by Max Brand
“Jig, once when I had a deer under my trigger I let him go because he had a funny-shaped horn. Sure, it’s the little things that run a gent’s life. Go on!”
“I knew that I had to escape. But how could I escape in a place where everybody knew me? First I thought of changing my clothes. Then another thing — man’s clothes! The moment that idea came, I was sure it was the thing. I opened the door very softly. There was no one upstairs just then. I ran into my cousin’s room — he’s a youngster of fifteen — and snatched the first boots and clothes that I could find and rushed back to my own room.
“I jumped into them, hardly knowing what I was doing. For they were beginning to call to me from downstairs. I opened the door and called back to them, and I heard Jude Cartwright answer in a big voice.
“I turned around and saw myself in the mirror in boy’s clothes, with my face as white as a sheet, my eyes staring, my hair pouring down over my shoulders. I ran to the bureau and found a scissors. Then I hesitated a moment. You don’t dream how hard it was to do. My hair was long, you see, below my waist. And I had always been proud of it.
“But I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth and cut it off with great slashes, close to my head. Then I stood with all that mass of hair shining in my hand and a queer, light feeling in my head.
“But I felt that I was free. I clamped on my cousin’s hat — how queer it felt with all that hair cut off! I bundled the hair into my pocket, because they mustn’t dream what I had done. Then someone beat on the door.
“‘Coming!’ I called to them.
“I ran to the window. The house was built on a slope, and it was not a very long drop to the ground, I suppose. But to me it seemed neck-breaking, that distance. It was dark, and I climbed out and hung by my hands, but I couldn’t find courage to let go. Then I tried to climb back, but there wasn’t any strength in my arms.
“I cried out for help, but the singing downstairs must have muffled the sound. My fingers grew numb — they slipped on the sill — and then I fell.
“The fall stunned me, I guess, for a moment. When I opened my eyes, I saw the stars and knew that I was free. I started up then and struck straight across country. At first I didn’t care where I went, so long as it was away, but when I got over the first hill I made up a plan. That was to go for the railroad and take a train. I did it.
“There was a long walk ahead of me before I reached the station, and with my cousin’s big boots wobbling on my feet I was very tired when I reached it. There were some freight cars on the siding, and there was hay on the floor of one of them. I crawled into the open door and went to sleep.
“After a while I woke up with a great jarring and jolting and noise. I found the car pitch dark. The door was closed, and pretty soon, by the roar of the wheels under me and the swing of the floor of the car, I knew that an engine had picked up the empty cars.
“It was a terrible time for me. I had heard stories of tramps locked into cars and starving there before the door was opened. Before the morning shone through the cracks of the boards, I went through all the pain of a death from thirst. But before noon the train stopped, and the car was dropped at a siding. I climbed out when they opened the door.
“The man who saw me only laughed. I suppose he could have arrested me.
“‘All right, kid, but you’re hitting the road early in life, eh!’
“Those were the first words that were spoken to me as a man.
“I didn’t know where I should go, but the train had taken me south, and that made me remember a town where my father had lived for a long time — Sour Creek. I started to get to this place.
“The hardest thing I had to do was the very first thing, and that was to take my ragged head of hair into a barber shop and get it trimmed. I was sure that the barber would know I was a girl, but he didn’t suspect.
“‘Been a long time in the wilds, youngster, eh?’ was all he said.
“And then I knew that I was safe, because people here in the West are not suspicious. They let a stranger go with one look. By the time I reached Sour Creek I was nearly over being ashamed of my clothes. And then I found this place and work as a schoolteacher. I think you know the rest.” She leaned close to Sinclair. “Was I wrong to leave him?”
Sinclair rubbed his chin. “You’d ought to have told him straight off,” he said firmly. “But seeing you went through with the wedding — well, take it all in all, your leaving of him was about the rightest thing I ever heard of.”
Quiet fell between them.
“But what am I going to do? And where is it all going to end?” a small voice inquired of Sinclair at last.
“Roll up in them blankets and go to sleep,” he advised her curtly. “I’m figuring steady on this here thing, Jig.”
Jig followed that advice. Sinclair had left the fire and was walking up and down from one end of the little plateau to the other, with a strong, long step. As for the girl, she felt that an incalculable burden had been shifted from her shoulders by the telling of this tale. That burden, she knew, must have fallen on another person, and it was not unpleasant to know that Riley Sinclair was the man.
Gradually the sense of strangeness faded. As she grew drowsy, it seemed the most natural thing in the world for her to be up here at the top of the world with a man she had; known two days. And, before she slept, the last thing of which she was conscious was the head of Sinclair in the broad sombrero, brushing to and fro across the stars.
18
WITH A BANG the screen door of Sheriff Kern’s office had creaked open and shut four times at intervals, and each man, entering in turn with a “Howdy” to the sheriff, had stamped the dust out of the wrinkles of his riding boots, hitched up his trousers carefully, and slumped into a chair. Not until the last of his handpicked posse had taken his place did the sheriff begin his speech.
“Gents,” he said, “how long have I been a sheriff?”
“Eighteen to twenty years,” said Bill Wood. “And it’s been twenty years of bad times for the safecrackers and gunmen of these parts.”
“Thanks,” said the sheriff hastily. “And how many that I’ve once put my hands on have got loose?”
Again Bill Wood answered, being the senior member.
“None. Your score is exactly one hundred percent, sheriff.”
Kern sighed. “Gents,” he said, “the average is plumb spoiled.”
It caused a general lifting of heads and then a respectful silence. To have offered sympathy would have been insulting; to ask questions was beneath their dignity, but four pairs of eyes burned with curiosity. The least curious was Arizona. He was a fat, oily man from the southland, whose past was unknown in the vicinity of Woodville, and Arizona happened to be by no means desirous of rescuing that past from oblivion. He held the southlander’s contempt for the men and ways of the north. His presence in the office was explained by the fact that he had long before discovered it to be an excellent thing to stand in with the sheriff. After this statement from Kern, therefore, he first glanced at his three companions, and, observing their agitation, he became somewhat stirred himself and puckered his fat brows above his eyes, as he glanced back at Kern.
“You’ve heard of the killing of Quade?” asked the sheriff.
“Yesterday,” said Red Chalmers.
“And that they got the killer?”
“Nope.”
“It was a gent you’d never have suspected — that skinny little schoolteacher, Gaspar.”
“I never liked the looks of him,” said Red Chalmers gloomily. “I always got to have a second thought about a gent that’s too smooth with the ladies. And that was this here Jig. So he done the shooting?”
“It was a fight over Sally Bent,” explained the sheriff. “Sandersen and some of the rest in Sour Creek fixed up a posse and went out and grabbed Gaspar. They gave him a lynch trial and was about to string him up when a stranger named Sinclair, a man who had joined up with the posse, steps out and holds for keeping Gaspar and tur
ning him over to me, to be hung all proper and legal. I heard about all this and went out to the Bent house, first thing this morning, to get Gaspar, who was left there in charge of this Sinclair. Any of you ever heard about him?”
A general bowing of heads followed, as the men began to consider, all save Arizona, who never thought when he could avoid it, and positively never used his memory. He habitually allowed the dead past to bury its dead.
“It appears to me like I’ve heard of a Sinclair up to Colma,” murmured Bill Wood. “That was four or five years back, and I b’lieve he was called a sure man in a fight.”
“That’s him,” muttered the sheriff. He was greatly relieved to know that his antagonist had already achieved so comfortable a reputation. “A big, lean, hungry-eyed gent, with a restless pair of hands. He come along with me while I was bringing Gaspar, but I didn’t think nothing about it, most nacheral. I leave it to you, boys!”
Settling themselves they leaned forward in their chairs.
“We was talking about hosses and suchlike, which Sinclair talked uncommon slick. He seemed a knowing gent, and I opened up to him, but in the middle of things he paws out his Colt, as smooth as you ever see, and he shoves it under my nose.”
Sheriff Kern paused. He was wearing gloves in spite of the fact that he was in his office. These gloves seem to have a peculiarly businesslike meaning for the others, and now they watched, fascinated, while the sheriff tugged his fingers deeper into the gloves, as if he were getting ready for action. He cleared his throat and managed to snap out the rest of the shameful statement.
“He stuck me up, boys, and he told Jig to beat it up the trail. Then he backed off, keeping me covered all the time, until he was around the hill. The minute he was out of sight I follered him, but when it come into view, him and Gaspar was high-tailing through the hills. I didn’t have no rifle, and it was plumb foolish to chase two killers with nothing but a Colt. Which I leave it to you gents!”
“Would have been crazy, sheriff,” asserted Red Chalmers.
“I dunno,” sighed Arizona, patting his fat stomach reminiscently. “I dunno. I guess you was right, Kern.”
The others glared at him, and the sheriff became purple.
“So I come back and figured that I’d best get together the handiest little bunch of fighting men I could lay hands on. That’s why I sent for you four.”
Clumsily they made their acknowledgements.
“Because,” said Kern, “it don’t take no senator to see that something
has got to be done. Sour Creek is after Gaspar, and now it’ll be after
Sinclair, too. But they got clear of me, and I’m the sheriff of
Woodville. It’s up to Woodville to get ’em back. Am I right?”
Again they nodded, and the sheriff, growing warmer as he talked, snatched off a glove and mopped his forehead. As his arm fell, he noted that Arizona had seen something which fascinated him. His eyes followed every gesture of the sheriff’s hand.
“Is that the whole story?” asked Arizona.
“The whole thing,” declared Kern stoutly, and he glared at the man from the southland.
“Because if it’s anything worse,” said Arizona innocently, “we’d ought to know it. The honor of Woodville is at stake.”
“Oh, it’s bad enough this way,” grumbled Joe Stockton, and the sheriff, hastily restoring his glove, grunted assent.
“Now, boys, let’s hear some plans.”
“First thing,” said Red Chalmers, rising, “is for each of us to pick out the best hoss in his string, and then we’ll all ride over to the place where they left and pick up the trail.”
“Not a bad idea,” approved Kern.
There was a general rising.
“Sit down,” said Arizona, who alone had not budged in his chair.
Without obeying, they turned to him.
“Was that the Morris trail, Kern?” asked Arizona.
“Sure.”
“Well, you ain’t got a chance of picking up the trail of two hosses out of two hundred.”
In silence they received the truth of this assertion. Then Joe Stockton spoke. He was not exactly a troublemaker, but he took advantage of every disturbance that came his way and improved it to the last scruple.
“Sinclair comes from Colma, according to Bill, and Colma is north. Ride north, Kern, and the north trail will keep us tolerable close to Sinclair. We can tend to Gaspar later on — unless he’s a pile more dangerous’n he looks.”
“Yes, Sinclair is the main one,” said the sheriff. “He’s more’n a hundred Gaspars. Boys, the north trail looks good to me. We can pick up Gaspar later on, as Joe Stockton says. Straight for Colma, that’s where we’ll strike.”
“Hold on,” cut in Arizona.
Patently they regarded him with disfavor. There was something blandly superior in Arizona’s demeanor. He had a way of putting forth his opinions as though it were not the slightest effort for him to penetrate truths which were securely veiled from the eyes of ordinary men.
Now he looked calmly, almost contemptuously upon the sheriff and the rest of the posse.
“Gents, has any of you ever seen this Jig you talk about ride a hoss?”
“Me, of course,” said the sheriff.
“Anything about him strike you when he was in a saddle?”
“Sure! Got a funny arm motion.”
“Like he was fanning his ribs with his elbows to keep cool?” went on
Arizona, grinning.
The sheriff chuckled.
“Would you pick him for a good hand on a long trail?”
“Never in a million years,” said the sheriff. “Is he?”
Kern seemed to admit his inferiority by asking this question. He bit his lip and was about to go on and answer himself when Arizona cut in with: “Never in a million years, sheriff. He couldn’t do twenty miles in a day without being laid up.”
“What’s the point of all this, Arizona?”
“I’ll show you pronto. Let’s go back to Sinclair. The other day he was one of a bunch that pretty near got Gaspar hung, eh?”
“Yep.”
“But at the last minute he saved Jig?”
“Sure. I just been telling you that.”
Their inability to follow Arizona’s train of thought irritated the others. He literally held them in the palm of his hand as he developed his argument.
“Why did he save Jig?” he went on. “Because when Gaspar was about to swing, they was something about him that struck Sinclair. What was it? I dunno, except that Jig is tolerable young looking and pretty helpless, even though you say he killed Quade.”
“Say he killed him?” burst out the sheriff. “It was plumb proved on him.”
“I’d sure like to see that proof,” said the man from the southland. “The point is that Sinclair took pity on him and kept him from the noose. Then he stays that night guarding him and gets more and more interested. This Jig has got a pile of education. I’ve heard him talk. Today you come over the hills. Sinclair sees Woodville, figures that’s the place where Jig’ll be hung, and he loses his nerve. He sticks you up and gets Jig free. All right! D’you think he’ll stop at that? Don’t he know that Jig’s plumb helpless on the trail? And knowing that, d’you think he’ll split with Jig and leave the schoolteacher to be picked up the first thing? No, sir, he’ll stick with Jig and see him through.”
“Well, all the better,” snapped the sheriff. “That’s going to make our trail shorter — if what you say turns out true.”
“It’s true, well enough. Sinclair right now is camping somewhere in the hills near Sour Creek, waiting for things to quiet down before he hits the out-trail with this Gaspar.”
“He wouldn’t be fool enough for that,” grumbled the sheriff.
“Fool? Has any one of you professional man hunters figured yet on hunting for ’em near Sour Creek? Ain’t you-all been talking long trails — Colma, and what not?”
They were crushed.
&nbs
p; “All you say is true, if Sinclair saddles himself with the tenderfoot.
Might as well tie so much lead around his neck.”
“He’ll do it, though,” said Arizona carelessly. “I know him.”
It caused a new focusing of attention upon him, and this time Arizona seemed to regret that he stood in the limelight.
“You know him?” asked Joe Stockton softly.
The bright black eyes of the fat man glittered and flickered from face to face. He seemed to be gauging them and deciding how much he could say — or how little.
“Sure, I drifted up to this country one season and rode there. I heard a pile about this Sinclair and seen him a couple of times.”
“How good a man d’you figure him to be with a gun?” asked the sheriff without apparent interest.
“Good enough,” sighed Arizona. “Good enough, partner!”
Presently the sheriff showed that he was a man capable of taking good advice, even though he could not stamp it as his own original device.
“Boys,” he said, “I figure that what Arizona has said is tolerable sound. Arizona, what d’you advise next?”
“That we go to Sour Creek pronto — and sit down and wait!”
A chorus of exclamations arose.
Arizona grew impatient with such stupidity. “Sinclair come to Sour Creek to do something. I dunno what he wants, but what he wants he ain’t got yet, and he’s the sort that’ll stay till he does his work.”
“I’ve got in touch with the authorities higher up, boys,” declared Kern. “Sinclair and Gaspar is both outlawed, with a price on their heads. Won’t that change Sinclair’s mind and make him move on?”
“You don’t know Sinclair,” persisted Arizona. “You don’t know him at all, sheriff.”
“Grab your hosses, boys. I’m following Arizona’s lead.”
Pouring out of the door in silence, the omniscience of Arizona lay heavily upon their minds. Inside, the sheriff lingered with the wise man from the southland.
“If I was to get in touch with Colma, Fatty, what d’you think they’d be able to tell me about your record up there?”