CHAPTER IV.
THE TROUBLE IS STARTED.
The crowd of men and youths opened out in front of Ted, and he strodeinto the circle.
There he saw Jack Slate in a much disheveled condition, dressed in hisevening clothes.
Ted gasped as he stared for an instant at the youth from Boston.
He wanted to tell Jack that "it served him right," but that was not thepart of loyalty, and in the presence of the enemy it did not make anydifference to a broncho boy if his pard was right or wrong, if he was inneed of help.
"Where is the fellow who was going to throw me around?" asked Ted,looking into the faces about him.
No one replied, although Ted waited for a moment or two before lookingat Billy Sudden.
Billy winked at him, but said nothing.
"Seems as if somebody's sand has run out," said Ted contemptuously.
"Oh, I don't know," said Wiley Creviss. "There's plenty of sand left ifyou need any to prevent your wheels from slipping downhill."
"No, my sand box is always full," said Ted quietly. "But there is somesneak in this bunch who hasn't the nerve to back up his brag."
"Are you talking to me?" said Creviss, swelling up as to chest.
"Oh, are you the misguided chump whom I heard make the remark aboutpushing me about, as I came up?" said Ted, in a tone of surprise.
The cowboys from Suggs' ranch were snickering.
"Well, what if I was?"
"I'm going to make you try it."
"Oh, I can do it, all right."
"Well, why don't you? I'm the easiest proposition you ever saw to behazed by a bunch of hoodlums, such as you and your pals are!"
"For two cents I'd punch your nose."
"You're too cheap. I'll give you a heap more than that if you will. It'sbeen so long since my nose was punched that it feels sort of lonesome.I'll pay you well for the job, if you succeed in pulling off the stunt."
"You think you're the whole works because you've got a crowd of dudesaround you. You're not the only dent in the can."
Ted flushed at this allusion to his pards.
"I'll put a dent in you if you open your face to remark about my friendsagain," he said, with some heat.
"See here, you town rough, you better take in your slack and clear outfor home, or you'll begin to taste the sorrows that come frominexperience and bad judgment," said Billy Sudden to Creviss.
"It's up to you to mind your own business," snarled Creviss. "What areyou but a lot of greasy cow-punchers. We haven't much use for your sortin this town, anyway."
"Now, son, keep quiet and behave yourself," said Billy paternally. "Ifyou get me riled I won't be as patient with you as Ted Strong has been.I'll fix you so as to keep two doctors busy the best part of the night."
"What are you fellows butting in for, anyhow?" said Creviss angrily."Can't this freak that comes here in a dress suit and tries to lord itover us take care of himself?"
"Surest thing you know," drawled Jack Slate. "But there are ladies here,a thing you don't seem to realize. If you'll step outside, I'd be gladto whip you right and propah."
"What's the use, Jack, of fussing with these rowdies?" said Ted. "Let itgo until some other time."
"You bet," said Creviss, courage returning when he heard Ted proposepeace. "I guess you'd like to let it go forever."
"That settles it," said Ted. "Go to him, Jack, and if you don't give himwhat's coming to him, I'll finish the job."
"Git!" said Billy Sudden, opening the door and shoving Creviss out intothe street. The rest followed.
As Jack stepped into the open air he peeled off his swallow-tailed coatand threw it over Ted's arm.
He had no sooner done so than Wiley Creviss made a rush at him from thefront, while one of the crowd ran in on him from the rear.
It seemed an unequal beginning, and Ted was preparing to take on thesecond fellow.
But Jack had seen him out of the corner of his eye, and as he came onthe Boston boy stepped backward and threw his right elbow up.
It was a timely and masterly trick, for the sharp elbow caught Creviss'ally full in the nose, and he dropped like a limp rag to the ground,with a howl of anguish.
At the same moment Jack swung his left. Creviss had struck at him andmissed when he back-stepped, and coming on swiftly ran into Jack's fistwith a thud that jarred him into a state of collapse.
"Finish him!" shouted the cow-punchers, who stood about the fighters ina circle.
"Go to him," said Ted, in a low voice. "I saw him signal his pal totackle you from behind."
Creviss had partially recovered from the blow and was getting ready foranother rush, when Jack slipped in and to one side and hit like ablacksmith at the anvil.
This time Creviss went down and out.
"Hooray fer ther bantam!" shouted a big cow-puncher, slapping Jack onthe back. "Say, I hear them say you're from Bosting. I'm goin' ter buy ahundred-pound sack o' beans myself ter-morrer an' begin trainin'. Ifbeans'll do that fer you, a sack o' them will make me fit ter lick JessWillard."
But Jack was busy smoothing down his ruffled hair and pulling his whitelawn tie around into its proper place, and when he had put on his coathe and Ted walked into the ballroom as calmly as if they had juststepped out to view the stars.
"What was the trouble?" asked Stella, when they reached her side.
"Some town rowdies became noisy, and they were put out," answered Tedcarelessly.
But Jack's dress suit was the joy of the cow-punchers, who had neverseen anything like it before, although they all knew that it was the waywell-groomed men dressed for evening in the big cities.
"Say, pard," said a cowboy to Jack, as he crossed the room, "I axes yerpardon fer buttin' in, but yer lost ther front part o' yer coat tails."
"That's all right," answered Jack. "Can't help it, don't you know. Ileft the blooming coat hanging on the line at home to air, and a goatcame along and ate the front half of the tails off before I could get toit. I was just on my way to apologize to the master of ceremonies forit. You see, it is the only coat I have, and I was bound to come to theball."
"Ha, ha! that's on you, 'Honk,'" laughed the cowboy's friends, who hadoverheard the conversation, and Jack passed on, the boys alluding to himas a "game little shrimp," for the news of his summary punishment ofCreviss had got abroad.
But Jack was not through yet. He went into the men's dressing room toleave his hat. As he was coming out he was met by a crowd of townyouths, friends of Creviss. There was no one else about.
They scowled and sneered at Jack, and one of them bumped into him.
"Heah, fellah, that will do," said Jack, with his Bostonese drawl."You're solid; you're no sponge."
"I ain't, eh?" answered the bully. "I'll tell yer, Mr. Slate, you'recovered with bad marks what I don't like, an' I'm just the sponge towipe them off."
"Step lively, then," said Jack, "for I've an engagement to dance thenext waltz."
"I'll waltz you all you'll need this evenin'."
But before he had finished speaking Ben Tremont stepped around thecorner.
"Hello, Jack! What is this I see?" said Ben. "Disgracing yourself bytalking with these hoodlums."
"Yas, deah boy," drawled Jack. "This--er, what shall I callhim?--stopped me to tell me he was going to rub the marks off me, at thesame time wittily making a pun on my name. I was just telling him tohurry, or I'd miss the next waltz."
"Well, I'll take the job off your hands. Stella was asking for you amoment ago."
"Yes, run along to your Stella," said the hoodlum. "I reckon she'spining for the sassiety o' another dude."
That was where he made the mistake of his life.
It didn't really make much difference what these fellows said aboutthemselves, but the boys would not permit Stella's name to be bandiedabout by the roughs.
So swiftly, that they didn't know what had happened to them, both Benand Jack sailed into them.
They went sprawling like tenpins before the ball a
s Ben jumped in amongthem and mowed them down with his powerful blows, while Jack, hoveringlike a torpedo boat around a battleship, sent in several of the tellingblows Ted had taught him during the boxing lessons at Moon Valley.
The fight was soon over, and Ben and Jack slipped quietly back into theballroom, leaving a well-thrashed crowd to stanch bloody noses, andpatch up swollen lips and black eyes as best they could.
Meanwhile, a diversion had been created in the hall by the joshing thatthe Suggs' ranch outfit had directed toward the fiddler, who knew onlyone tune, and sawed that off for a waltz, quadrilles, and two-steps,without fear or favor.
The musician had been engaged because he was a friend of thebeneficiary, and had volunteered his services. As the ball grew more andmore hilarious the cow-punchers felt the restraint of the folks from thefort and Moon Valley the less, and began to take it out of the fiddler,who paid no attention to them, but kept on scraping.
Suddenly there was a crack from a revolver and the top of the fiddler'sbow was knocked off, and the playing and dancing stopped simultaneously.
There was more or less commotion, but the women did not scream or getpanic-stricken. They were used to that sort of thing.
Nobody knew who had fired the shot, but the cowboys and soldiers weremad clear through because there was no more music to dance by.
The shot had come from the part of the hall in which the coatroom wassituated, and directly afterward two slender young fellows climbed out arear window, and a few moments later Billy Sudden and Clay Whipple camecalmly through the front door and joined the throng about the musician,who said:
"Honest, folks, I don't blame no hombre fer takin' a shot at thet fiddlebow o' mine, fer I never could make it work right. I know it was bummusic, but it was the best I could do."
Ted Strong had observed the quiet entrance of Billy and Clay directlyafter the shooting, and he put this and that together. He knew that bothof them were finished musicians. Clay Whipple was an exceptionally goodviolin player, and Ted had often heard Billy Sudden make a piano fairlysing. Evidently they had got to the point where they could stand thefiddler's music no longer, and had put a stop to it.
But for all the badness of the music the people should not be deprivedof their dance.
He hunted up the culprits, who were hovering on the outskirts of thecrowd, listening to the threats against and denouncing the vandals whohad "shot up" the fiddler.
"See here, you hombres, I'm on to you," said Ted. "Now you've got to dothe square thing. You've beaten the dancers out of the music, and you'vegot to get in and furnish it, or I'll tell these punchers who pluggedthe fiddler's bow."
"How did you get on to it?" said Clay, with a grin.
"Never mind. Is it a go?"
"I reckon it'll have to be," said Clay, looking suggestively at BillySudden.
"All right," said Billy.
The cow-punchers, who had come to dance with the girls from the ranches,were growing angry, and were telling what they would do to the fellowwho had spoiled their fun if they caught him, when Ted Strong steppedupon the platform, and, holding up his hand for silence, said:
"Gentlemen, please do not get obstreperous. You shall have all thedancing you want. Ladies, please be patient; the music that is to followis such as has never been heard at a dance in this part of the country.Mr. Clay Whipple, of the Moon Valley Ranch, and Mr. Billy Sudden, ofthe Dumb-bell Ranch, will play the violin and piano respectively. Bothof them are cow-punchers, so don't take any liberties with them, or someone will get hurt."
There was such cheering that the roof almost went off as Clay hunted upa violin and tuned it.
Then began a waltz such as they had never heard, and in a moment thefloor was covered with dancers, the officers in their uniforms, and theladies in their light dresses, adding beauty to the scene. But thefinest-looking couple on the floor was Stella and the leader of thebroncho boys.
Just before the dance began Bud approached Stella, and said:
"See that gal over thar? Ther one with ther corn-silk bang? She is mine,an' I'm goin' ter dance this with her; see? She's ther kind o' girl Iadmire. She's shore corn-fed, an' some woman."
"Don't you know who that is?" asked Stella.
"'Deed an' I don't, but I soon will. Who is she?"
"That's Sophy Cozak, from over on the Bohemian prairie. She's rich,Bud."
"I don't care nothin' erbout thet. She's shaped up jest erbout right.Yaller hair, and soft as feathers. Watch my smoke."
Bud sauntered over to the girl, who was really pretty and fat and pink.Apparently he was talking his usual nonsense to her, for she smiled,then arose from her chair, and went sailing around the room, Bud'spartner in the waltz, and every time they passed Ted and Stella in thewaltz Bud winked at them.
Later, however, he met the irate escort of the girl, when he took herback to her seat, and they glared at one another for a moment; then theescort walked off, leaving Bud master of the situation.
After this came the "sour-dough" quadrille, in which only old-timerswere permitted to dance, and Bud led it with Mrs. "Cow" Suggs to thetune of "Turkey in the Straw."
But finally, as the ball was drawing to a close, Ted heard Stella uttera slight scream, and saw her trying to draw her hand away from a youngfellow, whose back was turned to him.
He was across the room in an instant, and had the fellow by theshoulders and swung him around. It was Wiley Creviss, who had beendrinking.
"What has this cur been doing?" asked Ted.
"He insisted on dancing with me, and when I told him I would not, hesaid he'd make me," answered Stella. "Then he caught hold of me, and Isuppose I cried out, although I didn't mean to. That is what comes ofwearing these clothes. If I'd had on my others, I'd have had my gun withme."
Ted had heard enough. There was a window close by, which was about tenfeet above the sidewalk. Ted rushed the struggling and cursing Crevisstoward it, and by sheer strength lifted him to the sill and threw himout.
"I guess we've had about enough of this," he said quietly, when hereturned to Stella. "No more mixed balls for mine."
As Ted was escorting Stella to the carriage, Billy Sudden ranged upalongside of him.
"Look out for Creviss and his bunch on the way home. They're tellingaround what they're going to do with you. Want any help?"
"No, I reckon not, Billy. Our bunch can take care of them."
"They are going to try to kill you to-night."
Ted Strong's Motor Car Page 4