DESOLATION
Ten miles out on the prairies,--not lands plane as a table, as they are
usually pictured, but rolling like the sea with waves of tremendous
amplitude--stood a rough shack, called by courtesy a house. Like many a
more pretentious domicile, it was of composite construction, although
consisting of but one room. At the base was the native prairie sod,
piled tier upon tier. Above this the superstructure, like the bar of
Mick Kennedy's resort, was of warping cottonwood. Built out from this
single room and forming a part of it was what the designer had called a
woodshed; but as no tree the size of a man's wrist was within ten miles,
or a railroad within fifty, the term was manifestly a misnomer. Wood in
any form it had never contained; instead, it was filled with that
providential fuel of the frontiersman, found superabundantly upon the
ranges,--buffalo chips.
From the main room there was another and much smaller opening into the
sod foundation, and below it,--a dog-kennel. Slightly apart from the
shack stood a twin structure even less assuming, its walls and roof
being wholly built of sod. It was likewise without partition, and was
used as a barn. Hard by was a corral covering perhaps two acres,
enclosed with a barbed-wire fence. These three excrescences upon the
face of nature comprised the "improvements" of the "Big B Ranch."
Within the house the furnishings accorded with their surroundings. Two
folding bunks, similar in conception to the upper berths of a Pullman
car, were built end to end against the wall; when they were raised to
give room, four supports dangled beneath like paralyzed arms. A
home-made table, suggesting those scattered about country picnic
grounds, a few cheap chairs, a row of chests and cupboards variously
remodelled from a common foundation of dry-goods boxes, and a stove,
ingeniously evolved out of the cylinder and head of a portable engine,
comprised the furniture.
The morning sunlight which dimmed the candles of Mick Kennedy's saloon
drifted through the single high-set window of the Big B Ranch-house,
revealing there a very different scene. From beneath the quilts in one
of the folding bunks appeared the faces of a woman and a little boy. At
the opening of the dog-kennel the head of a mottled yellow-and-white
mongrel dog projected into the room, the sensitive muzzle pointing
directly at the occupied bunk. The eyes of woman, child, and beast were
open and moved restlessly about.
"Mamma," and the small boy wriggled beneath the clothes, "Mamma, I'm
hungry."
The white face of the woman turned away, more pallid than before. An
unfamiliar observer would have been at a loss to guess the age of the
owner. In that haggard, non-committal countenance there was nothing to
indicate whether she was twenty-five or forty.
"It is early yet, son. Go to sleep."
The boy closed his eyes dutifully, and for perhaps five minutes there
was silence; then the blue orbs opened wider than before.
"Mamma, I can't go to sleep. I'm hungry!"
"Never mind, Benjamin. The horses, the rabbits, the birds,--all get
hungry sometimes." A hacking cough interrupted her words. "Snuggle close
up to me, little son, and keep warm."
"But, mamma, I want something to eat. Won't you get it for me?"
"I can't, son."
He waited a moment. "Won't you let me help myself, then, mamma?"
The eyes of the mother moistened.
"Mamma," the child repeated, gently shaking his mother's shoulder,
"won't you let me help myself?"
"There's nothing for you to eat, sonny, nothing at all."
The blue child-eyes widened; the serious little face puckered.
"Why ain't there anything to eat, mamma?"
"Because there isn't, bubby."
The reasoning was conclusive, and the child accepted it without further
parley; but soon another interrogation took form in his active brain.
"It's cold, mamma," he announced. "Aren't you going to build a fire?"
Again the mother coughed, and a flush of red appeared upon her cheeks.
"No," she answered with a sigh.
"Why not, mamma?"
There was not the slightest trace of irritation in the answering voice,
although it was clearly an effort to speak.
"I can't get up this morning, little one."
Mysteries were multiplying, but the small Benjamin was equal to the
occasion. With a spring he was out of bed, and in another moment was
stepping gingerly upon the cold bare floor.
"I'm going to build a fire for you, mamma," he announced.
The homely mongrel whined a welcome to the little lad's appearance, and
with his tail beat a friendly tattoo upon the kennel floor; but the
woman spoke no word. With impassive face she watched the shivering
little figure as it hurried into its clothes, and then, with celerity
born of experience, went about the making of a fire. Suddenly a hitherto
unthought-of possibility flashed into the boy's mind, and leaving his
work he came back to the bunk.
"Are you sick, mamma?" he asked.
Instantly the woman's face softened.
"Yes, laddie," she answered gently.
Carefully as a nurse, the small protector replaced the cover at his
mother's back, where his exit had left a gap; then returned to his work.
"You must have it warm here," he said.
Not until the fire in the old cylinder makeshift was burning merrily did
he return to his patient; then, standing straight before her, he looked
down with an air of childish dignity that would have been comical had it
been less pathetic.
"Are you very sick, mamma?" he said at last, hesitatingly.
"I am dying, little son." She spoke calmly and impersonally, without
even a quickening of the breath. The thin hand, lying on the tattered
cover, did not stir.
"Mamma!" the old-man face of the boy tightened, as, bending over the
bed, he pressed his warm cheek against hers, now growing cold and white.
At the mouth of the kennel two bright eyes were watching curiously.
Their owner wriggled the tip of his muzzle inquiringly, but the action
brought no response. Then the muzzle went into the air, and a whine,
long-drawn and insistent, broke the silence.
The boy rose. There was not a trace of moisture in his eyes, but the
uncannily aged face seemed older than before. He went over to a peg
where his clothes were hanging and took down the frayed garment that
answered as an overcoat. From the bunk there came another cough, quickly
muffled; but he did not turn. Cap followed coat, mittens cap; then,
suddenly remembering, he turned to the stove and scattered fresh chips
upon the glowing embers.
"Good-bye, mamma," said the boy.
The mother had been watching him, although she gave no sign. "Where are
you going, sonny?" she asked.
"To town, mamma. Someone ought to know you're sick."
There was a moment's pause, wherein the mongrel whined impatiently.
"Aren't you going to kiss me first, Benjamin?"
The little lad retraced his steps, until, bending over, his lips touched
those of his mother. As he did so, the hand which had lain upon the
coverlet shifted to his arm detainingly.
"How were you thinking of going, son?"
A look of surprise crept into the boy's blue eyes. A question like this,
with its obvious answer, was unusual from his matter-of-fact mother. He
glanced at her gravely.
"I'm going afoot, mamma."
"It's ten miles to town, Benjamin."
"But you and I walked it once together. Don't you remember?"
An expression the lad did not understand flashed over the white face of
Jennie Blair. Well she remembered that other occasion, one of many like
the present, when she and the little lad had gone in company to the
settlement of which Mick Kennedy's place was a part, in search of
someone whom after ten hours' delay they had succeeded in bringing
home,--the remnant and vestige of what was once a man.
"Yes, I know we did, Bennie."
The boy waited a moment longer, then straightened himself.
"I think I'd better be starting now."
But instead of loosening its hold, the hand upon the boy's shoulder
tightened. The eyes of the two met.
"You're not going, sonny. I'm glad you thought of it, but I can't let
you go."
Again there was silence for so long that the waiting dog, impatient of
the delay, whined in soft protest.
"Why not, mamma?"
"Because, Benjamin, it's too late now. Besides, there wouldn't be a
person there who would come out to help me."
The boy's look of perplexity returned.
"Not if they knew you were very sick, mamma?"
"Not if they knew I was dying, my son."
The boy took off hat, mittens, and coat, and returned them to their
places. Never in his short life had he questioned a statement of his
mother's, and such heresy did not occur to him now. Coming back to the
bunk, he laid his cheek caressingly beside hers.
"Is there anything I can do for you, mamma?" he whispered.
"Nothing but what you are doing now, laddie."
Tired of standing, the mongrel dropped within his tracks flat upon his
belly, and, his head resting upon his fore-paws, lay watching intently.
* * * * *
When the door of Mick Kennedy's saloon closed with an emphasis that
shook the very walls, it shut out a being more ferocious, more evil,
than any beast of the jungle. For the time, Blair's alcohol-saturated
brain evolved but one chain of thought, was capable of but one
emotion--hate. Every object in the universe, from its Creator to
himself, fell under the ban. The language of hate is curses; and as he
moved out over the prairie there dripped from his lips continuously,
monotonously, a trickling, blighting stream of malediction. Swaying,
stumbling, unconscious of his physical motions, instinct kept him upon
the trail; a Providence, sometimes kindest to those least worthy,
preserved him from injury.
Half way out he met a solitary Indian astride a faded-looking mustang,
and the current of his wrath was temporarily diverted by a surly "How!"
Even this measure of friendliness was regretted when the big revolver
came out of the rancher's holster like a flash, and, head low on the
neck of the mustang, heels in the little beast's ribs, the aborigine
retreated with a yell, amid a shower of ill-aimed bullets. Long after
the figure on the pony had passed out of range, Blair stood pulling at
the trigger of the empty repeater and cursing louder than before because
it would not "pop."
Two hours later, when it was past noon, an uncertain hand lifted the
wooden latch of the Big B Ranch-house door, and, heralded by an inrush
of cold outside air, Tom Blair, master and dictator, entered his domain.
The passage of time, the physical exercise, and the prairie air, had
somewhat cleared his brain. Just within the room, he paused and looked
about him with surprise. With premonition of impending trouble, the
mongrel bristled the yellow hair of his neck, and, retreating to the
mouth of his kennel, stood guard; but otherwise the scene was to a
detail as it had been in the morning. The woman lay passive within the
bunk. The child by her side, holding her hand, did not turn. The very
atmosphere of the place tingled with an ominous quiet,--a silence such
as one who has lived through a cyclone connects instinctively with a
whirling oncoming black funnel.
The new-comer was first to make a move. Walking over to the centre of
the room, he stopped and looked upon his subjects.
"Well, of all the infernally lazy people I ever saw!" he commented, "you
beat them, Jennie! Get up and cook something to eat; it's way after
noon, and I'm hungry."
The woman said nothing, but the boy slid to his feet, facing the
intruder.
"Mamma's sick and can't get up," he explained as impersonally as to a
stranger. "Besides, there isn't anything to cook. She said so."
The man's brow contracted into a frown.
"Speak when you're spoken to, young upstart!" he snapped. "Out with you,
Jennie! I don't want to be monkeyed with to-day!"
He hung up his coat and cap, and loosened his belt a hole; but no one
else in the room moved.
"Didn't you hear me?" he asked, looking warningly toward the bunk.
"Yes," she replied.
Autocrat under his own roof, the man paused in surprise. Never before
had a command here been disobeyed. He could scarcely believe his own
senses.
"You know what to do, then," he said sharply.
For the first time a touch of color came into the woman's cheeks, and
catching the man's eyes she looked into them unfalteringly.
"Since when did I become your slave, Tom Blair?" she asked slowly.
The words were a challenge, the tone was that of some wild thing,
wounded, cornered, staring death in the face, but defiant to the end.
"Since when did you become my owner, body and soul?"
Any sportsman, any being with a fragment of admiration for even animal
courage, would have held aloof then. It remained for this man, bred amid
high civilization, who had spent years within college halls, to strike
the prostrate. As in the frontier saloon, so now his hand went
involuntarily to his throat, clutched at the binding collar until the
button flew; then, as before, his face went white.
"Since when!" he blazed, "since when! I admire your nerve to ask that
question of me! Since six years ago, when you first began living with
me. Since the day when you and the boy,--and not a preacher within a
hundred miles--" Words, a flood of words, were upon his lips; but
suddenly he stopped. Despite the alcohol still in his brain, despite the
effort he made to continue, the gaze of the woman compelled silence.
"You dare recall that memory, Tom Blair?" The words came more slowly
than before, and with an intensity that burned them into the hearer's
memory. "You dare, knowing what I gave up for your sake!" The eyes
blazed afresh, the dark head was raised on the pillows. "You know that
my son stands listening, and yet you dare throw my coming to you in my
face?"
White to the lips went the scarred visage of the man, but the madness
was upon him.
"I dare?" To his own ears the voice sounded unnatural. "I dare? To be
sure I dare! You came to me of your own free-will. You were not a
child!" His voice rose and the flush returned to his face. "You knew the
price and accepted it deliberately,--deliberately, I say!"
Without a sound, the figure in the rough bunk quivered and stiffened;
the hand upon the coverlet was clenched until the nails grew white, then
it relaxed. Slowly, very slowly, the eyelids closed as though in sleep.
Impassive but intent listener, an instinct now sent the boy Benjamin
back to his post.
"Mamma," he said gently. "Mamma!"
There was no answer, nor even a responsive pressure of the hand.
"Mamma!" he repeated more loudly. "Mamma! Mamma!"
Still no answer, only the limp passivity. Then suddenly, although never
before in his short life had the little lad looked upon death, he
recognized it now. His mamma, his playmate, his teacher, was like this;
she would not speak to him, would not answer him; she would never speak
to him or smile upon him again! Like a thunderclap came the realization
of this. Then another thought swiftly followed. This man,--one who had
said things that hurt her, that brought the red spots to her
cheeks,--this man was to blame. Not in the least did he understand the
meaning of what he had just heard. No human being had suggested to him
that Blair was the cause of his mother's death; but as surely as he
would remember their words as long as he lived, so surely did he
recognize the man's guilt. Suddenly, as powder responds to the spark,
there surged through his tiny body a terrible animal hate for this man,
and, scarcely realizing the action, he rushed at him.
"She's dead and you killed her!" he screamed. "Mamma's dead, dead!" and
the little doubled fists struck at the man's legs again and again.
Oblivious to the onslaught, Tom Blair strode over to the bunk.
"Jennie," he said, not unkindly, "Jennie, what's the matter?"
Again there was no response, and a shade of awe crept into the man's
voice.
"Jennie! Jennie! Answer me!" A hand fell upon the woman's shoulder and
shook it, first gently, then roughly. "Answer me, I say!"
With the motion, the head of the dead shifted upon the pillow and turned
toward the man, and involuntarily he loosened his grasp. He had not
eaten for twenty-four hours, and in sudden weakness he made his way to
one of the rough chairs, and sat down, his face buried in his hands.
Behind him the boy Benjamin, his sudden hot passion over, stood watching
intently,--his face almost uncanny in its lack of childishness.
For a time there was absolute silence, the hush of a death-chamber; then
of a sudden the boy was conscious that the man was looking at him in a
way he had never looked before. Deep down below our consciousness, far
beneath the veneer of civilization, there is an instinct, relic of the
vigilant savage days, that warns us of personal danger. By this instinct
the lad now interpreted the other's gaze, and knew that it meant ill for
him. For some reason which he could not understand, this man, this big
animal, was his mortal enemy; and, in the manner of smaller animals, he
began to consider an avenue of escape.
"Ben," spoke the man, "come here!"
Tom Blair was sober now, and wore a look of determination upon his face
that few had ever seen there before; but to his surprise the boy did not
respond. He waited a moment, and then said sharply:
"Ben, I'm speaking to you. Come here at once!"
For answer there was a tightening of the lad's blue eyes and an added
watchfulness in the incongruously long childish figure; but that was
all.
Another lagging minute passed, wherein the two regarded each other
steadily. The man's eyes dropped first.
"You little devil!" he muttered, and the passion began showing in his
voice. "I believe you knew what I was thinking all the time! Anyway,
you'll know now. You said awhile ago that I was to blame for your mother
being--as she is. You're liable to say that again." A horror greater
than sudden passion was in the deliberate explanation and in the slow
way he rose to his feet. "I'm going to fix you so you can't say it
again, you old-man imp!"
Then a peculiar thing happened. Instead of running away, the boy took a
step forward, and the man paused, scarcely believing his eyes. Another
step forward, and yet another, came the diminutive figure, until almost
within the aggressor's reach; then suddenly, quick as a cat, it veered,
dropped upon all fours to the floor, and head first, scrambling like a
rabbit, disappeared into the open mouth of the dog-kennel.
Too late the man saw the trick, and curses came to his lips,--curses fit
for a fiend, fit for the irresponsible being he was. He himself had
built that kennel. It extended in a curve eight feet into the solid sod
foundation, and to get at the spot where the boy now lay he would have
to tear down the house itself. The temper which had made the man what he
now was, a drunkard and fugitive in a frontier country, took possession
of him wholly, and with it came a madman's cunning; for at a sudden
thought he stopped, and the cursing tongue was silent. Five minutes
later he left the place, closing the door carefully behind him; but
before that time a red jet of flame, like the ravenous tongue of a
famished beast, was lapping at a hastily assembled pile of tinder-dry
furniture in one corner of the shanty.