by Dean Owen
“What put that in yore head?” Sam asked Mormon.
“Mirandy was wonderin’ whether Ma Keith ’ud like to keep Molly’s money in the family. Mirandy’s allus ’spicioned a motive to that invite.”
“Shucks! She asked her befo’ the mine made a showin’. An’ every dollar Molly makes, Keith makes five or six, out of the sale of them shares. But I subscribe to Sandy’s scheme on these here dividends of ours.”
“’Count me in,” said Mormon. And so the affair was settled.
* * * *
Of Plimsoll little was heard. The gambler had deserted that now unpopular profession, since suffrage ruled, and stayed close to his horse ranch. It lay alone, and few visited it save Plimsoll’s own associates. Rumors drifted concerning Plimsoll’s remarkable herd increase of saleable horses but, unless proof of actual operation was forthcoming, there was small chance of pinning anything down in the way of illegal work. There was always the excuse of having rounded up a bunch of broom-tail wild horses to account for growing numbers, and, if he stole or not, Plimsoll left the horses of his own county alone. No neighbor was injured and though stories of wild happenings at the horse ranch were current it was considered nobody’s business. Wyatt once, staggering out of some blind pig in Hereford, still existent despite the suffrage sweeping, babbled in maudlin drunkenness of his determination to get even with Plimsoll for stealing his sweetheart. For Wyatt, for the sake of the girl, had gone back to Plimsoll’s employ. The new sheriff took Wyatt’s guns away and locked him up overnight in the “cooler,” letting him go in the morning, soberer and more silent.
“But,” said the sheriff to his cronies, “some day there’ll be one grand shoot-up an’ carry-out at Plimsoll’s. Wyatt’s sore clean through.”
“He ain’t got the sand in his craw to make a killing,” said one of the listeners. “Sandy Bourke backed him off the map to Casey Town.”
“Just the same, he’s got something in his craw,” replied the sheriff. “He may not shoot Plimsoll, but he’s primed to pull something off first chance he gets. I spoke to him about what he’s been firing off from his mouth the night before an’ he shuts up like a clam. ‘I was foolish drunk,’ he says, but there was a look in his eyes that was nasty. If Plim’s wise he’ll get rid of Wyatt. He knows too much an’ he’s liable to tip it off.”
“Wyatt an’ Plim’s both of ’em side-swipers,” returned the other. “They’d throw dirt but not lead. Plumb yeller as a Gila monster’s belly. Plimsoll told it all over the county he’d tally score with Sandy Bourke. Has he? He ain’t even bought him a stick of chalk.”
“He ain’t had the chance he’s lookin’ for. That’s all that’s holding Plimsoll. Same way with Wyatt. Two buzzards of a feather, they are.”
Thoughts of Plimsoll and his revenges did not bother Sandy’s head. The “old man” of the Three Star—bearing the cowman’s inevitable title for the head of the management, whether young or old, male or female—carried out his long cherished plans for additional water-supply, for alfalfa planting, for registered bulls and high-grade cows. Now that there was money in sight the success of the ranch was assured. He studied hard, he got in touch with the state experimental developments, he subscribed for magazines that told of cattle breeding, he sent soils for analysis and young Ed, coming home from his first term, found, somewhat to his chagrin, that Sandy was far ahead of him in both the theory and practise of ranching.
The days multiplied into weeks and the weeks into months. Sandy received one letter from Brandon that seemed to presage another visit across the line. It was terse, characteristic of the man.
My Dear Bourke:
We are still losing three-and four-year-olds, and the evidence points plainly to their drifting over toward Plimsoll. We have traced up some of the links leading from this end. To be quite frank, the authorities of your own county do not seem over-disposed to bother in the matter, and we are taking things in our own hands. We have set a trap for Jim Plimsoll and have hopes he will walk into it if he is the guilty party.
If it springs and catches him you’ll probably see us over your way again—after we have concluded our business with J. P. There are some of us old-timers—and I believe you are of our way of thinking or I would not write asking you to do this favor for me—who look at horse-stealing just as it used to be looked at—and dealt with. To be plain, we have been losing a lot of valuable animals and we are all considerably “riled.”
The favor I want of you is to tip me off if Plimsoll appears about to leave the country. We have had a tip that he expects to do so before long. If you get wind of this a wire would be much appreciated by me.
Sincerely yours,
W. J. Brandon.
Have been hearing fine things about the way things are being run along modern lines on the Three Star. More power to you. Good stock always pays.
Sandy filed the letter. There was a room in the ranch-house that was now fitted up as an office, known to the riders of the Three Star as the “Old Man’s Room.” Sandy had even contemplated a typewriter, but given it up for the time being after talking it over.
“I don’t believe I c’ud ever learn to ride one of those contraptions,” he said. “I tried it once an’ the wires bucked my fingers off reg’lar. But I sure hate writin’ longhand.”
“Why not import one of them stenographers?” suggested Mormon.
“Sure,” jeered Sam. “Why not? Then you c’ud put in yore spare moments gentlin’ a hawss fo’ her an’ pickin’ wild flowers, until Mirandy Bailey persuades her the climate is too chilly. But I’ll bet Molly c’ud handle that end of it prime, if she was back.”
“I w’udn’t wonder,” said Sandy.
There was a lot of interjected talk about what Molly might say or do. With the founding of the Three Star Ranch the lives of the partners had changed a good deal. They held responsibilities, they owned a home and they lived there. None of them, since they were children, had ever known the close companionship of a young girl. Mormon’s matrimonial adventures had been foredoomed shipwrecks on the sands of time, his wives marital pirates preying on his good nature and earnings. Molly had leavened their existences in a way that two of them hardly suspected and the yeast of affection was still working. Each hung to the hope that she might return to the ranch again to stay and each felt that hope was a faint one.
When, at last, there came the news, from Molly herself and from Mrs. Keith, that Keith was coming out to make inspection of his Casey Town properties, that he was traveling in a private car with his son, with Molly and her governess-companion, and that the two latter would get off at Hereford for a visit to the Three Star, Sandy went about with a whistle, Sam breathed sanguine melodies through the harmonica and Mormon beamed all over. The illumination was apparent. Sam told him he looked “all lit up, like a Chinee lantern” and Mormon beamed the more.
Molly’s letter was primed with delight. Mrs. Keith’s contained regrets that her physicians did not think the journey would be best for her to undertake in the present state of her health, which meant that she feared possible discomforts en route and imagined the ranch as a place where one was fed only on beans, sourdough bread, bull meat and indifferent coffee.
“You will find Miss Nicholson most efficient and amenable,” she penned. “She has done remarkably well with your ward. I believe my husband expects to stay in your vicinity about a month and we have decided to make a holiday of it for Molly, so far as lessons are concerned. She can resume her studies on her return to New York. I regret exceedingly not being able to make your personal acquaintance. But, if ever you come east, we shall hope to see something of you.”
Miranda Bailey sniffed at this letter openly.
“I hope they ain’t spiled the child,” she said. “I wonder what’s the matter with the Nicholson teacher woman?”
“What do you mean?” asked Mormon.
“She says she’s amen
able. I ain’t sure of the word, but I believe that means thin-blooded or underfed. My sister’s niece by marriage was that way till they fed her cod-liver oil an’ scraped beef. ’Pears to me as if all the companions an’ governesses was that kind of folk. I suppose they hire out cheaper account of not bein’ overstrong.”
“You can search me,” answered Mormon. “Ask Sandy, he’s browsin’ through the dikshunary reg’lar these days. Gettin’ so it’s hard to sabe half he tells you.”
Sandy had to look up the word. “Liable to make answer,” he read out.
“One of the snippy kind, back-talkin’ an’ peevish,” said Miranda. “I can’t bear ’em.”
“That’s the legal meaning,” said Sandy. “I reckon this is it—submissive.”
“Halter-broke. That’s more likely. That’s the kind that Keith party w’ud pick. I ain’t ever seen her nor don’t hope nor expect to, but that’s the kind she’d pick. No backbone. Molly’ll twist her round her little finger. Wonder how old she is?”
“The word you meant was anemic, Miss Mirandy,” said Sandy, turning a leaf in the dictionary. “They sound about the same.”
“There’s too many words anyway,” she replied. “Folks don’t use mo’n a hundredth part of ’em an’ git along first-rate. I don’t see why they print ’em.” Miranda did not show to the best advantage during the rest of her visit. She snubbed Mormon severely when he offered to get water for her car. “I’ve fetched an’ carried for myself long enough not to want to be waited on,” she said. “An’ I don’t need water anyway.” She drove off and had to bail from an irrigating ditch before she was half-way to her destination. Whereupon she took herself to task.
“Miranda Bailey, there’s no fool like an old fool,” she said aloud, with sage-brush and timid prairie dogs for audience. “What you want to do is to keep sweet. Now git on.” The final adjuration was to her car, to which she always spoke exactly as if it was a horse.
“What do you suppose made her so cantankerous?” Mormon inquired after she had driven round the corral. “Reckon you got her sore bawlin’ her out about usin’ the wrong word, Sandy. A woman’s sensitive about them things.”
Sam smote Mormon between the shoulders before Sandy could make answer.
“Fo’ a man who’s had yore experience, you’re deef, blind, dumb an’ lost to all sense of touch or motion,” he shouted. “Remember what I said about the stenographer? Mirandy’s jealous of the Nicholson woman. Plumb jealous! You better wear blinders while she’s here, Mormon. If she’s a good-looker, Gawd help you! Mirandy won’t.”
CHAPTER XVI
EAST AND WEST
When Miranda Bailey heard the news she announced her determination of coming over to the Three Star to prepare for the visitors.
“I reckon my reputation’ll stand it,” she said, “seein’ I’m older than two of you an’ the third is still a married man. That spineless governess’ll be writin’ back to the Keith woman about everything she sees, eats, sits or sleeps on. Pedro’s cookin’ is enough to give any easterner dyspepsy. The whole house wants reddin’ up, it ain’t been swept proper fo’ a year.”
Abashed, the partners gave her full sway. They lived on the porch in their spare waking moments, they ate cold victuals, and the lives of Pedro and Joe were made miserable. But the ranch-house was scoured from top to bottom. Miranda’s car brought over curtains for the windows, flowers for the window-sills, odds and ends that made the place look homely, cheerful, inviting. Pedro was given lessons at the stove that he at first took sulkily but, being praised and his wages raised, took pride in.
“He’ll do,” vouchsafed Miranda at last, the evening before the arrival. “He’s no hand at cookies or doughnuts an’ never will be, but I’ll bring them over from time to time. He can make a pie an’ biscuit an’ he can broil meat. I’ve taught him to mash his pertaters with milk ’stead of water an’ to put butter in his hot cakes. I’m stayin’ over till supper ter-morrer to see everything has a good staht.”
“She’s stayin’ over to git a good look at the Nicholson party,” Sam said to Mormon. “All this ain’t jest for Molly.”
“There’s nothin’ between Miss Mirandy an’ myse’f,” replied Mormon with dignity. “She’s a wonderful housekeeper.”
“She sure is. Me, I’m so I’m afeard to come into my own house, it’s so golderned clean. If that third wife of yor’n.…”
The long-suffering Mormon turned upon his partner. They were seated on the broad top rail of the breaking corral, waiting the call to supper. Mormon clutched Sam by his collar and jerked him off the rail, catching the slack cloth of his pants at the seat, holding him firmly gripped and bending him across his padded lap. Despite Sam’s kicks and squirms, he paddled him unmercifully and then dropped him sprawling into the corral.
“I ain’t done that to you, Sam Manning,” he said sternly, “fo’ five-six years. An’ you’ve got too all-fired fresh. Nex’ time I’ll do it in front of Mirandy, you ornery, bow-laiged, hornin’-in son of a lizard.”
Sam said nothing. His face, as he stooped somewhat painfully, was fiery red. He took hold of a post to help himself up, pretending disability. On the post a horsehair lariat hung from the snub of a lopped-off bough of the tree that made the heavy stake. He fumbled with this while Mormon shook with laughter like a great jelly. The next moment the lariat came flying, circling, settled down over Mormon’s head, over his body and arms. Sam, working like a jumping-jack, took a quick turn, flung a coil about Mormon’s legs and in a few seconds, had him trussed helplessly to the rail.
“Paddle me, you overgrown buzzard, will you? There you roost till Mirandy comes to look for you.”
Mormon pleaded and Sam pretended to be inflexible. At last they came to a capitulation. Mormon promised to keep his hands off Sam, and the latter vowed he would gibe no more about Mormon’s matrimonial affairs, past, present or future.
“An’ don’t look nothin’, neither,” added Mormon as Joe glided into sight and grunted his message.
“Grub piled. Squaw she say hurry.”
For the life of him Sam could not resist a side glance of mirthful suggestion at Miranda’s tendency to issue orders. Mormon did not notice it.
“There’s room for five—supposed to be—in my car,” said Miranda. “An’ there’s four of us an’ six to come back. The other car’s in use. How we goin’ to manage it?”
“Mormon c’ud take the Nicholson party on his lap, if she ain’t too finicky,” suggested Sam. This was hewing close to the line, and Mormon glared at him while the spinster sniffed.
“Molly’ll ride in with me,” said Sandy. “I’m goin’ over early on Pronto an’ take the white blazed bay along that Molly rode over the Goats’ Pass.”
“Ride in?”
“She wrote she was jest waitin’ fo’ the minute she c’ud climb into a real saddle, astride a range-bred hawss,” said Sandy.
“She won’t be dressed for it, travelin’ on the train,” said Mirandy.
“I’ve got a hunch she will,” Sandy answered simply. “They got their own private car. If she ain’t, why, Sam can ride the bay back. But me an’ Pronto, the bay an’ Grit are goin’ thataway.”
There were certain tones of Sandy’s voice that gave absolute finality to his statements. He used them on this occasion. The argument dropped. In a way Sandy was making the matter a test of Molly. If she was as anxious as she wrote to “fork a bronco,” if she understood Sandy and he her, she would feel that he would be waiting with her mount for her to return to the ranch western fashion. If not, it meant that she was out of the chrysalis and had become, not the busy bee that belongs to the mesquite and the sage, but a gaudier, less responsible flutterer among eastern flower-beds.
The bay with the white blaze had been groomed by Sandy until his hide was glossy and rich as polished mahogany, while the blaze on his nose shone like a plate of silver. His dark
mane and tail had been braided and combed until it crinkled proudly, the light shone from his curves as he moved, reflecting the sky in the high-lights. Hoofs had been oiled and Sandy had attended to his shoeing. The bay had been up for a month and fed until he was almost pampered, save that Sandy took the excess pepper out of him every morning.
A new saddle came from Cheyenne, most famous of all cities for making of saddles that are tailor-made, the leather carved cunningly into arabesques of cactus design, bossed and rimmed here and there with silver, the pattern carried over into the tapideros that hooded the stirrups, even into the bridle. It was a masterpiece of art craft, that saddle, “made for a lady to ride astride,” and it cost Sandy an even quarter of a thousand dollars.
Sam and Mormon knew of the grooming of the horse but, when the saddle, cinched above a Navajo blanket, smote their vision, they blinked and complained. They too had gifts for the homecomer, but Sandy’s outshone them as a newly minted five-dollar gold piece does a silver coin.
“If that don’t win her to stay west there ain’t no use a-tryin’,” declared Sam as Sandy mounted and rode away, leading the bay. Grit, newly washed also, sorely against his will, since he did not know the occasion of the bath at the time of suffering it, went bounding on pads of rubber, leaping up, tearing ahead and back, a shuttling streak of gold and silver.
Miranda’s caravan started an hour later, she driving, Mormon and Sam in the back, each dressed in his best, minus chaparejos and spurs, but otherwise most typically the cowboy and therefore out of place—and feeling it—as they sat stiffly in the leatherette-lined tonneau. Miranda was in starched linen, destitute of all ornament, a dark red ribbon at her throat the only touch of color, looking extremely efficient and, as Sam whispered to Mormon, “a bit stand-offish.” He wanted to add, “’count of the Nicholson party,” but dared not.
The train rolled in majestically, the private car gleaming with varnish and polished glass and brass, with a white-coated darky flashing white teeth on the platform as the fussy local engine took the detached luxury to the side-track designated for its Hereford location. There, forewarned by the agent, much of Hereford assembled to witness the arrival of the magnate who had helped to place them more definitely on the map and increased their revenues as supply depot for Casey Town. The flivver was parked and Miranda, Mormon and Sam made one group a little ahead of the others, recognized by the crowd as privileged. Sandy sat Pronto, talking to the restive bay, proudly conscious of its new trappings and the remarks of the onlookers.