The Ridin Kid from Powder River

by Knibbs, Henry Herbert

  He was not aware that some of the patients were gazing at him curiously—that gossip had passed his name from room to room and that the papers had that morning printed a sort of revised sequel to the original story of "The Spider Mystery"—as they chose to call it.

  Doris glanced at her watch. "We'll have to go in," she said, rising and adjusting Pete's pillow.

  "Oh, shucks! We jest come out!"

  "You've been asleep," said Doris.

  Pete shook his head. "Nope. But I sure did git one good rest. Doc Andover calls this a vacation, eh? Well, then I guess I got to go back to work—and it sure is work, holdin' down that bed in there—and nothin' to do but sleep and eat and—but it ain't so bad when you're there. Now that there cow-bunny with the front teeth—"

  "S-sh!" Doris flushed, and Pete glanced around, realizing that they were not alone.

  "Well, I reckon we got to go back to the corral!" Pete sighed heavily.

  Back in bed he watched Doris as she made a notation on the chart of his "case." He frowned irritably when she took his temperature.

  "The doctor will want to know how you stood your first outing," she said, smiling.

  Pete wriggled the little glass thermometer round in his mouth until it stuck up at an assertive angle, as some men hold a cigar, and glanced mischievously at his nurse. "Why don't you light it?" he mumbled.

  Doris tried not to laugh as she took the thermometer, glanced at it, and charted a slight rise in the patient's temperature.

  "Puttin' it in that glass of water to cool it off?" queried Pete.

  She smiled as she carefully charted the temperature line.

  "Kin I look at it?" queried Pete.

  She gave the chart to him and he studied it frowningly. "What's this here that looks like a range of mountains ?" he asked.

  "Your temperature." And she explained the meaning of the wavering line.

  "Gee! Back here I sure was climbin' the high hills! That's a interestin' tally-sheet."

  Pete saw a peculiar expression in her gray eyes. It was as though she were searching for something beneath the surface of his superficial humor; for she knew that there was something that he wanted to say—something entirely alien to these chance pleasantries. She all but anticipated his question.

  "Would you mind tellin' me somethin'?" he queried abruptly.

  "No. If there is anything that I can tell you."

  "I was wonderin' who was payin' for this here private room—and reg'lar nurse. I been sizin' up things—and folks like me don't get such fancy trimmin's without payin'."

  "Why—it was your—your father."

  Pete sat up quickly. "My father! I ain't got no father. I—I reckon somebody got things twisted."

  "Why, the papers"—and Doris bit her lip—"I mean Miss Howard, the nurse who was here that night…"

  "When The Spider cashed in?"

  Doris nodded.

  "The Spider wasn't my father. But I guess mebby that nurse thought he was, and got things mixed."

  "The house-doctor would not have had him brought up here if he had thought he was any one else."

  "So The Spider said he was my father—so he could git to see me!" Pete seemed to be talking to himself. "Was he the friend you was tellin' me called regular?"

  "Yes. I don't know, but I think he paid for your room and the operation."

  "Don't they make those operations on folks, anyhow, if they ain't got money?"

  "Yes, but in your case it was a very difficult and dangerous operation. I saw that Dr. Andover hardly wanted to take the risk."

  "So The Spider pays for everything!" Pete shook his head. "I don't just sabe."

  "I saw him watching you once—when you were asleep," said Doris. "He seemed terribly anxious. I was afraid of him—and I felt sorry for him—"

  Pete lay back and stared at the opposite wall. "He sure was game!" he murmured. "And he was my friend."

  Pete turned his head quickly as Doris stepped toward the door. "Could you git me some of them papers—about The Spider?"

  "Yes," she answered hesitatingly, as she left the room.

  Pete closed his eyes. He could see The Spider standing beside his bed supported by two internes, dying on his feet, fighting for breath as he told Pete to "see that party—in the letter"—and "that some one had trailed him too close." And "close the cases," The Spider had said. The game was ended.

  When Doris came in again Pete was asleep. She laid a folded newspaper by his pillow, gazed at him for a moment, and stepped softly from the room.

  At noon she brought his luncheon. When she came back for the tray she noticed that he had not eaten, nor would he talk while she was there. But that evening he seemed more like himself. After she had taken his temperature he jokingly asked her if he bit that there little glass dingus in two what would happen?"

  "Why, I'd have to buy a new one," she replied, smiling.

  Pete's face expressed surprise. "Say!" he queried, sitting up, "did The Spider pay you for bein' my private nurse, too?"

  "He must have made some arrangement with Dr. Andover. He put me in charge of your case."

  "But don't you git anything extra for—for smilin' at folks—and—coaxin' 'em to eat—and wastin' your time botherin' around 'em most all day?"

  "The hospital gets the extra money. I get my usual salary."

  "You ain't mad at me, be you?"

  "Why, no, why should I be?"

  "I dunno. I reckon I talk kind of rough—and that mebby I said somethin'—but—would you mind if I was to tell you somethin'. I been thinkin' about it ever since you brung that paper. It's somethin' mighty important—and—"

  "Your dinner is getting cold," said Doris.

  "Shucks! I jest got to tell somebody! Did you read what was in that paper?"

  Doris nodded.

  "About that fella called Steve Gary that The Spider bumped off in that gamblin'-joint?"

  "Yes."

  "Well, if that's right—and the papers ain't got things twisted, like when they said The Spider was my father—why, if it was Steve Gary—I kin go back to the Concho and kind o' start over ag'in."

  "I don't understand."

  "'Course you don't! You see, me and Gary mixed onct—and—"

  Doris' gray eyes grew big as Pete spoke rapidly of his early life, of the horse-trader, of Annersley and Bailey and Montoya, and young Andy White—characters who passed swiftly before her vision as she followed Pete's fortunes up to the moment when he was brought into the hospital. And presently she understood that he was trying to tell her that if the newspaper report was authentic he was a free man. His eagerness to vindicate himself was only too apparent.

  Suddenly he ceased talking. The animation died from his dark eyes. "Mebby it wa'n't the same Steve Gary," he said.

  "If it had been, you mean that you could go back to your friends—and there would be no trouble—?"

  Pete nodded. "But I don't know."

  "Is there any way of finding out—before you leave here?" she asked.

  "I might write a letter and ask Jim Bailey, or Andy. They would know."

  "I'll get you a pen and paper."

  Pete flushed. "Would you mind writin' it for me? I ain't no reg'lar, professional writer. Pop Annersley learned me some—but I reckon Jim could read your writin' better."

  "Of course I'll write the letter, if you want me to. If you'll just tell me what you wish to say I'll take it down on this pad and copy it in my room."

  "Can't you write it here? Mebby we might want to change somethin'."

  "Well, if you'll eat your dinner—" And Doris went for pen and paper. When she returned she found that Pete had stacked the dishes in a perilous pyramid on the floor, that the bed-tray might serve as a table on which to write.

  He watched her curiously as she unscrewed the cap of her fountain pen and dated the letter.

  "Jim Bailey, Concho—that's over in Arizona," he said, then he hesitated. "I reckon I got to tell you the whole thing first and mebby you kin put i
t down after I git through." Doris saw him eying the pen intently. "You didn't fetch the ink," he said suddenly.

  Doris laughed as she explained the fountain pen to him. Then she listened while he told her what to say.

  The letter written, Doris went to her room. Pete lay thinking of her pleasant gray eyes and the way that she smiled understandingly and nodded—"When most folks," he soliloquized, "would say something or ask you what you was drivin' at."

  To him she was an altogether wonderful person, so quietly cheerful, natural, and unobtrusively competent… Then, through some queer trick of memory, Boca's face was visioned to him and his thoughts were of the desert, of men and horses and a far sky-line. "I got to get out of here," he told himself sleepily. And he wondered if he would ever see Doris Gray again after he left the hospital.

  CHAPTER XXXIX

  A PUZZLE GAME

  Dr. Andover, brisk and professionally cheerful, was telling Pete that so far as he was concerned he could not do anything more for him, except to advise him to be careful about lifting or straining—to take it easy for at least a month—and to do no hard riding until the incision was thoroughly healed. "You'll know when you are really fit," he said, smiling, "because your back will tell you better than I can. You're a mighty fortunate young man!"

  "You sure fixed me up fine, Doc. You was sayin' I could leave here next week?"

  "Yes, if you keep on improving—and I can't see why you should not. And I don't have to tell you to thank Miss Gray for what she has done for you. If it hadn't been for her, my boy, I doubt that you would be here!"

  "She sure is one jim-dandy nurse."

  "She is more than that, young man." Andover cleared his throat. "There's one little matter that I thought best not to mention until you were—pretty well out of the woods. I suppose you know that the authorities will want to—er—talk with you about that shooting scrape—that chap that was found somewhere out in the desert. The chief of detectives asked me the other day when you would be around again."

  "So, when I git out of here they're goin' to arrest me?"

  "Well, frankly, you are under arrest now. I thought it best that you should know it now. In a general way I gathered that the police suspect you of having had a hand in the killing of that man who was found near Sanborn."

  "Well, they can wait till hell freezes afore I'll tell 'em," said Pete.

  "And, meanwhile, you'll also have to—er—wait, I imagine. Have you any friends who might—er—use their influence? I think you might get out on bail. I can't say."

  "Nope."

  "Then the best thing that you can do is to tell a straight story and hope that the authorities will believe you. Well, I've got to go. By the way, how are you fixed financially? Just let me know if you want anything?"

  "Thanks, Doc. From what you say I reckon the county will be payin' my board."

  "I hope not. But you'll need some clothing and underwear—the things you had on are—"

  Pete nodded.

  "Don't hesitate to ask me,"—and Andover rose. "Your friend—er—Ewell—arranged for any little contingency that might arise."

  "Then I kin go most any time?" queried Pete.

  "We'll see how you are feeling next week. Meanwhile keep out in the sun—but wrap up well. Good-bye!"

  Pete realized that to make a fresh start in life he would have to begin at the bottom.

  He had ever been inclined to look forward rather than backward—to put each day's happenings behind him as mere incidents in his general progress—and he began to realize that these happenings had accumulated to a bulk that could not be ignored, if the fresh start that he contemplated were to be made successfully. He recalled how he had felt when he had squared himself with Roth for that six-gun. But the surreptitious taking of the six-gun had been rather a mistake than a deliberate intent to steal. And Pete tried to justify himself with the thought that all his subsequent trouble had been the result of mistakes due to conditions thrust upon him by a fate which had slowly driven him to his present untenable position—that of a fugitive from the law, without money and without friends. He came to the bitter conclusion that his whole life had been a mistake—possibly not through his own initiative, but a mistake nevertheless. He knew that his only course was to retrace and untangle the snarl of events in which his feet were snared. Accustomed to rely upon his own efforts—he had always been able to make his living—he suddenly realized the potency of money; that money could alleviate suffering, influence authority, command freedom—at least temporary freedom—and even in some instances save life itself.

  Yet it was characteristic of Pete that he did not regret anything that he had done, in a moral sense. He had made mistakes—and he would have to pay for them—but only once. He would not make these mistakes again. A man was a fool who deliberately rode his horse into the same box cañon twice.

  Pete wondered if his letter to Jim Bailey had been received and what Bailey's answer would be. The letter must have reached Bailey by this time. And then Pete thought of The Spider's note, advising him to call at the Stockmen's Security; and of The Spider's peculiar insistence that he do so—that Hodges would "use him square."

  Pete wondered what it all signified. He knew that The Spider had money deposited with the Stockmen's Security. The request had something to do with money, without doubt. Perhaps The Spider had wished him to attend to some matter of trust—for Pete was aware that The Spider had trusted him, and had said so, almost with his last breath. But Pete hesitated to become entangled further in The Spider's affairs. He did not intend to make a second mistake of that kind.

  Monday of the following week Pete was out on the veranda—listening to little Ruth, a blue-eyed baby patient who as gravely explained the mysteries of a wonderful puzzle game of pasteboard cows and horses and a farmyard "most all cut to pieces," as Ruth said, when Doris stepped from the hall doorway and, glancing about, finally discovered Pete in the far corner of the veranda—deeply absorbed in searching for the hind leg of a noble horse to which little Ruth had insisted upon attaching the sedate and ignoble hind quarters of a maternal cow. So intent were they upon their game that neither of them saw Doris as she moved toward them, nodding brightly to many convalescents seated about the veranda.

  "Whoa!" said Pete, as Ruth disarranged the noble steed in her eagerness to fit the bit of pasteboard Pete had handed to her. "Now, I reckon he'll stand till we find that barn-door and the water-trough. Do you reckon he wants a drink?"

  "He looks very firsty," said Ruth.

  "Mebby he's hungry, too,"—and Pete found the segment of a mechanically correct haystack.

  "No!" cried Ruth positively, taking the bit of haystack from Pete; "wet's put some hay in his house."

  "Then that there cow'll git it—and she's plumb fed up already."

  "Den I give 'at 'ittle cow his breakfuss,"—and the solicitous Ruth placed the section of haystack within easy reach of a wide-eyed and slightly disjointed calf—evidently the offspring of the well-fed cow, judging from the paint-markings of each.

  But suddenly little Ruth's face lost its sunshine. Her mouth quivered. Pete glanced up at her, his dark eyes questioning.

  "There's lots more hay," he stammered, "for all of 'em."

  "It hurted me," sobbed Ruth.

  "Your foot?" Pete glanced down at the child's bandaged foot, and then looked quickly away.

  "Ess. It hurted me—and oo didn't hit it."

  "I'll bet it was that doggone ole cow! Let's git her out of this here corral and turn her loose!" Pete shuffled the cow into a disjointed heap. "Now she's turned loose—and she won't come back."

  Ruth ceased sobbing and turned to gaze at Doris, who patted her head and smiled. "We was—stockin' up our ranch," Pete explained almost apologetically. "Ruth and me is pardners."

  Doris gazed at Pete, her gray eyes warm with a peculiar light. "It's awfully nice of you to amuse Ruth."

  "Amuse her! My Gosh! Miss Gray, she's doin' the amusin'! When we're visitin' like thi
s, I plumb forgit—everything."

  "Here's a letter for you," said Doris. "I thought that perhaps you might want to have it as soon as possible."

  "Thanks, Miss Gray. I reckon it's from Jim Bailey. I—" Pete tore off the end of the envelope with trembling fingers. Little Ruth watched him curiously. Doris had turned away and was looking out across the city. A tiny hand tugged at her sleeve. "Make Pete play wif me," said Ruth. "My cow's all broke."

  Pete glanced up, slowly slid the unread letter back into the envelope and tucked it into his shirt. "You bet we'll find that cow if we have to comb every draw on the ranch! Hello, pardner! Here's her ole head. She was sure enough investigatin' that there haystack."

  Doris turned away. There was a tense throbbing in her throat as she moved back to the doorway. Despite herself she glanced back for an instant. The dark head and the golden head were together over the wonderful puzzle picture. Just why Pete should look up then could hardly be explained by either himself or Doris. He waved his hand boyishly. Doris turned and walked rapidly down the hallway. Her emotion irritated her. Why should she feel so absolutely silly and sentimental because a patient, who really meant nothing to her aside from her profession, should choose to play puzzle picture with a crippled child, that he might forget for a while his very identity and those terrible happenings? Had he not said so? And yet he had put aside the letter that might mean much to him, that he might make Little Ruth forget her pain in searching for a dismembered pasteboard cow.

  Doris glanced in as she passed Pete's room. Two men were standing there, expressing in their impatient attitudes that they had expected to find some one in the room. She knew who they were—men from the police station—for she had seen them before.