by Grey, Zane
Then Hank Bilyen appeared on the scene.
"Come on to the house," said Hank eagerly. "My Gawd! Yu look like Brazos Keene ten years ago--a pink-cheeked, curly haided cowboy of sixteen, which you was when I met yu first at Doan's Post."
"Only ten years? I feel turrible old, Hank." Then a resonant voice, dry and crisp, gave Brazos a thrill.
"By the Lord Harry! It's Brazos Keene."
Brazos turned to meet Neece, a transformed man he scarcely recognised.
"Howdy, old-timer," drawled Brazos.
Sombrero off, Brazos crossed the threshold. One of the twins stood in the centre of the room; the other closed the door behind him. Then they both met in front of him, pale, tremendously excited. Brazos could not tell one from the other.
"Howdy--girls," he said huskily. "It's shore good to see yu--heah."
"Brazos!" The twins were upon him, murmuringly, and soft, cool lips touched his cheek at the same instant that sweeter lips, on fire, met his own.
At that juncture the girls' aunt entered to welcome Brazos.
June and Janis talked of their dance.
"Now you're here we can have it! When?" exclaimed June delightedly.
"Everybody is waiting," Janis exclaimed. "Let's say Friday night. That'll give us two days to decorate the barn. And get the supper ready. Dad has a surprise for us. This will be the welcome home he had planned for us."
"Friday night--two days?" queried June dreamily, her eyes on Brazos. "It will be full moon."
They marched Brazos back to the house to announce with gay acclaim the date for the dance.
"Son, when will you take charge?" asked Neece.
"Yu mean of yore ootfits? Gosh!"
"I mean of mine. Henderson has his own foreman. An' Sisk his. But I depend a lot on Bilyen."
"What's Hank's job gonna me?"
"Hank will buy an' sell cattle."
"Fine.' Coglan told me yu was' runnin' eighty thousand haid. Is thet so?"
"More by a few thousand."
"Ahuh. I don't know as thet is so good," rejoined Brazos thoughtfully. "Neece, yu're an old-timer. It'll mean drawin' rustlers like molasses draws flies."
"There won't be any more wholesale rustlin'. Brazos, I'll lose loess throwin' in with my pardners, an' runnin' a hundred thousand head, than if I stay out an' run one-tenth of that number."
"Sounds sensible. What does Hank think aboot it?"
"Bilyen's not crazy about it. Says such big herds invite all kinds of range trouble from stealin' by rival combines and out-an'-out rustlers to corruptin' cowboys."
"Wal, Hank is shore right. Heah he comes now, in a buck-board. Gosh, them blacks look kinda familiar!"
"Where you goin', Hank?" queried the rancher, as Bilyen drove to a halt.
"Town. Got a list longer 'n yore laig--all for thet darn dance."
"Hank, I've been talkin' with Neece heah. He says yu're not keen on his combine an' the big herd."
"Wal, air yu, Brazos?"
"Shore I am The more the merrier." Brazos deliterately contradicted his opinion to Neece for reasons of his own.
"To be honest, I feel all right about it now, 'cause yu're heah, Brazos."
"Ahuh. Wal, what was on on your chest, before I got heah?"
"I got a grudge against Bodkin. An' I ain't so damn friendly toward this new cattleman Knight. The talk has it thet Knight is the hombre who shot Surface. Brazos, do yu reckon Bodkin's bein' elected sheriff will make him go straight?"
"Not in a million years!"
"Thet will simplify the problem for Neece," declared Bilyen, And he drove off without another word.
Happily Brazos spent the afternoon balancing precariously on a ladder, putting up the leafy decorations. There came a time when he was alone with June, hidden from the others by a great bower of leaves. Brazos daringly made love to her, crushed her to him despite her murmured objections that the others might see them.
"June!" came the clamouring cry from outside the leafy bower.
She slipped away from Brazos. Dusk was falling. Then the supper bell rang.
A slender form in white stood framed in the darkening doorway of foliage.
"Aw, heah yu air!" whispered Brazos with feeling.
"Oh, I couldn't see you--they sent me back--"
He gathered her up in his arms and as he kissed her she cried out:
"Oh!--please don't--Mercy! Ah!" And with that Brazos's thirsty lips closed hers and he spent his ardour in long, lingering kisses.
"There. Thet shore was comin' to yu--lady," panted Brazos, as her head dropped back, her eyes closed under mystic lids.
They opened. "Cowboy devil!" she whispered. "No--more," she cried frantically, and, surprising Brazos with sudden strength, she freed herself and fled.
Brazos followed, still in a transport. But as he got out of the gloom of the barn into the light he sustained a return of rationality.
"What'd you go back for?" Henry Sisk asked in a low voice.
"What'd you--drag June--away for?" panted the girl, as she reached him.
"I took her for you!" returned Sisk, in anguish.
"Ha! Ha!"
Janis's sweet laugh not only silenced Sisk but also made a stone image of Brazos. The couple hurried on to catch up with the others down the lane. Brazos stood there in the summer twilight as suddenly stiff and cold as if he had been turned to stone, his consciousness capable of only one thought:
My Gawd, if it wasn't Jan.
Chapter 10
During the rest of that evening Brazos sought the safety of numbers. But just the same, he was conscious of June's observance of him. And as the evening wore on Brazos began to grow suspicious of the others.
"Wal, folks," he said at an opportune moment, "I'm gonna say good-night an' ride back to town."
"What's the sense in thet?" spoke up Neece quickly. "This is your home."
"Why must you go?" pouted June.
"Wal, since yu call my hand," drawled Brazos, "the fact is there's a couple of hombres in town thet I forgot aboot shootin'."
Blank surprise and silence ensued upon Brazos's reply. They could not tell whether he was in jest or earnest.
"So long. See yu all in the mawnin'," he concluded, and left the room. Hank Bilyen followed him out on the porch, and one of the twins caught up with them.
"Cowboy, I'll have yore hawss here in a jiffy," said Hank.
Brazos had taken a step down, but turned to look at the girl.
"You are--angry?" she asked.
"Not at all--an' which one of these heah Neece girls are yu?"
"Brazos! I'm June. Don't look at me like that. We were, only in fun--and they coaxed--nagged me into it."
"Wal, I shore took Jan for yu, all right," declared Brazos.
"Oh, Brazos--you--you didn't--"
"Let yore imagination 'run high, wide, an' handsome June, an' maybe yu'll get somewhere."
"Brazos! I'll bet you were too smart for them. You knew Jan!" exclaimed June hopefully. "You played up to 'them. Oh, Brazos, I'm horribly jealous, but if you guessed the trick I--I can stand it. Only Jan worries me--Do you forgive me, Brazos?"
"Shore, sweetheart, I'd forgive yu anythin'. But I'm not so shore aboot Jan an' Jack an' yore dad."
"Now you're my old Brazos again," murmured June. "I'll be a match for them next time. Brazos, let's play a terrible joke on them."
"I should smile. How aboot elopin'?"
"Oh! Brazos, you're not serious?" cried June, aghast yet intrigued.
"Shore am. We could slope off in the mawnin'--get to Dodge City long enough to slip thet bridle on yu--then come back to the dance."'
"Glorious! But--but--"
"Then it wouldn't make so much difference whether or not I took yu for Jan," drawled Brazos dryly.
"Wouldn't it, though?" flashed June. "Brazos Keene, I agree with Jan. Nobody can be quite sure of you."
"If yu were my wife, wouldn't yu feel tolerable safe?"
"Don't tempt me, Brazos. If we eloped it'd hurt Dad.
I--I'd like it! But I mustn't. Another thing--Jan would never forgive me."
"For marryin' me!"
"No. For not telling her. We'll wait, Brazos dear--if you can be true to me."
Next day he slept late, and after he awakened he was wonderfully happy, until, booted, spurred, and gun-belted, he walked out up the street of Las Animas.
He had not taken a dozen steps from Mexican Joe's when a cowboy sauntered out of a doorway..
"Howdy, Keene," he said. "I been walkin' the street for an hour watchin' for you."
"Howdy, cowboy," returned Brazos.
"Gimme a match. Make this look natural," returned the other.
"Ahuh. Heah yu air. Talk fast, stranger."
"Last night, at Hall's--heerd two men talkin'--Brazos Keene in town--Knight swears we're to git him at any cost--Bodkin rarin'."
The cowboy raised his young hard visage and turned away.
When Brazos arrived at Twin Sombreros he found a merry, bustling crowd of cowboys.
"Heah, one of yu rollickin' gazabos," he called. "Tell Neece an' Bilyen I want them pronto."
The rancher was the first to reach Brazos.
"Mornin', son. You look pretty serious. Scared of bracin' Dad after last night, eh?"
Brazos had to grin. "Scared as hell, Dad. But thet wasn't on my mind atall."
Hank Bilyen joined them at this juncture. "Mawnin', Brazos," he said.
"Come heah," returned Brazos, and drew the two aside. "I've got a tip. Cattle gone to forty-three dollars. It'll be forty-five in less 'n a week, an' goin' up."
"You don't say!" ejaculated the rancher. "Hank, my hunch was correct."
"Wal, I was holdin' at forty for this fall. But forty-five! Say, Neece, we're settin' with a powerful good hand."
"How many haid can yu drive in an' ship pronto, inside the week?" queried Brazos, thoughtfully.
"Close to twenty thousand if the railroad can handle them," replied Neece.
"I saw hundreds of empty stock cars as I rode oot. Neece, yu can beat the other cattlemen to it."
"I'll go write telegrams to my buyers an' order all the stock cars available. Hank, you can ride in with these at once," said Neece, and hurried away.
"Come oot with it, darn yore pictoors," demanded Hank gruffly.
"Wal, it's nothin' new, but kinda worrisome, considerin' the mix-up I'm in heah," answered Brazos, and he gave Hank the information he had received from the cowboy in town.
The Texan swore mightily. "What'n the hell air yu gonna do?"
"Me? Aw, I better lay low."
"They'd reckon yu was scared an' rustle the hair off this range."
"Shore. But they'd hang themselves sooner or later. Las Animas won't stand it forever."
"No, I reckon not. All the same, they're daid slow."
"Slow? They're not alive. Hank, I just oughta ride away," said Brazos tragically. "Only I cain't."
"An' why cain't yu?"
"It's not humanly possible for me to leave this girl. If only June would run off with me! We could come back after these hombres peter oot."
"June? Say, cowboy, we reckoned it was Janis."
"We? Who'n hell air we?" jerked out Brazos with a start.
"Cowboy, ain't yu kinda mixed up yoreself aboot which one of the twins yu're daid set on?"
"Mixed up? I'm standin' on my haid. I love June, honest an' true--but--aw! It's orful--I cain't tell her from Jan!"
The rustic pine cone lanterns up and down the lane leading from the barn to the ranch-house were lit, as were the oil lanterns in the colourful barn and the big locomotive lamp that had been fastened high on a post. And the moon soared above the black range, full and white and radiant. Then the girls, some in white and most in bright hues, flocked down the lane with gay voices and merry laughter, to meet the eager young men waiting at the barn.
Brazos was surrounded by the glad throng, although none appeared to notice him, and he drew to one side. He was beginning to lose something of the thrill that possessed him, when a soft little hand slipped inside his. Brazos turned to find a vision in white beside him, with lovely face uplifted to his.
"It's June," she said. "How do you like my New York gown?"
"Girl--I never knew yu were so beautiful," replied Brazos rapturously.
"Come. This first dance is yours. I chose a long waltz, because you told me you liked waltzing."
At midnight supper was served Soon the dancers flocked back to the barn, lured by the strains of music. Brazos watched them from the porch, a little wistfully, wondering when June would hunt him up. Then a white hand slipped under his arm.
"Come, cowboy."
"Aw, hear yu air!" cried Brazos.
"Quick. They're after me. Run!" she said, with a giggle, and led him into the pines instead of down the lane. In a moment they were out of sight of the ranch-house.
Then they walked hand in hand. There was no need of talk. The girl stopped to confront Brazos, though she did not let go of his hand.
"Where have you been all these hours?" she asked.
"I've been helpin' make yore party a success. Didn't think it was in me! Dancin' with old maids, doin' the elegant with the wives and mothers, makin' a waiter oot of myself. But it was fun an' did me good."
"Brazos, that was sweet of you."
"Wal, don't yu want to reward me?" he drawled softly.
"Yes." As she spoke that forceful word Brazos caught a hint of something as strange as lovely about her. In the magic of the moonlight all her charm and mystery appeared magnified.
"Tell me yu'll marry me?" he demanded, suddenly strong and vibrant with released emotion.
"Oh, what will Dad and sister say?"
"Aw! Why, I hate to rush yu, darlin'. But there's a reason. I'm a marked man in Las Animas. I oughta go away 'till those hombres forget they wanted to kill me."
"Brazos!" She roused to passionate life in his arms.
"I told yu, darlin'," he expostulated.
"Oh, Brazos! I--I will marry you."
"When? The sooner the better."
"We'll elope!" she cried thrillingly. Suddenly she appeared transformed into a little whirlwind, throwing her arms around his neck, and drawing his head down to kiss him with lips of sweet fire. "Oh, Brazos! I've been dying for you," she burst out. "You won me--even though I thought you a devil with girls--a trifler! All the time--all the time I thought it was June you loved!"
Chapter 11
Brazos, in his realisation of catastrophe, stiffened so violently that he almost crushed the girl in his arms.
"Don't kill--me," Janis managed to utter faintly.
"Aw--I'm sorry. I--I just went off my haid," replied Brazos in a smothered voice, as he released his clasp.
He bent his head over her and again enfolded her slender form, while he gazed unseeingly out into the shadows of the woods.
"Darling, this is perfect," said Janis, stirring, and trying to look up at him. "It pays me for my anguish. It sustains me--until the next time. But we mustn't stay longer!"
"No," agreed Brazos, and stood like a stone.
She pressed back from his breast to look up. "Oh, Brazos! You're so white! Was it hard to choose between June and me? My poor darling, you could have had me for the asking!"
Brazos wrenched his gaze from the shadows to look down upon her, fully conscious now that he was as weak as guilty, that he loved her the same as June, that she had a devastating power he had never felt in the shy sister.
Then it seemed somehow that this ecstasy waved away and she was soothing his hair.
"I was always crazy to muss your hair like that," she was murmuring.
"Jan--I've kinda--mussed yu too," he replied hoarsely.
"If you haven't! Oh, dear, this dress wasn't made for grizzly bears. Come. I'm as bold as a lioness. But I'd just as lief not meet Henry. This was his dance. I saw you on the porch. I sent him after something. But it was our dance, Brazos. Now we will pay the piper, come what may!"
A voice pierced dim
ly into Brazos's sleep: "Wake up, Brazos. It's four o'clock an' you're wanted."
Brazos opened his eyes to see Jack Sain standing beside his bunk.
"Who wants me?"
"June an' Jan. They're waitin' for you where the trail turns off the lane into the woods."
"Ahuh. An' yu have a hunch my life is gonna be harder 'n hell pronto," drawled Brazos, sliding his long legs out of bed.
"I'll bet you get the spurrakin' of your ridin' days."
"Boy, yu shore look like life was kinda hard for yu this mawnin'."
"I'd just as lief be dead," returned Sain hopelessly. Then Brazos took a second look at him, and felt remorse gnaw at his own heart.
"What's' yore trouble, cowboy?" asked Brazos kindly.
"You know. It's the same as yours."
"Ump-um. Mine is double yores. All the same I can help yu."
"Thanks, Brazos--I just can't help likin' you--though you've ruined my life."
"Jack, yu mean June hasn't been so--so nice to yu since I rode along?"
"Brazos, she al--almost loved me before you came," replied Sam miserably. "Since then she's been--Oh, hell! nice an' kind, yes, but different. It just hurts, Brazos. I'm not sore at you. It's only--"
"Only what, Jack?"
"I'm afraid to tell you Brazos, but they say you're playin' hell with the twins," replied Sain huskily. "That you're payin' them up for their fun--their lettin' us all take one for the other."
"Wal, who says thet?"
"All the outfit. Even Neece. He told me it served the girls good and damn right. But, Brazos, I know that's Jan's fault. June worships her. She'd give her very soul for Jan."
"Jack, I kinda had that hunch myself," replied Brazos, pulling on his boots. His mind seemed to scintillate with the sparks of an inspiration. He stood up, reached for his gun belt and buckled it on.
He turned piercing eyes upon his friend. "Jack, yu're a good boy. An' I'm damn sorry I upset yore courtin'. But let me give yu a hunch, boy. Don't be sick an' jealous an' black. Be yore real self to June. Thet girl is gonna rebound into yore arms like a rubber ball off a 'dobe wall."
"Oh, Brazos. Don't lie--don't rave just to cheer me up."
"Keep this under yore sombrero, cowboy. I did give the girls a dose of their own medicine. Why, Jack, it was apple pie for me to tell them--one from the other. An' I let on I couldn't. Wal, heah's what no one else but yu will ever know--except Neece, an' I give yu leave to tell him. I got burned turrible bad in thet little game of makin' love."
