Jennie"s eyes filled with tears when Mose told her of his new job. She looked very sad and wistful and more interesting than ever before in her life as she came out to say good-by.
"Well, Mose, I reckon you"re goin" for good?"
"Not so very far," he said, in generous wish to ease her over the parting.
"You"ll come "round once in a while, won"t ye?"
"Why, sure! It"s only twenty miles over to the camp."
"Come over Sundays, an" we"ll have potpie and soda biscuits fer ye," she said, with a feminine reliance on the power of food.
"All right," he replied with a smile, and abruptly galloped away.
His heart was light with the freedom of his new condition. He considered himself a man now. His wages were definite, and no distinction was drawn between him and Delmar himself. Besides, the immense flock of sheep interested him at first.
His duties were simple. By day he helped to guide the sheep gently to their feeding and in their search for water; by night he took his turn at guarding from wolves. His sleep was broken often, even when not on guard. They were such timid folk, these sheep; their fears pa.s.sed easily into destructive precipitances.
But the night watch had its joys. As the sunlight died out of the sky and the blazing stars filled the deep blue air above his head, the world grew mysterious and majestic, as well as menacing. The wolves clamored from the b.u.t.tes, which arose on all sides like domes of a sleeping city. Crickets cried in the gra.s.s, drowsily, and out of the dimness and dusk something vast, like a pa.s.sion too great for words, fell upon the boy. He turned his face to the unknown West. There the wild creatures dwelt; there were the beings who knew nothing of books or towns and toil. There life was governed by the ways of the wind, the curve of the streams, the height of the trees--there--just over the edge of the plain, the mountains dwelt, waiting for him.
Then his heart ached like that of a young eagle looking from his natal rock into the dim valley, miles below. At such times the youth knew he had not yet reached the land his heart desired. All this was only resting by the way.
At such times, too, in spite of all, he thought of Mary and of Jack; they alone formed his attachments to the East. All else was valueless.
To have had them with him in this land would have put his heart entirely at rest.
CHAPTER IX
WAR ON THE CANNON BALL
The autumn was very dry, and as the feed grew short on his side of the Cannon Ball, Delmar said to his boss herder, "Drive the herd over the trail, keeping as close to the boundary as you can. The valley through which the road runs will keep us till November, I reckon."
Of this Mose knew nothing, and when he saw the sheep drifting across the line he set forth to turn them. The herder shouted, "Hold on, Mose; let "em go."
Mose did as he was ordered, but looked around nervously, expecting a charge of cattlemen. Delmar laughed. "Don"t worry; they won"t make any trouble."
A couple of days later a squad of cowboys came riding furiously over the hill. "See here!" they called to Mose, "you turn that stinkin" river of sheep back over the line."
Mose shouted a reply: "I"m not the boss; go talk to him. And, say! you"d better change your tune when you whistle into his ear."
"Oh, h.e.l.l!" said one contemptuously. "It"s that tenderfoot of Pratt"s."
They rode to the older herder, who laughed at them. "Settle with the "old man,"" he said. "I"m under orders to feed these sheep and I"m goin"
to do it."
"You take them sheep back on your range or you won"t have any to feed,"
said one of the cowboys.
The herder blew a whiff from his lips as if blowing away thistle down.
"Run away, little ones, you disturb my siesta."
With blistering curses on him and his sheep, the cowboys rode to the top of the hill, and there, turning, fired twice at the herder, wounding him in the arm. The Mexican returned the fire, but to no effect.
When Mose reported this, Delmar"s eyebrows drew down over his hawklike eyes. "That"s all right," he said ominously. "If they want war they"ll get it."
A few days later he rode over toward the Circle Bar Ranch house. On the way he overtook Williams, riding along alone. Williams did not hear Delmar till he called sharply, "Throw up your hands."
Williams quickly complied. "Don"t shoot--for G.o.d"s sake!" he called, with his hands quivering above his head. He had heard of Delmar"s skill with weapons.
"Mr. Williams," Delmar began with sinister formality, "your men have been shooting my herders."
"Not by my orders, Mr. Delmar; I never sanction----"
"See here, Williams, you are responsible for your cowboys, just as I am for my Mexicans. It"s low-down business for you to shoot my men who are working for me at fifteen dollars a month. I"m the responsible party--I"m the man to kill. I want to say right here that I hold you accountable, and if your men maim one of my herders or open fire on "em again I"ll hunt you down and kill you like a wolf. Now ride on, and if you look back before you top that divide I"ll put a bullet through you.
Good-day."
Williams rode away furiously and was not curious at all; he topped the divide without stopping. Delmar smiled grimly as he wheeled his horse and started homeward.
On the same day, as Mose was lying on the point of a gra.s.sy mesa, watching the sheep swarming about a water hole in the valley below, he saw a cloud of dust rising far up to the north. While he wondered, he heard a wild, rumbling, trampling sound. Could it be a herd of buffalo?
His blood thrilled with the hope of it. His sheep were forgotten as the roar increased and wild yells came faintly to his ears. As he jerked his revolver from its holder, around the end of the mesa a herd of wild horses swept, swift as antelope, with tails streaming, with eyes flashing, and behind them, urging them on, whooping, yelling, shooting, came a band of cowboys, their arms flopping, their kerchiefs streaming.
A gasping shout arose from below. "The sheep! the sheep!" Mose turned and saw the other herders rushing for their horses. He realized then the danger to the flock. The horses were sweeping like a railway train straight down upon the gray, dusty, hot river of woolly flesh. Mose shuddered with horror and pity--a moment later and the drove, led by a powerful and vicious brown mare, drove like a wedge straight into the helpless herd, and, leaping, plunging, kicking, stumbling, the powerful and swift little bronchos crossed, careering on down the valley, leaving hundreds of dead, wounded, and mangled sheep in their path. The cowboys swept on after them with exultant whooping, firing their revolvers at the Mexican herders, who stood in a daze over their torn and mangled herd.
When Mose recovered from his stupefaction, his own horse was galloping in circles, his picket rope dragging, and the boss herder was swearing with a belated malignity which was ludicrous. He swept together into one steady outpour all the native and alien oaths he had ever heard in a long and eventful career among profane persons. When Mose recovered his horse and rode up to him, Jose was still swearing. He was walking among the wounded sheep, shooting those which he considered helplessly injured. His mouth was dry, his voice husky, and on his lips foam lay in yellow flecks. He ceased to imprecate only when, by repet.i.tion, his oaths became too inexpressive to be worth while.
Mose"s heart was boyishly tender for any animal, and to see the gentle creatures mangled, writhing and tumbling, uttering most piteous cries, touched him so deeply that he wept. He had no inclination to swear until afterward, when the full knowledge that it was a trick and not an accident came to him. He started at once for the camp to carry the black news.
Delmar did not swear when Mose told him what had happened. He saddled his horse, and, buckling his revolvers about him said, "Come on, youngster; I"m going over to see about this."
Mose felt the blood of his heart thicken and grow cold. There was a deadly resolution in Delmar"s deliberate action. Prevision of a b.l.o.o.d.y fray filled the boy"s mind, but he could not retreat. He could not let his boss go alone into an enemy"s country; therefore he rode silently after.
Delmar galloped steadily on toward the Circle Bar Ranch house. Mile after mile was traversed at steady gallop till the powerful little ponies streamed with salty sweat. At last Delmar drew rein and allowed Mose to ride by his side.
"You needn"t be alarmed," he said in a kindly tone; "these hounds won"t shoot; they"re going to evade it, but I shall hold "em to it--trust me, my boy."
As they topped a ridge and looked down into Willow Creek, where the Ranch house stood, several hors.e.m.e.n could be seen riding in from the opposite side, and quite a group of men waited Delmar"s approach, and every man was armed. Each face wore a look of constraint, though one man advanced hospitably. "Good afternoon, gentlemen; ride your horses right into the corral, and the boys"ll take the saddles off."
"Where is Williams?" asked Delmar as he slid from his horse.
"Gone to town; anything I can do for you? I"m his boss."
"You tell Mr. Williams," said Delmar, with menacing calm, "I came to tell him that a drove of horses belonging partly to you and partly to Hartley, of The Horseshoe, were stampeded through my sheep yesterday, killing over two hundred of them."
Conrad replied softly: "I know, I know! I just heard of it. Too bad! but you understand how it is. Herds get going that way, and you can"t stop "em nor head "em off."
"Your men didn"t try to head "em off."
"How about that, boys?" inquired Conrad, turning to the younger men.