The Fighting Edge
Page 36
CHAPTER XXXVI
A HERO IS EMBARRASSED
Following the Ute War, as it came to be called, there was a period ofreadjustment on the Rio Blanco. The whites had driven off the horses andthe stock of the Indians. Two half-grown boys appropriated a flock ofseveral thousand sheep belonging to the Indians and took them to GlenwoodSprings. On the way they sold the sheep right and left. The asking pricewas a dollar. The selling price was twenty-five cents, a watermelon, aslice of pie, or a jack-knife with a broken blade.
The difficulties that ensued had to be settled. To get a betterunderstanding of the situation the Governor of the State and a general ofthe United States Army with their staffs visited the White River country.While in Bear Cat they put up at the hotel.
Mollie did a land-office business, but she had no time to rest day ornight. Passing through the office during the rush of the dinner hour, shecaught sight of Blister Haines sprawled on two chairs. He was talkingwith Bob Dillon.
"Hear you done quit the Slash Lazy D outfit. What's the idee?" he said.
"Nothin' in ridin'," Bob told him. "A fellow had ought to get a piece ofland on the river an' run some cattle of his own. Me an' Dud aim to dothat."
"Hmp! An' meanwhile?"
"We're rip-rappin' the river for old man Wilson."[4]
Blister was pleased, but he did not say so. "Takes a good man to start ona s-shoestring an' make it go with cattle."
"That's why we're going into it," Bob modestly explained.
Mollie broke in. "What are you boys loafin' here for when I need help inthe dining-room? Can either of you sling hash?"
The fat man derricked himself out of the chairs. "We can. L-lead us tothe job, ma'am."
So it happened that Blister, in a white apron, presently stood before theGovernor ready to take orders. The table was strewn with used dishes andfood, debris left there by previous diners. The amateur waiter was notsure whether the Governor and his staff had eaten or were ready to eat.
"D-do you want a r-reloadin' outfit?" he asked.
The general, seated beside the Governor, had lived his life in the East.He stared at Blister in surprise, for at a council held only an hourbefore this ample waiter had been the chief spokesman in behalf of fairplay to the Indians. He decided that the dignified thing to do was tofail to recognize the man.
Blister leaned toward the Governor and whispered confidentially. "Say,Gov, take my tip an' try one o' these here steaks. They ain't from dogystock."
The Governor had been a cattleman himself. The free-and-easy ways of theWest did not disturb him. "Go you once, Blister," he assented.
The waiter turned beaming on the officer. His fat hand rested on thebraided shoulder. "How about you, Gen? Does that go d-double?"
Upon Blister was turned the cold, hard eye of West Point. "I'll take atenderloin steak, sir, done medium."
"You'll sure find it'll s-stick to yore ribs," Blister said cheerfully.
Carrying a tray full of dishes, Bob went into the kitchen choking downhis mirth.
"Blister's liable to be shot at daybreak. He's lessie-majesting the U.S.Army."
Chung Lung shuffled to the door and peered through. Internal mirthstruggled with his habitual gravity. "Gleat smoke, Blister spill cupcloffee on general."
This fortunately turned out to be an exaggeration. Blister, in earnestconversation with himself, had merely overturned a half-filled cup on thetable in the course of one of his gestures.
Mollie retired him from service.
Alone with Bob for a moment in the kitchen, June whispered to himhurriedly. "Before you an' Dud go away I want to see you a minute."
"Want to see me an' Dud?" he asked.
She flashed a look of shy reproach at him. "No, not Dud--you."
Bob stayed to help wipe the dishes. It was a job at which he had beenadept in the old days when he flunkied for the telephone outfit.Afterward he and June slipped out of the back door and walked down to theriver.
June had rehearsed exactly what she meant to say to him, but now that themoment had arrived it did not seem so easy. He might mistake herfriendliness. He might think there was some unexpressed motive in theback of her mind, that she was trying to hold him to the compact made inBlister Haines's office a year ago. It would be hateful if he thoughtthat. But she had to risk it if their comradeship was going to meananything. When folks were friends they helped each other, didn't they?Told each other how glad they were when any piece of good luck came. Andwhat had come to Bob Dillon was more than good luck. It was a bit ofsplendid achievement that made her generous blood sing.
This was all very well, but as they moved under the cottonwoods acrossthe grass tessellated with sunshine and shadow, the fact of sex thrustitself up and embarrassed her. She resented this, was impatient at it,yet could not escape it. Beneath the dusky eyes a wave of color creptinto the dark cheeks.
Though they walked in silence, Bob did not guess her discomposure. Asclean of line as a boy, she carried herself resiliently. He thought herbeautiful as a wild flower. The lift and tender curve of the chin, theswell of the forearms above the small brown hands that had done so muchhard work so competently, filled him with a strange delight. She hademerged from the awkwardness and heaviness of the hoydenish age. It wasdifficult for him to identify her with the Cinderella of Piceance Creekexcept by the eager flash of the eyes in those moments when her spiritseemed to be rushing toward him.
They stood on the bank above the edge of the ford. June looked down intothe tumbling water. Bob waited for her to speak. He had achieved acapacity for silence and had learned the strength of it.
Presently June lifted her eyes to his. "Dud says you an' he are going totake up preemptions and run cattle of your own," she began.
"Yes. Harshaw's going to stake us. We'll divide the increase."
"I'm glad. Dud ought to quit going rippity-cut every which way. No usehis wastin' five or six years before he gets started for himself."
"No," Bob assented.
"You're steadier than he is. You'll hold him down."
Bob came to time loyally. "Dud's all right. You'll find him there like arock when you need him. Best fellow in all this White River country."
Her shining eyes sent a stab of pain through his heart. She was smilingat him queerly. "One of the best," she said.
"Stay with you to a fare-you-well," he went on. "If I knew a girl--if Ihad a sister--well, I'd sure trust her to Dud Hollister. All wool an' ayard wide that boy is."
"Yes," June murmured.
"Game as they make 'em. Know where he's at every turn of the road. I'dce'tainly back his play to a finish."
"I know you would."
"Best old pal a fellow ever had."
"It's really a pity you haven't a sister," she teased.
Bob guessed that June had brought him here to talk about Dud. He did, tothe exclusion of all other topics. The girl listened gravely andpatiently, but imps of mischief were kicking up their heels in her eyes.
"You give him a good recommendation," she said at last. "How about hisfriend?"
"Tom Reeves?"
"No, Bob Dillon." Her dark eyes met his fairly. "Oh, Bob, I'm _so_glad."
He was suddenly flooded with self-consciousness. "About us preemptin'?"he asked.
"No. About you being the hero of the campaign."
The ranger was miserably happy. He was ashamed to have the thing he haddone dragged into the light, embarrassed to hear her use so casually aword that made him acutely uncomfortable. Yet he would not for the worldhave missed the queer little thrills that raced through him.
"That's plumb foolishness," he said.
"Yes, it is--not. Think I haven't heard all about it? How you draggedJake Houck into the willows right spang from among the Utes? How you wentto the river an' got him water? How you went for help when everybodythought you'd be killed? An' how you shamed Dud into going back with you?I made Mr. Harshaw tell me all he knew--and Dud too. He said--Mr. Harshawsaid--"
Bob interrupt
ed this eager attack. "I'll tell you how it was, June. WhenI saw Houck lying out there with a busted leg I didn't know who hewas--thought maybe it was Dud. So I had to go an' get him. If I'd knownit was Houck--"
"You knew it was Houck before you dragged him back, didn't you?" shecharged. "You knew it when you went to the river to get him water?"
"Truth is, I was scared so I shook," he confessed humbly. "But when afellow's sufferin' like Jake Houck was--"
"Even your enemy."
"Oh, well, enemies don't count when you're fightin' Utes together. I hadto look after him--couldn't duck it. Different with Dud when he rode backto get Tom Reeves. Did you hear about that?"
She put a damper on the sudden enthusiasm that lilted into his voice."Yes, I heard about that," she said dryly. "But we're talking of anotherman now. You've got to stand there an' take it, Bob. It won't last but aminute anyhow. I never was so tickled in my life before. When I thoughtof all you've suffered an' gone through, an' how now you've stopped thetongues of all the folks who jeered at you, I went to my room and criedlike a little girl. You'll understand, won't you? I had to tell you thisbecause we've promised to be friends. Oh, I am _so_ glad for you, Bob."
He swallowed a lump in his throat and nodded. "Yes, I'll understand,June. It--it was awful nice of you to tell me. I reckon you ought to hateme, the way I treated you. Most girls would."
She flashed a quick look at his flaming face. His embarrassment relievedhers.
"As if _you_ knew what most girls would think," she derided. Neverthelessshe shifted the conversation to grounds less personal and dangerous. "Nowyou can tell me some more about that Dud you're always braggin' of."
Bob did not know as he talked of his friend that June found what he saidan interpretation of Robert Dillon rather than Dudley Hollister.
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[4] Piling up brush to protect the bank from being washed away.