by Rex Beach
CHAPTER XIII
"Do you know, Larry, I'm beginning to like these warm showers;they rest me." As he spoke, Wally took his place beneath thebarrel and pulled the cord that connected with the nozzle. Thenext instant he uttered a piercing shriek and leaped from beneaththe apparatus, upsetting Glass, who rose in time to fling hischarge back into the deluge.
"Let me out!" yelled the athlete, and made another dash, at whichhis guardian bellowed:
"Stand still, or I'll wallop you! What's got into you, anyhow?"
The heads of Stover and Willie, thrust through the door, noddedwith gratification.
"It's got him livened up considerable," quoth the former. "Listento that!" It seemed that a battle must be in progress behind thescreen, for, mingled with the gasping screams of the athlete andthe hoarse commands of the trainer, came sounds of physicalcontact. The barrel rocked upon its scaffold, the curtains swayedand flapped violently.
"Stand still!"
"It's--it's as c-c-cold as _ice!_"
"Nix! You're overheated, that's all."
"Ow-w-w! Ooo-h-h! I'm dying!"
"It'll do you good."
"He's certainly trainin' him some," said Stover.
"Larry, I've got a cramp!"
"It did harden him," acknowledged Willie.
"What's wrong with you, anyhow?" demanded Glass.
"It's not _me_, it's the w-w-water!"
Evidently Speed made a frantic lunge here and escaped, for theflow of water ceased.
"It froze d-d-during the night. Oh-h! I'm cold!"
"Cold, eh? Get onto that rubbing-board; I'll warm you."
An instant later the cow-men heard the sounds of a violentslapping mingled with groans.
"Go easy, I say! I'll be black and blue all--LOOK OUT!--not somuch in one spot! _Ow_!"
"Turn over!"
"He's spankin' him," said Stover admiringly.
Again the spatting arose, this time like the sound of a musketryfusilade, during which Berkeley Fresno entered by the other door.
"Don't be so brutal!" wailed the patient to his masseur.
"I'm pretty near through. There! Now get up and dress," orderedthe trainer, who, pushing his way out through the blankets,halted at sight of the onlookers.
"How is he?" demanded Stover.
"He--he's trained to the minute. I'm doin' my share, gents."
"Sounds that way," acknowledged Stover's companion. "Say, does itlook like we'd win?"
"Well, he just breezed a mile in forty, with his mouth open."
"A mile?" Fresno queried.
"Yes, a regular mile--seven thousand five hundred and thirtyfeet."
"Is 'forty' good?" queried Willie.
"Good? Why, Salvator never worked no faster. Here he is now--lookfor yourselves."
Speed appeared, partly clad, and glowing with a rich salmon pink.
"Good-morning," said Fresno politely. "I came in to see how youliked the cold water."
"So that was one of your California jokes, eh? Well, I'll--"
Speed moved ominously in the direction of the tenor, but Williechecked him.
"We put the ice in that bar'l, Mr. Speed."
"You!"
Willie and Stover nodded.
"Then let me tell you I expect to have pneumonia from that bath."The young man coughed hollowly. "That's the way I caught it oncebefore, and it wouldn't surprise me a bit if I'd be too sick torun by Saturday."
"Oh no; you don't get pneumony but once."
"And, besides," Fresno added, "it wouldn't have time to show upby Saturday."
"Get that ice-chest out of my room, that's all; it makes the airdamp."
"No indeed!" said Still Bill. "We're goin' to see that you use itreg'lar." Then of Glass he inquired: "What do you do to himnext?"
"I give him a nerve treatment. A jack-rabbit jumped at him thismorning and he bolted to the outside fence." Larry forced hisemployer to a seat, then, securing a firm hold of the flesh,began to discourse learnedly upon anatomy and hygiene, the whilehis victim writhed. It was evident that the cattle-men wereintensely interested. "Well, sir, when I first got him hissploven was in terrible shape," said Larry. "In fact, I never sawsuch a--"
"What was in terrible shape?" ventured the tenor. "His sploven."
"Sploven! Is that a locality or a beverage?"
Glass glowered at the cause of the interruption. "It's a nerve-centre, of course!" Then to the others, he ran on, glibly: "Thetreatment was simple, but it took time. You see, I had to firsttrace his bedildo to its source, like this." He thrust a fingerinto Wally's back and ploughed a furrow upward. "You see?" Hepaused, triumphantly. "A fore-shortened bedildo! It ain't wellyet."
"Can a man run fast with one of them?" inquired Willie.
"Certainly, cer-tain-ly--provided, of course, that the percentageof spelldiffer in the blood offsets it."
Both cowboys came closer now, and hung eagerly upon every word.
"And does it do--that?" they questioned, while Fresno suggestedthat it was not easy to tell without bleeding the patient.
"No, no! You can hear the spelldiffers." Glass motioned toWillie.
"Put your ear to his chest. Hear anything?"
"Hearts poundin' like a calf's at a brandin'."
"Which proves it!" proudly asserted the trainer. "Barrin'accidents, Mr. Speed will be in the pink of condition bySaturday."
The cow-men beamed benignantly.
"That's fine!"
"We are sure pleased, and we've got something for you, Mr. Speed.Come on, Mr. Fresno, and give us a hand. We'll bring it in."
"It's a present!" exclaimed the athlete, brightly, when the threehad gone out. "They seem more friendly this morning."
"Yes!" Glass laughed, mirthlessly. "They think you're going towin."
"Well, how do you know I can't win? You never saw this cook run."
"I don't have to; I've seen you."
"Just the same, I'm in pretty good shape. Maybe I could run if Ireally tried."
"Send yourself along, Kid. It won't harm you none." The speakerfanned himself, and took a seat in the cosey-corner.
"Ah! Here they come, bearing gifts." Speed rose in pleasedexpectancy. "I wonder what it can be?"
The three who had just left re-entered the room, carrying a tray-load of thick railroad crockery.
"We've brought your breakfast to you," explained Stover. "We'dlike you to eat alone till after the race." Still Bill began towhittle what appeared to be a blood-rare piece of flesh, whileWillie awkwardly arranged the dishes.
"You want me to _eat_ as well as sleep here?"
"Exactly."
"Oh, I can't do that! I'm sorry, but--"
"Don't make us insist." Willie looked up from his tray, and Glassraised a moist hand and said:
"Don't make 'em insist."
With fascinated stare Speed drew nearer to Stover and examinedthe meat bone.
"Why--why, that's _raw_!" he exclaimed.
"Does look rar'," agreed the foreman.
"Then take it out and build a fire under it. I'll consent to eathere, but I won't turn cannibal, even to please you."
"I'm sorry." Stover did not interrupt his carving.
"Your diet ain't been right," explained Willie. "You ain't wildenough to suit us."
Speed searched one serious face, then another. Fresno was noddingapproval, his countenance impassive.
"Is this a joke?"
"We ain't never joked with you yit, have we?"
"No. But--"
"This breakfast goes as she lays!"
Glass broke abruptly into smothered merriment. "When I laughnowadays it's a funny joke," he giggled.
That grown men could be so stupid was unbelievable, and Wally,seeing himself the object of a senseless prank, was roused toanger.
"Lawrence, get my coat," said he. "I've been bullied enough; I'mgoing up to the house." When Stover only continued whittlingmethodically, he burst out: "Stop honing that shin-bone! If youlike it you can eat it! I'm going now
to swallow a stack of hotcakes with maple syrup!"
"Mr. Speed," Willie impaled him with a steady glare, "you'll eatwhat we tell you to, and nothin' else! If we say 'grass,' grassit'll be. You're goin' to beat one Skinner if it takes a humanlife. And if that life happens to be yours, you got nobody butyourself to blame."
"Indeed!"
"You heard me! I've been set to ride herd on you daytimes, theother boys'll guard you nights. We been double-crossed once--itwon't happen again."
"Then it amounts to this, does it: I'm your prisoner?"
"More of a prized possession," offered Stover. "If you ain't gotthe loy'lty to stand by us, we got to _make_ you! This dietis part of the programme. Now if you think beef is too hearty forthis time of day, tear into them eggs."
"You intend to make me eat this disgusting stuff, whether I wantto or not?" Even yet the youth could not convince himself thatthis was other than a joke.
"No." Willie shook his head. "We just aim to make you _want_to eat it."
Then Larry Glass made his fatal mistake.
"Say, why don't you let Mr. Speed buy you a new phonograph, andcall the race off?" he inquired.
Stover, stricken dumb, paused, knife in hand; Willie stared as ifbereft of motion. Then the former spoke slowly. "Looks like we'dought to smoke up this fat party, Will."
Willie nodded, and Glass realized that the little man's steel-blue eyes were riveted balefully upon him.
"I've had a hunch it would come to that," the near-sighted onereplied. "Every time I look at him I see a bleedin' bullet-holein his abominable regions, about here." He laid a finger upon hisstomach, and Glass felt a darting pain at precisely the samespot. It was as agonizing as if Willie's spectacles were hugeburning-glasses focussing the rays of a tropic sun upon his bareflesh. He folded protecting hands over the threatened region andbacked toward the prayer-rug, mumbling "Allah! Allah!" No matterwhither he shifted, the eyes bored into him.
"That's where you hit the gambler at Ogden," he heard Stover say--it might have been from a great distance--"but I aim for thebridge of the nose."
"The belly ain't so sudden as the eye-socket, but it's morelingerin', and a heap painfuller," explained the gun man, andSpeed was moved to sympathy.
"Larry only wanted to please you--eh, Larry?" he said, nervously,but Glass made no reply. His distended orbs were frozen uponWillie. It was doubtful if he even heard.
"Our honor ain't for sale," Still Bill declared.
Here Berkeley Fresno spoke. "Of course not. And you mustn't thinkthat Speed is trying to get out of the race. He _wants_ torun! And if anything happened to prevent his running he'd bebroken-hearted, I know he would!"
Willie's hypnotic eye left the trainer's abdomen and travelledslowly to Speed.
"What could happen?" questioned he.
"N-nothing that I know of."
"You don't aim to leave?"
"Certainly not."
"Oh, you fellows take it too seriously," Fresno offeredcarelessly. "He might _have_ to."
Willie's upper lip drew back, showing his yellow teeth.
"They don't sell no railroad tickets before Saturday, and thewalkin' is bad. There's your breakfast, Mr. Speed. When you've etyour fill, you better rest. And don't talk to them ladies,neither; it spoils your train of thought!"