Nevertheless, the cool hand laid on his hot brow was invested with a motherly tenderness, and the chiding voice was gentle and kind.
"Yuh better go and lay in yuah hammock, dearie," she suggested to Grace, "an" rest up a bit; I got a lot o" tidyin" up to do yeah." The room was already painfully clean and the man on the bed knit his brows quizzically.
"I do want my hair curled "n" my mustache waxed "n" some ody-kolone on my hank-chy," he murmured plaintively. "I sh.o.r.e do!"
Abigail glared at him, but Grace, with a final pat to the pillows, smiled indulgently. "Get well quickly; we need you too much; and it must be dreadful to have to stay indoors in this weather." Then she went out rather abstractedly, McVey"s eyes following her with the wistfulness of a dog"s. Abbie, watching him, smiled satirically.
"Red, too!" she e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed mentally; "well, why not? He"s a whole lot of a man, hisself, an cats kin look at queens ef they likes. An" queens hev a lot o" things ter be done fer "em thet only men kin do. I wonder now--!"
She looked at him speculatively, her lips tightening with a sudden determination. The cowboy grinned with quick prescience.
"Spit it out, Abbie. I caint help myself."
"Red," she said quietly without an attempt at preamble, "will yuh kill Matlock fer me?"
He stared his astonishment undisguisedly. There was absolutely no doubt as to the seriousness of her question; the grim set of her jaws, the anxiety in her eyes and general tenseness of muscle throughout the whole lean body betokened that.
In this man"s life surprises were not infrequent and now as ever he displayed only the nonchalance characteristic of all typical frontiersmen in moments of crisis. Something in her manner and att.i.tude repressed the almost irresistible desire to answer her humorously, and his reply was grave to solemnity.
"Yuh see, Miss Abbie, we-all promised Ken thet we wouldn"t cut in on thet deal. But I"d jest love to oblige yuh, an" if yuh can square me with the old man I"ll take Matlock"s trail soon as I can straddle m"
hoss agin. Yuh see, Ken"s kinder got hes heart sot on doin" thet leetle stunt hisself, an" he"s apt to r"ar up an" sweat under thu collar when anybody musses with hes things. Yuh onderstand how "tis--"
She withered him with a measureless scorn: "Yes, I onderstan". Yuah afraid o" Matlock!" She turned to go. "An" I thought this was a man!"
"Stop a minnit, Miss Willi"ms!" The words were scarcely audible but she wheeled instanter. He had not moved a muscle so far as she could detect but she felt as though she had been clutched in a grasp of steel and whirled on a pivot. But the erstwhile pallid face was now justifying his nickname and his eyes were black with menace. "Thet"s not eggsactly squar" now, is it?" His voice was almost pleading, the trembling hands alone betrayed the strain he was laboring under.
Mountain born and range bred, Abigail Williams was a woman of undaunted courage, but even her invincible spirit recoiled momentarily from the task she set herself. It was like plowing in a powder magazine with a red-hot share, but she was only concerned with the end in view and, deliberately considering the risk, employed the only means at hand.
"Squar" er raound," she said incisively, "It"s thu mizzable truth. Ef it wa"nt, yuh would take thu job offen Ken"s ban"s an" keep my lamb"s heart from breakin"!"
She could hear the beating of his heart in the absolute quiet that followed her audacious words. When she dared to raise her eyes he was very pale and wan but he met her pitying glance with a brave smile although his lips were twitching.
"I reckon that I"ve been a bit thick-haided," he said simply. "I ought have knowed thet you wa"nt the kind o" woman to take no sech mean advantage of a feller. Yuh"ll excuse _me_, Miss Abbie! Yuh see, I didn"t savvy the how o" things."
Abbie, torn with remorse and pity, was all woman again. In the reaction she wished she had left her words unsaid and impulsively went over and laid her hand on his. The cowboy covered it with his other bronzed paw and for a long time neither spoke. It was McVey who broke the silence.
"I"ll kill him, o" cose. Reckon it"ll cost me me" job--an" then some!
It"s goin" to be mahnst"ous hard to make Ken see it thu right way an"
he"ll be some rambunctuous about it. He"s awful sot in hes ways an" it"s goin" to be hard to explain. I"d sh.o.r.e hate to have some one play me thet trick, I suttinly would!"
The woman was crying now and as the weak drawl ended she grew hysterical. "Oh! Gawd, what hev I done?" she moaned under her breath; then she frantically implored him to forget what she had said, insisting that it was all a joke, that she was merely "tryin" to pay him back fer his imperence" the night before. But Red smiled his entire conviction.
"Miss Abbie, don"t yuh do it no moah, don"t yuh, now! It sh.o.r.e ain"t yuah strong suit, yuh giv" yuah han" away. Lyin"s man"s work, an" a powerful bad business it is, too! Gawd nevah intended a woman"s lips to be dirtied that away."
"An" besides, it"s too late," he went on dispa.s.sionately. "Yuh"ve made many things plain to me that I was too locoed to see before. But tell me straight, is that true about her"n Ken?"
She nodded mutely, not daring to meet his eyes.
He looked long into the starlit sky, and Abbie, emboldened after a time by his seeming composure, rose and bade him good night. He reached out for the cigarette materials laid convenient to his hand.
"Guess I"ll make a terbacco smoke." Abbie struck a match and he luxuriously filled his capacious lungs. Then slowly exhaling the pungent wreath he flicked the ash from the cigarette tip and tentatively extended his sinewy arm. It was as devoid of tremor as that of a bronze statue and he nodded his satisfaction.
"Her heart won"t be broke none."
His voice was very calm and even.
CHAPTER VI
THE MAN AND THE WOMAN
At the junction of Horse and Squaw creeks, some seven miles from where Grace Carter was lying in her hammock awaiting the arrival of her brother and mother, Ken Dougla.s.s outspanned his weary sc.r.a.per team and called his day"s work done. The damage had been of even greater magnitude than he had feared and his most sanguine estimate placed the time required for complete repairs at three more days.
He had impressed every available man and team into the service, leaving only one young fellow at the ranch to do the choring inseparable to a holding like the C Bar. Having outlined his plans and a.s.signed to each man his specific duty, he had personally plunged into the thick of the work, driving his men only a trifle less strenuously than he did himself. In consequence whereof it was a sore-muscled crowd that ruefully rubbed their aching backs about the camp-fire that night, quaintly profane after the manner of their kind.
"Gawd! But you make a b.u.m driver, Punk," said one of them dispa.s.sionately to a short, squat fellow who was anointing his blistered hands with bacon drippings. "Yuh pushed so hawd on thu lines that yuh raised cawns on that claybank"s gooms. Was yuh thinkin" yuh was polin dogies oveh to Glenwood again?"
Now Punk Dixon was a bit sensitive on the dogie question; while employed in the engaging pursuit of prodding refractory yearlings up a loading chute that spring his flimsy footing had given way, precipitating him under the feet of two score frightened animals whose sharp hoofs had reduced his brand new "chaps" to rags and himself to a sadly dilapidated ma.s.s of incoherent blasphemy. But he grinned good-naturedly and wiped the surplus grease off his hands over the head of his tormenter.
"Thar! That"s better"n that pink axle-grease yuh been lavigatin" yuh pore old coco with, Woolly," vigorously ma.s.saging the viscid fat into the bald pate with his thumbs, much to the hilarious enjoyment of the inconstant crowd who laughed even louder at the last victim"s discomfiture. It was a tradition that "Woolly" Priest had been born with exceedingly long hair in plenteous supply, losing it in the stress of a hard winter succeeding "thet awful calamity to Grand County," as the narrator generously put it, by reason of a goat"s having dined upon it, mistaking it for wire gra.s.s! According to the veracious relator his head had been so soft and mushy that the goat had "pulled the bristles out by the roots "n they wa"nt annythin" left fer a starter." Certain it is that the shiny poll was entirely devoid of any hirsute covering at the present time, despite its owner"s unremitting applications of all the patent nostrums he could get--the latest being an unguent built by Red McVey"s suggestion out of rattlesnake oil and Tobasco sauce!
"Well," said one of the more optimistic among them as he kicked off his boots preparatory to turning in after supper, "this yeah life might be better, "n it might be wuss. But I"m sh.o.r.e thankful fer this yeah leetle ole baid, an" thu knowin" that I"m goin" to roll out of it to-morrow mawnin" alive an" kickin". They"s a heap o" satisfaction in bein" able to ante when yuh are called to eat!"
"An" thu daid don"t eat none. Say, Hungry, haow d" yuh like to be Braun?" The speaker was the friend of the dead man who had discovered the mutilation of the revolver. The badinage ceased instantly and an ominous silence fell upon the whole a.s.semblage.
"Hungry" Thompson looked over to where Dougla.s.s was morosely glaring over the demolished ruins of his spring"s labor. Even through the murk of the gathering night the clenched hands and swelling neck cords were visible to that sharp eye.
"Haow d"yuh like to be Matlock?"
A match snapped sharply as some inveterate smoker kindled his cigarette.
A man sat bolt upright in his blankets and Hungry swore angrily. The camp sank to rest but not exactly to sleep, as the occasional clearing of a throat evinced. Eventually, when the fire had sunk to a heap of smouldering coals, tired nature a.s.serted itself and the men slept.
To Dougla.s.s alone came neither sleep nor rest. His mind was in a turmoil of doubt and anger--doubt as to the nature of the strange obsession under which he travailed, and anger directed chiefly against himself.
His hatred of Matlock was very bitter, but it was inconsequential in comparison with his savage self-objurgation. He did not go to bed, as common sense would have dictated and overwrought frame pleaded, but sat by the dead coals smoking himself black in the face.
"What an egregious a.s.s I am!" he reflected, reviewing his senseless and stilted actions of the day before. "Here I am quarreling with the first bread and b.u.t.ter that ever came my way with jelly on it. After all, I am only a menial, Carter"s hired man, and I presumed too far. What in the devil"s name is the matter with me? My hide ought to be thick enough by this time, G.o.d knows! And yet that fool girl"s little bodkin went through it like an electric spark and cut to the marrow! Well, she"s taught me my place, all right, all right." He smiled his grim admiration of her cleverness. "But it"s too late. It"s a pity, too, for I think I could have made good."
It was characteristic of him that he never entertained even a momentary thought of a possibility of reconciliation. He had told her what he was going to do and that was settled business. It was going to be a little rough on him to quit "broke"; it would take all his summer"s wages to recoup Carter for that hay and the loss of the men"s time incurred in the ditch mending. The fall round-up would be over by that time and work is scarce for unattached cowpunchers in the winter. It meant "choring for his board" until spring"s activities widened the vista and the prospect was uninviting to one of energetic temperament.
Even more characteristic was his utter lack of resentment of the young lady"s rebuke; he had "presumed too far" and got what was coming to him.
He was conscious that he had deserved it, in more ways than one. But even as he admitted this to himself there crept again into his eyes a something not altogether wholesome and rea.s.suring to any woman arousing it.
Of love so far he had known only two phases, the filial which is specifically restricted, and the universal which is diametrically diffused over so great an area that it is dubious whether it really merits that high cla.s.sification. For his parents he had entertained an affection closely approximating idolatry, especially for his mother, whom he had known best, his father having died in his early childhood; he also had a certain affection for little children, for flowers, for the more frail and helpless things of creation in general, that might be dignified by the name of love but which more probably was merely the indulgent patronage of all strong natures for things weaker than themselves. At college he had made no special strong affiliations for the simple reason that few of his fellow-students were strong enough, physically, mentally, or morally, to greatly command his respect. And all unknowing to him he had come away from school with a hunger in his really affectionate heart that had not been appeased by precarious contact with the unsatisfying elements among which his lines had been cast. Not once in all his western career had he met with an affinitive soul on which he might have leaned and so gained that chastening sense of tender dependence without which no man ever yet attained happiness.
Women"s beauty he admired, but their virtue he revered not at all; yet he had a paradoxical respect for that quality, whenever he encountered it, that first begat and ultimately conserved in him that anomalous chivalry of the frontier which impels a man to the espousal of the under dog"s cause without hesitation. He would have fought instantly and to the death for a woman insulted; but he would just as readily have sprang to the aid of a man battling against unfair odds. Of conventionality he had only a contemptuous disregard, taking the goods the G.o.ds gave him--when altogether to his fastidious taste--when and where they offered. The very recklessness displayed, and its all too frequent indulgence and partic.i.p.ation in by the objects of its incitation, had made him calloused, and cynical to a degree very disastrous to a man of his tender years. For at twenty-six it is befitting to take off one"s hat to a petticoat hanging on a clothes line, after the traditional habit of Lord Chesterfield.