And that was one reason why he smiled, and extended his hand. Besides, he had not forgotten that in times past he had been very fond of his mother"s only brother; and that indeed once the other had actually saved his life, when a crazed broncho had attacked the small lad in the corral, and would likely have trampled him underfoot only for the coming of Uncle Fred, who had seized upon the beast with his bare hands, and wrestled with him, until a puncher arrived and shot the animal dead.
"h.e.l.lo! Uncle Fred! How are you?" called out Adrian, cheerily. "I just happened along in time to take back some of your stock that the rustlers had stampeded. You"re glad to see me, of course you are, even if the surprise is so great that you haven"t found a chance to say so yet."
Then Uncle Fred beamed upon him, and rushing forward seized the outstretched hand eagerly. For the moment all else was forgotten save that he saw his nephew in the flesh before him, and the old affection again a.s.sumed sway.
"Adrian, my dear boy, is it really you?" he exclaimed, quivering all over with pleasure, as he wrung the hand of the boy; then like a flash some terrible thought seemed to fly through his mind, for he lost his color, and there came into his eyes a troubled look.
"Well, what I"ve been dreading for months has come on me at last," he went on to say, with a gasp. "But all the same I"m glad to see you, glad that this agony of mind will now be over. But you will despise me, my boy, when you learn how I"ve lost all my independence. How has the mighty fallen, to be tied to the ap.r.o.n strings of a woman! Just this very day I had resolved after this last blow to end it all by flight. I believed I could not stand it any longer, and keep my mind. But your unexpected coming has changed all that; and now I"ll stick it out; yes, I"ll stay to give you an account of my unjust stewardship; and then gladly take the consequences, whatever they may be."
He poured this out swiftly, in a low tone meant only for the ear of the boy who had by now jumped from his saddle, and was standing close beside his uncle.
Adrian was not in the least surprised. He had expected just this very thing, and the facts simply corroborated his suspicions.
How his old bachelor uncle had been coaxed into marrying, he could not understand, but it had happened; and evidently he had yoked up with a mind that was even stronger than his own. As constant dripping water will wear away a stone in time, so by degrees had Mr. Comstock come under the subjection of his wife. Doubtless he had rebelled fiercely at first, but slowly he had found himself compelled to give in, sometimes only after a pitched battle, until now much of his once vaunted bravery was gone, and in her presence he trembled.
It was almost pitiable, and Adrian felt very sorry for Uncle Fred. At the same time he was determined that he would not fall under the same sway; and that if it was at all possible he would oust this woman from the position she had a.s.sumed as boss of the manager of Bar-S Ranch.
"I think I understand it all, Uncle," he said, hastily, yet with such a vein of sympathy in his voice that the man started, and seemed to catch a little new courage. "And while I"m here I mean to see if something can"t be done to remedy matters. By the greatest good luck in the world we managed to get back this bunch of cattle that was stolen last night.
There were four of the rustlers in camp at Bittersweet Coulie; and only three of us boys, but we took them by surprise, made them prisoners, and here you see the missing herd, with only one steer lacking."
Mr. Comstock"s eyes showed the astonishment he felt.
"You did all that, my dear Adrian, and you only three boys?" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "Well, the Sherwood blood will tell every time. I"m glad you"ve come, no matter what happens to me. It had got to the breaking point anyway, and tonight I meant to run away. Oh! what I have gone through with, n.o.body can ever know; but this marks the beginning of the end, I seem to feel it, and welcome it. When you kick us off the place perhaps she won"t want to cling to me any longer, and I will be free to go, and start afresh some place where they don"t know me. But introduce me to your friends, Adrian. I hope I haven"t sunk so low but that I"d be proud to shake the hands of such brave fellows."
Poor old Uncle Fred was trying his best to appear something like himself; but it is very hard for a man who has been made the cringing slave of a virago to seem at all dignified; he was so in the habit of looking quickly around as though expecting a blow that it would have been comical had it not at the same time seemed quite sad, especially to Adrian, who had known how proud and consequential a strut Uncle Fred used to have in other days.
"This is my chum, Donald Mackay, about whom I"ve written you often," the boy went on to say; "and this other is his cousin, Billie Winkle."
Mr. Comstock gravely shook hands with each of them. He was not aware that from behind a bunch of the punchers his wife was watching them like a hawk, for she managed to keep herself concealed from view, while she listened and looked, evidently sizing the situation up, and deciding what all this row meant, with the missing herd back under the charge of a pack of strange punchers, too.
"I chanced to run across three cowboys who were out of employment, since the man they had worked for sold his ranch; and taking a fancy to the lot I engaged them to work for me. They are reliable, honest fellows, who will stand back of me; for I reckoned, you see, Uncle, that there might be a few punchers here that wouldn"t care to stay-after I came!"
He lowered his voice when saying this. Perhaps, after all, Adrian may have known of the presence of his uncle"s wife back of the group; or else he did not mean to let his plans be known to every Tom, d.i.c.k and Harry.
Apparently Mr. Comstock grasped the situation, reading between the lines. He must have known that there were employees on the ranch devoted more to the service of his wife, and her relatives, the Walkers, than they were to the interests of the owner of Bar-S; and that if Adrian meant to stay and a.s.sume charge of his own property he would have to fire these unworthy punchers the first thing.
How wise he had been then to make sure of having reliable fellows to step into the places that would thus be made vacant. Uncle Fred saw that the boy was surely able to plan, and also carry out his arrangements. It might be different when he found himself up against a woman"s wits; but he began to have hopes that the reign of petticoats was nearly at an end in connection with Bar-S Ranch.
The more the boy saw of his uncle the greater became his conviction that he had allowed these things to go on not because he was dishonest in the least; but that he had been brought in deadly fear of the woman who had become his wife.
Adrian was more bent than ever on changing all these things. He hoped that there would appear a way whereby he might buy the woman off; but if she refused to treat with him on these terms, then Uncle Fred too would also have to shake the dust of Bar-S Ranch off his boots, because the last bunch of cattle had been rustled from that place, Adrian felt sure.
"Later we"ll talk these matters all over, Uncle," he went on to say; "and I"m hoping to see a way where everything can be arranged to bring back the old times again. Take courage, and perhaps everything will be well."
The little man who had been such an aggressive character in his day, heaved a tremendous sigh.
"Oh! happy days they were; and do you know, Adrian, sometimes it seems to me a million years must have dragged by since then, I have suffered such torments, such shame. I was the greatest fool that ever walked on two legs. But she caught me by a smart trick, and almost before I knew it I was promising to love and cherish her for life, before a preacher.
But oh! what a time I"ve had! It would have been bad enough with her vixenish temper; but when I learned that she was a sister to that rustler, Hatch Walker, it nearly finished me. Things have gone from bad to worse. She"s nearly killed me several times; and as I was just telling you, when I learned that a third bunch of cattle had disappeared last night; and she refused to let me go out in search of them with some of the boys, saying it was useless, I just made up my mind it was going to be three times and out for me. Then you came, and now the sky begins to lighten. Perhaps things _will_ take a change. Perhaps even I may feel more like my old self again, and find it in me to defy her. Thank you over and over, my boy, for what you have said. Oh! I only hope you don"t fall under her influence the same way I did."
"Don"t fear for me, Uncle Fred," said the boy, in the same low tone the other had been using; "but we"ll soon see how things are going to turn out, for there she comes this way right now!"
"Oh! is that so?" said the manager of the ranch, with a sudden vibration in his voice; then, realizing that he had just been saying how brave he felt again, he seemed to pull himself together, drew his small but soldierly figure up straight in a sort of Napoleon-like att.i.tude, Adrian thought, and with a white yet determined face awaited the breaking of the storm.
There were others among the cow-punchers who shrank back, rather appalled by the angry look on the strong features of the large woman who advanced straight toward the spot where her husband and the three boys stood. Donald found his attention attracted toward the corner of the near-by bunk house, and around which the man they had picked up on the trail was staring. And Donald must have concluded that Mr. Thomas was pretty much of a craven, despite all those stories he had told in connection with his past adventures "further south;" for there was certainly a look of extreme fear written large upon his wrinkled face right then and there, as though he might have known himself what it was to be domineered over by a husky female, and the sight of Mrs. Fred"s flushed face and sparkling eyes brought up very unpleasant memories in the old chap"s mind.
CHAPTER XVII.
ADRIAN TAKES THE REINS.
"Who might these boys be, Fred?"
The woman asked this question with a lofty air, as she arrived close to where the three chums now stood, holding the bridles of their horses.
"This is my nephew, Adrian Sherwood, who as you know, Josie, is the owner of Bar-S Ranch; and these are his friends, Donald Mackay, about whom he has often written to me, and Billie Winkle," Mr. Comstock hastened to say, though it could be seen that he had to summon all his resolution to the fore in order to keep his voice firm.
She looked the three over from head to foot, and in particular Adrian.
Evidently Mrs. Fred scented trouble, since the young owner of the ranch that was being systematically robbed by her blood relatives had come on the ground. But she was game, and scorned to show the white feather, though she may have suspected that this marked the beginning of the end of the reign of Hatch Walker and his crowd in that favored section.
"I happened to hear something that was said as I came up," she went on to remark, caustically; "it was about their recovering the cattle that wandered away last night. So you see your fears were useless after all.
You always worry over things without any reason, just like an old fool would."
"But it happened, my dear," Uncle Fred spoke up, "that in this case the rustlers _did_ carry off the herd; for Adrian and his chums made four of them prisoners, and recovered the cattle at Bittersweet Coulie."
"What"s that you"re telling me?" she demanded, scornfully; "three half-grown boys capture four husky rustlers. More than likely they found the cattle astray, and are playing a joke on you by telling such a story as this," and the laugh that accompanied these words made Billie shiver as though a sudden draught from the Artic regions had struck him in the back.
"Perhaps we did dream it," chuckled Adrian; "but if so, it"s queer how we came to get it in our heads that one of the stampeders was named Tad Whiffles, another Corney, and still a third Bemis. But no matter, madam, we did bring the cattle back, and here they are, safe and sound. Uncle Fred is delighted with such good luck; and of course you must be the same."
The woman was looking at him keenly. Perhaps she realized that this was no ordinary boy, whom she could badger in the same way she had his uncle. The mentioning of those three names, which of course she recognized as belonging to punchers in her brother"s employ, told her that they must indeed have done all they claimed; and such boys who did things were certainly to be looked on with respect. Still she was not ready to abdicate the position she had held so long.
She turned on Uncle Fred, as though pretty sure of a cringing victim there.
"Who are these three strange riders I see? Did they help drive the lost herd home? When have you taken to hiring new hands without consulting me? Didn"t we settle that matter once for all months ago?"
The manager of Bar-S Ranch stood his ground. He had summoned the last vestige of his former resolution to the front, and seemed ready to try conclusions with the wife of his bosom again, perhaps for the last time.
"I have had nothing to do with hiring them, my dear," he said, firmly.
"Adrian made all arrangements himself, and you know, as he is the sole owner of the ranch, what he says goes. He thought there would be several of our boys who might not wish to remain, and work under him; and so he brought these new hands along to take their places when they were paid off."
She looked as black as midnight at that. Donald, watching closely, realized that Mrs. Fred must guess that they understood how matters were, and had come prepared to oust her crowd, even if they had to include Uncle Fred and herself.
"Oh! that"s how the land lies, is it?" she went on to say, bitterly.
"Well, apparently your fine nephew must have forgotten that your contract reads you are to have three months" notice before you can be displaced. And as we hold the reins for that length of time, you"ll continue to do the engaging and discharging. Those new hands will have to clear out, for not a dollar of pay will they get here, or a single meal, if I can help it."
Mr. Comstock"s lower jaw fell. He stared helplessly first at the aggressive woman and then toward his nephew. Evidently she had "taken the wind from his sails" completely by this sudden a.s.sertion, and he did not know what to say.