CHAPTER IX
THROWING SAND
After leaving the Starlight, on their way back to the hotel, Raceysaid to Swing Tunstall: "Might as well tell Jack Harpe now we ain'tgonna ride for him, huh?"
"Oh, shore," Swing sighed resignedly. "Have it yore own way! Have ityore own way! I never seen such a feller as you for gettin' his ownway in all my life."
"Yo're young yet--maybe you will," said Racey, consolingly. "So don'tget discouraged."
They did not find Jack Harpe at the hotel, nor was he at the HappyHeart. But in the saloon Luke Tweezy was drinking by himself at oneend of the bar. Perhaps the money-lender would know the whereabouts ofJack Harpe.
"'Lo, Luke," was Racey's greeting. "Seen Jack Harpe around anywheres?"
Luke Tweezy's thin and sandy eyebrows lifted up in what would passwith almost any one for surprise. "Who?"
"Jack Harpe."
"Dunno him." Indifferently--too indifferently.
"You dunno him--long, slim feller, black hair and eyes, and a hawkykind of nose? Jack Harpe. Shore you know him. Why, I seen--" Raceybroke off abruptly.
"Yeah," prompted Luke Tweezy after an interval. "You seen--what?"
"I don't see why you dunno him," parried Racey (it was a weak parry,but the best he could encompass at the moment). "I thought you knowedhim. Somebody told me you did. My mistake. No harm done. Have a drink,Luke."
"Who told you I knowed this here now Jack Harpe?" probed Luke Tweezy,when he had smacked his lips over a second drink.
"I don't remember now," evaded Racey Dawson. "What does it matter?"
"It don't matter," was the answer--the miffed answer it seemed toRacey. "It don't matter a-tall. Have one on me, boys. Don't be afraidto fill 'em up. They's plenty more on the back shelf when this one'sempty."
They filled and drank, filled and drank. Swing thought that he hadnever seen Racey overtaken by liquor so quickly. In no time he wastelling Luke Tweezy the most intimate details of his private life.Swing knew that these details were a string of lies. But Luke Tweezycould not know that. He put an affectionate hand on Racey's shoulderand begged for more. He got it.
When Racey ran down and reverted to the bottle, Luke Tweezy generouslypurchased a second and invited him and his friend to a vacant tablein the corner of the room. It was an amazing sight. Luke Tweezy themoney-lender, the man who was supposed to still possess the firstdollar he ever earned, had actually bought three eighths of one bottleof whiskey and the whole of another.
Racey Dawson greatly desired to laugh. But he didn't dare. He was toobusy being drunk and getting drunker. Swing Tunstall, slow in theuptake as usual, perceived nothing beyond the fact that Luke Tweezyhad suddenly become a careless spendthrift till halfway down thesecond bottle when Luke said:
"Shore is funny how you thought I knowed this Jack Harpe."
"Yuh-yeah," assented Racey, and overset a glass in such a way thatfour fingers of raw liquor splashed into Luke Tweezy's lap. "S'funnyall right--an' that's fuf-funnier," he added as Luke and his chairscraped backward to avoid the drip. "D'I wet yuh all up, Lul-luke?Mum-my min-mis-take. I'm makin' lul-lots of mistakes to-day."
Luke Tweezy twisted his leathery features into his best smile. "Itdon't matter," he told Racey. "Not a-tall. I--uh--who was it told youI knowed this Jack Harpe?"
"Dud-don't remember," denied Racey.
"Think," urged Luke Tweezy.
"Am thu-thinkin'," Racey said, crossly. "What you wanna know for?"
"I don't like to have folks talkin' so loose and free about me," wasthe Tweezy explanation.
"Duh-hic-quite right," hiccuped Racey Dawson. "An' you are, too, y'oldcatawampus. You a friend o' mim-mine, Lul-luke?"
"Shore," said Luke, with an eye out for another upset glass.
"Then lend me huh-hundred dollars, Lul-Luke."
"Lend you a hundred dollars! On what security?"
"My wuh-word," Racey strove to say with dignity. "Ain't that enough?"
"Shore, but--but I ain't got a hundred dollars with me to-day."
"Bub-but you can gug-get it," Racey insisted, weaving his head fromside to side in a snake-like manner.
"We-ell, I dunno. You see, Racey--"
"I nun-need the money," interrupted Racey. "I'm broke--bub-brokebad. Swing's broke, too. That's too bad--I mean that's two bub-bokebrad--whistle twice for the crossing--I mean--Aw, hell, I knowwhu-what I mean if-fif you don't. You lul-lend me that mum-money,Lul-Luke, like a good feller."
Luke Tweezy shook a regretful head. "I'm shore sorry you and Swing arebusted, Racey, I'd do anything for you I could in reason. You knowdamwell I would, but money's tight with me just now. I ain't reallygot a cent I can lend. Got a mortgage comin' due next month, but thatain't now, of course."
"Of course not. Huh-how could you think it was now? Huh-how could you,Lul-Luke? Dud-do you know the child ain't a year old yet?"
"Child? What child?" Luke Tweezy began to look alarmed.
"What child?" frowned Racey Dawson, sitting up very straight andthrowing a chest. "That child over there by the doorway--there in thestreak o' sush-shine. Aw, the cute li'l feller! See him playin' withWindy Taylor's spurs. Ain't he cunnin'?"
"With most of 'em it's elephants and snakes an' such," proffered LukeTweezy.
"Yeah," assented Swing Tunstall. "A kid is something new."
"Thu-then you can't lend me that money?" Racey inquired, querulously.
"No, Racey, I can't. Honest, I'd like to. Nothin' I'd like better.Only the way I'm fixed just now it's plain flat impossible."
"Then I s'puh-s'puh-s'pose I'll have to touch the Bar S folks or theCross-in-a-box. I gotta have money. Gug-gotta. They're my friends.They'll give it to mum-me. Shore they will gimme all I want. They'reall my _friends_, I tell you!"
As Racey uttered the word "friends" his toe pressed Swing Tunstall'sinstep.
"They're Swing's friends, too," continued Racey. "Ain't they,Sus-Swing?" Again the Dawson toe bore down upon the Tunstall foot.
"Shore they are," chimed in Swing, watching his friend closely--soclosely that he was able to catch the extremely slight nod ofapprobation given by Racey.
"Thu-there's Tom Loudon an' Tim Pup-pup-page of the Bub-bar S,"stuttered Racey, gazing blearily at Luke Tweezy. "Bub-best fuf-friendsI ever had, them tut-two fellers. An' Old Man Sus-Saltoun. There's apup-prince for you. Gug-give you the shirt off his bub-back."
Which last was stretching it rather. For Old Man Saltoun, while notprecisely stingy, was certainly not the most generous person in theterritory. Nor did it escape Racey Dawson that Luke Tweezy eyed himsharply as he made the remark. At once Racey began to roll his headfrom side to side and rock his body to and fro, and laugh crazily.
"The Bub-bub-bar S is the bub-best ranch in the worl'." Again Raceytook up the thread of his discourse. "I tell you that outfit is greatfriends o' mine. Juh-juh-just tut-to shuh-show yuh, Lul-luke. Ol' ManSush-Saltoun let three punchers go lul-last week an' then turnedround an' gives us both jobs. That's huh-how we stand with Ol' ManSush-Saltoun."
"That's fine," complimented Luke Tweezy.
"An' that ain't all," Racey galloped on, one toe pressing Swing'sinstep. "I'm gonna tell him, Swing. He ain't no friend o' JackHarpe's. If I tell you you won't tell nobody, Lul-Luke, wuh-will yuh?"
Luke was understood to state that no clam could be tighter-mouthed.
"I knowed you wouldn't tell, Lul-luke," Racey declared, solemnly,reaching across the table and affectionately pawing the Tweezy sleeve."I mum-maybe dud-drunk, but I know a friend when I see him. Yuhbub-bet I do. Lul-lookit, Luke, lean over--" Here Racey pressedheavily on Swing's instep. Then, when Luke leaned forward, Racey didthe same and possessed himself of the money-lender's ear by the simplemethod of gripping it tightly between fingers and thumb. "Lul-luke,"resumed Racey, "Jack Harpe's offered us a job, too, an' we're gonnatake him up instead of the Bar S. Huh-how's that?"
Racey released the Tweezy ear, leaned back in his chair, and breathedtriumphantly through his nose.
> Luke Tweezy likewise leaned back as far as his chair would permit,and fingered tenderly a tingling ear. "Whatcha gonna take Harpe's jobfor?" he asked, puzzled. "I thought you liked the Bar S such a lot."
"We do," chirped Racey, laying a long finger beside his nose andpressing again the Tunstall instep. "That's why we're gonna ride forJack Harpe." Grinning at the mystification of Luke Tweezy, he leanedforward and whispered, "We got a idea we can help the Bar S most bybein' where we can watch Jack--and his outfit."
Luke Tweezy sat up very suddenly. Swing clapped a hand over Racey'smouth and shoved him backward.
"Shut up!" commanded Swing. "He dunno what he's talkin' about, thepoor drunk."
Thus did Swing Tunstall come up to the scratch right nobly. Raceycould have hugged him. Instead he bit him. This in order that Swingshould pull his hand away in a natural manner. Having achieved hispurpose, Racey smiled sottishly at Luke Tweezy.
"But what's Jack Harpe done?" Luke Tweezy inquired swiftly.
"It ain't what he's done," Racey replied. "It's what he's gug-gonnado. He's out to cuc-colddeck the Bub-bar S, an' they nun-know it."
Whereupon Swing began to shake him severely. "Stop yore ravin!" hecommanded, and contrived to bang Racey's head against the wall with abump that went a long way toward curing the pain of Racey's bite.
Racey, with real tears in his eyes, looked up at Swing and guggled,"I'm sho shleepy!" Then he laid his head upon his arms and slept. LukeTweezy did not attempt to awaken him. Swing Tunstall advised againstit. Luke Tweezy and he had a parting drink together. Then themoney-lender took what was left of the second bottle of whiskey--thefirst was but a memory--to the bar and endeavoured to chivvy a rebateout of the bartender. But such a procedure was decidedly not the HappyHeart's method of doing business. Luke Tweezy, much to his disgust,for he never drank except in the way of trade, was forced to carry hisbottle with him when he went.
Swing, sapient young person, walked casually to the window and watchedLuke Tweezy cross the street to Calloway's store. Then he returned toRacey's table. Racey turned his tousled head sidewise and whisperedfrom a corner of his mouth, "Help me out to Tom Kane's stable. He'sout o' town, and there won't anybody bother us."
"C'mon, Racey, come alive," urged Swing Tunstall, making a greatbusiness of shaking awake his drunken friend. "You don't wanna stayhere no longer. I know a fine place where you can sleep it off."
Ten minutes later Racey and Swing were sitting comfortably on a pileof hay in Tom Kane's new stable. Racey pulled off his boots, floppeddown on the hay, and clasped his hands behind his head. He wiggled histoes luxuriously and laughed.
"Gawd," said he. "Think o' that old skinflint buying nearly twobottles of whiskey! Bet that'll lay heavy on his mind for as much as amonth. What you lookin' at me like that for?"
"Yeah, I'd ask if I was you. I shore would. What was yore bright ideaof tellin' Luke Tweezy we were gonna ride for Jack Harpe so's to watchhim?"
"So he'd know it."
"So he'd know it! So he'd know it! The man sits there and says '_sohe'd know it_'! And you call me a thickskull! Which yore head has gotmine snowed under thataway. Can't you see, you droolin' fool, that nowthey'll know as much as we do?"
"No, oh, no," Racey denied with a superior smile. "Not never a-tall. Iain't saying they mightn't know as much as you do by yoreself. But notwhile you got the benefit of my brains they won't know as much as wedo. 'Tain't possibil."
"And what did you bite me for?" pursued Swing, disregarding the slur."Hell's bells, if you'd bit Luke I wouldn't have a word to say, butwhy pick on me?"
"Well, you bumped my head so hard I saw sparks, so we're even. Say,stop squallin' about yore hand! I didn't bite you half as hard as Imight have. Not half. You can still use the hand all right, can't you?Yeah. Well, then, you ain't got anything to cry about, not a thing."
"Talk sense, will you? You got us into a fine mess, you have. A fi-inemess."
"Guess I fooled him, all right," Racey said with irritatingcomplacency.
"What was you trying to do, anyway?" Swing snarled, glaring at hisfriend. "What was the notion of tearin' off all them confidences aboutbein' busted and yore dear friends at the Bar S and how you and mewas gonna play detective? And to think Providence lets awhat-you-may-call-it like you go on living! It ain't reasonable."
"That business of telling Luke we was busted," grinned Racey, "andasking him for a loan was just so I could work up roundabout andnatural like to how the Bar S bunch was my personal friends and howwe were gonna ride for Jack Harpe and watch him on their account. Iwanted him to know those things, and I couldn't slam out and tell himdry so, could I? It wouldn't sound natural. It would make him thinkthe wrong way, you bet. Luke Tweezy ain't a plumb fool, for all hemade the mistake of denying he knowed Jack Harpe. That was a bad one."
"Yeah, but--"
"Lookit, Swing, we know that when Lanpher spoke of a front yard therein the hotel corral he meant the Bar S range. Aw right. While we'reshore Jack Harpe wants to hire us to do his dirty work--which meansbeing rubbed out by our own friends likely--would he let us ride forhim if he thought the Bar S was paying us to watch him?"
"Not if he knowed what he was doing," admitted Swing.
"That's why I got so greasy and confidential with Mister Luke Tweezy.So Jack Harpe will know."
"And Luke will tell him?"
"Will Luke tell him? Luke will run to him a-pantin'. I'll gamble JackHarpe knows the awful worst already. So we'll be safe enough to go toJack to-morrow morning bright and early and tell him we've decided togive him the benefit of our services."
"But I thought we figured not to ride for him," said the nowthoroughly bewildered Swing.
"Of course we ain't. In words of one syllable, Swing, I want to findout if it is the Bar S Jack Harpe's going against. Well, then, weknowing what we know, and Jack Harpe knowing what we know he knows, ifhe turns us down to-morrow after offering us the job yesterday, it'llnot only give us the absolute proof we want, but it'll make him turnhis wolf loose P D Q. And that last will be good medicine, becauseif I'm any judge he ain't ready to start anything yet awhile, and Inotice when a gent ain't ready and has to jump anyhow he's a heaplikely to fall down and smear himself all over the landscape."
"The man's right," said Swing. "But it's the oddest number alla same Iever did see. All kinds of clues to a crime, and no crime yet."
"It'll come," said Racey Dawson, grimly. "Jack Harpe is one badactor."
"What you got against him--I mean, anything particular besides yorenatural dislike?" Swing Tunstall at times was blessed with flashes ofpenetrating shrewdness.
"I ain't got any use for him, thassall." Much emphasis on the part ofRacey Dawson.
Swing nodded. "See him at Moccasin Spring?" was his drawled question.
"I didn't say so." Stiffly.
"You didn't have to. And you don't--not now. I see it all. And youyawpin' out real loud how interested you are in seeing how the Bar Sgets a square deal, and letting out only a small peep about old Dale,and thinking yo're foolin' Swing to a fare-you-well. Oh, yeah. It'sthe Dale's li'l ranch that's been worrying you alla time. I know.Racey's actually got a girl at last. I kind of suspicioned it, butI didn't think it was so heap big serious. Don't you fret, Racey,old-timer, I'll keep yore secret. Till death does--Ouch! Leggo me, youpoor hickory! Yo're supposed to be sleeping off a drunk, remember!G'wan now! Lie down, Fido! Charge, you bad dog!"
"But lookit," resumed Swing Tunstall, when the dust of conflict wasbeginning to settle and he was poking about in the hay in search ofthree shirt-buttons and his pocket knife, "lookit, Racey, you didn'tsay anything to Luke about yore being friendly with this Dale party.Guess you forgot that, huh?"
"Guess I didn't forget it," returned Racey Dawson, placidly. "It ain'tgood euchre to lead all yore trumps before you have to. I'm savingthat about Dale to tell to Jack Harpe after he turns us down. I'm aheap anxious to see what he says then."
"Maybe he won't say anything."
"Maybe he
won't turn us down. But will you bet he won't? Give youodds. Any money up to a hundred."
"I will not," said Swing Tunstall, shaking a decided head. "Yo're toolucky. Oh, lookit, lookit!"
The Heart of the Range Page 9