It angered him that he was ashamed of himself. He was a victim of many moods, and underneath every one of them was the steady ache, the dull pain, the pang in his breast, deep in the bone.
As he left his lodgings he heard the whistle of a train. The scene down the street was similar to the one which had greeted him the day before, only the dust was not blowing so thickly. He went into a hotel for his meal and fared better, watching the hurry and scurry of men. After he had finished he strolled toward the station.
Benton had two trains each day now. This one, just in, was long and loaded to its utmost capacity. Neale noticed an Indian arrow sticking fast over a window of one of the coaches. There were flat cars loaded with sections of houses, and box-cars full of furniture. Benton was growing every day. At least a thousand persons got off that train, adding to the dusty, jostling melee.
Suddenly Neale came face to face with Larry King.
"Red!" he yelled, and made at the cowboy.
"I"m sh.o.r.e glad to see you," drawled Larry. "What "n h.e.l.l busted loose round heah?"
Neale drew Larry out of the crowd. He carried a small pack done up in a canvas covering.
"Red, your face looks like home to a man in a strange land," declared Neale. "Where are your horses?"
Larry looked less at his ease.
"Wal, I sold them."
"Sold them! Those great horses? Oh, Red, you didn"t!"
"h.e.l.l! It costs money to ride on this heah U.P.R. thet we built, an" I had no money."
"But what did you sell them for? I--I cared for those horses."
"Will you keep quiet aboot my hosses?"
Neale had never before seen the tinge of gray in that red-bronze face.
"But I told you to straighten up!"
"Wal, who hasn"t?" retorted Larry.
"You haven"t! Don"t lie."
"If you put it thet way, all right. Now what"re you-all goin" to do aboot it?"
"I"ll lick you good," declared Neale, hotly. He was angry with Larry, but angrier with himself that he had been the cause of the cowboy"s loss of work and of his splendid horses.
"Lick me!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Larry. "You mean beat me up?"
"Yes. You deserve it."
Larry took him in earnest and seemed very much concerned. Neale could almost have laughed at the cowboy"s serious predicament.
"Wal, I reckon I ain"t much of a fighter with my fists," said Larry, soberly. "So come an" get it over."
"Oh, d.a.m.n you, Red!... I wouldn"t lay a hand on you. And I am sick, I"m so glad to see you!... I thought you got here ahead of me."
Neale"s voice grew full and trembling.
Larry became confused, his red face grew redder, and the keen blue flash of his eyes softened.
"Wal, I heerd what a tough place this heah Benton was--so I jest come."
Larry ended this speech lamely, but the way he hitched at his belt was conclusive.
"Wal, by Gawd! Look who"s heah!" he suddenly exclaimed.
Neale wheeled with a start. He saw a scout, in buckskin, a tall form with the stride of a mountaineer, strangely familiar.
"Slingerland!" he cried.
The trapper bounded at them, his tanned face glowing, his gray eyes glad.
"Boys, it"s come at last! I knowed I"d run into you some day," he said, and he gripped them with h.o.r.n.y hands.
Neale tried to speak, but a terrible cramp in his throat choked him. He appealed with his hands to Slingerland. The trapper lost his smile and the iron set returned to his features.
Larry choked over his utterance. "Al-lie! What aboot--her?"
"Boys, it"s broke me down!" replied Slingerland, hoa.r.s.ely. "I swear to you I never left Allie alone fer a year--an" then--the fust time--when she made me go--I come back an" finds the cabin burnt.... She"s gone!
Gone!... No redskin job. That d.a.m.ned riffraff out of Californy. I tracked "em. Then a h.e.l.l of a storm comes up. No tracks left! All"s lost! An" I goes back to my traps in the mountains."
"What--became--of--her?" whispered Neale.
Slingerland looked away from him.
"Son! You remember Allie. She"d die, quick!... Wouldn"t she, Larry?"
"Sh.o.r.e. Thet girl--couldn"t--hev lived a day," replied Larry, thickly.
Neale plunged blindly away from his friends. Then the torture in his breast seemed to burst. The sobs came, heavy, racking. He sank upon a box and bowed his head. There Larry and Slingerland found him.
The cowboy looked down with helpless pain. "Aw, pard--don"t take it--so hard," he implored.
But he knew and Slingerland knew that sympathy could do no good here.
There was no hope, no help. Neale was stricken. They stood there, the elder man looking all the sadness and inevitableness of that wild life, and the younger, the cowboy, slowly changing to iron.
"Slingerland, you-all said some Californy outfit got Allie?" he queried.
"I"m sure an" sartin," replied the trapper. "Them days there wasn"t any travelin" west, so early after winter. You recollect them four bandits as rode in on us one day? They was from Californy."
"Wal, I"ll be lookin" fer men with thet Californy brand," drawled King, and in his slow, easy, cool speech there was a note deadly and terrible.
Neale slowly ceased his sobbing. "My nerve"s gone," he said, shakily.
"No. It jest broke you all up to see Slingerland. An" it sh.o.r.e did me, too," replied Larry.