SIMON PLAYS A PART
One morning in early July, Matthews came swaggering into the post
barber-shop, his air that of a man who is mightily pleased with himself.
"Bill," said he, as he flung off blouse and hat, "wish you'd mow down
this stubble of mine."
The barber set about stropping a razor. "Don't want your mane trimmed?"
he inquired. "Strikes me--eh--it's pretty long."
The interpreter loosened the collar of his shirt and took a chair.
"Never you mind about my mane," he answered. "It's just as long's I want
it. You turn loose on my chin." He leaned back to elevate a pair of
bright-topped boots.
The other directed his gaze upon the sharpening blade. "Do you happen t'
know Portugee?" he asked humbly. "One of the boys is loony on a gal at
Bismarck that he ain't writ to for a year. She's Portugee----"
Matthews gave a dismissing wave of the hand. "I savvy English and most
Injun," he said; "none of them fancy languages, though. I been to school
only a week in my hull life. That was down in Omyha, and one week was
plenty." At the remembrance, he shook with silent laughter. "That week,
as I say, was 'nough for _me_. The teacher--she was a lady, mind
y'!--tries to tell me that it's the same blamed sun we see comin' up
every mornin'. 'Look a-here, now,' I says; 'don't we git a new moon
onct in a while? Then, what's the matter with havin' a change of sun?'
Well, that plumb stumped her. She shut up."
The barber was now ready for operations, so Matthews adjusted his
shoulders, closed his pink-lidded eyes, and followed the suit of his
nonplussed teacher.
"Bill" felt there was something in the wind, and longed to question
Matthews, yet dared not. The interpreter, formerly so feared, and even
disliked, by the enlisted men, was now regarded in B Troop as a
generally misunderstood and maligned individual--this in consequence of
the Lancaster inquiry. Hence, he was playing the role of injured
innocence, and seriously taking himself for a popular hero. He was more
cocksure and conceited than ever before, and more prone to brag and
bully. Scraping diligently away, the barber shuddered at the thought of
even letting the razor slip.
Kippis was less respectful. He entered when Matthews was rising, all
redolent of bay-rum, and surveyed the latter in mock amaze. "My, ho,
my!" he cried. "Hain't we bloomin' fine!"
Matthews wriggled those faint lines upon his glistening forehead that
served for eyebrows. "You go soak your head," he retorted.
"And no gun hon 'is 'ip," went on the sergeant. "But w'y, ho, w'y does
'e wear red shirts?"
The interpreter spraddled out his legs. "Folks git rich mindin' their
own business," he said meaningly.
Kippis could not forego a last jibe. "Person'd _halmost_ think you's
goin' sparkin'," he declared.
Matthews gave a start, and his keen eyes shot a searching glance at the
sergeant's smiling countenance. What he read there reassured him. The
other was bantering without a notion that he approached the truth. The
interpreter shrugged and stalked out. Within the hour, he was on his way
to the Lancasters'.
He did not go to the shack, however. From the cottonwoods, he spied
Dallas at work in the corn, so he directed his steps thither. She did
not see him. Her back was toward the river, and the sun was glinting on
her swinging hoe. Beyond her, on a picket-rope, was Simon, the bull. He
was travelling in a restless circle, and sending lonesome blasts across
the deserted prairie. He, alone, saw the interpreter, and paused in his
rounds, head raised and eyes bulging inquiringly.
Dallas weeded on, unconscious of a visitor. The corn was shoulder-high
now, and bearded. Its long leaves swayed and whispered, covering the
sound of Matthews' approach. But when he was yet some rods off, a flock
of ground-sparrows rose before him with startled twitters. At that, she
looked back. The next instant, she had caught up the Sharps.
Matthews halted and lifted his hat, displaying hair pasted down to a
silky smoothness. "I ain't got no gun," he said quietly. "I jus' come
for to have a talk."
She made no answer.
The interpreter shifted from foot to foot and mopped his forehead. "I
allus been sorry for what I done las' winter," he went on. "I was a
blame fool to come scarin' you gals--ought to knowed better. But, you
see, when I started, nobody told me there was women folks over here."
Dallas took a deep breath.
"I wanted to tell you," continued Matthews. "And--and I wanted to say I
feel sorry about you' losin' your pa. Now he's dead, I wouldn't take
this here land if you come to me and says, 'Nick, it's yourn.' That's
jus' the way I feel--yes, ma'am. I savvy how to treat a lady, Miss
Lancaster, gentlemanly and honourable."
"You talk nice," commented the girl.
His look faltered from hers. He gave his hard laugh. "You're a little
out of temper," he said soothingly. "_That's_ natural, though. You had a
lot of trouble."
"My trouble's all owing to you," she answered passionately. "And I'll
thank you to go--_right now_."
He put out a hand in expostulation. "Jus' a minute," he begged. "You
done me wrong, but I don't hold it ag'in you. Jus' believe I didn't hurt
your pa. And I admire you and your sister--sure I do. By golly! You're
blamed sandy!"
"You take big chances to come here."
"Now, Miss Lancaster!" His chin sank. He wagged his head dolefully.
Then, whether from warmth, or a desire to display the glories of his
raiment, he took off his blouse.
As he talked, in a half-whine that was meant to be placating, Simon
suddenly became a more interested spectator. He began to revolve again,
and at the very end of his rope, slipping around with tigerish
gracefulness; or, the rope taut, he halted as near as possible to the
two in the corn, stamped one forefoot angrily and shook his curly head.
There, a bold affront, was that blot of glaring scarlet. It awoke in him
a long-slumbering lust for fight.
But the interpreter did not remark the bull. After repeated praise and
condolence, he had arrived at the main object of his visit.
"I got a proposition to make you," he was saying, the while he cooled
himself with his hat. "It's jus' this, and it puts a' end to the hull
row. You and me will forgit what's past and done. Eh?" He paused
impressively, and threw out an arm toward the shack. Smoke was curling
out of the chimney. A slender figure was flitting to and fro within the
open door. "And if I come to see the little one, maybe it'll be O. K.?"
To make himself clearer, he touched a hand to his mouth and wafted
toward the house a smacking kiss.
Sudden fury seized Dallas. Her lips moved.
A few rods away was another as furious, one whose eyes were as red as
the interpreter's. Simon was pawing with alternate hoofs, and tossing
dirt and grass into the air. With each stroke he gave a sullen rumble.
"Now," proceeded Matthews, speaking from one side of his mouth, "you and
me wouldn't jibe." He giggled with a feeble attempt at mirth. "But your
sister, she's a nice little gal. And she'd like me. I'm----"
He got no further, nor was Dallas given time to reply. A resonant blare
rang through the lanes of corn. Then came the sound of trotting. They
turned, to behold Simon advancing. He had jerked up the picket-pin!
Matthews saw his peril. With a curse of alarm he dropped coat and hat
and made for the coulee.
But to no use. The sight of that fleeing red maddened the bull. His feet
stretched to a gallop, his broad horns lowered until his muzzle touched
the grass, his tail sprang out to the level of his curly back. With the
picket-rope hissing across his flanks, and with no eye for his
mistress, he bore down upon the hapless Matthews.
"Shoot him! Shoot----" screamed Matthews. The bull was at his heels.
With quick thought, he side-stepped.
It gave him a brief respite. But, since Simon went on for a space and
then wheeled, it also cut him off from the coulee. He tore toward the
shack, now. After him, tether whipping among the stalks, charged the
bull. Again the interpreter side-stepped, just in time, and with the
dexterity of a matador. But Simon was more alert, and came about like a
cow-pony, emitting terrible bellows. Matthews fled toward Dallas. His
face was a sickly green; his hair was loosened and waved backward in the
sun.
"Simon!" cried Dallas, as the two went by.
Matthews was winded, and when the bull's hot breath fanned his back for
the third time, he resorted to strategy. Once more stepping aside, and
escaping the sharp horns by less than a foot, he followed, and, in
desperation, seized Simon by the tail.
And now the bull's anger was suddenly changed to fear; his desire to
horn that scarlet thing became a desire to get rid of it. With a bawl of
terror he darted this way and that, trying to shake himself free, and
swinging Matthews clear of the ground. This method failed. At once he
adopted new tactics. Bellowing, he raced away through the corn, dragging
the interpreter astride of the stalks, plowing up the earth with him,
rolling him feet-first or sidelong down the rows. But like grim death,
and with raucous oaths, Matthews hung on.
Out of the corn to the coulee road, they went--when Simon saw the grove
at the landing. Among those trees many a pestering buffalo-fly had been
outwitted; there, where grapevines tangled, many a mosquito had been
rubbed away. Quick as a flash, Simon made for the cut, with Matthews
coming breathlessly after.
The interpreter thanked his stars for the bull's manoeuvre. The grove
would give him shelter; he could dodge behind a friendly trunk, or shin
one to safety. He----
Simon had stopped to indulge in more whiplash waltzing, and the
arm-weary Matthews could scarcely keep his hold. "_Ma-a-aw! Ma-a-aw!_"
roared the bull. Then, discouraged, he shot forward again.
But now fright consumed him, and he lost thought of scratching free of
his tormentor. His red eyes were popping from his curly face. His mouth
was wide. His tongue lolled. With great jumps, he sped straight through
the grove.
It was all too swift for calculation. Matthews was conscious only of a
great wind, of an invisible power that bound him to that bull's tail, of
a dull roar in the ears, a blur in the eyes----
Simon leaped the hedge of fruit-hung grapevines, poised for a second on
the brink of the river's caving bank--his feet together, his neck
stretched. Then, the red of him disappeared. And, after it, the more
vivid tuft at the end of his tail.