"Let go o" me," said Mose, his heart swelling with wrath.
The drunken one aimlessly cuffed him. Then the blood-red film dropped over the young eagle"s eyes. He struck out and his a.s.sailant went down.
Then his revolvers began to speak and the crowd fell back. They rolled, leaped, or crawled to shelter, and when the b.l.o.o.d.y mist cleared away from his brain, Mose found himself in his saddle, his swift pony galloping hard up the street, with pistols cracking behind him. His blood was still hot with the murderous rage which had blinded his eyes.
He did not know whether he had begun to shoot first or not, he did not know whether he had killed any of the ruffians or not, but he had a smarting wound in the shoulder, from which he could feel the wet, warm blood trickling down.
Once he drew his horse to a walk, and half turned him to go back and face the mob, which he could hear shouting behind him, but the thought of his wound, and the fear that his horse had also been hit, led him to ride on. He made a detour on the plain, and entered a ravine which concealed him from the town, and there alighted to feel of his horse"s limbs, fearing each moment to come upon a wound, but he was unhurt, and as the blood had ceased to flow from his own wound, the youth swung into his saddle and made off into the darkness.
He heard no sound of his pursuers, but, nevertheless, rode on rapidly, keeping the west wind in his face and watching sharply for fences. At length he found his way back to the river trail and the horse galloped steadily homeward. As he rode the boy grew very sad and discouraged. He had again given away to the spirit of murder. Again he had intended to kill, and he seemed to see two falling figures; one, the man he had smitten with his fist, the other one whose revolver was flashing fire as he fell.
Then he thought of Mary and the sad look in her eyes when she should hear of his fighting again. She would not be able to get at the true story. She would not know that these men attacked him first and that he fought in self-defense. He thought of his father, also, with a certain tenderness, remembering how he had stood by him in his trial. "Who will stand by me now?" he asked himself, and the thought of the Pratts helped him. Delmar, he felt sure, would defend him, but he knew the customs of the cattle country too well to think the matter ended there. He must hereafter shoot or be shot. If these men met him again he must disable them instantly or die. "Hadn"t I better just keep right on riding?" he kept asking some sense within him, but decided at last to return to Delmar.
It was deep night when he reached the camp, and his horse was covered with foam. Delmar was sitting by the camp fire as he came in from the dark.
"h.e.l.lo, boy, what"s up?"
Mose told him the whole story in a few incoherent phrases. The old man examined and dressed his wound, but remained curiously silent throughout the story. At last he said: "See here, my lad; let me tell you, this is serious business. I don"t mean this scratch of a bullet--don"t you be uneasy about that; but this whole row is mine. They haven"t any grudge against you, but you"re a sheep herder for me, and that is bad business just now. If you"ve killed a man they"ll come a-rippin" up here about daylight with a warrant. You can"t get justice in this country. You"ll face a cowboy jury and it"ll go hard with you. There"s just one thing to do: you"ve got to git right close to where the west winds come from and do it quick. Throw the saddles on Bone and Rusty, and we"ll hit the trail. I know a man who"ll take care of you."
He whistled a signal and one of the herders came in: "Send Pablo here,"
he said. "Now, roll up any little trinkets that you want to take with you," he said a few minutes later as they were saddling the two bronchos. "You can"t afford to stay here and face this thing; I had no business to set you on the wrong side. I knew better all the time, but I liked you, and----"
The herder came in. "Pablo, I"m going across country on a little business. If anybody comes asking for me or Mose here, say you don"t know where we went, but that you expect us back about noon. Be ready to shoot to-day; some of these cowboys may try to stampede you again while I"m gone."
"You better stay and look after the sheep," began Mose as they started away, "you can"t afford----"
"Oh, to h.e.l.l with the sheep. I got you into this sc.r.a.pe and I"ll see you out of it."
As they galloped away, leading Mose"s worn pony, Delmar continued: "You"re too young to start in as a killer. You"ve got somebody back in the States who thinks you"re out here making a man of yourself, and I like you too well to see you done up by these dirty cow-country lawyers.
I"m going to quit the country myself after this fall shipment, and I want you to come down my way some time. You better stay up here till spring."
They rode steadily till daylight, and then Delmar said: "Now I think you"re perfectly safe, for this reason: These cusses know you came into the country with Pratt, and they"ll likely ride over and search the Cannon Ball settlement. I"ll ride around that way and detain "em awhile and make "em think you"re hiding out, while you make tracks for upper country. You keep this river trail. Don"t ride too hard, as if you was runnin" away, but keep a steady gait, and give your horse one hour out o" four to feed. Here"s a little snack: don"t waste time, but slide along without sleeping as long as you can.
"You"ll come in sight of the mountains about noon, and you"ll see a big bunch o" snowpeaks off to the left. Make straight for that, and after you go about one day bear sharp to the left, begin to inquire for Bob Reynolds on the Arickaree--everybody knows Bob. Just give him this note and tell him the whole business; he"ll look out for you. Now, good-by, boy. I"m sorry--but my intentions were good."
Mose opened his heart at last. "I don"t like to desert you this way, Mr.
Delmar," he said; "it ain"t right; I"d rather stay and fight it out."
"I won"t have it," replied Delmar.
"You"re going to have a lot of trouble."
"Don"t you worry about me, and don"t you feel streaked about pulling your freight. You started wrong on the Cannon Ball. Bob will put you right. The cattlemen will rule there for some years yet, and you keep on their side. Now, good-by, lad, and take care of yourself."
Mose"s voice trembled as he took Delmar"s hand and said: "Good-by, Mr.
Delmar, I"m awfully obliged to you."
"That"s all right--now git."
Mose, once more on his own horse, galloped off to the West, his heart big with love for his stern benefactor. Delmar sat on his horse and watched the boy till he was diminished to a minute spot on the dim swells of the plain. Then he wiped a little moisture from his eye with the back of his brown, small hand, and turned his horse"s head to the East.
CHAPTER X
THE YOUNG EAGLE MOUNTS
After the momentary sorrow of parting from his good friend, Delmar, the youth"s heart began to expand with joy. He lifted his arms and shook them as the young eagle exults. He was alone on the wide swells of plain enacting a part of the wild life of which he had read, and for which he had longed. He was riding a swift horse straight toward the mystic mountains of the West, leaving behind him the miserable wars of the sheep herders and the cattlemen. Every leap of his st.u.r.dy pony carried him deeper into the storied land and farther from the tumult and shame of the night at Running Bear.
He was not one to morbidly a.n.a.lyze, not even to feel remorse. He put the past behind him easily. Before him small gra.s.shoppers arose in clapping, buzzing clouds. Prairie dogs squeaked and frisked and dived needlessly into their dens. Hawks sailed like kites in the glorious, golden, hazy air, and on the firm sod the feet of his pony steadily drummed. Once a band of antelope crossed a swale, running in silence, jerkily, like a train of some singular automatons, moved by sudden, uneven impulses of power. The deep-worn buffalo trails seemed so fresh the boy"s heart quickened with the thought that he might by chance come suddenly upon a stray bunch of them feeding in some deep swale.
He had pa.s.sed beyond fences, and his course was still substantially westward. His eyes constantly searched the misty purple-blue horizon for a first glimpse of the mountains, though he knew he could not possibly come in sight of them so soon. He rode steadily till the sun was overhead, when he stopped to let the pony rest and feed. He had a scanty lunch in his pocket, which he ate without water. Saddling up an hour or two later he continued his steady onward "shack" toward the West.
Once or twice he pa.s.sed in sight of cattle ranches, but he rode on without stopping, though he was hungry and weary. Once he met a couple of cowboys who reined out and rode by, one on either side of him, to see what brands were on his horse. He was sufficiently waywise to know what this meant. The riders remained studiously polite in their inquiries:
"Where ye from, stranger?"
"Upper Cannon Ball."
"Eh--hah. How"s the feed there this year?"
"Pretty good."
"Where ye aimin" at now, if it"s a fair question?"
"Bob Reynolds" ranch."
"He"s over on the head water of the South Fork, ain"t he?"
"Yes."
"Well, it"s a good piece yet. So long," they said in change of manner.
"So long."
They rode away, still filled with curiosity concerning the boy whose horse plainly showed hard riding. "He sh.o.r.e wants to git there," said one to the other.
Late in the afternoon the youth pulled in his horse and studied with the closest care a big cloud looming in the sky. All day snowy thunderheads had been emerging into view near the horizon, blooming like gigantic roses out of the deep purple of the sky, but this particular cloud had not changed its sharp, clean-cut outline for an hour, and, as he looked, a veil of vapor suddenly drifted away from it, and Mose"s heart leaped with exultation, as though a woman"s hand had been laid on his shoulder.
That cloud-like form was a mountain! It could be nothing else, for while all around it other domes shifted line and ma.s.s, this one remained constant, riding through the mist as the moon endures in the midst of the flying vapor of the night.
Thereafter he rode with his eyes on that sunlit ma.s.s. The land grew wilder. Sharp hills broke the smooth expanses, and on these hills groves of dwarf pine appeared in irregular clumps like herds of cattle. He began to look for a camping place, for he was very tired. For an hour he led his spent horse, still moving toward the far-off shining peak, which glowed long after darkness had fallen on the plains. At last it grew too dim to guide him farther, and slipping the saddle from his horse, he turned him loose to feed upon the bunch gra.s.s.
As the light faded from the sky so the exultation and sense of freedom went out of the boy"s heart. His mind went back to the struggle in the street. He felt no remorse, no pity for the drunken fools, but he was angry and discouraged and disgusted with himself. He had ended in failure and in flight where he should have won success and respect. He did not directly accuse himself; he had done as well as he could; he blamed "things," and said to himself, "it"s my luck," by which he meant to express a profound feeling of dejection and weakness as of one in the grasp of inimical powers. By the working of unfriendly forces he was lying there under the pines, hungry, tired, chilled, and lone as a wolf.
Jack was far away, Mary lost forever to him, and the officers of the law again on his trail. It was a time to make a boy a man, a bitter and revengeful man.
The night grew chill, and he was forced to walk up and down, wrapped in his saddle blanket to keep warm. Fuel was scarce, and his small fire sufficed only to warm him in minute sections, and hunger had thinned his blood. He was tired and sleepy, too, but dared not lie down for fear of being chilled. It would not do to be ill here alone in this land.
It was the loneliest night he had ever known in his life. On the hills near by the coyotes kept up ventriloquistic clamor, and from far off the bawling of great bulls and the bleating of the calves brought news of a huge herd of cattle, but these sounds only made his solitary vigil the more impressive. The sleepy chirp of the crickets and the sound of his horse nipping the gra.s.s, calmly careless of the wolves, were the only aids to sleep; all else had the effect to keep his tense nerves vibrating. As the cold intensified, the crickets ceased to cry, and the pony, having filled his stomach, turned tail to the wind and humped his back in drowse. At last, no friendly sounds were left in all the world, and shivering, sore, and sullen, the youth faced the east waiting for the dawn.