The special drew out from the side track and gathered speed. Soon the rhythmic chant of the rails sounded monotonously, and the plains on either side of the track swam swiftly to the rear.
CHAPTER 4. A BLUFF IS CALLED
Torpid lay Aravaipa in a coma of sunheat. Its adobe-lined streets basked in the white glare of an Arizona spring at midday. One or two Papago Indians, with their pottery wares, squatted in the shade of the buildings, but otherwise the plaza was deserted. Not even a moving dog or a lounging peon lent life to the drowsy square. Silence profound and peace eternal seemed to brood over the land.
Such was the impression borne in upon the young man riding townward on a wiry buckskin that had just topped the rise which commanded the valley below. The rider presented a striking enough appearance to take and hold the roving eye of any young woman in search of romance. He was a slender, lithe young Adonis of medium height. His hair and eyebrows left one doubtful whether to p.r.o.nounce them black or brown, but the eyes called for an immediate verdict of Irish blue. Every inch of him spoke of competency--promised mastership of any situation likely to arise.
But when the last word is said it was the eyes that dominated the personality. They could run the whole gamut of emotions, or they could be impervious as a stone wall. Now they were deep and innocent as a girl"s, now they rollicked with the buoyant youth in them. Comrades might see them bubbling with fun, and the next moment enemies find them opague as a leaden sky. Not the least wonder of them was that they looked out from under long lashes, soft enough for any maiden, at a world they appraised with the shrewdness of a veteran.
The young man drew rein above the valley, sitting his horse in the easy, negligent fashion of one that lives in the saddle. A thumb was. .h.i.tched carelessly in the front pocket of his chaps, which pocket served also as a holster for the .45 that protruded.
Even in the moment that he sat there a change came over Aravaipa. As a summer shower sweeps across a lake so something had ruffled the town to sudden life. From stores and saloons men dribbled, converging toward a common centre hurriedly.
"I reckon, Bucky, the band has begun to play," the rider told himself aloud. "Mebbe we better move on down in time for the music."
But no half-expected revolver shots shattered the stillness, even though interest did not abate.
"There"s ce"tainly something doing at the Silver Dollar this glad mo"ning. c.h.i.n.ks, greasers, and several other kinds of citizens driftin"
that way, not to mention white men. I expect there will be room for you, Bucky, if you hurry before the seats are all sold out."
He cantered down the plaza, swung from the saddle, threw the rein over the pony"s head to the ground, and jingled across the sidewalk into the gambling house. It was filled with a motley crowd of miners, vaqueros, tourists, cattlemen, Mexicans, Chinese, and a sample of the rest of the heterogeneous population of the Southwest. Behind this a.s.semblage the newcomer tiptoed in vain to catch a glimpse of the cause of the excitement. Wherefore, he calmly removed an almond-eyed Oriental from a chair on which he was standing, tipped the ex-Cantonese a half dollar, and appropriated the point of vantage himself.
There was a cleared s.p.a.ce in the corner by the roulette table, and here, his chair tipped back against the wall and a gla.s.s of whisky in front of him, sat a sufficiently strange specimen of humanity. He was a man of about fifty years, large boned and gaunt. Dressed in fringed buckskin trousers and a silver-laced Mexican sombrero, he affected the long hair, the sweeping mustache, and the ferocious aspect that are the custom of the pseudo-Westerners who do business in the East with fake medical remedies. Around his waist was a belt garnished with knives by the dozen. These were long and pointed, sharpened to a razor edge. One of them was in his hand poised for a throw at the instant Bucky mounted the chair and looked over the densely packed ma.s.s of heads in front of him.
The ranger"s keen glance swept to the wall and took in the target. A slim lad of about fifteen stood against it with his arms outstretched.
Above and below each hand and on either side of the swelling throat knives quivered in the frame wall. There was a flash of steel, and the seventh knife sank into the wood so close to the crisp curls that a lock hung by a hair, almost completely severed by the blade. The boy choked back a scream, his big brown eyes dilating with terror.
The bully sipped at his highball and deliberately selected another knife. To Bucky"s swift inspection it was plain he had drunk too much and that a very little slip might make an end of the boy. The fascinated horror in the lad"s gaze showed that he realized his danger.
"Now, f"ler cit"zens, I will continue for your "mus.e.m.e.nt by puttin" next two knives on right and lef" sides of his cheek. Observe, pleash, that these will land less than an inch from hish eyes. As the champion knife thrower in the universe I claim--"
What he claimed his audience had to guess, for at this instant another person took a part in the act. Bucky had stepped lightly across the intervening s.p.a.ce on the shoulders of the tightly packed crowd and had dropped as lightly to the ground in front of the astonished champion of the universe.
"I reckon you"ve about wore out that target. What"s the matter with trying a brand new one," drawled the ranger, his quiet, unwavering eye fixed on the bloated, mottled face of the imitation "bad man."
The bully, half seas over, leaned forward and gripped his knife. He was sober enough to catch the jeer running through the other"s words without being sufficiently master of himself to appreciate the menace that underlay them.
"Wha"s that? Say that again!" he burst out, purple to the collar line.
He was not used to having beardless boys with long, soft eyelashes interfering with his amus.e.m.e.nts, and a blind rage flooded his heart.
"I allowed that a change of targets would vary the entertainment, if you haven"t any objections, seh," the blue-eyed stranger explained mildly.
"Who is this kid?" demanded the bully, with a sweep of his arm toward the intruder.
n.o.body seemed to know, wherefore the ranger himself gave the information mildly:
"Bucky O"Connor they call me."
A faint murmur of surprise soughed through the crowd, for Bucky O"Connor of the Arizona Rangers was by way of being a public hero just now on account of his capture of Fernendez, the stage robber. But the knife thrower had but lately arrived in the country. The youth carried with him none of the earmarks of his trade, unless it might be that quiet, steady gaze that seemed to search the soul. His voice was soft and drawling, his manner almost apologetic. In the smile that came and went was something sweet and sunny, in his bearing a gay charm that did not advertise the recklessness that bubbled from his daredevil spirit.
Surely here was an easy victim upon whom to vent his spleen, thought the other in his growing pa.s.sion.
"You want to be my target, do you?" he demanded, tugging ferociously at his long mustache.
"If you please, seh."
The fellow swore a vile oath. "Just as you say. Line up beside the other kid."
With three strides Bucky reached the wall, and turned.
"Let "er go," his gentle voice murmured.
He was leaning back easily against the wall, his thumb hitched carelessly in the revolver pocket of his worn leather chaps. He looked at ease, every jaunty inch of him, but a big bronzed cattleman who had just pushed his way in noticed that the frosty blue eyes never released for an instant those of the enemy.
The bully at the table pa.s.sed an uncertain hand over his face to clear his blurred vision, poised the cruel blade in his hand, and sent it flashing forward with incredible swiftness. The steel buried itself two inches deep in the soft pine beside Bucky"s head. So close had it shaved him that a drop of blood gathered and dropped from his ear to the floor.
"Good shot," commented the ranger quietly, and on the instant his revolver seemed to leap from its holster to his hand. Without raising or moving his arm in the least, Bucky fired.
Again a murmur eddied through the crowd. The bullet had neatly bored the bully"s ear. He raised his hand in dazed fashion and brought it away covered with blood. With staring eyes he looked at his moist red fingers, then at his latest victim, who was proving such an unexpected surprise.
The big cattleman, who by this time had pushed a way with his broad shoulders to the front, observed the two men attentively with a derisive smile on his frank face. He was seeing a bluff called, and he enjoyed it.
"You"ll be able to wear earrings, Mr. Champion of the Universe, after I have ventilated the other," suggested the ranger affably. "Come again, seh."
But his opponent had had enough, and more than enough. It was one thing to browbeat a harmless boy, quite another to measure courage with a young gamec.o.c.k like this. He had all the advantage of the first move.
He was an expert and could drive his first throw into the youth"s heart. But at bottom he was a coward and lacked the nerve, if not the inclination, to kill. If he took up that devil-may-care challenge he must fight it out alone. Moreover, as his furtive glance went round the ring of faces, he doubted whether a rope and the nearest telegraph pole might not be his fate if he went the limit. Sourly he accepted defeat, raging in his craven spirit at the necessity.
"h.e.l.l! I don"t fight with boys," he snarled,
"So?"
Bucky moved forward with the curious lightness of a man spring-footed.
His gaze held the other"s shifting eyes as he plucked the knife from his opponent"s hand.
"Unbuckle that belt," he ordered.
All said, the eye is a prince of weapons. It is a moral force more potent than the physical, and by it men may measure strength to a certainty. So now these two clinched and battled with it till the best man won. The showman"s look gave way before the stark courage of the other. His was no match for the inscrutable, unwavering eye that commanded him. His fingers began to twitch, edged slowly toward his waist. For an instant they fumbled at the buckle of the belt, which presently fell with a rattle to the floor.
"Now, roll yore trail to the wall. Face this way! Arms out! That"s good!
You rest there comfortable while I take these pins down and let the kid out."
He removed the knives that hemmed in the boy and supported the half-fainting figure to a chair beside the roulette table. But always he remained in such a position as to keep the big bully he was baiting in view. The boy dropped into the chair and covered his face with his hands, sobbing with deep, broken breaths. The ranger touched caressingly the crisp, fair hair that covered the head in short curls.
"Don"t you worry, bub. Now, don"t you. It"s all over with now. That coyote won"t pester you any more. Will you, Mr. False Alarm Bad Man?"
At the last words he wheeled suddenly to the showman. "You"re right sorry already you got so gay, ain"t you? Come! Speak yore little piece, please."
He waited for an answer, and his gaze held fast to the bloated face that cringed before his attack.