by B. M. Bower
CHAPTER 12. SHACKS, LIVE STOCK AND PILGRIMS PROMPTLY AND PAINFULLY REMOVED
"I'm looking rather seedy now, while holding down my claim, And my grub it isn't always served the best, And the mice play shyly round me as I lay me down to rest In my little old sod shanty on my claim. Oh, the hinges are of leather and the windows have no glass, And the roof it lets the howling blizzards in, And I hear the hungry kiote as he sneaks up through grass--
"Say! have they got down the hill yet, Pink;" Pink took his cigarettefrom his fingers, leaned and peered cautiously through the grimy window."Unh-huh. They're coming up the flat."
Whereupon Andy Green, ostentatiously washing his breakfast dishes,skipped two or three verses and lifted his voice in song to fit theoccasion.
"How I wish that some kind-hearted girl would pity on me take, And relieve me of the mess that I am in! Oh, the angel, how I'd bless her if her home with me she'd make, In my little old sod shanty--
"Got her yet?" And he craned his neck to look. "Aw, they've pulled up,out there, listening!"
"My clothes are plastered o'er with dough, I'm looking like a fright, And everything is scattered round the room--"
"Why don't yuh stop that caterwauling?" Pink demanded fretfully. "You'llqueer the whole play if you keep it up. They'll swear you're drunk!"
There was sense in that. Andy finished the line about remaining twohappy lovers in his little old sod shanty, and went to the door with thedishpan. He threw out the water, squeezed the dishrag in one hand andgave the inside of the pan a swipe before he appeared to discover thatMiss Allen and Florence Grace Hallman were riding up to his door. As amatter of fact, he had seen them come over the top of the bluff and hadlong ago guessed who they were.
He met them with a smile of surprised innocence, and invited theminside. They refused to come, and even Miss Allen showed a certainreproachful coolness toward him. Andy felt hurt at that, but he did notmanifest the fact. Instead he informed them that it was a fine morning.And were they out taking a look around?
They were. They were looking up the men who had perpetrated the outragelast night upon four settlers.
"Outrage?" Andy tilted the dishpan against the cabin wall, draped thedishrag over the handle and went forward, pulling down his sleeves."What outrage is that, Miss Hallman? Anybody killed?"
Miss Hallman watched him with her narrowed glance. She saw the quickglance he gave Miss Allen, and her lids narrowed still more. So thatwas it! But she did not swerve from her purpose, for all this unexpectedthrust straight to the heart of her self-love.
"You know that no one was killed. But you damaged enough property toplace you on the wrong side of the law, Mr. Green. Not one of thoseshacks can be gotten out of the gulch except in pieces!"
Andy smiled inside his soul, but his face was bewildered; his eyes fixedthemselves blankly upon her face. "Me? Damaging property? Miss Hallman,you don't know me yet!" Which was perfectly true. "What shacks are youtalking about? In what gulch? All the shacks I've seen so far have beenstuck up on bald pinnacles where the blizzards will hit 'em comingand going next winter." He glanced again at Miss Allen with a certainsympathetic foretaste of what she would suffer next winter if she stayedin her shack.
"Don't try to play innocent, Mr. Green." Florence Grace Hallman drew herbrows together. "We all know perfectly well who dragged those shacks offthe claims last night."
"Don't you mean that you think you know? I'm afraid you've kinda takenit for granted I'd be mixed up in any deviltry you happened to hearabout. I've got in bad with you--I know that--but just the same, I hateto be accused of everything that takes place in the country. All this issure interesting news to me. Whereabouts was they taken from? And when,and where to? Miss Allen, you'll tell me the straight of this, won'tyou? And I'll get my hoss and you'll show me what gulch she's talkingabout, won't you?"
Miss Allen puckered her lips into a pout which meant indecision, andglanced at Florence Grace Hallman. And Miss Hallman frowned at beingshunted into the background and referred to as she, and set her teethinto her lower lip.
"Miss Allen prefers to choose her own company," she said with distinctrudeness. "Don't try to wheedle her--you can't do it. And you needn'tget your horse to ride anywhere with us, Mr. Green. It's useless. I justwanted to warn you that nothing like what happened last night will betolerated. We know all about you Flying U men--you Happy Family." Shesaid it as if she were calling them something perfectly disgraceful."You may be just as tough and bad a you please--you can't frightenanyone into leaving the country or into giving up one iota of theirrights. I came to you because you are undoubtedly the ring-leader of thegang." She accented gang. "You ought to be shot for what you didlast night. And if you keep on--" She left the contingency to hisimagination.
"Well, if settling up the country means that men are going to be shotfor going to bed at dark and asleeping till sun-up, all I've got to sayis that things ain't like they used to be. We were all plumb peacefulhere till your colony came, Miss Hallman. Why, the sheriff never got outthis way often enough to know the trails! He always had to ask his wayaround. If your bunch of town mutts can't behave themselves and leaveeach other alone, I don't know what's to be done about it. We ain'thired to keep the peace."
"No, you've been hired to steal all the land you can and make all thetrouble you can. We understand that perfectly."
Andy shook his head in meek denial, and with a sudden impulse turnedtoward the cabin. "Oh, Pink!" he called, and brought that boyish-facedyoung man to the door, his eyes as wide and as pure as the eyes of achild.
Pink lifted his hat with just the proper degree of confusion to impressthe girls with his bashfulness and his awe of their presence. His eyeswere the same pansy-purple as when the Flying U first made tumultuousacquaintance with him. His apparent innocence had completely fooled theHappy Family, you will remember. They had called him Mamma's Little Lamband had composed poetry and horrific personal history for his benefit.The few years had not changed him. His hair was still yellow and curly.The dimples still dodged into his cheeks unexpectedly; he was still muchlike a stick of dynamite wrapped in white tissue and tied with a ribbon.He looked an angel of innocence, and in reality he was a little devil.
Andy introduced him, and Pink bowed and had all the appearance ofblushing--though you will have to ask Pink how he managed to create thatoptical illusion. "What did you want?" he asked in his soft, girlishvoice, turning to Andy bashfully. But from the corner of his eye Pinksaw that a little smile of remembrance had come to soften Miss Hallman'sangry features, and that the other girl was smiling also. Pink hatedthat attitude of pleasant patronage which women were so apt to taketoward him, but for the present it suited his purpose to encourage it.
"Pink, what time was it when we went to bed last night?" Andy asked himin the tone of one who wished to eliminate all doubt of his virtue.
"Why--it was pretty early. We didn't light the lamp at all, youremember. You went to bed before I did--we couldn't see the cards--" Hestopped confusedly, and again he gave the two women the impression thathe blushed. "We weren't playing for money," he hurriedly explained."Just for pastime. It's--pretty lonesome--sometimes."
"Somebody did something to somebody last night," Andy informed Pinkwith a resentful impatience. "Miss Hallman thinks we're the guiltyparties--me in particular, because she don't like me. It's somethingabout some shacks--damaging property, she called it. Just what was ityou said was done, Miss Hallman?" He turned his honest, gray eyes towardher and met her suspicious look steadily.
Miss Hallman bit her lip. She had been perfectly sure of the guilt ofAndy Green, and of the others who were his friends. Now, in spite ofall reason she was not so sure. And there had been nothing more tangiblethan two pairs of innocent-looking eyes and the irreproachable mannersof two men to change her conviction.
"Well, I naturally took it for granted that you did it," she weakened."The s
hacks were moved off eighties that you have filed upon, Mr.Green. Mr. Owens told me this morning that you men came by his placeand threatened him yesterday, and ordered him to move. No one else wouldhave any object in molesting him or the others." Her voice hardenedagain as her mind dwelt upon the circumstances. "It must have been you!"she finished sharply.
Whereupon Pink gave her a distressed look that made Miss Hallman flushunmistakably. "I'm just about distracted, this morning," she apologized."I took it upon myself to see these settlers through--and everybodymakes it just as hard as possible for me. Why should all you fellowstreat us the way you do? We--"
"Why, we aren't doing a thing!" Pink protested diffidently. "We thoughtwe'd take up some claims and go to ranching for ourselves, when wegot discharged from the Flying U. We didn't mean any harm--everybody'staking up claims. We've bought some cattle and we're going to tryand get ahead, like other folks. We--I wanted to cut out all thiswildness--"
"Are those your cattle up on the hill? Some men shipped in four carloadsof young stock, yesterday, to Dry Lake. They drove them out hereintending to turn them on the range, and a couple of men--"
"Four men," Miss Allen corrected with a furtive twinkle in her eyes.
"Some men refused to let them cross that big coulee back there. Theydrove the cattle back toward Dry Lake, and told Mr. Simmons and Mr.Chase and some others that they shouldn't come on this bench back hereat all. That was another thing I wanted to see you men about."
"Maybe they were going to mix their stock up with ours," Pink venturedmildly.
"Your men shot, and shot, and shot--the atmosphere up there is shot sofull of holes that the wind just whistles through!" Miss Allen informedthen gravely, with her eyebrows all puckered together and the furtivelittle twinkle in her eyes. "And they yelled so that we could hear themfrom the house! They made those poor cows and those poor, weenty calvesjust go trotting back across the coulee. My new book on farming saysyou positively must not hurry cattle. It--oh, it does something to thebutter-fat--joggles it all up or something--I'll lend you the book.I found the chapter on Proper Treatment of Dairy Stock, and I watchedthose men with the book in my hands. Why, it was terribly unscientific,the way they drove those cow-critters!"
"I'll come over and get the book," Andy promised her, with a look inhis eyes that displeased Miss Hallman very much. "We're ashamed of ourignorance. We'd like to have you learn us what's in the book."
"I will. And every week--just think of that! I'm to get a real farmpaper."
"I'd like to borrow the paper too," Andy declared instantly.
"Oh, and--what's going to be done about all those bullet-holes?They--they might create a draught--"
"We'll ride around that way and plug 'em up," Andy assured her solemnly."Whenever you've got time to show me about where they're at."
"It will be a pleasure. I can tell where they are, but they're toohigh for me to reach. Wherever the wind whistles there's a hole in theatmosphere. And there are places where the air just quivers, so you cansee it. That is the shock those bold, bad men gave it with the wordsthey used. They--used--words, Mr. Green! If we could scheme some way topull out all those wrinkles--I do love a nice, clean, smooth atmospherewhere I live. It's so wrinkly--"
"I'll attend to all that, right away."
Miss Hallman decided that she had nothing further to say to Mr. Green.She wheeled her horse rather abruptly and rode off with a curt goodbye.Miss Allen, being new at the business of handling a horse, took moretime in pulling her mount around. While her back was turned to FlorenceGrace and her face was turned toward Pink and Andy, she gave them atwinkling glance that had one lowered eyelid to it, twisted her lips,and spoke sharply to her horse. They might make of it what they would.Florence Grace looked back impatiently--perhaps suspiciously also--andsaw Miss Allen coming on with docile haste.
So that ended the interview which Miss Hallman had meant to be soimpressive. A lot of nonsense that left a laugh behind and the idea thatMiss Allen at least did not disapprove of harassing claim-jumpers. AndyGreen was two hundred per cent. more cheerful after that, and his brainwas more active and his determination more fixed. For all that he staredafter them thoughtfully.
"She winked at us--if I've got eyes in my head. What do you reckon shemeant, Pink?" he asked when the two riders had climbed over the ridge."And what she said about the bold, bad men shooting holes that haveto be plugged up--and about liking a nice, smooth atmosphere? Do yousuppose she meant that it's liable to take bold, bad men to clean theatmosphere, or--"
"What difference does it make what she meant? There's jumpers left--twoon Bud's place--and he's oary-eyed over it, and was going to read 'emthe riot act proper, when I left to come over here. And a couple of mendrove onto that south eighty of Mig's with a load of lumber, just as Icome by. Looks to me like we've got our hands full, Andy. There'll beholes to plug up somewhere besides in the atmosphere, if you ask me."
"Long as they don't get anything on us I ain't in the state of mindwhere I give a darn. That little brown-eyed Susan'll keep us posted ifthey start anything new--what did she mean by that wink, do you reckon?"
"Ah, don't get softening of the emotions," Pink advised impatiently."That's the worst thing we've got to steer clear of, Andy! All themwomen in the game is going to make it four times as hard to stand 'emoff. Irish is foolish over this one you're gettin' stuck on--you'll befighting each other, if you don't look out. That Florence Grace ladyain't so slow--she's going to use the women to keep us fellows guessing."
Andy sighed. "We can block that play, of course," he said. "Come on,Pink, let's go round up the boys and see what's been taking place withthem cattle. Shipped in four carloads already, have they?" He beganpulling on his chaps rather hurriedly. "Worst of it is, you can'tstampede a bunch of darned tame cows, either," he complained.
They found Irish and the Native Son on day-herd, with the cattlescattered well along the western line of the claims. Big Medicine,Weary, Cal Emmett and Jack Bates were just returning from driving thesettlers' stock well across Antelope Coulee which had been decided uponas a hypothetical boundary line until such time as a fence could bebuilt.
They talked with the day-herders, and they talked with the other four.Chip came up from the ranch with the Kid riding proudly beside him onSilver, and told them that the Honorable Mr. Blake was at the Flying Uand had sent word that he would be pleased to take the legal end ofthe fight, if the Happy Family so desired. Which was in itself a vastencouragement. The Honorable Blake had said that they were well withintheir rights thus far, and advised them to permit service of the contestnotices, and to go calmly on fulfilling the law. Which was all very wellas far as it went, providing they were permitted to go on calmly.
"What about them cattle they're trying to git across our land?" Slimwanted to know. "We got a right to keep 'em off, ain't we?"
Chip said that he thought they had, but to make sure, he would ask theHonorable Blake. Trespassing, he said, might be avoided--
Right there Andy was seized with an idea. He took Chip--because of hisartistic talents which, he said, had been plumb wasted lately--to oneside. After wards they departed in haste, with Pink and Weary gallopingclose at their heels. In a couple of hours they returned to the boundarywhere the cattle still fed all scattered out in a long line, and behindthem drove Pink and Weary in the one wagon which the Family possessed.
"It oughta help some," grinned Andy, when the Native Son came curiouslyover to see what it was they were erecting there on the prairie. "It's afair warning, and shows 'em where to head in at."
The Native Son read the sign, which was three feet long and stood nailedto two posts ready for planting solidly in the earth. He showed hiseven, white teeth in a smile of approval. "Back it up, and it ought todo some good," he said.
They dug holes and set the posts, and drove on to where they meant toplant another sign exactly like the first. That day they planted twelvesign-boards along their west line. They might not do any good, but theywere a fair warning an
d as such were worth the trouble.
That afternoon Andy was riding back along the line when he saw a riderpull up at the first sign and read it carefully. He galloped in haste tothe spot and found that his suspicions were correct; it was Miss Allen.
"Well," she said when he came near, "I suppose that means me. Does it?"She pointed to the sign, which read like this:
WARNING!! NO TRESPASSING EAST OF HERE All Shacks, Live-Stock andPilgrims Promptly AND Painfully Removed From These Premises
"I'm over the line," she notified him, pulling her horse backward a fewfeet. "You're getting awfully particular, seems to me. Oh, did you knowthat a lot of men are going to play it's New Year's Eve and hold watchmeetings tonight?"
"Never heard a word about it," he declared truthfully, and waited formore.
"That's not strange--seeing it's a surprise party. Still--I'm sure youare expected to--attend."
"And where is all this to take place?" Andy looked at her intently,smiling a little.
"Oh, over there--and there--and there." She pointed to three newshacks--the official dwellings of certain contestants. "Stag parties,they are, I believe. But I doubt if they'll have any very exciting time;most of these new settlers are too busy getting the ground ready forcrops, to go to parties. Some people are pretty disgusted, I can tellyou, Mr. Green. Some people talk about ingratitude and wonder why thecolony doesn't hang together better. Some people even wonder why it isthat folks are interested mainly in their own affairs, and decline toattend watch meetings and--receptions. So I'm afraid very few, exceptyour nearest neighbors, will be present, after all might I ask when youexpect to--to MOVE again, Mr. Green?"
Smiling still, Andy shook his head. "I expect to be pretty busy thisspring," he told her evasively. "Aren't any of you ladies invited tothose parties, Miss Allen?"
"Not a one. But let me tell you something, Mr. Green. Some folks thinkthat perhaps we lady-settlers ought to organize a club for the wellbeing of our intellects. Some folks are trying to get up partiesjust for women--see the point? They think it would be better forthe--atmosphere."
"Oh." Andy studied the possibilities of such a move. If Florence Graceshould set the women after them, he could see how the Happy Family wouldbe hampered at every turn. "Well, I must be going. Say, did you knowthis country is full of wild animals, Miss Allen? They prowl aroundnights. And there's a gang of wild men that hang out up there in thosemountains--they prowl around nights, too. They're outlaws. They killoff every sheriff's party that tries to round them up, and they kidnapchildren and ladies. If you should hear any disturbance, any time, don'tbe scared. Just stay inside after dark and keep your door locked. And ifyou should organize that ladies' club, you better hold your meetings inthe afternoon, don't you think?"
When he had ridden on and left her, Andy was somewhat ashamed of suchpuerile falsehoods. But then, she had started the allegorical method ofimparting advice, he remembered. So presently went whistling to round upthe boys and tell them what he had learned.