Bradley drew his stubby chin and shabby beard in and threw his voice down into his throat: "D" y" mean that? Then don"t say nothin", you and Kelly. Least said, soonest mended. I"m goin" t" town t"morrow t"
see the biggest funeral ever pulled off in Sleepy Cat," he announced with bleary dignity.
"What do you mean--whose funeral?" demanded Kate, looking at him suddenly.
"Abe Hawk"s. It"s goin" t" be t"morrow er next day."
If the old man had meant to stupefy his questioner, he could not better have succeeded. Kate turned deathly white. She bent over the table and busied herself with her ironing. Bradley, pleased with his confidence safely made, talked on. He found a pride in talking to Kate, with Kelly in and out of the room, and launched into unrestrained eulogies of the famed rustler, always the friend of the poor man, once king of the great north range itself.
"It"s a pity," murmured Kate, when she felt she must say something, "that he ever went wrong."
Bradley had a point to offer even on that. "It"s a pity they ever blacklisted him; that was Stone"s get-up. And Stone, when I was sheriff, was the biggest thief in the county an" the county was four times as big then as it is now--that"s "tween you "n" me."
"Were you ever sheriff, Bill?"
"You won"t believe it, but it"s so--dash me "n" dash drunkards one and all."
"I hear, though," returned Kate, only because in her distress of mind she could think of nothing else to say, "that Tom Stone has stopped drinking."
"That man," was Bradley"s retort, and he kept his tremulous voice still far down in his throat, "is mean enough to do any d--d thing."
"You used to be sheriff?"
"Yes. And when I was sheriff, Kate, I found out it was better to trust an honest man turned thief than a thief turned honest man."
Kate, listening to his halting maunderings, hardly heeded them. She heard in her troubled ears the rush of mad waters; phantom voices cracked again in pistoled oaths at the horses, the fear of sudden death clutched at her heart, and in the dreadful dark a powerful arm caught her again and drew her, helpless, out of an engulfing flood.
She got out of doors. The sunshine, clear and calm, belied the possibility of a night such as Bradley"s words had summoned. "Dead,"
she kept saying to herself. Laramie had been sure he would get out of the creek. What could it mean?
She went back to the kitchen where Bradley, eating supper, had switched from his long-winded topic. Kate had to question him: "What was the matter with Abe? When did he die?" she asked, as unconcernedly as she could.
There was little satisfaction in Bradley"s slow, formal answer: "Some"s got it one way and some"s got it another, Kate. I can"t rightly say what ailded him or when he died "n" I guess n.o.body else can, f"r sure.
Some says he got shot; some says he was drownded "a" las" Tuesday night in the Crazy Woman; some says they"s been a fight n.o.body"s heard of yit, "t" all. The only man that knows for sure--if he does know--is the man that brought him into Sleepy Cat "n" if he knows he won"t tell." He held out his big enameled cup. "Kelly, gi" me jus" a squirt o" coffee, will y"?"
Kate, on nettles, waited to hear who had brought Hawk in. Bradley would not volunteer the name. Some deference was due him as the purveyor of the big news, and he meant that anyone curious of detail should do the asking. Kate, realizing this, framed with reluctance the question he was waiting for: "Who brought Abe in?"
Even so, she knew there would be but one answer. Bradley gulped another mouthful of scalding coffee and set down his cup. "Jim Laramie," he answered laconically.
She said to herself that Hawk had never got out of the creek; that he had drowned miserably in the flood. She tortured herself with conjecture as to exactly what had happened. And night brought no relief. Sleepless, she tossed, marveling at how close his death had come home to her. Every sc.r.a.p of the meager news added to what she already knew--pointed to what she most feared.
She lay propped up on her pillows and looked through the open window out on the glittering stars. Strange constellations pa.s.sed in brilliant procession before her eyes. And while she lay thus reflecting and revolving in her mind the loneliness and unhappiness of her surroundings, a startling suggestion far removed from these doubts offered itself to her mind. Repelled at first, it came back as if demanding acceptance. And not until after she had promised herself she would consider it, did her thoughts give her any peace. She fell into an uneasy slumber and woke with day barely breaking; but without an instant"s delay she dressed and slipped from her room out to the barn.
Forehanded as she had been in getting an early start, Bradley was already stirring. Pail in hand, the old man, standing in front of the feed bin, stared at Kate speechless as she walked in on him.
"Who"s sick?" he demanded after a moment.
"n.o.body, Bill. I"m going to town with you, that"s all."
"With _me_?"
She half laughed at herself and at his surprise. "I mean, I"m for town early. Get up a pony for me--Spider Legs will do."
Born of long-forgotten experience in waiting for women, Bill Bradley, as Kate walked away, put in a caveat: "I"m headin" out jus" soon"s I c"n get breakfast."
"I, too, Bill. I"ll be across the divide before you are."
Curiosity would not down: "What y" goin" t" town f"r?" he called.
Turning half around, Kate, with a little shrug, paused. She would not be ungracious: "To pick up a few things," she answered unconcernedly.
Bill, not satisfied, felt obliged to desist. "Startin" airly," was his only grumble. Had he known what possibilities for that day had lodged themselves in Kate"s mind, he would not have been able to slip Spider Legs" bridle over his ears. But his business being only to get up the horse, he discharged it with shaky fidelity and for himself started with high expectations for town. Had he been given to speculating on the variableness of woman, he might have found a text in Spider Legs"
standing for hours after he was made ready. And in the end his mistress unsaddled him and turned him back into the corral.
The truth was, Kate had been seized with cruel fits of doubt and for a long time could not decide whether she ought to go to town or not. But as often as she gave up the idea of going, a heart-strong impulse pleaded against her uneasy restraint. She felt she _must_ go.
CHAPTER XXIX
HORSEHEAD Pa.s.s
Bradley had not been able to tell her just when the funeral was set for. But it surged in Kate"s heart that after what Abe Hawk had done for her, to let the poor, bullet-torn, neglected body be put into the ground without some effort to pay a tribute of grat.i.tude to the man that had once animated it, would be on her part fearfully cold.
The difficulties of the situation were many. She feared the anger of her father, and owed his feelings something as well. But every time she decided she ought to stay at home, the p.r.i.c.king at her heart grew keener. In the end, her feelings overrode her restraint. She resolved at least to go to town. The funeral might have already taken place--it would be a relief even to learn more about his death.
Late in the afternoon, she got Spider Legs up again, saddled him and, telling Kelly she might not be back that night, rode away.
It was dark by the time she reached town and leaving her horse with McAlpin she crossed the street from the barn and walked hurriedly around the corner to Belle"s. The front door stood open and the red-shaded lamp burned low on the dining-room table.
Tapping on the screen door, Kate, without waiting for Belle to answer, opened it and went in. There was no light in the living-room and the portieres were drawn. She walked down the hall to the dining-room, where she laid down her gloves and took off her coat and hat.
Smoothing her hair, she knocked on the door of Belle"s room, but got no answer. Conjecturing that she had gone out on an errand, Kate sat down in a rocking chair and, taking a newspaper from the table, tried to read.
Her thoughts soon blurred the print. She read on only to think of what had brought her so irresistibly to town and to wonder what she should hear now that she had come.
After some struggle to concentrate, she tossed the paper aside to ask herself why Belle did not return, and, being tense, began without realizing it, to rock softly. Her eyes naturally turned to the familiar lamp. Its somber paper shade threw the light in a circle on the table, leaving the room in the heavy shadows of its figured pattern. Kate became all at once conscious of the utter silence, and impatient for Belle"s return, got up and walked through the dark hall toward the front door.
Pa.s.sing the living-room portieres, she pushed open the screen door and stepped out on the porch. There she stood for a moment at the top of the steps looking at the stars. Lights here and there burned in neighboring cottage windows. No wind stirred. The street and the town were as still as the night. After some minutes, Kate descended the steps, opened the gate, leaving it to close with a click behind her, and walked to the corner of Main Street. It looked dark. The stores were closed. From the saloon windows spotty lights shot at intervals across the upper street, but these only made the darkened store fronts blacker and revealed the nakedness and desertion of the street itself.
Not a man, much less a woman, could she see anywhere moving.
Either the silence, or the night, or her long wait changed her impatience into a feeling of loneliness. She turned back toward the cottage gate. She had not noticed before how very dark the side street was. Reaching the gate she hesitated, pushed it open and then stopped, conscious of a curious repugnance to entering the house.
Her feeling refused to explain itself. Through the screen she could see the lamp still burning on the dining-room table. Things appeared just as she had left them, yet she did not want to go in. But, dismissing the qualm, she walked up the steps, crossed the narrow porch, opened the screen door and, stepping inside, closed it after her.
This time that she pa.s.sed the living-room she noticed the portieres were partly open. Both times she had pa.s.sed before, she felt sure, they had been closed.
Kate sat down in the dining-room and looked suspiciously back at the portieres. She was already sorry she had come into the house, for the silence and her aloneness added to the conviction fast stealing over her that someone must be in the dark living-room.