CHAPTER 19. WEST POINT TO THE RESCUE
It was understood that the sheriff should make a perfunctory defenseagainst the mob in order to "square" him with the voters at the electionsoon to be held. But the word had been quietly passed that the bulletsof the prison guards would be fired over the heads of the attackers.This assurance lent an added braggadocio to the Dutch courage of thelynchers. Many of them who would otherwise have hung back distinguishedthemselves by the enthusiasm which they displayed.
Bannister himself generaled the affair, detailing squads to batter downthe outer door, to guard every side of the prison, and to overpower thesheriff's guard. That official, according to programme, appeared at awindow and made a little speech, declaring his intention of performinghis duty at whatever cost. He was hooted down with jeers and laughter,and immediately the attack commenced.
The yells of the attackers mingled with the sound of the axe-blows andthe report of revolvers from inside the building. Among those nearestto the door being battered down were Denver and the few men he had withhim. His plan offered merely a forlorn hope. It was that in the firstscramble to get in after the way was opened he and his friends mightpush up the stairs in the van, and hold the corridor for as long as theycould against the furious mob.
It took less than a quarter of an hour to batter down the door, andamong the first of those who sprang across the threshold were Denver,Missou, Frisco and their allies. While others stopped to overpowerthe struggling deputies according to the arranged farce, they hurriedupstairs and discovered the cell in which their friends were fastened.
Frisco passed a revolver through the grating to McWilliams, and anotherto Bannister. "Haven't got the keys, so I can't let y'u out, old hoss,"he told the foreman. "But mebbe y'u won't feel so lonesome with theselittle toys to play with."
Meanwhile Denver, a young giant of seventy-six inches, held the head ofthe stairs, with four stalwart plainsmen back of him. The rush of manyfeet came up pell-mell, and he flung the leaders back on those behind.
"Hold on there. This isn't a free-lunch counter. Don't you see we'recrowded up here already?"
"What's eating you? Whyfor, can't we come?" growled one of the foremostnursing an injured nose.
"I've just explained to you, son, that it's crowded. Folks are prevalentenough up here right now. Send up that bunch of keys and we'll bringyour meat to you fast enough."
"What's that? What's that?" The outlaw chief pushed his way through thedense mob at the door and reached the stairway.
"He won't let us up," growled one of them.
"Who won't?" demanded Bannister sharply, and at once came leaping up thestairs.
"Nothing doing," drawled Frisco, and tossed him over the railing on tothe heads of his followers below.
They carried Bannister into the open air, for his head had struck thenewel-post in his descent. This gave the defense a few minutes respite.
"They're going to come a-shooting next time," remarked Denver. "Just assoon as he comes back from bye-low land you'll see things hum."
"Y'u bet," agreed Missou. "We'll last about three minutes when thestampede begins."
The scream of an engine pierced the night.
Denver's face lit. "Make it five minutes, Missou, and Mac is safe. Atleast, I'm hoping so awful hard. Miss Helen wired for the militia fromSheridan this nothing. Chances are they're on that train. I couldn'ttell you earlier because she made me promise not to. She was afraid itmight leak out and get things started sooner."
Weak but furious, the miscreant from the Shoshones returned to theattack. "Break in the back door and sneak up behind on those fellows.We'll have the men we want inside of fifteen minutes," he promised themob.
"We'll rush them from both sides, and show those guys on the landingwhether they can stop us," added Bostwick.
Suddenly some one raised the cry, "The soldiers!" Bannister looked upthe street and swore a vicious oath. Swinging down the road at doubletime came a company of militia in khaki. He was mad with baffled fury,but he made good his retreat at once and disappeared promptly into thenearest dark alley.
The mob scattered by universal impulse; disintegrated so promptly thatwithin five minutes the soldiers held the ground alone, save for theofficials of the prison and Denver's little band.
A boyish lieutenant lately out of the Point, and just come in toa lieutenancy in the militia, was in command. "In time?" he askedanxiously, for this was his first independent expedition.
"Y'u bet," chuckled Denver. "We're right glad to see you, and I'llbet those boys in the cage ain't regretting your arrival any. Fifteenminutes later and you would have been in time to hold the funeralservices, I reckon."
"Where is Miss Messiter?" asked the young officer.
"She's at the Elk House, colonel. I expect some of us better drift overthere and tell her it's all right. She's the gamest little woman thatever crossed the Wyoming line. Hadn't been for her these boys would havebeen across the divide hours ago. She's a plumb thoroughbred. Wouldn'tgive up an inch. All day she has generaled this thing; played a mightyweak hand for a heap more than it was worth. Sand? Seh: she's grit clearthrough, if anybody asks you." And Denver told the story of theday, making much of her unflinching courage and nothing of her men'sreadiness to back whatever steps she decided upon.
It was ten minutes past eleven when a smooth young, apple-cheeked lad inkhaki presented himself before Helen Messiter with a bow never inventedoutside of West Point.
"I am Lieutenant Beecher. Governor Raleigh presents his compliments byme, Miss Messiter, and is very glad to be able to put at your servicesuch forces as are needed to quiet the town."
"You were in time?" she breathed.
"With about five minutes to spare. I am having the prisoners broughthere for the night if you do not object. In the morning I shallinvestigate the affair, and take such steps as are necessary. Inthe meantime you may rest assured that there will be no furtherdisturbance."
"Thank you I am sure that with you in command everything will now be allright, and I am quite of your opinion that the prisoners had better stayhere for the night. One of them is wounded, and ought to be given thebest attention. But, of course, you will see to that, lieutenant."
The young man blushed. This was the right kind of appreciation. Hewished his old classmates at the Point could hear how implicitly thissweet girl relied on him.
"Certainly. And now, Miss Messiter, if there is nothing you wish, Ishall retire for the night. You may sleep with perfect confidence."
"I am sure I may, lieutenant." She gave him a broadside of trusting eyesfull of admiration. "But perhaps you would like me to see my foremanfirst, just to relieve my mind. And, as you were about to say, hisfriend might be brought in, too, since they are together."
The young man promptly assented, though he had not been aware that hewas about to say anything of the kind.
They came in together, Bannister supported by McWilliams's arm. The eyesof both mistress and maid brimmed over with tears when they saw them.Helen dragged forward a chair for the sheepman, and he sank into it.From its depths he looked up with his rare, sweet smile.
"I've heard about it," he told her, in a low voice. "I've heard howy'u fought for my life all day. There's nothing I can say. I owed y'ueverything already twice, and now I owe it all over again. Give me alifetime and I couldn't get even."
Helen's swift glance swept over Nora and the foreman. They were in adark alcove, oblivious of anybody else. Also they were in each other'sarms frankly. For some reason wine flowed into the cream of Helen'scheeks.
"Do you have to 'get even'? Among friends is that necessary?" she askedshyly.
"I hope not. If it is, I'm sure bankrupt Even my thanks seem to stay athome. If y'u hadn't done so much for me, perhaps I could tell y'u howmuch y'u had done But I have no words to say it."
"Then don't," she advised.
"Y'u're the best friend a man ever had. That's all I can say."
"It's enough, since you mean it, even t
hough it isn't true," sheanswered gently.
Their eyes met, fastened for an instant, and by common consent lookedaway.
As it chanced they were close to the window, their shadows reflected onthe blind. A man, slipping past in the street on horseback, stoppedat sight of that lighted window, with the moving shadows, in anuncontrollable white fury. He slid from the saddle, threw the reinsover the horse's head to the ground, and slipped his revolver from itsholster and back to make sure that he could draw it easily. Then hepassed springily across the road to the hotel and up the stairs. He trodlightly, stealthily, and by his very wariness defeated his purposeof eluding observation. For a pair of keen eyes from the hotel officeglimpsed the figure stealing past so noiselessly, and promptly followedup the stairway.
"Hope I don't intrude at this happy family gathering."
Helen, who had been pouring a glass of cordial for the spent and woundedsheepman, put the glass down on the table and turned at sound of thesilken, sinister voice. After one glance at the vindictive face, fromthe cold eyes of which hate seemed to smolder, she took an instinctivestep toward her lover. The cold wave that drenched her heart accompaniedan assurance that the man in the doorway meant trouble.
His sleek smile arrested her. He was standing with his feet apart, hishands clasped lightly behind his back, as natty and as well groomed aswas his wont.
"Ah, make the most of what ye yet may spend, Before ye, too, into theDust descend; Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie, Sans Wine, sansSong, sans Singer, and--sans End!"
he misquoted, with a sneer; and immediately interrupted his irony togive way to one of his sudden blind rages.
With incredible swiftness his right hand moved forward and up, catchingrevolver from scabbard as it rose. But by a fraction of a second hispurpose had been anticipated. A closed fist shot forward to the salientjaw in time to fling the bullets into the ceiling. An arm encircled theoutlaw's neck, and flung him backward down the stairs. The railing brokehis fall, and on it his body slid downward, the weapon falling from hishand. He pulled himself together at the foot of the stairs, crouched foran upward rush, but changed his mind instantly. The young officer whohad flung him down had him covered with his own six-shooter. He couldhear footsteps running toward him, and he knew that in a few seconds hewould be in the hands of the soldiers. Plunging out of the doorway, thedesperado vaulted to the saddle and drove his spurs home. For a minutehoofs pounded on the hard, white road. Then the night swallowed him andthe echo of his disappearance.
"That was Bannister of the Shoshones and the Tetons," the girl's whitelips pronounced to Lieutenant Beecher.
"And I let him get away from me," the disappointed lad groaned. "Why, Ihad him right in my hands. I could have throttled him as easy. But howwas I to know he would have nerve enough to come rushing into a hotelfull of soldiers hunting him?"
"Y'u have a very persistent cousin, Mr. Bannister," said McWilliams,coming forward from the alcove with shining eyes. "And I must say he'sgame. Did y'u ever hear the like? Come butting in here as cool as if hehadn't a thing to do but sing out orders like he was in his own home. Hewas that easy."
"It seems to me that a little of the praise is due Lieutenant Beecher.If he hadn't dealt so competently with the situation murder would havebeen done. Did you learn your boxing at the Academy, Lieutenant?" Helenasked, trying to treat the situation lightly in spite of her hammeringheart.
"I was the champion middleweight of our class," Beecher could not helpsaying boyishly, with another of his blushes.
"I can easily believe it," returned Helen.
"I wish y'u would teach me how to double up a man so prompt andimmediate," said the admiring foreman.
"I expect I'm under particular obligations to that straight right tothe chin, Lieutenant," chimed in the sheepman. "The fact is that I don'tseem to be able to get out anything except thanks these days. I oughtto send my cousin a letter thanking him for giving me a chance to owe somuch kindness to so many people."
"Your cousin?" repeated the uncomprehending officer.
"This desperado, Bannister, is my cousin," answered the sheepmangravely.
"But if he was your cousin, why should he want--to kill you?"
"That's a long story, Lieutenant. Will y'u hear it now?"
"If you feel strong enough to tell it."
"Oh, I'm strong enough." He glanced at Helen. "Perhaps we had better nottire Miss Messiter with it. If y'u'll come to my room--"
"I should like, above all things, to hear it again," interrupted thatyoung woman promptly.
For the man she loved had just come back to her from the brink of thegrave and she was still reluctant to let him out of her sight.
So Ned Bannister told his story once more, and out of the alcove camethe happy foreman and Nora to listen to the tale. While he told it hissweetheart's contented eyes were on him. The excitement of the nightburnt pleasantly in her veins, for out of the nettle danger she hadplucked safety for her sheepman.
Wyoming: A Story of the Outdoor West Page 18