Peppajee shook his head, reached for his knife, and slit the moccasin till it was no more than a wrapping. "Mebbyso heap walk," he stated simply.
"Mebbyso you won"t do anything of the kind," Good Indian retorted. "You come down and take a horse. What for you all time watchum Baumberger?"
he added, remembering then what had brought them both upon the bluff.
"Baumberger all time fish--no more." He waved his hand toward the Malad.
"Baumberger bueno--catchum fish--no more."
Peppajee got slowly and painfully upon his feet--rather, upon one foot.
When Good Indian held out a steadying arm, he accepted it, and leaned rather heavily.
"Yo" eyes sick," said Peppajee, and grinned sardonically. "Yo" eyes see all time Squaw-with-sun-hair. Fillum yo" eyes, yo" see notting. Yo"
catchum squaw, bimeby mebbyso see plenty mo". Me no catchum sick eye.
Mebbyso me see heap plenty."
"What you see, you all time watchum Baumberger?"
But Peppajee, hobbling where he must walk, crawling where he might, sliding carefully where a slanting bowlder offered a few feet of smooth descent, and taking hold of Good Indian"s offered arm when necessity impelled him, pressed his thin lips together, and refused to answer. So they came at last to the ledge beside the rapids, where a thin wisp of smoke waved lazily in the vagrant breeze which played with the ripples and swayed languidly the smaller branches of the nearby trees.
Only Donny was there, sitting disgruntled upon the most comfortable rock he could find, sulking because the others had taken all the fishing-tackle that was of any account, and had left him to make shift with one bent, dulled hook, a lump of fat pork, and a dozen feet of line.
"And I can catch more fish than anybody in the bunch!" he began complainingly and without preface, waving a dirty hand contemptuously at the despised tackle when the two came slowly up. "That"s the way it goes when you take a lot of girls along! They"ve got to have the best rods and tackle, and all they"ll do will be to snag lines and lose leaders and hooks, and giggle alla squeal. Aw--DARN girls!"
"And I"m going to pile it on still thicker, Donny!" Good Indian grinned down at him. "I"m going to swipe your Pirate Chief for a while, till I take Peppajee into camp. He"s gentle, and Peppajee"s got a snake-bite.
I"ll be back before you get ready to go home."
"I"m ready to go home right now," growled Donny, sinking his chin between his two palms. "But I guess the walkin" ain"t all taken up."
Good Indian regarded him frowningly, gave a little snort, and turned away. Donny in that mood was not to be easily placated, and certainly not to be ignored. He went over to the little flat, and selected Jack"s horse, saddled him, and discovered that it had certain well-defined race prejudices, and would not let Peppajee put foot to the stirrup. Keno he knew would be no more tractable, so that he finally slapped Jack"s saddle on Huckleberry, and so got Peppajee mounted and headed toward camp.
"You tell Jack I borrowed his saddle and Huckleberry," he called out to the drooping little figure on the rock. "But I"ll get back before they want to go home."
But Donny was glooming over his wrongs, and neither heard nor wanted to hear. Having for his legacy a temper c.u.mulative in its heat, he was coming rapidly to the point where he, too, started home, and left no word or message behind; a trivial enough incident in itself, but one which opened the way for some misunderstanding and fruitless speculation upon the part of Evadna.
CHAPTER XIII. CLOUD-SIGN VERSUS CUPID
Few men are ever called upon by untoward circ.u.mstance to know the sensations caused by rattlesnake bite, knife gashes, impromptu cauterization, and, topping the whole, the peculiar torture of congested veins and swollen muscles which comes from a tourniquet. The feeling must be unpleasant in the extreme, and the most morbid of sensation-seekers would scarcely put himself in the way of that particular experience.
Peppajee Jim, therefore, had reason in plenty for glowering at the world as he saw it that day. He held Huckleberry rigidly down to his laziest amble that the jar of riding might be lessened, kept his injured foot free from the stirrup, and merely grunted when Good Indian asked him once how he felt.
When they reached the desolation of the old placer-pits, however, he turned his eyes from the trail where it showed just over Huckleberry"s ears, and regarded sourly the deep gashes and dislodged bowlders which told where water and the greed of man for gold had raged fiercest. Then, for the first time during the whole ride, he spoke.
"All time, yo" sleepum," he said, in the sonorous, oracular tone which he usually employed when a subject held his serious thought. "Peaceful Hart, him all same sleepum. All same sleepum "longside snake. No seeum snake, no think.u.m mebbyso catchum bite." He glanced down at his own snake-bitten foot. "Snake bite, make all time much hurt." His eyes turned, and dwelt sharply upon the face of Good Indian.
"Yo" all time think.u.m Squaw-with-sun-hair. Me tell yo" for watchum, yo"
no think for watchum. Baumberga, him all same snake. Yo" think him all time catchum fish. HUH! Yo" heap big fool, yo" think.u.m cat. Rattlesnake, mebbyso sleepum in sun one time. Yo" no think.u.m bueno, yo" seeum sleep in sun. Yo" heap sabe him all time kay bueno jus" same. Yo" heap sabe yo" come close, him biteum. Mebbyso biteum hard, for killum yo" all time." He paused, then drove home his point like the true orator.
"Baumberga catchum fish. All same rattlesnake sleepum in sun. Kay bueno."
Good Indian jerked his mind back from delicious recollection of one sweet, swift-pa.s.sing minute, and half opened his lips for reply. But he did not speak; he did not know what to say, and it is ill-spent time--that pa.s.sed in purposeless speech with such as Peppajee. Peppajee roused himself from meditation brief as it seemed deep, lifted a lean, brown hand to push back from his eyes a fallen lock of hair, and pointed straight away to the west.
"Las" night, sun go sleepum. Clouds come all same blanket, sun wrappum in blanket. Cloud look heap mad--mebbyso make much storm. Bimeby much mens come in cloud, stand so--and so--and so." With pointing finger he indicated a half circle. "Otha man come, heap big man. Stoppum "way off, all time makeum sign, for fight. Me watchum. Me set by fire, watchum cloud makeum sign. Fire smoke look up for say, "What yo" do all time, mebbyso?" Cloud man shakeum hand, makeum much sign. Fire smoke heap sad, bend down far, look.u.m me, look.u.m where cloud look. All time look.u.m for Peaceful Hart ranch. Me lay down for sleepum, me dream all time much fight. All time bad sign come. Kay bueno." Peppajee shook his head slowly, his leathery face set in deep, somber lines.
"Much trouble come heap quick," he said gravely, hitching his blanket into place upon his shoulder. "Me no sabe--all same, heap trouble come.
Much mens, mebbyso much fight, much shootum--mebbyso kill. Peaceful Hart him all time laugh me. All same, me sabe smoke sign, sabe cloud sign, sabe--Baumberga. Heap ka-a-ay bueno!"
Good Indian"s memory dashed upon him a picture of bright moonlight and the broody silence of a night half gone, and of a figure forming sharply and suddenly from the black shadow of the stable and stealing away into the sage, and of Baumberger emerging warily from that same shadow and stopping to light his pipe before he strolled on to the house and to the armchair upon the porch.
There might be a sinister meaning in that picture, but it was so well hidden that he had little hope of ever finding it. Also, it occurred to him that Peppajee, usually given over to creature comforts and the idle gossip of camp and the ranches he visited, was proving the sincerity of his manifest uneasiness by a watchfulness wholly at variance with his natural laziness. On the other hand, Peppajee loved to play the oracle, and a waving wisp of smoke, or the changing shapes in a wind-riven cloud meant to him spirit-sent prophecies not to be ignored.
He turned the matter over in his mind, was the victim of uneasiness for five minutes, perhaps, and then drifted off into wondering what Evadna was doing at that particular moment, and to planning how he should manage to fall behind with her when they all rode home, and so make possible other delicious moments. He even took note of certain sharp bends in the trail, where a couple riding fifty yards, say, behind a group would be for the time being quite hidden from sight and to all intents and purposes alone in the world for two minutes, or three--perhaps the time might be stretched to five.
The ranch was quiet, with even the dogs asleep in the shade. Peppajee insisted in one sentence upon going straight on to camp, so they did not stop. Without speaking, they plodded through the dust up the grade, left it, and followed the dim trail through the sagebrush and rocks to the Indian camp which seemed asleep also, except where three squaws were squatting in the sharply defined, conical shadow of a wikiup, mumbling desultorily the gossip of their little world, while their fingers moved with mechanical industry--one shining black head bent over a half-finished, beaded moccasin, another st.i.tching a crude gown of bright-flowered calico, and the third braiding her hair afresh with leisurely care for its perfect smoothness. Good Indian took note of the group before it stirred to activity, and murmured anxiety over the bandaged foot of Peppajee.
"Me no can watchum more, mebbyso six days. Yo" no sleepum all time yo" walk--no think.u.m all time squaw. Mebbyso yo" think for man-snake.
Mebbyso yo" watchum," Peppajee said, as he swung slowly down from Huckleberry"s back.
"All right. I"ll watchum plenty," Good Indian promised lightly, gave a glance of pa.s.sing, masculine interest at the squaw who was braiding her hair, and who was young and fresh-cheeked and bright-eyed and slender, forgot her the instant his eyes left her, and made haste to return to the Malad and the girl who held all his thoughts and all his desire.
That girl was sitting upon the rock which Donny had occupied, and she looked very much as if she were sulking, much as Donny had sulked. She had her chin in a pink palm and was digging little holes in the sand with the tip of her rod, which was not at all beneficial to the rod and did not appear even to interest the digger; for her wonderfully blue eyes were staring at the green-and-white churn of the rapids, and her lips were pursed moodily, as if she did not even see what she was looking at so fixedly.
Good Indian"s eyes were upon her while he was dismounting, but he did not go to her immediately. Instead, he busied himself with unsaddling, and explained to the boys just why he had left so unaccountably.
Secretly he was hoping that Evadna heard the explanation, and he raised his voice purposely. But Evadna was not listening, apparently; and, if she had been, the noise of the rapids would have prevented her hearing what he said.
Miss Georgie Howard was frying fish and consistently snubbing Baumberger, who hulked loosely near the campfire, and between puffs at his pipe praised heavily her skill, and professed to own a ravenous appet.i.te. Good Indian heard him as he pa.s.sed close by them, and heard also the keen thrust she gave in return; and he stopped and half turned, looking at her with involuntary appreciation. His glance took in Baumberger next, and he lifted a shoulder and went on. Without intentionally resorting to subterfuge, he felt an urge to wash his hands, and he chose for his ablutions that part of the river"s edge which was nearest Evadna.
First he stooped and drank thirstily, his hat pushed back, while his lips met full the hurrying water, clear and cold, yet with the chill it had brought from the mountain springs which fed it, and as he lifted his head he looked full at her.
Evadna stared stonily over him to where the water boiled fastest. He might have been one of the rocks, for all the notice she took of him.
Good Indian frowned with genuine puzzlement, and began slowly to wash his hands, glancing at her often in hope that he might meet her eyes.
When she did not seem to see him at all, the smile of a secret shared joyously with her died from his own eyes, and when he had dried his hands upon his handkerchief he cast aside his inward shyness in the presence of the Hart boys and Miss Georgie and Baumberger, and went boldly over to her.
"Aren"t you feeling well?" he asked, with tender proprietorship in his tone.
"I"m feeling quite well, thank you," returned Evadna frigidly, neglecting to look at him.
"What is the matter, then? Aren"t you having a good time?"
"I"m enjoying myself very much--except that your presence annoys me. I wish you"d go away."
Good Indian turned on his heel and went; he felt that at last Evadna was looking at him, though he would not turn to make sure. And his instinct told him withal that he must ignore her mood if he would win her from it. With a freakish impulse, he headed straight for the campfire and Miss Georgie, but when he came up to her the look she gave him of understanding, with sympathy to soften it, sent him away again without speaking.
He wandered back to the river"s edge--this time some distance from where Evadna sat--and began throwing pebbles at the black nose of a wave-washed bowlder away toward the other side. Clark and Gene, loitered up, watched him lazily, and, picking up other pebbles, started to do the same thing. Soon all the boys were throwing at the bowlder, and were making a good deal of noise over the various. .h.i.ts and misses, and the spirit of rivalry waxed stronger and stronger until it was like any other game wherein full-blooded youths strive against one another for supremacy. They came to the point of making bets, at first extravagant and then growing more and more genuinely in earnest, for we"re gamblers all, at heart.
Miss Georgie burned a frying-panful of fish until they sent up an acrid, blue smoke, while she ran over to try her luck with a stone or two. Even Baumberger heaved himself up from where he was lounging, and strolled over to watch. But Evadna could not have stuck closer to her rock if she had been glued there, and if she had been blind and deaf she would not have appeared more oblivious.
Good Indian grew anxious, and then angry. The savage stirred within him, and counseled immediate and complete mastery of her--his woman.
But there was the white man of him who said the thought was brutal and unchivalrous, and reminded the savage that one must not look upon a woman as a chattel, to be beaten or caressed, as the humor seized the master. And, last of all, there was the surface of him laughing with the others, jeering at those who fell short of the mark, and striving his utmost to be first of them all in accuracy.