VIII
THE SECOND ATTACK
Lee was waiting on the porch of the hotel, tense with excitement,straining her ears and eyes to see what was taking place.
The night had started with a small sickle of moon, but this had droppedbelow the range, leaving the street dark, save where the lights from thewindows of the all-night eating-houses and saloons lay out upon the walk,and, while she stood peering out, the sound of rancorous howling andshrill whooping came to her ears with such suggestion of ferocity that sheshivered.
Every good and honorable trait seemed lost out of her neighbors. She sawthe whole country but as a refuge for criminals, ungovernable youths, andunsexed women--a wilderness of those who had no regard for any code ofmorals which interfered with their own desires. Her memories of the pastfreshened as she listened. In such wise she had shuddered, as a child,while troops of celebrating cowboys rode up and down the streets. In suchwise, too, the better (and more timid) element of the town had put outtheir lights and retired, leaving their drunken helots and the marshal tofight it out in vague tumult.
A few of the hotel guests had gone to bed, but the women were up, excitedand nervous, starting at every fresh outburst of whooping, knowing thattheir sons or husbands were out in the street "to see the fun," and thatthey might meet trouble.
At last Lee discerned her mother returning from Halsey's, followed bythree men. Withdrawing from the little porch whereon she had beenstanding, she reentered the house to meet her mother in the hall. "Whereis Mr. Cavanagh?" she asked.
"Out in the dining-room. You see, Mike Halsey is no kind o' use. Hevamoosed and left Ross down there alone, with his two prisoners and thelights likely to be turned out on him. So I offered the caffy as acalaboose. They are sure in for a long and tedious night."
Lee was alarmed at her mother's appearance. "You must go to bed. You lookghastly."
"I reckon I'd better lie down for a little while, but I can't sleep. Rossmay need me. There isn't a man to help him but me, and that loafer Ballardis full of gall. He's got it in for Ross, and will make trouble if hecan."
"What can we do?"
"Shoot!" replied Lize, with dry brevity. "I wouldn't mind a chance to plugsome of the sweet citizens of this town. I owe them one or two."
With this sentence in her ears, Lee Virginia went to her bed, but not toslumber. Her utter inability either to control her mother's action or toinfluence that of the mob added to her uneasiness.
The singing, shouting, trampling of the crowd went on, and once a group ofmen halted just outside her window, and she heard Neill Ballard noisily,drunkenly arguing as to the most effective method of taking the prisoners.His utterances, so profane and foul, came to her like echoes from out aninferno. The voices were all at the moment like the hissing of serpents,the snarling of tigers. How dared creatures of this vile type use words ofcontempt against Ross Cavanagh?
"Come on, boys!" urged Ballard, his voice filled with recklessdetermination. "Let's run him."
As they passed, the girl sprang up and went to her mother's room to warnher of the threatened attack.
Lize was already awake and calmly loading a second revolver by the lightof the electric bulb.
"What are you doing?" the girl asked, her blood chilling at sight of theweapon.
"Hell's to pay out there, and I'm going to help pay it." A jarring blowwas heard. "Hear that! They're breaking in--" She started to leave theroom.
Lee stopped her. "Where are you going?"
"To help Ross. Here!" She thrust the handle of a smaller weapon into Lee'shand. "Ed Wetherford's girl ought to be able to take care of herself. Comeon!"
With a most unheroic horror benumbing her limbs, Lee followed her motherthrough the hall. The sound of shouts and the trampling of feet could beheard, and she came out into the restaurant just in time to photographupon her brain a scene whose significance was at once apparent. On a chairbetween his two prisoners, and confronting Ballard at the head of a crowdof frenzied villains, stood the ranger, a gleaming weapon in his hand, alook of resolution on his face.
What he had said, or what he intended to do, she did not learn, for hermother rushed at the invaders with the mad bravery of a she-bear. "Get outof here!" she snarled, thrusting her revolver into the very mouth of theleader.
They all fell back in astonishment and fear.
Ross leaped to her side. "Leave them to me!" he said. "I'll clear theroom."
"Not on your life! This is my house. I have the right to smash the fools."And she beat them over the heads with her pistol-barrel.
Recognizing that she was minded to kill, they retreated over thethreshold, and Ross, drawing the door close behind them, turned to findLee Virginia confronting Edwards, who had attempted to escape into thekitchen. The girl's face was white, but the eye of her revolver staredstraight and true into her prisoner's face.
With a bound Ross seized him and flung him against the wall. "Get backthere!" he shouted. "You must take your medicine with your boss."
The old fellow hurriedly replaced his ragged hat, and, folding his arms,sank back into his chair with bowed head, while Lize turned upon JoeGregg. "What the devil did you go into this kind of deal for? You knewwhat the game laws was, didn't you? Your old dad is all for Stateregulation, and here you are breaking a State law. Why don't you stand upfor the code like a sport?"
Joe, who had been boasting of the smiles he had drawn from Lee, did notrelish this tongue-lashing from her mother, but, assuming a careless air,he said, "I'm all out of smokes; get me a box, that's a good old soul."
Lize regarded him with the expression of one nonplussed. "You impudentlittle cub!" she exclaimed. "What you need is a booting!"
The ranger addressed himself to Lee. "I want to thank you for a veryopportune intervention. I didn't know you could handle a gun so neatly."
She flushed with pleasure. "Oh yes, I can shoot. My father taught me whenI was only six years old."
As she spoke, Ross caught the man Edwards studying them with furtiveglance, but, upon being observed, he resumed his crouching attitude, whichconcealed his face beneath the rim of his weather-worn hat. It was evidentthat he was afraid of being recognized. He had the slinking air of theconvict, and his form, so despairing in its lax lines, appealed to Leewith even greater poignancy than his face. "I'm sorry," she said to him,"but it was my duty to help Mr. Cavanagh."
He glanced up with a quick sidewise slant. "That's all right, miss; Ishould have had sense enough to keep out of this business." He spoke withdifficulty, and his voice was hoarse with emotion.
Lize turned to Lee. "The Doc said 'no liquor,' but I guess here's where Idraw one--I feel faint."
Ross hurried to her side, while young Gregg tendered a handsome flask."Here's something."
Lize put it away. "Not from you. Just reach under my desk, Ross; you'llfind some brandy there. That's it," she called, as he produced a bottle.Clutching it eagerly, she added: "They say it's poison, but it's my meatto-night."
She was, in truth, very pale, and her hands were trembling in a weaknessthat went to her daughter's heart. Lee admired her bravery, her manlikereadiness of action, but her words, her manner (now that the stress of thebattle was over), hurt and shamed her. Little remained of the woman inLize, and the old sheep-herder eyed her with furtive curiosity.
"I was afraid you'd shoot," Lize explained to Ross, "and I didn't want youto muss up your hands on the dirty loafers. I had the right to kill; theywere trespassers, and I'd 'a' done it, too."
"I don't think they intended to actually assault me," he said, "but it's abit discouraging to find the town so indifferent over both the breaking ofthe laws and the doings of a drunken mob. I'm afraid the most of them area long way from law-abiding people yet."
Joe, who did not like the position in which he stood as respecting Lee,here made an offer of aid. "I don't suppose my word is any good now, butif you'll let me do it I'll go out and round up Judge Higley. I think Iknow where he is."
To this Lize ob
jected. "You can't do that, Ross; you better hold the fortright here till morning."
Lee was rather sorry, too, for young Gregg, who bore his buffeting withthe imperturbable face of the heroes of his class. He had gone into thisenterprise with much the same spirit in which he had stolen gates andmisplaced signs during his brief college career, and he was now disposed(in the presence of a pretty girl) to carry it out with undiminishedimpudence. "It only means a fine, anyway," he assured himself.
Cavanagh did not trust Gregg, either, and as this was the first time hehad been called upon to arrest men for killing game out of season, hecould not afford to fail of any precaution. Tired and sleepy as he was, hemust remain on guard. "But you and your daughter must go to bed at once,"he urged.
Lize, under the spur of her dram, talked on with bitter boldness. "I'mgoing to get out o' this town as soon as I can sell. I won't live in it aminute longer than I have to. It used to have men into it; now they'reonly hobos. It's neither the old time nor the new; it's just a betwixt andbetween, with a lot o' young cubs like Joe Gregg pretendin' to be tough. Inever thought I'd be sighin' for horse-cars, but these rowdy chumps likeNeill Ballard give me a pain. Not one of 'em has sand enough to pull a gunin the open, but they'd plug you from a dark alley or fire out of a crowd.It was different in the old days. I've seen men walk out into that street,face each other, and open fire quiet as molasses. But now it's all talkand blow. The _men_ have all grown old or got out."
To this Gregg listened with expressionless visage, his eyes dreamily fixedon Lee's face; but his companion, the old herder, seemed to palpitate withshame and fear. And Ross had the feeling at the moment that in thisragged, unkempt old hobo was the skeleton of one of the old-time heroes.He was wasted with drink and worn by wind and rain, but he was very farfrom being commonplace. "Here they come again!" called Lize, as the hurryof feet along the walk threatened another attack. Ross Cavanagh again drewhis revolver and stood at guard, and Lize recovering her own weapon took aplace by his side.
With the strength of a bear the new assailant shook the bolted door. "Letme in!" he roared.
"Go to hell!" replied Lize, calmly.
"It's dad!" called young Gregg. "Go away, you chump."
"Let me in or I'll smash this door!" retorted Gregg.
"You smash that door, old Bullfrog," announced Lize, "and I'll carry oneof your lungs away. I know your howl--it don't scare me. I've stood offone whole mob to-night, and I reckon I'm good for you. If you want to getin here you hunt up the judge of this town and the constable."
After a pause Sam called, "Are you there, son?"
"You bet he is," responded Lize, "and here he'll stay."
Joe added: "And you'd better take the lady's advice, pop. She has the dropon you."
The old rancher muttered a fierce curse while Ross explained thesituation. "I'm as eager to get rid of these culprits as any one can be,but they must be taken by proper authority. Bring a writ from themagistrate and you may have them and welcome."
Gregg went away without further word, and Lize said: "He'll find Higley ifhe's in town; and he _is_ in town, for I saw him this afternoon. He'shiding out to save himself trouble."
Lee Virginia, with an understanding of what the ranger had endured, asked:"Can't I get you something to eat? Would you like some coffee?"
"I would, indeed," he answered, and his tone pleased her.
She hurried away to get it while Cavanagh disposed his prisoners behind acouple of tables in the corner. "I guess you're in for a night of it," heremarked, grimly. "So make yourselves as comfortable as you can. Perhapsyour experience may be a discouragement to others of your kind."
Lee returned soon with a pot of fresh coffee and some sandwiches, thesight of which roused young Gregg to impudent remark. "Well, notice that!And we're left out!" But Edwards shrank into the shadow, as if the lighthurt him.
Ross thanked Lee formally, but there was more than gratitude in hisglance, and she turned away to hide her face from other eyes. Strangeplace it was for the blooming of love's roses, but they were in her cheeksas she faced her mother; and Lize, with fresh acknowledgment of herbeauty, broke out again: "Well, this settles it. I'm going to get out ofthis town, dearie. I'm done. This ends the cattle country for me. I don'tknow how I've put up with these yapps all these years. I've been robbedand insulted and spit upon just long enough. I won't have you dragged intothis mess. I ought to have turned you back the day you landed here."
The old man in the corner was listening, straining his attention in orderto catch every word she uttered, and Ross again caught a gleam in his eyeswhich puzzled him. Before he had time to turn his wonder over in his mindthey all caught the sound of feet along the walk, but this time the soundwas sedate and regular, like the movement of police.
Both prisoners rose to their feet as Cavanagh again stood alert. The feethalted; a sharp rap sounded on the door.
"Who's there?" demanded Lize.
"The law!" replied a wheezy voice. "Open in the name of the law!"
"It's old Higley," announced Lize. "Open the door, Ross."
"Come in, Law," she called, ironically, as the justice appeared. "You lookkind of mice-eaten, but you're all the law this blame town can sport. Comein and do your duty."
Higley (a tall man, with a rusty brown beard, very much on his dignity)entered the room, followed by a short, bullet-headed citizen in a rumpledblue suit with a big star on his breast. Behind on the sidewalk Ballardand a dozen of his gang could be seen. Sam Gregg, the moving cause of thisresurrection of law and order, followed the constable, bursting out bigcurses upon his son. "You fool," he began, "I warned you not to monkeywith them sheep. You--"
Higley had the grace to stop that. "Let up on the cuss-words, Sam; thereare ladies present," said he, nodding toward Lee. Then he opened uponCavanagh. "Well, sir, what's all this row? What's your charge againstthese men?"
"Killing mountain sheep. I caught them with the head of a big ram upontheir pack."
"Make him show his commission," shouted Gregg. "He's never beencommissioned. He's no game warden."
Higley hemmed. "I--ah--Oh, his authority is all right, Sam; I've seen it.If he can prove that these men killed the sheep, we'll have to act."
Cavanagh briefly related how he had captured the men on the trail. "Thehead of the ram is at the livery barn with my horse."
"How about that?" asked Higley, turning to Joe.
"I guess that's right," replied the insolent youth. "We killed the sheepall right."
Higley was in a corner. He didn't like to offend Gregg, and yet the casewas plain. He met the issue blandly. "Marshal, take these men intocustody!" Then to Ross: "We'll relieve you of their care, Mr. Cavanagh.You may appear to-morrow at nine."
It was a farcical ending to a very arduous thirty-six-hour campaign, andRoss, feeling like a man who, having rolled a huge stone to the top of ahill, has been ordered to drop it, said, "I insist on the maximum penaltyof the law, Justice Higley, especially for this man!" He indicated JoeGregg.
"No more sneaking, Higley," added Lize, uttering her distrust in bluntphrase. "You put these men through or I'll make you trouble."
Higley turned, and with unsteady solemnity saluted. "Fear not mygovernment, madam," said he, and so made exit.
After the door had closed behind them, Cavanagh bitterly complained. "I'vedelivered my prisoners over into the hands of their friends. I feel like afool. What assurance have I that they will ever be punished?"
"You have Higley's word," retorted Lize, with ironic inflection. "He'llfine 'em as much as ten dollars apiece, and confiscate the head, which isworth fifty."
"No matter what happens now, you've done your duty," added Lee Virginia,with intent to comfort him.
Lize, now that the stress of the battle was over, fell a-tremble. "Ireckon I'll have to go to bed," she admitted. "I'm all in. This nightservice is wearing."
Ross was alarmed at the sudden droop of her head. "Lean on me," he said,"it's my turn to be useful."
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nbsp; She apologized. "I can't stand what I could once," she confessed, as heaided her into the hotel part of the building. "It's my nerve--seem's likeit's all gone. I go to pieces like a sick girl."
She did, indeed, resemble the wreck of a woman as she lay out upon herbed, her hands twitching, her eyes closed, and Ross was profoundlyalarmed. "You need the doctor," he urged. "Let me bring him."
"No," she said, huskily, but with decision, "I'm only tired--I'll be allright soon. Send the people away; tell 'em to go to bed."
For half an hour Cavanagh remained in the room waiting to see if thedoctor's services would be required, but at the end of that time, as shehad apparently fallen asleep, he rose and tiptoed out into the hall.
Lee followed, and they faced each other in such intimacy as theshipwrecked feel after the rescue. The house was still astir with the feetof those to whom the noises of the night had been a terror or a lure, andtheir presence, so far from being a comfort, a protection, filled thegirl's heart with fear and disgust. The ranger explained the outcome ofthe turmoil, and sent the excited folk to their beds with the assurancethat all was quiet and that their landlady was asleep.
When they were quite alone Lee said: "You must not go out into the streetsto-night."
"There's no danger. These hoodlums would not dare to attack me."
"Nevertheless, you shall not go!" she declared. "Wait a moment," shecommanded, and reentered her mother's room.
As he stood there at Lize Wetherford's door, and his mind went back overher brave deed, which had gone far to atone for her vulgarity, his respectfor her deepened. Her resolute insistence upon law showed a completechange of front. "There is more good in her than I thought," he admitted,and it gave him pleasure, for it made Lee Virginia's character just thatmuch more dependable. He thrilled with a new and wistful tenderness as thegirl opened the door and stepped out, close beside him.
"Her breathing is quieter," she whispered. "I think she's going to sleep.It's been a terrible night! You must be horribly tired. I will find yousome place to sleep."
"It has been a strenuous campaign," he admitted. "I've been practicallywithout sleep for three nights, but that's all in my job. I won't mind ifHigley will 'soak' those fellows properly."
She looked troubled. "I don't know what to do about a bed for you;everything is taken--except the couch in the front room."
"Don't trouble, I beg of you. I can pitch down anywhere. I'm used to hardbeds. I must be up early to-morrow, anyway."
"Please don't go till after breakfast," she smiled, wanly, "I may needyou."
He understood. "What did the doctor say?"
"He said mother was in a very low state of vitality and that she must bevery careful, which was easy enough to say. But how can I get her to restand to diet? You have seen how little she cares for the doctor's orders.He told her not to touch alcohol."
"She is more like a man than a woman," he answered.
She led the way into the small sitting-room which lay at the front of thehouse, and directly opposite the door of her own room. It was filled withshabby parlor furniture, and in one corner stood a worn couch. "I'm sorry,but I can offer nothing better," she said. "Every bed is taken, but I haveplenty of blankets."
There was something delightfully suggestive in being thus waited upon by ayoung and handsome woman, and the ranger submitted to it with the awkwardgrace of one unaccustomed to feminine care. The knowledge that the girlwas beneath him in birth, and that she was considered to be (in a sense)the lovely flower of a corrupt stock, made the manifest innocency of hervoice and eyes the more appealing. He watched her moving about the roomwith eyes in which a furtive flame glowed.
"This seems a long way from that dinner at Redfield's, doesn't it?" heremarked, as she turned from spreading the blankets on the couch.
"It is another world," she responded, and her face took on a musinggravity.
Then they faced each other in silence, each filled with the same delicioussense of weakness, of danger, reluctant to say good-night, longing for thecloser touch which dawning love demanded, and yet--something in the girldefended her, defeated him.
"You must call me if I can be of any help," he repeated, and his voice wastremulous with feeling.
"I will do so," she answered.
Still they did not part. His voice was very tender as he said, "I don'tlike to see you exposed to such experiences."
"I was not afraid--only for you a little," she answered.
"The Redfields like you. Eleanor told me she would gladly help you. Why doyou stay here?"
"I cannot leave my mother."
"I'm not so sure of your duty in that regard. She got on without you forten years. You have a right to consider yourself. You don't belong here."
"Neither do you," she retorted.
"Oh yes, I do--at least, the case is different with me; my work is here.It hurts me to think of going back to the hills, leaving you here in themidst of these wolves."
He was talking now in the low, throbbing utterance of a man carried out ofhimself. "It angers me to think that the worst of these loafers, thesedrunken beasts, can glare at you--can speak to you. They have no right tobreathe the same air with one like you."
She did not smile at this; his voice, his eyes were filled with thegravity of the lover whose passion is not humorous. Against his training,his judgment, he was being drawn into closer and closer union with thisdaughter of violence, and he added: "You may not see me in the morning."
"You must not go without seeing my mother. You must have your breakfastwith us. It hurt us to think you didn't come to us for supper."
Her words meant little, but the look in her eyes, the music in her voice,made him shiver. He stammered: "I--I must return to my duties to-morrow. Ishould go back to-night."
"You mustn't do that. You can't do that. You are to appear before thejudge."
He smiled. "That is true. I'd forgotten that."
Radiant with relief, she extended her hand. "Good-night, then. You mustsleep."
He took her hand and drew her toward him, then perceiving both wonder andfear in her eyes, he conquered himself. "Good-night," he repeated,dropping her hand, but his voice was husky with its passion.
Tired as he was, the ranger could not compose himself to sleep. The memoryof the girl's sweet face, the look of half-surrender in her eyes, theknowledge that she loved him, and that she was lying but a few yards fromhim, made slumber impossible. At the moment she seemed altogetheradmirable, entirely worthy to be won.
Cavanagh, Forest Ranger: A Romance of the Mountain West Page 9
