by Zane Grey
Wade remained all night with Lewis, and next morning rode six miles along the divide, and then down into a valley, where at length he found a cabin described by the prospector. It was well hidden in the edge of the forest, where a spring gushed from under a low cliff. But for water and horse tracks Wade would not have found it easily. Rifle in hand, and on foot, he slipped around in the woods, as a hunter might have, to stalk drinking deer. There were no smoke, no noise, no horses anywhere round the cabin, and after watching awhile Wade went forward to look at it. It was an old ramshackle hunter’s or prospector’s cabin, with dirt floor, a crumbling fireplace and chimney, and a bed platform made of boughs. Including the door, it had three apertures, and the two smaller ones, serving as windows, looked as if they had been intended for port-holes as well. The inside of the cabin was large and unusually well lighted, owing to the windows and to the open chinks between the logs. Wade saw a deck of cards lying bent and scattered in one corner, as if a violent hand had flung them against the wall. Strange that Wade’s memory returned a vivid picture of Jack Belllounds in just that act of violence! The only other thing around the place which earned scrutiny from Wade was a number of horseshoe tracks outside, with the left front shoe track familiar to him. He examined the clearest imprints very carefully. If they had not been put there by Wilson Moore’s white mustang, Spottie, then they had been made by a horse with a strangely similar hoof and shoe. Spottie had a hoof malformed, somewhat in the shape of a triangle, and the iron shoe to fit it always had to be bent, so that the curve was sharp and the ends closer together than those of his other shoes.
Wade rode down to White Slides that day, and at the evening meal he casually asked Moore if he had been riding Spottie of late.
“Sure. What other horse could I ride? Do you think I’m up to trying one of those broncs?” asked Moore, in derision.
“Reckon you haven’t been leavin’ any tracks up Buffalo Park way?”
The cowboy slammed down his knife. “Say, Wade, are you growing dotty? Good Lord! if I’d ridden that far — if I was able to do it — wouldn’t you hear me yell?”
“Reckon so, come to think of it. I just saw a track like Spottie’s, made two days ago.”
“Well, it wasn’t his, you can gamble on that,” returned the cowboy.
Wade spent four days hiding in an aspen grove, on top of one of the highest foothills above White Slides Ranch. There he lay at ease, like an Indian, calm and somber, watching the trails below, waiting for what he knew was to come.
On the fifth morning he was at his post at sunrise. A casual remark of one of the new cowboys the night before accounted for the early hour of Wade’s reconnoiter. The dawn was fresh and cool, with sweet odor of sage on the air; the jays were squalling their annoyance at this early disturber of their grove; the east was rosy above the black range and soon glowed with gold and then changed to fire. The sun had risen. All the mountain world of black range and gray hill and green valley, with its shining stream, was transformed as if by magic color. Wade sat down with his back to an aspen-tree, his gaze down upon the ranch-house and the corrals. A lazy column of blue smoke curled up toward the sky, to be lost there. The burros were braying, the calves were bawling, the colts were whistling. One of the hounds bayed full and clear.
The scene was pastoral and beautiful. Wade saw it clearly and whole. Peace and plenty, a happy rancher’s home, the joy of the dawn and the birth of summer, the rewards of toil — all seemed significant there. But Wade pondered on how pregnant with life that scene was — nature in its simplicity and freedom and hidden cruelty, and the existence of people, blindly hating, loving, sacrificing, mostly serving some noble aim, and yet with baseness among them, the lees with the wine, evil intermixed with good.
By and by the cowboys appeared on their spring mustangs, and in twos and threes they rode off in different directions. But none rode Wade’s way. The sun rose higher, and there was warmth in the air. Bees began to hum by Wade, and fluttering moths winged uncertain flight over him.
At the end of another hour Jack Belllounds came out of the house, gazed around him, and then stalked to the barn where he kept his horses. For a little while he was not in sight; then he reappeared, mounted on a white horse, and he rode into the pasture, and across that to the hay-field, and along the edge of this to the slope of the hill. Here he climbed to a small clump of aspens. This grove was not so far from Wilson Moore’s cabin; in fact, it marked the boundary-line between the rancher’s range and the acres that Moore had acquired. Jack vanished from sight here, but not before Wade had made sure he was dismounting.
“Reckon he kept to that grassy ground for a reason of his own — and plainer to me than any tracks,” soliloquized Wade, as he strained his eyes. At length Belllounds came out of the grove, and led his horse round to where Wade knew there was a trail leading to and from Moore’s cabin. At this point Jack mounted and rode west. Contrary to his usual custom, which was to ride hard and fast, he trotted the white horse as a cowboy might have done when going out on a day’s work. Wade had to change his position to watch Belllounds, and his somber gaze followed him across the hill, down the slope, along the willow-bordered brook, and so on to the opposite side of the great valley, where Jack began to climb in the direction of Buffalo Park.
After Belllounds had disappeared and had been gone for an hour, Wade went down on the other side of the hill, found his horse where he had left him, in a thicket, and, mounting, he rode around to strike the trail upon which Belllounds had ridden. The imprint of fresh horse tracks showed clear in the soft dust. And the left front track had been made by a shoe crudely triangular in shape, identical with that peculiar to Wilson Moore’s horse.
“Ahuh!” muttered Wade, in greeting to what he had expected to see. “Well, Buster Jack, it’s a plain trail now — damn your crooked soul!”
The hunter took up that trail, and he followed it into the woods. There he hesitated. Men who left crooked trails frequently ambushed them, and Belllounds had made no effort to conceal his tracks. Indeed, he had chosen the soft, open ground, even after he had left the trail to take to the grassy, wooded benches. There were cattle here, but not as many as on the more open aspen slopes across the valley. After deliberating a moment, Wade decided that he must risk being caught trailing Belllounds. But he would go slowly, trusting to eye and ear, to outwit this strangely acting foreman of White Slides Ranch.
To that end he dismounted and took the trail. Wade had not followed it far before he became convinced that Belllounds had been looking in the thickets for cattle; and he had not climbed another mile through the aspens and spruce before he discovered that Belllounds was driving cattle. Thereafter Wade proceeded more cautiously. If the long grass had not been wet he would have encountered great difficulty in trailing Belllounds. Evidence was clear now that he was hiding the tracks of the cattle by keeping to the grassy levels and slopes which, after the sun had dried them, would not leave a trace. There were stretches where even the keen-eyed hunter had to work to find the direction taken by Belllounds. But here and there, in other localities, there showed faint signs of cattle and horse tracks.
The morning passed, with Wade slowly climbing to the edge of the black timber. Then, in a hollow where a spring gushed forth, he saw the tracks of a few cattle that had halted to drink, and on top of these the tracks of a horse with a crooked left front shoe. The rider of this horse had dismounted. There was an imprint of a cowboy’s boot, and near it little sharp circles with dots in the center.
“Well, I’ll be damned!” ejaculated Wade. “I call that mighty cunnin’. Here they are — proofs as plain as writin’ — that Wils Moore rustled Old Bill’s cattle!... Buster Jack, you’re not such a fool as I thought.... He’s made somethin’ like the end of Wils’s crutch. An’ knowin’ how Wils uses that every time he gets off his horse, why, the dirty pup carried his instrument with him an’ made these tracks!”
Wade left the trail then, and, leading his horse to a covert of spruce,
he sat down to rest and think. Was there any reason for following Belllounds farther? It did not seem needful to take the risk of being discovered. The forest above was open. No doubt Belllounds would drive the cattle somewhere and turn them over to his accomplices.
“Buster Jack’s outbusted himself this time, sure,” soliloquized Wade. “He’s double-crossin’ his rustler friends, same as he is Moore. For he’s goin’ to blame this cattle-stealin’ onto Wils. An’ to do that he’s layin’ his tracks so he can follow them, or so any good trailer can. It doesn’t concern me so much now who’re his pards in this deal. Reckon it’s Smith an’ some of his gang.”
Suddenly it dawned upon Wade that Jack Belllounds was stealing cattle from his father. “Whew!” he whistled softly. “Awful hard on the old man! Who’s to tell him when all this comes out? Aw, I’d hate to do it. I wouldn’t. There’s some things even I’d not tell.”
Straightway this strange aspect of the case confronted Wade and gripped his soul. He seemed to feel himself changing inwardly, as if a gray, gloomy, sodden hand, as intangible as a ghostly dream, had taken him bodily from himself and was now leading him into shadows, into drear, lonely, dark solitude, where all was cold and bleak; and on and on over naked shingles that marked the world of tragedy. Here he must tell his tale, and as he plodded on his relentless leader forced him to tell his tale anew.
Wade recognized this as his black mood. It was a morbid dominance of the mind. He fought it as he would have fought a devil. And mastery still was his. But his brow was clammy and his heart was leaden when he had wrested that somber, mystic control from his will.
“Reckon I’d do well to take up this trail to-morrow an’ see where it leads,” he said, and as a gloomy man, burdened with thought, he retraced his way down the long slope, and over the benches, to the grassy slopes and aspen groves, and thus to the sage hills.
It was dark when he reached the cabin, and Moore had supper almost ready.
“Well, old-timer, you look fagged out,” called out the cowboy, cheerily. “Throw off your boots, wash up, and come and get it!”
“Pard Wils, I’m not reboundin’ as natural as I’d like. I reckon I’ve lived some years before I got here, an’ a lifetime since.”
“Wade, you have a queer look, lately,” observed Moore, shaking his head solemnly. “Why, I’ve seen a dying man look just like you — now — round the mouth — but most in the eyes!”
“Maybe the end of the long trail is White Slides Ranch,” replied Wade, sadly and dreamily, as if to himself.
“If Collie heard you say that!” exclaimed Moore, in anxious concern.
“Collie an’ you will hear me say a lot before long,” returned Wade. “But, as it’s calculated to make you happy — why, all’s well. I’m tired an’ hungry.”
Wade did not choose to sit round the fire that night, fearing to invite interrogation from his anxious friend, and for that matter from his other inquisitively morbid self.
Next morning, though Wade felt rested, and the sky was blue and full of fleecy clouds, and the melody of birds charmed his ear, and over all the June air seemed thick and beating with the invisible spirit he loved, he sensed the oppression, the nameless something that presaged catastrophe.
Therefore, when he looked out of the door to see Columbine swiftly riding up the trail, her fair hair flying and shining in the sunlight, he merely ejaculated, “Ahuh!”
“What’s that?” queried Moore, sharp to catch the inflection.
“Look out,” replied Wade, as he began to fill his pipe.
“Heavens! It’s Collie! Look at her riding! Uphill, too!”
Wade followed him outdoors. Columbine was not long in arriving at the cabin, and she threw the bridle and swung off in the same motion, landing with a light thud. Then she faced them, pale, resolute, stern, all the sweetness gone to bitter strength — another and a strange Columbine.
“I’ve not slept a wink!” she said. “And I came as soon as I could get away.”
Moore had no word for her, not even a greeting. The look of her had stricken him. It could have only one meaning.
“Mornin’, lass,” said the hunter, and he took her hand. “I couldn’t tell you looked sleepy, for all you said. Let’s go into the cabin.”
So he led Columbine in, and Moore followed. The girl manifestly was in a high state of agitation, but she was neither trembling nor frightened nor sorrowful. Nor did she betray any lack of an unflinching and indomitable spirit. Wade read the truth of what she imagined was her doom in the white glow of her, in the matured lines of womanhood that had come since yesternight, in the sustained passion of her look.
“Ben! Wilson! The worst has come!” she announced.
Moore could not speak. Wade held Columbine’s hand in both of his.
“Worst! Now, Collie, that’s a terrible word. I’ve heard it many times. An’ all my life the worst’s been comin’. An’ it hasn’t come yet. You — only twenty years old — talkin’ wild — the worst has come!... Tell me your trouble now an’ I’ll tell you where you’re wrong.”
“Jack’s a thief — a cattle-thief!” rang Columbine’s voice, high and clear.
“Ahuh! Well, go on,” said Wade.
“Jack has taken money from rustlers — for cattle stolen from his father!”
Wade felt the lift of her passion, and he vibrated to it.
“Reckon that’s no news to me,” he replied.
Then she quivered up to a strong and passionate delivery of the thing that had transformed her.
“I’M GOING TO MARRY JACK BELLLOUNDS!”
Wilson Moore leaped toward her with a cry, to be held back by Wade’s hand.
“Now, Collie,” he soothed, “tell us all about it.”
Columbine, still upheld by the strength of her spirit, related how she had ridden out the day before, early in the afternoon, in the hope of meeting Wade. She rode over the sage hills, along the edges of the aspen benches, everywhere that she might expect to meet or see the hunter, but as he did not appear, and as she was greatly desirous of talking with him, she went on up into the woods, following the line of the Buffalo Park trail, though keeping aside from it. She rode very slowly and cautiously, remembering Wade’s instructions. In this way she ascended the aspen benches, and the spruce-bordered ridges, and then the first rise of the black forest. Finally she had gone farther than ever before and farther than was wise.
When she was about to turn back she heard the thud of hoofs ahead of her. Pronto shot up his ears. Alarmed and anxious, Columbine swiftly gazed about her. It would not do for her to be seen. Yet, on the other hand, the chances were that the approaching horse carried Wade. It was lucky that she was on Pronto, for he could be trusted to stand still and not neigh. Columbine rode into a thick clump of spruces that had long, shelving branches, reaching down. Here she hid, holding Pronto motionless.
Presently the sound of hoofs denoted the approach of several horses. That augmented Columbine’s anxiety. Peering out of her covert, she espied three horsemen trotting along the trail, and one of them was Jack Belllounds. They appeared to be in strong argument, judging from gestures and emphatic movements of their heads. As chance would have it they halted their horses not half a dozen rods from Columbine’s place of concealment. The two men with Belllounds were rough-looking, one of them, evidently a leader, having a dark face disfigured by a horrible scar.
Naturally they did not talk loud, and Columbine had to strain her ears to catch anything. But a word distinguished here and there, and accompanying actions, made transparent the meaning of their presence and argument. The big man refused to ride any farther. Evidently he had come so far without realizing it. His importunities were for “more head of stock.” His scorn was for a “measly little bunch not worth the risk.” His anger was for Belllounds’s foolhardiness in “leavin’ a trail.” Belllounds had little to say, and most of that was spoken in a tone too low to be heard. His manner seemed indifferent, even reckless. But he wanted “money.” The
scar-faced man’s name was “Smith.” Then Columbine gathered from Smith’s dogged and forceful gestures, and his words, “no money” and “bigger bunch,” that he was unwilling to pay what had been agreed upon unless Belllounds promised to bring a larger number of cattle. Here Belllounds roundly cursed the rustler, and apparently argued that course “next to impossible.” Smith made a sweeping movement with his arm, pointing south, indicating some place afar, and part of his speech was “Gore Peak.” The little man, companion of Smith, got into the argument, and, dismounting from his horse, he made marks upon the smooth earth of the trail. He was drawing a rude map showing direction and locality. At length, when Belllounds nodded as if convinced or now informed, this third member of the party remounted, and seemed to have no more to say. Belllounds pondered sullenly. He snatched a switch from off a bough overhead and flicked his boot and stirrup with it, an action that made his horse restive. Smith leered and spoke derisively, of which speech Columbine heard, “Aw hell!” and “yellow streak,” and “no one’d ever,” and “son of Bill Belllounds,” and “rustlin’ stock.” Then this scar-faced man drew out a buckskin bag. Either the contempt or the gold, or both, overbalanced vacillation in the weak mind of Jack Belllounds, for he lifted his head, showing his face pale and malignant, and without trace of shame or compunction he snatched the bag of gold, shouted a hoarse, “All right, damn you!” and, wheeling the white mustang, he spurred away, quickly disappearing.