THE CORNER PLOT
Like some old father-bear watching his cub flash teeth against a
stalking lynx, half proud and half fearful of such courage, so the
dying cattleman looked at his son. Excitement set a high and dangerous
color in his cheek. His eyes were too bright.
"Pierre--brave boy! Look at me. I ain't no imitation-man, even now,
but I ain't a ghost of what I was. There wasn't no man I wouldn't of
met fair and square with bare hands or with a gun. Maybe my hands was
big, but they were fast on the draw. I've lived all my life with iron
on the hip, and my six-gun has seven notches.
"But McGurk downed me fair and square. There wasn't no murder. I was
out for his hide, and he knew it. I done the provokin', an' he jest
done the finishin', that was all. It hurts me a lot to say it, but
he's a better man than I was. A kid like you, why, he'd jest eat you,
Pierre."
Pierre le Rouge smiled again. He felt a stern and aching pride to be
the son of this man.
"So that's settled," went on Martin Ryder, "an' a damned good thing it
is. Son, you didn't come none too soon. I'm goin' out fast. There
ain't enough light left in me so's I can see my own way. Here's all I
ask: When I die touch my eyelids soft an' draw 'em shut--I've seen the
look in a dead man's eyes. Close 'em, and I know I'll go to sleep an'
have good dreams. And down in the middle of Morgantown is the
buryin'-ground. I've ridden past it a thousand times an' watched a
corner plot, where the grass grows quicker than it does anywheres else
in the cemetery. Pierre, I'd die plumb easy if I knew I was goin' to
sleep the rest of time in that place."
"It shall be done."
"But that corner plot, it would cost a pile, son. And I've no money.
I gave what I had to them wolf-eyed boys, Bill an' Bert. Money was
what they wanted, an' after I had Irene's son with me, money was the
cheapest way of gettin' rid of 'em."
"I'll buy the plot."
"Have you got that much money, lad?"
"Yes," lied Pierre calmly.
The bright eyes grew dimmer and then fluttered close. Pierre started
to his feet, thinking that the end had come. But the voice began
again, fainter, slowly:
"No light left inside of me, but dyin' this way is easy. There ain't
no wind will blow on me after I'm dead, but I'll be blanketed safe from
head to foot in cool, sweet-smellin' sod--the kind that has tangles of
the roots of grass. There ain't no snow will reach to me where I lie.
There ain't no sun will burn down to me. Dyin' like that is
jest--goin' to sleep."
After that he said nothing for a time, and the late afternoon darkened
slowly through the room.
As for Pierre, he did not move, and his mind went back. He did not see
the bearded wreck who lay dying before him, but a picture of Irene,
with the sun lighting her copper hair with places of burning gold, and
a handsome young giant beside her. They rode together on some upland
trail at sunset rime, sharply framed against the bright sky. Their
hands were together; their faces were raised; they laughed, from the
midst of their small heaven.
There was a whisper below him: "Irene!"
And Pierre looked down to blankly staring eyes. He groaned, and
dropped to his knees.
"I have come for you," said the whisper, "because the time has come,
Irene. We have to ride out together. We have a long ways to go. Are
you ready?"
"Yes," said Pierre.
"Thank God! It's a wonderful night. The stars are asking us out.
Quick! Into your saddle. Now the spurs. So! We are alone and free,
with the winds around us, and all that we have been forgotten behind
us. Irene, look up with me!"
The eyes opened wide and stared up; without a stir in the great, gaunt
body he was dead. Pierre drew the eyes reverently shut. There were no
tears in his eyes, but a feeling of hollowness about his heart, and a
great pain. He straightened and looked about him and found that the
room was quite dark.
So in the dimness Pierre fumbled, by force of habit, at his throat, and
found the cross which he wore by a silver chain about his throat. He
held it in a great grip and closed his eyes and prayed. When he opened
his eyes again it was almost deep night in the room, and Pierre had
passed from youth to manhood. Through the gloom nothing stood out
distinctly save the white face of the dead man, and from that Pierre
looked quickly away.
One by one he numbered his obligations to Martin Ryder, and first and
last he remembered the lie which had soothed his father. The money for
that corner plot where the grass grew first in the spring of the
year--where was he to find it? He fumbled in his pocket and found only
a single coin.
He leaned back against the wall and strove to concentrate on the
problem, but his thoughts wandered in spite of himself back to the
snows of Canada, to the letter, to the ride south, the death of the
roan, and so on until he reached his entry to that very room.
Looking backward, he remembered all things much more clearly than when
he had actually seen them. For instance, he recalled now that as he
walked through the door the two figures which had started up to block
his way had left behind them some playing-cards at the corner table.
One of these cards had slipped from the edge of the board and flickered
slowly to the floor.
With that memory the thoughts of Pierre le Rouge stopped. The picture
of the falling card remained; all else went out in his mind like the
snuffing of the candle. Then, as if he heard a voice directing him
through the utter blackness of the room, he knew what he must do.
All his wealth was the single half-dollar piece in his pocket, and
there was only one way in which that coin could be increased to the sum
he would need to buy that corner plot, where the soul of old Martin
Ryder could sleep long and deep.
From his brothers he would get no help. The least memory of those
sallow, hungry faces convinced him of that.
There remained the gaming table. In the north country he had watched
men sit in a silent circle, smoking, drinking, with the flare of an
oil-lamp against deep, seamed faces, and only the slip and whisper of
card against card.
Cold conscience tapped the shoulder of Pierre, remembering the lessons
of Father Victor, but a moment later his head went up and his eyes were
shining through the dark. After all, the end justified the means. It
was typical of him that sorrow sat lightly on him.
A moment later he was laughing softly as a boy in the midst of a prank,
and busily throwing off the robe of serge. Fumbling through the night
he located the shirt and overalls he had seen hanging from a nail on
the wall. Into these he slipped, leaned to kiss the chill, damp
forehead of the sleeper, and then went out under the open sky.
The rest had revived the strength of the tough little cow-pony, and he
drove on at a gallop toward the twinkling lights of Morgantown. There
was a new consciousness about Pierre as if he had changed his whole
nature with his clothes. The sober sense of duty which had kept him in
awe all his life like a lifted finger, was almost gone, and in its
place was a joyous freedom.
For the first time he faintly realized what an existence other than
that of a priest might be. Now for a brief moment he could forget the
part of the subdued novice and become merely a man with nothing about
him to distinguish him from other men, nothing to make heads turn at
his approach and raise whispers as he passed.
It was a game, but he rejoiced in it as a girl does in her first
masquerade. To-morrow he must be grave and sober-footed and an example
to other men; to-night he could frolic as he pleased. The good Father
Victor would hear and frown, perhaps, but remembering the purpose for
which the thing was done he would forgive.
So Pierre le Rouge tossed back his head and laughed up to the frosty
stars. The loose sleeves and the skirts of the robe no longer
entangled his limbs. He threw up his arms and shouted. A hillside
caught the sound and echoed it back to him with a wonderful clearness,
and up and down the long ravine beat the clatter of the flying hoofs.
The whole world shouted and laughed and rode with him on Morgantown.
If the people in the houses that he passed had known they would have
started up from their chairs and taken rifle and horse and after him on
the trail. But how could they tell from the passing of those ringing
hoofs that Pierre, the novice, was dead, and Red Pierre was born?
So they drowsed on about their comfortable fires, and Pierre drew rein
with a jerk before the largest of Morgantown's saloons. With a hand on
the swinging doors he paused a breathless moment, thinking, doubting,
wondering--and a little cold of heart like the boy who stands on the
bank of the river to take the first plunge in the spring of the year.
He had to set his teeth before he could summon the resolution to throw
open the door. It was done; he stepped inside, and stood blinking in
the sudden rush of light against his face.
It was all bewildering at first; the radiance, the blue tangle of
smoke, the storm of voices. For Muldoon's was packed from door to
door. Coins rang in a steady chorus along the bar, and the crowd
waited three and four deep.
Some one was singing a rollicking song of the range at one end of the
bar, and a chorus of four bellowed a profane parody at the other end.
The ears of Pierre le Rouge tingled hotly, and he lowered his eyes to
the floor. Truly, Father Victor would be very wrath when all this was
confessed. Partly to escape this uproar he worked his way to the
quieter room at the back of the saloon.
It was almost as crowded as the bar, but here no one spoke except for
an occasional growl. Sudden speaking, and a loud voice, indeed, was
hardly safe. Some one cursed at his ill-luck as Pierre entered, and a
dozen hands reached for six-guns. In such a place one had to be
prepared.
Pierre remembered with quick dismay that he was not armed. All his
life the straight black gown had been weapon enough to make all men
give way before him. Now he carried no borrowed strength upon his
shoulders.
Automatically he slipped his fingers under the breast of his shirt
until their tips touched the cold metal of the cross. That gave him
stronger courage. The joy of the adventure made his blood warm again
as he drew out his one coin and looked for a place to start his venture.
"It is God who governs me," he said, "and why should I doubt Him?"
So he approached the nearest table. On the surface of it were marked
six squares with chalk, and each with its appropriate number. The man
who ran the game stood behind the table and shook three dice. The
numbers which turned up paid the gambler. The numbers which failed to
show paid the owner of the game.
His luck had been too strong that night, and now only two men faced
him, and both of them lost persistently. They had passed the stage of
intelligent gaming; they were "bucking" the dice with savage
stubbornness.
Pierre edged closer, shut his eyes, and deposited his coin. When he
looked again he saw that he had wagered on the five.