CHAPTER XV
Peruna Pulls His Freight
When Jack closed the door behind him to follow and find Dick Lane andbring him back to the woman who, the restorer believed, loved him, EchoPayson realized the supremacy over her soul--her pure ideals, her loftysense of justice--of its tenement, the woman's body--that fair butfragile fabric which trembled responsive to the wild wind of emotionaldesire, and the seismic shock of the passion of sex. Ever since Jackhad revealed to her his jealousy of Dick Lane, she knew that he wasliving on a lower moral and spiritual plane than herself, and that nolonger could she look up to him as the strong protector, the noblerbeing than herself that had been her girlish ideal of a husband.Instead of this, another love sprang instantly into her heart, that ofthe stronger soul for the weaker, like to the feeling of the mothertoward the child. The moral side of her desire toward Jack now becamefixed in the purpose to lift him up to her own level.
Now that he had gone from her on a mission that was fulfilling thisvery purpose of regeneration, although she had not sent him upon it forhis own sake, but her own--Echo knew that, after all, she was a woman.She loved Jack Payson with the unreasoning and unrestrained passionthat sways even the highest of her sex. By the balance of natural lawshe was lowering herself to meet him as he was coming up in the moralscale, and thus preparing for herself and her husband a happy union ofa mutual understanding of weaknesses held in common. Were Echo toremain always on the heights and Jack in the valley, sooner or later acloud would have separated them, a ghostly miasma rising from the graveof Dick Lane, whom Echo would have idealized as the nobler man.
She very sensibly took refuge from these perplexing problems by jumpinginto the active life of the ranch.
Faithfully she tried to perform all that she thought Jack would havedone. Her father and mother wanted her to come back to her old homeuntil he returned. There she would have more company and fewermemories of Jack surrounding her. Each offer, each suggestion waskindly but firmly put aside. When Jack returned she must be the firstto welcome him, the first to greet him at his threshold, whether it wasbroad daylight or in the silent watches of the night. From her lips hemust learn he had been forgiven; she alone must tell him how much sheloved him, and that together they must go through life until the lastround-up.
Echo and her father, who was looking after his own cattle on theround-up, rode up to the chuck-wagon, after Parenthesis and Sage-brushcrossed the valley to mete out justice to Peruna and fight out anyattempts at a rescue.
Dismounting, Echo walked wearily to the fire and sat down on a box.Bravely though she tried to conceal it, the strain was beginning totell upon her. The tears would come at times, despite her efforts tofight them off. The burden was so heavy for her young shoulders tobear.
A note from Slim, written at Fort Grant, with a lead-pencil, on a sheetof manila paper, told her briefly that he was going into the Lava Bedswith the troops--as the Apaches were out. Dick and Jack, he wrote,were somewhere in the Lava Beds, and he would bring them back with him.She dared not let herself think of the Apaches and the horrors of theircruelties.
"Better let me get you somethin' to eat," said her father, returningfrom picketing the horses.
Echo smiled wanly at her father's solicitude. "I am not hungry, Dad."
Jim seated himself by the fire. He recognized his helplessness in thistrouble. There was nothing he could do. If one of the boys was whatAllen would have called it, "down on his luck," he would have asked himto have a drink, but with Josephine and the girls he was at his wit'send. The sufferings of his loved daughter cut deeply into his bigheart.
"You been in the saddle since sunup," he said. "You hain't had nuthin'to eat since breakfast--I don't see what keeps you alive."
"Hope, Dad, hope. It is what we women live upon. Some cherish it alltheir lives, and never reap a harvest. I watch the sun leap over theedge of the world at dawn, and hope that before it sinks behind thewestern hills the man I love will come home to my heart. Oh, Dad, I'mnot myself! I haven't been myself since the day I sent him away--myheart isn't here. It's out in the desert behind yon mountains--withJack."
"Thar, thar, don't take on so, honey."
Kneeling beside her father, she laid her head on his lap, as she did inchildhood when overwhelmed with the little troubles of the hour.Looking into his eyes, she sighed: "Oh, Dad, it's all so tangled. Ihaven't known a peaceful moment since he went away. I've sent him awayinto God knows what unfriendly lands, perhaps never to return--never toknow how much I loved him."
Patting her head, as if she were a tired child, he said: "It'll allcome out right in the end. You can't never tell from the sody-cardwhat's in hock at the bottom of the deck."
Further confidences between father and daughter were interrupted by theboys of the round-up dashing up to the wagon, with Peruna in the midstof the group. Peruna had been disarmed. Dragging the prisoner fromhis bronco, they led him before Allen, who had risen from his seat.
"What's all this, boys?" asked the ranchman.
Sage-brush, as foreman, explained: "This yere's Peruna of the Lazy Koutfit."
Allen looked at the prisoner, who maintained a sullen silence. "What'she been doin'?"
"Mostly everything, but Fresno caught red-handed brandin' one of ouryearlin's," cried Sage-brush.
"It's a lie!" broke in Peruna, glancing doggedly from one to another ofhis guards. He knew death was the penalty of the crime of which hestood accused. He felt that a stout denial would gain him time, andthat Buck and his outfit might come up and save him.
"Polite your conversation in the presence of a lady," criedParenthesis, nodding toward Echo.
"That calf was follerin' my cow," answered Peruna sullenly.
"It was follerin' one of our longhorned Texas cows with the Sweetwaterbrand spread all over her," shouted Show Low, moving menacingly towardthe cowering Peruna.
"Fresno he calls him," continued Sage-brush, taking up the story; "an'this yere Peruna--drinking bad turns loose his battery and wings Fresnosome bad--then little Billie Nicker comes along, and Peruna plugs himsolid."
Poor Billie had been Show Low's bunkie on many a long drive. Thatveteran now paid this last tribute to his friend. "Billie, who ain'tnever done no harm to no one--"
"He reached for his gun--" began Peruna. Sage-brush would not let himfinish his lame defense.
"You shet up!" he cried. "We don't want your kind on this range, an'the quicker that's published the quicker we'll get shet of ye. We'regoin' to take the law in our own hands now--come on, boys."
Two of the boys seized Peruna, dragging him toward his horse. Echohalted them, however, with the query: "What are you going to do withthis man?"
"Take him down to the creek and hang him to that big cottonwood--"cried Show Low savagely.
Before Echo could answer, Peruna demanded a hearing. "Hol' on aminute, I got something to say about that!"
"Out with it," growled Sage-brush.
"Las' time there was an affair at that cottonwood the rope broke, an'the hoss-thief dropped into the creek, swum acrost, and got away."
Sage-brush glared grimly at Peruna. "Well, we'll see that the ropedon't break with you."
In all seriousness Peruna replied: "I hope so. I can't swim."
Polly, glancing down the valley, saw Buck McKee with a half-dozen ofhis outfit, riding furiously to the rescue of Peruna.
"Look out, boys, here comes Buck McKee now!" she shouted.
Unconsciously the men laid their hands on their guns and assumedoffensive attitudes.
Allen cried sharply: "Keep your hands off your guns, boys. One badbreak means the starting of a lot of trouble."
Buck and his band threw themselves off their horses, ranging themselvesopposite Sage-brush the Sweetwater boys.
Swaggering up to Sage-brush, the half-breed insolently demanded: "Who'sthe boss of this yere Payson outfit?"
"I reckon you are talkin' to him now," coolly replied the foreman.
Sage-brush was not bluffed by Buck's insolence or his swaggeringmanners. "I reckon you can't have him just yet."
"What's he been doing?" demanded Buck.
"He killed Billie Nicker--that's one thing."
"Self-defense," loftily replied Buck. "He was 'tendin' to his ownbusiness when your two men come up and begin pickin' on him."
Bursting with anger, Parenthesis strode up to Buck, and shouted: "Hewas brandin' one of our yearlin's, that's what his business was."
Sage-brush suggested, in addition: "Perhaps you mean that brandin'other folks' cattle is the reg'lar business of the Lazy K outfit."
"Anythin' with hide and no mark is Lazy K to you all--" growled ShowLow.
"Your goin' strong on reg'lar proceedin's, I see," said Buck toSage-brush. "You ain't sheriff of this yere county, air you?"
"That's jest it. Somebody's got to act sooner or later, an' if thereain't no reg'lar law, we'll go back to the old times, an' make our own."
The Sweetwater outfit assented unanimously to Sage-brush's declarationof freedom from outlaw rule in the county.
"You're a fine lot to set up as law-abidin' citizens--" sneered Buck.
"Workin' for a man that had to hop the country to keep clear of therope," interjected Peruna, who, heartened up by the advent of McKee,began pouring oil on a smoldering fire.
Sage-brush turned savagely upon him: "That'll do for you."
Echo walked hastily to Sage-brush's side. She felt her presence mighthelp to avoid the outbreak which she saw could not long be avoided.
Peruna had lost control of tongue and discretion by this time.
"You'll never see him back in this section again. You all know wherehe is--across the line in Mexico--why, she's fixin' to make a clean-upnow, an' sell out and join him!"
Sage-brush reached for his gun, but Echo restrained him.
"You--" he cried.
Buck turned angrily on Peruna. "You keep your mouth shet," he shouted.
Peruna subsided at his boss' command, mumbling: "There ain't no femalecan pull the forelock over my eyes."
"Take care," warningly called Buck.
Peruna fired up again, regardless of consequences. "Why, I see throughher game. She's glad to get rid of him, so's she can play up to herranch boss, Handsome Charley there."
Buck had to act instantly to preserve his supremacy over his men.
Before any of the Sweetwater outfit could reach Peruna's side, or pulla gun to resent the insult, Buck was on top of him. With a blow fullin the mouth, he knocked him sprawling. Echo had seized Sage-brush'shand, preventing him from firing. The other men moved as if to kickPeruna as he lay prostrate.
"Let him alone. He's goin' to ask the lady's pardon," snarled Buck,covering him with his gun.
Peruna raised himself on one arm.
"No, I'll be--" he began.
Buck bent over him, speaking in a low tone, tensely and quickly."Quick! I don't want to have to kill you. You damn' fool, don't yousee what I'm playin' fer?"
"He ain't fit to live!" shouted Show Low.
Buck turned on the cowboy. It was his fight, and he was going tohandle it in his own fashion.
"Lem me handle this case," he interrupted. "Ther' ain't no man cantravel in my outfit and insult a woman--you ask her pardon--rightsmart."
Peruna struggled to his feet. Buck commanded:
"On your knees."
A glance at Buck showed Peruna how deadly in earnest he was.Reluctantly he sank to his knees.
"I didn't mean what I said. I hope you will excuse me--" he whined.
"That's enough. Now git up. Pull your freight," Buck ordered.
"By God, no!" interposed Sage-brush.
The cowboys seized Peruna.
Buck saw that his bluff at bossing the situation was called. He turnedappealingly to Echo, and rapidly fabricated a moving tale aboutPeruna's heroic rescue of himself from drowning in the Gila River. "AnI swore I would do as much fer him some day. Now I perpose that we allgive him a kick, an' let him go; let him have two hours' start, afterwhich the game-laws will be out on him."
Sage-brush cried out against the plan, but Echo was moved by McKee'sappeal for his comrade, and, speaking low and beseechingly toSage-brush, said: "It will save a range-war that we can't afford tohave till Jack and Slim get back." Sage-brush finally assented.
"Two hours' start. Well, he'll have to go some, if he gets away. Kickhim and let him go," he commanded.
Echo turned away.
The cowboys who held Peruna threw him to the ground, and every man ofthe Allen and Payson ranches gave him a vicious kick, Show Low puttingin an extra one for his murdered bunkie. Last of all, McKeeapproached the prostrate man, and made the mistake which was to costhim his life by booting Peruna cruelly. The man was a stupid fellow bynature, and what wits he had were addled by the habit he had acquiredof consuming patent-medicines containing alcohol, morphin, and otherstimulating and stupefying drugs. He was as revengeful as stupid, andcould have forgiven McKee's putting the rope around his neck moreeasily than Buck's joining in the humiliation which saved his life.
Rising from the ground and trembling with anger, Peruna turned on thehalf-breed, saying: "I'll square this deal, Buck McKee."
"Losin' vallyble time, Peruna. Git!" was all that his former bossdeigned to answer.
Peruna limped over to his horse, which Parenthesis had been holding incustody, mounted it, and rode off at a lope for the river ford. Hecrossed it in sight of the Sweetwater outfit, and disappeared behindthe riverbank. Here he dismounted, and, picking a small branch ofcactus, put it under his horse's tail. The poor beast clapped the tailagainst it, and, with a scream, set off on a wild gallop across themesa. Peruna hobbled up the river a mile or so, half-waded, half-swam,to the other side, and entered an arroyo, whose course led back nearthe camp of the Sweetwater outfit. He had been disarmed by the cowboysof his revolver, but not of his knife.
After Peruna had been visited with his punishment, Echo retraced hersteps.
Bowing to her, hat in hand, Buck made his apologies. "Ma'am, I'm plumbsorry. My mother was a Cherokee squaw, but I'm white in some spots.If you'll let your ranch boss come along with us, we'll settle thisbrandin'-business right now."
Sage-brush did not care to accept the offer, but Echo ordered him to gowith the Lazy K outfit. Seeing it was useless to argue with her, hesaid: "Come on, boys."
Ere they had ridden out of sight, Echo sank, exhausted, on the seat bythe fire. She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
Polly played the role of comforter.
"Don't mind 'em," she said. "Better come to the ranch with me. You'reall tuckered out. You've been runnin' this ranch fer a month like aman."
"I'll take your advice, Polly, and ride home. Tell Dad I want him,will you?"
The Round-Up: A Romance of Arizona; Novelized from Edmund Day's Melodrama Page 15