
side.
"All right. Come a-shooting. I see you've got a gun under that pillow."
The weapon leaped into sight. "You're right I have! I'll drill you full
of holes as soon as wink."
Weaver laughed contemptuously. "Begin pumping, son."
"I'm going to take my sister home with me. You'll give orders to your
men to that effect."
"Guess again."
"I tell you I'll shoot your hide full of holes if you don't!" cried the
excited boy.
"Oh, no, you won't."
Buck Weaver was flirting with death, and he knew it. The very breath of
it fanned his cheek. During that moment he lived gloriously; for he was
a man who revelled in his sensations. He laughed into the very muzzle of
the six-shooter that covered him.
"Quit your play acting, boy," he jeered.
"I give you one more chance before I blow out your brains."
The cattleman put his unwounded hand into his trousers pocket and
lounged forward, thrusting his smiling face against the cold rim of the
blue barrel.
"I reckon you'll scatter proper what few brains I've got."
With a curse, the boy flung the weapon down on the bed. He could not
possibly kill a man so willing as this. To draw guns with him, and
chance the issue, would have suited young Sanderson exactly. But this
way would be no less than murder.
"You devil!" he cried, with a boyish sob.
Weaver picked up the revolver, and examined it. "Mighty careless of Ned
to leave it lying around this way," he commented absently, as if unaware
of the other's rage. "You never can tell when a gun is going to get into
the wrong hands."
"What are you letting me go for? You've got a reason. What is it?" Phil
demanded.
Weaver looked at him through narrowed, daredevil eyes. "The ransom price
has been paid," he explained.
"Paid! Who paid it?"
"Miss Phyllis Sanderson."
"Phyllis?" repeated the boy incredulously. "But she had no money."
"Did I say she paid it in money?"
"What do you mean?"
"She asked me to set you free. I named my price, and she agreed."
"What was your price?" the boy asked hoarsely.
"A kiss."
At that, Phil struck him full in the sardonic, mocking face. Blood
crimsoned the lips that had been crushed against the strong, white
teeth.
"Again," said Weaver.
The brown fist went back and shot forward like a piston rod. This time
it left an ugly gash over the cheek bone.
"Much obliged. Once more."
The young man balanced himself carefully, and struck hard and true
between the eyes.
A third, a fourth, and a fifth time Phil lashed out at the disfigured,
grinning face.
"Let's make it an even half dozen," the cattleman suggested.
But Phil had had enough of it. This was too much like butchery. His
passion had spent itself. He struck, but with no force behind the blow.
Weaver went to the washstand, dashed some water on his face, and pressed
a towel against the raw wounds. He flung the red-soaked towel aside just
as Curly cantered up on Sanderson's horse. The cow-puncher stared at his
boss in amazement, opened his lips to speak, and thought better of it.
He looked at Phil, whose knuckles were badly barked and bleeding.
Curly had seen his master marked up before, but on such occasions the
other man was a sight for the gods to wonder at. Now Weaver was the
spectacle, and the other was untouched. In view of Buck's reputation as
a rough-and-tumble fighter, this seemed no less than a miracle. Curly
departed with the wonder unexplained, for Weaver dismissed him with a
nod.
"Like to see your sister before you go?" the cattleman asked curtly of
Phil, over his shoulder.
"Yes."
Buck led the way across the plaza to the house, and clapped his hands in
the hall. Josephine answered the summons.
"Tell Miss Sanderson that her brother would like to see her."
The woman vanished up the stairway, and the two men waited in silence.
Presently Phyllis stood in the door. Her eyes ignored Weaver, and were
only for her brother. Her first glance told her that all was well so far
as he was concerned, even though it also let her know that the boy was
anxious.
"Phil!" she breathed.
"So you bought my freedom for me, did you?" the boy said, his voice
trembling.
Phyllis answered in the clearest of low voices. "Yes. Did he tell you?"
"You oughtn't to have done it. I'll have no such bargains made.
Understand that!" cried her brother, emotion in his high tones.
"I couldn't help it, Phil. I did it for the best. You don't know."
"I know that you're to keep out of this. I'll fight my own battles. In
our family the girls don't sell kisses. Remember that."
Phyl hung her head. She felt herself disgraced, but she knew that she
would do it again in like circumstances.
Weaver broke in roughly: "You young fool! She's worth a dozen of you,
who haven't sense enough to _sabe_ her kind."
The girl glanced at him involuntarily. At sight of his swollen and
beaten face, she started. Her gaze clung to him, eyes wild and
fluttering with apprehension.
"I've been taking a massage treatment," he explained.
Phyllis looked at her brother, then back at the ranchman. The thing was
beyond comprehension. Ten minutes ago, this ferocious Hercules had left
her, sound and unscratched. Now he returned with a face beaten and
almost beyond recognition from bloodstains.
"What--what is it?" The appeal was to her brother.
"He let me beat him," Phil explained.
"Let you beat him! Why?"
"I don't know."
What the boy said was true, yet it was something less than the truth. He
was dimly aware that this man knew himself to have violated the code,
and that he had submitted to punishment because of the violation.
"Tell me," Phyllis commanded.
Phil told her in three sentences. She looked at Weaver with eyes that
saw him in a new light. He still sneered, but behind the mask she got
for the first time a glimpse of another man. Only dimly she divined him;
but what she visioned was half devil and half hero, capable of things
great as well as of deeds despicable.
"I'm not going to leave you here in this house," young Sanderson told
her. "I'll not go. If you stay, I stay."
She shook her head. "No, Phil--you must go. I'm all right here--as safe
as I would be at home. You know, he has a right to send me to prison if
he wants to. I suppose he is holding me as a hostage against our friends
in the hills."
The boy accepted her decree under protest. He did not know what else to
do. Decision comes only with age, and he could hit on no policy that
would answer. Reluctantly he gave way.
"If you so much as touch her, you'll die for it," he gulped at Weaver,
in a sudden boyish passion. "We'll shoot you down like a dog."
"Or a coyote," suggested Buck, with a swift glance at Phyllis. "It seems
to be a family habit. I'm much obliged to you."
Phyl was in her brother's arms, frankly in tears.
It was all very well to tell him to go; it was quite another thing to
let him go without a good cry at losing him.
"Just say the word, and I'll see it out with you, sis," he told her.
"No, no! I want you to go. I wouldn't have you stay. Tell the boys it's
all right, and don't let them do anything rash."
Sanderson clenched his teeth, and looked at Weaver. "Oh, they'll do
nothing rash. Now they know you're here, they won't do a thing but sit
down and be happy, I expect."
The twins whispered together for a minute, then the boy kissed her, put
her from him suddenly, and strode away. From the door he called back two
words at the cattleman.
"Don't forget."
With that, he was gone. Yet a moment, and they heard the clatter of his
horse's hoofs.
"Why did you tell him?" Phyllis asked. "It will only anger them. Now
they will seek vengeance on you."
The man shrugged his shoulders. "Search me. Perhaps I wanted to prove to
myself that a man may be a mean bully, and not all coyote. Perhaps I
wanted to get under his hide. Who knows?"
She knew, in part. He had treated her abominably, and wanted blindly to
pay for it in the first way that came to his mind. Half savage as he
sometimes was, that way had been to stand up to personal punishment, to
invite retaliation from his enemies.
"You must have your face looked to. Shall I call Josephine?"
"No," he answered harshly.
"I think I will. We can help it, I'm sure."
That "we" saved the day. He let her call the Mexican woman, and order
warm water, towels, dressings, and adhesive plaster. It seemed to him
more than a fancy that there was healing in the cool, soft fingers which
washed his face and adjusted the bandages. His eyes, usually so hard,
held now the dumb hunger one sees in those of a faithful dog. They
searched hers for something which he knew he would never find in them.