AT THE LUMBER CAMP
They did what they could for Blenham--which was but little--and let him
go when he was ready. Before daylight he had ridden away, dead white,
sick-looking, and wordless save for his parting words in a strangely
quiet voice--
"I'll get all three of you for this, s'elp me!"
They had bound his head up in a strip torn from an old sheet; the last
they saw of him in the uncertain light was this bandage, rising and
falling slowly as his horse bore him away.
Blenham gone, Barbee and Bill Royce went down to the bunk-house again,
slipping in quietly. Steve Packard, alone in the ranch-house, sat
smoking his pipe for half an hour. Then he went to bed, the bank-notes
still in his shirt, his gun under his pillow.
Twice last night he had said to Joe Woods, the lumber-camp boss, "I'll
see you in the morning."
Morning come, Steve breakfasted early, saddled his horse, and turned
out across the fields to meet the rising sun. And it seemed to his
fancies, set a-tingle in the early dawn freshness, that the rising sun,
ancient symbol of youth and vigor and hope with triumph's wings, was
coming to meet him.
At this period of the day, especially when he rides and is alone and
the forests thicken all about him, man is prone to confidence. It had
been a simple matter, so he looked upon it now, to have discovered the
truth of the substituted bills last night; as simple a matter had been
his winning at seven-and-a-half or his whipping big Joe Woods or his
recovery of the lost legacy.
Blenham, or rather an agent of Blenham, had killed his horse; what
then? His destiny had stepped forward; Terry had come; he had whizzed
back to the ranch in her car and on time.
What if the ranch were mortgaged and to the hardest man in seven
counties? What though his grandfather had obviously fallen supine
before the old man's tempting sin, which is avarice, and was bound to
break him? Was fate not playing him for her favorite?
To Steve Packard, riding to meet the sun and to keep his promise to the
lumber boss, the world just now was an exceedingly bright and lovely
place; in this hour of a leaping optimism he could even picture Terry
Temple in a companionably laughing mood.
So early did he take to saddle that the fag end of the dawn was still
sweet in the air when he passed under the great limbs of the stragglers
of the forests clothing his eastern hill-slopes. He noted how between
the widely separated boles the grass was thick and rich and untrampled;
reserved against the time of need. There was no stock here yet.
He passed on, swung into the little-used trail which brought him first
to the McKittrick cabin where a double-barrelled shot-gun six months
ago had brought Bill Royce his blindness; then to the lumber-camp a
mile further on. Both were on the bank of Packard's Creek; the flume
constructed by Joe Woods's men followed the line of the stream.
The new sun in his eyes, Steve drew his hat low down on his forehead
and looked curiously about him. The timberjacks had come only
recently; so much was obvious. They had come to stay; that was as
plainly to be seen. Rough slabs of green timber, still drying and
twisting and splitting as it did so, had been knocked together rudely
to make a long, low building where cook and cookstove and a two-plank
table indicated both kitchen and dining-room.
A half-dozen other shacks and lean-tos, seen here and there through the
trees, completed the camp. Great fallen trees--they were taking only
the full-grown timber--looking helpless and hopeless, lay this way and
that like broken giants, majestically resigned to the conqueror's axe.
Here in the peace and quiet of the pinking day this inroad of
commercialism struck Steve suddenly both as slaughter and sacrilege;
among the stalwart standing patriarchs and their bowed brethren he sat
his horse staring frowningly at the little ugly clutter of buildings
housing the invaders.
"My beloved old granddad had his nerve with him," he grunted as he rode
on into the tiny settlement. "As usual!"
The cook, yawning, bleary-eyed, unthinkably tousled, was just
bestirring himself. Steve saw his back and a trailing suspender as he
went into the cook-shed carrying some kindling-wood in one hand and a
bucket of water in the other. It was only when Packard, having ridden
to his door and looked in, startled the cook into swinging about, that
the dull-eyed signs of a night of dissipation showed in the other's
face.
"Up late last night, I'll bet," laughed Steve, easing himself in the
saddle. The cook made a face unmistakably eloquent of a bad taste in
his mouth and went down on his knees before his stove, settling slowly
like a man with stiff, rheumatic joints or else a head which he did not
intend to jar.
"Drunk las' night," he growled, settling back on his haunches as his
fire caught. "A man that'll get drunk is a damn' fool. I'm t'rough
wid it."
"Where's Woods?" asked Steve. "Up yet?"
"Yes, rot him, he's up. He's always up. He's--holy smoke, I got a
head!"
"Where is he?" demanded Packard.
The cook rose gently and for a moment clasped his head with both hands.
Then he immersed it gradually in his bucket of icy water. After which,
drying himself with a dirty towel and setting the bucket of water on
his stove, he turned red-rimmed eyes upon Steve.
"You're the guy I fed the other mornin', ain't you?" he asked.
Steve nodded.
"More'n which," continued the cook, "you're the guy as licked Woodsy
las' night in Red Crick?"
Again Steve nodded.
"An' again you're claimin' to run the ranch here? An' to own it? An'
to be ol' Hell-Fire's gran'son?"
"I asked you where Woods was," Packard reminded him sharply. The cook
threw up his hand as though to ward off a blow.
"Whatcha yellin' in my ear for?" he moaned dismally. "Want to split my
head off? Woodsy's over yonder; talkin' with a man name of Blenham.
Ever hear of him?"
"Over yonder" plainly meant just across the creek where there was a
little flat open space among the trees in which stood one of the larger
shanties. Steve saw a stove-pipe sticking out crookedly through the
shed roof; noted a thin spear of smoke. He spurred across the stream
and to the timber boss's quarters.
Woods heard him and came out into the brightening morning, drawing the
door closed behind him. His eyes, like the cook's though to a lesser
degree, showed indications of a wild night in town. Steve guessed that
he hadn't undressed all night; that he was not entirely sober just now
though he carried himself steadily and spoke well enough.
"I thought you'd show," said Woods quietly, his big hands down in his
pockets, his shoulders against the wall.
"What is Blenham doing here?" Steve asked.
Woods narrowed his eyes in a speculative frown.
"He's damn' near dead. He's waitin' for me to get one of the boys to
hitch up an' haul him to a doctor. He says you an' two other guys
gouged his eye out for him."
"He's a liar," announced Packard angrily. "The thing was an accident.
It was a fair fight between him and Bill Royce. Blenham fell on an old
spur. I promised you I'd be here this morning, Woods."
"Yes," said Woods. "I expected you."
"You were square with me last night," went on Packard quietly. "I
appreciate the fact. If ever I can do you a favor, just say so. So
much for that part of it. Next: Maybe you've heard I'm the owner of
Ranch Number Ten? And that I'm running it myself? I've come over to
tell you this morning that we're knocking off work here. I don't want
any more timber down."
There came a little twitching at the corner of Woods's broad mouth. He
made no answer.
"Hear me?" snapped Steve.
"Sure I hear you," said Woods insolently. "So does Blenham; he's right
inside where he can hear. I guess it's him you want to talk with. I'm
takin' my orders off'n Blenham an' nobody else."
"I've talked already with Blenham. I've told him not to set his hoofs
on my ranch again after to-day. Since he's pretty badly hurt I'll let
you haul him to the doctor but I don't want him hauled back. Further,
I want work stopped here right now. The men will be having breakfast
in a few minutes. After breakfast you can explain to them and let them
go."
Woods shrugged.
"My orders, hot out'n Blenham's mouth, is to stick on the job here an'
saw wood," he said colorlessly. "I'm takin' my pay off'n him an' I'm
doin' what he says."
There seemed only a careless indifference in his gesture as he partly
turned his back, staring up-stream; but the slight movement served to
show Packard that Woods carried a gun on his hip, in plain sight.
Well, Woods himself had said--"I expected you!"
Last night and for a definite purpose Steve had armed himself; this
morning, setting out on this errand, he had tossed the revolver into a
table drawer at the ranch-house. He had never been a gunman; if
circumstance dictated that he must go armed, well and good. But his
brows contracted angrily at the display of Woods's readiness for
gun-play.
"Look here, you Joe Woods!" he cried out. "And listen, too, you
Blenham! I'm no trouble-seeker; I know it's a dead easy thing to start
a row that will see more than one man dead before it's ended, and
what's the use? But I mean to have what is mine in spite of you and
Hell-Fire Packard and the devil! The right of the whole deal is as
plain as one and one: This is my outfit, if it is mortgaged; nobody
excepting me has any business ordering my timber cut. And I say that
it's not going to be cut. If there is any trouble it's up to you
fellows."
From Blenham in the cabin came no sound; Woods, having glanced swiftly
at Packard's angry face, again stared up-stream.
For a little Steve Packard gnawed at his lip, caught in an eddy of
helpless rage. Never an answer from Blenham, never an answer from
Woods; angry already, their silences maddened him. Across the creek he
saw the cook standing in his kitchen door, listening and smiling in
sickly fashion; two or three of the men, coming out for their
breakfasts, were watching him.
They were an ugly, red-eyed bunch, he thought as he swept them with his
flashing eyes; they'd fight like dogs for the joy of fighting; soon or
late, if Blenham persisted, he'd have the job on his hands of throwing
them off his land. Of course he could go "higher up"; he could appeal
to his grandfather.
He could, but in his present mood he had no intention of doing any such
thing. His grandfather, before now, should have withdrawn these men.
"Don't ask me to hold my hand!" the old man had shouted at him. "I'm
goin' after you tooth an' big toe-nail!"
Well, if the old man wanted trouble and range war----
His blood was rushing swift and hot through his veins; his mind working
feverishly. One man alone against the crowd of them, he could do
nothing. But he could ride back to the ranch, gather up a dozen men,
put guns into their hands, be back here in the matter of a couple of
hours.
He saw the timberjacks as one by one they came out into the clearing by
the cook's shack; counted them as they went in. The thought of a
morning cup of coffee was attracting them; among the faces turned
briefly his way he recognized several he had seen last night in the Ace
of Diamonds saloon. He saw two of them hitching up the big wagon,
evidently the only conveyance in the camp. They were getting ready to
take Blenham.
Suddenly a new light flashed into Steve's eyes; he turned his head
abruptly that Joe Woods should not see.
"How many men have you got here, Woods?" he asked.
Wondering at the question Woods answered it:
"Fourteen; startin' a new camp across the ridge."
Steve had counted nine men go into the cook's shed; with the cook there
were ten; the two with the horses made twelve. There should be two
more. He waited. Meanwhile, secretly so that Woods might not guess
what he was doing or see the busy hand, he loosened his latigo, seeming
merely to slouch in his saddle; while he made a half-dozen random
remarks which set Woods wondering still further, he got his cinch
loose. Another man had gone into the kitchen. Thirteen.
"Fourteen counting you?" he asked Woods.
"Yes."
Then they were all accounted for; two with the horses; eleven in the
shed; Joe Woods in front of him.
"My cinch is loose," said Packard and dismounted, throwing the stirrup
up across the saddle out of his way, his fingers going to the latigo
which he had just loosened.
Woods watched him idly. Then suddenly both men looked toward the
kitchen. The door had been slammed shut; there was a fairly hideous
racket as of all of the cook's pots and pans falling together; after it
a boom of laughter, and finally the cook's voice lifted querulously.
Woods grinned. Unruffled by Packard's presence he said casually:
"Cookie mos' usually has the hell of a head after a night like las'
night. The boys knows it an' has a little fun with him!"
The two men harnessing the horses had evidently guessed as did Woods
what was happening in the cook's domain; at any rate, they hastily tied
the horses and hurried to see. Packard, still busied with his latigo,
saw them and watched them until the door had shut behind them.
His horse stood between him and Woods. He tickled the animal in the
flank; it spun about, pulling back, plunging, drawing Woods's eyes.
And the next thing which Woods clearly understood was that Steve
Packard was upon him, that one of Packard's hands was at his throat,
that the other had gone for the gun on Woods's hip and had gotten it.
"Back into your shack!" commanded Packard, jabbing the muzzle of
Woods's big automatic hard into Woods's ribs. "Quick!"
To himself just now Steve had said: "One man against the crowd of them,
he could do nothing!" Just exactly what Woods would be thinking; what
Blenham inside would be thinking; just exactly what the rest of the men
thought since they turned their backs on him and forgot him in their
sport of badgering the cook.
What he was doing now was what he would term, did he hear of another
man attempting it, "A fool thing to do!" And yet he had told himself
many a time that a man stood a fair chance to get away with the
unexpected if he hit quick and hard and kept his wits about him.
Woods, taken thoroughly aback, allowed himself to be driven again into
his cabin. Packard followed and closed the door. Within was Blenham,
lying on Woods's bunk, his head still swathed, a half-empty whiskey
bottle on the floor at his side. With one watery eye he looked from
one to the other of the two men bursting in on him.
"Blenham," cried Packard, standing over him while he was careful not to
lose sight of Joe Woods's working face, "I want work stopped here and
this crowd of men off the ranch. You heard what I said outside, didn't
you?"
Blenham answered heavily:
"Woods, don't you pay no attention to what this man says. You keep
your men on the job. An' if you got another drop of whiskey----"
"The bottle's where you put it," retorted Woods. "Under your pillow."
Blenham rolled on his side, slipping his hand under his pillow. All
the time his one red eye shone evilly on Steve, who, his wits about
him, stepped back into the corner whence he might at the same time
watch Woods and that hand of Blenham's which was making its stupid
little play of seeking a bottle.
"Take it out by the neck, Blenham," said Steve sternly. "Take it out
by the neck and pass it to me, butt end first! _Sabe_? I'm guessing
the kind of drink you'd like to set up."
Blenham's one eye and Steve's two clashed; Woods watched interestedly.
He even laughed as at last, with an exclamation which was as much a
groan as a curse, Blenham jerked out his gun and flung it down on his
quilt. Steve took it up and shoved it into his pocket.
"There's jus' a han'ful of men over to the cookhouse," said Woods
humorously. "Havin' stuck up me an' Blenham you oughtn't to have no
trouble over there!"
"How many men?" demanded Steve quietly. "Thirteen, if I counted right,
eh, Woods? That's no kind of a number to pin your hopes on! And now
listen; I'll cut it short: If there is any trouble this morning, if any
man gets hurt, remember that this is my land, that you jaspers are
trespassing, that I am simply defending my property. In other words,
you're in wrong. You'll be skating on pretty thin ice if you just
plead later on that you were obeying orders from Blenham; follow
Blenham long enough and you'll get to the pen. Now, I'm going outside.
You and Blenham stay in here until I call for you. I'll shut the door;
you leave it shut. Take time to roll yourself a smoke and think things
over before you start anything, Joe Woods."
Then swiftly he whipped open the door, stepped out, and snapped it shut
after him.
"I'm taking a chance," he muttered, his eyes hard, his jaw set and
thrust forward. "A good long chance. But that's the way to play the
game!"
The door of the cook's shed, facing him from across the creek, was
still closed. Steve moved a dozen paces down-stream; now he could
command Woods's cabin with the tail of his eye, look straight into the
kitchen when the door opened, keep an eye upon the one little square
window.
"It's all in the cards," he told himself grimly. "A man can win a jack
pot on a pair of deuces, if he plays the game right!"
At this point Packard's Creek is narrow; the distance between the spot
where he stood and the door of the cook-shed was not over forty feet.
He shifted Woods's gun to his left hand, taking into his right
Blenham's old-style revolver which was more to his fancy. Then, to get
matters under way in as emphatic a manner as he knew how, he sent a
bullet crashing through the cook's roof.
The murmur of voices died away suddenly; it was intensely still for a
moment; then there was a scrambling, a scraping of heavy boots and
dragging benches, and the cook's door snapped back against the outside
wall, the opening filled with hulking forms, as men crowded to see what
was happening. What they saw was the nose of Blenham's gun in Steve's
hand.
"Back up there," shouted Packard. "Stand still while you listen to me."
They hesitated, wondering. A man growled something, his voice
deep-throated and truculent. Another man laughed. The forms filling
the doorway began a slow bulging outward as other forms behind crowded
upon them.
Within Woods's cabin there was a little noise.
"You men are leaving to-day," said Steve hastily. "Just as fast as you
can pull your freight. Blenham and Woods are going with you. All told
there are above a dozen of you and only one of me. But I've got
Woods's gun and Blenham's and I happen to mean business. This is my
outfit; if you fellows start anything and there is trouble, why you're
on the wrong side of the fence. Besides, you're apt to get hurt.
Blenham and Woods are quitting cold; so far as I can see you boys would
be a pack of fools to make more of a stand than they are doing."
The man who had laughed and who now thrust his face forward through his
companions, grinned widely and announced:
"We mightn't worry none about where Blenham an' Joe get off. But we
ain't had our breakfasts yet!"
"You don't get any breakfast on my land!" said Steve sharply, more
afraid just now of having to do with good nature than with anger.
For if the dozen men there simply laughed and stepped out and
dispersed, his hands would be tied; he couldn't shoot down a lot of
joking men and he knew it. And they would know it.
"You're on your way right now! You, there!" This to a big,
stoop-shouldered young giant in the fore, blue-eyed, straw-haired,
northern-looking. "Step out this way, Sandy! And step lively."
The northerner shrugged and looked belligerent. Steve moistened his
lips.
"You can't bluff me--" began the northerner.
And Steve knew that, having gone this far, he could not stop at
bluffing. And he knew that he must not seem to hesitate.
"I can shoot as straight as most men," he said smoothly. "But
sometimes I miss an inch or two at this distance. You men who don't
want to take any unnecessary chances had better give Sandy a little
more elbow-room!"
The stoop-shouldered man squared himself a little, jerked up his head,
took on a fresh air of defiance. Slowly Steve lifted the muzzle of his
gun--slowly a man drew back from the northerner, a man fell away to the
right, a man drew a hasty pace back at the left. He was left standing
in the middle of the open doorway. He shifted a little, doubled his
fists at his sides, twisted his head.
Again a noise from Woods's cabin. Steve saw that the door had quietly
opened six inches. There was a quick movement within; the door was
flung wide open. Woods was standing in the opening, a rifle in his
hands, the barrel trained on Steve's chest. Steve saw the look in
Woods's eye, whirled and fired first. The rifle bullet cut whistling
high through the air; Woods dropped the rifle and reeled and went down
under the impact of a leaden missile from a forty-five calibre
revolver. The rifle lay just outside now.
The squat young giant with the blue eyes and shock head of hair had not
stirred. His mouth was open; his face was stupidly expressionless.
"Throw up your hands and step outside!" Steve called to him roughly.
The man started, looked swiftly about him, stepped forward, lifting his
big hands. They were still clenched but opened slowly and loosely as
they went above his head.
"Turn your back this way," commanded Steve, feeling his mastery of the
moment and knowing that he must drive his advantage swiftly. "Belly to
the wall. That's it. Next!"
A man, the man who had twice laughed, stepped forward eagerly. He
needed no invitation to lift his hands, nor yet to go to the other's
side, his face to the wall. His eyes were bulging a little; they were
fixed not on Steve Packard but on the body of Joe Woods. The timber
boss lay across the threshold, half in, half out, twisting a little
where he lay.
Now, one after another, speaking in low voices or not at all, the
timber crew came out into the stillness of the new day. Steve counted
them as they appeared, always keeping the tail of his eye on Woods's
door, always realizing that Blenham was still to be dealt with, always
watchful of the small square window in the cook's shed. Once he saw a
face there; he called out warningly and the face hastily withdrew.
At last they were outside, thirteen men with their backs to him, their
hands lifted. Stepping backward Steve went to Woods's cabin.
"Come out, Blenham," he called curtly.
Blenham cursed him but came. Stepping over Woods's body he said
threateningly:
"Killed him, have you? You'll swing for that."
"Stand where you are, Blenham." He wondered dully if he had killed
Woods. He considered the matter almost impersonally just now; the game
wasn't yet played, cards were out, the mind must be cool, the eye
quick. "You two boys on the end come over here and help me with Woods."
Again Woods's big body twisted; it even turned half over now, and Woods
sat up. His hand went to his shoulder; Steve saw the hand go red.
Woods's face was white and drawn with pain. His eyes went to the rifle
at his feet. Steve stepped forward, took the thing up, tossed it back
into the cabin. Woods swayed, pitched a little forward, caught
himself, steadied himself with a hand on the door-jamb, and shakily
drew himself to his feet. Steve marvelled at him.
"If you like, Woods," he said quietly, "I'll have you taken over to my
place and will send for a doctor for you."
"Aw, hell, I ain't hurt bad," said Woods.
Steve saw how his brows contracted as he spoke. The red hand was laid
rather hurriedly on the shoulder of one of the two men whom Steve had
summoned across the creek.
Blenham turned away and went down-stream, toward the big wagon. Woods
followed, walking slowly and painfully, leaning now and again on his
support.
As Steve called to them the men lined up along the wall of the cook's
shed, turned, and, their hands still lifted, went down-stream. One
after another they climbed up into the wagon. Two or three laughed;
for the most part there were only black faces and growing anger. Many
of them had drunk much and slept little last night; not a man of them
but missed his coffee.
Packard caught up his horse's reins and swung into the saddle calling
out:
"I don't know anything you're waiting for. Climb into the seat,
somebody. Get started. Blenham and Woods both need a doctor. And you
needn't come back for anything you left; I'll have all your junk boxed
and hauled into Red Creek this afternoon."
A man gathered up the four reins and climbed to the high seat. The
brake was snapped back, the horses danced, set their necks into their
collars, and the wheels turned. Behind them Steve Packard, still
watchful, rode to escort them to a satisfactory distance beyond the
border of his property.
Terry Temple out in front of the dilapidated Temple home was amusing
herself with a pair of field-glasses. Her big wolf-hound had just
temporarily laid aside his customary dignity and was chasing a rabbit.
Terry had her binoculars focussed on a distant field, curious as to the
outcome.
Suddenly she lost this interest. Far down the road she glimpsed a big
wagon; it was filled with standing men. She altered her focus.
"Dad!" she called quickly. "Oh, dad! Come here!"
Her father came out on the porch.
"What do you want?" he asked irritably.
Terry came running to him, flushed with her excitement, and shoved the
glasses up to his eyes. Temple dodged, fussed with the focussing
apparatus, lowered the glasses, and blinked down the road.
"It's just a wagon, ain't it?" he demanded. "Looks like----"
Again she snatched the binoculars.
"A lot of men are standing up," she announced. "That's the team from
the Packard logging-camp, There's a man sitting on the front seat with
the driver and he's got a rag around his head. There's some sort of a
bed made in the bottom of the wagon; a man's lying down. I actually
believe, Dad Temple----"
She broke off in a strange little gasp. Behind the wagon a man rode on
horseback; the sun glinted on a revolver in his hand. They came closer.
"It's Blenham on the front seat with a bandage around his head!" she
cried. "He's hurt! And--dad, that man back there is Steve Packard!
And he's driving that crowd off his ranch, as sure as you are Jim
Temple and I'm Teresa Arriega Temple!"
Temple started.
"What's that?" he demanded with a genuine show of interest.
Together they stared down the road. On came the wagon and the rider
behind it. Slowly the look in Terry's eyes altered. In a moment they
were fairly dancing. And then, causing her father to stare at her
curiously, she broke out into peal after peal of delicious laughter.
"Steve Packard," she cried out, her exclamation meant for her own ears
alone and reaching no further than those of her newly imported Japanese
cook who was peering out of his kitchen window just behind her, "I
believe you're a white man after all! And a gentleman and a sport!
Dad, he's nabbed the whole crowd of them and put them on the run. By
glory, it looks to me like a man has turned up! Maybe he was telling
me the truth last night."
The wagon came on, drew abreast of the Temple gate, passed by. Temple
stared in what looked like consternation. Steve, following the wagon,
came abreast of the gate, stopped, watched the four horses draw their
freight around the next bend in the road, accounted his work done, and
turned toward the Temples.
"Good morning," he called cheerily, highly content with life just at
this moment. "Fine day, isn't it?"
Terry looked at him coolly. Then she turned her back and went into the
house. Iki, the new cook, looked at her wonderingly.
"To me it appears most probable certain," said the astute Oriental
within his soul, "that inhabitants of these wilderness places have much
madness within their brains."
Steve swung his horse back into the road and set his face toward his
own ranch.
"Darn the girl," he muttered.