The foreman a.s.sented. "I don"t like the bunch," he murmured; "but n.o.body at our camp wants to tackle them. What can we do?"
While the foreman continued to talk, Stanley again looked over the human wrecks that he had rounded up and brought out of Sellersville.
"What can we do?" echoed Stanley, repeating the last question tartly.
"Well, I"ll tell you one thing we can do. We can throw Sellersville into the river."
Dancing and Scott were gone half an hour. The report, when they returned, was not encouraging. "It is a bunch of cutthroats from Medicine Bend, colonel," said Bob Scott.
"All friends of yours, I presume, Bob," returned Stanley.
The scout only smiled. "John Rebstock is there with his following. But the boss, I think, is big George Seagrue. He is mean, you know. George has got two or three men to his credit."
"Are we enough to clean them out, Bob?" inquired Stanley impatiently.
Scott looked around and his eye rested for a moment on Dancing. He hitched his trousers. "There"s about thirty men down there. I expect,"
he continued reflectively, "we can take care of them if we have to."
Stanley turned to the sergeant of his troopers. "Pitch a permanent camp, sergeant. There will be nothing to take us any farther up the river."
As Stanley gave the order Bucks noticed that Dancing winked at Scott.
And without the meaning glances exchanged by the lineman and the scout, Bucks would have understood from Stanley"s manner that he meant strong measures. Stanley sent a further message to the contractor, and the foreman, followed by his convoy of humanity, started on. The soldiers, foreseeing a lively scene, stripped their pack-horses and set at work pitching their tents.
Leaving four men in camp, the engineer, accompanied by his escort, rode down the bluffs and, striking a lumber road, galloped rapidly through the poplar bottom-lands toward the gamblers" camp. It was an early tour for human wolves to be stirring, and the invaders clattered into Sellersville before they attracted any attention.
A bugler, however, riding into the middle of the settlement, sounded a trumpet call, and at the unwonted notes frowsy, ill-shaped heads appeared at various shanty doors and tent-flaps to see what was doing. Stanley sent one man from door to door to notify the inmates of each shelter to pack up their effects and make ready to move without delay.
Five troopers were detailed to guard three gambling tents that stood together in the middle of the camp, each of these being flanked by smaller dens. Word was then pa.s.sed to the gamblers and saloon-keepers to line up on the river front.
Stanley regarded the gathering crowd with a cold eye. Scott, who stood near Bucks, pointed out a square-shouldered man with a deep scar splitting one cheek. "Do you know that fellow, Bucks?" he asked in an undertone.
"No; who is he?"
"That is a Medicine Bend confidence man, Perry. Do you remember the woman you helped out with a ticket to Iowa? Perry is her husband--the man that Dave Hawk made pay up."
Perry was a type of the Sellersville crowd now being evicted. There was much talk as the soldiers urged and drove the gang out of one haunt after another and a good deal of threatening as the leaders marched out in front of Stanley.
"Who is running this camp?" demanded the officer curtly. The men looked at one another. A fat, slow-moving man with small blue eyes and a wheezy voice answered: "Why, no one in particular, colonel. We"re just a-camping in a bunch. What"s a-matter? Seagrue here," he nodded to a sharp-jawed companion, "and Perry," he added, jerking his thumb toward the scarred-faced man, "and me own these two big tents in partners."
"What"s your name?"
"My name"s Rebstock."
"Produce the axes stolen here from these two men," said Stanley, indicating the choppers behind him. There was a jangle of talk between Rebstock and his a.s.sociates, and Perry, much against his inclination, was despatched to hunt up the axes. It was only a moment before he returned with them.
Rebstock, with a show of virtue, reprimanded Perry severely for harboring the men that had stolen the axes. "Sorry it happened, colonel," he grumbled, after he had abused the thieves roundly in a general way, "and I"ll see it doesn"t happen again. We can"t watch everybody in a place like this. Tell your men," he continued, expanding his chest, "to leave their axes with me when they come to Sellersville--what?"
The a.s.surances were lost on Stanley. "Rebstock," said he, in a tone that Bucks had not heard before from him, "take your personal effects, all of you--and nothing else--and load them on a flatboat. I will give you one hour to get-out of here."
Rebstock almost fell over backward. He wheezed in amazement. There was an outburst of indignant protests. A dozen men clamored at once. Perry rushed forward to threaten Stanley; others cursed and defied him.
"Who are you, and what do you mean giving orders like that?" demanded Seagrue, confronting him angrily.
"No matter who I am, you will obey the orders. And you can"t take any tents or gambling apparatus or liquors. Pack up your clothes and camp stuff--nothing else--and get out."
If a bombsh.e.l.l had dropped into Sellersville, consternation could not have been more complete. But it became quickly apparent that not all of the gang would surrender without a fight. The leaders retreated for a hurried consultation.
Rebstock walked back presently and confronted Stanley. "What"s your law for this?" he demanded, breathless with anger.
Stanley pointed to the ground under their feet.
"What"s your t.i.tle to this land, Rebstock? It belongs to the railroad that those ties belong to. Where is your license from the United States Government to sell whiskey here? You are trespa.s.sers and outlaws, with no rights that any decent man ought to respect. You and your gang are human parasites, and you are going to be stripped and sent down the river as fast as these flatboats will carry you."
Without waiting for any rejoinder, Stanley turned on his heel and walked away, leaving Rebstock speechless. The threats against the intruders continued, but Stanley paid no attention to any of them.
Scott and the five troopers faced the gamblers. Stanley called to the two wood-choppers, who stood near with their axes, and pointed to the gambling tents.
"Chop up every wheel and table in there you can find," said he.
A cry went up from Perry when he heard the order, but the axemen, nothing loath, sprang inside to their work, and the crashing of the gambling furniture resounded through the alarmed camp. Stanley made no delay of his peremptory purpose. The tent attacked belonged to Seagrue, who, common report averred, feared nothing and n.o.body, while the gambling implements were Perry"s.
Seagrue rushed to his property, revolver in hand. Bill Dancing, who stood at Stanley"s side, stepped into his way.
"Hold on, Seagrue," he said. The gambler, fully as large a man as Dancing, faced his opponent with his features fixed in rage. "Get away," he shouted, "or I will knock your head off."
All eyes centred on the two men. Every one realized that open war was on and that it needed only a spark to start the shooting. The gamblers, rallying to Seagrue, backed him with oaths and threats.
"Seagrue, put down that pistol or I"ll wring your neck," returned the lineman, baring his right arm as he sauntered toward the outlaw.
Bucks, beside Stanley, stood transfixed as he watched Dancing. The lineman"s revolver was slung in the holster at his side.
Seagrue hesitated. He saw Bob Scott standing in the doorway of the gambling tent with his rifle lying carelessly over his arm. He was actually covering Seagrue where he stood--and Seagrue knew that Bob Scott was deadly with a rifle. But Dancing was walking directly up to him and Seagrue dared not be shamed before his own a.s.sociates. He jumped back to fire, but it was too late.
Dancing caught his wrist. Both were men of great strength, and their muscles knotted as they grappled. It was only after a moment that the lineman could be seen to gain. Then, as he bent the gambler"s arm back, he suddenly released it and struck the revolver out of his hand.
Seagrue, with a curse, sprang back, and drawing a knife rushed for the second time at the lineman. Dancing jumped to one side. As he did so he seized an axe from the hand of one of the choppers and turned again on Seagrue. The gambler made a lunge at his throat, but as he threw himself forward, Dancing, springing away, brought the axe around like a flash and laid it flat across his a.s.sailant"s forearm. The knife flew twenty feet, and before the gambler could recover himself the railroad man with one hand like a vice on his throat bore him to the ground.
"Give me a piece of rope," muttered Dancing as Stanley ran up.
[Ill.u.s.tration: IT WAS ONLY AFTER A MOMENT THAT THE LINEMAN COULD BE SEEN TO GAIN.]
Bob Scott slashed a tent guy and handed it to him. In another minute Dancing, in spite of Seagrue"s struggles, had lashed his prisoner hand and foot. Picking him up bodily, he walked unopposed to the landing, and to the astonishment of the spectators heaved Seagrue with scant ceremony into a flatboat. There a trooper kept him quiet. Walking back, the lineman brushed the dust of the encounter from his arms as if to invite any further Sellersville champion to come forward. But John Rebstock, the really responsible head of the place, showed no desire to meet Dancing, and Perry, the sneak of the trio, only ranted while Rebstock stood at a respectable distance wheezing his surprise at the tremendous exhibition of strength. And the work of destruction went forward.
Adjoining the Seagrue tent stood a saloon in which the men were now ordered to demolish the stock. This renewed the excitement among Rebstock"s followers.
"Don"t waste any time," was Stanley"s order. "They may rush us. Knock in the head of a keg of whiskey, pour it over the bar, and burn the shanty."
The gamblers were, in fact, mustering for a charge on the invaders.
Before they could act the saloon was ablaze and the flames, rising amid the yells and execrations of its owners, leaped to the big tent adjoining. In front of this the soldiers in a skirmish line held back the scurrying outlaws. Within a few moments Sellersville was ablaze from end to end and its population, including Perry and Rebstock, driven to the flatboats, were floating with threats and curses down the muddy current of the Spider Water.