CHAPTER XIV
LAWLER'S "NERVE"
When Lawler spoke to Blackburn regarding the news that had beencommunicated to him by the horse-wrangler, Blackburn suggested thathimself and several of the Circle L men ride back to ascertain theobject of the trailers.
"We'll ride back an' make 'em talk!" he declared, heatedly.
Lawler, however, would not agree, telling Blackburn that the trail wasfree, and that, until the men made some hostile move, there was noreason why they should be approached.
So the men ate, selected new mounts from their "strings" in the_remuda_, and again started the big herd forward.
Lawler rode for a time with Garvin, keeping an alert eye on the backtrail. But though he could see far up the canon, where the trail--whitewith dust from the passing of the herd--wound its sinuous way upwardinto the dark recesses between the towering mesa walls, he could see nosign of life or movement.
The nonappearance of the mysterious riders was suspicious, for if theirintentions were friendly they would have come boldly on. In fact, ifthey were abroad upon an honest errand, they must have found theslowness of the herd ahead of them irksome; and they would have passedit as soon as possible, merely to escape the dust cloud raised by thecattle.
When the afternoon began to wane the herd was far out in the basin,traveling steadily toward a point where the little river doubled, whereBlackburn intended to camp for the night. And though both Blackburn andLawler scanned the back trail intently at intervals, there was still nosign of the riders Garvin had mentioned.
Nor did the riders pass the herd in the night. Blackburn threw an extraguard around the cattle, making the shifts shorter and more frequent;and when daylight came a short conference among the Circle L mendisclosed the news that no riders had passed. If any riders had passedthe cowboys must have seen them, for there had been a moon, and thebasin afforded in the vicinity of the herd, was clear and unobstructed.
Enraged at the suspicious nature of the incident, Blackburn took half adozen cowboys and rode back, while the remainder of the trail crew sentthe herd eastward. It was late in the afternoon when Blackburn returned,disappointed, grim, and wrathful.
"There's a bunch trailin' us, all right," he told Lawler; "about adozen. We seen where they'd stopped back in the canon a ways--whereGarvin said he'd seen 'em sneakin' back. We lost their tracks there, forthey merged with ours an' we couldn't make nothin' of 'em. But at thefoot of the slope we picked 'em up again. Looks like they separated.Some of them went north an' some went south. I reckon that durin' thenight they sneaked around the edge of the basin. It's likely they'rehidin' in the timber somewhere, watchin' us. If you say the word I'lltake some of the boys an' rout 'em out. We'll find what they're up to,damn 'em!"
"As long as they don't bother us we won't bother them," said Lawler."It's likely they won't bother us."
Again that night the men worked in extra shifts; and the followingmorning the herd climbed out of the basin and straggled up a narrowtrail through some foothills. At noon they passed through a defilebetween two mighty mountains; and when twilight came they had descendedsome low hills on the other side and went to camp for the night on a biggrass level near the river they had followed for three days.
The level upon which they camped was much lower than the floor of thebig basin, for the water from the river came tumbling out of a narrowgorge between the hills through which the herd had passed.
They were in a wild section, picturesque, rugged. There was plenty ofwater; and Blackburn and Lawler both knew that there would be waterenough for the herd all the way to Red Rock. There was a section ofdesert before them, which they would strike before many days; but theywould cross the desert in one day, barring delay; and there seemed to beno reason why the long drive should not prove successful despite themountain trails--most of them hazardous--through which they must stillpass.
And yet the men were restless. The continued presence of an invisiblemenace near them, disturbed the men. They had not seen the mysteriousriders again, but there was not a man in the outfit who did not feelthem--not a man but was convinced that the riders were still trailingthem, watching them.
Long ago the younger men had ceased to laugh and joke. During the daythey kept gazing steadily into the gulf of space that surrounded them,carefully scrutinizing the timber and the virgin brush which might forma covert; and at night they were sullen, expectant; every man wearinghis gun when he rolled himself in his blanket.
It was not fear that had seized them. They were rugged, hardy,courageous men who had looked death in the face many times, defying it,mocking it; and no visible danger could have disturbed them.
But this danger was not visible; it was stealthy, secret, lurking nearthem, always threatening, always expected. It might stalk behind them;it might be flanking them as they rode; or it might creep upon them inthe night.
Blackburn had fallen into a vicious mood. His eyes glowed with theterrible, futile rage that surged in his veins, it was a reflection of awrath that grew more and more intolerant as the days passed and thedanger that portended did not materialize.
"Boss," he said to Lawler on the tenth day following that on whichGarvin had reported the presence of the riders behind them; "the boys isgettin' jumpy. They're givin' one another short answers, an' they'regrowlin' about things they never noticed before.
"I'm gettin' fed up on this thing, too. It's a cinch them riders isfollowing us. I seen 'em dustin' north of us this mornin'. I ain't saidanything to the boys, but it's likely they've seen 'em, too--for they'vegot their eyes peeled. It's gettin' under my skin, an' if they don'tcome out into the open pretty soon and give us an idee of what gamethey're playin', me an' some of the boys is goin' to drag 'em out!"
Yet Blackburn did not carry out his threat. He knew pursuit of theriders would be futile, for there were no further signs of them forseveral days, and Blackburn knew the riders would have no trouble ineluding them in the vast wilderness through which the herd had beenpassing for a week. They went on, continuing to watch, though there wereno further signs of the men.
They had been on the trail twenty days when at dusk one day they movedslowly down a wide, gradual slope toward a desert. At the foot of theslope was a water hole filled with a dark, brackish fluid, with a greenscum fringing its edges. The slope merged gently into the floor of thedesert, like an ocean beach stretching out into the water, and for adistance out into the floor of the desert there was bunch grass,mesquite, and greasewood, where the cattle might find grazing for thenight. Beyond the stretch of grass spread the dead, gray dust, of thedesert, desolate in the filmy, mystic haze that was slowly descending.
The cattle came down eagerly, for they had grazed little during the dayin the mountainous region through which they had passed. They wereshowing the effects of the drive. They had been sleek and fat when theystarted from the Circle L; they were growing lean, wild, and they werealways ravenously hungry.
But where they could feed they required little attention; and thecowboys, after halting them, helped Garvin establish the lines of a ropecorral into which they drove the _remuda_. Then they built a fire andsquatted wearily around it--at a respectful distance--to watch thecook--and to listen to him as he complainingly prepared supper.
The men had finished, and the long shadows of the dusk were stealing outover the desert, when Lawler--sitting on the chuck-box--heard Blackburnexclaim sharply:
"_Hell's fire! Here they come!_"
Blackburn had sprung to his feet, his eyes blazing with the pent-upwrath that had been in them for many days. He was tense, his musclesstraining; and his fingers were moving restlessly near the butt of thehuge pistol that swung at his hip. The fingers were closing andunclosing, betraying the man's passion.
Lawler got to his feet. Following the direction of Blackburn's flamingeyes, he saw, perhaps a mile away, a large body of horsemen. They weredescending the long slope over which the herd had been driven.
Lawler counted them--thirty-nine. But the menace w
as no longerinvisible; it was now a material thing which could be met on such termsas might be, with the law of chance to govern the outcome.
Lawler did not doubt that the on-coming riders were hostile. He had feltthat when he first had been made aware of their presence behind theherd. He saw, too, that the men of his outfit felt as he did; for theywere all on their feet, their faces grim, their eyes glowing with therage that had gripped them over the presence of the unseen menace; theirmuscles were tensed and their lips were in the sullen pout whichpresages the imminence of action.
Shorty, the tawny giant, was a terrible figure. He seemed to beoutwardly cool, and there was not a sign of passion in his manner. Hishands swung limply at his sides, not a muscle in his body seeming tomove. Unlike the other men, he was calm, seemingly unperturbed. Sostriking was the contrast between him and the other men that Lawlerlooked twice at him. And the second time he saw Shorty's eyes--they weregleaming pools of passion, cold, repressed.
"Easy, boys!" Lawler called to the men. "Don't let them suspect you knowthey've been trailing us. They've got us two to one, almost--if theymean trouble we'll have to work easy!"
He saw the men relax; and several of them resumed their former positionsat the fire.
The strange riders were coming steadily onward; they were not more thana hundred yards distant when Blackburn exclaimed, hoarsely:
"Lawler; it's Blondy Antrim an' his gang! Damn his hide! We're in forit!"
For the first time since Garvin had told him of the presence of the menon the trail behind the herd, Lawler's face betrayed passion--the glowin his eyes rivaled that in the giant's.
During the past year or so word had reached him--rumor unfounded, butinsistent--that more than once Singleton and Blondy Antrim, the outlaw,had been seen together. He had placed no credence in the rumors,ascribing them to the imaginations of mischievous brains, prejudicedagainst Singleton because of his bluff, dominant manner. He first hadsuspected there might be truth in them when Joe Hamlin had told him thathe had rustled cattle for Singleton. He now believed that Singleton haddisposed of the stolen cattle through Antrim and the conviction thatSingleton was behind the action of the outlaw in trailing the herdthrough the country seized him.
In an instant--following Blackburn's exclamation--he was aroused to thedanger that confronted himself and his men. As though by previousarrangement, the men looked at him, noted the tenseness that had comeover him, listened attentively when he spoke.
"Boys; don't offer to throw a gun. I know Antrim. He's a killer, and hismen are like him. Take it easy--keep cool. The man who loses his temperwill be guilty of the wholesale murder that will follow. When Antrimrides up, send him after me!"
He had not unsaddled Red King. He strode to the horse, swung into thesaddle, and rode eastward, away from the advancing riders.
Blank astonishment, puzzled bewilderment shone in the eyes of the CircleL men as they watched him, and into the hearts of some of them crept theconviction that Lawler had deserted them; that he was afraid of theoutlaw chief.
Blackburn saw what they thought, and his burning eyes bored into themwith sarcasm unutterable. He laughed, hoarsely, with a grim mirth thatstartled them.
"Don't you worry about Lawler's nerve, boys; he's got more of it thanthe bunch of us put together! He's got some scheme in mind. You guysjust set tight until you find out what it is. Do as he told you. Don'tlet that scurvy gang know that you're flabbergasted!"
When Lawler rode away there was a noticeable commotion in the group ofadvancing horsemen. One of them left the group, spurring his horse inthe direction taken by Lawler. He must have been called back, for hewheeled his horse after he had ridden a dozen paces or so, and rejoinedthe group, which came on as before.
When the horsemen came to a halt near the fire, they were spread in asemi-circle about the Circle L men, and in their bronzed immobile faceswas no answer to the question that agitated Blackburn and the other men.They had halted at a little distance from the fire, and one of them, atall, slender, keen-eyed, thin-lipped man, urged his horse out of thecircle and insolently inspected Blackburn and his cowboys. He loungedloosely in the saddle.
There was a sinister light in his eyes, a lurking threat in his manner.
"What outfit is this?" he demanded.
"Circle L, from Wolf River," answered Blackburn.
"Where you headin'?"
"To Red Rock."
"Railroad out of business?" jeered the outlaw.
"Far as the Circle L is concerned, it is, Antrim," smiled Blackburn. "Wehad a fuss, an' quit 'em."
The outlaw peered intently at the other. Then he grinned.
"It's Andy Blackburn!" he said. "Glad to meet you, Blackburn. This seemslike old times--before the railroad went through; when old Luke Lawlerused to jam 'em to Red Rock--sometimes--when he didn't pick up too manystrays on the way." He laughed as though pleased over the recollection."Got this stock vented, Blackburn?"
"Nary a vent, Antrim; the inspector wasn't feelin' in the humor."
"Ha!" exclaimed Antrim; "so you didn't get no vent. Well, we're aimin'to look through your herd. We've been missin' cattle all summer--from myranch, the Circle Bar. About three thousand head. We've traced 'em asfar as Kinney's canon, an' lost 'em. But we've been thinkin', Blackburn,that it ain't no hard job to make a passable Circle L out of a CircleBar. That's why we aim to look your cattle over."
He grinned slightly at Blackburn's scowl, aware of the impotent rage thelatter felt over the worst insult that could be offered an honestcattleman. For an instant he watched Blackburn keenly, his lipssneering; and then when he saw that Blackburn had mastered his rage, hesaid, sharply:
"Who was that guy that rode away as we come up?"
"Lawler," said Blackburn. "He's figurin' on seein' you alone, lookslike. He left word that when you come I was to tell you he wanted to seeyou."
The outlaw's eyes glowed with swift suspicion.
"He knowed me, eh?" he said. He glanced keenly over the level floor ofthe desert. Dimly, in the dusk, he could see Lawler riding near theherd. For an instant Antrim hesitated, plainly debating the wisdom ofleaving his men; then he smiled with whimsical recklessness. And hismovements became rapid, jerky.
"Slade," he said, addressing a rider near him; "you're runnin' thingstill I get back."
He wheeled his horse and sent him into the dusk toward the herd, ridingcautiously, evidently not entirely convinced of the peaceableness ofLawler's intentions.
He rode a quarter of a mile before he came upon Lawler; and though thelight was fading he could plainly see Lawler's face, set,expressionless.
The outlaw brought his horse to a halt within three or four paces of RedKing. Antrim's manner exuded the insolent tolerance of the master, whohas the confidence that comes from thoughts of an overwhelmingadvantage.
He knew Lawler; knew him as perhaps no other man in the section knewhim. For he had seen Lawler using his gun. It had been some yearsbefore, when Lawler had been proving himself--proving that he had aright to the respect and consideration of his fellow-men; proving thatno man could trifle with him.
Antrim had been a witness to the shooting. He had marked Lawler'scoolness, the evenness of his temper; and had noted the deadly swiftnessand precision of his movements when he had drawn his pistol. Lawler hadnot been the aggressor--a dozen other men had testified to that.
Antrim had not seen Lawler since, until now. And as he looked at him hesaw that the years had brought a change in the man. He had been a tall,bold, reckless-looking youth then, with a certain wild waywardness inhis manner that might have destroyed him, had he yielded to it. Now hewas cold, calm, deliberate, imperturbable. The recklessness haddisappeared from his eyes; they were now aglow with quiet determination.The waywardness had gone--ironlike resolution marked his manner.
And yet behind it all, Antrim could see the threat of those youthfulpassions; the lurking eagerness for violent action; the hint ofpreparedness, of readiness.
Antrim was startled, uneasy.
He saw now that he should not have left hismen; that he had made a mistake in coming alone to meet Lawler.
He was certain of it now, when he heard Lawler's voice, saw the cold,smiling light in his eyes.
"You're wanting my cattle, Antrim. Your men have been trailing me fortwo weeks. You don't get them. You've got thirty-nine men, and there areonly twenty-three Circle L men over there. I'm not getting any of themkilled. This thing is between you and myself. Get your hand away fromyour gun or I'll bore you!"
He moved his hand--where it had been--seemingly--lying on Red King'sneck, under the mane; and Antrim saw the dark muzzle of a pistol showingin the hand.
"I'm not taking any chances, Antrim--you can see that. I'm not going totake any. If you do anything to attract the attention of your men, I'llkill you. Drop your guns, using your thumbs and forefingers." Hewaited, watching keenly, until the outlaw had complied with the demand,the two big pistols thudding dully into the sand beside his horse.
Then Lawler resumed, his voice low and even, as before:
"Now we're riding back to the fire, Antrim. Listen hard, for this meanslife or death to you.
"We're going back to the fire. You're going to act as though nothing hadhappened; and you are to tell your men that you have changed your mindabout the cattle--you are to tell them that you are going with me to RedRock; and you are sending them back to where you came from, to wait foryou."
Antrim stiffened, and his face bloated poisonously. But he did notanswer, for there was that in Lawler's eyes that convinced him of thefutility of attempting resistance.
"You're going to Red Rock with me," went on Lawler. "I'm going to bepersonally responsible for you. I'm going to watch you; you're going toride ahead of me. If you talk, or make any motion that brings any ofyour men back, you'll die so quick you won't know it happened! Do youunderstand?"
"Damn you, Lawler; you'll pay for this!" muttered the outlaw. "I'll goon your trail and I'll never let up till I get you!"
Lawler laughed, lowly. "Just be careful not to get any of that poison inyour voice when you tell your men what I told you, Antrim, or you'llnever go on anybody's trail. Get going, now; and be careful."
Antrim wheeled his horse, and Lawler spurred Red King beside him.
"I'll be watching you, Antrim," he warned. "If your men show theysuspect anything wrong you go down, mighty rapid. You don't get off yourhorse until your men go. And there is to be no playing for time. Youtalk fast and earnest, and carefully. Go ahead."
Riding slightly in Antrim's rear, Lawler followed the outlaw to thefire. There had come no change in the positions of the outlaws or of theCircle L men. And when Antrim and Lawler rode up there was a silenceduring which the men of both factions looked interrogatively at theirleaders.
Antrim's face was pale, and his voice was vibrant with emotion. But hedid not hesitate.
"Slade," he said to the man he had left in charge; "I've changed my mindabout those cattle. Lawler has given me proof that none of our stock iswith them. I'm hittin' the trail to Red Rock with Lawler. You take theboys back to the ranch an' wait for me."
Slade's eyes widened; he flushed and peered keenly at Antrim. "You--why,hell's fire, Antrim; we----"
"Slade, do as I tell you!" said Antrim, coldly. "Are you runnin' myaffairs? You hit the breeze, right now--you hear me!"
Slade grinned venomously, and waved a violent hand around the circle."You hear your boss, boys!" he said; "Slope!"
The men hesitated an instant, sending sharp, incredulous glances attheir leader. But Antrim, pale, knowing that if he betrayed theslightest sign of insincerity his men would suspect, met their lookssteadily. The men wheeled their horses, muttering profanely, and rodeslowly westward into the growing darkness.
When they had disappeared, Lawler smiled faintly at the outlaw chief.
"You can get down, now, Antrim." He drew the pistol from Red King'smane, where it had been concealed during Antrim's talk with his men, andsheathed it. And then Blackburn, who had been a silent, amazed witnessto what had occurred, whistled softly, covertly poking Shorty in theribs.
"There's one thing that's as good as a vent, ain't there, Shorty?" hesaid. "That's a gun in the hand of a man who's got plenty of nerve!"
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