by B. M. Bower
CHAPTER X
THIS PAL BUSINESS
"You've got quite a lot of hay put up, I see," Billy Louise remarked,when they were leaving.
"Sure. I told you I've been working." Ward's tone was cheerful to thepoint of exuberance. He felt as though he could work day and nightnow, with the memory of Billy Louise's lips upon his own.
"You never put up that hay alone," she told him bluntly, "and youneedn't try to make me believe you did. I know better."
"How do you know?" Ward glanced over his shoulder at the stack, thenhumorously at her. He recognized the futility of trying to fool BillyLouise, but he was in the mood to tease her.
"Humph! I've helped stack hay myself, if you please. I can tell aone-man stack when I see it. Who did you get to help? Junkins?"
"No, a half-baked hobo I ran across. I had him here a month."
"Oh! Are those your horses down there? They can't be." Last April,Billy Louise had been very well informed as to Ward's resources. Shewas evidently trying to match her knowledge of their well-definedlimitations with what she saw now of prosperity in its first stages.
"They are, though. A dandy span of mares. I got a bargain there."
Billy Louise pondered a minute. "Ward, you aren't going into debt, areyou?" Her tone was anxious. "It's so beastly hard to get out, onceyou're in!"
"I don't owe anybody a red cent, William Louisa. Honest."
"Well, but--" Billy Louise looked at him from under puckered brows.
Ward laughed oddly. "I've been working, William. Last springI--hunted wolves for awhile; old ones and dens. They'd killed a coupleof calves for me, and I got out after them. I--made good at it; thebounty counts up pretty fast, you know."
"Yes-s, it does." Billy Louise bit her lips thoughtfully, turned andlooked back at the haystack, at the long line of new, wire fence, andat the two heavy-set mares feeding contentedly along the creek. "Theremust be money in wolves," she remarked evenly.
"There is. At least, I made good money hunting them." The smile washiding behind Ward's lips again and threatening to come boldly to thesurface. "They haven't bothered you any, I hope?"
"No," said Billy Louise, "they haven't. I guess they must be all upyour way."
For the life of him Ward could not tell to a certainty whether therewas sarcasm in her tone or whether she spoke in perfect innocence. Theshrewdest of us deceive ourselves sometimes. Ward might have known hecould not fool Billy Louise, who had careworn experience of the cost ofranch improvements and could figure almost the exact number ofwolf-bounties it would take to pay for what he had put into his claim.Still, he was right in thinking she would not quiz him beyond a certainpoint. She seemed to have reached that point quite suddenly, for shedid not say another word about Ward's affairs.
"What all's been happening in the world, anyway?" he asked, when theyhad exhausted some very trivial subjects. "Your world, I mean.Anything new or startling taken place?"
"Not a thing. Marthy was down last week and spent the day with us. Inever saw anybody change as much as she has. She looks almost neat,these days. And she can't talk about anything but Charlie and how wellhe's doing. She lets him do most of the managing, I think. And he hadsome money left to him, this spring, and has put it into cattle. Hebought quite a lot of mixed stock from Seabeck and some from Wintersand Nelson, Marthy says. I passed some of his cattle coming up."
"Going to have a rival in the business, am I?" Ward laughed. "I wasfiguring on being the only thriving young cattle-king in this neck ofthe woods, myself."
"Well, Charlie's in a fair way to beat you to it. I wish," sighedBilly Louise, "some kind person would leave me a bunch of money. Don'tyou? Cattle are coming up a little all the time. I'd like to own alot more than I do."
"Well, we--" Ward stopped and reconsidered. "If wolfing continues topay like it has done," he said, with a twitch of the lips, "I intend tostick my little Y6 monogram on a few more cowhides before snow flies,William. And when you've had enough of this friend business--"
"Oh, by that time we'll all be rich!" Billy Louise declared lightly,and for a wonder Ward was wise enough to let that close the subject.
"We're getting neighbors down below, too," she observed later. "Ididn't tell you that. Down the river a few miles. The country issettling up all the time," she sighed. "Pretty soon there won't be anymore wilderness left. I like it up where you've located. That willstay wild forever, won't it? They can't plant spuds on those hills,anyway.
"And--did you hear, Ward? Seabeck and some of the others have beenlosing stock, they say. You know Marthy lost four calves last fall, bysome means. Charlie Fox was terribly worried about it, though it washis own fault, and--well, I thought at the time someone had taken them,and I think so still. And just the other day one of Seabeck's menstopped at the ranch, and he told me they're shy some cows and calves.They can't imagine what went with them, and they're lying low and notsaying anything much about it. You haven't heard or seen anything,have you, Ward?"
"I've stuck so close to the hills I haven't heard or seen anything,"Ward affirmed. "It's amazing, the way the days slip by when a fellow'sbusy all the time. Except for two trips out the other way, to Hardup,I haven't been three miles from my claim all spring."
"Hardup! That's where the bank was robbed, a few weeks ago, isn't it?The stage-driver told me about it."
"I don't know; I hadn't heard anything about it. I haven't been therefor a month and more," said Ward easily. "Nearer two months, come tothink of it. I was there after a mower and rake and some wire."
"Oh!" Billy Louise glanced at him sidelong and added several morewolves to the number she had mentally put down to Ward's credit.
Ward twisted in the saddle so that he faced her, and his eyes weredancing with mischief. "Honest, William, I'm not wading into debt.Every cent I've put into that place this summer I made hunting wolves.That's a fact, Wilhemina."
"I wish you'd tell me how, so I can do it, too," Billy Louise sighed,convinced by his tone and flat statement, yet feeling certain there wassome "catch" to it, after all. It was exactly like a riddle thatsounds perfectly plain and simple to the ears, and to the reasonutterly impossible.
"Well, I will--when you're through playing pals," he assured hercruelly. Ward did not know women very well, but he believed curiosityto be one of the strongest traits in the sex. "That's a bargain,William Louisa, and I'll shake hands on it if you like. When you'vehad enough of this just-friend business, I'll show you how I digdollars outa wolf-dens." He grinned at the puzzled face of her. Itwas a riddle, and he had practically put the answer before her, andstill she could not see it. There was a little streak of devilment inWard, and happiness was uncovering the streak.
"I never said I was crazy to know," Billy Louise squelched himpromptly. "Not that crazy, anyway. I'll live quite as long withoutknowing, I reckon."
She almost won her point--because Ward did not know women very well.He hesitated, gave her a quick, questioning glance, and actually openedhis lips to tell her all about it. He got as far as, "Oh, well, Isuppose I'll have to--" when Billy Louise saw a rattlesnake in thetrail ahead and spurred up to kill it with her rope. She really wascrazy to know the answer to the riddle, but a rattlesnake willinterrupt anything from a proposal of marriage to a murder.
Ward's fingers had gone into the pocket in his shirt where the nuggethe had found that morning was sagging the cloth a little. He had beenon the point of giving it to Billy Louise, but he let it stay where itwas and instead took down his own rope to get after the snake, that hadcrawled under a bush and there showed a disposition to fight. Andsince Blue was no fonder of rattlesnakes than he was of mud, BillyLouise could not bring him close enough for a direct blow.
"Get back, and I'll show you why I named this cayuse Rattler," Wardshouted. "I'll bet I've killed five hundred snakes with him--"
"Almost as many as you have wolves!" Billy Louise snapped back at himand so lost her point ju
st when she had practically gained it. Wardcertainly would not tell her, after that stab.
Rattler perked his ears forward toward the strident buzzing which onceheard is never forgotten, and which is never heard without a tensing ofnerves. He sighted the snake, coiled and ready for war in the smallshade of a rabbit-bush. He circled the spot warily, his head turnedsidewise, and his eyes fixed upon the flattened, ugly head with itsthread of a darting tongue.
Ward pulled his gun, "threw down" on the snake, and cut off its headwith a bullet.
"I could have done that myself," Billy Louise asserted jealously.
"Well, I forgot. Next time I'll let you do the shooting. I was goingto show you how Rattler helps. He'll circle around just right so I canmake one swing of the rope do. But Mr. Snake stuck too close to thatrabbit brush; and I was afraid if I drove him out of there with myrope, he'd get under those rocks. I'm sorry, Wilhemina. I didn'tthink."
"Oh, I can get all the snake-shooting I want, any time." Billy Louiselaughed good-humoredly. "I wish you'd give Blue a few lessons--the oldsinner!"
"Not on your life, I won't." Ward leaned from the saddle, picked upthe snake by the tail, pinched off the rattles, and dropped therepulsive thing to the ground with a slight shiver of relief. He gavethe rattles to Billy Louise. "I'm glad Blue does feel a wholesomerespect for rattlers; he'll take better care of himself--and hismistress. With me it doesn't matter."
"Oh--doesn't it?" asked Billy Louise, and there was that in her tonethat made Ward's heart give a flop. "There's some of Marthy's cattleright ahead," she added hurriedly, seizing the first trifle with whichto neutralize the effect of that tone.
"MK monogram," said Ward absently, reading the brand mechanically, asis the habit of your true range man. "Pretty fresh, too. Must havejust bought them."
"He got them a month or so ago," said Billy Louise. "Marthy says--"
"A month?" Ward turned and gave the cow nearest him a keener look."Pretty good condition," he observed, quite idly. "Say, William, whenthese hills get filled up with Y6es and big Ds, all these other scrubcritters will have to hunt new range, won't they?"
"It will be a long while before the big Ds crowd out so much as acrippled calf," Billy Louise answered pessimistically. "I lost twonice heifers, a week or so ago. They broke through the upper fenceinto the alfalfa and started to fill up, of course. They were deadwhen I found them."
"Next time I cash in my wolf--" Ward started to promise, but she cuthim short.
"Do you mind if we stop at the Cove, Ward? Mommie wanted me to stopand get some currants. Marthy says they're ripe, and she has more thanshe knows what to do with."
"I don't mind--if you're dead sure it's the currants."
"You certainly are in a pestering mood to-day," Billy Louise protested,laughing. "You can't jump any game on that trail, smarty. Charlie Foxis a perfectly lovely young man, but he's got a girl in Wyoming. Thestage-driver says there's never been a trip in that he didn't take aletter from the Cove box to Miss Gertrude M. Shannon, Elk Valley,Wyoming. So you needn't try--"
"Nice, mouthy stage-driver," Ward commented. "Foxy ought to land onhim a few times and see if he'd take the hint."
"Well, I knew it before he told me. Marthy said last winter thatCharlie's engaged. He's trying to get prosperous enough to marry herand bring her out to the Cove; it will be his when Marthy dies, anyway.I must say Charlie's a hustler, all right. He keeps a man all the timenow, since he bought more cattle. Peter Howling Dog's working for him.Charlie's tried to range-herd his cattle so he and Peter can gatherthem alone; and he offered to look after mine, too, so I won't have somuch riding to do this hot weather. He's awfully nice, Ward, really.I don't care if he is a rah-rah boy. And he isn't a bit in love withme."
"Is it possible," grinned Ward, "that any human man can come out Westand not fall in love with the Prairie Flower--"
"Ward Warren, do you want me to--"
"But it's breaking all the rules of romance, Bill-the-Conk!" Wardpersisted. "No story-sharp would ever stand for a thing like that.Don't you know that the nice young man from college always takes noticein the second chapter, says 'By Jove! What a little beauty!' in thethird, and from there on till the wind-up spends most of his timerunning around in circles because the beautiful flower of the ranchogives him the bad eye?" He twisted sidewise in the saddle, took ahalf-hitch with the reins around the saddle-horn, and proceeded tomanufacture a cigarette while he went on with the burlesque.
"It opened out according to Hoyle, a year ago, William. Nice young mancomes west. Finds Flower of the Rancho first rattle of the box, withbrave young buckaroo riding herd on her to beat four of a kind. Lookslike there's no chance for our young hero. Brave buckaroo has to hiehim forth to toil, however--" Ward paused long enough to light up, andafterwards blow out the match carefully before dropping it in thetrail, "--at the humble sum of forty dollars per month. That leavesour young hero on the job temporarily. Stick in a few chapters ofheart-burnings on the part of the brave buckaroo--"
"Oh, yes, no doubt!" from Billy Louise, who was trying not to giggle.
"Oh, he had 'em, far as that goes. Brave buckaroo had heart-burningsenough for a Laura Jean Libbey romance. All according to Hoyle. Younghero-- Say, Bill, what's the matter with that gazabo, anyway? Hasn'the got good eyesight, or what? Can't the chump see he's overlooking abet when--"
"Oh, you make me sick!" Billy Louise slashed at a ripening branch ofservice berries with her quirt and scared Blue so that he lungedagainst the romancer. "You men seem to think the girl has nothing tosay about it! You think we just sit and smile and wait for somebody tosnap his fingers, and we jump at him! You--"
"Didn't I say there would be several chapters where the haughty beautykeeps our young hero running around in circles, and the brave buckaroocan't figure out whether he ought to buy a ring or more shells for hissix-gun?"
"With the inference that she flops into his arms in the last chapterand hides her maidenly blushes against the pocket where he keeps hissack of Bull Durham and papers--"
"Oh, you Bill-the-Conk! It would be the brave buckaroo in the lastchapter then, would it?" Ward leaned close, swift tenderness puttingthe teasing twinkle to flight from his eyes. "Our young hero smokes abriar, Wilhemina-mine!"
"We-el--don't skip!" cried Billy Louise, backing away from him withmore blushes than any girl could hope to hide behind a coat of tan."There's lots of chapters before the last. And you've got to read themstraight through and--no fair skipping!"
"Wilhemina-mine!" Ward repeated the newly invented appellation, whichseemed to approach satisfactorily close to the line of forbiddenendearments.
"Oh, for pity's sake! I never knew you to act so." Billy Louisescowled unconvincingly at him from a safe distance.
"I never was kissed before," blurted Ward foolhardily, kicking Rattlercloser.
"Well, if that's what ails you, I'll see it doesn't happen again,"retorted Billy Louise squelchingly, and Ward's self-assurance was notgreat enough to lift him over the barrier of that rebuff.
They came upon Charlie Fox sitting on his horse beside the crudemail-box, reading avidly a letter of many crisp, close-written pages.Billy Louise flashed Ward an I-told-you-so glance.
"Why, how do you do?" Charlie came out of cloudland with a start andturned to them cordially, while he hastily folded the letter. "Goingdown into the Cove? That's good. I was just up after the mail. Howare things up your way, Warren?"
"Fine as silk." Ward's eyes swung briefly toward what he consideredthe chief bit of fineness.
"That's good. Trail's a little narrow for three, isn't it? I'll rideahead and open the gate."
"They've got a new gate down here," said Billy Louise trivially. "Iforgot that important bit of news."
"Well, it is important--to us Covers," smiled Charlie, glancing back atthem. "No more bars to be left down accidentally. This gate shutsitself, in case someone forgets."
"And you haven't lost
any more cattle, have you?" The question was astatement, after Billy Louise's habit.
"Not out of the Cove, at any rate. I--can't speak so positively as tothe outside stock--of course."
"You've missed some?" Billy Louise never permitted a tone to slip pasther without tagging it immediately with plain English. Charlie's tonehad said something to which his words made no reference.
"I don't like to say that, Miss Louise. Very likely they havestray--drifted, I mean--back toward their home ranch. Peter and Ican't keep cases very closely, of course."
Billy Louise shifted uneasily in the saddle and pulled her eyebrowstogether. "If you think you've lost some cattle, for heaven's sake whydon't you say so!" (Ward smiled to himself at her tone.) "If there'sanything I hate, it's hinting and never coming right out with anything.Have you lost any?"
Charlie turned with a hand on the cantle and faced her with politereproach. "Peter says we have," he admitted, with very evidentreluctance. "I hardly think so myself. I'd have to count them. Iknow, of course, how many we've bought in the last year."
"Well, Peter knows more about it than you do," Billy Louise told himbluntly. "If he has missed any, they're probably gone."
"I was in hopes you would be on my side, Miss Louise." Charlie smileddeprecatingly. "I've argued with Aunt Martha and Peter until-- But Ididn't know you were a confirmed pessimist as well!"
"You didn't neglect to put your brand on them, did you?" asked BillyLouise cruelly.
Charlie flushed under the sunburn. "Really, Miss Louise, you've nomercy on a tenderfoot, have you?" he protested. "No, they are allbranded, really they are. Peter and Aunt Martha saw to that," heconfessed naively.
"It seems queer," said Billy Louise, thinking aloud. "Ward, therecertainly is rustling going on around here; and no one seems to know athing beyond the mere fact that they're losing cattle. Seabeck haslost some--"
"Oh, are you sure?" Charlie's eyes widened perceptibly. "I hadn'theard that. By Jove! It sort of makes a fellow feel shaky about goinginto cattle very strong, doesn't it? It--it knocks off the profitslike the very deuce, to keep losing one here and there."
"A fellow has to figure on a certain percentage of loss," said Ward."This the new gate?"
"Yes." Charlie seemed relieved by the diversion. "Just merely a gate,as you see; but we Covers are proud of every little improvement. AuntMartha comes up here every day, I verily believe, just to look at itand admire it. The poor old soul never had any conveniences that shecouldn't make herself, you know, and she thinks this is great stuff. Iput this padlock on it so she can lock herself in, nights when I'maway. She feels better with the gate locked. And then I've got a dogthat's as good as a company of soldiers himself. If either of youhappen down here when there's no one about, you will have to introduceyourselves to Cerberus--so named because he guards the gates--not thegate to Hades, please remember. Surbus, Aunt Martha calls him, whichis good Idahoese and seems to please him as well as any other. Justspeak to him by name--Surbus if you like--and he will be all right, Ithink." He held open the gate for them to ride through and gave them acomradely look and smile as they passed.
Ward took in the details of the heavy gate that barred the gorge. Hedid not know that he betrayed the fact even to the sharp eyes of BillyLouise, but he could not quite bring himself to the point of meetingCharlie Fox anywhere near half-way in his overtures for friendship.
"The weight is so heavy that the gate shuts and latches itself, yousee," Charlie went on, mounting on the inside of the barrier andfollowing cheerfully after them. "But that doesn't satisfy AuntMartha. She and Surbus make a special pilgrimage up here every night."
"She must be pretty nervous." Ward could not quite see why suchprecautions were necessary in a country where no man locked his dooragainst the world.
"Well, she is, though you wouldn't suspect it, would you? When onethinks of the life she has lived, and how she pioneered in here whenthe country was straight wilderness, and all that. Of course, I didn'tknow her before Uncle Jason died--do you think she has changed since,Miss Louise?"
"Lots," Billy Louise assured him briefly. She was wondering why Wardwas so stiff and unnatural with Charlie Fox.
"I think myself that the shock of losing him must have made thedifference in her. There's Surbus; how's that for a voice? And he'sjust as blood-thirsty as he sounds, too. I'd hate to have him tackleme in the gorge, on a dark night. He's too savage, though it's onlywith strangers, and we don't see many of them. He almost ate Peter up,when he first came. And he gave you quite a scare last spring, didn'the, Miss Louise?"
"He came within an ace of getting his head shot off," Billy Louisequalified laconically. "Marthy came out just in the nick of time. Iabsolutely refuse to be chewed up by any dog; and I don't care who hebelongs to."
"Same here, William," approved Ward.
Charlie laughed. "I see Surbus is not going to be popular with theneighbors," he said easily. "I do feel very apologetic over him. ButMarthy wanted me to get a dog, and so when a fellow offered me thisone, I took him; and as Surbus happened to take a fancy to me, I didn'trealize what a savage brute he is, till he tackled Peter--and then MissLouise."
"Well, Miss Louise was perfectly able to defend herself, so you needn'tfeel apologetic about that," said Billy Louise a trifle sharply. Shehated Surbus, and she was quite open in her hatred. "If he ever comesat me again, and nobody calls him off, I shall shoot him." It was nota threat, as she spoke it, but a plain statement of a fact. "You'dbetter serve notice too, Ward. He's a nasty beast, and he'd just assoon kill a person as not. He was going to jump for my throat. He wascrouched, just ready to spring--and I had my gun out--when Marthy sawus and gave a yell fit to wake the dead. Surbus didn't jump, and Ididn't shoot. That's how close he came to being a dead dog."
She glanced at Ward and then furtively at Charlie Fox. If expressionmeant anything, Surbus was yet in danger of paying for that assault.She caught Ward's truculent eye, smiled, and shook her head at him."We're pretty fair friends now," she said. "At least, we don't try tokill each other whenever we meet. 'Armed neutrality' fits our casefine."
"I think I'll volunteer under your flag," said Ward. "I'll leaveCerberus alone as long as he leaves me and my friends alone. But I'dadvise him not to start anything."
"That's all Surbus or anyone else can ask. Come on, old fellow!Pardon me," he added to his companions and rode past them to meet thegreat, heavy-jowled dog. "Be still, Surbus. We're all friends, here."
The dog lifted a non-committal glance to Ward's face, growled deep inhis chest, and dropped behind, nosing the tracks of Blue and Rattler asif he would identify them and fix them in his memory for future use.
Ward had never seen the Cove in summer. He looked about him curiously,struck by the atmosphere of quiet plenty. Over the crude fence hungfruit-laden branches from the jungle within. There was a smell ofripening plums in the air, and the hum of bees. Somewhere in theorchard a wild canary was singing. If he could live down here, hethought, with Billy Louise and none other near, he would ask no odds ofthe world or of heaven. He glanced at Charlie Fox enviously. Well, hehad a fairly well-sheltered place of his own, up there in the hills.He could set out fruit and plants and things and have a little Eden ofhis own; though of course it couldn't be like this place, sheltered asit was from harsh winds by that high rock wall, and soaking in sunshineall day long. Still, he could fix his place up a lot, with a littletime and thought and a good deal of hard work.
He looked at Billy Louise and saw how the beauty of the place appealedto her, and right there he decided to study horticulture so that hecould raise plums and apples and hollyhocks and things.