Mr. "Youbet" Somes, erstwhile foreman of the Two-X-Two ranch, in
Arizona, and now out of a job, rode gloomily toward Kit, a town between
him and his destination.
Needless to say, he was a cowman through and through. More than that,
he was so saturated with cowmen's traditions as to resent pugnaciously
anything which flouted them.
He was of the old school, and would not submit quietly to two things,
among others, which an old-school cowman hated--wire fences and sheep.
To this he owed his present ride, for he hated wire fences cordially.
They meant the passing of the free, open range, of straight trails
across country; they meant a great change, an intolerable condition.
"Yessir, bronch! Things are gettin' damnabler every year, with th'
railroads, tourists, nesters, barb' wire, an' sheep. Last year, it was
a windmill, that screeched till our hair riz up. It would n't work when
we wanted it to, an' we could n't stop it when it once got started.
"It gave us no sleep, no peace; an' it killed Bob Cousins--swung round
with th' wind an' knocked him off 'n th' platform, sixty feet, to th'
ground. Bob allus did like to monkey with th' buzz saw. I shore told
him not to go up there, because th' cussed thing was loaded; but, bein'
mule-headed, he knowed more 'n me.
"But this year! Lord--but that was an awful pile of wire, bronch!
Three strands high, an' over a hundred an' fifty miles round that
pasture. That was a' insult, bronch; an' I never swaller 'em. That's
what put me an' you out here, in th' middle of nowhere, tryin' to find a
way out. G'wan, now! You ain't goin' to rest till I gets off you.
G'wan, I told you!"
Mr. Somes was riding east, bound for the Bar-20, where he had friends.
For a year or two, he had heard persistent rumors to the effect that
Buck Peters had more cows than he knew what to do with; and he argued
rightly that the Bar-20 foreman could find a place for an old friend,
whose ability was unquestioned. Of one thing he was certain--there were
no wire fences, down there.
It was dusk when he dismounted in front of Logan's, in Kit, and went
inside. The bartender glanced up, reaching for a bottle on the shelf
beside him.
Youbet nodded. "You got it first pop. Have one with me. I 'm countin'
on staying over in town tonight. Got a place for me?"
"Shore have--upstairs in th' attic. Want grub, too?"
"Well, I sorter hope to have somethin' to eat afore I pull out. Here's
how!" And when Mr. Somes placed his empty glass on the bar, he smiled
good-naturedly. "That's good stuff. Much goin' on in town?"
"Reckon you can get a game most anywhere."
"Where do I get that grub? Here?"
"No--down th' street. Ridin' far?"
"Yes--a little. Goin' down to th' Bar-20 for a job punchin'. I hear
Peters has got more cows than he can handle. Know anybody down there
you wants to send any word to?"
"I 'll be hanged if I know," laughed the bartender. "I know a lot of
fellers, but they shift so I can't keep track of 'em, nohow."
A man in a far corner pushed back his chair, and approached the bar,
scowling as he glanced at Youbet. "Gimme another," he ordered.
"Why, hullo, stranger!" exclaimed Youbet. "I did n't see you before.
Have one with me."
The other looked him squarely in the eyes. "Ex-cuse me, stranger--I 'm a
sheepman, an' I don't drink with cowmen."
"Well, ex-cuse _me_!" retorted Youbet, like a flash. "If I 'd 'a'
knowed you was a sheepman, I wouldn't 'a' asked you!"
The sheepman drank his liquor and, returning to his corner, placed his
elbows on the table, and his chin in his hands, apparently paying no
further attention to the others.
"If I can't get a job with Peters, I can try th' C-80 or Double Arrow,"
continued Youbet, as he toyed with his glass. "If I can't get on with
one of them, I reckons Waffles, of th' O-Bar-O, will find a place for
me, though I don't like that country a whole lot."
The bartender hesitated for a moment. "Do you know Waffles?" he asked.
"Shore--know 'em all. Why? Do you know him, too?"
"No; but I 've heard of him."
"That so? He 's a good feller, he is. I 've punched with both him an'
Peters."
"I heard he wasn't," replied the bartender, slowly but carelessly.
"Then you heard wrong, all right," rejoined Youbet. "He's one of us old
fellers--hates sheep, barb' wire, an' nesters as bad as I do; an'
sonny," he continued, warming as he went on. "Th' cow country ain't what
it used to be--not no way. I can remember when there war n't no wire,
no nesters, an' no sheep. An', between you and me, I don't know which
is th' worst. Every time I runs up agin' one of 'em, I says it's th'
worst; but I guess it's just about a even break."
"I heard about yore friend Waffles through sheep," replied the
bartender. "He chased a sheep outfit out of a hill range near his
ranch, an' killed a couple of 'em, a-doin' it."
"Served 'em right--served 'em right," responded Youbet, turning and
walking toward the door. "They ain't got no business on a cattle
range--not nohow."
The man in the corner started to follow, half raising his hand, as
though to emphasize something he was about to say; but changed his mind,
and sullenly resumed his brooding attitude.
"Reckon I 'll put my cayuse in yore corral, an' look th' town over,"
Youbet remarked, over his shoulder. "Remember, yo 're savin' a bed for
me."
As he stepped to the street, the man in the corner lazily arose and
looked out of the window, swearing softly while he watched the man who
hated sheep.
"Well, there 's another friend of yore business," laughed the bartender,
leaning back to enjoy the other's discomfiture. "_He_ don't like 'em,
neither."
"He 's a fool of a mossback, so far behind th' times he don't know who
's President," retorted the other, still staring down the street.
"Well, he don't know that this has got to be a purty fair sheep
town--that's shore."
"He 'll find out, if he makes many more talks like that--an' that ain't
no dream, neither!" snapped the sheepman. He wheeled, and frowned at
the man behind the bar. "You see what he gets, if he opens his cow
mouth in here tonight. Th' boys hate this kind real fervent; an' when
they finds out that he 's a side pardner of that coyote Waffles, they
won't need much excuse. You wait--that's all!"
"Oh, what's th' use of gettin' all riled up about it?" demanded the
bartender easily. "He did n't know _you_ was a sheepman, when he made
his first break. An' lemme tell you somethin' you want to
remember--them old-time cowmen can use a short gun somethin' slick.
They 've got 'em trained. Bet _he_ can work th' double roll without
shootin' hisself full of lead." The speaker grinned exasperatingly.
"Yes!" exploded the sheepman, who had tried to roll two guns at once,
and had spent ten days in bed as a result of it.
The bartender laughed softly as he recalled the incident. "Have you
tried it since?" he inquired.
"Go to th' devil!" grinned the other, heading for the door. "But he 'll
get in trouble, if he spouts about hatin' sheep, when th' boys come in.
You better get him drunk an' lock him in th' attic, before then."
"G'wan! I ain't playin' guardian to nobody," rejoined the bartender.
"But remember what I said--them old fellers can use 'em slick an'
rapid."
The sheepman went out as Youbet returned; and the latter seated himself,
crossing his legs and drawing out his pipe.
The bartender perfunctorily drew a cloth across the bar, and smiled.
"So you don't like wire, sheep, or nesters," he remarked.
Mr. Somes looked up, in surprise, forgetting that he held a lighted
match between thumb and finger. "Like 'em! Huh, I reckon not. I 'm
lookin' for a job because of wire. H--l!" he exclaimed, dropping the
match, and rubbing his finger. "That's twice I did that fool thing in a
week," he remarked, in apology and self-condemnation, and struck another
match.
"I was foreman of my ranch for nigh onto ten years. It was a good
ranch, an' I was satisfied till last year, when they made me put up a
windmill that did n't mill, but screeched awful. I stood for that
because I could get away from it in th' daytime.
"But this year! One day, not very long ago, I got a letter from th'
owners, an' it says for me to build a wire fence around our range. It
went on to say that there was two carloads of barb' wire at Mesquite.
We was to tote that wire home, an' start in. If two carloads wasn't
enough, they 'd send us more. We had one busted-down grub waggin, an'
Mesquite shore was fifty miles away--which meant a whoppin' long job
totin'.
"When I saw th' boys, that night, I told 'em that I 'd got orders to
raise their pay five dollars a month--which made 'em cheer. Then I told
'em that was so providin' they helped me build a barb' wire fence around
th' range--which did n't make 'em cheer.
"Th' boundary lines of th' range we was usin' was close onto a hundred
an' fifty miles long, an' three strands of wire along a trail like that
is some job. We was to put th' posts twelve feet apart, an' they was to
be five feet outen th' ground an' four feet in it--which makes 'em nine
feet over all.
"There was n't no posts at Mesquite. Them posts was supposed to be
growin' freelike on th' range, just waitin' for us to cut 'em, skin 'em,
tote an' drop 'em every twelve feet along a line a hundred an' fifty
miles long. An' then there was to be a hole dug for every post, an'
tampin', staplin', an' stringin' that hell-wire. An' don't forget that
lone, busted-down grub waggin that was to do that totin'!
"There was some excitement on th' Two-X-Two that night, an' a lot of
figgerin'; us bein' some curious about how many posts was needed, an'
how many holes we was to dig to fit th' aforesaid posts. We made it
sixty-six thousand. Think of it! An' only eight of us to tackle a job
like that, an' ride range at th' same time!"
"Oh, ho!" roared the bartender, hugging himself, and trying to carry a
drink to the narrator at the same time. "Go on! That's good!"
"Is, is it?" snorted Youbet. "Huh! You wouldn't 'a' thought so, if you
was one of us eight. Well, I set right down an' writ a long
letter--took six cents' worth of stamps--an' gave our views regardin'
wire fences in general an' this one of ourn in particular. I hated
fences, an' do yet; an' so 'd my boys hate 'em, an' they do yet.
"In due time, I got a answer, which come for two cents. It says: 'Build
that fence.'
"I sent Charley over to Mesquite to look over them cars of wire. He saw
'em, both of 'em. An' th' agent saw him.
"Th' agent was a' important man, an' he grabs Charley quick. 'Hey, you
Two-X-Two puncher--you get that wire home quick. It went past here
three times before they switched it, an' I 've been gettin' blazes from
th' company ever since. We needs th' cars.'
"'Don't belong to me,' says Charley. 'I shore don't want it. I 'm
eatin' beans an' bacon instead.'
"'You send for that wire!' yells th' agent, wild-like.
"Charley winks. 'Can't you keep it passin' this station till it snows
hard? Have a drink.'
"Well, th' agent wouldn't drink, an' he wouldn't send that pore wire out
into a cold world no more; an' so Charley comes home an' reports, him
lookin' wanlike. When he told us, he looked sort of funny, an' blurts
out that his mother went an' died up in Laramie, an' he must shore 'nuff
rustle up there an' bury her. He went.
"Then Fred Ball begun to have pains in his stomach, an' said it was
appendix somethin', what he had been readin' about in th' papers. He
had to go to Denver, an' get a good doctor, or he 'd shore die. He
went.
"Carson had to go to Santa Fe to keep some of his numerous city lots
from bein' sold off by th' sheriff. He went.
"Th' rest, bein' handicapped by th' good start th' others had made in
corrallin' all th' excuses, said they 'd go for th' wire. They went.
"I waited four days, an' then I went after 'em. When I got to th'
station, I sees th' agent out sizin' up our wire; an' when I hails, he
jumps my way quick, an' grabs my laig tight.
"'You take that wire home!' he yells.
"'Shore,' says I soothingly. 'You looks mad,' I adds.
"'Mad! Mad!' he shouts, hoppin' round, but hangin' onto my laig like
grim death. 'Mad! I 'm goin' _loco_--crazy! I can't sleep! There 's
twenty letters an' messages on my table, tellin' me to get that wire
off'n th' cars an' send th' empties back on th' next freight! You've
got to take it--_got to_!'"
The bartender shocked his nervous system by drinking plain water by
mistake, but he listened eagerly. "Yes? What then?"
"Well, then I asks him where I can find my men, an' team, an' waggin'.
He tells me. Th' team an' waggin is in a corral down th' street, but he
don't know where th' men are. They held a gun to his head, an' said
they 'd kill him if he didn't flag th' next train for 'em. Th' next
train was a through express, carryin' mail. He was n't dead.
"He showed me ten more letters an' messages, regardin' th' flaggin' of a
contract-mail train for four fares; an' some of them letters must 'a'
been written by a old-time cowman, they was that eloquent an'
God-fearin'. Then I went.
"Why, Charley was twenty years old; an' we figgered that, when th' last
staple was drove in th' last post, he 'd 'a' been dead ten years! Where
did I come in, the--?"
"Oh, Lord!" sighed the bartender, holding his sides, and trying to
straighten his face so that he could talk out of the middle of it.
"That's th' best ever! Have another drink!"
"I ain't tellin' my troubles for liquor," snorted Youbet. "You have one
with me. Here comes some customers down th' street, I reckon."
"Say!" exclaimed the bartender hurriedly. "You keep mum about sheep.
This is a red-hot sheep town, an' it hates Waffles an' all his friends.
Hullo, boys!" he called to four men, who filed into the room. "Where 's
th' rest of you?"
"Comin' in later. Same thing, Jimmy," replied Clayton, chief herder.
"An' give us th' cards."
"Have you seen Price?" asked Towne.
"Yes; he was in here a few minutes ago. What 'd you say, Schultz?" the
bartender asked, turning to the man who pulled at his sleeve.
"I said dot you vas nod right aboud vat you said de odder day. Chust
now I ask Clayton, und he said you vas nod."
"All right, Dutchy--all right!" laughed the bartender. "Then it's on me
this time, ain't it?"
Youbet walked to the bar. "Say, where do I get that grub? It's about
time for me to mosey off an' feed."
"Next building--and you'll take mutton if yo 're wise," replied the
bartender, in a low voice. "Th' hash is awful, an' the beef is tough,"
he added, a little louder.
"Mutton be damned!" snorted Youbet, stamping out. "I eat what I punch!"
And his growls became lost in the street.
Schultz glanced up. "Yah! Und he shoot vat I eat, tarn him, ven he
gan!"
"Oh, put yore ante in, an' don't talk so much!" rejoined Towne. "He
ain't going to shoot _you_."
"It 'll cost you two bits to come in," remarked Clayton.
"An' two more," added Towne, raising the ante.
"Goot! I blay mit you. But binochle iss der game!"
"I 'll tell you a good story about a barb' wire fence tomorrow,
fellers," promised the bartender, grinning.
The poker game had been going for some time before further remarks were
made about the cowman who had left, and then it was Clayton who spoke.
"Say, Jimmy!" he remarked, as Schultz dealt. "Who is yore leather-pants
friend who don't like mutton?"
The bartender lifted a bottle, and replaced it with great care. "Oh,
just a ranch foreman, out of a job. He's a funny old feller."
"So? An' what's so funny about him? Get in there, Towne, if you wants
to do any playin' with us."
"Why, he was ordered to build a hundred an' fifty miles of wire fence
around his range, an' he jumped ruther than do it."
"Yas--an' most of it government land, I reckon," interposed Towne.
"Pshaw! It's an old game with them," laughed Clayton. "Th' law don't
get to them; an' if they 've got a good outfit, nobody has got any
chance agin 'em."
"Py Gott, dot's right!" grunted Schultz.
"Shore, it is," responded Towne, forgetting the game. "Take that Apache
Hills run-in. Waffles did n't have no more right to that range than
anybody else, but that did n't make no difference. He threw a couple of
outfits in there, penned us in th' cabin, killed MacKay, an' shot th'
rest of us up plenty. Then he threatened to slaughter our herd if we
did n't pull out. By God, I 'd like to get a cowman like him up here,
where th' tables are turned around on th' friends proposition."
"Hullo, boys!" remarked the bartender to the pair who came in.
"Just in time. Get chairs, an' take hands," invited Clayton, moving
over.
"Who's th' cowman yo're talkin' about?" asked Baxter, as he leaned
lazily against the bar.
"Oh, all of 'em," rejoined Towne surlily. "There 's one in town, now,
who don't like sheep."
"That so?" queried Baxter slowly. "I reckon he better keep his mouth
shut, then."
"Oh, he 's all right! He 's a jolly old geezer," assured the bartender.
"He just talks to hear hisself--one of them old-timers what can't get
right to th' way things has changed on th' range. It was them boys that
did great work when th' range was wild."
"Yes, an' it's them bull-headed old fools what are raisin' all th' hell
with th' sheep," retorted Towne, frowning darkly as he remembered some
of the indignities he had borne at the hands of cowmen.
"I wish his name was Waffles." Clayton smiled significantly.
"Rainin' again," remarked a man in the doorway, stamping in. "Reckon it
ain't never goin' to stop."
"Where you been so long, Price?" asked Clayton, as a salutation.
"Oh, just shiftin' about. That cow wrastler raised th' devil in th'
hotel," Price replied. "Old fool! They brought him mutton, an' he
wanted to clean out th' place. Said he 'd as soon eat barb' wire. They
're feedin' him hash an' canned stuff, now."
"He 'll get hurt, if he don't look out," remarked Clayton. "Who is he,
anyhow, Price?"
"Don't know his name; but he 's from Arizona, on his way to th' Pecos
country. Says he 's a friend of Buck Peters an' Waffles. To use one of
his own expressions, he 's a old mosshead."
"Friend of Waffles, hey?" exclaimed Towne.
"Yumpin' Yimminy!" cried Oleson, in the same breath.
"Well, if he knows when he's well off, he 'll stay away from here, an'
keep his mouth closed," said Clayton.
"Aw, let him alone! He's one agin' th' whole town--an' a good old
feller, at that," hastily assured the bartender. "It ain't his fault
that Waffles buffaloed you fellers out of th' Hills, is it? He's goin'
on early tomorrow; so let him be."
"You 'll get yoreself in trouble, Jimmy, m' boy, if you inserts yoreself
in this," warned Towne. "It was us agin' a whole section, an' we got
ours. Let him take his, if he talks too much."
"Shore," replied Price. "I heard him shoot off his mouth, an hour ago,
an' he's got altogether too much to say. You mind th' bar an' yore own
business, Jimmy. We ain't kids."
"Go you two bits better," said Clayton, shoving out a coin. "Gimme some
cards, Towne. It 'll cost you a dollar to see our raises."
Baxter walked over to watch the play. "I 'm comin' in next game. Who
's winnin', now?"
"Reckon I am; but we ain't much more 'n got started," Clayton replied.
"Did you call, Towne? Why, I 've got three little tens. You got
anythin' better?"
"Never saw such luck!" exclaimed Towne disgustedly. "Dutchy, yo 're a
Jonah."
"Damn th' mutton, says I. It was even in that hash!" growled a voice,
just outside the door.
A moment later, Youbet Somes entered, swinging his sombrero
energetically to shake off the water.
"Damn th' rain, too, an' this wart of a town. A man can't get nothin'
fit to eat for love or money, on a sheep range. Gimme a drink, sonny!
Mebby it 'll cut th' taste of that rank tallow out 'n my mouth. Th'
reason there is sheep on this earth of our'n is that th' devil chased
'em out 'n his place--an' no blame to him."
He drank half his liquor, and, placing the glass on the bar beside him,
turned to watch the game. "Ah, strangers--that's th' only game, after
all. I 've dabbled in 'em all from faro to roulette, but that's th'
boss of 'em all."
"See you an' call," remarked Clayton, ignoring the newcomer. "What you
got, you Dutch pagan?"
"_Zwei Kaisers_ und a bair of chackasses, mit a deuce."
"Kings up!" exclaimed Clayton. "Why, say--you bet th' worst of anybody
I ever knew! You 'll balk on bettin' two bits on threes, and plunge on a
bluff. I reckoned you did n't have nothin'. Why ain't you more
consistent?" he asked, winking at Towne.
"Gonsisdency iss no chewel in dis game--it means go broke," placidly
grunted Schultz, raking in his winnings.
His friend Schneider smiled.
"Coyotes are gettin' too numerous, this year," Baxter remarked,
shuffling.
Youbet pushed his sombrero back on his head. "They don't get numerous on
a cow range," he said significantly.
"Huh!" snorted Baxter. "They've got too much respect to stay on one
longer than they 've got to."
"They'd ruther be with their woolly-coated cousins," rejoined the cowman
quietly. It was beneath his dignity as a cowman to pay much attention
to what sheepmen said, yet he could not remain silent under such a
remark.
He regarded sheep herders, those human beings who walked at their work,
as men who had reached the lowest rung in the ladder of human endeavors.
His belief was not original with him, but was that of many of his
school. He was a horseman, a mounted man, and one of the aristocracy of
the range; they were, to him, the rabble, and almost beneath his
contempt.
Besides, it was commonly believed by cowmen that sheep destroyed the
grass as far as cattle grazing was concerned--and this was the chief
reason for the animosity against sheep and their herders, which burned
so strongly in the hearts of cattle owners and their outfits.
Youbet drained his glass, and continued: "The coyote leaves th' cattle
range for th' same good reason yore sheep leave it--because they are
chased out, or killed. Naturally, blood kin will hang together in
banishment."
"You know a whole lot, don't you?" snorted Clayton, with sarcasm. "Yo
're shore wise, you are!"
"He is so vise as a--a gow," remarked Schultz, grinning.
"You 'll know more, when you get as old as me," replied the ex-foreman,
carefully placing the empty glass on the bar.
"I don't want to get as old as you, if I have to lose all my common
sense," retorted Clayton angrily.
"An' be a damned nuisance generally," observed Towne.
"I 've seen a lot of things in my life," Youbet began, trying to ignore
the tones of the others. They were young men, and he knew that youth
grew unduly heated in argument. "I saw th' comin' of th' Texas drive
herds, till th' range was crowded where th' year before there was
nothin'. I saw th' comin' of th' sheep--an' barb' wire, I 'm sorry to
say. Th' sheep came like locusts, leavin' a dyin' range behind 'em.
Thin, half-starved cattle showed which way they went. You can't tell me
nothin' I don't know about sheep."
"An' _I_ 've seen sheep dyin' in piles on th' open range," cried
Clayton, his own wrongs lashing him into a rage. "_I_ 've seen 'em
dynamited, an' drowned and driven hell-to-split over canyons! I 've had
my men taunted, an' chased, an' killed--_killed_, by God!--just because
they tried to make a' honest livin'! Who did it all? Who killed my men
an' my sheep? _Who did it?_" he shouted, taking a short step forward,
while an endorsing growl ran along the line of sheepmen at his side.
"Cowpunchers--they did it! They killed 'em--an' why? Because we tried
to use th' grass that we had as much right to as they had--_that 's_
why!"
"Th' cows was here first," replied Youbet, keenly alert, but not one
whit abashed by the odds, long as they were. "It was theirs because
they was there first."
"It was not theirs, no more'n th' sun was!" cried Towne, unable to allow
his chief to do all the talking.
"You said you knowed Waffles," continued Clayton loudly. "Well, he 's
another of you old-time cowmen! He killed MacKay--murdered him--because
we was usin' a hill range a day's ride from his own grass! He had
twenty men like hisself to back him up. If we 'd been as many as them,
they would n't 'a' tried it--an' you know it!"
"I don't know anything of th' kind, but I do know--" began Youbet; but
Schultz interrupted him with a remark intended to contain humor.
"Ven you say you doand know anyt'ing, you know somedings; ven you know
dot you doand know noddings, den you know somedings. Und das iss
so--yah."
"Who th' devil told you to stick yore Dutch mouth--" retorted Youbet;
but Clayton cut him short.
"So _yo 're_ a old-timer, hey?" cried the sheepman. "Well, by God, yore
old-time friend Waffles is a coward, a murderer, an'--"
[Illustration: "Yo're a liar!" rang out the vibrant voice of the cowman]
"Yo 're a liar!" rang out the vibrant voice of the cowman, his gun out
and leveled in a flash. The seven had moved forward as one man, actuated
by the same impulse; and their hands were moving toward their guns when
the crashes of Youbet's weapon reverberated in the small room, the acrid
smoke swirling around him as though to shield him from the result of his
folly--a result which he had weighed and then ignored.
Clayton dropped, with his mouth still open. Towne's gun chocked back in
the scabbard as its owner stumbled blindly over a chair and went down,
never to rise. Schultz fired once, and fell back across the table.
The three shots had followed one another with incredible quickness; and
the seven, not believing that one man would dare attack so many, had not
expected his play. Before the stunned sheepmen could begin firing,
three were dead.
Price, badly wounded, fired as he plunged to the wall for support; and
the other three were now wrapped in their own smoke.
Wounded in several places, with his gun empty, Youbet hurled the weapon
at Price, and missed by so narrow a margin that the sheepman's aim was
spoiled. Youbet now sprang to the bar, and tried to vault over it, to
get to the gun which he knew always lay on the shelf behind it. As his
feet touched the upper edge of the counter, he grunted and, collapsing
like a jackknife, loosed his hold, and fell to the floor.
"_Mein Gott!_" groaned Schneider, as he tried to raise himself. He
looked around in a dazed manner, hardly understanding just what had
happened. "He vas mat; crazy mat!"
Oleson arose unsteadily to his feet, and groped his way along, the wall
to where Price lay.
The fallen man looked up, in response to the touch on his shoulder; and
he swore feebly: "Damn that fool--that idiot!"
"Shut up, an' git out!" shouted the bartender, standing rigidly upright,
with a heavy Colt in his upraised hand. There were tears in his eyes,
and his voice broke from excitement. "He wouldn't swaller yore insults!
He knowed he was a better man! Get out of here, every damned one of
you, or I 'll begin where he stopped. G 'wan--_get out_!"
The four looked at him, befuddled and sorely hurt; but they understood
the attitude, if they did not quite grasp the words--and they knew that
he meant what he looked. Staggering and hobbling, they finally found
the door, and plunged out to the street, to meet the crowd of men who
were running toward the building.
Jimmy, choking with anger and with respect for the man who had preferred
death to insults, slammed shut the door and, dropping the bar into
place, turned and gazed at the quiet figure huddled at the base of the
counter.
"Old man," he muttered, "now I understands why th' sheep don't stay long
on a cattle range."