CHAPTER XXII
THE WHITE WASTE
Warden and Singleton had been in Willets on the day the storm broke.They had ridden into town early, and when they saw the low-flying cloudssweeping down from the north Singleton grinned maliciously, with asignificance that Warden could not mistake.
"Warden, it's goin' to storm," he said.
Warden glanced at the other, understandingly.
"Looks a whole lot like it, Singleton. And we can be more comfortable atthe Two Diamond than in town."
"Right," grinned Singleton. "An' we'd better hit the breeze right now,for she's comin' fast."
As they mounted their horses in front of the building that containedWarden's office, the latter looked sharply at Singleton.
"Givens and Link ought to be busy by now. You say your men reported thatthe Circle L men stocked Number One line camp yesterday?"
"She's stocked!" laughed Singleton; "Tulerosa an' Denver brought word.An' the herd was on the big level north of the camp. They'll headstraight for that break because they'll hit it before they hit thebasin. An' Givens an' Link will send 'em through, to hell--an' thensome. An' them damn fools, Davies an' Harris, is layin' in the backroom of the Wolf, paralyzed by that forty-rod that Big Jim Lafflin hasbeen slippin' over the bar to 'em. They won't know they're alive untilthis time tomorrow, an' then they'll be so scared that they'll just keepright on hittin' the forty-rod for fair! I reckon we've got Lawlergoin', now, the damn maverick!"
Warden and Singleton rode fast, but the storm caught them. Midway on theten-mile stretch of plain between Willets and the Two Diamond theyturned their backs to the white smother and sent their horses racingheadlong away from the storm.
"She's a humdinger!" yelled Singleton to Warden as the wind shrieked andhowled about them. "If Givens an' Link git them cattle started they'lldrift clear into Mexico. Three thousand! I reckon that'll set the damnfool back some!"
The two men had only five miles to ride when the storm struck, andSingleton was experienced. And yet when they rode into the Two Diamondstable and dismounted, both men were breathless and tired; their legsand arms stiff with cold and their faces raw and blue from the bitterwind that had swirled around them.
"Another five miles of that an' we wouldn't be as active as we are now!"said Singleton, grimly. "She's got a worse bite than any wind I everseen!"
Warden's hands were so cold he could not remove the saddle from hishorse. A Two Diamond man performed that service for him, and forSingleton. While Warden and Singleton were stamping their feet in aneffort to restore circulation, the Two Diamond man called to them fromthe far end of the stable:
"You run into Miss Della?"
Warden wheeled toward the man. "What do you mean, Lefty? What about MissDella? Isn't she at the ranchhouse?"
"She rode away about three hours ago--on that big roan of hers. Went totown, most likely. She didn't say. I reckoned that if she _had_ gone totown, you'd have run into her."
Warden ran stiffly to the ranchhouse, where he came upon Aunt Hannah inthe kitchen.
"Where's Della?" he demanded, excitedly.
The woman looked at Warden in mild surprise.
"Why, didn't she come with you, Mr. Warden? She told me she intendedto." And then her face blanched at the wild excitement Warden betrayed.
"She isn't with you--you didn't meet her? Oh, she'll be frozen to deathin this terrible storm!"
"Damn you!" cursed Warden, gripping the woman's arm until she cried outin pain; "didn't I tell you not to let her go alone--anywhere?"
He released the woman and plunged out, running blindly back to thestable. He collided with Singleton at the stable door. His face wasghastly, his eyes bulging.
"Della's gone, Singleton!" he gasped. "She went to town. For God's sake,get those saddles on again! We've got to go back!"
"Warden, it can't be done," said Singleton in a low voice; "you'd freezeto death before you went a mile. There ain't any man can face thatstorm an' live. Man," he added when Warden made a violent gesture ofimpatience; "use your reason. We've just come five miles, with the windat our backs--an' we're half froze. Lefty just told me that Miss Dellaleft about three hours ago. If that's the case she's likely in town,snug an' warm, somewheres. We'd ought to have nosed around a littlebefore we left, but we didn't, an' mebbe she rode right by your place,thinkin' to stop in on the way back. You left early, you know. Anyway,Warden, if she's in town she'll stay there till the storm is over--snugan' warm. And if she didn't go to town there wouldn't be no use lookin'for her. Why, man, look out there! you can't see your hand before you!"
Warden raged insanely, stalking back and forth through the stable; andfinally to the ranchhouse again, where he bitterly arraigned AuntHannah. But in the end he stayed in the ranchhouse, close beside awindow, out of which he watched until the night came to shut off hisview of the great, white world.
Over at the Circle L ranchhouse were other anxious watchers--men whosesteady eyes held a haunting gleam of worry, and whose rugged faces grewgrim and long as the days passed and the storm did not abate. From theirbunkhouse they watched, day and night, for the end; their horses ready,heavy clothing at hand for a plunge into the white waste that stretchedon all sides of them. Had they known which way Lawler had gone when heleft the Circle L they would have searched for him despite the frigiddanger that gripped the world. But Lawler had gone, leaving no word;and there was nothing the men could do.
Through a window in the Circle L ranchhouse anxious eyes peeredalso--those of a gray-haired woman with a kindly, gentle face intowhich, as the long days passed, came lines that had not been therebefore. And yet in the watching eyes was a gleam of hope--of calmconfidence in the big son who was somewhere in the white waste--aconviction that he was safe, that he would survive and return to her.
The Trail Horde Page 23
