The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wolfville Nights, by Alfred Lewis
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Title: Wolfville Nights
Author: Alfred Lewis
Release Date: October 11, 2004 [EBook #13709]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOLFVILLE NIGHTS ***
Produced by Al Haines
WOLFVILLE NIGHTS
by
Alfred Henry Lewis
Author of "Wolfville", "Wolfville Days", "Peggy O'Nea", &c.
1902,
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
DEDICATION
SOME COWBOY FACTS
I. THE DISMISSAL OF SILVER PHIL
II. COLONEL STERETT'S PANTHER HUNT
III. HOW FARO NELL DEALT BANK
IV. HOW THE RAVEN DIED
V. THE QUEERNESS OF DAVE TUTT
VI. WITH THE APACHE'S COMPLIMENTS
VII. THE MILLS OF SAVAGE GODS
VIII. TOM AND JERRY; WHEELERS
IX. THE INFLUENCE OF FARO NELL
X. THE GHOST OF THE BAR-B-8
XI. TUCSON JENNIE'S CORRECTION
XII. BILL CONNORS OF THE OSAGES
XIII. WHEN TUTT FIRST SAW TUCSON
XIV. THE TROUBLES OF DAN BOGGS
XV. BOWLEGS AND MAJOR BEN
XVI. TOAD ALLEN'S ELOPEMENT
XVII. THE CLIENTS OF AARON GREEN
XVIII. COLONEL STERETT'S MARVELS
XIX. THE LUCK OF HARDROBE
XX. LONG AGO ON THE RIO GRANDE
XXI. COLONEL COYOTE CLUBBS
To
William Greene Sterett
this volume is
inscribed.
NEW YORK CITY,
August 1, 1902
MY DEAR STERETT:--
In offering this book to you I might have advantage of the occasion
to express my friendship and declare how high I hold you as a
journalist and a man. Or I might speak of those years at Washington
when in the gallery we worked shoulder to shoulder; I might recall to
you the wit of Hannum, or remind you of the darkling Barrett, the
mighty Decker, the excellent Cohen, the vivid Brown, the imaginative
Miller, the volatile Angus, the epigrammatic Merrick, the quietly
satirical Splain, Rouzer the earnest, Boynton the energetic, Carson
the eminent, and Dunnell, famous for a bitter, frank integrity. I
might remember that day when the gifted Fanciulli, with no more
delicate inspiration than crackers, onions, and cheese, and no more
splendid conservatory than Shoemaker's, wrote, played and consecrated
to you his famous "Lone Star March" wherewith he so disquieted the
public present of the next concert in the White House grounds. Or I
might hark back to the campaign of '92, when together we struggled
against national politics as evinced in the city of New York; I might
repaint that election night when, with one hundred thousand whirling
dervishes of democracy in Madison Square, dancing dances, and singing
songs of victory, we undertook through the hubbub to send from the
"Twenty-third street telegraph office" half-hourly bulletins to our
papers in the West; how you, accompanied of the dignified Richard
Bright, went often to the Fifth Avenue Hotel; and how at last you
dictated your bulletins--a sort of triumphant blank verse, they
were--as Homeric of spirit as lofty of phrase--to me, who caught them
as they came from your lips, losing none of their fire, and so
flashed them all burning into Texas, far away. But of what avail
would be such recount? Distance separates us and time has come
between. Those are the old years, these are the new, with newer
years beyond. Life like a sea is filling from rivers of experience.
Forgetfulness rises as a tide and creeps upward to drown within us
those stories of the days that were. And because this is true, it
comes to me that you as a memory must stand tallest in the midst of
my regard. For of you I find within me no forgetfulness. I have met
others; they came, they tarried, they departed. They came again; and
on this second encounter the recollection of their existences smote
upon me as a surprise. I had forgotten them as though they had not
been. But such is not your tale. Drawn on the plates of memory, as
with a tool of diamond, I carry you both in broadest outline and in
each least of shade; and there hangs no picture in the gallery of
hours gone, to which I turn with more of pleasure and of good. Nor
am I alone in my recollection. Do I pass through the Fifth Avenue
Hotel on my way to the Hoffman, that vandyked dispenser leans
pleasantly across his counter, to ask with deepest interest: "Do you
hear from the Old Man now?" Or am I belated in Shanley's, a beaming
ring of waiters--if it be not an hour overrun of custom--will
half-circle my table, and the boldest, "Pat," will question timidly,
yet with a kindly Galway warmth: "How's the Old Man?" Old Man! That
is your title: at once dignified and affectionate; and by it you come
often to be referred to along Broadway these ten years after its
conference. And when the latest word is uttered what is there more
to fame! I shall hold myself fortunate, indeed, if, departing, I'm
remembered by half so many half so long. But wherefore extend
ourselves regretfully? We may meet again; the game is not played
out. Pending such bright chance, I dedicate this book to you. It is
the most of honour that lies in my lean power. And in so doing, I am
almost moved to say, as said Goldsmith of Johnson in his offering of
_She Stoops to Conquer_: "By inscribing this slight performance to
you, I do not mean to so much compliment you as myself. It may do me
some honour to inform the public that I have lived many years in
intimacy with you. It may serve the interests of mankind also to
inform them that the greatest wit may be found in a character without
impairing the most unaffected piety." I repeat, I am all but moved
to write these lines of you. It would tell my case at least; and
while description might limp in so far as you lack somewhat of that
snuffle of "true piety" so often engaging the Johnsonian nose, you
make up the defect with possession of a wider philosophy, a better
humour and a brighter, quicker wit than visited or dwelt beneath the
candle-scorched wig of our old bully lexicographer.
ALFRED HENRY LEWIS.
Some Cowboy Facts.
There are certain truths of a botanical character that are not
generally known. Each year the trees in their occupation creep
further west. There are regions in Missouri--not bottom lands--which
sixty years ago were bald and bare of trees. Today they are heavy
with timber. Westward, beyond the trees, lie the prairies, and
beyond the prairies, the plains; the first are green with long
grasses, the latter bare, brown and with a crisp, scorched, sparse
vesture of vegetation scarce worth the name. As the trees march
slowly westward in conquest of the prairies, so also do the prairies,
in their verdant turn, become aggressors and push westward upon the
plains. These last stretches, extending to the base of that bluff
and sudden bulwark, the Rocky Mountains, can go no further. The
Rockies hold the plains at bay and break, as it were, the teeth of
the desert. As a result of this warfare of vegetations, the plains
are to first disappear in favour of the prairies; and the prairies to
give way before the trees. These mutations all wait on rain; and as
the rain belt goes ever and ever westward, a strip of plains each
year surrenders its aridity, and the prairies and then the trees
press on and take new ground.
These facts should contain some virtue of interest; the more since
with the changes chronicled, come also changes in the character of
both the inhabitants and the employments of these regions. With a
civilised people extending themselves over new lands, cattle form
ever the advance guard. Then come the farms. This is the procession
of a civilised, peaceful invasion; thus is the column marshalled.
First, the pastoral; next, the agricultural; third and last, the
manufacturing;--and per consequence, the big cities, where the
treasure chests of a race are kept. Blood and bone and muscle and
heart are to the front; and the money that steadies and stays and
protects and repays them and their efforts, to the rear.
Forty years ago about all that took place west of the Mississipi of a
money-making character was born of cattle. The cattle were worked in
huge herds and, like the buffalo supplanted by them, roamed in
unnumbered thousands. In a pre-railroad period, cattle were killed
for their hides and tallow, and smart Yankee coasters went constantly
to such ports as Galveston for these cargoes. The beef was left to
the coyotes.
Cattle find a natural theatre of existence on the plains. There,
likewise, flourishes the pastoral man. But cattle herding, confined
to the plains, gives way before the westward creep of agriculture.
Each year beholds more western acres broken by the plough; each year
witnesses a diminution of the cattle ranges and cattle herding. This
need ring no bell of alarm concerning a future barren of a beef
supply. More cattle are the product of the farm-regions than of the
ranges. That ground, once range and now farm, raises more cattle now
than then. Texas is a great cattle State. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Iowa, and Missouri are first States of agriculture. The area of
Texas is about even with the collected area of the other five. Yet
one finds double the number of cattle in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Iowa, and Missouri than in Texas, to say nothing of tenfold the sheep
and hogs. No; one may be calm; one is not to fall a prey to any
hunger of beef.
While the farms in their westward pushing do not diminish the cattle,
they reduce the cattleman and pinch off much that is romantic and
picturesque. Between the farm and the wire fence, the cowboy, as
once he flourished, has been modified, subdued, and made partially to
disappear. In the good old days of the Jones and Plummer trail there
were no wire fences, and the sullen farmer had not yet arrived. Your
cowboy at that time was a person of thrill and consequence. He wore
a broad-brimmed Stetson hat, and all about it a rattlesnake skin by
way of band, retaining head and rattles. This was to be potent
against headaches--a malady, by the way, which swept down no cowboy
save in hours emergent of a spree. In such case the snake cure
didn't cure. The hat was retained in defiance of winds, by a
leathern cord caught about the back of the head, not under the chin.
This cord was beautiful with a garniture of three or four perforated
poker chips, red, yellow, and blue.
There are sundry angles of costume where the dandyism of a cowboy of
spirit and conceit may acquit itself; these are hatband, spurs,
saddle, and leggins. I've seen hatbands made of braided gold and
silver filigree; they were from Santa Fe, and always in the form of a
rattlesnake, with rubies or emeralds or diamonds for eyes. Such
gauds would cost from four hundred to two thousand dollars. Also,
I've encountered a saddle which depleted its proud owner a round
twenty-five hundred dollars. It was of finest Spanish leather,
stamped and spattered with gold bosses. There was gold-capping on
the saddle horn, and again on the circle of the cantle. It was a
dream of a saddle, made at Paso del Norte; and the owner had it
cinched upon a bronco dear at twenty dollars. One couldn't have sold
the pony for a stack of white chips in any faro game of that
neighbourhood (Las Vegas) and they were all crooked games at that.
Your cowboy dandy frequently wears wrought steel spurs, inlaid with
silver and gold; price, anything you please. If he flourish a true
Brummel of the plains his leggins will be fronted from instep to belt
with the thick pelt, hair outside, of a Newfoundland dog. These
"chapps," are meant to protect the cowboy from rain and cold, as well
as plum bushes, wire fences and other obstacles inimical, and against
which he may lunge while riding headlong in the dark. The hair of
the Newfoundland, thick and long and laid the right way, defies the
rains; and your cowboy loathes water.
Save in those four cardinals of vanity enumerated, your cowboy wears
nothing from weakness; the rest of his outfit is legitimate. The
long sharp heels of his boots are there to dig into the ground and
hold fast to his mother earth while roping on foot. His gay pony
when "roped" of a frosty morning would skate him all across and about
the plains if it were not for these heels. The buckskin gloves tied
in one of the saddle strings are used when roping, and to keep the
half-inch manila lariat--or mayhap it's horsehair or rawhide
pleated--from burning his hands. The red silken sash one was wont
aforetime to see knotted about his waist, was used to hogtie and hold
down the big cattle when roped and thrown. The sash--strong, soft
and close--could be tied more tightly, quickly, surely than anything
besides. In these days, with wire pastures and branding pens and the
fine certainty of modern round-ups and a consequent paucity of
mavericks, big cattle are seldom roped; wherefor the sash has been
much cast aside.
The saddle-bags or "war-bags,"--also covered of dogskin to match the
leggins, and worn behind, not forward of the rider--are the cowboy's
official wardrobe wherein he carries his second suit of underclothes,
and his other shirt. His handkerchief, red cotton, is loosely
knotted about the cowboy's neck, knot to the rear. He wipes the
sweat from his brow therewith on those hot Texas days when in a
branding pen he "flanks" calves or feeds the fires or handles the
irons or stands off the horned indignation of the cows, resentful
because of burned and bawling offspring.
It would take two hundred thousand words to tell in half fashion the
story of the cowboy. His religion of fatalism, his courage, his
rides at full swing in midnight darkness to head and turn and hold a
herd stampeded, when a slip on the storm-soaked grass by his unshod
pony, or a misplaced prairie-dog hole, means a tumble, and a tumble
means that a hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of cattle, with
hoofs like chopping knives, will run over him and make him look and
feel and become as dead as a cancelled postage stamp; his troubles,
his joys, his soberness in camp, his drunkenness in town, and his
feuds and occasional "gun plays" are not to be disposed of in a
preface. One cannot in such cramped space so much as hit the high
places in a cowboy career.
At work on the range and about his camp--for, bar accidents, wherever
you find a cowboy you will find a camp--the cowboy is a youth of
sober quiet dignity. There is a deal of deep politeness and nothing
of epithet, insult or horseplay where everybody wears a gun.
There are no folk inquisitive on the ranges. No one asks your name.
If driven by stress of conversation to something akin to it the
cowboy will say: "What may I call you, sir?" And he's as careful to
add the "sir," as he is to expect it in return.
You are at liberty to select what name you prefer. Where you hail
from? where going? why? are queries never put. To look at the brand
on your pony--you, a stranger--is a dangerous vulgarity to which no
gentleman of the Panhandle or any other region of pure southwestern
politeness would stoop. And if you wish to arouse an instant
combination of hate, suspicion and contempt in the bosom of a cowboy
you have but to stretch forth your artless Eastern hand and ask: "Let
me look at your gun."
Cowboys on the range or in the town are excessively clannish. They
never desert each other, but stay and fight and die and storm a jail
and shoot a sheriff if needs press, to rescue a comrade made captive
in their company. Also they care for each other when sick or
injured, and set one another's bones when broken in the falls and
tumbles of their craft. On the range the cowboy is quiet, just and
peaceable. There are neither women nor cards nor rum about the cow
camps. The ranches and the boys themselves banish the two latter;
and the first won't come. Women, cards and whiskey, the three war
causes of the West, are confined to the towns.
Those occasions when cattle are shipped and the beef-herds, per
consequence, driven to the shipping point become the only times when
the cowboy sees the town. In such hours he blooms and lives fully up
to his opportunity. He has travelled perhaps two hundred miles and
has been twenty days on the trail, for cattle may only be driven
about ten miles a day; he has been up day and night and slept half
the time in the saddle; he has made himself hoarse singing "Sam Bass"
and "The Dying Ranger" to keep the cattle quiet and stave off
stampedes; he has ridden ten ponies to shadows in his twenty days of
driving, wherefore, and naturally, your cowboy feels like relaxing.
There would be as many as ten men with each beef-herd; and the herd
would include about five thousand head. There would be six "riders,"
divided into three watches to stand night guard over the herd and
drive it through the day; there would be two "hoss hustlers," to hold
the eighty or ninety ponies, turn and turn about, and carry them
along with the herd; there would be the cook, with four mules and the
chuck wagon; and lastly there would be the herd-boss, a cow expert
he, and at the head of the business.
Once the herd is off his hands and his mind at the end of the drive,
the cowboy unbuckles and reposes himself from his labours. He
becomes deeply and famously drunk. Hungering for the excitement of
play he collides amiably with faro and monte and what other deadfalls
are rife of the place. Never does he win; for the games aren't
arranged that way. But he enjoys himself; and his losses do not prey
on him.
Sated with faro bank and monte--they can't be called games of chance,
the only games of chance occurring when cowboys engage with each
other at billiards or pool--sated, I say, with faro and Mexican
monte, and exuberant of rum, which last has regular quick renewal,
our cowboy will stagger to his pony, swing into the saddle, and with
gladsome whoops and an occasional outburst from his six shooter
directed toward the heavens, charge up and down the street. This
last amusement appeals mightily to cowboys too drunk to walk. For,
be it known, a gentleman may ride long after he may not walk.
If a theatre be in action and mayhap a troop of "Red Stocking
Blondes," elevating the drama therein, the cowboy is sure to attend.
Also he will arrive with his lariat wound about his body under his
coat; and his place will be the front row. At some engaging crisis,
such as the "March of the Amazons," having first privily unwound and
organised his lariat to that end, he will arise and "rope" an Amazon.
This will produce bad language from the manager of the show, and
compel the lady to sit upon the stage to the detriment of her
wardrobe if no worse, and all to keep from being pulled across the
footlights. Yet the exercise gives the cowboy deepest pleasure.
Having thus distinguished the lady of his admiration, later he will
meet her and escort her to the local dancehall. There, mingling with
their frank companions, the two will drink, and loosen the boards of
the floor with the strenuous dances of our frontier till daylight
does appear.
For the matter of a week, or perchance two--it depends on how fast
his money melts--in these fashions will our gentleman of cows engage
his hours and expand himself. He will make a deal of noise, drink a
deal of whiskey, acquire a deal of what he terms "action"; but he
harms nobody, and, in a town toughened to his racket and which needs
and gets his money, disturbs nobody.
"Let him whoop it up; he's paying for it, ain't he?" will be the
prompt local retort to any inquiry as to why he is thus permitted to
disport.
So long as the cowboy observes the etiquette of the town, he will not
be molested or "called down" by marshal or sheriff or citizen. There
are four things your cowboy must not do. He must not insult a woman;
he must not shoot his pistol in a store or bar-room; he must not ride
his pony into those places of resort; and as a last proposal he must
not ride his pony on the sidewalks. Shooting or riding into
bar-rooms is reckoned as dangerous; riding on the sidewalk comes more
under the head of insult, and is popularly regarded as a taunting
defiance of the town marshal. On such occasions the marshal never
fails to respond, and the cowboy is called upon to surrender. If he
complies, which to the credit of his horse-sense he commonly does, he
is led into brief captivity to be made loose when cooled. Does he
resist arrest, there is an explosive rattle of six shooters, a mad
scattering of the careful citizenry out of lines of fire, and a
cowboy or marshal is added to the host beyond. At the close of the
festival, if the marshal still lives he is congratulated; if the
cowboy survives he is lynched; if both fall, they are buried with the
honours of frontier war; while whatever the event, the communal
ripple is but slight and only of the moment, following which the
currents of Western existence sweep easily and calmly onward as
before.
A. H. L.
WOLFVILLE NIGHTS
CHAPTER I.
The Dismissal of Silver Phil.
"His name, complete, is 'Silver City Philip.' In them social
observances of the Southwest wherein haste is a feacher an' brev'ty the
bull's eye aimed at, said cognomen gets shortened to 'Silver Phil.'"
The Old Cattleman looked thoughtfully into his glass, as if by that
method he collected the scattered elements of a story. There was a
pause; then he lifted the glass to his lips as one who being now evenly
equipped of information, proposed that it arrive hand in hand with the
inspiration which should build a tale from it.
"Shore, this Silver Phil is dead now; an' I never yet crosses up with
the gent who's that sooperfluous as to express regrets. It's Dan Boggs
who dismisses Silver Phil; Dan does it in efforts he puts forth to
faithfully represent the right.
"Doc Peets allers allows this Silver Phil is a 'degen'rate;' leastwise
that's the word Peets uses. An' while I freely concedes I ain't none
too cl'ar as to jest what a degen'rate is, I stands ready to back
Peets' deescription to win. Peets is, bar Colonel William Greene
Sterett, the best eddicated sharp in Arizona; also the wariest as to
expressin' views. Tharfore when Peets puts it up, onflinchin', that
this yere Silver Phil's a degen'rate, you-all can spread your blankets
an' go to sleep on it that a degen'rate he is.
"Silver Phil is a little, dark, ignorant, tousled-ha'red party, none
too neat in costume. He's as black an' small an' evil-seemin' as a
Mexican; still, you sees at a glance he ain't no Greaser neither. An'
with all this yere surface wickedness, Silver Phil has a quick,
hyster'cal way like a woman or a bird; an' that's ever a grin on his
face. You can smell 'bad' off Silver Phil, like smoke in a house, an'
folks who's on the level--an' most folks is--conceives a notion ag'in
him the moment him an' they meets up.
"The first time I observes Silver Phil, he's walkin' down the licker
room of the Red Light. As he goes by the bar, Black Jack--who's
rearrangin' the nosepaint on the shelf so it shows to advantage--gets
careless an' drops a bottle.
"'Crash!' it goes onto the floor.
"With the sound, an' the onexpected suddenness of it stampedin' his
nerves, that a-way, Silver Phil leaps into the air like a cat; an' when
he 'lights, he's frontin' Black Jack an' a gun in each hand.
"'Which I won't be took!' says Silver Phil, all flustered.
"His eyes is gleamin' an' his face is palin' an' his ugly grin gets
even uglier than before. But like a flash, he sees thar's nothin' to
go in the air about--nothin' that means him; an' he puts up his
hardware an' composes himse'f.
"'You-all conducts yourse'f like a sport who has something on his
mind,' says Texas Thompson, who's thar present at the time, an' can't
refrain from commentin' on the start that bottle-smashin' gives Silver
Phil.
"This Silver Phil makes no response, but sort o' grins plenty ghastly,
while his breath comes quick.
"Still, while you-all notes easy that this person's scared, it's plain
he's a killer jest the same. It's frequent that a-way. I'm never much
afraid of one of your cold game gents like Cherokee Hall; you can
gamble the limit they'll never put a six-shooter in play till it's
shorely come their turn. But timid, feverish, locoed people, whose
jedgment is bad an' who's prone to feel themse'fs in peril; they're the
kind who kills. For myse'f I shuns all sech. I won't say them
erratic, quick-to-kill sports don't have courage; only it strikes
me--an' I've rode up on a heap of 'em--it's more like a fear-bit
f'rocity than sand.
"Take Enright or Peets or Cherokee or Tutt or Jack Moore or Boggs or
Texas Thompson; you're plumb safe with sech gents--all or any. An' yet
thar ain't the first glimmer of bein' gun-shy about one of 'em; they're
as clean strain as the eternal granite, an' no more likely to hide out
from danger than a hill. An' while they differs from each other, yet
they're all different from sech folks as Silver Phil. Boggs, goin' to
war, is full of good-humoured grandeur, gala and confident, ready to
start or stop like a good hoss. Cherokee Hall is quiet an' wordless;
he gets pale, but sharp an' deadly; an' his notion is to fight for a
finish. Peets is haughty an' sooperior on the few o'casions when he
onbends in battle, an' comports himse'f like a gent who fights
downhill; the same, ondoubted, bein' doo to them book advantages of
Peets which elevates him an' lifts him above the common herd a whole
lot. Enright who's oldest is of course slowest to embark in blood, an'
pulls his weepons--when he does pull 'em--with sorrowful resignation.
"'Which I'm shorely saddest when I shoots,' says Enright to me, as he
reloads his gun one time.
"These yere humane sentiments, however, don't deter him from shootin'
soon an' aimin' low, which latter habits makes Wolfville's honoured
chief a highly desp'rate game to get ag'inst.
"Jack Moore, bein' as I explains former, the execyootive of the
Stranglers, an' responsible for law an' order, has a heap of shootin'
shoved onto him from time to time. Jack allers transacts these
fireworks with a ca'm, offishul front, the same bein' devoid, equal, of
anger or regrets. Tutt, partic'lar after he weds Tucson Jennie, an'
more partic'lar still when he reaps new honours as the originator of
that blessed infant Enright Peets Tutt, carries on what shootin' comes
his way in a manner a lot dignified an' lofty; while Texas
Thompson--who's mebby morbid about his wife down in Laredo demandin'
she be divorced that time--although he picks up his hand in a fracas,
ready an' irritable an' with no delays, after all is that well-balanced
he's bound to be each time plumb right.
"Which, you observes, son, from these yere settin's forth, that thar's
a mighty sight of difference between gents like them pards of mine an'
degen'rates of the tribe of Silver Phil. It's the difference between
right an' wrong; one works from a impulse of pure jestice, the other is
moved of a sperit of crime; an' thar you be.
"Silver Phil, we learns later--an' it shore jestifies Peets in his
theories about him bein' a degen'rate--has been in plenty of blood.
But allers like a cat; savage, gore-thirsty, yet shy, prideless, an'
ready to fly. It seems he begins to be homicidal in a humble way by
downin' a trooper over near Fort Cummings. That's four years before he
visits us. He's been blazin' away intermittent ever since, and allers
crooel, crafty an' safe. It's got to be a shore thing or Silver Phil
quits an' goes into the water like a mink.
"This yere ondersized miscreant ain't ha'nted about Wolfville more'n
four days before he shows how onnecessary he is to our success. Which
he works a ha'r copper on Cherokee Hall. What's a ha'r copper? I'll
onfold, short and terse, what Silver Phil does, an' then you saveys.
Cherokee's dealin' his game--farobank she is; an' if all them national
banks conducts themse'fs as squar' as that enterprise of Cherokee's,
the fields of finance would be as safely honest as a church.
Cherokee's turnin' his game one evenin'; Faro Nell on the lookout stool
where she belongs. Silver Phil drifts up to the lay-out, an' camps
over back of the king-end. He gets chips, an' goes to takin' chances
alternate on the king, queen, jack, ten; all side an' side they be.
Cherokee bein' squar' himse'f ain't over-prone to expect a devious play
in others. He don't notice this Silver Phil none speshul, an' shoves
the kyards.
"Silver Phil wins three or four bets; it's Nell that catches on to his
racket, an' signs up to Cherokee onder the table with her little foot.
One glance an' Cherokee is loaded with information. This Silver Phil,
it seems, in a sperit of avarice, equips himse'f with a copper--little
wooden checker, is what this copper is--one he's done filched from
Cherokee the day prior. He's fastened a long black hoss-ha'r to it,
an' he ties the other end of the hoss-ha'r to his belt in front. This
ha'r is long enough as he's planted at the table that a-way, so it
reaches nice to them four nearest kyards,--the king, queen, jack, ten.
An' said ha'r is plumb invisible except to eyes as sharp as Faro
Nell's. The deceitful Silver Phil will have a stack on one of 'em,
coppered with this yere ha'r copper. He watches the box. As the turns
is made, if the kyards come his way, well an' good. Silver Phil does
nothin' but garners in results. When the kyards start to show ag'in
him, however, that's different. In sech events Silver Phil draws in
his breath, sort o' takin' in on the hoss-ha'r, an' the copper comes
off the bet. When the turn is made, thar's Silver Phil's bet--by
virchoo of said fraud--open an' triumphant an' waitin' to be paid.
"Cherokee gets posted quick an with a look. As sharp as winkin'
Cherokee has a nine-inch bowie in his hand an' with one slash cuts the
hoss-ha'r clost up by Silver Phil's belt.
"'That's a yoonique invention!" observes Cherokee, an' he's sarcastic
while he menaces with the knife at Silver Phil; 'that contraption is
shorely plenty sagacious! But it don't go here. Shove in your chips.'
Silver Phil obeys: an' he shows furtive, ugly, an' alarmed, an' all of
'em at once. He don't say a word. 'Now pull your freight,' concloods
Cherokee. 'If you ever drifts within ten foot of a game of mine ag'in
I'll throw this knife plumb through you--through an' through.' An'
Cherokee, by way of lustration lets fly the knife across the bar-room.
It comes like a flash.
"'Chuck!'
"Thar's a picture paper pasted onto the wooden wall of the Red Light,
displayin' the liniaments of some party. That bowie pierces the
picture--a shot in the cross it is--an' all with sech fervour that the
p'int of the blade shows a inch an' a half on the other side of that
individyool board.
"'The next time I throws a knife in your presence,' remarks Cherokee to
Silver Phil, an' Cherokee's as cold an' p'isonous as a rattlesnake,
'it'll be la'nched at you.'
"Silver Phil don't say nothin' in retort. He's aware by the lib'ral
way Cherokee sep'rates himse'f from the bowie that said weepon can't
constitoote Cherokee's entire armament. An' as Silver Phil don't pack
the sperit to face no sech flashlight warrior, he acts on Cherokee's
hint to _vamos_, an fades into the street. Shore, Cherokee don't cash
the felon's chips none; he confiscates 'em. Cherokee ain't quite so
tenderly romantic as to make good to a detected robber. Moreover, he
lets this Silver Phil go onharmed when by every roole his skelp is
forfeit. It turns out good for the camp, however, as this yere
experience proves so depressin' to Silver Phil he removes his blankets
to Red Dog. Thar among them purblind tarrapins, its inhabitants, it's
likely he gets prosperous an' ondetected action on that little old ha'r
copper of his.
"It's not only my beliefs, but likewise the opinions of sech joodicial
sports as Enright, Peets, an' Colonel Sterett, that this maverick,
Silver Phil, is all sorts of a crim'nal. An' I wouldn't wonder if he's
a pure rustler that a-way; as ready to stand up a stage as snake a play
at farobank. This idee settles down on the Wolfville intell'gence on
the heels of a vicissitoode wherein Dan Boggs performs, an' which gets
pulled off over in the Bird Cage Op'ry House. Jack Moore ain't thar
none that time. Usual, Jack is a constant deevotee of the dramy.
Jack's not only a first-nighter, he comes mighty clost to bein' a
every-nighter. But this partic'lar evenin' when Boggs performs, Jack's
rummagin' about some'ers else.
"If Jack's thar, it's even money he'd a-had that second shot instead of
Boggs; in which event, the results might have been something graver
than this yere minoote wound which Boggs confers. I'm confident Jack
would have cut in with the second shot for sech is his offishul system.
Jack more'n once proclaims his position.
"'By every roole of law,' says Jack at epocks when he declar's himse'f,
'an' on all o'casions, I, as kettle-tender to the Stranglers, is
entitled to the first shot. When I uses the term 'o'casion,' I would
be onderstood as alloodin' to affairs of a simply social kind, an' not
to robberies, hold-ups, hoss-larcenies, an' other an' sim'lar
transactions in spec'latif crime when every gent defends his own.
Speakin' social, however, I reasserts that by every roole of guidance,
I'm entitled to the first shot. Which a doo regyard for these plain
rights of mine would go far to freein' Wolfville upper circles of the
bullets which occurs from time to time, an' which even the most
onconventional admits is shore a draw-back. All I can add as a
closer,' concloods Jack, 'is that I'll make haste to open on any sport
who transgresses these fiats an' goes to shootin' first. Moreover,
it's likely that said offender finds that when I'm started once, what I
misses in the orig'nal deal I'll make up in the draw, an' I tharfore
trusts that none will prove so sooicidal as to put me to the test.'
"This Bird Cage Op'ry House evenin', however, Jack is absent a heap.
Dan Boggs is present, an' is leanin' back appreciatin' the show an' the
Valley Tan plenty impartial. Dan likes both an' is doin' 'em even
jestice. Over opp'site to Dan is a drunken passel of sports from Red
Dog, said wretched hamlet bein' behind Wolfville in that as in all
things else an' not ownin' no op'ry house.
"As the evenin' proceeds--it's about sixth drink time--a casyooal gun
goes off over among the Red Dog outfit, an' the lead tharfrom bores a
hole in the wall clost to Dan's y'ear. Nacherally Dan don't like it.
The show sort o' comes to a balk, an' takin' advantages of the lull Dan
arises in a listless way an' addresses the Red Dogs.
"'I merely desires to inquire,' says Dan 'whether that shot is
inadvertent; or is it a mark of innocent joobilation an' approval of
the show; or is it meant personal to me?'
"'You can bet your moccasins!' shouts one of the Red Dog delegation,
'thar's no good fellowship with that gun-play. That shot's formal an'
serious an' goes as it lays.'
"'My mind bein' now cl'ar on the subject of motive,' says Dan; 'the
proper course is plain.'"
With this retort Dan slams away gen'ral--shoots into the flock like--at
the picnickers from Red Dog, an' a party who's plenty drunk an' has his
feet piled up on a table goes shy his off big toe.
"As I remarks yeretofore it's as well Jack Moore ain't thar. Jack
would have corralled something more momentous than a toe. Which Jack
would have been shootin' in his capac'ty as marshal, an' couldn't onder
sech circumstances have stooped to toes. But it's different with Dan.
He is present private an' only idlin' 'round; an' he ain't driven to
take high ground. More partic'lar since Dan's playin' a return game in
the nacher of reproofs an' merely to resent the onlicensed liberties
which Red Dog takes with him, Dan, as I says, is free to accept toes if
he so decides.
"When Dan busts this yere inebriate, the victim lams loose a yell
ag'inst which a coyote would protest. That sot thinks he's shore
killed. What with the scare an' the pain an' the nosepaint, an'
regyardin' of himse'f as right then flutterin' about the rim of
eternity, he gets seized with remorse an' allows he's out to confess
his sins before he quits. As thar's no sky pilot to confide in, this
drunkard figgers that Peets 'll do, an' with that he onloads on Peets
how, bein' as he is a stage book-keep over in Red Dog, he's in cahoots
with a outfit of route agents an' gives 'em the word when it's worth
while to stand-up the stage. An' among other crim'nal pards of his
this terrified person names that outlaw Silver Phil. Shore, when he
rounds to an' learns it ain't nothin' but a toe, this party's chagrined
to death.
"This yere confidin' sport's arrested an' taken some'ers--Prescott
mebby--to be tried in a shore-enough co't for the robberies; the Red
Dog Stranglers not bein' game to butt in an' hang him a lot themse'fs.
They surrenders him to the marshal who rides over for him; an' they
would have turned out Silver Phil, too, only that small black outcast
don't wait, but goes squanderin' off to onknown climes the moment he
hears the news. He's vamoosed Red Dog before this penitent bookkeep
ceases yelpin' an' sobbin' over his absent toe.
"It ain't no time, however, before we hears further of Silver Phil;
that is, by way of roomer. It looks like a couple of big cow outfits
some'ers in the San Simon country--they're the 'Three-D' an' the
'K-in-a-box' brands--takes first to stealin' each, other's cattle, an',
final, goes to war. Each side retains bands of murderers an' proceeds
buoyantly to lay for one another. Which Silver Phil enlists with the
'Three-D' an' sneaks an' prowls an' bushwhacks an' shoots himse'f into
more or less bloody an' ignoble prom'nence. At last the main
war-chiefs of the Territory declar's themse'fs in on the riot an'
chases both sides into the hills; an' among other excellent deeds they
makes captive Silver Phil.
"It's a great error they don't string this Silver Phil instanter. But
no; after the procrastinatin' fashion of real law, they permits the
villain--who's no more use on the surface of Arizona that a-way than
one of them hydrophoby polecats whose bite is death--to get a law sharp
to plead an' call for a show-down before a jedge an' jury. It takes
days to try Silver Phil, an' marshals an' sheriff gents is two weeks
squanderin' about gettin' witnesses; an' all to as much trouble an'
loss of time an' dinero as would suffice to round-up the cattle of
Cochise county. Enright an' the Stranglers would have turned the
trick in twenty minutes an' never left the New York Store ontil with
Silver Phil an' a lariat they reepairs to the windmill to put the
finishin' touches on their lucoobrations.
"Still, dooms slow an' shiftless as they shore be, at the wind-up
Silver Phil's found guilty, an' is put in nom'nation by the presidin'
alcade to be hanged; the time bein' set in a crazy-hoss fashion for a
month away. As Silver Phil--which he's that bad an' hard he comes
mighty clost to bein; game--is leavin' the co't-room with the marshal
who's ridin' herd on him, he says:
"'I ain't payin' much attention at the time,'--Silver Phil's talkin' to
that marshal gent,--'bein' I'm thinkin' of something else, but do I
onderstand that old grey sport on the bench to say you-all is to hang
me next month?'
"'That's whatever!' assents this marshal gent, 'an' you can gamble a
bloo stack that hangin' you is a bet we ain't none likely to overlook.
Which we're out to put our whole grateful souls into the dooty.'
"'Now I thinks of it,' observes Silver Phil, 'I'm some averse to bein'
hanged. I reckons, speakin' free an' free as between fellow sports,
that in order for that execootion to be a blindin' success I'll have to
be thar personal?'
"'It's one of the mighty few o'casions,' responds the marshal, 'when
your absence would shorely dash an' damp the gen'ral joy. As you says,
you'll have to be thar a heap personal when said hangin' occurs.'
"'I'm mighty sorry,' says Silver Phil, 'that you-all lays out your game
in a fashion that so much depends on me. The more so, since the longer
I considers this racket, the less likely it is I'll be thar. It's
almost a cinch, with the plans I has, that I'll shore be some'ers else.'
"They corrals Silver Phil in the one big upper room of a two-story
'doby, an' counts off a couple of dep'ty marshals to gyard him. These
gyards, comin' squar' down to cases, ain't no improvement, moral, on
Silver Phil himse'f; an' since they're twice his age--Silver Phil not
bein' more'n twenty--it's safe as a play to say that both of 'em
oughter have been hanged a heap before ever Silver Phil is born. These
two hold-ups, however, turns dep'ty marshals in their old age, an' is
put in to stand watch an' watch an' see that Silver Phil don't work
loose from his hobbles an' go pirootin' off ag'in into parts onknown.
Silver Phil is loaded with fetters,--handcuffs an' laig-locks both--an'
these hold-up sentries is armed to the limit.
"It's the idee of Doc Peets later, when he hears the details, that if
the gyards that time treats Silver Phil with kindness, the little felon
most likely would have remained to be hanged. But they don't: they
abooses Silver Phil; cussin' him out an' herdin' him about like he's
cattle. They're a evil-tempered couple, them dep'ties, an' they don't
give Silver Phil no sort o' peace.
"'As I su'gests yeretofore,' says Doc Peets, when he considers the
case, 'this Silver Phil is a degen'rate. He's like a anamile. He
don't entertain no reg'lar scheme to work free when he waxes sardonic
with the marshal; that's only a bluff. Later, when them gyards takes
to maltreatin' him an' battin' him about, it wakes up the venom in him,
an' his cunnin' gets aroused along with his appetite for revenge.'
"This Silver Phil, who's lean an' slim like I explains at the jump, has
hands no bigger than a cat's paws. It ain't no time when he discovers
that by cuttin' himse'f a bit on the irons, he can shuck the handcuffs
whenever he's disposed. Even then, he don't outline no campaign for
liberty; jest sort o' roominates an' waits.
"It's one partic'lar mornin', some two weeks after Silver Phil's
sentenced that a-way. The marshal gent himse'f ain't about, bein' on
some dooty over to Tucson. Silver Phil is upsta'rs on the top floor of
the 'doby with his gyards. Which he's hotter than a wildcat; the
gyards an' him has been havin' a cussin' match, an' as Silver Phil
outplays 'em talkin', one of 'em's done whacked him over the skelp with
his gun. The blood's tricklin' down Silver Phil's fore'erd as he sits
glowerin'.
"One of the gyards is loadin' a ten-gauge Greener--a whole mouthful of
buckshot in each shell. He's grinnin' at Silver Phil as he shoves the
shells in the gun an' slams her shet.
"'Which I'm loadin' that weepon for you,' says the gyard, contemplatin'
Silver Phil derisive.
"'You be, be you!' replies Silver Phil, his eyes burnin' with rage.
'Which you better look out a whole lot; you-all may get it yourse'f.'
"The gyard laughs ugly an' exasperatin' an' puts the ten-gauge in a
locker along with two or three Winchesters. Then he turns the key on
the firearms an' goes caperin' off to his feed.
"The other gyard, his _compadre_, is settin' on a stool lookin' out a
window. Mebby he's considerin' of his sins. It would be more in his
hand at this time if he thinks of Silver Phil.
"Silver Phil, who's full of wrath at the taunts of the departed gyard,
slips his hands free of the irons. Most of the hide on his wrists
comes with 'em, but Silver Phil don't care. The gyard's back is to him
as that gent sits gazin' out an' off along the dusty trail where it
winds gray an' hot toward Tucson. Silver Phil organises, stealthy an'
cat-cautious; he's out for the gyard's gun as it hangs from his belt,
the butt all temptin' an' su'gestive.
"As Silver Phil makes his first move the laig-locks clanks. It ain't
louder than the jingle of a brace of copper _centouse_ knockin'
together. It's enough, however; it strikes on the y'ear of that
thoughtful gyard like the roar of a '44. He emerges from his reverie
with a start; the play comes cl'ar as noonday to him in a moment.
"The gyard leaps, without even lookin' 'round, to free himse'f from the
clutch of Silver Phil. Which he's the splinter of a second too late.
Silver Phil makes a spring like a mountain lion, laig-locks an' all,
an' grabs the gun. As the gyard goes clatterin' down sta'rs. Silver
Phil pumps two loads into him an' curls him up at the foot. Then
Silver Phil hurls the six-shooter at him with a volley of mal'dictions.
"Without pausin' a moment, Silver Phil grabs the stool an' smashes to
flinders the locker that holds the 10-gauge Greener. He ain't forgot
none; an' he's fair locoed to get that partic'lar weepon for the other
gyard. He rips it from the rack an' shows at the window as his prey
comes runnin' to the rescoo of his pard:
"'Oh, you! Virg Sanders!' yells Silver Phil.
"The second gyard looks up; an' as he does, Silver Phil gives him both
bar'ls. Forty-two buckshot; an' that gyard's so clost he stops 'em
all! As he lays dead, Silver Phil breaks the Greener in two, an'
throws, one after the other, stock an' bar'l at him.
"'Which I'll show you-all what happens when folks loads a gun for me!'
says Silver Phil.
"Nacherally, this artillery practice turns out the entire plaza. The
folks is standin' about the 'doby which confines Silver Phil, wonderin'
whatever that enthoosiast's goin' to do next. No, they don't come
after him, an' I'll tell you why. Shore, thar's twenty gents lookin'
on, any one of whom, so far as personal apprehensions is involved,
would trail Silver Phil single-handed into a wolf's den. Which he'd
feel plumb confident he gets away with Silver Phil an' the wolves
thrown in to even up the odds. Still, no one stretches forth to
capture Silver Phil on this yere voylent o'casion. An' these is the
reasons. Thar's no reg'lar offishul present whose dooty it is to rope
up this Silver Phil. If sech had chanced to be thar, you can put down
a stack he'd come a-runnin', an' him or Silver Phil would have caught
up with the two gyards on their journey into the beyond. But when it
gets down to private people volunteerin' for dooty as marshals, folks
in the Southwest goes some slothful to work. Thar's the friends of the
accoosed--an' as a roole he ain't none friendless--who would mighty
likely resent sech zeal. Also, in the case of Silver Phil, his
captivity grows out of a cattle war. One third the public so far as it
stands about the 'doby where Silver Phil is hived that time is
'Three-D' adherents, mebby another third is 'K-in-a-box' folks, while
the last third is mighty likely nootral. Whichever way it breaks,
however, thar's a tacit stand-off, an' never a sport of 'em lifts a
finger or voice to head off Silver Phil.
"'Which she's the inalien'ble right of Americans onder the
constitootion to escape with every chance they gets,' says one.
"'That's whatever!' coincides his pard; 'an' moreover this ain't our
round-up nohow.'
"It's in that fashion these private citizens adjusts their dooty to the
state while pausin' to look on, in a sperit of cur'osity while Silver
Phil makes his next play.
"They don't wait long. Silver Phil comes out on the roof of a stoop in
front. He's got a Winchester by now, an' promptly throws the muzzle
tharof on a leadin' citizen. Silver Phil allows he'll plug this
dignitary if they don't send up a sport with a file to cut loose the
laig-locks. Tharupon the pop'lace, full of a warm interest by this
time, does better. They gropes about in the war-bags of the Virg
Sanders sharp who stops the buckshot an' gets his keys; a moment after,
Silver Phil is free.
"Still, this ontirin' hold-up goes on menacin' the leadin' citizen as
former. Which now Silver Phil demands a bronco, bridled an' saddled.
He gives the public ten minutes; if the bronco is absent at the end of
ten minutes Silver Phil allows he'll introdooce about a pound of lead
into where that village father does his cogitating. The bronco appears
with six minutes to spar'. As it arrives, the vivacious Silver Phil
jumps off the roof of the stoop--the same bein' low--an' is in the
saddle an' out o' sight while as practised a hand as Huggins is pourin'
out a drink. Where the trail bends 'round a mesa Silver Phil pulls up.
"'Whoop! whoop! whoopee! for Silver Phil,' he shouts.
"Then he waves the Winchester, an' as he spurs 'round the corner of the
hill it's the last that spellbound outfit ever sees of Silver Phil.
"Nacherally now," remarked my old friend, as he refreshed himself with
a mouthful of scotch, "you-all is waitin' an' tryin' to guess wherever
does Dan Boggs get in on this yere deal. An' it won't take no time to
post you; the same bein' a comfort.
"Not one word do we-all wolves of Wolfville hear of the divertin'
adventures of Silver Phil--shootin' up his gyards an' fetchin' himse'f
free--ontil days after. No one in camp has got Silver Phil on his mind
at all; at least if he has he deems him safe an' shore in hock,
a-waitin' to be stretched. Considerin' what follows, I never
experiences trouble in adoptin' Doc Peets' argyments that the eepisodes
wherein this onhappy Silver Phil figgers sort o' aggravates his
intellects ontil he's locoed.
"'Bein' this Silver Phil's a degen'rate,' declar's Peets, explanatory,
'he's easy an' soon to loco. His mind as well as his moral nacher is
onbalanced congenital. Any triflin' jolt, much less than what that
Silver Phil runs up on, an' his fretful wits is shore to leave the
saddle.
"Now that Silver Phil's free, but loonatic like Peets says, an' doubly
vicious by them tantalisin' gyards, it looks like he thinks of nothin'
but wreckin' reprisals on all who's crossed his trail. An' so with
vengeance eatin' at his crim'nal heart he p'ints that bronco's muzzle
straight as a bird flies for Wolfville. Whoever do you-all reckon now
he wants? Cherokee Hall? Son, you've followed off the wrong waggon
track. Silver Phil--imagine the turpitoode of sech a ornery
wretch!--is out for the lovely skelp of Faro Nell who detects him in
his ha'r-copper frauds that time.
"Which the first intimations we has of Silver Phil after that escape,
is one evenin' about fifth drink time--or as you-all says 'four
o'clock.' The sun's still hot an' high over in the west. Thar's no
game goin'; but bein' it's as convenient thar as elsewhere an' some
cooler, Cherokee's settin' back of his layout with Faro Nell as usual
on her lookout perch. Dan Boggs is across the street in the dancehall
door, an' his pet best bronco is waitin' saddled in front. Hot an'
drowsy; the street save for these is deserted.
"It all takes place in a moment. Thar's a clattering rush; an' then,
pony a-muck with sweat an' alkali dust, Silver Phil shows in the
portals of the Red Light. Thar's a flash an' a spit of white smoke as
he fires his six-shooter straight at Faro Nell.
"Silver Phil is quick, but Cherokee is quicker. Cherokee sweeps Faro
Nell from her stool with one motion of his arm an' the bullet that's
searchin' for her lifts Cherokee's ha'r a trifle where he 'most gets
his head in its way.
"Ondoubted, this Silver Phil allows he c'llects on Faro Nell as
planned. He don't shoot twice, an' he don't tarry none, but wheels his
wearied pony, gives a yell, an' goes surgin' off.
"But Silver Phil's got down to the turn of that evil deal of his
existence. He ain't two hundred yards when Dan Boggs is in the saddle
an' ridin' hard. Dan's bronco runs three foot for every one of the
pony of Silver Phil's; which that beaten an' broken cayouse is eighty
miles from his last mouthful of grass.
"As Dan begins to crowd him, Silver Phil turns in the saddle an'
shoots. The lead goes 'way off yonder--wild. Dan, grim an' silent,
rides on without returnin' the fire.
"'Which I wouldn't dishonour them guns of mine,' says Dan, explainin'
later the pheenomenon of him not shootin' none, 'which I wouldn't
dishonour them guns by usin' 'em on varmints like this yere Silver
Phil.'
"As Silver Phil reorganises for a second shot his bronco stumbles.
Silver Phil pitches from the saddle an' strikes the grass to one side.
As he half rises, Dan lowers on him like the swoop of a hawk. It's as
though Dan's goin' to snatch a handkerchief from the ground.
"As Dan flashes by, he swings low from the saddle an' his right hand
takes a troo full grip on that outlaw's shoulder. Dan has the thews
an' muscles of a cinnamon b'ar, an' Silver Phil is only a scrap of a
man. As Dan straightens up in the stirrups, he heaves this Silver Phil
on high to the length of his long arm; an' then he dashes him ag'inst
the flint-hard earth; which the manoover--we-all witnesses it from
mebby a quarter of a mile--which the manoover that a-way is shore
remorseless! This Silver Phil is nothin' but shattered bones an'
bleedin' pulp. He strikes the plains like he's crime from the clouds
an' is dead without a quiver.
"'Bury him? No!' says Old Man Enright to Dave Tutt who asks the
question. 'Let him find his bed where he falls.
"While Enright speaks, an' as Dan rides up to us at the Red Light, a
prompt raven drops down over where this Silver Phil is layin'. Then
another raven an' another--black an' wide of wing--comes floatin' down.
A coyote yells--first with the short, sharp yelp, an' then with that
multiplied patter of laughter like forty wolves at once. That daylight
howl of the coyote alters tells of a death. Shore raven an' wolf is
gatherin'. As Enright says: 'This yere Silver Phil ain't likely to be
lonesome none to-night.'
"'Did you kill him, Dan?' asks Faro Nell.
"'Why, no, Nellie,' replies Dan, as he steps outen the stirrups an'
beams on Faro Nell. She's still a bit onstrung, bein' only a little
girl when all is said. 'Why, no, Nellie; I don't kill him speecific as
Wolfville onderstands the word; but I dismisses him so effectual the
kyard shore falls the same for Silver Phil.'"
CHAPTER II.
Colonel Sterett's Panther Hunt,
"Panthers, what we-all calls 'mountain lions,'" observed the Old
Cattleman, wearing meanwhile the sapient air of him who feels equipped
of his subject, "is plenty furtive, not to say mighty sedyoolous to
skulk. That's why a gent don't meet up with more of 'em while
pirootin' about in the hills. Them cats hears him, or they sees him,
an' him still ignorant tharof; an' with that they bashfully withdraws.
Which it's to be urged in favour of mountain lions that they never
forces themse'fs on no gent; they're shore considerate, that a-way, an'
speshul of themse'fs. If one's ever hurt, you can bet it won't be a
accident. However, it ain't for me to go 'round impugnin' the motives
of no mountain lion; partic'lar when the entire tribe is strangers to
me complete. But still a love of trooth compels me to concede that if
mountain lions ain't cowardly, they're shore cautious a lot. Cattle
an' calves they passes up as too bellicose, an' none of 'em ever faces
any anamile more warlike than a baby colt or mebby a half-grown deer.
I'm ridin' along the Caliente once when I hears a crashin' in the
bushes on the bluff above--two hundred foot high, she is, an' as sheer
as the walls of this yere tavern. As I lifts my eyes, a fear-frenzied
mare an' colt comes chargin' up an' projects themse'fs over the
precipice an' lands in the valley below. They're dead as Joolius
Caesar when I rides onto 'em, while a brace of mountain lions is
skirtin' up an' down the aige of the bluff they leaps from, mewin' an'
lashin' their long tails in hot enthoosiasm. Shore, the cats has been
chasin' the mare an' foal, an' they locoes 'em to that extent they
don't know where they're headin' an' makes the death jump I relates. I
bangs away with my six-shooter, but beyond givin' the mountain lions a
convulsive start I can't say I does any execootion. They turns an'
goes streakin' it through the pine woods like a drunkard to a barn
raisin'.
"Timid? Shore! They're that timid seminary girls compared to 'em is
as sternly courageous as a passel of buccaneers. Out in Mitchell's
canyon a couple of the Lee-Scott riders cuts the trail of a mountain
lion and her two kittens. Now whatever do you-all reckon this old
tabby does? Basely deserts her offsprings without even barin' a tooth,
an' the cow-punchers takes 'em gently by their tails an' beats out
their joovenile brains. That's straight; that mother lion goes
swarmin' up the canyon like she ain't got a minute to live. An' you
can gamble the limit that where a anamile sees its children perish
without frontin' up for war, it don't possess the commonest roodiments
of sand. Sech, son, is mountain lions.
"It's one evenin' in the Red Light when Colonel Sterett, who's got
through his day's toil on that Coyote paper he's editor of, onfolds
concernin' a panther round-up which he pulls off in his yooth.
"'This panther hunt,' says Colonel Sterett, as he fills his third
tumbler, 'occurs when mighty likely I'm goin' on seventeen winters.
I'm a leader among my young companions at the time; in fact, I allers
is. An' I'm proud to say that my soopremacy that a-way is doo to the
dom'nant character of my intellects. I'm ever bright an' sparklin' as
a child, an' I recalls how my aptitoode for learnin' promotes me to be
regyarded as the smartest lad in my set. If thar's visitors, to the
school, or if the selectmen invades that academy to sort o' size us up,
the teacher allers plays me on 'em. I'd go to the front for the
outfit. Which I'm wont on sech harrowin' o'casions to recite a
ode--the teacher's done wrote it himse'f--an' which is entitled
Napoleon's Mad Career. Thar's twenty-four stanzas to it; an' while
these interlopin' selectmen sets thar lookin' owley an' sagacious, I'd
wallop loose with the twenty-four verses, stampin' up and down, an'
accompanyin' said recitations with sech a multitood of reckless
gestures, it comes plenty clost to backin' everybody plumb outen the
room. Yere's the first verse:
I'd drink an' sw'ar an' r'ar an' t'ar
An' fall down in the mud,
While the y'earth for forty miles about
Is kivered with my blood.
"'You-all can see from that speciment that our schoolmaster ain't
simply flirtin' with the muses when he originates that epic; no sir, he
means business; an' whenever I throws it into the selectmen, I does it
jestice. The trustees used to silently line out for home when I
finishes, an' never a yeep. It stuns 'em; it shore fills 'em to the
brim!
"'As I gazes r'arward,' goes on the Colonel, as by one rapt impulse he
uplifts both his eyes an' his nosepaint, 'as I gazes r'arward, I says,
on them sun-filled days, an' speshul if ever I gets betrayed into
talkin' about 'em, I can hardly t'ar myse'f from the subject. I
explains yeretofore, that not only by inclination but by birth, I'm a
shore-enough 'ristocrat. This captaincy of local fashion I assoomes at
a tender age. I wears the record as the first child to don shoes
throughout the entire summer in that neighbourhood; an' many a time an'
oft does my yoothful but envy-eaten compeers lambaste me for the
insultin' innovation. But I sticks to my moccasins; an' to-day shoes
in the Bloo Grass is almost as yooniversal as the licker habit.
"'Thar dawns a hour, however, when my p'sition in the van of Kaintucky
_ton_ comes within a ace of bein' ser'ously shook. It's on my way to
school one dewey mornin' when I gets involved all inadvertent in a
onhappy rupture with a polecat. I never does know how the
misonderstandin' starts. After all, the seeds of said dispoote is by
no means important; it's enough to say that polecat finally has me
thoroughly convinced.
Followin' the difference an' my defeat, I'm witless enough to keep
goin' on to school, whereas I should have returned homeward an' cast
myse'f upon my parents as a sacred trust. Of course, when I'm in
school I don't go impartin' my troubles to the other chil'en; I
emyoolates the heroism of the Spartan boy who stands to be eat by a
fox, an' keeps 'em to myself. But the views of my late enemy is not to
be smothered; they appeals to my young companions; who tharupon puts up
a most onneedful riot of coughin's an' sneezin's. But nobody knows me
as the party who's so pungent.
"'It's a tryin' moment. I can see that, once I'm located, I'm goin' to
be as onpop'lar as a b'ar in a hawg pen; I'll come tumblin' from my
pinnacle in that proud commoonity as the glass of fashion an' the mold
of form. You can go your bottom peso, the thought causes me to feel
plenty perturbed.
"'At this peril I has a inspiration; as good, too, as I ever entertains
without the aid of rum. I determines to cast the opprobrium on some
other boy an' send the hunt of gen'ral indignation sweepin' along his
trail.
"'Thar's a innocent infant who's a stoodent at this temple of childish
learnin' an' his name is Riley Bark. This Riley is one of them giant
children who's only twelve an' weighs three hundred pounds. An' in
proportions as Riley is a son of Anak, physical, he's dwarfed mental;
he ain't half as well upholstered with brains as a shepherd dog.
That's right; Riley's intellects, is like a fly in a saucer of syrup,
they struggles 'round plumb slow. I decides to uplift Riley to the
public eye as the felon who's disturbin' that seminary's sereenity.
Comin' to this decision, I p'ints at him where he's planted four seats
ahead, all tangled up in a spellin' book, an' says in a loud whisper to
a child who's sittin' next:
"'Throw him out!'
"'That's enough. No gent will ever realise how easy it is to direct a
people's sentiment ontil he take a whirl at the game. In two minutes
by the teacher's bull's-eye copper watch, every soul knows it's pore
Riley; an' in three, the teacher's done drug Riley out doors by the
ha'r of his head an' chased him home. Gents, I look back on that
yoothful feat as a triumph of diplomacy; it shore saves my standin' as
the Beau Brummel of the Bloo Grass.
"'Good old days, them!' observes the Colonel mournfully, 'an' ones
never to come ag'in! My sternest studies is romances, an' the
peroosals of old tales as I tells you-all prior fills me full of moss
an' mockin' birds in equal parts. I reads deep of _Walter Scott_ an'
waxes to be a sharp on Moslems speshul. I dreams of the Siege of Acre,
an' Richard the Lion Heart; an' I simply can't sleep nights for honin'
to hold a tournament an' joust a whole lot for some fair lady's love.
"'Once I commits the error of my career by joustin' with my brother
Jeff. This yere Jeff is settin' on the bank of the Branch fishin' for
bullpouts at the time, an' Jeff don't know I'm hoverin' near at all.
Jeff's reedic'lous fond of fishin'; which he'd sooner fish than read
_Paradise Lost_. I'm romancin' along, sim'larly bent, when I notes
Jeff perched on the bank. To my boyish imagination Jeff at once turns
to be a Paynim. I drops my bait box, couches my fishpole, an' emittin'
a impromptoo warcry, charges him. It's the work of a moment; Jeff's
onhossed an' falls into the Branch.
"'But thar's bitterness to follow vict'ry. Jeff emerges like Diana
from the bath an' frales the wamus off me with a club. Talk of puttin'
a crimp in folks! Gents when Jeff's wrath is assuaged I'm all on one
side like the leanin' tower of Pisa. Jeff actooally confers a skew-gee
to my spinal column.
"'A week later my folks takes me to a doctor. That practitioner puts
on his specs an' looks me over with jealous care.
"'"Whatever's wrong with him, Doc?" says my father.
"'"Nothin'," says the physician, "only your son Willyum's five inches
out o' plumb."
"'Then he rigs a contraption made up of guy-ropes an' stay-laths, an' I
has to wear it; an' mebby in three or four weeks he's got me warped
back into the perpendic'lar.'
"'But how about this cat hunt?" asks Dan Boggs. 'Which I don't aim to
be introosive none, but I'm camped yere through the second drink
waitin' for it, an' these procrastinations is makin' me kind o' batty.'
"'That panther hunt is like this,' says the Colonel turnin' to Dan.
'At the age of seventeen, me an' eight or nine of my intimate brave
comrades founds what we-all denom'nates as the "Chevy Chase Huntin'
Club." Each of us maintains a passel of odds an' ends of dogs, an' at
stated intervals we convenes on hosses, an' with these fourscore curs
at our tails goes yellin' an' skally-hootin' up an' down the
countryside allowin' we're shore a band of Nimrods.
"'The Chevy Chasers ain't been in bein' as a institootion over long
when chance opens a gate to ser'ous work. The deep snows in the
Eastern mountains it looks like has done drove a panther into our
neighbourhood. You could hear of him on all sides. Folks glimpses him
now an' then. They allows he's about the size of a yearlin' calf; an'
the way he pulls down sech feeble people as sheep or lays desolate some
he'pless henroost don't bother him a bit. This panther spreads a
horror over the county. Dances, pra'er meetin's, an' even poker
parties is broken up, an' the social life of that region begins to bog
down. Even a weddin' suffers; the bridesmaids stayin' away lest this
ferocious monster should show up in the road an' chaw one of 'em while
she's _en route_ for the scene of trouble. That's gospel trooth! the
pore deserted bride has to heel an' handle herse'f an' never a friend
to yoonite her sobs with hers doorin' that weddin' ordeal. The old
ladies present shakes their heads a heap solemn.
"'"It's a worse augoory," says one, "than the hoots of a score of
squinch owls."
"'When this reign of terror is at its height, the local eye is rolled
appealin'ly towards us Chevy Chasers. We rises to the opportoonity.
Day after day we're ridin' the hills an' vales, readin' the milk white
snow for tracks. An' we has success. One mornin' I comes up on two of
the Brackenridge boys an' five more of the Chevy Chasers settin' on
their hosses at the Skinner cross roads. Bob Crittenden's gone to turn
me out, they says. Then they p'ints down to a handful of close-wove
bresh an' stunted timber an' allows that this maraudin' cat-o-mount is
hidin' thar; they sees him go skulkin' in.
"'Gents, I ain't above admittin' that the news puts my heart to a
canter. I'm brave; but conflicts with wild an' savage beasts is to me
a novelty an' while I faces my fate without a flutter, I'm yere to say
I'd sooner been in pursoot of minks or raccoons or some varmint whose
grievous cap'bilities I can more ackerately stack up an' in whose merry
ways I'm better versed. However, the dauntless blood of my grandsire
mounts in my cheek; an' as if the shade of that old Trojan is thar
personal to su'gest it, I searches forth a flask an' renoos my sperit;
thus qualified for perils, come in what form they may, I resolootely
stands my hand.
"'Thar's forty dogs if thar's one in our company as we pauses at the
Skinner crossroads. An' when the Crittenden yooth returns, he brings
with him the Rickett boys an' forty added dogs. Which it's worth a
ten-mile ride to get a glimpse of that outfit of canines! Thar's every
sort onder the canopy: thar's the stolid hound, the alert fice, the
sapient collie; that is thar's individyool beasts wherein the hound, or
fice, or collie seems to preedominate as a strain. The trooth is
thar's not that dog a-whinin' about our hosses' fetlocks who ain't
proudly descended from fifteen different tribes, an' they shorely makes
a motley mass meetin'. Still, they're good, zealous dogs; an' as
they're going to go for'ard an' take most of the resks of that panther,
it seems invidious to criticise 'em.
"'One of the Twitty boys rides down an' puts the eighty or more dogs
into the bresh. The rest of us lays back an' strains our eyes. Thar
he is! A shout goes up as we descries the panther stealin' off by a
far corner. He's headin' along a hollow that's full of bresh an' baby
timber an' runs parallel with the pike. Big an' yaller he is; we can
tell from the slight flash we gets of him as he darts into a second
clump of bushes. With a cry--what young Crittenden calls a "view
halloo,"--we goes stampedin' down the pike in pursoot.
"'Our dogs is sta'nch; they shore does themse'fs proud. Singin' in
twenty keys, reachin' from growls to yelps an' from yelps to shrillest
screams, they pushes dauntlessly on the fresh trail of their terrified
quarry. Now an' then we gets a squint of the panther as he skulks from
one copse to another jest ahead. Which he's goin' like a arrow; no
mistake! As for us Chevy Chasers, we parallels the hunt, an'
continyoos poundin' the Skinner turnpike abreast of the pack, ever an'
anon givin' a encouragin' shout as we briefly sights our game.
"'Gents,' says Colonel Sterett, as he ag'in refreshes himse'f, 'it's
needless to go over that hunt in detail. We hustles the flyin' demon
full eighteen miles, our faithful dogs crowdin' close an' breathless at
his coward heels. Still, they don't catch up with him; he streaks it
like some saffron meteor.
"'Only once does we approach within strikin' distance; that's when he
crosses at old Stafford's whiskey still. As he glides into view,
Crittenden shouts:
"'"Thar he goes!"
"'For myse'f I'm prepared. I've got one of these misguided
cap-an'-ball six-shooters that's built doorin' the war; an' I cuts that
hardware loose! This weepon seems a born profligate of lead, for the
six chambers goes off together. Which you should have seen the Chevy
Chasers dodge! An' well they may; that broadside ain't in vain! My
aim is so troo that one of the r'armost dogs evolves a howl an' rolls
over; then he sets up gnawin' an' lickin' his off hind laig in frantic
alternations. That hunt is done for him. We leaves him doctorin'
himse'f an' picks him up two hours later on our triumphant return.
"'As I states, we harries that foogitive panther for eighteen miles an'
in our hot ardour founders two hosses. Fatigue an' weariness begins to
overpower us; also our prey weakens along with the rest. In the half
glimpses we now an' ag'in gets of him its plain that both pace an'
distance is tellin' fast. Still, he presses on; an' as thar's no spur
like fear, that panther holds his distance.
"'But the end comes. We've done run him into a rough, wild stretch of
country where settlements is few an' cabins roode. Of a sudden, the
panther emerges onto the road an' goes rackin' along the trail. We
pushes our spent steeds to the utmost.
"'Thar's a log house ahead; out in the stump-filled lot in front is a
frowsy woman an' five small children. The panther leaps the rickety
worm-fence an' heads straight as a bullet for the cl'arin'! Horrors!
the sight freezes our marrows! Mad an' savage, he's doo to bite a hunk
outen that devoted household! Mutooally callin' to each other, we
goads our hosses to the utmost. We gain on the panther! He may wound
but he won't have time to slay that fam'ly.
"'Gents, it's a soopreme moment! The panther makes for the female
squatter an' her litter, we pantin' an' pressin' clost behind. The
panther is among 'em; the woman an' the children seems transfixed by
the awful spectacle an' stands rooted with open eyes an' mouths. Our
emotions shore beggars deescriptions.
"'Now ensooes a scene to smite the hardiest of us with dismay. No
sooner does the panther find himse'f in the midst of that he'pless bevy
of little ones, than he stops, turns round abrupt, an' sets down on his
tail; an' then upliftin' his muzzle he busts into shrieks an' yells an'
howls an' cries, a complete case of dog hysterics! That's what he is,
a great yeller dog; his reason is now a wrack because we harasses him
the eighteen miles.
"'Thar's a ugly outcast of a squatter, mattock in hand, comes tumblin'
down the hillside from some'ers out back of the shanty where he's been
grubbin':
"'"What be you-all eediots chasin' my dog for?" demands this onkempt
party. Then he menaces us with the implement.
"'We makes no retort but stands passive. The great orange brute whose
nerves has been torn to rags creeps to the squatter an' with mournful
howls explains what we've made him suffer.
"'No, thar's nothin' further to do an' less to be said. That
cavalcade, erstwhile so gala an' buoyant, drags itself wearily
homeward, the exhausted dogs in the r'ar walkin' stiff an' sore like
their laigs is wood. For more'n a mile the complainin' howls of the
hysterical yeller dog is wafted to our y'ears. Then they ceases; an'
we figgers his sympathizin' master has done took him into the shanty
an' shet the door.
"'No one comments on this adventure, not a word is heard. Each is
silent ontil we mounts the Big Murray hill. As we collects ourse'fs on
this eminence one of the Brackenridge boys holds up his hand for a
halt. "Gents," he says, as--hosses, hunters an' dogs--we-all gathers
'round, "gents, I moves you the Chevy Chase Huntin' Club yereby stands
adjourned _sine die_." Thar's a moment's pause, an' then as by one
impulse every gent, hoss an' dog, says "Ay!" It's yoonanimous, an'
from that hour till now the Chevy Chase Huntin' Club ain't been nothin'
save tradition. But that panther shore disappears; it's the end of his
vandalage; an' ag'in does quadrilles, pra'rs, an poker resoom their
wonted sway. That's the end; an' now, gents, if Black Jack will caper
to his dooties we'll uplift our drooped energies with the usual forty
drops."
CHAPTER III.
How Faro Nell Dealt Bank.
"Riches," remarked the Old Cattleman, "riches says you! Neither
you-all nor any other gent is competent to state whether in the
footure he amasses wealth or not. The question is far beyond the
throw of your rope."
My friend's tone breathed a note of strong contradiction while his
glance was the glance of experience. I had said that I carried no
hope of becoming rich; that the members of my tribe were born with
their hands open and had such hold of money as a riddle has of water.
It was this which moved him to expostulatory denial.
"This matter of wealth, that a-way," he continued, "is a mighty sight
a question of luck. Shore, a gent has to have capacity to grasp a
chance an' savey sufficient to get his chips down right. But this
chance, an' whether it offers itse'f to any specific sport, is
frequent accident an' its comin' or failure to come depends on
conditions over which the party about to be enriched ain't got no
control. That's straight, son! You backtrack any fortune to its
beginning an some'ers along the trail or at the farthest end you'll
come up with the fact that it took a accident or two, what we-all
darkened mortals calls 'luck,' to make good the play. It's like
gettin' shot gettin' rich is; all you has to do is be present
personal at the time, an' the bullet does the rest.
"You distrusts these doctrines. You shore won't if you sets down
hard an' thinks. Suppose twenty gents has made a surround an' is
huntin' a b'ar. Only one is goin' to down him. An' in his clumsy
blunderin' the b'ar is goin' to select his execootioner himse'f.
That's a fact; the party who downs the b'ar, final, ain't goin' to
pick the b'ar out; the b'ar's goin' to pick him out. An' it's the
same about wealth; one gent gets the b'ar an' the other nineteen--an'
they're as cunnin' an' industr'ous as the lucky party--don't get
nothing--don't even get a shot. I repeats tharfore, that you-all
settin' yere this evenin', firin' off aimless observations, don't
know whether you'll quit rich or not."
At the close of his dissertation, my talkative companion puffed a
cloud which seemed to hang above his venerable head in a fashion of
heavy blue approval. I paused as one impressed by the utter wisdom
of the old gentleman. Then I took another tack.
"Speaking of wealth," I said, "tell me concerning the largest money
you ever knew to be won or lost at faro--tell me a gambling story."
"Tell you-all a gamblin' tale," he repeated, and then mused as if
lost in retrospection. "If I hesitates it's because of a multitoode
of incidents from which to draw. I've beheld some mighty cur'ous
doin's at the gamblin' tables. Once I knows a party who sinks his
hopeless head on the layout an' dies as he loses his last chip. This
don't happen in Wolfville none. No, I don't say folks ain't cashed
in at farobank in that excellent hamlet an' gone singin' to their
home above; but it ain't heart disease. Usual it's guns; the same
bein' invoked by sech inadvertencies as pickin' up some other gent's
bet.
"Tell you-all a story about gamblin'! Now I reckons the time Faro
Nell rescoos Cherokee Hall from rooin is when I sees the most
_dinero_ changed in at one play. You can gamble that's a thrillin'
eepisode when Faro Nell steps in between Cherokee an' the destroyer.
It's the gossip of the camp for days, an' when Wolfville discusses
anything for days that outfit's plumb moved.
"This gent who crowds Cherokee to the wall performs the feat
deliberate. He organises a sort o' campaign ag'in Cherokee; what you
might term a fiscal dooel, an' at the finish he has Cherokee
corralled for his last _peso_. It's at that p'int Nell cuts in an'
redeems the sityooation a heap. It's all on the squar'; this
invadin' sport simply outlucks the bank. That, an' the egreegious
limit Cherokee gives him, is what does the trick.
"In Wolfville, we-all allers recalls that sharp-set gent who comes
after Cherokee with respect. In fact he wins our encomiums before he
sets in ag'in Cherokee--before ever he gets his second drink at the
Red Light bar. He comes ramblin' over with Old Monte from Tucson one
evenin'; that's the first glimpse we has of him. An' for a hour,
mebby, followin' his advent, seein' the gen'ral herd is busy with the
mail, he has the Red Light to himse'f.
"On this yere o'casion, thar's likewise present in Wolfville--he's
been infringin' 'round some three days--a onsettled an' migratory
miscreant who's name is Ugly Collins. He's in a heap of ill repoote
in the territories, this Ugly Collins is; an' only he contreebutes
the information when he arrives in camp that his visit is to be
mighty temp'rary, Enright would have signed up Jack Moore to take his
guns an' stampede him a lot.
"At the time I'm talkin' of, as thar's no one who's that abandoned as
to go writin' letters to Ugly Collins, it befalls he's plenty
footloose. This leesure on the part of Ugly Collins turns out some
disastrous for that party. Not havin' no missives to read leaves him
free to go weavin' about permiscus an' it's while he's strayin' here
an' thar that he tracks up on this stranger who's come after Cherokee.
"Ugly Collins sees our pilgrim in the Red Light an', except Black
Jack,--who of course is present offishul--the stranger's alone. He's
weak an' meek an' shook by a cough that sounds like the overture to a
fooneral. Ugly Collins, who's a tyrannizin' cowardly form of
outcast, sizes him up as a easy prey. He figgers he'll have a heap
of evil fun with him, Ugly Collins does. Tharupon he approaches the
consumptive stranger:
"'You-all seems plenty ailin', pard,' says Ugly Collins.
"'Which I shore ain't over peart none,' retorts the stranger.
"'An' you-all can put down a bet,' returns Ugly Collins, 'I learns of
your ill-health with regrets. It's this a-way: I ain't had no
exercise yet this evenin'; an' as I tracks in yere, I registers a vow
to wallop the first gent I meets up with to whom I've not been
introdooced ;--merely by way of stretchin' my muscles. Now I must
say--an' I admits it with sorrow--that you-all is that onhappy sport.
It's no use; I knows I'll loathe myse'f for crawlin' the hump of a
gent who's totterin' on the brink of the grave; but whatever else can
I do? Vows is vows an' must be kept, so you might as well prepare
yourse'f for a cloud of sudden an' painful vicissitoodes.'
"As Ugly Collins says this he kind o' reaches for the invalid gent
where he's camped in a cha'r. It's a onfortunate gesture; the
invalid--as quick as a rattlesnake,--prodooces a derringer, same as
Doc Peets allers packs, from his surtoot an' the bullet carries away
most of Ugly Collins' lower jaw.
"'You-all is goin' to be a heap sight more of a audience than a
orator yereafter, Collins,' says Doc Peets, as he ties up the
villain's visage that a-way. 'Also, you oughter be less reckless an'
get the address of your victims before embarkin' on them
skelp-collectin' enterprises of yours. That gent you goes ag'inst is
Doc Holliday; as hard a game as lurks anywhere between the Slope an'
the Big Muddy.'
"Does the Stranglers do anything to this Holliday? Why, no, not
much; all they does is present him with a Colt's-44 along with the
compliments of the camp.
"'An' it's to be deplored,' says Enright, when he makes the
presentation speech to Holliday, 'that you-all don't have this weepon
when you cuts loose at Collins instead of said jimcrow derringer. In
sech events, that hoss-thief's death would have been assured. Shore!
shootin' off Collins' jaw is good as far as it goes, but it can't be
regyarded as no sech boon as downin' him complete.
"It's after supper when this Holliday encounters Cherokee; the two
has a conference. This Holliday lays bar' his purpose.
"'Which I'm yere,' says this Holliday, 'not only for your money, but
I wants the camp.' Then he goes for'ard an' proposes that they plays
till one is broke; an, if it's Cherokee who goes down, he is to vamos
the outfit while Holliday succeeds to his game. 'An' the winner is
to stake his defeated adversary to one thousand dollars wherewith to
begin life anew,' concloodes this Holliday.
"'Which what you states seems like agreeable offers,' says Cherokee,
an' he smiles clever an' gentlemanly. 'How strong be you-all, may I
ask?'
"'Thirty thousand dollars in thirty bills,' replies this Holliday.
'An' now may I enquire how strong be you? I also likes to know how
long a trail I've got to travel.'
"'My roll is about forty thousand big,' says Cherokee. Then he goes
on: 'It's all right; I'll open a game for you at second drink time
sharp.'
"'That's comfortin' to hear,' retorts this Holliday. 'The
chances,--what with splits an' what with the ten thousand you
oversizes me,--is nacherally with you; but I takes 'em. If I lose, I
goes back with a even thousand; if I win, you-all hits the trail with
a thousand, while I'm owner of your roll an' bank. Does that
onderstandin' go?'
"'It goes!' says Cherokee. Then he turns off for a brief powwow with
Faro Nell.
"'But thar's one thing you-all forgets, Cherokee,' says Nell. 'If he
breaks you, he's got to go on an' break me. I've a bundle of three
thousand; he's got to get it all before ever the play is closed.
Tell this yere Holliday party that.'
"Cherokee argues ag'in it; but Nell stamps 'round an' starts to weep
some, an' at that, like every other troo gent, he gives in abject.
"'Thar's a bet I overlooks,' observes Cherokee, when he resoomes his
talk with this Holliday; 'it's my partner. It's only a little matter
of three thousand, but the way the scheme frames itse'f up, after I'm
down an' out, you'll have to break my partner before Wolfville's all
your own.'
"'That's eminent satisfactory,' returns this Holliday. 'An' I freely
adds that your partner is a dead game sport to take so brief a
fortune an'--win all, lose all--go after more'n twenty times as much.
Your partner's a shore enough optimist that a-way.'
"Cherokee don't make no retort. This Holliday ain't posted none that
the partner Cherokee's mentionin' is Faro Nell, an' Cherokee allows
he won't onbosom himse'f on that p'int onless his hand is forced.
"When the time arrives to open the game, the heft of Wolfville's
public is gathered at the Red Light. The word goes 'round as to the
enterprisin' Holliday bein' out for Cherokee's entire game; an' the
prospect of seein' a limit higher than a cat's back, an' a dooel to
the death, proves mighty pop'lar. The play opens to a full house,
shore!
"'What limit do you give me?' says this Holliday, with a sort o'
cough, at the same time settin' in opposite to Cherokee. 'Be
lib'ral; I ain't more'n a year to live, an' I've got to play 'em high
an' hard to get average action. If I'm in robust health now, with a
long, useful life before me, the usual figgers would do. Considerin'
my wasted health, however, I shore hopes you'll say something like
the even thousand.'
"'Which I'll do better than that,' returns Cherokee, as he snaps the
deck in the box, 'I'll let you fix the limit to suit yourse'f. Make
it the ceilin' if the sperit moves you.'
"'That's gen'rous!' says Holliday. 'An' to mark my appreciation
tharof, I'll jest nacherally take every resk of splits an' put ten
thousand in the pot, coppered; ten thousand in the big squar'; an'
ten thousand, coppered, on the high kyard.'
"Son, we-all sports standin' lookin' on draws a deep breath. Thirty
thousand in three ten thousand dollar bets, an' all on the layout at
once, marks a epock in Wolfville business life wherefrom folks can
onblushin'ly date time! Thar it lays however, an' the two sharps
most onmoved tharby is Cherokee an' Holliday themse'fs.
"'Turn your game!' says this Holliday, when his money is down, an'
leanin' back to light a seegyar.
"Cherokee makes the turn. Never does I witness action so sudden an'
complete! It's shore the sharpest! The top kyard as the deck lays
in the box is a ten-spot. An' as the papers is shoved forth, how do
you-all reckon they falls! I'm a Mexican! if they don't come
seven-king! This Holliday wins all along; Cherokee is out thirty
thousand an' only three kyards showed! How's that for perishin'
flesh an' blood!
"I looks at Cherokee; his face is as ca'm as a Injun's; he's too
finely fibred a sport to so much as let a eyelash quiver. This
Holliday is equally onemotional. Cherokee shoves over three yaller
chips.
"'Call 'em ten thousand each,' says Cherokee. Then he waits for this
Holliday to place his next bets.
"'Since you-all has exackly that sum left in your treasury,' observes
this Holliday, puffin' his seegyar, 'I reckons I'll let one of these
yaller tokens go, coppered, on the high kyard ag'in. You-all doubles
or breaks right yere.'
"The turn falls trey-eight. Cherokee takes in that ten thousand
dollar chip.
"'Bein's that I'm still playin' on velvet,' remarks this Holliday,
an' his tone is listless an' languid like he's only half interested,
'I'll go twenty thousand on the high kyard, open. This trip we omits
the copper.'
"The first kyard to show is a deuce. It's better than ten to one
Cherokee will win. But disapp'intment chokes the camp; the next
kyard is a ace, an' Cherokee's swept off his moccasins. The bank is
broke; and to signify as much, Cherokee turns his box on its side,
counts over forty thousand dollars to this Holliday an' gets up from
the dealer's cha'r.
"As Cherokee rises, Faro Nell slides off the lookout's stool an' into
the vacated cha'r. When Cherokee loses the last bet I hears Nell's
teeth come together with a click. I don't dare look towards her at
the time; but now, when she turns the box back, takes out the deck,
riffles an' returns it to its place I gives her a glance. Nell's as
game as Cherokee. As she sets over ag'inst this lucky invalid her
colour is high an' her eyes like two stars.
"'An' now you've got to break me,' says Nell to this Holliday.
'Also, we restores the _statu quo_, as Colonel Sterett says in that
_Coyote_ paper, an' the limit retreats to a even hundred dollars.'
"'Be you-all the partner Mister Hall mentions?' asks this Holliday,
at the same time takin' off his sombrero an' throwin' away his
seegyar.
"Nell says she is.
"'Miss,' says this Holliday, 'I feels honoured to find myse'f across
the layout from so much sperit an' beauty. A limit of one hundred,
says you; an' your word is law! As a first step then, give me three
thousand dollars worth of chips an' make 'em fifty dollars each.
I'll take the same chance with you on that question of splits I does
former, an' I wants a hundred on every kyard, middle to win ag'in the
ends.'
"The deal begins; Nell is winner from the jump; she takes in three
bets to lose one plumb down to the turn. This Holliday calls the
turn for the limit; an' loses. The kyards go into the box ag'in an'
a next deal ensooes. So it continyoos; an' Nell beats this Holliday
hard for half a hour. Nell sees she's in luck; an' she feels that
strong she concloods to press it some.
"'The limit's five hundred!' says Nell to this Holliday. 'Come after
me!'
"Holliday bows like he's complimented. 'I'm after you; an' I comes
a-runnin',' he says.
"Down goes his money all over the lay-out; only now its five hundred
instead of one hundred.
"It's no avail, this Holliday still loses. At the end of a hour Nell
sizes up her roll; she's a leetle over forty thousand strong; jest
where Cherokee stands at the start.
"Nell pauses as she's about to put the deck in the box for a deal.
She looks at this Holliday a heap thoughtful. That look excites Dan
Boggs who's been on the brink of fits since ever the play begins,
he's that 'motional.
"'Don't raise the limit, Nell!' says Dan in a awful whisper. 'That's
where Cherokee's weak at the go-off. He ought never to have thrown
away the limit.'
"Nell casts her eyes--they're burnin' like coals!--on Dan. I can see
his bluff about Cherokee bein' weak has done decided her mind.
"'Cherokee does right,' says Nell to Dan, 'like Cherokee allers does.
An' I'll do the same as Cherokee. Stranger,' goes on Nell, turnin'
from Dan to this Holliday; 'go as far as you likes. The bridle's off
the hoss.'
"'An' much obleeged to you, Miss!' says this Holliday, with another
of them p'lite bows. 'As the kyards goes in the box, I makes you the
same three bets I makes first to Mister Hall. Ten thousand,
coppered, in the pot; ten thousand, open, in the big squar'; an' ten
thousand on the high kyard, coppered.'
"'An' now as then,' says Nell, sort o' catchin' her breath, 'the
ten-spot's the soda kyard!'
"Son, it won't happen ag'in in a billion years! Nell's right hand
shakes a trifle--she's only a child, mind, an' ain't got the nerves
that goes with case-hardened sports--as she shoves the ten-spot
forth. But it's comin' her way; her luck holds; as certain as we all
sets yere drinkin' toddy, the same two kyards shows for her as for
Cherokee, but this time they falls 'king-seven'; the bank wins, an'
pore Holliday is cleaned out.
"'Thar, Cherokee,' says Nell, an' thar's a soft smile an' a sigh of
deep content goes with the observation, 'thar's your bank ag'in; only
it's thirty thousand stronger than it is four hours ago.'
"'Your bank, ladybird, you means!' says Cherokee.
"'Well, our bank, then,' retorts Nell. 'What's the difference?
Don't you-all tell me we're partners?' Then Nell motions to Black
Jack. 'The drinks is on me, Jack,' she says; 'see what the house
will have.'"
CHAPTER IV.
How The Raven Died.
"Which if you-all is out to hear of Injuns, son," observed the Old
Cattleman, doubtfully, "the best I can do is shet my eyes an' push along
regyardless, like a cayouse in a storm of snow. But I don't guarantee no
facts; none whatever! I never does bend myse'f to severe study of
savages an' what notions I packs concernin' 'em is the casual frootes of
what I accidental hears an' what I sees. It's only now an' then, as I
observes former, that Injuns invades Wolfville; an' when they does,
we-all scowls 'em outen camp--sort o' makes a sour front, so as to break
'em early of habits of visitin' us. We shore don't hone none to have 'em
hankerin' 'round.
"Nacherally, I makes no doubt that if you goes clost to Injuns an'
studies their little game you finds some of 'em good an' some bad, some
gaudy an' some sedate, some cu'rous an' some indifferent, same as you
finds among shore-enough folks. It's so with mules an' broncos;
wherefore, then, may not these differences exist among Injuns? Come
squar' to the turn, you-all finds white folks separated the same. Some
gents follows off one waggon track an' some another; some even makes a
new trail.
"Speakin' of what's opposite in folks, I one time an' ag'in sees two
white chiefs of scouts who frequent comes pirootin' into Wolfville from
the Fort. Each has mebby a score of Injuns at his heels who pertains to
him personal. One of these scout chiefs is all buck-skins, fringes,
beads an' feathers from y'ears to hocks, while t'other goes garbed in a
stiff hat with a little jim crow rim--one of them kind you deenom'nates
as a darby--an' a diag'nal overcoat; one chief looks like a dime novel on
a spree an' t'other as much like the far East as he saveys how. An' yet,
son, this voylent person in buckskins is a Second Lootenent--a mere boy,
he is--from West P'int; while that outcast in the reedic'lous hat is
foaled on the plains an' never does go that clost to the risin' sun as to
glimpse the old Missouri. The last form of maverick bursts frequent into
Western bloom; it's their ambition, that a-way, to deloode you into
deemin' 'em as fresh from the States as one of them tomatter airtights.
"Thar's old gent Jeffords; he's that sort. Old Jeffords lives for long
with the Apaches; he's found among 'em when Gen'ral Crook--the old 'Grey
Fox'--an' civilisation and gatlin' guns comes into Arizona arm in arm. I
used to note old Jeffords hibernatin' about the Oriental over in Tucson.
I shore reckons he's procrastinatin' about thar yet, if the Great Sperit
ain't done called him in. As I says, old Jeffords is that long among the
Apaches back in Cochise's time that the mem'ry of man don't run none to
the contrary. An' yet no gent ever sees old Jeffords wearin' anything
more savage than a long-tail black surtoot an' one of them stove pipe
hats. Is Jeffords dangerous? No, you-all couldn't call him a distinct
peril; still, folks who goes devotin' themse'fs to stirrin' Jeffords up
jest to see if he's alive gets disasterous action. He has long grey ha'r
an' a tangled white beard half-way down his front; an' with that old plug
hat an' black coat he's a sight to frighten children or sour milk!
Still, Jeffords is all right. As long as towerists an' other inquisitive
people don't go pesterin' Jeffords, he shore lets 'em alone. Otherwise,
you might as well be up the same saplin' with a cinnamon b'ar; which
you'd most likely hear something drop a lot!
"For myse'f, I likes old Jeffords, an' considers him a pleasin'
conundrum. About tenth drink time he'd take a cha'r an' go camp by
himse'f in a far corner, an' thar he'd warble hymns. Many a time as I
files away my nosepaint in the Oriental have I been regaled with,
Jesus, Lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high,
as emanatin' from Jeffords where he's r'ared back conductin' some
personal services. Folks never goes buttin' in interferin' with these
concerts; which it's cheaper to let him sing.
"Speakin' of Injuns, as I su'gests, I never does see over-much of 'em in
Wolfville. An' my earlier experiences ain't thronged with 'em neither,
though while I'm workin' cattle along the Red River I does carom on
Injuns more or less. Thar's one old hostile I recalls speshul; he's a
fool Injun called Black Feather;--Choctaw, he is. This Black Feather's
weakness is fire-water; he thinks more of it than some folks does of
children.
"Black Feather used to cross over to where Dick Stocton maintains a store
an' licker house on the Upper Hawgthief. Of course, no gent sells these
Injuns licker. It's ag'in the law; an' onless you-all is onusual eager
to make a trip to Fort Smith with a marshal ridin' herd on you doorin'
said visit, impartin' of nosepaint to aborigines is a good thing not to
do. But Black Feather, he'd come over to Dick Stocton's an' linger
'round the bar'ls of Valley Tan, an' take a chance on stealin' a snifter
or two while Stocton's busy.
"At last Stocton gets tired an' allows he'll lay for Black Feather. This
yere Stocton is a mighty reckless sport; he ain't carin' much whatever he
does do; he hates Injuns an' shot guns, an' loves licker, seven-up, an'
sin in any form; them's Stocton's prime characteristics. An' he gets
mighty weary of the whiskey-thievin' Black Feather, an' lays for him.
"One evenin' this aggravatin' Black Feather crosses over an' takes to
ha'ntin' about Dick Stocton's licker room as is his wont. It looks like
Black Feather has already been buyin' whiskey of one of them boot-laig
parties who takes every chance an' goes among the Injuns an' sells 'em
nosepaint on the sly. 'Fore ever he shows up on the Upper Hawgthief that
time, this Black Feather gets nosepaint some'ers an' puts a whole quart
of it away in the shade; an' he shore exhibits symptoms. Which for one
thing he feels about four stories tall!
"Stocton sets a trap for Black Feather. He fills up the tin cup into
which he draws that Valley Tan with coal-oil--karoseen you-all calls
it--an' leaves it, temptin' like, settin' on top a whiskey bar'l. Shore!
it's the first thing Black Feather notes. He sees his chance an' grabs
an' downs the karoseen; an' Stocton sort o' startin' for him, this Black
Feather gulps her down plump swift. The next second he cuts loose the
yell of that year, burns up about ten acres of land, and starts for Red
River. No, I don't know whether the karoseen hurts him none or not; but
he certainly goes squatterin' across the old Red River like a wounded
wild-duck, an' he never does come back no more.
"But, son, as you sees, I don't know nothin' speshul or much touchin'
Injuns, an' if I'm to dodge the disgrace of ramblin' along in this
desultory way, I might better shift to a tale I hears Sioux Sam relate to
Doc Peets one time in the Red Light. This Sam is a Sioux, an a mighty
decent buck, considerin' he's Injun; Sam is servin' the Great Father as a
scout with the diag'nal-coat, darby-hat sharp I mentions. Peets gives
this saddle-tinted longhorn a 4-bit piece, an' he tells this yarn. It
sounds plenty childish; but you oughter b'ar in mind that savages,
mental, ain't no bigger nor older than ten year old young-ones among the
palefaces.
"'This is the story my mother tells me,' says Sioux Sam, 'to show me the
evils of cur'osity. "The Great Sperit allows to every one the right to
ask only so many questions," says my mother, "an' when they ask one more
than is their right, they die."
"'This is the story of the fate of _Kaw-kaw-chee_, the Raven, a Sioux
Chief who died long ago exackly as my mother told me. The Raven died
because he asked too many questions an' was too cur'ous. It began when
Sublette, who was a trader, came up the _Mitchi-zoor-rah_, the Big-Muddy,
an' was robbed by the Raven's people. Sublette was mad at this, an' said
next time he would bring the Sioux a present so they would not rob him.
So he brought a little cask of fire-water an' left it on the bank of the
Big-Muddy. Then Sublette went away, an' twenty of the Raven's young men
found the little cask. An' they were greedy an' did not tell the camp;
they drank the fire-water where it was found.
"'The Raven missed his twenty young men an' when he went to spy for them,
behold! they were dead with their teeth locked tight an' their faces an'
bodies writhen an' twisted as the whirlwind twists the cottonwoods. Then
the Raven thought an' thought; an' he got very cur'ous to know why his
young men died so writhen an' twisted. The fire-water had a whirlwind in
it, an' the Raven was eager to hear. So he sent for Sublette.
"'Then the Raven an' Sublette had a big talk. They agreed not to hurt
each other; an' Sublette was to come an' go an' trade with the Sioux; an'
they would never rob him.
"'At this, Sublette gave the Raven some of the whirlwind that so killed
an' twisted the twenty young men. It was a powder, white; an' it had no
smell. Sublette said its taste was bitter; but the Raven must not taste
it or it would lock up his teeth an' twist an' kill him. For to swallow
the white powder loosed the whirlwind on the man's heart an' it bent him
an' twisted him like the storms among the willows.
"'But the Raven could give the powder to others. So the Raven gave it in
some deer's meat to his two squaws; an' they were twisted till they died;
an' when they would speak they couldn't, for their teeth were held tight
together an' no words came out of their mouths,--only a great foam. Then
the Raven gave it to others that he did not love; they were twisted an'
died. At last there was no more of the powder of the whirlwind; the
Raven must wait till Sublette came up the Big-Muddy again an' brought him
more.
"'There was a man, the Gray Elk, who was of the Raven's people. The Gray
Elk was a _Choo-ayk-eed_, a great prophet. And the Gray Elk had a wife;
she was wise an' beautiful, an' her name was Squaw-who-has-dreams. But
Gray Elk called her _Kee-nee-moo-sha_, the Sweetheart.
"'While the Raven waited for Sublette to bring him more powder of the
whirlwind, a star with a long tail came into the sky. This star with the
tail made the Raven heap cur'ous. He asked Gray Elk to tell him about
it, for he was a prophet. The Raven asked many questions; they fell from
him like leaves from a tree in the month of the first ice. So the Gray
Elk called _Chee-bee_, the Spirit; an' the Spirit told the Gray Elk.
Then the Gray Elk told the Raven.'
"'It was not a tail, it was blood--star blood; an' the star had been bit
an' was wounded, but would get well. The Sun was the father of the
stars, an' the Moon was their mother. The Sun, _Gheezis_, tried ever to
pursue an' capture an' eat his children, the stars. So the stars all ran
an' hid when the Sun was about. But the stars loved their mother who was
good an' never hurt them; an' when the Sun went to sleep at night an'
_Coush-ee-wan_, the Darkness, shut his eyes, the Moon an' her children
came together to see each other. But the star that bled had been caught
by the Sun; it got out of his mouth but was wounded. Now it was
frightened, so it always kept its face to where the Sun was sleeping over
in the west. The bleeding star, _Sch-coo-dah_, would get well an' its
wound would heal.
"'Then the Raven wanted to know how the Gray Elk knew all this. An' the
Gray Elk had the Raven into the medicine lodge that night; an' the Raven
heard the spirits come about an' heard their voices; but he could not
understand. Also, the Raven saw a wolf all fire, with wings like the
eagle which flew overhead. Also he heard the Thunder, _Boom-wa-wa_,
talking with the Gray Elk; but the Raven couldn't understand. The Gray
Elk told the Raven to draw his knife an' stab with it in the air outside
the medicine lodge. An' when he did, the Raven's blade an' hand came
back covered with blood. Still, the Raven was cur'ous an' kept askin' to
be told how the Gray Elk knew these things. An' the Gray Elk at last
took the Raven to the Great Bachelor Sycamore that lived alone, an' asked
the Raven if the Bachelor Sycamore was growing. An' the Raven said it
was. Then Gray Elk asked him how he knew it was growing. An' the Raven
said he didn't know. Then Gray Elk said he did not know how he knew
about _Sch-coo-dah_, the star that was bit. This made the Raven angry,
for he was very cur'ous; an' he thought the Gray Elk had two tongues.
"'Then it came the month of the first young grass an' Sublette was back
for furs. Also he brought many goods; an' he gave to the Raven more of
the powder of the whirlwind in a little box, At once the Raven made a
feast of ducks for the Gray Elk; an' he gave him of the whirlwind powder;
an' at once his teeth came together an' the Gray Elk was twisted till he
died.
"'Now no one knew that the Raven had the powder of the whirlwind, so they
could not tell why all these people were twisted and went to the Great
Spirit. But the Squaw-who-has-dreams saw that it was the Raven who
killed her husband, the Gray Elk, in a vision. Then the
Squaw-who-has-dreams went into the mountains four days an' talked with
_Moh-kwa_, the Bear who is the wisest of the beasts. The Bear said it
was the Raven who killed the Gray Elk an' told the Squaw-who-has-dreams
of the powder of the whirlwind.
"'Then the Bear an' the Squaw-who-has-dreams made a fire an' smoked an'
laid a plot. The Bear did not know where to find the powder of the
whirlwind which the Raven kept always in a secret place. But the Bear
told the Squaw-who-has-dreams that she should marry the Raven an' watch
until she found where the powder of the whirlwind was kept in its secret
place; an' then she was to give some to the Raven, an' he, too, would be
twisted an' die. There was a great danger, though; the Raven would,
after the one day when they were wedded, want to kill the
Squaw-who-has-dreams. So to protect her, the Bear told her she must
begin to tell the Raven the moment she was married to him the
Story-that-never-ends. Then, because the Raven was more cur'ous than
even he was cruel, he would put off an' put off giving the powder of the
whirlwind to the Squaw-who-has-dreams, hoping to hear the end of the
Story-that-never-ends. Meanwhile the Squaw-who-has-dreams was to watch
the Raven until she found the powder of the whirlwind in its secret place.
"'Then the wise Bear gave the Squaw-who-has-dreams a bowlful of words as
seed, so she might plant them an' raise a crop of talk to tell the
Story-that-never-ends. An' the Squaw-who-has-dreams planted the
seed-words, an' they grew an' grew an' she gathered sixteen bundles of
talk an' brought them to her wigwam. After that she put beads in her
hair, an' dyed her lips red, an' rubbed red on her cheeks, an' put on a
new blanket; an' when the Raven saw her, he asked her to marry him. So
they were wedded; an' the Squaw-who-has-dreams went to the teepee of the
Raven an' was his wife.
"'But the Raven was old an' cunning like _Yah-mee-kee_, the Beaver, an'
he said, "He is not wise who keeps a squaw too long!" An' with that he
thought he would kill the Squaw-who-has-dreams the next day with the
powder of the whirlwind. But the Squaw-who-has-dreams first told the
Raven that she hated _When-dee-goo_, the Giant; an' that she should not
love the Raven until he had killed _When-dee-goo_. She knew the Giant
was too big an' strong for the Raven to kill with his lance, an' that he
must get his powder of the whirlwind; she would watch him an' learn its
secret place. The Raven said he would kill the Giant as the sun went
down next day.
"'Then the Squaw-who-has-dreams told the Raven the first of the
Story-that-never-ends an' used up one bundle of talk; an' when the story
ended for that night, the Squaw-who-has-dreams was saying: "An' so, out
of the lake that was red as the sun came a great fish that was green,
with yellow wings, an' it walked also with feet, an' it came up to me an'
said: "But then she would tell no more that night; nor could the Raven,
who was crazy with cur'osity, prevail on her. "I must now sleep an'
dream what the green fish with the yellow wings said," was the reply of
the Squaw-who-has-dreams, an' she pretended to slumber. So the Raven,
because he was cur'ous, put off her death.
"'All night she watched, but the Raven did not go to the secret place
where he had hidden the powder of the whirlwind. Nor the next day, when
the sun went down, did the Raven kill the Giant. But the
Squaw-who-has-dreams took up again the Story-that-never-ends an' told
what the green fish with the yellow wings said; an' she used up the
second bundle of talk. When she ceased for that time, the
Squaw-who-has-dreams was saying: "An' as night fell, _Moh-kwa_, the Bear,
called to me from his canyon, an' said for me to come an' he would show
me where the great treasure of fire-water was buried for you who are the
Raven. So I went into the canyon, an' _Moh-kwa_, the Bear, took me by
the hand an' led me to the treasure of fire-water which was greater an'
richer than was ever seen by any Sioux."
"'Then the Squaw-who-has-dreams would tell no more that night, while the
Raven eat his fingers with cur'osity. But he made up a new plan not to
twist the Squaw-who-has-dreams until she showed him the treasure of
fire-water an' told him the end of the Story-that-never-ends. On her
part, however, the Squaw-who-has-dreams, as she went to sleep, wept an'
tore the beads from her hair an' said the Raven did not love her; for he
had not killed the Giant as he promised. She said she would tell no more
of the Story-that-never-ends until the Giant was dead; nor would she show
to a husband who did not love her the great treasure of fire-water which
_Moh-kwa_, the Bear, had found. At this, the Raven who was hot to have
the treasure of firewater an' whose ears rang with cur'osity to hear the
end of the Story-that-never-ends saw that he must kill the Giant.
Therefore, when the Squaw-who-has-dreams had ceased to sob and revile
him, an' was gone as he thought asleep, the Raven went to his secret
place where he kept the powder of the whirlwind an' took a little an'
wrapped it in a leaf an' hid the leaf in the braids of his long hair.
Then the Raven went to sleep.
"'When the Raven was asleep the Squaw-who-has-dreams went also herself to
the secret place an' got also a little of the powder of the whirlwind.
An' the next morning she arose early an' gave the powder of the whirlwind
to the Raven on the roast buffalo, the _Pez-hee-kee_, which was his food.
"'When the Raven had eaten, the Squaw-who-has-dreams went out of the
teepee among the people an' called all the Sioux to come an' see the
Raven die. So the Sioux came gladly, and the Raven was twisted an'
writhen with the power of the whirlwind wrenching at his heart; an' his
teeth were tight like a trap; an' no words, but only foam, came from his
mouth; an' at last the Spirit, the _Chee-bee_, was twisted out of the
Raven; an' the Squaw-who-has-dreams was revenged for the death of the
Gray Elk whom she loved an' who always called her _Kee-nee-moo-sha_, the
Sweetheart, because it made her laugh.
"'When the Raven was dead, the Squaw-who-has-dreams went to the secret
place an' threw the powder of the whirlwind into the Big-Muddy; an' after
that she distributed her fourteen bundles of talk that were left among
all the Sioux so that everybody could tell how glad he felt because the
Raven was twisted and died. An' for a week there was nothing but
happiness an' big talk among the Sioux; an' _Moh-kwa_, the Bear, came
laughing out of his canyon with the wonder of listening to it; while the
Squaw-who-has-dreams now, when her revenge was done, went with
_When-dee-goo_, the Giant, to his teepee and became his squaw. So now
everything was ended save the Story-that-never-ends.'
"When Sioux Sam gets this far," concluded the Old Cattleman, "he says,
'an' my mother's words at the end were: "An' boys who ask too many
questions will die, as did the Raven whose cur'osity was even greater
than his cruelty."'"
CHAPTER V.
The Queerness of Dave Tutt.
"Which these queernesses of Dave's," observed the Old Cattleman, "has
already been harrowin' an' harassin' up the camp for mighty likely
she's two months, when his myster'ous actions one evenin' in the Red
Light brings things to a climax, an' a over-strained public, feelin'
like it can b'ar no more, begins to talk.
"It's plumb easy to remember this Red Light o'casion, for jest prior to
Dave alarmin' us by becomin' melodious, furtive--melody bein' wholly
onnacheral to Dave, that a-way--thar's a callow pin-feather party comes
caperin' in an' takin' Old Man Enright one side, asks can he yootilise
Wolfville as a strategic p'int in a elopement he's goin' to pull off.
"'Which I'm out to elope a whole lot from Tucson,' explains this
pin-feather party to Enright, 'an' I aims to cinch the play. I'm a
mighty cautious sport, an' before ever I hooks up for actooal
freightin' over any trail, I rides her once or twice to locate wood and
water, an' pick out my camps. Said system may seem timorous, but it's
shore safer a heap. So I asks ag'in whether you-all folks has any
objections to me elopin' into Wolfville with my beloved, like I
suggests. I ain't out to spring no bridals on a onprotected outfit,
wherefore I precedes the play with these queries.'
"'But whatever's the call for you to elope at all?' remonstrates
Enright. 'The simple way now would be to round up this lady's paternal
gent, an' get his consent.'
"'Seein' the old gent,' says the pin-feather party, ''speshully when
you lays it smoothly off like that, shore does seem simplicity itse'f.
But if you was to prance out an' try it some, it would be found plenty
complex. See yere!' goes on the pin-feather party, beginnin' to roll
up his sleeve, 'you-all impresses me as more or less a jedge of
casyooalities. Whatever now do you think of this? 'An' the
pin-feather party exhibits a bullet wound in his left fore-arm, the
same bein' about half healed.
"'Colt's six-shooter,' says Enright.
"'That's straight,' says the pin-feather party, buttonin' up his
sleeve; 'you calls the turn. I wins out that abrasion pleadin' with
the old gent. Which I tackles him twice. The first time he opens on
me with his 44-gun before ever I ends the sentence. But he misses.
Nacherally, I abandons them marital intentions for what you-all might
call the "nonce" to sort o' look over my hand ag'in an' see be I right.
Do my best I can't on earth discern no reasons ag'in the nuptials.
Moreover, the lady--who takes after her old gent a heap--cuts in on the
play with a bluff that while she don't aim none to crowd my hand, she's
doo to begin shootin' me up herse'f if I don't show more passionate
anxiety about leadin' her to the altar. It's then, not seein' why the
old gent should go entertainin' notions ag'in me, an' deemin' mebby
that when he blazes away that time he's merely pettish and don't really
mean said bullet none, that I fronts up ag'in.'
"'An' then,' asks Enright, 'whatever does this locoed parent do?'
"'Which I jest shows you what,' says the pin-feather party. 'He gets
the range before ever I opens my mouth, an' plugs me. At that I begins
to half despair of winnin' his indorsements. I leaves it to you-all;
be I right?'
"'Why,' says Enright, rubbin' his fore'erd some doobious, 'it would
look like the old gent is a leetle set ag'in you. Still, as the
responsible chief of this camp, I would like to hear why you reckons
Wolfville is a good place to elope to. I don't s'ppose it's on account
of them drunkards over in Tucson makin' free with our good repoote an'
lettin' on we're light an' immoral that a-way?'
"'None whatever!' says the pin-feather party. 'It's on account of you
wolves bein' regyarded as peaceful, staid, an' law abidin' that I first
considers you. Then ag'in, thar ain't a multitood of places clost
about Tucson to elope to nohow; an' I can't elope far on account of my
roll.'
"The replies of this pin-feather party soothes Enright an' engages him
on that side, so he ups an' tells the 'swain,' as Colonel Sterett calls
him later in the Coyote, to grab off his inamorata an' come a-runnin'.
"'Which, givin' my consent,' says Enright when explainin' about it
later, 'is needed to protect this tempest-tossed lover in the
possession of his skelp. The old gent an' that maiden fa'r has got him
between 'em, an' onless we opens up Wolfville as a refooge, it looks
like they'll cross-lift him into the promised land.'
"But to go back to Dave."
Here my old friend paused and called for refreshments. I seized the
advantage of his silence over a glass of peach and honey, to suggest an
eagerness for the finale of the Tucson love match.
"No," responded my frosty friend, setting down his glass, "we'll pursoo
the queernesses of Dave. That Tucson elopement 'is another story a
heap,' as some wise maverick says some'ers, an' I'll onload it on you
on some other day.
"When Dave evolves the cadencies in the Red Light that evenin', thar's
Enright, Moore an' me along with Dan Boggs, bein' entertained by
hearin' Cherokee Hall tell us about a brace game he gets ag'inst in Las
Vegas one time.
"'This deadfall--this brace I'm mentionin',' says Cherokee, 'is over on
the Plaza. Of course, I calls this crooked game a "brace" in speakin'
tharof to you-all sports who ain't really gamblers none. That's to be
p'lite. But between us, among a'credited kyard sharps, a brace game is
allers allooded to as "the old thing." If you refers to a game of
chance as "the old thing," they knows at once that every chance is
'liminated an' said deevice rigged for murder.'
"'That's splendid, Cherokee,' says Faro Nell, from her lookout's roost
by his shoulder; 'give 'em a lecture on the perils of gamblin' with
strangers.'
"Thar's no game goin' at this epock an' Cherokee signifies his
willin'ness to become instructive.
"'Not that I'm no beacon, neither,' says Cherokee, 'on the rocky
wreck-sown shores of sport; an' not that I ever resorts to onderhand
an' doobious deals myse'f; still, I'm cap'ble of p'intin' out the
dangers. Scientists of my sort, no matter how troo an' faithful to the
p'int of honour, is bound to savey all kyard dooplicities in their
uttermost depths, or get left dead on the field of finance. Every gent
should be honest. But more than honest--speshully if he's out to buck
faro-bank or set in on casyooal games of short-kyards--every gent
should be wise. In the amoosements I mentions to be merely honest
can't be considered a complete equipment. Wherefore, while I never
makes a crooked play an' don't pack the par'fernalia so to do, I'm
plenty astoote as to how said tricks is turned.
"'Which sports has speshulties same as other folks. Thar's Texas
Thompson, his speshulty is ridin' a hoss; while Peets's speshulty is
shootin' a derringer, Colonel Sterett's is pol'tics, Enright's is
jestice, Dave's is bein' married, Jack Moore's is upholdin' law an'
order, Boggs's is bein' sooperstitious, Missis Rucker's is composin'
bakin' powder biscuits, an' Huggins's is strong drink.'
"'Whatever is my speshulty, Cherokee?' asks Faro Nell, who's as
immersed as the rest in these settin's forth; 'what do you-all reckon
now is my speshulty?'
"'Bein' the loveliest of your sex,' says Cherokee, a heap emphatic, an'
on that p'int we-all strings our game with his.
"'That puts the ambrosia on me,' says Faro Nell, blushin' with
pleasure, an' she calls to Black Jack.
"'As I observes,' goes on Cherokee, 'every sport has his speshulty.
Thar's Casino Joe; his is that he can "tell the last four."
Nacherally, bein' thus gifted, a game of casino is like so much money
in the bank for Joe. Still, his gifts ain't crooked, they're genius;
Joe's simply born able to "tell the last four."
"'Which, you gents is familiar by repoote at least with the several
plans for redoocin' draw-poker to the prosaic level of shore-things.
Thar's the "bug" an' the "foot-move" an' the "sleeve holdout" an'
dozens of kindred schemes for playin' a cold hand. An' thar's
optimists, when the game is easy, who depends wholly on a handkerchief
in their laps to cover their nefariousness. If I'm driven to counsel a
gent concernin' poker it would be to never play with strangers; an'
partic'lar to never spec'late with a gent who sneezes a lot, or turns
his head an' talks of draughts of cold air invading' the place, or says
his foot's asleep an' gets up to stampede about the room after a hand
is dealt an' prior to the same bein' played. It's four to one this
afflicted sharp is workin' a holdout. Then that's the "punch" to mark
a deck, an' the "lookin' glass" to catch the kyards as they're dealt.
Then thar's sech manoovers as stockin' a deck, an' shiftin' a cut, an'
dealin' double. Thar's gents who does their work from the bottom of a
deck---puts up a hand on the bottom, an' confers it on a pard or on
themse'fs as dovetails with their moods. He's a one-arm party--shy his
right arm, he is--who deals a hand from the bottom the best I ever
beholds.
"'No, I don't regyard crooked folks as dangerous at poker, only you've
got to watch 'em. So long as your eye is on 'em a heap attentive
they're powerless to perform their partic'lar miracle, an' as a result,
since that's the one end an' aim of their efforts, they becomes mighty
inocuous. As a roole, crooked people ain't good players on the squar',
an' as long as you makes 'em play squar', they're yours.
"'But speakin' of this devious person on the Las Vegas Plaza that time:
The outfit is onknown to me--I'm only a pilgrim an' a stranger an'
don't intend to tarry none--when I sets up to the lay-out. I ain't got
a bet down, however, before I sees the gent who's dealin', sign-up the
seven to the case-keep, an' instanter I feels like I'd known that bevy
of bandits since long before the war. Also, I realises their methods
after I takes a good hard look. That dealer's got what post
gradyooates in faro-bank robbery calls a "end squeeze" box; the deck is
trimmed--"wedges" is the name--to put the odds ag'in the evens, an'
sanded so as to let two kyards come at a clatter whenever said
pheenomenon is demanded by the exigencies of their crimes; an' thar you
be. No, it's a fifty-two-kyard deck all right, an' the dealer depends
on "puttin' back" to keep all straight. An' I'm driven to concede
that the put-back work of said party is like a romance; puttin' back's
his speshulty. His left hand would sort o' settle as light as a dead
leaf over the kyard he's after that a-way--not a tenth part of a
second--an' that pasteboard would come along, palmed, an' as his hand
floats over the box as he's goin' to make the next turn the kyard would
reassoome its cunnin' place inside. An' all as smoothly serene as
pray'r meetin's.'
"'An', nacherally, you denounces this felon,' says Colonel Sterett,
who's come in an' who's integrity is of the active sort.
"'Nacherally, I don't say a word,' retorts Cherokee. 'I ain't for
years inhabited these roode an' sand-blown regions, remote as they be
from best ideals an' high examples of the East, not to long before have
learned the excellence of that maxim about lettin' every man kill his
own snakes. I says nothin'; I merely looks about to locate the victim
of them machinations with a view of goin' ag'inst his play.'
"It's when Cherokee arrives at this place in his recitals that Dave
evolves his interruptions. He's camped by himse'f in a reemote corner
of the room, an' he ain't been noticin' nobody an' nobody's been
noticin' him. All at once, in tones which is low but a heap
discordant, Dave hums to himse'f something that sounds like:
'Bye O babe, lie still in slumber,
Holy angels gyard thy bed.'
"At this, Cherokee in a horrified way stops, an' we-all looks at each
other. Enright makes a dispar'in' gesture towards Dave an' says:
"'Gents, first callin' your attention to the fact that Dave ain't
over-drinkt an' that no nosepaint theery is possible in accountin' for
his acts, I asks you for your opinions. As you knows, this thing's
been goin' for'ard for some time, an' I desires to hear if from any
standp'int of public interest do you-all figger that steps should be
took?'
"In order to fully onderstand Enright in all he means, I oughter lay
bar' that Dave's been conductin' himse'f in a manner not to be
explained for mighty likely she's eight weeks. Yeretofore, thar's no
more sociable sport an' none whose system is easier to follow in all
Wolfville than Dave. While holdin' himse'f at what you might call
'par' on all o'casions, Dave is still plenty minglesome an' fraternal
with the balance of the herd, an' would no more think of donnin' airs
or puttin' on dog than he'd think of blastin' away at one of us with
his gun. Yet eight weeks prior thar shorely dawns a change.
"Which the first symptom--the advance gyard as it were of Dave's
gettin' queer--is when Dave's standin' in front of the post-office.
Thar's a faraway look to Dave at the time, like he's tryin' to settle
whether he's behind or ahead on some deal. While thus wropped in this
fit of abstraction Dan Boggs comes hybernatin' along an' asks Dave to
p'int into the Red Light for a smell of Valley Tan. Dave sort o'
rouses up at this an' fastens on Dan with his eyes, half truculent an'
half amazed, same as if he's shocked at Dan's familiarity. Then he
shakes his head decisive.
"'Don't try to braid this mule's tail none!' says Dave, an' at that he
strides off with his muzzle in the air. Boggs is abashed.
"'Which these insultin' bluffs of Dave's,' says Boggs, as we canvasses
the play a bit later, 'would cut me to the quick, but I knows it ain't
on the level, Dave ain't himse'f when he declines said nosepaint--his
intellects ain't in camp.'
"This ontoward an' onmerited rebuke to Boggs is followed, by further
breaks as hard to savey. Dave ain't no two days alike. One time he's
that haughty he actooally passes Enright himse'f in the street an' no
more heed or recognition than if Wolfville's chief is the last Mexican
to come no'th of the line. Then later Dave is effoosive an' goes about
riotin' in the s'ciety of every gent whereof he cuts the trail. One
day he won't drink; an' the next he's tippin' the canteen from sun-up
till he's claimed by sleep. Which he gets us mighty near distracted;
no one can keep a tab on him. What with them silences an'
volyoobilities, sobrieties an' days of drink, an' all in bewilderin'
alternations, he's shore got us goin' four ways at once.
"'In spite of the fact,' continyooes Dan Boggs when we're turnin'
Dave's conduct over in our minds an' rummagin' about for reasons; 'in
spite of the fact, I says, that I'm plenty posted in advance that I'm
up ag'inst a gen'ral shout of derision on account of me bein'
sooperstitious, I'm yere to offer two to one Dave's hoodooed.
Moreover, I can name the hoodoo.'
"'Whatever is it then?' asks Texas Thompson; 'cut her freely loose an'
be shore of our solemn consid'ration.'
"'It's opals,' says Boggs. 'Them gems as every well-instructed gent is
aware is the very spent of bad luck. Dave's wearin' one in his shirt
right now. It's that opal pin wherewith he decks himse'f recent while
he's relaxin' with nosepaint in Tucson. I'm with him at the time an' I
says to him: "Dave, I wouldn't mount that opal none. Which all opals
is implacable hoodoos, an' it'll likely conjure up your rooin." But I
might as well have addressed that counsel to a buffalo bull for all the
respectful heed I gains. Dave gives me a grin, shets one eye plenty
cunnin', an' retorts: "Dan, you're envious; you wants that ornament
yourse'f an' you're out to try an make me diskyard it in your favour.
Sech schemes, Dan, can't make the landin'. Opals that a-way is as
harmless as bull snakes. Also, I knows what becomes my looks; an'
while I ain't vain, still, bein' married as you're aware, it's wisdom
in me to seize every openin' for enhancin' my pulcritoode. The better
I looks, the longer Tucson Jennie loves me; an' I'm out to reetain that
lady's heart at any cost." No, I don't onbend in no response,' goes on
Boggs. 'Them accoosations of Dave about me honin' for said bauble is
oncalled for. I'd no more pack a opal than I'd cut for deal an' embark
on a game of seven-up with a ghost. As I states, the luck of opals is
black.'
"'I was wont to think so,' says Enright, 'but thar once chances a play,
the same comin' off onder my personal notice, that shakes my
convictions on that p'int. Thar's a broke-down sport--this yere's long
ago while I'm briefly sojournin' in Socorro--who's got a opal, an' he
one day puts it in hock with a kyard sharp for a small stake. The
kyard gent says he ain't alarmed none by these charges made of opals
bein' bad luck. It's a ring, an' he sticks it on his little finger.
Two days later he goes broke ag'in four jacks.
"'This terrifies him; he begins to believe in the evil innocences of
opals. He presents the jewelry to a bar-keep, who puts it up, since
his game limits itse'f to sellin' licker an', him bein' plenty careful
not to drink none himse'f, his contracted destinies don't offer no
field for opals an' their malign effects. In less time than a week,
however, his wife leaves him; an' also that drink-shop wherein he
officiates is blown down by a high wind.
"'That bar-keep emerges from the rooms of his domestic hopes an' the
desolation of that gin mill, an' endows a lady of his acquaintance with
this opal ornament. It ain't twenty-four hours when she cuts loose an'
weds a Mexican.
"'Which by this time, excitement is runnin' high, an' you-all couldn't
have found that citizen in Socorro with a search warrant who declines
to believe in opals bein' bad luck. On the hocks of these catastrophes
it's the common notion that nobody better own that opal; an' said
malev'lent stone in the dooal capac'ty of a cur'osity an' a warnin' is
put in the seegyar case at the Early Rose s'loon. The first day it's
thar, a jeweller sharp come in for his daily drinks--he runs the
jewelry store of that meetropolis an' knows about diamonds an' sim'lar
jimcracks same as Peets does about drugs--an' he considers this
talisman, scrootinisin' it a heap clost. "Do you-all believe in the
bad luck of opals?" asks a pard who's with him. "This thing ain't no
opal," says the jeweller sharp, lookin' up; "it's glass."
"'An' so it is: that baleful gewgaw has been sailin' onder a alias; it
ain't no opal more'n a Colt's cartridge is a poker chip. An', of
course, it's plain the divers an' several disasters, from the loss of
that kyard gent's bank-roll down to the Mexican nuptials of the
ill-advised lady to whom I alloodes, can't be laid to its charge. The
whole racket shocks an' shakes me to that degree,' concloods Enright,
'that to-day I ain't got no settled views on opals', none whatever.'
"'Jest the same, I thinks it's opals that's the trouble with Dave,'
declar's Boggs, plenty stubborn an' while the rest of us don't yoonite
with him, we receives his view serious an' respectful so's not to jolt
Boggs's feelin's.
"Goin' back, however, to when Dave sets up the warble of 'Bye O baby!'
that a-way, we-all, followin' Enright's s'licitation for our thoughts,
abides a heap still an' makes no response. Enright asks ag'in: 'What
do you-all think?'
"At last Boggs, who as I sets forth frequent is a nervous gent, an' one
on whom silence soon begins to prey, ag'in speaks up. Bein' doubtful
an' mindful of Enright's argyment ag'in his opal bluff, however, Boggs
don't advance his concloosions this time at all emphatic. In a tone
like he's out ridin' for information himse'f, Boggs says:
"'Mebby, if it ain't opals, it's a case of straight loco.'
"'While I wouldn't want to readily think Dave locoed,' says Enright,
'seein' he's oncommon firm on his mental feet, still he's shore got
something on his mind. An' bein' it is something, it's possible as you
says that Dave's intellects is onhossed.'
"'Whatever for a play would it be,' says Cherokee, 'to go an' ask Dave
himse'f right now?'
"'I'd be some slow about propoundin' sech surmises to Dave,' says
Boggs. 'He might get hostile; you can put a wager on it, he'd turn out
disagree'ble to a degree, if he did. No, you-all has got to handle a
loonatic with gloves. I knows a gent who entangles himse'f with a
loonatic, askin' questions, an' he gets all shot up.'
"'I reckons, however,' says Cherokee, 'that I'll assoome the resk.
Dave an' me's friends; an' I allows if I goes after him in ways both
soft an' careless, so as not to call forth no suspicions, he'll take it
good-humoured even if he is locoed.'
"We-all sets breathless while Cherokee sa'nters down to where Dave's
still wropped in them melodies.
"'Whatever be you hummin' toones for, Dave?' asks Cherokee all
accidental like.
"'Which I'm rehearsin',' says Dave, an' he shows he's made impatient.
'Don't come infringin' about me with no questions,' goes on Dave. 'I'm
like the ancient Romans, I've got troubles of my own; an' no sport who
calls himse'f my friend will go aggravatin' me with ontimely
inquis'tiveness.' Then Dave gets up an' pulls his freight an' leaves
us more onsettled than at first.
"For a full hour, we does nothin' but canvass this yere question of
Dave's aberrations. At last a idee seizes us. Thar's times when
Dave's been seen caucusin' with Missis Rucker an' Doc Peets. Most
likely one of 'em would be able to shed a ray on Dave. By a excellent
coincidence, an' as if to he'p us out, Peets comes in as Texas Thompson
su'gests that mebby the Doc's qualified to onravel the myst'ry.
"'Tell you-all folks what's the matter with Dave?' says Peets. 'Pards,
it's simply not in the deck. Meanin' no disrespects--for you gents
knows me too well to dream of me harborin' anything but feelin's of the
highest regyards for one an' all--I'll have to leave you camped in
original darkness. It would be breakin' professional confidences.
Shore, I saveys Dave's troubles an' the causes of these vagaries of
his; jest the same the traditions of the medical game forces me to hold
'em sacred an' secret.'
"'Tell us at least, Doc,' says Enright, 'whether Dave's likely to grow
voylent. If he is, it's only proper that we arranges to tie him down.'
"'Dave may be boisterous later,' says Peets, an' his reply comes slow
an' thoughtful, like he's considerin'; 'he may make a joyful uproar,
but he won't wax dangerous.' This yere's as far as Peets'll go; he
declines to talk longer, on professional grounds.
"'Which suspense, this a-way,' says Boggs, after Peets is gone, 'an' us
no wiser than when he shows in the door, makes me desp'rate. I'll
offer the motion: Let's prance over in a bunch, an' demand a
explanation of Missis Rucker. Dave's been talkin' to her as much as
ever he has to Peets, an' thar's no professional hobbles on the lady;
she's footloose, an' free to speak.'
"'We waits on you, Marm,' says Enright, when ten minutes later Boggs,
Cherokee, Texas Thompson an' he is in the kitchen of the O. K.
Restauraw where Missis Rucker is slicin' salt hoss an' layin' the
fragrant foundations of supper; 'we waits on you-all to ask your
advice. Dave Tutt's been carryin' on in a manner an' form at once
doobious an' threatenin'. It ain't too much to say that we-all fears
the worst. We comes now to invite you to tell us all you knows of Dave
an' whatever it is that so onsettles him. Our idee is that you
onderstands a heap about it.'
"'See yere, Sam Enright,' retorts Missis Rucker, pausin' over the salt
hoss, 'you ain't doin' yourse'f proud. You better round up this herd
of inebriates an' get 'em back to the Red Light. Thar's nothin' the
matter with Dave; leastwise if it was the matter with you, you'd be
some improved. Dave Tutt's a credit to this camp; never more so than
now; the same bein' a mighty sight more'n I could say of any of you-all
an' stick to the trooth.'
"'Then you does know, Missis Rucker,' says Enright, 'the secret that's
gnawin' at Dave.'
"'Know it,' replies Misses Rucker, 'of course, I knows it. But I don't
propose to discuss it none with you tarrapins. I ain't got no patience
with sech dolts! Now that you-all is yere, however, I'll give you
notice that to-morry you can begin to do your own cookin' till you
hears further word from me. I'm goin' to be otherwise an' more
congenially engaged. Most likely I'll be back in my kitchen ag'in in a
day or two; but I makes no promises. An' ontil sech time as I shows
up, you-all can go scuffle for yourse'fs. I've got more important
dooties jest now on my hands than cookin' chuck for sots.'
"As Missis Rucker speaks up mighty vigorous, an' as none of us has the
nerve to ask her further an' take the resk of turnin' loose her temper,
we lines out ag'in for the Red Light no cl'arer than what we was.
"'I could ask her more questions,' says Enright, 'but, gents, I didn't
deem it wise. Missis Rucker is a most admirable character; but I'm
sooperstitious about crowdin' her too clost. Like Boggs says about
opals, thar's plenty of bad luck lurkin' about Missis Rucker's environs
if you only goes about its deevelopment the right way.'
"'The sityooation is too many for me,' says Boggs, goin' up to the bar
for a drink, 'I gives it up. I ain't got a notion left, onless it is
that Dave's runnin' for office; that is, I might entertain sech a
thought only thar ain't no office.'
"'The next day Missis Rucker abandons her post; an' we tharupon finds
that feedin' ourse'fs keeps us busy an' we don't have much time to
discuss Dave. Also, Dave disappears;--in fact, both Dave an' Missis
Rucker fades from view.
"It's about fo'rth drink time the evenin' of the third day, an' most of
us is in the Red Light. Thar's a gloom overhangs us like a fog. Mebby
it's the oncertainties which envelops Dave, mebby it's because Missis
Rucker's done deserted an' left us to rustle for ourse'fs or starve.
Most of us is full of present'ments that something's due to happen.
"All at once, an' onexpected, Dave walks in. A sigh of relief goes up,
for the glance we gives him shows he's all right--sane as
Enright--clothed an' in his right mind as set fo'th in holy writ.
Also, his countenance is a wrinkle of glee.
"'Gents,' says Dave, an' his air is that patronisin' it would have been
exasperatin' only we're so relieved, 'gents, I'm come to seek
congratyoolations an' set 'em up. Peets an' that motherly angel,
Missis Rucker, allows I'll be of more use yere than in my own house,
whereat I nacherally floats over. Coupled with a su'gestion that we
drinks, I wants to say that he's a boy, an' that I brands him "Enright
Peets Tutt."'"
CHAPTER VI.
With the Apache's Compliments.
"Ondoubted," observed the Old Cattleman, during one of our long
excursive talks, "ondoubted, the ways an' the motives of Injuns is past
the white man's findin' out. He's shore a myst'ry, the Injun is! an'
where the paleface forever fails of his s'lootion is that the latter
ropes at this problem in copper-colour from the standp'int of the
Caucasian. Can a dog onderstand a wolf? Which I should remark not!
"It's a heap likely that with Injuns, the white man in his turn is jest
as difficult to solve. An' without the Injun findin' onusual fault
with 'em, thar's a triangle of things whereof the savage accooses the
paleface. The Western Injuns at least--for I ain't posted none on
Eastern savages, the same bein' happily killed off prior to my
time--the Western Injuns lays the bee, the wild turkey, an' that weed
folks calls the 'plantain,' at the white man's door. They-all descends
upon the Injun hand in hand. No, the Injun don't call the last-named
veg'table a 'plantain;' he alloodes to it as 'the White Man's Foot.'
"Thar's traits dominant among Injuns which it wouldn't lower the
standin' of a white man if he ups an' imitates a whole lot. I once
encounters a savage--one of these blanket Injuns with feathers in his
ha'r--an' bein' idle an' careless of what I'm about, I staggers into
casyooal talk with him. This buck's been East for the first time in
his darkened c'reer an' visited the Great Father in Washin'ton. I asks
him what he regyards as the deepest game he in his travels goes
ag'inst. At first he allows that pie, that a-way, makes the most
profound impression. But I bars pie, an' tells him to su'gest the
biggest thing he strikes, not on no bill of fare. Tharupon,
abandonin' menoos an' wonders of the table, he roominates a moment an'
declar's that the steamboat--now that pie is exclooded--ought to get
the nomination.
"'The choo-choo boat,' observes this intelligent savage, 'is the
paleface's big medicine.'
"'You'll have a list of marvels,' I says, 'to avalanche upon the people
when you cuts the trail of your ancestral tribe ag'in?'
"'No,' retorts the savage, shakin' his head ontil the skelp-lock whips
his y'ears, an' all mighty decisive; 'no; won't tell Injun nothin'.'
"'Why not?' I demands.
"'If I tell,' he says, 'they no believe. They think it all heap lie.'
"Son, consider what a example to travellers is set by that ontootered
savage? That's what makes me say thar be traits possessed of Injuns,
personal, which a paleface might improve himse'f by copyin'.
"Bein' white myse'f, I'm born with notions ag'in Injuns. I learns of
their deestruction with relief, an' never sees one pirootin' about,
full of life an' vivacity, but the spectacle fills me with vain
regrets. All the same thar's a load o' lies told East concernin' the
Injun. I was wont from time to time to discuss these red folks with
Gen'ral Stanton, who for years is stationed about in Arizona,
an'--merely for the love he b'ars to fightin'--performs as chief of
scouts for Gen'ral Crook.
"'Our divers wars with the Apaches,' says Gen'ral Stanton, 'comes more
as the frootes of a misdeal by a locoed marshal than anything else
besides. When Crook first shows up in Arizona--this is in the long
ago--an' starts to inculcate peace among the Apaches, he gets old
Jeffords to bring Cochise to him to have a pow-wow. Jeffords rounds up
Cochise an' herds him with soft words an' big promises into the
presence of Crook. The Grey Fox--which was the Injun name for
Crook--makes Cochise a talk. Likewise he p'ints out to the chief the
landmarks an' mountain peaks that indicates the Mexican line. An' the
Grey Fox explains to Cochise that what cattle is killed an' what skelps
is took to the south'ard of the line ain't goin' to bother him a bit.
But no'th'ard it's different; thar in that sacred region cattle killin'
an' skelp collectin' don't go. The Grey Fox shoves the information on
Cochise that every trick turned on the American side of the line has
done got to partake of the characteristics of a love affair, or the
Grey Fox with his young men in bloo--his walk-a-heaps an' his
hoss-warriors--noomerous as the grass, they be--will come down on
Cochise an' his Apaches like a coyote on a sage hen or a pan of milk
from a top shelf an' make 'em powerful hard to find.
"'Cochise smokes an' smokes, an' after considerin' the bluff of the
Grey Fox plenty profound, allows he won't call it. Thar shall be peace
between the Apache an' the paleface to the no'th'ard of that line.
Then the Grey Fox an' Cochise shakes hands an' says "How!" an' Cochise,
with a bolt or two of red calico wherewith to embellish his squaws,
goes squanderin' back to his people, permeated to the toes with
friendly intentions.
"'Sech is Cochise's reverence for his word, coupled with his fear of
the Grey Fox, that years float by an' every deefile an' canyon of the
Southwest is as safe as the aisles of a church to the moccasins of the
paleface. Thus it continyoos ontil thar comes a evenin' when a jimcrow
marshal, with more six-shooters than hoss sense, allows he'll apprehend
Cochise's brother a whole lot for some offense that ain't most likely
deuce high in the category of troo crime. This ediot offishul reaches
for the relative of Cochise; an' as the latter--bein' a savage an'
tharfore plumb afraid of captivity--leaps back'ard like he's met up
with a rattlesnake, the marshal puts his gun on him an' plugs him so
good that he cashes in right thar. The marshal says later in
explanation of his game that Cochise's brother turns hostile an' drops
his hand on his knife. Most likely he does; a gent's hands--even a
Apache's--has done got to be some'ers.
"'But the killin' overturns the peaceful programmes built up between
the Grey Fox an' Cochise. When the old chief hears of his brother
bein' downed, he paints himse'f black an' red an' sends a bundle of
arrows tied with a rattlesnake skin to the Grey Fox with a message to
count his people an' look out for himse'f. The Grey Fox, who realises
that the day of peace has ended an' the sun gone down to rise on a
mornin' of trouble, fills the rattlesnake skin with cartridges an'
sends 'em back with a word to Cochise to turn himse'f loose. From that
moment the war-jig which is to last for years is on. After Cochise
comes Geronimo, an' after Geronimo comes Nana; an' one an' all, they
adds a heap of spice to life in Arizona. It's no exaggeration to put
the number of palefaces who lose their ha'r as the direct result of
that fool marshal layin' for Cochise's brother an' that Injun's
consequent cuttin' off, at a round ten thousand. Shore! thar's scores
an' scores who's been stood up an' killed in the hills whereof we never
gets a whisper. I, myse'f, in goin' through the teepees of a Apache
outfit, after we done wipes 'em off the footstool, sees the long ha'r
of seven white women who couldn't have been no time dead.
"'Who be they? Folks onknown who's got shot into while romancin' along
among the hills with schemes no doubt of settlement in Californy.
"'With what we saveys of the crooelties of the Apaches, thar's likewise
a sperit of what book-sharps calls chivalry goes with 'em an' albeit on
one ha'r-hung o'casion I profits mightily tharby, I'm onable to give it
a reason. You wouldn't track up on no sim'lar weaknesses among the
palefaces an' you-all can put down a stack on that.
"'It's when I'm paymaster,' says the Gen'ral, reachin' for the canteen,
'an' I starts fo'th from Fort Apache on a expedition to pay off the
nearby troops. I've got six waggons an' a escort of twenty men. For
myse'f, at the r'ar of the procession, I journeys proudly in a
amb'lance. Our first camp is goin' to be on top of the mesa out a
handful of miles from the Fort.
"'The word goes along the line to observe a heap of caution an' not
straggle or go rummagin' about permiscus, for the mountains is alive
with hostiles. It's five for one that a frownin' cloud of 'em is
hangin' on our flanks from the moment we breaks into the foothills.
No, they'd be afoot; the Apaches ain't hoss-back Injuns an' only fond
of steeds as food. He never rides on one, a Apache don't, but he'll
camp an' build a fire an' eat a corral full of ponies if you'll furnish
'em, an' lick his lips in thankfulness tharfore. But bein' afoot won't
hinder 'em from keepin' up with my caravan, for in the mountains the
snow is to the waggon beds an' the best we can do, is wriggle along the
trail like a hurt snake at a gait which wouldn't tire a papoose.
"'We've been pushin' on our windin' uphill way for mighty likely half a
day, an' I'm beginnin'--so dooms slows is our progress--to despair of
gettin' out on top the mesa before dark, when to put a coat of paint on
the gen'ral trouble the lead waggon breaks down. I turns out in the
snow with the rest, an' we-all puts in a heated an' highly profane
half-hour restorin' the waggon to health. At last we're onder headway
ag'in, an' I wades back through the snow to my amb'lance.
"'As I arrives at the r'ar of my offishul waggon, it occurs to me that
I'll fill a pipe an' smoke some by virchoo of my nerves, the same bein'
torn and frayed with the many exasperations of the day. I gives my
driver the word to wait a bit, an' searchin' forth my tobacco outfit
loads an' lights my pipe. I'm planted waist deep in the mountain
snows, but havin' on hossman boots the snow ain't no hardship.
"'While I'm fussin' with my pipe, the six waggons an' my twenty men
curves 'round a bend in the trail an' is hid by a corner of the canyon.
I reflects at the time--though I ain't really expectin' no perils--that
I'd better catch up with my escort, if it's only to set the troops a
example. As I exhales my first puff of smoke and is on the verge of
tellin' my driver to pull out--this yere mule-skinner is settin' so
that matters to the r'ar is cut off from his gaze by the canvas cover
of my waggon--a slight noise attracts me, an' castin' my eye along the
trail we've been climbin', I notes with feelin's of disgust a full
dozen Apaches comin'. An' it ain't no hyperbole to say they're shore
comin' all spraddled out.
"'In the lead for all the deep snow, an' racin' up on me like the wind,
is a big befeathered buck, painted to the eyes; an' in his right fist,
raised to hurl it, is a 12-foot lance. As I surveys this pageant, I
realises how he'pless, utter, I be, an' with what ca'mness I may,
adjusts my mind to the fact that I've come to the end of my trails.
He'pless? Shore! I'm stuck as firm in the snow as one of the pines
about me; my guns is in the waggon outen immediate reach; thar I stands
as certain a prey to that Apache with the lance as he's likely to go up
ag'inst doorin' the whole campaign. Why, I'm a pick-up! I remembers
my wife an' babies, an' sort o' says "Goodbye!" to 'em, for I'm as
certain of my finish as I be of the hills, or the snows beneath my
feet. However, since it's all I can do, I continyoos to smoke an'
watch my execootioners come on.
"'The big lance Injun is the dominatin' sperit of the bunch. As he
draws up to me--he's fifty foot in advance of the others--he makes his
lance shiver from p'int to butt. It fairly sings a death song! I can
feel it go through an' through me a score of times. But I stands thar
facin' him; for, of course, I wants it to go through from the front. I
don't allow to be picked up later with anything so onfashionable as a
lance wound in my back. That would be mighty onprofessional!
"'You onderstands that what now requires minutes in the recital don't
cover seconds as a play. The lance Injun runs up to within a rod of me
an' halts. His arm goes back for a mighty cast of the lance; the
weepon is vibrant with the very sperit of hate an' malice. His eyes,
through a fringe of ha'r that has fallen over 'em, glows out like a
cat's eyes in the dark.
"We stands thar--I still puffin my pipe, he with his lance raised--an'
we looks on each other--I an' that paint-daubed buck! I can't say
whatever is his notion of me, but on my side I never beholds a savage
who appeals to me as a more evil an' forbiddin' picture!
"'As I looks him over a change takes place. The fire in his eyes dies
out, his face relaxes its f'rocity, an' after standin' for a moment an'
as the balance of the band arrives, he turns the lance over his arm an'
with the butt presented, surrenders it into my hand. You can gamble I
don't lose no time in arguin' the question, but accepts the lance with
all that it implies. Bringin' the weepon to a 'Right Shoulder' an'
with my mind relieved, I gives the word to my mule-skinner--who's
onconscious of the transactions in life an' death goin' on behind his
back--an' with that, we-all takes up our march an' soon comes up on the
escort where it's ag'in fixed firm in the snow about a furlong to the
fore. My savages follows along with me, an' each of 'em as grave as
squinch owls an' tame as tabby cats.
"'Joke? no; them Apaches was as hostile as Gila monsters! But
beholdin' me, as they regyards it--for they don't in their ontaught
simplicity make allowance for me bein' implanted in the snow, gunless
an' he'pless--so brave, awaitin' deestruction without a quiver, their
admiration mounts to sech heights it drowns within 'em every thought of
cancellin' me with that lance, an' tharupon they pays me their savage
compliments in manner an' form deescribed. They don't regyard
themse'fs as surrenderin' neither; they esteems passin' me the lance as
inauguratin' a armistice an' looks on themse'fs as guests of honor an'
onder my safegyard, free to say "How!" an' vamos back to the warpath
ag'in whenever the sperit of blood begins to stir within their breasts.
I knows enough of their ways to be posted as to what they expects; an'
bein', I hopes, a gent of integrity, I accedes to 'em that exact status
which they believes they enjoys.
"'They travels with me that day, eats with me that evenin' when we
makes our camp, has a drink with me all 'round, sings savage hymns to
me throughout the night, loads up with chuck in the mornin', offers me
no end of flattery as a dead game gent whom they respects, says
_adios_; an' then they scatters like a flock of quail. Also, havin'
resoomed business on old-time lines, they takes divers shots at us with
their Winchesters doorin' the next two days, an' kills a hoss an'
creases my sergeant. Why don't I corral an' hold 'em when they're in
my clutch? It would have been breakin' the trooce as Injuns an' I
onderstands sech things; moreover, they let me go free without
conditions when I was loser by every roole of the game.'"
CHAPTER VII.
The Mills of Savage Gods.
"Thar might, of course, be romances in the West," observed the Old
Cattleman, reflectively, in response to my question, "but the folks
ain't got no time. Romance that a-way demands leesure, an' a party has
to be more or less idlin' about to get what you-all might style
romantic action. Take that warjig whereof I recently relates an'
wherein this yere Wild Bill Hickox wipes out the McCandlas gang--six to
his Colt's, four to his bowie, an' one to his Hawkins rifle; eleven in
all--I asks him myse'f later when he's able to talk, don't he regyard
the eepisode as some romantic. An' Bill says, 'No, I don't notice no
romance tharin; what impresses me most is that she's shore a zealous
fight--also, mighty busy.'
"Injuns would be romantic, only they're so plumb ignorant they never
once saveys. Thar's no Injun word for 'romantic'; them benighted
savages never tumblin' to sech a thing as romance bein' possible. An'
yet said aborigines engages in plays which a eddicated Eastern taste
with leesure on its hands an' gropin' about for entertainment would
pass on as romantic.
"When I'm pesterin' among the Osages on that one o'casion that I'm
tryin' to make a round-up of my health, the old buck Strike Axe relates
to me a tale which I allers looks on as possessin' elements. Shore;
an' it's as simple an' straight as the sights of a gun. It's about a
squaw an' three bucks, an' thar's enough blood in it to paint a waggon.
Which I reckons now I'll relate it plain an' easy an' free of them
frills wherewith a professional racontoor is so prone to overload his
narratives.
"The Black Cloud is a Osage medicine man an' has high repoote about
Greyhoss where he's pitched his teepee an' abides. He's got a squaw,
Sunbright, an' he's plenty jealous of this yere little Sunbright. The
Black Cloud has three squaws, an' Sunbright is the youngest. The
others is Sunbright's sisters, for a Osage weds all the sisters of a
fam'ly at once, the oldest sister goin' to the front at the nuptials to
deal the weddin' game for the entire outfit.
"Now this Sunbright ain't over-enamoured of Black Cloud; he's only a
half-blood Injun for one thing, his father bein' a buffalo-man (negro)
who's j'ined the Osages, an' Sunbright don't take kindly to his nose
which is some flatter than the best rools of Osage beauty demands; an'
likewise thar's kinks in his ha'r. Still, Sunbright sort o' keeps her
aversions to herse'f, an' if it ain't for what follows she most likely
would have travelled to her death-blankets an' been given a seat on a
hill with a house of rocks built 'round her--the same bein' the usual
burial play of a Osage--without Black Cloud ever saveyin' that so far
from interestin' Sunbright, he only makes her tired.
"Over south from Black Cloud's Greyhoss camp an' across the Arkansaw
an' some'ers between the Polecat an' the Cimmaron thar's livin' a young
Creek buck called the Lance. He's straight an' slim an' strong as the
weepon he's named for; an' he like Black Cloud is a medicine sharp of
cel'bration an' stands way up in the papers. The Creeks is never weary
of talkin' about the Lance an' what a marvel as a medicine man he is;
also, by way of insultin' the Osages, they declar's onhesitatin' that
the Lance lays over Black Cloud like four tens, an' offers to bet
hosses an' blankets an' go as far as the Osages likes that this is troo.
"By what Strike Axe informs me,--an' he ain't none likely to overplay
in his statements--by what Strike Axe tells me, I says, the Lance must
shore have been the high kyard as a medicine man. Let it get dark with
the night an' no moon in the skies, an' the Lance could take you-all
into his medicine lodge, an' you'd hear the sperits flappin' their
pinions like some one flappin' a blanket, an' thar'd be whisperin's an'
goin's on outside the lodge an' in, while fire-eyes would show an' burn
an' glower up in the peak of the teepee; an' all plenty skeary an'
mystifiyin'. Besides these yere accomplishments the Lance is one of
them mesmerism sports who can set anamiles to dreamin'. He could call
a coyote or a fox, or even so fitful an' nervous a prop'sition as a
antelope; an' little by little, snuffin' an' snortin', or if it's a
coyote, whinin', them beasts would approach the Lance ontil they're
that clost he'd tickle their heads with his fingers while they stands
shiverin' an' sweatin' with apprehensions. You can put a bet on it,
son, that accordin' to this onbiassed buck, Strike Axe, the Lance is
ondoubted the big medicine throughout the Injun range.
"As might be assoomed, the Black Cloud is some heated ag'in the Lance
an' looks on him with baleful eye as a rival. Still, Black Cloud has
his nerve with him constant, an' tharfore one day when the Osages an'
Creeks has been dispootin' touchin' the reespective powers of him an'
the Lance, an' this latter Injun offers to come over to Greyhoss an'
make medicine ag'in him, Black Cloud never hesitates or hangs back like
a dog tied onder a waggon, but calls the bluff a heap prompt an' tells
the Lance to come.
"Which the day is set an' the Lance shows in the door, as monte sharps
would say. Black Cloud an' the Lance tharupon expands themse'fs, an'
delights the assembled Creeks an' Osages with their whole box of
tricks, an' each side is braggin' an' boastin' an' puttin' it up that
their gent is most likely the soonest medicine man who ever buys black
paint. It's about hoss an' hoss between the two.
"Black Cloud accompanies himse'f to this contest with a pure white pony
which has eyes red as roobies--a kind o' albino pony--an' he gives it
forth that this milk-coloured bronco is his 'big medicine' or familiar
sperit. The Lance observes that the little red-eyed hoss is mighty
impressive to the savages, be they Creeks or Osages. At last he says
to Black Cloud:
"'To show how my medicine is stronger than yours, to-morry I'll make
your red-eyed big medicine bronco go lame in his off hind laig.'
"Black Cloud grins scornful at this; he allows that no sport can make
his white pony go lame.
"He's plumb wrong; the next mornin' the white pony is limpin' an'
draggin' his off hind hoof, an' when he's standin' still he p'ints the
toe down like something's fetched loose. Black Cloud is sore; but he
can't find no cactus thorn nor nothin' to bring about the lameness an'
he don't know what to make of the racket. Black Cloud's up ag'inst it,
an' the audience begins to figger that the Lance's' medicine is too
strong for Black Cloud.
"What's the trouble with the red-eyed pony? That's simple enough, son.
The Lance done creeps over in the night an' ties a hossha'r tight about
the pony's laig jest above the fetlock. Black Cloud ain't up to no
sech move, the same bein' a trade secret of the Lance's an' bein' the
hossha'r is hid in the ha'r on the pony's laig, no one notes its
presence.
"After Black Cloud looks his red-eyed big medicine pony all over an'
can't onderstand its lameness, the Lance asks him will he cure it.
Black Cloud, who's sc'owlin' like midnight by now, retorts that he
will. So he gets his pipe an' fills it with medicine tobacco an' blows
a mouthful of smoke in the red-eyed pony's nose. Sech remedies don't
work; that pony still limps on three laigs, draggin' the afflicted
member mighty pensive.
"At last the Lance gives Black Cloud a patronisin' smile an' says that
his medicine'll cure the pony sound an' well while you're crackin' off
a gun. He walks up to the pony an' looks long in its red eyes; the
pony's y'ears an' tail droops, its head hangs down, an' it goes mighty
near to sleep. Then the Lance rubs his hand two or three times up an'
down the lame laig above the fetlock an' elim'nates that hossha'r
ligature an' no one the wiser. A moment after, he wakes up the
red-eyed pony an' to the amazement of the Osages an' the onbounded
delight of the Creeks, the pony is no longer lame, an' the laig so late
afflicted is as solid an' healthy as a sod house. What's bigger
medicine still, the red-eyed pony begins to follow the Lance about like
a dog an' as if it's charmed; an' it likewise turns in to bite an' r'ar
an' pitch an' jump sideways if Black Cloud seeks to put his paw on him.
Then all the Injuns yell with one voice: 'The Lance has won the Black
Cloud's big medicine red-eyed pony away from him.'
"The Lance is shore the fashion, an' Black Cloud discovers he ain't a
four-spot by compar'son. His repootation is gone, an' the Lance is
regyarded as the great medicine along the Arkansaw.
"Sunbright is lookin' on at these manoovers an' her heart goes out to
the Lance; she falls more deeply in love with him than even the
red-eyed bronco does. That evenin' as the Lance is goin' to his camp
onder the cottonwoods, he meets up with Sunbright standin' still as a
tree in his path with her head bowed like a flower that's gone to
sleep. The Lance saveys; he knows Sunbright; likewise he knows what
her plantin' herse'f in his way an' her droopin' attitoode explains.
He looks at her, an' says;
"'I am a guest of the Osages, an' to-night is not the night. Wait
ontil the Lance is in his own teepee on the Polecat; then come.'
"Sunbright never moves, never looks up; but she hears an' she knows
this is right. No buck should steal a squaw while he's a guest. The
Lance walks on an' leaves her standin', head bowed an' motionless.
"Two days later the Lance is ag'in in his own teepee. Sunbright counts
the time an' knows that he must be thar. She skulks from the camp of
Black Cloud an' starts on her journey to be a new wife to a new husband.
"Sunbright is a mile from camp when she's interrupted. It's Black
Cloud who heads her off. Black Cloud may not be the boss medicine man,
but he's no fool, an' his eyes is like a wolf's eyes an' can see in the
dark. He guesses the new love which has stampeded Sunbright.
"Injuns is a mighty cur'ous outfit. Now if Sunbright had succeeded in
gettin' to the lodge of her new husband, the divorce between her an'
Black Cloud would have been complete. Moreover, if on the day
followin' or at any time Black Cloud had found her thar, he wouldn't so
much as have wagged a y'ear or batted a eye in recognition. He
wouldn't have let on he ever hears of a squaw called 'Sunbright.' This
ca'mness would be born of two causes. It would be ag'in Injun
etiquette to go trackin' about makin' a onseemly uproar an' disturbin'
the gen'ral peace for purely private causes. Then ag'in it would be
beneath the dignity of a high grade savage an' a big medicine sharp to
conduct himse'f like he'd miss so trivial a thing as a squaw.
"But ontil Sunbright fulfils her elopement projects an' establishes
herse'f onder the protectin' wing of her new love, she's runnin' resks.
She's still the Black Cloud's squaw; an' after she pulls her marital
picket pin an' while she's gettin' away, if the bereaved Black Cloud
crosses up with her he's free, onder the license permitted to Injun
husbands, to kill her an' skelp her an' dispose of her as consists best
with his moods.
"Sunbright knows this; an' when she runs ag'in the Black Cloud in her
flight, she seats herse'f in the long prairie grass an' covers her head
with her blanket an' speaks never a word.
"'Does Sunbright so love me,' says Black Cloud, turnin' aheap ugly,
'that she comes to meet me? Is it for me she has combed her h'ar an'
put on a new feather an' beads? Does she wear her new blanket an'
paint her face bright for Black Cloud? Or does she dress herse'f like
the sun for that Creek coyote, the Lance?'" Sunbright makes no reply,
Black Cloud looks at her a moment an' then goes on: "It's for the
Lance! Good! I will fix the Sunbright so she will be a good squaw to
my friend, the Lance, an' never run from his lodge as she does now from
Black Cloud's.' With that he stoops down, an' a slash of his knife
cuts the heel-tendons of Sunbright's right foot. She groans, and
writhes about the prairie, while Black Cloud puts his knife back in his
belt, gets into his saddle ag'in an' rides away.
"The next day a Creek boy finds the body of Sunbright where she rolls
herse'f into the Greyhoss an' is drowned.
"When the Lance hears the story an' sees the knife slash on Sunbright's
heel, he reads the trooth. It gives him a bad heart; he paints his
face red an' black an thinks how he'll be revenged. Next day he sends
a runner to Black Cloud with word that Black Cloud has stole his hoss.
This is to arrange a fight on virtuous grounds. The Lance says that in
two days when the sun is overhead Black Cloud must come to the three
cottonwoods near the mouth of the Cimmaron an' fight, or the Lance on
the third day an' each day after will hunt for him as he'd hunt a wolf
ontil Black Cloud is dead. The Black Cloud's game, an' sends word that
on the second day he'll be thar by the three cottonwoods when the sun
is overhead; also, that he will fight with four arrows.
"Then Black Cloud goes at once, for he has no time to lose, an' kills a
dog near his lodge. He cuts out its heart an' carries it to the rocky
canyon where the rattlesnakes have a village. Black Cloud throws the
dog's heart among them an' teases them with it; an' the rattlesnakes
bite the dog's heart ag'in an' ag'in ontil it's as full of p'isen as a
bottle is of rum. After that, Black Cloud puts the p'isened heart in
the hot sun an' lets it fret an' fester ontil jest before he goes to
his dooel with the Lance. As he's about to start, Black Cloud dips the
four steel arrowheads over an' over in the p'isened heart, bein'
careful to dry the p'isen on the arrowheads; an' now whoever is touched
with these arrows so that the blood comes is shore to die. The biggest
medicine in the nation couldn't save him.
"Thar's forty Osage and forty Creek bucks at the three cottonwoods to
see that the dooelists get a squar' deal. The Lance an' Black Cloud is
thar; each has a bow an' four arrows; each has made medicine all night
that he may kill his man.
"But the dooel strikes a obstacle.
"Thar's a sombre, sullen sport among the Osages who's troo name is the
'Bob-cat,' but who's called the 'Knife Thrower.' The Bob-cat is one of
the Osage forty. Onknown to the others, this yere Bob-cat--who it
looks like is a mighty impressionable savage--is himse'f in love with
the dead Sunbright. An' he's hot an' cold because he's fearful that in
this battle of the bows the Lance'll down Black Cloud an' cheat him,
the Bob-cat, of his own revenge. The chance is too much; the Bob-cat
can't stand it an' resolves to get his stack down first. An' so it
happens that as Black Cloud an' the Lance, painted in their war
colours, is walkin' to their places, a nine-inch knife flickers like a
gleam of light from the hand of the Bob-cat, an' merely to show that he
ain't called the 'Knife Thrower' for fun, catches Black Cloud flush in
the throat, an' goes through an' up to the gyard at the knife-haft.
Black Cloud dies standin', for the knife p'int bites his spine.
"No, son, no one gets arrested; Injuns don't have jails, for the mighty
excellent reason that no Injun culprit ever vamoses an' runs away.
Injun crim'nals, that a-way, allers stands their hands an' takes their
hemlock. The Osages, who for Injuns is some shocked at the Bob-cat's
interruption of the dooel--it bein' mighty onparliamentary from their
standp'ints--tries the Bob-cat in their triboonals for killin' Black
Cloud an' he's decided on as guilty accordin' to their law. They
app'ints a day for the Bob-cat to be shot; an' as he ain't present at
the trial none, leavin' his end of the game to be looked after by his
reelatives, they orders a kettle-tender or tribe crier to notify the
Bob-cat when an' where he's to come an' have said sentence execooted
upon him. When he's notified, the Bob-cat don't say nothin'; which is
satisfactory enough, as thar's nothin' to be said, an' every Osage
knows the Bob-cat'll be thar at the drop of the handkerchief if he's
alive.
"It so turns out; the Bob-cat's thar as cool as wild plums. He's
dressed in his best blankets an' leggin's; an' his feathers an' gay
colours makes him a overwhelmin' match for peacocks. Thar's a white
spot painted over his heart.
"The chief of the Osages, who's present to see jestice done, motions to
the Bob-cat, an' that gent steps to a red blanket an' stands on its
edge with all the blanket spread in front of him on the grass. The
Bob-cat stands on the edge, as he saveys when he's plugged that he'll
fall for'ard on his face. When a gent gets the gaff for shore, he
falls for'ard. If a party is hit an' falls back'ards, you needn't get
excited none; he's only creased an' 'll get over it.
"Wherefore, as I states, the Bob-cat stands on the edge of the blanket
so it's spread out in front to catch him as he drops. Thar's not a
word spoke by either the Bob-cat or the onlookers, the latter openin'
out into a lane behind so the lead can go through. When the Bob-cat's
ready, his cousin, a buck whose name is Little Feather, walks to the
front of the blanket an' comes down careful with his Winchester on the
white mark over the Bob-cat's heart. Thar's a moment's silence as the
Bob-cat's cousin runs his eye through the sights; thar's a flash an' a
hatful of gray smoke; the white spot turns red with blood; an' then the
Bob-cat falls along on his face as soft as a sack of corn.
"What becomes of the Lance? It's two weeks later when that scientist
is waited on by a delegation of Osages. They reminds him that
Sunbright has two sisters, the same bein' now widows by virchoo of the
demise of that egreegious Black Cloud. Also, the Black Cloud was rich;
his teepee was sumptuous, an' he's left a buckskin coat with ivory elk
teeth sewed onto it plenty as stars at night. The coat is big
medicine; moreover thar's the milk-white big medicine bronco with red
eyes. The Osage delegation puts forth these trooths while the Lance
sets cross-laiged on a b'arskin an' smokes willow bark with much
dignity. In the finish, the Osage outfit p'ints up to the fact that
their tribe is shy a medicine man, an' a gent of the Lance's
accomplishments who can charm anamiles an' lame broncos will be a
mighty welcome addition to the Osage body politic. The Lance lays down
his pipe at this an' says, 'It is enough!' An' the next day he sallies
over an' weds them two relicts of Black Cloud an' succeeds to that dead
necromancer's estate an' both at one fell swoop. The two widows
chuckles an' grins after the manner of ladies, to get a new husband so
swift; an' abandonin' his lodge on the Polecat the Lance sets up his
game at Greyhoss, an' onless he's petered, he's thar dealin' it yet."
CHAPTER VIII.
Tom and Jerry; Wheelers.
"Obstinacy or love, that a-way, when folks pushes 'em to excess, is shore
bad medicine. Which I'd be aheap loath to count the numbers them two
attribootes harries to the tomb. Why, son, it's them sentiments that
kills off my two wheel mules, Tom an' Jerry."
The Old Cattleman appeared to be on the verge of abstract discussion. As
a metaphysician, he was not to be borne with. There was one method of
escape; I interfered to coax the currents of his volubility into other
and what were to me, more interesting channels.
"Tell me of the trail; or a story about animals," I urged. "You were
saying recently that perfect systems of oral if not verbal communication
existed among mules, and that you had listened for hours to their gossip.
Give me the history of one of your freighting trips and what befell along
the trail; and don't forget the comment thereon--wise, doubtless, it
was--of your long-eared servants of the rein and trace-chain."
"Tell you what chances along the trail? Son, you-all opens a wide-flung
range for my mem'ry to graze over. I might tell you how I'm lost once,
freightin' from Vegas into the Panhandle, an' am two days without
water--blazin' Jooly days so hot you couldn't touch tire, chain, or
bolt-head without fryin' your fingers. An' how at the close of the
second day when I hauls in at Cabra Springs, I lays down by that cold an'
blessed fountain an' drinks till I aches. Which them two days of thirst
terrorises me to sech degrees that for one plumb year tharafter, I never
meets up with water when I don't drink a quart, an' act like I'm layin'
in ag'in another parched spell.
"Or I might relate how I stops over one night from Springer on my way to
the Canadian at a Triangle-dot camp called Kingman. This yere is a
one-room stone house, stark an' sullen an' alone on the desolate plains,
an' no scenery worth namin' but a half-grown feeble spring. This Kingman
ain't got no windows; its door is four-inch thick of oak; an' thar's
loopholes for rifles in each side which shows the sports who builds that
edifice in the stormy long-ago is lookin' for more trouble than comfort
an' prepares themse'fs. The two cow-punchers I finds in charge is scared
to a standstill; they allows this Kingman's ha'nted. They tells me how
two parties who once abides thar--father an' son they be--gets downed by
a hold-up whose aim is pillage, an' who comes cavortin' along an'
butchers said fam'ly in their sleep. The cow-punchers declar's they
hears the spooks go scatterin' about the room as late as the night before
I trails in. I ca'ms 'em--not bein' subject to nerve stampedes myse'f,
an' that same midnight when the sperits comes ha'ntin' about ag'in, I
turns outen my blankets an' lays said spectres with the butt of my mule
whip--the same when we strikes a light an' counts 'em up bein' a couple
of kangaroo rats. This yere would front up for a mighty thrillin' tale
if I throws myse'f loose with its reecital an' daubs in the colour plenty
vivid an' free.
"Then thar's the time I swings over to the K-bar-8 ranch for corn--bein'
I'm out of said cereal--an' runs up on a cow gent, spurs, gun-belt, big
hat an' the full regalia, hangin' to the limb of a cottonwood, dead as
George the Third, an' not a hundred foot from the ranch door. An' how
inside I finds a half-dozen more cow folks, lookin' grave an' sayin'
nothin'; an' the ranch manager has a bloody bandage about his for'ead,
an' another holdin' up his left arm, half bandage an' half sling, the
toot ensemble, as Colonel Sterett calls it, showin' sech recent war that
the blood's still wet on the cloths an' drops on the floor as we talks.
An' how none of us says a word about the dead gent in the cottonwood or
of the manager who's shot up; an' how that same manager outfits me with
ten sacks of mule-food an' I goes p'intin' out for the Southeast an'
forgets all I sees an' never mentions it ag'in.
"Then thar's Sim Booth of the Fryin' Pan outfit, who's one evenin' camped
with me at Antelope Springs; an' who saddles up an' ropes onto the laigs
of a dead Injun where they're stickin' forth--bein' washed free by the
rains--an' pulls an' rolls that copper-coloured departed outen his
sepulchre a lot, an' then starts his pony off at a canter an' sort o'
fritters the remains about the landscape. Sim does this on the argyment
that the obsequies, former, takes place too near the spring. This yere
Sim's pony two months later steps in a dog hole when him an' Sim's goin'
along full swing with some cattle on a stampede, an' the cayouse falls on
Sim an' breaks everything about him incloosive of his neck. The other
cow-punchers allers allow it's because Sim turns out that aborigine over
by Antelope Springs. Now sech a eepisode, properly elab'rated, might
feed your attention an' hold it spellbound some.
"Son, if I was to turn myse'f loose on, great an' little, the divers
incidents of the trail, it would consoome days in the relation. I could
tell of cactus flowers, blazin' an' brilliant as a eye of red fire ag'in
the brown dusk of the deserts; or of mile-long fields of Spanish bayonet
in bloom; or of some Mexican's doby shinin' like a rooby in the sunlight
a day's journey ahead, the same one onbroken mass from roof to ground of
the peppers they calls _chili_, all reddenin' in the hot glare of the day.
"Or, if you has a fancy for stirrin' incident an' lively scenes, thar's a
time when the rains has raised the old Canadian ontil that quicksand ford
at Tascosa--which has done eat a hundred teams if ever it swallows
one!--is torn up complete an' the bottom of the river nothin' save
b'ilin' sand with a shallow yere an' a hole deep enough to drown a house
scooped out jest beyond. An' how since I can't pause a week or two for
the river to run down an' the ford to settle, I goes spraddlin' an'
tumblin' an' swimmin' across on Tom, my nigh wheeler, opens negotiations
with the LIT ranch, an' Bob Roberson, has his riders round-up the
pasture, an' comes chargin' down to the ford with a bunch of one thousand
ponies, all of 'em dancin' an' buckin' an' prancin' like chil'en outen
school. Roberson an' the LIT boys throws the thousand broncos across an'
across the ford for mighty likely it's fifty times. They'd flash 'em
through--the whole band together--on the run; an' then round 'em up on
the opp'site bank, turn 'em an' jam 'em through ag'in. When they ceases,
the bottom of the river is tramped an' beat out as hard an' as flat as a
floor, an' I hooks up an' brings the waggons over like the
ford--bottomless quicksand a hour prior--is one of these yere asphalt
streets.
"Or I might relate about a cowboy tournament that's held over in the flat
green bottom of Parker's arroya; an' how Jack Coombs throws a rope an'
fastens at one hundred an' four foot, while Waco Simpson rides at the
herd of cattle one hundred foot away, ropes, throws an' ties down a
partic'lar steer, frees his lariat an' is back with the jedges ag'in in
forty-eight seconds. Waco wins the prize, a Mexican
saddle--stamp-leather an' solid gold she is--worth four hundred dollars,
by them onpreecedented alacrities.
"Or, I might impart about a Mexican fooneral where the hearse is a
blanket with two poles along the aige, the same as one of these battle
litters; of the awful songs the mournful Mexicans sings about departed;
of the candles they burns an' the dozens of baby white-pine crosses they
sets up on little jim-crow stone-heaps along the trail to the tomb;
meanwhiles, howlin' dirges constant.
"Now I thinks of it I might bresh up the recollections of a mornin' when
I rolls over, blankets an' all, onto something that feels as big as a
boot-laig an' plenty squirmy; an' how I shows zeal a-gettin' to my feet,
knowin' I'm reposin' on a rattlesnake who's bunked in ag'in my back all
sociable to warm himse'f. It's worth any gent's while to see how heated
an' indignant that serpent takes it because of me turnin' out so early
and so swift.
"Then thar's a mornin' when I finds myse'f not five miles down the wind
from a prairie fire; an' it crackin' an' roarin' in flame-sheets twenty
foot high an' makin' for'ard jumps of fifty foot. What do I do? Go
for'ard down the wind, set fire to the grass myse'f, an' let her burn
ahead of me. In two minutes I'm over on a burned deestrict of my own,
an' by the time the orig'nal flames works down to my fire line, my own
speshul fire is three miles ahead an I myse'f am ramblin' along cool an'
saloobrious with a safe, shore area of burnt prairie to my r'ar.
"An' thar's a night on the Serrita la Cruz doorin' a storm, when the
lightnin' melts the tire on the wheel of my trail-waggon, an' me layin'
onder it at the time. An' it don't even wake me up. Thar's the time,
too, when I crosses up at Chico Springs with eighty Injuns who's been
buffalo huntin' over to the South Paloduro, an' has with 'em four hundred
odd ponies loaded with hides an' buffalo beef an' all headed for their
home-camps over back of Taos. The bucks is restin' up a day or two when
I rides in; later me an' a half dozen jumps a band of antelopes jest
'round a p'int of rocks. Son, you-all would have admired to see them
savages shoot their arrows. I observes one young buck a heap clost. He
holds the bow flat down with his left hand while his arrows in their
cow-skin quiver sticks over his right shoulder. The way he would flash
his right hand back, yank forth a arrow, slam it on his bow, pull it to
the head an' cut it loose, is shore a heap earnest. Them missiles would
go sailin' off for over three hundred yards, an' I sees him get seven
started before ever the first one strikes the ground. The Injuns
acquires four antelope by this archery an' shoots mebby some forty
arrows; all of which they carefully reclaims when the excitement
subsides. She's trooly a sperited exhibition an' I finds it mighty
entertainin'.
"I throws these hints loose to show what might be allooded to by way of
stories, grave and gay, of sights pecooliar to the trail if only some
gent of experience ups an' devotes himse'f to the relations. As it is,
however, an' recurrin' to Tom an' Jerry--the same bein' as I informs you,
my two wheel mules--I reckons now I might better set forth as to how they
comes to die that time. It's his obstinacy that downs Jerry; while pore,
tender Tom perishes the victim--volunteer at that--of the love he b'ars
his contrary mate.
"Them mules, Tom an' Jerry, is obtained by me, orig'nal in Vegas.
They're the wheelers of a eight-mule team; an' I gives Frosty--who's a
gambler an' wins 'em at monte of some locoed sport from Chaparita--twelve
hundred dollars for the outfit. Which the same is cheap an' easy at
double the _dinero_.
"These mules evident has been part an' passel of the estates of some
Mexican, for I finds a cross marked on each harness an' likewise on both
waggons. Mexicans employs this formal'ty to run a bluff on any evil
sperit who may come projectin' round. Your American mule skinner never
makes them tokens. As a roole he's defiant of sperits; an' even when he
ain't he don't see no refooge in a cross. Mexicans, on the other hand,
is plenty strong on said symbol. Every mornin' you beholds a Mexican
with a dab of white on his fore'erd an' on each cheek bone, an' also on
his chin where he crosses himse'f with flour; shore, the custom is
yooniversal an' it takes a quart of flour to fully fortify a full-blown
Greaser household ag'inst the antic'pated perils of the day.
"No sooner am I cl'ar of Vegas--I'm camped near the Plaza de la
Concepcion at the time--when I rounds up the eight mules an' looks 'em
over with reference to their characters. This is jest after I acquires
'em. It's allers well for a gent to know what he's ag'inst; an' you can
put down a stack the disp'sitions of eight mules is a important problem.
"The review is plenty satisfactory. The nigh leader is a steady
practical person as a lead mule oughter be, an' I notes by his ca'm
jedgmatical eye that he's goin' to give himse'f the benefit of every
doubt, an' ain't out to go stampedin' off none without knowin' the reason
why. His mate at the other end of the jockey-stick is nervous an'
hysterical; she never trys to solve no riddles of existence herse'f, this
Jane mule don't, but relies on her mate Peter an' plays Peter's system
blind. The nigh p'inter is a deecorous form of mule with no bad habits;
while his mate over the chain is one of these yere hard, se'fish, wary
parties an' his little game is to get as much of everything except work
an' trouble as the lay of the kyards permits. My nigh swing mule is a
wit like I tells you the other day. Which this jocose anamile is the
life of the team an' allers lettin' fly some dry, quaint observation.
This mule wag is partic'lar excellent at a bad ford or a hard crossin',
an his gay remarks, full of p'int as a bowie knife, shorely cheers an'
uplifts the sperits of the rest. The off swing is a heedless creature
who regyards his facetious mate as the very parent of fun, an' he goes
about with his y'ear cocked an' his mouth ajar, ready to laugh them 'hah,
hah!' laughs of his'n at every word his pard turns loose.
"Tom an' Jerry is different from the others. Bein' bigger an' havin'
besides the respons'bilities of the hour piled onto them as wheel mules
must, they cultivates a sooperior air an is distant an' reserved in their
attitoodes towards the other six. As to each other their pose needs more
deescription. Tom, the nigh wheeler--the one I rides when drivin'--is
infatyooated with Jerry. I hears a sky-sharp aforetime preach about
Jonathan an' David. Yet I'm yere to assert, son, that them sacred people
ain't on speakin' terms compared to the way that pore old lovin' Tom mule
feels towards Jerry.
"This affection of Tom's is partic'lar amazin' when you-all recalls the
fashion in which the sullen Jerry receives it. Doorin' the several years
I spends in their s'ciety I never once detects Jerry in any look or word
of kindness to Tom. Jerry bites him an' kicks him an' cusses him out
constant; he never tol'rates Tom closter than twenty foot onless at times
when he orders Tom to curry him. Shore, the imbecile Tom submits. On
sech o'casions when Jerry issues a summons to go over him, usin' his
upper teeth for a comb an' bresh, Tom is never so happy. Which he digs
an' delves at Jerry's ribs that a-way like it's a honour; after a half
hour, mebby, when Jerry feels refreshed s'fficient, he w'irls on Tom an'
dismisses him with both heels.
"'I track up on folks who's jest the same,' says Dan Boggs, one time when
I mentions this onaccountable infatyooation of Tom. 'This Jerry loves
that Tom mule mate of his, only he ain't lettin' on. I knows a lady
whose treatment of her husband is a dooplicate of Jerry's. She metes out
the worst of it to that long-sufferin' shorthorn at every bend in the
trail; it looks like he never wins a good word or a soft look from her
once. An' yet when that party cashes in, whatever does the lady do?
Takes a hooker of whiskey, puts in p'isen enough to down a dozen wolves,
an' drinks off every drop. 'Far'well, vain world, I'm goin' home,' says
the lady; 'which I prefers death to sep'ration, an' I'm out to jine my
beloved husband in the promised land.' I knows, for I attends the
fooneral of that family--said fooneral is a double-header as the lady,
bein' prompt, trails out after her husband before ever he's pitched his
first camp--an' later assists old Chandler in deevisin' a epitaph, the
same occurrin' in these yere familiar words:
"She sort o got the drop on him,
In the dooel of earthly love;
Let's hope he gets an even break
When they meets in heaven above."
"'Thar,' concloods Dan, 'is what I regyards as a parallel experience to
this Tom an' Jerry. The lady plays Jerry's system from soda to hock, an'
yet you-all can see in the lights of that thar sooicide how deep she
loves him.'
"'That's all humbug, Dan,' says Enright; 'the lady you relates of isn't
lovin'. She's only locoed that a-way.'
"'Whyever if she's locoed, then,' argues Dan, 'don't they up an' hive her
in one of their madhouse camps? She goes chargin' about as free an'
fearless as a cyclone.'
"'All the same,' says Texas Thompson, 'her cashin' in don't prove no
lovin' heart. Mebby she does it so's to chase him up an' continyoo
onbroken them hectorin's of her's. I could onfold a fact or two about
that wife of mine who cuts out the divorce from me in Laredo that would
lead you to concloosions sim'lar. But she wasn't your wife; an' I don't
aim to impose my domestic afflictions on this innocent camp, which bein'
troo I mootely stands my hand.'
"This Jerry's got one weakness however, I don't never take advantage of
it. He's scared to frenzy if you pulls a gun. I reckons, with all them
crimes of his'n preyin' on his mind, that he allows you're out, to shoot
him up. Jerry is ca'm so long as your gun's in the belt, deemin' it as
so much onmeanin' ornament. But the instant you pulls it like you're
goin' to put it in play, he onbuckles into piercin' screams. I reaches
for my six-shooter one evenin' by virchoo of antelopes, an' that's the
time I discovers this foible of Jerry's. I never gets a shot. At the
sight of the gun Jerry evolves a howl an' the antelopes tharupon hits two
or three high places an' is miles away. Shore, they thinks Jerry is some
new breed of demon.
"When I turns to note the cause of Jerry's clamours he's loppin' his
fore-laigs over Tom's back an' sobbin' an' sheddin' tears into his mane.
Tom sympathises with Jerry an' says all he can to teach him that the
avenger ain't on his trail. Nothin' can peacify Jerry, however, except
jammin' that awful six-shooter back into its holster. I goes over Jerry
that evenin' patiently explorin' for bullet marks, but thar ain't none.
No one's ever creased him; an' I figgers final by way of a s'lootion of
his fits that mighty likely Jerry's attended some killin' between
hoomans, inadvertent, an' has the teeth of his apprehensions set on aige.
"Jerry is that high an' haughty he won't come up for corn in the mornin'
onless I petitions him partic'lar an' calls him by name. To jest whoop
'Mules!' he holds don't incloode him. Usual I humours Jerry an' shouts
his title speshul, the others bein' called in a bunch. When Jerry hears
his name he walks into camp, delib'rate an' dignified, an' kicks every
mule to pieces who tries to shove in ahead.
"Once, feelin' some malignant myse'f, I tries Jerry's patience out. I
don't call 'Jerry,' merely shouts 'Mules' once or twice an' lets it go at
that. Jerry, when he notices I don't refer to him partic'lar lays his
y'ears back; an' although his r'ar elevation is towards me I can see he's
hotter than a hornet. The faithful Tom abides with Jerry; though he
tells him it's feed time an' that the others with a nosebag on each of
'em is already at their repasts. Jerry only gets madder an' lays for Tom
an' tries to bite him. After ten minutes, sullen an' sulky, hunger beats
Jerry an' he comes bumpin' into camp like a bar'l down hill an' eases his
mind by wallopin' both hind hoofs into them other blameless mules,
peacefully munchin' their rations. Also, after Jerry's let me put the
nosebag onto him he reeverses his p'sition an' swiftly lets fly at me.
But I ain't in no trance an' Jerry misses. I don't frale him; I saveys
it's because he feels hoomiliated with me not callin' him by name.
"As a roole me an' Jerry gets through our dooties harmonious. He can
pull like a lion an' never flinches or flickers at a pinch. It's shore a
vict'ry to witness the heroic way Jerry goes into the collar at a hard
steep hill or some swirlin', rushin' ford. Sech bein' Jerry's work
habits I'm prepared to overlook a heap of moral deeficiencies an' never
lays it up ag'in Jerry that he's morose an' repellant when I flings him
any kindnesses.
"But while I don't resent 'em none by voylence, still Jerry has habits
ag'inst which I has to gyard. You-all recalls how long ago I tells you
of Jerry's, bein' a thief. Shore, he can't he'p it; he's a born
kleptomaniac. Leastwise 'kleptomaniac' is what Colonel Sterett calls it
when he's tellin' me of a party who's afflicted sim'lar.
"'Otherwise this gent's a heap respectable,' says the Colonel. 'Morally
speakin' thar's plenty who's worse. Of course, seein' he's crowdin'
forty years, he ain't so shamefully innocent neither. He ain't no
debyootanty; still, he ain't no crime-wrung debauchee. I should say he
grades midway in between. But deep down in his system this person's a
kleptomaniac, an' at last his weakness gets its hobbles off an' he turns
himse'f loose, an' begins to jest nacherally take things right an' left.
No, he don't get put away in Huntsville; they sees he's locoed an' he's
corraled instead in one of the asylums where thar's nothin' loose an'
little kickin' 'round, an' tharfore no temptations.'
"Takin' the word then from Colonel Sterett, Jerry is a kleptomaniac. I
used former to hobble Jerry but one mornin' I'm astounded to see what
looks like snow all about my camp. Bein' she's in Joone that snow theery
don't go. An' it ain't snow, it's flour; this kleptomaniac Jerry creeps
to the waggons while I sleeps an' gets away, one after the other, with
fifteen fifty-pound sacks of flour. Then he entertains himse'f an' Tom
by p'radin' about with the sacks in his teeth, shakin' an' tossin' his
head an' powderin' my 'Pride of Denver' all over the plains. Which Jerry
shore frosts that scenery plumb lib'ral.
"It's the next night an' I don't hobble Jerry; I pegs him out on a
lariat. What do you-all reckon now that miscreant does? Corrupts pore
Tom who you may be certain is sympathisin' 'round, an' makes Tom go to
the waggons, steal the flour an' pack it out to him where he's pegged.
The soopine Tom, who otherwise is the soul of integrity, abstracts six
sacks for his mate an' at daybreak the wretched Jerry's standin' thar,
white as milk himse'f, an' flour a foot deep in a cirkle whereof the
radius is his rope Tom's gazin' on Jerry in a besotted way like he allows
he's certainly the greatest sport on earth.
"Which this last is too much an' I ropes up Jerry for punishment. I
throws an' hawgties Jerry, an' he's layin' thar on his side. His eye is
obdoorate an' thar's neither shame nor repentance in his heart. Tom is
sort o' sobbin' onder his breath; Tom would have swapped places with
Jerry too quick an' I sees he has it in his mind to make the offer, only
he knows I'll turn it down."
"The other six mules comes up an' loafs about observant an' respectful.
They jestifies my arrangements; besides Jerry is mighty onpop'lar with
'em by reason of his heels. I can hear Peter the little lead mule sayin'
to Jane, his mate: 'The boss is goin' to lam Jerry a lot with a
trace-chain. Which it's shore comin' to him!'
"I w'irls the chain on high an' lays it along Jerry's evil ribs,
_kerwhillup_! Every other link bites through the hide an' the chain
plows a most excellent an' wholesome furrow. As the chain descends, the
sympathetic Tom jumps an' gives a groan. Tom feels a mighty sight worse
than his _companero_. At the sixth wallop Tom can't b'ar no more, but
with tears an' protests comes an' stands over Jerry an' puts it up he'll
take the rest himse'f. This evidence of brotherly love stands me off,
an' for Tom's sake I desists an' throws Jerry loose. That old
scoundrel--while I sees he's onforgivin' an' a-harbourin' of hatreds
ag'in me--don't forget the trace-chain an' comports himse'f like a
law-abidin' mule for months. He even quits bitin' an' kickin' Tom, an'
that lovin' beast seems like he's goin' to break his heart over it,
'cause he looks on it as a sign that Jerry's gettin' cold.
"But thar comes a day when I loses both Tom an' Jerry. It's about second
drink time one August mornin' an' me an' my eight mules goes scamperin'
through a little Mexican plaza called Tramperos on our way to the
Canadian. Over by a 'doby stands a old fleabitten gray mare; she's shore
hideous.
"Now if mules has one overmasterin' deloosion it's a gray mare; she's the
religion an' the goddess of the mules. This knowledge is common; if
you-all is ever out to create a upheaval in the bosom of a mule the
handiest, quickest lever is a old gray mare. The gov'ment takes
advantage of this aberration of the mules. Thar's trains of pack mules
freightin' to the gov'ment posts in the Rockies. They figgers on three
hundred pounds to the mule an' the freight is packed in panniers. The
gov'ment freighters not bein' equal to the manifold mysteries of a
diamond-hitch, don't use no reg'lar shore-enough pack saddle but takes
refooge with their ignorance in panniers.
"Speakin' gen'ral, thar's mebby two hundred mules in one of these
gov'ment pack trains. An' in the lead, followed, waited on an'
worshipped by the mules, is a aged gray mare. She don't pack nothin' but
her virchoo an' a little bell, which last is hung 'round her neck. This
old mare, with nothin' but her character an' that bell to encumber her,
goes fa'rly flyin' light. But go as fast an' as far as she pleases, them
long-y'eared locoed worshippers of her's won't let her outen their
raptured sight. The last one of 'em, panniers, freight an' all, would go
surgin' to the topmost pinnacle of the Rockies if she leads the way.
"An' at that this gray mare don't like mules none; she abhors their
company an' kicks an' abooses 'em to a standstill whenever they draws
near. But the fool mules don't care; it's ecstacy to simply know she's
livin' an' that mule's cup of joy is runnin' over who finds himse'f
permitted to crop grass within forty foot of his old, gray bell-bedecked
idol.
"We travels all day, followin' glimpsin' that flea-bitten cayouse at
Tramperos. But the mules can't think or talk of nothin' else. It
arouses their religious enthoosiasm to highest pitch; even the cynic
Jerry gets half-way keyed up over it. I looks for trouble that night;
an' partic'lar I pegs out Jerry plenty deep and strong. The rest is
hobbled, all except Tom. Gray mare or not, I'll gamble the outfit Tom
wouldn't abandon Jerry, let the indoocement be ever so alloorin'.
"Every well-organised mule team that a-way allers carries along a bronco.
This little steed, saddled an' bridled, trots throughout the day by the
side of the off-wheeler, his bridle-rein caught over the wheeler's hame.
The bronco is used to round up the mules in event they strays or declines
in the mornin' to come when called. Sech bein' the idee, the cayous is
allers kept strictly in camp.
"'James' is my bronco's name; an' the evenin', followin' the vision of
that Tramperos gray mare I makes onusual shore 'that James stays with me.
Not that gray mares impresses James--him bein' a boss an' bosses havin'
religious convictions different from mules--or is doo to prove
temptations to him; but he might conceal other plans an' get strayed
prosecootin' of 'em to a finish. I ties James to the trail-waggon, an'
followin' bacon, biscuits, airtights an' sech, the same bein' my froogal
fare when on the trail, I rolls in onder the lead-waggon 'an' gives
myse'f up to sleep.
"Exactly as I surmises, when I turns out at sun-up thar's never a mule in
sight. Every one of them idolaters goes poundin' back, as fast as ever
he can with hobbles on, to confess his sins an' say his pray'rs at the
shrine of that old gray mare. Even Jerry, whose cynicism should have
saved him, pulls his picket-pin with the rest an', takin' Tom along, goes
curvin' off. It ain't more than ten minutes, you can gamble! when James
an' me is on their trails.
"One by one, I overtakes the team strung all along between my camp an'
Tramperos. Peter, the little lead mule, bein' plumb agile an' a sharp on
hobbles, gets cl'ar thar; an' I finds him devourin' the goddess gray mare
with heart an' soul an' eyes, an' singin' to himse'f the while in low,
satisfied tones.
"As one after the other I passes the pilgrim mules I turns an' lifts
about a squar' inch of hide off each with the blacksnake whip I'm
carryin', by way of p'intin' out their heresies an arousin' in 'em a
eagerness to get back to their waggons an' a' upright, pure career. They
takes the chastisement humble an' dootiful, an' relinquishes the thought
of reachin' the goddess gray mare.
"When I overtakes old Jerry I pours the leather into him speshul, an' the
way him an' his pard Tom goes scatterin' for camp refreshes me a heap.
An' yet after I rescoos Peter from the demoralisin' inflooences of the
gray mare, an' begins to pick up the other members of the team on the
journey back, I'm some deepressed when I don't see Tom or Jerry. Nor is
either of them mules by the waggons when I arrives.
"It's onadulterated cussedness! Jerry, with no hobbles an' merely
draggin' a rope, can lope about free an' permiscus. Tom, with nothin' to
hamper him but his love for Jerry, is even more lightsome an' loose.
That Jerry mule, hatin' me an' allowin' to make me all the grief he can,
sneakingly leaves the trail some'ers after I turns him an' touches him up
with the lash. An' now Tom an' Jerry is shorely hid out an' lost a whole
lot. It's nothin' but Jerry's notion of revenge on me.
"I camps two days where I'm at, an rounds up the region for the trooants.
I goes over it like a fine-tooth comb an' rides James to a show-down.
That bronco never is so long onder the saddle since he's foaled; I don't
reckon he knows before thar's so much hard work in the world as falls to
him when we goes ransackin' in quest of Tom an' Jerry.
"It's no use; the ground is hard an' dry an' I can't even see their
hoof-marks. The country's so rollin', too, it's no trouble for 'em to
hide. At last I quits an' throws my hand in the diskyard. Tom an' Jerry
is shore departed an' I'm deeficient my two best mules. I hooks up the
others, an' seein' it's down hill an' a easy trail I makes Tascosa an'
refits.
"I never crosses up on Tom an' Jerry in this yere life no more, but one
day I learns their fate. It's a month later on my next trip back, an'
I'm camped about a half day's drive of that same locoed plaza of
Tramperos. As I'm settin' in camp with the sun still plenty high--I'm
compilin' flapjacks at the time--I sees eight or ten ravens wheelin' an'
cirklin' over beyond a swell about three miles to the left.
"'Tom an' Jerry for a bloo stack!' I says to myse'f; an' with that I
cinches the saddle onto James precip'tate.
"Shore enough; I'm on the scene of the tragedy. Half way down a rocky
slope where thar ain't grass enough to cover the brown nakedness of the
ground lies the bones of Tom an' Jerry. This latter, who's that
obstinate an' resentful he won't go back to camp when I wallops him on
that gray mare mornin', allows he'll secrete himse'f an' Tom off to one
side an' worrit me up. While he's manooverin' about he gets the
half-inch rope he's draggin' tangled good an' fast in a mesquite bush.
It shorely holds him; that bush is old Jerry's last picket---his last
camp. Which he'd a mighty sight better played his hand out with me, even
if I does ring in a trace-chain on him at needed intervals. Jerry jest
nacherally starves to death for grass an' water. An' what's doubly hard
the lovin' Tom, troo to the last, starves with him. Thar's water within
two miles; but Tom declines it, stays an' starves with Jerry, an' the
ravens an' the coyotes picks their frames."
CHAPTER IX.
The Influence of Faro Nell.
"Thar's no doubt about it," observed the Old Cattleman, apropos of the
fairer, better sex--for woman was the gentle subject of our morning's
talk; "thar's no doubt about it, females is a refinin' an' ennoblin'
inflooence; you-all can hazard your chips on that an' pile 'em higher
than Cook's Peak! An' when Faro Nell prefers them requests, she's
ondoubted moved of feelin's of mercy. They shore does her credit, said
motives does, an' if she had asked Cherokee or Jack Moore, or even
Texas Thompson, things would have come off as effective an' a mighty
sight more discreet. But since he's standin' thar handy, Nell ups an'
recroots Dan Boggs on the side of hoomanity, an' tharupon Dan goes
trackin' in without doo reflection, an' sets the Mexicans examples
which, to give 'em a best deescription, is shore some bad. It ain't
Nell's fault, but Dan is a gent of sech onusual impulses that you-all
don't know wherever Dan will land none, once you goes pokin' up his
ha'r-hung sensibil'ties with su'gestions that is novel to his game.
Still, Nell can't he'p it; an' in view of what we knows to be the
female record since ever the world begins, I re-asserts onhesitatin'
that the effects of woman is good. She subdooes the reckless,
subjoogates the rebellious, sobers the friv'lous, burns the ground from
onder the indolent moccasins of that male she's roped up in holy
wedlock's bonds, an' p'ints the way to a higher, happier life. That's
whatever! an' this dramy of existence, as I once hears Colonel Sterett
say, would be a frost an' a failure an' bog plumb down at that, if you
was to cut out the leadin' lady roles an' ring up the curtain with
nothin' but bucks in the cast.'
"Narrow an' contracted as you may deem said camp to be, Wolfville
itse'f offers plenty proof on this head. Thar's Dave Tutt: Whatever is
Dave, I'd like for to inquire, prior to Tucson Jennie runnin' her
wifely brand on to him an' redoocin' him to domesticity? No, thar's
nothin' so evil about Dave neither, an' yet he has his little ways.
For one thing, Dave's about as extemporaneous a prop'sition as ever
sets in a saddle, an' thar's times when you give Dave licker an'
convince him it's a o'casion for joobilation, an' you-all won't have to
leave no 'call' with the clerk to insure yourse'f of bein' out early in
the mornin.' Son, Dave would keep that camp settin' up all night.
"But once Dave comes onder the mitigatin' spells of Tucson Jennie,
things is changed. Tucson Jennie knocks Dave's horns off doorin' the
first two weeks; he gets staid an' circumspect an' tharby plays better
poker an' grows more urbane.
"Likewise does Benson Annie work mir'cles sim'lar in the conduct of
that maverick French which Enright an' the camp, to allay the burnin'
excitement that's rendin' the outfit on account of the Laundry War,
herds into her lovin' arms. Tenderfoot as he is, when we-all ups an'
marries him off that time, this French already shows symptoms of
becomin' one of the most abandoned sports in Arizona. Benson Annie
seizes him, purifies him, an' makes him white as snow.
"An' thar's Missis Rucker;--as troo a lady as ever bakes a biscuit!
Even with the burdens of the O.K. Restauraw upon her she still finds
energy to improve old Rucker to that extent he ups an' rides off
towards the hills one mornin' an' never does come back no more.
"'Doc,' he says to Doc Peets, while he's fillin' a canteen in the Red
Light prior to his start; 'I won't tell you what I'm aimin' to
accomplish, because the Stranglers might regyard it as their dooty to
round me up. But thar's something comin' to the public, Doc; so I
yereby leaves word that next week, or next month, or mebby later, if
doubts is expressed of my fate, I'm still flutterin' about the scenery
some'ers an' am a long ways short of dead. An' as I fades from sight,
Doc, I'll take a chance an' say that the clause in the Constitootion
which allows that all gents is free an' equal wasn't meant to incloode
no married man.' An' with these croode bluffs Rucker chases forth for
the Floridas.
"No, the camp don't do nothin'; the word gets passed 'round that old
Rucker's gone prospectin' an' that he will recur in our midst whenever
thar's a reg'lar roll-call. As for Missis Rucker, personal, from all
we can jedge by lookin' on--for thar's shore none of us who's that
locoed we ups an' asks--I don't reckon now she ever notices that
Rucker's escaped.
"Yere's how it is the time when Faro Nell, her heart bleedin' for the
sufferin's of dumb an' he'pless brutes, employs Dan Boggs in errants of
mercy an' Dan's efforts to do good gets ill-advised. Not that Dan is
easily brought so he regyards his play as erroneous; Enright has to
rebooke Dan outright in set terms an' assoome airs of severity before
ever Dan allows he entertains a doubt.
"'Suppose I does retire that Greaser's hand from cirk'lation?' says
Dan, sort o' dispootatious with Enright an' Doc Peets, who's both
engaged in p'intin' out Dan's faults. 'Mexicans ain't got no more need
for hands than squinch owls has for hymn books. They won't work; they
never uses them members except for dealin' monte or clawin' a guitar.
I regyards a Mexican's hands that a-way, when considered as feachers in
his makeup, as sooperfluous.'
"'Dan, you shore is the most perverse sport!' says Enright, makin' a
gesture of impatience an' at the same time refillin' his glass in hopes
of a ca'mer frame. 'This ain't so much a question of hands as it's a
question of taste. Nell's requests is right, an' you're bound to go
about the rescoo of said chicken as the victim of crooelties. Where
you-all falls down is on a system. The method you invokes is
impertinent. Don't you say so, Doc?'
"'Which I shore does,' says Peets. 'Dan's conduct is absolootely
oncouth.'
"Dan lays the basis for these strictures in the follow-in' fashion:
It's a _fieste_ with the Mexicans--one of the noomerous saint's days
they gives way to when every Greaser onbuckles an' devotes himse'f to
merriments--an' over in Chihuahua, as the Mexican part of the camp is
called, the sunburnt portion of Wolfville's pop'lation broadens into
quite a time. Thar's hoss races an' monte an' mescal an' pulque,
together with roode music sech as may be wrung from primitive
instruments like the guitar, the fiddle, an' tin cans half filled with
stones.
"Faro Nell, who is only a child as you-all might say, an' ready to be
engaged an' entertained with childish things, goes trippin' over to
size up the gala scene.
"Thar's a passel of young Mexicans who's Ridin' for the Chicken's Head.
This yere is a sport something like a Gander Pullin', same as we-all
engages in on Thanksgivin' days an' Christmas, back when I'm a boy in
Tennessee. You saveys a Gander Pullin'? Son, you don't mean sech
ignorance! Thar must have been mighty little sunshine in the life of a
yooth in the morose regions where you was raised for you-all never to
disport yourse'f, even as a spectator, at a Gander Pullin'! It
wouldn't surprise me none after that if you ups an' informs me you
never shakes a fetlock in that dance called money-musk.
"To the end that you be eddicated,--for it's better late than
never,"--I'll pause concernin' Boggs an' the Mexicans long enough to
eloocidate of Gander Pullin's.
"As I su'gests, we onbends in this pastime at sech epocks as Christmas
an' Thanksgivin.' I don't myse'f take actooal part in any Gander
Pullin's. Not that I'm too delicate, but I ain't got no hoss. Bein' a
pore yooth, I spends the mornin' of my c'reer on foot, an' as a hoss is
a necessary ingreedient to a Gander Pullin', I never does stand in
personal on the festival, but is redooced to become a envy-bitten
looker-on.
"Gander Pullin's is conducted near a tavern or a still house so's the
assembled gents won't want the inspiration befittin' both the season
an' the scene, an' is commonly held onder the auspices of the
proprietor tharof. Thar's a track marked out in a cirkle like a little
racecourse for the hosses to gallop on. This course runs between two
poles pinned into the ground; or mebby it's two trees. Thar's a rope
stretched from pole to pole,--taut an' stiff she's stretched; an' the
gander who's the object of the meetin', with his neck an' head greased
a heap lavish, is hung from the rope by his two hind laigs. As the
gander hangs thar, what Colonel Sterett would style 'the cynosure of
every eye,' you'll notice that a gent by standin' high in the stirrups
can get a grip of the gander's head.
"As many as determines to distinguish themse'fs in the amoosement
throws a two-bit piece into a hat. Most likely thar'll be forty
partic'pants. They then lines up, Injun file, an' goes caperin' round
the course, each in his place in the joyous procession. As a gent goes
onder the rope he grabs for the gander's head; an' that party who's
expert enough to bring it away in his hand, wins the hat full of
two-bit pieces yeretofore deescribed.
"Which, of course, no gent succeeds the first dash outen the box, as a
gander's head is on some good and strong; an' many a saddle gets
emptied by virchoo of the back'ard yanks a party gets. But it's on
with the dance! They keeps whoopin' an' shoutin' an' ridin' the cirkle
an' grabbin' at the gander, each in his cheerful turn, ontil some
strong or lucky party sweeps away the prize, assoomes title to the
two-bit pieces, goes struttin' to the licker room an' buys nosepaint
for the pop'lace tharwith.
"Shore, doorin' a contest a gent's got to keep ridin'; he's not allowed
to pause an' dally with the gander an' delay the game. To see to this
a brace of brawny sharps is stationed by each pole with clubs in their
willin' hands to reemonstrate with any hoss or gent who slows down or
stops as he goes onder the gander.
"Thar you have it, son; a brief but lively picture of a Gander Pullin'
as pulled former in blithe old Tennessee. An' you'll allow, if you
sets down to a ca'm, onja'ndiced study of the sport, that a half hour
of reasonable thrill might be expected to flow from it. Gander
Pullin's is popular a lot when I'm a yearlin'; I knows that for shore;
though in a age which grows effete it's mighty likely if we-all goes
back thar now, we'd find it fallen into disuse as a reelaxation.
"In Ridin' for the Chicken's Head, a Mexican don't hang up his prey
none same as we-all does at Gander Pullin's. He buries it in the
ground to sech degrees that nothin' but the head an' neck protroodes.
An' as the Mexicans goes flashin' by on their broncos, each in turn
swings down an' makes a reach for the chicken's head. The experiment
calls for a shore-enough rider; as when a party is over on one side
that a-way, an' nothin' to hold by but a left hand on the saddlehorn
an' a left spur caught in the cantle, any little old pull will fetch
him out on his head.
"This day when Faro Nell comes bulgin' up to amoose her young an' idle
cur'osity with the gayeties of Chihuahua, the Ridin' for the Chicken's
Head is about to commence. Which they're jest plantin' the chicken.
At first Nell don't savey, as she ain't posted deep on Mexican
pastimes. But Nell is plenty quick mental; as, actin' look-out for
Cherokee's bank, she's bound to be. Wherefore Nell don't study the
preeliminaries long before she gets onto the roodiments of some idee
concernin' the jocund plans of the Greasers.
"At last the chicken is buried, an' thar's nothin' in sight but its
anxious head. Except that it can turn an' twist its neck some, it's
fixed in the ground as firm an' solid as the stumps of a mesquite bush.
"The first Greaser--he's a gaudy party with more colours than you could
count in any rainbow--is organisin' for a rush. He's pickin' up his
reins an' pushin' his moccasins deep into his tappedaries, when, as he
gives his cayouse the spur, the beauty of Ridin' for the Chicken's Head
bursts full on Faro Nell. Comin' on her onexpected, Nell don't see no
pleasure in it. It don't present the attractions which so alloores the
heart of a Greaser. Without pausin' to think, an' feelin' shocked over
the fate that's ridin' down on the buried chicken, Nell grips her
little paws convulsive an' snaps her teeth. It's then her eye catches
Dan Boggs, who's contemplatin' details an' awaitin' the finish with
vivid interest.
"'Oh, Dan!' says Nell, grabbin' Dan's arm, 'I don't want that chicken
hurt none! Can't you-all make 'em stop?'
"'Shore!' says Dan, prompt to Nell's cry. 'I preevails on 'em to cease
easy.'
"As Dan says this, that radiant cavalier is sweepin' upon the pore
chicken like the breath of destiny. He's bendin' from the saddle to
make a swoop as Dan speaks. Thar ain't a moment to lose an' Dan's hand
goes to his gun.
"'Watch me stop him,' says Dan; an' as he does, his bullet makes rags
of the Mexican's hand not a inch from the chicken's head.
"For what time you-all might need to slop out a drink, the onlookin'
Mexicans stands still. Then the stoopefyin' impressions made by Dan's
pistol practice wears off an' a howl goes up like a hundred wolves. At
this Dan gets his number-two gun to b'ar, an' with one in each hand,
confronts the tan-coloured multitoode.
"'That's shore a nice shot, Nell!' says Dan over his shoulder, ropin'
for the congratoolations he thinks is comin.'
"But Nell don't hear him; she's one hundred yards away an' streakin' it
for the Red Light like a shootin' star. She tumbles in on us with the
brake off like a stage-coach downhill.
"'Dan's treed Chihuahua!' gasps Nell, as she heads straight for
Cherokee; 'you-all better rustle over thar plumb soon!'
"Cherokee jumps an' grabs his hardware where they're layin' onder the
table. Bein' daylight an' no game goin', an' the day some warm
besides, he ain't been wearin' 'em, bein' as you-all might say in
negligee. Cherokee buckles on his belts in a second an' starts; the
rest of us, however, since we're more ackerately garbed, don't lose no
time an' is already half way to Dan.
"It ain't a two-minute run an' we arrives in time. Thar's no more
blood, though thar might have been, for we finds Dan frontin' up to
full two hundred Greasers, their numbers increasin' and excitement
runnin' a heap high. We cuts in between Dan an' Mexican public opinion
and extricates that over-vol'tile sport.
"But Dan won't return ontil he exhoomes the chicken, which is still
bobbin' an' twistin' its onharmed head where the Mexican buries it.
Dan digs it up an' takes it by the laigs; Enright meanwhile cussin' him
out, fervent an' nervous, for he fears some locoed Greaser will cut
loose every moment an' mebby crease a gent, an' so leave it incumbent
on the rest of us to desolate Chihuahua.
"'It's for Nell,' expostulates Dan, replyin' to Enright's criticisms.
'I knows she wants it by the way she grabs my coat that time.
Moreover, from the tones she speaks in, I reckons she wants it alive.
Also, I don't discern no excoose for this toomult neither; which
you-all is shore the most peevish bunch, Enright, an' that's whatever!'
"'Peevish or no,' retorts Enright, 'as a jedge of warjigs I figgers
that we gets here jest in time. Thar you be, up ag'inst the entire
tribe, an' each one with a gun. It's one of the deefects of a Colt's
six-shooter that it hits as hard an' shoots as troo for a Injun or a
Greaser as it does for folks. Talk about us bein' peevish! what do
you-all reckon would have been results if we hadn't cut in on the
_baile_ at the time we does?'
"'Nothin',' says Dan, with tones of soopreme vanity, at the same time
dustin' the dirt off Nell's chicken, 'nothing except I'd hung crape on
half the dobies in Chihuahua.'
"About two hours after, when things ag'in simmers to the usual, an'
Nell is makin' her chicken a coop out to the r'ar of the Red Light,
Enright gives a half laugh.
"'Dan,' says Enright, 'when I reflects on the hole we drug you out of,
an' the way you-all gets in, you reminds me of that Thomas Benton dog I
owns when I'm a yoothful child on the Cumberland. Which Thomas Benton
that a-way is a mighty industrious dog an' would turn over a
quarter-section of land any afternoon diggin' out a ground-hawg. But
thar's this drawback to Thomas Benton which impairs his market valyoo.
Some folks used to regyard it as a foible; but it's worse, it's a
deefect. As I remarks, this Thomas Benton dog would throw his whole
soul into the work, an' dig for a groundhawg like he ain't got another
dollar. But thar's this pecooliarity: After that Thomas Benton dog has
done dug out the ground-hawg for a couple of hours, you-all is forced
to get a spade an' dig out that Thomas Benton dog. He's dead now these
yere forty years, but if he's livin' I'd shore change his name an'
rebrand him "Dan'l Boggs."'"
CHAPTER X.
The Ghost of the Bar-B-8.
"Spectres? Never! I refooses 'em my beliefs utter"; and with these
emphatic words the Old Cattleman tasted his liquor thoughtfully on his
tongue. The experiment was not satisfactory; and he despatched his
dark retainer Tom for lemons and sugar. "An' you-all might better tote
along some hot water, too;" he commanded. "This nosepaint feels raw
an' over-fervid; a leetle dilootion won't injure it none."
"But about ghosts?" I persisted.
"Ghosts?" he retorted. "I never does hear of but one; that's a
apparition which enlists the attentions of Peets and Old Man Enright a
lot. It's a spectre that takes to ha'ntin' about one of Enright's
Bar-B-8 sign-camps, an' scarin' up the cattle an' drivin' 'em over a
precipice, an' all to Enright's disaster an' loss. Nacherally, Enright
don't like this spectral play; an' him an' Peets lays for the wraith
with rifles, busts its knee some, an' Peets ampytates its laig. Then
they throws it loose; allowin' that now it's only got one lai'g, the
visitations will mighty likely cease. Moreover Enright regyards
ampytation that a-way, as punishment enough. Which I should shore
allow the same myse'f!
"It ain't much of a tale. It turns out like all sperit stories; when
you approaches plumb close an' jumps sideways at 'em an' seizes 'em by
the antlers, the soopernacheral elements sort o' bogs down.
"It's over mebby fifty miles to the southeast of Wolfville, some'ers in
the fringes of the Tres Hermanas that thar's a sign-camp of Enright's
brand. Thar's a couple of Enright's riders holdin' down this corner of
the Bar-B-8 game, an' one evenin' both of 'em comes squanderin'
in,--ponies a-foam an' faces pale as milk,--an' puts it up they don't
return to that camp no more.
"'Because she's ha'nted,' says one; 'Jim an' me both encounters this
yere banshee an' it's got fire eyes. Also, itse'f and pony is
constructed of bloo flames. You can gamble! I don't want none of it
in mine; an' that's whatever!'
"Any gent can see that these yooths is mighty scared. Enright elicits
their yarn only after pourin' about a quart of nosepaint into 'em.
"It looks like on two several o'casions that a handful of cattle gets
run over a steep bluff from the _mesa_ above. The fall is some sixty
feet in the cl'ar, an' when them devoted cattle strikes the bottom it's
plenty easy to guess they're sech no longer, an' thar's nothin' left of
'em but beef. These beef drives happens each time in the night; an'
the cattle must have been stampeded complete to make the trip. Cattle,
that a-way, ain't goin' to go chargin' over a high bluff none onless
their reason is onhinged. No, the coyotes an' the mountain lions don't
do it; they never chases cattle, holdin' 'em in fear an' tremblin.'
These mountain lions prounces down on colts like a mink on a settin'
hen, but never calves or cattle.
"It's after the second beef killin' when the two riders allows they'll
do some night herdin' themse'fs an' see if they solves these
pheenomenons that's cuttin' into the Bar-B-8.
"'An' it's mebby second drink time after midnight,' gasps the
cow-puncher who's relatin' the adventures, 'an' me an' Jim is
experimentin' along the aige of the _mesa_, when of a suddent thar
comes two steers, heads down, tails up, locoed absoloote they be; an'
flashin' about in the r'ar of 'em rides this flamin' cow-sperit on its
flamin' cayouse. Shore! he heads 'em over the cliff; I hears 'em hit
the bottom of the canyon jest as I falls off my bronco in a fit. As
soon as ever I comes to an' can scramble into that Texas saddle ag'in,
me an' Jim hits the high places in the scenery, in a fervid way, an'
yere we-all be! An' you hear me, gents, I don't go back to that
Bar-B-8 camp no more. I ain't ridin' herd on apparitions; an' whenever
ghosts takes to romancin' about in the cow business, that lets me out.'
"'I reckons,' says Enright, wrinklin' up his brows, 'I'll take a look
into this racket myse'f.'
"'An' if you-all don't mind none, Enright,' says Peets, 'I'll get my
chips in with yours. Thar's been no one shot for a month in either Red
Dog or Wolfville an' I'm reedic'lous free of patients. An' if the
boys'll promise to hold themse'fs an' their guns in abeyance for a week
or so, an' not go framin' up excooses for my presence abrupt, I figgers
that a few days idlin' about the ranges, an' mebby a riot or two
roundin' up this cow-demon, will expand me an' do me good.'
"'You're lookin' for trouble, Doc,' says Colonel Sterett, kind o'
laughin' at Peets. 'You reminds me of a onhappy sport I encounters
long ago in Looeyville.'
"'An' wherein does this Bloo Grass party resemble me?' asks Peets.
"'It's one evenin',' says Colonel Sterett, 'an' a passel of us is
settin' about in the Gait House bar, toyin' with our beverages. Thar's
a smooth, good-lookin' stranger who's camped at a table near. Final,
he yawns like he's shore weary of life an' looks at us sharp an'
cur'ous. Then he speaks up gen'ral as though he's addressin' the air.
"This is a mighty dull town!" he says. "Which I've been yere a
fortnight an' I ain't had no fight as yet." An' he continyoos to look
us over plenty mournful.
"'"You-all needn't gaze on us that a-way," says a gent named Granger;
"you can set down a stack on it, you ain't goin' to pull on no war with
none of us."
"'"Shore, no!" says the onhappy stranger. Then he goes on apol'getic;
"Gents, I'm onfort'nately constitootcd. Onless I has trouble at
reasonable intervals it preys on me. I've been yere in your town two
weeks an' so far ain't seen the sign. Gents, it's beginnin' to tell;
an' if any of you-all could direct me where I might get action it would
be kindly took."
"'"If you're honin' for a muss," says Granger, "all you has to do is go
a couple of blocks to the east, an' then five to the no'th, an' thar on
the corner you'll note a mighty prosperous s'loon. You caper in by the
side door; it says FAMILY ENTRANCE over this yere portal. Sa'nter up
to the bar, call for licker, drink it; an' then you remark to the
barkeep, casooal like, that you're thar to maintain that any outcast
who'll sell sech whiskey ain't fit to drink with a nigger or eat with a
dog. That's all; that barkeep'll relieve you of the load that's
burdenin' your nerves in about thirty seconds. You'll be the happiest
sport in Looeyville when he gets through."
"'"But can't you come an' p'int out the place," coaxes the onhappy
stranger of Granger. He's all wropped up in what Granger tells him.
"I don't know my way about good, an' from your deescriptions I shorely
wouldn't miss visitin' that resort for gold an' precious stones. Come
an' show me, pard; I'll take you thar in a kerriage."
"'At that Granger consents to guide the onhappy stranger. They drives
over an' Granger stops the outfit, mebby she's fifty yards from the
door. He p'ints it out to the onhappy stranger sport.
"'Come with me," says the onhappy stranger, as he gets outen the
kerriage. "Come on; you-all don't have to fight none. I jest wants
you to watch me. Which I'm the dandiest warrior for the whole length
of the Ohio!"
"'But Granger is firm that he won't; he's not inquisitive, he says, an'
will stay planted right thar on the r'ar seat an' await deevelopments.
With that, the onhappy stranger sport goes sorrowfully for'ard alone,
an' gets into the gin-mill by the said FAMILY ENTRANCE. Granger' sets
thar with his head out an' y'ears cocked lookin' an' listenin'.
"'Everything's plenty quiet for a minute. Then slam! bang! bing!
crash! the most flagrant hubbub breaks forth! It sounds like that
store's comin' down. The racket rages an' grows worse. Thar's a
smashin' of glass. The lights goes out, while customers comes boundin'
an' skippin' forth from the FAMILY ENTRANCE like frightened fawns. At
last the uproars dies down ontil they subsides complete.
"'Granger is beginnin' to upbraid himse'f for not gettin the onhappy
stranger's address, so's he could ship home the remainder. In the
midst of Granger's se'f-accoosations, the lights in the gin-mill begins
to burn ag'in, one by one. After awhile, she's reilloominated an'
ablaze with old-time glory. It's then the FAMILY ENTRANCE opens an'
the onhappy stranger sport emerges onto the sidewalk. He's in his
shirtsleeves, an' a satisfied smile wreathes his face. He shore looks
plumb content!
"'"Get out of the kerriage an' come in, pard," he shouts to Granger.
"Come on in a whole lot! I'd journey down thar an' get you, but I
can't leave; I'm tendin' bar!"'
"'You're shore right, Colonel,' says Peets, when Colonel Sterett ends
the anecdote, 'the feelin' of that onhappy stranger sport is parallel
to mine. Ghosts is new to me; an' I'm goin' pirootin' off with Enright
on this demon hunt an' see if I can't fetch up in the midst of a trifle
of nerve-coolin' excitement.'
"The ghost tales of the stampeded cow-punchers excites Dan Boggs a
heap. After Enright an' Peets has organised an' gone p'inting out for
the ha'nted Bar-B-8 sign-camp to investigate the spook, Dan can't talk
of nothin' else.
"'Them's mighty dead game gents, Enright an' Doc Peets is!' says Dan.
'I wouldn't go searchin' for no sperits more'n I'd write letters to
rattlesnakes! I draws the line at intimacies with fiends.'
"'But mebby this yere is a angel,' says Faro Nell, from her stool
alongside of Cherokee Hall.
"'Not criticisin' you none, Nell,' says Dan, 'Cherokee himse'f will
tell you sech surmises is reedic'lous. No angel is goin' to visit
Arizona for obvious reasons. An' ag'in, no angel's doo to go
skally-hootin' about after steers an' stampeedin' 'em over brinks.
It's ag'in reason; you bet! That blazin' wraith, that a-way, is a
shore-enough demon! An' as for me, personal, I wouldn't cut his trail
for a bunch of ponies!
"'Be you-all scared of ghosts, Dan?' asks Faro Nell.
"'Be I scared of ghosts?' says Dan. 'Which I wish, I could see a ghost
an' show you! I don't want to brag none, Nellie, but I'll gamble four
for one, an' go as far as you likes, that if you was to up an' show me
a ghost right now, I wouldn't stop runnin' for a month. But what
appals me partic'lar,' goes on Dan, 'about Peets an' Enright, is they
takes their guns. Now a ghost waxes onusual indignant if you takes to
shootin' him up with guns. No, it don't hurt him; but he regyards sech
demonstrations as insults. It's like my old pap says that time about
the Yankees. My old pap is a colonel with Gen'ral Price, an' on this
evenin' is engaged in leadin' one of the most intrepid retreats of the
war. As he's prancin' along at the head of his men where a great
commander belongs, he's shore scandalised by hearin' his r'ar gyard
firin' on the Yanks. So he rides back, my old pap does, an' he says:
"Yere you-all eediots! Whatever do you mean by shootin' at them
Yankees? Don't you know it only makes 'em madder?" An' that,'
concloods Dan, 'is how I feels about spectres. I wouldn't go lammin'
loose at 'em with no guns; it only makes 'em madder.'
"It's the next day, an' Peets an' Enright is organised in the ha'nted
sign-camp of the Bar-B-8. Also, they've been lookin' round. By ridin'
along onder the face of the precipice, they comes, one after t'other,
on what little is left of the dead steers. What strikes 'em as a heap
pecooliar is that thar's no bones or horns. Two or three of the hoofs
is kickin' about, an' Enright picks up one the coyotes overlooks. It
shows it's been cut off at the fetlock j'int by a knife.
"'This spectre,' says Enright, passin' the hoof to Peets, 'packs a
bowie; an' he likewise butchers his prey. Also, ondoubted, he freights
the meat off some'ers to his camp, which is why we don't notice no big
bones layin' 'round loose.' Then Enright scans the grass mighty
scroopulous; an' shore enough! thar's plenty of pony tracks printed
into the soil. 'That don't look so soopernacheral neither,' says
Enright, p'intin' to the hoof-prints.
"'Them's shorely made by a flesh an' blood pony,' says Peets. 'An'
from their goin' some deep into the ground, I dedooces that said
cayouse is loaded down with what weight of beef an' man it can stagger
onder.'
"That evenin' over their grub Enright an' Peets discusses the business.
Thar's a jimcrow Mexican plaza not three miles off in the hills. Both
of 'em is aware of this hamlet, an' Peets, partic'lar, is well
acquainted with a old Mexican sharp who lives thar--he's a kind o'
schoolmaster among 'em--who's mighty cunnin' an' learned. His name is
Jose Miguel.
"'An' I'm beginnin' to figger,' says Peets, 'that this ghostly rider is
the foxy little Jose Miguel. Which I've frequent talked with him; an'
he saveys enough about drugs an' chemicals to paint up with phosphorus
an' go surgin' about an' stampedin' cattle over bluffs. It's a mighty
good idee from his standp'int. He can argue that the cattle kills
themse'fs--sort o' commits sooicide inadvertent--an' if we-all trades
up on him with the beef, he insists on his innocence, an' puts it up
that his cuttin' in on the play after said cattle done slays themse'fs
injures nobody but coyotes.'
"'Doc,' coincides Enright, after roominatin' in silence, 'Doc, the
longer I ponders, the more them theories seems sagacious. That
enterprisin' Greaser is jest about killin' my beef an' sellin' it to
the entire plaza. Not only does this ghost play opp'rate to stampede
the cattle an' set 'em runnin' cimmaron an' locoed so they'll chase
over the cliffs to their ends, but it serves to scare my cow-punchers
off the range, which last, ondoubted, this Miguel looks on as a
deesideratum. However, it's goin' to be good an' dark to-night, an' if
we-all has half luck I reckons that we fixes him.'
"It's full two hours after midnight an' while thar's stars overhead
thar's no moon; along the top of the _mesa_ it's as dark as the inside
of a jug. Peets an' Enright is Injunin' about on the prowl for the
ghost. They don't much reckon it'll be abroad, as mebby the plaza has
beef enough.
"'However, by to-morry night,' says Enright in a whisper, 'or at the
worst, by the night after, we're shore to meet up with this marauder.'
"'Hesh!' whispers Peets, at the same time stoppin' Enright with his
hand, 'he's out to-night!'
"An' thar for shore is something like a dim bloo light movin' across
the plains. Now an' then, two brighter lights shows in spots like the
blazes of candles; them's the fire eyes the locoed cowboys tells of.
Whatever it is, whether spook or Greaser, it's quarterin' the ground
like one of these huntin' dogs. Its gait is a slow canter.
"'He's on the scout,' says Enright,' 'tryin' to start a steer or two in
the dark; but he ain't located none yet.'
"Enright an' Peets slides to the ground an' hobbles their broncos.
They don't aim to have 'em go swarmin' over no bluffs in any blindness
of a first surprise. When the ponies is safe, they bends low an'
begins makin' up towards the ground on which this bloo-shimmerin'
shadow is ha'ntin' about. Things comes their way; they has luck.
They've done crope about forty rods when the ghost heads for 'em. They
can easy tell he's comin', for the fire eyes shows all the time an' not
by fits an' starts as former. As the bloo shimmer draws nearer they
makes out the vague shadows of a man on a hoss. Son, she's shore
plenty ghostly as a vision, an' Enright allows later, it's no marvel
the punchers vamoses sech scenes.
"'How about it,' whispers Peets; 'shall I do the shootin'?'
"'Which your eyes is younger,' says Enright. 'You cut loose; an' I'll
stand by to back the play. Only aim plenty low. You can't he'p
over-shootin' in the dark. Hold as low as his stirrup.'
"Peets pulls himse'f up straight as a saplin' an' runs his left hand
along the bar'l as far as his arm'll reach. An' he hangs long on the
aim as shootin' in the dark ain't no cinch. If this ghost is a bright
ghost it would be easy. But he ain't; he's bloo an' dim like washed
out moonlight, or when it's jest gettin' to be dawn. Enright's twenty
yards to one side so as to free himse'f of Peet's smoke in case he has
to make a second shot.
"But Peets calls the turn. With the crack of that Sharp's of his, the
ghost sets up sech a screech it proves he ain't white an' also that
he'll live through the evenin's events. As the spectre yelps, the bloo
cayouse goes over on its head an' neck an' then falls dead on its side.
The lead which only smashes the spectre's knee to splinters goes plumb
through the pony's heart.
"As Peets foresees, the ghost ain't none other than the wise little
Jose Miguel, schoolmaster, who's up on drugs an' chemicals. The bloo
glimmer is phosphorus; an' the fire eyes is two of these little old
lamps like miners packs in their caps.
"Enright an' Peets strolls up; this Miguel is groanin' an' mournin' an'
cryin' 'Marie, Madre de Dios!' When he sees who downs him, he drags
himse'f to Enright an' begs a heap abject for his life. With that,
Enright silently lets down the hammer of his rifle.
"Peets when the sun comes up enjoys himse'f speshul with the
opp'ration. Peets is fond of ampytations, that a-way, and he lops off
said limb with zest an' gusto.
"'I shore deplores, Jose,' says Peets, 'to go shortenin' up a fellow
scientist like this. But thar's no he'pin' it; fate has so decreed.
Also, as some comfort to your soul, I'll explain to Sam Enright how you
won't ride much when I gets you fairly trimmed. Leastwise, after I'm
done prunin' you, thar won't be nothin' but these yere woman's saddles
that you'll fit, an' no gent, be he white or be he Greaser, can work
cattle from a side-saddle.' An' Peets, hummin' a roundelay, cuts
merrily into the wounded member."
CHAPTER XI.
Tucson Jennie's Correction.
"Doc Peets, son," said the Old Cattleman, while his face wore the look of
decent gravity it ever donned when that man of medicine was named, "Doc
Peets has his several uses. Aside from him bein' a profound sharp on
drugs, an' partic'lar cowboy drugs, he's plenty learned in a gen'ral way,
an' knows where every kyard lays in nacher's deck, from them star-flecked
heavens above to the earth beneath, an'--as Scripter puts it--to the
'waters onder the earth.' It's a good scheme to have a brace of highly
eddicated gents, same as Colonel Sterett an' Doc Peets, sort o' idlin'
'round your camp. Thar's times when a scientist, or say, a lit'rary
sport comes bluffin' into Wolfville; an' sech folks is a mighty sight too
deep for Boggs an' me an' Tutt. If we're left plumb alone with a band of
them book-read shorthorns like I deescribes, you-all sees yourse'f,
they're bound to go spraddlin' East ag'in, an' report how darkened
Wolfville is. But not after they locks horns with Doc Peets or Colonel
Sterett. Wherefore, whenever the camp's invaded by any over-enlightened
people who's gone too far in schools for the rest of us to break even
with, we ups an' plays Doc Peets or Colonel Sterett onto 'em; an' the way
either of them gents would turn in an' tangle said visitors up mental
don't bother 'em a bit. That's straight; Peets an' the Colonel is our
refooge; they're our protectors; an' many a time an' oft, have I beheld
'em lay for some vain-glorious savant who's got a notion the Southwest,
that a-way, is a region of savagery where the folks can't even read an'
write none, an' they'd rope, throw, an' hawgtie him--verbal, I means--an'
brand his mem'ry with the red-hot fact that he's wrong an' been wadin' in
error up to the saddle-girths touchin' the intellectooal attainments of
good old Arizona. Shore,--Doc Peets has other uses than drugs, an' he
discharges 'em.
"Now that I thinks of the matter, it's Doc Peets who restores Dave Tutt
to full standin' with Tucson Jennie, the time she begins to neglect Dave.
You see, the trouble is this a-way: It really starts--leastwise I allers
so believes--in Dave's beginnin' wrong with Tucson Jennie. Troo, as I
confesses to you frequent yeretofore, I ain't married none myse'f; still,
I've been livin' a likely number of years, an' has nacherally witnessed a
whole lot touchin' other gents an' their wives; an' sech experiences is
bound to breed concloosions. An' while I may be wrong, for these yere
views is nothin' more than a passel of ontested theeries with me, it's my
beliefs that thar's two attitoodes, speakin' gen'ral, which a gent
assoomes toward his bride. Either he deals with her on what we-all will
call the buck-squaw system, or he turns the game about complete, an'
organises his play on the gentleman-lady system. In the latter, the gent
waits on his wife; he comes an' he goes, steps high or soft, exactly as
she commands. She gives the orders; an' he rides a pony to death
execootin' 'em, an' no reemonstrances nor queries. That wife is range
an' round-up boss for her outfit.
"But the buck-squaw system is after all more hooman an' satisfactory.
It's opposite to the other. The gent is reesponsible for beef on the
hook an' flour in the bar'l. He's got to provide the blankets, make good
ag'in the household's hunger, an' see to it thar's allers wood an' water
within easy throw of every camp he pitches. Beyond that, however, the
gent who's playin' the buck-squaw system don't wander. When he's in
camp, he distinguishes himse'f by doin' nothin'. He wrops himse'f in his
blankets, camps down by the fire, while his wife rustles his chuck an'
fills his pipe for him. At first glance, this yere buck-squaw system
might strike a neeophyte as a mighty brootal scheme. Jest the same,
it'll eemerge winner twenty times to the gentleman-lady system's once.
The women folks like it. Which they'll pretend they prefers the
gentleman-lady system, where they sets still an' the gent attends on 'em;
but don't you credit it, none whatever. It's the good old patriarchal,
buck-squaw idee, where the gent does nothin' an' the lady goes prancin'
about like the ministerin' angel which she is, that tickles her to death.
I states ag'in, that it's my notion, Dave who begins with Tucson
Jennie--they bein' man an' wife--on the gentleman-lady system, tharby
hatches cold neglect for himse'f. An' if it ain't for the smooth savey
of Doc Peets, thar's no sport who could foretell the disastrous end.
Dave, himse'f thinks he'd have had eventool to resign his p'sition as
Jennie's husband an' quit.
"Which I've onfolded to you prior of Jennie's gettin' jealous of Dave
touchin' that English towerist female; but this yere last trouble ain't
no likeness nor kin to that. Them gusts of jealousy don't do no harm
nohow; nor last the day. They're like thunder showers; brief an' black
enough, but soon over an' leavin' the world brighter.
"This last attitoode of Jennie towards Dave is one of abandonment an'
onthinkin' indifference that a-way. It begins hard on the fetlocks of
that interestin' event, thrillin' to every proud Wolfville heart, the
birth of Dave's only infant son, Enright Peets Tutt. Which I never does
cross up with no one who deems more of her progeny than Jennie does of
the yoothful Enright Peets. A cow's solicitoode concernin' her calf is
chill regyard compared tharwith. Jennie hangs over Enright Peets like
some dew-jewelled hollyhock over a gyarden fence; you'd think he's a
roast apple; an' I don't reckon now, followin' that child's advent, she
ever sees another thing in Arizona but jest Enright Peets. He's the
whole check-rack--the one bet that wins on the layout of the
possible--an' Jennie proceeds to conduct herse'f accordin'. It's a good
thing mebby for Enright Peets; I won't set camped yere an' say it ain't;
but it's mighty hard on Dave.
"Jennie not only neglects Dave, she turns herse'f loose frequent an'
assails him. If he shows up in his wigwam walkin' some emphatic,
Jennie'll be down on him like a fallin' star an' accoose him of wakin'
Enright Peets.
"'An' if you-all wakes him,' says Jennie to Dave, sort o' domineerin' at
him with her forefinger, 'he'll be sick; an' if he gets sick, he'll die;
an' if he dies, you'll be a murderer--the heartless deestroyer of your
own he'pless offspring,--which awful deed I sometimes thinks you're
p'intin' out to pull off.' An' then Jennie would put her apron over her
head an' shed tears a heap; while Dave--all harrowed up an'
onstrung--would come stampedin' down to the Red Light an' get consolation
from Black Jack by the quart.
"That's the idee, son; it's impossible to go into painful details, 'cause
I ain't in Dave's or Jennie's confidence enough to round 'em up; but you
onderstands what I means. Jennie's forever hectorin' an' pesterin' Dave
about Enright Peets; an' beyond that she don't pay no more heed, an'
don't have him no more on her mind, than if he's one of these yere little
jimcrow ground-owls you-all sees inhabitin' about dissoloote an'
permiscus with prairie-dogs. What's the result? Dave's sperits begins
to sink; he takes to droopin' about listless an' onregyardful; an' he's
that low an' onhappy his nosepaint don't bring him no more of comfort
than if he's a graven image. Why, it's the saddest thing I ever sees in
Wolfville!
"We-all observes how Dave's dwindlin' an' pinin' an' most of us has a
foggy onderstandin' of the trooth. But what can we do? If thar's ever a
aggregation of sports who's powerless, utter, to come to the rescoo of a
comrade in a hole, it's Enright an' Moore an' Boggs an' Texas Thompson
an' Cherokee an' me, doorin' them days when that neglect of Tucson
Jennie's is makin' pore Dave's burdens more'n he can b'ar. Shore, we
consults; but that don't come to nothin' ontil the o'casion when Doc
Peets takes the tangle in ser'ous hand.
"Thar's a day dawns when Missis Rucker gets exasperated over Dave's
ill-yoosage. Missis Rucker is a sperited person an' she canters over an'
onloads her opinions on Tucson Jennie. Commonly, these yere ladies can't
think too much of one another; but on this one division of the house of
Tutt, Missis Rucker goes out on Dave's angle of the game. An' you-all
should have seen the terror it inspires when Missis Rucker declar's her
hostile intentions.
"It's in the O.K. restauraw, when Missis Rucker, who's feedin' us our
mornin' flap-jacks an' salt hoss as usual, turns to Old Man Enright, an'
says:
"'As soon as ever I've got the last drunkard fed an' outen the house, I'm
goin' to put on my shaker an' go an' tell that Tucson Jennie Tutt what's
on my mind. I shore never sees a woman change more than Jennie since the
days when she cooks for me in this yere very restauraw an' lays plans an'
plots to lure Dave into wedlock. I will say that Jennie, nacheral, is a
good wife; but the fashion, wherein she tromples on Dave an' his rights
is a disgrace to her sex, an' I'm goin' to deevote a hour this mornin' to
callin' Jennie's attention tharunto.'
"'Missis Rucker is a mighty intrepid lady,' says Enright, when we goes
over to the New York store followin' feed. 'I'd no more embrace them
chances she's out to tackle than I'd go dallyin' about a wronged grizzly.
But jest the same, I'd give a stack of reds if Peets is here! When did
he say he'd be back from Tucson?'
"'The Doc don't allow he'll come trailin' in ag'in,' says Dan Boggs,
'ontil day after to-morry. Which this female dooel will be plumb over by
then, an' most likely the camp a wrack.'
"While we-all stands thar gazin' on each other, enable to su'gest
anything to meet the emergency, Texas Thompson's pony is brought up from
the corral, saddled an' bridled, an' ready for the trail.
"'Well, gents,' says Texas, when he sees his hoss is come, 'I reckons
I'll say _adios_ an' pull my freight. I'll be back in a week.'
"'Wherever be you p'intin' for?' asks Cherokee Hall. 'Ain't this goin'
of yours some sudden?'
"'It is a trifle hasty,' says Texas; 'but do you cimmarons think I'm
goin' to linger yere after Missis Rucker gives notice she's preparin' to
burn the ground around Tucson Jennie about Dave? Gents, I don't pack the
nerve! I ain't lived three years with my former wife who gets that
Laredo divorce I once or twice adverts to, an' not know enough not to get
caught out on no sech limb as this. No, sir; I sees enough of woman an'
her ways to teach me that now ain't no time to be standin' about
irresoloote an' ondecided, an' I'm goin' to dig out for Tucson, you bet,
ontil this uprisin' subsides.'
"This example of Texas scares us up a whole lot; the fact is, it
stampedes us; an' without a further word of argyment, the whole band
makes a break for the corral, throws saddles onto the swiftest ponies,
an' in two minutes we're lost in that cloud of alkali dust we kicks up
down the trail toward the no'th.
"'Which I won't say that this exodus is necessary,' observes Enright,
when ten miles out we slows up to a road gait to breathe our ponies, 'but
I thinks on the whole it's safer. Besides, I oughter go over to Tucson
anyway on business.'
"The rest of us don't make no remarks nor excooses; but every gent is
feelin' like a great personal peril has blown by.
"The next day, we rounds up Doc Peets, an' he encourages us so that we
concloods to return an' make a size-up of results.
"'I shore hopes we finds Dave safe.' says Dan Boggs.
"'It's even money,' says Jack Moore, 'that Dave pulls through. Dave's a
mighty wary sport when worst comes to worst; an' as game as redhead ants.'
"'That's all right about Dave bein' game,' retorts Dan, 'but this yere's
a time when Dave ain't got no show. I says ag'in, I trust he retains
decision of character sufficient to go hide out doorin' the storm. It
ain't no credit to us that we forgets to bring him along.'
"'No; thar wasn't no harm done,' says Faro Nell, who reports progress to
us after we rounds up in the Red Light followin' our return. Nell's a
brave girl an' stands a pat hand when the rest of us vamosed that time.
'Thar ain't no real trouble. Missis Rucker merely sets fire to Jennie
about the way she maltreats Dave; an' she says Jennie's drivin' him
locoed, an' no wonder. Also, she lets on she don't see whatever Dave
marries Jennie for anyhow!
"'At that, Jennie comes back an' reminds Missis Rucker how she herse'f
done treats Mister Rucker that turrible he goes cavortin' off an' seeks
safety among the Apaches. An' so they keeps on slingin' it back'ards an'
for'ards for mebby two hours, an' me ha'ntin' about to chunk in a word.
Then, final, they cries an' makes up; an' then they both concedes that
one way an' another they're the best two people each other ever sees. At
this juncture,' concloods Nell, 'I declar's myse'f in on the play; an'
we-all three sets down an' admires Enright Peets an' visits an' has a
splendid afternoon.'
"'An' wherever doorin' this emute is Dave?' asks Enright.
"'Oh, Dave?' says Nell. 'Why he's lurkin' about outside som'ers in a
furtive, surreptitious way; but he don't molest us none. Which, now I
remembers, Dave don't even come near us none at all.'
"'I should say not!' says Texas Thompson, plenty emphatic. 'Dave ain't
quite that witless.'
"'Now, gents,' remarks Doc Peets, when Nell is done, an' his tones is
confident like he's certain of his foothold, 'since things has gone thus
far I'll sa'nter into the midst of these domestic difficulties an' adjust
'em some. I've thought up a s'lootion; an' it's apples to ashes that
inside of twenty-four hours I has Jennie pettin' an' cossetin' Dave to
beat four of a kind. Leave this yere matter to me entire.'
"We-all can't see jest how Peets is goin' to work these mir'cles; still,
sech is our faith, we believes. We decides among ourse'fs, however, that
if Peets does turn this pacific trick it'll ondoubted be the crownin'
glory of his c'reer.
"After Peets hangs up his bluff, we goes about strainin' eyes an' y'ears
for any yells or signal smokes that denotes the advent of said changes.
An', son, hard as it is to credit, it comes to pass like Peets
prognosticates. By next evenin' a great current of tenderness for Dave
goes over Jennie all at once. She begins to call him 'Davy'--a onheard
of weakness!--an' hovers about him askin' whatever he thinks he needs; in
fact, she becomes that devoted, it looks like the little Enright Peets'll
want he'p next to play his hand for him. That's the trooth: Jennie goes
mighty clost to forgettin' Enright Peets now an' then in her wifely
anxieties concernin' Dave.
"As for Dave himse'f, he don't onderstand his sudden an' onmerited
pop'larity; but wearin' a dazed grin of satisfied ignorance, that a-way,
he accepts the sityooation without askin' reasons, an' proceeds to profit
tharby. That household is the most reeconciled model fam'ly outfit in
all broad Arizona. An' it so continyoos to the end.
"'Whatever did you do or say, Doc?' asks Enright a month later, as we-all
from across the street observes how Jennie kisses Dave good-bye at the
door an' then stands an' looks after him like she can't b'ar to have him
leave her sight; 'what's the secret of this second honeymoon of Dave's?'
"'Which I don't say much,' says Peets. 'I merely takes Jennie one side
an' exhorts her to brace up an' show herse'f a brave lady. Then I
explains that while I ain't told Dave none--as his knowin' wouldn't do no
good--I regyards it as my medical dooty to inform her so's she'll be
ready to meet the shock. "The trooth is, Missis Tutt," I says, "pore
Dave's got heart disease, an' is booked to cash in any moment. I can't
say when he'll die exactly; the only shore thing is he can't survive a
year." She sheds torrents of tears; an' then I warns her she mustn't let
Dave see her grief or bushwhack anything but smiles on her face, or
mightly likely it'll stop his clock right thar. "Can't nothin' be done
for Dave?" she asks. "Nothin'," I replies, "except be tender an' lovin'
an' make Dave's last days as pleasant an' easy as you can. We must jump
in an' smooth the path to his totterin' moccasins with gentleness an'
love," I says, "an' be ready, when the blow does fall, to b'ar it with
what fortitoode we may." That's all I tells her. However, it looks like
it's becomin' a case of overplay in one partic'lar; our pore young
namesake, Enright Peets, is himse'f gettin' a trifle the worst of it, an'
I'm figgerin' that to-morry, mebby, I'll look that infant over, an'
vouchsafe the news thar's something mighty grievous the matter with his
lungs.'"
CHAPTER XII.
Bill Connors of the Osages.
"Nacherally, if you-all is frettin' to hear about Injuns," observed the
Old Cattleman in reply to my latest request, "I better onfold how Osage
Bill Connors gets his wife. Not that thar's trouble in roundin' up this
squaw; none whatever. She comes easy; all the same said tale elab'rates
some of them savage customs you're so cur'ous concernin'."
My companion arose and kicked together the logs in the fireplace. This
fireplace was one of the great room's comforts as well as ornaments. The
logs leaped into much accession of flame, and crackled into sparks, and
these went gossiping up the mighty chimney, their little fiery voices
making a low, soft roaring like the talk of bees.
"This chimley draws plenty successful," commented my friend. "Which it
almost breaks even with a chimley I constructs once in my log camp on the
Upper Red. That Red River floo is a wonder! Draw? Son, it could draw
four kyards an' make a flush. But that camp of mine on the Upper Red is
over eight thousand foot above the sea as I'm informed by a passel of
surveyor sports who comes romancin' through the hills with a spyglass on
three pegs; an' high altitoods allers proves a heap exileratin' to a fire.
"But speakin' of Bill Connors: In Wolfville--which them days is the only
part of my c'reer whereof I'm proud an' reviews with onmixed
satisfaction--Doc Peets is, like you, inquis'tive touchin' Injuns. Peets
puts it up that some day he's doo to write books about 'em. Which in off
hours, an' when we-all is more or less at leesure over our Valley Tan,
Peets frequent comes explorin' 'round for details. Shore, I imparts all
I saveys about Bill Connors, an' likewise sech other aborigines as lives
in mem'ry; still, it shakes my estimates of Peets to find him eager over
Injuns, they bein' low an' debasin' as topics. I says as much to Peets.
"'Never you-all mind about me,' says Peets. 'I knows so much about white
folks it comes mighty clost to makin' me sick. I seeks tales of Injuns
as a relief an' to promote a average in favor of the species.'
"This Bill Connors' is a good-lookin' young buck when I cuts his trail;
straight as a pine an' strong an' tireless as a bronco. It's about six
years after the philanthrofists ropes onto Bill an' drags him off to a
school. You-all onderstands about a philanthrofist--one of these sports
who's allers improvin' some party's condition in a way the party who's
improved don't like.
"'A philanthrofist,' says Colonel Sterett, one time when Dan Boggs
demands the explanation at his hands; 'a philanthrofist is a gent who
insists on you givin' some other gent your money.'
"For myse'f, however, I regyards the Colonel's definition as too narrow.
Troo philanthrofy has a heap of things to it that's jest as onreasonable
an' which does not incloode the fiscal teachers mentioned by the Colonel.
"As I'm sayin'; these well-meanin' though darkened sports, the
philanthrofists, runs Bill down--it's mebby when he's fourteen, only
Injuns don't keep tab on their years none--an' immures him in one of the
gov'ment schools. It's thar Bill gets his name, 'Bill Connors.' Before
that he cavorts about, free an' wild an' happy onder the Injun app'lation
of the 'Jack Rabbit.'
"Shore! Bill's sire--a savage who's 'way up in the picture kyards, an'
who's called 'Crooked Claw' because of his left hand bein' put out of
line with a Ute arrow through it long ago--gives his consent to Bill
j'inin' that sem'nary. Crooked Claw can't he'p himse'f; he's powerless;
the Great Father in Washin'ton is backin' the play of the philanthrofists.
"'Which the Great Father is too many for Crooked Claw,' says this parent,
commentin' on his helplessness. Bill's gone canterin' to his old gent to
remonstrate, not hungerin' for learnin', an' Crooked Claw says this to
Bill: 'The Great Father is too many for Crooked Claw; an' too strong.
You must go to school as the Great Father orders; it is right. The
longest spear is right.'
"Bill is re-branded, 'Bill Connors,' an' then he's done bound down to
them books. After four years Bill gradyooates; he's got the limit an'
the philanthrofists takes Bill's hobbles off an' throws him loose with
the idee that Bill will go back to his tribe folks an' teach 'em to read.
Bill comes back, shore, an' is at once the Osage laughin'-stock for
wearin' pale-face clothes. Also, the medicine men tells Bill he'll die
for talkin' paleface talk an' sportin' a paleface shirt, an' these
prophecies preys on Bill who's eager to live a heap an' ain't ready to
cash in. Bill gets back to blankets an' feathers in about a month.
"Old Black Dog, a leadin' sharp among the Osages, is goin' about with a
dab of clay in his ha'r, and wearin' his most ornery blanket. That's
because Black Dog is in mournin' for a squaw who stampedes over the Big
Divide, mebby it's two months prior. Black Dog's mournin' has got dealt
down to the turn like; an' windin' up his grief an' tears, Osage fashion,
he out to give a war-dance. Shore; the savages rings in a war-dance on
all sorts of cer'monies. It don't allers mean that they're hostile, an'
about to spraddle forth on missions of blood. Like I states, Black Dog,
who's gone to the end of his mournful lariat about the departed squaw,
turns himse'f on for a war-dance; an' he nacherally invites the Osage
nation to paint an' get in on the festiv'ties.
"Accordin' to the rooles, pore Bill, jest back from school, has got to
cut in. Or he has his choice between bein' fined a pony or takin' a
lickin' with mule whips in the hands of a brace of kettle-tenders whose
delight as well as dooty it is to mete out the punishment. Bill can't
afford to go shy a pony, an' as he's loth to accept the larrupin's, he
wistfully makes ready to shake a moccasin at the _baile_. An' as nothin'
but feathers, blankets, an' breech-clouts goes at a war-dance--the same
bein' Osage dress-clothes--Bill shucks his paleface garments an' arrays
himse'f after the breezy fashion of his ancestors. Bill attends the war
dance an' shines. Also, bein' praised by the medicine men an' older
bucks for quittin' his paleface duds; an' findin' likewise the old-time
blanket an' breech-clout healthful an' saloobrious--which Bill forgets
their feel in his four years at that sem'nary--he adheres to 'em. This
lapse into aboriginal ways brews trouble for Bill; he gets up ag'inst the
agent.
"It's the third day after Black Dog's war-dance, an' Bill, all paint an'
blankets an' feathers, is sa'nterin' about Pawhusky, takin' life easy an'
Injun fashion. It's then the agent connects with Bill an' sizes him up.
The agent asks Bill does he stand in on this yere Black Dog war-dance.
"'Don't they have no roast dog at that warjig?' asks Dan Boggs, when I'm
relatin' these reminiscences in the Red Light.
"'No,' I says; 'Osages don't eat no dogs.'
"'It's different with Utes a lot,' says Dan, 'Which Utes regyards dogs
fav'rable, deemin' 'em a mighty sucyoolent an' nootritious dish. The
time I'm with the Utes they pulls off a shindig, "tea dance" it is, an',
as what Huggins would call "a star feacher" they ups an' roasts a white
dog. That canine is mighty plethoric an' fat, an' they lays him on his
broad, he'pless back an' shets off his wind with a stick cross-wise of
his neck, an' two bucks pressin' on the ends. When he's good an' dead
an' all without no suffoosion of blood, the Utes singes his fur off in a
fire an' bakes him as he is. I partakes of that dog--some. I don't
nacherally lay for said repast wide-jawed, full-toothed an' reemorseless,
like it's flapjacks--I don't gorge myse'f none; but when I'm in Rome, I
strings my chips with the Romans like the good book says, an' so I sort
o' eats baked dog with the Utes. Otherwise, I'd hurt their
sens'bilities; an' I ain't out to harrow up no entire tribe an' me
playin' a lone hand.'
"That agent questions Bill as to the war-dance carryin's on of old Black
Dog. Then he p'ints at Bill's blankets an' feathers an' shakes his head
a heap disapprobative.
"'Shuck them blankets an' feathers,' says the agent, 'an' get back into
your trousers a whole lot; an' be sudden about it, too. I puts up with
the divers an' sundry rannikabooisms of old an' case-hardened Injuns
who's savage an' ontaught. But you're different; you've been to school
an' learned the virchoos of pants; wherefore, I looks for you to set
examples.'
"It's then Bill gets high an' allows he'll wear clothes to suit himse'f.
Bill denounces trousers as foolish in their construction an' fallacious
in their plan. Bill declar's they're a bad scheme, trousers is; an' so
sayin' he defies the agent to do his worst. Bill stands pat on blankets
an' feathers.
"'Which you will, will you!' remarks this agent.
"Then he claps Bill in irons mighty decisive, an' plants him up ag'in the
high face of a rock bluff which has been frownin' down on Bird River
since Adam makes his first camp. Havin' got Bill posed to his notion,
this earnest agent, puttin' a hammer into Bill's rebellious hand, starts
him to breakin' rock.
"'Which the issue is pants,' says the obdurate agent sport; 'an' I'll
keep you-all whackin' away at them boulders while the cliff lasts onless
you yields. Thar's none of you young bucks goin' to bluff me, an' that's
whatever!'
"Bill breaks rocks two days. The other Osages comes an' perches about,
sympathetic, an' surveys Bill. They exhorts him to be firm; they gives
it out in Osage he's a patriot.
"Bill's willin' to be a patriot as the game is commonly dealt, but when
his love of country takes the form of poundin' rocks, the noble
sentiments which yeretofore bubbles in Bill's breast commences to pall on
Bill an' he becomes none too shore but what trousers is right. By second
drink time--only savages don't drink, a paternal gov'ment barrin'
nosepaint on account of it makin' 'em too fitfully exyooberant--by second
drink time the second evenin' Bill lays down his hand--pitches his hammer
into the diskyard as it were--an' when I crosses up with him, Bill's that
abject he wears a necktie. When Bill yields, the agent meets him half
way, an' him an' Bill rigs a deal whereby Bill arrays himse'f Osage
fashion whenever his hand's crowded by tribal customs. Other times, Bill
inhabits trousers; an' blankets an' feathers is rooled out.
"Shore, I talks with Bill's father, old Crooked Claw. This yere savage
is the ace-kyard of Osage-land as a fighter. No, that outfit ain't been
on the warpath for twenty years when I sees 'em then it's with Boggs' old
pards, the Utes. I asks Crooked Claw if he likes war. He tells me that
he dotes on carnage like a jaybird, an' goes forth to battle as joobilant
as a drunkard to a shootin' match. That is, Crooked Claw used to go
curvin' off to war, joyful, at first. Later his glee is subdooed because
of the big chances he's takin'. Then he lugs out 'leven skelps, all Ute,
an' eloocidates.
"'This first maverick,' says Crooked Claw--of course, I gives him in the
American tongue, not bein' equal to the reedic'lous broken Osage he
talks--'this yere first maverick,' an' he strokes the braided ha'r of a
old an' smoke-dried skelp, 'is easy. The chances, that a-way, is even.
Number two is twice as hard; an' when I snags onto number three--I downs
that hold-up over by the foot of Fisher's Peak--the chances has done
mounted to be three to one ag'in me. So it goes gettin' higher an'
higher, ontil when I corrals my 'leventh, it's 'leven to one he wins
onless he's got killin's of his own to stand off mine. I don't reckon
none he has though,' says Crooked Claw, curlin' his nose contemptuous.
'He's heap big squaw--a coward; an' would hide from me like a quail. He
looks big an' brave an' strong, but his heart is bad--he is a poor knife
in a good sheath. So I don't waste a bullet on him, seein' his fear, but
kills him with my war-axe. Still, he raises the chances ag'inst me to
twelve to one, an' after that I goes careful an' slow. I sends in my
young men; but for myse'f I sort o' hungers about the suburbs of the
racket, takin' no resks an' on the prowl for a cinch,--some sech pick-up
as a sleeper, mebby. But my 'leventh is my last; the Great Father in
Washin'ton gets tired with us an' he sends his walk-a-heaps an' buffalo
soldiers'--these savages calls niggers 'buffalo soldiers,' bein' they're
that woolly--'an' makes us love peace. Which we'd a-had the Utes too
dead to skin if it ain't for the walk-a-heaps an' buffalo soldiers.'
"An' at this Crooked Claw tosses the bunch of Ute top-knots to one of his
squaws, fills up his red-stone pipe with kinnikinick an' begins to smoke,
lookin' as complacent as a catfish doorin' a Joone rise.
"Bill Connors has now been wanderin' through this vale of tears for mebby
she's twenty odd years, an' accordin' to Osage tenets, Bill's doo to get
wedded. No, Bill don't make no move; he comports himse'f lethargic; the
reesponsibilities of the nuptials devolves on Bill's fam'ly.
"It's one of the excellentest things about a Injun that he don't pick out
no wife personal, deemin' himse'f as too locoed to beat so difficult a
game.
"Or mebby, as I observes to Texas Thompson one time in the Red Light when
him an' me's discussin', or mebby it's because he's that callous he don't
care, or that shiftless he won't take trouble.
"'Whatever's the reason,' says Texas, on that o'casion, heavin' a sigh,
'thar's much to be said in praise of the custom. If it only obtains
among the whites thar's one sport not onknown to me who would have shore
passed up some heartaches. You can bet a hoss, no fam'ly of mine would
pick out the lady who beats me for that divorce back in Laredo to be the
spouse of Texas Thompson. Said household's got too much savey to make
sech a break.'
"While a Osage don't select that squaw of his, still I allers entertains
a theery that he sort o' saveys what he's ag'inst an' no he'pmeet gets
sawed off on him objectionable an' blind. I figgers, for all he don't
let on, that sech is the sityooation in the marital adventures of Bill.
His fam'ly picks the Saucy Willow out; but it's mighty likely he signs up
the lady to some discreet member of his outfit before ever they goes in
to make the play.
"Saucy Willow for a savage is pretty--pretty as a pinto hoss. Her
parent, old Strike Axe, is a morose but common form of Osage, strong
financial, with a big bunch of cattle an' more'n two hundred ponies.
Bill gets his first glimpse, after he comes back from school, of the
lovely Saucy Willow at a dance. This ain't no war-dance nor any other
ceremonious splurge; it's a informal merrymakin', innocent an' free, same
as is usual with us at the Wolfville dance hall. Shore, Osages, lacks
guitars an' fiddles, an' thar's no barkeep nor nosepaint--none, in
trooth, of the fav'rable adjuncts wherewith we makes a evenin' in
Hamilton's hurdygurdy a season of social elevation, an' yet they pulls
off their fandangoes with a heap of verve, an' I've no doubt they shore
enjoys themse'fs.
"For two hours before sundown the kettle-tenders is howlin' an' callin'
the dance throughout the Osage camp. Thar's to be a full moon, an' the
dance--the _Ingraska_ it is; a dance the Osages buys from the Poncas for
eight ponies--is to come off in a big, high-board corral called the
'Round House.'
"Followin' the first yell of the kettle-tenders, the young bucks begins
to paint up for the hilarity. You might see 'em all over camp, for it's
August weather an' the walls of the tents an' teepees is looped up to let
in the cool, daubin' the ocher on their faces an' braidin' the feathers
into their ha'r. This organisin' for a _baile_ ain't no bagatelle, an'
two hours is the least wherein any se'f-respectin' buck who's out to make
a centre shot on the admiration of the squaws an' wake the envy of rival
bucks, can lay on the pigments, so he paints away at his face, careful
an' acc'rate, sizin' up results meanwhile in a jimcrow lookin' glass. At
last he's as radiant as a rainbow, an' after garterin' each laig with a
belt of sleigh-bells jest below the knee, he regyards himse'f with a
fav'rable eye an' allows he's ondoubted the wildest wag in his set.
"Each buck arrives at the Round House with his blanket wropped over his
head so as not to blind the onwary with his splendours. It's mebby
second drink time after sundown an' the full moon is swingin' above
effulgent. The bucks who's doo to dance sets about one side of the Round
House on a board bench; the squaws--not bein' in on the proposed
activities--occupies the other half, squattin' on the ground. Some of
'em packs their papooses tied on to a fancy-ribboned, highly beaded
board, an' this they makes a cradle of by restin' one end on the ground
an' the other on their toe, rockin' the same meanwhile with a motion of
the foot. Thar's a half hoop over the head-end of these papoose boards,
hung with bells for the papoose to get infantile action on an' amoose his
leesure.
"The bucks settin' about their side of the Round House, still wrops
themse'fs in their blankets so as not to dazzle the squaws to death
preematoor. At last the music peals forth. The music confines itse'f to
a bass drum--paleface drum it is--which is staked out hor'zontal about a
foot high from the grass over in the centre. The orchestra is a decrepit
buck with a rag-wropped stick; with this weepon he beats the drum,
chantin' at the same time a pensive refrain.
"Mebby a half-dozen squaws, with no papooses yet to distract 'em, camps
'round this virchuoso with the rag-stick, an' yoonites their girlish
howls with his. You-all can put down a bet it don't remind you none of
nightingales or mockin' birds; but the Injuns likes it. Which their
simple sperits wallows in said warblin's! But to my notion they're more
calc'lated to loco a henhawk than furnish inspiration for a dance.
"'Tunk! tunk! tunk! tunk!' goes this rag-stick buck, while the squaws
chorus along with, 'Hy-yah! hy-yah! hy-yah-yah-yah! Hy-yah! hy-yah!
hy-yah-yah-yah!' an' all grievous, an' make no mistake!
"At the first 'tunk!' the bucks stiffen to their feet and cast off the
blankets. Feathers, paint, an' bells! they blaze an' tinkle in the
moonlight with a subdooed but savage elegance. They skates out onto the
grass, stilt-laig, an' each buck for himse'f. They go skootin' about,
an' weave an' turn an' twist like these yere water-bugs jiggin' it on the
surface of some pond. Sometimes a buck'll lay his nose along the ground
while he dances--sleigh bells jinglin', feathers tossin'! Then he'll
straighten up ontil he looks like he's eight foot tall; an' they shore
throws themse'fs with a heap of heart an' sperit.
"It's as well they does. If you looks clost you observes a brace of
bucks, and each packin' a black-snake whip. Them's
kettle-tenders,--floor managin' the _baile_ they be; an' if a buck who's
dancin' gets preeoccupied with thinkin' of something else an' takes to
prancin' an' dancin' listless, the way the kettle-tenders pours the
leather into him to remind him his fits of abstraction is bad form, is
like a religious ceremony. An' it ain't no bad idee; said kettle-tenders
shore promotes what Colonel Sterett calls the _elan_ of the dancin' bucks
no end.
"After your eyes gets used to this whirlin' an' skatin' an' skootin' an'
weavin' in an' out, you notes two bucks, painted to a finish an'
feathered to the stars! who out-skoots an' out-whirls an' out-skates
their fellow bucks like four to one. They gets their nose a little lower
one time an' then stands higher in the air another, than is possible to
the next best buck. Them enthoosiasts ain't Osages at all; which they're
niggers--full-blood Senegambians they be, who's done j'ined the tribe.
These Round House festivals with the paint, the feathers, an' the bells,
fills their trop'cal hearts plumb full, an' forgettin' all about the
white folks an' their gyarded ways, they're the biggest Injuns to warm a
heel that night.
"Saucy Willow is up by the damaged rag-stick buck lendin' a mouthful or
two of cl'ar, bell-like alto yelps to the harmony of the evenin'. Bill
who's a wonder in feathers an' bells, an' whose colour-scheme would drive
a temp'rance lecturer to drink, while zippin' about in the moonlight gets
his eye on her. Mighty likely Bill's smitten; but he don't let on, the
fam'ly like I relates, allers ropin' up a gent's bride. It's good
bettin' this yere Saucy Willow counts up Bill. If she does, however,--no
more than Bill,--she never tips her hand. The Saucy Willow yelps on
onconcerned, like her only dream of bliss is to show the coyotes what
vocal failures they be.
"It's a week after the _Ingraska_, an' Bill's fam'ly holds a round-up to
pick Bill out a squaw. He ain't present, havin' the savey to go
squanderin' off to play Injun poker with some Creek sports he hears has
money over on the Polecat. Bill's fam'ly makes quite a herd, bucks an'
squaws buttin' in on the discussion permiscus an' indiscrim'nate. Shore!
the squaws has as much to say as the bucks among Injuns. They owns their
own ponies an' backs their own play an' is as big a Injun as anybody,
allowin' for that nacheral difference between squaw dooties an' buck
dooties--one keeps camp while the other hunts, or doorin' war times when
one protects the herds an' plunder while the other faces the foe. You
hears that squaws is slaves? However is anybody goin' to be a slave
where thar's as near nothin' to do in the way of work as is possible an'
let a hooman live? Son, thar ain't as much hard labour done in a Injun
camp in a week--ain't as much to do as gets transacted at one of them
rooral oyster suppers to raise money for the preacher!
"Bill's fam'ly comes trailin' in to this powwow about pickin' out a squaw
for Bill. Besides Crooked Claw, thar's Bill's widow aunt, the Wild
Cat--she's plumb cunnin', the Wild Cat is, an' jest then bein' cel'brated
among the Osages for smokin' ponies with Black B'ar, a old buck, an'
smokin' Black B'ar out of his two best cayouses. Besides these two,
thar's The-man-who-bleeds, The-man-who-sleeps, Tom Six-killer,
The-man-who-steps-high, an' a dozen other squaws an' bucks, incloosive of
Bill's mother who's called the Silent Comanche, an' is takin' the play a
heap steady an' livin' up to her name.
"The folks sets 'round an' smokes Crooked Claw's kinnikinick. Then the
Wild Cat starts in to deal the game. She says it's time Bill's married,
as a onmarried buck is a menace; at this the others grunts agreement.
Then they all turns in to overhaul the el'gible young squaws. Which they
shore shows up them belles! One after the other they're drug over the
coals. At last the Wild Cat mentions the Saucy Willow jest as every
savage present knows will be done soon or late from the jump. The Saucy
Willow obtains a speshul an' onusual run for her money. But it's settled
final that while the Saucy Willow ain't none too good, she's the best
they can do. The Saucy Willow belongs to the Elk clan, while Bill
belongs to the B'ar clan, an' that at least is c'rrect. Injuns don't
believe in inbreedin' so they allers marries out of their clan.
"As soon as they settles on the Saucy Willow as Bill's squaw, they turns
in to make up the 'price.' The Wild Cat, who's rich, donates a kettle, a
side of beef, an' the two cayouses she smokes outen the besotted Black
B'ar. The rest chucks in accordin' to their means, Crooked Claw comin'
up strong with ten ponies; an' Bill's mother, the Silent Comanche,
showin' down with a bolt of calico, two buffalo robes, a sack of flour
an' a lookin' glass. This plunder is to go to the Saucy Willow's folks
as a 'price' for the squaw. No, they don't win on the play; the Saucy
Willow's parents is out _dinero_ on the nuptials when all is done. They
has to give Bill their wickeyup.
"When Bill's outfit's fully ready to deal for blood they picks out some
bright afternoon. The Saucy Willow's fam'ly is goin' about lookin'
partic'lar harmless an' innocent; but they're coony enough to be in camp
that day. A procession starts from the Crooked Claw camp. Thar's
The-man-who-steps-high at the head b'arin' a flag, union down, an'
riotin' along behind is Tom Six-killer, The-man-who-sleeps, the Wild Cat
and others leadin' five ponies an' packin' kettles, flour, beef, an'
sim'lar pillage. They lays it all down an' stakes out the broncos about
fifty yards from Strike Axe's camp an' withdraws.
"Then some old squaw of the Strike Axe outfit issues forth an' throws the
broncos loose. That's to show that the Saucy Willow is a onusual
excellent young squaw an' pop'lar with her folks, an' they don't aim to
shake her social standin' by acceptin' sech niggard terms.
"But the Crooked Claw outfit ain't dismayed, an' takes this rebuff
phlegmatic. It's only so much ettyquette; an' now it's disposed of they
reorganise to lead ag'in to win. This time they goes the limit, an'
brings up fifteen ponies an' stacks in besides with blankets, robes,
beef, flour, calico, kettles, skillets, and looking-glasses enough to
fill eight waggons. This trip the old Strike Axe squaw onties the
fifteen ponies an' takin' 'em by their ropes brings 'em in clost to the
Strike Axe camp, tharby notifyin' the Crooked Claw band that their bluff
for the Saucy Willow is regyarded as feasible an' the nuptials goes.
With this sign, the Crooked Claws comes caperin' up to the Strike Axes
an' the latter fam'ly proceeds to rustle a profoosion of grub; an' with
that they all turns in an' eats old Strike Axe outen house an' home. The
'price' is split up among the Strike Axe bunch, shares goin' even to
second an' third cousins.
"Mebby she's a week later when dawns the weddin' day. Bill, who's been
lookin' a heap numb ever since these rites becomes acoote, goes
projectin' off alone onto the prairie. The Saucy Willow is hid in the
deepest corner of Strike Axe's teepee; which if she's visible, however,
you'd be shore amazed at the foolish expression she wears, but all as shy
an' artless as a yearlin' antelope.
"But it grows time to wind it up, an' one of the Strike Axe bucks climbs
into the saddle an' rides half way towards the camp of Crooked Claw.
Strike Axe an' Crooked Claw in antic'pation of these entanglements has
done pitched their camps about half a mile apart so as to give the
pageant spread an' distances. When he's half way, the Strike Axe buck
fronts up an' slams loose with his Winchester; it's a signal the _baile_
is on.
"At the rifle crack, mounted on a pony that's the flower of the Strike
Axe herd, the Saucy Willow comes chargin' for the Crooked Claws like a
shootin' star. The Saucy Willow is a sunburst of Osage richness! an' is
packin' about five hundred dollars' worth of blankets, feathers, beads,
calicoes, ribbons, an' buckskins, not to mention six pounds of brass an'
silver jewelry. Straight an' troo comes the Saucy Willow; skimmin' like
a arrow an' as rapid as the wind!
"As Saucy Willow embarks on this expedition, thar starts to meet
her--afoot they be but on the run--Tom Six-killer an' a brace of squaw
cousins of Bill's. Nacherally, bein' he out-lopes the cousins, Tom
Six-killer runs up on the Saucy Willow first an' grabs her bronco by the
bridle. The two young squaw cousins ain't far behind the Six-killer,
for they can run like rabbits, an' they arrives all laughter an' cries,
an' with one move searches the Saucy Willow outen the saddle. In less
time than it takes to get action on a drink of licker the two young
squaws has done stripped the Saucy Willow of every feather, bead an' rag,
an' naked as when she's foaled they wrops her up, precious an' safe in a
blanket an' packs her gleefully into the camp of Crooked Claw. Here they
re-dresses the Saucy Willow an' piles on the gew-gaws an' adornments,
ontil if anything she's more gorgeous than former. The pony which the
Saucy Willow rides goes to the Six-killer, while the two she-cousins, as
to the balance of her apparel that a-way, divides the pot.
"An' now like a landslide upon the Crooked Claws comes the Strike Axe
household. Which they're thar to the forty-'leventh cousin; savages
keepin' exact cases on relatives a mighty sight further than white folks.
The Crooked Claw fam'ly is ready. It's Crooked Claw's turn to make the
feast, an' that eminent Osage goes the distance. Crooked Claw shorely
does himse'f proud, while Bill's mother, the Silent Comanche, is
hospitable, but dignified. It's a great weddin'. The Wild Cat is
pirootin' about, makin' mean an' onfeelin' remarks, as becomes a widow
lady with a knowledge of the world an' a bundle the size an' shape of a
roll of blankets. The two fam'lies goes squanderin' about among each
other, free an' fraternal, an' thar's never a cloud in the sky.
"At last the big feed begins. Son, you should have beheld them fool
Osages throw themse'fs upon the Crooked Claw's good cheer. It's a p'int
of honour to eat as much as you can; an' b'arin' that in mind the
revellers mows away about twenty pounds of beef to a buck--the squaws,
not bein' so ardent, quits out on mighty likely it's the thirteenth
pound. Tom Six-killer comes plenty clost to sacrificin' himse'f utter.
"This last I knows, for the next day I sees the medicine men givin' some
sufferer one of their aboriginal steam baths. They're on the bank of
Bird River. They've bent down three or four small saplin's for the
framework of a tent like, an' thar's piled on 'em blankets an' robes a
foot deep so she's plumb airtight. Thar's a fire goin' an' they're
heatin' rocks, same as Colonel Sterett tells about when they baptises his
grandfather into the church. When the rocks is red-hot they takes 'em,
one by one, an' drops 'em into a bucket of water to make her steam. Then
they shoves this impromptoo cauldron inside the little robe house where
as I'm aware--for I onderstands the signs from the start--thar's a sick
buck quiled up awaitin' relief. This yere invalid buck stays in thar
twenty minutes. The water boils an' bubbles an' the steam gets that
abundant not to say urgent she half lifts the robes an' blankets at the
aiges to escape. The ailin' buck in the sweat tent stays ontil he can't
stay no more, an' then with a yowl, he comes burstin' forth, a reek of
sweat an' goes splashin' into the coolin' waters of Bird River. It's the
Six-killer; that weddin' feast comes mighty near to downin' him--gives
him a 'bad heart,' an' he ondergoes the steam bath for relief.
"But we're strayed from that weddin'. Bein' now re-arrayed in fullest
feather the Saucy Willow is fetched into the ring an' receives a platter
with the rest. Then one of the bucks, lookin' about like he's amazed,
says: 'Wherever is the Jack Rabbit?' that bein' Bill's Osage title.
Crooked Claw shakes his head an' reckons most likely the Jack Rabbit's
rummagin' about loose some'ers, not knowin' enough to come in an' eat. A
brace of bucks an' a young squaw starts up an' figgers they'll search
about an' see if they can't round him up. They goes out an' thar's Bill
settin' off on a rock a quarter of a mile with his back to the camp an'
the footure.
"The two sharps an' the squaw herds Bill into camp an' stakes him out,
shoulder to shoulder, with the little Saucy Willow. Neither Bill nor the
little Saucy Willow su'gests by word, screech or glance that they saveys
either the game or the stakes, an' eats on, takin' no notice of themse'fs
or any of the gluttons who surrounds 'em. Both Bill an' the little Saucy
Willow looks that witless you-all would yearn to bat 'em one with the
butt of a mule whip if onfortoonately you're present to be exasperated by
sech exhibitions. At last, however, jest as the patience of the audience
is plumb played, both Bill an' the little Saucy Willow gives a start of
surprise. Which they're pretendin' to be startled to find they're
feedin' off the same dish. Thar you be; that makes 'em 'buck an'
squaw'--'man an' wife;' an' yereafter, in Osage circles they can print
their kyards 'Mister an' Missis Bill Connors,' while Bill draws an'
spends the little Saucy Willow's annooty on payment day instead of Strike
Axe."
CHAPTER XIII.
When Tutt first saw Tucson.
"An' speakin' of dooels," remarked the Old Cattleman, apropos of an
anecdote of the field of honour wherewith I regaled his fancy,
"speakin' of dooels, I reckons now the encounter Dave Tutt involves
himse'f with when he first sees Tucson takes onchallenged preecedence
for utter bloodlessness. She's shore the most lamb's-wool form of
single combat to which my notice is ever drawn. Dave enlightens us
concernin' its details himse'f, bein' incited tharunto by hearin' Texas
Thompson relate about the Austin shootin' match of that Deaf Smith.
"'Which this yere is 'way back yonder on the trail of time,' explains
Dave, 'an' I'm hardened a heap since then. I've jest come buttin' into
Tucson an' it's easy money I'm the tenderest an' most ontaught party
that ever wears store-moccasins. What I misses knowin' would make as
husky a library,--if it's printed down in books,--as ever lines up on
shelves. Also, I'm freighted to the limit with the tenderfoot's usual
outfit of misinformation. It's sad, yet troo! that as I casts my gaze
r'arward I identifies myse'f as the balmiest brand of shorthorn who
ever leaves his parents' shelterin' roof.'
"'All the same,' says Dan Boggs, plenty conceited, 'I'll gamble a hoss
I'm a bigger eediot when I quits Missouri to roam the cow country than
ever you-all can boast of bein' in your most drivelin' hour.'
"'Do they lock you up?' asks Dave.
"'No,' says Dan, 'they don't lock me up none, but----'
"'Then you lose,' insists Dave, mighty prompt.
"'But hold on,' says Dan; 'don't get your chips down so quick. As I
starts to explain, I ain't locked up; but it's because I'm in a camp
like Wolfville yere that ain't sunk to the level of no calaboose. But
what comes to be the same, I'm taken captive an' held as sech ontil the
roodiments of Western sense is done beat into me. It takes the
yoonited efforts of four of the soonest sharps that ever happens; an'
final, they succeeds to a p'int that I'm deemed cap'ble of goin' about
alone.'
"'Well,' retorts Dave, 'I won't dispoote with you; an' even at that I
regyards your present attitoode as one of bluff. I thinks you're shore
the cunnin'est wolf in the territory, Dan, an' allers is. But, as I'm
sayin', when I first begins to infest Tucson, I'm so ignorant it's a
stain on that meetropolis. At this yere epock, Tucson ain't spraddled
to its present proud dimensions. A gent might have thrown the loop of
a lariat about the outfit an' drug it after him with a pony. No one,
however, performs this labour, as the camp is as petyoolant as a
t'rant'ler an' any onauthorised dalliance with its sensibilities would
have led to vivid plays. Still, she ain't big, Tucson ain't; an' I
learns my way about from centre to suburbs in the first ten minutes.
"'At the beginnin' I'm a heap timid. I suffers from the common eastern
theery an' looks on Arizona as a region where it's murder straight an'
lynchin' for a place. You-all may jedge from that how erroneous is my
idees. Then, as now, the distinguishin' feacher of Tucson existence is
a heavenly ca'm. Troo, thar's moments when the air nacherally fills up
with bullets like they're a passel of swallow-birds, an' they hums an'
sings their merry madrigals. However, these busy seasons don't set in
so often nor last so long but peaceful folks has ample chance to
breathe.
"'Never does I b'ar witness to as many as seven contemporaneous
remainders but once; and then thar's cause. It's in a poker game; an'
the barkeep brings the dealer a cold deck onder a tray whereon he
purveys the drinks. Which the discovery of this yere solecism, as
you-all well imagines, arouses interest, earnest an' widespread like I
deescribes. I counts up when the smoke lifts an' finds that seven has
sought eternal peace. Commonly two is the number; three bein' quite a
shipment. Shore, it's speshul sickly when as many as seven quits out
together!
"'Bein' timid an' ignorant I takes good advice. It's in the Oriental.
Thar's that old gray cimmaron hibernatin' about the bar whose name is
Jeffords.
"'"Be you-all conversant with that gun you packs?" asks Jeffords.
"'I feels the hot blush mountin' in my tender cheeks, but I concedes I
ain't. "Pard," I replies, "speakin' confidenshul an' between gent an'
gent, this yere weepon is plumb novel to me."
"'"Which I allows as much," he says, "from the egreegious way you
fidges with it. Now let me pass you-all a p'inter from the peaks of
experience. You caper back to the tavern an' take that weepon off. Or
what's as well, you pass it across to the barkeep. If you-all goes
romancin' 'round with hardware at your belt it's even money it'll get
you beefed. Allers remember while in Arizona that you'll never get
plugged--onless by inadvertence--as long as you wander about in
onheeled innocence. No gunless gent gets downed; sech is the
onbreakable roole."
"'After that I goes guiltless of arms; I ain't hungerin' for
immortality abrupt.
"'Old Jeffords is shore right; in the Southwest if you aims to b'ar a
charmed life, never wear a six-shooter. This maxim goes anywhere this
side of the Mississippi; east of that mighty river it's the other way.
"'Bein' nimble-blooded in them days, I'm a heap arduous about the
dance-hall. I gets infatyooated with the good fellowship of that
hurdygurdy; an' even after I leaves Tucson an' is camped some miles
away, I saddles up every other evenin', rides in an', as says the poet,
"shakes ontirin' laig even into the wee small hours."
"'Right yere, gents,' an' Dave pauses like he's prounced on by a solemn
thought, 'I don't reckon I has to caution none of you-all not to go
repeatin' these mem'ries of gay days done an' gone, where my wife
Tucson Jennie cuts their trail. I ain't afraid of Jennie; she's a
kind, troo he'pmeet; but ever since that onfortunate entanglement with
the English towerist lady her suspicions sets up nervous in their
blankets at the mere mention of frivolities wherein she hears my name.
I asks you, tharfore, not to go sayin' things to feed her doubts. With
Tucson Jennie, my first business is to live down my past.'
"'You-all can bet,' says Texas Thompson, while his brow clouds, 'that I
learns enough while enjoyin' the advantages of livin' with my former
wife to make sech requests sooperfluous in my case. Speshully since if
it ain't for what the neighbours done tells the lady she'd never go
ropin' 'round for that divorce. No Dave; your secrets is plumb safe
with a gent who's suffered.
"'Which I saveys I'm safe with all of you,' says Dave, his confidence,
which the thoughts of Tucson Jennie sort o' stampedes, beginnin' to
return. 'But now an' then them gusts of apprehensions frequent with
married gents sweeps over me an' I feels weak. But comin' back to the
dance-hall: As I su'gests thar's many a serene hour I whiles away
tharin. Your days an' your _dinero_ shore flows plenty swift in that
temple of merriment; an' chilled though I be with the stiff dignity of
a wedded middle age, if it ain't for my infant son, Enright Peets Tutt,
to whom I'm strivin' to set examples, I'd admire to prance out an' live
ag'in them halcyon hours; that's whatever!
"'Thar's quite a sprinklin' of the _elite_ of Tucson in the dance-hall
the evenin' I has in mind. The bar is busy; while up an' down each
side sech refreshin' pastimes as farobank, monte an' roulette holds
prosperous sway. Thar's no quadrille goin' at the moment, an' a lady
to the r'ar is carollin' "Rosalie, the Prairie Flower."
"Fair as a lily bloomin' in May,
Sweeter than roses, bright as the day!
Everyone who knows her feels her gentle power,
Rosalie the Prairie Flower."
"'On this yere o'casion I'm so far fortunate as to be five drinks ahead
an' tharfore would sooner listen to myse'f talk than to the warblin' of
the cantatrice. As it is, I'm conversin' with a gent who's standin'
hard by.
"'At my elbow is posted a shaggy an' forbiddin' outlaw whose name is
Yuba Tom, an' who's more harmonious than me. He wants to listen to
"Rosalie the Prairie Flower." Of a sudden, he w'irls about, plenty
peevish.
"'Stick a period to that pow-wow," observes Yuba; "I wants to hear this
prima donna sing."
"'Bein' gala with the five libations, I turns on Yuba haughty. "If
you're sobbin' to hear this songstress," I says, "go for'ard an' camp
down at her feet. But don't come pawin' your way into no conversations
with me. An' don't hang up no bluff."
"'Which if you disturbs me further," retorts Yuba, "I'll turn loose for
shore an' crawl your hump a lot."
"'Them foolhardy sports," I replies, "who has yeretofore attempted that
enterprise sleeps in onknown graves; so don't you-all pester me, for
the outlook's dark."
"'It's now that Yuba,--who's a mighty cautious sport, forethoughtful
an' prone to look ahead,--regyards the talk as down to cases an' makes
a flash for his gun. It's concealed by his surtoot an' I ain't noticed
it none before. If I had, most likely I'd pitched the conversation in
a lower key. However, by this time, I'm quarrelsome as a badger; an' a
willin'ness for trouble subdooes an' sets its feet on my nacheral
cowardice an' holds her down.'
"'Dave, you-all makes me nervous,' says Boggs, with a flash of heat,
'settin' thar lyin' about your timidity that a-way. You're about as
reluctant for trouble as a grizzly bar, an' you couldn't fool no gent
yere on that p'int for so much as one white chip.'
"'Jest the same,' says Dave, mighty dogmatic, 'I still asserts that in
a concealed, inborn fashion, I'm timid absoloote. If you has ever
beheld me stand up ag'in the iron it's because I'm 'shamed to quit.
I'd wilt out like a jack-rabbit if I ain't held by pride.
"'"You're plenty ready with that Colt's," I says to Yuba, an' my tones
is severe. "That's because you sees me weeponless. If I has a gun
now, I'd make you yell like a coyote."
"'"S'pose you ain't heeled," reemonstrates Yuba, "that don't give you
no license to stand thar aboosin' me. Be I to blame because your
toilet ain't complete? You go frame yourse'f up, an' I'll wait;" an'
with that, this Yuba takes his hand from his artillery.
"'Thar's a footile party who keeps the dancehall an' who signs the
books as Colonel Boone. He's called the "King of the Cowboys"; most
likely in a sperit of facetiousness since he's more like a deuce than a
king. This Boone's packin' a most excellent six-shooter loose in the
waistband of his laiggin's. Boone's passin' by as Yuba lets fly his
taunts an' this piece of ordnance is in easy reach. With one motion I
secures it an' the moment followin' the muzzle is pressin' ag'inst a
white pearl button on Yuba's bloo shirt.
"'"Bein' now equipped," I says, "this war-dance may proceed."
"'I'm that scared I fairly hankers for the privilege of howlin', but I
realises acootely that havin' come this far towards homicide I must
needs go through if Yuba crowds my hand. But he don't; he's forbearin'
an' stands silent an' still. Likewise, I sees his nose, yeretofore the
colour of a over-ripe violin, begin to turn sear an' gray. I recovers
sperit at this as I saveys I'm saved. Still I keeps the artillery on
him. It's the innocence of the gun that holds Yuba spellbound an'
affects his nose, an' I feels shore if I relaxes he'll be all over me
like a baggage waggon.'
"'Which I should say so!' says Jack Moore, drawin' a deep breath. 'You
takes every chance, Dave, when you don't cut loose that time!'
"'When Boone beholds me,' says Dave, 'annex his gun he almost c'lapses
into a fit. He makes a backward leap that shows he ain't lived among
rattlesnakes in vain. Then he stretches his hand towards me an' Yuba,
an' says, "Don't shoot! Let's take a drink; it's on the house!"
"'Yuba, with his nose still a peaceful gray, turns from the gun an'
sidles for the bar; I follows along, thirsty, but alert. When we-all
is assembled, Boone makes a wailin' request for his six-shooter.
"'"Get his," I says, at the same time, animadvertin' at Yuba with the
muzzle.
"'Yuba passes his weepons over the bar an' I follows suit with Boone's.
Then we drinks with our eyes on each other in silent scorn.
"'"Which we-all will see about this later,' growls Yuba, as he leaves
the bar.
"'"Go as far as you like, old sport," I retorts, for this last edition,
as Colonel Sterett would term it, of Valley Tan makes me that brave I'm
miseratin' for a riot.
"'It's the next day before ever I'm firm enough, to come ag'in to
Tucson. This stage-wait in the tragedy is doo to fear excloosive. I
hears how Yuba is plumb bad; how he's got two notches on his stick; how
he's filed the sights off his gun; an' how in all reespects he's a
murderer of merit an' renown. Sech news makes me timid two ways: I'm
afraid Yuba'll down me some; an' then ag'in I'm afraid he's so popular
I'll be lynched if I downs him. Shore, that felon Yuba begins to
assoome in my apprehensions the stern teachers of a whipsaw. At last
I'm preyed on to that degree I'm desperate; an' I makes up my mind to
invade Tucson, cross up with Yuba an' let him come a runnin'. The
nervousness of extreme yooth doubtless is what goads me to this
decision.
"'It's about second drink time in the afternoon when, havin' donned my
weepons, I rides into Tucson. After leavin' my pony at the corral, I
turns into the main street. It's scorchin' hot an' barrin' a dead
burro thar's hardly anybody in sight. Up in front of the Oriental, as
luck has it, stands Yuba and a party of doobious morals who slays hay
for the gov'ment, an' is addressed as Lon Gilette. As I swings into
the causeway, Gilette gets his eye on me an' straightway fades into the
Oriental leavin' Yuba alone in the street. This yere strikes me as
mighty ominous; I feels the beads of water come onder my hatband, an'
begins to crowd my gun a leetle for'ard on the belt. I'm walkin' up on
the opp'site side from Yuba who stands watchin' my approach with a
serene mien.
"'"It's the ca'mness of the tiger crouchin' for a spring," thinks I.
"'As I arrives opp'site, Yuba stretches out his hand. "Come on over,"
he sings out.
"'"Which he's assoomin' airs of friendship," I roominates, "to get me
off my gyard."
"'I starts across to Yuba. I'm watchin' like a lynx; an' I'm that
harrowed, if Yuba so much as sneezes or drops his hat or makes a
r'arward move of his hand, I'm doo to open on him. But he stands still
as a hill an' nothin' more menacin' than grins. As I comes clost he
offers his hand. It's prior to my shootin' quick an' ackerate with my
left hand, so I don't give Yuba my right, holdin' the same in reserve
for emergencies an' in case thar's a change of weather. But Yuba, who
can see it's fear that a-way, is too p'lite to make comments. He
shakes my left hand with well-bred enthoosiasm an' turns an' heads the
way into the Oriental.
"'As we fronts the bar an' demands nosepaint Yuba gives up his arms;
an' full of a jocund lightheartedness as I realises that I ain't marked
for instant slaughter I likewise yields up mine. We then has four
drinks in happy an' successful alternation, an' next we seeks a table
an' subsides into seven-up.
"'"Then thar ain't goin' to be no dooel between us?" I says to Yuba.
It's at a moment when he's turned jack an' I figgers he'll be more soft
an' leenient. "It's to be a evenin' of friendly peace?"
"'"An' why not?" says Yuba. "I've shore took all the skelps that's
comin' to me; an' as for you-all, you're young an' my counsel is to
never begin. That pooerile spat we has don't count. I'm drinkin' at
the time, an' I don't reckon now you attaches importance to what a gent
says when he's in licker?"
"'"Not to what he says," I replies; "but I does to what he shoots. I
looks with gravity on the gun-plays of any gent, an' the drunker he is
the more ser'ous I regyards the eepisode."
"'"Well, she's a thing of the past now," explains Yuba, "an' this
evenin' you're as pop'lar with me as a demijohn at a camp-meetin'."
"'Both our bosoms so wells with joy, settin' thar as we do in a
atmosphere of onexpected yet perfect fraternalism an' complete peace,
that Yuba an' me drinks a whole lot. It gets so, final, I refooses to
return to my own camp; I won't be sep'rated from Yuba. When we can no
longer drink, we turns in at Yuba's wickeyup an' sleeps. The next
mornin' we picks up the work of reeconciliation where it slips from our
tired hands the evenin' before. I does intend to reepair to my camp
when we rolls out; but after the third conj'int drink both me an' Yuba
sees so many reasons why it's a fool play I gives up the idee utter.
"'Gents, it's no avail to pursoo me an' Yuba throughout them four
feverish days. We drifts from one drink-shop to the other, arm in arm,
as peaceful an' pleased a pair of sots as ever disturbs the better
element. Which we're the scandal of Tucson; we-all is that thickly
amiable it's a insult to other men. Thus ends my first dooel; a
conflict as bloodless as she is victorious. How long it would have
took me an' Yuba to thoroughly cement our friendships will never be
known. At the finish, we-all is torn asunder by the Tucson marshal an'
I'm returned to my camp onder gyard. Me an' Yuba before nor since
never does wax that friendly with any other gent; we'd be like brothers
yet, only the Stranglers over to Shakespear seizes on pore Yuba one
mornin' about a hoss an' heads him for his home on high.'"
CHAPTER XIV.
The Troubles of Dan Boggs.
"This yere," remarked the Old Cattleman, at the heel of a half-hour
lecture on life and its philosophy, "this yere is a evenin' when they
gets to discussin' about luck. It's doorin' the progress of this
dispoote when Cherokee Hall allows that luck don't alternate none,
first good an' then bad, but travels in bunches like cattle or in
flocks like birds. 'Whichever way she comes,' says Cherokee, 'good or
bad, luck avalanches itse'f on a gent. That's straight!' goes on
Cherokee. 'You bet! I speaks from a voloominous experience an' a life
that, whether up or down, white or black, ain't been nothin' but luck.
Which nacherally, bein' a kyard sharp that a-way, I studies luck the
same as Peets yere studies drugs; an' my discov'ries teaches that luck
is plumb gregar'ous. Like misery in that proverb, luck loves company;
it shore despises to be lonesome.'
"'Cherokee, I delights to hear you talk,' says Old Man Enright, as he
signs up Black Jack for the Valley Tan. 'Them eloocidations is meant
to stiffen a gent's nerve an' do him good. Shore; no one needs
encouragement nor has to train for a conflict with good luck; but it's
when he's out ag'inst the iron an' the bad luck's swoopin' an' stoopin'
at him, beak an' claw like forty hawks, that your remarks is doo to
come to his aid an' uplift his sperits some. An' as you says a moment
back, thar's bound in the long run to be a equilibr'um. The lower your
bad luck, the taller your good luck when it strikes camp. It's the
same with the old Rockies, an' wherever you goes it's ever a
never-failin' case of the deeper the valley, the higher the hill!
"'As is frequent with me,' says Dan Boggs, after we sets quiet a
moment, meanwhiles tastin' our nosepaint thoughtful--for these
outbursts of Cherokee's an' Enright's calls for consid'rations,--'as is
frequent with me,' says Dan, 'I reckons I'll string my chips with
Cherokee. The more ready since throughout my own checkered c'reer--an'
I've done most everything 'cept sing in the choir,--luck has ever
happened bunched like he asserts. Which I gets notice of these
pecooliarities of fortune early. While I'm simply doin' nothin' to
provoke it, a gust of bad luck prounces on me an' thwarts me in a noble
ambition, rooins my social standin' an busts two of my nigh ribs all in
one week.
"'I'm a colt at the time, an' jest about big enough to break. My folks
is livin' in Missouri over back of the Sni-a-bar Hills. By nacher I'm
a heap moosical; so I ups--givin' that genius for harmony
expression--an' yoonites myse'f with the "Sni-a-bar Silver Cornet
Band." Old Hickey is leader, an' he puts me in to play the snare drum,
the same bein' the second rung on the ladder of moosical fame, an' one
rung above the big drum. Old Hickey su'gests that I start with the
snare drum an' work up. Gents, you-all should have heard me with that
instrooment! I'd shore light into her like a storm of hail!
"'For a spell the "Sni-a-bar Silver Cornet Band" used to play in the
woods. This yere Sni-a-bar commoonity is a mighty nervous
neighbourhood, an' thar's folks whose word is above reproach who sends
us notice they'll shoot us up if we don't; so at first we practises in
the woods. But as time goes on we improves an' plays well enough so we
don't scare children; an' then the Sni-a-bar people consents to let us
play now an' then along the road. All of us virchewosoes is locoed to
do good work, so that Sni-a-bar would get reeconciled, an' recognise us
as a commoonal factor.
"'Well do I recall the day of our first public appearance. It's at a
political meetin' an' everything, so far as we're concerned at least,
depends on the impression we-all makes. If we goes to a balk or a
break-down, the "Sni-a-bar Silver Cornet Band's" got to go back an'
play in the woods.
"'It's not needed that I tells you gents, how we-all is on aige. Old
Hickey gets so perturbed he shifts me onto the big drum; an' Catfish
Edwards, yeretofore custodian of that instrooment, is given the snare.
This play comes mighty clost to breakin' my heart; for I'm ambitious,
an' it galls my soul to see myse'f goin' back'ards that a-way. It's
the beginnin' of my bad luck, too. Thar's no chance to duck the play,
however, as old Hickey's word is law, so I sadly buckles on the giant
drum.
"'We're jest turnin' into the picnic ground where this meetin's bein'
held an' I've got thoughts of nothin' but my art--as we moosicians
says--an' elevatin' the local opinion of an' concernin' the meelodious
merits of the band. We're playin' "Number Eighteen" at the time, an'
I've got my eagle eye on the paper that tells me when to welt her; an'
I'm shorely leatherin' away to beat a ace-flush.
"'Bein' I'm new to the big drum, an' onduly eager to succeed, I've got
all my eyes picketed on the notes. It would have been as well if I'd
reeserved at least one for scenery. But I don't; an' so it befalls
that when we-all is in the very heart of the toone, an' at what it's no
exaggeration to call a crisis in our destinies, I walks straddle of a
stump. An' sech is my fatal momentum that the drum rolls up on the
stump, an' I rolls up on the drum. That's the finish; next day the
Silver Cornet Band by edict of the Sni-a-bar pop'lace is re-exiled to
them woods. But I don't go; old Hickey excloodes me, an' my hopes of
moosical eminence rots down right thar.
"'It's mebby two days later when I'm over by the postoffice gettin' the
weekly paper for my old gent. Thar's goin' to be a Gander-Pullin' by
torchlight that evenin' over to Hickman's Mills with a dance at the
heel of the hunt. But I ain't allowin' to be present none. I'm too
deeply chagrined about my failure with that big drum; an' then ag'in,
I'm scared to ask a girl to go. You-all most likely has missed
noticin' it a heap--for I frequent forces myse'f to be gala an' festive
in company--but jest the same, deep down onder my belt, I'm bashful.
An' when I'm younger I'm worse. I'm bashful speshul of girls; for I
soon discovers that it's easier to face a gun than a girl, an' the
glance of her eye is more terrifyin' than the glimmer of a bowie.
That's the way I feels. It's a fact; I remembers a time when my
mother, gettin' plumb desp'rate over my hoomility, offers me a runnin'
hoss if I'd go co't a girl; on which o'casion I feebly urges that I'd
rather walk.
"'On the evenin' of this yer dance an' Gander-Pullin' I'm pirootin'
about the Center when I meets up with Jule James;--Jule bein' the
village belle. "Goin' to the dance?" says Jule. "No," says I. "Why
ever don't you go?" asks Jule. "Thar ain't no girl weak-minded enough
to go with me," I replies; "I makes a bid for two or three but gets the
mitten." This yere last is a bluff. "Which I reckons now," says Jule,
givin' me a look, "if you'd asked me, I'd been fool enough to go." Of
course, with that I'm treed; I couldn't flicker, so I allows that if
Jule'll caper back to the house with me I'll take her yet.
"'We-all gets back to my old gent's an' I proceeds to hitch up a Dobbin
hoss we has to a side-bar buggy. It's dark by now, an' we don't go to
the house nor indulge in any ranikaboo uproar about it, as I figgers
it's better not to notify the folks. Not that they'd be out to put the
kybosh on this enterprize; but they're powerful fond of talk my folks
is, an' their long suit is never wantin' you to do whatever you're out
to execoote. Wherefore, as I ain't got no time for a j'int debate with
my fam'ly over technicalities I puts Jule into the side-bar where it's
standin' in the dark onder a shed; an' then, hookin' up old Dobbin a
heap surreptitious, I gathers the reins an' we goes softly p'intin'
forth for Hickman's.
"'As we-all is sailin' thoughtlessly along the trail, Dobbin ups an'
bolts. Sech flights is onpreeceedented in the case of Dobbin--who's
that sedate he's jest alive--an' I'm shore amazed; but I yanks him up
an' starts anew. It's twenty rods when Dobbin bolts ag'in. This time
I hears a flutter, an' reaches 'round Jule some to see if her
petticoats is whippin' the wheel. They ain't; but Jule--who esteems
said gesture in the nacher of a caress--seemin' to favour the idee, I
lets my arm stay 'round. A moment later an' this yere villain Dobbin
bolts the third time, an' as I've sort o' got my one arm tangled up
with Jule, he lams into a oak tree.
"'It's then, when we're plumb to a halt, I does hear a flutter. At
that I gets down to investigate. Gents, you-all may onderstand my
horror when I finds 'leven of my shawl-neck game chickens roostin' on
that side-bar's reach! They're thar when we pulls out. They've
retired from the world an' its cares for the night an', in our
ignorance of them chicken's domestic arrangements, we blindly takes 'em
with us. Now an' then, as we goes rackin' along, one of 'em gets
jolted off. Then he'd hang by his chin an' beat his wings; an' it's
these frenzied efforts he makes to stay with the game that evolves them
alarmin' flutterin's.
"'Jule--who don't own chickens an' who ain't no patron of cockfights
neither--is for settin' the shawl-necks on the fence an' pickin' 'em up
as we trails back from the Gander-Pullin'.
"'"As long as it's dark," says Jule, "they'll stay planted; an' we
rounds 'em up on our return."
"'But I ain't that optimistic. I knows these chickens an' they ain't
so somnolent as all that. Besides it's a cinch that a mink or a fox
comes squanderin' 'round an' takes 'em in like gooseberries. 'Leven
shawl-necks! Why, it would be a pick-up for a fox!
"'"You're a fine Injun to take a girl to a dance!" says Jule at last,
an' she's full of scorn.
"'"Injun or no Injun," I retorts a heap sullen, "thar ain't no
Gander-Pullin' goin' to jestify me in abandonin' my 'leven shawl-necks
an' me with a main to fight next month over on the Little Bloo!"
"'At that I corrals the chickens an' imprisons 'em in the r'ar of the
side-bar an' goes a-weavin' back for camp, an' I picks up three more
shawl-necks where they sets battin' their he'pless eyes in the road.
"'But I shore hears Jule's views of me as a beau! They're hot enough
to fry meat! Moreover, Jule tells all Sni-a-bar an' I'm at once a
scoff an' jeer from the Kaw to the Gasconade. Jule's old pap washes
out his rifle an' signs a pledge to plug me if ever ag'in I puts my
hand on his front gate. As I su'gests, it rooins my social c'reer in
Sni-a-bar.
"'While I'm ground like a toad that a-way beneath the harrow of this
double setback of the drum an' Jule, thar's a circus shows up an'
pitches its merry tent in Sni-a-bar. I knows this caravan of yore--for
I'm a master-hand for shows in my yooth an' allers goes--an' bein' by
virchoo of my troubles ready to plunge into dissipation's mad an'
swirlin' midst, I sa'nters down the moment the waggons shows up; an'
after that, while that circus stays, folks who wants to see me, day or
night, has to come to the show.
"'The outfit is one of them little old jim-crow shows that charges
two-bits an' stays a month; an' by the end of the first day, me an' the
clown gets wropped up like brothers; which I'm like one of the fam'iy!
I fetches water an' he'ps rub hosses an', speakin' gen'ral, does more
nigger work than I ever crosses up with prior endoorin' my entire life.
But knowin' the clown pays for all; sech trivial considerations as
pullin' on tent ropes an' spreadin' sawdust disappears before the
honour of his a'quaintance. It's my knowin' the clown that leads to
disaster.
"'This merrymaker, who's a "jocund wight" as Colonel Sterett says, gets
a heap drunk one evenin' 'an' sleeps out in the rain, an' he awakes as
hoarse as bull-frogs. He ain't able to sing his song in the ring.
It's jest before they begins.
"'"Dan," he croaks, plenty dejected, "I wish you'd clown up an' go in
an' sing that song."
"'This cantata he alloodes to, is easy; it's "Roll Jurdan, Roll," an' I
hears it so much at nigger camp meetin's an' sim'lar distractions, that
I carols it in my sleep. As the clown throws out his bluff I considers
awhile some ser'ous. I feels like mebby I've cut the trail of a
cunnin' idee. When Jule an' old Hickey an' the balance of them
Sni-a-bar outcasts sees me in a clown's yooniform, tyrannisin' about,
singin' songs an' leadin' up the war-jig gen'ral, they'll regret the
opinions they so freely expresses an' take to standin' about, hopin'
I'll bow. They'll regyard knowin' me as a boon. With that, I tells
the clown to be of good cheer. I'll prance in an' render that lay an'
his hoarseness won't prove no setback to the gaiety of nations.
"'But I don't sing after all; an' I don't pile up Jule an' old Hickey
an' the sports of Sni-a-bar neither in any all 'round jumble of
amazement at my genius.
"'"Dan," says the ring master when we're in the dressin' room, "when
the leapin' begins, you-all go on with the others an' do a somersault
or two?"
"'"Shore!" I says.
"'I feels as confidant as a kangaroo! Which I never does try it none;
but I supposes that all you has to do is hit the springboard an' let
the springboard do the rest. That's where I'm barkin' at a knot!
"'This yere leapin' comes first on the bill. I ain't been in the ring
yet; the tumblin' business is where I makes my deeboo. I've got on a
white clown soote with big red spots, an' my face is all flour. I'm as
certain of my comin' pop'larity as a wet dog. I shore allows that when
Jule an' old Hickey observes my graceful agility an' then hears me
warble "Roll Jurdan, Roll," I'll make 'em hang their heads.
"'The tumblin' is about to begin; the band's playin', an' all us
athletes is ranged Injun file along a plank down which we're to run.
I'm the last chicken on the roost.
"'Even unto this day it's a subject of contention in circus cirkles as
to where I hits that springboard. Some claims I hits her too high up;
an' some says too low; for myse'f, I concedes I'm ignorant on the
p'int. I flies down the plank like a antelope! I hears the snarl of
the drums! I jumps an' strikes the springboard!
"'It's at this juncture things goes queer. To my wonder I don't turn
no flip-flap, but performs like a draw-shot in billiards. I plants my
moccasins on the springboard; an' then instead of goin' on an' over a
cayouse who's standin' thar awaitin' sech events, I shoots back'ard
about fifteen foot an' lands in a ondistinguishable heap. An' as I
strikes a plank it smashes a brace of my ribs.
"'For a second I'm blurred in my intellects. Then I recovers; an' as
I'm bein' herded back into the dressin' room by the fosterin' hands of
the ring master an' my pard, the clown, over in the audience I hears
Jule's silvery laugh an' her old pap allowin' he'd give a hoss if I'd
only broke my neck. Also, I catches a remark of old Hickey; "Which
that Boggs boy allers was a ediot!" says old Hickey.'"
CHAPTER XV.
Bowlegs and Major Ben.
"Which this yere Major Ben," remarked the Old Cattleman, "taken in
conjunction with his bosom pard, Billy Bowlaigs, frames up the only
casooalty which gets inaug'rated in Wolfville."
"What!" I interjected; "don't you consider the divers killings,--the
death of the Stinging Lizard and the Dismissal of Silver Phil, to say
nothing of the taking off of the Man from Red Dog--don't you, I say,
consider such bloody matters casualties?"
"No, sir," retorted my friend, emitting the while sundry stubborn puffs
of smoke, "no, sir; I regyards them as results. Tharfore, I reiterates
that this yere Major Ben an' Bowlaigs accomplishes between 'em the only
troo casooalty whereof Wolfville has a record."
At this he paused and surveyed me with an eye of challenge; after a
bit, perceiving that I proposed no further contradiction, he went on:
"This Billy Bowlaigs at first is a cub b'ar--a black cub b'ar: an' when
he grows up to manhood, so to speak, he's as big, an' mighty near as
strong physical, as Dan Boggs. Nacherally, however, Dan lays over
Bowlaigs mental like a ace-full.
"It's Dave Tutt who makes Bowlaigs captive; Dave rounds Bowlaigs up in
his infancy one time when he's pesterin' about over in the foothills of
the Floridas lookin' for blacktail deer. Dave meets up with Bowlaigs
an' the latter's mother who's out, evident, on a scout for grub.
Bowlaig's mother has jest upturned a rotten pine-log to give little
Bowlaigs a chance to rustle some of these yere egreegious white worms
which looks like bald catapillars, that a-way, when all at once around
a p'int of rocks Dave heaves in view. This parent of Bowlaigs is as
besotted about her son as many hooman mothers; for while Bowlaigs
stands almost as high as she does an' weighs clost onto two hundred
pounds, the mother b'ar still has the idee tangled up in her
intelligence that Bowlaigs is that small an' he'pless, day-old kittens
is se'f-sustainin' citizens by compar'son to him. Actin' on these yere
errors, Bowlaig's mother the moment she glimpses Dave grabs young
Bowlaigs by the scruff of the neck an' goes caperin' off up hill with
him. An' to give that parent b'ar full credit, she's gettin' along all
right an' conductin' herse'f as though Bowlaigs don't heft no more than
one of them gooseha'r pillows, when, accidental, she bats pore Bowlaigs
ag'in the bole of a tree--him hangin' outen her mouth about three
foot--an' while the collision shakes that monarch of the forest some,
Bowlaigs gets knocked free of her grip an' goes rollin' down the
mountain-side ag'in like a sack of bran. It puts quite a crimp in
Bowlaigs. The mother b'ar, full of s'licitoode to save her offspring
turns, an' charges Dave; tharupon Dave downs her, an' young Bowlaigs
becomes a orphan an' a pris'ner on the spot.
"Followin' the demise of Bowlaig's mother, Dave sort o' feels
reesponsible for the cub's bringin' up an' he ties him hand an' foot,
an' after peelin' the pelt from the old mother b'ar, packs the entire
outfit into camp. Dave's pony protests with green eyes ag'in carryin'
sech a freight, but Dave has his way as he usually does with everything
except Tucson Jennie.
"At first Dave allows he'll let Bowlaigs live with him a whole lot an'
keep him ontil he grows up, an' construct a pet of him. But as I more
than once makes plain, Dave proposes but Tucson Jennie disposes; an' so
it befalls that on the third day after the cub takes up his residence
with her an' Dave, Jennie arms herse'f with a broom an' harasses the
onfortunate Bowlaigs from her wickeyup. Jennie declar's that she
discovers Bowlaigs organisin' to devour her child Enright Peets Tutt,
who's at that epock comin' three the next spring round-up.
"'I could read it in that Bowlaigs b'ar's eyes,' says Jennie, 'an' it's
mighty lucky a parent's faculties is plumb keen. If I hadn't got in on
the play with my broom, you can bet that inordinate Bowlaigs would have
done eat little Enright Peets all up.
"Shore, no one credits these yere apprehensions of Jennie's; Bowlaigs
would no more have chewed up Enright Peets than he'd played
table-stakes with him; but a fond mother's fears once stampeded is not
to be headed off or ca'med, an' Bowlaigs has to shift his camp a heap.
"Bowlaigs takes up his abode on the heels of him bein' run out by
Tucson Jennie, over to the corral; that is, he bunks in thar temp'rary
at least. An' he shore grows amazin', an' enlarges doorin' the next
three months to sech a degree that when he stands up to the counter in
the Red Light, acceptin' of some proffered drink, Bowlaigs comes clost
to bein' as tall as folks. He early learns throughout his wakeful
moments--what I'd deescribe as his business hours--to make the Red
Light a hang-out; it's the nosepaint he's hankerin' after, for in no
time at all Bowlaigs accoomulates a appetite for rum that's a fa'r
match for that of either Huggins or Old Monte, an' them two sots is for
long known as far west as the Colorado an' as far no'th as the Needles
as the offishul drunkards of Arizona. No; Bowlaigs ain't equal to
pourin' down the raw nosepaint; but Black Jack humours his weakness an'
Bowlaigs is wont to take off his libations about two parts water to one
of whiskey an' a lump of sugar in the bottom, outen one of these big
tumbler glasses; meanwhiles standin' at the bar an' holdin' the glass
between his two paws an' all as ackerate an' steady as the most
talented inebriate.
"'An' Bowlaigs has this distinction,' says Black Jack, alloodin' to the
sugar an' water; 'he's shore the only gent for whom I so far onbends
from reg'lar rools as to mix drinks.'
"Existence goes flowin' onward like some glad sweet song for Bowlaigs
for mighty likely it's two months an' nothin' remarkable eventuates.
He camps in over to the corral, an' except that new ponies, who ain't
onto Bowlaigs, commonly has heart-failure at the sight of him, he don't
found no disturbances nor get in anybody's way. Throughout his wakin'
hours, as I su'gests former, Bowlaigs ha'nts about the Red Light,
layin' guileful an' cunnin' for invites to drink; an' he execootes
besides small excursions to the O.K. Restauraw for chuck, with now an'
then a brief journey to the Post Office or the New York store. These
visits of Bowlaigs to the last two places, both because he don't get no
letters at the post office an' don't demand no clothes at the store, I
attribootes to motives of morbid cur'osity, that a-way.
"The first real trouble that meets up with Bowlaigs--who's got to be a
y'ar old by now--since Jennie fights the dooel with him with that
broom, overtakes him at the O.K. Restauraw. Missis Rucker for one
thing ain't over fond of Bowlaigs, allegin' as he grows older day by
day he looks more an' more like Rucker. Of course, sech views is
figments as much as the alarms of Tucson Jennie about Bowlaigs
meditatin' gettin' away with little Enright Peets; but Missis Rucker,
in spite of whatever we gent folks can say in Bowlaigs's behalf,
believes firm in her own slanders. She asserts that Bowlaigs as he
onfolds looks like Rucker; an' for her at least that settles the
subject an' she assoomes towards Bowlaigs attitoodes which, would
perhaps have been proper had her charge been troo.
"Still, I'll say for that most esteemable lady, that Missis Rucker
never lays for Bowlaigs or assaults him ontil one afternoon when he
catches the dinin'-room deserted an' off its gyard an' goes romancin'
over, cat-foot an' surreptitious, an' cleans up the tables of what
chuck has been placed thar in antic'pation of supper. The first news
Missis Rucker has of the raid is when Bowlaigs gets a half-hitch on the
tablecloth an' winds up his play by yankin' the entire outfit of
spoons, tin plates an' crockery off onto the floor. It's then Missis
Rucker sallies from the kitchen an' puts Bowlaigs to flight.
"Bowlaigs, who's plumb scared, comes lumberin' over to the Red Light
an' puts himse'f onder our protection. Enright squar's it for him; for
when Missis Rucker appears subsequent with a Winchester an' a knife an'
gives it out cold she's goin' to get Bowlaig's hide an' tallow an' sell
'em to pay even for that dinin'-room desolation of which he's the
architect, Enright counts up the damage an' pays over twenty-three
dollars in full settlement. Does Bowlaigs know it? You can gamble the
limit he knows it; for all the time Missis Rucker is prancin' about the
Red Light denouncin' him, he secretes himse'f, shiverin', behind the
bar; an' when that lady withdraws, mollified an' subdooed by the money,
he creeps out, Bowlaigs does, an' cries an' licks Enright's hand. Oh,
he's a mighty appreciative b'ar, pore Bowlaigs is; but his nerves is
that onstrung by the perils he passes through with Missis Rucker it
takes two big drinks to recover his sperits an' make him feel like the
same b'ar. It's Texas Thompson who buys the drinks:
"'For I, of all gents, Bowlaigs,' says Texas, as he invites the
foogitive to the bar, 'onderstands what you-all's been through. It may
be imagination, but jest the same thar's them times when Missis Rucker
goes on the warpath when she reminds me a lot of my divorced Laredo
wife.' With that Texas pours a couple of hookers of Willow Run into
Bowlaigs, an' the latter is a heap cheered an' his pulse declines to
normal.
"It's rum, however, which final is the deestruction of Bowlaigs, same
as it is of plenty of other good people who would have else lived in
honour an' died respected an' been tearfully planted in manner an' form
to do 'em proud.
"Excloosive of that casooalty which marks his wind-up, an' which he
combines with Major Ben to commit, thar's but one action of Bowlaigs a
enemy might call a crime. He does prounce on a mail bag one evenin'
when the post-master ain't lookin', an' shore rends an' worrits them
letters scand'lous.
"Yes, Bowlaigs gets arrested, an' the Stranglers sort o' convenes
informal to consider it. I allers remembers that session of the
Stranglers on account of Doc Peets an' Colonel William Greene Sterett
entertain' opp'site views an' the awful language they indulges in as
they expresses an' sets 'em forth.
"'Which I claims that this Bowlaigs b'ar,' says Peets, combatin' a
suggestion of Dan Boggs who's sympathisin' with an' urges that Bowlaigs
is 'ignorant of law an' tharfore innocent of offence,' 'which I claims
that this Bowlaig b'ar is guilty of rustlin' the mails an' must an'
should be hanged. His ignorance is no defences, for don't each gent
present know of that aphorism of the law, _Ignoratis legia non
excusat_!'
"Dan, nacherally, is enable to combat sech profound bluffs as this, an'
I'm free to confess if it ain't for Colonel Sterett buttin' in with
more Latin, the same bein' of equal cogency with that of Peet's, the
footure would have turned plenty dark an' doobious for Bowlaigs. As
Dan sinks back speechless an' played from Peet's shot, the Colonel, who
bein' eddicated like Peets to a feather aige is ondismayed an' cool,
comes to the rescoo.
"'That law proverb you quotes, Doc,' says the Colonel, 'is dead
c'rrect, an' if argyment was to pitch its last camp thar, your
deductions that this benighted Bowlaigs must swing, would be
ondeniable. But thar's a element lackin' in this affair without which
no offence is feasible. The question is,--an' I slams it at you, Doc,
as a thoughtful eddicated sharp--does this yere Bowlaigs open them
letters an' bust into that mail bag _causa lucrae_? I puts this query
up to you-all, Doc, for answer. It's obv'ous that Bowlaigs ain't got
no notion of money bein' in them missives an' tharfore he couldn't have
been moved by no thoughts of gain. Wherefore I asserts that the deed
is not done _causa lucrae_, an' that the case ag'in this he'pless
Bowlaigs falls to the ground.'
"Followin' this yere collision of the classics between two sech
scientists as Peets an' the Colonel, we-all can be considered as
hangin' mighty anxious on what reply Doc Peets is goin' to make. But
after some thought, Peets agrees with the Colonel. He admits that this
_causa lucrae_ is a bet he overlooks, an' that now the Colonel draws
his attention to it, he's bound to say he believes the Colonel to be
right, an' that Bowlaigs should be made a free onfettered b'ar ag'in.
We breathes easier at this, for the tension has been great, an' Dan
himse'f is that relieved he comes a heap clost to sheddin' tears. The
trial closes with the customary drinks; Bowlaigs gettin' his forty
drops with the rest, on the hocks of which he signalises his
reestoration to his rights an' freedom as a citizen by quilin' up in
his corner an' goin' to sleep.
"But the end is on its lowerin' way for Bowlaigs. Thar's a senile
party who's packed his blankets into camp an' who's called 'Major Ben.'
The Major, so the whisper goes, used to be quartermaster over to Fort
Craig or Fort Apache, or mebby now it's Fort Cummings or some'ers; an'
he gets himse'f dismissed for makin' away with the bank-roll. Be that
as it may, the Major's plenty drunk an' military while he lasts among
us; an' he likewise has _dinero_ for whatever nosepaint an' food an'
farobank he sees fit to go ag'inst. From the jump the Major makes up
to Bowlaigs an' the two become pards. The Major allows he likes
Bowlaigs because he can't talk.
"'Which if all my friends,' says the Major, no doubt alloodin' to them
witnesses ag'in him when he's cashiered, 'couldn't have talked no more
than Bowlaigs, I'd been happy yet.'
"The Major's got a diminyootive wickeyup out to the r'ar of the corral,
an' him an' Bowlaigs resides tharin. This habitat of the Major an'
Bowlaigs ain't much bigger than a seegyar box; it's only eight foot by
ten, is made of barn-boards an' has a canvas roof. That's the kind of
ranch Bowlaigs an' the Major calls 'home'; the latter spreadin' his
blankets on one side while Bowlaigs sleeps on t'other on the board
floor, needin' no blankets, havin' advantage over the Major seein' he's
got fur.
"The dispoote between Bowlaigs an' the Major which results in both of
'em cashin' in, gets started erroneous. The Major--who's sometimes too
indolent an' sometimes too drunk to make the play himse'f--instructs
Bowlaig how to go over to the Red Light an' fetch a bottle of rum. The
Major would chuck a silver dollar in a little basket, an' Bowlaigs
would take it in his mouth same as you-all has seen dogs, an' report
with the layout to Black Jack. That gent would make the shift, bottle
for dollar, an' Bowlaigs would reepair back ag'in to the Major, when
they'd both tank up ecstatic.
"One mornin' after Bowlaigs an' the Major's been campin' together about
four months, they wakes up mighty jaded. They've had a onusual spree
the evenin' prior an' they feels like a couple of sore-head dogs. The
Major who needs a drink to line up for the day, gropes about in his
blankets, gets a dollar, pitches it into the basket an' requests
Bowlaigs to caper over for the Willow Run. Bowlaigs is nothin' loth;
but as he's about to pick up the basket, he observes that the dollar
has done bounced out an' fell through a crack in the floor. Bowlaigs
sees it through the same crack where it's layin' shinin' onder the
house.
"Now this yere Bowlaigs is a mighty sagacious b'ar, also froogal, an'
so he goes wallowin' forth plenty prompt to recover the dollar. The
Major, who's ignorant of what's happened, still lays thar groanin' in
his blankets, feelin' like a loser an' nursin' his remorse.
"The first p'inter the Major gets of a new deal in his destinies is a
grand crash as the entire teepee upheaves an' goes over, kerwallop! on
its side, hurlin' the Major out through the canvas. It's the
thoughtless Bowlaigs does it.
"When Bowlaigs gets outside, he finds he can't crawl onder the teepee
none, seein' it's settin' too clost to the ground; an' tharupon, bein'
a one-ideed b'ar, he sort o' runs his right arm in beneath that edifice
an' up-ends the entire shebang, same as his old mother would a log when
she's grub-huntin' in the hills. Bowlaigs is pickin' up the dollar
when the Major comes swarmin' 'round the ruins of his outfit, a bowie
in his hand, an' him fairly locoed with rage.
"Shore, thar's a fight, an' the Major gets the knife plumb to
Bowlaigs's honest heart with the first motion. But Bowlaigs quits
game; he turns with a warwhoop an' confers on the Major a swat that
would have broke the back of a bronco; an' then he dies with his teeth
in the Major's neck.
"The Major only lives a half hour after we gets thar. An' it's to his
credit that he makes a statement exoneratin' Bowlaigs. 'I don't want
you-all gents,' says the Major, 'to go deemin' hard of this innocent
b'ar, for whatever fault thar is, is mine. Since Texas Thompson picks
up that dollar, this thing is made plain. What I takes for gratooitous
wickedness on Bowlaigs' part is nothin' but his efforts to execoote my
desires. Pore Bowlaigs! it embitters my last moments as I pictures
what must have been his opinions of me when I lams loose at him with
that knife! Bury us in one grave, gents; it'll save trouble an' show
besides that thar's no hard feelin's between me an' Bowlaigs over
what--an' give it the worst name--ain't nothin' but a onfortunate
mistake.'"
CHAPTER XVI.
Toad Allen's Elopement.
"Four days after that pinfeather person," remarked the Old Cattleman,
while refilling his pipe, "four days after that pinfeather person gains
Old Man Enright's consent to make use of Wolfville as a pivotal p'int
in a elopement, him an' his loved one comes bulgin' into camp. They
floats over in one of these yere mountain waggons, what some folks
calls a 'buckboard'; the pinfeather person's drivin'. Between him an'
his intended--all three settin' on the one seat--perches a preacher
gent, who it's plain from the look in his eyes is held in a sort o'
captivity that a-way. What nacherally bolsters up this theory is that
the maiden's got a six-shooter in her lap.
"'Which if thar's a wearied hectored gent in Arizona,' observes the
pinfeather party, as he descends outen the buckboard at the corral an'
tosses the reins to a hoss-hustler, 'you-all can come weavin' up an'
chance a yellow stack that I'm shore that gent.'
"The preacher sharp, who's about as young an' new as the pinfeather
party, looks like he yoonites with him in them views. As they onload
themse'fs, the pinfeather person waves his hand to where we-all's
gathered to welcome 'em, an' says by way of introduction:
"'Gents, yere's Abby; or as this Bible sport will say later in the
cer'mony, Abigail Glegg.'
"Of course, we, who represents the Wolfville public, comports ourse'fs
as becomes gents of dignity, an' after takin' off our sombreros, plumb
p'lite, Enright su'gests the O.K. Restauraw as a base of op'rations.
"'Don't you-all reckon,' says Enright to the pinfeather party, 'that
pendin' hostilities, Abby had better go over to Missis Rucker's? Thar
she gets combs an' breshes an' goes over her make-up an' straightens
out her game.'
"The pinfeather party allows this yere is a excellent notion, only him
an' Abby don't seem cl'ar as to what oughter be done about the preacher
sharp.
"'You see, he don't want to come,' explains the pinfeather party, 'an'
it's cost me an' Abby a heap of trouble to round him up. I ain't none
shore but he seizes on the first chance to go stampedin'; an' without
him these rites we-all is bankin' on would cripple down.'
"'No, friends,' says the preacher sharp; 'I will promise to abide by
you an' embrace no openin' to escape. Since I'm here I will yoonite
you-all as you wish; the more readily because I trusts that as man an'
wife you'll prove a mootual restraint one upon the other; an' also for
that I deems you both in your single-footed capac'ty as a threat to the
commoonity. Fear not; prepare yourse'fs an' I'll bring you together in
the happy bonds of matrimony at the drop of the hat.'
"'You notes, Dan,' says Texas Thompson, who's off to one side with Dan
Boggs, 'you notes he talks like his heart's resentful. Them culprits
has r'iled him up; an' now he allows that the short cut to play even is
to marry 'em as they deserves. Which if you-all knows that former wife
of mine, Dan, you'll appreciate what I says.'
"Even after the preacher sharp gives his p'role, Abby acts plenty
doobious. She ain't shore it's wise to throw him loose. It's Doc
Peets who reasshores her.
"'My dear young lady,' says Peets, at the same time bowin' to the
ground, 'you may trust this maverick with me. I'll pledge my word to
prodooce him at the moment when he's called for to make these nuptials
win.'
"'Which I'm aheap obleeged to you, Mister,' says Abby to Peets, sizing
him up approvin'; 'an' now that I'm convinced thar's no chance of my
footure sufferin' from any absenteeism on the part of this pastor, I
reckons I better go over, like you-all hints, an' take a look or two in
the glass. It ain't goin' to consoome a moment, however,--this yere
titivation I plans; an' followin' said improvements we-all better pull
off this play some prompt. My paw,--old Ben Glegg,--is on our trail
not five miles behind; he'll land yere in half a hour an' I ain't none
convinced he won't land shootin'.' An' with this bluff, an' confidin'
the preacher sharp to Peets, Abby goes curvin' over to the O.K.
Restauraw.
"However does this yere virgin look? Son, I hes'tates to deescribe a
lady onless the facts flows fav'rable for her. Which I'll take chances
an' lie a lot to say that any lady's beautiful, if you-all will only
give me so much as one good feacher to go on. But I'm powerless in the
instance of Abby. That's a blizzard effect to her face; an' the best
you can say is that if she don't look lovely, at least she looks
convincin'. The gnurliest pineknot burns frequent the hottest, an' you
can take my word for it, this Abby girl has sperit. Speakin' of her
appearance, personal, Missis Rucker--who's a fair jedge--allows later
to Enright that if Abby's a kyard in a faro game, she'd play her to
lose.
"'Which she looks like a sick cat in the face, an' a greyhoun' in the
waist,' says Missis Rucker; 'an' I ain't got mortal use for no sech
spindlin' trollops as this yere Abby girl is, nohow.'
"'I don't know,' says Enright, shakin' his head; 'I ain't been enriched
with much practical experience with women, but I reckons now it's love
that does it. Whoever is that gent, Peets, who says, "love is blind"?
He knows his business, that sport does, an' about calls the turn.'
"'I ain't none so shore neither,' says Peets. 'Love may be blind, but
somehow, I don't sign up the play that way. Thar's plenty of people,
same as this pinfeather party, who discerns beauties in their
sweethearts that's veiled to you an' me.'
"Of course, these yere discussions concernin' Abby's charms takes place
weeks later. On the weddin' day, Wolfville's too busy trackin' 'round
an' backin' Abby's game to go makin' remarks. In this connection,
however, it's only right to Abby to say that her pinfeather beau don't
share Missis Rucker's views. Although Abby done threatens him with a
gun-play to make him lead her to the altar that time her old paw
creases him, an' he begins to wax low-sperited about wedlock, still,
the pinfeather party's enamoured of Abby an' wropped up in her.
"'Shore! says this pinfeather party to Texas Thompson, who, outen pity
for him, takes the bridegroom over to the Red Light, to be refreshed;
'shore! while thar's no one that egreegious to go claimin' that my
Abby's doo to grade as "cornfed," all the same she's one of the most
fascinatin' ladies,--that is, an' give her a gun,--in all the len'th
an' breadth of Arizona. I knows; for I've seen my Abby shoot.'
"'Excoose me, pard,' says Texas, after surveyin' the pinfeather party
plenty sympathetic; 'pardon my seemin' roodness, if I confers with the
barkeep aside. On the level! now,' goes on Texas to Black Jack as he
pulls him off to a corner an' whispers so the pinfeather party don't
hear; 'on the level, Jack! ain't it my dooty--me who saveys what he's
ag'inst--to go warn this victim ag'in matrimony in all its horrors?'
"'Don't you do it!' remonstrates Black Jack, an' his voice trembles
with the emphasis he feels; 'don't you do it none! You-all stand paws
off! Which you don't know what you'll be answerable for! If this yere
marriage gets broke off, who knows what new line of conduct this Abby
maiden will put out. She may rope onto Boggs, or Peets, or mebby even
me. As long as Abby ain't marryin' none of us, Wolfville's attitoode
oughter be one of dignified nootrality.'
"Texas sighs deep an' sad as he turns ag'in to the pinfeather party;
but he sees the force of Black Jack's argyments an' yields without a
effort to combat 'em.
"'After all,' says Texas bitterly to himse'f, 'others has suffered;
wherefore, then, should this jaybird gent escape?' An' with that,
Texas hardens his heart an' gives up any notion of the pinfeather
person's rescoo.
"Which Abby now issues forth of the O.K. Restauraw an' j'ines the
pinfeather party when he emerges from the Red Light.
"'This sky pilot,' says Dan Boggs, approachin' the happy couple, 'sends
word by me that he's over in the New York store. In deefault of a
shore-enough sanchooary, he allows he yootilises that depot of trade as
a headquarters; an' he's now waitin', all keyed up an' ready to turn
his little game. Likewise, he's been complainin' 'round some querulous
that you folks is harsh with him, an' abducts him an' threatens his
skelp.'
"'Now, see thar!' ejac'lates Abby, liftin' up her hands. 'Does mortal
y'ears ever before listen to sech folly! I suppose he takes that gun I
has as threats! I'm a onprotected young female, an' nacherally, when I
embarks on this yere elopement, I packs one of paw's guns. Besides,
this sweetheart of mine might get cold feet, an' try to jump the game,
an' then I'd need said weepon to make good my p'sition. But it's never
meant for that pastor! When I'm talkin' to him to prevail on him to
come along, an' that gun in my hand at the time, I does sort o' make
references to him with the muzzle. But he needn't go gettin'
birdheaded over it; thar's nothin' hostile meant!'
"'Enright explains to him satisfact'ry,' says Boggs. 'An' as you
urges, it don't mean nothin'. Folks on the brink of bein' married that
a-way gets so joyfully bewildered it comes mighty near the same as
bein' locoed.'
"'Well,' says the pinfeather party, who's been stackin' up a dust-cloud
where some one's gallopin' along about three miles over on the trail,
'if I'm any dab at a guess that's your infuriated paw pirootin' along
over yonder, an' we better get these matrimonial hobbles on without
further onreasonable delays. That old murderer would plug me; an' no
more hes'tation than if I'm a coyote! But once I'm moved up into
p'sition as his son-in-law, a feelin' of nearness an' kinship mighty
likely op'rates to stay his hand. Blood's thicker than water, an' I'm
in a hurry to get reelated to your paw.'
"But Enright has his notions of what's proper, an' he su'gests the
services be delayed ontil old Glegg gets in. Meanwhile he despatches
Jack Moore an' Dan Boggs as a gyard of honor to lead old Glegg to our
trystin' place in the New York store.
"'An' the first thing you-all do, Jack,' says Enright, as Jack an' Dan
rides away, 'you get that outcast's guns.'
"It ain't no more'n time for one drink when Jack an' Dan returns in
company of this Glegg. He's a fierce, gray old gent with a eye like a
wolf. Jest before he arrives, Enright advises the pinfeather person
an' the bride Abby, to go camp in the r'ar room so the sudden sight of
'em won't exasp'rate this parent Glegg to madness.
"'Whatever's the meanin' of this yere concourse?' demands old Glegg, as
he comes into the New York store, an' p'intin' to where Peets an' Texas
an' Cherokee Hall, along with Enright, is standin' about; 'an' why does
these hold-ups'--yere he indicates Dan an' Jack,--'denoode me of my
hardware, I'd like to know?'
"'These gents,' says Enright, 'is a quorum of that respectable body
known as the Wolfville Stranglers, otherwise a Vig'lance Committee; an'
your guns was took so as to redooce the chances of hangin' you--the
same bein' some abundant, nacheral,--to minimum. Now who be you? also,
what's your little game?'
"'My name's Benjamin Glegg,' responds old Glegg. 'I owns the Sunflower
brand an' ranch. As for my game: thar's a member of my fam'ly escapes
this mornin'--comes streamin' over yere, I onderstands--an' I'm in the
saddle tryin' to round her up. Gents,' concloods old Glegg, an' he
displays emotion, 'I'm simply a harassed parent on the trail of his
errant offspring.'
"Then Enright makes old Glegg a long, soft talk, an' seeks to imboo him
with ca'mness. He relates how Abby an' the pinfeather sport dotes on
each other; an' counsels old Glegg not to come pesterin' about with
roode objections to the weddin'.
"'Which I says this as your friend,' remarks Enright.
"'It's as the scripter says,' replies old Glegg, who's mollified a lot,
'it's as the good book says: A soft answer turneth away wrath; but more
speshully when the opp'sition's got your guns. I begins to see things
different. Still, I hates to lose my Abby that a-way. Since my old
woman dies, Abby, gents, has been the world an' all to me.'
"'Is your wife dead?" asks Enright, like he sympathises.
"'Shore!' says old Glegg; 'been out an' gone these two years. She's
with them cherubim in glory. But folks, you oughter seen her to
onderstand my loss. Five years ago we has a ranch over back of the
Tres Hermanas by the Mexico line. The Injuns used to go lopin' by our
ranch, no'th an' south, all the time. You-all recalls when they pays
twenty-five dollars for skelps in Tucson? My wife's that thrifty them
days that she buys all her own an' my child Abby's clothes with the
Injuns she pots. Little Abby used to scout for her maw. "Yere comes
another!" little Abby would cry, as she stampedes up all breathless,
her childish face aglow. With that, my wife would take her hands outen
the wash-tub, snag onto that savage with her little old Winchester, and
quit winner twenty-five right thar.'
"'Which I don't marvel you-all mourns her loss,' says Enright
consolin'ly.
"'She's shorely--Missis Glegg is--' says old Glegg, shakin' his grizzly
head; 'she's shore the most meteoric married lady of which hist'ry says
a word. My girl Abby's like her.'
"'But whatever's your objection,' argues Enright, 'to this young an'
trusty sport who's so eager to wed Abby?'
"'I objects to him because he gambles,' says old Glegg. 'I can see he
gambles by him pickin' up the salt cellar between his thumb an' middle
finger with the forefinger over the top like it's a stack of chips, one
evenin' when he stays to supper an' I asks him to "pass the salt."
Then ag'in, he don't drink; he tells me so himse'f when I invites him
to libate. I ain't goin' to have no teetotal son-in-law around,
over-powerin' me in a moral way; I'd feel criticised an' I couldn't
stand it, gents. Lastly, I don't like this yere felon's name none.'
"'Whatever is his name, then?' asks Enright. 'So far he don't confide
no title to us.'
"'An' I don't wonder none!' says old Glegg. 'It shows he's decent
enough to be ashamed. Thar's hopes of him yet. Gents, his name's Toad
Allen. "Allen" goes, but, gents, I flies in the air at "Toad." Do
you-all blame me? I asks you, as onbiased sports, would you set ca'mly
down while a party named "Toad" puts himse'f in nom'nation to be your
son-in-law?'
"'None whatever!' says Jack Moore; an' Dan an' Cherokee an' Texas
echoes the remark.
"'You-all camp down yere with a tumbler of Valley Tan,' says Enright,
'an' make yourse'f comfortable with my colleagues, while I goes an'
consults with our Gretna Green outfit in the r'ar room.'
"Enright returns after a bit, an' his face has that air of
se'f-satisfaction that goes with a gent who's playin' on velvet.
"'Your comin' son-in-law,' says Enright to old Glegg, 'defends himse'f
from them charges as follows: He agrees to quit gamblin'; he says he
lies a whole lot when he tells you-all he don't drink none; an' lastly,
deplorin' "Toad" as a cognomen, an' explainin' that he don't assoome it
of free choice but sort o' has it sawed off on him in he'pless infancy,
he offers--you consentin' to the weddin'--to reorganise onder the name
of "Benjamin Glegg Allen."'
"Son, this yere last proposal wins over old Glegg in a body. He not
only withdraws all objections to the nuptials, but allows he'll make
the pinfeather sport an' Abby full partners in the Sunflower. At this
p'int, Enright notifies the preacher sharp that all depends on him; an'
that excellent teacher at once acquits himse'f so that in two minutes
Wolfville adds another successful weddin' to her list of triumphs.
"'It 'lustrates too,' says Enright, when two days later the weddin'
party has returned to Tucson, an' Wolfville ag'in sinks to a normal
state of slumbrous ease, 'it sort o' 'lustrates how open to argyments a
gent is when once he's lost his weepons. Now if he isn't disarmed that
time, my eloquence wouldn't have had no more effect on old Glegg than
throwin' water on a drowned rat.'"
CHAPTER XVII.
The Clients of Aaron Green.
"And so there were no lawyers in Wolfville?" I said. The Old Cattleman
filled his everlasting pipe, lighted it, and puffed experimentally.
There was a handful of wordless moments devoted to pipe. Then, as one
satisfied of a smoky success, he turned attention to me and my remark.
"Lawyers in Wolfville?" he repeated. "Not in my day; none whatever!
It's mighty likely though that some of 'em's done come knockin' along
by now. Them jurists is a heap persistent, not to say diffoosive, an'
soon or late they shore trails into every camp. Which we'd have had
'em among us long ago, but nacherally, an' as far as argyments goes, we
turns 'em off. Se'f-preservation is a law of nacher, an' these maxims
applies to commoonities as much as ever they does to gents personal.
Wherefore, whenever we notices a law wolf scoutin' about an' tryin' to
get the wind on us, we employs our talents for lyin', fills him up with
fallacies, an' teaches him that to come to Wolfville is to put down his
destinies on a dead kyard; an' he tharupon abandons whatever of plans
he's harbourin' ag'in us, seein' nothin' tharin.
"It's jest before I leaves for the East when one of these coyotes
crosses up with Old Man Enright in Tucson, an' submits the idee of his
professional invasion of our camp.
"'Which I'm in the Oriental at the time,' says Enright, when he relates
about his adventure, 'an' this maverick goes to jumpin' sideways at me
in a friendly mood. Bein' I'm a easy-mannered sport with strangers, he
has no trouble gettin' acquainted. At last he allows that he aims to
pitch his teepee in Wolfville, hang out a shingle, an' plunge into
joorisprudence. "I was thinkin'," says he, "of openin' a joint for the
practice of law. As a condition prior advised by the barkeep, an' one
which also recommends itse'f to me as dictated of the commonest
proodence, I figgers on gainin' your views of these steps."
"'"You does well," I replies, "to consult me on them p'ints. I sees
you're shore a jo-darter of a lawyer; for you handles the language like
a muleskinner does a blacksnake whip. But jest the same, don't for one
moment think of breakin' in on Wolfville. That outfit don't practice
law none; she practices facts. It offers no openin' for your game.
Comin' to Wolfville onder any conditions is ever a movement of gravity,
an onless a gent is out to chase cattle or dandle kyards or proposes to
array himse'f in the ranks of commerce by foundin' a s'loon, Wolfville
would not guarantee his footure any positive reward."
"'"Then I jest won't come a whole lot," says this law sharp. Whereupon
we engages in mootual drinks an' disperses to our destinies.'
"'What you tells this sport,' says Texas Thompson, who's listenin' to
Enright, 'echoes my sentiments exact. Anything to keep out law! It
ain't alone the jedgments for divorce which my wife grabs off over in
Laredo, but it comes to me as the frootes of a experience which has
been as wide as it has been plenty soon, that law is only another word
for trouble in egreegious forms.'
"'So I decides,' retorts Enright. 'Still, I'm proud to be endorsed by
as good a jedge of public disorder an' its preventives as Texas
Thompson. Sech approvals ever tends to stiffen a gent's play. As I
states, I reeverses this practitioner an' heads him t'other way.
Wolfville is the home of friendly confidence; the throne of yoonity an'
fraternal peace. It must not be jeopardised. We-all don't want to
incur no resks by abandonin' ourse'fs to real shore-enough law. It
would debauch us: we'd get plumb locoed an' take to racin' wild an'
cimarron up an' down the range, an' no gent could foresee results.
It's better than even money, that with the advent of a law sharp into
our midst, historians of this hamlet would begin their last chapter.
They would head her: "Wolfville's Last Days."
"'It's twenty years ago,' goes on Enright, 'while I'm that season in
Texas, that a sharp packs his blankets into Yellow City an' puts it up
he'll practice some law. No; he ain't wanted, but he never does give
no gent a chance to say so. He comes trackin' in onannounced, an' the
first we-all saveys, thar's his sign a-swingin', an' ashoorin' the
sports of Yellow City of the presence of
AARON GREEN, ESQ. ATTORNEY-AT-LAW.
"'Nobody gets excited; for while we agrees to prevail on him ultimately
to shift his camp a heap, the sityooation don't call for nothin'
preecipitate. In fact, the idee of him or any other besotted person
turnin' loose that a-way in Yellow City, strikes us as loodicrous.
Thar's nothing for a law-gent to do. I've met up with a heap of camps
in my day; an' I've witnessed the work of many a vig'lance committee;
but I'm yere to state that for painstakin' ardour an' a energy that
never sleeps, the Stranglers of Yellow City is a even break with the
best. They uses up a bale of half-inch rope a year; an' as for law an'
order an' a scene of fragrant peace, that outfit is comparable only
with flower gyardens on a quiet hazy August afternoon.
"'This Aaron Green who prounces thus on Yellow City, intendin' to
foment litigations an' go ropin' 'round for fees, is plenty young; but
he's that grave an' dignified that owls is hilarious to him. One after
the other, he tackles us in a severe onmitigated way, an' shoves his
professional kyard onto each an' tells him that whenever he feels
ill-used to come a-runnin' an' have his rights preserved. Shore! the
boys meets this law person half way. They drinks with him an' fills
him up with licker an' fictions alternate, an' altogether regyards him
as a mighty yoomerous prop'sition.
"'Also, observin' how tender he is, an' him takin' in their various
lies like texts of holy writ, they names him "Easy Aaron." Which he
don't look on "Easy Aaron" none too well as a title, an' insists on
bein' called "Jedge Green" or even "Squar' Green." But Yellow City
won't have it; she sticks to "Easy Aaron"; an' as callin' down the
entire camp offers prospects full of fever an' oncertainty, he at last
passes up the insult an' while he stays among us, pays no further heed.
"'Doorin' the weeks he harbours with us, a gen'ral taste deevelops to
hear this Easy Aaron's eloquence. Thar's a delegation waits on him an'
requests Easy Aaron to come forth an' make a speech. We su'gests that
he can yootilise the Burnt Boot Saloon as a auditorium, an' offers as a
subject "Texas: her Glorious Past, her Glitterin' Present, an' her
Transcendent Footure!"
"'"Thar's a topic!" says Shoestring Griffith to Easy Aaron--Shoestring
is the cha'rman of the committee,--"thar's a burnin' topic for you!
An' if you-all will only come surgin' over to the Burnt Boot right now
while you're warm for the event, I offers two to one you makes Cicero
look like seven cents."
"'But Easy Aaron waves 'em arrogantly away. He declines to go barkin'
at a knot. He says it'll be soon enough to onbuckle an' swamp Yellow
City with a flood of eloquence when proper legal o'casion enfolds.
"'In the room to the r'ar of the apartments where this Easy Aaron holds
forth as a practitioner, thar's a farobank as is nacheral enough. It's
about second drink time in the afternoon, bein' a time of day when the
faro game is dead. A passel of conspirators, with Shoestring Griffith
in the lead, goes to this room an' reelaxes into a game of draw. Easy
Aaron can hear the flutter of the chips through the partition--the same
bein' plenty thin--where he's camped like a spider in its web an'
waitin' for some sport who needs law to show up. Easy Aaron listens
careless an' indifferent to Shoestring an' his fellow blacklaigs as
they deals an' antes an' raises an' rakes in pots, an' everybody mighty
joobilant as is frequent over poker.
"'Of a suddent, roars an' yells an' reecriminations yoosurps the place
of merriment. Then the guns! An' half the lead comes spittin' an'
splittin' through that intervenin' partition like she's kyardboard.
The bullets flies high enough to miss Easy Aaron, but low enough to
invoke a gloomy frame of mind.
"'This yere artillery practice don't continyoo long before Yellow City
descends on Shoestring an' his band of homicides; an' when they've got
'em sorted out, thar's Billy Goodnight too defunct to skin, an'
Shoestring Griffith does it.
"'Thar's no time lost; the Stranglers convenes in the Burnt Boot, an'
exact jestice stands on expectant tiptoe for its prey. But Shoestring
raises objections.
"'"Which before ever you-all reptiles takes my innocent life," says
Shoestring, "I wants a lawyer. I swings off in style or I don't swing.
You hear me! send across for Easy Aaron. You can gamble, I'm going to
interpose a defense."
"'"That's but right," says Waco Anderson who's the chief of the
Stranglers. "Assembled as we be to revenge the ontimely pluggin' of
the late Billy Goodnight, still this Shoestring may demand a even deal.
If some gent will ramble over an' round up Easy Aaron, as Shoestring
desires, it will be regyarded by the committee, an' this lynchin' can
then proceed."
"'Easy Aaron is onearthed from onder his desk where he's still quiled
up, pale an' pantin', by virchoo of the bullets. Jim Wise, who goes
for him, explains that the shower is over; an' also that he's in
enormous demand to save Shoestring for beefin' Billy Goodnight. At
this, Easy Aaron gets up an' coughs 'round for a moment or two,
recoverin' his nerve; then he buttons his surtoot, assoomes airs of
sagacity, tucks the Texas Statootes onder his arm, reepairs to the
Burnt Boot an' allows he's ready to defend Shoestring from said charges.
"'"But not onless my fees is paid in advance," says this Easy Aaron.
"'At that, we-all passes the hat an' each chucks in a white chip or
two, an' when Waco Anderson counts up results it shows wellnigh
eighty-five dollars. Easy Aaron shakes his head like it's mighty
small; but he takes it an' casts himse'f loose. An', gents, he's shore
verbose! He pelts an' pounds that committee with a hailstorm of
observations, ontil all they can do is set thar an' wag their y'ears
an' bat their eyes. Waco Anderson himse'f allows, when discussin' said
oration later, that he ain't beheld nothin' so muddy an' so much since
the last big flood on the Brazos.
"'After Easy Aaron holds forth for two hours, Waco preevails on him
with a six-shooter to pause for breath. Waco's tried twenty times to
get Easy Aaron to stop long enough to let the Stranglers get down a
verbal bet, but that advocate declines to be restrained. He treats
Waco's efforts with scorn an' rides him down like he, Easy Aaron, is a
bunch of cattle on a stampede. Thar's no headin' or holdin' him ontil
Waco, in desperation, takes to tyrannisin' at him with his gun.
"'"It's this," says Waco, when Easy Aaron's subdooed. "If the eminent
gent will quit howlin' right yere an' never another yelp, the committee
is willin' to throw this villain Shoestring loose. Every one of us is
a slave to dooty, but we pauses before personal deestruction in a awful
form. Billy Goodnight is gone; ondoubted his murderer should win the
doom meted out for sech atrocities; but dooty or no dooty, this
committee ain't called on to be talked to death in its discharge.
Yellow City makes no sech demands of its servants; wherefore, I
repeats, that if this Easy Aaron sits mute where he is, we agrees to
cut Shoestring's bonds an' restore him to that freedom whereof he makes
sech florid use."
"'At this, Easy Aaron stands up, puffs out his chest, bows to Waco an'
the others, an' evolves 'em a patronisin' gesture signifyin' that their
bluff is called. Shoestring Griffith is saved.
"'Doorin' the subsequent line-up at the bar which concloods the
ceremonies, Easy Aaron waxes indignant an' is harrowed to observe Billy
Goodnight imbibin' with the rest.
"'"I thought you-all dead!" says Easy Aaron, in tones of wrathful
reproach.
"'"Which I was dead," says Billy, sort o' apol'getic, "but them words
of fire brings me to."
"'Easy Aaron don't make no answer, but as he jingles the fee the sour
look relaxes.
"'As I remarks, Easy Aaron ain't with us over long. Yellow City is
that much worse off than Wolfville that she has a little old 'doby
calaboose that's been built since the old Mexico days. Thar's no
shore-enough jedge an' jury ever comes to Yellow City; an' if the
kyards was so run that we has a captive which the Stranglers deems
beneath 'em, he would be drug 'way over yonder to some county seat.
It's but fair to say that no sech contretemps presents itse'f up to the
advent of Easy Aaron; an' while thar's now an' then a small
accoomulation of felons doorin' sech seasons as the boys is off on the
ranges or busy with the roundups, thar never fails to come a clean-up
in plenty of time. The Stranglers comes back; jestice resoomes her
sway, an' the calaboose is ag'in as empty as a church.
"'It befalls, however, that doorin' the four or five weeks to follow
the acquittal of that homicide Shoestring, an' while Waco Anderson an'
a quorum of the committee is away teeterin' about in their own affairs,
the calaboose gets filled up with two white men and either four or five
Mexicans--I can't say the last for shore, as I ain't got a good mem'ry
for Mexicans. These parties is held for divers malefactions from
shootin' up a Greaser dance-hall to stealin' a cow over on the
Honeymoon.
"'To his joy, Easy Aaron is reetained to defend this crim'nal herd.
It's shore pleasant to watch him! I never sees the sport who's that
proudly content. Easy Aaron visits these yere clients of his every
day; an' when he has time, he walks out onto the plains so far that
you-all can't hear his tones, an' rehearses the speeches he's aimin' to
make when he gets them cut-throats before a jury. We-all could see him
prancin' up an' down, tossin' his hands an' all in the most locoed way.
As I states, he's too far off to be heard none; but he's in plain view
from the front windows of the Burnt Boot, an' we-all finds them antics
plumb divertin.'
"'"These cases," says Easy Aaron to me, for he's that happy an'
enthoosiastic he's got to open up on some gent; "these cases is bound
to fix my fame as the modern Demosthenes. You knows how eloquent I am
about Shoestring? That won't be a marker to the oration I'll frame up
for these miscreants in the calaboose. For why? Shoestring's time I
ain't organised; also, I'm more or less shook by the late bullets
buzzin' an' hummin' like a passel of bloo-bottle flies about my office.
But now will be different. I'll be ready, an' I'll be in a cool
frenzy, the same bein' a mood which is excellent, partic'lar if a gent
is out to break records for rhetoric. I shore regyards them
malefactors as so many rungs for my clamberin' up the ladder of fame."
An' with that this Easy Aaron goes pirootin' forth upon the plains
ag'in to resoome his talking at a mark.
"'It's mebby a week after this exultation of Easy Aaron's, an' Waco
Anderson an' the others is in from the ranges. Yellow City is onusual
vivacious an' lively. You-all may jedge of the happy prosperity of
local feelin' when I assoores you that the average changed in at
farobank each evenin' ain't less than twenty thousand dollars. As for
Easy Aaron, he's goin' about in clouds of personal an' speshul delight.
It's now crowdin' along towards the time when him an' his clients will
adjourn over to that county seat an' give Easy Aaron the opportoonity
to write his name on the deathless calendars of fame.
"'But black disapp'intment gets Easy Aaron squar' in the door. One
morning he reepairs to the calaboose to consult with the felons on
whose interests he's ridin' herd. Horror seizes him; he finds the
cells as vacant as a echo.
"'"Where's these clients?" asks Easy Aaron, while his face grows white.
"'"Vamosed!" says the Mexican who carries the calaboose keys; an' with
that he turns in mighty composed, to roll a cigarette.
"'"Vamoosed, where at?" pursoos Easy Aaron.
"'"_Por el inferno_!" says the Mexican; he's got his cigarette lighted,
an' is puffin' as contented as hoss-thieves. "See thar, _Amigo_!" goes
on the Greaser, indicatin' down the street.
"'Easy Aaron gazes where the Mexican p'ints, an' his heart turns to
water. Thar swayin' an' swingin' like tassels in the mornin' breeze,
an' each as dead as Gen'ral Taylor, he beholds his entire docket
hangin' to the windmill. Easy Aaron approaches an' counts 'em up.
Which they're all thar! The Stranglers shorely makes a house cleanin'.
As Easy Aaron looks upon them late clients, he wrings his hands.
"'"Thar hangs fame!" says Easy Aaron; "thar hangs my chance of
eminence! That eloquence, wherewith my heart is freighted, an' which
would have else declar'd me the Erskine of the Brazos, is lynched with
my clients." Then wheelin' on Waco Anderson who strolls over, Easy
Aaron demands plenty f'rocious: "Whoever does this dastard deed?"
"'"Which this agitated sport," observes Waco coldly to Shoestring
Griffith, who comes loungin' up likewise, "asks whoever does these yere
dastard deeds! Does you-all recall the fate, Shoestring, of the last
misguided shorthorn who gives way to sech a query? My mem'ry is never
ackerate as to trifles, an' I'm confoosed about whether he's shot or
hung or simply burned alive."
"'"That prairie dog is hanged a lot," says Shoestring. "Which the boys
was goin' to burn him, but on its appearin' that he puts the question
more in ignorance than malice, they softens on second thought to that
degree they merely gets a rope, adds him to the windmill with the
others, an' lets the matter drop."
"'Easy Aaron don't crowd his explorations further. He can see thar's
what you-all might call a substratum of seriousness to the observations
of Waco an' Shoestring, an' his efforts to solve the mystery that
disposes of every law case he has, an' leaves him to begin life anew,
comes to a halt!
"'But it lets pore Easy Aaron out. He borrys a hoss from the corral,
packs the Texas Statootes an' his extra shirt in the war-bags, an' with
that the only real law wolf who ever makes his lair in Yellow City,
p'ints sadly no'thward an' is seen no more. As he's about to ride
away, Easy Aaron turns to me. He's sort o' got the notion I ain't so
bad as Waco, Shoestring, an' the rest. "I shall never return," says
Easy Aaron, an' he shakes his head plenty disconsolate. "Genius has no
show in Yellow City. This outfit hangs a gent's clients as fast as
ever he's retained an' offers no indoocements--opens no opportoonities,
to a ambitious barrister."'"
CHAPTER XVIII
Colonel Sterett Relates Marvels.
"As I asserts frequent," observed the Old Cattleman, the while
delicately pruning a bit of wood he'd picked up on his walk, "the funds
of information, gen'ral an' speshul, which Colonel William Greene
Sterett packs about would freight a eight-mule team. It's even money
which of 'em saveys the most, him or Doc Peets. For myself, after
careful study, I inclines to the theery that Colonel Sterett's
knowledge is the widest, while Peets's is the most exact. Both is
college gents; an' yet they differs as to the valyoo of sech
sem'naries. The Colonel coppers colleges, while Peets plays 'em to win.
"'Them temples of learnin',' says the Colonel, 'is a heap ornate; but
they don't make good.' This is doubted by Peets.
"One evenin' Dan Boggs, who's allers tantalisin' 'round askin'
questions--it looks like a sleepless cur'osity is proned into
Dan--ropes at Peets concernin' this topic:
"'Whatever do they teach in colleges, Doc?' asks Dan.
"'They teaches all of the branches," retorts Peets.
"'An' none of the roots,' adds Colonel Sterett, 'as a cunnin' Yank once
remarks on a o'casion sim'lar.'
"No, the Colonel an' Peets don't go lockin' horns in these differences.
Both is a mighty sight too well brought up for that; moreover, they
don't allow to set the camp no sech examples. They entertains too high
a regyard for each other to take to pawin' about pugnacious, verbal or
otherwise.
"The Colonel's information is as wide flung as a buzzard's wing.
Thar's mighty few mysteries he ain't authorised to eloocidate. An'
from time to time, accordin' as the Colonel's more or less in licker,
he enlightens Wolfville on a multitoode of topics. Which the Colonel
is a profound eddicational innocence; that's whatever!
"It's one evenin' an' the moon is swingin' high in the bloo-black
heavens an' looks like a gold doorknob to the portals of the eternal
beyond. Texas Thompson fixes his eyes tharon, meditative an' pensive,
an' then he wonders:
"'Do you-all reckon, now, that folks is livin' up thar?'
"'Whatever do you think yourse'f, Colonel?' says Enright, passin' the
conundrum over to the editor of the _Coyote_. 'Do you think thar's
folks on the moon?'
"'Do I think thar's folks on the moon?' repeats the Colonel as ca'mly
confident as a club flush. 'I don't think,--I knows.'
"'Whichever is it then?' asks Dan Boggs, whose ha'r already begins to
bristle, he's that inquisitive. 'Simply takin' a ignorant shot in the
dark that away, I says, "No." That moon looks like a mighty lonesome
loominary to me.'
"'Jest the same,' retorts the Colonel, an' he's a lot dogmatic, 'that
planet's fairly speckled with people. An' if some gent will recall the
errant fancies of Black Jack to a sense of dooty, I'll onfold how I
knows.
"'It's when I'm crowdin' twenty,' goes on the Colonel, followin' the
ministrations of Black Jack, 'an' I'm visitin' about the meetropolis of
Looeyville. I've been sellin' a passel of runnin' hosses; an' as I
rounds up a full peck of doubloons for the fourteen I disposes of, I'm
feelin' too contentedly cunnin' to live. It's evenin' an' the moon is
shinin' same as now. I jest pays six bits for my supper at the Galt
House, an' lights a ten cent seegyar--Oh! I has the bridle off all
right!--an' I'm romancin' leesurly along the street, when I encounters
a party who's ridin' herd on one of these yere telescopes, the same
bein' p'inted at the effulgent moon. Gents, she's shorely a giant
spy-glass, that instrooment is; bigger an' longer than the smokestack
of any steamboat between Looeyville an' Noo Orleans. She's swung on a
pa'r of shears; each stick a cl'ar ninety foot of Norway pine. As I
goes pirootin' by, this gent with the telescope pipes briskly up.
"'"Take a look at the moon?"
"'"No," I replies, wavin' him off some haughty, for that bag of
doubloons has done puffed me up. "No, I don't take no interest in the
moon."
"'As I'm comin' back, mebby it's a hour later, this astronomer is still
swingin' an' rattlin' with the queen of night. He pitches his lariat
ag'in an' now he fastens.
"'"You-all better take a look; they're havin' the time of their c'reers
up thar."
"'"Whatever be they doin'?"
"'"Tellin' wouldn't do no good," says the savant; "it's one of them
rackets a gent has to see to savey."
"'"What's the ante?" I asks, for the fires of my cur'osity begins to
burn.
"'"Four bits! An' considerin' the onusual doin's goin' for'ard, it's
cheaper than corn whiskey."
"'No; I don't stand dallyin' 'round, tryin' to beat this philosopher
down in his price. That ain't my style. When I'm ready to commit
myse'f to a enterprise, I butts my way in, makes good the tariff, an'
no delays. Tharfore, when this gent names four bits, I onpouches the
_dinero_ an' prepares to take a astronomic peek.
"'"How long do I gaze for four bits?" I asks, battin' my right eye to
get it into piercin' shape.
"'"Go as far as you likes," retorts the philosopher; "thar's no limit."
"'Gents,' says the Colonel, pausin' to renoo his Valley Tan, while Dan
an' Texas an' even Old Man Enright hitches their cha'rs a bit nearer,
the interest is that intense; 'gents, you-all should have took a squint
with me through them lenses. Which if you enjoys said privilege, you
can gamble Dan an' Texas wouldn't be camped 'round yere none tonight,
exposin' their ignorance an' lettin' fly croode views concernin'
astronomy. That telescope actooally brings the moon plumb into
Kaintucky;--brings her within the reach of all. You could stretch to
her with your hand, she's that clost.'
"'But is thar folks thar?' says Dan, who's excited by the Colonel's
disclosures. 'Board the kyard, Colonel, an' don't hold us in suspense."
"'Folks!' returns the Colonel. 'I wishes I has two-bit pieces for
every one of 'em! The face of that orb is simply festered with folks!
She teems with life; ant-hills on election day means desertion by
compar'son. Thar's thousands an' thousands of people, mobbin' about
indiscrim'nate; I sees 'em as near an' plain as I sees Dan.'
"'An' whatever be they doin'?' asks Dan.
"'They're pullin' off a hoss race,' says the Colonel, lookin' steady in
Dan's eye. 'An' you hears me! I never sees sech bettin' in my life.'
"Nacherally we-all feels refreshed with these experiences of Colonel
Sterett's, for as Enright observes, it's by virchoo of sech casooal
chunks of information that a party rounds out a eddication.
"'It ain't what a gent learns in schools,' says Enright, 'that broadens
him an' stiffens his mental grip; it's knowledge like this yere moon
story from trustworthy sources that augments him an' fills him full.
Go on, Colonel, an' onload another marvel or two. You-all must shore
have witnessed a heap!'
"'Them few sparse facts touchin' the moon,' returns Colonel Sterett,
'cannot be deemed wonders in any proper sense. They're merely
interestin' details which any gent gets onto who brings science to his
aid. But usin' the word "wonders," I does once blunder upon a mir'cle
which still waits to be explained. That's a shore-enough marvel! An'
to this day, all I can state is that I sees it with these yere eyes.'
"'Let her roll!' says Texas Thompson. 'That moon story prepares us for
anything.'
"'Texas,' observes the Colonel, a heap severe, 'I'd hate to feel that
your observations is the jeerin' offspring of distrust.'
"'Me distrust!' replies Texas, hasty to squar' himse'f. 'I'd as soon
think of distrustin' that Laredo divorce of my former he'pmeet! An' as
the sheriff drives off two hundred head of my cattle by way of alimony,
I deems the fact of that sep'ration as fixed beyond cavil. No,
Colonel, you has my fullest confidence. I'd go doubtin' the evenhanded
jestice of Cherokee's faro game quicker than distrustin' you.'
"'An' I'm present to say,' returns the Colonel mighty complacent, 'that
I looks on sech assoorances as complimentary. To show which I
onhesitatin'ly reels off that eepisode to which I adverts.
"'I'm only a child; but I retains my impressions as sharp cut an' cl'ar
as though she happens yesterday. It's a time when one of these
legerdemain sharps pastes up his bills in our village an' lets on he'll
give a show in Liberty Hall on the comin' Saturday evenin'. An' gents,
to simply read of the feats he threatens to perform would loco you!
Besides, thar's a picture of Satan, black an' fiery an' frightful,
where he's he'pin' this gifted person to foist said mir'cles upon the
age. I don't exaggerate none when I asserts that the moment our
village gets its eye on these three-sheets it comes to a dead halt.
"'Old Squar' Alexanders is the war chief of the hamlet, an' him an' the
two other selectmen c'llects themse'fs over their toddies an' canvasses
whether they permits this wizard to give his fiendish exhibitions in
our midst. They has it pro an' con ontil the thirteenth drink, when
Squar' Alexanders who's ag'in the wizard brings the others to his
views; an' as they staggers forth from the tavern it's the yoonanimous
decision to bar that Satan-aided show.
"'"Witches, wizards, elves, gnomes, bull-beggars, fiends, an' devils is
debarred the Bloo Grass Country," says Squar' Alexanders, speakin' for
himse'f an' his fellow selectmen, "an' they're not goin' to be allowed
to hold their black an' sulphurous mass meetin's yere."
"'It comes Saturday evenin' an' the necromancer is in the tavern eatin'
his supper. Shore! he looks like common folks at that! Squar'
Alexanders is waitin' for him in the bar. When he shows up, carelessly
pickin' his teeth, it's mebby half a hour before the show, Squar'
Alexanders don't fritter away no time, but rounds up the wizard.
"'"Thar's no show which has Satan for a silent partner goin' to cut
itse'f loose in this village," says Squar' Alexanders.
"'"What's this talk about Satan?" responds the wizard. "I don't savey
no more about Satan than I does about you."
"'"Look at them bills," says Squar' Alexanders, an' he p'ints to where
one is hangin' on the barroom wall. It gives a picture of the foul
fiend, with pitchfork, spear-head tail an' all. "Whatever do you call
that?"
"'"That's a bluff," says the wizard. "If Kaintucky don't get tangled
up with Satan ontil I imports him to her fertile shores, you cimmarons
may regyard yourse'fs as saved."
"'"Be you-all goin' to do the sundry deeds you sets forth in the
programmes?" asks Squar' Alexanders after a pause.
"'"Which I shorely be!" says the wizard, "an' if I falls down or fails
you can call me a ab'litionist."
"'"Then all I has to say is this," returns Squar' Alexanders; "no gent
could do them feats an' do 'em on the level. You'd have to have the
he'p of demons to pull em off. An' that brings us back to my first
announcement; an' stranger, your show don't go."
"'At this the wizard lets on he's lost patience with Squar' Alexanders
an' declares he won't discuss with him no more. Also, he gives it out
that, Satan, or no Satan, he'll begin to deal his game at eight o'clock.
"'"Very well!" rejoins Squar' Alexanders. "Since you refooses to be
warned I shall shore instruct the constable to collar you on the steps
of Liberty Hall." As he says this, Squar' Alexanders p'ints across to
Chet Kishler, who's the constable, where he's restin' hhnse'f in front
of Baxter's store.
"'This yere Chet is a giant an' clost onto eight foot high. It's a
warm evenin', an' as the wizard glances over at Chet, he notices how
that offishul is lazily fannin' himse'f with a barn-door which he's
done lifted off the hinges for that coolin' purpose. The wizard don't
say nothin', but he does turn a mite pale; he sees with half a eye that
Satan himse'f would be he'pless once Chet gets his two paws on him.
However, he assoomes that he's out to give the show as per schedoole.
"'It's makin' toward eight when the wizard lights a seegyar, drinks
four fingers of Willow Run, an' goes p'intin' out for Liberty Hall.
Chet gets up, hangs the barn-door back on its hinges, an' sa'nters
after. Squar' Alexanders has posted Chet as to his dooties an' his
orders is to prounce on the necromancer if he offers to enter the hall.
That's how the cavalcade lines up: first, the wizard; twenty foot
behind is Chet; an' twenty foot behind our constable comes the public
in a body.
"'About half way to Liberty Hall the wizard begins to show nervous an'
oncertain. He keeps lookin' back at Chet; an' even in my childish
simplicity I sees that he ain't pleased with the outlook. At last he
weakens an' abandons his idee of a show. Gents, as I fills my glass, I
asks you-all however now do you reckon that wizard beats a retreat?'
"Thar's no reply. Dan, Texas, an' the others, while Colonel Sterett
acquires his licker, shakes their heads dumbly as showin' they gives it
up.
"'Which you'd shorely never guess!' retorts the Colonel, wipin' his
lips. 'Of a sudden, this wizard tugs somethin' outen his pocket that
looks like a ball of kyarpet-rags. Holdin' one end, quick as thought
he tosses the ball of kyarpet-rags into the air. It goes straight up
ontil lost to view, onwindin' itse'f in its flight because of the
wizard holdin' on.
"'Gents, that ball of kyarpet-rags never does come down no-more! An'
it's all done as easy as a set-lock rifle! The wizard climbs the
danglin' string of kyarpet-rags, hand over hand; then he drifts off an'
up'ards ontil he don't look bigger than a bumble-bee; an' then he's
lost in the gatherin' shadows of the Jooly night.
"'Squar' Alexanders, Chet, an' the village stands strainin' their eyes
for twenty minutes. But the wizard's vamosed; an' at last, when each
is convinced tharof, the grown folks led by Squar' Alexanders reepairs
back into the tavern an' takes another drink.'
"'That's a mighty marvellous feat your necromancer performs, Colonel,'
remarks Enright, an' the old chief is grave as becomes the Colonel's
revelations; 'he's a shore-enough wonder-worker, that wizard is!'
"But I ain't got to the wonders none as yet,' reemonstrates the
Colonel, who spunks up a bit peevish for him. 'An' from the frequent
way wherein I'm interrupted, it don't look much like I will. Goin'
sailin' away into darklin' space with that ball of enchanted
kyarpet-rags,--that ain't the sooper-nacheral part at all! Shore!
ondoubted it's some hard to do as a feat, but still thar's other
feachers which from the standp'int of the marvellous overpowers it like
four kings an' a ace. That wonder is this: It's quarter to eight when
the wizard takes his flight by means of the kyarpet-rags. Gents, at
eight o'clock sharp the same evenin' he walks on the stage an' gives a
show at St. Looey, hundreds of miles away.'"
CHAPTER XIX.
The Luck of Hardrobe.
"Which I tells this yere narrative first, back in one of them good old
Red Light evenin's when it's my turn to talk."
The Old Cattleman following this remark, considered me for a moment in
silence. I had myself been holding the floor of discussion in a way both
rambling and pointless for some time. I had spoken of the national
fortune of Indians, their superstitions, their ill-luck, and other savage
subjects various and sundry. My discourse had been remarkable perhaps
for emphasis rather than accuracy; and this too held a purpose. It was
calculated to rouse my raconteur and draw him to a story. Did what I say
lack energy, he might go to sleep in his chair; he had done this more
than once when I failed of interest. Also, if what I told were wholly
true and wanting in ripple of romantic error, even though my friend did
me the compliment of wakefulness, he would make no comment. Neither was
he likely to be provoked to any recital of counter experiences. At last,
however, he gave forth the observation which I quote above and I saw that
I had brought him out. I became at once wordless and, lighting a cigar,
leaned back to listen.
"As I observes," he resumed, following a considerable pause which I was
jealous to guard against word or question of my own; "I tells this tale
to Colonel Sterett, Old Man Enright, an' the others one time when we're
restin' from them Wolfville labours of ours an' renooin' our strength
with nosepaint in the Red Light bar. Jest as you does now, Dan Boggs
takes up this question of luck where Cherokee Hall abandons it, an'
likewise the subject of savages where Texas Thompson lays 'em down, an'
after conj'inin' the two in fashions I deems a heap weak, allows that
luck is confined strictly to the paleface; aborigines not knowin'
sufficient to become the target of vicissitoodes, excellent or otherwise.
"'Injuns is too ignorant to have what you-all calls "luck,"' says Dan.
'That gent who's to be affected either up or down by "luck" has got to
have some mental cap'bilities. An' as Injuns don't answer sech
deescriptions, they ain't no more open to "luck" than to enlight'ment.
"Luck" an' Injuns when took together, is preepost'rous! It's like
talkin' of a sycamore tree havin' luck. Gents, it ain't in the deck!'
An' tharupon Dan seals his views by demandin' of Black Jack the bottle
with glasses all 'round.
"'When it comes to that, Boggs,' says Colonel Sterett, as he does Dan
honour in four fingers of Valley Tan, 'an' talkin' of luck, I'm yere to
offer odds that the most poignant hard-luck story on the list is the
story of Injuns as a race. An' I won't back-track their game none
further than Columbus at that. The savages may have found life a
summer's dream prior to the arrival of that Eytalian mariner an' the
ornery Spainiards he surrounds himse'f with. But from the looks of the
tabs, the deal since then has gone ag'inst 'em. The Injuns don't win
once. White folks, that a-way, is of themse'fs bad luck incarnate to
Injuns. The savage never so much as touches 'em or listens to 'em or
imitates 'em, but he rots down right thar. Which the pale-face shorely
kills said Injuns on the nest! as my old grand-dad used to say.'
"'When I recalls the finish of Hardrobe,' I remarks, sort o' cuttin' into
the argyment, the same bein' free an' open to all, 'an' I might add by
way of a gratootity in lines of proof, the finish of his boy, Bloojacket,
I inclines to string my chips with Colonel Sterett.'
"'Give us the details concernin' this Hardrobe,' says Doc Peets. 'For
myse'f, I'm prone an' eager to add to my information touchin' Injuns at
every openin'.'
"As Enright an' the rest makes expression sim'lar, I proceeds to
onbuckle. I don't claim much for the tale neither. Still, I wouldn't
copper it none for it's the trooth, an' the trooth should allers be
played 'open' every time. I'll tell you-all this Hardrobe story as I
onfolds it to them."
It was here my friend began looking about with a vaguely anxious eye. I
saw his need and pressed the button.
"I was aimin' to summon my black boy, Tom," he said.
When a moment later his favourite decanter appeared in the hands of one
of the bar-boys of the hostelry, who placed it on a little table at his
elbow and withdrew, the necessity for "Tom" seemed to disappear, and
recurring to Hardrobe, he went on.
"Hardrobe is a Injun--a Osage buck an' belongs to the war clan of his
tribe. He's been eddicated East an' can read in books, an' pow-wows
American mighty near as flooent as I does myse'f. An' on that last p'int
I'll take a chance that I ain't tongue-tied neither.
"Which this yere is a long time ago. Them is days when I'm young an'
lithe an' strong. I can heft a pony an' I'm six foot two in my
moccasins. No, I ain't so tall by three inches now; old age shortens a
gent up a whole lot.
"My range is on the south bank of Red River--over on the Texas side.
Across on the no'th is the Nation--what map folks call the 'Injun
Territory.' In them epocks we experiences Injuns free an' frequent, as
our drives takes us across the Nation from south to no'th the widest way.
We works over the old Jones an' Plummer trail, which thoroughfare I
alloodes to once or twice before. I drives cattle over it an' I freights
over it,--me an' my eight-mule team. An' I shorely knows where all the
grass an' wood an' water is from the Red River to the Flint Hills.
"Speakin' of the Jones an' Plummer trail, I once hears a dance-hall girl
who volunteers some songs over in a Tucson hurdygurdy, an' that maiden
sort o' dims my sights some. First, she gives us _The Dying Ranger_, the
same bein' enough of itse'f to start a sob or two; speshul when folks is,
as Colonel Sterett says, 'a leetle drinkin'.' Then when the public
clamours for more she sings something which begins:
"'Thar's many a boy who once follows the herds,
On the Jones an' Plummer trail;
Some dies of drink an' some of lead,
An' some over kyards, an' none in bed;
But they're dead game sports, so with naught but good words,
We gives 'em "Farewell an' hail."'
"Son, this sonnet brings down mem'ries; and they so stirs me I has to
_vamos_ that hurdygurdy to keep my emotions from stampedin' into tears.
Shore, thar's soft spots in me the same as in oilier gents; an' that
melody a-makin' of references to the old Jones an' Plummer days comes
mighty clost to meltin' everything about me but my guns an' spurs.
"This yere cattle business ain't what it used to be; no more is
cow-punchers. Things is gettin' effete. These day it's a case of chutes
an' brandin' pens an' wire fences an' ten-mile pastures, an' thar's so
little ropin' that a boy don't have practice enough to know how to catch
his pony.
"In the times I'm dreamin' of all this is different. I recalls how we
frequent works a month with a beef herd, say of four thousand head, out
on the stark an' open plains, ropin' an' throwin' an' runnin' a
road-brand onto 'em. Thar's a dozen different range brands in the bunch,
mebby, and we needs a road-brand common to 'em all, so in case of
stampedes on our trip to the no'th we knows our cattle ag'in an' can pick
'em out from among the local cattle which they takes to minglin' with.
It's shorely work, markin' big strong steers that-away! Throwin' a
thousand-pound longhorn with a six hundred-pound cayouse is tellin' on
all involved an' a gent who's pitchin' his rope industrious will wear
down five broncos by sundown.
"It's a sharp winter an' cattle dies that fast they simply defies the
best efforts of ravens an' coyotes to get away with the supply. It's
been blowin' a blizzard of snow for weeks. The gales is from the no'th
an' they lashes the plains from the Bad Lands to the Rio Grande. When
the storm first prounces on the cattle up yonder in the Yellowstone
country, the he'pless beasts turns their onprotestin' tails and begins to
drift. For weeks, as I remarks, that tempest throws itse'f loose, an'
night an' day, what cattle keeps their feet an' lives, comes driftin' on.
"Nacherally the boys comes with 'em. Their winter sign-camps breaks up
an' the riders turns south with the cattle. No, they can't do nothin';
you-all couldn't turn 'em or hold 'em or drive 'em back while the storm
lasts. But it's the dooty of the punchers to keep abreast of their
brands an' be thar the moment the blizzard abates.
"It's shore a spectacle! For a wild an' tossin' front of five hundred
miles, from west to east, the storm-beat herds comes driftin'. An'
ridin' an' sw'arin' an' plungin' about comes with 'em the boys on their
broncos. They don't have nothin' more'n the duds on their backs, an'
mebby their saddle blankets an' slickers. But they kills beef to eat as
they needs it, an' the ponies paws through the snow for grass, an' they
exists along all right. For all those snow-filled, wind-swept weeks
they're ridin' an' cussin'. They comes spatterin' through the rivers,
an' swoopin' an' whoopin' over the divides that lays between. They
crosses the Heart an' the Cannon Ball an' the Cheyenne an' the White an'
the Niobrara an' the Platte an' the Republican an' the Solomon an' the
Smoky an' the Arkansaw, to say nothin' of the hundreds of forks an'
branches which flows an' twines an' twists between; an' final, you runs
up on boys along the Canadian who's come from the Upper Missouri. An' as
for cattle! it looks like it's one onbroken herd from Fort Elliot to
where the Canadian opens into the Arkansaw!
"The chuck waggons of a thousand brands ain't two days behind the boys,
an' by no time after that blizzard simmers, thar's camp-fires burnin' an'
blinkin' between the Canadian an' the Red all along from the Choctaw
country as far west as the Panhandle. Shore, every cow-puncher makes for
the nearest smoke, feeds up an' recooperates; and then he with the others
begins the gatherin' of the cattle an' the slow northern drive of the
return. Which the spring overtakes 'em an' passes 'em on it's way to the
no'th, an' the grass is green an' deep before ever they're back on their
ranges ag'in.
"It's a great ride, says you? Son, I once attends where a lecture sharp
holds forth as to Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. As was the proper
thing I sets silent through them hardships. But I could, it I'm disposed
to become a disturbin' element or goes out to cut loose cantankerous an'
dispootatious in another gent's game, have showed him the French
experiences that Moscow time is Sunday school excursions compared with
these trips the boys makes when on the breath of that blizzard they
swings south with their herds. Them yooths, some of 'em, is over eight
hundred miles from their home-ranch; an' she's the first an' only time I
ever meets up with a Yellowstone brand on the Canadian.
"You-all can put down a bet I'm no idle an' listless looker-on that
blizzard time; an' I grows speshul active at the close. It behooves us
Red River gents of cattle to stir about. The wild hard-ridin'
knight-errants of the rope an' spur who cataracts themse'fs upon us with
their driftin' cattle doorin' said tempest looks like they're plenty
cap'ble of drivin' our steers no'th with their own, sort o' makin' up the
deeficiencies of the storm.
"I brands over four thousand calves the spring before, which means I has
at least twenty thousand head,--or five times what I
brands--skallihootin' an' hybernatin' about the ranges. An' bein' as
you-all notes some strong on cattle, an' not allowin' none for them
Yellowstone adventurers to drive any of 'em no'th, I've got about 'leven
outfits at work, overhaulin' the herds an' round-ups, an' ridin' round
an' through 'em, weedin' out my brand an' throwin' 'em back on my Red
River range. I has to do it, or our visitin' Yellowstone guests would
have stole me pore as Job's turkey.
"Whatever is a 'outfit' you asks? It's a range boss, a chuck waggon with
four mules an' a range cook, two hoss hustlers to hold the ponies, eight
riders an' a bunch of about seventy ponies--say seven to a boy. These
yere 'leven outfits I speaks of is scattered east an' west mebby she's
a-hundred miles along the no'th fringe of my range, a-combin' an'
a-searchin' of the bunches an' cuttin' out all specimens of my brand when
found. For myse'f, personal, I'm cavortin' about on the loose like,
stoppin' some nights at one camp' an' some nights at another, keepin'
cases on the deal.
"It's at one of my camps one evenin' when I crosses up first with this
yere Hardrobe. His boy, Bloojacket, is with him. Hardrobe himse'f is
mebby goin' on fifty, while Bloojacket ain't more'n say twenty-one.
Shore, they're out for cattle, too; them savages has a heap of cattle,
an' since they finds their brands an' bunches same as the rest of us all
tangled up with the Yellowstone aliens doorin' the blizzard, Hardrobe an'
his boy Bloojacket rides up an' asks can they work partners with a outfit
of mine.
"As I explains previous I'm averse to Injuns, but this Hardrobe is a
onusual Injun; an' as he's settin' in ag'inst a stiff game the way things
is mixed up, an' bein' only him an' his boy he's too weak to protect
himse'f, I yields consent, I yields the more pleasant for fear,--since I
drives through the Osage country now an' then--this Hardrobe an' his heir
plays even by stampedin' my cattle some evenin' if I don't. Thar's
nothin' like a dash of se'f-interest to make a gent urbane, an' so I
invites Hardrobe an' Bloojacket to make my camp their headquarters like
I'd been yearnin' for the chance.
"As you-all must have long ago tracked up on the information, it's
sooperfluous for me to su'gest that a gent gets used to things. Moreover
he gets used frequent to things that he's born with notions ag'inst; an'
them aversions will simmer an' subside ontil he's friendly with folks he
once honed to shoot on sight. It turns out that a-way about me an' this
Hardrobe an' his boy Bloojacket. What he'ps, no doubt, is they're
capar'soned like folks, with big hats, bloo shirts, trousers,
cow-laiggin's, boots an' spurs, fit an' ready to enter a civilised
parlour at the drop of the handkerchief. Ceasin' to rope for reasons,
however, it's enough to say these savages an' me waxes as thick as
m'lasses. Both of 'em's been eddicated at some Injun school which the
gov'ment--allers buckin' the impossible, the gov'ment is,--upholds in its
vain endeavours to turn red into white an' make folks of a savage.
"Bloojacket is down from the Bad Land country himself not long prior,
bein' he's been servin' his Great Father as one of Gen'ral Crook's scouts
in the Sittin' Bull campaign. This young Bloojacket,--who's bubblin'
over with sperits--has a heap of interestin' stories about the 'Grey
Fox.' It's doo to Bloojacket to say he performs them dooties of his as a
scout like a clean-strain sport, an' quits an' p'ints back for the
paternal camp of Hardrobe in high repoote. Thar's one feat of fast hard
ridin' that Injun performs, which I hears from others, an' which you-all
might not find oninterestin' if I saws it onto you.
"Merritt with three hundred cavalry marches twenty-five miles one
mornin'. Thar's forty Injun scouts along, among 'em this Bloojacket;
said copper-hued auxiliaries bein' onder the command of Gen'ral Stanton,
as game an' good a gent as ever packs a gun. It's at noon; Merritt an'
his outfit camps at the Rawhide Buttes. Thar's a courier from Crook
overtakes 'em. He says that word comes trailin' in that the Cheyennes at
the Red Cloud agency is makin' war medicine an' about to go swarmin' off
to hook up with Sittin' Bull an' Crazy Hoss in the Sioux croosades.
Crook tells Merritt to detach a band of his scouts to go flutterin' over
to Red Cloud an' take a look at the Cheyennes's hand.
"Stanton tells off four of his savages an' lines out with them for the
Red Cloud agency; Bloojacket bein' one. From the Rawhide Buttes to the
Red Cloud agency is one hundred even miles as a bullet travels. What
makes it more impressive, them one hundred miles is across a trailless
country, the same bein' as rocky as Red Dog whiskey an' rough as the life
story of a mule. Which Stanton, Bloojacket an' the others makes her in
twelve hours even, an' comes up, a crust of dust an' sweat, to the Red
Cloud agency at midnight sharp. The Cheyennes has already been gone
eight hours over the Great Northern trail.
"Stanton, who's a big body of a man an' nacherally tharfore some
road-weary, camps down the moment he's free of the stirrups an' writes a
letter on the agency steps by the light of a lantern. He tells Merritt
to push on to the War Bonnet an' he'll head the Cheyennes off. Then he
sends the Red Cloud interpreter an' four local Injuns with lead hosses to
pack this information back to Merritt who's waitin' the word at the
Rawhide Buttes. Bloojacket, for all he's done a hundred miles, declar's
himse'f in on this second excursion to show the interpreter the way.
"'But you-all won't last through,' says Stanton, where he sets on the
steps, quaffin' whiskey an' reinvig'ratin' himse'f.
"'Which if I don't, I'll turn squaw!' says Bloojacket, an' gettin' fresh
hosses with the others he goes squanderin' off into the midnight.
"Son, them savages, havin' lead hosses, rides in on Merritt by fifth
drink time or say, 'leven o'clock that mornin';--one hundred miles in
'leven hours! An' Bloojacket some wan an' weary for a savage is
a-leadin' up the dance. Mighty fair ridin' that boy Bloojacket does!
Two hundred miles in twenty-three hours over a clost country ain't bad!
Which it's me who says so: an' one time an' another I shore shoves plenty
of scenery onder the hoofs of a cayouse myse'f.
"About the foogitive Cheyennes? Merritt moves up to the War Bonnet like
Stanton su'gests, corrals 'em, kills their ponies an' drives 'em back to
the agency on foot. Thar's nothin' so lets the whey outen a hoss-back
Injun like puttin' him a-foot: an the Cheyennes settles down in sorrow
an' peace immediate.
"While Hardrobe an' his boy Bloojacket is with me, I'm impressed
partic'lar by the love they b'ars each other. I never does cut the trail
of a father an' son who gives themse'fs up to one another like this
Hardrobe an' his Bloojacket boy. I can see that Bloojacket regyards old
Hardrobe like he's the No'th Star; an' as for Hardrobe himse'f, he can't
keep his eyes off that child of his. You'd have had his life long before
he'd let you touch a braid of Bloojacket's long ha'r. Both of 'em's
plenty handsome for Injuns; tall an' lean an' quick as coyotes, with
hands an' feet as little as a woman's.
"While I don't go pryin' 'round this Hardrobe's private affairs--savages
is mighty sensitive of sech matters--I learns, incidental, that Hardrobe
is fair rich. He's rich even for Osages; an' they're as opulent savages
as ever makes a dance or dons a feather. Later, I finds out that
Hardrobe's squaw--Bloojacket's mother--is dead.
"'See thar?' says Hardrobe one day. We're in the southern border of the
Osage country on the Grayhoss at the time, an' he p'ints to a heap of
stones piled up like a oven an' chimley, an' about four foot high. I
saveys thar's a defunct Osage inside. You-all will behold these little
piles of burial stones on every knoll an' hill in the Osage country.
'See thar,' says this Hardrobe, p'intin'. 'That's my squaw. Mighty good
squaw once; but heap dead now.'
"Then Hardrobe an' Bloojacket rides over an' fixes a little flag they've
got in their war-bags to a pole which sticks up'ards outen this tomb,
flyin' the ensign as Injuns allers does, upside down.
"It's six months later, mebby--an' it's now the hard luck begins--when I
hears how Hardrobe weds a dance-hall girl over to Caldwell. This
maiden's white; an' as beautiful as a flower an' as wicked as a
trant'ler. Hardrobe brings her to his ranch in the Osage country.
"The next tale I gets is that Bloojacket, likewise, becomes a victim to
the p'isenous fascinations of this Caldwell dance-hall damsel, an' that
him an' Hardrobe falls out; Hardrobe goin' on the warpath an' shootin'
Bloojacket up a lot with a Winchester. He don't land the boy at that;
Bloojacket gets away with a shattered arm. Also, the word goes that
Hardrobe is still gunnin' for Bloojacket, the latter havin' gone onder
cover some'ers by virchoo of the injured pinion.
"As Colonel Sterett says, these pore aborigines experiences bad luck the
moment ever they takes to braidin' in their personal destinies with a
paleface. I don't blame 'em none neither. I sees this Caldwell seraph
on one o'casion myse'f; she's shore a beauty! an' whenever she throws the
lariat of her loveliness that a-way at a gent, she's due to fasten.
"It's a month followin' this division of the house of Hardrobe when I
runs up on him in person. I encounters him in one of the little jim-crow
restauraws you-all finds now an' then in the Injun country. Hardrobe an'
me shakes, an' then he camps down ag'in at a table where he's feedin' on
fried antelope an' bakin' powder biscuit.
"I'm standin' at the counter across the room. Jest as I turns my back,
thar's the crack! of a rifle to the r'ar of the j'int, an' Hardrobe
pitches onto the floor as dead as ever transpires in that tribe. In the
back door, with one arm in a sling, an' a gun that still smokes, ca'm an'
onmoved like Injuns allers is, stands Bloojacket.
"'My hand is forced,' he says, as he passes me his gun; 'it's him or me!
One of us wore the death-mark an' had to go.'
"'Couldn't you-all have gone with Crook ag'in?' I says. 'Which you don't
have to infest this yere stretch of country. Thar's no hobbles or
sidelines on you; none whatever!'
"Bloojacket makes no reply, an' his copper face gets expressionless an'
inscrootable. I can see through, however; an' it's the hobbles of that
Caldwell beauty's innocence that's holdin' him.
"Bloojacket walks over to where Hardrobe's layin' dead an' straightens
him round--laigs an' arms--an' places his big white cow hat over his
face. Thar's no more sign of feelin', whether love or hate, in the eyes
of Bloojacket while he performs these ceremonies than if Hardrobe's a
roll of blankets. But thar's no disrespects neither; jest a great
steadiness. When he has composed him out straight, Bloojacket looks at
the remainder for mebby a minute. Then he shakes his head.
"'He was a great man,' says Bloojacket, p'intin' at his dead father, with
his good hand; 'thar's no more like him among the Osages.'
"Tharupon Bloojacket wheels on the half-breed who runs the deadfall an'
who's standin' still an' scared, an' says:
"'How much does he owe?' Then he pays Hardrobe's charges for antelope
steaks an' what chuck goes with it, an' at the close of these fiscal
op'rations, remarks to the half-breed--who ain't sayin' no more'n he can
he'p,--'Don't touch belt nor buckle on him; you-all knows me!' An' I can
see that half-breed restauraw party is out to obey Bloojacket's mandates.
"Bloojacket gives himse'f up to the Osages an' is thrown loose on p'role.
But Bloojacket never gets tried.
"A week rides by, an' he's standin' in front of the agency, sort o'
makin' up some views concernin' his destinies. He's all alone; though
forty foot off four Osage bucks is settin' together onder a cottonwood
playin' Injun poker--the table bein' a red blanket spread on the
grass,--for two bits a corner. These yere sports in their blankets an'
feathers, an' rifflin' their greasy deck, ain't sayin' nothin to
Bloojacket an' he ain't sayin' nothin' to them. Which jest the same
these children of nacher don't like the idee of downin' your parent none,
an' it's apparent Bloojacket's already half exiled.
"As he stands thar roominatin,' with the hot August sun beatin' down,
thar's a atmosphere of sadness to go with Bloojacket. But you-all would
have to guess at it; his countenance is as ca'm as on that murderin'
evenin' in the half-breed's restauraw.
"Bloojacket is still thar, an' the sports onder the cottonwood is still
gruntin' joyously over their poker, when thar comes the patter of a
bronco's hoofs. Thar's a small dust cloud, an' then up sweeps the
Caldwell beauty. She comes to a pull-up in front of Bloojacket. That
savage glances up with a inquirin' eye an' the glance is as steady as the
hills about him. The Caldwell beauty--it seems she disdains mournin'--is
robed like a rainbow; an' she an' Bloojacket, him standin', she on her
bronco, looks each other over plenty intent.
"Which five minutes goes by if one goes by, an' thar the two stares into
each other's eyes; an' never a word. The poker bucks keeps on with their
gamble over onder the cottonwood, an' no one looks at the two or seems
like they heeds their existence. The poker savages is onto every move;
but they're troo to the Injun idee of p'liteness an' won't interfere with
even so much as the treemor of a eyelash with other folks's plays.
"Bloojacket an' the Caldwell beauty is still gazin'. At last the
Caldwell beauty's hand goes back, an' slow an' shore, brings to the front
a eight-inch six-shooter. Bloojacket, with his eye still on her an'
never a flicker of feelin', don't speak or move.
"The Caldwell beauty smiles an' shows her white teeth. Then she lays the
gun across her left arm, an' all as solid as a church. Her pony's gone
to sleep with his nose between his knees; an' the Caldwell beauty settles
herse'f in the saddle so's to be ready for the plunge she knows is
comin'. The Caldwell beauty lays out her game as slow an' delib'rate as
trees; Bloojacket lookin' on with onwinkin' eye, while the red-blanket
bucks plays along an' never a whisper of interest.
"'Which this yere pistol overshoots a bit!' says the Caldwell beauty, as
she runs her eye along the sights. 'I must aim low or I'll shore make
ragged work.'
"Bloojacket hears her, but offers no retort; he stands moveless as a
stachoo. Thar's a flash an' a crash an' a cloud of bloo smoke; the
aroused bronco makes a standin' jump of twenty foot. The Caldwell beauty
keeps her saddle, an' with never a swerve or curve goes whirlin' away up
the brown, burnt August trail, Bloojacket lays thar on his face; an'
thar's a bullet as squar' between the eyes as you-all could set your
finger-tip. Which he's dead--dead without a motion, while the poker
bucks plays ca'mly on."
My venerable friend came to a full stop. After a respectful pause, I
ventured an inquiry.
"And the Caldwell beauty?" I said.
"It ain't a week when she's ag'in the star of that Caldwell hurdygurdy
where she ropes up Hardrobe first. Her laugh is as loud an' as' free,
her beauty as profoundly dazzlin' as before; she swings through twenty
quadrilles in a evenin' from 'Bow-to-your-partners' to
'All-take-a-drink-at-the-bar'; an' if she's preyed on by them Osage
tragedies you shore can't tell it for whiskey, nor see if for powder an'
paint."
CHAPTER XX.
Colonel Coyote Clubbs.
"Which as a roole," said the Old Cattleman, "I speaks with deference
an' yields respects to whatever finds its source in nacher, but this
yere weather simply makes sech attitoode reedic'lous, an' any encomiums
passed thar-on would sound sarkastic." Here my friend waved a
disgusted hand towards the rain-whipped panes and shook his head.
"Thar's but one way to meet an' cope successful with a day like this,"
he ran on, "an' that is to put yourse'f in the hands of a joodicious
barkeep--put yourse'f in his hands an' let him pull you through.
Actin' on this idee I jest despatches my black boy Tom for a pitcher of
peach an' honey, an', onless you-all has better plans afoot, you might
as well camp an' wait deevelopments, same as old man Wasson does when
he's treed by the b'ar."
Promptly came the peach and honey, and with its appearance the pelting
storm outside lost power to annoy. My companion beamingly did me
honour in a full glass. After a moment fraught of silence and peach
and honey, and possibly, too, from some notion of pleasing my host with
a compliment, I said: "That gentleman with whom you were in converse
last evening told me he never passed a more delightful hour than he
spent listening to you. You recall whom I mean?"
"Recall him? Shore," retorted my friend as he recurred to the pitcher
for a second comforter. "You-all alloodes to the little gent who's
lame in the nigh hind laig. He appeals to me, speshul, as he puts me
in mind of old Colonel Coyote Clubbs who scares up Doc Peets that time.
Old Coyote is lame same as this yere person."
"Frighten Peets!" I exclaimed, with a great air; "you amaze me! Give
me the particulars."
"Why, of course," he replied, "I wouldn't be onderstood that Peets is
terrorised outright. Still, old Colonel Coyote shore stampedes him an'
forces Peets to fly. It's either _vamos_ or shoot up pore Coyote; an'
as Peets couldn't do the latter, his only alternative is to go
scatterin' as I states.
"This yere Coyote has a camp some ten miles to the no'th an' off to one
side of the trail to Tucson. Old Coyote lives alone an' has built
himse'f a dugout--a sort o' log hut that's half in an' half outen the
ground. His mission on earth is to slay coyotes--'Wolfin'' he calls
it--for their pelts; which Coyote gets a dollar each for the furs, an'
the New York store which buys 'em tells Coyote to go as far as he
likes. They stands eager to purchase all he can peel offen them
anamiles.
"No; Coyote don't shoot these yere little wolves; he p'isens 'em.
Coyote would take about twelve foot, say, of a pine tree he's cut
down--this yere timber is mebby eight inches through--an' he'll bore in
it a two-inch auger hole every two foot. These holes is some deep;
about four inches it's likely. Old Coyote mixes his p'isen with beef
tallow, biles them ingredients up together a lot, an' then, while she's
melted that a-way, he pours it into these yere auger holes an' lets it
cool. It gets good an' hard, this arsenic-tallow does, an' then Coyote
drags the timber thus reg'lated out onto the plains to what he regyards
as a elegible local'ty an' leaves it for the wolves to come an' batten
on. Old Coyote will have as many as a dozen of these sticks of timber,
all bored an' framed up with arsenic-tallow, scattered about. Each
mornin' while he's wolfin', Coyote makes a round-up an' skins an'
counts up his prey. An' son, you hear me! he does a flourishin' trade.
"Why don't Coyote p'isen hunks of meat you asks? For obvious reasons.
In sech events the victim bolts the piece of beef an' lopes off mebby
five miles before ever he succumbs. With this yere augur hole play
it's different. The wolf has to lick the arsenic-tallow out with his
tongue an' the p'isen has time an' gets in its work. That wolf sort o'
withers right thar in his tracks. At the most he ain't further away
than the nearest water; arsenic makin' 'em plenty thirsty, as you-all
most likely knows.
"Old Coyote shows up in Wolfville about once a month, packin' in his
pelts an' freightin' over to his wickeyup whatever in the way of grub
he reckons he needs. Which, if you was ever to see Coyote once, you
would remember him. He's shore the most egreegious person, an' in
appearance is a cross between a joke, a disaster an' a cur'osity. I
don't reckon now pore Coyote ever sees the time when he weighs a
hundred pound; an' he's grizzled an' dried an' lame of one laig, while
his face is like a squinch owl's face--kind o' wide-eyed an' with a
expression of ignorant wonder, as if life is a never-endin' surprise
party.
"Most likely now what fixes him firmest in your mind is, he don't drink
none. He declines nosepaint in every form; an' this yere abstinence,
the same bein' yoonique in Wolfville, together with Coyote conductin'
himse'f as the p'litest an' best-mannered gent to be met with in all of
Arizona, is apt to introode on your attention. Colonel Sterett once
mentions Coyote's manners.
"'Which he could give Chesterfield, Coyote could, kyards an' spades,'
observes the Colonel. I don't, myse'f, know this Chesterfield none,
but I can see by the fashion in which Colonel Sterett alloodes to him
that he's a Kaintuckian an' a jo-darter on manners an' etiquette.
"As I says, a pecooliar trait of Coyote is that he won't drink nothin'
but water. Despite this blemish, however, when the camp gets so it
knows him it can't he'p but like him a heap. He's so quiet an' honest
an' ignorant an' little an' lame, an' so plumb p'lite besides, he grows
on you. I can almost see the weasened old outlaw now as he comes
rockin' into town with his six or seven burros packed to their y'ears
with pelts!
"This time when Coyote puts Doc Peets in a toomult is when he's first
pitched his dug-out camp an' begins to honour Wolfville with his
visits. As yet none of us appreciates pore Coyote at his troo worth,
an' on account of them guileless looks of his sech humourists as Dan
Boggs an' Texas Thompson seizes on him as a source of merriment.
"It's Coyote's third expedition into town, an' he's hoverin' about the
New York store waitin' for 'em to figger up his wolf pelts an' cut out
his plunder so he freights it back to his dug-out. Dan an' Texas is
also procrastinatin' 'round, an' they sidles up allowin' to have their
little jest. Old Coyote don't know none of 'em--quiet an' sober an'
p'lite like I relates, he's slow gettin' acquainted--an' Dan an' Texas,
as well as Doc Peets, is like so many onopened books to him. For that
matter, while none of them pards of mine knows Coyote, they manages to
gain a sidelight on some of his characteristics before ever they gets
through. Doc Peets later grows ashamed of the part he plays, an' two
months afterwards when Coyote is chewed an' clawed to a standstill by a
infooriated badger which he mixes himse'f up with, Peets binds him up
an' straightens out his game, an' declines all talk of recompense
complete.
"'It's merely payin' for that outrage I attempts on your feelin's when
you rebookes me so handsome,' says Peets, as he turns aside Coyote's
_dinero_ an' tells him to replace the same in his war-bags.
"However does Coyote get wrastled by that badger? It's another yarn,
but at least she's brief an' so I'll let you have it. Badgers, you
saveys, is sour, sullen, an' lonesome. An' a badger's feelin's is
allers hurt about something; you never meets up with him when he ain't
hostile an' half-way bent for war. Which it's the habit of these yere
morose badgers to spend a heap of their time settin' half in an' half
outen their holes, considerin' the scenery in a dissatisfied way like
they has some grudge ag'inst it. An' if you approaches a badger while
thus employed he tries to run a blazer on you; he'll show his teeth an'
stand pat like he meditates trouble. When you've come up within thirty
feet he changes his mind an' disappears back'ard into his hole; but all
malignant an' reluctant.
"Now, while Coyote saveys wolves, he's a heap dark on badgers that
a-way. An' also thar's a badger who lives clost to Coyote's dug-out.
One day while this yere ill-tempered anamile is cocked up in the mouth
of his hole, a blinkin' hatefully at surroundin' objects. Coyote cuts
down on him with a Sharp's rifle he's got kickin' about his camp an'
turns that weepon loose.
"He misses the badger utter, but he don't know it none. Comin' to the
hole, Coyote sees the badger kind o' quiled up at the first bend in the
burrow, an' he exultin'ly allows he's plugged him an' tharupon reaches
in to retrieve his game. That's where Coyote makes the mistake of his
c'reer; that's where he drops his watermelon!
"That badger's alive an' onhurt an' as hot as a lady who's lost money.
Which he's simply retired a few foot into his house to reconsider
Coyote an' that Sharp's rifle of his. Nacherally when the ontaught
Coyote lays down on his face an' goes to gropin' about to fetch that
badger forth the latter never hes'tates. He grabs Coyote's hand with
tooth and claw, braces his back ag'in the ceilin' of his burrow an'
stands pat.
"Badgers is big people an' strong as ponies too. An' obdurate! Son, a
badger is that decided an' set in his way that sech feather-blown
things as hills is excitable an' vacillatin' by comparison. This yere
particular badger has the fam'ly weaknesses fully deeveloped, an' the
moment he cinches onto Coyote, he shore makes up his mind never to let
go ag'in in this world nor the next.
"As I tells you, Coyote is little an' weak, an' he can no more move
that hardened badger, nor yet fetch himse'f loose, than he can sprout
wings an' soar. That badger's got Coyote; thar he holds him prone an'
flat ag'in the ground for hours. An' at last Coyote swoons away.
"Which he'd shore petered right thar, a prey to badgers, if it ain't
for a cowpuncher--he's one of Old Man Enright's riders--who comes
romancin' along an' is attracted to the spot by some cattle who's
prancin' an' waltzin' about, sizin' Coyote up as he's layin' thar, an'
snortin' an' curvin' their tails in wonder at the spectacle. Which the
visitin' cow sharp, seein' how matters is headed, shoves his
six-shooter in along-side of Coyote's arm, drills this besotted badger,
an' Coyote is saved. It's a case of touch an' go at that. But to
caper back to where we leaves Dan an' Texas on the verge of them
jocyoolarities.
"'No, gentlemen,' Coyote is sayin', in response to some queries of Dan
an' Texas; 'I've wandered hither an' yon a heap in my time, an' now I
has my dug-out done, an' seein' wolves is oncommon plenty, I allows I
puts in what few declinin' days remains to me right where I be. I must
say, too, I'm pleased with Wolfville an' regyards myse'f as fortunate
an' proud to be a neighbour to sech excellent folks as you-all."
"'Which I'm shore sorry a lot,' says Dan, 'to hear you speak as you
does. Thar's a rapacious sport about yere who the instant he finds how
you makes them dug-out improvements sends on an' wins out a gov'ment
patent an' takes title to that identical quarter-section which embraces
your camp. Now he's allowin' to go squanderin' over to Tucson an' get
a docyment or two from the jedge an' run you out.'
"Son, this pore innocent Coyote takes in Dan's fictions like so much
spring water; he believes 'em utter. But the wonder is to see how he
changes. He don't say nothin', but his-eyes sort o' sparks up an' his
face gets as gray as his ha'r. It's now that Doc Peets comes along.
"'Yere is this devourin' scoundrel now,' says Texas Thompson, p'intin'
to Peets. 'You-all had better talk to him some about it.' Then
turnin' to Peets with a wink, Texas goes on: 'Me an' Mister Boggs is
tellin' our friend how you gets a title to that land he's camped on,
an' that you allows you'll take possession mebby next week.'
"'Why, shore,' says Peets, enterin' into the sperit of the hoax, an'
deemin' it a splendid joke; 'be you-all the maverick who's on that
quarter-section of mine?'
"'Which I'm Colonel Coyote Clubbs,' says Coyote, bowin' low while his
lips trembles, 'an' I'm at your service.'
"'Well,' says Peets, 'it don't make much difference about your name,
all you has to do is hit the trail. I needs that location you've done
squatted on because of the water.'
"'An' do I onderstand, sir,' says Coyote some agitated, 'that you'll
come with off'cers to put me outen my dug-out?'
"'Shore,' says Peets, in a case-hardened, pitiless tone, 'an' why not?
Am I to be debarred of my rights by some coyote-slaughterin' invader
an' onmurmurin'ly accede tharto? Which I should shore say otherwise.'
"'Then I yereby warns you, sir,' says Coyote, gettin' pale as paper.
'I advises you to bring your coffin when you comes for that land, for
I'll down you the moment you're in range.'
"'In which case,' says Peets, assoomin' airs of blood-thirsty
trucyoolence, 'thar's scant use to wait. If thar's goin' to be any
powder burnin' we might better burn it now.'
"'I've no weepon, sir,' says Coyote, limpin' about in a circle, 'but if
ary of these gentlemen will favour me with a gun I'll admire to put
myse'f in your way.'
"Which the appearance of Coyote when he utters this, an' him showin' on
the surface about as war-like as a prairie-dog, convulses Dan an'
Texas. It's all they can do to keep a grave front while pore Coyote in
his ignorance calls the bluff of one of the most deadly an' gamest
gents who ever crosses the Missouri--one who for nerve an' finish is a
even break with Cherokee Hall.
"'Follow me,' says Peets, frownin' on Coyote like a thunder cloud;
'I'll equip you with a weepon myse'f. I reckons now that your death
an' deestruction that a-way is after all the best trail out.
"Peets moves off a heap haughty, an' Coyote limps after him. Peets
goes over where his rooms is at. 'Take a cha'r,' says Peets, as they
walks in, an' Coyote camps down stiffly in a seat. Peets crosses to a
rack an' searches down a 8-inch Colt's. Then he turns towards Coyote.
'This yere discovery annoys me,' says Peets, an' his words comes cold
as ice, 'but now we're assembled, I finds that I've only got one gun.'
"'Well, sir,' says Coyote, gettin' up an' limpin' about in his nervous
way, his face workin' an' the sparks in his eyes beginnin' to leap into
flames; 'well, sir, may I ask what you aims to propose?'
"'I proposes to beef you right yere,' says Peets, as f'rocious as a
grizzly. 'Die, you miscreant!' An' Peets throws the gun on Coyote,
the big muzzle not a foot from his heart.
"Peets, as well as Dan an' Texas, who's enjoyin' the comedy through a
window, ondoubted looks for Coyote to wilt without a sigh. An' if he
had done so, the joke would have been both excellent an' complete. But
Coyote never wilts. He moves so quick no one ever does locate the
darkened recess of his garments from which he lugs out that knife; the
first p'inter any of 'em gets is that with the same breath wherein
Peets puts the six-shooter on him, Coyote's organised in full with a
bowie.
"'Make a centre shot, you villyun!' roars Coyote, an' straight as
adders he la'nches himse'f at Peets's neck.
"Son, it's the first an' last time that Doc Peets ever runs. An' he
don't run now, he flies. Peets comes pourin' through the door an' into
the street, with Coyote frothin' after him not a yard to spar'. The
best thing about the whole play is that Coyote's a cripple; it's this
yere element of lameness that lets Peets out. He can run thirty foot
to Coyote's one, an' the result occurs in safety by the breadth of a
ha'r.
"It takes two hours to explain to Coyote that this eepisode is humour,
an' to ca'm him an' get his emotions bedded down. At last, yoonited
Wolfville succeeds in beatin' the trooth into him, an' he permits Peets
to approach an' apol'gise.
"'An' you can gamble all the wolves you'll ever kill an' skin,' says
Doc Peets, as he asks Coyote to forgive an' forget, 'that this yere is
the last time I embarks in jests of a practical character or gives way
to humour other than the strickly oral kind. Barkeep, my venerated
friend, yere will have a glass of water; but you give me Valley Tan.'"
CHAPTER XXI.
Long Ago on the Rio Grande.
"Which books that a-way," observed the Old Cattleman, "that is,
story-books, is onfrequent in Wolfville." He was curiously examining
Stevenson's "Treasure Island," that he had taken from my hand. "The
nearest approach to a Wolfville cirk'latin' library I recalls is a copy
of 'Robinson Crusoe,' an' that don't last long, as one time when Texas
Thompson leaves it layin' on a cha'r outside while he enters the Red
Light for the usual purpose, a burro who's loafin' loose about the
street, smells it, tastes it, approoves of it, an' tharupon devours it
a heap. After that I don't notice no volumes in the outfit, onless
it's some drug books that Doc Peets has hived over where he camps.
It's jest as well, for seein' a gent perusin' a book that a-way,
operates frequent to make Dan Boggs gloomy; him bein' oneddicated like
I imparts to you-all yeretofore.
"Whatever do we do for amoosements? We visits the Dance Hall; not to
dance, sech frivol'ties bein' for younger an' less dignified sports.
We goes over thar more to give our countenance an' endorsements to
Hamilton who runs the hurdy-gurdy, an' who's a mighty proper citizen.
We says 'How!' to Hamilton, libates, an' mebby watches 'em 'balance
all,' or 'swing your partners,' a minute or two an' then proceeds.
Then thar's Huggins's Bird Cage Op'ry House, an' now an' then we-all
floats over thar an' takes in the dramy. But mostly we camps about the
Red Light; the same bein' a common stampin'-ground. It's thar we find
each other; an' when thar's nothin' doin', we upholds the hours tellin'
tales an' gossipin' about cattle an' killin's, an' other topics common
to a cow country. Now an' then, thar's a visitin' gent in town who can
onfold a story. In sech event he's made a lot of, an' becomes promptly
the star of the evenin'.
"Thar's a Major Sayres we meets up with once in Wolfville,--he's thar
on cattle matters with old man Enright--an' I recalls how he grows
absorbin' touchin' some of his adventures in that War.
"Thar's a passel of us, consistin' of Boggs, Tutt, Cherokee, an' Texas
Thompson, an' me, who's projectin' 'round the Red Light when Enright
introdooces this Major Sayres. Him an' Enright's been chargin' about
over by the Cow Springs an' has jest rode in. This Major is easy an'
friendly, an' it ain't longer than the third drink before he shows
symptoms of bein' willin' to talk.
"'Which I ain't been in the saddle so long,' says the Major, while him
an' Enright is considerin' how far they goes since sunup, 'since Mister
Lee surrenders.'
"'You takes your part, Major,' says Enright, who's ropin' for a
reminiscence that a-way, 'in the battles of the late war, I believes.'
"'I should shorely say so,' says the Major. 'I'm twenty-two years old,
come next grass, when Texas asserts herse'f as part of the confed'racy,
an' I picks up a hand an' plays it in common with the other patriotic
yooths of my region. Yes, I enters the artillery, but bein' as we
don't have no cannon none at the jump I gets detailed as a aide ontil
something resemblin' a battery comes pokin' along. I goes through that
carnage from soup to nuts, an' while I'm shot up some as days go by,
it's allers been a source of felic'tation to me, personal, that I never
slays no man myse'f. Shore, I orders my battery to fire, later when I
gets a battery; an' ondoubted the bombardments I inaug'rates adds to
an' swells the ghost census right along. But of my own hand it's ever
been a matter of congratoolations to me that I don't down nobody an'
never takes a skelp.
"'As I turns the leaves of days that's gone I don't now remember but
one individyooal openin' for blood that ever presents itse'f. An'
after considerin' the case in all its b'arin's, I refooses the
opportunity an' the chance goes glidin' by. As a result thar's
probably one more Yank than otherwise; an' now that peace is yere an'
we-all is earnestly settlin' to be brothers No'th and South, I regyards
that extra Yank as a advantage. Shore, he's a commoonal asset.'
"'Tell us how you fails to c'llect this Yankee, Major,' says Faro Nell:
'which I'm plumb interested every time that some one don't get killed.'
"'I reecounts that exploit with pleasure,' says, the Major, bowin'
p'lite as Noo Orleans first circles an' touchin' his hat to Nell.
'It's one day when we're in a fight. The line of battle is mebby
stretched out half a mile. As I su'gests, I'm spraddlin' 'round
permiscus with no stated arena of effort, carryin' despatches an'
turnin' in at anything that offers, as handy as I can. I'm sent final
with a dispatch from the left to the extreme right of our lines.
"'When we goes into this skrimmage we jumps the Lincoln people somewhat
onexpected. They has their blankets an' knapsacks on, an' as they
frames themse'fs up for the struggle they casts off this yere baggage,
an' thar it lays, a windrow of knapsacks, blankets an' haversacks,
mighty near a half mile in length across the plain. As we-all rebs has
been pushin' the Yankees back a lot, this windrow is now to our r'ar,
an' I goes canterin' along it on my mission to the far right.
"'Without a word of warnin' a Yank leaps up from where he's been
burrowin' down among this plunder an' snaps a Enfield rifle in my face.
I pulls my boss back so he's almost settin' on his hocks; an' between
us, gents, that onexpected sortie comes mighty near surprisin' me plumb
out of the saddle. But the Enfield don't go off none; an' with that
the Yank throws her down an' starts to' run. He shorely does _vamos_
with the velocity of jackrabbits!
"'As soon as me an' my hoss recovers our composure we gives chase.
Bein' the pore Yank is afoot, I runs onto him in the first two hundred
yards. As I comes up, I've got my six-shooter in my hand. I puts the
muzzle on him, sort o' p'intin' between the shoulders for gen'ral
results; but when it comes to onhookin' my weepon I jest can't turn the
trick. It's too much like murder. Meanwhile, the flyin' Yank is
stampedin' along like he ain't got a thing on his mind an' never
turnin' his head.
"'I calls on him to surrender. He makes a roode remark over his
shoulder at this military manoover an' pelts ahead all onabated. Then
I evolves a scheme to whack him on the head with my gun. I pushes my
hoss up ontil his nose is right by that No'thern party's y'ear.
Steadyin' myse'f, I makes a wallop at him an' misses. I invests so
much soul in the blow that missin' that a-way, I comes within' a ace of
clubs of goin' off my hoss an' onto my head. An' still that
exasperatin' Yank goes rackin' along, an' if anything some faster than
before. At that I begins to lose my temper ag'in.
"'I reorganises,--for at the time I nearly makes the dive outen the
stirrups, I pulls the hoss to a stop,--an' once more takes up the
pursoot of my locoed prey. He's a pris'ner fair enough, only he's too
obstinate to admit it. As I closes on him ag'in, I starts for the
second time to drill him, but I can't make the landin'. I'm too young;
my heart ain't hard enough; I rides along by him for a bit an' for the
second time su'gests that he surrender. The Yank ignores me; he keeps
on runnin'.
"'Which sech conduct baffles me! It's absolootely ag'in military law.
By every roole of the game that Yank's my captive; but defyin'
restraint he goes caperin' on like he's free.
"'As I gallops along about four foot to his r'ar I confess I begins to
feel a heap he'pless about him. I'm too tender to shoot, an' he won't
stop, an' thar we be.
"'While I'm keepin' him company on this retreat, I reflects that even
if I downs him, the war would go on jest the same; it wouldn't stop the
rebellion none, nor gain the South her independence. The more I
considers, too, the war looks bigger an' the life of this flyin' Yank
looks smaller. Likewise, it occurs to me that he's headed no'th. If
he keeps up his gait an' don't turn or twist he'll have quitted
Southern territory by the end of the week.
"'After makin' a complete round-up of the sityooation I begins to lose
interest in this Yank; an' at last I leaves him, racin' along alone.
By way of stim'lant, as I pauses I cracks off a couple of loads outen
my six-shooter into the air. They has a excellent effect; from the
jump the Yank makes at the sound I can see the shots puts ten miles
more run into him shore. He keeps up his gallop ontil he's out of
sight, an' I never after feasts my eyes on him.
"'Which I regyards your conduct, Major, as mighty hoomane,' says Dan
Boggs, raisin' his glass p'litely. 'I approves of it, partic'lar.'
"The Major meets Dan's attentions in the sperit they're proposed.
After a moment Enright speaks of them cannons.
"But you-all got a battery final, Major?' says Enright.
"'Six brass guns,' says the Major, an' his gray eyes beams an' he
speaks of 'em like they was six beautiful women. 'Six brass guns, they
be,' he says. We captured 'em from the enemy an' I'm put in command.
Gents, I've witnessed some successes personal, but I never sees the day
when I'm as satisfied an' as contentedly proud as when I finds myse'f
in command of them six brass guns. I was like a lover to every one of
'em.
"'I'm that headlong to get action--we're in middle Loosiana at the
time--that I hauls a couple of 'em over by the Mississippi an' goes
prowlin' 'round ontil I pulls on trouble with a little Yankee gun boat.
It lasts two hours, an' I shore sinks that naval outfit an' piles the
old Mississippi on top of 'em. I'm so puffed up with this yere exploit
that a pigeon looks all sunk in an' consumptif beside me.
"'Thar's one feacher of this dooel with the little gun boat which
displeases me, however. Old Butler's got Noo Orleans at the time, an'
among other things he's editin' the papers. I reads in one of 'em a
month later about me sinkin' that scow. It says I'm a barb'rous
villain, the story does, an' shoots up the boat after it surrenders,
an' old Butler allows he'll hang me a whole lot the moment ever he gets
them remarkable eyes onto me. I don't care none at the time much, only
I resents this yere charge. I shore never fires a shot at that gunboat
after it gives up; I ain't so opulent of amm'nition as all that. As
time goes on, however, thar's a day when I'm goin' to take the
determination of old Butler more to heart.
"'Followin' the gun-boat eepisode I'm more locoed than ever to get my
battery into a fight. An' at last I has my hopes entirely fulfilled.
It's about four o'clock one evenin' when we caroms on about three
brigades of Yanks. Thar's mebby twelve thousand of us rebs an' all of
fourteen thousand of the Lincoln people. My battery is all the big
guns we-all has, while said Yanks is strong with six full batteries.
"'The battle opens up; we're on a old sugar plantation, an' after
manooverin' about a while we settles down to work. It's that day I has
my dreams of carnage realised in full. I turns loose my six guns with
verve an' fervour, an' it ain't time for a second drink before I
attracts the warmest attention from every one of the Yankee batteries.
She's shore a scandal the way them gents in bloo does shoot me up!
Jest to give you-all a idee: the Yankees slams away at me for twenty
minutes; they dismounts two of my guns; they kills or creases forty of
my sixty-six men; an' when they gets through you-all could plant cotton
where my battery stands, it's that ploughed up.
"'It's in the midst of the _baile_, an' I'm standin' near my number-one
gun. Thar's a man comes up with a cartridge. A piece of a shell t'ars
him open, an' he falls across the gun, limp as a towel, an' then onto
the ground. I orders a party named Williams to the place. Something
comes flyin' down outen the heavens above an' smites Williams on top
the head; an' he's gone. I orders up another. He assoomes the
responsibilities of this p'sition jest in time to get a rifle bullet
through the jaw. He lives though; I sees him after the war.
"'As that's no more men for the place, I steps for'ard myse'f. I'm not
thar a minute when I sinks down to the ground. I don't feel nothin'
an' can't make it out.
"'While I'm revolvin' this yere phenomenon of me wiltin' that a-way an'
tryin to form some opinions about it, thar's a explosion like forty
battles all in one. For a moment, I reckons that somehow we-all has
opened up a volcano inadvertent, an' that from now on Loosiana can
boast a Hecla of her own. But it ain't no volcano. It's my ammunition
waggons which, with two thousund rounds is standin' about one hundred
yards to my r'ar. The Yanks done blows up the whole outfit with one of
their shells.
"'It's strictly the thing, however, which lets my battery out. The
thick smoke of the two thousand cartridges drifts down an' blankets
what's left of us like a fog. The Yanks quits us; they allows most
likely they've lifted me an' my six brass guns plumb off the earth.
Thar's some roodiments of trooth in the theery for that matter.
"'These last interestin' details sort o' all happens at once. I've
jest dropped at the time when my ammunition waggons enters into the
sperit of the o'casion like I describes. As I lays thar one of my men
comes gropin' along down to me in the smoke.
"'"Be you hurt, Major?" he says.
"'"I don't know," I replies: "my idee is that you better investigate
an' see."
"'He t'ars open my coat; thar's no blood on my shirt. He lifts one arm
an' then the other; they're sound as gold pieces. Then I lifts up my
left laig; I've got on high hoss-man boots.
"'"Pull off this moccasin," I says.
"'He pulls her off an' thar's nothin' the matter thar. I breaks out
into a profoose sweat; gents, I'm scared speechless. I begins to fear
I ain't plugged at all; that I've fainted away on a field of battle an'
doo to become the scandal of two armies. I never feels so weak an'
sick!
"'I've got one chance left an' trembles as I plays it; I lifts up my
right boot. I win; about a quart of blood runs out. Talk of
reprievin' folks who's sentenced to death! Gents, their emotions is
only imitations of what I feels when I finds that the Yanks done got me
an' nary doubt. It's all right--a rifle bullet through my ankle!
"'That night I'm mowed away, with twenty other wounded folks, in a
little cabin off to one side, an' thar's a couple of doctors sizin' up
my laig.
"'"Joe," says one, that a-way, "we've got to cut it off."
"'But I votes "no" emphatic; I'm too young to talk about goin shy a
laig. With that they ties it up as well as ever they can, warnin' me
meanwhile that I've got about one chance in a score to beat the game.
Then they imparts a piece of news that's a mighty sight worse than my
laig.
"'"Joe," says this doctor, when he's got me bandaged, "our army's got
to rustle out of yere a whole lot. She's on the retreat right now.
Them Yanks outheld us an' out-played us an' we've got to go stampedin'.
The worst is, thar's no way to take you along, an' we'll have to leave
you behind."
"'"Then the Yanks will corral me?" I asks.
"'"Shore," he replies, "but thar's nothin' else for it."
"'It's then it comes on me about that gunboat an' the promises old
Butler makes himse'f about hangin' me when caught. Which these yere
reflections infooses new life into me. I makes the doctor who's
talkin' go rummagin' about ontil he rounds up a old nigger daddy, a
mule an' a two-wheel sugar kyart. It's rainin' by now so's you-all
could stand an' wash your face an' hands in it. As that medical sharp
loads me in, he gives me a bottle of this yere morphine, an' between
jolts an' groans I feeds on said drug until mornin.'
"'That old black daddy is dead game. He drives me all night an' all
day an' all night ag'n, an' I'm in Shreveport; my ankle's about the
size of a bale of cotton. Thar's one ray through it all, however; I
misses meetin' old man Butler an' I looks on that as a triumph which
shore borders on relief.'
"'An' I reckons now,' says Dan Boggs, 'you severs your relations with
the war?'
"'No,' goes on the Major; 'I keeps up my voylence to the close. When I
grows robust enough to ride ag'in I'm in Texas. Thar's a expedition
fittin' out to invade an' subdoo Noo Mexico, an' I j'ines dogs with it
as chief of the big guns. Thar's thirty-eight hundred bold and buoyant
sperits rides outen Austin on these military experiments we plans, an'
as evincin' the luck we has, I need only to p'int out that nine months
later we returns with a scant eight hundred. Three thousand of 'em
killed, wounded an' missin' shows that efforts to list the trip onder
the head of "picnics" would be irony.
"'Comin', as we-all does, from one thousand miles away, thar ain't one
of us who saveys, practical, as much about the sand-blown desert
regions we invades as we does of what goes on in the moon. That
Gen'ral Canby, who later gets downed by the Modocs, is on the Rio
Grande at Fort Craig. While we're pirootin' about in a blind sort o'
fashion we ropes up one of Canby's couriers who's p'intin' no'th for
Fort Union with despatches. This Gen'ral Canby makes the followin'
facetious alloosion: After mentionin' our oninvited presence in the
territory, he says:
"'"But let 'em alone. We'll dig the potatoes when they're ripe."
"'Gents, we was the toobers!' An' yere the Major pauses for a drink.
'We was the potatoes which Canby's exultin' over! We don't onderstand
it at the time, but it gets cl'arer as the days drifts by.
"'I'm never in a more desolate stretch of what would be timber only
thar ain't no trees. Thar's nothin' for the mules an' hosses; half the
time thar ain't even water. An' then it's alkali. An' our days teems
an' staggers with disgustin' experiences. Once we're shy water two
days. It's the third day about fourth drink time in the evenin'. The
sun has two hours yet to go. My battery is toilin' along, sand to the
hubs of gun-carriages an' caissons, when I sees the mules p'int their
y'ears for'ard with looks of happy surprise. Then the intelligent
anamiles begins a song of praise; an' next while we-all is marvellin'
thereat an' before ever a gent can stretch hand to bridle to stop 'em,
the mules begins to fly. They yanks my field pieces over the desert as
busy an' full of patriotic ardour as a drunkard on 'lection day. The
whole battery runs away. Gents, the mules smells water. It's two
miles away,--a big pond she is,--an' that locoed battery never stops,
but rushes plumb in over its y'ears; an' I lose sixteen mules an' two
guns before ever I'm safe ag'in on terry firmy.
"'It's shore remarkable,' exclaims the Major, settin' down his glass,
'how time softens the view an' changes bitter to sweet that a-way. As
I brings before me in review said details thar's nothin' more harassin'
from soda to hock than that campaign on the Rio Grande. Thar's not one
ray of sunshine to paint a streak of gold in the picture from frame to
frame; all is dark an' gloom an' death. An' yet, lookin' back'ard
through the years, the mem'ry of it is pleasant an' refreshing a heap
more so than enterprises of greater ease with success instead of
failure for the finish.
"'Thar's one partic'lar incident of this explorin' expeditions into Noo
Mexico which never recurs to my mind without leavin' my eyes some dim.
I don't claim to be no expert on pathos an' I'm far from regyardin'
myse'f as a sharp on tears, but thar's folks who sort o' makes sadness
a speshulty, women folks lots of 'em, who allows that what I'm about to
recount possesses pecooliar elements of sorrow.
"'Thar's a young captain--he ain't more'n a boy--who's brought a troop
of lancers along with us. This boy Captain hails from some'ers up
'round Waco, an' thar ain't a handsomer or braver in all Pres'dent
Davis's army. This Captain--whose name is Edson,--an' me, bein' we-all
is both young, works ourse'fs into a clost friendship for each other; I
feels about him like he's my brother. Nacherally, over a camp fire an'
mebby a stray bottle an' a piece of roast antelope, him an' me confides
about ourse'fs. This Captain Edson back in Waco has got a old widow
mother who's some rich for Texas, an' also thar's a sweetheart he aims
to marry when the war's over an' done. I reckons him an' me talks of
that mother an' sweetheart of his a hundred times.
"'It falls out that where we fords the Pecos we runs up on a Mexican
Plaza--the "Plaza Chico" they-all calls it--an' we camps thar by the
river a week, givin' our cattle a chance to roll an' recooperate up on
the grass an' water.
"'Then we goes p'intin' out for the settin' sun ag'in, allowin' to
strike the Rio Grande some'ers below Albuquerque. Captain Edson, while
we're pesterin' 'round at the Plaza Chico, attaches to his retinoo a
Mexican boy; an' as our boogles begins to sing an' we lines out for
that west'ard push, this yere boy rides along with Edson an' the
lancers.
"'Our old war chief who has charge of our wanderin's is strictly stern
an' hard. An' I reckons now he's the last gent to go makin' soft
allowances for any warmth of yooth, or puttin' up with any primrose
paths of gentle dalliance, of any an' all who ever buckles on a set of
side arms. It thus befalls that when he discovers on the mornin' of
the second day that this Mexican boy is a Mexican girl, he goes ragin'
into the ambient air like a eagle.
"'The Old Man claps Edson onder arrest an' commands the girl to saddle
up an' go streakin' for the Plaza Chico. As it's only a slow day's
march an' as these Mexicans knows the country like a coyote, it's a
cinch the girl meets no harm an' runs no resks. But it serves to plant
the thorns of wrath in the heart of Captain Edson.
"'The Old Man makes him loose an' gives him back his lancers before
ever we rides half a day, but it don't work no mollifications with the
young Captain. He offers no remarks, bein' too good a soldier; but he
never speaks to the Old Man no more, except it's business.
"'"Joe," he says to me, as we rides along, or mebby after we're in camp
at night, "I'll never go back to Texas. I've been disgraced at the
head of my troop an' I'll take no sech record home."
"'"You oughter not talk that a-way, Ed," I'd say, tryin' to get his
sensibilities smoothed down. "If you don't care none for yourse'f or
for your footure, you-all should remember thar's something comin' to
the loved ones at home. Moreover, it's weak sayin' you-all ain't goin'
back to Texas. How be you goin' to he'p it, onless you piles up
shore-enough disgrace by desertin' them lancers of yours?"
"'"Which if we has the luck," says this Captain Edson, "to cross up
with any Yanks who's capable of aimin' low an' shootin' half way troo,
I'll find a way to dodge that goin' back without desertin'."
"'No, I don't make no argyments with him; it's hopeless talkin' to a
gent who's melancholly an' who's pride's been jarred; thar's nothing
but time can fix things up for him. An' I allers allows that this boy
Captain would have emerged from the clouds eventooal, only it happens
he don't get the time. His chance comes too soon; an' he shore plays
it desperate.
"'Our first offishul act after reachin' the Rio Grande is to lay for a
passel of Yank cavalry--thar's two thousand of 'em I reckons. We rides
up on these yere lively persons as we sounds a halt for the evenin'.
It looks like our boogles is a summons, for they comes buttin' into
view through a dry arroya an' out onto the wide green bottoms of the
Rio Grande at the first call. They're about a mile away, an' at sight
of us they begins in a fashion of idle indifference to throw out a line
of battle. They fights on foot, them bloo folks do; dismounting with
every fourth man to hold the hosses. They displays a heap of insolence
for nothin' but cavalry an' no big guns; but as they fights like
infantry an' is armed with Spencer seven-shooters besides, the play
ain't so owdacious neither.
"'Thar's mebby a hour of sun an' I'm feelin' mighty surly as I gets my
battery into line. I'm disgusted to think we've got to fight for our
night's camp, an' swearin' to myse'f in a low tone, so's not to set
profane examples to my men, at the idee that these yere Yanks is that
preecip'tate they can't wait till mornin' for their war-jig. But I
can't he'p myse'f. That proverb about it takin' two to make a fight is
all a bluff. It only takes one to make a fight. As far as we-all rebs
is concerned that evenin' we ain't honin' for trouble, leastwise, not
ontil mornin'; but them inordinate Yanks will have it, an' thar you be.
The fight can't be postponed.
"'Thar's no tumblin' hurry about how any of us goes to work. Both
sides has got old at the game an' war ain't the novelty she is once.
The Yanks is takin' their p'sition, an' we're locatin' our lines an'
all as ca'mly an' with no more excitement than if it's dress p'rade.
The Yanks is from Colorado. My sergeant speaks of 'em to me the next
day an' gives his opinion touchin' their merits.
"'"Where did you say them Yankees comes from, Major?" says my serjeant.
"'"Colorado," I replies.
"'"Which thar's about thirty minutes last evenin'," says my serjeant,
"when I shorely thinks they're recrooted in hell," an' my serjeant
shakes his head.
"'While I'm linin' up my battery mighty discontented an' disgruntled,
an orderly pulls my sleeve.
"'"Look thar, Major!" he says.
"'I turns, an' thar over on our right, all alone, goes Captain Edson
an' his lancers. Without waiting an' without commands, Captain Edson
has his boogler sound a charge; an' thar goes the lancers stampedin'
along like they're a army corps an' cap'ble of sweepin' the two
thousand cool an' c'llected Yankees off the Rio Grande.
"'For a moment all we does is stand an' look; the surprise of it leaves
no idee of action. The lancers swings across the grassy levels.
Thar's not a shot fired; Edson's people ain't got nothin' but them
reedic'lous spears, an' the Yanks, who seems to know it, stands like
the rest of us without firin' an' watches 'em come. It's like a
picture, with the thin bright air an' the settin' sun shinin' sideways
over the gray line of mountains fifty miles to the west.
"'I never sees folks more placid than the Yanks an' at the same time so
plumb alert. Mountain lions is lethargic to 'em. When Captain Edson
an' his lancers charges into 'em the Yanks opens right an' left, each
sharp of 'em gettin' outen the way of that partic'lar lancer who's
tryin' to spear him; but all in a steady, onruffled fashion that's as
threatenin' as it is excellent. The lancers, with Captain Edson, goes
through, full charge, twenty rods to the r'ar of the Yankee line. An',
gents, never a man comes back.
"'As Edson an' his troop goes through, the Yanks turns an' opens on
'em. The voices of the Spencers sounds like the long roll of a drum.
Hoss an' man goes down, dead an' wounded; never a gent of 'em all rides
back through that awful Yankee line. Pore Edson shore has his wish;
he's cut the trail of folks who's cap'ble of aimin' low an' shootin'
half way troo.
"'These sperited moves I've been relatin' don't take no time in the
doin'. The hairbrain play of Captain Edson forces our hands. The Old
Man orders a charge, an' we pushes the Yanks back onto their hosses an'
rescoos what's left of Edson an' his lancers. After skirmishin' a
little the Yanks draws away an' leaves us alone on the field. They
earns the encomiums of my serjeant, though, before ever they decides to
_vamos_.
"'Edson's been shot hard and frequent; thar's no chance for him. He
looks up at me, when we're bringin' him off, an' says:
"'"Joe," an' he smiles an' squeezes my hand, while his tones is plenty
feeble, "Joe, you notes don't you that while I ain't goin' back to
Texas, I don't have to desert."
"'That night we beds down our boy Captain in a sol'tary Mexican 'doby.
He's layin' on a pile of blankets clost by the door while the moon
shines down an' makes things light as noonday. He's been talkin' to me
an' givin' me messages for his mother an' the rest of his outfit at
Waco, an' I promises to carry 'em safe an' deliver 'em when I rides in
ag'in on good old Texas. Then he wants his mare brought up where he
can pet her muzzle an' say _Adios_ to her.
"'"For, Joe," he says, "I'm doo to go at once now, an' my days is down
to minutes."
"'"The medicine man, Ed," I says, "tells me that you-all has hours to
live."
"'"But, Joe," he replies, "I knows. I'm a mighty good prophet you
recalls about my not goin' back, an' you can gamble I'm not makin' any
mistakes now. It's down to minutes, I tells you, an' I wants to see my
mare."
"'Which the mare is brought up an' stands thar with her velvet nose in
his face; her name's "Ruth," after Edson's sweetheart. The mare is as
splendid as a picture; pure blood, an' her speed an' bottom is the
wonder of the army. Usual a hoss is locoed by the smell of blood, but
it don't stampede this Ruth; an' she stays thar with him as still an'
tender as a woman, an' with all the sorrow in her heart of folks. As
Edson rubs her nose with his weak hand an' pets her, he asks me to take
this Ruth back to his sweetheart with all his love.
"'"Which now I'm goin'," he whispers, "no one's to mention that
eepisode of the Pecos an' the little Mexican girl of Plaza Chico!"
"'Edson is still a moment; an' then after sayin' "Good-by," he lets on
that he desires me to leave him alone with the mare.
"'"I'll give Ruth yere a kiss an' a extra message for my sweetheart,"
he says, "an' then I'll sleep some."
"'I camps down outside the 'doby an' looks up at the moon an' begins to
let my own thoughts go grazin' off towards Texas. It's perhaps a
minute when thar's the quick _crack_! of a six-shooter, an' the mare
Ruth r'ars up an' back'ard ontil she's almost down. But she recovers
herse'f an' stands sweatin' an' shiverin' an' her eyes burnin' like she
sees a ghost. Shore, it's over; pore Edson won't wait; he's got to his
guns, an' thar's a bullet through his head.'"
THE END.
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