The Ridin' Kid from Powder River

by Henry Herbert Knibbs

  CHAPTER XLII

  "OH, SAY TWO THOUSAND"

  Just one week from the day on which Pete arrived in Sanborn he wassitting in the witness chair, telling an interested judge and jury, anda more than interested attorney for the defense, the story of hislife--"every hour of which," the attorney for the defense shrewdlyobserved in addressing the court, "has had a bearing upon the case."

  Pete spoke quietly and at times with considerable unconscious humor.He held back nothing save the name of the man who had killed Brent,positively refusing to divulge Brevoort's name. His attitude wasconvincing--and his story straightforward and apparently without aflaw, despite a spirited cross-examination by the State. The trial wasbrief, brisk, and marked by no wrangling. Sheriff Owen's testimony,while impartial, rather favored the prisoner than otherwise.

  In his address to the jury, Pete's attorney made no appeal in respectto the defendant's youth, his struggle for existence, or thedefendant's willingness to stand trial, for Pete had unwittingly madethat appeal himself in telling his story. The attorney for the defensesummed up briefly, thanking the jury for listening to him--and thensuddenly whirled and pointed his finger at the sheriff.

  "I ask you as sheriff of Sanborn County why you allowed the defendanthis personal liberty, unguarded and unattended, pending this trial."

  "Because he gave his word that he would not attempt to escape," saidSheriff Owen.

  "That's it!" cried the attorney. "The defendant _gave his word_. Andif Sheriff Owen, accustomed as he is to reading character in a man, waswilling to take this boy's word as a guarantee of his presence here, ontrial for his life, is there a man among us who (having heard thedefendant testify) is willing to stand up and say that he doubts thedefendant's word? If there is I should like to look at that man! No!

  "Gentlemen, I would ask you to recall the evidence contained in theletter written by former employers of the defendant, substantiating myassertion that this boy has been the victim of circumstances, and notthe victim of perverse or vicious tendencies. Does he look like acriminal? Does he act like a criminal? I ask you to decide."

  The jury was out but a few minutes, when they filed into court andreturned a verdict of "Not guilty."

  The attorney for the defense shook hands with Pete, and gathered up hispapers.

  Outside the courtroom several of the jury expressed a desire to makePete's acquaintance, curiously anxious to meet the man who had knownthe notorious Spider personally. Pete was asked many questions. Onejuror, a big, bluff cattleman, even offered Pete a job--"in case hethought of punchin' cattle again, instead of studyin' law"--averringthat Pete "was already a better lawyer than that shark from El Paso, atany turn of the trial."

  Finally the crowd dwindled to Owen, the El Paso lawyer, two of Owen'sdeputies, and Pete, who suggested that they go over to the hotel untiltrain-time.

  When Pete came to pay the attorney, whom Andover had secured followinga letter from Pete, the attorney asked Pete how much he could afford.Pete, too proud to express ignorance, and feeling mightily impressed bythe other's ability, said he would leave that to him.

  "Well, including expenses, say two thousand dollars," said the attorney.

  Pete wrote the check and managed to conceal his surprise at the amount,which the attorney had mentioned in such an offhand way. "I'm thankin'you for what you done," said Pete.

  "Don't mention it. Now, I'm no longer your legal adviser, Annersley,and I guess you're glad of it. But if I were I'd suggest that you goto some school and get an education. No matter what you intend to dolater, you will find that an education will be extremely useful, to saythe least. I worked my way through college--tended furnaces in winterand cut lawns in summer. And from what Andover tells me, you won'thave to do that. Well, I think I'll step over to the station; train'sdue about now."

  "You'll tell Doc Andover how it come out?"

  "Of course. He'll want to know. Take care of yourself. Good-bye!"

  Owen and his deputies strolled over to the station with the El Pasoattorney. Pete, standing out in front of the hotel, saw the train pullin and watched the attorney step aboard.

  "First, Doc Andover says to hire a good lawyer, which I done, and goodones sure come high." Pete sighed heavily--then grinned. "Well, saytwo thousand--jest like that! Then the lawyer says to git a education.Wonder if I was to git a education what the professor would be tellin'me to do next. Most like he'd be tellin' me to learn preachin' orsomethin'. Then if I was to git to be a preacher, I reckon all I coulddo next would be to go to heaven. Shucks! Arizona's good enough forme."

  But Pete was not thinking of Arizona alone--of the desert, the hillsand the mesas, the canons and arroyos, the illimitable vistas and thecolor and vigor of that land. Persistently there rose before hisvision the trim, young figure of a nurse who had wonderful grayeyes . . . "I'm sure goin' loco," he told himself. "But I ain't soloco that she's goin' to know it."

  "I suppose you'll be hitting the trail over the hill right soon," saidOwen as he returned from the station and seated himself in one of theample chairs on the hotel veranda. "Have a cigar."

  Pete shook his head.

  "They're all right. That El Paso lawyer smokes 'em."

  "They ought to be all right," asserted Pete.

  "Did he touch you pretty hard?"

  "Oh, say two thousand, jest like that!"

  The sheriff whistled. "Shooting-scrapes come high."

  "Oh, I ain't sore at him. What makes me sore is this here law thatsticks a fella up and takes his money--makin' him pay for somethin' henever done. A poor man would have a fine chance, fightin' a rich manin court, now, wouldn't he?"

  "There's something in that. The _Law_, as it stands, is all right."

  "Mebby. But she don't stand any too steady when a poor man wants tofork her and ride out of trouble. He's got to have a morral full ofgrain to git her to stand--and even then she's like to pitch him if shegits a chanct. I figure she's a bronco that never was broke right."

  "Well,"--and Owen smiled,--"we got pitched this time. We lost ourcase."

  "You kind o' stepped up on the wrong side," laughed Pete.

  "I don't know about that. _Somebody_ killed Sam Brent."

  "I reckon they did. But supposin'--'speakin' kind o' offhand'--thatyou had the fella--and say I was witness, and swore the fella killedBrent in self-defense--where would he git off?"

  "That would depend entirely on his reputation--and yours."

  "How about the reputation of the fella that was killed?"

  "Well, it was Brent's reputation that got you off to-day, as much asyour own. Brent was foreman for The Spider, which put him in bad fromthe start, and he was a much older man than you. He was the kind to dojust what you said he did--try to hold you up and get The Spider'smoney. It was a mighty lucky thing for you that you managed to getthat money to the bank before they got you. You were riding straightall right, only you were on the wrong side of the fence, and I guessyou knew it."

  "I sure did."

  "Well, it ain't for me to tell you which way to head in. You know whatyou're doing. You've got what some folks call Character, and plenty ofit. But you're wearin' a reputation that don't fit."

  "Same as clothes, eh?"--and Pete grinned.

  "Yes. And you can change _them_--if you want to change 'em."

  "But that there character part stays jest the same, eh?"

  "Yes. You can't change that."

  "Don't know as I want to. But I'm sure goin' to git into my otherclothes, and take the trail over the hill that you was talkin' about."

  "There are six ways to travel from here,"--and the sheriff's eyestwinkled.

  "Six? Now I figured about four."

  "Six. When it comes to direction, the old Hopis had us beat by acouple of trails. They figured east, west, north, and south, straightdown and straight up."

  "I git you, Jim. Well, minin' never did interest me none--and as forflyin', I sure been popped as high as I wan
t to go. I reckon I'll jestlet my hoss have his head. I reckon him and me has got about the sameidee of what looks good."

  "That pony of yours has never been in El Paso, has he?" queried thesheriff.

  "Nope. Reckon it would be mighty interestin' for him--and the folksthat always figured a sidewalk was jest for folks and not forhosses--but I ain't lookin' for excitement, nohow."

  "Reckon that blue roan will give you all you want, any way you ride.He hasn't been ridden since you left him here."

  "Yes--and it sure makes me sore. Doc Andover said I was to keep off ahoss for a week yet. Sanborn is all right--but settin' on that hotelporch lookin' at it ain't."

  "Well, I'd do what the Doc says, just the same. He ought to know."

  "I see--he ought to. He sure prospected round inside me enough to knowhow things are."

  "You might come over to my office when you get tired of sitting aroundhere. There ain't anything much to do--but I've got a couple of oldlaw books that might interest you--and a few novels--and if you wantsome real excitement I got an old dictionary--"

  "That El Paso lawyer was tellin' me I ought to git a education. Don'tknow but what this is a good chanct. But I reckon I'll try one of themnovels first. Mebby when I git that broke to gentle I can kind o' rideover and fork one of them law books without gittin' throwed afore I gitmy spurs hooked in good. But I sure don't aim to take no quickchances, even if you are ridin' herd for me."

  "That lawyer was right, Pete. And if I had had your chance, money, andno responsibilities--at your age, I wouldn't have waited to pack mywar-bag to go to college."

  "Well, I figured _you_ was educated, all right. Why, that there lawyerwas sayin' right out in court about you bein' intelligent andwell-informed, and readin' character."

  "He was spreading it on thick, Pete. Regular stuff. What little Iknow I got from observation--and a little reading."

  "Well, I aim to do some lookin' around myself. But when it comes toreadin' books--"

  "Reckon I'll let you take 'Robinson Crusoe'--it's a bed-rock story.And if you finish that before you leave, I'll bet you a new Stetsonthat you'll ask for another."

  "I could easy win that hat,"--and Pete grinned.

  "Not half as easy as you could afford to lose it."

  "Meanin' I could buy one 'most any time?"

  "No. I'll let you figure out what I meant." And the sturdy littlesheriff heaved himself out of a most comfortable chair and waddled upthe street, while Pete stared after him trying to reconcile bow-legsand reading books, finally arriving at the conclusion that education,which he had hitherto associated with high collars and helplessness,might perhaps be acquired without loss of self-respect. "It surehadn't spoiled Jim Owen," who was "as much of a real man as any of'em"--and could handle talk a whole lot better than most men whoboasted legs like his. Why, even that El Paso lawyer had complimentedOwen on his "concise and eloquent summary of his findings against thedefendant." And Pete reflected that his lawyer had not thrown anybouquets at any one else in that courtroom.

  Just how much a little gray-eyed nurse in El Paso had to do with Pete'sdetermination to browse in those alien pastures is a matter forspeculation--but a matter which did not trouble Pete in the least,because it never occurred to him; evident in his confession to AndyWhite, months later: "I sure went to it with my head down and my earslaid back, takin' the fences jest as they come, without stoppin' tolook for no gate. I sure jagged myself on the top-wire, frequent, butI never let that there Robinson Crusoe cuss git out of sight till I runhim into his a home-corral along with that there man-eatin' nigger ofhis'n."

  So it would seem that not even the rustle of skirts was heard in theland as Pete made his first wild ride across the pleasant pastures ofRomance--for Doris had no share in this adventure, and, we are told,the dusky ladies of that carnivorous isle did not wear them.