"Ay," growled Jordan. "That"s true enough. But what makes you so sure that Perris is so hot after me. Ain"t there been time enough for him to cool down?"
With the skill of a connoisseur, saving his choicest morsel for the end, Hervey had waited for the most favorable opportunity before striking home with his most convincing item.
"You remember you drilled him in the leg, chief?"
"I remember everything. The whole d.a.m.ned affair has never been out of my head for a whole day. I"ve gone over every detail of it a thousand times, Lew!"
"So has Perris," answered Lew Hervey solemnly. "That slug of yours--when the doctor cut it out of his leg he had it fixed up and now he wears it for a fob so"s he won"t forget the gent that shot him down that night when he wasn"t armed!"
"Most like that"s why he"s practiced so much with a gun," muttered Jordan. "He"s been getting ready for me."
"Most like," said the gloomy Hervey, but his voice well-nigh trembled with gratification.
The head of Jordan bowed again, but this time, as Hervey shrewdly guessed, it was in thought, not in despair.
"Why," chuckled Jordan at last, "what we wasting all this fool time about? You just slip back to the ranch and fire Perris."
In the favoring dark, Hervey threw back his head and made a grimace of joy. Exactly as he had prefigured, this talk was going. Every card was being played into his hand as though his wishes were subconsciously entering and ruling the mind of the chief.
"I can"t do it," he answered firmly.
"You can"t? Ain"t you foreman?"
"No," said Hervey, and a trace of bitterness came into his voice. "I used to be. But you know as well as me that I"m only a straw boss now.
Miss Marianne is running things, big and small. Besides, she picked up Perris. And she won"t let him go easy, I tell you!"
"What do you mean by that, Hervey?"
"I seen her face when she met him. I was standing outside the bunkhouse. And she sure was tolerable pleased to see him."
A tremendous oath burst from Jordan.
"You mean she"s sweet on this--this Perris?" But he added: "Why should that rile me? Maybe he"s all right."
"He"s one of them flashy dressers," said Lew Hervey. "Silk shirts and swell bandannas and he wears shopmade boots and keep "em all shined up.
Besides, it"s dead easy for him to talk to a girl. He"s the kind that get on with "em pretty well."
The innuendo brought a huge roar from Oliver Jordan.
"By G.o.d, Lew, d"you think that"s what it means? I thought she talked pretty strong about this Perris!"
"Maybe I"ve said too much," said Hervey.
"Not a word too much," said Jordan heartily, and reaching through the night he found the hand of Hervey and wrung it heartily. "I know how square you are, Lew. I know how you"ve stood by me. I"d stake my last dollar on you!"
Hervey blessed again the mercy of the darkness which concealed the crimson that spread hotly over his face. There was enough truth in what the rancher said to make the untruths the more painful. Before the accident Hervey had, indeed, been all that anyone could ask in a manager. But when too much authority came into his hands owing to the crippling of his chief, the temptation proved too strong for resistance.
It was all so easy. A few score of cows run off here and there were never noted, and his share in the profit was fifty-fifty. Indeed, as the hand of Jordan crushed over his own he came perilously near to making a clean breast of everything, but the memory of his fat and growing bank-account gagged the confession.
"If that"s the way things are standing," Jordan was saying, "we got to get rid of this skunk Perris. Good-looking, as I remember him, and Marianne is so darned lonely on the ranch that she might begin to take him serious and--Hervey, I"ll give you a written note. That"ll be authority. I"ll give you a note to Marianne, telling her that I"ve got to go across the mountains and that I want you to have the running of the place till I get back. I guess that"ll give you a free hand, Lew!
You fire that Perris, and when he"s gone, send me word over to the hotel in Lawrence. That"s where I"ll go."
Hervey appeared dubious with great skill.
"I"ll take the note, Jordan," he said, putting all the despair he could summon into his tone. "But it sure goes hard--the idea of losing my place up here. I"ve been in the Valley so long, you see, that it"s like a home to me."
"And who the devil said anything about you leaving? Ain"t I just now about to give you a note to run the ranch while I"m gone?"
"Sure you are. And I"ll take it--and fire Perris. But when you come back--that"s the end of me!"
"What?"
"You know how your daughter is. She"ll plumb hate me when I come back with orders to run things. She"ll think I asked for "em."
"I"ll tell her different."
"Were you ever able to convince her, once she made up her mind?"
"H-m-m," growled Jordan.
"And she"ll never rest till things are so hot for me that I got to get out. Not that I grudge it, Jordan. I"d give up more than this job for your sake. Only it sure makes me homesick to think about starting out at my time of life and riding herd for a strange outfit."
"You ride for another outfit?" said Jordan. "And after you"ve worked this game on Perris for me? I"ll tell you what, Lew, if you get Perris safe off the ranch you can stop worrying. You"re foreman for life! You have my word for it."
"But suppose--" protested Hervey faintly.
"Suppose nothing. You have my word. Besides, I"m tired of talking!"
With well-acted diffidence, Lew held out the paper, which Oliver Jordan s.n.a.t.c.hed and smoothed on his knee. Then Hervey rode closer, lighted a match, and held it so that the rancher could see to write.
"Dear Marianne," scrawled the pencil, "this is to let you know that I have to go on business to--"
"Better not tell her where," suggested Hervey. "She might send after and ask a lot of bothersome questions. You know the way a woman is."
"You sure got a fine head for business, Lew," nodded Jordan, and continued his note: "to a town across the mountains and it may be a few days before I get back. I met Lew on the road, so I"m letting him take this note back to you Another thing: I"ve told Lew about several things I want done while I"m gone. Easier than explaining them all to you, honey, he can do them himself and tell you later.
Affectionately,"
As he scrawled the signature Hervey suggested softly: "Suppose you put down at the bottom: "This will serve as authority to Lew Hervey to act in my name while I"m away.""
"Sure," nodded Jordan, as he scribbled the dictated words. "Marianne is a stickler for form. She"ll want something like that to convince her."
He shoved the paper into the trembling hand of Lew Hervey, and sighed with weariness.
"Chief," muttered Hervey, finding that even in the darkness he could not look into the tired, pain-worn face of the rancher, "I sure hope you never have no call to be sorry for this."
"Sorry? I ain"t bothering about that. So long, Lew."
But Lew Hervey had suddenly lost his voice. He could only wave his adieu.