"But what in thunder"s his object?"
"So"s to have the place to himself, I reckon. He an" those greasers in the kitchen, and the rest of the bunch, are as thick as thieves."
"You mean he"d find it easier to get away with cattle if there wasn"t anybody around to keep tabs on him?"
Bemis hesitated. "I--I"m not sure," he replied slowly. "Partly that, mebbe, but there"s somethin" else. I"ve overheard things now an" then I couldn"t make head or tail of, but they"re up to somethin"--Yuh ain"t goin", are yuh?"
Buck had risen. "Got to," he shrugged. "Miss Thorne"s waiting for me to go down to the south pasture."
Bemis raised up on his pillows. "Well, listen; keep what I said under yore hat, will yuh?"
"Sure," nodded Stratton rea.s.suringly. "You needn"t worry about that.
Anything else you want before I go?"
"Yes. Jest reach me my six-gun outer the holster there in the chair. If I"m goin" to be left alone with that greaser, Pedro, I"d feel more comfortable, someway, with that under my pillow."
Buck did as he requested and then departed. Something else! That was the very feeling which had a.s.sailed him vaguely at times, that some deviltry which he couldn"t understand was going on beneath the surface. As he made for the corral, a sudden possibility flashed into his mind. With her t.i.tle so precarious, might not Mary Thorne be at the bottom of a systematic attempt to loot the Shoe-Bar of its movable value against the time of discovery? But when he met her face to face the idea vanished and he even felt ashamed of having considered it for a moment. Whatever crookedness was going on, this sweet-faced, clear-eyed girl was much more likely to be a victim than one of the perpetrators. The feeling was vastly strengthened when he had saddled up and they rode off together.
"There"s something I"ve been meaning to--to tell you," the girl said suddenly, breaking a brief silence.
Buck glanced at her to find her eyes fixed on the ears of her horse and a faint flush staining her cheeks.
"That room--" she went on determinedly, but with an evident effort. "A man"s room-- You must have thought it strange. Indeed, I saw you thought it strange--"
Again she paused, and in his turn Buck felt a sudden rush of embarra.s.sment.
"I didn"t mean to--" he began awkwardly. "It just seemed funny to find a regular man"s room in a household of women. I suppose it was your--your father"s," he added.
"No, it wasn"t," she returned briefly. She glanced at him for an instant and then looked away again. "You probably don"t know the history of the Shoe-Bar," she went on more firmly. "Two years ago it was bought by a young man named Stratton. I never met him, but he was a business acquaintance of my father"s and naturally I heard a good deal of him from time to time. He was a ranchman all his life and very keen about it, and the moment he saw the Shoe-Bar he fell in love with it. But the war came, and he had scarcely taken t.i.tle to the place before he went off and enlisted. Just before he sailed for France he sold the ranch to my father, with the understanding that if he came back safely, Dad would turn it over to him again. He felt, I suppose, how uncertain it all was and that money in the bank would be easier for his--his heirs, than property."
She paused for an instant, her lips pressed tightly together. "He never came back," she went on in a lower, slightly unsteady voice. "He--gave up his life for those of us who stayed behind. After a little we left Chicago and came here. I loved the place at once, and I"ve gone on caring for it increasingly ever since. But back of everything there"s always been a sense of the tragedy, the injustice of it all. They never even found his body. He was just--missing. And yet, when I came into that room, with his things about just as he had left them when he went away, he seemed so _real_,--I--I couldn"t touch it. Somehow, it was all that was left of him.
And even though I"d never seen him, I felt as if I wanted to keep it that way always in memory of a--a brave soldier, and a--man."
Her low voice ceased. With face averted, she stared in silence across the brown, scorched prairie. Stratton, his eyes fixed straight ahead, and his cheeks tinged with unwonted color, found it quite impossible to speak, and for a s.p.a.ce the stillness was broken only by the creak of saddle-leather and the dull thud of horses" hoofs.
"It"s mighty fine of you to feel like that," he said at length. "I"m sorry if I gave you the idea I--I was--curious."
"But you would be, naturally. You see, the other boys all know." She turned her head and looked at him. "I think we"re all curious at times about things which really don"t concern us. I"ve even wondered once or twice about you. You know you don"t talk like the regulation cow-puncher--quite."
Stratton laughed. "Oh, but I am," he a.s.sured her. "I suppose the war rubbed off some of the accents, and of course I had a pretty good education to start with. But I"m too keen about the country and the life to ever want to do anything else."
Her face glowed. "It is wonderful," she agreed. "When I think of the years I"ve wasted in cities! I couldn"t ever go back. Even with all the worries, this is a thousand times better. Ah! There they are ahead.
They"re turning the herd into this pasture, you see."
Half a mile or more to the southward a spreading dust-cloud hugged the earth, through which, indistinctly, Stratton could make out the moving figures of men and cattle. The two spurred forward, reaching the wide opening in the fence ahead of the vanguard of steers. Pa.s.sing through, they circled to the right to avoid turning back any of the cattle, and joined the sweating, hard-worked cow-punchers.
As they rode up together, Buck found Lynch"s eyes fixed on him with an expression of angry surprise, which was suppressed with evident difficulty.
"How"d yuh get back so quick?" he inquired curtly.
"Nothing more to keep me," shrugged Stratton. "I waited for the doctor to look Rick over, and then thought I"d come out and see if you needed me."
"Huh! Well, since you"re here, yuh might as well whirl in. Get over on the far side of the herd an" help Flint. Don"t let any of "em break away, but don"t crowd "em too much."
As Buck rode off he heard Miss Thorne ask if there wasn"t something she could do. Lynch"s reply was indistinct, but the tone of his voice, deferential, yet with a faint undercurrent of honey-sweetness, irritated him inexplicably. With a scowl, he spurred forward, exchanged a brief greeting with Bud Jessup as he pa.s.sed, and finally joined Kreeger, who was having considerable difficulty in keeping the herd together at that point.
During the succeeding two hours or so, Buck forgot his irritation in the interest and excitement of the work. Strenuous as it was, he found a distinct pleasure in the discovery that two years" absence from the range had not lessened his ability to hold his own. His horse was well trained, and he thoroughly enjoyed the frequent sharp dashes after some refractory steer, who stubbornly opposed being driven. Before the last animal had pa.s.sed through the fence-gap into the further pasture, he was drenched from head to foot with perspiration and his muscles ached from the unaccustomed labor, but all that was discounted by the satisfaction of doing his chosen work again, and doing it well.
Then, in the lull which followed, his thoughts returned to Miss Thorne and he wondered whether there would be any chance for further conversation with her on the way back to the ranch-house? The question was quickly answered in a manner he did not in the least enjoy. After giving instructions about nailing up the fence, Tex Lynch joined the girl, who sat her horse at a little distance, and the two rode off together.
For a moment or two Stratton"s frowning glance followed them. Then of a sudden he realized that Slim McCabe"s shrewd eyes were fixed curiously on him, and the discovery brought him abruptly to his senses. For a s.p.a.ce he had forgotten what his position was at the Shoe-Bar. He must keep a better guard over himself, or he would certainly arouse suspicion. Averting his eyes, but still continuing to frown a little as if lack of tobacco was responsible for his annoyance, he searched through his pockets.
"Got the makin"s?" he asked McCabe. "Darned if I haven"t left mine in the bunk-house."
Slim readily produced a sack, and when Buck had rolled a cigarette, he returned it with a jesting remark, and swung himself rather stiffly out of his saddle.
"Haven"t any hammer, but I can help tighten wires," he commented.
He had intended joining Bud Jessup and trying while helping him to get a chance to discuss some of the things he had learned from Bemis. But somehow he found himself working beside McCabe, and when the fence had been put up again and they started home, it was Slim who rode beside him, chatting volubly and amusingly, but sticking like a leach.
It "gave one to think," Stratton decided grimly, remembering the expressive French phrase he had heard so often overseas. He could not quite make up his mind whether the action was deliberate or the result of accident, but after supper he had no doubt whatever.
During the meal Lynch showed himself in quite a new light. He chatted and joked with a careless good humor which was a revelation to Stratton, whom he treated with special favor. Afterward he asked Buck if he didn"t want to look his patient over, and accompanied him into Bemis"s room, remaining while the wound was inspected and freshly dressed. Later, in the bunk-house, he announced that they would start a round-up next morning to pick out some three-year-olds for shipment.
"Got a rush order for twelve hundred head," he explained. "We"ll all have to get busy early except Bud, who"ll stay here to look after things. If any of yuh have saddles or anythin" else to look after, yuh"d better do it to-night, so"s we can get goin" by daybreak."
Like a flash Stratton realized the other"s game, and his eyes narrowed ever so little. So that was it! By this most simple of expedients, he was to be kept away from the ranch-house and incidentally from any communication with Bemis or Bud, or Mary Thorne, unless accompanied by Lynch or one of his satellites. And the worst of it was he was quite helpless. He was merely a common, ordinary hand, and at the first sign of disobedience, or even evasion of orders, Lynch would have a perfectly good excuse to discharge him--an excuse he was doubtless itching to create.
CHAPTER X
BUCK FINDS OUT SOMETHING
When the fact is chronicled that no less than three times in the succeeding eight days Buck Stratton was strongly tempted to put an end to the whole puzzling business by the simple expedient of declaring his ident.i.ty and taking possession of the Shoe-Bar as his own, something may be guessed of the ingenuity of Tex Lynch in making life unpleasant for the new hand.
Buck told himself more than once that if he had really been a new hand and nothing more, he wouldn"t have lasted forty-eight hours. Any self-respecting cow-man would have promptly demanded his time and betaken himself to another outfit, and Stratton sometimes wondered whether his mere acceptance of the persecution might not rouse the foreman"s suspicion that he had motives for staying which did not appear on the surface.
He had to admit that Lynch"s whole course of action was rather cleverly worked out. It consisted mainly in giving Stratton the most difficult and arduous work to do, and keeping him at it longer than anyone else, not only on the round-up, but while driving the herd to Paloma Springs and right up to the point where the steers were loaded on cattle-cars and the job was over.
That, broadly speaking, was the scheme; but there were delicate touches of refinement and ingenuity in the process which wrung from Stratton, in rare intervals when he was not too furious to judge calmly, a grudging measure of admiration for the wily foreman. Frequently, for instance, Stratton would be a.s.signed to night-herd duty with promise of relief at a certain hour. Almost always that relief failed to materialize, and Buck, unable to leave the herd, reeling with fatigue and cursing impotently, had to keep at it till daybreak. The erring puncher generally had an excellent excuse, which might have pa.s.sed muster once, but which grew threadbare with repet.i.tion.
Then, after an hour or two of sleep, the victim was more likely than not to be dragged out of bed and ordered to take the place of Peters, Kreeger, or one of the others, who had been sent to the ranch or elsewhere on so-called necessary business. More than once the others got started on a meal ahead of him, and what food remained was cold, unappetizing, and scant in quant.i.ty. There were other little things Lynch thought of from time to time to make Buck"s life miserable, and he quite succeeded, though it must be said that Stratton"s hard-won self-control prevented the foreman from enjoying the full measure of his triumph.
What chiefly influenced Buck in holding back his big card and scoring against them all was the feeling that Mary Thorne would be the one to suffer most. He would be putting an abrupt finish to Lynch"s game, whatever that was, but his action would also involve the girl in deep and bitter humiliation, if not something worse. Moreover, he was not quite ready to stop Lynch"s scheming. He wanted to find out first what it was all about, and he felt he had a better chance of success by continuing to play his present part, hedged in and handicapped though he was, than by coming out suddenly in his own proper person.