CHAPTER VI
After a week in Casement's camp, Stanley and his cavalrymen,accompanied by Dancing, Scott, and Bucks, struck north and east towardthe Spider Water River to find out why the ties were not coming downfaster. Rails had already been laid across the permanent Spider WaterBridge--known afterward as the first bridge, for the big riverfinished more than one structure before it was completely subdued--andthe rail-laying was hampered only by the lack of ties.
The straggling bands of Cheyennes had in the interval been driven outof the foot-hills by troops sent against them, and Stanley and hislittle escort met with no trouble on his rapid journey.
Toward evening of the second day a broad valley opened on the plainbefore them, and in the sunset Bucks saw, winding like a silver threadfar up toward the mountains, the great stream about which he hadalready heard so much. Camp was pitched on a high bluff thatcommanded the valley in both directions for many miles, and aftersupper Scott and Bucks rode down to the river.
In its low-water stage nothing could have looked more sluggish or moresleepily deceptive than the mighty and treacherous stream. Scott andhis companions always gave the river the name the Sioux had long agogiven it because of its sudden, ravening floods and its deadly trapslaid for such unwary men or animals as trusted its peaceful promiseand slept within reach of its cruel power.
Standing in the glow of the evening sky in this land where the clear,bright light seemed to lift him high above the earth, Bucks looked atthe yellow flood long and thoughtfully--as well he might--for the bestof his life was to be spent within ken of its flow and to go in doingbattle with it himself, or in sending faithful men to its battling,sometimes to perish within its merciless currents.
Next morning as the party, following a trail along the bluffs, rode upin the direction of the contractors' camps they discerned out on theriver bottom a motley cluster of tents and shanties pitched under ahill. A number of flatboats lay in the backwater behind the bend and aquantity of ties corded along the bank indicated a loading-place, butno one seemed to be doing any loading. The few men that could be seenin the distance appeared to be loafing in the sunshine along thestraggling street-way that led to the river. Stanley checked hishorse.
"What place is that?" he demanded of Scott.
"That," returned the guide, "is Sellersville."
"Sellersville," echoed Stanley. "What is Sellersville?"
"Sellersville is where they bring most of the ties for the boats."
"Have they started a town down there on the bottoms?"
"They have started enough saloons and gambling dens to get the moneyfrom the men that are chopping ties."
Stanley contemplated for a moment the ill-looking settlement. A milefarther on they encountered a number of men following the trail upthe river.
A small dog barked furiously at the Stanley party as they came up, andacted as if he were ready to fight every trooper in the detail. Hedashed back and forth, barking and threatening so fiercely that everyone's attention was drawn to him.
Stanley stopped the leader and found he was a tie-camp foreman fromup-river taking men to camp. "Is that your dog?" demanded Stanley,indicating the belligerent animal who seemed set upon eating somebodyalive.
"Why, yes," admitted the foreman philosophically. "He sort o' claimsme, I guess."
"What do you keep a cur like that around for?"
"Can't get rid of him," returned the foreman. "He is no good, but theboys like his impudence. Down, Scuffy!" he cried, looking for a stickto throw at his pet.
Bucks surveyed the company of men. They were a sorry-looking lot. Theforeman explained that he had dragged them out of the dens atSellersville to go back to work. When remonstrated with for the poorshowing the contractors were making, the foreman pointed to theplague-spot on the bottoms.
"There's the reason you are not getting any ties," said he lazily."We've got five hundred men at work up here; that is, they aresupposed to be at work. These whiskey dives and faro joints get themthe minute they are paid, and for ten days after pay-day we can't geta hundred men back to camp."
The foreman as he spoke looked philosophically toward the canvasshanties below. "I spend half my time chasing back and forth, but Ican't do much. They hold my men until they have robbed them, and thenif they show fight they chuck them into the river. It's the same withthe flatboat men." He turned, as he continued, to indicate twoparticularly wretched specimens. "These fellows were drugged androbbed of every dollar they brought here before they got to work atall."
Stanley likewise gazed thoughtfully upon the cluster of tents andshacks along the river landing. He turned after a moment to Scott."Bob," said he, looking back again toward the river, "what gang do yousuppose this is?"
Scott shook his head. "That I couldn't say, Colonel Stanley."
"Suppose," continued Stanley, still regarding the offendingsettlement, "you and Dancing reconnoitre them a little and tell me whothey are. We will wait for you."
Scott and the lineman swung into their saddles and started down thetrail that led to the landing. Stanley spoke again to the foreman."Can those men use an axe?" he demanded, indicating the two men thatthe foreman asserted had been robbed.
"They are both old choppers--but this gang at Sellersville stole eventheir axes."
"Leave these two men here with me," directed Stanley as he watchedScott and Dancing ride down toward Sellersville. "I may have somethingfor them to chop after a while."
The foreman assented. "I don't like the bunch," he murmured; "butnobody at our camp wants to tackle them. What can we do?"
While the foreman continued to talk, Stanley again looked over thehuman wrecks that he had rounded up and brought out of Sellersville."What can we do?" echoed Stanley, repeating the last question tartly."Well, I'll tell you one thing we can do. We can throw Sellersvilleinto the river."
Dancing and Scott were gone half an hour. The report, when theyreturned, was not encouraging. "It is a bunch of cutthroats fromMedicine Bend, colonel," said Bob Scott.
"All friends of yours, I presume, Bob," returned Stanley.
The scout only smiled. "John Rebstock is there with his following. Butthe boss, I think, is big George Seagrue. He is mean, you know. Georgehas got two or three men to his credit."
"Are we enough to clean them out, Bob?" inquired Stanley impatiently.
Scott looked around and his eye rested for a moment on Dancing. Hehitched his trousers. "There's about thirty men down there. I expect,"he continued reflectively, "we can take care of them if we have to."
Stanley turned to the sergeant of his troopers. "Pitch a permanentcamp, sergeant. There will be nothing to take us any farther up theriver."
As Stanley gave the order Bucks noticed that Dancing winked at Scott.And without the meaning glances exchanged by the lineman and thescout, Bucks would have understood from Stanley's manner that he meantstrong measures. Stanley sent a further message to the contractor, andthe foreman, followed by his convoy of humanity, started on. Thesoldiers, foreseeing a lively scene, stripped their pack-horses andset at work pitching their tents.
Leaving four men in camp, the engineer, accompanied by his escort,rode down the bluffs and, striking a lumber road, galloped rapidlythrough the poplar bottom-lands toward the gamblers' camp. It was anearly tour for human wolves to be stirring, and the invaders clatteredinto Sellersville before they attracted any attention.
A bugler, however, riding into the middle of the settlement, sounded atrumpet call, and at the unwonted notes frowsy, ill-shaped headsappeared at various shanty doors and tent-flaps to see what wasdoing. Stanley sent one man from door to door to notify the inmates ofeach shelter to pack up their effects and make ready to move withoutdelay.
Five troopers were detailed to guard three gambling tents that stoodtogether in the middle of the camp, each of these being flanked bysmaller dens. Word was then passed to the gamblers and saloon-keepersto line up on the river front.
Stanley regarded the gathering crowd with a cold eye.
Scott, who stoodnear Bucks, pointed out a square-shouldered man with a deep scarsplitting one cheek. "Do you know that fellow, Bucks?" he asked in anundertone.
"No; who is he?"
"That is a Medicine Bend confidence man, Perry. Do you remember thewoman you helped out with a ticket to Iowa? Perry is her husband--theman that Dave Hawk made pay up."
Perry was a type of the Sellersville crowd now being evicted. Therewas much talk as the soldiers urged and drove the gang out of onehaunt after another and a good deal of threatening as the leadersmarched out in front of Stanley.
"Who is running this camp?" demanded the officer curtly. The menlooked at one another. A fat, slow-moving man with small blue eyes anda wheezy voice answered: "Why, no one in particular, colonel. We'rejust a-camping in a bunch. What's a-matter? Seagrue here," he noddedto a sharp-jawed companion, "and Perry," he added, jerking his thumbtoward the scarred-faced man, "and me own these two big tents inpartners."
"What's your name?"
"My name's Rebstock."
"Produce the axes stolen here from these two men," said Stanley,indicating the choppers behind him. There was a jangle of talk betweenRebstock and his associates, and Perry, much against his inclination,was despatched to hunt up the axes. It was only a moment before hereturned with them.
Rebstock, with a show of virtue, reprimanded Perry severely forharboring the men that had stolen the axes. "Sorry it happened,colonel," he grumbled, after he had abused the thieves roundly in ageneral way, "and I'll see it doesn't happen again. We can't watcheverybody in a place like this. Tell your men," he continued,expanding his chest, "to leave their axes with me when they come toSellersville--what?"
The assurances were lost on Stanley. "Rebstock," said he, in a tonethat Bucks had not heard before from him, "take your personal effects,all of you--and nothing else--and load them on a flatboat. I will giveyou one hour to get-out of here."
Rebstock almost fell over backward. He wheezed in amazement. There wasan outburst of indignant protests. A dozen men clamored at once. Perryrushed forward to threaten Stanley; others cursed and defied him.
"Who are you, and what do you mean giving orders like that?" demandedSeagrue, confronting him angrily.
"No matter who I am, you will obey the orders. And you can't take anytents or gambling apparatus or liquors. Pack up your clothes and campstuff--nothing else--and get out."
If a bombshell had dropped into Sellersville, consternation could nothave been more complete. But it became quickly apparent that not allof the gang would surrender without a fight. The leaders retreated fora hurried consultation.
Rebstock walked back presently and confronted Stanley. "What's yourlaw for this?" he demanded, breathless with anger.
Stanley pointed to the ground under their feet.
"What's your title to this land, Rebstock? It belongs to the railroadthat those ties belong to. Where is your license from the UnitedStates Government to sell whiskey here? You are trespassers andoutlaws, with no rights that any decent man ought to respect. You andyour gang are human parasites, and you are going to be stripped andsent down the river as fast as these flatboats will carry you."
Without waiting for any rejoinder, Stanley turned on his heel andwalked away, leaving Rebstock speechless. The threats against theintruders continued, but Stanley paid no attention to any of them.Scott and the five troopers faced the gamblers. Stanley called to thetwo wood-choppers, who stood near with their axes, and pointed to thegambling tents.
"Chop up every wheel and table in there you can find," said he.
A cry went up from Perry when he heard the order, but the axemen,nothing loath, sprang inside to their work, and the crashing of thegambling furniture resounded through the alarmed camp. Stanley made nodelay of his peremptory purpose. The tent attacked belonged toSeagrue, who, common report averred, feared nothing and nobody, whilethe gambling implements were Perry's.
Seagrue rushed to his property, revolver in hand. Bill Dancing, whostood at Stanley's side, stepped into his way.
"Hold on, Seagrue," he said. The gambler, fully as large a man asDancing, faced his opponent with his features fixed in rage. "Getaway," he shouted, "or I will knock your head off."
All eyes centred on the two men. Every one realized that open war wason and that it needed only a spark to start the shooting. Thegamblers, rallying to Seagrue, backed him with oaths and threats.
"Seagrue, put down that pistol or I'll wring your neck," returned thelineman, baring his right arm as he sauntered toward the outlaw.Bucks, beside Stanley, stood transfixed as he watched Dancing. Thelineman's revolver was slung in the holster at his side.
Seagrue hesitated. He saw Bob Scott standing in the doorway of thegambling tent with his rifle lying carelessly over his arm. He wasactually covering Seagrue where he stood--and Seagrue knew that BobScott was deadly with a rifle. But Dancing was walking directly up tohim and Seagrue dared not be shamed before his own associates. Hejumped back to fire, but it was too late.
Dancing caught his wrist. Both were men of great strength, and theirmuscles knotted as they grappled. It was only after a moment that thelineman could be seen to gain. Then, as he bent the gambler's armback, he suddenly released it and struck the revolver out of his hand.Seagrue, with a curse, sprang back, and drawing a knife rushed for thesecond time at the lineman. Dancing jumped to one side. As he did sohe seized an axe from the hand of one of the choppers and turned againon Seagrue. The gambler made a lunge at his throat, but as he threwhimself forward, Dancing, springing away, brought the axe around likea flash and laid it flat across his assailant's forearm. The knifeflew twenty feet, and before the gambler could recover himself therailroad man with one hand like a vice on his throat bore him to theground.
"Give me a piece of rope," muttered Dancing as Stanley ran up.
IT WAS ONLY AFTER A MOMENT THAT THE LINEMAN COULD BE SEENTO GAIN.]
Bob Scott slashed a tent guy and handed it to him. In another minuteDancing, in spite of Seagrue's struggles, had lashed his prisoner handand foot. Picking him up bodily, he walked unopposed to the landing,and to the astonishment of the spectators heaved Seagrue with scantceremony into a flatboat. There a trooper kept him quiet. Walkingback, the lineman brushed the dust of the encounter from his arms asif to invite any further Sellersville champion to come forward. ButJohn Rebstock, the really responsible head of the place, showed nodesire to meet Dancing, and Perry, the sneak of the trio, only rantedwhile Rebstock stood at a respectable distance wheezing his surpriseat the tremendous exhibition of strength. And the work of destructionwent forward.
Adjoining the Seagrue tent stood a saloon in which the men were nowordered to demolish the stock. This renewed the excitement amongRebstock's followers.
"Don't waste any time," was Stanley's order. "They may rush us. Knockin the head of a keg of whiskey, pour it over the bar, and burn theshanty."
The gamblers were, in fact, mustering for a charge on the invaders.Before they could act the saloon was ablaze and the flames, risingamid the yells and execrations of its owners, leaped to the big tentadjoining. In front of this the soldiers in a skirmish line held backthe scurrying outlaws. Within a few moments Sellersville was ablazefrom end to end and its population, including Perry and Rebstock,driven to the flatboats, were floating with threats and curses downthe muddy current of the Spider Water.
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