The Untamed

by Max Brand

  CHAPTER XXVI

  BLACK BART TURNS NURSE

  It was old Mrs. Daniels who woke first at the sound of scratching andgrowling. She roused her husband and son, and all three went to thedoor, Buck in the lead with his six-gun in his hand. At sight of thewolf he started back and raised the gun, but Black Bart fawned abouthis feet.

  "Don't shoot--it's a dog, an' there's his master!" cried Sam. "By theLord, they's a dead man tied on that there hoss!"

  Dan lay on Satan, half fallen from the saddle, with his head hangingfar down, only sustained by the strength of the rein. The stallion,wholly spent, stood with his legs braced, his head low, and his breathcoming in great gasps. The family ran to the rescue. Sam cut the reinand Buck lowered the limp body in his arms.

  "Buck, is he dead?" whispered Mrs. Daniels.

  "I don't feel no heart beat," said Buck. "Help me fetch him into thehouse, Dad!"

  "Look out for the hoss!" cried Sam.

  Buck started back with his burden just in time, for Satan,surrendering to his exhaustion, pitched to the ground, and lay withsprawling legs like a spent dog rather than a horse.

  "Let the hoss be," said Buck. "Help me with the man. He's hurt bad."

  Mrs. Daniels ran ahead and lighted a lamp. They laid the bodycarefully upon a bed. It made a ghastly sight, the bloodless face withthe black hair fallen wildly across the forehead, the mouth looselyopen, and the lips black with dust.

  "Dad!" said Buck. "I think I've seen this feller. God knows if he'slivin' or dead."

  He dropped to his knees and pressed his ear over Dan's heart.

  "I can't feel no motion. Ma, get that hand mirror--"

  She had it already and now held it close to the lips of the woundedman. When she drew it away their three heads drew close together.

  "They's a mist on it! He's livin'!" cried Buck.

  "It ain't nothing," said Sam. "The glass ain't quite clear, that'sall."

  Mrs. Daniels removed the last doubt by running her finger across thesurface of the glass. It left an unmistakable mark.

  They wasted no moment then. They brought hot and cold water, washedout his wound, cleansed away the blood; and while Mrs. Daniels and herhusband fixed the bandage, Buck pounded and rubbed the limp body torestore the circulation. In a few minutes his efforts were rewarded bya great sigh from Dan.

  He shouted in triumph, and then: "By God, it's Whistlin' Dan Barry."

  "It is!" said Sam. "Buck, they's been devils workin' tonight. It suretook more'n one man to nail him this way."

  They fell to work frantically. There was a perceptible pulse, thebreathing was faint but steady, and a touch of colour came in theface.

  "His arm will be all right in a few days," said Mrs. Daniels, "but hemay fall into a fever. He's turnin' his head from side to side andtalkin'. What's he sayin', Buck?"

  "He's sayin': 'Faster, Satan.'"

  "That's the hoss," interpreted Sam.

  "'Hold us straight, Bart!' That's what he's sayin' now."

  "That's the wolf."

  "'An' it's all for Delilah!' Who's Delilah, Dad?"

  "Maybe it's some feller Dan knows."

  "Some feller?" repeated Mrs. Daniels with scorn. "It's some worthlessgirl who got Whistlin' Dan into this trouble."

  Dan's eyes opened but there was no understanding in them.

  "Haines, I hate you worse'n hell!"

  "It's Lee Haines who done this!" cried Sam.

  "If it is, I'll cut out his heart!"

  "It can't be Haines," broke in Mrs. Daniels. "Old man Perkins, didn'the tell us that Haines was the man that Whistlin' Dan Barry hadbrought down into Elkhead? How could Haines do this shootin' while hewas in jail?"

  "Ma," said Sam, "you watch Whistlin' Dan. Buck an' me'll take care ofthe hoss--that black stallion. He's pretty near all gone, but he'sworth savin'. What I don't see is how he found his way to us. It'scertain Dan didn't guide him all the way."

  "How does the wind find its way?" said Buck. "It was the wolf thatbrought Dan here, but standin' here talkin' won't tell us how. Let'sgo out an' fix up Satan."

  It was by no means an easy task. As they approached the horse heheaved himself up, snorting, and stood with legs braced, and pendanthead. Even his eyes were glazed with exhaustion, but behind themit was easy to guess the dauntless anger which raged against theseintruders. Yet he would have been helpless against them. It was BlackBart who interfered at this point. He stood before them, his hairbristling and his teeth bared.

  Sam suggested: "Leave the door of the house open an' let him hearWhistlin' Dan's voice."

  It was done. At once the delirious voice of Dan stole out to themfaintly. The wolf turned his head to Satan with a plaintive whine, asif asking why the stallion remained there when that voice was audible.Then he raced for the open door and disappeared into the house.

  "Hurry in, Buck!" called Sam. "Maybe the wolf'll scare Ma!"

  They ran inside and found Black Bart on the bed straddling the body ofWhistling Dan, and growling at poor Mrs. Daniels, who crouched in acorner of the room. It required patient work before he was convincedthat they actually meant no harm to his master.

  "What's the reason of it?" queried Sam helplessly. "The damn wolf letus take Dan off the hoss without makin' any fuss."

  "Sure he did," assented Buck, "but he ain't sure of me yet, an' everytime he comes near me he sends the cold chills up my back."

  Having decided that he might safely trust them to touch Dan's body,the great wolf went the round and sniffed them carefully, his hairbristling and the forbidding growl lingering in his throat. In the endhe apparently decided that they might be tolerated, though he mustkeep an eye upon their actions. So he sat down beside the bed andfollowed with an anxious eye every movement of Mrs. Daniels. The menwent back to the stallion. He still stood with legs braced far apart,and head hanging low. Another mile of that long race and he would havedropped dead beneath his rider.

  Nevertheless at the coming of the strangers he reared up his head alittle and tried to run away. Buck caught the dangling reins nearthe bit. Satan attempted to strike out with his forehoof. It was amovement as clumsy and slow as the blow of a child, and Buck easilyavoided it. Realizing his helplessness Satan whinnied a heart-breakingappeal for help to his unfailing friend, Black Bart. The wail of thewolf answered dolefully from the house.

  "Good Lord," groaned Buck. "Now we'll have that black devil on ourhands again."

  "No, we won't," chuckled Sam, "the wolf won't leave Dan. Come onalong, old hoss."

  Nevertheless it required hard labour to urge and drag the stallionto the stable. At the end of that time they had the saddle off and amanger full of fodder before him. They went back to the house with theimpression of having done a day's work.

  "Which it shows the fool nature of a hoss," moralized Sam. "Thatstallion would be willin' to lay right down and die for the manthat's jest rode him up to the front door of death, but he wisheseverlastingly that he had the strength to kick the daylight out of youan' me that's been tryin' to take care of him. You jest write thisdown inside your brain, Buck: a hoss is like a woman. They jestnacherally ain't no reason in 'em!"

  They found Dan in a heavy sleep, his breath coming irregularly. Mrs.Daniels stated that it was the fever which she had feared and sheoffered to sit up with the sick man through the rest of that night.Buck lifted her from the chair and took her place beside the bed.

  "No one but me is goin' to take care of Whistlin' Dan," he stated.

  So the vigil began, with Buck watching Dan, and Black Bart alert,suspicious, ready at the first wrong move to leap at the throat ofBuck.