Otherwise they"d have never ventured in where naught but angels have any license to tread."
She bit her lip in chagrin as he lifted his sombrero and rode nonchalantly away. The intended rebuke had recoiled upon her and she was furious at her impotence. Retreating to the kitchen, she somewhat curtly ordered the cook--old Abigail Williams, sister to the postmaster, who in order to preserve the proprieties had been engaged in that capacity--to prepare some nourishment for her charge.
"We"ve got to feed the thing," she snapped in a tone strangely variant from her endearing coo of a few minutes before.
Abbie nodded briskly: "I"ll fix up a rag on a bottle of new milk. I"ve raised "em before. We bed two on em oncet--Hank ez thet foolish about sich critters."
"It"ll make quite a peart pet," went on the garrulous old body. "An" I s"pose ye"ll be fer givin" it sum name? Ourn was Belshazzar an" Sappho.
Hank got the buck"s name outen a book where it said in slick soundin"
poetry as how Belshazzar was king an" Belshazzar waz lord. Thet buck were sure the mos" uppity critter! Nuthin" waz good enuf fer him to sociate with and he herded by hisself mos"ly. He waz allus on thu prod, stompin" aroun" darin" thu other critters to fite. He waz powerful or"nary, that Belshazzar, lordin" it over everybody an" allus huntin"
trouble.
"He waz mean to thu she-goat an" treated her scan"lous! The more she tried to be sociable an" nice the more biggoty he got. She"d go up"n nuzzle "im an" he"d back off an" look at her scornful and walk away high an" mighty-like on thu tips uv he"s toes, jest like he"s walkin" on aigs. He waz allus hurtin" uv her feelin"s but he didn"t seem to care none. An" thu poor critter would tag after "im an" humor "im ontil she made me sick! If he got outen her sight she"d blat an" take on suthin"
drefful, an" one spring when he jumped thu fence an" went out gallivantin" with thu wild ones fer a spell, she went loco an" actooly cried tears! That"s sure right. I seed "em.
"That was the spring that Ken Dougla.s.s. .h.i.t this range. One day when she is actin" more foolish than, most he pats her on thu back an" calls her "Sappho" an" spouts a lot o" hifalutin dago talk an" wipes her eyes with his new silk han"kerchief--really! Tenderfeets air cu"r"ous critters an"
Ken acts loco a leetle hisself sumtimes. He takes a heap o" int"rest in her after that, and fetches her apples n" things every time he goes to Tin Cup. An" one day I hears that durn fool say to Sappho as how he wishes he was a goat so that he could teach her to fergit her sorrer.
Did ye ever hear anythin" so plumb ridic-lous! Then one day he rides up to thu gate an" says: "Miss Abbie"--he kin be real polite when he wants--"there"s rejoicin" in Lesbos to-day. Belshazzar has come back!"
Then he rides off laffin, an" I gits my sunbonnit and hikes down to ther pastur". Sure "nough, thar"s thet fool buck, an" for the fust time _he"s_ nuzzlin" her! An" thet Sappho she waz so foolish happy that I wanted to shake her."
Grace put the kid down very gently on the floor. "I had thought of a name for him but--"
A shadow darkened the door. "h.e.l.lo, Buffo. You getting your first lesson, too?"
The girl stiffened instantly. "I shall call him that, after all. Thank you, Mr. Dougla.s.s, for strengthening my resolution."
"And as his G.o.dfather I, of course, must be Momus," said Ken, nothing abashed, though his eyes glittered. And in a not unpleasant if somewhat strident voice, he mischievously sang:
"Why gall and wormwood in a throat Designed for hydromel!
Far better be a Buffo goat And court the booze bot-tel."
Her lips curled at what she mistook for an implied threat. With all the hauteur she could summon to her aid, she swept him with her scorn. "Oh!
If you feel a really irresistible desire to get drunk," she said, "that is a waste of talent far more appreciable by the critics of the Alcazar; my brother, being unfortunately absent, will be desolated at missing _this_ performance."
She regretted her temerity even before she had finished. His face seemed to age as she looked. A man putting such indignity upon him, at first view of that face, would have hastily laid his hand on his pistol-b.u.t.t; the girl placed hers tremblingly above her heart.
The man"s self-restraint was wonderful. For an interminable moment which seemed an age to the frightened women--for even old Abbie was blanched with comprehension and stood with clasped hands and white lips--he was silent. Then in a voice whose calmness made the girl shiver with an undefinable fear, he said:
"That is twice to-day, Miss Carter, that you have been pleased to insult me. I am most unfortunate in having incurred your disfavor. My intrusion here was to acquaint you with the news that your brother, accompanied by your mother, will be here to-morrow night, a rider having just brought a telegram to that effect. It will take me but a few minutes to gather my effects. I will submit a full account of my stewardship to Mr. Carter to-morrow--from Tin Cup. It will be sufficiently full and comprehensive enough to obviate the necessity of any explanations on your part. Have I your permission to retire?"
Unable to think coherently she mutely nodded a.s.sent. Hat in hand, he turned on the threshold. "The performance will begin at ten, to-morrow night," he said. "Abbie, don"t put any wormwood in Buffo"s milk. It"ll make him uppish."
But the G.o.ds who dispose of man"s proposals ordained that Dougla.s.s was not to leave the C Bar that night. As he swung out into the moonlight his nostrils were a.s.sailed with the pungent fumes of burning hay and a man came running toward him.
"The stacks have been fired and the ditches cut! Red saw one of them and is on his trail!" Afar in the starlight a pistol snapped viciously; it was answered by a louder detonation, succeeded almost instantly by the fainter whip of the pistol. Then after a few seconds" interim came yet again the fainter report and all was silent.
"That"s Red"s .45," said the man with curt positiveness. "T"other must have had a Winchester, and he didn"t fire but one shot. Red shot last."
They were running full speed toward the burning stacks and Ken chose to waste no breath in speculative reply. But he was seeing a different red than that of the flaming hay as he recalled Williams"s warning: "Look out fer Matlock. He"s a pizen skunk and he"ll stoop to anythin" ter play even." The fire being incendiary, admitted but one deduction, and he was praying his G.o.ds to give this man into his hands.
""Twan"t Matlock," said Red tersely, in answer to the interrogation in his comrade"s eyes as he rode in to where they were standing helplessly watching the destruction of what was fortunately the smallest stack on the ranch, Ken"s masterly directions executed by willing hands having extinguished the others. ""Twer that mizzuble Mexican side-kicker o"
hisn, an" the d.a.m.ned varmint nearly got me. Shot his hoss an" he come back with his rifle. Got him second shot."
"Yeh fired three," said the man who had summoned Dougla.s.s, tentatively.
Red took a chew of tobacco. "Yep. Only winged him an" he possumed on me.
Stuck his knife inter me but she glanced on a rib. He"s daid now." His voice was unemotional but his face was white. Dougla.s.s, watching him sharply, laid his hand on the other"s glove.
"Better get up to the shack, Red," he said quietly, "You"ve lost a lot of juice."
The man smiled wanly, reeled In his saddle, and clutching fruitlessly at the horn, slipped limply down into Dougla.s.s"s supporting arms.
Subsequent examination revealed that he had also been wounded by the Mexican"s rifle shot. There was a ragged hole through the fleshy part of his thigh and hemorrhage had been profuse. Declining all offers of a.s.sistance, Dougla.s.s carried him to the bunkhouse and laid him on the rough bed. Looking at the white face of the fellow before him, his mouth resolved itself into a thin cruel line.
"By G.o.d, Matlock, you will pay in full for this!" He had unconsciously sworn it aloud and the men gathered around the bed of their stricken comrade knew that supreme sentence had been pa.s.sed. They made no comment, but as Dougla.s.s, rolling up his sleeves, bent to the clumsy but efficient surgery that was to save Red"s life, one of them nudged his neighbor and said inconsequentially, "Red weighs good two hunnerd!" And he looked admiringly at the ripples playing silkily under the bronze satin of his foreman"s arms.
But far out on the prairie, riding in headlong guilty haste from the Nemesis that his craven heart dreaded as even his cowardice had never dreaded anything before, Matlock shivered telepathically and turned in his saddle. A startled night-fowl fluttered uncannily over his head and he crouched almost to his saddle-bow with terror. The flutter of Azrael"s wings seemed very close!
An hour later, as Dougla.s.s emerged from the bunkhouse, old Abigail hesitatingly accosted him. "Yuah to come up to thu house, Ken, right way! Now don" yuh be foolish, boy; remember she"s only a gel--an" young at that!"
He patted the wrinkled hand laid on his arm but shook his head in grim negation. "It isn"t necessary, Abbie; you tell Miss Carter that it will all be in the report to-morrow!" And he gently but firmly put aside her restraining hand.
But the old woman was wise in her generation. "Look heah, Ken Dougla.s.s,"
she indignantly stormed; "don"t yuh try no hifalutin with me. I ain"t goin" to be stood off with no such a bluff ez that! Who nussed yuh when yuh got shot up by this yeah very mizzuble outfit las" summeh? Yuh come along o" me without no moah talk. An" when yuh git theah yuh go down on yuh stubboahn knees to that little angel an" promise thet yuh"ll be good."
He laughed quizzically. "Is that one of the conditions she imposes--that getting down on my knees? I"m out of practice a little and my knees are all blacked up from that fire. I"m afraid I"d soil that immaculate carpet of hers."
"Yuh hev soiled a heap moah than her cyapet already," said the old woman significantly, "an" yuh mind"s been blacker than yuh knees. Did yuh think she was one o" them dance-hall huzzies yuh"ve been herdin" with all yuh mean life? An" up tha" she sits cryin"--"
"Crying!" said the man sharply, and without another word he strode after the doddering old woman, who had knowingly turned even as she spoke.
As he entered the living-room the girl rose with an involuntary cry. His hair, eyebrows and mustache had been badly singed, his face was smoke-grimed and dirty, great holes had been burned in the thin shirt, the flesh showing angrily red through the rents. He was in sharp contrast with her own white daintiness as he stood there grim and forbidding, but she thought she had never looked upon a manlier man.
"I inferred from what Abbie said that you wished to see me?" The tone was cool and even but respectful.
"Yes--I wished--I thought--" she faltered incoherently, looking appealingly at him. But he only waited impa.s.sively, and the girl nervously clasped her hands.
"Tongue burned too?" snapped Abigail, with withering sarcasm, glowering wrathfully at him; the girl went up to him quickly, her eyes luminous with compa.s.sion.
"Oh! You are injured--you are suffering--I did not know--"
"It is nothing--merely a few slight scorches. Pray do not be concerned about it. And I am glad to a.s.sure you that McVey will recover. The bullet--" At the white terror which crept into the girl"s face he stopped abruptly, clipping the words between his teeth and cursing his inadvertence.
"The bullet--McVey--I do not understand," she was wild-eyed now with fear and her voice was very faint. Old Abigail with an incredibly quick movement caught her around the waist.
"Sit down, honey, and we"ll tell you about it. There! Thet"s a dear.
Matlock an" one uv his critters fired the haystacks an" cut the ditches so"s Ken wouldn"t hev no water to save "em with. An" Red he see one uv "em ridin" off an" runs him down an" shoots him up right! But the ornary cuss shoots back an" Red gets it in ther laig an" thet"s all they is to it. Don"t yuh worrit none; we only lost thu leetlest stack o" ther bunch."
"And the other--the one who ran away?" asked the girl with quick concern.
Abigail"s lips curved in a grim smile. "Red shot three times. Once at the hoss."