Webb drew a breath of relief. There was to be no gunplay after all. He had had his own reasons for not interfering sooner, but he knew that the situation had just grazed red tragedy.
"I"m goin" to take the boy"s advice," he announced to Yankie. "Ride forward an" swing the herd toward that big red b.u.t.te. We"ll give our Mescalero friends a wide berth if we can."
The foreman hung in the saddle a moment before he turned to go. He had to save his face from a public back-down, "Bet you a week"s pay there"s nothin" to it, Webb."
"Hope you"re right, Joe," his employer answered.
As soon as Yankie had cantered away, Dad Wrayburn, ex-Confederate trooper, slapped his hand on his thigh and let out a modulated rebel yell.
"Dad burn my hide, Jimmie-Go-Get-"Em, you"re all right. Fustest time I ever saw Joe take water, but he sh.o.r.ely did splash some this here occasion. I wouldn"t "a" missed it for a bunch of hog-fat yearlin"s."
Webb had not been sorry to see his arrogant foreman brought up with a sharp turn, but in the interest of discipline he did not care to say so.
"Why can"t you boys get along peaceable with Joe, I"d like to know? This snortin" an" pawin" up the ground don"t get you anything."
"I reckon Joe does most of the snortin" that"s done," Wrayburn answered dryly. "I ain"t had any trouble with him, because he spends a heap of time lettin" me alone. But there"s no manner of doubt that Joe rides the boys too hard."
The drover dismissed the subject and turned to Thursday.
"Want a job?"
"Mebbe so."
"I need another man. Since you sabe the ways of the "Paches I can use you to scout ahead for us."
"What you payin"?"
"Fifty a month."
"You"ve hired a hand."
"Good enough. Better pick one of the boys to ride with you while you are out scoutin"."
"I"ll take Billie Prince," decided the new rider at once.
"You know Billie?"
"Never saw him before to-day. But I like his looks. He"s a man to tie to."
"You"re right he is."
The drover looked at his new employee with a question in his shrewd eyes.
The boy was either a man out of a thousand or he was a first-cla.s.s bluffer. He claimed to have cut Indian sign and to know exactly what was written there. At a single glance he had sized up Prince and knew him for a reliable side partner. Without any bl.u.s.ter he had served notice on Yankie that it would be dangerous to pick on him as the b.u.t.t of his ill-temper.
In those days, on the Pecos, law lay in a holster on a man"s thigh. The individual was a force only so far as his personality impressed itself upon his fellows. If he made claims he must be prepared to back them to a fighting finish.
Was this young Thursday a false alarm? Or was he a good man to let alone when one was looking for trouble? Webb could not be sure yet, though he made a shrewd guess. But he knew it would not he long before he found out.
Chapter II
Shoot-a-Buck Canon
Webb sent for Billie Prince.
"Seems there"s a bunch of bronco "Paches camped ahead of us, Billie.
Thursday here trailed with Sieber. I want you an" him to scout in front of us an" see we don"t run into any ambush. You"re under his orders, y"
understand."
Prince was a man of few words. He nodded.
"You know the horses that the boys claim. Well, take Thursday to the remuda an" help him pick a mount from the extras in place of that broomtail he"s ridin"," continued the drover. "Look alive now. I don"t want my cattle stampeded because we haven"t got sense enough to protect "em. No "Paches can touch a hoof of my stock if I can help it."
"If they attack at all it will probably be just before daybreak, but it is just as well to be ready for "em," suggested Thursday.
"I brought along some old Sharps an" some Spencers. I reckon I"ll have "em loaded an" distribute "em among the boys. Billie, tell Yankie to have that done. The rifles are racked up in the calf wagon."
Billie delivered the orders of the drover to the foreman as they pa.s.sed on their way to the remuda. Joe gave a snort of derision, but let it go at that. When Homer Webb was with one of his trail outfits he was always its boss.
While Thursday watched him, Prince roped out a cinnamon horse from the remuda. The cowpuncher was a long-bodied man, smooth-muscled and lithe.
The boy had liked his level eye and his clean, brown jaw before, just as now he approved the swift economy of his motions.
Probably Billie was about twenty years of age, but in that country men ripened young. Both of these lads had been brought up in that rough-and-ready school of life which holds open session every day of the year. Both had already given proofs of their ability to look out for themselves in emergency. A wise, cool head rested on each of these pairs of young shoulders. In this connection it is worth mentioning that the West"s most famous outlaw, Billie the Kid, a killer with twenty-one notches on his gun, had just reached his majority when he met his death some years later at the hands of Pat Garrett.
The new rider for the Flying V Y outfit did not accept the judgment of Prince without confirming it. He examined the hoofs of the horse and felt its legs carefully. He looked well to its ears to make sure that ticks from the mesquite had not infected the silky inner flesh.
"A good bronc, looks like," he commented.
"One of the fastest in the remuda--not very gentle, though."
Thursday picked the witches" bridles from its mane before he saddled. As his foot found the stirrup the cinnamon rose into the air, humped its back, and came down with all four legs stiff. The quirt burned its flank, and the animal went up again to whirl round in the air. The boy stuck to the saddle and let out a joyous whoop. The battle was on.
Suddenly as it had begun the contest ended. With the unreasoning impulse of the half-broken cowpony the cinnamon subsided to gentle obedience.
The two riders cantered across the prairie in the direction of the Indian camp. That the Apaches were still there Thursday thought altogether likely, for he knew that it takes a week to make mescal. No doubt the raiders had stopped to hold a jamboree over the success of their outbreak.
The scouts from the cattle herd deflected toward a b.u.t.te that pushed out as a salient into the plain. From its crest they could get a sweeping view of the valley.
"There"s a gulch back of it that leads to old man Roubideau"s place,"
explained Prince. "Last time we were on this Pecos drive the boss stopped an" bought a bunch of three-year-olds from him. He"s got a daughter that"s sure a pippin, old man Roubideau has. Shoot, ride, rope--that girl"s got a lot of these alleged bullwhackers beat a mile at any one of "em."
Thursday did not answer. He had left the saddle and was examining the ground carefully. Billie joined him. In the soft sand of the wash were tracks of horses" hoofs. Patiently the trailer followed them foot by foot to the point where they left the dry creek-bed and swung up the broken bank to a swale.
"Probably Roubideau and his son Jean after strays," suggested Prince.
"No. Notice this track here, how it"s broken off at the edge. When I cut Indian sign yesterday, this was one of those I saw."