XX
FEMININE STRATEGY
Having seen the horsemen ride away, Jennie and Elsie came across theroad tense with excitement.
"Tell us all about it? Have they gone?"
"Who are they?"
"We hope they are gone," Curtis replied, as lightly as he could. "It wasthe sheriff of Pinon County and a lynching party. I have persuaded onemob to drive away the other. They were less dangerous than they seemed."
"See those heads!" exclaimed Lawson, pointing out several employes whowere peering cautiously over roofs and around corners. "Not one hasretained his hat," he added. "If the danger sharpens, off will cometheir shirts and trousers, and those belligerent white men will findthemselves contending with six hundred of the best fighters in theworld."
"We must temporize," said Curtis. "A single shot now would be disaster."He checked himself there, but Lawson understood as well as he thesituation.
Jennie was not yet satisfied. "Has the sheriff come for some one inparticular?"
"No, he has no warrant, hasn't even a clew to the murder. He is reallyat the lead of a lynching party himself, and has no more right to behere than the men he is driving away."
"What ought he to do?" asked Elsie.
"He should go home. It is my business as agent to make the arrest. Ihave only a half-dozen police, and I dare not attempt to force him andhis party to leave the reservation."
"The whole situation is this," explained Lawson. "They've made thisinquest the occasion for bringing all the hot-headed fools of thecountry together, and this is a bluff which they think will intimidatethe Indians."
"They wouldn't dare to begin shooting, would they?" asked Elsie.
"You can't tell what such civilized persons will do," said Lawson. "ButCurtis has the sheriff thinking, and the worst of it is over."
"Here they come again!" exclaimed Wilson, who surprised Curtis byremaining cool and watchful through this first mutiny.
At a swift gallop the sheriff and his posse came whirling back up theroad--a wild and warlike squad--hardly more tractable than theredoubtables they had rounded up and thrown down the valley.
"I think you had better go in," said Curtis to Elsie. "Jennie, take herback to the house for a little while."
"No, let us stay," cried Elsie. "I want to see this sheriff myself. Ifwe hear the talk we'll be less nervous."
Curtis was firm. "This is no place for you. These cowboys have norespect for God, man, or devil; please go in."
Jennie started to obey, but Elsie obstinately held her ground.
"I will not! I have the right to know what is threatening me! I alwayshated to go below in a storm."
In a cloud of dust--with snorting of excited horses, the posse, with thesheriff at its head, again pulled up at the gate. The young men staredat the two daintily dressed girls with eyes of stupefaction. Here was anunlooked-for complication. A new element had entered the controversy.The sheriff slid from his horse and gave a rude salute with his bigbrown fist.
"Howdy, ladies, howdy." It was plain he was deeply embarrassed by thisturn of affairs.
Elsie seized Curtis by the arm and whispered: "Introduce me tohim--quick! Tell him who I am."
Curtis instantly apprehended her plan. "Sheriff Winters, this is MissBrisbane, daughter of ex-Senator Brisbane, of Washington."
The sheriff awkwardly seized her small hand, "Pleased to make youracquaintance, miss," he said. "I know the Senator well."
Curtis turned to Jennie, who came forward--"And this is my sister."
"I've heard of you," the sheriff said, regaining his self-possession."I'm sorry to disturb you, ladies--"
Elsie looked at him and quietly said: "I hope you will not be hasty,sheriff; my father will not sanction violence."
"You're being here makes a difference, miss--of course--I--"
Jennie spoke up: "You must be hungry, Mr. Sheriff," she said, andsmiling up at Calvin, added, "and so are your men. Why not picket yourhorses and have some lunch with us?"
Curtis took advantage of the hesitation. "That's the reasonable thing,men. We can discuss measures at our ease."
The cowboys looked at each other with significant glances. Several beganto dust themselves and to slyly swab their faces with their gaykerchiefs, and one or two became noticeably redder about the ears asthey looked down at their horses' bridles.
Calvin broke the silence. "I don't let this chance slip, boys. I'mpowerful keen, myself."
"So'm I," echoed several others.
The sheriff coughed. "Well--really--I'm agreeable, but I'm afeerd it'llbe a powerful sight o' trouble, miss."
"Oh no, let us attend to that," cried Jennie. "We shall expect you infifteen minutes," and taking Elsie by the arm, she started across theroad.
As the cowboys followed the graceful retreating figures of the girls,Lawson and Curtis looked at each other with eyes of amazement; Lawsonacknowledged a mighty impulse to laugh. "How unmilitary," he muttered.
"But how effective," replied Curtis, his lips twitching.
The cowboys muttered among themselves. "Say, is this a dream?"
"Who said pork-and-beans?"
"Does my necktie kiver my collar-button?" asked a third.
"Come, boys!" called Curtis, cheerily. "While the sheriff and I have alittle set-to, you water your ponies and dust off, and be ready for coldpotatoes. You're a little late for a square meal, but I think we canease your pangs."
With a patter of jocose remarks the cowboys rode off down towards thecreek, taking the sheriff's horse along with them.
Curtis turned to Lawson. "I wish you'd bring that code over to thehouse, Lawson. I want to show that special clause to the sheriff."
Turning to Winters, he said: "Come, let's go across to my library andtalk our differences over in comfort."
The sheriff dusted his trousers with the broad of his hand. "Well, now,I'm in no condition to sit down with ladies."
"I'll give you a chance to clean up," replied Curtis, who plainly sawthat the girls had the rough bordermen "on the ice and going," as Calvinwould say. A man can brag and swear and bluster out of doors, or in abare, tobacco-stained office; but in a library, surrounded by books, inthe hearing of ladies, he is more human--more reasonable. Jennie'sinvitation had turned impending defeat to victory.
Curtis took Winters into his own bedroom and put its toilet articles athis service and left him. As the sheriff came out into the Captain'slibrary five minutes later, it was plain he had washed away a large partof his ferocity; his hair, plastered down smooth, represented the changein his mental condition--his quills were laid. He was, in fact, fairlymeek.
Curtis confidentially remarked, in a low voice: "You see, sheriff, wemust manage this thing quietly. We mustn't endanger these women, andespecially Miss Brisbane. If the old Senator gets a notion his daughteris in danger--"
Winters blew a whiff. "Great God, he'd tear the State wide open! No, theboys were too hasty. As I say, I saw the irregularity, but if I hadn'tconsented to lead a posse in here that whole inquest would have comea-rampin' down on ye. I said to 'em, 'Boys,' I says, 'you can't do thatkind of thing,' I says. 'These Tetongs are fighters,' I says, 'andyou'll have a sweet time chasin' 'em over the hills--just go slow andlearn to peddle,' I says--"
Lawson, entering with the code, cut him short in his shamelessexculpation, and Curtis said, suavely: "Mr. Winters, I think you knowMr. Lawson."
"We've crossed each other's trail once or twice, I believe," saidLawson. "Here is the clause."
Curtis laid the book before the sheriff, who pushed a stubby forefingeragainst the letters and read the paragraph laboriously. His thick witswere moved by it, and he said: "Seems a clear case, and yet thereservation is included in the lines of Pinon County. 'Pears like thecounty'd ought 'o have some rights."
"Well, here comes the posse," said Curtis; "we'll talk it all over withthem after lunch. Come in, boys!" he called cheerily to the stragglingherders, who came in sheepishly, one by one, their spurs rattling, theirbi
g, limp hats twisted in their hands. They had pounded the alkali fromeach other's shirt, and their red faces shone with the determinedrubbing they had received. All the wild grace of their horsemanship wasgone, and as they sidled in and squatted down along the wall they wereanything but ferocious in manner or speech.
"Ah, now, this is all right," each man said, when Curtis offered chairs."You take the chair, Jim; you take it, Joe--this suits me."
Lawson was interested in their cranial development, and their alignmentalong the wall gave a fine opportunity for comparison. "They were, forthe most part, shapeless and of small capacity," he saidafterwards--"just country bumpkins, trained to the horse and therevolver, but each of them arrogated to himself the judicial mind of theAlmighty Creator."
The sheriff, leaning far back in the big Morris chair, wore a smirkingsmile which seemed to say: "Boys, I'm onto this luxury all right.Stuffed chair don't get me no back-ache. Nothing's too rich for _my_blood--if I can get it."
The young fellows were transfixed with awe of Calvin, for, though thelast to enter the house, he walked calmly past the library door on intothe dining-room, and a moment later could be heard chatting with thegirls, "sassy as a whiskey-jack."
One big, freckled young fellow nudged his neighbor and said: "Wouldn'tthat pull your teeth? That wall-eyed sorrel has waltzed right into thekitchen to buzz the women. Say, his neck needs shortening."
"Does he stand in, or is it just gall?"
"It's nerve--nothing else. We ain't onto our job, that's all."
"Oh, he knows 'em all right. I heered he stands in with the agent'ssister."
"The hell he does! Lookin' that way? Well, I don't think. It's hisbrass-bound cheek. Wait till we ketch him alone."
Cal appeared at the door. "Well, fellers, come in; grub's all spreadout."
"What you got to say about it?" asked Green.
"Think you're the nigger that rings the bell, don't ye?" remarkedGalvin. "We're waitin' for the boss to say 'when.'"
Not one of them stirred till Curtis rose, saying to the sheriff, "Well,we'll take time later to discuss that; come right out and tame thewolf."
The fact that Curtis accepted Calvin's call impressed the crowd deeply.
"You'd think he was one o' the fambly," muttered Galvin. "Wait till weget a rope 'round his neck."
The table, looking cool and dainty in its fleckless linen, was set withplates of cold chicken and ham, with pots of jelly and white bread ateach end of the cloth, beside big pitchers of cool milk. To the cowboys,accustomed only to their rude camps and the crude housekeeping of thesettlers round about, this dainty cleanliness of dining-room wasmarvellously subduing. They shuffled into their seats noisily, with onlyswift, animal-like glances at the girls, who were bubbling over with theexcitement of feeding this band of Cossacks.
As they drank their milk and fed great slices of bread and jelly intotheir mouths, fighting Indians seemed less necessary than they hadsupposed. Whiskey and alkali dust, and the smell of sweating ponies,were all forgotten in the quiet and sweetness of this pretty home. Thesoft answer had turned wrath into shamefaced wonder and awkwardcourtesy.
Curtis, sitting at the head of the board as host, plied the sheriff withcold chicken, discussing meanwhile the difficulties under which theTetongs labored, and drew from that sorely beleaguered officeradmissions which he afterwards regretted. "That's so, I don't know asI'd do any better in their places, but--"
Jennie, with a keen perception of her power over her guests, went fromone to the other, inquiring, in her sweetest voice: "Won't _you_ haveanother slice of bread? Please do!"
Elsie, less secure of manner, followed her with the pitcher of milk,while the young men bruised each other's shins beneath the table intheir zealous efforts to diminish the joy each one took in the alluringpresence of his cup-bearer.
Calvin sat near the end of the table, and his assured manner made theothers furious. "Look at that stoatin' bottle," growled Green, out ofthe corner of his mouth; "he needs killin'."
"Ah, we'll fix that tommy-cod!" replied Galvin.
While the girls were at the upper end of the table the man on Calvin'sright leaned over and said:
"Say, Cal, 'pears like you got the run o' the house here."
Calvin, big with joy and pride, replied: "Oh, I ride round and pickethere once in a while. It pays."
"Well, I should say yes--carry all your cheek right with ye, don't ye?"
As the boys began to shove back, Curtis brought out a box of cigars andpassed them along the line.
"Take hearty, boys; they don't belong to the government; they're mine,and you'll find them good."
As they were all helping themselves, the sheriff coughed loudly andcalled out: "Boys, the Major and me has fixed this thing up. I won'tneed but three of you; the rest can ride back and tell the gang on theWest Fork it's all right. Cal, you and Tom and Green stay with me. Therest of you can go as soon as your dinner's settled."
The ones not chosen looked a little disappointed, but they made noprotest. As they rose to go out they all made powerful effort to do theright thing; they lifted their eyes to the girls for a last glance andgrumbled:
"Much obliged, ladies!"
And in this humble fashion the ferocious posse of the sheriff retreatedfrom the house of their enemy.
Once outside, they turned on each other with broad grins. Theystraightened--took on grace and security of manner again. They werestreaming with perspiration, and their neckerchiefs were moist with thedrip of it, but they lit their cigars nonchalantly, flung their hatsrakishly on their heads, and turned to take a last look at the house.
Elsie appeared at the door. "Boys!" she called, and her clear voicetransfixed every soul of them. "You mustn't do anything reckless. Youwon't, will you?"
Galvin alone was able to reply. "No, miss, we won't. We won't do nothingto hurt you nor the Major's sister--you needn't be scart."
"You can trust Captain Curtis; he will do what is right, I'm sure ofthat. Good-bye."
"Good-bye," they answered, one by one. Nothing further was said tillthey had crossed the road. Then one of the roughest-looking of the wholegang turned and said: "Fellers, that promise goes. We got to keep thatmob from goin' to war while these girls are here. Ain't that right?"
"That's right!"
"Say, fellers, I'll tell you a job that would suit me--"
"Hain't got any work into it if it does."
"What is it?"
"I'd like to be detailed to guard these 'queens' from monkeys like you."
The others fell upon this reckless one with their hats and gloves tillhe broke into a run, and all disappeared down the road in a cloud ofdust.
The Captain of the Gray-Horse Troop Page 20