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diff --git a/27437-8.txt b/27437-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1587979 --- /dev/null +++ b/27437-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9028 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Desert Dust, by Edwin L. Sabin + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Desert Dust + +Author: Edwin L. Sabin + +Illustrator: J. Clinton Shepherd + +Release Date: December 7, 2008 [EBook #27437] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DESERT DUST *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Like some land of Heart's Desire (see page 22).] + + + + +DESERT DUST + +By + +EDWIN L. SABIN + +Author of "How Are You Feeling Now?" etc. + +ILLUSTRATED BY + +J. CLINTON SHEPHERD + +[Illustration: QUINON PROFICIT DEFICIT] + +PHILADELPHIA + +GEORGE W. JACOBS & COMPANY + +PUBLISHERS + + + + +Copyright, 1921, by +Frank A. Munsey Company + +Copyright, 1922, by +George W. Jacobs & Company + +All rights reserved +Printed in U. S. A. + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + I. A Pair of Blue Eyes 9 + II. To Better Acquaintance 22 + III. I Rise in Favor 36 + IV. I Meet Friends 54 + V. On Grand Tour 72 + VI. "High and Dry" 88 + VII. I Go to Rendezvous 102 + VIII. I Stake on the Queen 118 + IX. I Accept an Offer 131 + X. I Cut Loose 145 + XI. We Get a "Super" 162 + XII. Daniel Takes Possession 181 + XIII. Someone Fears 197 + XIV. I Take a Lesson 205 + XV. The Trail Narrows 223 + XVI. I Do the Deed 240 + XVII. The Trail Forks 252 + XVIII. Voices in the Void 261 + XIX. I Stake Again 272 + XX. The Queen Wins 286 + XXI. We Wait the Summons 300 + XXII. Star Shine 314 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + PAGE +Like some land of Heart's Desire (see page 22). Frontispiece +"Madam," I Uttered Foolishly, "Good Evening." 85 +The Scouts Galloped Onward 280 + + + + +DESERT DUST + + + + +CHAPTER I + +A PAIR OF BLUE EYES + + +In the estimate of the affable brakeman (a gentleman wearing sky-blue army +pantaloons tucked into cowhide boots, half-buttoned vest, flannel shirt +open at the throat, and upon his red hair a flaring-brimmed black slouch +hat) we were making a fair average of twenty miles an hour across the +greatest country on earth. It was a flat country of far horizons, and for +vast stretches peopled mainly, as one might judge from the car windows, by +antelope and the equally curious rodents styled prairie dogs. + +Yet despite the novelty of such a ride into that unknown new West now +being spanned at giant's strides by the miraculous Pacific Railway, behold +me, surfeited with already five days' steady travel, engrossed chiefly in +observing a clear, dainty profile and waiting for the glimpses, time to +time, of a pair of exquisite blue eyes. + +Merely to indulge myself in feminine beauty, however, I need not have +undertaken the expense and fatigue of journeying from Albany on the Hudson +out to Omaha on the plains side of the Missouri River; thence by the +Union Pacific Railroad of the new transcontinental line into the Indian +country. There were handsome women a-plenty in the East; and of access, +also, to a youth of family and parts. I had pictures of the same in my +social register. A man does not attain to twenty-five years without having +accomplished a few pages of the heart book. Nevertheless all such pages +were--or had seemed to be--wholly retrospective now, for here I was, +advised by the physicians to "go West," meaning by this not simply the +one-time West of Ohio, or Illinois, or even Iowa, but the remote and +genuine West lying beyond the Missouri. + +Whereupon, out of desperation that flung the gauntlet down to hope I had +taken the bull by the horns in earnest. West should be full dose, at the +utmost procurable by modern conveyance. + +The Union Pacific announcements acclaimed that this summer of 1868 the +rails should cross the Black Hills Mountains of Wyoming to another range +of the Rocky Mountains, in Utah; and that by the end of the year one might +ride comfortably clear to Salt Lake City. Certainly this was "going West" +with a vengeance; but as appeared to me--and to my father and mother and +the physicians--somewhere in the expanse of brand new Western country, the +plains and mountains, I would find at least the breath of life. + +When I arrived in Omaha the ticket agent was enabled to sell me +transportation away to the town of Benton, Wyoming Territory itself, six +hundred and ninety miles (he said) west of the Missouri. + +Of Benton I had never heard. It was upon no public maps, as yet. But in +round figures, seven hundred miles! Practically the distance from Albany +to Cincinnati, and itself distant from Albany over two thousand miles! All +by rail. + +Benton was, he explained, the present end of passenger service, this +August. In another month--and he laughed. + +"Fact is, while you're standing here," he alleged, "I may get orders any +moment to sell a longer ticket. The Casements are laying two to three +miles of track a day, seven days in the week, and stepping right on the +heels of the graders. Last April we were selling only to Cheyenne, rising +of five hundred miles. Then in May we began to sell to Laramie, five +hundred and seventy-six miles. Last of July we began selling to Benton, a +hundred and twenty miles farther. Track's now probably fifty or more miles +west of Benton and there's liable to be another passenger terminus +to-morrow. So it might pay you to wait." + +"No," I said. "Thank you, but I'll try Benton. I can go on from there as I +think best. Could you recommend local accommodations?" + +He stared, through the bars of the little window behind which lay a +six-chambered revolver. + +"Could I do what, sir?" + +"Recommend a hotel, at Benton where I'm going. There is a hotel, I +suppose?" + +"Good Lord!" he exclaimed testily. "In a city of three thousand people? A +hotel? A dozen of 'em, but I don't know their names. What do you expect to +find in Benton? You're from the East, I take it. Going out on spec', or +pleasure, or health?" + +"I have been advised to try Western air for a change," I answered. "I am +looking for some place that is high, and dry." + +"Consumption, eh?" he shrewdly remarked. "High and dry; that's it. Oh, +yes; you'll find Benton high enough, and toler'bly dry. You bet! And +nobody dies natural, at Benton, they say. Here's your ticket. Thank you. +And the change. Next, please." + +It did not take me long to gather the change remaining from seventy +dollars greenbacks swapped for six hundred and ninety miles of travel at +ten cents a mile. I hastily stepped aside. A subtle fragrance and a rustle +warned me that I was obstructing a representative of the fair sex. So did +the smirk and smile of the ticket agent. + +"Your pardon, madam," I proffered, lifting my hat--agreeably dazzled while +thus performing. + +She acknowledged the tribute with a faint blush. While pocketing my change +and stowing away my ticket I had opportunity to survey her further. + +"Benton," she said briefly, to the agent. + +We were bound for the same point, then. Ye gods, but she was a little +beauty: a perfect blonde, of the petite and fully formed type, with +regular features inclined to the clean-cut Grecian, a piquant mouth +deliciously bowed, two eyes of the deepest blue veiled by long lashes, and +a mass of glinting golden hair upon which perched a ravishing little +bonnet. The natural ensemble was enhanced by her costume, all of black, +from the closely fitting bodice to the rustling crinoline beneath which +there peeped out tiny shoes. I had opportunity also to note the jet +pendant in the shelly ear toward me, and the flashing rings upon the +fingers of her hands, ungloved in order to sort out the money from her +reticule. + +Sooth to say, I might not stand there gawking. Once, by a demure sideways +glance, she betrayed knowledge of my presence. Her own transaction was all +matter-of-fact, as if engaging passage to Benton of Wyoming Territory +contained no novelty for her. Could she by any chance live there--a woman +dressed like she was, as much à la mode as if she walked Broadway in New +York? Omaha itself had astonished me with the display upon its streets; +and now if Benton, far out in the wilderness, should prove another +surprise----! Indeed, the Western world was not so raw, after all. Strange +to say, as soon as one crossed the Missouri River one began to sense +romance, and to discover it. + +As seemed to me, the ticket agent would have detained her, in defiance of +the waiting line; but she finished her business shortly, with shorter +replies to his idle remarks; and I turned away under pretense of examining +some placards upon the wall advertising "Platte Valley lands" for sale. I +had curiosity to see which way she wended. Then as she tripped for the +door, casting eyes never right nor left, and still fumbling at her +reticule, a coin slipped from her fingers and rolled, by good fortune, +across the floor. + +I was after it instantly; caught it, and with best bow presented it. + +"Permit me, madam." + +She took it. + +"Thank you, sir." + +For a moment she paused to restore it to its company; and I grasped the +occasion. + +"I beg your pardon. You are going to Benton, of Wyoming Territory?" + +Her eyes met mine so completely as well-nigh to daze me with their glory. +There was a quizzical uplift in her frank, arch smile. + +"I am, sir. To Benton City, of Wyoming Territory." + +"You are acquainted there?" I ventured. + +"Yes, sir. I am acquainted there. And you are from Benton?" + +"Oh, no," I assured. "I am from New York State." As if anybody might not +have known. "But I have just purchased my ticket to Benton, and----" I +stammered, "I have made bold to wonder if you would not have the goodness +to tell me something of the place--as to accommodations, and all that. You +don't by any chance happen to live there, do you?" + +"And why not, sir, may I ask?" she challenged. + +I floundered before her query direct, and her bewildering eyes and +lips--all tantalizing. + +"I didn't know--I had no idea--Wyoming Territory has been mentioned in the +newspapers as largely Indian country----" + +"At Benton we are only six days behind New York fashions," she smiled. +"You have not been out over the railroad, then, I suspect. Not to North +Platte? Nor to Cheyenne?" + +"I have never been west of Cincinnati before." + +"You have surely been reading of the railroad? The Pacific Railway between +the East and California?" + +"Yes, indeed. In fact, a friend of mine, named Stephen Clark, nephew of +the Honorable Thurlow Weed formerly of Albany, was killed a year ago by +your Indians while surveying west of the Black Hills. And of course there +have been accounts in the New York papers." + +"You are not on survey service? Or possibly, yes?" + +"No, madam." + +"A pleasure trip to end of track?" + +She evidently was curious, but I was getting accustomed to questions into +private matters. That was the universal license, out here. + +"The pleasure of finding health," I laughed. "I have been advised to seek +a location high and dry." + +"Oh!" She dimpled adorably. "I congratulate you on your choice. You will +make no mistake, then, in trying Benton. I can promise you that it is high +and reasonably dry. And as for accommodations--so far as I have ever heard +anybody is accommodated there with whatever he may wish." She darted a +glance at me; stepped aside as if to leave. + +"I am to understand that it is a city?" I pleaded. + +"Benton? Why, certainly. All the world is flowing to Benton. We gained +three thousand people in two weeks--much to the sorrow of poor old +Cheyenne and Laramie. No doubt there are five thousand people there now, +and all busy. Yes, a young man will find his opportunities in Benton. I +think your choice will please you. Money is plentiful, and so are the +chances to spend it." She bestowed upon me another sparkling glance. "And +since we are both going to Benton I will say 'Au revoir,' sir." She left +me quivering. + +"You do live there?" I besought, after; and received a nod of the golden +head as she entered the sacred Ladies' Waiting Room. + +Until the train should be made up I might only stroll, restless and +strangely buoyed, with that vision of an entrancing fellow traveler +filling my eyes. Summoned in due time by the clamor "Passengers for the +Pacific Railway! All aboard, going west on the Union Pacific!" here amidst +the platform hurly-burly of men, women, children and bundles I had the +satisfaction to sight the black-clad figure of My Lady of the Blue Eyes; +hastening, like the rest, but not unattended--for a brakeman bore her +valise and the conductor her parasol. The scurrying crowd gallantly parted +before her. It as promptly closed upon her wake; try as I might I was +utterly unable to keep in her course. + +Obviously, the train was to be well occupied. Carried on willy-nilly I +mounted the first steps at hand; elbowed on down the aisle until I managed +to squirm aside into a vacant seat. The remaining half was at once +effectually filled by a large, stout, red-faced woman who formed the base +of a pyramid of boxes and parcels. + +My neighbor, who blocked all egress, was going to North Platte, three +hundred miles westward, I speedily found out. And she almost as speedily +learned that I was going to Benton. + +She stared, round-eyed. + +"I reckon you're a gambler, young man," she accused. + +"No, madam. Do I look like a gambler?" + +"You can't tell by looks, young man," she asserted, still suspicious, +"Maybe you're on spec', then, in some other way." + +"I am seeking health in the West, is all, where the climate is high and +dry." + +"My Gawd!" she blurted. "High and dry! You're goin' to the right place. +For all I hear tell, Benton is high enough and dry enough. Are your +eye-teeth peeled, young man?" + +"My eye-teeth?" I repeated. "I hope so, madam. Are eye-teeth necessary in +Benton?" + +"Peeled, and with hair on 'em, young man," she assured. "I guess you're a +pilgrim, ain't you? I see a leetle green in your eye. No, you ain't a +tin-horn. You're some mother's boy, jest gettin' away from the trough. My +sakes! Sick, too, eh? Weak lungs, ain't it? Now you tell me: Why you goin' +to Benton?" + +There was an inviting kindness in her query. Plainly she had a good heart, +large in proportion with her other bulk. + +"It's the farthest point west that I can reach by railroad, and everybody +I have talked with has recommended it as high and dry." + +"So it is," she nodded; and chuckled fatly. "But laws sakes, you don't +need to go that fur. You can as well stop off at North Platte, or Sidney +or Cheyenne. They'll sculp you sure at Benton, unless you watch out mighty +sharp." + +"How so, may I ask?" + +"You're certainly green," she apprised. "Benton's roarin'--and I know what +that means. Didn't North Platte roar? I seen it at its beginnin's. My old +man and me, we were there from the fust, when it started in as the +railroad terminal. My sakes, but them were times! What with the gamblin' +and the shootin' and the drinkin' and the high-cockalorums night and day, +'twasn't no place for innocence. Easy come, easy go, that was the word. I +don't say but what times were good, though. My old man contracted +government freight, and I run an eatin' house for the railroaders, so we +made money. Then when the railroad moved terminus, the wust of the crowd +moved, too, and us others who stayed turned North Platte into a strictly +moral town. But land sakes! North Platte in its roarin' days wasn't no +place for a young man like you. Neither was Julesburg, or Sidney, or +Cheyenne, when they was terminuses. And I hear tell Benton is wuss'n all +rolled into one. Young man, now listen: You stop off at North Platte, +Nebrasky. It's healthy and it's moral, and it's goin' to make Omyha look +like a shinplaster. I'll watch after you. Maybe I can get you a job in my +man's store. You've j'ined some church, I reckon? Now if you're a +Baptist----?" + +But since I had crossed the Missouri something had entered into my blood +which rendered me obstinate against such allurements. For her North +Platte, "strictly moral," and the guardianship of her broad motherly wing +I had no ardent feeling. I was set upon Benton; foolishly, fatuously set. +And in after days--soon to arrive--I bitterly regretted that I had not +yielded to her wholesome, honest counsel. + +Nevertheless this was true, at present: + +"But I have already purchased my ticket to Benton," I objected. "I +understand that I shall find the proper climate there, and suitable +accommodations. And if I don't like it I can move elsewhere. Possibly to +Salt Lake City, or Denver." + +She snorted. + +"In among them Mormons? My Gawd, young man! Where they live in +conkibinage--several women to one man, like a buffler herd or other beasts +of the field? I guess your mother never heard you talk like that. +Denver--well, Denver mightn't be bad, though I do hear tell that folks +nigh starve to death there, what with the Injuns and the snow. Denver +ain't on no railroad, either. If you want health, and to grow up with a +strictly moral community, you throw in with North Platte of Nebrasky, the +great and growin' city of the Plains. I reckon you've heard of North +Platte, even where you come from. You take my word for it, and exchange +your ticket." + +It struck me here that the good woman might not be unbiased in her +fondness for North Platte. To extol the present and future of these +Western towns seemed a fixed habit. During my brief stay in Omaha--yes, on +the way across Illinois and Iowa from Chicago, I had encountered this +peculiar trait. Iowa was rife with aspiring if embryonic metropolises. Now +in Nebraska, Columbus was destined to be the new national capital and the +center of population for the United States; Fremont was lauded as one of +the great railroad junctions of the world; and North Platte, three hundred +miles out into the plains, was proclaimed as the rival of Omaha, and +"strictly moral." + +"I thank you," I replied. "But since I've started for Benton I think I'll +go on. And if I don't like it or it doesn't agree with me you may see me +in North Platte after all." + +She grunted. + +"You can find me at the Bon Ton restaurant. If you get in broke, I'll take +care of you." + +With that she settled herself comfortably. In remarkably short order she +was asleep and snoring. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +TO BETTER ACQUAINTANCE + + +The train had started amidst clangor of bell and the shouts of good-bye +and good-luck from the crowd upon the station platform. We had rolled out +through train yards occupied to the fullest by car shops, round house, +piled-up freight depot, stacks of ties and iron, and tracks covered with +freight cars loaded high to rails, ties, baled hay, all manner and means +of supplies designed, I imagined, for the building operations far in the +West. + +Soon we had left this busy Train Town behind, and were entering the open +country. The landscape was pleasing, but the real sights probably lay +ahead; so I turned from my window to examine my traveling quarters. + +The coach--a new one, built in the company's shops and decidedly upon a +par with the very best coaches of the Eastern roads--was jammed; every +seat taken. I did not see My Lady of the Blue Eyes, nor her equal, but +almost the whole gamut of society was represented: Farmers, merchants, a +few soldiers, plainsmen in boots and flannel shirt-sleeves and long hair +and large hats, with revolvers hanging from the racks above them or from +the seat ends; one or two white-faced gentry in broadcloth and +patent-leather shoes--who I fancied might be gamblers such as now and then +plied their trade upon the Hudson River boats; two Indians in blankets; +Eastern tourists, akin to myself; women and children of country type; and +so forth. What chiefly caught my eye were the carbines racked against the +ends of the coach, for protection in case of Indians or highwaymen, no +doubt. I observed bottles being passed from hand to hand, and tilted en +route. The amount and frequency of the whiskey for consumption in this +country were astonishing. + +My friend snored peacefully. Near noon we halted for dinner at the town of +Fremont, some fifty miles out. She awakened at the general stir, and when +I squeezed by her she immediately fished for a packet of lunch. We had +thirty minutes at Fremont--ample time in which to discuss a very excellent +meal of antelope steaks, prairie fowl, fried potatoes and hot biscuits. +There was promise of buffalo meat farther on, possibly at the next meal +station, Grand Island. + +The time was sufficient, also, to give me another glimpse of My Lady of +the Blue Eyes, who appeared to have been awarded the place of honor +between the conductor and the brakeman, at table. She bestowed upon me a +subtle glance of recognition--with a smile and a slight bow in one; but I +failed to find her upon the station platform after the meal. That I should +obtain other opportunities I did not doubt. Benton was yet thirty hours' +travel. + +All that afternoon we rocked along up the Platte Valley, with the Platte +River--a broad but shallow stream--constantly upon our left. My seat +companion evidently had exhausted her repertoire, for she slumbered at +ease, gradually sinking into a shapeless mass, her flowered bonnet askew. +Several other passengers also were sleeping; due, in part, to the whiskey +bottles. The car was thinning out, I noted, and I might bid in advance for +the chance of obtaining a new location in a certain car ahead. + +The scenery through the car window had merged into a monotony accentuated +by great spaces. As far as Fremont the country along the railroad had been +well settled with farms and unfenced cultivated fields. Now we had issued +into the untrammeled prairies, here and there humanized by an isolated +shack or a lonely traveler by horse or wagon, but in the main a vast +sun-baked dead sea of gentle, silent undulations extending, brownish, +clear to the horizons. The only refreshing sights were the Platte River, +flowing blue and yellow among sand-bars and islands, and the side streams +that we passed. Close at hand the principal tokens of life were the little +flag stations, and the tremendous freight trains side-tracked to give us +the right of way. The widely separated hamlets where we impatiently +stopped were the oases in the desert. + +In the sunset we halted at the supper station, named Grand Island. My +seat neighbor finished her lunch box, and I returned well fortified by +another excellent meal at the not exorbitant price, one dollar and a +quarter. There had been buffalo meat--a poor apology, to my notion, for +good beef. Antelope steak, on the contrary, was of far finer flavor than +the best mutton. + +At Grand Island a number of wretched native Indians drew my attention, for +the time being, from quest of My Lady of the Blue Eyes. However, she was +still escorted by the conductor, who in his brass buttons and officious +air began to irritate me. Such a persistent squire of dames rather +overstepped the duties of his position. Confound the fellow! He surely +would come to the end of his run and his rope before we went much +farther. + +"Now, young man, if you get shet of your foolishness and decide to try +North Platte instead of some fly-by-night town on west," my seat companion +addressed, "you jest follow me when I leave. We get to North Platte after +plumb dark, and you hang onto my skirts right up town, till I land you in +a good place. For if you don't, you're liable to be skinned alive." + +"If I decide upon North Platte I certainly will take advantage of your +kindness," I evaded. Forsooth, she had a mind to kidnap me! + +"Now you're talkin' sensible," she approved. "My sakes alive! Benton!" And +she sniffed. "Why, in Benton they'll snatch you bald-headed 'fore you've +been there an hour." + +She composed herself for another nap. + +"If that pesky brakeman don't remember to wake me, you give me a poke with +your elbow. I wouldn't be carried beyond North Platte for love or money." + +She gurgled, she snored. The sunset was fading from pink to gold--a gold +like somebody's hair; and from gold to lemon which tinted all the prairie +and made it beautiful. Pursuing the sunset we steadily rumbled westward +through the immensity of unbroken space. + +The brakeman came in, lighting the coal-oil lamps. Outside, the twilight +had deepened into dusk. Numerous passengers were making ready for bed: the +men by removing their boots and shoes and coats and galluses and +stretching out; the women by loosening their stays, with significant +clicks and sighs, and laying their heads upon adjacent shoulders or +drooping against seat ends. Babies cried, and were hushed. Final +night-caps were taken, from the prevalent bottles. + +The brakeman, returning, paused and inquired right and left on his way +through. He leaned to me. + +"You for North Platte?" + +"No, sir. Benton, Wyoming Territory." + +"Then you'd better move up to the car ahead. This car stops at North +Platte." + +"What time do we reach North Platte?" + +"Two-thirty in the morning. If you don't want to be waked up, you'd better +change now. You'll find a seat." + +At that I gladly followed him out. He indicated a half-empty seat. + +"This gentleman gets off a bit farther on; then you'll have the seat to +yourself." + +The arrangement was satisfactory, albeit the "gentleman" with whom I +shared appeared, to nose and eyes, rather well soused, as they say; but +fortune had favored me--across the aisle, only a couple of seats beyond, I +glimpsed the top of a golden head, securely low and barricaded in by +luggage. + +Without regrets I abandoned my former seat-mate to her disappointment when +she waked at North Platte. This car was the place for me, set apart by the +salient presence of one person among all the others. That, however, is apt +to differentiate city from city, and even land from land. + +Eventually I, also, slept--at first by fits and starts concomitant with +railway travel by night, then more soundly when the "gentleman," my +comrade in adventure, had been hauled out and deposited elsewhere. I fully +awakened only at daylight. + +The train was rumbling as before. The lamps had been extinguished--the +coach atmosphere was heavy with oil smell and the exhalations of human +beings in all stages of deshabille. But the golden head was there, about +as when last sighted. + +Now it stirred, and erected a little. I felt the unseemliness of sitting +and waiting for her to make her toilet, so I hastily staggered to achieve +my own by aid of the water tank, tin basin, roller towel and small +looking-glass at the rear--substituting my personal comb and brush for the +pair hanging there by cords. + +The coach was the last in the train. I stepped out upon the platform, for +fresh air. + +We were traversing the real plains of the Great American Desert, I judged. +The prairie grasses had shortened to brown stubble interspersed with bare +sandy soil rising here and there into low hills. It was a country without +north, south, east, west, save as denoted by the sun, broadly launching +his first beams of the day. Behind us the single track of double rails +stretched straight away as if clear to the Missouri. The dull blare of the +car wheels was the only token of life, excepting the long-eared rabbits +scampering with erratic high jumps, and the prairie dogs sitting bolt +upright in the sunshine among their hillocked burrows. Of any town there +was no sign. We had cut loose from company. + +Then we thundered by a freight train, loaded with still more ties and +iron, standing upon a siding guarded by the idling trainmen and by an +operator's shack. Smoke was welling from the chimney of the shack--and +that domestic touch gave me a sense of homesickness. Yet I would not have +been home, even for breakfast. This wide realm of nowhere fascinated with +the unknown. + +The train and shack flattened into the landscape. A bevy of antelope +flashed white tails at us as they scudded away. Two motionless figures, +horseback, whom I took to be wild Indians, surveyed us from a distant +sand-hill. Across the river there appeared a fungus of low buildings, +almost indistinguishable, with a glimmer of canvas-topped wagons fringing +it. That was the old emigrant road. + +While I was thus orienting myself in lonesome but not entirely hopeless +fashion the car door opened and closed. I turned my head. The Lady of the +Blue Eyes had joined me. As fresh as the morning she was. + +"Oh! You? I beg your pardon, sir." She apologized, but I felt that the +diffidence was more politic than sincere. + +"You are heartily welcome, madam," I assured. "There is air enough for us +both." + +"The car is suffocating," she said. "However, the worst is over. We shall +not have to spend another such a night. You are still for Benton?" + +"By all means." And I bowed to her. "We are fellow-travelers to the end, I +believe." + +"Yes?" She scanned me. "But I do not like that word: the end. It is not a +popular word, in the West. Certainly not at Benton. For instance----" + +We tore by another freight waiting upon a siding located amidst a wide +débris of tin cans, scattered sheet-iron, stark mud-and-stone chimneys, +and barren spots, resembling the ruins from fire and quake. + +"There is Julesburg." + +"A town?" I gasped. + +"The end." She smiled. "The only inhabitants now are in the station-house +and the graveyard." + +"And the others? Where are they?" + +"Farther west. Many of them in Benton." + +"Indeed? Or in North Platte!" I bantered. + +"North Platte!" She laughed merrily. "Dear me, don't mention North +Platte--not in the same breath with Benton, or even Cheyenne. A town of +hayseeds and dollar-a-day clerks whose height of sport is to go fishing in +the Platte! A young man like you would die of ennui in North Platte. +Julesburg was a good town while it lasted. People _lived_, there; and +moved on because they wished to keep alive. What is life, anyway, but a +constant shuffle of the cards? Oh, I should have laughed to see you in +North Platte." And laugh she did. "You might as well be dead underground +as buried in one of those smug seven-Sabbaths-a-week places." + +Her free speech accorded ill with what I had been accustomed to in +womankind; and yet became her sparkling eyes and general dash. + +"To be dead is past the joking, madam," I reminded. + +"Certainly. To be dead is the end. In Benton we live while we live, and +don't mention the end. So I took exception to your gallantry." She glanced +behind her, through the door window into the car. "Will you," she asked +hastily, "join me in a little appetizer, as they say? You will find it a +superior cognac--and we breakfast shortly, at Sidney." + +From a pocket of her skirt she had extracted a small silver flask, +stoppered with a tiny screw cup. Her face swam before me, in my +astonishment. + +"I rarely drink liquor, madam," I stammered. + +"Nor I. But when traveling--you know. And in high and--dry Benton liquor +is quite a necessity. You will discover that, I am sure. You will not +decline to taste with a lady? Let us drink to better acquaintance, in +Benton." + +"With all my heart, madam," I blurted. + +She poured, while swaying to the motion of the train; passed the cup to me +with a brightly challenging smile. + +"Ladies first. That is the custom, is it not?" I queried. + +"But I am hostess, sir. I do the honors. Pray do you your duty." + +"To our better acquaintance, then, madam," I accepted. "In Benton." + +The cognac swept down my throat like a stab of hot oil. She poured for +herself. + +"A vôtre santé, monsieur--and continued beginnings, no ends." She daintily +tossed it off. + +We had consummated our pledges just in time. The brakeman issued, stumping +noisily and bringing discord into my heaven of blue and gold and +comfortable warmth. + +"Howdy, lady and gent? Breakfast in twenty minutes." He grinned affably at +her; yes, with a trace of familiarity. "Sleep well, madam?" + +"Passably, thank you." Her voice held a certain element of calm +interrogation as if to ask how far he intended to push acquaintance. +"We're nearing Sidney, you say? Then I bid you gentlemen good-morning." + +With a darting glance at him and a parting smile for me she passed inside. +The brakeman leaned for an instant's look ahead, up the track, and +lingered. + +"Friend of yours, is she?" + +"I met her at Omaha, is all," I stiffly informed. + +"Considerable of a dame, eh?" He eyed me. "You're booked for Benton, +too?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Never been there, myself. She's another hell-roarer, they say." + +"Sir!" I remonstrated. + +"Oh, the town, the town," he enlightened. "I'm saying nothing against it, +for that matter--nor against her, either. They're both O. K." + +"You are acquainted with the lady, yourself?" + +"Her? Sure. I know about everybody along the line between Platte and +Cheyenne. Been running on this division ever since it opened." + +"She lives in Benton, though, I understand," I proffered. + +"Why, yes; sure she does. Moved there from Cheyenne." He looked at me +queerly. "Naturally. Ain't that so?" + +"Probably it is," I admitted. "I see no reason to doubt your word." + +"Yep. Followed her man. A heap of people moved from Cheyenne to Benton, by +way of Laramie." + +"She is married, then?" + +"Far as I know. Anyway, she's not single, by a long shot." And he laughed. +"But, Lord, that cuts no great figger. People here don't stand on ceremony +in those matters. Everything's aboveboard. Hands on the table until time +to draw--then draw quick." + +His language was a little too bluff for me. + +"Her husband is in business, no doubt?" + +"Business?" He stared unblinking. "I see." He laid a finger alongside his +nose, and winked wisely. "You bet yuh! And good business. Yes, siree. Are +you on?" + +"Am I on?" I repeated. "On what? The train?" + +"Oh, on your way." + +"To Benton; certainly." + +"Do you see any green in my eye, friend?" he demanded. + +"I do not." + +"Or in the moon, maybe?" + +"No, nor in the moon," I retorted. "But what is all this about?" + +"I'll be damned!" he roundly vouchsafed. And--"You've been having a quiet +little smile with her, eh?" He sniffed suspiciously. "A few swigs of +that'll make a pioneer of you quicker'n alkali. She's favoring you--eh? +Now if she tells you of a system, take my advice and quit while your +hair's long." + +"My hair is my own fashion, sir," I rebuked. "And the lady is not for +discussion between gentlemen, particularly as my acquaintance with her is +only casual. I don't understand your remarks, but if they are insinuations +I shall have to ask you to drop the subject." + +"Tut, tut!" he grinned. "No offense intended, Mister Pilgrim. Well, you're +all right. We can't be young more than once, and if the lady takes you in +tow in Benton you'll have the world by the tail as long as it holds. She +moves with the top-notchers; she's a knowing little piece--no offense. Her +and me are good enough friends. There's no brace game in that deal. I only +aim to give you a steer. Savvy?" And he winked. "You're out to see the +elephant, yourself." + +"I am seeking health, is all," I explained. "My physician had advised a +place in the Far West, high and dry; and Benton is recommended." + +His response was identical with others preceding. + +"High and dry? By golly, then Benton's the ticket. It's sure high, and +sure dry. You bet yuh! High and dry and roaring." + +"Why 'roaring'?" I demanded at last. The word had been puzzling me. + +"Up and coming. Pop goes the weasel, at Benton. Benton? Lord love you! +They say it's got Cheyenne and Laramie backed up a tree, the best days +they ever seen. When you step off at Benton step lively and keep an eye in +the back of your head. There's money to be made at Benton, by the wise +ones. Watch out for ropers and if you get onto a system, play it. There +ain't any limit to money or suckers." + +"I may not qualify as to money," I informed. "But I trust that I am no +sucker." + +"No green in the eye, eh?" he approved. "Anyhow, you have a good lead if +your friend in black cottons to you." Again he winked. "You're not a +bad-looking young feller." He leaned over the side steps, and gazed ahead. +"Sidney in sight. Be there directly. We're hitting twenty miles and better +through the greatest country on earth. The engineer smells breakfast." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +I RISE IN FAVOR + + +With that he went forward. So did I; but the barricade at the end of My +Lady's seat was intact, and I sat down in my own seat, to keep expectant +eye upon her profile--a decided relief amidst that crude mélange of people +in various stages of hasty dressing after a night of cramped postures. + +The brakeman's words, although mysterious in part, had concluded +reassuringly. My Lady, he said, would prove a valuable friend in Benton. A +friend at hand means a great deal to any young man, stranger in a strange +land. + +The conductor came back--a new conductor; stooped familiarly over the +barricade and evidently exchanged pleasantries with her. + +"Sidney! Sidney! Twenty minutes for breakfast!" the brakeman bawled, from +the door. + +There was the general stir. My Lady shot a glance at me, with inviting +eyes, but arose in response to the proffered arm of the conductor, and I +was late. The aisle filled between us as he ushered her on and the train +slowed to grinding of brakes and the tremendous clanging of a gong. + +Of Sidney there was little to see: merely a station-house and the small +Railroad Hotel, with a handful of other buildings forming a single +street--all squatting here near a rock quarry that broke the expanse of +uninhabited brown plains. The air, however, was wonderfully invigorating; +the meal excellent, as usual; and when I emerged from the dining-room, +following closely a black figure crowned with gold, I found her strolling +alone upon the platform. + +Therefore I caught up with her. She faced me with ready smile. + +"You are rather slow in action, sir," she lightly accused. "We might have +breakfasted together; but it was the conductor again, after all." + +"I plead guilty, madam," I admitted. "The trainmen have an advantage over +me, in anticipating events. But the next meal shall be my privilege. We +stop again before reaching Benton?" + +"For dinner, yes; at Cheyenne." + +"And after that you will be home." + +"Home?" she queried, with a little pucker between her brows. + +"Yes. At Benton." + +"Of course." She laughed shortly. "Benton is now home. We have moved so +frequently that I have grown to call almost no place home." + +"I judge then that you are connected, as may happen, with a flexible +business," I hazarded. "If you are in the army I can understand." + +"No, I'm not an army woman; but there is money in following the railroad, +and that is our present life," she said frankly. "A town springs up, you +know, at each terminus, booms as long as the freight and passengers pile +up--and all of a sudden the go-ahead business and professional men pull +stakes for the next terminus as soon as located. That has been the custom, +all the way from North Platte to Benton." + +"Which accounts for your acquaintance along the line. The trainmen seem to +know you." + +"Trainmen and others; oh, yes. It is to be expected. I have no objections +to that. I am quite able to take care of myself, sir." + +We were interrupted. A near-drunken rowdy (upon whom I had kept an uneasy +corner of an eye) had been careening over the platform, a whiskey bottle +protruding from the hip pocket of his sagging jeans, a large revolver +dangling at his thigh, his slouch hat cocked rakishly upon his tousled +head. His language was extremely offensive--he had an ugly mood on, but +nobody interfered. The crowd stood aside--the natives laughing, the +tourists like myself viewing him askance, and several Indians watching +only gravely. + +He sighted us, and staggered in. + +"Howdy?" he uttered, with an oath. "Shay--hello, stranger. Have a smile. +Take two, one for lady. Hic!" And he thrust his bottle at me. + +My Lady drew back. I civilly declined the "smile." + +"Thank you. I do not drink." + +"What?" He stared blearily. His tone stiffened. "The hell you say. Too +tony, eh? Too--'ic! Have a smile, I ask you, one gent to 'nother. Have a +smile, you (unmentionable) pilgrim; fer if you don't----" + +"Train's starting, Jim," she interposed sharply. "If you want to get +aboard you'd better hurry." + +The engine tooted, the bell was ringing, the passengers were hurrying, +incited by the conductor's shout: "All 'board!" + +Without another word she tripped for the car steps. I gave the fellow one +firm look as he stood stupidly scratching his thatch as if to harrow his +ideas; and perforce left him. By the cheers he undoubtedly made in the +same direction. I was barely in time myself. The train moved as I planted +foot upon the steps of the nearest car--the foremost of the two. The train +continued; halted again abruptly, while cheers rang riotous; and when I +crossed the passageway between this car and ours the conductor and +brakeman were hauling the tipsy Jim into safety. + +My Lady was ensconced. + +"Did they get him?" she inquired, when I paused. + +"By the scruff of the neck. The drunken fellow, you mean." + +"Yes; Jim." + +"You know him?" + +"He's from Benton. I suppose he's been down here on a little pasear, as +they say." + +"If you think he'll annoy you----?" I made bold to suggest, for I greatly +coveted the half of her seat. + +"Oh, I'm not afraid of Jim. But yes, do sit down. You can put these things +back in your seat. Then we can talk." + +I had no more than settled triumphantly, when the brakeman ambled through, +his face in a broad grin. He also paused, to perch upon the seat end, his +arm extended friendlily along the back. + +"Well, we got him corralled," he proclaimed needlessly. "That t'rantular +juice nigh broke his neck for him." + +"Did you take his bottle away, Jerry?" she asked. + +"Sure thing. He'll be peaceable directly. Soused to the guards. Reckon +he's inclined to be a trifle ugly when he's on a tear, ain't he? They'd +shipped him out of Benton on a down train. Now he's going back up." + +"He's safe, you think?" + +"Sewed tight. He'll sleep it off and be ready for night." The brakeman +winked at her. "You needn't fear. He'll be on deck, right side up with +care." + +"I've told this gentleman that I'm not afraid," she answered quickly. + +"Of course. And he knows what's best for him, himself." The brakeman +slapped me on the shoulder and good-naturedly straightened. "So does this +young gentleman, I rather suspicion. I can see his fortune's made. You +bet, if he works it right. I told him if you cottoned to him----" + +"Now you're talking too much, Jerry," she reproved. "The gentleman and I +are only traveling acquaintances." + +"Yes, ma'am. To Benton. Let 'er roar. Cheyenne's the closest I can get, +myself, and Cheyenne's a dead one--blowed up, busted worse'n a galvanized +Yank with a pocket full o' Confed wall-paper." He yawned. "Guess I'll take +forty winks. Was up all night, and a man can stand jest so much, Injuns or +no Injuns." + +"Did you expect to meet with Indians, sir, along the route?" I asked. + +"Hell, yes. Always expect to meet 'em between Kearney and Julesburg. It's +about time they were wrecking another train. Well, so long. Be good to +each other." With this parting piece of impertinence he stumped out. + +"A friendly individual, evidently," I hazarded, to tide her over her +possible embarrassment. + +Her laugh assured me that she was not embarrassed at all, which proved her +good sense and elevated her even farther in my esteem. + +"Oh, Jerry's all right. I don't mind Jerry, except that his tongue is +hung in the middle. He probably has been telling you some tall yarns?" + +"He? No, I don't think so. He may have tried it, but his Western +expressions are beyond me as yet. In fact, what he was driving at on the +rear platform I haven't the slightest idea." + +"Driving at? In what way, sir?" + +"He referred to the green in his eye and in the moon, as I recall; and to +a mysterious 'system'; and gratuitously offered me a 'steer.'" + +Her face hardened remarkably, so that her chin set as if tautened by iron +bands. Those eyes glinted with real menace. + +"He did, did he? Along that line of talk! The clapper-jaw! He's altogether +too free." She surveyed me keenly. "And naturally you couldn't understand +such lingo." + +"I was not curious enough to try, my dear madam. He talked rather at +random; likely enjoyed bantering me. But," I hastily placated in his +behalf, "he recommended Benton as a lively place, and you as a friend of +value in case that you honored me with your patronage." + +"My patronage, for you?" she exclaimed. "Indeed? To what extent? Are you +going into business, too? As one of--us?" + +"If I should become a Bentonite, as I hope," I gallantly replied, "then of +course I should look to permanent investment of some nature. And before my +traveling funds run out I shall be glad of light employment. The brakeman +gave me to understand merely that by your kindly interest you might be +disposed to assist me." + +"Oh!" Her face lightened. "I dare say Jerry means well. But when you spoke +of 'patronage'---- That is a current term of certain import along the +railroad." She leaned to me; a glow emanated from her. "Tell me of +yourself. You have red blood? Do you ever game? For if you are not afraid +to test your luck and back it, there is money to be made very easily at +Benton, and in a genteel way." She smiled bewitchingly. "Or are you a +Quaker, to whom life is deadly serious?" + +"No Quaker, madam." How could I respond otherwise to that pair of dancing +blue eyes, to that pair of derisive lips? "As for gaming--if you mean +cards, why, I have played at piquet and romp, in a social way, for small +stakes; and my father brought Old Sledge back from the army, to the family +table." + +"You are lucky. I can see it," she alleged. + +"I am, on this journey," I asserted. + +She blushed. + +"Well said, sir. And if you choose to make use of your luck, in Benton, by +all means----" + +Whether she would have shaped her import clearly I did not know. There was +a commotion in the forward part of the car. That same drunken wretch Jim +had appeared; his bottle (somehow restored to him) in hand, his hat +pushed back from his flushed greasy forehead. + +"Have a smile, ladies an' gents," he was bellowing thickly. "Hooray! Have +a smile on me. Great an' gloryus 'casion--'ic! Ever'body smile. Drink to +op'nin' gloryus Pac'fic--'ic--Railway. Thash it. Hooray!" Thus he came +reeling down the aisle, thrusting his bottle right and left, to be denied +with shrinkings or with bluff excuses. + +It seemed inevitable that he should reach us. I heard My Lady utter a +little gasp, as she sat more erect; and here he was, espying us readily +enough with that uncanny precision of a drunken man, his bottle to the +fore. + +"Have a smile, you two. Wouldn't smile at station; gotto smile now. Yep. +'Ic! 'Ray for Benton! All goin' to Benton. Lesh be good fellers." + +"You go back to your seat, Jim," she ordered tensely. "Go back, if you +know what's good for you." + +"Whash that? Who your dog last year? Shay! You can't come no highty-tighty +over me. Who your new friend? Shay!" He reeled and gripped the seat, +flooding me with his vile breath. "By Gawd, I got the dead-wood on you, +you----!" and he had loosed such a torrent of low epithets that they are +inconceivable. + +"For that I'd kill you in any other place, Jim," she said. "You know I'm +not afraid of you. Now get, you wolf!" Her voice snapped like a whip-lash +at the close; she had made sudden movement of hand--it was extended and I +saw almost under my nose the smallest pistol imaginable; nickeled, of two +barrels, and not above three inches long; projecting from her palm, the +twin hammers cocked; and it was as steady as a die. + +Assuredly My Lady did know how to take care of herself. Still, that was +not necessary now. + +"No!" I warned. "No matter. I'll tend to him." + +The fellow's face had convulsed with a snarl of redder rage, his mouth +opened as if for fresh abuse--and half rising I landed upon it with my +fist. + +"Go where you belong, you drunken whelp!" + +I had struck and spoken at the same time, with a rush of wrath that +surprised me; and the result surprised me more, for while I was not +conscious of having exerted much force he toppled backward clear across +the aisle, crashed down in a heap under the opposite seat. His bottle +shattered against the ceiling. The whiskey spattered in a sickening shower +over the alarmed passengers. + +"Look out! Look out!" she cried, starting quickly. Up he scrambled, +cursing, and wrenching at his revolver. I sprang to smother him, but there +was a flurry, a chorus of shouts, men leaped between us, the brakeman and +conductor both had arrived, in a jiffy he was being hustled forward, +swearing and blubbering. And I sank back, breathless, a degree ashamed, a +degree rather satisfied with my action and my barked knuckles. + +Congratulations echoed dully. + +"The right spirit!" + +"That'll l'arn him to insult a lady." + +"You sartinly rattled him up, stranger. Squar' on the twitter!" + +"Shake, Mister." + +"For a pilgrim you're consider'ble of a hoss." + +"If he'd drawn you'd have give him a pill, I reckon, lady. I know yore +kind. But he won't bother you ag'in; not he." + +"Oh, what a terrible scene!" + +To all this I paid scant attention. I heard her, as she sat composedly, +scarcely panting. The little pistol had disappeared. + +"The play has been made, ladies and gentlemen," she said. And to me: +"Thank you. Yes," she continued, with a flash of lucent eyes and a +dimpling smile, "Jim has lost his whiskey and has a chance to sober up. +He'll have forgotten all about this before we reach Benton. But I thank +you for your promptness." + +"I didn't want you to shoot him," I stammered. "I was quite able to tend +to him myself. Your pistol is loaded?" + +"To be sure it is." And she laughed gaily. Her lips tightened, her eyes +darkened. "And I'd kill him like a dog if he presumed farther. In this +country we women protect ourselves from insult. I always carry my +derringer, sir." + +The brakeman returned with a broom, to sweep up the chips of broken +bottle. He grinned at us. + +"There's no wind in him now," he communicated. "Peaceful as a baby. We +took his gun off him. I'll pass the word ahead to keep him safe, on from +Cheyenne." + +"Please do, Jerry," she bade. "I'd prefer to have no more trouble with +him, for he might not come out so easily next time. He knows that." + +"Surely ought to, by golly," the brakeman agreed roundly. "And he ought to +know you go heeled. But that there tanglefoot went to his head. Looks now +as if he'd been kicked in the face by a mule. Haw haw! No offense, friend. +You got me plumb buffaloed with that fivespot o' yourn." And finishing his +job he retired with dust-pan and broom. + +"You're going to do well in Benton," she said suddenly, to me, with a nod. +"I regret this scene--I couldn't help it, though, of course. When Jim's +sober he has sense, and never tries to be familiar." + +She was amazingly cool under the epithets that he had applied. I admired +her for that as she gazed at me pleadingly. + +"A drunken man is not responsible for words or actions, although he should +be made so," I consoled her. "Possibly I should not have struck him. In +the Far West you may be more accustomed to these episodes than we are in +the East." + +"I don't know. There is a limit. You did right. I thank you heartily. +Still"--and she mused--"you can't always depend on your fists alone. You +carry no weapon, neither knife nor gun?" + +"I never have needed either," said I. "My teaching has been that a man +should be able to rely upon his fists." + +"Then you'd better get 'heeled,' as we say, when you reach Benton. Fists +are a short-range weapon. The men generally wear a gun somewhere. It is +the custom." + +"And the women, too, if I may judge," I smiled. + +"Some of us. Yes," she repeated, "you're likely to do well, out here, if +you'll permit me to advise you a little." + +"Under your tutelage I am sure I shall do well," I accepted. "I may call +upon you in Benton? If you will favor me with your address----?" + +"My address?" She searched my face in manner startled. "You'll have no +difficulty finding me; not in Benton. But I'll make an appointment with +you in event"--and she smiled archly--"you are not afraid of strange +women." + +"I have been taught to respect women, madam," said I. "And my respect is +being strengthened." + +"Oh!" I seemed to have pleased her. "You have been carefully brought up, +sir." + +"To fear God, respect woman, and act the man as long as I breathe," I +asserted. "My mother is a saint, my father a nobleman, and what I may have +learned from them is to their credit." + +"That may go excellently in the East," she answered. "But we in the West +favor the Persian maxim--to ride, to shoot, and to tell the truth. With +those three qualities even a tenderfoot can establish himself." + +"Whether I can ride and shoot sufficient for the purpose, time will show," +I retorted. "At least," and I endeavored to speak with proper emphasis, +"you hear the truth when I say that I anticipate much pleasure as well as +renewed health, in Benton." + +"Were we by ourselves we would seal the future in another 'smile' +together," she slyly promised. "Unless that might shock you." + +"I am ready to fall in with the customs of the country," I assured. "I +certainly am not averse to smiles, when fittingly proffered." + +So we exchanged fancies while the train rolled over a track remarkable for +its smoothness and leading ever onward across the vast, empty plains bare +save for the low shrubs called sage-brush, and rising here and there into +long swells and abrupt sandstone pinnacles. + +We stopped near noon at the town of Cheyenne, in Wyoming Territory. +Cheyenne, once boasting the title (I was told) "The Magic City of the +Plains," was located upon a dreary flatness, although from it one might +see, far southwest, the actual Rocky Mountains in Colorado Territory, +looking, at this distance of one hundred miles, like low dark clouds. The +up grade in the west promised that we should soon cross over their +northern flanks, of the Black Hills. + +Last winter, Cheyenne, I was given to understand, had ten thousand +inhabitants; but the majority had followed the railroad west, so that now +there remained only some fifteen hundred. After dinner we, too, went +west. + +We overcame the Black Hills Mountains about two o'clock, having climbed to +the top with considerable puffing of the engine but otherwise almost +imperceptibly to the passengers. When we were halted, upon the crown, at +Sherman Station, to permit us to alight and see for ourselves, I scarcely +might believe that we were more than eight thousand feet in air. There was +nothing to indicate, except some little difficulty of breath; not so much +as I had feared when in Cheyenne, whose six thousand feet gave me a +slightly giddy sensation. + +My Lady moved freely, being accustomed to the rarity; and she assured me +that although Benton was seven thousand feet I would soon grow wonted to +the atmosphere. The habitués of this country made light of the spot; the +strangers on tour picked flowers and gathered rocks as mementoes of the +"Crest of the Continent"--which was not a crest but rather a level +plateau, wind-swept and chilly while sunny. Then from this Sherman Summit +of the Black Hills of Wyoming the train swept down by its own momentum +from gravity, for the farther side. + +The fellow Jim had not emerged, as yet, much to my relief. The scenery was +increasing in grandeur and interest, and the play of my charming companion +would have transformed the most prosaic of journeys into a trip through +Paradise. + +I hardly noted the town named Laramie City, at the western base of the +Black Hills; and was indeed annoyed by the vendors hawking what they +termed "mountain gems" through the train. Laramie, according to My Lady, +also once had been, as she styled it, "a live town," but had deceased in +favor of Benton. From Laramie we whirled northwest, through a broad valley +enlivened by countless antelope scouring over the grasses; thence we +issued into a wilder, rougher country, skirting more mountains very gloomy +in aspect. + +However, of the panorama outside I took but casual glances; the phenomenon +of blue and gold so close at hand was all engrossing, and my heart beat +high with youth and romance. Our passage was astonishingly short, but the +sun was near to setting beyond distant peaks when by the landmarks that +she knew we were approaching Benton at last. + +We crossed a river--the Platte, again, even away in here; briefly paused +at a military post, and entered upon a stretch of sun-baked, +reddish-white, dusty desert utterly devoid of vegetation. + +There was a significant bustle in the car, among the travel-worn +occupants. The air was choking with the dust swirled through every crevice +by the stir of the wheels--already mobile as it was from the efforts of +the teams that we passed, of six and eight horses tugging heavy wagons. +Plainly we were within striking distance of some focus of human energies. + +"Benton! Benton in five minutes. End o' track," the brakeman shouted. + +"My valise, please." + +I brought it. The conductor, who like the other officials knew My Lady, +pushed through to us and laid hand upon it. + +"I'll see you out," he announced. "Come ahead." + +"Pardon. That shall be my privilege," I interposed. But she quickly +denied. + +"No, please. The conductor is an old friend. I shall need no other +help--I'm perfectly at home. You can look out for yourself." + +"But I shall see you again--and where? I don't know your address; fact is, +I'm even ignorant of your name," I pleaded desperately. + +"How stupid of me." And she spoke fast and low, over her shoulder. +"To-night, then, at the Big Tent. Remember." + +I pressed after. + +"The Big Tent! Shall I inquire there? And for whom?" + +"You'll not fail to see me. Everybody knows the Big Tent, everybody goes +there. So au revoir." + +She was swallowed in the wake of the conductor, and I fain must gather my +own belongings before following. The Big Tent, she said? I had not +misunderstood; and I puzzled over the address, which impinged as rather +bizarre, whether in West or East. + +We stopped with a jerk, amidst a babel of cries. + +"Benton! All out!" Out we stumbled. Here I was, at rainbow's end. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +I MEET FRIENDS + + +What shall I say of a young man like myself, fresh from the green East of +New York and the Hudson River, landed expectant as just aroused from a +dream of rare beauty, at this Benton City, Wyoming Territory? The dust, as +fine as powder and as white, but shot through with the crimson of sunset, +hung like a fog, amidst which swelled a deafening clamor from figures +rushing hither and thither about the platform like half-world shades. A +score of voices dinned into my ears as two score hands grabbed at my +valise and shoved me and dragged me. + +"The Desert Hotel. Best in the West. This way, sir." + +"Buffalo Hump Corral! The Buffalo Hump! Free drinks at the Buffalo Hump." + +"Vamos, all o' you. Leave the gent to me. I've had him before. Mike's +Place for you, eh? Come along." + +"The Widow's Café! That's yore grub pile, gent. All you can eat for two +bits." + +A deep voice boomed, stunning me. + +"The Queen, the Queen! Bath for every room. Individual towels. The Queen, +the Queen, she's clean, she's clean." + +It was a magnificent bass, full toned as an organ, issuing, likewise as +out of a reed, from a swart dwarf scarcely higher than my waist. The word +"bath," with the promise of "individual towels," won me over. Something +must be done, anyway, to get rid of these importunate runners. Thereupon I +acquiesced, "All right, my man. The Queen," and surrendering my bag to his +hairy paw I trudged by his guidance. The solicitations instantly ceased as +if in agreement with some code. + +We left the station platform and went ploughing up a street over shoetops +with the impalpable dust and denoted by tents and white-coated shacks +sparsely bordering. The air was breezeless and suffocatingly loaded with +that dust not yet deposited. The noises as from a great city swelled +strident: shouts, hammerings, laughter, rumble of vehicles, cracking of +lashes, barkings of dogs innumerable--betokening a thriving mart of +industry. But although pedestrians streamed to and fro, the men in motley +of complexions and costumes, the women, some of them fashionably dressed, +with skirts eddying furiously; and wagons rolled, horses cantered, and +from right and left merchants and hawksters seemed to be calling their +wares, of city itself I could see only the veriest husk. + +The majority of the buildings were mere canvas-faced up for a few feet, +perhaps, with sheet iron or flimsy boards; interspersed there were a few +wooden structures, rough and unpainted; and whereas several of the +housings were large, none was more than two stories--and when now and +again I thought that I had glimpsed a substantial stone front a closer +inspection told me that the stones were imitation, forming a veneer of the +sheet iron or of stenciled pine. Indeed, not a few of the upper stories, +viewed from an unfavorable angle, proved to be only thin parapets +upstanding for a pretense of well-being. Behind them, nothing at all! + +In the confusion of that which I took to be the main street because of the +stores and piles of goods and the medley of signs, what with the hubbub +from the many barkers for saloons and gambling games, the constant dodging +among the pedestrians, vehicles and horses and dogs, in a thoroughfare +that was innocent of sidewalk, I really had scant opportunity to gaze; +certainly no opportunity as yet to get my bearings. My squat guide +shuttled aside; a group of loafers gave us passage, with sundry stares at +me and quips for him; and I was ushered into a widely-open tent-building +whose canvas sign depending above a narrow veranda declared: "The Queen +Hotel. Beds $3. Meals $1 each." + +Now as whitely powdered as any of the natives I stumbled across a single +large room bordered at one side by a bar and a number of small tables (all +well patronized), and was brought up at the counter, under the alert eyes +of a clerk coatless, silk-shirted, diamond-scarfed, pomaded and +slick-haired, waiting with register turned and pen extended. + +My gnome heavily dropped my bag. + +"Gent for you," he presented. + +"I wish a room and bath," I said, as I signed. + +"Bath is occupied. I'll put you down, Mr.----" and he glanced at the +signature. "Four dollars and four bits, please. Show the gentleman to +Number Six, Shorty. That drummer's gone, isn't he?" + +"You bet." + +"The bath is occupied?" I expostulated. "How so? I wish a private bath." + +"Private? Yes, sir. All you've got to do is to close the door while you're +in. Nobody'll disturb you. But there are parties ahead of you. First come, +first served." + +I persisted. + +"Your runner--this gentleman, if I am not mistaken (and I indicated the +gnome, who grinned from dusty face), distinctly said 'A bath for every +room.'" + +Bystanders had pushed nearer, to examine the register and then me. They +laughed--nudged one another. Evidently I had a trace of green in my eye. + +"Quite right, sir," the clerk assented. "So there is. A bath for every +room and the best bath in town. Entirely private; fresh towel supplied. +Only one dollar and four bits. That, with lodging, makes four dollars and +a half. If you please, sir." + +"In advance?" I remonstrated--the bath charge alone being monstrous. + +"I see you're from the East. Yes, sir; we have to charge transients in +advance. That is the rule, sir. You stay in Benton City for some time?" + +"I am undetermined." + +"Of course, sir. Your own affair. Yes, sir. But we shall hope to make +Benton pleasant for you. The greatest city in the West. Anything you want +for pleasure or business you'll find right here." + +"The greatest city in the West--pleasure or business!" A bitter wave of +homesickness welled into my throat as, conscious of the enveloping dust, +the utter shams, the tawdriness, the alien unsympathetic onlookers, the +suave but incisive manner of the clerk, the sense of having been "done" +and through my own fault, I peeled a greenback from the folded packet in +my purse and handed it over. Rather foolishly I intended that this display +of funds should rebuke the finicky clerk; but he accepted without comment +and sought for the change from the twenty. + +"And how is old New York, suh?" + +A hearty, florid, heavy-faced man, with singularly protruding fishy eyes +and a tobacco-stained yellowish goatee underneath a loosely dropping lower +lip, had stepped forward, his pudgy hand hospitably outstretched to me: a +man in wide-brimmed dusty black hat, frayed and dusty but, in spots, +shiny, black broadcloth frock coat spattered down the lapels, exceedingly +soiled collar and shirt front and greasy flowing tie, and trousers tucked +into cowhide boots. + +I grasped the hand wonderingly. It enclosed mine with a soft pulpy +squeeze; and lingered. + +"As usual, when I last saw it, sir," I responded. "But I am from Albany." + +"Of course. Albany, the capital, a city to be proud of, suh. I welcome +you, suh, to our new West, as a fellow-citizen." + +"You are from Albany?" I exclaimed. + +"Bohn and raised right near there; been there many a time. Yes, suh. From +the grand old Empire State, like yourself, suh, and without apologies. +Whenever I meet with a New York State man I cotton to him." + +"Have I your name, sir?" I inquired. "You know of my family, perhaps." + +"Colonel Jacob B. Sunderson, suh, at your service. Your family name is +familiar to me, suh. I hark back to it and to the grand old State with +pleasure. Doubtless I have seen you befoh, sur. Doubtless in the City--at +Johnny Chamberlain's? Yes?" His fishy eyes beamed upon me, and his breath +smelled strongly of liquor. "Or the Astor? I shall remember. Meanwhile, +suh, permit me to do the honors. First, will you have a drink? This way, +suh. I am partial to a brand particularly to be recommended for clearing +this damnable dust from one's throat." + +"Thank you, sir, but I prefer to tidy my person, first," I suggested. + +"Number Six for the gentleman," announced the clerk, returning to me my +change from the bill. I stuffed it into my pocket--the Colonel's singular +eyes followed it with uncomfortable interest. The gnome picked up my bag, +but was interrupted by my new friend. + +"The privilege of showing the gentleman to his quarters and putting him at +home shall be mine." + +"All right, Colonel," the clerk carelessly consented. "Number Six." + +"And my trunk. I have a trunk at the depot," I informed. + +"The boy will tend to it." + +I gave the gnome my check. + +"And my bath?" I pursued. + +"You will be notified, sir. There are only five ahead of you, and one +gentleman now in. Your turn will come in about two hours." + +"This way, suh. Kindly follow me," bade the Colonel. As he strode before, +slightly listed by the weight of the bag in his left hand, I remarked a +peculiar bulge elevating the portly contour of his right coat-skirt. + +We ascended a flight of rude stairs which quivered to our tread, proceeded +down a canvas-lined corridor set at regular intervals on either hand with +numbered deal doors, some open to reveal disorderly interiors; and with +"Here you are, suh," I was importantly bowed into Number Six. + +We were not to be alone. There were three double beds: one well rumpled as +if just vacated; one (the middle) tenanted by a frowsy headed, whiskered +man asleep in shirt-sleeves and revolver and boots; the third, at the +other end, recently made up by having its blanket covering hastily thrown +against a distinctly dirty pillow. + +"Your bed yonduh, suh, I reckon," prompted the Colonel (whose accents did +not smack of New York at all), depositing my bag with a grunt of relief. +"Now, suh, as you say, you desire to freshen the outer man after your +journey. With your permission I will await your pleasure, suh; and your +toilet being completed we will freshen the inner man also with a glass or +two of rare good likker." + +I gazed about, sickened. Item, three beds; item, one kitchen chair; item, +one unpainted board washstand, supporting a tin basin, a cake of soap, a +tin ewer, with a dingy towel hanging from a nail under a cracked mirror +and over a tin slop-bucket; item, three spittoons, one beside each bed; +item, a row of nails in a wooden strip, plainly for wardrobe purposes; +item, one window, with broken pane. + +The board floor was bare and creaky, the partition walls were of +once-white, stained muslin through which sifted unrebuked a mixture of +sounds not thoroughly agreeable. + +The Colonel had seated himself upon a bed; the bulge underneath his skirts +jutted more pronouncedly, and had the outlines of a revolver butt. + +"But surely I can get a room to myself," I stammered. "The clerk mistakes +me. This won't do at all." + +"You are having the best in the house, suh," asserted the Colonel, with +expansive wave of his thick hand. He spat accurately into the convenient +spittoon. "It is a front room, suh. Number Six is known as very choice, +and I congratulate you, suh. I myself will see to it that you shall have +your bed to yourself, if you entertain objections to doubling up. We are, +suh, a trifle crowded in Benton City, just at present, owing to the +unprecedented influx of new citizens. You must remember, suh, that we are +less than one month old, and we are accommodating from three to five +thousand people." + +"Is this the best hotel?" I demanded. + +"It is so reckoned, suh. There are other hostelries, and I do not desire, +suh, to draw invidious comparisons, their proprietors being friends of +mine. But I will go so far as to say that the Queen caters only to the +élite, suh, and its patronage is gilt edge." + +I stepped to the window, the lower sash of which was up, and gazed +out--down into that dust-fogged, noisy, turbulent main street, of floury +human beings and grime-smeared beasts almost within touch, boiling about +through the narrow lane between the placarded makeshift structures. I +lifted my smarting eyes, and across the hot sheet-iron roofs I saw the +country south--a white-blotched reddish desert stretching on, desolate, +lifeless under the sunset, to a range of stark hills black against the +glow. + +"There are no private rooms, then?" I asked, choking with a gulp of +despair. + +"You are perfectly private right here, suh," assured the Colonel. "You may +strip to the hide or you may sleep with your boots on, and no questions +asked. Gener'ly speaking, gentlemen prefer to retain a layer of artificial +covering--but you ain't troubled much with the bugs, are you, Bill?" + +He leveled this query at the frowsy, whiskered man, who had awakened and +was blinking contentedly. + +"I'm too alkalied, I reckon," Bill responded. "Varmints will leave me any +time when there's fresh bait handy. That's why I likes to double up. That +there Saint Louee drummer carried off most of 'em from this gent's bed, so +he's safe." + +"You are again to be congratulated, suh," addressed the Colonel, to me. +"Allow me to interdeuce you. Shake hands with my friend Mr. Bill Brady. +Bill, I present to you a fellow-citizen of mine from grand old New York +State." + +The frowsy man struggled up, shifted his revolver so as not to sit on it, +and extended his hand. + +"Proud to make yore acquaintance, sir. Any friend of the Colonel's is a +friend o' mine." + +"We will likker up directly," the Colonel informed. "But fust the +gentleman desires to attend to his person. Mr. Brady, suh," he continued, +for my benefit, "is one of our leading citizens, being proprietor of--what +is it now, Bill?" + +"Wall," said Mr. Brady, "I've pulled out o' the Last Chance and I'm on +spec'. The Last Chance got a leetle too much on the brace for healthy +play; and when that son of a gun of a miner from South Pass City shot it +up, I quit." + +"Naturally," conceded the Colonel. "Mr. Brady," he explained, "has been +one of our most distinguished bankers, but he has retired from that +industry and is considering other investments." + +"The bath-room? Where is it, gentlemen?" I ventured. + +"If you will step outside the door, suh, you can hear the splashing down +the hall. It is the custom, however, foh gentlemen at tub to keep the +bath-room door closed, in case of ladies promenading. You will have time +foh your preliminary toilet and foh a little refreshment and a pasear in +town. I judge, with five ahead of you and one in, the clerk was mighty +near right when he said about two hours. That allows twenty minutes to +each gentleman, which is the limit. A gentleman who requires more than +twenty minutes to insure his respectability, suh, is too dirty foh such +accommodations. He should resort to the river. Ain't that so, Bill?" + +"Perfectly correct, Colonel. I kin take an all-over, myself, in fifteen, +whenever it's healthy." + +"But a dollar and a half for a twenty minutes' bath in a public tub is +rather steep, seems to me," said I, as I removed my coat and opened my +bag. + +"Not so, suh, if I may question your judgment," the Colonel reproved. "The +tub, suh, is private to the person in it. He is never intruded upon unless +he hawgs his time or the water disagrees with him. The water, suh, is +hauled from the river by a toilsome journey of three miles. You +understand, suh, that this great and growing city is founded upon the +sheer face of the Red Desert, where the railroad stopped--the river being +occupied by a Government reservation named Fort Steele. The +Government--the United States Government, suh--having corralled the river +where the railroad crosses, until we procure a nearer supply by artesian +wells or by laying a pipe line we are public spirited enough to haul our +water bodily, for ablution purposes, at ten dollars the barrel, or ten +cents, one dime, the bucket. A bath, suh, uses up consider'ble water, even +if at a slight reduction you are privileged to double up with another +gentleman." + +I shuddered at the thought of thus "doubling up." God, how my stomach sank +and my gorge rose as I rummaged through that bag, and with my toilet +articles in hand faced the washstand! + +They two intently watched my operations; the Colonel craned to peer into +my valise--and presently I might interpret his curiosity. + +"The prime old bourbon served at the fust-class New York bars still +maintains its reputation, I dare hope, suh?" he interrogated. + +"I cannot say, I'm sure," I replied. + +"No, suh," he agreed. "Doubtless you are partial to your own stock. That +bottle which I see doesn't happen to be a sample of your favorite +preservative?" + +"That?" I retorted. "It is toilet water. I am sorry to say I have no +liquor with me." + +"The deficiency will soon be forgotten, suh," the Colonel bravely +consoled. "Bill, we shall have to personally conduct him and provide him +with the proper entertainment." + +"What is your special line o' business, if you don't mind my axin'?" Bill +invited. + +"I am out here for my health, at present," said I, vainly hunting a clean +spot on the towel. "I have been advised by my physician to seek a place in +the Far West that is high and dry. Benton"--and I laughed miserably, +"certainly is dry." For now I began to appreciate the frankly affirmative +responses to my previous confessions. "And high, judging by the rates." + +"Healthily dry, suh, in the matter of water," the Colonel approved. "We +are not cursed by the humidity of New York State, grand old State that she +is. Foh those who require water, there is the Platte only three miles +distant. The nearer proximity of water we consider a detriment to the +robustness of a community. Our rainy weather is toler'bly infrequent. The +last spell we had--lemme see. There was a brief shower, scurcely enough to +sanction a parasol by a lady, last May, warn't it, Bill? When we was +camped at Rawlins' Springs, shooting antelope." + +"Some'ers about that time. But didn't last long--not more'n two minutes," +Bill responded. + +"As foh fluids demanded by the human system, we are abundantly blessed, +suh. There is scurcely any popular brand that you can't get in Benton, and +I hold that we have the most skillful mixtologists in history. There are +some who are artists; artists, suh. But mainly we prefer our likker +straight." + +"We're high, too," Bill put in. "Well over seven thousand feet, 'cordin' +to them railroad engineers." + +"Yes, suh, you are a mile and more nearer Heaven here in Benton than you +were when beside the noble Hudson," supplemented the Colonel. "And the +prices of living are reasonable; foh money, suh, is cheap and ready to +hand. No drink is less than two bits, and a man won't tote a match across +a street foh less than a drink. Money grows, suh, foh the picking. Our +merchants are clearing thirty thousand dollars a month, and the +professional gentleman who tries to limit his game is considered a +low-down tin-horn. Yes, suh. This is the greatest terminal of the greatest +railroad in the known world. It has Omaha, No'th Platte, Cheyenne beat to +a frazzle. You cannot fail to prosper." They had been critically watching +me wash and rearrange my clothing. "You are not heeled, suh, I see?" + +"Heeled?" I repeated. + +"Equipped with a shooting-iron, suh. Or do you intend to remedy that +deficiency also?" + +"I have not been in the habit of carrying arms." + +"'Most everybody packs a gun or a bowie," Bill remarked. "Gents and ladies +both. But there's no law ag'in not." + +I had finished my meager toilet, and was glad, for the espionage had been +annoying. + +"Now I am at your service during a short period, gentlemen," I announced. +"Later I have an engagement, and shall ask to be excused." + +The Colonel arose with alacrity. Bill stood, and seized his hat hanging at +the head of the bed. + +"A little liquid refreshment is in order fust, I reckon," quoth the +Colonel. "I claim the privilege, of course. And after that--you have +sporting blood, suh? You will desire to take a turn or two foh the honor +of the Empire State?" + +The inference was not quite clear. To develop it I replied guardedly, +albeit unwilling to pose as a milksop. + +"I assuredly am not averse to any legitimate amusement." + +"That's it," Bill commended. "Nobody is, who has red in him; and a fellow +kin see you've cut yore eye-teeth. What might you prefer, in line of a +pass-the-time, on spec'?" + +"What is there, if you please?" I encouraged. + +He and the Colonel gravely contemplated each other. Bill scratched his +head, and slowly closed one eye. + +"There's a good open game of stud at the North Star," he proffered. "I kin +get the gentleman a seat. No limit." + +"Maybe our friend's luck don't run to stud," hazarded the Colonel. "Stud +exacts the powers of concentration, like faro." And he also closed one +eye. "It's rather early in the evening foh close quarters. Are you +particularly partial to the tiger or the cases, suh?" he queried of me. +"Or would you be able to secure transient happiness in short games, foh a +starter, while we move along, like a bee from flower to flower, gathering +his honey?" + +"If you are referring to card gambling, sir," I answered, "you have chosen +a poor companion. But I do not intend to be a spoil sport, and I shall be +glad to have you show me whatever you think worth while in the city, so +far as I have the leisure." + +"That's it, that's it, suh." The Colonel appeared delighted. "Let us +libate to the gods of chance, gentlemen; and then take a stroll." + +"My bag will be safe here?" I prompted, as we were about to file out. + +"Absolutely, suh. Personal property is respected in Benton. We'd hang the +man who moved that bag of yours the fraction of one inch." + +This at least was comforting. As much could not be said of New York City. +The Colonel led down the echoing hall and the shaking stairs, into the +lobby, peopled as before by men in all modes of attire and clustered +mainly at the bar. He led directly to the bar itself. + +"Three, Ed. Name your likker, gentlemen. A little Double X foh me, Ed." + +"Old rye," Bill briefly ordered. + +The bartender set out bottle and whiskey glasses, and looked upon me. I +felt that the bystanders were waiting. My garb proclaimed the "pilgrim," +but I was resolved to be my own master, and for liquor I had no taste. + +"Lemonade, if you have it," I faltered. + +"Yes, sir." The bartender cracked not a smile, but a universal sigh, +broken by a few sniggers, voiced the appraisal of the audience. Some of +the loafers eyed me amusedly, some turned away. + +"Surely, suh, you will temper that with a dash of fortifiah," the Colonel +protested. "A pony of brandy, Ed--or just a dash to cut the water in it. +To me, suh, the water in this country is vile--inimical to the human +stomick." + +"Thank you," said I, "but I prefer plain lemonade." + +"The gent wants his pizen straight, same as the rest of you," calmly +remarked the bartender. + +My lemonade being prepared, the Colonel and Bill tossed off full glasses +of whiskey, acknowledged with throaty "A-ah!" and smack of lips; and I +hastily quaffed my lemonade. From the dollar which the Colonel grandly +flung upon the bar he received no change--by which I might figure that +whereas whiskey was twenty-five cents the glass, lemonade was fifty +cents. + +We issued into the street and were at once engulfed by a ferment of sights +and sounds extraordinary. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ON GRAND TOUR + + +The sun had set and all the golden twilight was hazy with the dust +suspended in swirl and strata over the ugly roofs. In the canvas-faced +main street the throng and noise had increased rather than diminished at +the approach of dusk. Although clatter of dishes mingled with the cadence, +the people acted as if they had no thought of eating; and while aware of +certain pangs myself, I felt a diffidence in proposing supper as yet. + +My two companions hesitated a moment, spying up and down, which gave me +opportunity to view the scene anew. Surely such an hotch-potch never +before populated an American town: Men flannel shirted, high booted, +shaggy haired and bearded, stumping along weighted with excess of belts +and formidable revolvers balanced, not infrequently, by sheathed +butcher-knives--men whom I took to be teamsters, miners, railroad graders, +and the like; other men white skinned, clean shaven except perhaps for +moustaches and goatees, in white silk shirts or ruffled bosoms, broadcloth +trousers and trim footgear, unarmed, to all appearance, but evidently +respected; men of Eastern garb like myself--tourists, maybe, or +merchants; a squad of surveyors in picturesque neckerchiefs, and revolver +girted; trainmen, grimy engineers and firemen; clerks, as I opined, dapper +and bustling, clad in the latest fashion, with diamonds in flashy ties and +heavy gold watch chains across their fancy waistcoats; soldiers; men whom +I took to be Mexicans, by their velvet jackets, slashed pantaloons and +filagreed hats; darkly weathered, leathery faced, long-haired personages, +no doubt scouts and trappers, in fringed buckskins and beaded moccasins; +blanket wrapped Indians; and women. + +Of the women a number were unmistakable as to vocation, being lavishly +painted, strident, and bold, and significantly dressed. I saw several in +amazing costumes of tightly fitting black like ballet girls, low necked, +short skirted, around the smooth waists snake-skin belts supporting +handsome little pistols and dainty poignards. Contrasted there were women +of other class and, I did not doubt, of better repute; some in gowns and +bonnets that would do them credit anywhere in New York, and some, of +course, more commonly attired in calico and gingham as proper to the +humbler station of laundresses, cooks, and so forth. + +The uproar was a jargon of shouts, hails, music, hammering, barking, scuff +of feet, trample of horses and oxen, rumble of creaking wagons and Concord +stages. + +"Well, suh," spoke the Colonel, pulling his hat over his eyes, "shall we +stroll a piece?" + +"Might better," assented Bill. "The gentleman may find something of +interest right in the open. How are you on the goose, sir?" he demanded of +me. + +"The goose?" I uttered. + +"Yes. Keno." + +"I am a stranger to the goose," said I. + +He grunted. + +"It gives a quick turn for a small stake. So do the three-card and +rondo." + +Of passageway there was not much choice between the middle of the street +and the borders. Seemed to me as we weaved along through groups of idlers +and among busily stepping people that every other shop was a saloon, with +door widely open and bar and gambling tables well attended. The odor of +liquor saturated the acrid dust. Yet the genuine shops, even of the rudest +construction, were piled from the front to the rear with commodities of +all kinds, and goods were yet heaped upon the ground in front and behind +as if the merchants had no time for unpacking. The incessant hammering, I +ascertained, came from amateur carpenters, including mere boys, here and +there engaged as if life depended upon their efforts, in erecting more +buildings from knocked-down sections like cardboard puzzles and from +lumber already cut and numbered. + +My guides nodded right and left with "Hello, Frank," "How are you, Dan?" +"Evening, Charley," and so on. Occasionally the Colonel swept off his +hat, with elaborate deference, to a woman, but I looked in vain for My +Lady in Black. I did not see her--nor did I see her peer, despite the fact +that now and then I observed a face and figure of apparent +attractiveness. + +Above the staccato of conversation and exclamation there arose the appeals +of the barkers for the gambling resorts. + +"This way. Shall we see what he's got?" the Colonel invited. Forthwith +veering aside he crossed the street in obedience to a summons of whoops +and shouts that set the very dust to vibrating. + +A crowd had gathered before a youth--a perspiring, red-faced youth with a +billy-cock hat shoved back upon his bullet head--a youth in galluses and +soiled shirt and belled pantaloons, who, standing upon a box for +elevation, was exhorting at the top of his lungs. + +"Whoo-oop! This way, this way! Everybody this way! Come on, you +rondo-coolo sports! Give us a bet! A bet! Rondo coolo-oh! Rondo coolo-oh! +Here's your easy money! Down with your soap! Let her roll! Rondo +coolo-oh!" + +"It's a great game, suh," the Colonel flung back over his shoulder. + +We pushed forward, to the front. The center for the crowd was a table not +unlike a small billiard table or, saving the absence of pins, a tivoli +table such as enjoyed by children. But across one end there were several +holes, into which balls, ten or a dozen, resembling miniature billiard +balls, might roll. + +The balls had been banked, in customary pyramid shape for a break as in +pool, at the opposite end; and just as we arrived they had been propelled +all forward, scattering, by a short cue rapidly swept across their base. + +"Rondo coolo, suh," the Colonel was explaining, "as you see, is an +improvement on the old rondo, foh red-blooded people. You may place your +bets in various ways, on the general run, or the odd or the even; and as +the bank relies, suh, only on percentage, the popular game is strictly +square. There is no chance foh a brace in rondo coolo. Shall we take a +turn, foh luck?" + +The crowd was craning and eyeing the gyrating balls expectantly. A part of +the balls entered the pockets; the remainder came to rest. + +"Rondo," announced the man with the short cue, amidst excited ejaculations +from winners and losers. And according to a system which I failed to +grasp, except that it comprised the number of balls pocketed, he deftly +distributed from one collection of checks and coins to another, quickly +absorbed by greedy hands. + +"She rolls again. Make your bets, ladies and gents," he intoned. "It's +rondo coolo--simple rondo coolo." And he reassembled the balls. + +"I prefer not to play, sir," I responded to the heavily breathing +Colonel. "I am new here and I cannot afford to lose until I am better +established." + +"Never yet seen a man who couldn't afford to win, though," Bill growled. +"Easy pickin', too. But come on, then. We'll give you a straight steer +some'rs else." + +So we left the crowd--containing indeed women as well as men--to their +insensate fervor over a childish game under the stimulation of the +raucous, sweating barker. Of gambling devices, in the open of the street, +there was no end. My conductors appeared to have the passion, for our +course led from one method of hazard to another--roulette, chuck-a-luck +where the patrons cast dice for prizes of money and valuables arrayed upon +numbered squares of an oilcloth covered board, keno where numbered balls +were decanted one at a time from a bottle-shaped leather receptacle +called, I learned, the "goose," and the players kept tab by filling in +little cards as in domestic lotto; and finally we stopped at the simplest +apparatus of all. + +"The spiel game for me, gentlemen," said the Colonel. "Here it is. Yes, +suh, there's nothing like monte, where any man is privileged to match his +eyes against fingers. Nobody but a blind man can lose at monte, by +George!" + +"And this spieler's on the level," Bill pronounced, sotto voce. "I vote we +hook him for a gudgeon, and get the price of a meal. Our friend will join +us in the turn. He can see for himself that he can't lose. He's got sharp +eyes." + +The bystanders here were stationed before a man sitting at a low tripod +table; and all that he had was the small table--a plain cheap table with +folding legs--and three playing cards. Business was a trifle slack. I +thought that his voice crisped aggressively as we elbowed through, while +he sat idly skimming the three cards over the table, with a flick of his +hand. + +"Two jacks, and the ace, gentlemen. There they are. I have faced them up. +Now I gather them slowly--you can't miss them. Observe closely. The jack +on top, between thumb and forefinger. The ace next--ace in the middle. The +other jack bottommost." He turned his hand, with the three cards in a +tier, so that all might see. "The ace is the winning card. You are to +locate the ace. Observe closely again. It's my hand against your eyes. I +am going to throw. Who will spot the ace? Watch, everybody. Ready! Go!" +The backs of the cards were up. With a swift movement he released the +three, spreading them in a neat row, face down, upon the table. He +carelessly shifted them hither and thither--and his fingers were +marvelously nimble, lightly touching. "Twenty dollars against your twenty +that you can't pick out the ace, first try. I'll let the cards lie. I +shan't disturb them. There they are. If you've watched the ace fall, you +win. If you haven't, you lose unless you guess right." + +"Just do that trick again, will you, for the benefit of my friend here?" +bade the Colonel. + +The "spieler"--a thin-lipped, cadaverous individual, his soft hat +cavalierly aslant, his black hair combed flatly in a curve down upon his +damp forehead, a pair of sloe eyes, and a flannel shirt open upon his bony +chest--glanced alert. He smiled. + +"Hello, sir. I'm agreeable. Yes, sir. But as they lie, will you make a +guess? No? Or you, sir?" And he addressed Bill. "No? Then you, sir?" He +appealed to me. "No? But I'm a mind-reader. I can tell by your eyes. +They're upon the right-end card. Aha! Correct." He had turned up the card +and shown the ace. "You should have bet. You would have beaten me, sir. +You've got the eyes. I think you've seen this game before. No? Ah, but you +have, or else you're born lucky. Now I'll try again. For the benefit of +these three gentlemen I will try again. Kindly reserve your bets, friends +all, and you shall have your chance. This game never stops. I am always +after revenge. Watch the ace. I pick up the cards. Ace first--blessed ace; +_and_ the jacks. Watch close. There you are." He briefly exposed the faces +of the cards. "Keep your eyes upon the ace. Ready--go!" + +He spread the cards. As he had released he had tilted them slightly, and I +clearly saw the ace land. The cards fell in the same order as arranged. To +that I would have sworn. + +"Five dollars now that any one card is not the ace," he challenged. "I +shall not touch them. A small bet--just enough to make it interesting. +Five dollars from you, sir?" He looked at me direct. I shook my head; I +was sternly resolved not to be over tempted. "What? No? You will wait +another turn? Very well. How about you, sir?" to the Colonel. + +"I'll go halvers with you, Colonel," Bill proposed. + +"I'm on," agreed the Colonel. "There's the soap. And foh the honor of the +grand old Empire State we will let our friend pick the ace foh us. I have +faith in those eyes of his, suhs." + +"But that is scarcely fair, sir, when I am risking nothing," I protested. + +"Go ahead, suh; go ahead," he urged. "It is just a sporting proposition +foh general entertainment." + +"And I'll bet you a dollar on the side that you don't spot the ace," the +dealer baited. "Come now. Make it interesting for yourself." + +"I'll not bet, but since you insist, there's the ace." And I turned up the +right-end card. + +"By the Eternal, he's done it! He has an eye like an eagle's," praised the +dealer, with evident chagrin. "I lose. Once again, now. Everybody in, this +time." He gathered the cards. "I'll play against you all, this gentleman +included. And if I lose, why, that's life, gentleman. Some of us win, some +of us lose. Watch the ace and have your money ready. You can follow this +gentleman's tip. I'm afraid he's smarter than me, but I'm game." + +He was too insistent. Somehow, I did not like him, anyway, and I was +beginning to be suspicious of my company. Their minds trended entirely +toward gambling; to remain with them meant nothing farther than the gaming +tables, and I was hungry. + +"You'll have to excuse me, gentleman," I pleaded. "Another time, but not +now. I wish to eat and to bathe, and I have an engagement following." + +"Gad, suh!" The Colonel fixed me with his fishy eyes. "Foh God's sake +don't break your winning streak with eatin' and washin'. Fortune is a +fickle jade, suh; she's hostile when slapped in the face." + +Bill glowered at me, but I was firm. + +"If you will give me the pleasure of taking supper with me at some good +place----" I suggested, as they pursued me into the street. + +"We can't talk this over while we're dry," the Colonel objected. "That is +a human impossibility. Let us libate, suhs, in order to tackle our +provender in proper spirit." + +"And no lemonade goes this time, either," Bill declared. "That brand of a +drink is insultin' to good victuals." + +We were standing, for the moment, verging upon argument much to my +distaste, when on a sudden who should come tripping along but My Lady of +the Blue Eyes--yes, the very flesh and action of her, her face shielded +from the dust by a little sunshade. + +She saw me, recognized me in startled fashion, and with a swift glance at +my two companions bowed. My hat was off in a twinkling, with my best +manner; the Colonel barely had time to imitate ere, leaving me a quick +smile, she was gone on. + +He and Bill stared after; then at me. + +"Gad, suh! You know the lady?" the Colonel ejaculated. + +"I have the honor. We were passengers upon the same train." + +"Clean through, you mean?" queried Bill. + +"Yes. We happened to get on together, at Omaha." + +"I congratulate you, suh," affirmed the Colonel. "We were not aware, suh, +that you had an acquaintance of that nature in this city." + +Again congratulation over my fortune! It mounted to my head, but I +preserved decorum. + +"A casual acquaintance. We were merely travelers by the same route at the +same time. And now if you will recommend a good eating place, and be my +guests at supper, after that, as I have said, I must be excused. By the +way, while I think of it," I carelessly added, "can you direct me how to +get to the Big Tent?" + +"The Big Tent? If I am not intruding, suh, does your engagement comprise +the Big Tent?" + +"Yes. But I failed to get the address." + +The Colonel swelled; his fishy eyes hardened upon me as with righteous +indignation. + +"Suh, you are too damned innocent. You come here, suh, imposing as a +stranger, suh, and throwing yourself on our goodness, suh, to entertain +you; and you conceal your irons in the fiah under your hat, suh. Do we +look green, suh? What is your vocation, suh? I believe, by gad, suh, that +you are a common capper foh some infernal skinning game, or that you are a +professional. Suh, I call your hand." + +I was about to retort hotly that I had not requested their chaperonage, +and that my affair with My Lady and the Big Tent, howsoever they might +take it, was my own; when Mr. Brady, who likewise had been glaring at me, +growled morosely. + +"She's waitin' for you. You can square with us later, and if there's +something doin' on the table we want a show." + +The black-clad figure had lingered beyond; ostensibly gazing into a window +but now and again darting a glance in our direction. I accepted the +glances as a token of inclination on her part; without saying another word +to my ruffled body-guards I approached her. + +She received me with a quick turn of head as if not expecting, but with a +ready smile. + +"Well, sir?" + +"Madam," I uttered foolishly, "good-evening." + +"You have left your friends?" + +"Very willingly. Whether they are really my friends I rather question. +They have seen fit to escort me about, is all." + +"And I have rescued you?" She smiled again. "Believe me, sir, you would be +better off alone. I know the gentlemen. They have been paid for their +trouble, have they not?" + +"They have won a little at gambling, but in that I had no hand," I +replied. "So far they have asked nothing more." + +"Certainly not. And you put up no stakes?" + +"Not a penny, madam. Why should I?" + +"To make it interesting, as they doubtless said. The Colonel, as all the +town knows, is a notorious capper and steerer, and the fellow Brady is no +better, no worse. Had you stayed with them and suffered them to persuade +you into betting, you would soon have been fleeced as clean as a shaved +pig. The little gains they are permitted to make, to draw you on, is their +pay. Their losses if any would have been restored to them, but not yours +to you." + +"Strange to say, they have just accused me of being a 'capper,'" I +answered, nettled as I began to comprehend. + +"From what cause, sir?" + +[Illustration: "Madam," I Uttered Foolishly, "Good Evening."] + +"They seemed to think that I am smarter than to my actual credit, for one +thing." I, of course, could not involve her in the subject, and indeed +could not understand why she should have been held responsible, anyway. +"And probably they were peeved because I insisted upon eating supper and +then following my own bent." + +"You were about to leave them?" Her face brightened. "That is good. They +were disappointed in finding you no gudgeon to be hooked by such raw +methods. And you've not had supper yet? Promise me that you will take up +with no more strangers or, I assure you, you may wake in the morning with +your pockets turned inside out and your memory at fault. This is Benton." + +"Yes, this is Benton, is it?" I rejoined; and perhaps bitterly. + +"Benton, Wyoming Territory; of three thousand people in two weeks; in +another month, who knows how many? And the majority of us live on one +another. The country furnishes nothing else. Still, you will find it not +much different from what I told you." + +"I have found it high and dry, certainly," said I. + +"Where are you stopping?" + +"At the Queen--with a bath for every room. I am now awaiting the turn of +my room, at the end of another hour." + +"Oh!" She laughed heartily. "You are fortunate, sir. The Queen may not be +considered the best in all ways, but they say the towels for the baths are +more than napkin size. Meanwhile, let me advise you. Outfit while you +wait, and become of the country. You look too much the pilgrim--there is +Eastern dust showing through our Benton dust, and that spells of other +'dust' in your pockets. Get another hat, a flannel shirt, some coarser +trousers, a pair of boots, don a gun and a swagger, say little, make few +impromptu friends, win and lose without a smile or frown, if you play (but +upon playing I will advise you later), pass as a surveyor, as a railroad +clerk, as a Mormon--anything they choose to apply to you; and I shall hope +to see you to-night." + +"You shall," I assured, abashed by her raillery. "And if you will kindly +tell me----" + +"The meals at the Belle Marie Café are as good as any. You can see the +sign from here. So adios, sir, and remember." With no mention of the Big +Tent she flashed a smile at me and mingled with the other pedestrians +crossing the street on diagonal course. As I had not been invited to +accompany her I stood, gratefully digesting her remarks. When I turned for +a final word with my two guides, they had vanished. + +This I interpreted as a confession of jealous fear that I had been, in +slang phrasing, "put wise." And sooth to say, I saw them again no more. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +"HIGH AND DRY" + + +The counsel to don a garb smacking less of the recent East struck me as +sound; for although I was not the only person here in Eastern guise, +nevertheless about the majority of the populace there was an easy +aggressiveness that my appearance evidently lacked. + +So I must hurry ere the shops closed. + +"I beg your pardon. What time do the stores close, can you tell me?" I +asked of the nearest bystander. + +He surveyed me. + +"Close? Hell!" he said. "They don't close for even a dog fight, pardner. +Business runs twenty-five hours every day, seven days the week, in these +diggin's." + +"And where will I find a haberdashery?" + +"A what? Talk English. What you want?" + +"I want a--an outfit; a personal outfit." + +"Blanket to moccasins? Levi's, stranger. Levi'll outfit you complete and +throw in a yellow purp under the wagon." + +"And where is Levi's?" + +"There." And he jerked his head aside. "You could shut your eyes and spit +in the doorway." + +With that he rudely turned his back upon me. But sure enough, by token of +the large sign "Levi's Mammoth Emporium: Liquors, Groceries and General +Merchandise," I was standing almost in front of the store itself. + +I entered, into the seething aisle flanked by heaped-up counters and +stacked goods that bulged the partially boarded canvas walls. At last I +gained position near one of the perspiring clerks and caught his eye. + +"Yes, sir. You, sir? What can I do for you, sir?" He rubbed his hands +alertly, on edge with a long day. + +"I wish a hat, flannel shirt, a serviceable ready-made suit, boots, +possibly other matters." + +"We have exactly the things for you, sir. This way." + +"Going out on the advance line, sir?" he asked, while I made selections. + +"That is not unlikely." + +"They're doing great work. Three miles of track laid yesterday; twelve so +far this week. Averaging two and one-half miles a day and promising +better." + +"So I understand," I alleged. + +"General Jack Casement is a world beater. If he could get the iron as fast +as he could use it he'd build through to California without a halt. But +looks now as if somewhere between would have to satisfy him. You are a +surveyor, I take it?" + +"Yes, I am surveying on the line along with the others," I answered. And +surveying the country I was. + +"You are the gentlemen who lay out the course," he complimented. "Now, is +there something else, sir?" + +"I need a good revolver, a belt and ammunition." + +"We carry the reliable--the Colt's. That's the favorite holster gun in use +out here. Please step across, sir." + +He led. + +"If you're not particular as to shine," he resumed, "we have a second-hand +outfit that I can sell you cheap. Took it in as a deposit, and the +gentleman never has called for it. Of course you're broken in to the +country, but as you know a new belt and holster are apt to be viewed with +suspicion and a gentleman sometimes has to draw when he'd rather not, to +prove himself. This gun has been used just enough to take the roughness +off the trigger pull, and it employs the metallic cartridges--very +convenient. The furniture for it is O. K. And all at half price." + +I was glad to find something cheap. The boots had been fifteen dollars, +the hat eight, shirt and suit in proportion, and the red silk handkerchief +two dollars and a half. Yes, Benton was "high." + +With my bulky parcel I sought the Belle Marie Café, ate my supper, thence +hastened through the gloaming to the hotel for bath and change of costume. + +I had yet time to array myself, as an experiment and a lark; and that I +sillily did, hurriedly tossing my old garments upon bed and floor, in +order to invest with the new. The third bed was occupied when I came in; +occupied on the outside by a plump, round-faced, dust-scalded man, with +piggish features accentuated by his small bloodshot eyes; dressed in +Eastern mode but stripped to the galluses, as was the custom. He lay upon +his back, his puffy hands folded across his spherical abdomen where his +pantaloons met a sweaty pink-striped shirt; and he panted wheezingly +through his nose. + +"Hell of a country, ain't it!" he observed in a moment. "You a stranger, +too?" + +"I have been here a short time, sir." + +"Thought so. Jest beginnin' to peel, like me. I been here two days. What's +your line?" + +"I have a number of things in view," I evaded. + +"Well, you don't have to tell 'em," he granted. "Thought you was a +salesman. I'm from Saint Louie, myself. Sell groceries, and pasteboards on +the side. Cards are the stuff. I got the best line of sure-thing +stock--strippers, humps, rounds, squares, briefs and marked backs--that +ever were dealt west of the Missouri. Judas Priest, but this is a roarer +of a burg! What _it_ ain't got I never seen--and I ain't no spring +goslin', neither. I've plenty sand in my craw. You ain't been plucked +yet?" + +"No, sir. I never gamble." + +"Wish I didn't, but my name's Jakey and I'm a good feller. Say, I'm +supposed to be wise, too, but they trimmed me two hundred dollars. Now I'm +gettin' out." He groaned. "Take the train in a few minutes. Dasn't risk +myself on the street again. Sent my baggage down for fear I'd lose that. +Say," he added, watching me, "looks like you was goin' out yourself. One +of them surveyor fellers, workin' for the railroad?" + +"It might be so, sir," I replied. + +He half sat up. + +"You'll want to throw a leg, I bet. Lemme tell you. It's a hell of a town +but it's got some fine wimmen; yes, and a few straight banks, too. You're +no crabber or piker; I can see that. You go to the North Star. Tell Frank +that Jakey sent you. They'll treat you white. You be sure and say Jakey +sent you. But for Gawd's sake keep out of the Big Tent." + +"The Big Tent?" I uttered. "Why so?" + +"They'll sweat you there," he groaned lugubriously. "Say, friend, could +you lend me twenty dollars? You've still got your roll. I ain't a stivver. +I'm busted flat." + +"I'm sorry that I can't accommodate you, sir," said I. "I have no more +money than will see me through--and according to your story perhaps not +enough." + +"I've told you of the North Star. You mention Jakey sent you. You'll make +more than your twenty back, at the North Star," he urged inconsistent. +"If it hadn't been for that damned Big Tent----" and he flopped with a +dismal grunt. + +By this time, all the while conscious of his devouring eyes, I had changed +my clothing and now I stood equipped cap-a-pie, with my hat clapped at an +angle, and my pantaloons in my boots, and my red silk handkerchief +tastefully knotted at my throat, and my six-shooter slung; and I could +scarcely deny that in my own eyes, and in his, I trusted, I was a pretty +figure of a Westerner who would win the approval, as seemed to me, of My +Lady in Black or of any other lady. + +His reflection upon the Big Tent, however, was the fly in my ointment. +Therefore, preening and adjusting with assumed carelessness I queried, in +real concern: + +"What about the Big Tent? Where is it? Isn't it respectable?" + +"Respectable? Of course it's respectable. You don't ketch your Jakey in no +place that ain't. I've a family to think of. You ain't been there? Say! +There's where they all meet, in that Big Tent; all the best people, too, +you bet you. But I tell you, friend----" + +He did not finish. An uproar sounded above the other street clamor: a +pistol shot, and another--a chorus of hoarse shouts and shrill frightened +cries, the scurrying rush of feet, all in the street; and in the hall of +the hotel, and the lobby below, the rush of still more feet, booted, and +the din of excited voices. + +My man on the bed popped with the agility of a jack-in-the-box for the +window. + +"A fight, a fight! Shootin' scrape!" In a single motion grabbing coat and +hat he was out through the door and pelting down the hall. Overcome by the +zest of the moment I pelted after, and with several others plunged as +madly upon the porch. We had left the lobby deserted. + +The shots had ceased. Now a baying mob ramped through the street, with +jangle "Hang him! Hang him! String him up!" Borne on by a hysterical +company I saw, first a figure bloody-chested and inert flat in the dust, +with stooping figures trying to raise him; then, beyond, a man bareheaded, +whiskered, but as white as death, hustled to and fro from clutching hands +and suddenly forced in firm grips up the street, while the mob trailed +after, whooping, cursing, shrieking, flourishing guns and knives and +ropes. There were women as well as men in it. + +All this turned me sick. From the outskirts of the throng I tramped back +to my room and the bath. The hotel was quiet as if emptied; my room was +vacant--and more than vacant, for of my clothing not a vestige remained! +My bag also was gone. Worse yet, prompted by an inner voice that stabbed +me like an icicle I was awakened to the knowledge that every cent I had +possessed was in those vanished garments. + +For an instant I stood paralyzed, fronting the calamity. I could not +believe. It was as if the floor had swallowed my belongings. I had been +absent not more than five minutes. Surely this was the room. Yes, Number +Six; and the beds were familiar, their tumbled covers unaltered. + +Now I held the bath-room responsible. The scoundrel in the bath had heard, +had taken advantage, made a foray and hidden. Out I ran, exploring. Every +room door was wide open, every apartment blank; but there was a splashing, +from the bath--I listened at the threshold, gently tried the knob--and +received such a cry of angry protest that it sent me to the right-about, +on tiptoe. The thief was not in the bath. + +My heart sank as I bolted down for the office. The clerk had reinstated +himself behind the counter. He composedly greeted me, with calm voice and +with eyes that noted my costume. + +"You can have your bath as soon as the porter gets back from the hanging, +sir," he said. "That is, unless you'd prefer to hurry up by toting your +own water. The party now in will be out directly." + +"Never mind the bath," I uttered, breathless, in a voice that I scarcely +recognized, so piping and aghast it was. "I've been robbed--of money, +clothes, baggage, everything!" + +"Well, what at?" he queried, with a glimmer of a smile. + +"What at? In my room, I tell you. I had just changed to try on these +things; the street fight sounded; I was gone not five minutes and +nevertheless the room was sacked. Absolutely sacked." + +"That," he commented evenly, "is hard luck." + +"Hard luck!" I hotly rejoined. "It's an outrage. But you seem remarkably +cool about it, sir. What do you propose to do?" + +"I?" He lifted his brows. "Nothing. They're not my valuables." + +"But this is a respectable hotel, isn't it?" + +"Perfectly; and no orphan asylum. We attend strictly to our business and +expect our guests to attend to theirs." + +"I was told that it was safe for me to leave my things in my room." + +"Not by me, sir. Read that." And he called my attention to a placard that +said, among other matters: "We are not responsible for property of any +nature left by guests in their rooms." + +"Where's the chief of police?" I demanded. "You have officers here, I +hope." + +"Yes, sir. The marshal is the chief of police, and he's the whole show. +The provost guard from the post helps out when necessary. But you'll find +the marshal at the mayor's office or else at the North Star gambling hall, +three blocks up the street. I don't think he'll do you any good, though. +He's not likely to bother with small matters, especially when he's +dealing faro bank. He has an interest in the North Star. You'll never see +your property again. Take my word for it." + +"I won't? Why not?" + +"You've played the gudgeon for somebody; that's all. Easiest thing in the +world for a smart gentleman to slip into your room while you were absent, +go through it, and make his getaway by the end of the hall, out over the +kitchen roof. It's been done many a time." + +"A traveling salesman saw me dressing. He went out before me but he might +have doubled," I gasped. "He had one of the beds--who is he?" + +"I don't know him, sir." + +"A round-bellied, fat-faced man--sold groceries and playing cards." + +"There is no such guest in your room, sir. You have bed Number One, bed +Number Two is assigned to Mr. Bill Brady, who doubtless will be in soon. +Number Three is temporarily vacant." + +"The man said he was about to catch the train east," I pursued +desperately. "A round-bellied, fat-faced man in pink striped shirt----" + +"If he was to catch any train, that train has just pulled out." + +"And who was in the bath, ten or fifteen minutes ago?" + +"My wife, sir; and still there. She has to take her chances like everybody +else. No, sir; you've been done. You may find your clothes, but I doubt +it. You are next upon the bath list." And he became all business. "The +porter will carry up the water and notify you. You are allowed twenty +minutes. That is satisfactory?" + +A bath, now! + +"No, certainly not," I blurted. "I have no time nor inclination for a +bath, at present. And," I faltered, ashamed, "I'll have to ask you to +refund me the dollar and a half. I haven't a cent." + +"Under the circumstances I can do that, although it is against our rules," +he replied. "Here it is, sir. We wish to accommodate." + +"And will you advance me twenty dollars, say, until I shall have procured +funds from the East?" I ventured. + +A mask fell over his face. He slightly smiled. + +"No, sir; I cannot. We never advance money." + +"But I've got to have money, to tide me over, man," I pleaded. "This +dollar and a half will barely pay for a meal. I can give you +references----" + +"From Colonel Sunderson, may I ask?" His voice was poised tentatively. + +"No. I never saw the Colonel before. My references are Eastern. My +father----" + +"As a gentleman the Colonel is O. K.," he smoothly interrupted. "I do not +question his integrity, nor your father's. But we never advance money. It +is against the policy of the house." + +"Has my trunk come up yet?" I queried. + +"Yes, sir. If you'd rather have it in your room----" + +"In my room!" said I. "No! Else it might walk out the hall window, too. +You have it safe?" + +"Perfectly, except in case of burglary or fire. It is out of the weather. +We're not responsible for theft or fire, you understand. Not in Benton." + +"Good Lord!" I ejaculated, weak. "You have my trunk, you say? Very good. +Will you advance me twenty dollars and keep the trunk as security? That, I +think, is a sporting proposition." + +He eyed me up and down. + +"Are you a surveyor? Connected with the road?" + +"No." + +"What is your business, then?" + +"I'm a damned fool," I confessed. "I'm a gudgeon--I'm a come-on. In fact, +as I've said before, I'm out here looking for health, where it's high and +dry." He smiled. "And high and dry I'm landed in short order. But the +trunk's not empty. Will you keep it and lend me twenty dollars? I presume +that trunk and contents are worth two hundred." + +"I'll speak with the porter," he answered. + +By the lapse of time between his departure and his return he and the gnome +evidently had hefted the trunk and viewed it at all angles. Now he came +back with quick step. + +"Yes, sir; we'll advance you twenty dollars on your trunk. Here is the +money, sir." He wrote, and passed me a slip of paper also. "And your +receipt. When you pay the twenty dollars, if within thirty days, you can +have your trunk." + +"And if not?" I asked uncomfortably. + +"We shall be privileged to dispose of it. We are not in the pawn business, +but we have trunks piled to the ceiling in our storeroom, left by +gentlemen in embarrassed circumstances like yours." + +I never saw that trunk again, either. However, of this, more anon. At that +juncture I was only too glad to get the twenty dollars, pending the time +when I should be recouped from home; for I could see that to be stranded +"high and dry" in Benton City of Wyoming Territory would be a dire +situation. And I could not hope for much from home. It was a bitter dose +to have to ask for further help. Three years returned from the war my +father had scarcely yet been enabled to gather the loose ends of his +former affairs. + +"Now if you will direct me to the telegraph office----?" I suggested. + +"The telegraph into Benton is the Union Pacific Railroad line," he +informed; "and that is open to only Government and official business. If +you wish to send a private dispatch you should forward it by post to +Cheyenne, one hundred and seventy-five miles, where it will be put on the +Overland branch line for the East by way of Denver. The rate to New York +is eight dollars, prepaid." + +I knew that my face fell. Eight dollars would make a large hole in my +slender funds--I had been foolish not to have borrowed fifty dollars on +the trunk. So I decided to write instead of telegraph; and with him +watching me I endeavored to speak lightly. + +"Thank you. Now where will I find the place known as the Big Tent?" + +He laughed with peculiar emphasis. + +"If you had mentioned the Big Tent sooner you'd have got no twenty dollars +from me, sir. Not that I've anything against it, understand. It's all +right, everybody goes there; perfectly legitimate. I go there myself. And +you may redeem your trunk to-morrow and be buying champagne." + +"I am to meet a friend at the Big Tent," I stiffly explained. "Further +than that I have no business there. I know nothing whatever about it." + +"I beg your pardon, sir. No offense intended. The Big Tent is highly +regarded--a great place to spend a pleasant evening. All Benton indulges. +I wish you the best of luck, sir. You are heeled, I see. No one will take +you for a pilgrim." Despite the assertion there was a twinkle in his eye. +"You will find the Big Tent one block and a half down this street. You +cannot miss it." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +I GO TO RENDEZVOUS + + +The hotel lamps were being lighted by the gnome porter. When I stepped +outside twilight had deepened into dusk, the air was almost frosty, and +this main street had been made garish by its nightly illumination. + +It was a strange sight, as I paused for a moment upon the plank veranda. +The near vicinity resembled a fair. As if inspired by the freshness and +coolness of the new air the people were trooping to and fro more +restlessly than ever, and in greater numbers. All up and down the street +coal-oil torches or flambeaus, ruddily embossing the heads of the players +and onlookers, flared like votive braziers above the open-air gambling +games; there were even smoked-chimney lamps, and candles, set on +pedestals, signalizing other centers. The walls of the tent +store-buildings glowed spectral from the lights to be glimpsed through +doorways and windows, and grotesque, gigantic figures flitted in +silhouette. While through the interstices between the buildings I might +see other structures, ranging from those of tolerable size to simple wall +tents and makeshift shacks, eerily shadowed. + +The noise had, if anything, redoubled. To the exclamations, the riotous +shouts and whoops, the general gay vociferations and the footsteps of a +busy people, the harangues of the barkers, the more distant puffing and +shrieking of the locomotives at the railroad yards, the hammering where +men and boys worked by torchlight, and now and then a revolver shot, there +had been added the inciting music of stringed instruments, cymbals, and +such--some in dance measures, some solo, while immediately at hand sounded +the shuffling stamp of waltz, hoe-down and cotillion. + +Night at Benton plainly had begun with a gusto. It stirred one's blood. It +called--it summoned with such a promise of variety, of adventure, of +flotsam and jetsam and shuttlecock of chances, that I, a youth with +twenty-one dollars and a half at disposal, all his clothes on his back, a +man's weapon at his belt, and an appointment with a lady as his future, +forgetful of past and courageous in present, strode confidently, even +recklessly down, as eager as one to the manners of the country born. + +The mysterious allusions to the Big Tent now piqued me. It was a +rendezvous, popular, I deemed, and respectable, as assured. An amusement +place, judging by the talk; superior, undoubtedly, to other resorts that I +may have noted. I was well equipped to test it out, for I had little to +lose, even time was of no moment, and I possessed a friend at court, +there, whom I had interested and who very agreeably interested me. This +single factor would have glorified with a halo any tent, big or little, in +Benton. + +There was no need for me to inquire my way to the Big Tent. Upon pushing +along down the street, beset upon my course by many sights and proffered +allurements, and keenly alive to the romance of that hurly-burly of +pleasure and business combined here two thousand miles west of New York, +always expectant of my goal I was attracted by music again, just ahead, +from an orchestra. I saw a large canvas sign--The Big Tent--suspended in +the full shine of a locomotive reflector. Beneath it the people were +streaming into the wide entrance to a great canvas hall. + +Quickening my pace in accord with the increased pace of the throng, +presently I likewise entered, unchallenged for any admission fee. Once +across the threshold, I halted, taken all aback by the hubbub and the +kaleidoscopic spectacle that beat upon my ears and eyes. + +The interior, high ceilinged to the ridged roof, was unbroken by supports. +It was lighted by two score of lamps and reflectors in brackets along the +walls and hanging as chandeliers from the rafters. The floor, of planed +boards, already teemed with men and women and children--along one side +there was an ornate bar glittering with cut glass and silver and backed by +a large plate mirror that repeated the lights, the people, the glasses, +decanters and pitchers, and the figures of the white-coated, busy +bartenders. + +At the farther end of the room a stringed orchestra was stationed upon a +platform, while to the bidding of the music women, and men with hats upon +their heads and cigars in mouths, and men together, whirled in couples, so +that the floor trembled to the boot heels. Scattered thickly over the +intervening space there were games of chance, every description, +surrounded by groups looking on or playing. Through the atmosphere blue +with the smoke women, many of them lavishly costumed as if for a ball, +strolled risking or responding to gallantries. The garb of the men +themselves ran the scale: from the comme il faut of slender shoes, +fashionably cut coats and pantaloons, and modish cravats, through the +campaign uniforms of army officers and enlisted men, to the frontier +corduroy and buckskin of surveyors and adventurers, the flannel shirts, +red, blue and gray, the jeans and cowhide boots of trainmen, teamsters, +graders, miners, and all. + +From nearly every waist dangled a revolver. I remarked that not a few of +the women displayed little weapons as in bravado. + +What with the music, the stamp of the dancers, the clink of glasses and +the ice in pitchers, the rattle of dice, the slap of cards and currency, +the announcements of the dealers, the clap-trap of barkers and monte +spielers, the general chatter of voices, one such as I, a newcomer, +scarcely knew which way to turn. + +Altogether this was an amusement palace which, though rough of exterior, +eclipsed the best of the Bowery and might be found elsewhere, I imagined, +not short of San Francisco. + +From the jostle of the doorway to pick out upon the floor any single +figure and follow it was well-nigh impossible. Not seeing my Lady in +Black, at first sight--not being certain of her, that is, for there were a +number of black dresses--I moved on in. It might be that she was among the +dancers, where, as I could determine by the vista, beauty appeared to be +whirling around in the embrace of the whiskered beast. + +Then, as I advanced resolutely among the gaming tables, I felt a cuff upon +the shoulder and heard a bluff voice in my ear. + +"Hello, old hoss. How are tricks by this time?" + +Facing about quickly with apprehension of having been spotted by another +capper, if not Bill Brady himself (for the voice was not Colonel +Sunderson's unctuous tones) I saw Jim of the Sidney station platform and +the railway coach fracas. + +He was grinning affably, apparently none the worse for wear save a +slightly swollen lower lip; he seemed in good humor. + +"Shake," he proffered, extending his hand. "No hard feelin's here. I'm no +Injun. You knocked the red-eye out o' me." + +I shook hands with him, and again he slapped me upon the shoulder. "Hardly +knowed you in that new rig. Now you're talkin'. That's sense. Well; how +you comin' on?" + +"First rate," I assured, not a little nonplussed by this greeting from a +man whom I had knocked down, tipsy drunk, only a few hours before. But +evidently he was a seasoned customer. + +"Bucked the tiger a leetle, I reckon?" And he leered cunningly. + +"No; I rarely gamble." + +"Aw, tell that to the marines." Once more he jovially clapped me. "A young +gent like you has to take a fling now and then. Hell, this is Benton, +where everything goes and nobody the worse for it. You bet yuh! Trail +along with me. Let's likker. Then I'll show you the ropes. I like your +style. Yes, sir; I know a man when I see him." And he swore freely. + +"Another time, sir," I begged off. "I have an engagement this +evening----" + +"O' course you have. Don't I know that, too, by Gawd? The when, where and +who? Didn't she tell me to keep my eyes skinned for you, and to cotton to +you when you come in? We'll find her, after we likker up." + +"She did?" + +"Why not? Ain't I a friend o' hern? You bet! Finest little woman in +Benton. Trail to the trough along with me, pardner, and name your +favor-ite. I've got a thirst like a Sioux buck with a robe to trade." + +"I'd rather not drink, thank you," I essayed; but he would have none of +it. He seized me by the arm and hustled me on. + +"O' course you'll drink. Any gent I ax to drink has gotto drink. Name your +pizen--make it champagne, if that's your brand. But the drinks are on +me." + +So willy-nilly I was brought to the bar, where the line of men already +loafing there made space. + +"Straight goods and the best you've got," my self-appointed pilot blared. +"None o' your agency whiskey, either. What's yourn?" he asked of me. + +"The same as yours, sir," I bravely replied. + +With never a word the bartender shoved bottle and glasses to us. Jim +rather unsteadily filled; I emulated, but to scanter measure. + +"Here's how," he volunteered. "May you never see the back of your neck." + +"Your health," I responded. + +We drank. The stuff may have been pure; at least it was stout and cut +fiery way down my unwonted throat; the one draught infused me with a +swagger and a sudden rosy view of life through a temporary mist of +watering eyes. + +"A-ah! That puts guts into a man," quoth Jim. "Shall we have another? One +more?" + +"Not now. The next shall be on me. Let's look around," I gasped. + +"We'll find her," he promised. "Take a stroll. I'll steer you right. Have +a seegar, anyway." + +As smoking vied with drinking, here in the Big Tent where even the dancers +cavorted with lighted cigars in their mouths, I saw fit to humor him. + +"Cigars it shall be, then. But I'll pay." And to my nod the bartender set +out a box, from which we selected at twenty-five cents each. With my own +"seegar" cocked up between my lips, and my revolver adequately heavy at my +belt, I suffered the guidance of the importunate Jim. + +We wended leisurely among games of infinite variety: keno, rondo coolo, +poker, faro, roulette, monte, chuck-a-luck, wheels of fortune--advertised, +some, by their barkers, but the better class (if there is such a +distinction) presided over by remarkably quiet, white-faced, +nimble-fingered, steady-eyed gentry in irreproachable garb running much to +white shirts, black pantaloons, velvet waistcoats, and polished boots, and +diamonds and gold chains worn unaffectedly; low-voiced gentry, these, +protected, it would appear, mainly by their lookouts perched at their +sides with eyes alert to read faces and to watch the play. + +We had by no means completed the tour, interrupted by many jests and nods +exchanged between Jim and sundry of the patrons, when we indeed met My +Lady. She detached herself, as if cognizant of our approach, from a little +group of four or five standing upon the floor; and turned for me with hand +outstretched, a gratifying flush upon her spirited face. + +"You are here, then?" she greeted. + +I made a leg, with my best bow, not omitting to remove hat and cigar, +while agreeably conscious of her approving gaze. + +"I am here, madam, in the Big Tent." + +Her small warm hand acted as if unreservedly mine, for the moment. About +her there was a tingling element of the friendly, even of the intimate. +She was a haven in a strange coast. + +"Told you I'd find him, didn't I?" Jim asserted--the bystanders listening +curiously. "There he was, lookin' as lonesome as a two-bit piece on a +poker table in a sky-limit game. So we had a drink and a seegar, and been +makin' the grand tower." + +"You got your outfit, I see," she smiled. + +"Yes. Am I correct?" + +"You have saved yourself annoyance. You'll do," she nodded. "Have you +played yet? Win, or lose?" + +"I did not come to play, madam," said I. "Not at table, that is." +Whereupon I must have returned her gaze so glowingly as to embarrass her. +Yet she was not displeased; and in that costume and with that liquor +still coursing through my veins I felt equal to any retort. + +"But you should play. You are heeled?" + +"The best I could procure." I let my hand rest casually upon my revolver +butt. + +She laughed merrily. There were smiles aside. + +"Oh, no; I didn't mean that. You are heeled for all to see. I meant, you +have funds? You didn't come here too light, did you?" + +"I am prepared for all emergencies, madam, certainly," I averred with +proper dignity. Not for the world would I have confessed otherwise. Sooth +to say, I had the sensation of boundless wealth. The affair at the hotel +did not bother me, now. Here in the Big Tent prosperity reigned. Money, +money, money was passing back and forth, carelessly shoved out and +carelessly pocketed or piled up, while the band played and the people +laughed and drank and danced and bragged and staked, and laughed again. + +"That is good. Shall we walk a little? And when you play--come here." We +stepped apart from the listeners. "When you play, follow the lead of Jim. +He'll not lose, and I intend that you shan't, either. But you must play, +for the sport of it. Everybody games, in Benton." + +"So I judge, madam," I assented. "Under your chaperonage I am ready to +take any risks, the gaming table being among the least." + +"Prettily said, sir," she complimented. "And you won't lose. No," she +repeated suggestively, "you won't lose, with me looking out for you. Jim +bears you no ill will. He recognizes a man when he meets him, even when +the proof is uncomfortable." + +"For that little episode on the train I ask no reward, madam," said I. + +"Of course not." Her tone waxed impatient. "However, you're a stranger in +Benton and strangers do not always fare well." In this she spoke the +truth. "As a resident I claim the honors. Let us be old acquaintances. +Shall we walk? Or would you rather dance?" + +"I'd cut a sorry figure dancing in boots," said I. "Therefore I'd really +prefer to walk, if all the same to you." + +"Thank you for having mercy on my poor feet. Walk we will." + +"May I get you some refreshment?" I hazarded. "A lemonade--or something +stronger?" + +"Not for you, sir; not again," she laughed. "You are, as Jim would say, +'fortified.' And I shall need all my wits to keep you from being tolled +away by greater attractions." + +With that, she accepted my arm. We promenaded, Jim sauntering near. And as +she emphatically was the superior of all other women upon the floor I did +not fail to dilate with the distinction accorded me: felt it in the +glances, the deference and the ready make-way which attended upon our +progress. Frankly to say, possibly I strutted--as a young man will when +"fortified" within and without and elevated from the station of +nondescript stranger to that of favored beau. + +Whereas an hour before I had been crushed and beggarly, now I turned out +my toes and stepped bravely--my twenty-one dollars in pocket, my +six-shooter at belt, a red 'kerchief at throat, the queen of the hall on +my arm, and my trunk all unnecessary to my well-being. + +Thus in easy fashion we moved amidst eyes and salutations from the various +degrees of the company. She made no mention of any husband, which might +have been odd in the East but did not impress me as especially odd here in +the democratic Far West. The women appeared to have an independence of +action. + +"Shall we risk a play or two?" she proposed. "Are you acquainted with +three-card monte?" + +"Indifferently, madam," said I. "But I am green at all gambling devices." + +"You shall learn," she encouraged lightly. "In Benton as in Rome, you +know. There is no disgrace attached to laying down a dollar here and +there--we all do it. That is part of our amusement, in Benton." She +halted. "You are game, sir? What is life but a series of chances? Are you +disposed to win a little and flout the danger of losing?" + +"I am in Benton to win," I valiantly asserted. "And if under your +direction, so much the quicker. What first, then? The three-card monte?" + +"It is the simplest. Faro would be beyond you yet. Rondo coolo is +boisterous and confusing--and as for poker, that is a long session of +nerves, while chuck-a-luck, though all in the open, is for children and +fools. You might throw the dice a thousand times and never cast a lucky +combination. Roulette is as bad. The percentage in favor of the bank in a +square game is forty per cent. better than stealing. I'll initiate you on +monte. Are your eyes quick?" + +"For some things," I replied meaningly. + +She conducted me to the nearest monte game, where the "spieler"--a +smooth-faced lad of not more than nineteen--sat behind his three-legged +little table, green covered, and idly shifting the cards about maintained +a rather bored flow of conversational incitement to bets. + +As happened, he was illy patronized at the moment. There were not more +than three or four onlookers, none risking but all waiting apparently upon +one another. + +At our arrival the youth glanced up with the most innocent pair of +long-lashed brown eyes that I ever had seen. A handsome boy he was. + +"Hello, Bob." + +He smiled, with white teeth. + +"Hello yourself." + +My Lady and he seemed to know each other. + +"How goes it to-night, Bob?" + +"Slow. There's no nerve or money in this camp any more. She's a dead +one." + +"I'll not have Benton slandered," My Lady gaily retorted. "We'll buck your +game, Bob. But you must be easy on us. We're green yet." + +Bob shot a quick glance at me--in one look had read me from hat to boots. +He had shrewder eyes than their first languor intimated. + +"Pleased to accommodate you, I'm sure," he answered. "The greenies stand +as good a show at this board as the profesh." + +"Will you play for a dollar?" she challenged. + +"I'll play for two bits, to-night. Anything to start action." He twisted +his mouth with ready chagrin. "I'm about ripe to bet against myself." + +She fumbled at her reticule, but I was beforehand. + +"No, no." And I fished into my pocket. "Allow me. I will furnish the funds +if you will do the playing." + +"I choose the card?" said she. "That is up to you, sir. You are to +learn." + +"By watching, at first," I protested. "We should be partners." + +"Well," she consented, "if you say so. Partners it is. A lady brings luck, +but I shall not always do your playing for you, sir. That kind of +partnership comes to grief." + +"I am hopeful of playing on my own score, in due time," I responded. "As +you will see." + +"What's the card, Bob? We've a dollar on it, as a starter." + +He eyed her, while facing the cards up. + +"The ace. You see it--the ace, backed by ten and deuce. Here it is. All +ready?" He turned them down, in order; methodically, even listlessly moved +them to and fro, yet with light, sure, well-nigh bewildering touch. +Suddenly lifted his hands. "All set. A dollar you don't face up the ace at +first try." + +She laughed, bantering. + +"Oh, Bob! You're too easy. I wonder you aren't broke. You're no monte +spieler. Is this your best?" + +And I believed that I myself knew which card was the ace. + +"You hear me, and there's my dollar." He coolly waited. + +"Not yours; ours. Will you make it five?" + +"One is my limit on this throw. You named it." + +"Oho!" With a dart of hand she had turned up the middle card, exposing the +ace spot, as I had anticipated. She swept the two dollars to her. + +"Adios," she bade. + +He smiled, indulgent. + +"So soon? Don't I get my revenge? You, sir." And he appealed to me. "You +see how easy it is. I'll throw you a turn for a dollar, two dollars, five +dollars--anything to combine business and pleasure. Whether I win or lose +I don't care. You'll follow the lead of the lady? What?" + +I was on fire to accept, but she stayed me. + +"Not now. I'm showing him around, Bob. You'll get your revenge later. +Good-bye. I've drummed up trade for you." + +As if inspired by the winning several of the bystanders, some newly +arrived, had money in their hands, to stake. So we strolled on; and I was +conscious that the youth's brown eyes briefly flicked after us with a +peculiar glint. + +"Yours," she said, extending the coins to me. + +I declined. + +"No, indeed. It is part of my tuition. If you will play I will stake." + +She also declined. + +"I can't have that. You will at least take your own money back." + +"Only for another try, madam," I assented. + +"In that case we'll find a livelier game yonder," said she. "Bob's just a +lazy boy. His game is a piker game. He's too slow to learn from. Let us +watch a real game." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +I STAKE ON THE QUEEN + + +Jim had disappeared; until when we had made way to another monte table +there he was, his hands in his pockets, his cigar half smoked. + +More of a crowd was here; the voice of the spieler more insistent, yet +low-pitched and businesslike. He was a study--a square-shouldered, well +set-up, wiry man of olive complexion, finely chiseled features save for +nose somewhat cruelly beaked, of short black moustache, dead black long +wavy hair, and, placed boldly wide, contrastive hard gray eyes that lent +atmosphere of coldness to his face. His hat was pulled down over his +forehead, he held an unlighted cigar between his teeth while he +mechanically spoke and shifted the three cards (a diamond flashing from a +finger) upon the baize-covered little table. + +Money had been wagered. He had just raked in a few notes, adding them to +his pile. His monotone droned on. + +"Next, ladies and gentlemen. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. That is my +business. The play is yours. You may think I have two chances to your +one; that is not so. You make the choice. Always the queen, always the +queen. You have only to watch the queen, one card. I have to watch three +cards. You have your two eyes, I have my two hands. You spot the card only +when you think you can. I meet all comers. It is an even gamble." + +Jim remarked us as we joined. + +"How you comin' now?" he greeted of me. + +"We won a dollar," My Lady responded. + +"Not I. She did the choosing," I corrected. + +"But you would have chosen the same card, you said," she prompted. "You +saw how easy it was." + +"Easy if you know how," Jim asserted. "Think to stake a leetle here? I've +been keepin' cases and luck's breaking ag'in the bank to-night, by gosh. +Made several turns, myself, already." + +"We'll wait a minute till we get his system," she answered. + +"Are you watching, ladies and gentlemen?" bade the dealer, in that even +tone. "You see the eight of clubs, the eight of spades, the queen of +hearts. The queen is your card. My hand against your eyes, then. You are +set? There you are. Pick the queen, some one of you. Put your money on the +queen of hearts. You can turn the card yourself. What? Nobody? Don't be +pikers. Let us have a little sport. Stake a dollar. Why, you'd toss a +dollar down your throat--you'd lay a dollar on a cockroach race--you'd bet +that much on a yellow dog if you owned him, just to show your spirit. And +here I'm offering you a straight proposition." + +With a muttered "I'll go you another turn, Mister," Jim stepped closer and +planked down a dollar. The dealer cast a look up at him as with pleased +surprise. + +"You, sir? Very good. You have spirit. Money talks. Here is my dollar. +Now, to prove to these other people what a good guesser you are, which is +the queen?" + +"Here," Jim said confidently; and sure enough he faced up the queen of +hearts. + +"The money's yours. You never earned a dollar quicker, I'll wager, +friend," the dealer acknowledged, imperturbable--for he evidently was one +who never evinced the least emotion, whether he won or lost. "Very good. +Now----" + +From behind him a man--a newcomer to the spot, who looked like any +respectable Eastern merchant, being well dressed and grave of +face--touched him upon the shoulder. He turned ear; while he inclined +farther they whispered together, and I witnessed an arm steal swiftly +forward at my side, and a thumb and finger slightly bend up the extreme +corner of the queen. The hand and arm vanished; when the dealer fronted us +again the queen was apparently just as before. Only we who had seen would +have marked the bent corner. + +The act had been so clever and so audacious that I fairly held my breath. +But the gambler resumed his flow of talk, while he fingered the cards as +if totally unaware that they had been tampered with. + +"Now, again, ladies and gentlemen. You see how it is done. You back your +eyes, and you win. I find that I shall have to close early to-night. Make +your hay while the sun shines. Who'll be in on this turn? Watch the queen +of hearts. I place her here. I coax the three cards a little----" he gave +a swift flourish. "There they are." + +His audience hesitated, as if fearful of a trick, for the bent corner of +the queen, raising this end a little, was plain to us who knew. It was +absurdly plain. + +"I'll go you another, Mister," Jim responded. "I'll pick out the queen +ag'in for a dollar." + +The gambler smiled grimly and shrugged his shoulders. + +"Oh, pshaw, sir. These are small stakes. You'll never get rich at that +rate and neither shall I." + +"I reckon I can set my own limit," Jim grumbled. + +"Yes, sir. But let's have action. Who'll join this gentleman in his guess? +Who'll back his luck? He's a winner, I admit that." + +The gray eyes dwelt upon face and face of our half circle; and still I, +too, hesitated, although my dollar was burning a hole in my pocket. + +My Lady whispered to me. + +"All's fair in love and war. Here--put this on, with yours, for me." She +slipped a dollar of her own into my hand. + +Another man stepped forward. He was, I judged, a teamster. His clothes, of +flannel shirt, belted trousers and six-shooter and dusty boots, so +indicated. And his beard was shaggy and unkempt, almost covering his face +underneath his drooping slouch hat. + +"I'll stake you a dollar," he said. + +"Two from me," I heard myself saying, and I saw my hand depositing them. + +"You're all on this gentleman's card, remember?" + +We nodded. The bearded man tipped me a wink. + +"You, sir, then, turn the queen if you can," the gambler challenged of +Jim. + +With quick movement Jim flopped the bent-corner card, and the queen +herself seemed to wink jovially at us. + +The gambler exclaimed. + +"By God, gentlemen, but you've skinned me again. I'm clumsy to-night. I'd +better quit." And he scarcely varied his level tone despite the chuckles +of the crowd. "You must let me try once more. But I warn you, I want +action. I'm willing to meet any sum you stack up against me, if it's large +enough to spell action. Shall we go another round or two before I close +up?" He gathered the three cards. "You see the queen--my unlucky queen of +hearts. Here she is." He stowed the card between thumb and finger. "Here +are the other two." He held them up in his left hand--the eight of clubs, +the eight of spades. He transferred them--with his rapid motion he strewed +the three. "Choose the queen. I put the game to you fair and square. There +are the cards. Maybe you can read their backs. That's your privilege." He +fixed his eyes upon the teamster. "You, sir; where's your money, half of +which was mine?" He glanced at Jim. "And you, sir? You'll follow your +luck?" Lastly he surveyed me with a flash of steely bravado. "And you, +young gentleman. You came in before. I dare you." + +The bent corner was more pronounced than ever, as if aggravated by the +manipulations. It could not possibly be mistaken by the knowing. And a +sudden shame possessed me--a glut of this crafty advantage to which I was +stooping; an advantage gained not through my own wit, either, but through +the dishonorable trick of another. + +"There's your half from me, if you want it," said Jim, slapping down two +dollars. "This is my night to howl." + +The teamster backed him. + +"I'm on the same card," said he. + +And not to be outdone--urged, I thought, by a pluck at my sleeve--I boldly +followed with my own two dollars, reasoning that I was warranted in +partially recouping, for Benton owed me much. + +The gambler laughed shortly. His gaze, cool and impertinent, enveloped +our front. He leaned back, defiant. + +"Give me a chance, gentlemen. I shall not proceed with the play for that +picayune sum before me. This is my last deal and I've been loser. It's +make or break. Who else will back that gentleman's luck? I've placed the +cards the best I know how. But six or eight dollars is no money to me. It +doesn't pay for floor space. Is nobody else in? What? Come, come; let's +have some sport. I dare you. This time is my revenge or your good fortune. +Play up, gentlemen. Don't be crabbers." He smiled sarcastically; his words +stung. "This isn't pussy-in-a-corner. It's a game of wits. You wouldn't +bet unless you felt cock-sure of winning. I'll give you one minute, +gentlemen, before calling all bets off unless you make the pot worth +while." + +The threat had effect. Nobody wished to let the marked card get away. That +was not human nature. Bets rained in upon the table--bank notes, silver +half dollars, the rarer dollar coins, and the common greenbacks. He met +each wager, while he sat negligent and half smiled and chewed his +unlighted cigar. + +"This is the last round, gentlemen," he reminded. "Are you all in? Don't +leave with regrets. You," he said, direct to me. "Are you in such short +circumstances that you have no spunk? Why did you come here, sir, if not +to win? Why, the stakes you play would not buy refreshment for the lady!" + +That was too much. I threw scruples aside. He had badgered me--he was +there to win if he could; I now was hot with the same design. I extracted +my twenty-dollar note, and deaf to a quickly breathed "Wait the turn" from +My Lady I planked it down before him. She should know me for a man of +decision. + +"There, sir," said I. "I am betting twenty-two dollars in all, which is my +limit to-night, on the same right-end card as I stand." + +I thought that I had him. Forthwith he straightened alertly, spoke +tartly. + +"The game is closed, gentlemen. Remember, you are wagering on the first +turn. There are no splits in monte. Not at this table. Our friend says the +right-end card. You, sir," and he addressed Jim. "They are backing you. +Which do you say is the queen? Lay your finger on her." + +Jim so did, with a finger stubby, and dirty under the nail. + +"That is the card, is it? You are agreed?" he queried us, sweeping his +cold gray eyes from face to face. "We'll have no crabbing." + +We nodded, intently eying the card, fearful yet, some of us, that it might +be denied us. + +"You, sir, then." And he addressed me. "You are the heaviest better. +Suppose you turn the card for yourself and those other gentlemen." + +I obediently reached for it. My hand trembled. There were sixty or +seventy dollars upon the table, and my own contribution was my last cent. +As I fumbled I felt the strain of bodies pressing against mine, and heard +the hiss of feverish breaths, and a foolish laugh or two. Nevertheless the +silence seemed overpowering. + +I turned the card--the card with the bent corner, of which I was as +certain as of my own name; I faced it up, confidently, my capital already +doubled; and amidst a burst of astonished cries I stared dumbfounded. + +It was the eight of clubs! My fingers left it as though it were a snake. +It was the eight of clubs! Where I had seen, in fancy, the queen of +hearts, there lay like a changeling the eight of clubs, with corner bent +as only token of the transformation. + +The crowd elbowed about me. With rapid movement the gambler raked in the +bets--a slender hand flashed by me--turned the next card. The queen that +was, after all. + +The gambler darkened, gathering the pasteboards. + +"We can't both win, gentlemen," he said, tone passionless. "But I am +willing to give you one more chance, from a new deck." + +What the response was I did not know, nor care. My ears drummed +confusedly, and seeing nothing I pushed through into the open, painfully +conscious that I was flat penniless and that instead of having played the +knave I had played the fool, for the queen of hearts. + +The loss of some twenty dollars might have been a trivial matter to me +once--I had at times cast that sum away as vainly as Washington had cast a +dollar across the Potomac; but here I had lost my all, whether large or +small; and not only had I been bilked out of it--I had bilked myself out +of it by sinking, in pretended smartness, below the level of a more artful +dodger. + +I heard My Lady speaking beside me. + +"I'm so sorry." She laid hand upon my sleeve. "You should have been +content with small sums, or followed my lead. Next time----" + +"There'll be no next time," I blurted. "I am cleaned out." + +"You don't mean----?" + +"I was first robbed at the hotel. Now here." + +"No, no!" she opposed. Jim sidled to us. "That was a bungle, Jim." + +He ruefully scratched his head. + +"A wrong steer for once, I reckon. I warn't slick enough. Too much money +on the table. But it looked like the card; I never took my eyes off'n it. +We'll try ag'in, and switch to another layout. By thunder, I want revenge +on this joint and I mean to get it. So do you, don't you, pardner?" he +appealed to me. + +As with mute, sickly denial I turned away it seemed to me that I sensed a +shifting of forms at the monte table--caught the words "You watch here a +moment"; and close following, a slim white hand fell heavily upon My +Lady's shoulder. It whirled her about, to face the gambler. His smooth +olive countenance was dark with a venom of rage incarnate that poisoned +the air; his syllables crackled. + +"You devil! I heard you, at the table. You meddle with my come-ons, will +you?" And he slapped her with open palm, so that the impact smacked. "Now +get out o' here or I'll kill you." + +She flamed red, all in a single rush of blood. + +"Oh!" she breathed. Her hand darted for the pocket in her skirt, but I +sprang between the two. Forgetful of my revolver, remembering only what I +had witnessed--a woman struck by a man--with a blow I sent him reeling +backward. + +He recovered; every vestige of color had left his face, except for the +spot where I had landed; his hat had sprung aside from the shock--his gray +eyes, contrasted with his black hair, fastened upon my eyes almost +deliberately and his upper lip lifted over set white teeth. With lightning +movement he thrust the fingers of his right hand into his waistcoat +pocket. + +I heard a rush of feet, a clamor of voices; and all the while, which +seemed interminable, I was tugging, awkward with deadly peril, at my +revolver. His fingers had whipped free of the pocket, I glimpsed as with +second sight (for my eyes were held strongly by his) the twin little +black muzzles of a derringer concealed in his palm; a spasm of fear +pinched me; they spurted, with ringing report, but just at the instant a +flanneled arm knocked his arm up, the ball had sped ceiling-ward and the +teamster of the gaming table stood against him, revolver barrel boring +into his very stomach. + +"Stand pat, Mister. I call you." + +In a trice all entry of any unpleasant emotion vanished from my +antagonist's handsome face, leaving it olive tinted, cameo, inert. He +steadied a little, and smiled, surveying the teamster's visage, close to +his. + +"You have me covered, sir. My hand is in the discard." He composedly +tucked the derringer into his waistcoat pocket again. "That gentleman +struck me; he was about to draw on me, and by rights I might have killed +him. My apologies for this little disturbance." + +He bestowed a challenging look upon me, a hard unforgiving look upon the +lady; with a bow he turned for his hat, and stepping swiftly went back to +his table. + +Now in the reaction I fought desperately against a trembling of the knees; +there were congratulations, a hubbub of voices assailing me--and the arm +of the teamster through mine and his bluff invitation: + +"Come and have a drink." + +"But you'll return. You must. I want to speak with you." + +It was My Lady, pleading earnestly. I still could scarcely utter a word; +my brain was in a smother. My new friend moved me away from her. He +answered for me. + +"Not until we've had a little confab, lady. We've got matters of +importance jest at present." + +I saw her bite her lips, as she helplessly flushed; her blue eyes implored +me, but I had no will of my own and I certainly owed a measure of courtesy +to this man who had saved my life. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +I ACCEPT AN OFFER + + +We found a small table, one of the several devoted to refreshments for the +dancers, in a corner and unoccupied. The affair upon the floor was +apparently past history--if it merited even that distinction. The place +had resumed its program of dancing, playing and drinking as though after +all a pistol shot was of no great moment in the Big Tent. + +"You had a narrow shave," my friend remarked as we seated ourselves--I +with a sigh of gratitude for the opportunity. "If you can't draw quicker +you'd better keep your hands in your pockets. Let's have a dose of +t'rant'lar juice to set you up." Whereupon he ordered whiskey from a +waiter. + +"But I couldn't stand by and see him strike a woman," I defended. + +"Wall, fists mean guns, in these diggin's. Where you from?" + +"Albany, New York State." + +"I sized you up as a pilgrim. You haven't been long in camp, either, have +you?" + +"No. But plenty long enough," I miserably replied. + +"Long enough to be plucked, eh?" + +We had drunk the whiskey. Under its warming influence my tongue loosened. +Moreover there was something strong and kindly in the hearty voice and the +rough face of this rudely clad plainsman, black bearded to the piercing +black eyes. + +"Yes; of my last cent." + +"All at gamblin', mebbe?" + +"No. Only a little, but that strapped me. The hotel had robbed me of +practically everything else." + +"Had, had it? Wall, what's the story?" + +I told him of the hotel part; and he nodded. + +"Shore. You can't hold the hotel responsible. You can leave stuff loose in +regular camp; nobody enters flaps without permission. But a room is a +different proposition. I'd rather take chances among Injuns than among +white men. Why, you could throw in with a Sioux village for a year and not +be robbed permanent if the chief thought you straight; but in a white +man's town--hell! Now, how'd you get tangled up with this other outfit?" + +"Which?" I queried. + +"That brace outfit I found you with." + +"The fellow is a stranger to me, sir," said I. "I simply was foolish +enough to stake what little I had on a sure thing--I was bamboozled into +following the lead of the rest of you," I reminded. "Now I see that there +was a trick, although I don't yet understand. After that the fellow +assaulted the lady, my companion, and you stepped in--for which, sir, I +owe you more thanks than I can utter." + +"A trick, you think?" He opened his hairy mouth for a gust of short +laughter. "My Gawd, boy! We were nicely took in, and we desarved it. When +you buck the tiger, look out for his claws. But I reckoned he'd postpone +the turn till next time. He would have, if you fellers hadn't come down so +handsome with the dust. I stood pat, at that. So, you notice, did the +capper, your other friend." + +"The capper? Which was he, sir?" + +"Why, Lord bless you, son. You're the greenest thing this side of Omyha. A +capper touched him on the shoulder, a capper bent that there card, a +capper tolled you all on with a dollar or two, and another capper fed the +come-ons to his table. Aye, she's a purty piece. Where'd you meet up with +her?" + +"With her?" I gasped. + +"Yes, yes. The woman; the main steerer. That purty piece who damn nigh +lost you your life as well as losin' you your money." + +"You mean the lady with the blue eyes, in black?" + +"Yes, the golden hair. Lady! Oh, pshaw! Where'd she hook you? At the +door?" + +"You shall not speak of her in that fashion, sir," I answered. "We were +together on the train from Omaha. She has been kindness itself. The only +part she has played to-night, as far as I can see, was to chaperon me here +in the Big Tent; and whatever small winnings I had made, for amusement, +was due to her and the skill of an acquaintance named Jim." + +"Jim Daily, yep. O' course. And she befriended you. Why, d'you suppose?" + +"Perhaps because I was of some assistance to her on the way out West. I +had a little setto with Mr. Daily, when he annoyed her while he was drunk. +But sobered up, he seemed to wish to make amends." + +"Oh, Lord!" My friend's mouth gaped. "Amends? Yep. That's his nature. +Might call it mendin' his pocket and his lip. And you don't yet savvy that +your 'lady' 's Montoyo's wife--his woman, anyhow?" + +"Montoyo? Who's Montoyo?" + +"The monte thrower. That same spieler who trimmed us," he rapped +impatiently. + +The light that broke upon me dazed. My heart pounded. I must have looked +what I felt: a fool. + +"No," I stammered in my thin small voice of the hotel. "I imagined--I had +reason to suspect that she might be married. But I didn't know to whom." + +"Married? Wall, mebbe. Anyhow, she's bound to Montoyo. He's a breed, some +Spanish, some white, like as not some Injun. A devil, and as slick as they +make 'em. She's a power too white for him, herself, but he uses her and +some day he'll kill her. You're not the fust gudgeon she's hooked, to feed +to him. Why, she's known all back down the line. They two have been +followin' end o' track from North Platte, along with Hell on Wheels. Had a +layout in Omyha, and in Denver. They're not the only double-harness outfit +hyar, either. You can meet a friendly woman any time, but this one got +hold you fust." + +I writhed to the words. + +"And that fellow Jim?" I asked. + +"He's jest a common roper. He alluz wins, to encourage suckers like you. +'Tisn't his money he plays with; he's on commish. Beginnin' to understand, +ain't you?" + +"But the bent card?" I insisted. "That is the mystery. It was the queen. +What became of the queen?" + +"Ho ho!" And again he laughed. "A cute trick, shore. That's what we got +for bein' so plumb crooked ourselves. Why, o' course it was the queen, +once. You see 'twas this way. That she-male and the capper in cahoots with +her tolled you on straight for Montoyo's table; teased you a leetle along +the trail, no doubt, to keep you interested." I nodded. "They promised you +winnin's, easy winnin's. Then at Montoyo's table the game was a leetle +slack; so one capper touched him on the shoulder and another marked the +card. O' course a gambler like him wouldn't be up to readin' his own +cards. Oh, no! You sports were the smart ones." + +"How about yourself?" I retorted, nettled. + +"Me? I know them tricks, but I reckoned I was smart, too. Then that capper +Jim led out and we all made a small winnin', to prove the system. And +Montoyo, he gets tired o' losin'--but still he's blind to a card that +everybody else can see, and he calls for real play so he can go broke or +even up. I didn't look for much of a deal on that throw myself. Usu'ly it +comes less promisc'yus, with the gudgeon stakin' the big roll, and then I +pull out. But you-all slapped down the stuff in a stampede, sartin you had +him buffaloed. On his last shuffle he'd straightened the queen and turned +down the eight, usin' an extra finger or two. Them card sharps have six +fingers on each hand and several in their sleeve, and he was slicker'n I +thought. He might have refused all bets and got your mad up for the next +pass; but you'd come down as handsome as you would, he figgered. So he let +go. 'Twas fair and squar', robber eat robber, and we none of us have any +call to howl. But you mind my word: Don't aim to put something over on a +professional gamblin' sharp. It can't be done. As for me, I broke even and +I alluz expect to lose. When I look to be skinned I leave most my dust +behind me where I can't get at it." + +Now I saw all, or enough. I had received no more than I deserved. Such a +wave of nausea surged into my mouth--but he was continuing. + +"Jest why he struck his woman I don't know. Do you?" + +"Yes. She had cautioned me and he must have heard her. And she showed +which was the right card. I don't understand that." + +"To save her face, and egg you on. Shore! Your twenty dollars was nothin'. +She didn't know you were busted. Next time she'd have steered you to the +tune of a hundred or two and cleaned you proper. You hadn't been worked +along, yet, to the right pitch o' smartness. Montoyo must ha' mistook her. +She encouraged you, didn't she?" + +"Yes, she did." I arose unsteadily, clutching the table. "If you'll excuse +me, sir, I think I'd better go. I--I--I thank you. I only wish I'd met you +before. You are at liberty to regard me as a saphead. Good-night, sir." + +"No! Hold on. Sit down, sit down, man. Have another drink." + +"I have had enough. In fact, since arriving in Benton I've had more than +enough of everything." But I sat down. + +"Where were you goin'?" + +"To the hotel. I am privileged to stay there until to-morrow. Thank Heaven +I was obliged to pay in advance." + +"Alluz safer," said he. "And then what?" + +"To-morrow?" + +"Yes. To-morrow." + +"I don't know. I must find employment, and earn enough to get home with." +To write for funds was now impossible through very shame. "Home's the +only place for a person of my greenness." + +"Why did you come out clear to end o' track?" he inquired. + +"I was ordered by my physician to find a locality in the Far West, high +and dry." I gulped at his smile. "I've found it and shall go home to +report." + +"With your tail between your legs?" He clapped me upon the shoulder. +"Stiffen your back. We all have to pay for eddication. You're not wolf +meat yet, by a long shot. You've still got your hair, and that's more than +some men I know of. You look purty healthy, too. Don't turn for home; +stick it out." + +"I shall have to stick it out until I raise the transportation," I +reminded. "My revolver should tide me over, for a beginning." + +"Sell it?" said he. "Sell your breeches fust. Either way you'd be only +half dressed. No!" + +"It would take me a little way. I'll not stay in Benton--not to be pointed +at as a dupe." + +"Oh, pshaw!" he laughed. "Nobody'll remember you, specially if you're +known to be broke. Busted, you're of no use to the camp. Let me make you a +proposition. I believe you're straight goods. Can't believe anything else, +after seein' your play and sizin' you up. Let me make you a proposition. +I'm on my way to Salt Lake with a bull outfit and I'm in need of another +man. I'll give you a dollar and a half a day and found, and it will be +good honest work, too." + +"You are teaming west, you mean?" I asked. + +"Yes, sir. Freightin' across. Mule-whackin'." + +"But I never drove spans in my life; and I'm not in shape to stand +hardships," I faltered. "I'm here for my health. I have----" + +"Stow all that, son," he interrupted more tolerantly than was my due. +"Forget your lungs, lights and liver and stand up a full-size man. In my +opinion you've had too much doctorin'. A month with a bull train, and a +diet of beans and sowbelly will put a linin' in your in'ards and a heart +in your chest. When you've slept under a wagon to Salt Lake and l'arned to +sling a bull whip and relish your beans burned, you can look anybody in +the eye and tell him to go to hell, if you like. This roarin' town +life--it's no life for you. It's a bobtail, wide open in the middle. I'll +be only too glad to get away on the long trail myself. So you come with +me," and he smiled winningly. "I hate to see you ruined by women and +likker. Mule-skinnin' ain't all beer and skittles, as they say; but this +job'll tide you over, anyhow, and you'll come out at the end with money in +your pocket, if you choose, and no doctor's bill to pay." + +"Sir," I said gratefully, "may I think it over to-night, and let you know +in the morning? Where will I find you?" + +"The train's camped near the wagon trail, back at the river. You can't +miss it. It's mainly a Mormon train, that some of us Gentiles have thrown +in with. Ask for Cap'n Hyrum Adams' train. My name's Jenks--George Jenks. +You'll find me there. I'll hold open for you till ten o'clock--yes, till +noon. I mean that you shall come. It'll be the makin' of you." + +I arose and gave him my hand; shook with him. + +"And I hope to come," I asserted with glow of energy. "You've set me upon +my feet, Mr. Jenks, for I was desperate. You're the first honest man I've +met in Benton." + +"Tut, tut," he reproved. "There are others. Benton's not so bad as you +think it. But you were dead ripe; the buzzards scented you. Now you go +straight to your hotel, unless you'll spend the night with me. No? Then +I'll see you in the mornin'. I'll risk your gettin' through the street +alone." + +"You may, sir," I affirmed. "At present I'm not worth further robbing." + +"Except for your gun and clothes," he rejoined. "But if you'll use the one +you'll keep the other." + +Gazing neither right nor left I strode resolutely for the exit. Now I had +an anchor to windward. Sometimes just one word will face a man about when +for lack of that mere word he was drifting. Of the games and the people I +wished only to be rid forever; but at the exit I was halted by a hand laid +upon my arm, and a quick utterance. + +"Not going? You will at least say good-night." + +I barely paused, replying to her. + +"Good-night." + +Still she would have detained me. + +"Oh, no, no! Not this way. It was a mistake. I swear to you I am not to be +blamed. Please let me help you. I don't know what you've heard--I don't +know what has been said about me--you are angry----" + +I twitched free, for she should not work upon me again. With such as she, +a vampire and yet a woman, a man's safety lay not in words but in +unequivocal action. + +"Good-night," I bade thickly, half choked by that same nausea, now hot. +Bearing with me a satisfying but somehow annoyingly persistent imprint of +moist blue eyes under shimmering hair, and startled white face plashed on +one cheek with vivid crimson, and small hand left extended empty, I +roughly stalked on and out, free of her, free of the Big Tent, her lair. + +All the way to the hotel, through the garish street, I nursed my wrath +while it gnawed at me like the fox in the Spartan boy's bosom; and once in +my room, which fortuitously had no other tenants at this hour, I had to +lean out of the narrow window for sheer relief in the coolness. Surely +pride had had a fall this night. + +There "roared" Benton--the Benton to which, as to prosperity, I had +hopefully purchased my ticket ages ago. And here cowered I, holed +up--pillaged, dishonored, worthless in even this community: a young fellow +in jaunty frontier costume, new and brave, but really reduced to sackcloth +and ashes; a young fellow only a husk, as false in appearance as the Big +Tent itself and many another of those canvas shells. + +The street noises--shouts, shots, music, songs, laughter, rattle of dice, +whirr of wheel and clink of glasses--assailed me discordant. The scores of +tents and shacks stretching on irregularly had become pocked with dark +spots, where lights had been extinguished, but the street remained ablaze +and the desert without winked at the stars. There were moving gleams at +the railroad yards where switch engines puffed back and forth; up the +grade and the new track, pointing westward, there were sparks of +camp-fires; and still in other directions beyond the town other tokens +redly flickered, where overland freighters were biding till the morning. + +Two or three miles in the east (Mr. Jenks had said) was his wagon train, +camped at the North Platte River; and peering between the high canopy of +stars and the low stratum of spectrally glowing, earthy--yes, very +earthy--Benton, I tried to focus upon the haven, for comfort. + +I had made up my mind to accept the berth. Anything to get away. Benton I +certainly hated with the rage of the defeated. So in a fling I drew back, +wrestled out of coat and boots and belt and pantaloons, tucked them in +hiding against the wall at the head of my bed and my revolver underneath +my stained pillow; and tried to forget Benton, all of it, with the blanket +to my ears and my face to the wall, for sleep. + +When once or twice I wakened from restless dreaming the glow and the noise +of the street seemed scarcely abated, as if down there sleep was despised. +But when I finally aroused, and turned, gathering wits again, full +daylight had paled everything else. + +Snores sounded from the other beds; I saw tumbled coverings, disheveled +forms and shaggy heads. In my own corner nothing had been molested. The +world outside was strangely quiet. The trail was open. So with no +attention to my roommates I hastily washed and dressed, buckled on my +armament, and stumped freely forth, down the somnolent hall, down the +creaking stairs, and into the silent lobby. + +Even the bar was vacant. Behind the office counter a clerk sat sunk into a +doze. At my approach he unclosed blank, heavy eyes. + +"I'm going out," I said shortly. "Number Three bed in Room Six." + +"For long, sir?" he stammered. "You'll be back, or are you leaving?" + +"I'm leaving. You'll find I'm paid up." + +"Yes, sir. Of course, sir." He rallied to the problem. "Just a moment. +Number Three, Room Six, you say. Pulling your freight, are you?" He +scanned the register. "You're the gentleman from New York who came in +yesterday and met with misfortune?" + +"I am," said I. + +"Well, better luck next time. We'll see you again?" He quickened. "Here! +One moment. Think I have a message for you." And reaching behind him into +a pigeonhole he extracted an envelope, which he passed to me. "Yours, +sir?" I stared at the fine slanting script of the address: + + Please deliver to + Frank R. Beeson, Esqr., + At the Queen Hotel. + Arrived from Albany, N. Y. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +I CUT LOOSE + + +I nodded; rebuffing his attentive eyes I stuffed the envelope into my +pantaloons pocket. + +"Good-bye, sir." + +"Good luck. When you come back remember the Queen." + +"I'll remember the Queen," said I; and with the envelope smirching my +flesh I stepped out, holding my head as high as though my pockets +contained something of more value. + +The events of yesterday had hardened, thank Heaven; and so had I, into an +obstinacy that defied this mocking Western country. I was down to the +ground and was going to scratch. To make for home like a whipped dog, +there to hang about, probably become an invalid and die resistless, was +unthinkable. Already the Far West air and vigor had worked a change in me. +In the fresh morning I felt like a fighting cock, or a runner recruited by +a diet of unbolted flour and strong red meat. + +The falsity of the life here I looked upon as only an incident. The gay +tawdry had faded; I realized how much more enduring were the rough, +uncouth but genuine products like my friend Mr. Jenks and those of that +ilk, who spoke me well instead of merely fair. Health of mind and body +should be for me. Hurrah! + +But the note! It could have been sent by only one person--the +superscription, dainty and feminine, betrayed it. That woman was still +pursuing me. How she had found out my name I did not know; perhaps from +the label on my bag, perhaps through the hotel register. I did not recall +having exchanged names with her--she never had proffered her own name. At +all events she appeared determined to keep a hold upon me, and that was +disgusting. + +Couldn't she understand that I was no longer a fool--that I had wrenched +absolutely loose from her and that she could do nothing with me? So in +wrath renewed by her poor estimate of my common sense I was minded to tear +the note to fragments, unread, and contemptuously scatter them. Had she +been present I should have done so, to show her. + +Being denied the satisfaction I saw no profit in wasting that modicum of +spleen, when I might double it by deliberately reading her effusion and +knowingly casting it into the dust. One always can make excuses to +oneself, for curiosity. Consequently I halted, around a corner in this +exhausted Benton; tore the envelope open with gingerly touch. The folded +paper within contained a five-dollar bank note. + +That was enough to pump the blood to my face with a rush. It was an +insult--a shame, first hand. A shoddy plaster, applied to me--to me, Frank +Beeson, a gentleman, whether to be viewed as a plucked greenhorn or not. +With cheeks twitching I managed to read the lines accompanying the dole: + + Sir: + + You would not permit me to explain to you to-night, therefore I must + write. The recent affair was a mistake. I had no intention that you + should lose, and I supposed you were in more funds. I insist upon + speaking with you. You shall not go away in this fashion. You will + find me at the Elite Café, at a table, at ten o'clock in the morning. + And in case you are a little short I beg of you to make use of the + enclosed, with my best wishes and apologies. You may take it as a + loan; I do not care as to that. I am utterly miserable. + + E. + To Frank Beeson, Esquire. + +Faugh! Had there been a sewer near I believe that I should have thrown the +whole enclosure in, and spat. But half unconsciously wadding both money +and paper in my hand as if to squeeze the last drop of rancor from them I +swung on, seeing blindly, ready to trample under foot any last obstacle to +my passage out. + +Then, in the deserted way, from a lane among the straggling shacks, a +figure issued. I disregarded it, only to hear it pattering behind me and +its voice: + +"Mr. Beeson! Wait! Please wait." + +I had to turn about to avoid the further degradation of acting the churl +to her, an inferior. And as I had suspected, she it was, arriving +breathless and cloak inwrapped, only her white face showing. + +"You have my note?" she panted. + +There were dark half circles under her eyes, pinch lines about her mouth, +all her face was wildly strained. She simulated distress very well +indeed. + +"Here it is, and your money. Take them." And I thrust my unclosed fist at +her. + +"No! And you were going? You didn't intend to reply?" + +"Certainly not. I am done with you, and with Benton, madam. Good-morning. +I have business." + +She caught at my sleeve. + +"You are angry. I don't blame you, but you have time to talk with me and +you shall talk." She spoke almost fiercely. "I demand it, sir. If not at +the café, then here and now. Will you stand aside, please, where the whole +town shan't see us; or do you wish me to follow you on? I'm risking +already, but I'll risk more." + +I sullenly stepped aside, around the corner of a sheet-iron groggery +(plentifully punctured, I noted, with bullet holes) not yet open for +business and faced by the blank wall of a warehouse. + +"I've been waiting since daylight," she panted, "and watching the hotel. I +knew you were still there; I found out. I was afraid you wouldn't answer +my note, so I slipped around and cut in on you. Where are you going, +sir?" + +"That, madam, is my private affair," I replied. "And all your efforts to +influence me in the slightest won't amount to a row of pins. And as I am +in a hurry, I again bid you good-morning. I advise you to get back to your +husband and your beauty sleep, in order to be fresh for your Big Tent +to-night." + +"My husband? You know? Oh, of course you know." She gazed affrightedly +upon me. "To Montoyo, you say? Him? No, no! I can't! Oh, I can't, I +can't." She wrung her hands, she held me fast. "And I know where you're +going. To that wagon train. Mr. Jenks has engaged you. You will bull-whack +to Salt Lake? You? Don't! Please don't. There's no need of it." + +"I am done with Benton, and with Benton's society, madam," I insisted. "I +have learned my lesson, believe me, and I'm no longer a 'gudgeon.'" + +"You never were," said she. "Not that. And you don't have to turn +bull-whacker or mule-skinner either. It's a hard life; you're not fitted +for it--never, never. Leave Benton if you will. I hate it myself. And let +us go together." + +"Madam!" I rapped; and drew back, but she clung to me. + +"Listen, listen! Don't mistake me again. Last night was enough. I want +to go. I must go. We can travel separately, then; I will meet you +anywhere--Denver, Omaha, Chicago, New York, anywhere you +say--anywhere----" + +"Your husband, madam," I prompted. "He might have objections to parting +with you." + +"Montoyo? That snake--you fear that snake? He is no husband to me. I could +kill him--I will do it yet, to be free from him." + +"My good name, then," I taunted. "I might fear for my good name more than +I'd fear a man." + +"I have a name of my own," she flashed, "although you may not know it." + +"I have been made acquainted with it," I answered roundly. + +"No, you haven't. Not the true. You know only another." Her tone became +humbler. "But I'm not asking you to marry me," she said. "I'm not asking +you to love me as a paramour, sir. Please understand. Treat me as you +will; as a sister, a friend, but anything human. Only let me have your +decent regard until I can get 'stablished in new quarters. I can help +you," she pursued eagerly. "Indeed I can help you if you stay in the West. +Yes, anywhere, for I know life. Oh, I'm so tired of myself; I can't run +true, I'm under false colors. You saw how the trainmen curried favor all +along the line, how familiar they were, how I submitted--I even dropped +that coin a-purpose in the Omaha station, for _you_, just to test you. +Those things are expected of me and I've felt obliged to play my part. +Men look upon me as a tool to their hands, to make them or break them. All +they want is my patronage and the secrets of the gaming table. And there +is Montoyo--bullying me, cajoling me, watching me. But you were different, +after I had met you. I foolishly wished to help you, and last night the +play went wrong. Why did I take you to his table? Because I think myself +entitled, sir," she said on, bridling a little, defiant of my gaze, "to +promote my friends when I have any. I did not mean that you should wager +heavily for you. Montoyo is out for large stakes. There is safety in small +and I know his system. You remember I warned you? I did warn you. I saw +too late. You shall have all your money back again. And Montoyo struck +me--_me_, in public! That is the end. Oh, why couldn't I have killed him? +But if you stayed here, so should I. Not with him, though. Never with him. +Maybe I'm talking wildly. You'll say I'm in love with you. Perhaps I +am--quién sabe? No matter as to that. I shall be no hanger-on, sir. I only +ask a kind of partnership--the encouragement of some decent man near me. I +have money; plenty, till we both get a footing. But you wouldn't live on +me; no! I don't fancy that of you for a moment. I would be glad merely to +tide you over, if you'd let me. And I--I'd be willing to wash floors in a +restaurant if I might be free of insult. You, I'm sure, would at least +protect me. Wouldn't you? You would, wouldn't you? Say something, sir." +She paused, out of breath and aquiver. "Shall we go? Will you help me?" + +For an instant her appeal, of swimming blue eyes, upturned face, tensed +grasp, breaking voice, swayed me. But what if she were an actress, an +adventuress? And then, my parents, my father's name! I had already been +cozened once, I had resolved not to be snared again. The spell cleared and +I drew exultant breath. + +"Impossible, madam," I uttered. "This is final. Good-morning." + +She staggered and with magnificent but futile last flourish clapped both +hands to her face. Gazing back, as I hastened, I saw her still there, +leaning against the sheet-iron of the groggery and ostensibly weeping. + +Having shaken her off and resisted contrary temptation I looked not again +but paced rapidly for the clean atmosphere of the rough-and-honest bull +train. As a companion, better for me Mr. Jenks. When my wrath cooled I +felt that I might have acted the cad but I had not acted the simpleton. + +The advance of the day's life was stirring all along the road, where under +clouds of dust the four and six horse-and-mule wagons hauled water for the +town, pack outfits of donkeys and plodding miners wended one way or the +other, soldiers trotted in from the military post, and Overlanders slowly +toiled for the last supply depot before creaking onward into the desert. + +Along the railway grade likewise there was activity, of construction +trains laden high with rails, ties, boxes and bales, puffing out, their +locomotives belching pitchy black smoke that extended clear to the +ridiculous little cabooses; of wagon trains ploughing on, bearing supplies +for the grading camps; and a great herd of loose animals, raising a +prodigious spume as they were driven at a trot--they also heading +westward, ever westward, under escort of a protecting detachment of +cavalry, riding two by two, accoutrements flashing. + +The sights were inspiring. Man's work at empire building beckoned me, for +surely the wagoning of munitions to remote outposts of civilization was +very necessary. Consequently I trudged best foot forward, although on +empty stomach and with empty pockets; but glad to be at large, and +exchanging good-natured greetings with the travelers encountered. + +Nevertheless my new boots were burning, my thigh was chafed raw from the +swaying Colt's, and my face and throat were parched with the dust, when in +about an hour, the flag of the military post having been my landmark, I +had arrived almost at the willow-bordered river and now scanned about for +the encampment of my train. + +Some dozen white-topped wagons were standing grouped in a circle upon the +trampled dry sod to the south of the road. Figures were busily moving +among them, and the thin blue smoke of their fires was a welcoming signal. +I marked women, and children. The whole prospect--they, the breakfast +smoke, the grazing animals, the stout vehicles, a line of washed +clothing--was homy. So I veered aside and made for the spot, to inquire my +way if nothing more. + +First I addressed a little girl, tow-headed and barelegged, in a single +cotton garment. + +"I am looking for the Captain Adams wagon train. Do you know where it +is?" + +She only pointed, finger of other hand in her mouth; but as she indicated +this same camp I pressed on. Mr. Jenks himself came out to meet me. + +"Hooray! Here you are. I knew you'd do it. That's the ticket. Broke loose, +have you?" + +"Yes, sir. I accept your offer if it's still open," I said. + +We shook hands. + +"Wide open. Could have filled it a dozen times. Come in, come on in and +sit. You fetched all your outfit?" + +"What you see," I confessed. "I told you my condition. They stripped me +clean." + +He rubbed his beard. + +"Wall, all you need is a blanket. Reckon I can rustle you that. You can +pay for it out of your wages or turn it in at the end of the trip. Fust +I'd better make you acquainted to the wagon boss. There he is, yonder." + +He conducted me on, along the groups and fires and bedding outside the +wagon circle, and halted where a heavy man, of face smooth-shaven except +chin, sat upon a wagon-tongue whittling a stick. + +"Mornin', Cap'n. Wall, I'm filled out. I've hired this lad and can move +whenever you say the word. You----" he looked at me. "What's your name, +you say?" + +"Frank Beeson," I replied. + +"Didn't ketch it last night," he apologized. "Shake hands with Cap'n Hyrum +Adams, Frank. He's the boss of the train." + +Captain Adams lazily arose--a large figure in his dusty boots, coarse +trousers and flannel shirt, and weather-beaten black slouch hat. The +inevitable revolver hung at his thigh. His pursed lips spurted a jet of +tobacco juice as he keenly surveyed me with small, shrewd, china-blue eyes +squinting from a broad flaccid countenance. But the countenance was +unemotional while he offered a thick hand which proved singularly soft and +flatulent under the callouses. + +"Glad to meet you, stranger," he acknowledged in slow bass. "Set down, set +down." + +He waved me to the wagon-tongue, and I thankfully seated myself. All of a +sudden I seemed utterly gone; possibly through lack of food. My sigh must +have been remarked. + +"Breakfasted, stranger?" he queried passively. + +"Not yet, sir. I was anxious to reach the train." + +"Pshaw! I was about to ask you that," Mr. Jenks put in. "Come along and +I'll throw together a mess for you." + +"Nobody goes hungry from the Adams wagon, stranger," Captain Adams +observed. He slightly raised his voice, peremptory. "Rachael! Fetch our +guest some breakfast." + +"But as Mr. Jenks has invited me, Captain, and I am in his employ----" I +protested. He cut me short. + +"I have said that nobody, man, woman or child, or dog, goes hungry from +the Adams wagon. The flesh must be fed as well as the soul." + +There were two women in view, busied with domestic cares. I had sensed +their eyes cast now and then in my direction. One was elderly, as far as +might be judged by her somewhat slatternly figure draped in a draggled +snuff-colored, straight-flowing gown, and by the merest glimpse of her +features within her faded sunbonnet. The other promptly moved aside from +where she was bending over a wash-board, ladled food from a kettle to a +platter, poured a tin cupful of coffee from the pot simmering by the fire, +and bore them to me; her eyes down, shyly handed them. + +I thanked her but was not presented. To the Captain's "That will do, +Rachael," she turned dutifully away; not so soon, however, but that I had +seen a fresh young face within the bonnet confines--a round rosy face +according well with the buxom curves of her as she again bent over her +wash-board. + +"Our fare is that of the tents of Abraham, stranger," spoke the Captain, +who had resumed his whittling. "Such as it is, you are welcome to. We are +a plain people who walk in the way of the Lord, for that is commanded." + +His sonorous tones were delivered rather through the nose, but did not +fail of hospitality. + +"I ask nothing better, sir," I answered. "And if I did, my appetite would +make up for all deficiencies." + +"A healthy appetite is a good token," he affirmed. "Show me a well man who +picks at his victuals and I will show you a candidate for the devil. His +thoughts will like to be as idle as his knife." + +The mess of pork and beans and the black unsweetened coffee evidently were +what I needed, for I began to mend wonderfully ere I was half through the +course. He had not invited me to further conversation--only, when I had +drained the cup he called again: "Rachael! More coffee," whereupon the +same young woman advanced, without glancing at me, received my cup, and +returned it steaming. + +"You are from the East, stranger?" he now inquired. + +"Yes, sir. I arrived in Benton only yesterday." + +"A Sodom," he growled harshly. "A tented sepulcher. And it will perish. I +tell you, you do well to leave it, you do well to yoke yourself with the +appointed of this earth, rather than stay in that sink-pit of the +eternally damned." + +"I agree with you, sir," said I. "I did not find Benton to be a pleasant +place. But I had not known, when I started from Omaha." + +"Possibly not," he moodily assented. "The devil is attentive; he is +present in the stations, and on the trains; he will ride in those gilded +palaces even to the Jordan, but he shall not cross. In the name of the +Lord we shall face him. What good there shall come, shall abide; but the +evil shall wither. Not," he added, "that we stand against the railroad. It +is needed, and we have petitioned without being heard. We are strong but +isolated, we have goods to sell, and the word of Brigham Young has gone +forth that a railroad we must have. Against the harpies, the gamblers, the +loose women and the lustful men and all the Gentile vanities we will stand +upon our own feet by the help of Almighty God." + +At this juncture, when I had finished my platter of pork and beans and my +second cup of coffee, a tall, double-jointed youth of about my age, +carrying an ox goad in his hand, strolled to us as if attracted by the +harangue. He was clad in the prevalent cowhide boots, linsey-woolsey +pantaloons tucked in, red flannel shirt, and battered hat from which +untrimmed flaxen hair fell down unevenly to his shoulder line. He wore at +his belt butcher-knife and gun. + +By his hulk, his light blue eyes, albeit a trifle crossed, and the general +lineaments of his stolid, square, high-cheeked countenance I conceived him +to be a second but not improved edition of the Captain. + +A true raw-bone he was; and to me, as I casually met his gaze, looked to +be obstinate, secretive and small minded. But who can explain those sudden +antagonisms that spring up on first sight? + +"My son Daniel," the Captain introduced. "This stranger travels to Zion +with us, Daniel, in the employ of Mr. Jenks." + +The youth had the grip of a vise, and seemed to enjoy emphasizing it while +cunningly watching my face. + +"Haowdy?" he drawled. With that he twanged a sentence or two to his +father. "I faound the caow, Dad. Do yu reckon to pull aout to-day?" + +"I have not decided. Go tend to your duties, Daniel." + +Daniel bestowed upon me a parting stare, and lurched away, snapping the +lash of his goad. + +"And with your permission I will tend to mine, sir," I said. "Mr. Jenks +doubtless has work for me. I thank you for your hospitality." + +"We are commanded by the prophet to feed the stranger, whether friend or +enemy," he reproved. "We are also commanded by the Lord to earn our bread +by the sweat of our brow. As long as you are no trifler you will be +welcome at my wagon. Good-day to you." + +As I passed, the young woman, Rachael--whom I judged to be his daughter, +although she was evidently far removed from parent stock--glanced quickly +up. I caught her gaze full, so that she lowered her eyes with a blush. She +was indeed wholesome if not absolutely pretty. When later I saw her with +her sunbonnet doffed and her brown hair smoothly brushed back I thought +her more wholesome still. + +Mr. Jenks received me jovially. + +"Got your belly full, have you?" + +"I'm a new man," I assured. + +"Wall, those Mormons are good providers. They'll share with you whatever +they have, for no pay, but if you rub 'em the wrong way or go to dickerin' +with 'em they're closer'n the hide on a cold mule. You didn't make sheep's +eyes at ary of the women?" + +"No, sir. I am done with women." + +"And right you are." + +"However, I could not help but see that the Captain's daughter is pleasing +to look upon. I should be glad to know her, were there no objections." + +"How? His daughter?" + +"Miss Rachael, I believe. That is the name he used." + +"The young one, you mean?" + +"Yes, sir. The one who served me with breakfast. Rosy-cheeked and plump." + +"Whoa, man! She's his wife, and not for Gentiles. They're both his wives; +whether he has more in Utah I don't know. But you'd best let her alone. +She's been j'ined to him." + +This took me all aback, for I had no other idea than that she was his +daughter, or niece--stood in that kind of relation to him. He was twice +her age, apparently. Now I could only stammer: + +"I've no wish to intrude, you may be sure. And Daniel, his son--is he +married?" + +"That whelp? Met him, did you? No, he ain't married, yet. But he will be, +soon as he takes his pick 'cordin' to law and gospel among them people. +You bet you: he'll be married plenty." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +WE GET A "SUPER" + + +What with assorting and stowing the bales of cloth and the other goods in +the Jenks two wagons, watering the animals and staking them out anew, +tinkering with the equipment and making various essays with the bull whip, +I found occupation enough; nevertheless there were moments of interim, or +while passing to and fro, when I was vividly aware of the scenes and +events transpiring in this Western world around about. + +The bugles sounded calls for the routine at Fort Steele--a mere +cantonment, yet, of tents and rough board buildings squatting upon the +bare brown soil near the river bank, north of us, and less than a month +old. The wagon road was a line of white dust from the river clear to +Benton, and through the murk plodded the water haulers and emigrants and +freighters, animals and men alike befloured and choked. The dust cloud +rested over Benton. It fumed in another line westward, kept in suspense by +on-traveling stage and wagon--by wheel, hoof and boot, bound for Utah and +Idaho. From the town there extended northward a third dust line, marking +the stage and freighting road through the Indian country to the mining +settlements of the famous South Pass of the old Oregon Trail; yes, and +with branches for the gold regions of Montana. + +The railroad trains kept thundering by us--long freights, dusty and +indomitable, bringing their loads from the Missouri River almost seven +hundred miles in the east. And rolling out of Benton the never-ceasing +construction trains sped into the desert as if upon urgent errands in +response to some sudden demand of More, More, More. + +Upon all sides beyond this business and energy the country stretched lone +and uninhabited; a great waste of naked, hot, resplendent land blotched +with white and red, showing not a green spot except the course of the +Platte; with scorched, rusty hills rising above its fantastic surface, +and, in the distance, bluish mountain ranges that appeared to float and +waver in the sun-drenched air. + +The sounds from Benton--the hammering, the shouting, the babbling, the +puffing of the locomotives--drifted faintly to us, merged into the +cracking of whips and the oaths and songs by the wagon drivers along the +road. Of our own little camp I took gradual stock. + +It, like the desert reaches, evinced little of feverishness, for while +booted men busied themselves at tasks similar to mine, others lolled, +spinning yarns and whittling; the several women, at wash-boards and at +pots and pans and needles, worked contentedly in sun and shade; children +played at makeshift games, dogs drowsed underneath the wagons, and outside +our circle the mules and oxen grazed as best they might, their only +vexation the blood-sucking flies. The flies were kin of Benton. + +Captain Adams loped away, as if to town. Others went in. While I was idle +at last and rather enjoying the hot sun as I sat resting upon a convenient +wagon-tongue Daniel hulked to me, still snapping his ox goad. + +"Haowdy?" he addressed again; and surveyed, eying every detail of my +clothing. + +"Howdy?" said I. + +"Yu know me?" + +"Your name is Daniel, isn't it?" + +"No, 'tain't. It's Bonnie Bravo on the trail." + +"All right, sir," said I. "Whichever you prefer." + +"I 'laow we pull out this arternoon," he volunteered farther. + +"I'm agreeable," I responded. "The sooner the better, where I'm +concerned." + +"I 'laow yu (and he pronounced it, nasally, yee-ou) been seein' the +elephant in Benton an' it skinned yu." + +"I saw all of Benton I wish to see," I granted. "You've been there?" + +"I won four bits, an' then yu bet I quit," he greedily proclaimed. "I was +too smart for 'em. I 'laow yu're a greenie, ain't yu?" + +"In some ways I am, in some ways I'm not." + +"I 'laow yu aim to go through with this train to Salt Lake, do yu?" + +"That's the engagement I've made with Mr. Jenks." + +"Don't feel too smart, yoreself, in them new clothes?" + +"No. They're all I have. They won't be new long." + +"Yu bet they won't. Ain't afeared of peterin' aout on the way, be yu? I +'laow yu're sickly." + +"I'll take my chances," I smiled, although he was irritating in the +extreme. + +"It's four hunderd mile, an' twenty mile at a stretch withaout water. Most +the water's pizen, too, from hyar to the mountings." + +"I'll have to drink what the rest drink, I suppose." + +"I 'laow the Injuns are like to get us. They're powerful bad in that thar +desert. Ain't afeared o' Injuns, be yu?" + +"I'll have to take my chances on that, too, won't I?" + +"They sculped a whole passel o' surveyors, month ago," he persisted. +"Yu'll sing a different tyune arter yu've been corralled with nothin' to +drink." He viciously snapped his whip, the while inspecting me as if +seeking for other joints in my armor. "Yu aim to stay long in Zion?" + +"I haven't planned anything about that." + +"Reckon yu're wise, Mister. We don't think much o' Gentiles, yonder. We +don't want 'em, nohaow. They'd all better git aout. The Saints settled +that country an' it's ourn." + +"If you're a sample, you're welcome to live there," I retorted. "I think +I'd prefer some place else." + +"Haow?" he bleated. "Thar ain't no place as good. All the rest the world +has sold itself to the devil." + +"How much of the world have you seen?" I asked. + +"I've seen a heap. I've been as fur east as Cheyenne--I've teamed acrost +twice, so I know. An' I know what the elders say; they come from the East +an' some of 'em have been as fur as England. Yu can't fool me none with +yore Gentile lies." + +As I did not attempt, we remained in silence for a moment while he waited, +provocative. + +"Say, Mister," he blurted suddenly. "Kin yu shoot?" + +"I presume I could if I had to. Why?" + +"Becuz I'm the dangest best shot with a Colt's in this hyar train, an' +I'll shoot ye for--I'll shoot ye for (he lowered his voice and glanced +about furtively)--I'll shoot ye for two bits when my paw ain't 'raound." + +"I've no cartridges to waste at present," I informed. "And I don't claim +to be a crack shot." + +"Damn ye, I bet yu think yu are," he accused. "Yu set thar like it. All +right, Mister; any time yu want to try a little poppin' yu let me know." +And with this, which struck me as a veiled threat, he lurched on, +snapping that infernal whip. + +He left me with the uneasy impression that he and I were due to measure +strength in one way or another. + +Wagon Boss Adams returned at noon. The word was given out that the train +should start during the afternoon, for a short march in order to break in +the new animals before tackling the real westward trail. + +After a deal of bustle, of lashing loads and tautening covers and geeing, +hawing and whoaing, about three o'clock we formed line in obedience to the +commands "Stretch out, stretch out!"; and with every cask and barrel +dripping, whips cracking, voices urging, children racing, the Captain +Adams wagon in the lead (two pink sunbonnets upon the seat), the valorous +Daniel's next, and Mormons and Gentiles ranging on down, we toiled +creaking and swaying up the Benton road, amidst the eddies of hot, +scalding dust. + +It was a mixed train, of Gentile mules and the more numerous Mormon oxen; +therefore not strictly a "bull" train, but by pace designated as such. And +in the vernacular I was a "mule-whacker" or even "mule-skinner" rather +than a "bull-whacker," if there is any appreciable difference in rôle. +There is none, I think, to the animals. + +Trudging manfully at the left fore wheel behind Mr. Jenks' four span of +mules, trailing my eighteen-foot tapering lash and occasionally well-nigh +cutting off my own ear when I tried to throw it, I played the +teamster--although sooth to say there was little of play in the job, on +that road, at that time of the day. + +The sun was more vexatious, being an hour lower, when we bravely entered +Benton's boiling main street. We made brief halt for the finishing up of +business; and cleaving a lane through the pedestrians and vehicles and +animals there congregated, the challenges of the street gamblers having +assailed us in vain, we proceeded--our Mormons gazing straight ahead, +scornful of the devil's enticements, our few Gentiles responding in kind +to the quips and waves and salutations. + +Thus we eventually left Benton; in about an hour's march or some three +miles out we formed corral for camp on the farther side of the road from +the railroad tracks which we had been skirting. + +Travel, except upon the tracks (for they were rarely vacant) ceased at +sundown; and we all, having eaten our suppers, were sitting by our fires, +smoking and talking, with the sky crimson in the west and the desert +getting mysterious with purple shadows, when as another construction train +of box cars and platform cars clanked by I chanced to note a figure spring +out asprawl, alight with a whiffle of sand, and staggering up hasten for +us. + +First it accosted the hulk Daniel, who was temporarily out on herd, +keeping the animals from the tracks. I saw him lean from his saddle; then +he rode spurring in, bawling like a calf: + +"Paw! Paw! Hey, yu-all! Thar's a woman yonder in britches an' she 'laows +to come on. She's lookin' for Mister Jenks." + +Save for his excited stuttering silence reigned, a minute. Then in a storm +of rude raillery--"That's a hoss on you, George!" "Didn't know you owned +one o' them critters, George," "Does she wear the britches, George?" and +so forth--my friend Jenks arose, peering, his whiskered mouth so agape +that he almost dropped his pipe. And we all peered, with the women of the +caravan smitten mute but intensely curious, while the solitary figure, +braving our stares, came on to the fires. + +"Gawd almighty!" Mr. Jenks delivered. + +Likewise straightening I mentally repeated the ejaculation, for now I knew +her as well as he. Yes, by the muttered babble others in our party knew +her. It was My Lady--formerly My Lady--clad in embroidered short Spanish +jacket, tightish velvet pantaloons, booted to the knees, pulled down upon +her yellow hair a black soft hat, and hanging from the just-revealed belt +around her slender waist, a revolver trifle. + +She paused, small and alone, viewing us, her eyes very blue, her face very +white. + +"Is Mr. Jenks there?" she hailed clearly. + +"Damn' if I ain't," he mumbled. He glowered at me. "Yes, ma'am, right +hyar. You want to speak with me?" + +"By gosh, it's Montoyo's woman, ain't it?" were the comments. + +"I do, sir." + +"You can come on closer then, ma'am," he growled. "There ain't no secrets +between us." + +Come on she did, with only an instant's hesitation and a little +compression of the lips. She swept our group fearlessly--her gaze crossed +mine, but she betrayed no sign. + +"I wish to engage passage to Salt Lake." + +"With this hyar train?" gasped Jenks. + +"Yes. You are bound for Salt Lake, aren't you?" + +"For your health, ma'am?" he stammered. + +She faintly smiled, but her eyes were steady and wide. + +"For my health. I'd like to throw in with your outfit. I will cook, keep +camp, and pay you well besides." + +"We haven't no place for a woman, ma'am. You'd best take the stage." + +"No. There'll be no stage out till morning. I want to make arrangements at +once--with you. There are other women in this train." She flashed a glance +around. "And I can take care of myself." + +"If you aim to go to Salt Lake your main holt is Benton and the stage. The +stage makes through in four days and we'll use thirty," somebody +counseled. + +"An' this bull train ain't no place for yore kind, anyhow," grumbled +another. "We've quit roarin'--we've cut loose from that hell-hole +yonder." + +"So have I." But she did not turn on him. "I'm never going back. I--I +can't, now; not even for the stage. Will you permit me to travel with you, +sir?" + +"No, ma'am, I won't," rasped Mr. Jenks. "I can't do it. It's not in my +line, ma'am." + +"I'll be no trouble. You have only Mr. Beeson. I don't ask to ride. I'll +walk. I merely ask protection." + +"So do we," somebody sniggered; and I hated him, for I saw her sway upon +her feet as if the words had been a blow. + +"No, ma'am, I'm full up. I wouldn't take on even a yaller dog, 'specially +a she one," Jenks announced. "What your game is now I can't tell, and I +don't propose to be eddicated to it. But you can't travel along with me, +and that's straight talk. If you can put anything over on these other +fellers, try your luck." + +"Oh!" she cried, wincing. Her hands clenched nervously, a red spot dyed +either cheek as she appealed to us all. "Gentlemen! Won't one of you help +me? What are you afraid of? I can pay my way--I ask no favors--I swear to +you that I'll give no trouble. I only wish protection across." + +"Where's Pedro? Where's Montoyo?" + +She turned quickly, facing the jeer; her two eyes blazed, the red spots +deepened angrily. + +"He? That snake? I shot him." + +"What! You? Killed him?" Exclamations broke from all quarters. + +She stamped her foot. + +"No. I didn't have to. But when he tried to abuse me I defended myself. +Wasn't that right, gentlemen?" + +"Right or wrong, he'll be after you, won't he?" + +The question held a note of alarm. Her lip curled. + +"You needn't fear. I'll meet him, myself." + +"By gosh, I don't mix up in no quarrel 'twixt a man and his woman." +And--"'Tain't our affair. When he comes he'll come a-poppin'." Such were +the hasty comments. I felt a peculiar heat, a revulsion of shame and +indignation, which made the present seem much more important than the +past. And there was the recollection of her, crying, and still the accents +of her last appeals in the early morning. + +"I thought that I might find men among you," she disdainfully said--a +break in her voice. "So I came. But you're afraid of _him_--of that breed, +that vest-pocket killer. And you're afraid of me, a woman whose cards are +all on the table. There isn't a one of you--even you, Mr. Beeson, sir, +whom I tried to befriend although you may not know it." And she turned +upon me. "You have not a word to say. I am never going back, I tell you +all. You won't take me, any of you? Very well." She smiled wanly. "I'll +drift along, gentlemen. I'll play the lone hand. Montoyo shall never seize +me. I'd rather trust to the wolves and the Indians. There'll be another +wagon train." + +"I am only an employee, madam," I faltered. "If I had an outfit of my own +I certainly would help you." + +She flushed painfully; she did not glance at me direct again, but her +unspoken thanks enfolded me. + +"Here's the wagon boss," Jenks grunted, and spat. "Mebbe you can throw in +with him. When it comes to supers, that's his say-so. I've all I can tend +to, myself, and I don't look for trouble. I've got no love for Montoyo, +neither," he added. "Damned if I ain't glad you give him a dose." + +Murmurs of approval echoed him, as if the tide were turning a little. All +this time--not long, however--Daniel had been sitting his mule, transfixed +and gaping, his oddly wry eyes upon her. Now the large form of Captain +Adams came striding in contentious, through the gathering dusk. + +"What's this?" he demanded harshly. "An ungodly woman? I'll have no +trafficking in my train. Get you gone, Delilah. Would you pursue us even +here?" + +"I am going, sir," she replied. "I ask nothing from you or +these--gentlemen." + +"Them's the two she's after, paw: Jenks an' that greenie," Daniel bawled. +"They know her. She's follered 'em. She aims to travel with 'em. Oh, gosh! +She's shot her man in Benton. Gosh!" His voice trailed off. "Ain't she +purty, though! She's dressed in britches." + +"Get you gone," Captain Adams thundered. "And these your paramours with +you. For thus saith the Lord: There shall be no lusting of adultery among +his chosen. And thus say I, that no brazen hussy in men's garments shall +travel with this train to Zion--no, not a mile of the way." + +Jenks stiffened, bristling. + +"Mind your words, Adams. I'm under no Mormon thumb, and I'll thank you not +to connect me and this--lady in ary such fashion. As for your brat on +horseback, he'd better hold his yawp. She came of her own hook, and damned +if I ain't beginnin' to think----" + +I sprang forward. Defend her I must. She should not stand there, slight, +lovely, brave but drooping, aflame with the helplessness of a woman alone +and insulted. + +"Wait!" I implored. "Give her a chance. You haven't heard her story. All +she wants is protection on the road. Yes, I know her, and I know the cur +she's getting away from. I saw him strike her; so did Mr. Jenks. What were +you intending to do? Turn her out into the night? Shame on you, sir. She +says she can't go back to Benton, and if you'll be humane enough to +understand why, you'll at least let her stay in your camp till morning. +You've got women there who'll care for her, I hope." + +I felt her instant look. She spoke palpitant. + +"You have one man among you all. But I am going. Good-night, gentlemen." + +"No! Wait!" I begged. "You shall not go by yourself. I'll see you into +safety." + +Daniel cackled. + +"Haw haw! What'd I tell yu, paw? Hear him?" + +"By gum, the boy's right," Jenks declared. "Will you go back to Benton if +we take you?" he queried of her. "Are you 'feared of Montoyo? Can he shoot +still, or is he laid out?" + +"I'll not go back to Benton, and I'm not afraid of that bully," said she. +"Yes, he can shoot, still; but next time I should kill him. I hope never +to see him again, or Benton either." + +The men murmured. + +"You've got spunk, anyhow," said they. And by further impulse: "Let her +stay the night, Cap'n. It'll be plumb dark soon. She won't harm ye. Some +o' the woman folks can take care of her." + +Captain Adams had been frowning sternly, his heavy face unsoftened. + +"Who are you, woman?" + +"I am the wife of a gambler named Montoyo." + +"Why come you here, then?" + +"He has been abusing me, and I shot him." + +"There is blood on your hands? Are you a murderess as well as a harlot?" + +"Shame!" cried voices, mine among them. "That's tall language." + +Strangely, and yet not strangely, sentiment had veered. We were +Americans--and had we been English that would have made no difference. It +was the Anglo-Saxon which gave utterance. + +She crimsoned, defiant; laughed scornfully. + +"You would not dare bait a man that way, sir. Blood on my hands? Not +blood; oh, no! He couldn't pan out blood." + +"You killed him, woman?" + +"Not yet. He's likely fleecing the public in the Big Tent at this very +moment." + +"And what did you expect here, in my train?" + +"A little manhood and a little chivalry, sir. I am going to Salt Lake and +I knew of no safer way." + +"She jumped off a railway train, paw," bawled Daniel. "I seen her. An' she +axed for Mister Jenks, fust thing." + +"I'll give you something to stop that yawp. Come mornin', we'll settle, +young feller," my friend Jenks growled. + +"I did," she admitted. "I have seen Mr. Jenks; I have also seen Mr. +Beeson; I have seen others of you in Benton. I was glad to know of +somebody here. I rode on the construction train because it was the +quickest and easiest way." + +"And those garments!" Captain Adams accused. "You wish to show your +shape, woman, to tempt men's eyes with the flesh?" + +She smiled. + +"Would you have me jump from a train in skirts, sir? Or travel far afoot +in crinoline? But to soothe your mind I will say that I wore these clothes +under my proper attire and cloak until the last moment. And if you turn me +away I shall cut my hair and continue as a boy." + +"If you are for Salt Lake--where we are of the Lord's choosing and wish +none of you--there is the stage," he prompted shrewdly. "Go to the stage. +You cannot make this wagon train your instrument." + +"The stage?" She slowly shook her head. "Why, I am too well known, sir, +take that as you will. And the stage does not leave until morning. Much +might happen between now and morning. I have nobody in Benton that I can +depend upon--nobody that I dare depend upon. And by railway, for the East? +No. That is too open a trail. I am running free of Benton and Pedro +Montoyo, and stage and train won't do the trick. I've thought that out." +She tossed back her head, deliberately turned. "Good-night, ladies and +gentlemen." + +Involuntarily I started forward to intercept. The notion of her heading +into the vastness and the gloom was appalling; the inertness of that +increasing group, formed now of both men and women collected from all the +camp, maddened. So I would have besought her, pleaded with her, faced +Montoyo for her--but a new voice mediated. + +"She shall stay, Hyrum? For the night, at least? I will look after her." + +The Captain's younger wife, Rachael, had stepped to him; laid one hand +upon his arm--her smooth hair touched ashine by the firelight as she gazed +up into his face. Pending reply I hastened directly to My Lady herself and +detained her by her jacket sleeve. + +"Wait," I bade. + +Whereupon we both turned. Side by side we fronted the group as if we might +have been partners--which, in a measure, we were, but not wholy according +to the lout Daniel's cackle and the suddenly interrogating countenances +here and there. + +"You would take her in, Rachael?" the Captain rumbled. "Have you not heard +what I said?" + +"We are commanded to feed the hungry and shelter the homeless, Hyrum." + +"Verily that is so. Take her. I trust you with her till the morning. The +Lord will direct us further. But in God's name clothe her for the daylight +in decency. She shall not advertise her flesh to men's eyes." + +"Quick!" I whispered, with a push. Rachael, however, had crossed for us, +and with eyes brimming extended her hand. + +"Will you come with me, please?" she invited. + +"You are not afraid of me?" + +"I? No. You are a woman, are you not?" The intonation was gentle, and +sweet to hear--as sweet as her rosy face to see. + +"Yes," sighed My Lady, wearily. "Good-night, sir." She fleetingly smiled +upon me. "I thank you; and Mr. Jenks." + +They went, Rachael's arm about her; other women closed in; we heard +exclamations, and next they were supporting her in their midst, for she +had crumpled in a faint. + +Captain Adams walked out a piece as if musing. Daniel pressed beside him, +talking eagerly. His voice reached me. + +"She's powerful purty, ain't she, paw! Gosh, I never seen a woman in +britches before. Did yu? Paw! She kin ride in my wagon, paw. Be yu goin' +to take her on, paw? If yu be, I got room." + +"Go. Tend to your stock and think of other things," boomed his father. +"Remember that the Scriptures say, beware of the scarlet woman." + +Daniel galloped away, whooping like an idiot. + +"Wall, there she is," my friend Jenks remarked non-committally. "What +next'll happen, we'll see in the mornin'. Either she goes on or she goes +back. I don't claim to read Mormon sign, myself. But she had me jumpin' +sideways, for a spell. So did that young whelp." + +There was some talk, idle yet not offensive. The men appeared rather in a +judicial frame of mind: laid a few bets upon whether her husband would +turn up, in sober fashion nodded their heads over the hope that he had +been "properly pinked," all in all sided with her, while admiring her +pluck roundly denied responsibility for women in general, and genially but +cautiously twitted Mr. Jenks and me upon our alleged implication in the +affair. + +Darkness, still and chill, had settled over the desert--the only +discernible horizon the glow of Benton, down the railroad track. The ashes +of final pipes were rapped out upon our boot soles. Our group dispersed, +each man to his blanket under the wagons or in the open. + +"Wall," friend Jenks again broadly uttered, in last words as he turned +over with a grunt, for easier posture, near me, "hooray! If it simmers +down to you and Dan'l, I'll be there." + +With that enigmatical comment he was silent save for stertorous breathing. +Vaguely cogitating over his promise I lay, toes and face up, staring at +the bright stars; perplexed more and more over the immediate events of the +future, warmly conscious of her astonishing proximity in this very train, +prickled by the hope that she would continue with us, irritated by the +various assumptions of Daniel, and somehow not at all adverse to the +memory of her in "britches." + +That phase of the matter seemed to have affected Daniel and me similarly. +Under his hide he was human. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +DANIEL TAKES POSSESSION + + +I was more than ever convinced of her wisdom in choice of garb when in +early morning I glimpsed her with the two other women at the Adams fire; +for, bright-haired and small, she had been sorrily dulled by the plain +ill-fitting waist and long shapeless skirt in one garment, as adopted by +the feminine contingent of the train. In her particular case these were +worse fitting and longer than common--an artifice that certainly snuffed a +portion of her charms for Gentile and Mormon eyes alike. + +What further disposition of her was to be made we might not yet know. We +all kept to our own tasks and our own fires, with the exception that +Daniel gawked and strutted in the manner of a silly gander, and made +frequent errands to his father's household. + +It was after the red sun-up and the initial signaling by dust cloud to +dust cloud announcing the commencement of another day's desert traffic, +and in response to the orders "Ketch up!" we were putting animals to +wagons (My Lady still in evidence forward), when a horseman bored in at a +gallop, over the road from the east. + +"Montoyo, by Gawd!" Jenks pronounced, in a grumble of disgust rather than +with any note of alarm. "Look alive." And--"He don't hang up my pelt; no, +nor yourn if I can help it." + +I saw him give a twitch to his holster and slightly loosen the Colt's. But +I was unburthened by guilt in past events, and I conceived no reason for +fearing the future--other than that now I was likely to lose her. Heaven +pity her! Probably she would have to go, even if she managed later to kill +him. The delay in our start had been unfortunate. + +It was dollars to doughnuts that every man in the company had had his eye +out for Montoyo, since daylight; and the odds were that every man had +sighted him as quickly as we. Notwithstanding, save by an occasional quick +glance none appeared to pay attention to his rapid approach. We ourselves +went right along hooking up, like the others. + +As chanced, our outfit was the first upon his way in. I heard him rein +sharply beside us and his horse fidget, panting. Not until he spoke did we +lift eyes. + +"Howdy, gentlemen?" + +"Howdy yourself, sir," answered Mr. Jenks, straightening up and meeting +his gaze. I paused, to gaze also. Montoyo was pale as death, his lips hard +set, his peculiar gray eyes and his black moustache the only vivifying +features in his coldly menacing countenance. + +He was in white linen shirt, his left arm slung; fine riding boots +encasing his legs above the knees and Spanish spurs at their heels--his +horse's flanks reddened by their jabs. The pearl butt of a six-shooter +jutted from his belt holster. He sat jaunty, excepting for his lips and +eyes. + +He looked upon me, with a trace of recognition less to be seen than felt. +His glance leaped to the wagon--traveled swiftly and surely and returned +to Mr. Jenks. + +"You're pulling out, I believe." + +"Yes, you bet yuh." + +"This is the Adams train?" + +"It is." + +"I'm looking for my wife, gentlemen. May I ask whether you've seen her?" + +"You can." + +"You have seen her?" + +"Yes, sir. We'll not beat around any bush over that." + +He meditated, frowning a bit, eying us narrowly. + +"I had the notion," he said. "If you have staked her to shelter I thank +you; but now I aim to play the hand myself. This is a strictly private +game. Where is she?" + +"I call yuh, Pedro," my friend answered. "We ain't keepin' cases on her, +or on you. You don't find her in my outfit, that's flat. She spent the +night with the Adams women. You'll find her waitin' for you, on ahead." +He grinned. "She'll be powerful glad to see you." He sobered. "And I'll +say this: I'm kinder sorry I ain't got her, for she'd be interestin' +company on the road." + +"The road to hell, yes," Montoyo coolly remarked. "I'd guarantee you quick +passage. Good-day." + +With sudden steely glare that embraced us both he jumped his mount into a +gallop and tore past the team, for the front. He must have inquired, once +or twice, as to the whereabouts of the Captain's party; I saw fingers +pointing. + +"Here! You've swapped collars on your lead span, boy," Mr. Jenks +reproved--but he likewise fumbling while he gazed. + +I could hold back no longer. + +"Just a minute, if you please," I pleaded; and hastened on up, half +running in my anxiety to face the worst; to help, if I might, for the +best. + +A little knot of people had formed, constantly increasing by oncomers like +myself and friend Jenks who had lumbered behind me. Montoyo's horse stood +heaving, on the outskirts; and ruthlessly pushing through I found him +inside, with My Lady at bay before him--her eyes brilliant, her cheeks +hot, her two hands clenched tightly, her slim figure dangerously tense +within her absurd garment, and the arm of the brightly flushed but calm +Rachael resting restraintfully around her. The circling faces peered. + +Captain Adams, at one side apart, was replying to the gambler. His small +china-blue eyes had begun to glint; otherwise he maintained an air of +stolidity as if immune to the outcome. + +"You see her," he said. "She has had the care of my own household, for I +turn nobody away. She came against my will, and she shall go of her will. +I am not her keeper." + +"You Mormons have the advantage of us white men, sir," Montoyo sneered. +"No one of the sex seems to be denied bed and board in your +establishments." + +"By the help of the Lord we of the elect can manage our establishments +much better than you do yours," big Hyrum responded; and his face +sombered. "Who are you? A panderer to the devil, a thief with painted +card-boards, a despoiler of the ignorant, and a feeder to hell--yea, a +striker of women and a trafficker in flesh! Who are you, to think the name +of the Lord's anointed? There she is, your chattel. Take her, or leave +her. This train starts on in ten minutes." + +"I'll take her or kill her," Montoyo snarled. "You call me a feeder, but +she shall not be fed to your mill, Adams. You'll get on that horse pronto, +madam," he added, stepping forward (no one could question his nerve), "and +we'll discuss our affairs in private." + +She cast about with swift beseeching look, as if for a friendly face or +sign of rescue. And that agonized quest was enough. Whether she saw me or +not, here I was. With a spring I had burst in. + +But somebody already had drawn fresh attention. Daniel Adams was standing +between her and her husband. + +"Say, Mister, will yu fight?" he drawled, breathing hard, his broad +nostrils quivering. + +A silence fell. Singularly, the circle parted right and left in a jostle +and a scramble. + +Montoyo surveyed him. + +"Why?" + +"For her, o' course." + +The gambler smiled--a slow, contemptuous smile while his gray eyes focused +watchfully. + +"It's a case where I have nothing to gain," said he. "And you've nothing +to lose. I never bet in the teeth of a pat hand. Sabe? Besides, my young +Mormon cub, when did you enter this game? Where's your ante? For the sport +of it, now, what do you think of putting up, to make it interesting? One +of your mammies? Tut, tut!" + +Daniel's freckled bovine face flushed muddy red; in the midst of it his +faulty eyes were more pronounced than ever--beady, twinkling, and so at +cross purposes that they apparently did not center upon the gambler at +all. But his right hand had stiffened at his side--extended there flat and +tremulous like the vibrant tail of a rattlesnake. He blurted harshly: + +"I 'laow to kill yu for that. Draw, yu----!" + +We caught breath. Montoyo's hand had darted down, and up, with motion too +smooth and elusive for the eye, particularly when our eyes had to be upon +both. His revolver poised half-way out of the scabbard, held there +rigidly, frozen in mid course; for Daniel had laughed loudly over leveled +barrel. + +How he had achieved so quickly no man of us knew. Yet there it was--his +Colt's, out, cocked, wicked and yearning and ready. + +He whirled it with tempting carelessness, butt first, muzzle first, his +discolored teeth set in a yellow grin. The breath of the spectators vented +in a sigh. + +"Haow'll yu take it, Mister?" he gibed. "I could l'arn an old caow to beat +yu on the draw. Aw, shucks! I 'laow yu'd better go back to yore +pasteboards. Naow git!" + +Montoyo, his eyes steady, scarcely changed expression. He let his revolver +slip down into its scabbard. Then he smiled. + +"You have a pretty trick," he commented, relaxing. "Some day I'd like to +test it out again. Just now I pass. Madam, are you coming?" + +"You know I'm not," she uttered clearly. + +"Your choice of company is hardly to your credit," he sneered. "Or, I +should say, to your education. Saintliness does not set well upon you, +madam. Your clothes are ill-fitting already. Of your two champions----" + +And here I realized that I was standing out, one foot advanced, my fists +foolishly doubled, my presence a useless factor. + +"--I recommend the gentleman from New York as more to your tastes. But you +are going of your own free will. You will always be my wife. You can't get +away from that, you devil. I shall expect you in Benton, for I have the +hunch that your little flight will fetch you back pretty well tamed, to +the place where damaged goods are not so heavily discounted." He ignored +Daniel and turned upon me. "As for you," he said, "I warn you you are +playing against a marked deck. You will find fists a poor hand. Ladies and +gentlemen, good-morning." With that he strode straight for his horse, +climbed aboard (a trifle awkwardly by reason of his one arm disabled) and +galloped, granting us not another glance. + +Card shark and desperado that he was, his consummate aplomb nobody could +deny, except Daniel, now capering and swaggering and twirling his +revolver. + +"I showed him. I made him take water. I 'laow I'm 'bout the best man with +a six-shooter in these hyar parts." + +"Ketch up and stretch out," Captain Adams ordered, disregarding. "We've no +more time for foolery." + +My eyes met My Lady's. She smiled a little ruefully, and I responded, +shamed by the poor rôle I had borne. With that still jubilating lout to +the fore, certainly I cut small figure. + +This night we made camp at Rawlins' Springs, some twelve miles on. The +day's march had been, so to speak, rather pensive; for while there were +the rough jokes and the talking back and forth, it seemed as though the +scene of early morning lingered in our vista. The words of Montoyo had +scored deeply, and the presence of our supernumerary laid a kind of +incubus, like an omen of ill luck, upon us. Indeed the prophecies darkly +uttered showed the current of thought. + +"It's a she Jonah we got. Sure a woman the likes o' her hain't no place in +a freightin' outfit. We're off on the wrong fut," an Irishman declared to +wagging of heads. "Faith, she's enough to set the saints above an' the +saints below both by the ears." He paused to light his dudeen. "There'll +be a Donnybrook Fair in Utah, if belike we don't have it along the way." + +"No Mormon'll need another wife if he takes her," laughed somebody else. + +"She'll be promised to Dan'l 'fore ever we cross the Wasatch." And they +all in the group looked slyly at me. "Acts as if she'd been sealed to him +already, he does." + +This had occurred at our nooning hour, amidst the dust and the heat, while +the animals drooped and dozed and panted and in the scant shade of the +hooded wagons we drank our coffee and crunched our hardtack. Throughout +the morning My Lady had ridden upon the seat of Daniel's wagon, with him +sometimes trudging beside, in pride of new ownership, cracking his whip, +and again planted sidewise upon one of the wheel animals, facing backward +to leer at her. + +Why I should now have especially detested him I would not admit to myself. +At any rate the dislike dated before her arrival. That was one sop to +conscience when I remembered that she was a wife. + +Friend Jenks must have read my thoughts, inasmuch as during the course of +the afternoon he had uttered abruptly: + +"These Mormons don't exactly recognize Gentile marriages. Did you know +that?" He flung me a look from beneath shaggy brows. + +"What?" I exclaimed. "How so?" + +"Meanin' to say that layin' on of hands by the Lord's an'inted is +necessary to reel j'inin' in marriage." + +"But that's monstrous!" I stammered. + +"Dare say," said he. "It's the way white gospelers look at Injuns, ain't +it? Anyhow, to convert her out of sin, as they'd call it, and put her over +into the company of the saints wouldn't be no bad deal, by their kind o' +thinkin'. It's been done before, I reckon. Jest thought I'd warn you. +She's made her own bed and if it's a Mormon bed she's well quit of +Montoyo, that's sartin. Did you ever see the beat of that young feller on +the draw?" + +"No," I admitted. "I never did." + +"And you never will." + +"He says his name's Bonnie Bravo. Where did he find that?" + +"Haw haw." Friend Jenks spat. "Must ha' heard it in a play-house or got it +read to him out a book. Sounds to him like he was some punkins. Anyhow, if +you've any feelin's in the matter keep 'em under your hat. I don't know +what there's been between you and her, but the Mormon church is between +you now and it's got the dead-wood on you. It's either that for her, or +Montoyo. He knows; he's no fool and he'll take his time. So you'd better +stick to mule-whacking and sowbelly." + +Still it was only decent that I should inquire after her. No Daniel and no +"Bonnie Bravo" was going to shut me from my duty. Therefore this evening +after we had formed corral, watered our animals at the one good-water +spring, staked them out in the bottoms of the ravine here, and eaten our +supper, I went with clean hands and face and, I resolved, a clean heart, +to pay my respects at the Hyrum Adams fire. + +A cheery sight it was, too, for one bred as I had been to the company of +women. Whereas during the day and somewhat in the evenings we Gentiles and +the Mormon men fraternized without conflict of sect save by long-winded +arguments, at nightfall the main Mormon gathering centered about the Adams +quarters, where the men and women sang hymns in praise of their +pretensions, and listened to homilies by Hyrum himself. + +They were singing now, as I approached--every woman busy also with her +hands. The words were destined to be familiar to me, being from their +favorite lines: + + Cheer, saints, cheer! We're bound for peaceful Zion! + Cheer, saints, cheer! For that free and happy land! + Cheer, saints, cheer! We'll Israel's God rely on; + We will be led by the power of His hand. + + Away, far away to the everlasting mountains, + Away, far away to the valley in the West; + Away, far away to yonder gushing fountains, + Where all the faithful in the latter days are blest. + +Into this domestic circle I civilly entered just as they had finished +their hymn. She was seated beside the sleek-haired Rachael, with Daniel +upon her other hand. I sensed her quickly ready smile; and with the same a +surly stare from him, disclosing that by one person at least I was not +welcomed. + +"Anything special wanted, stranger?" Hyrum demanded. + +"No, sir. I was attracted by your singing," I replied. "Do I intrude?" + +"Not at all, not at all." He was more hospitable. "Set if you like, in the +circle of the Saints. You'll get no harm by it, that's certain." + +So I seated myself just behind Rachael. A moment of constraint seemed to +fall upon the group. I broke it by my inquiry, addressed to a clean +profile. + +"I came also to inquire after Mrs. Montoyo," I carefully said. "You have +stood the journey well, this far, madam?" + +Daniel turned instantly. + +"Thar's no 'Mrs. Montoyo' in this camp, Mister. And I'll thank yu it's a +name yu'd best leave alone." + +"How so, sir?" + +"Cause that's the right of it. I 'laow I've told yu." + +"I'm called Edna now, by my friends," she vouchsafed, coloring. "Yes, +thank you, I've enjoyed the day." + +Rachael spoke softly, in her gentle English accents. I learned later that +she was an English girl, convert to Mormonism. + +"We Latter Day Saints know that the marriage rites of Gentiles are not +countenanced by the Lord. If you would see the light you would understand. +Sister Edna is being well cared for. Whatever we have is hers." + +"You will take her on with you to Salt Lake?" + +"That is as Hyrum says. He has spoken of putting her on the stage at the +next crossing. He will decide." + +"I think I'd rather stay with the train," My Lady murmured. + +"Yu will, too, by gum," Daniel pronounced. "I'll talk with paw. Yu're +goin' to travel on to Zion 'long with me. I 'laow I'm man enough to look +out for ye an' I got plenty room. The hull wagon's yourn. Guess thar won't +nobody have anything to say ag'in that." His tone was pointed, +unmistakable, and I sat fuming with it. + +My Lady drily acknowledged. + +"You are very kind, Daniel." + +"Wall, yu see I'm the best man on the draw in this hyar train. I'm a bad +one, I am. My name's Bonnie Bravo. That gambler--he 'laowed to pop me but +I could ha' killed him 'fore his gun was loose. I kin ride, wrastle, drive +a bull team ag'in ary man from the States, an' I got the gift o' tongues. +Ain't afeared o' Injuns, neither. I'm elected. I foller the Lord an' some +day I'll be a bishop. I hain't been more'n middlin' interested in wimmen, +but I'm gittin' old enough, an' yu an' me'll be purty well acquainted by +the time we reach Zion. Thar's a long spell ahead of us, but I aim to look +out for yu, yu bet." + +His blatancy was arrested by the intonation of another hymn. They all +chimed in, except My Lady and me. + + There is a people in the West, the world calls Mormonites + in jest, + The only people who can say, we have the truth, and + own its sway. + Away in Utah's valleys, away in Utah's valleys, + Away in Utah's valleys, the chambers of the Lord. + + And all ye saints, where'er you be, from bondage try to + be set free, + Escape unto fair Zion's land, and thus fulfil the Lord's + command, + And help to build up Zion, and help to build up Zion, + And help to build up Zion, before the Lord appear. + +They concluded; sat with heads bowed while Hyrum, standing, delivered +himself of a long-winded blessing, through his nose. It was the signal for +breaking up. They stood. My Lady arose lithely; encumbered by her trailing +skirt she pitched forward and I caught her. Daniel sprang in a moment, +with a growl. + +"None o' that, Mister. I'm takin' keer of her. Hands off." + +"Don't bully me, sir," I retorted, furious. "I'm only acting the +gentleman, and you're acting the boor." + +I would willingly have fought him then and there, probably to my disaster, +but Hyrum's heavy voice cut in. + +"Who quarrels at my fire? Mark you, I'll have no more of it. Stranger, get +you where you belong. Daniel, get you to bed. And you, woman, take +yourself off properly and thank God that you are among his chosen and not +adrift in sin." + +"Good-night, sir," I answered. And I walked easily away, a triumphant +warmth buoying me, for ere releasing her strong young body I had felt a +note tucked into my hand. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +SOMEONE FEARS + + +A note from a pretty woman always is a potential thing, no matter in what +humor it may have been received. The mere possession titillates; and +although the contents may be most exemplary to the eye, the mind is apt to +go hay-making between the lines and no offense intended. + +All the fatuousness that had led me astray to the lure of her blue eyes, +upon the train and in hollow Benton, surged anew now--perhaps seasoned to +present taste by my peppery defiance of Daniel. A man could do no less +than bristle a little, under the circumstances; could do no less than +challenge the torpedoes, like Farragut in Mobile Bay. Whether the game was +worth the candle, I was not to be bullied out of my privileges by a clown +swash-buckler who aped the characteristics of a pouter pigeon. + +Mr. Jenks was just going to bed under the wagon. With pretext of warming +up the coffee I kicked the fire together; while squatting and sipping I +managed to unfold the note and read it by the flicker, my back to the +camp. + +All that it said, was: + + If you are not disgusted with me I will walk a stretch with you on + the trail, during the morning. + +The engagement sent me to my blanket cogitating. When a woman proposes, +one never knows precisely the reason. Anyway, I was young enough so to +fancy. For a long time I lay outside the wagons, apart in the desert camp, +gazing up at the twinkling stars, while the wolves whimpered around, and +somewhere she slept beside the gentle Rachael, and somewhere Daniel +snored, and here I conned her face and her words, elatedly finding them +very pleasing. + +Salt Lake was far, the Big Tent farther by perspective if not by miles. I +recognized the legal rights of her husband, but no ruffling Daniel should +quash the undeniable rights of Yours Truly. I indeed felt virtuous and +passing valorous, with that commonplace note in my pocket. + +We all broke camp at sunrise. She rode for a distance upon the seat of +Daniel's wagon--he lustily trudging alongside. Then I marked her walking, +herself; she had shortened her skirt; and presently lingering by the trail +she dropped behind, leaving the wagon to lumber on, with Daniel helplessly +turning head over shoulder, bereft. + +"Bet you the lady up yonder is aimin' to pay you a visit," quoth friend +Jenks the astute. "And Dan'l, he don't cotton to it. You ain't great +shakes with a gun, I reckon?" + +"I've never had use for one," said I. "But her whereabouts in the train is +not a matter of shooting, is it?" + +"A feller quick on the draw, like him, is alluz wantin' to practice, to +keep his hand in. Anyhow I'd advise you to stay clear of her, else watch +him mighty sharp. He's thinkin' of takin' a squaw." + +We rolled on, in the dust, while the animals coughed and the teamsters +chewed and swore. And next, here she was, idling until our outfit drew +abreast. + +"Mornin'," Jenks grunted, with a shortness that bespoke his disapproval; +whereupon he fell back and left us. + +She smiled at me. + +"Will you offer me a ride, sir?" + +My response was instant: a long "Whoa-oa!" in best mule-whacker. The +eight-team hauled negligent, their mulish senses steeped in the drudgery +of the trail; only the wheel pair flopped inquiring ears. When I hailed +again, Jenks came puffing. + +"What's the matter hyar?" He ran rapid eye over wagon and animals and saw +nothing amiss. + +"Mrs. Montoyo wishes to ride." + +"The hell, man!" He snatched whip and launched it, up the faltering team. +The cracker popped an inch above the off lead mule's cringing haunch +twenty feet before. "You can't stop hyar! Can't hold the rest of the +train. Joe! Baldy! Hep with you!" The team straightened out; he restored +me the whip. His wrath subsided, for in less dudgeon he addressed her. + +"Want to ride, do ye?" + +"I did, sir." + +"Wall, in Gawd's name ride, then. But we don't stop for passengers." + +With that, in another white heat he had picked her up bodily, swung her +upon the nearest mule; so that before she knew (she scarce had time to +utter an astonished little ejaculation as she yielded to his arms) there +she was, perched, breathless, upon the sweaty hide. I awaited results. + +Jenks chuckled. + +"What you need is an old feller, lady. These young bucks ain't broke to +the feed canvas. Now when you want to get off you call me. You don't weigh +more'n a peck of beans." + +With a bantering wink at me he again fell back. Once more I had been +forestalled. There should be no third time. + +My Lady sat clinging, at first angry-eyed, but in a moment softened by my +discomfiture. + +"Your partner is rather sudden," she averred. "He asked permission of +neither me nor the mule." + +"He meant well. He isn't used to women," I apologized. + +"More used to mules, I judge." + +"Yes. If he had asked the mule it would have objected, whereas it's +delighted." + +"Perhaps he knows there's not much difference between a woman and a mule, +in that respect," she proffered. "You need not apologize for him." + +"I apologize for myself," I blurted. "I see I'm a little slow for this +country." + +"You?" She soberly surveyed me as I ploughed through the dust, at her +knees. "I think you'll catch up. If you don't object to my company, +yourself, occasionally, maybe I can help you." + +"I certainly cannot object to your company whenever it is available, +madam," I assured. + +"You do not hold your experience in Benton against me?" + +"I got no more than I deserved, in the Big Tent," said I. "I went in as a +fool and I came out as a fool, but considerably wiser." + +"You reproached me for it," she accused. "You hated me. Do you hate me +still, I wonder? I tell you I was not to blame for the loss of your +money." + +"The money has mattered little, madam," I informed. "It was only a few +dollars, and it turned me to a job more to my liking and good health than +fiddling my time away, back there. I have you to thank for that." + +"No, no! You are cruel, sir. You thank me for the good and you saddle me +with the bad. I accept neither. Both, as happened, were misplays. You +should not have lost money, you should not have changed vocation. You +should have won a little money and you should have pursued health in +Benton." She sighed. "And we all would have been reasonably content. Now +here you and I are--and what are we going to do about it?" + +"We?" I echoed, annoyingly haphazard. "Why so? You're being well cared +for, I take it; and I'm under engagement for Salt Lake myself." + +The answer did sound rude. I was still a cad. She eyed me, with a certain +whiteness, a certain puzzled intentness, a certain fugitive wistfulness--a +mute estimation that made me too conscious of her clear appraising gaze +and rack my brain for some disarming remark. + +"You're not responsible for me, you would say?" + +"I'm at your service," I corrected. The platitude was the best that I +could muster to my tongue. + +"That is something," she mused. "Once you were not that--when I proposed a +partnership. You are afraid of me?" she asked. + +"Why should I be?" I parried. But I was beginning; or continuing. I had +that curious inward quiver, not unpleasant, anticipatory of possible +events. + +"You are a cautious Yankee. You answer one question with another." She +laughed lightly. "Yes, why should you be? I cannot run away with you; not +when Daniel and your Mr. Jenks are watching us so closely. And you have +no desire to be run away with. And Pedro must be considered. Altogether, +you are well protected, even if your conscience slips. But tell me: Do you +blame me for running away from Montoyo?" + +"Not in the least," I heartily assured. + +"You would have helped me, at the last?" + +"I think I should have felt fully warranted." Again I floundered. + +"Even to stowing me with a bull train?" + +"Anywhere, madam, for your betterment, to free you from that brute." + +"Oh!" She clapped her hands. "But you didn't have to. I only embarrassed +you by appearing on my own account. You have some spirit, though. You came +to the Adams circle, last night. You did your duty. I expected you. But +you must not do it again." + +"Why not?" + +"There are objections, there." + +"From you?" + +"No." + +"From Hyrum?" + +"Not yet." + +"From that Daniel, then. Well, I will come to Captain Adams' camp as often +as I like, if with the Captain's permission. And I shall come to see you, +whether with his permission or not." + +"I don't know," she faltered. "I--you would have helped me once, you say? +And once you refused me. Would you help me next time?" + +"As far as I could," said I--another of those damned hedging responses +that for the life of me I could not manipulate properly. + +"Oh!" she cried. "Of course! The queen deceived you; now you are wise. You +are afraid. But so am I. Horribly afraid. I have misplayed again." She +laughed bitterly. "I am with Daniel--it is to be Daniel and I in the +Lion's den. You know they call Brigham Young the Lion of the Lord. I doubt +if even Rachael is angel enough." She paused. "They're going to make +nooning, aren't they? I mustn't stay. Good-bye." + +I sprang to lift her, but with gay shake of head she slipped off of +herself and landed securely. + +"I can stand alone. I have to. Men are always ready to do what I don't ask +them to do, as long as I can serve as a tool or a toy. You will be very, +very careful. Good-day, sir." + +She flashed just the trace of a smile; gathering her skirt she ran on, +undeterred by the teamsters applauding her spryness. + +"Swing out!" shouted Jenks, from rear. "We're noonin'." The lead wagons +had halted beside the trail and all the wagons following began to imitate. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +I TAKE A LESSON + + +From this hour's brief camp, early made, we should have turned southward, +to leave the railroad line and cross country for the Overland Stage trail +that skirted the southern edge of the worse desert before us. But Captain +Hyrum was of different mind. With faith in the Lord and bull confidence in +himself he had resolved to keep straight on by the teamster road which +through league after league ever extended fed supplies to the advance of +the builders. + +Under its adventitious guidance we should strike the stage road at Bitter +Creek, eighty or one hundred miles; thence trundle, veering southwestward, +for the famed City of the Saints, near two hundred miles farther. + +Therefore after nooning at a pool of stagnant, scummy water we hooked up +and plunged ahead, creaking and groaning and dust enveloped, constantly +outstripped by the hurrying construction trains thundering over the newly +laid rails, we ourselves the tortoise in the race. + +My Lady did not join me again to-day, nor on the morrow. She abandoned me +to a sense of dissatisfaction with myself, of foreboding, and of a void +in the landscape. + +Our sorely laden train went swaying and pitching across the gaunt face of +a high, broad plateau, bleak, hot, and monotonous in contour; underfoot +the reddish granite pulverized by grinding tire and hoof, over us the pale +bluish fiery sky without a cloud, distant in the south the shining tips of +a mountain range, and distant below in the west the slowly spreading vista +of a great, bared ocean-bed, simmering bizarre with reds, yellows and +deceptive whites, and ringed about by battlements jagged and rock hewn. + +Into this enchanted realm we were bound; by token of the smoke blotches +the railroad line led thither. The teamsters viewed the unfolding expanse +phlegmatically. They called it the Red Basin. But to me, fresh for the +sight, it beckoned with fantastic issues. Even the name breathed magic. +Wizard spells hovered there; the railroad had not broken them--the cars +and locomotives, entering, did not disturb the brooding vastness. A man +might still ride errant into those slumberous spaces and discover for +himself; might boldly awaken the realm and rule with a princess by his +side. + +But romance seemed to have no other sponsor in this plodding, +whip-cracking, complaining caravan. So I lacked, woefully lacked, kindred +companionship. + +Free to say, I did miss My Lady, perched upon the stoic mule while like +an Arab chief I convoyed her. The steady miles, I admitted, were going to +be as disappointing as tepid water, when not aërated by her counsel and +piquant allusions, by her sprightly readiness and the essential elements +of her blue eyes, her facile lips, and that bright hair which no dust +could dim. + +After all she was distinctly feminine--bravely feminine; and if she wished +to flirt as a relief from the cock-sure Daniel and the calm methods of her +Mormon guardians, why, let us beguile the way. I should second with eyes +open. That was accepted. + +Moreover, something about her weighed upon me. A consciousness of failing +her, a woman, in emergency, stung my self-respect. She had twitted me with +being "afraid"; afraid of her, she probably meant. That I could pass +warily. But she had said that she, too, was afraid: "horribly afraid," and +an honest shudder had attended upon the words as if a real danger hedged. +She had an intuition. The settled convictions of my Gentile friends +coincided. "With Daniel in the Lion's den"--that phrase repeated itself +persistent. She had uttered it in a fear accentuated by a mirthless laugh. +Could such a left-handed wooer prove too much for her? Well, if she was +afraid of Daniel I was not and she should not think so. + +I could see her now and then, on before. She rode upon the wagon seat of +her self-appointed executor. And I might see him and his paraded +impertinences. + +Except for the blowing of the animals and the mechanical noises of the +equipment the train subsided into a dogged patience, while parched by the +dust and the thin dry air and mocked by the speeding construction crews +upon the iron rails it lurched westward at two and a half miles an hour, +for long hours outfaced by the blinding sun. + +Near the western edge of the plateau we made an evening corral. After +supper the sound of revolver shots burst flatly from a mess beyond us, and +startled. Everything was possible, here in this lone horizon-land where +rough men, chafed by a hard day, were gathered suddenly relaxed and idle. +But the shots were accompanied by laughter. + +"They're only tryin' to spile a can," Jenks reassured. "By golly, we'll go +over and l'arn 'em a lesson." He glanced at me. "Time you loosened up that +weepon o' yourn, anyhow. Purty soon it'll stick fast." + +I arose with him, glad of any diversion. The circle had not yet formed at +Hyrum's fire. + +"It strikes me as a useless piece of baggage," said I. "I bought it in +Benton but I haven't needed it. I can kill a rattlesnake easier with my +whip." + +"Wall," he drawled, "down in yonder you're liable to meet up with a +rattler too smart for your whip, account of his freckles. 'Twon't do you +no harm to spend a few ca'tridges, so you'll be ready for business." + +The men were banging, by turn, at a sardine can set up on the sand about +twenty paces out. Their shadows stretched slantwise before them, +grotesquely lengthened by the last efforts of the disappearing sun. Some +aimed carefully from under pulled-down hat brims; others, their brims +flared back, fired quickly, the instant the gun came to the level. The +heavy balls sent the loose soil flying in thick jets made golden by the +evening glow. But amidst the furrows the can sat untouched by the plunging +missiles. + +We were greeted with hearty banter. + +"Hyar's the champeens!" + +"Now they'll show us." + +"Ain't never see that pilgrim unlimber his gun yit, but I reckon he's a +bad 'un." + +"Jenks, old hoss, cain't you l'an that durned can manners?" + +"I'll try to oblige you, boys," friend Jenks smiled. "What you thinkin' to +do: hit that can or plant a lead mine?" + +"Give him room. He's made his brag," they cried. "And if he don't plug it +that pilgrim sure will." + +Mr. Jenks drew and took his stand; banged with small preparation and +missed by six inches--a fact that brought him up wide awake, so to speak, +badgered by derision renewed. A person needs must have a bull hide, to +travel with a bull train, I saw. + +"Gimme another, boys, and I'll hit it in the nose," he growled sheepishly; +but they shoved him aside. + +"No, no. Pilgrim's turn. Fetch on yore shootin'-iron, young feller. Thar's +yore turkey. Show us why you're packin' all that hardware." + +Willy-nilly I had to demonstrate my greenness; so in all good nature I +drew, and stood, and cocked, and aimed. The Colt's exploded with +prodigious blast and wrench--jerking, in fact, almost above head; and +where the bullet went I did not see, nor, I judged, did anybody else. + +"He missed the 'arth!" they clamored. + +"No; I reckon he hit Montany 'bout the middle. That's whar he scored +center!" + +"Shoot! Shoot!" they begged. "Go ahead. Mebbe you'll kill an Injun +unbeknownst. They's a pack o' Sioux jest out o' sight behind them hills." + +And I did shoot, vexed; and I struck the ground, this time, some fifty +yards beyond the can. Jenks stepped from amidst the riotous laughter. + +"Hold down on it, hold down, lad," he urged. "To hit him in the heart aim +at his feet. Here! Like this----" and taking my revolver he threw it +forward, fired, the can plinked and somersaulted, lashed into action too +late. + +"By Gawd," he proclaimed, "when I move like it had a gun in its fist I can +snap it. But when I think on it as a can I lack guts." + +The remark was pat. I had seen several of the men snip the head from a +rattlesnake with a single offhand shot--yes, they all carried their +weapons easily and wontedly. But the target of an immobile can lacked in +stimulation to concord of nerve and eye. + +Now I shot again, holding lower and more firmly, out of mere guesswork, +and landed appreciably closer although still within the zone of ridicule. +And somebody else shot, and somebody else, and another, until we all were +whooping and laughing and jesting, and the jets flew as if from the balls +of a mitrailleuse, and the can rocked and gyrated, spurring us to haste as +it constantly changed the range. Presently it was merely a twist of ragged +tin. Then in the little silence, as we paused, a voice spoke +irritatingly. + +"I 'laow yu fellers ain't no great shucks at throwin' lead." + +Daniel stood by, with arms akimbo, his booted legs braggartly straddled +and his freckled face primed with an intolerant grin at our recent +efforts. My Lady had come over with him. Raw-boned, angular, cloddish but +as strong as a mule, he towered over her in a maddening atmosphere of +proprietorship. + +She smiled at me--at all of us: at me, swiftly; at them, frankly. And I +knew that she was still afraid. + +"Reckon we don't ask no advice, friend," they answered. Again a constraint +enfolded, fastened upon us by an unbidden guest. "Like as not you can do +better." + +Daniel laughed boisterously, his mouth widely open. + +"I couldn't do wuss. I seen yu poppin' at that can. Hadn't but one hole in +it till yu all turned loose an' didn't give it no chance. Haw haw! I 'laow +for a short bit I'd stand out in front o' that greenie from the States an' +let him empty two guns at me." + +"S'pose you do it," friend Jenks promptly challenged. "By thunder, I'll +hire ye with the ten cents, and give him four bits if he hits you." + +"He wouldn't draw on me, nohaow," scoffed Daniel. "I daren't shoot for +money, but I'll shoot for fun. Anybody want to shoot ag'in me?" + +"Wasted powder enough," they grumbled. + +"Ever see me shoot?" He was eager. "I'll show ye somethin'. I don't take +back seat for ary man. Yu set me up a can. That thar one wouldn't jump to +a bullet." + +In sullen obedience a can was produced. + +"How fur?" + +"Fur as yu like." + +It was tossed contemptuously out; and watching it, to catch its last roll, +I heard Daniel gleefully yelp "Out o' my way, yu-all!"--half saw his hand +dart down and up again, felt the jar of a shot, witnessed the can jump +like a live thing; and away it went, with spasm after spasm, to explosion +after explosion, tortured by him into fruitless capers until with the +final ball peace came to it, and it lay dead, afar across the twilight +sand. + +Verily, by his cries and the utter savagery and malevolence of his +bombardment, one would have thought that he took actual lust in fancied +cruelty. + +"I 'laow thar's not another man hyar kin do that," he vaunted. + +There was not, judging by the silence again ensuing. Only-- + +"A can's a different proposition from a man, as I said afore," Jenks +coolly remarked. "A can don't shoot back." + +"I don't 'laow any man's goin' to, neither." Daniel reloaded his smoking +revolver, bolstered it with a flip; faced me in turning away. "That's +somethin' for yu to l'arn on, ag'in next time, young feller," he +vouchsafed. + +If he would have eyed me down he did not succeed. His gaze shifted and he +passed on, swaggering. + +"Come along, Edna," he bade. "We'll be goin' back." + +A devil--or was it he himself?--twitted me, incited me, and in a moment, +with a gush of assertion, there I was, saying to her, my hat doffed: + +"I'll walk over with you." + +"Do," she responded readily. "We're to have more singing." + +The men stared, they nudged one another, grinned. Daniel whirled. + +"I 'laow yu ain't been invited, Mister." + +"If Mrs. Montoyo consents, that's enough," I informed, striving to keep +steady. "I'm not walking with you, sir; I am walking with her. The only +ground you control is just in front of your own wagon." + +"Yu've been told once thar ain't no 'Mrs. Montoyo,'" he snarled. "And +whilst yu're l'arnin' to shoot yu'd better be l'arnin' manners. Yu comin' +with me, Edna?" + +"As fast as I can, and with Mr. Beeson also, if he chooses," said she. "I +have my manners in mind, too." + +"By gosh, I don't walk with ye," he jawed. And in a huff, like the big boy +that he was, he flounced about, vengefully striding on as though punishing +her for a misdemeanor. + +She dropped the grinning group a little curtsy. A demure sparkle was in +her eyes. + +"The entertainment is concluded, gentlemen. I wish you good-night." + +Yet underneath her raillery and self-possession there lay an appeal, the +stronger because subtle and unvoiced. It seemed to me every man must +appreciate that as a woman she invoked protection by him against an +impending something, of which she had given him a glimpse. + +So we left them somewhat subdued, gazing after us, their rugged faces +sobered reflectively. + +"Shall we stroll?" she asked. + +"With pleasure," I agreed. + +Daniel was angrily shouldering for the Mormon wagons, his indignant +figure black against the western glow. She laughed lightly. + +"You're not afraid, after all, I see." + +"Not of him, madam." + +"And of me?" + +"I think I'm more afraid for you," I confessed. "That clown is getting +insufferable. He sets out to bully you. Damn him," I flashed, with +pardonable flame, "and he ruffles at me on every occasion. In fact, he +seems to seek occasion. Witness this evening." + +"Witness this evening," she murmured. "I'm afraid, too. Yes," she +breathed, confronted by a portent, "I'm afraid. I never have been afraid +before. I didn't fear Montoyo. I've always been able to take care of +myself. But now, here----" + +"You have your revolver?" I suggested. + +"No, I haven't. It's gone. Mormon women don't carry revolvers." + +"They took it from you?" + +"It's disappeared." + +"But you're not a Mormon woman." + +"Not yet." She caught quick breath. "God forbid. And sometimes I fear God +willing. For I do fear. You can't understand. Those other men do, though, +I think. Do you know," she queried, with sudden glance, "that Daniel means +to marry me?" + +"He?" I gasped. "How so? With your--consent, of course. But you're not +free; you have a husband." My gorge rose, regardless of fact. "You +scarcely expect me to congratulate you, madam. Still he may have points." + +"Daniel?" She shrugged her shoulders. "I cannot say. Pedro did. Most men +have. Oh!" she cried, impulsively stopping short. "Why don't you learn to +shoot? Won't you?" + +"I've about decided to," I admitted. "That appears to be the saving +accomplishment of everybody out here." + +"Of everybody who stays. You must learn to draw and to shoot, both. The +drawing you will have to practice by yourself, but I can teach you to +shoot. So can those men. Let me have your pistol, please." + +I passed it to her. She was all in a flutter. + +"You must grasp the handle firmly; cover it with your whole palm, but +don't squeeze it to death; just grip it evenly--tuck it away. And keep +your elbow down; and crook your wrist, in a drop, until your trigger +knuckle is pointing very low--at a man's feet if you're aiming for his +heart." + +"At his feet, for his heart?" I stammered. The words had an ugly sound. + +"Certainly. We are speaking of shooting now, and not at a tin can. You +have to allow for the jump of the muzzle. Unless you hold it down with +your wrist, you over shoot; and it's the first shot that counts. Of +course, there's a feel, a knack. But don't aim with your eyes. You won't +have time. Men file off the front sight--it sometimes catches, in the +draw. And it's useless, anyway. They fire as they point with the finger, +by the feel. You see, they _know_." + +"Evidently you do, too, madam," I faltered, amazed. + +"Not all," she panted. "But I've heard the talk; I've watched--I've seen +many things, sir, from Omaha to Benton. Oh, I wish I could tell you more; +I wish I could help you right away. I meant, a dead-shot with the revolver +knows beforehand, in the draw, where his bullet shall go. Some men are +born to shoot straight; some have to practice a long, long while. I wonder +which you are." + +"If there is pressing need in my case," said I, "I shall have to rely upon +my friends to keep me from being done for." + +"You?" she uttered, with a touch of asperity. "Oh, yes. Pish, sir! +Friends, I am learning, have their own hides to consider. And those +gentlemen of yours are Gentiles with goods for Salt Lake Mormons. Are they +going to throw all business to the winds?" + +"You yourself may appeal to his father, and to the women, for protection +if that lout annoys you," I ventured. + +"To them?" she scoffed. "To Hyrum Adams' outfit? Why, they're Mormons and +good Mormons, and why should I not be made over? I'm under their +teachings; I am Edna, already; it's time Daniel had a wife--or two, for +replenishing Utah. Rachael calls me 'sister,' and I can't resent it. Good +at heart as she is, even she is convinced. Why," and she laughed +mirthlessly, "I may be sealed to Hyrum himself, if nothing worse is in +store. Then I'll be assured of a seat with the saints." + +"You can depend upon me, then. I'll protect you, I'll fight for you, and +I'll kill for you," I was on the point of roundly declaring; but didn't. +Her kind, I remembered, had spelled ruin upon the pages of men more +experienced than I. Therefore out of that super-caution born of Benton, I +stupidly said nothing. + +She had paused, expectant. She resumed. + +"But no matter. Here I am, and here you are. We were speaking of shooting. +This is a lesson in shooting, not in marrying, isn't it? As to the +pressing need, you must decide. You've seen and heard enough for that. I +like you, sir; I respect your spirit and I'm sorry I led you into +misadventure. Now if I may lend you a little something to keep you from +being shot like a dog, I'll feel as though I had wiped out your score +against me. Take your gun." I took it, the butt warm from her clasp. +"There he is. Cover him!" + +"Where?" I asked. "Who?" + +"There, before you. Oh, anybody! Think of his heart and cover him. I want +to see you hold." + +I aimed, squinting. + +"No, no! You'll not have time to close an eye; both eyes are none too +many. And you are awkward; you are stiff." She readjusted my arm and +fingers. "That's better. You see that little rock? Hit it. Cock your +weapon, first. Hold firmly, not too long. There; I think you're going to +hit it, but hold low, low, with the wrist. Now!" + +I fired. The sand obscured the rock. She clapped her hands, delighted. + +"You would have killed him. No--he would have killed you. Quick! Give it +to me!" + +And snatching the revolver she cocked, leveled and fired instantly. The +rock split into fragments. + +"I would have killed him," she murmured, gazing tense, seeing I knew not +what. Wrenching from the vision she handed back the revolver to me. "I +think you're going to do, sir. Only, you must learn to draw. I can tell +you but I can't show you. The men will. You must draw swiftly, decisively, +without a halt, and finger on trigger and thumb on hammer and be ready to +shoot when the muzzle clears the scabbard. It's a trick." + +"Like this?" I queried, trying. + +"Partly. But it's not a sword you're drawing; it's a gun. You may draw +laughing, if you wish to dissemble for a sudden drop; they do, when they +have iron in their heart and the bullet already on its way, in their mind. +I mustn't stay longer. Shall we go to the fire now? I am cold." She +shivered. "Daniel is waiting. And when you've delivered me safe you'd +better leave me, please." + +"Why so?" + +She smiled, looking me straight in the eyes. + +"Quién sabe? To avoid a scene, perhaps; perhaps, to postpone. I have an +idea that it is better so. You've baited Daniel far enough for to-night." + +We walked almost without speaking, to the Hyrum Adams fire. Daniel lifted +upper lip at me as we entered; his eyes never wandered from my face. I +marked his right hand quivering stiffly; and I disregarded him. For if I +had challenged him by so much as an overt glance he would have burst +bonds. + +Rachael's eyes, the older woman's eyes, the eyes of all, men and women, +curious, admonitory, hostile and apprehensive, hot and cold +together--these I felt also amidst the dusk. I was distinctly unwelcome. +Accordingly I said a civil "Good-evening" to Hyrum (whose response out of +compressed lips was scarce more than a grunt) and raising my hat to My +Lady turned my back upon them, for my own bailiwick. + +The other men were waiting en route. + +"Didn't kill ye, did he?" + +"No." + +"Wall," said one, "if you can swing a rattler by the tail, all right. But +watch his haid." + +Friend Jenks paced on with me to our fire. + +"We were keepin' cases on you, and so was he. He saw that practice--damn, +how he did crane! She was givin' you pointers, eh?" + +"Yes; she wanted amusement." + +"It'll set Bonnie Bravo to thinkin'--it'll shorely set him to thinkin'," +Jenks chuckled, mouthing his pipe. "She's a smart one." He comfortably +rocked to and fro as we sat by the fire. "Hell! Wall, if you got to kill +him you got to kill him and do it proper. For if you don't kill him he'll +kill you; snuff you out like a--wall, you saw that can travel." + +"I don't want to kill him," I pleaded. "Why should I?" + +Jenks sat silent; and sitting silent I foresaw that kill Daniel I must. I +was being sucked into it, irrevocably willed by him, by her, by them all. +If I did not kill him in defense of myself I should kill him in defense of +her. Yet why I had to, I wondered; but when I had bought my ticket for +Benton I had started the sequence, to this result. Here I was. As she had +said, here I was, and here she was. I might not kill for love--no, not +that; I was going to kill for hate. And while I never had killed a man, +and in my heart of hearts did not wish to kill a man, since I had to kill +one, named Daniel, even though he was a bully, a braggart and an infernal +over-stepper it was pleasanter to think that I should kill him in hot +blood rather than in cold. + +Jenks spat, and yawned. + +"I can l'arn you a few things; all the boys'll help you out," he +proffered, "When you git him you'll have to git him quick; for if you +don't--adios. But we'll groom ye." + +Could this really be I? Frank Beeson, not a fortnight ago still living at +jog-trot in dear Albany, New York State? It was puzzling how detached and +how strong I felt. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE TRAIL NARROWS + + +Again we broke camp. We rolled down from the plateau into that wizard +basin lying all beautiful and slumberous and spell-locked like some land +of heart's desire. We replenished our water casks from the tank cars, we +swapped for a little feed, we occasionally exchanged greetings with +contractor outfits, and with grading crews. In due time we passed end o' +track, where a bevy of sweated men were moiling like mad, clanging down +the rails upon the hasty ties and ever calling for more, more. I witnessed +little General "Jack" Casement of Ohio--a small man with full russet beard +and imperative bold blue eyes--teetering and tugging at his whiskers and +rampantly swearing while he drove the work forward. And we left end o' +track, vainly reaching out after us, until the ring of the rails and the +staccato of the rapid sledges faded upon our ears. + +Now we were following the long line of bare grade, upturned reddish by the +plows and scrapers and picks and shovels; sometimes elevated, for contour, +sometimes merged with the desert itself. There the navvies digged and +delved, scarcely taking time to glance at us. And day by day we plodded +in the interminable clouds of desert dust raised by the supply wagons. + +Captain Hyrum fought shy of their camps. The laborers were mainly Irish, +trans-shipped from steerage, dock, and Bowery, and imported from Western +mining centers; turbulent in their relaxations and plentifully supplied +with whiskey: companies, they, not at all to the Mormon mind. Consequently +we halted apart from them--and well so, for those were womanless camps and +the daily stint bred strong appetites. + +There were places where we made half circuit out from the grade and +abandoned it entirely. In this way we escaped the dust, the rough talk, +and the temptations; now and again obtained a modicum of forage in the +shape of coarse weedy grasses at the borders of sinks. + +But it was a cruel country on men and beasts. Our teamsters who had been +through by the Overland Trail said that the Bitter Creek desert was yet +worse: drier, barer, dustier and uglier. Nevertheless this was our daily +program: + +To rise after a shivery night, into the crisp dawn which once or twice +glinted upon a film of ice formed in the water buckets; to herd the +stiffened animals and place them convenient; to swallow our hot coffee and +our pork and beans, and flapjacks when the cooks were in the humor; to +hook the teams to the wagons and break corral, and amidst cracking of +lashes stretch out into column, then to lurch and groan onward, at snail's +pace, through the constantly increasing day until soon we also were wrung +and parched by a relentless heat succeeding the frosty night. + +The sleeping beauties of the realm were ever farther removed. In the +distances they awaited, luring with promise of magic-invested azure +battlements, languid reds and yellows like tapestry, and patches of liquid +blue and dazzling snowy white, canopied by a soft, luxurious sky. But when +we arrived, near spent, the battlements were only isolated sandstone +outcrops inhabited by rattlesnakes, the reds and yellows were sun-baked +soil as hard, the liquid blue was poisonous, stagnant sinks, the snow +patches were soda and bitter alkali, the luxurious sky was the same old +white-hot dome, reflecting the blazing sun upon the fuming earth. + +Then at sunset we made corral; against theft, when near the grade; against +Indians and pillage when out from the grade, with the animals under herd +guard. There were fires, there was singing at the Mormon camp, there was +the heavy sleep beneath blanket and buffalo robe, through the biting chill +of a breezeless night, the ground a welcomed bed, the stars vigilant from +horizon to horizon, the wolves stalking and bickering like avid ghouls. + +So we dulled to the falsity of the desert and the drudgery of the trail; +and as the grading camps became less frequent the men grew riper for any +diversion. That My Lady and Daniel and I were to furnish it seemed to be +generally accepted. Here were the time-old elements: two men, one +woman--elements so constituted that in other situation they might have +brought comedy but upon such a trail must and should pronounce for +tragedy, at least for true melodrama. + +Besides, I was expected to uphold the honor of our Gentile mess along with +my own honor. That was demanded; ever offered in cajolery to encourage my +pistol practice. I was, in short, "elected," by an obsession equal to a +conviction; and what with her insistently obtruded as a bonus I never was +permitted to lose sight of the ghastly prize of skill added to merit. + +At first the matter had disturbed and horrified me mightily, to the extent +that I anticipated evading the issue while preparing against it. Surely +this was the current of a prankish dream. And dreams I had--frightfully +tumultuous dreams, of red anger and redder blood, sometimes my own blood, +sometimes another's; dreams from which I awakened drenched in cold +nightmare sweat. + +To be infused, even by bunkum and banter, with the idea of killing, is a +sad overthrow of sane balance. I would not have conceived the thing +possible to me a month back. But the monotonous desert trail, the close +companying with virile, open minds, and the strict insistence upon +individual rights--yes, and the irritation of the same faces, the same +figures, the same fare, the same labor, the same scant recreations, all +worked as poison, to depress and fret and stimulate like alternant chills +and fever. + +Practice I did, if only in friendly emulation of the others, as a +pass-the-time. I improved a little in drawing easily and firing snap-shot. +The art was good to know, bad to depend upon. In the beginnings it worried +me as a sleight-of-hand, until I saw that it was the established code and +that Daniel himself looked to no other. + +In fact, he pricked me on, not so much by word as by manner, which was +worse. Since that evening when, in the approving parlance of my friends, I +had "cut him out" by walking with her to the Adams fire, we had exchanged +scarcely a word; he ruffled about at his end of the train and mainly in +his own precincts, and I held myself in leash at mine, with +self-consciousness most annoying to me. + +But his manner, his manner--by swagger and covert sneer and ostentatious +triumph of alleged possession emanating an unwearied challenge to my +manhood. My revolver practice, I might mark, moved him to shrugs and +flings; when he hulked by me he did so with a stare and a boastful grin, +but without other response to my attempted "Howdy?"; now and again he +assiduously cleaned his gun, sitting out where I should see even if I did +not straightway look; in this he was most faithful, with sundry +flourishes babying me by thinking to intimidate. + +Withal he gave me never excuse of ending him or placating him, but shifted +upon me the burden of choosing time and spot. + +Once, indeed, we near had it. That was on an early morning. He was driving +in a yoke of oxen that had strayed, and he stopped short in passing where +I was busied with gathering our mules. + +"Say, Mister, I want a word with yu," he demanded. + +"Well, out with it," I bade; and my heart began to thump. Possibly I +paled, I know that I blinked, the sun being in my eyes. + +He laughed, and spat over his shoulder, from the saddle. + +"Needn't be skeered. I ain't goin' to hurt ye. I 'laow yu expected to make +up to that woman, didn't yu, 'fore this?" + +"What woman?" I encouraged; but I was wondering if my revolver was loose. + +"Edna. 'Cause if yu did, 'tain't no use, Mister. Why," indulgently, "yu +couldn't marry her--yu couldn't marry her no more'n yu could kill me. +Yu're a Gentile, an' yu'd be bustin' yore own laws. But thar ain't no +Gentile laws for the Lord's an'inted; so I thought I'd tell yu I'm liable +to marry her myself. Yu've kep' away from her consider'ble; this is to +tell yu yu mought as well keep keepin' away." + +"I sha'n't discuss Mrs. Montoyo with you, sir," I broke, cold, instead of +hot, watching him very narrowly (as I had been taught to do), my hand +nerved for the inevitable dart. "But I am her friend--her friend, mind +you; and if she is in danger of being imposed upon by you, I stand ready +to protect her. For I want you to know that I'm not afraid of you, day or +night. Why, you low dog----!" and I choked, itching for the crisis. + +He gawked, reddening; his right hand quivered; and to my chagrin he slowly +laughed, scanning me. + +"I seen yu practicin'. Go ahead. I wouldn't kill yu _naow_. Or if yu want +practice in 'arnest, start to draw." He waited a moment, in easy +insolence. I did not draw. "Let yore dander cool. Thar's no use yu tryin' +to buck the Mormons. I've warned ye." And he passed on, cracking his +lash. + +Suddenly I was aware that, as seemed, every eye in the camp had been +fastened upon us two. My fingers shook while with show of nonchalance I +resumed adjusting the halters. + +"Gosh! Looked for a minute like you and him was to have it out proper," +Jenks commented, matter of fact, when I came in. "Hazin' you a bit, was +he? What'd he say?" + +"He warned me to keep away from Mrs. Montoyo. Went so far as to lay claim +to her himself, the whelp. Boasted of it." + +"Throwed it in your face, did he? Wall, you goin' to let him cache her +away?" + +"Look here," I said desperately, still a-tremble: "Why do you men put that +up to me? Why do you egg me on to interfere? She's no more to me than she +is to you. Damn it, I'll take care of myself but I don't see why I should +shoulder her, except that she's a woman and I won't see any woman +mistreated." + +He pulled his whiskers, and grinned. + +"Dunno jest how fur you're elected. Looks like there was something between +you and her--though I don't say for shore. But she's your kind; she may be +a leetle devil, but she's your kind--been eddicated and acts the lady. She +ain't our kind. Thunderation! What'd we do with her? She'd be better off +marryin' Dan'l. He'd give her a home. If you hadn't been with this train I +don't believe she'd have follered in. That's the proposition. You got to +fight him anyway; he's set out to back you down. It's your fracas, isn't +it?" + +"I know it," I admitted. "He's been ugly toward me from the first, without +reason." + +"Reckoned to amuse himself. He's one o' them fellers that think to show +off by ridin' somebody they think they can ride. The boys hate to see you +lay down to that; for you'd better call him and eat lead or else quit the +country. So you might as well give him a full dose and take the pot." + +"What pot?" + +"The woman, o' course." + +"I tell you, Mrs. Montoyo has nothing to do with it, any more than any +woman. It's a matter between him and me--he began it by jeering at me +before she appeared. I want her left out of it." + +"Oh, pshaw!" Jenks scoffed. "That can't be did. He's fetched her into it. +What do you aim to do, then? Dodge her? When you're dodgin' her you're +dodgin' him, or so he'll take it." + +"I'll not dodge him, you can bet on that," I vowed. "I don't seek her, nor +him; but I shall not go out of my way to avoid either of them." + +"And when you give him his dose, what'll you do?" + +"If that is forced upon me, nothing. It will be in defense of my rights, +won't it? But I don't want any further trouble with him. I hope to God I +won't have." + +"Shore," Jenks soothed. "You're not a killer. All the same, you're +elected; he began it and you'll have to finish it. Then you'll needs look +out for yourself and her too, for he's made her the stakes." + +"Why will I?" + +"Got to. The hull train thinks so, one way or t'other, and you're white." + +"She can stay with the Mormons, if she wants to." + +"Oh, yes; if she wants to. But do you reckon she does? Not much! She's +lookin' to you--she's lookin' to you. She's a smart leetle piece--knows +how to play her cards, and she's got you and Dan'l goin'." + +"But she's married. You can't expect----" + +"Oh, yes," he wagged again, interrupting. "Shore. There's Montoyo. I don't +envy you your job, but damn' if you mightn't work harder and do wuss. +She's a clipper, and I never did hear anything 'specially bad of her, +beyond cappin'. Whoa, Jinny!" + +I wrathfully cogitated. Now I began to hate her. I was a tool to her hand, +once more, was I? And how had it come about? She had not directly besought +me to it--not by word. Daniel had decreed, and already our antagonism had +been on. And I had defied him--naturally. He should not bilk me of free +movement. But the issue might, on the face of it, appear to be she. As I +tugged at the harness, under breath I cursed the scurvy turn of events; +and in seeking to place the blame found amazing cleverness in her. Just +the same, I was not going to kill him for her account; never, never! And I +wished to the deuce that she'd kept clear of me. + +Jenks was speaking. + +"So the fust chance you get you might as well walk straight into him, call +him all the names you can lay tongue to, and when he makes a move for his +gun beat him to the draw and come up shootin'. Then it'll be over with. +The longer it hangs, the less peace you'll have; for you've got to do it +sooner or later. It's you or him." + +"Not necessarily," I faltered. "There may be another way." + +"There ain't, if you're a he critter on two legs," snapped Jenks. "Not in +this country or any other white man's country; no, nor in red man's +country neither. What you do back in the States, can't say. Trust in +pray'r, mebbe." + +Nevertheless I determined to make a last effort even at the risk of losing +caste. In the reaction from the pressure of that recent encounter when I +might have killed, but didn't, I again had a spell of fierce, sick protest +against the rôle being foisted upon me--foisted, I could see, by her +machinations as well as by his animosity. The position was too false to be +borne. There was no joy in it, no zest, no adequate reward. Why, in God's +name, should I be sentenced to have blood upon my hands and soul? Surely I +might be permitted to stay clean. + +Therefore this evening immediately after corral was formed I sought out +Captain Adams, as master of the train; and disregarding the gazes that +followed me and that received me I spoke frankly, here at his own wagon, +without preliminary. + +"Daniel and I appear to be at outs, sir," I said. "Why, I do not know, +except that he seems to have had a dislike for me from the first day. If +he'll let me alone I'll let him alone. I'm not one to look for trouble." + +His heavy face, with those thick pursed lips and small china blue eyes, +changed not a jot. + +"Daniel will take care of himself." + +"That is his privilege," I answered. "I am not here to question his +rights, Captain, as long as he keeps within them; but I don't require of +him to take care of me also. If he will hold to his own trail I'll hold to +mine, and I assure you there'll be no trouble." + +"Daniel will take care of himself, I say," he reiterated. "Yes, and look +after all that belongs to him, stranger. There's no use threatening +Daniel. What he does he does as servant of the Lord and he fears naught." + +"Neither do I, sir," I retorted hotly. "One may wish to avoid trouble and +still not fear it. I have not come to you with complaint. I merely wish to +explain. You are captain of the train and responsible for its conduct. I +give you notice that I shall defend myself against insult and annoyance." + +I turned on my heel--sensed poised forms and inquiring faces; and his +booming voice stayed me. + +"A moment, stranger. Your talk is big. What have you to do with this woman +Edna?" + +"With Mrs. Montoyo? What I please, if it pleases her, sir. If she claims +your protection, very good. Should she claim mine, she'll have it." And +there, confound it, I had spoken. "But with this, Daniel has nothing to +do. I believe that the lady you mention is simply your present guest and +my former acquaintance." + +"You err," he thundered, darkening. "You cannot be expected to see the +light. But I say to you, keep away, keep away. I will have no +gallivanting, no cozening and smiling and prating and distracting. She +must be nothing to you. Never can be, never shall be. Her way is +appointed, the instrument chosen, and as a sister in Zion she shall know +you not. Now get you gone----" a favorite expression of his. "Get you +gone, meddle not hereabouts, and I'll see to it that you are spared from +harm." + +Surprising myself, and perhaps him, I gazed full at him and laughed +without reserve or irritation. + +"Thank you, Captain," I heard myself saying. "I am perfectly capable of +self-protection. And I expect to remain a friend of Mrs. Montoyo as long +as she permits me. For your bluster and Daniel's I care not a sou. In +fact, I consider you a pair of damned body-snatchers. Good-evening." + +Then out I stormed, boiling within, reckless of opposition--even courting +it; but met none, Daniel least of all (for he was elsewhere), until as I +passed on along the lined-up wagons I heard my name uttered breathlessly. + +"Mr. Beeson." + +It was not My Lady; her I had not glimpsed. The gentle English girl +Rachael had intercepted me. She stood between two wagons, whither she had +hastened. + +"You will be careful?" + +"How far, madam?" + +"Of yourself, and for her. Oh, be careful. You can gain nothing." + +Her face and tone entreated me. She was much in earnest, the roses of her +round cheeks paled, her hands clasped. + +"I shall only look out for myself," said I. "That seems necessary." + +"You should keep away from our camp, and from Daniel. There is nothing you +can do. You--if you could only understand." Her hands tightened upon each +other. "Won't you be careful? More careful? For I know. You cannot +interfere; there is no way. You but run great risk. Sister Edna will be +happy." + +"Did she send you, madam?" I asked. + +"N-no; yes. Yes, she wishes it. Her place has been found. The Lord so +wills. We all are happy in Zion, under the Lord. Surely you would not try +to interfere, sir?" + +"I have no desire to interfere with the future happiness of Mrs. Montoyo," +I stiffly answered. "She is not the root of the business between Daniel +and me, although he would have it appear so. And you yourself, a woman, +are satisfied to have her forced into Mormonism?" + +"She has been living in sin, sir. The truth is appointed only among the +Latter Day Saints. We have the book and the word--the Gentile priests are +not ordained of the Lord for laying on of hands. In Zion Edna shall be +purged and set free; there she shall be brought to salvation. Our bishops, +perhaps Brigham Young himself, will show her the way. But no woman in Zion +is married without consent. The Lord directs through our prophets. Oh, +sir, if you could only see!" + +An angel could not have pleaded more sweetly. To have argued with her +would have been sacrilege, for I verily believed that she was pure of +heart. + +"There is nothing for me to say, madam," I responded. "As far as I can do +so with self-respect I will avoid Daniel. I certainly shall not intrude +upon your party, or bother Mrs. Montoyo. But if Daniel brings trouble to +me I will hand it back to him. That's flat. He shall not flout me out of +face. It rests with him whether we travel on peacefully or not. And I +thank you for your interest." + +"I will pray for you," she said simply. "Good-bye, sir." + +She withdrew, hastening again, sleek haired, round figured, modest in her +shabby gown. I proceeded to the outfit with a new sense of disease. If +she--if Mrs. Montoyo really had yielded, if she were out of the game--but +she never had been in it; not to me. And still I conned the matter over +and over, vainly convincing myself that the situation had cleared. +Notwithstanding all my effort, I somehow felt that an incentive had +vanished, leaving a gap. The affair now had simmered down to plain temper +and tit for tat. I championed nothing, except myself. + +Why, with her submissive, in a fracas I might be working hurt to her, +beyond the harm to him. But she be hanged, as to that phase of it. I had +been led on so far that there was no solution save as Daniel turned aside. +Heaven knows that the matter would have been sordid enough had it focused +upon a gambler's wife; and here it looked only prosaic. Thus viewing it I +fought an odd disappointment in myself, coupled with a keener +disappointment in her. + +"You talked to Hyrum, I see," Jenks commented. + +"I did." + +"'Bout Dan'l, mebbe?" + +"I wanted to make plain that the business is none of my seeking. Hyrum is +wagon master." + +"Didn't get any satisfaction, I'll bet." + +"No. On the contrary." + +"I could have told you you'd be wastin' powder." + +"At any rate," I informed, "Mrs. Montoyo is entirely out of the matter. +She never was in it except as she was entitled to protection, but now she +requires no further notice." + +"How so?" + +"That is her wish. She sent me word by Rachael." + +"She did? Wall?" He eyed me. "You swaller that?" + +"Willingly." And I swallowed my bitterness also. + +"Means to marry him, does she?" + +"Rachael did not say as to that. Rather, she gave me to understand that a +way would be found to release Mrs. Montoyo from Benton connections, but +that no woman in Utah is obliged to marry. Is that true?" + +"Um-m." Jenks rubbed his beard. "Wall, they do say Brigham Young is ag'in +promisc'yus swappin', and things got to be done straight, 'cordin' to the +faith. But an unjined female in the church is a powerful lonely critter. +Sticks out like a sore thumb. They read the Bible at her plenty. Um-m," +mused he. "I don't put much stock in that yarn you bring me. There's a +nigger in the wood-pile, but he ain't black. What you goin' to do about +it?" + +"Nothing. It's not my concern. Now if Daniel will mind his affairs I'll +continue to mind mine." + +"Wall, Zion's a long way off yet," quoth friend Jenks. "I don't look to +see you or she get there--nor Dan'l either." + +He being stubborn, I let him have the last word; did not seek to develop +his views. But his contentious harping shadowed like an omen. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +I DO THE DEED + + +We had camped well beyond a last bunch of the red-shirted graders, so that +the thread of a trail wended before, lonely, sand-obscured, leading +apparently nowhere, through this desert devoid of human life. Line stakes +of the surveyors denoted the grade; but the surveyors' work was done, +here. Rush orders from headquarters had sent them all westward still, to +set their final stakes across other deserts and across the mountains, +clear to Ogden at the north end of the Salt Lake itself. + +Seemingly we had cut loose and were more than ever a world to ourselves. +The country had grown sterile beneath ordinary, if possible; and our +thoughts and talk would have been sterile also were it not for that one +recurrent topic which kept them quick. In these journeyings men seize upon +little things and magnify them; discuss and rediscuss a phase until +launched maybe as an empty joke it returns freighted with tragedy. + +However, now that once My Lady had eliminated herself from my field I did +not see but that Daniel and I might taper off into at least an armed +neutrality. If he continued to nag me, it would be wholly of his own free +will. He had no grievance. + +Then in case that I did kill him--if kill him I must (and that eventuality +hung over me like the sword of Damocles) I should be not ashamed to tell +even my mother. In this I took what small comfort I might. + +I had not spoken at length with Mrs. Montoyo for several days. We had +exchanged merely civil greetings. To-day I did not see her during the +march; did not attempt to see her--did not so much as curiously glance her +way, being content to let well enough alone, although aware that my care +might be misinterpreted as a token of fear. But as to proving the case +against me, Daniel was at liberty to experiment with the status in quo. + +Toward evening we climbed a second wide, flat divide. We were leaving the +Red Basin, they said, and about to cross into the Bitter Creek Plains, +which, according to the talk, were "a damned sight wuss!" Somewhere in the +Bitter Creek Plains our course met the course of the Overland Stage road, +trending up from the south for the passage of the Green River at the +farther edge of the Plains. + +I had only faint hope that Mrs. Montoyo would be delivered over to the +stage there. It scarcely would be her wish. We were destined to travel on +to Salt Lake City together--she, Daniel and I. + +If the Red Basin had been bad and if the Bitter Creek Plains were to be +worse, assuredly this plateau was limbo: a gray, bleak, wind-swept +elevation fairly level and extending, in elevation perceptible mainly by +the vista, as far as eye might see, northward and southward, separating +basin from basin--one Hell, as Jenks declared, from the other. + +Nevertheless there was a wild grandeur in the site, flooded all with +crimson as the sun sank in the clear western sky beyond the Plains +themselves, so that our plateau was still bathed in ruddy color when the +Red Basin upon the one hand had deepened to purple and the white blotches +of soda and alkali down in the Plains upon the other hand gleamed evilly +in a tenuous gloaming. + +We had corralled adjacent to another tainted pond, of which the animals +refused to drink but which furnished a little rank forage for them and an +oasis for a half dozen ducks. A pretty picture these made, too, as they +lightly sat the open water, burnished to brass by the sunset so that the +surface shimmered iridescent, its ripples from the floating bodies flowing +molten in all directions. + +After supper I took the notion to go over there, in the twilight, on idle +exploration. Water of any kind had an appeal; a solitary pond always has; +the ducks brought thoughts of home. Many a teal and widgeon and canvasback +had fallen to my double-barreled Manton, back on the Atlantic coast--very +long ago, before I had got entangled in this confounded web of +misadventure and homicidal tendencies. + +To the pond I went, mood subdued. It set slightly in a cup; and when I had +emerged from a little swale or depression that I had followed, attracted +by the laughter of children playing at the marge, whom should I see, +approaching on line diagonal, but Mrs. Montoyo--her very hair and +form--coming in likewise, perhaps with errand similar to mine: simple +inclination. + +And that (again perhaps) was a mutual surprise, indeed awkward to me, for +we both were in plain sight from the camp. Certainly I could not turn off, +nor turn back. Not now. It was make or break. Hesitate I did, with +involuntary action of muscles; I thought that she momentarily hesitated; +then I drove on, defiant, and so did she. The fates were resolved that +there should be no dilly-dallying by the principals chosen for this drama +that they had staged. + +Our obstinate paths met at the base of a small point white with alkali, +running shortly into the sedges. Had we timed by agreement beforehand we +could not have acted with more precision. So here we halted, in narrow +quarters, either willing but unable to yield to the other. + +She smiled. I thought that she looked thinner. + +"An unexpected pleasure, Mr. Beeson. At least, for me. It has been some +days." + +"I believe it has," I granted. "Shall I pass on?" + +"You might have turned aside." + +"And so," I reminded, "might you." + +"But I didn't care to." + +"Neither did I, madam. The pond is free to all." + +I was conscious that a hush seemed to have gripped the whole camp, so that +even the animals had ceased bawling. The children near us stared, eyes and +mouths open. + +"You have kept away from me purposely?" she asked. "I do not blame your +discretion." + +"I am not courting trouble. And as long as you are contented yonder----" + +"I contented?" She drew up, paling. "Why do you say that, when you must +know." She laughed weakly. "I am still for the Lion's den." + +"You have become more reconciled--I've been requested not to interfere." + +"You? Without doubt. By Daniel, by Captain Adams, likely by others. More +than requested, I fancy. And you do perfectly right to avoid trouble if +possible. In fact, you can leave me now and continue your walk, sir, with +no reproaches. Believe me, I shall not drag you farther into my affairs." + +"Daniel and Captain Adams have no weight with me, madam," I stammered. +"But when you yourself requested----" + +"That was merely for the time being. I asked you to leave me at the fire +because I felt sure that Daniel would kill you." + +"But yesterday evening--I refer to yesterday," I corrected. "You sent me +word, following my talk with Hyrum." + +"I did not." + +"Not by Rachael?" + +"No, sir." + +"I so understood. I thought that she intimated as much. She said that you +were to be happy; were already content. And that I would only be making +you trouble if I continued our acquaintance." + +"Oh! Rachael." She smiled with sudden softness. "Rachael cannot +understand, either. I'm sure she intended well, poor soul. Were they all +like Rachael---- But I had no knowledge of her talk with you. Anyway, +please leave me if you feel disposed. Whether I marry Daniel or not should +be no concern of yours. I shall have to find my own trail out. Look! There +go the ducks. I came down to watch them. Now neither of us has any excuse +for staying. Good----" + +The hush had tightened into a strange pent stillness like the poise of +earth and sky and beast and bird just before the breaking of a great and +lowering storm. The quick clatter of the ducks' wings somehow alarmed +me--the staring of the children, their eyes directed past us, sharpened my +senses for a new focus. And glancing, I witnessed Daniel nearing--striding +rapidly, straight for the point, a figure portentous in the fading glow, +bringing the storm with him. + +She saw, too. Her eyes widened, startled, surveying not him, but me. + +"Please go. At once! I'll keep him." + +"It is too late now," I asserted, in voice not mine. "I am here first and +I'll go when I get ready." + +"You mean to face him?" + +"I mean to hear what he has to say, and learn what he intends to do. I +don't see any other way--unless you really wish me to go?" + +"No, no!" cried My Lady. "I don't want you to be harmed; but oh, how I +have suffered." All her countenance was suffused--with anger, with shame, +and even with hope. She trembled, gazing at me, and fluctuant. + +"So have I, madam," said I, grimly. + +"I think," she remarked in quiet tone, "that in a show-down you will best +him. I'm sure of it; yes, I know it. You will play the man. You act cool. +Good! Watch him very close. He'll give you little grace, this time. But +remember this: I'll never, never, never marry him. Rather than be bound to +him I'll deal with him myself." + +"It won't be necessary, madam," said I--a catch in my throat; for while I +was all iciness and clamminess, my hands cold and my tongue dry, I felt +that I was going to kill him at last. Something told me; the sheer horror +of it struck through; the inevitable loomed grisly and near indeed. + +A panoramic lifetime crowds the brain of a drowning man; that same crowded +my brain during the few moments which swung in to us Daniel, scowling, +masterful, his raw bulk and his long shambling stride never before so +insolent. + +From New York and home and peace I traveled clear here to desert, outlawry +and blood--and thence on through a second life as a marked man; but while +I knew very well where I should shoot him (right through the heart), I +turned over and over the one doubtful pass: where would he shoot me? Shoot +me he would--chest, shoulder, arm, head; I could not escape, did not hope +to escape. Yet no matter where his ball ploughed (and I poignantly felt it +enter and sear me) my final bullet would end the match. Also, I argued my +rights in the business; argued them before my father and mother, before +the camp, before the world. + +These thoughts which precede a certain duel to the death are not inspiring +thoughts; since then I have learned that other men, even practiced +gun-men, have had the same trepidation to the instant of pulling weapon. + +Daniel charged in for us. I did not touch revolver butt; he did not. My +Lady lifted chin, to receive him. My eyes, fastened upon him, noted her, +and noted, beyond us, the spying visages of the camp folk, all turned our +way, transfixed and agog. + +He barked first at her. + +"Go whar yu belong, yu Jezebel! Then I'll tend to this----" The rabid +epithet leveled at me I shall not repeat. + +She straightened whitely. + +"Be careful what you say, Daniel. No man on this earth can speak to me +like that." + +All his face flushed livid with a sneer, merging together yellow freckles +and tanned skin. + +"Can't, can't he? I kin an' I do. Why yu--yu--yu reckon yu kin shame me +'fore that hull train? Yu sneak out this-away, meetin' this spindle-shank, +no-'count States greenie who hain't sense enough to swing a bull whip an' +ain't man enough to draw a gun? I've told yu an' I'm done tellin' yu. Now +yu git. I've stood yore fast an' loose plenty. I mean business. Git! Whar +yu'll be safe. I'll not hold off much longer." + +"You threaten _me_?" + +Her blue eyes were blazing above a spot of color in either cheek--with a +growl he took a step, so that she shrank from his clutching hand, its +scarred, burly fingers outcurved. And the time, perhaps the very moment +had arrived. I must, I must. + +"No more of that, you brute," I uttered, while my pounding heart flooded +me with a cold, tingling stream. "If you have anything to say, say it to +me." + +He whirled. + +"Yu! Why, yu leetle piece o' nothin'--yu shut up!" By sudden reach he +gripped her arm; to her sharp, short scream he thrust her about. + +"Git! I'm boss hyar." And at me: "What yu goin' to do? She's promised to +me. I'm takin' keer of her; she's rode on my wagon; an' naow yu think to +toll her off? Yu meet her ag'in right under my nose arter I've warned yu? +Git, yoreself, or I'll stomp on yu like on a louse." + +Absolutely, hot tears of mortification, of bitter injury, showed in his +glaring eyes. He was but a big boy, after all. + +"Our meeting here was entirely by accident," I answered. "Mrs. Montoyo had +no expectation of seeing me, nor I of seeing her. You're making a fool of +yourself." + +He burst, red, quivering, insensate. + +"Yu're a liar! Yu're a sneakin', thievin' liar, like all Gentiles. Yu're +both o' yu liars. What's she?" And he spoke it, raving with insult. "But +I'll tame her. She'll be snatched from yu an' yore kind. We'll settle +naow. Yu're a liar, I say. Yu gonna draw on me? Draw, yu Gentile dog; for +if I lay hands on yu once----" + +"Look out!" she gasped tensely. But she had spoken late. That cold blood +which had kept me in a tremor and a wonderment, awaiting his pistol +muzzle, exploded into a seethe of heat almost blinding me. I forgot +instructions, I disregarded every movement preliminary to the onset, I +remembered only the criminations and recriminations culminating here at +last. Bullets were too slow and easy. I did not see his revolver, I saw +but the hulk of him and the intolerable sneer of him, and that his flesh +was ready to my fingers. And quicker than his hand I was upon him, into +him, climbing him, clinging to him, arms binding him, legs twining around +his, each ounce of me greedy to crush him down and master him. + +The shock drove him backward. Again My Lady screamed shortly; the children +screamed. He proved very strong. Swelling and tugging and cursing he broke +one grip, but I was fast to him, now with guard against his holstered gun. +We swayed and staggered, grappling hither and thither. I had his arms +pinioned once more, to bend him. He spat into my face; and shifting, set +his teeth into my shoulder so that they champed like the teeth of a horse, +through shirt and hide to the flesh. I raised him; his boots hammered at +my shins, his knee struck me in the stomach and for an instant I sickened. +Now I tripped him; we toppled together, came to the ground with a thump. +Here we churned, while he flung me and still I stuck. The acrid dust of +the alkali enveloped us. Again he spat, fetid--I sprawled upon him, +smothering his flailing arms; gave him all my weight and strength; smelled +the sweat of him, snarled into his snarling face, close beneath mine. + +Once he partially freed himself and buffeted me in the mouth with his +fist, but I caught him--while struggling, tossed and upheaved, dimly saw +that as by a miracle we were surrounded by a ring of people, men and +women, their countenances pale, alarmed, intent. Voices sounded in a dull +roar. + +Presently I had him crucified: his one outstretched arm under my knees, +his other arm tethered by my two hands, my body across his chest, while +his legs threshed vainly. I looked down into his bulging crooked eyes, +glaring back presumably into my eyes, and might draw breath. + +"'Nuf? Cry "Nuf,'" I bade. + +"'Nuf! Say "Nuf,'" echoed the crowd. + +He strained again, convulsive; and relaxed. + +"'Nuf!" he panted through bared teeth. "Lemme up, Mister." + +"This settles it?" + +"I said "Nuf,'" he growled. + +With quick movement I sprang clear of him, to my feet. He lay for a +moment, baleful, and slowly scrambled up. On a sudden, as he faced me, his +hand shot downward--I heard the surge and shout of men and women, to the +stunning report of his revolver ducked aside, felt my left arm jerk and +sting--felt my own gun explode in my hand (and how it came there I did not +know)--beheld him spin around and collapse; an astonishing sight. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE TRAIL FORKS + + +So there I stood, amidst silence, gaping foolishly, breathing hard, my +revolver smoking in my fingers and my enemy in a shockingly prone posture +at my feet, gradually reddening the white of the torn soil. He was upon +his face, his revolver hand outflung. He was harmless. The moment had +arrived and passed. I was standing here alive, I had killed him. + +Then I heard myself babbling. + +"Have I killed him? I didn't want to. I tell you, I didn't want to." + +Figures rushed in between. Hands grasped me, impelled me away, through a +haze; voices spoke in my ear while I feebly resisted, a warm salty taste +in my throat. + +"I killed him. I didn't want to kill him. He made me do it. He shot +first." + +"Yes, yes," they said, soothing gruffly. "Shore he did; shore you didn't. +It's all right. Come along, come along." + +Then---- + +"Pick him up. He's bad hurt, himself. See that blood? No, 'tain't his arm, +is it? He's bleedin' internal. Whar's the hole? Wait! He's busted +something." + +They would have carried me. + +"No," I cried, while their bearded faces swam. "He said "Nuf'--he shot me +afterward. Not bad, is it? I can walk." + +"Not bad. Creased you in the arm, if that's all. What you spittin' blood +for?" + +As they hustled me onward I wiped my swollen lips; the back of my hand +seemed to be covered with thin blood. + +"Where he struck me, once," I wheezed. + +"Yes, mebbe so. But come along, come along. We'll tend to you." + +The world had grown curiously darkened, so that we moved as through an +obscuring veil; and I dumbly wondered whether this was night (had it been +morning or evening when I started for the pond?) or whether I was dying +myself. I peered and again made out the sober, stern faces hedging me, but +they gave me no answer to my mutely anxious query. Across a great distance +we stumbled by the wagons (the same wagons of a time agone), and halted at +a fire. + +"Set down. Fetch a blanket, somebody. Whar's the water? Set down till we +look you over." + +I let them sit me down. + +"Wash your mouth out." + +That was done, pinkish; and a second time, clearer. + +"You're all right." Jenks apparently was ministering to me. "Swaller +this." + +The odor of whiskey fumed into my nostrils. I obediently swallowed, and +gasped and choked. Jenks wiped my face with a sopping cloth. Hands were +rummaging at my left arm; a bandage being wound about. + +"Nothin' much," was the report. "Creased him, is all. Lucky he dodged. It +was comin' straight for his heart." + +"He's all right," Jenks again asserted. + +Under the bidding of the liquor the faintness from the exertion and +reaction was leaving me. The slight hemorrhage from the strain to my weak +lungs had ceased. I would live, I would live. But he--Daniel? + +"Did I kill him?" I besought. "Not that! I didn't aim--I don't know how I +shot--but I had to. Didn't I?" + +"You did. He'll not bother you ag'in. She's yourn." + +That hurt. + +"But it wasn't about her, it wasn't over Mrs. Montoyo. He bullied +me--dared me. We were man to man, boys. He made me fight him." + +"Yes, shore," they agreed--and they were not believing. They still linked +me with a woman, whereas she had figured only as a transient occasion. + +Then she herself, My Lady, appeared, running in breathless and appealing. + +"Is Mr. Beeson hurt? Badly? Where is he? Let me help." + +She knelt beside me, her hand grasped mine, she gazed wide-eyed and +imploring. + +"No, he's all right, ma'am." + +"I'm all right, I assure you," I mumbled thickly, and helpless as a babe +to the clinging of her cold fingers. + +"How's the other man?" they abruptly asked. + +"I don't know. He was carried away. But I think he's dead. I hope so--oh, +I hope so. The coward, the beast!" + +"There, there," they quieted. "That's all over with. What he got is his +own business now. He hankered for it and was bound to have it. You'd best +stay right hyar a spell. It's the place for you at present." + +They grouped apart, on the edge of the flickering fire circle. The dusk +had heightened apace (for nightfall this really was), the glow and flicker +barely touched their blackly outlined forms, the murmur of their voices +sounded ominous. In the circle we two sat, her hand upon mine, thrilling +me comfortably yet abashing me. She surveyed me unwinkingly and grave--a +triumph shining from her eyes albeit there were seamy shadows etched into +her white face. It was as though she were welcoming me through the +outposts of hell. + +"You killed him. I knew you would--I knew you'd have to." + +"I knew it, too," I miserably faltered. "But I didn't want to--I shot +without thinking. I might have waited." + +"Waited! How could you wait? 'Twas either you or he." + +"Then I wish it had been I," I attempted. + +"What nonsense," she flashed. "We all know you did your best to avoid it. +But tell me: Do you think I dragged you into it? Do you hate me for it?" + +"No. It happened when you were there. That's all. I'm sorry; only sorry. +What's to be done next?" + +"That will be decided, of course," she said. "You will be protected, if +necessary. You acted in self-defense. They all will swear to that and back +you up." + +"But you?" I asked, arousing from this unmanly despair which played me for +a weakling. "You must be protected also. You can't go to that other camp, +can you?" + +She laughed and withdrew her hand; laughed hardly, even scornfully. + +"I? Above all things, don't concern yourself about me, please. I shall +take care of myself. He is out of the way. You have freed me of that much, +Mr. Beeson, whether intentionally or not. And you shall be free, yourself, +to act as your friends advise. You must leave me out of your plans +altogether. Yes, I know; you killed him. Why not? But he wasn't a man; he +was a wild animal. And you'll find there are matters more serious than +killing even a man, in this country." + +"You! You!" I insisted. "You shall be looked out for. We are partners in +this. He used your name; he made that an excuse. We shall have to make +some new arrangements for you--put you on the stage as soon as we can. And +meanwhile----" + +"There is no partnership, and I shall require no looking after, sir," she +interrupted. "If you are sorry that you killed him, I am not; but you are +entirely free." + +The group at the edge of the fire circle dissolved. Jenks came and seated +himself upon his hams, beside us. + +"Wall, how you feelin' now?" he questioned of me. + +"I'm myself again," said I. + +"Your arm won't trouble you. Jest a flesh wound. There's nothin' better +than axle grease. And you, ma'am?" + +"Perfectly well, thank you." + +"You're the coolest of the lot, and no mistake," he praised admiringly. +"Wall, there'll be no more fracas to-night. Anyhow, the boys'll be on +guard ag'in it; they're out now. You two can eat and rest a bit, whilst +gettin' good and ready; and if you set out 'fore moon-up you can easy get +cl'ar, with what help we give you. We'll furnish mounts, grub, anything +you need. I'll make shift without Frank." + +"Mounts!" I blurted, with a start that waked my arm to throbbing. "'Set +out,' you say? Why? And where?" + +"Anywhar. The stage road south'ard is your best bet. You didn't think to +stay, did you? Not after that--after you'd plugged a Mormon, the son of +the old man, besides! We reckoned you two had it arranged, by this time." + +"No! Never!" I protested. "You're crazy, man. I've never dreamed of any +such thing; nor Mrs. Montoyo, either. You mean that I--we--should run +away? I'll not leave the train and neither shall she, until the proper +time. Or do I understand that you disown us; turn your backs upon us; +deliver us over?" + +"Hold on," Jenks bade. "You're barkin' up the wrong tree. 'Tain't a +question of disownin' you. Hell, we'd fight for you and proud to do it, +for you're white. But I tell you, you've killed one o' that party ahead, +you've killed the wagon boss's son; and Hyrum, he's consider'ble of a man +himself. He stands well up, in the church. But lettin' that alone, he's +captain of this train, he's got a dozen and more men back of him; and when +he comes in the mornin' demandin' of you for trial by his Mormons, what +can we do? Might fight him off; yes. Not forever, though. He's nearest to +the water, sech as it is, and our casks are half empty, critters dry. We +sha'n't surrender you; if we break with him we break ourselves and likely +lose our scalps into the bargain. Why, we hadn't any idee but that you and +her were all primed to light out, with our help. For if you stay you won't +be safe anywhere betwixt here and Salt Lake; and over in Utah they'll +vigilant you, shore as kingdom. As for you, ma'am," he bluntly addressed, +"we'd protect you to the best of ability, o' course; but you can see for +yourself that Hyrum won't feel none too kindly toward you, and that if +you'll pull out along with Beeson as soon as convenient you'll avoid a +heap of unpleasantness. We'll take the chance on sneakin' you both away, +and facin' the old man." + +"Mr. Beeson should go," she said. "But I shall return to the Adams camp. I +am not afraid, sir." + +"Tut, tut!" he rapped. "I know you're not afraid; nevertheless we won't +let you do it." + +"They wouldn't lay hands on me." + +"Um-m," he mused. "Mebbe not. No, reckon they wouldn't. I'll say that +much. But by thunder they'd make you wish they did. They'd claim you +trapped Dan'l. You'd suffer for that, and in place of this boy, and +a-plenty. Better foller your new man, lady, and let him stow you in +safety. Better go back to Benton." + +"Never to Benton," she declared. "And he's not my 'new man.' I apologize +to him for that, from you, sir." + +"If you stay, I stay, then," said I. "But I think we'd best go. It's the +only way." And it was. We were twain in menace to the outfit and to each +other but inseparable. We were yoked. The fact appalled. It gripped me +coldly. I seemed to have bargained for her with word and fist and bullet, +and won her; now I should appear to carry her off as my booty: a wife and +a gambler's wife. Yet such must be. + +"You shall go without me." + +"I shall not." + +With a little sob she buried her face in her hands. + +"If you don't hate me now you soon will," she uttered. "The cards don't +fall right--they don't, they don't. They've been against me from the +first. I'm always forcing the play." + +Whereupon I knew that go together we should, or I was no man. + +"Pshaw, pshaw," Jenks soothed. "Matters ain't so bad. We'll fix ye out and +cover your trail. Moon'll be up in a couple o' hours. I'd advise you to +take an hour's start of it, so as to get away easier. If you travel +straight south'ard you'll strike the stage road sometime in the mornin'. +When you reach a station you'll have ch'ice either way." + +"I have money," she said; and sat erect. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +VOICES IN THE VOID + + +The directions had been plain. With the North Star and the moon as our +guides we scarcely could fail to strike the stage road where it bore off +from the mountains northward into the desert. + +For the first half mile we rode without a word from either of us to +violate the truce that swathed us like the night. What her thoughts were I +might not know, but they sat heavy upon her, closing her throat with the +torture of vain self-reproach. That much I sensed. But I could not +reassure her; could not volunteer to her that I welcomed her company, that +she was blameless, that I had only defended my honor, that affairs would +have reduced to pistol work without impulse from her--that, in short, the +responsibility had been wholly Daniel's. My own thoughts were so grievous +as to crush me with aching woe that forebade civil utterance. + +This, then, was I: somebody who had just killed a man, had broken from the +open trail and was riding, he knew not where, through darkness worse than +night, himself an outlaw with an outlawed woman--at the best a chance +woman, an adventuring woman, and as everybody could know, a claimed +woman, product of dance hall and gaming resort, wife of a half-breed +gambler, and now spoil of fist and revolver. + +But that which burned me almost to madness, like hot lava underneath the +deadening crust, was the thought that I had done a deed and a defensible +deed, and was fleeing from it the same as a criminal. Such a contingency +never had occurred to me or I might have taken a different course, still +with decency; although what course I could not figure. + +We rode, our mules picking their way, occasionally stumbling on rocks and +shrubs. At last she spoke in low, even tones. + +"What do you expect to do with me, please?" + +"We shall have to do whatever is best for yourself," I managed to answer. +"That will be determined when we reach the stage line, I suppose." + +"Thank you. Once at the stage line and I shall contrive. You must have no +thought of me. I understand very well that we should not travel far in +company--and you may not wish to go in my direction. You have plans of +your own?" + +"None of any great moment. Everything has failed me, to date. There is +only the one place left: New York State, where I came from. I probably can +work my way back--at least, until I can recoup by telegraph message and +the mails." + +"You have one more place than I," she replied. She hesitated. "Will you +let me lend you some money?" + +"I've been paid my wages due," said I. "But," I added, "you have a place, +you have a home: Benton." + +"Oh, Benton!" She laughed under breath. "Never Benton. I shall make shift +without Benton." + +"You will tell me, though?" I urged. "I must have your address, to know +that you reach safety." + +"You are strictly business. I believe that I accused you before of being a +Yankee." And I read sarcasm in her words. + +Her voice had a quality of definite estimation which nettled, humbled, and +isolated me, as if I lacked in some essential to a standard set. + +"So you are going home, are you?" she resumed. "With the clothes on your +back, or will you stop at Benton for your trunk?" + +"With the clothes on my back," I asserted bitterly. "I've no desire to see +Benton. The trunk can be shipped to me." + +She said on, in her cool impersonal tone. + +"That is the easiest way. You will live warm and comfortably. You will +need to wear no belt weapon. The police will protect you. If a man injures +you, you can summon him at law and wash your hands of him. Instead of +staking on your luck among new people, you can enter into business among +your friends and win from them. You can marry the girl next door--or even +take the chance of the one across the street, her parentage being comme il +faut. You can tell stories of your trip into the Far West; your children +will love to hear of the rough mule-whacker trail--yes, you will have +great tales but you will not mention that you killed a man who tried to +kill you and then rode for a night with a strange woman alone at your +stirrup. Perhaps you will venture to revisit these parts by steam train, +and from the windows of your coach point out the places where you suffered +those hardships and adventures from which you escaped by leaving them +altogether. Your course is the safe course. By all means take it, Mr. +Beeson, and have your trunk follow you." + +"That I shall do, madam," I retorted. "The West and I have not agreed; +and, I fear, never shall." + +"By honest confession, it has bested you; and in short order." + +"In short order, since you put it that way. Only a fool doesn't know when +to quit." + +"The greatest fool is the one who fools himself, in the quitting as in +other matters. But you will have no regrets--except about Daniel, +possibly." + +"None whatever, save the regret that I ever tried this country. I wish to +God I had never seen it--I did not conceive that I should have to take a +human life--should be forced to that--become like an outlaw in the night, +riding for refuge----" And I choked passionately. + +"You deserve much sympathy," she remarked, in that even tone. + +I lapsed into a turbulence of voiceless rage at myself, at her, at +Daniel's treachery, at all the train, at Benton, and again at this damning +predicament wherein I had landed. When I was bound to wrest free after +having done my utmost, she appeared to be twitting me because I would not +submit to farther use by her. I certainly had the right to extricate +myself in the only way left. + +So I conned over and over, and my heart gnawed, and the acid of vexation +boiled in my throat, and despite the axle grease my arm nagged; while we +rode unspeaking, like some guilty pair through purgatory. + +My lip had subsided; the pistol wound was superficial. Under different +circumstances the way would have been full of beauty. The high desert +stretched vastly, far, far, far before, behind, on either side, the +parched gauntness of its daytime aspect assuaged and evanescent. For the +moon, now risen, although on the wane, shed a light sufficient, whitening +the rocks and the scattered low shrubs, painting the land with sharp black +shadows, and enclosing us about with the mystery of great softly illumined +spaces into which silent forms vanished as if tempting us aside. Of +these--rabbits, wolves, animals only to be guessed--there were many, like +potential phantoms quickened by the touch of the moonbeams. Mule-back, we +twain towered, the sole intruders visible between the two elysians of +glorified earth and beatific sky. + +The course was southward. After a time it seemed to me that we were +descending from the plateau; craunching gradually down a flank until, in a +mile or so, we were again upon the level, cutting through another basin +formed by the dried bed of an ancient lake whose waters had evaporated +into deposits of salt and soda. + +At first the mules had plodded with ears pricked forward, and with sundry +snorts and stares as if they were seeing portents in the moonshine. +Eventually their imaginings dulled, so that they now moved careless of +where or why, their heads drooped, their minds devoted to achieving what +rest they might in the merely mechanical setting of hoof before hoof. + +I could not but be aware of my companion. Her hair glinted paly, for she +rode bareheaded; her gown, tightened under her as she sat astride, +revealed the lines of her boyish limbs. She was a woman, in any guise; and +I being a man, protect her I should, as far as necessary. I found myself +wishing that we could upturn something pleasant to talk about; it was +ungracious, even wicked, to ride thus side by side through peace and +beauty, with lips closed and war in the heart, and final parting as the +main desire. + +But her firm pose and face steadily to the fore invited with no sign; and +after covertly stealing a glance or two at her clear unresponsive profile +I still could manage no theme that would loosen my tongue. Thereby let +her think me a dolt. Thank Heaven, after another twenty-four hours at most +it might not matter what she thought. + +The drooning round of my own thoughts revolved over and over, and the +scuffing gait of the mules upon way interminable began to numb me. +Lassitude seemed to be enfolding us both; I observed that she rode laxly, +with hand upon the horn and a weary yielding to motion. Words might have +stirred us, but no words came. Presently I caught myself dozing in the +saddle, aroused only by the twitching of my wounded arm. Then again I +dozed, and kept dozing, fairly dead for sleep, until speak she did, her +voice drifting as from afar but fetching me awake and blinking. + +"Hadn't we better stop?" she repeated. + +That was a curious sensation. When I stared about, uncomprehending, my +view was shut off by a whiteness veiling the moon above and the earth +below except immediately underneath my mule's hoofs. She herself was a +specter; the weeds that we brushed were spectral; every sound that we made +was muffled, and in the intangible, opaquely lucent shroud which had +enveloped us like the spirit of a sea there was no life nor movement. + +"What's the matter?" I propounded. + +"The fog. I don't know where we are." + +"Oh! I hadn't noticed." + +"No," she said calmly. "You've been asleep." + +"Haven't you?" + +"Not lately. But I don't think there's any use in riding on. We've lost +our bearings." + +She was ahead; evidently had taken the lead while I slept. That +realization straightened me, shamed, in my saddle. The fog, fleecy, not so +wet as impenetrable--when had it engulfed us? + +"How long have we been in it?" I asked, thoroughly vexed. + +"An hour, maybe. We rode right into it. I thought we might leave it, but +we don't. It's as thick as ever. We ought to stop." + +"I suppose we ought," said I. + +And at the moment we entered into a sudden clearing amidst the fog +enclosure: a tract of a quarter of an acre, like a hollow center, with the +white walls held apart and the stars and moon faintly glimmering down +through the mist roof overhead. + +She drew rein and half turned in the saddle. I could see her face. It was +dank and wan and heavy-eyed; her hair, somewhat robbed of its sheen, +crowned with a pallid golden aureole. + +"Will this do? If we go on we'll only be riding into the fog again." + +I was conscious of the thin, apparently distant piping of frogs. + +"There seems to be a marsh beyond," she uttered. + +"Yes, we'd better stop where we are," I agreed. "Then in the morning we +can take stock." + +"In the morning, surely. We may not be far astray." She swung off before I +had awkwardly dismounted to help her. Her limbs failed--my own were +clamped by stiffness--and she staggered and collapsed with a little +laugh. + +"I'm tired," she confessed. "Wait just a moment." + +"You stay where you are," I ordered, staggering also as I hastily landed. +"I'll make camp." + +But she would have none of that; pleaded my one-handedness and insisted +upon coöperating at the mules. We seemed to be marooned upon a small rise +of gravel and coarsely matted dried grasses. The animals were staked out, +fell to nibbling. I sought a spot for our beds; laid down a buffalo robe +for her and placed her saddle as her pillow. She sank with a sigh, tucking +her skirt under her, and I folded the robe over. + +Her face gazed up at me; she extended her hand. + +"You are very kind, sir," she said, in a smile that pathetically curved +her lips. There, at my knees, she looked so worn, so slight, so childish, +so in need of encouragement that all was well and that she had a friend to +serve her, that with a rush of sudden sympathy I would--indeed I could +have kissed her, upon the forehead if not upon the lips themselves. It was +an impulse well-nigh overmastering; an impulse that must have dazed me so +that she saw or felt, for a tinge of pink swept into her skin; she +withdrew her hand and settled composedly. + +"Good-night. Please sleep. In the morning we'll reach the stage road and +your troubles will be near the end." + +Under my own robe I lay for a long time reviewing past and present and +discussing with myself the future. Strangely enough the present occupied +me the most; it incorporated with that future beyond the fog, and when I +put her out back she came as if she were part and parcel of my life. There +was a sense of balance; we had been associates, fellow tenants--in fact, +she was entwined with the warp and woof of all my memories dating far back +to my entrance, fresh and hopeful, into the new West. It rather +flabbergasted me to find myself thinking that the future was going to be +very tame; perhaps, as she had suggested, regretful. I had not apprehended +that the end should be so drastic. + +And whether the regrets would center upon my slinking home defeated, or in +having definitely cast her away, puzzled me as sorely as it did to +discover that I was well content to be here, with her, in our little +clearing amidst the desert fog, listening to her soft breathing and +debating over what she might have done had I actually kissed her to +comfort her and assure her that I was not unmindful of her really brave +spirit. + +Daniel had been disposed of, Montoyo did not deserve her; I had won her, +she could inspire and guide me if I stayed; and I saw myself staying, and +I saw myself going home, and I already regretted a host of things, as a +man will when at the forking of the trails. + +The fog gently closed in during the night. When I awakened we were again +enshrouded by the fleece of it, denser than when we had ridden through it, +but now whiter with the dawn. As I gazed sleepily about I could just make +out the forms of the two mules, standing motionless and huddled; I could +see her more clearly, at shorter distance--her buffalo robe moist with the +semblance of dew that had beaded also upon her massy hair. + +Evidently she had not stirred all night; might be still asleep. No; her +eyes were open, and when I stiffly shifted posture she looked across at +me. + +"Sh!" she warned, with quick shake of head. The same warning bade me +listen. In a moment I heard voices. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +I STAKE AGAIN + + +They were indistinguishable except as vocal sounds deadened by the +impeding fog; but human voices they certainly were. Throwing off her robe +she abruptly sat up, seeking, her features tensed with the strain. She +beckoned to me. I scuttled over, as anxious as she. The voices might be +far, they might be near; but it was an eerie situation, as if we were +neighboring with warlocks. + +"I've been hearing them some little while," she whispered. + +"The Captain Adams men may be trailing us?" + +"I hope not! Oh, I hope not," she gasped, in sheer agony. "If we might +only know in time." + +Suddenly the fog was shot with gold, as the sun flashed in. In obedience +to the command a slow and stately movement began, by all the troops of +mist. The myriad elements drifted in unison, marching and countermarching +and rearranging, until presently, while we crouched intent to fathom the +secrets of their late camp, a wondrously beautiful phenomenon offered. + +The great army rose for flight, lifting like a blanket. Gradually the +earth appeared in glimpses beneath their floating array, so that whereas +our plot of higher ground was still invested, stooping low and scanning we +could see beyond us by the extent of a narrow thinning belt capped with +the heavier white. + +"There!" she whispered, pointing. "Look! There they are!" + +Feet, legs, moving of themselves, cut off at the knees by the fog layer, +distant not more than short rifle range: that was what had been revealed. +A peculiar, absurd spectacle of a score or two of amputated limbs now +resurrected and blindly in quest of bodies. + +"The Mormons!" I faltered. + +"No! Leggins! Moccasins! They are Indians. We must leave right away before +they see us." + +With our stuff she ran, I ran, for the mules. We worked rapidly, bridling +and saddling while the fog rose with measured steadiness. + +"Hurry!" she bade. + +The whole desert was a golden haze when having packed we climbed +aboard--she more spry than I, so that she led again. + +As we urged outward the legs, behind, had taken to themselves thighs. But +the mist briefly eddied down upon us; our mules' hoofs made no sound +appreciable, on the scantily moistened soil; we lost the legs, and the +voices, and pressing the pace I rode beside her. + +"Where?" I inquired. + +"As far as we can while the fog hangs. Then we must hide in the first good +place. If they don't strike our trail we'll be all right." + +The fog lingered in patches. From patch to patch we threaded, with many a +glance over shoulder. But time was traveling faster. I marked her +searching about nervously. Blue had already appeared above, the sun found +us again and again, and the fog remnants went spinning and coiling, in +last ghostly dance like that of frenzied wraiths. + +Now we came to a rough outcrop of red sandstone, looming ruddily on our +right. She quickly swerved for it. + +"The best chance. I see nothing else," she muttered. "We can tie the mules +under cover, and wait. We'll surely be spied if we keep on." + +"Couldn't we risk it?" + +"No. We've not start enough." + +In a moment we had gained the refuge. The sculptured rock masses, detached +one from another, several jutting ten feet up, received us. We tied the +mules short, in a nook at the rear; and we ourselves crawled on, farther +in, until we lay snug amidst the shadowing buttresses, with the desert +vista opening before us. + +The fog wraiths were very few; the sun blazed more vehemently and wiped +them out, so that through the marvelously clear air the expanse of lone, +weird country stood forth clean cut. No moving object could escape notice +in this watchful void. And we had been just in time. The slight knoll had +been left not a mile to the southwest. I heard My Lady catch breath, felt +her hand find mine as we lay almost touching. Rounding the knoll there +appeared a file of mounted figures; by their robes and blankets, their +tufted lances and gaudy shields, yes, by the very way they sat their +painted ponies, Indians unmistakably. + +"They must have been camped near us all night." And she shuddered. "Now if +they only don't cross our trail. We mustn't move." + +They came on at a canter, riding bravely, glancing right and left--a score +of them headed by a scarlet-blanketed man upon a spotted horse. So +transparent was the air, washed by the fog and vivified by the sun, that I +could decipher the color pattern of his shield emblazonry: a checkerboard +of red and black. + +"A war party. Sioux, I think," she said. "Don't they carry scalps on that +first lance? They've been raiding the stage line. Do you see any squaws?" + +"No," I hazarded, with beating heart. "All warriors, I should guess." + +"All warriors. But squaws would be worse." + +On they cantered, until their paint stripes and daubs were hideously +plain; we might note every detail of their savage muster. They were +paralleling our outward course; indeed, seemed to be diverging from our +ambush and making more to the west. And I had hopes that, after all, we +were safe. Then her hand clutched mine firmly. A wolf had leaped from +covert in the path of the file; loped eastward across the desert, and +instantly, with a whoop that echoed upon us like the crack of doom, a +young fellow darted from the line in gay pursuit. + +My Lady drew quick breath, with despairing exclamation. + +"That is cruel, cruel! They might have ridden past; but now--look!" + +The stripling warrior (he appeared to be scarcely more than a boy) +hammered in chase, stringing his bow and plucking arrow. The wolf cast eye +over plunging shoulder, and lengthened. Away they tore, while the file +slackened, to watch. Our trail of flight bore right athwart the wolf's +projected route. There was just the remote chance that the lad would +overrun it, in his eagerness; and for that intervening moment of grace we +stared, fascinated, hand clasping hand. + +"He's found it! He's found it!" she announced, in a little wail. + +In mid-career the boy had checked his pony so shortly that the four hoofs +ploughed the sand. He wheeled on a pivot and rode back for a few yards, +scanning the ground, letting the wolf go. The stillness that had settled +while we gazed and the file of warriors, reining, gazed, gripped and +fairly hurt. I cursed the youth. Would to God he had stayed at home--God +grant that mangy wolf died by trap or poison. Our one chance made the +sport of an accidental view-halloo, when all the wide desert was open. + +The youth had halted again, leaning from his saddle pad. He raised, he +flung up glad hand and commenced to ride in circles, around and around and +around. The band galloped to him. + +"Yes, he has found it," she said. "Now they will come." + +"What shall we do?" I asked her. + +And she answered, releasing my hand. + +"I don't know. But we must wait. We can stand them off for a while, I +suppose----" + +"I'll do my best, with the revolver," I promised. + +"Yes," she murmured. "But after that----?" + +I had no reply. This contingency--we two facing Indians--was outside my +calculations. + +The Indians had grouped; several had dismounted, peering closely at our +trail, reading it, timing it, accurately estimating it. They had no +difficulty, for the hoof prints were hardly dried of the fog moisture. The +others sat idly, searching the horizons with their eyes, but at confident +ease. In the wide expanse this rock fortress of ours seemed to me to +summon imperatively, challenging them. They surely must know. Yet there +they delayed, torturing us, playing blind, emulating cat and mouse; but of +course they were reasoning and making certain. + +Now the dismounted warriors vaulted ahorse; at a gesture from the chief +two men rode aside, farther to the east, seeking other sign. They found +none, and to his shrill hail they returned. + +There was another command. The company had strung bows, stripped their +rifles of the buckskin sheaths, had dropped robe and blanket about their +loins; they spread out to right and left in close skirmish order; they +advanced three scouts, one on the trail, one on either flank; and in a +broadened front they followed with a discipline, an earnestness, a +precision of purpose and a deadly anticipation that drowned every fleeting +hope. + +This was unbearable: to lie here awaiting an inevitable end. + +"Shall we make a break for it?" I proposed. "Ride and fight? We might +reach the train, or a stage station. Quick!" + +In my wild desire for action I half arose. Her hand restrained me. + +"It would be madness, Mr. Beeson. We'd stand no show at all in the open; +not on these poor mules." She murmured to herself. "Yes, they're Sioux. +That's not so bad. Were they Cheyennes--dog-soldiers---- Let me think. I +must talk with them." + +"But they're coming," I rasped. "They're getting in range. We've the gun, +and twenty cartridges. Maybe if I kill the chief----" + +She spoke, positive, under breath. + +"Don't shoot! Don't! They know we're here--know it perfectly well. I shall +talk with them." + +"You? How? Why? Can you persuade them? Would they let us go?" + +"I'll do what I can. I have a few words of Sioux; and there's the sign +language. See," she said. "They've discovered our mules. They know we're +only two." + +The scouts on either flanks had galloped outward and onward, in swift +circle, peering at our defenses. Lying low they scoured at full speed; +with mutual whoop they crisscrossed beyond and turned back for the main +body halted two hundred yards out upon the flat plain. + +There was a consultation; on a sudden a great chorus of exultant cries +rang, the force scattered, shaking fists and weapons, preparing for a +tentative charge; and ere I could stop her My Lady had sprung upright, to +mount upon a rock and all in view to hold open hand above her head. The +sunshine glinted upon her hair; a fugitive little breeze bound her shabby +gown closer about her slim figure. + +They had seen her instantly. Another chorus burst, this time in +astonishment; a dozen guns were leveled, covering her and our nest while +every visage stared. But no shot belched; thank God, no shot, with me +powerless to prevent, just as I was powerless to intercept her. The chief +rode forward, at a walk, his hand likewise lifted. + +[Illustration: The Scouts Galloped Onward] + +"Keep down! Keep down, please," she directed to me, while she stood +motionless. "Let me try." + +The chief neared until we might see his every lineament--every item of his +trappings, even to the black-tipped eagle feather erect at the part in his +braids. And he rode carelessly, fearlessly, to halt within easy speaking +distance; sat a moment, rifle across his leggined thighs and the folds of +his scarlet blanket--a splendid man, naked from the waist up, his coppery +chest pigment-daubed, his slender arms braceleted with metal, his eyes +devouring her so covetously that I felt the gloating thoughts behind +them. + +He called inquiringly: a greeting and a demand in one, it sounded. She +replied. And what they two said, in word and sign, I could not know, but +all the time I held my revolver upon him, until to my relief he abruptly +wheeled his horse and cantered back to his men, leaving me with wrist +aching and heart pounding madly. + +She stepped lightly down; answered my querying look. + +"It's all right. I'm going, and so are you," she said, with a faint smile, +oddly subtle--a tremulous smile in a white face. + +About her there was a mystery which alarmed me; made me sit up, chilled, +to eye her and accuse. + +"Where? We are free, you mean? What's the bargain?" + +"I go to them. You go where you choose--to the stage road, of course. I +have his promise." + +This brought me to my feet, rigid; more than scandalized, for no word can +express the shock. + +"You go to them? And then where?" + +She answered calmly, flushing a little, smiling a little, her eyes +sincere. + +"It's the best way and the only way. We shall neither of us be harmed, +now. The chief will provide for me and you yourself are free. No, no," she +said, checking my first indignant cry. "Really I don't mind. The Indians +are about the only persons left to me. I'll be safe with them." She +laughed rather sadly, but brightened. "I don't know but that I prefer them +to the whites. I told you I had no place. And this saves you also, you +see. I got you into it--I've felt that you blamed me, almost hated me. +Things have been breaking badly for me ever since we met again in Benton. +So it's up to me to make good. You can go home, and I shall not be +unhappy, I think. Please believe that. The wife of a great chief is quite +a personage--he won't inquire into my past. But if we try to stay here you +will certainly be killed, and I shall suffer, and we shall gain nothing. +You must take my money. Please do. Then good-bye. I told him I would come +out, under his promise." + +She and the rocks reeled together. That was my eyes, giddy with a rush of +blood, surging and hot. + +"Never, never, never!" I was shouting, ignoring her hand. How she had +misjudged me! What a shame she had put upon me! I could not credit. "You +shall not--I tell you, you sha'n't. I won't have it--it's monstrous, +preposterous. You sha'n't go, I sha'n't go. But wherever we go we'll go +together. We'll stand them off. Then if they can take us, let 'em. You +make a coward of me--a dastard. You've no right to. I'd rather die." + +"Listen," she chided, her hand grasping my sleeve. "They would take me +anyway--don't you see? After they had killed you. It would be the worse +for both of us. What can you do, with one arm, and a revolver, and an +unlucky woman? No, Mr. Beeson (she was firm and strangely formal); the +cards are faced up. I have closed a good bargain for both of us. When you +are out, you need say nothing. Perhaps some day I may be ransomed, should +I wish to be. But we can talk no further now. He is impatient. The +money--you will need the money, and I shall not. Please turn your back and +I'll get at my belt. Why," she laughed, "how well everything is coming. +You are disposed of, I am disposed of----" + +"Money!" I roared. "God in Heaven! You disposed of? I disposed of? And my +honor, madam! What of that?" + +"And what of mine, Mr. Beeson?" She stamped her foot, coloring. "Will you +turn your back, or----? Oh, we've talked too long. But the belt you shall +have. Here----" She fumbled within her gown. "And now, adios and good +luck. You shall not despise me." + +The chief was advancing accompanied by a warrior. Behind him his men +waited expectant, gathered as an ugly blotch upon the dun desert. Her +honor? The word had double meaning. Should she sacrifice the one honor in +this crude essay to maintain the other which she had not lost, to my now +opened eyes? I could not deliver her tender body over to that painted +swaggerer--any more than I could have delivered it over to Daniel himself. +At last I knew, I knew. History had written me a fool, and a cad, but it +should not write me a dastard. We were together, and together we should +always be, come weal or woe, life or death. + +The money belt had been dropped at my feet. She had turned--I leaped +before her, thrust her to rear, answered the hail of the pausing chief. + +"No!" I squalled. And I added for emphasis: "You go to hell." + +He understood. The phrase might have been familiar English to him. I saw +him stiffen in his saddle; he called loudly, and raised his rifle, +threatening; with a gasp--a choked "Good-bye"--she darted by me, running +on for the open and for him. She and he filled all my landscape. In a +stark blinding rage of fear, chagrin, rancorous jealousy, I leveled +revolver and pulled trigger, but not at her, though even that was not +beyond me in the crisis. + +The bullet thwacked smartly; the chief uttered a terrible cry, his rifle +was tossed high, he bowed, swayed downward, his comrade grabbed him, and +they were racing back closely side by side and she was running back to me +and the warriors were shrieking and brandishing their weapons and bullets +spatted the rocks--all this while yet my hand shook to the recoil of the +revolver and the smoke was still wafting from the poised muzzle. + +What had I done? But done it was. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE QUEEN WINS + + +She arrived breathless, distraught, instantly to drag me down beside her, +from where I stood stupidly defiant. + +"Keep out of sight," she panted. And--"Oh, why did you do it? Why did you? +I think you killed him--they'll never forgive. They'll call it treachery. +You're lost, lost." + +"But he sha'n't have you," I gabbled. "Let them kill me if they can. Till +then you're mine. Mine! Don't you understand? I want you." + +"I don't understand," she faltered. She turned frightened face upon me. +"You should have let me go. Nothing can save you now; not even I. You've +ruined the one chance you had. I wonder why. It was my own choice--you had +no hand in it, and it was my own chance, too." Her voice broke, her eyes +welled piteously. "But you fired on him." + +"That was the only answer left me," I entreated. "You misjudged me, you +shamed me. I tell you----" + +Her lips slightly curled. + +"Misjudged you? Shamed you? Was that all? You've misjudged and shamed me +for so long----" A burst of savage hoots renewed interrupted. "They're +coming!" She knelt up, to peer; I peered. The Indians had deployed, +leaving the chief lying upon the ground, their fierce countenances glaring +at our asylum. How clear their figures were, in the sunshine, limned +against the lazy yellowish sand, under the peaceful blue! "They'll +surround us. I might parley for myself, but I can do nothing for you." + +"Parley, then," I bade. "Save yourself, any way you can." + +She drew in, whitening as if I had struck her. + +"And you accuse me of having misjudged you! I save myself--merely myself? +What do you intend to do? Fight?" + +"As long as you are with me; and after. They'll never take me alive; and +take you they shall not if I can prevent it. Damn them, if they get you I +mean to make them pay for you. You're all I have." + +"You'd rather I'd stay? You need me? Could I help?" + +"Need you!" I groaned. "I'm just finding out, too late." + +"And help? How? Quick! Could I?" + +"By staying; by not surrendering yourself--your honor, my honor. By saying +that you'd rather stay with me, for life, for death, here, +anywhere--after I've said that I'm not deaf, blind, dumb, ungrateful. I +love you; I'd rather die for you than live without you." + +Such a glory glowed in her haggard face and shone from her brimming eyes. + +"We will fight, we will fight!" she chanted. "Now I shall not leave you. +Oh, my man! Had you kissed me last night we would have known this longer. +We have so little time." She turned from my lips. "Not now. They're +coming. Fight first; and at the end, then kiss me, please, and we'll go +together." + +The furious yells from that world outside vibrated among our rocks. The +Sioux all were in motion, except the prostrate figure of the chief. +Straight onward they charged, at headlong gallop, to ride over us like a +grotesquely tinted wave, and the dull drumming of their ponies' hoofs beat +a diapason to the shrill clamor of their voices. It was enough to cow, but +she spoke steadily. + +"You must fire," she said. "Hurry! Fire once, maybe twice, to split them. +I don't think they'll rush us, yet." + +So I rose farther on my knees and fired once--and again, pointblank at +them with the heavy Colt's. It worked a miracle. Every mother's son of +them fell flat upon his pony; they all swooped to right and to left as if +the bullets had cleaved them apart in the center; and while I gaped, +wondering, they swept past at long range, half on either flank, pelting in +bullet and near-spent arrow. + +She forced me down. + +"Low, low," she warned. "They'll circle. They hold their scalps dearly. We +can only wait. That was three. You have fifteen shots left, for them; +then, one for me, one for you. You understand?" + +"I understand," I replied. "And if I'm disabled----?" + +She answered quietly. + +"It will be the same. One for you, one for me." + +The circle had been formed: a double circle, to move in two directions, +scudding ring reversed within scudding ring, the bowmen outermost. Around +and 'round and 'round they galloped, yelling, gibing, taunting, shooting +so malignantly that the air was in a constant hum and swish. The lead +whined and smacked, the shafts streaked and clattered---- + +"Are you sorry I shot the chief?" I asked. Amid the confusion my blood was +coursing evenly, and I was not afraid. Of what avail was fear? + +"I'm glad, glad," she proclaimed. But with sudden movement she was gone, +bending low, then crawling, then whisking from sight. Had she abandoned +me, after all? Had she--no! God be thanked, here she came back, flushed +and triumphant, a canteen in her hand. + +"The mules might break," she explained, short of breath. "This canteen is +full. We'll need it. The other mule is frantic. I couldn't touch her." + +At the moment I thought how wise and brave and beautiful she was! Mine for +the hour, here--and after? Montoyo should never have her; not in life nor +in death. + +"You must stop some of those fiends from sneaking closer," she counseled. +"See? They're trying us out." + +More and more frequently some one of the scurrying enemy veered sharply, +tore in toward us, hanging upon the farther side of his horse; boldly +jerked erect and shot, and with demi-volt of his mount was away, +whooping. + +I had been desperately saving the ammunition, to eke out this hour of mine +with her. Every note from the revolver summoned the end a little nearer. +But we had our game to play; and after all, the end was certain. So under +her prompting (she being partner, commander, everything), when the next +painted ruffian--a burly fellow in drapery of flannel-fringed cotton +shirt, with flaunting crimson tassels on his pony's mane--bore down, I +guessed shrewdly, arose and let him have it. + +She cried out, clapping her hands. + +"Good! Good!" + +The pony was sprawling and kicking; the rider had hurtled free, and went +jumping and dodging like a jack-rabbit. + +"To the right! Watch!" + +Again I needs must fire, driving the rascals aside with the report of the +Colt's. That was five. Not sparing my wounded arm I hastily reloaded, for +by custom of the country the hammer had rested over an empty chamber. I +filled the cylinder. + +"They're killing the mules," she said. "But we can't help it." + +The two mules were snorting and plunging; their hoofs rang against the +rocks. Sioux to rear had dismounted and were shooting carefully. There was +exultant shout--one mule had broken loose. She galloped out, reddened, +stirrups swinging, canteen bouncing, right into the waiting line; and down +she lunged, abristle with feathered points launched into her by sheer +spiteful joy. + +The firing was resumed. We heard the other mule scream with note +indescribable; we heard him flounder and kick; and again the savages +yelled. + +Now they all charged recklessly from the four sides; and I had to stand +and fire, right, left, before, behind, emptying the gun once more ere they +scattered and fled. I sensed her fingers twitching at my belt, extracting +fresh cartridges. We sank, breathing hard. Her eyes were wide, and bluer +than any deepest summer sea; her face aflame; her hair of purest gold--and +upon her shoulder a challenging oriflamme of scarlet, staining a rent in +the faded calico. + +"You're hurt!" I blurted, aghast. + +"Not much. A scratch. Don't mind it. And you?" + +"I'm not touched." + +"Load, sir. But I think we'll have a little space. How many left? Nine." +She had been counting. "Seven for them." + +"Seven for them," I acknowledged. I tucked home the loads; the six-shooter +was ready. + +"Now let them come," she murmured. + +"Let them come," I echoed. We looked one upon the other, and we smiled. It +was not so bad, this place, our minds having been made up to it. In fact, +there was something sweet. Our present was assured; we faced a future +together, at least; we were in accord. + +The Sioux had retired, mainly to sit dismounted in close circle, for a +confab. Occasionally a young brave, a vidette, exuberantly galloped for +us, dared us, shook hand and weapon at us, no doubt spat at us, and gained +nothing by his brag. + +"What will they do next?" I asked. + +"I don't know," said she. "We shall see, though." + +So we lay, gazing, not speaking. The sun streamed down, flattening the +desert with his fervent beams until the uplifts cringed low and in the +horizons the mountain peaks floated languidly upon the waves of heat. And +in all this dispassionate land, from horizon to horizon, there were only +My Lady and I, and the beleaguering Sioux. It seemed unreal, a fantasy; +but the rocks began to smell scorched, a sudden thirst nagged and my +wounded arm pained with weariness as if to remind that I was here, in the +body. Yes, and here she was, also, in the flesh, as much as I, for she +stirred, glanced at me, and smiled. I heard her, saw her, felt her +presence. I placed my hand over hers. + +"What is it?" she queried. + +"Nothing. I wanted to make sure." + +"Of yourself?" + +"Of you, me--of everything." + +"There can be no doubt," she said. "I wish there might, for your sake." + +"No," I thickly answered. "If you were only out of it--if we could find +some way." + +"I'd rather be in here, with you," said she. + +"And I, with you, then," I replied honestly. The thought of water +obsessed. She must have read, for she inquired: + +"Aren't you thirsty?" + +"Are you?" + +"Yes. Why don't we drink?" + +"Should we?" + +"Why not? We might as well be as comfortable as we can." She reached for +the canteen lying in a fast dwindling strip of rock shade. We drank +sparingly. She let me dribble a few drops upon her shoulder. Thenceforth +by silent agreement we moistened our tongues, scrupulously turn about, +wringing the most from each brief sip as if testing the bouquet of +exquisite wine. Came a time when we regretted this frugalness; but just +now there persisted within us, I suppose, that germ of hope which seems to +be nourished by the soul. + +The Sioux had counciled and decided. They faced us, in manner determined. +We waited, tense and watchful. Without even a premonitory shout a pony +bolted for us, from their huddle. He bore two riders, naked to the sun, +save for breech clouts. They charged straight in, and at her mystified, +alarmed murmur I was holding on them as best I could, finger crooked +against trigger, coaxing it, praying for luck, when the rear rider dropped +to the ground, bounded briefly and dived headlong, worming into a little +hollow of the sand. + +He lay half concealed; the pony had wheeled to a shrill, jubilant chorus; +his remaining rider lashed him in retreat, leaving the first digging +lustily with hand and knife. + +That was the system, then: an approach by rushes. + +"We mustn't permit it," she breathed. "We must rout him out--we must keep +them all out or they'll get where they can pick you off. Can you reach +him?" + +"I'll try," said I. + +The tawny figure, prone upon the tawny sand, was just visible, lean and +snakish, slightly oscillating as it worked. And I took careful aim, and +fired, and saw the spurt from the bullet. + +"A little lower--oh, just a little lower," she pleaded. + +The same courier was in leash, posted to bring another fellow; all the +Sioux were gazing, statuesque, to analyze my marksmanship. And I fired +again--"Too low," she muttered--and quickly, with a curse, again. + +She cried out joyfully. The snake had flopped from its hollow, plunged at +full length aside; had started to crawl, writhing, dragging its hinder +parts. But with a swoop the pony arrived before we were noting; the +recruit plumped into the hollow; and bending over in his swift circle the +courier snatched the snake from the ground; sped back with him. + +The Sioux seized upon the moment of stress. They cavorted, scouring hither +and thither, yelling, shooting, and once more our battered haven seethed +with the hum and hiss and rebound of lead and shaft. That, and my +eagerness, told. The fellow in the foreground burrowed cleverly; he +submerged farther and farther, by rapid inches. I fired twice--we could +not see that I had even inconvenienced him. My Lady clutched my revolver +arm. + +"No! Wait!" The tone rang dismayed. + +Trembling, blinded with heat and powder smoke, and heart sick, I paused, +to fumble and to reload the almost emptied cylinder. + +"I can't reach him," said I. "He's too far in." + +Her voice answered gently. + +"No matter, dear. You're firing too hastily. Don't forget. Please rest a +minute, and drink. You can bathe your eyes. It's hard, shooting across the +hot sand. They'll bring others. We've no need to save water, you know." + +"I know," I admitted. + +We niggardly drank. I dabbled my burning eyes, cleared my sight. Of the +fellow in the rifle pit there was no living token. The Sioux had ceased +their gambols. They sat steadfast, again anticipative. A stillness, +menaceful and brooding, weighted the landscape. + +She sighed. + +"Well?" + +The pregnant truce oppressed. What was hatching out, now? I cautiously +shifted posture, to stretch and scan; instinctively groped for the +canteen, to wet my lips again; a puff of smoke burst from the hollow, the +canteen clinked, flew from my hand and went clattering among the rocks. + +"Oh!" she cried, aghast. "But you're not hurt?" Then--"I saw him. He'll +come up again, in a moment. Be ready." + +The Sioux in the background were shrieking. They had accounted for our +mules; by chance shot they had nipped our water. Yet neither event +affected us as they seemed to think it should. Mules, water--these were +inconsequentials in the long-run that was due to be short, at most. We +husbanded other relief in our keeping. + +Suddenly, as I craned, the fellow fired again; he was a good shot, had +discovered a niche in our rampart, for the ball fanned my cheek with the +wings of a vicious wasp. On the instant I replied, snapping quick answer. + +"I don't think you hit him," she said. "Let me try. It may change the +luck. You're tired. I'll hold on the spot--he'll come up in the same +place, head and shoulders. You'll have to tempt him. Are you afraid, sir?" +She smiled upon me as she took the revolver. + +"But if he kills me----?" I faltered. + +"What of that?" + +"You." + +"I?" Her face filled. "I should not be long." + +She adjusted the revolver to a crevice a little removed from me--"They +will be hunting you, not me," she said--and crouched behind it, peering +earnestly out, intent upon the hollow. And I edged farther, and farther, +as if seeking for a mark, but with all my flesh a-prickle and my breath +fast, like any man, I assert, who forces himself to invite the striking +capabilities of a rattlesnake. + +Abruptly it came--the strike, so venomous that it stung my face and +scalded my eyes with the spatter of sandstone and hot lead; at the moment +her Colt's bellowed into my ears, thunderous because even unexpected. I +could not see; I only heard an utterance that was cheer and sob in one. + +"I got him! Are you hurt? Are you hurt?" + +"No. Hurrah!" + +"Hurrah, dear." + +The air rocked with the shouts of the Sioux; shouts never before so +welcome in their tidings, for they were shouts of rage and disappointment. +They flooded my eyes with vigor, wiped away the daze of the bullet impact; +the hollow leaped to the fore--upon its low parapet a dull shade where no +shade should naturally be, and garnished with crimson. + +He had doubled forward, reflexing to the blow. He was dead, stone dead; +his crafty spirit issued upon the red trail of ball through his brain. + +"Thank God," I rejoiced. + +She had sunk back wearily. + +"That is the last." + +"Won't they try again, you think?" + +"The last spare shot, I mean. We have only our two left. We must save +those." She gravely surveyed me. + +"Yes, we must save those," I assented. The realization broke unbelievable +across a momentary hiatus; brought me down from the false heights, to face +it with her. + +A dizzy space had opened before me. I knew that she moved aside. She +exclaimed. + +"Look!" + +It was the canteen, drained dry by a jagged gash from the sharpshooter's +lead. + +"No matter, dear," she said. + +"No matter," said I. + +The subject was not worth pursuing. + +"We have discouraged their game, again. And in case they rush us----" + +This from her. + +"In case they rush us----" I repeated. "We can wait a little, and see." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +WE WAIT THE SUMMONS + + +The Sioux had quieted. They let the hollow alone, tenanted as it was with +death; there was for us a satisfaction in that tribute to our defense. +Quite methodically, and with cruel show of leisure they distributed +themselves by knots, in a half-encircling string around our asylum; they +posted a sentry, ahorse, as a lookout; and lolling upon the bare ground in +the sun glare they chatted, laughed, rested, but never for an instant were +we dismissed from their eyes and thoughts. + +"They will wait, too. They can afford it," she murmured. "It is cheaper +for them than losing lives." + +"If they knew we had only the two cartridges----?" + +"They don't, yet." + +"And they will find out too late," I hazarded. + +"Yes, too late. We shall have time." Her voice did not waver; it heartened +with its vengeful, determined mien. + +Occasionally a warrior invoked us by brandishing arm or weapon in surety +of hate and in promise of fancied reprisal. What fools they were! Now and +again a warrior galloped upon the back trail; returned gleefully, perhaps +to flourish an army canteen at us. + +"There probably is water where we heard the frogs last night," she +remarked. + +"I'm glad we didn't try to reach it, for camp," said I. + +"So am I," said she. "We might have run right into them. We are better +here. At least, I am." + +"And I," I confirmed. + +Strangely enough we seemed to have little to say, now in this precious +doldrums where we were becalmed, between the distant past and the unlogged +future. We had not a particle of shade, not a trace of coolness: the sun +was high, all our rocky recess was a furnace, fairly reverberant with the +heat; the flies (and I vaguely pondered upon how they had existed, +previously, and whence they had gathered) buzzed briskly, attracted by the +dead mule, unseen, and captiously diverted to us also. We lay tolerably +bolstered, without much movement; and as the Sioux were not firing upon +us, we might wax careless of their espionage. + +Her eyes, untroubled, scarcely left my face; I feared to let mine leave +hers. Of what she was thinking I might not know, and I did not seek to +know--was oddly yielding and content, for our decisions had been made. And +still it was unreal, impossible: we, in this guise; the Sioux, watching; +the desert, waiting; death hovering--a sudden death, a violent death, the +end of that which had barely begun; an end suspended in sight like the +Dionysian sword, with the single hair already frayed by the greedy shears +of the Fate. A snap, at our own signal; then presto, change! + +It simply could not be true. Why, somewhere my father and mother busied, +mindless; somewhere Benton roared, mindless; somewhere the wagon train +toiled on, mindless; the stage road missed us not, nor wondered; the +railroad graders shoveled and scraped and picked as blithely as if the +same desert did not contain them, and us; cities throbbed, people worked +and played, and we were of as little concern to them now as we would be a +year hence. + +Then it all pridefully resolved to this, like the warming tune of a fine +battle chant: That I was here, with my woman, my partner woman, the much +desirable woman whom I had won; which was more than Daniel, or Montoyo, or +the Indian chief, or the wide world of other men could boast. + +Soon she spoke, at times, musingly. + +"I did make up to you, at first," she said. "In Omaha, and on the train." + +"Did you?" I smiled. She was so childishly frank. + +"But that was only passing. Then in Benton I knew you were different. I +wondered what it was; but you were different from anybody that I had met +before. There's always such a moment in a woman's life." + +I soberly nodded. Nothing could be a platitude in such a place and such an +hour. + +"I wished to help you. Do you believe that now?" + +"I believe you, dear heart," I assured. + +"But it was partly because I thought you could help me," she said, like a +confession. And she added: "I had nothing wrong in mind. You were to be a +friend, not a lover. I had no need of lovers; no, no." + +We were silent for an interval. Again she spoke. + +"Do you care anything about my family? I suppose not. That doesn't matter, +here. But you wouldn't be ashamed of them. I ran away with Montoyo. I +thought he was something else. How could I go home after that? I tried to +be true to him, we had plenty of money, he was kind to me at first, but he +dragged me down and my father and mother don't know even yet. Yes, I tried +to help him, too. I stayed. It's a life that gets into one's blood. I +feared him terribly, in time. He was a breed, and a devil--a gentleman +devil." She referred in the past tense, as to some fact definitely bygone. +"I had to play fair with him, or---- And when I had done that, hoping, +why, what else could I do or where could I go? So many people knew me." +She smiled. "Suddenly I tied to you, sir. I seemed to feel--I took the +chance." + +"Thank God you did," I encouraged. + +"But I would not have wronged myself, or you, or him," she eagerly +pursued. "I never did wrong him." She flushed. "No man can convict me. You +hurt me when you refused me, dear; it told me that you didn't understand. +Then I was desperate. I had been shamed before you, and by you. You were +going, and not understanding, and I couldn't let you. So I did follow you +to the wagon train. You were my star. I wonder why. I did feel that you'd +get me out--you see, I was so madly selfish, like a drowning person. I +clutched at you; might have put you under while climbing up, myself." + +"We have climbed together," said I. "You have made me into a man." + +"But I forced myself on you. I played you against Daniel. I foresaw that +you might have to kill him, to rid me of him. You were my weapon. And I +used you. Do you blame me that I used you?" + +"Daniel and I were destined to meet, just as you and I were destined to +meet," said I. "I had to prove myself on him. It would have happened +anyway. Had I not stood up to him you would not have loved me." + +"That was not the price," she sighed. "Maybe you don't understand yet. I'm +so afraid you don't understand," she pleaded. "At the last I had resigned +you, I would have left you free, I saw how you felt; but, oh, it happened +just the same--we were fated, and you showed that you hated me." + +"I never hated you. I was perplexed. That was a part of love," said I. + +"You mean it? You are holding nothing back?" she asked, anxious. + +"I am holding nothing back," I answered. "As you will know, I think, in +time to come." + +Again we reclined, silent, at peace: a strange peace of mind and body, to +which the demonstrations by the waiting Sioux were alien things. + +She spoke. + +"Are we very guilty, do you think?" + +"In what, dearest?" + +"In this, here. I am already married, you know." + +"That is another life," I reasoned. "It is long ago and under different +law." + +"But if we went back into it--if we escaped?" + +"Then we should--but don't let's talk of that." + +"Then you should forget and I should return to Benton," she said. "I have +decided. I should return to Benton, where Montoyo is, and maybe find +another way. But I should not live with him; never, never! I should ask +him to release me." + +"I, with you," I informed. "We should go together, and do what was best." + +"You would? You wouldn't be ashamed, or afraid?" + +"Ashamed or afraid of what?" + +She cried out happily, and shivered. + +"I hope we don't have to. He might kill you. Yes, I hope we don't have to. +Do you mind?" + +I shook my head, smiling my response. There were tears in her eyes, +repaying me. + +Our conversation became more fitful. Time sped, I don't know how, except +that we were in a kind of lethargy, taking no note of time and hanging +fast to this our respite from the tempestuous past. + +Once she dreamily murmured, apropos of nothing, yet apropos of much: + +"We must be about the same age. I am not old, not really very old." + +"I am twenty-five," I answered. + +"So I thought," she mused. + +Then, later, in manner of having revolved this idea also, more distinctly +apropos and voiced with a certain triumph: + +"I'm glad we drank water when we might; aren't you?" + +"You were so wise," I praised; and I felt sorry for her cracked lips. It +is astonishing with what swiftness, even upon the dry desert, amid the dry +air, under the dry burning sun, thirst quickens into a consuming fire +scorching from within outward to the skin. + +We lapsed into that remarkable patience, playing the game with the Sioux +and steadily viewing each other; and she asked, casually: + +"Where will you shoot me, Frank?" + +This bared the secret heart of me. + +"No! No!" I begged. "Don't speak of that. It will be bad enough at the +best. How can I? I don't know how I can do it!" + +"You will, though," she soothed. "I'd rather have it from you. You must be +brave, for yourself and for me; and kind, and quick. I think it should be +through the temple. That's sure. But you won't wait to look, will you? +You'll spare yourself that?" + +This made me groan, craven, and wipe my hand across my forehead to brush +away the frenzy. The fingers came free, damp with cold sticky sweat--a +prodigy of a parchment skin which puzzled me. + +We had not exchanged a caress, save by voice; had not again touched each +other. Sometimes I glanced at the Sioux, but not for long; I dreaded to +lose sight of her by so much as a moment. The Sioux remained virtually as +from the beginning of their vigil. They sat secure, drank, probably ate, +with time their ally: sat judicial and persistent, as though depending +upon the progress of a slow fuse, or upon the workings of poison, which +indeed was the case. + +Thirst and heat tortured unceasingly. The sun had passed the zenith--this +sun of a culminating summer throughout which he had thrived regal and +lustful. It seemed ignoble of him that he now should stoop to torment only +us, and one of us a small woman. There was all his boundless domain for +him. + +But stoop he did, burning nearer and nearer. She broke with sudden passion +of hoarse appeal. + +"Why do we wait? Why not now?" + +"We ought to wait," I stammered, miserable and pitying. + +"Yes," she whispered, submissive, "I suppose we ought. One always does. +But I am so tired. I think," she said, "that I will let my hair down. I +shall go with my hair down. I have a right to, at the last." + +Whereupon she fell to loosening her hair and braiding it with hurried +fingers. + +Then after a time I said: + +"We'll not be much longer, dear." + +"I hope not," said she, panting, her lips stiff, her eyes bright and +feverish. "They'll rush us at sundown; maybe before." + +"I believe," said I, blurring the words, for my tongue was getting +unmanageable, "they're making ready now." + +She exclaimed and struggled and sat up, and we both gazed. Out there the +Sioux, in that world of their own, had aroused to energy. I fancied that +they had palled of the inaction. At any rate they were upon their feet, +several were upon their horses, others mounted hastily, squad joined squad +as though by summons, and here came their outpost scout, galloping in, his +blanket streaming from one hand like a banner of an Islam prophet. + +They delayed an instant, gesticulating. + +"It will be soon," she whispered, touching my arm. "When they are +half-way, don't fail. I trust you. Will you kiss me? That is only the +once." + +I kissed her; dry cracked lips met dry cracked lips. She laid herself down +and closed her eyes, and smiled. + +"I'm all right," she said. "And tired. I've worked so hard, for only this. +You mustn't look." + +"And you must wait for me, somewhere," I entreated. "Just a moment." + +"Of course," she sighed. + +The Sioux charged, shrieking, hammering, lashing, all of one purpose: +that, us; she, I; my life, her body; and quickly kneeling beside her (I +was cool and firm and collected) I felt her hand guide the revolver +barrel. But I did not look. She had forbidden, and I kept my eyes upon +them, until they were half-way, and in exultation I pulled the trigger, my +hand already tensed to snatch and cock and deliver myself under their very +grasp. That was a sweetness. + +The hammer clicked. There had been no jar, no report. The hammer had only +clicked, I tell you, shocking me to the core. A missed cartridge? An empty +chamber? Which? No matter. I should achieve for her, first; then, myself. +I heard her gasp, they were very near, how they shouted, how the bullets +and arrows spatted and hissed, and I had convulsively cocked the gun, she +had clutched it--when looking through them, agonized and blinded as I +was--looking through them as if they were phantasms I sensed another sound +and with sight sharpened I saw. + +Then I wrested the revolver from her. I fired pointblank, I fired again +(the Colt's did not fail); they swept by, hooting, jostling; they thudded +on; and rising I screeched and waved, as bizarre, no doubt, as any +animated scarecrow. + +It had been a trumpet note, and a cavalry guidon and a rank of bobbing +figures had come galloping, galloping over an imperceptible swell. + +She cried to me, from my feet. + +"You didn't do it! You didn't do it!" + +"We're saved," I blatted. "Hurrah! We're saved! The soldiers are here." + +Again the trumpet pealed, lilting silvery. She tottered up, clinging to +me. She stared. She released me, and to my gladly questing gaze her face +was very white, her eyes struggling for comprehension, like those of one +awakened from a dream. + +"I must go back to Benton," she faltered. "I shall never get away from +Benton." + +We stood mute while the blue-coats raced on with hearty cheers and brave +clank of saber and canteen. We were sitting composedly when the lieutenant +scrambled to us, among our rocks; the troopers followed, curiously +scanning. + +His stubbled red face, dust-smeared, queried us keenly; so did his curt +voice. + +"Just in time?" + +"In time," I croaked. "Water! For her--for me." + +There was a canteen apiece. We sucked. + +"You are the two from the Mormon wagon train?" he asked. + +"Yes, sir. You know?" I uttered. + +"We came on as fast as we could. The Sioux are raiding again. By God, you +had a narrow squeak, sir," he reproved. "You were crazy to try it--you and +a woman, alone. We'll take you along as soon as my Pawnees get in from +chasing those beggars." + +Distant whoops from a pursuit drifted in to us, out of the desert. + +"Captain Adams sent you?" I inquired. + +"Yes, sir." + +"I will go back," I agreed. "I will go back, but there's no need of Mrs. +Montoyo. If you could see her safely landed at a stage station, and for +Benton----?" + +"We'll land you both. I have to report at Bridger. The train is all right. +It has an escort to Bitter Creek." + +"I can overtake it, or join it," said I. "But the lady goes to Benton." + +"Yes, yes," he snapped. "That's nothing to me, of course. But you'll do +better to wait for the train at Bridger, Mr. ----? I don't believe I have +your name?" + +"Beeson," I informed, astonished. + +"And the lady's? Your sister? Wife?" + +"Mrs. Montoyo," I informed. And I repeated, that there should be no +misunderstanding. "Mrs. Montoyo, from Benton. No relative, sir." + +He passed it over, as a gentleman should. + +"Well, Mr. Beeson, you have business with the train?" + +"I have business with Captain Adams, and he with me," I replied. "As +probably you know. Since he sent you, I shall consider myself under +arrest; but I will return of my own free will as soon as Mrs. Montoyo is +safe." + +"Under arrest? For what?" He blankly eyed me. + +"For killing that man, sir. Captain Adams' son. But I was forced to it--I +did it in self-defense. I should not have left, and I am ready to face the +matter whenever possible." + +"Oh!" said he, with a shrug, tossing the idea aside. "If that's all! I did +hear something about that, from some of my men, but nothing from Adams. +You didn't kill him, I understand; merely laid him out. I saw him, myself, +but I didn't ask questions. So you can rest easy on that score. His old +man seemed to have no grudge against you for it. Fact is, he scarcely +allowed me time to warn him of the Sioux before he told me you and a woman +were out and were liable to lose your scalps, if nothing worse. I think," +the lieutenant added, narrowing upon me, "that you'll find those Mormons +are as just as any other set, in a show down. The lad, I gathered from the +talk, drew on you after he'd cried quits." He turned hastily. "You spoke, +madam? Anything wanted?" + +The trumpeter orderly plucked me by the sleeve. He was a squat, +sun-scorched little man, and his red-rimmed blue eyes squinted at me with +painful interest. He whispered harshly from covert of bronzed hand. + +"Beg your pardon, sorr. Mrs. Montoyo, be it--that lady?" + +"Yes." + +"From Benton City, sorr, ye say?" + +"From Benton City." + +"Sure, I know the name. It's the same of a gambler the vigilantes strung +up last week; for I was there to see." + +I heard a gusty sigh, an exclamation from the lieutenant. My Lady had +fainted again. + +"The reaction, sir," I apologized, to the lieutenant, as we worked. + +"Naturally," answered he. "You'll both go back to Benton?" + +"Certainly," said I. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +STAR SHINE + + +It was six weeks later, with My Lady all recovered and I long since +healed, and Fort Bridger pleasant in our memories, when we two rode into +Benton once more, by horse from the nearest stage point. And here we sat +our saddles, silent, wondering; for of Benton there was little significant +of the past, very little tangible of the present, naught promising of its +future. + +Roaring Benton City had vanished, you might say, utterly. The iron +tendrils of the Pacific Railway glistened, stretching westward into the +sunset, and Benton had followed the lure, to Rawlins (as had been told +us), to Green River, to Bryan--likely now still onward, for the track was +traveling fast, charging the mountain slopes of Utah. The restless dust +had settled. The Queen Hotel, the Big Tent, the rows of canvas, plank, +tin, sheet metal, what-not stores, saloons, gambling dens, dance halls, +human habitations--the blatant street and the station itself had subsided +into this: a skeleton company of hacked and weazened posts, a fantastic +outcrop of coldly blackened clay chimneys, a sprinkling of battered cans. +The fevered populace who had ridden high upon the tide of rapid life had +remained only as ghosts haunting a potter's field, and the turmoil of +frenzied pleasure had dwindled to a coyote's yelp mocking the twilight. + +"It all, all is wiped out, like he is," she said. "But I wished to see." + +"All, all is wiped out, dear heart," said I. "All of that. But here are +you and I." + +Through star shine we cantered side by side eastward down the old, empty +freighting road, for the railway station at Fort Steele. + +THE END + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Desert Dust, by Edwin L. 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