Friar Tuck

by Robert Alexander Wason

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  THE NIGHT-ATTACK

  I wasn't sleepy, and lyin' stretched out is the worst cure forsleeplessness 'at ever I tried; so after twistin' about for a while, Igot up and took a look around. Oscar hadn't seen a thing, which I tookto be a mighty encouragin' sign. Mostly, when you set a boy on guardhe rouses ya out to meet the enemy every fifteen minutes, and thengoes to sleep just before the enemy actually does arrive; but Olaf hadtrained Oscar to do what he was told, as he was told--when he wastold--and then not to talk about it for a couple o' years afterward.Oscar was reliable to a degree; but for conversational purposes, I'dsooner have been shipwrecked with a brindle bull pup.

  I didn't have any doubts of Olaf; but I dropped in to see what sort ofa view he had, now that it had got dark. The fire was burnin' high,and the ravine was as bright as day. Enough o' the fire would lastuntil mornin' to give a good view, so I strolled down around thebunk-shack and stables. I saw a form movin' in the shadow o' thecottonwoods, and stalked it careful, finally gettin' close enough tomake out the Friar.

  "Can't ya sleep, Friar?" sez I.

  "No, no, I can't sleep," sez he with a sigh. "Where do you think sheis, Happy?"

  "They probably took her with 'em; and left the Chink to guard her,back in the hills," sez I. "No matter what happens, they're not liableto harm her."

  "It's sore hard to be patient," sez the Friar. "I am honestly opposedto all violence and bloodshed. I have allus believed that all warswere useless and unnecessary; but it's sometimes hard for me to lovemy enemies."

  "You're just worried and can't see clear," sez I soothin'ly. "It'splain enough if you just think it out--that's the best part o'religion. One place it sez: 'Love your enemies.' In another it sez:'Foller the Lord's example.' In still another it sez: 'Whom he loves,he chasteneth'--which you said meant to punish. Now then, you have itall worked out: the proper way to love your enemy is to punish him;and, accordin' to this rule, we're goin' to love the hide off o' oneo' your enemies, if so be we're able to do it."

  But the Friar never would stand for havin' his religion doctored tosuit the taste, he had to take it as stiff and raw as alcohol, wherehe was concerned, himself; so he turned in and explained things to meuntil from my standpoint, misery was the only religious excuse afeller had for bein' happy.

  By this, it was time to change watches, so the Friar relieved Olaf,while Horace and his elephant-pest went out on the front porch towatch the fords, and I turned in. None of us took our boots off thatnight; we had a little fire in the big room, and slept on the floor,holdin' our belts in our hands. I drowsed off quick enough this time,knowin' 'at Tank and Promotheus would be next on watch and certain notto let anything surprise them.

  Sure enough, just about the time we had slept ourselves into completeforgetfulness, we were all jerked to our feet by the first shot Tankfired, and this one shot was followed by a bunch of others. TheCross-branders had crept down the ravine, and a little after threewhen the fire had burned low, they had tried to get by unnoticed. Ol'Tank only had one eye, but it was a workin' eye, if ever the' was one,and he shot two of 'em with one o' their own rifles, and when theyrushed him in a body, spreadin' out wide, he retreated to the oldcabin, accordin' to directions.

  The old cabin had loopholes in it, and we had found three fairly goodrifles, but not much ammunition. We didn't waste any shots while itwas still dark; but they fired at us now and again. They had broughtthe five rifles we had left at our camp, and used 'em freely. Slim hadtaken the other rifle with him.

  All durin' that day they broke the monotony by takin' frequent shotsat us; but the logs in the cabin had been matched up for just such apurpose, and not one of us was even scratched with a splinter. What wewere most afraid of was, 'at they would find some way to set fire tothe cabin, and we counted on that bein' one o' the night'sdiversities.

  There were three good sized rooms in the old cabin which was only onestory high. One big room occupied the full south half o' the cabin, abedroom was in the northeast corner, and a library in the northwestcorner. Yes, sir, a regular library, and the Friar and Horace bothsaid it was a choice collection o' books. Horace showed us one bookwhich had a photograph of the original Prometheus chained to a rockwith the vultures peckin' at his liver, and he certainly must havebeen some man to stand it. This picture made The's eyes light upconsid'able.

  The' was also some chromos of naked stone images on the wall, whichthe Friar and Horace called mighty fine copies. They were purty welldumb-founded to find 'at Ty Jones didn't live as much like a bob-catas they'd thought. Under the book shelves was a row o' locked drawers.They stuck out farther than the shelves above 'em, and we wanted topry 'em open to see what was inside; but the Friar wouldn't let us.

  That was a wearin' day, and we were all glad when it finally draggeditself to the lake o' darkness, and dove in. We had our minds made upfor a busy night, but waitin' for trouble is more crampin' to the soulthan bein' in the midst of it, so we felt cheerfuller as soon as nightactually settled down.

  We didn't dare have a fire in the fireplace, for fear it would show'em our loopholes, and we didn't care to advertise these any more 'nwas necessary; but we set a lighted candle far back in the fireplace,to see to load by. The fireplace was across the southwest corner o'the big room. There were no loopholes in the library, but we fearedthe light might leak through a chink in the window shutter, so wedidn't have any light there. We kept one man watchin' throughloopholes in the bedroom, and two watchin' in the big room, and wereable to cover the whole neighborhood.

  The cook-shack was the nearest buildin', and only the two loopholes inthe north end o' the bedroom covered that; so we decided to fling thelibrary window open and fire through that, in case they made a rushfrom that direction. We knew they wouldn't be likely to start anythinguntil after eleven, as the moon wouldn't set until then, so westretched out on the floor, leavin' Oscar, Horace, and Spider onwatch.

  When a feller has been keepin' his attention wound up for severaldays, his mainspring finally gets strained, and the cogs in his headget to cuttin' up regardless. I managed to get a purty fair dab o'sleep; but it seemed as though I dove straight out o' wakefulness intoa dream, and it was some the rottenest dream I ever had. I dreamedthat Ty Jones had come and stooped over me and asked me what I thoughto' the way he had conducted his life. In a dream a feller is apt to dothe foolest things imaginable, so I looked up into Ty's face and toldhim my true opinion. I sez to him: "Ty, if your brains were blastin'powder, they wouldn't make enough explosion to raise your hat."

  Ty didn't take kindly to this opinion; so he jumped into the air andlightin' on my face, began to trample it with his heels. Thediscomfort of this wakened me; but at first I didn't know I was awake.Several men had been actually tramplin' on me, and the' was a generalfight takin' place in that room which was hard to make head or tailof.

  In the flickerin' candle rays, it was mighty bothersome to tell whofrom which; so the' was no shootin'. Aside from Ty and Pepper Kendal,we averaged bigger 'n they did, except Horace and Spider. Spider hadlength but he ran small in the arms and legs, while Horace wastwenty-two caliber any way you looked at him. They abused Horace someconsid'able, and he got kicked and trampled on purty liberal; but hewas of terrier blood, and the second or third time he got kicked intoa corner, he crawled out on his hands an' knees, picked out a pair o'legs which was strange to him, wrapped his arms about 'em, and fetchedtheir owner to the floor with a thump. I spared enough time to knockthe feller on the head; and then Horace played his trick over again.

  Olaf was a mad bull in a mix-up like this--Horace said he hadbeershirker blood in him, and this must be good stuff for it made Olafgrin when Horace accused him of it. O' course the' ain't much head ortail to such a fight, and in lookin' back on it, it's just likespurtin' the pages of a picture-book with your thumb and tryin' toobserve the pictures. I saw the Friar leanin' again' the mantel-piecewith a hurt look on his face; and it disgusted me.

  In times o' peace, I respected his
prejudice again' violence; but thiswas no time for foolishness, and I recall mutterin' to myself a wishthat Horace might have the loan of his big body for the next halfhour. I saw Olaf knock down two men with one blow, I saw The save ol'Tank's life, just as a half-breed was about to knife him from behind;but for the most part it was just about as orderly a mess as apopper-ful o' corn over a bed o' coals.

  The fight didn't last more 'n five or ten minutes. They had banked onsurprisin' us; and when this failed they were ready to back out. Iafterward found out that it was the Friar who had caught sight of 'emfirst, he not' bein' able to sleep.

  Ty and Pepper Kendal were the last to leave the big room; and whentheir own men were out of it, they opened fire on us; we fired back,and when they backed into the library where the rest o' their gang haddisappeared, we made a rush for 'em. I supposed they had come inthrough the library window, and I called for a candle, hopin' to grabTy before he could get out.

  Spider Kelley had already picked up the candle, and he had it in thedoorway in a second. The big drawers at the bottom o' the bookcasewere swung back, showin' a stairway behind 'em, and Ty Jones stood atthe top with Pepper Kendal just behind him. I dove through the air,catchin' Ty's wrist with my left hand and his throat with my right,Pepper Kendal bent his gun on me, Olaf grabbed the gun which was firedjust as The grabbed Pepper's arms. It looked to me as though thebullet must have gone into Olaf's head; but just then we tripped,rolled down the stairs and the imitation drawers swung to behind us.

  All holts were broke on the way down, and when I reached the bottom, Ilay as quiet as a frozen moonbeam. I heard steps runnin' away from mein the dark, and presently the legs of the man next to me moved, andhe got up. I rose to a crouchin' position, held my arm above my head,and whispered, "Who is this?"

  For answer, I got a smash on the arm with the butt of a forty-fivewhich drove it down again' my head hard enough to bring me to my kneesand wake up my horse-sense. I might 'a' known they'd have a signal.

  I waited with my back again' the wall until the silence began to soakinto my nerve. One o' my guns had got lost durin' the mess upstairs;but I still had the other, and when I closed my grip around it, itseemed like I was shakin' hands with my best friend. As far as I coulddiscover I hadn't been shot; but several knife-cuts and bruises beganto hum little tunes which wasn't in nowise cheerin'. I just simplydon't like to be kept waitin' in the dark!

  After a bit I reached my hand out cautious, and felt the heel of aridin' boot. I examined as careful as though the feller inside theboot was a disguised bear-trap; but the' was no need. His neck wasbroke. I felt of his face, and it was soft and smooth. The face of theyoung feller with the boy's eyes, I had seen put to bed drunk thatnight at Skelty's, flashed across me, and I gave a sigh; but I had toomuch on my mind to turn soft, so I began to feel around again.

  Presently my fingers struck the heel of another boot. I shut down onmy bellows until the breath didn't get down past the top inch o' myneck, and I was as gentle with the heel o' that boot, as though it wasa bitin' man's eyeball; because I sure felt a quiver in it. I slid myfingers up that boot a quarter inch at a time, and I didn't use nomore rudeness 'n a mouse would use in tryin' to sneak a cheese pillerout from under a sleepin' cat. When my fingers finally struckcorduroy, I purt nigh gave a shout, for this was what Promotheus wore.

  It allus embarrasses a man to be felt over in the dark, so I took mytime with The; but after locatin' both hands and his crooked mouth, Idiscovered he'd been knocked out complete. I rubbed his wrists untilhe began to moan, and then I pinched his nose until he was able tonotice my name when I whispered. He had bumped his head in fallin',and it made him sick to the stomach; so while he was gettin' tuned upagain, I prospected around.

  I crawled up the stairs but couldn't hear a sound, I scratched with myfingers, knocked softly, and pushed until my eyes began to hurt; so Iknew 'at the only way out for us was to follow the Cross-branders.Things had happened so sudden up above that I hadn't an idy as to howmany were fightin' us; but I was still purty certain that a fair sizedbunch had run out the tunnel just as I dove into it, and I didn'tchoose to bump into 'em in the dark.

  When I came down the stairs, The felt able again; so we started toprospect. We agreed that strikin' our teeth together would be oursignal, and then we made our examination. The right side o' the tunnelwas smooth, the way Nature works, the left side was rough, andindicated man's doin's. Aside from us two, the only other one in thetunnel was the boy with the broken neck; but the tunnel opened into abig cave, and we didn't know what to do about it.

  Finally we started around the right hand wall, me crawlin' first, andThe's fingers touchin' my boot at every move. After goin' somedistance, a great, straggly gray form rose up from the floor o' thecave, and gave me a shock which stopped my entire works. I kept mypresence o' mind all right; but I'd 'a' been mighty glad to swap itoff for absence of body. This was a most ghastly lookin' form, and Inestled up again' the side o' the wall, and felt my hand back for The.He crawled up alongside o' me, and when he spied it, he gave a startwhich made his teeth click. "What's that?" he whispered.

  It's funny how the mind works. This form didn't resemble anythingearthly; so I hadn't really tried to figure on it much; but when Thethrew his question at me, I looked at the shape more careful, and grewashamed o' myself. Here was I, a feller who had spent consid'able timearound mines, and yet had got all balled up over seein' thingsunderground.

  "That's your old friend, daylight, comin' down through a hole, The," Iwhispered so prompt that I doubt if he noticed any gap.

  He gave a sniff through his nose, and then we crept on to where thislight was comin' in through the opposite tunnel. It was mighty weakand sickly lookin' light, but the outline o' the tunnel mouth soon gotperfectly plain to us. Every few inches we stopped to listen; but wegot clear to the mouth without hearin' anything. Then we paused. Justat that time, I'd have given right smart to have had my eyes fastenedon like those of a lobster I once saw in a window down at Frisco. Thisinsect had his eyes fixed to the ends o' fingers which he couldstretch out in any direction.

  To be honest, I felt some reluctant to push my face around thatcorner; but when I did there wasn't a thing in sight. The tunnelstretched ahead of us for what seemed miles, but we couldn't see theouter openin', although the light was strong enough to recognize eachother by. The was a sight, for the bump on his head had leakedcontinuous; but it hadn't disabled him none, so we drew back toconsult a little.

  If we had known whether they were ahead or behind us, it would havebeen easy to decide; but under the circumstances, we hardly knew whatto do. Bein' in the dark was one thing; but bein' out where we couldbe seen was still another; so we thought full and deep.

  After a few minutes I told The a little story about a feller I helpedto pick up after he had jumped from a thirty-foot ledge onto a pile o'stone. "Why did you do it?" sez I. He blinked his eyes at me a time 'rtwo, hove a long sigh, an' said: "The' was a purple dragon in front o'me, a lot o' long-legged yaller snakes back o' me, and the peskiestpink jack-rabbit you ever saw kept swoopin' into my face an' peckin'at my eyes. If I ever drink another drop, I hope it'll drown me."

  The considered this story careful, an' then we crawled out into thetunnel, rose to our feet, an' ran along crouchin'. The tunnel ranupward at a sharp incline, which was why the light came down it sofar. We kept to the right wall, and after goin' some distance, we cameacross a small cave. In this we found another dead Cross-brander; butwe weren't enough interested in him to risk strikin' a light; so wesat down a moment to rest and listen.

  Presently we noticed some curious noises, but for some minutes wecouldn't decide on what they were. Suddenly The grabbed my wrist an'said: "That's shootin'; that's what that is!"

  It was as plain as home-cookin' the minute he pointed it out; so werose to our feet and made a rush for the mouth o' the cave. We cameout about half way up the face o' the cliff; and for a moment wepaused to admire Ty Jones's foxiness. This openin' couldn't be seenfrom bel
ow, nor noticed from above, and for the most part the wholetunnel was natural, only havin' been hand-widened in three or fourplaces.

  The fightin' was goin' on near the face o' the cliff between us an'the mouth of the ravine; so we circled around until we caught sight of'em. The first feller we made out was Mexican Slim; so we knew ourboys hadn't been ambushed up above, and this raised our spirits like aballoon. We crept up until we could get good angle-shots, hidourselves, gave the old Diamond Dot yell, and began to shoot. Ty's menhad been losin' their bullet-appetite for some time, and they took usto be genuwine reinforcements. They were well planted where they were,but they started to retreat, and we crowded 'em close.

  Then it was that Ty made Olaf's word good: he exposed himself toshots, he rallied his men, and that wolf-grin never left his face; butstill the tide had changed, and he had to go back with the rest. Thewoman, with her hands tied behind her, was in charge o' the Chink, whowas tall and heavy-set with a dark, evil, leathery face. He kept agrin on his face, too, which reminded me most of a rattlesnake atsheddin' time. He used the woman as a shield, an' this checked ourfire an' kept us dodgin' for new positions. Still, all in all, thispart o' the fight was about as satisfactory as any I ever took partin.

  Finally they retreated to the dip where the tunnel came out, and wehad to skirmish up the rocks to keep our vantage. Soon we discoveredthat Ty had lost control of his men. He, Pepper Kendal, and two othersstood in the mouth o' the tunnel, and took a few shots at us beforedisappearin'; but six of his men ran straight across the dip, and downthe other side toward the crick. Tillte Dutch was standin' close tome, and I asked him where the hosses were. He said they were tiedacross the crick just above the upper ford; so I sent him for 'em fullspeed.

  Horace and Tank stayed to watch the mouth o' the openin', while therest of us wrangled the six Cross-branders through the cottonwoods.They had a good start, and so had time to cut the wire and cross thecrick toward some broken land on the left. By this time Tillte hadtied the reins and thrown 'em over the horns o' the saddles so as tolead a string, and he came lopin' into view.

  Slim, two o' the Simpson boys, Olaf, and myself mounted and cut offthe six Cross-branders, who were too weary to even scatter. They hadhad enough and surrendered. We tied their hands, and herded 'em backto the old shack, where Oscar, Spider, and three disabledCross-branders were runnin' a little private hospital. We fixed upwounds as well as we could, sat the last six on a bench along thewall, and left Dick Simpson to guard 'em. Spider had been shot and cutconsid'able; but he was able to stagger around some, while Oscar hadbeen punctured below the ribs, and things looked bad for him. Olaf hadbeen shot in the head, all right, just as The and I dove down thestairway the night before, but his skull was bullet-proof, so nothin'came of it.

  The Friar had been ransackin' the locality, and had found one o' theSimpson boys dead, and one badly hurt. Badly crippled, as we were, wedidn't see any way to get at Ty except to starve him out. First off,we made some coffee, and those who weren't hurt dangerous were givensome side-meat and corn bread; for, truth to tell, we were about oncethrough. We spent the afternoon under a tree half way between themouth o' the tunnel, and the old cabin, so as to be handy in case wewere needed. After talkin' it all over, we couldn't quite see why theyhad split up, some of 'em tryin' to escape, and some stayin' with Ty.

  Finally I went to the cabin, durin' a time the Friar was on watch atthe cave mouth, and picked out the weakest lookin' of the prisoners. Ibrought him down, and we tortured him with questions until he gotfuddled and told us that the two who had stuck to Ty had been so badhurt, they couldn't go any farther; but that neither Ty nor Pepperwere hurt to speak of.

  The fact is, that in a general fight a feller loses his aim complete.We had all aimed at Ty and Pepper the most, and here they were the twonot hurt at all. As darkness fell, the Friar couldn't hold himself in.All afternoon he had done what he could for the wounded; but atthought of the woman spendin' another night in the cave with thosemen, he became as wild-eyed as a bronc at his first brandin'. Durin'the afternoon, Tank had stiffened until he couldn't do much travelin';but I saw the Friar had his mind made up to take a plunge, so I triedto fix things to prevent it.

  Olaf, two o' the Simpson boys, Promotheus, Tillte, Slim, Horace, andmyself lined up as bein' still in workin' order; but while he was inthe act of claimin' to be all right, Slim doubled up in a faint, andwe found he had been bad hurt without even himself knowin' of it; socountin' Horace who had two black eyes and a shot through thefore-arm, the' was seven of us able to get about purty nimble. Hidaway in the cave, somewhere, were Ty Jones, Pepper Kendal, and theChink, unhurt so far as we knew, and two others, still probably ableto help a little.

  We placed a couple o' logs again' the fake drawers in the library, andleft Tank to take charge of the prisoners and the cabin. Then werustled up some tarps from the bunk-shack, and prepared to camp nearthe openin' with a man allus on guard, to prevent them from comin'out--and the Friar from goin' in. We kept a lantern lit under shelterof a rock, and made ready to rest up a bit.

  I had told all the fellers to watch the Friar close, for he justsimply couldn't get the upper hand of himself. He tried his best tosimmer down and go to sleep, but every few minutes he'd boil overagain. I lay awake in my tarp watchin' him for some time; but I was sosore and weary myself I could scarcely recall what business I was on,and first I knew I had drifted off--and been shook awake again.

  Promotheus was bendin' over me with the news 'at the Friar had decidedto go into the tunnel, and they couldn't hold him back. I sprang upand started for the opening with the rest following me. Dan Simpsonhad relieved The on watch and when he found what was in the Friar'smind, he had crept down and told The, who had awakened the rest of us.

  We reached the Friar, just as he was goin' into the openin'. I calledto him in a low tone; but he only shook his head. It was eleveno'clock, and the shadow from the moon had already crept out from thebase o' the cliff almost to the openin'. I saw that the Friar had tookthe bit; so I whispered to the others: "I am goin' in there with him;but more 'n this would be bad. We'd be in each other's way. Listen andwatch, but do not follow us in."

  "I know the way as well as you, and we could keep side by side," sezPromotheus; but I shook my head.

  He came over to the openin' and said in a low tone: "I haven't time tomake you understand; but--but I just have to go in with you."

  "If you come, the rest'll come too," sez I, exasperated.

  "You fellers stay here," sez he to them in a pleadin' tone; "but Ihave reasons. I just have to go in."

  So we shed our boots and started down the incline after the Friar,Promotheus touchin' my feet with his fingers at every step I crawled.I didn't want to be there, I couldn't see how we could do any good;but the Friar had made my world for me, such as it was, and Iunderstood better 'n the rest what was gnawin' at his heart; so Ihadn't any choice. I had to go in, and somethin' inside Promotheusdrove him in also. The only crumb o' comfort I could find, lay in thefact that Horace had been winged, and so couldn't foller us, whetherhe wanted to or not.