CHAPTER XLII
A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION
Rescued and rescuers rode out of the canon as soon as the Apaches hadbeen driven away. Nobody suggested that the Indians who had been killedin the surprise attack be buried. The bodies were left lying where theyhad fallen. For in those days no frontiersman ever buried a deadredskin. If the body happened to be inconveniently near a house, amounted cowboy roped one foot and dragged it to a distance. Those werethe years when all settlers agreed that the only good Indian was a deadIndian. The Indian wars are over now, and a new generation can safelyhold a more humane view; but old-timers in the Panhandle will tell youto-day that the saying was literally true.
The little group of riders drew out of the gorge and climbed the shaleslide to the plain above. Roberts rode knee to knee with Dinsmore. Onthe other side of the outlaw was Jumbo. The man between them stillcarried his rifle and his revolver, but he understood without being toldthat he was a prisoner.
Wadley dropped back from his place beside Ramona and ranged up besidethe officer.
"What are you aimin' to do with him, Jack?" he asked in a low voice.
"I'm goin' to turn him over to Cap Ellison."
The cattleman pondered that awhile before he continued. "'Mona has beentellin' me about you an' her, Jack. I ain't got a word to say--not aword. If you're the man she wants, you're sure the man she'll get. But Iwant to tell you that you're a lucky young scamp. You don't deserve her.I've got to see the man yet that does."
"We're not goin' to quarrel about that, Mr. Wadley," agreed Jack. "I'mnothin' but a rough cowboy, an' she's the salt of the earth. I don't seewhat she sees in me."
"H'm!" grunted the owner of the A T O, and looked at the lithe, brown,young fellow, supple as a whip and strong as tested steel. It was nothard to understand what a girl saw in him. "Glad you got sense enough toknow that."
"I'm not a plumb fool, you know."
Clint changed the subject apparently. "Boy, I've been in hell ever sinceSullivan rode in with the bad news. My God! how I suffered till I saw mylittle trick standing there alive and well."
The Ranger nodded. He thought he knew what Wadley was driving toward.But he was resolved to give him no help. He must make his own plea.
"You helped save her, Jack. That's all right. I reckon you care for hertoo. Any man would 'a' done what you did. But Dinsmore, he did a wholelot more 'n you. When he was hotfooting it to escape from you, heturned round an' started to bring her back to the ranch. Steve Gurley,he said to take 'Mona along with 'em to the canon. You know what thathellhound meant. But Dinsmore wouldn't stand for that. He said she wasentitled to be took home. Well, you know how the 'Paches cut 'em off."
"Yes. That's how we figured it out," said Roberts.
"Her hawss stepped into a prairie-dog hole an' broke its leg. Dinsmorestopped an' swung her up behind him, the 'Paches gainin' every jump ofthe road. Oncet they reached Palo Duro he stood off the devils till shereached the ledge. Jack, we're lucky that a man like Homer Dinsmore wasbeside her yesterday, don't you reckon?"
"I reckon." Tiny beads of sweat stood on the forehead of the boy. Heknew now what was coming.
"Good enough. Well, Jack, I reckon we cayn't take Dinsmore in to behanged. That wouldn't be human, would it?"
The roof of the Ranger's mouth was dry. He looked away across therolling waves of prairie while the cattleman waited for his answer.Every impulse of desire in him leaned toward the argument Wadley wasmaking. His love for Ramona, his gratitude to Dinsmore, his keen desireto meet halfway the man who was to be his father-in-law and hadaccepted the prospect so generously, his boyish admiration for the thingthat the outlaw had done, all tugged mightily at him.
"An' look a-here," went on the cattleman, "you got to keep in mind thatyou never would 'a' got Dinsmore this trip in kingdom come if he hadn'tstopped to save 'Mona. He'd 'a' kep' right up the canon till he was sureenough lost. It would be a damned mean trick for you to take a man in tobe hanged because he had risked his life to save the girl you claim tolove."
"You make me feel like a yellow hound, Mr. Wadley," admitted Roberts."But what am I to do? When I joined the Rangers I swore to enforce thelaw. You know how it is in the force. We've got no friends when we'resent out to get a man. I'd bring in my own brother if he was wanted.That's why the Texas Rangers stack up so high. They play no favoritesan' they let no prisoners escape. You're askin' me to throw down CapEllison who trusts me, the State that pays me, the boys on the forcethat pal with me, an' my loyalty to the people. You want me to do itbecause I've got a personal reason to wish Dinsmore to get away. If Idon't take him in to town I'm a traitor. That's the long an' the shortof it."
"Hell's blazes!" broke in the cattleman. "I thought you was a man an'not a machine. You want to marry my li'l' girl, but you're not willin'to do a favor to the man who has just saved her from a hundred horribledeaths. Haven't you any guts in you a-tall?"
The muscles stood out on the lean, set face of the Ranger like rawhideropes. "I can't lie down on my job. Ramona wouldn't ask it of me. I'vegot to go through. That's what I'm paid for."
"She's askin' it right now. Through me."
"Then she doesn't understand what she's askin'. Let me talk with her.Let me explain--"
"We don't want any of yore damned explanations," interrupted Wadleyroughly. "Talk turkey. Will you or won't you? Me, I ain't plumb crazyabout law. It's justice I want done. I'll be doggoned if I'm goin' tostand by an' let any harm come to Dinsmore--not this here year of ourLord."
"I'll do all I can for him--"
"Except that you're bound an' determined to see him hanged. You surebeat my time. I'd think you would be right anxious to tell him to cuthis stick--kinda slide out inconspicuous when we ain't watchin'. Bereasonable, Roberts. That's all I ask. I want to be yore friend ifyou'll let me. My bank's behind you to back any business proposition youwant to start. Or that job I offered you before is open to you. After alittle we can fix up some kind of a partnership."
The dark color burned under the tan of the Ranger's face. His lips werelike a steel trap, and in his eyes there was a cold glitter. "It doesn'tget you anywhere to talk that-a-way to me, Mr. Wadley. I'd want to marryMiss Ramona just the same if she was the poorest girl in the Panhandle.Offer me a deed to the A T O an' it wouldn't make any difference to me.I'm not goin' to turn Dinsmore loose because it's to my advantage."
"Don't get on the prod, young fellow. I wasn't tryin' to bribe you. Iwas showin' you how I felt. But you're so damned high-headed a plain mancan't talk sense to you." The impulsive anger of the old Texan suddenlyripped out. "Hell, I'm not goin' to beg you to do what yore own decencyought to tell you right away. But I'll say this right off the reel:neither 'Mona nor I want to have a thing to do with a man who's soselfish he can't yield the first favor she ever asked of him. We'rethrough with you."
The two men had fallen back of the others and were riding alone. Now theyoung Texan looked hard at the old-timer. The eyes of neither of themgave way even for a beat of the lashes.
"I'll have to hear Miss Ramona say that before it goes with me,"answered Roberts steadily.
"All right. You can hear it right this minute." The cattleman touchedhis horse with the spur and cantered forward.
The Ranger was with him when they drew up beside Ramona. The smile inthe eyes of the girl died away as she looked first at one and then atthe other of them. She was sensitive to atmospheres, and if she had notbeen the harsh surface of both of them would have been evidence enoughof a clash.
"Ramona," began her father, "this fellow here is a Ranger first an' ahuman bein' afterward. He's hell-bent on takin' Dinsmore to prison so asto make a big name for himself. I've told him how we feel, an' he saysthat doesn't make any difference a-tall, that Dinsmore's got to hang."
"That isn't what I meant a-tall," explained Jack. "I've been tryin' totell yore father that I'd give an arm to turn him loose. But I can't. Itwouldn't be right."
The soft eyes of the girl pleaded with her lover. "I
think we ought tofree him, Jack. He saved my life. He fought for me. Nobody could havedone more for me. He ... he was so good to me." Her voice broke on thelast sentence.
The young man swallowed a lump in his throat. "I wish I could. But don'tyou see I can't? I'm not Jack Roberts, the man who ... who cares foryou. I'm an officer of the State sent out to bring in this man wantedfor a crime. I've _got_ to take him in."
"But he saved my life," she said gently, puzzled at his queer point ofview. "He stayed with me when he could easily have escaped. Youwouldn't ... take advantage of that, Jack?"
"I'll give every dollar I've got in the world to clear him, 'Mona. I'llfight for him to a finish. But I've got to take him to town an' put himin jail. If I don't I can't ever hold up my head again," he told herdesperately.
"I thought you loved me, Jack," she murmured, through gathering tears.
"What kind of a man would I be for you to marry if I threw down on whatwas right just because you asked me to an' I wanted to do it?" hedemanded.
"He's got his neck bowed, 'Mona. I told him how we felt, but he wouldn'tbelieve me. I reckon he knows now," her father said.
"You're not goin' to throw me over because I've got to do what I thinkright, 'Mona?" asked Jack miserably.
"I ... I'm not throwing you over. It's you. You're throwing _me_ over.Don't you see that we've _got_ to help Mr. Dinsmore because he did somuch for me?"
"Certainly I see that. I'll resign from the Rangers, and then we'll allpull together for him, 'Mona."
"After you've pulled on the rope that hangs him," added Clint angrily."Nothin' to that, 'Mona. He's for us or he's against us. Let him saywhich right now."
The girl nodded, white to the lips.
"Do you mean that you'll give me up unless I let Dinsmore escape beforewe reach town?" asked the young man.
"I ... I've got to save him as he did me. If you won't help, it'sbecause you don't love me enough," she faltered.
"I can't," the boy cried.
"'Nough said," cut in Wadley. "You've got yore answer, 'Mona, an' he'sgot his."
Jack stiffened in the saddle. His hard eyes bored straight into those ofhis sweetheart. "Have I?" he asked of her.
The girl nodded and turned her head away with a weak, little gesture ofdespair. Her heart was bleeding woe.
The Ranger wheeled on his horse and galloped back to his place besideDinsmore.
Oh, You Tex! Page 43