She smiled again and impulsively reached her hand to him, and as he took it he was nearly won by her friendliness. This she did not know, and he was able to go out into the street alone. He could not but observe that the attendants treated him with added respect by reason of his acquaintance with the wealthiest and most powerful woman in the camp.
She had made his loneliness very keen and hard to bear.
As he walked down the street he thought of Mary--she seemed to be a sister to the distant, calm and glorious moon just launching into the sky above the serrate wall of snowy peaks to the East. There was a powerful appeal in the vivid and changeful woman he had just met, for her like had never touched his life before.
As he climbed back up the hill toward the corral where he had left his horse, he was filled with a wordless disgust of the town and its people.
The night was still and cool, almost frosty. The air so clear and so rare filled his lungs with wholesomely sweet and reanimating breath. His head cleared, and his heart grew regular in its beating. The moon was sailing in mid-ocean, between the Great Divide and the Christo Range, cold and sharp of outline as a boat of silver. Lizard Head to the south loomed up ethereal as a cloud, so high it seemed to crash among the stars. The youth drew a deep breath and said: "To h.e.l.l with the town."
Kintuck whinnied caressingly as he heard his master"s voice. After putting some grain before the horse, Mose rolled himself in his blanket and went to sleep with only a pa.s.sing thought of the princess, her luxurious home, and her radiant and inscrutable personality.
CHAPTER XVI
AGAIN ON THE ROUND-UP
It was good to hear again the bawling of the bulls and the shouts of the cowboys, and to see the swirling herd and the flying, guarding, checking hors.e.m.e.n. Mose, wearied, weather-beaten, and somber-visaged, looked down upon the scene with musing eyes. The action was quite like that on the Arickaree; the setting alone was different. Here the valley was a wide, deliciously green bowl, with k.n.o.bby hills, pine-covered and abrupt, rising on all sides. Farther back great snow-covered peaks rose to enormous heights. In the center of this superb basin the camps were pitched, and the roping and branding went on like the action of a prodigious drama. The sun, setting in orange-colored clouds, brought out the velvet green of the sward with marvelous radiance. The tents gleamed in the midst of the valley like flakes of pearl.
The heart of the wanderer warmed within him, and with a feeling that he was almost home he called to his pack horse "Hy-ak-boy!" and started down the hill. As he drew near the herd he noted the great changes which had come over the cattle. They were now nearly all grades of Hereford or Holstein. They were larger of body, heavier of limb, and less active than the range cattle of the plains, but were sufficiently speedy to make handling them a fine art.
As he drew near the camp a musical shout arose, and Reynolds spurred his horse out to meet him. "It"s Mose!" he shouted. "Boy, I"m glad to see ye, I certainly am. Shake hearty. Where ye from?"
"The Wind River."
"What have you been doing up there?"
"Oh, knocking around with some Shoshones on a hunting trip."
"Well, by mighty, I certainly am glad to see ye. You look thin as a spring steer."
"My looks don"t deceive me then. My two sides are rubbin" together. How are the folks?"
"They ah very well, thank you. Cora and Pink will certainly go plumb crazy when they see you a-comin"."
"Where"s your house?"
"Just over that divide--but slip your packs off. Old Kintuck looks well; I knew him when you topped the hill."
"Yes, he"s still with me, and considerable of a horse yet."
They drew up to the door of one of the main tents and slipped the saddles from the weary horses.
"Do ye hobble?"
"No--they stay with me," said Mose, slapping Kintuck. "Go on, boy, here"s gra.s.s worth while for ye."
"By mighty, Mose!" said Reynolds, looking at the trailer tenderly, "it certainly is good for sore eyes to see ye. I didn"t know but you"d got mixed up an" done for in some of them squabbles. I heard the State authorities had gone out to round up that band of reds you was with."
"We did have one brush with the sheriff and some game wardens, but I stood him off while my friends made tracks for the reservation. The sheriff was for fight, but I argued him out of it. It looked like hot weather for a while."
While they were talking the cook set up a couple of precarious benches and laid a wide board thereon. Mose remarked it.
"A table! Seems to me that"s a little hifalutin"."
"So it is, but times are changing."
"I reckon the range on the Arickaree is about wiped out."
"Yes. We had a couple of years with rain a-plenty, and that brought a boom in settlement; everything along the river was homesteaded, and so I retreated--the range was overstocked anyhow. This time I climbed high. I reckon I"m all right now while I live. They can"t raise co"n in this high country, and not much of anything but gra.s.s. They won"t bother us no mo". It"s a good cattle country, but a mighty tough range to ride, as you"ll find. I thought I knew what rough riding was, but when it comes to racin" over these granite k.n.o.bs, I"m jest a little too old. I"m getting heavy, too, you notice."
"_Grub-pile! All down for grub!_" yelled the cook, and the boys came trooping in. They were all strangers, but not strange to Mose. They conformed to types he already knew. Some were young lads, and the word having pa.s.sed around that "Black Mose" was in camp, they approached with awe. The man whose sinister fame had spread throughout three States was a very great personage to them.
"Did you come by way of Wagon Wheel?" inquired a tall youth whom the others called "Brindle Bill."
"Yes; camped there one night."
"Ain"t it a caution to yaller snakes? Must be nigh onto fifteen thousand people there now. The hills is plumb measly with prospect holes, and you can"t look at a rock f"r less"n a thousand dollars. It sh.o.r.e is the craziest town that ever went anywhere."
"Bill"s got the fever," said another. "He just about wears hisself out a-pickin" up and a-totein" "round likely lookin" rocks. Seems like he was lookin" fer gold mines "stid o" cattle most of the time."
"You"re just in time for the turnament, Mose."
"For the how-many?"
"The turnament and bullfight. Joe Gra.s.sie has been gettin" up a bullfight and a kind of a show. He "lows to bring up some regular fighters from Mexico and have a real, sure-"nough bullfight. Then he"s offered a prize of fifty dollars for the best roper, and fifty dollars for the best shooter."
"I didn"t happen to hear of it, but I"m due to take that fifty; I need it," said Mose.
"He "lows to have some races--pony races and broncho busting."
"When does it come off?" asked Mose with interest.
"On the fourth."
"I"ll be there."
After supper was over Reynolds said: "Are you too tired to ride over to the ranch?"
"Oh, no! I"m all right now."
"Well, I"ll just naturally throw the saddles on a couple of bronchos and we"ll go see the folks."
Mose felt a warm glow around his heart as he trotted away beside Reynolds across the smooth sod. His affection for the Reynolds family was scarcely second to his boyish love for Mr. and Mrs. Burns.
It was dark before they came in sight of the light in the narrow valley of the Mink. "There"s the camp," said Reynolds. "No, I didn"t build it; it"s an old ranch; in fact, I bought the whole outfit."
Mrs. Reynolds had not changed at all in the three years, but Cora had grown handsomer and seemed much less timid, though she blushed vividly as Mose shook her hand.