by B. M. Bower
CHAPTER XXV. "I'D JUST AS SOON HANG FOR NINE MEN AS FOR ONE"
Baumberger climbed heavily out of the rig, and went lurching drunkenlyup the path to the house where the cool shade of the grove was likeparadise set close against the boundary of the purgatory of blazingsunshine and scorching sand. He had not gone ten steps from the stablewhen he met Good Indian face to face.
"Hullo," he growled, stopping short and eying him malevolently withlowered head.
Good Indian's lips curled silently, and he stepped aside to pursue hisway. Baumberger swung his huge body toward him.
"I said HULLO. Nothin' wrong in that, is there? HULLO--d'yuh hear?"
"Go to the devil!" said Grant shortly.
Baumberger leered at him offensively. "Pretty Polly! Never learned butone set uh words in his life. Can't yuh say anything but 'Go to thedevil!' when a man speaks to yuh? Hey?"
"I could say a whole lot that you wouldn't be particularly glad tohear." Good Indian stopped, and faced him, coldly angry. For one thing,he knew that Evadna was waiting on the porch for him, and could seeeven if she could not hear; and Baumberger's attitude was insulting. "Ithink," he said meaningly, "I wouldn't press the point if I were you."
"Giving me advice, hey? And who the devil are you?"
"I wouldn't ask, if I were you. But if you really want to know, I'm thefellow you hired Saunders to shoot. You blundered that time. You shouldhave picked a better man, Mr. Baumberger. Saunders couldn't have hitthe side of a barn if he'd been locked inside it. You ought to have madesure--"
Baumberger glared at him, and then lunged, his eyes like an animal gonemad.
"I'll make a better job, then!" he bellowed. "Saunders was a fool. Itold him to get down next the trail and make a good job of it. I toldhim to kill you, you lying, renegade Injun--and if he couldn't, I can!Yuh WILL watch me, hey?"
Good Indian backed from him in sheer amazement. Epithets unprintablepoured in a stream from the loose, evil lips. Baumberger was a ravingbeast of a man. He would have torn the other to pieces and reveled inthe doing. He bellowed forth threats against Good Indian and the Harts,young and old, and vaunted rashly the things he meant to do. Heat-madand drink-mad he was, and it was as if the dam of his wily amiabilityhad broken and let loose the whole vile reservoir of his pirate mind. Hetried to strike Good Indian down where he stood, and when his blows wereparried he stopped, swayed a minute in drunken uncertainty, and thenmake one of his catlike motions, pulled a gun, and fired without reallytaking aim.
Another gun spoke then, and Baumberger collapsed in the sand, aquivering heap of gross human flesh. Good Indian stood and looked downat him fixedly while the smoke floated away from the muzzle of his owngun. He heard Evadna screaming hysterically at the gate, and looked overthere inquiringly. Phoebe was running toward him, and the boys--Wallyand Gene and Jack, from the blacksmith shop. At the corner of the stableMiss Georgie was sliding from her saddle, her riding whip clenchedtightly in her hand as she hurried to him. Peaceful stood beside theteam, with the lines still in his hand.
It was Miss Georgie's words which reached him clearly.
"You just HAD to do it, Grant. I saw the whole thing. You HAD to."
"Oh, Grant--GRANT! What have you done? What have you done?" That wasPhoebe Hart, saying the same thing over and over with a queer, moaninginflection in her voice.
"D'yuh KILL him?" Gene shouted excitedly, as he ran up to the spot.
"Yes." Good Indian glanced once more at the heap before him. "And I'mliable to kill a few more before I'm through with the deal." He swungshort around, discovered that Evadna was clutching his arm and crying,and pulled loose from her with a gesture of impatience. With the gunstill in his hand, he walked quickly down the road in the direction ofthe garden.
"He's mad! The boy is mad! He's going to kill--" Phoebe gave a sob, andran after him, and with her went Miss Georgie and Evadna, white-faced,all three of them.
"Come on, boys--he's going to clean out the whole bunch!" whooped Gene.
"Oh, choke off!" Wally gritted disgustedly, glancing over his shoulderat them. "Go back to the house, and STAY there! Ma, make Vad quit thatyelling, can't yuh?" He looked eloquently at Jack, keeping pace with himand smiling with the steely glitter in his eyes. "Women make me sick!"he snorted under his breath.
Peaceful stared after them, went into the stable, and got a blanket tothrow over Baumberger's inert body, stooped, and made sure that the manwas dead, with the left breast of his light negligee shirt all blackenedwith powder and soaked with blood; covered him well, and tied up theteam. Then he went to the house, and got the old rifle that had killedIndians and buffalo alike, and went quickly through the grove tothe garden. He was a methodical man, and he was counted slow, butnevertheless he reached the scene not much behind the others. Wally wastrying to send his mother to the house with Evadna, and neither wouldgo. Miss Georgie was standing near Good Indian, watching Stanley withher lips pressed together.
It is doubtful if Good Indian realized what the others were doing. Hehad gone straight past the line of stakes to where Stanley was sittingwith his back against the lightning-stricken apricot tree. Stanley wassmoking a cigarette as if he had heard nothing of the excitement, buthis rifle was resting upon his knee in such a manner that he had but tolift it and take aim. The three others were upon their own claims, andthey, also, seemed unobtrusively ready for whatever might be going tohappen.
Good Indian appraised the situation with a quick glance as he came up,but he did not slacken his pace until he was within ten feet of Stanley.
"You're across the dead line, m' son," said Stanley, with lazysignificance. "And you, too," he added, flickering a glance at MissGeorgie.
"The dead line," said Good Indian coolly, "is beyond the Point o' Rocks.I'd like to see you on the other side by sundown."
Stanley looked him over, from the crown of his gray hat to the tips ofhis riding-boots, and laughed when his eyes came back to Good Indian'sface. But the laugh died out rather suddenly at what he saw there.
"Got the papers for that?" he asked calmly. But his jaw had squared.
"I've got something better than papers. Your boss is dead. I shot himjust now. He's lying back there by the stable." Good Indian tiltedhis head backward, without taking his eyes from Stanley's face--andStanley's right hand, too, perhaps. "If you don't want the samemedicine, I'd advise you to quit."
Stanley's jaw dropped, but it was surprise which slackened the muscles.
"You--shot--"
"Baumberger. I said it."
"You'll hang for that," Stanley stated impersonally, without moving.
Good Indian smiled, but it only made his face more ominous.
"Well, they can't hang a man more than once. I'll see this ranch cleanedup while I'm about it. I'd just as soon," he added composedly, "behanged for nine men as for one."
Stanley sat on his haunches, and regarded him unwinkingly for so longthat Phoebe's nerves took a panic, and she drew Evadna away from theplace. The boys edged closer, their hands resting suggestively upontheir gun-butts. Old Peaceful half-raised his rifle, and held it so. Itwas like being compelled to watch a fuse hiss and shrivel and go blacktoward a keg of gun-powder.
"I believe, by heck, you would!" said Stanley at last, and so long atime had elapsed that even Good Indian had to think back to know whathe meant. Stanley squinted up at the sun, hitched himself up so that hisback rested against the tree more comfortably, inspected his cigarette,and then fumbled for a match with which to relight it. "How'd you findout Baumberger was back uh this deal?" he asked curiously and withoutany personal resentment in tone or manner, and raked the match along histhigh.
Good Indian's shoulders went up a little.
"I knew, and that's sufficient. The dead line is down past the Pointo' Rocks. After sundown this ranch is going to hold the Harts and theirfriends--and NO ONE ELSE. Tell that to your pals, unless you've got agrudge against them!"
Stanley held his cigarette between his fingers, and blew smoke throu
ghhis nostrils while he watched Good Indian turn his back and walk away.He did not easily lose his hold of himself, and this was, with him, acold business proposition.
Miss Georgie stood where she was until she saw that Stanley did notintend to shoot Good Indian in the back, as he might have done easilyenough, and followed so quickly that she soon came up with him. GoodIndian turned at the rustling of the skirts immediately behind him, andlooked down at her somberly. Then he caught sight of something she wascarrying in her hand, and he gave a short laugh.
"What are you doing with that thing?" he asked peremptorily.
Miss Georgie blushed very red, and slid the thing into her pocket.
"Well, every little helps," she retorted, with a miserable attempt ather old breeziness of manner. "I thought for a minute I'd have to shootthat man Stanley--when you turned your back on him."
Good Indian stopped, looked at her queerly, and went on again withoutsaying a word.