THEIR OWN DECEIVINGS
Johnny Ramsay was put to bed in the Bar S ranch house. Kate Saltoun
promptly installed herself as nurse. Loudon, paid off by the now
regretful Mr. Saltoun, took six hours' sleep and then rode away on
Ranger to notify the Cross-in-a-box of Ramsay's wounding.
An angry man was Richie, manager of the Cross-in-a-box, when he heard
what Loudon had to say.
The following day Loudon and Richie rode to the Bar S. On Loudon's
mentioning that he was riding no longer for the Bar S, Richie
immediately hired him. He knew a good man, did Jack Richie of the
Cross-in-a-box.
When they arrived at the Bar S they found Johnny Ramsay conscious, but
very weak. His weakness was not surprising. He had lost a great deal
of blood. He grinned wanly at Loudon and Richie.
"You mustn't stay long," announced Miss Saltoun, firmly, smoothing the
bed-covering.
"We won't, ma'am," said Richie. "Who shot yuh, Johnny?"
"I dunno," replied the patient. "I was just a-climbin' aboard my hoss
when I heard a shot behind me an' I felt a pain in my neck. I pulled
my six-shooter an' whirled, an' I got in one shot at a gent on a hoss.
He fired before I did, an' it seems to me there was another shot off to
the left. Anyway, the lead got me on the side of the head an' that's
all I know."
"Who was the gent on the hoss?" Loudon asked.
"I dunno, Tom. I hadn't more'n whirled when he fired, an' the smoke
hid his face. It all come so quick. I fired blind. Yuh see the chunk
in my neck kind o' dizzied me, an' that rap on the head comin' on top
of it, why, I wouldn't 'a' knowed my own brother ten feet away. I'm
all right now. In a couple o' weeks I'll be ridin' the range again."
"Shore yuh will," said Loudon. "An' the sooner the quicker. You've
got a good nurse."
"I shore have," smiled Johnny, gazing with adoring eyes at Kate Saltoun.
"That will be about all," remarked Miss Saltoun. "He's talked enough
for one day. Get out now, the both of you, and don't fall over
anything and make a noise. I'm not going to have my patient disturbed."
Loudon went down to the bunkhouse for his dinner. After the meal,
while waiting for Richie, who was lingering with Mr. Saltoun, he strove
to obtain a word with Kate. But she informed him that she could not
leave her patient.
"See you later," said Miss Saltoun. "You mustn't bother me now."
And she shooed him out and closed the door. Loudon returned to the
bunkhouse and sat down on the bench near the kitchen. Soon Jimmy
appeared with a pan of potatoes and waxed loquacious as was his habit.
"Who plugged Johnny? That's what I'd like to know," wondered Jimmy.
"Here! leave them Hogans be! They're to eat, not to jerk at the
windmill. I never seen such a kid as you. Yo're worse than Chuck
Morgan, an' he's just a natural-born fool. Oh, all right. I ain't
a-goin' to talk to yuh if yuh can't act decent."
Jimmy picked up his pan of potatoes and withdrew with dignity. The
grin faded from Loudon's mouth, and he gazed worriedly at the ground
between his feet.
What would Kate say to him? Would she be willing to wait? She had
certainly encouraged him, but---- Premonitory and unpleasant shivers
crawled up and down Loudon's spinal column. Proposing was a strange
and novel business with him. He had never done such a thing before.
He felt as one feels who is about to step forth into the unknown. For
he was earnestly and honestly very much in love. It is only your
philanderer who enters upon a proposal with cold judgment and a calm
heart.
Half an hour later Loudon saw Kate at the kitchen window. He was up in
an instant and hurrying toward the kitchen door. Kate was busy at the
stove when he entered. Over her shoulder she flung him a charming
smile, stirred the contents of a saucepan a moment longer, then clicked
on the cover and faced him.
"Kate," said Loudon, "I'm quittin' the Bar S."
"Quitting? Oh, why?" Miss Saltoun's tone was sweetly regretful.
"Lot o' reasons. I'm ridin' for the Cross-in-a-box now."
He took a step forward and seized her hand. It lay in his, limp,
unresponsive. Of which lack of sympathetic warmth he was too absorbed
to be conscious.
"Kate," he pursued, "I ain't got nothin' now but my forty a month. But
I shore love yuh a lot. Will yuh wait for me till I make enough for
the two of us? Look at me, Kate. I won't always be a punch. I'll
make money, an' if I know yo're a-waitin' for me, I'll make it all the
faster."
According to recognized precedent Kate should have fallen into his
arms. But she did nothing of the kind. She disengaged her fingers and
drew back a step, ingenuous surprise written large on her countenance.
Pure art, of course, and she did it remarkably well.
"Why, Tom," she breathed, "I wasn't expecting this. I didn't dream,
I----"
"That's all right," Loudon broke in. "I'm tellin' yuh I love yuh,
honey. Will yuh wait for me? Yuh don't have to say yuh love me. I'll
take a chance on yore lovin' me later. Just say yuh'll wait, will yuh,
honey?"
"Oh, Tom, I can't!"
"Yuh can't! Why not? Don't love anybody else, do yuh?"
"Oh, I can't, Tom," evaded Kate. "I don't think I could ever love you.
I like you--oh, a great deal. You're a dear boy, Tommy, but--you can't
make yourself love any one."
"Yuh won't have to make yoreself. I'll make yuh love me. Just give me
a chance, honey. That's all I want. I'd be good to yuh, Kate, an' I'd
spend my time tryin' to make yuh happy. We'd get along. I know we
would. Say yes. Give me a chance."
Kate returned to the table and leaned against it, arms at her sides,
her hands gripping the table-edge. It was a pose calculated to display
her figure to advantage. She had practised it frequently. Kate
Saltoun was running true to form.
"Tom," she said, her voice low and appealing, "Tom, I never had any
idea you loved me. And I'm awfully sorry I can't love you. Truly, I
am. But we can be friends, can't we?"
"Friends! Friends!" The words were like a curse.
"Why not?"
Loudon, head lowered, looked at her under his eyebrows.
"Then it all didn't mean nothin'?" He spoke with an effort.
"All? All what? What do you mean?"
"Yuh know what I mean. You've been awful nice to me. Yuh always acted
like yuh enjoyed havin' me around. An' I thought yuh liked me--a
little. An' it didn't mean nothin' 'cept we can be friends. Friends!"
Again the word sounded like a curse. Loudon turned his head and stared
unseeingly out of the window. He raised his hand and pushed his hair
back from his forehead. A great misery was in his heart. Kate, for
once in her life swayed by honest impulse, stepped forward and laid a
hand on his arm.
"Don't take it so hard, Tom," she begged.
Loudon's eyes slid around and gazed down into her face. Kate was a
remarkably handsome girl, but she had never appeared so alluring as she
did at that moment.
Loudon stared at the vivid dark eyes, the parted lips, and the tilted
chin. Her warm breath fanned his neck. The moment was tense, fraught
with possibilities, and--Kate smiled. Even a bloodless cucumber would
have been provoked. And Loudon was far from being a cucumber.
His long arms swept out and about her body, and he crushed her gasping
against his chest. Once, twice, three times he kissed her mouth, then,
his grasp relaxing, she wrenched herself free and staggered back
against the table. Panting, hands clenched at her throat, she faced
him. Loudon stood swaying, his great frame trembling.
"Kate! Oh, Kate!" he cried, and stretched out his arms.
But Kate groped her dazed way around the table. Physically and
mentally, she had been severely shocked. To meet a tornado where one
had expected a summer breeze is rather shattering to one's poise.
Quite so. Kate suffered. Then, out of the chaos of her emotions,
erupted wild anger.
"You! You!" she hissed. "How dare you kiss me! Ugh-h! I could kill
you!"
She drew the back of her hand across her mouth and snapped her hand
downward with precisely the same snap and jerk that a Mexican bartender
employs when he flips the pulque from his fingers.
"Do you know I'm engaged to Sam Blakely? What do you think he'll do
when he finds this out? Do you understand? I'm going to marry Sam
Blakely!"
This facer cooled Loudon as nothing else could have done. Outwardly,
at least, he became calm.
"I didn't understand, but I do now," he said, stooping to recover his
hat. "If you'd told me that in the first place it would have saved
trouble."
"You'd have been afraid to kiss me then!" she taunted.
"Not afraid," he corrected, gently. "I wouldn't 'a' wanted to. I
ain't kissin' another man's girl."
"No, I guess not! The nerve of you! Think I'd marry an ignorant
puncher!"
"Yuh shore ain't goin' to marry this one, but yuh are goin' to marry a
cow thief!"
"A--a what?"
"A cow thief, a rustler, a sport who ain't particular whose cows he
brands."
"You lie!"
"Yuh'll find out in time I'm tellin' the truth. I guess now I know
more about Sam Blakely than you do, an' I tell yuh he's a rustler."
"Kate! Oh, Kate!" called a voice outside.
Kate sped through the doorway. Loudon, his lips set in a straight
line, followed her quickly. There, not five yards from the kitchen
door, Sam Blakely sat his horse. The eyes of the 88 manager went from
Kate to Loudon and back to Kate.
"What's the excitement?" inquired Blakely, easily.
Kate levelled her forefinger at Loudon.
"He says," she gulped, "he says you're a rustler."
Blakely's hand swept downward. His six-shooter had barely cleared the
edge of the holster when Loudon's gun flashed from the hip, and
Blakely's weapon spun through the air and fell ten feet distant.
With a grunt of pain, Blakely, using his left hand, whipped a derringer
from under his vest.
Again Loudon fired.
Blakely reeled, the derringer spat harmlessly upward, and then Blakely,
as his frightened horse reared and plunged, pitched backward out of the
saddle and dropped heavily to the ground. Immediately the horse ran
away.
Kate, with a sharp cry, flung herself at the prostrate Blakely.
"You've killed him!" she wailed. "Sam--Sam--speak to me!"
But Sam was past speech. He had struck head first and was consequently
senseless.
Come running then Jimmy from the bunkhouse, Chuck Morgan from the
corrals, Mr. Saltoun and Richie from the office.
"He's dead! He's dead!" was the burden of Kate's shrill cries.
"Let's see if he is," said the practical Richie, dropping on his knees
at Blakely's side. "He didn't tumble like a dead man. Just a shake,
ma'am, while I look at him. I can't see nothin' with you a-layin' all
over him this-a-way. Yo're gettin' all over blood, too. There, now!
She's done fainted. That's right, Salt. You take care of her."
The capable Richie made a rapid examination. He looked up, hands on
knees, his white teeth gleaming under his brown moustache.
"He's all right," he said, cheerfully. "Heart's a-tickin' like a
alarm-clock. Hole in his shoulder. Missed the bones. Bullet went
right on through."
At this juncture Kate recovered consciousness and struggled upright in
her father's arms.
"He shot first!" she cried, pointing at Loudon. "He didn't give him a
chance!"
"You'll excuse me, ma'am," said Richie, his tone good-humoured, but his
eyes narrowing ever so slightly. "You'll excuse me for contradictin'
yuh, but I happened to be lookin' through the office window an' I seen
the whole thing. Sam went after his gun before Tom made a move."
Blakely moved feebly, groaned, and opened his eyes. His gaze fell on
Loudon, and his eyes turned venomous.
"You got me," he gritted, his lips drawn back, "but I'll get you when
Marvin and Rudd ride in. They've got the proof with 'em, you rustler!"
After which cryptic utterance Blakely closed his mouth tightly and
contented himself with glaring. Richie the unconcerned rose to his
feet and dusted his knees.
"Take his legs, Chuck," directed Richie. "Gimme a hand, will yuh,
Jimmy? Easy now. That's it. Where'll we put him, Salt?"
Mr. Saltoun and his now sobbing daughter followed them into the ranch
house. Loudon remained where he was. When the others had disappeared
Loudon clicked out the cylinder of his six-shooter, ejected the two
spent shells and slipped in fresh cartridges.
"When Marvin an' Rudd ride in," he wondered. "Got the proof with 'em
too, huh. It looks as if Blakely was goin' to a lot o' trouble on my
account."
Loudon walked swiftly behind the bunkhouse and passed on to the
corrals. From the top of the corral fence he intended watching for the
coming of Marvin and Rudd. In this business he was somewhat delayed by
the discovery of Blakely's horse whickering at the gate of the corral.
"I ain't got nothin' against you," said Loudon, "but yuh shore have
queer taste in owners."
Forthwith he stripped off saddle and bridle and turned the animal into
the corral. As he closed the gate his glance fell on the dropped
saddle. The coiled rope had fallen away from the horn, and there was
revealed in the swell-fork a neat round hole. He squatted down more
closely at the neat hole.
"That happened lately," he said, fingering the edges of the hole. "I
thought so," he added, as an inserted little finger encountered a
smooth, slightly concave surface.
He took out his knife and dug industriously. After three minutes' work
a somewhat mushroomed forty-five-calibre bullet lay in the palm of his
hand.
"O' course Johnny Ramsay ain't the only sport packin' a forty-five," he
said, softly. "But Johnny did mention firin' one shot at a party on a
hoss. It's possible he hit the swell-fork. Yep, it's a heap possible."
Then Loudon dropped the bullet into a pocket of his chaps and climbed
to the top of the corral fence.
A mile distant, on the slope of a swell, two men were riding toward the
ranch house. The horsemen were driving before them a cow and a calf.
Loudon climbed down and took position behind the mule corral. From
this vantage-point he could observe unseen all that might develop.
The riders, Marvin, the 88 range boss, and Rudd, a puncher, passed
within forty feet of the mule corral. The cow and the calf walked
heavily, as if they had been driven a long distance, and Loudon
perceived that they had been newly branded 8x8. The brand was not one
that he recognized.
"Crossed Dumbbell or Eight times Eight." he grinned. "Take yore
choice. I wonder if that brand's the proof Blakely was talkin' about.
Marvin an' Rudd shore do look serious."
He cautiously edged round the corral and halted behind the corner of
the bunkhouse. Marvin and Rudd were holding the cow and calf near the
ranch house door. The two men lounged in their saddles. Marvin rolled
a cigarette. Then in the doorway appeared Mr. Saltoun.
"Howdy, Mr. Saltoun," said Marvin. "Sam got in yet?"
"He's in there," replied Mr. Saltoun, jerking a thumb over his
shoulder. "He's shot."
"Who done it?"
"Tom Loudon,"
"Where is he?"
"Throw up yore hands!" rapped out the gentleman in question.
Loudon had approached unobserved and was standing some twenty feet in
the rear of Marvin and Rudd. At Loudon's sharp command Rudd's hands
shot skyward instantly.
"I'm waitin'," cautioned Loudon.
Marvin's fingers slowly uncoiled from the butt of his six-shooter and
draggingly he followed his comrade's example.
"Now we can all be happy," remarked Loudon, nodding amiably to the
perturbed Mr. Saltoun. "I won't shoot unless they shove me. They can
talk just as comfortable with their hands up, an' it'll be a lot safer
all round. Was the state o' Sam's health all yuh wanted to know,
Marvin? No, don't either of yuh turn 'round. Just keep yore eyes
clamped on the windmill. About Sam, now, Marvin. Richie says he'll
pull through. Anythin' else?"
"You bet there is!" exploded the furious range-boss. "You ----
rustler, you branded a cow an' a calf o' ours yest'day!"
"Shore," agreed Loudon, politely, "an' I held up the Farewell stage,
stole thirty-eight horses, an' robbed the Marysville bank the day
before. Yuh don't want to forget all them little details, Marvin.
It's a shore sign yo're gettin' aged when yuh do. Well, well, a cow
an' a calf yuh say. Only the two, huh? It don't look natural somehow.
I never brand less'n twenty-four at a clip."
Over the shoulders of the agitated Mr. Saltoun peered the faces of
avidly interested Richie, Chuck Morgan, and Jimmy the cook. None of
these three allowed a sign of his true feeling to appear on his face.
The two 88 men were red with shame and anger. Their lips moved with
wicked words. Arms stretched heavenward, their gaze religiously fixed
on the windmill, they presented a ridiculous appearance, and they knew
it. Loudon, the dominant figure in the scene, spread his legs and
smiled sardonically.
"Go on, Marvin," he said, after a moment, "yo're cussin' a lot, but yuh
ain't sayin' nothin'. Let's hear the rest o' that interestin' story o'
the 88 cow an' her little daughter."
"You branded the both of 'em," stubbornly reiterated Marvin. "We seen
yuh--Sam, Rudd here, an' me, we seen yuh."
"Yuh seen me!" exclaimed Loudon. "Yuh seen me! You was close enough
to see me, an' yuh didn't try to stop me! Well, you shore are the
poorest liar in the territory."
"If I had my hands down yuh wouldn't call me that!"
"If yuh had yore hands down yuh'd be dead. I'm tryin' to save yore
life. C'mon, speak the rest o' yore little piece. Yuh got as far as
the brandin'. When did it all happen?"
"Gents," said Marvin, "this sport is a rustler. There ain't no two
ways about it. Day before yest'day, just before sundown, over near the
Sink, the three of us seen Loudon workin' round a hog-tied cow an'
calf. We was three, maybe four miles away. We seen him through field
glasses. We hit the ground for the Sink, but when we got there all we
found was the cow an' calf, branded as yuh see 'em now. Loudon had
sloped."
"Near the Sink," observed Loudon. "In the middle of it?"
"I've quit talkin'," replied Marvin.
Richie stepped past Mr. Saltoun and stood in front of Marvin and Rudd.
"You've done made a right serious charge agin one o' my men," remarked
Richie, addressing Marvin. "If he did brand them cattle, he'll be
stretched. But it ain't all clear to me yet. This here Crossed
Dumbbell brand now--see it on any other cattle besides these two,
Marvin?"
"No," said Marvin, shaking his head.
"Well," continued Richie, "why didn't yuh come here right off instead
o' waitin' two days?"
"We was busy."
"Didn't go back to the 88 ranch house before comin' here, did yuh?"
"No."
"Or stop at any o' yore line-camps?"
"No, we didn't. We come here soon as we could make it."
"What part o' the Sink was Loudon workin' in?"
"The north side."
"Near the edge, o' course?"
"No, he was nearer the middle."
"Nearer the middle, was he? An' yuh seen him at a distance o' three or
four miles. Yuh must have good eyesight, because if you seen Loudon
workin' in the middle o' the Sink an' you was standin' where yuh say
yuh was, yuh looked through about two miles an' a half o' solid earth.
The middle o' the Sink is two hundred feet below the level o' the
surrounding country, an' there ain't no high land anywhere near it.
Unless yo're standin' right on the edge yuh can't see nothin' in the
bottom, an' the Sink is only about a mile from rim to rim. I guess now
yo're mistaken, Marvin."
"I ain't none shore he was plumb in the middle," grudgingly admitted
Marvin. "Maybe he was kind o' near the north rim. But what's the
difference?" he added, brazenly. "We seen him."
"Where are the field glasses?" astutely questioned Richie.
"Left 'em at our Lazy River line-camp," promptly replied Marvin.
"Now ain't that funny, Marvin. Yuh told me not three minutes ago yuh
didn't stop at any o' yore line-camps."
"I mean we--I gave 'em to Shorty Simms. He's at the Lazy River
line-camp, an' he took 'em there."
"Why did yuh give 'em to Shorty?" persisted Richie.
"Look here, Richie!" blazed Marvin, "this ain't no court, an' I don't
have to answer yore questions."
"Yuh'll have to answer plenty of questions," retorted Richie, "before
I'll see Loudon stretched."
"I tell yuh he's a rustler!" shouted the mulish Marvin. "He's startin'
a herd o' his own, an' he's usin' the Dumbbell brand. We seen him
brandin' that stock! That's enough for you or any one else to know,
an' I tell yuh flat the 88 is out to stretch Tom Loudon the first
chance it gets!"
"Well, o' course, you know best," said Richie, "but I wouldn't do
nothin' rash, Marvin. I just wouldn't go off at half-cock if I was
you."
"No," chipped in Loudon, briskly. "I wouldn't set my heart on it,
Marvin, old hoss. I ain't countin' none on dyin' yet awhile. I've got
a heap o' little matters to attend to before I cash, an' yuh can see
how hangin' me would disarrange all my plans. Take yore decorated cow
an' calf now an' pull yore freight, an' _don't_ look back."
When Marvin and Rudd were gone Richie hooked his thumb in his belt and
looked with twinkling eyes at Loudon and the men in the doorway.
"I guess that settles the cat-hop," said Jack Richie.