by G. A. Henty
CHAPTER VI.
A HORSE DEAL.
After having been at work for a week Hugh and Luscombe found it comecomparatively easy to them. Their hands had hardened, and their backand legs no longer ached with the exertion of stooping and liftingplanks and beams. They had now got the yard into order: the variouslengths and thicknesses of planks piled together, and also the varioussized timber for the framework of the houses. Their work was now morevaried. The dray had, of course, to be unloaded on its arrival fromthe mills and its contents stowed away, and as soon as James Pawsonfound that his new hands could be trusted to see after things heleft them pretty much to themselves, going up himself to the mill, ofwhich he was part owner. It now fell to them to keep an account of theout-goings, to see that the planks they handed over to purchasers wereof the right lengths and thicknesses, and also to saw the wood-work ofthe frames for the houses into their required lengths.
All this afforded a change, and gave them an interest in their work,and they came to know a good many, not only of those living in thetown, but men who were taking up ground in the neighbourhood, and whocame in with their teams for planks and shingles to construct the roughhouses which were to shelter them until, at any rate, they got theirland under cultivation and things began to prosper. Three months aftertheir arrival Luscombe began to show signs of getting wearied of thework. Hugh was quick to notice it.
"I can see you are getting tired of it," he said one Sunday as theystarted for a walk to a small ranche three miles away, whose owner hadbeen buying wood for a cow-house, and had asked them to come over fordinner. "You didn't mean me to see it, but I know that it is so."
"I don't know that I am tired, Hugh; but I feel a restless sort offeeling."
"Well, my dear Luscombe, I don't want you to feel that you are in anyway bound here on my account. We agreed that from the first, you know.It was a great thing our being together at first; but now the ice isbroken we have fallen into the groove, and can either of us shoulderour kits and go where we like in search of a job. We are no longerfresh from the other side of the Atlantic."
"I shall carry out my idea of enlisting," Luscombe said. "There is amilitary post at Fort M'Kayett. I can strike down by road to Meridian.I can get waggons as far as that, pick up a horse for a few dollarsthere, and then make my way down until I strike the Colorado River,and, crossing that, bear west, stopping at cattle ranches until I getto the fort. I shall be happier as a trooper than at any other work. Ofcourse the pay is not high, but that does not matter a rap to me; itgoes further here than it does at home, and there is not much use formoney out on the plains. They say the Indians are very troublesome, andthere will be some excitement in the life, while here there is none. Idon't like leaving you, Hugh. That is the only drawback."
"Don't let that stop you," Hugh said. "Of course I shall be very sorrywhen you go; but as you have your plans and I have none, it would comeat any rate before long; and, as I have said, now that I have got overthe feeling of strangeness, I don't suppose that I shall stay here longafter you have left."
The following day Luscombe told his employer that he should leave atthe end of the week.
"I am sorry you are going," he said; "but I expected that you wouldbe on the move before long. That is the worst of it out here--nobodysticks to a job. However, I cannot blame you; you have stopped a goodbit longer than they generally do. And are you going too?" he asked,turning to Hugh.
"Not just yet," Hugh replied; "but I do think of going in another weekor two. You see, boss, one is not learning anything here."
"That's so. Say, would you like to go up to the mill for a bit? Thatis different sort of work, and, as you say, you would be learningsomething. One of the men jammed his hand on Saturday, and won't be fitfor that kind of work for some time, so as your mate is going off atthe end of the week you can go up there if you like."
Hugh gladly accepted the offer. He would have felt it very dull withoutLuscombe, but by going to a different sort of work he would feel hiscompanion's departure less hardly. He would have much to learn, and beamong new companions, and have much to attend to. So at the end of theweek Luscombe set out upon his long journey to Fort M'Kayett, and onMonday morning Hugh started for the saw-mill at daybreak in a waggonthat had come in on Saturday afternoon with timber. James Pawson hadtold him that he had spoken to the foreman about him, and the latterwould know what to do with him. The team consisted of two fine mules inthe shafts and two horses ahead.
"Climb up," the driver said. "We shall go a goodish pace till we get tothe hills. That is right--hold on!"
As he cracked his whip the animals started at a trot, and presentlybroke into a gallop. The road was nothing but a track across thecountry, and Hugh held on to the seat, expecting every moment to bejerked off. The track was as hard as iron, but the passages of thewaggons in wet weather had worn deep holes and ruts in it, and Hughthought it was a miracle that the waggon did not upset and smash topieces, as the wheels went down first on one side and then on theother, and the whole framework creaked and quivered with the shock.At the end of about three miles the animals slackened their pace, toHugh's intense relief.
"That's just their little play," the driver said. "They know they won'tget a chance again to-day, and they generally lay themselves down fora gallop where it is good going."
"Do you call that good going?" Hugh asked in astonishment.
"Sartin. Why, it is level ground, and not a water-course to go over!You don't expect a railway track, graded and levelled, do yer?"
Hugh hastened to say that he entertained no such extravagant ideas.
"This road ain't nowhere, so to speak, real bad," the driver went on;"that is, not for a hill road. I don't say as there ain't some baddishplaces, but nothing to what I have driven teams over."
The animals had now dropped down into a walk, although, so far asHugh could see, the track was no worse than that which they had beenhitherto following.
"The critters are just getting their breath," the driver said as heproceeded to light his pipe. "They have had their fling, and now theyare settling down to the day's work. They know as well as I do whatthey have got before them. Don't you, Pete?"
The mule addressed lifted one of its long ears and partly turned hishead round.
"They are fine mules," Hugh remarked.
"You will see bigger than them. Them's Mexicans, and they havewonderful big mules in Northern Mexico. I have seen them standing ahand higher than these. But Pete and Bob are good mules. They wouldbe better if they were a bit heavier when it comes to a dead pull, butexcept for that I would as lief have them as the biggest."
"Are they better than horses?"
"Better'n horses? You bet! Why, I would rather have a pair of mulesthan three pair of horses. Why, for steady work and for stay and forstrength there ain't no comparison between a mule and a horse. Why,that pair of mules is worth twice as much as the best pair of horsesyou could find in Texas, except, of course, picked horses for riding.If you pay a hundred dollars for a horse you have paid a long pricein this country, but that pair of mules wouldn't be dear at eighthundred for the two of them. There is no trouble with mules: they won'tstray far when you turn them out; they won't stampede--not if they areproperly trained. Why, there is as much sense in a mule as there isin a score of horses, and the horses know it themselves. If there isa mule turned out among a troop of horses he takes the lead natural,and they will follow him wherever he goes, knowing right well that hehas got more sense than they have. Besides, mules seem to get fond ofeach other, and you don't see horses do that. In a round-up the teamhorses will just mix up with the others. You don't see two of them keeptogether or have any sort of friendship; but if there are a pair ofmules among the lot you will see them keep together."
"I had an idea that mules were obstinate beasts."
"I won't deny as they have their tempers sometimes, but in most casesit comes from their getting into bad hands. But treat a mule well andhe will, in general, do
his best. When they once find they have got ajob beyond them they ain't going to break their hearts by trying to doit; and if they are treated bad when there is no call for it then theyputs up their backs and won't stir another foot, and when they makes uptheir minds to that you may kill them and they won't do it then; buttreat a mule fair and kind and there is no better beast in the world.You know all about it, Pete, don't you?" and he gave the animal aslight flick on the neck with his whip, to which it replied by throwingup its hind-quarters and giving a playful kick, which caused Hugh,whose legs were hanging down over the front of the waggon, to withdrawthem hastily. "You are a rascal, Pete," the driver said. "Come, now,you have all got your winds. Just sharpen up a bit till you get amongthe hills."
As if they understood what he said, the mules threw their weight onthe traces, broke into a slow trot, and the crack of the driver's whipwoke the leaders into activity. This pace was not kept up long, for theground had now begun to rise. They presently entered a valley betweentwo spurs of the hills, and soon began to mount by a rough road. Thisbecame steeper and steeper, and Hugh was glad to get off and walk infront. At times the track they had to cross was bare rock, so smoothand slippery that the animals could scarcely keep their feet and dragup the waggon. Then they wound along on the side of a hill, the groundon one side being so much higher than on the other that it seemed toHugh that a loaded waggon would infallibly topple over and go rollingdown into the valley below. Sometimes they descended sharply into somelateral ravine cut by a stream, and climbed up the other side. Thehills now were covered with a growth of small trees and brushwood--thelarger timber had already been felled. At last the waggon turned up thebed of a stream running through a rocky gorge.
"Here we are," the driver said; and fifty yards further they cameupon the saw-mill--a roughly-built structure, with a water-wheel. Alow log-hut stood beside it. Beyond, the valley opened out. At theupper end its sides far up the hills were covered with trees, but thewoodman's axe had already stripped the lower part of the valley of allits timber trees. A dam had been built across the stream and a leat cutto the water-wheel, which was sunk five or six feet below the level ofthe ground around it, and the tail-race continued nearly down to themouth of the gorge, where the water fell again into the old bed of thestream. The wheel was revolving, and the sound of the machinery insidethe mill deadened that of the mules and waggon, but a shrill whistlefrom the driver brought a man to the door. He nodded to Hugh. "You arethe new hand the boss spoke of, I suppose? Well, Clarkson, have youbrought the things we wanted?"
"Yes, I think the list is complete. I gave it to the old man, andhe had all the things on board the first thing this morning. Herethey are: six pounds of tea, a barrel of pork, sack of flour, keg ofmolasses, twenty pounds of sugar. Here is a box of dried apples, andthe two cross-cut saws. He will see about a grindstone. He thinks youmight make that one last a bit longer."
"It was pretty well worn out when it was put up," the foreman grumbled."It ain't fit to grind axes on. I told the boss the other day that ithad cost him ten times its vally already, because the men couldn't keepa sharp edge on their tools with it."
"Well, you know, Ben, grindstones don't grow down in M'Kinney, and hehas got to get them sent out from Missouri."
"If he had to get them from China he might have had one here by thistime," the foreman grumbled. "Have you got that bag of iron dogs Iwanted?"
"No. There warn't one to be had in M'Kinney. The old man told me totell you he wrote off on Saturday to Little Rock and told them toexpress them on."
A negro now came out from the hut and began to carry the provisionsin, and Hugh followed the foreman into the mill. There was another manthere. One side of the mill was open to a yard behind, in which lay thelogs as brought down by the team. These were placed on rollers, and sorun into the mill. One end of the log was then lifted by a screw-jackuntil level with the saw-bench. Here it was packed up, and the jackthen taken to the other end. The machinery consisted solely of onelarge circular saw and of another of smaller size. The water-powerwould not have been sufficient to drive frame-saws, and the whole workhad to be done with the circular saws. The mill was not large, butit sufficed for the wants of M'Kinney and the neighbourhood, and twowaggon-loads of planks were sent down daily. Three axemen, who felledand squared the trees, and a teamster with four horses to drag thebalks down to the mill completed the establishment.
Hugh soon found that the work was far more interesting than it had beenin the woodyard. It needed a good deal of skill to handle the heavypieces of timber and get them upon the saw-bench, although they werecross-cut by the woodmen into lengths suitable for planks. Then thegreat saw cut the balks into planks three inches wide. These were takento the smaller saw, which ran them down into half, three-quarter, orinch planks, as required. The benches were of a primitive description,the balks being laid on fixed rollers, and the necessary movement givento them by a rope passed through blocks and taken round a shaft, which,as it revolved, wound up the rope and brought the logs forward againstthe saw.
The noise at first of the saws and of the water-wheel and its machineryalmost deafened Hugh, but he soon ceased to notice it. He found thathis duties were of a general kind. He assisted in raising the logs totheir place and in getting them properly placed on the rollers, andthen he helped to fix the blocks and pulleys, to remove the planks asthey were cut off, and to work the log back to its place in readinessfor another plank to be cut from it. The small saw required one man'sconstant attention, as the three-inch planks were simply pushed forwardby hand against it, being kept in their true position by guides.
"You have got to be careful when you get near the end," the foremansaid to him, "or you will find yourself without a finger or two in notime. When you get to within a foot of the end you must not push theplank any further, but go to the other end of the saw and pull it toyou. It is a pretty rough business altogether, but it will only lastanother few months. There are not enough trees to supply it longer thanthat. Pawson has bought up another place a bit further among the hills,and he has ordered a better plant than this, and reckons it will be upand ready to run by the time we are done here. This place ain't fit forcarrying on much trade. When it was put up two years ago there were butfew people about on the plain, and a waggon-load a week was about theoutside Pawson could get rid of. I have been here from the first. Inthose days we used to work with our rifles handy, for there was alwaysa chance of an attack by Indians, but the country has grown so muchsince then that the Indians moved further north, and don't bother us.Ah! there is Joe's dinner-bell."
Hugh, following the example of the others, went down to the mill-streamand gave his hands a rinse, dried them on a towel hanging from a nailon the door of a hut, and then went in. In five minutes the whole partywere assembled, and took their seats on benches beside a long narrowtable. The negro cook brought in bowls of pea-soup. This was followedby boiled pork and potatoes, and then came a great dish of driedapples, boiled, with molasses poured over them.
"We get our board up here," the foreman, who had placed Hugh besidehim, said. "I suppose the boss told you?"
"Yes, he said I should get forty dollars a month, and my grub."
"That's it. It is better pay than you can get on a farm below, but itis harder work, and lonesome; besides, unless you are careful, you runa pretty good risk of an accident. There have been eight or ten fellowshurt here since we began. It is healthy among the hills, and we don'tget fevers, and it is cool enough to sleep comfortably at night even insummer, but in winter it is cold, I can tell you. The old man feeds uspretty well, I must say that for him, and he is as good a boss as thereis about here."
Hugh liked the life, the keen mountain air braced him up, and every dayhe found it more and more easy to do his share of the work of movingthe heavy balks. The men as a whole were pleasant fellows, and of anevening Hugh listened with great interest to the stories they told asthey smoked their pipes. It was wonderful how many occupations mostof them had followed. Two of them h
ad been mining in California beforethey came down to Texas; one of them had been working with teams acrossthe Santa Fe route; another, named Bill Royce, had been a sailor, haddeserted his ship at Galveston, had enlisted and served for three yearsat a cavalry post west, had deserted again, had worked for two yearsas a cow-boy on one of the Texan ranches, had gone down into Mexico andworked at a ranche there, had come up by sea to Galveston, working hispassage, had served as a farm hand for a few months, and then, aftervarious experiences, had come to M'Kinney when there were only three orfour houses there.
Another of the men had also worked as a cow-boy, but his experience hadbeen but a short one.
"I stopped just a week at it," he said, "and what with being thrownoff a horse twenty times a day, and what with the work, and what withthe goings-on of the boys, I had enough of it by that time. I had beenin one or two Indian fights, and I didn't feel scared then, but thosecow-boys scared me pretty nigh to death. The way they let off theirpistols was a caution. Four or five times, when I was sitting quiet,smoking, bang! and a revolver bullet would knock my pipe into chips,and then they laughed fit to kill themselves when I got up and swore.Then without the least reason, someone, as we were all sitting roundthe fire, would take it into his head to hit a little bit of flamingwood, then half a dozen others would go at it, and the bits of firewould be sent flying in all directions, and how it was that none ofthem got killed was more than I could make out. I stood it for theweek, and then I weakened. I had got that nervous that I would jump ifa fellow moved suddenly, and I concluded that I was not made the sameway as the cow-boys, and had better quit and take to some other job."
"I reckon you were about right there," Bill Royce said. "Anyone asis thinking of going for a cow-boy, had best know how to ride, how tothrow a rope, and how to draw his pistol as quick as lightning, beforehe begins."
The next day Hugh asked the teamster to bring him up from the town arope, such as the cow-herders used.
"This will do," Bill Royce said, as he examined it. "The cow-boysand Mexicans both use ropes sometimes, but they chiefly make themthemselves from strips of raw hide, which they work and grease untilthey run almost as easy as if they were made of silk. Yes, this is theright length, forty feet. Some men will use fifty, and I have knownMexicans who would throw a sixty-foot length with certainty; but thatis quite out of the way; forty feet is the right length. I will spliceone end into an eye for you, the other goes through it, and makesa running noose. When you throw it, the loop is three or four feetacross. Of course, the better you can throw, the smaller you can havethe loop, and the smaller it is the better, for the jerk comes allthe quicker before the horse or steer is prepared for it. Now, you seethat stump of a young tree sticking up two feet above the ground. Well,you form your loop, and you gather the rest in coils in your hand likethis, and you stand, to begin with, twenty feet away, and you cast theloop over the stump--so."
Of an evening, when supper was over, Hugh went out and practised withthe rope, and at the end of a month found that he could throw it ata distance of thirty feet with a fair certainty of dropping the loopover the stump. He also took Royce's advice as to the pistol. He hadlaid it by since arriving at M'Kinney; but he now got a belt similarto those worn by the cow-boys, and took to carrying the pistol in it,but unloaded, and at odd moments practised drawing from the belt,levelling it, and pulling the trigger with the greatest possiblespeed. The action seemed simple enough, but he was surprised to findhow, with practice, the time taken in doing it diminished, and hisfingers came to close upon the handle in exactly the right positionalmost instantaneously, and as his hand shot out, his thumb drew backthe hammer, and his forefinger closed on the trigger. All this he hadpractised before, more or less, when he had learned to use the weaponin the conservatory at Byrneside, but at that time it had not appearedprobable the accomplishment would be of any use. Now he knew that hislife might depend upon it, and he came in time to be able to performit, with, as Royce had said, something of the sleight of hand of aconjurer.
He devoted the whole of his spare time to practising with the pistoland rope, and by the time that summer had gone Hugh was able to throwthe rope with certainty over any fixed object within reach, and to drawhis revolver with a quickness that astounded Bill Royce.
"I have seen a lot of pistol shooting," the latter said, "since I cameout west--cow-boys and Mexicans, and horse-thieves and such like, butI have never seen one draw as quick as you do, and there are many asdraws quick. You shoot fair, but nothing out of the way. There's manya cow-boy kin shoot a sight straighter, but for quick drawing you arewonderful, and that is the great thing. When one fellow gets his pistolout, the other has got to cave in."
The valley was now pretty well cleared of its trees, and the partyprepared to go down to M'Kinney for the winter. The wood-cutters wereto move at once to the new location, and to begin to fell trees, and assoon as the snow fell deep the teams would go up and drag them down tothe new saw-mill, for the timber is hauled down much more easily overthe snow than over the rough ground in summer. Thus there would be abig stock in readiness when the thaw came, and the mill began to workin the spring.
Hugh was not sorry when the work of the mill came to an end. He haddetermined to remain until the season closed, and he was glad he haddone so. The time had been by no means lost. He had learned a gooddeal as to the ways and character of the men with whom he should haveto associate. He had from one or other of them picked up a great dealof knowledge about the country, and knew the best places for makinga start, the towns from which most of the teams started, and thelocalities that were best to make for in order to gain the heart of thecattle country. He had learned to throw a rope with enough dexterityto aid him materially in any work he might undertake among cattleor horses, and his constant practice with his revolver gave him aconfidence in himself, and in his ability to hold his own in the wildlife of the plains and mountains.
In the nine months which had elapsed since he left England he hadgained strength, had become manly and self-reliant, and felt that hisapprenticeship had been of great value to him. The first thing to doafter he came down to M'Kinney, was to look out for a horse. He hadbeen put up to a useful wrinkle in this respect by Bill Royce. "Yoube careful about any horse trade you make. Bet your boots that anyhorse that is offered to you here is stolen, and you would get intoone of the awkwardest of scrapes if you chanced to go into a districtwhere that horse is known. They don't trouble themselves to ask manyquestions over a stolen horse. If you buy a horse, the best thing todo is to go before a justice, or the sheriff will do: pay your moneybefore him, and get him to sign his name as a witness to the bargain.His fee will be one or two dollars, and you could not lay out themoney better. Men ain't altogether unreasonable even where a horse isconcerned, and a paper issued from a sheriff's office certifying thatyou had bought the horse, and paid a fair price for it, might save yourneck from a noose. You may ride a stolen horse all your life, and neverhappen to light on the place he was taken from; but if you do happen tolight on it, you may find yourself in a tight corner."
Hugh put up at the hotel, and having told the landlord that he wason the look-out for a horse, the latter told him one evening, when hereturned from a visit to some friends at a farm, that two men had comein an hour before, and had said they had a good horse to dispose of.Bill Royce was sitting in the saloon when Hugh went in.
"I dropped in to see you, Hugh. I saw two fellows come in an hour agoon two likely-looking horses and they were leading two others, one ofwhich seemed to me as good a bit of horse flesh as I have seen fur along time. I expect they are on for a trade. The horse is a mustang; Idon't expect they come by it honest, but that ain't your business, andyou will get it cheaper than if they had. Go slow in bargaining; don'tyou let out you really want him."
Presently two men came in. They were dressed in broad hats, red shirts,over which they wore jackets with silver buttons, breeches made of asoft leather, and high boots. They wore bright-coloured sashes roundthe waist.
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"They look pretty hard," Bill Royce said quietly; "they may beanything. They are not regular cow-boys, but they may have been workingon a ranche; they may have been prospecting; they may be horse-thieves;they may be regular border ruffians; anyhow, they have got a horse tosell. Maybe they have stole it from a ranche; maybe they have got itfrom the Indians; maybe they have wiped out its owner. You will be ableto tell pretty well by the price they want for it. He would be cheap attwo hundred dollars if he is anything like as good as he looks. If theywill take anything under that it is because they daren't keep him."
After standing at the bar and talking for some time to the landlord,one of the men came across to Hugh.
"I hear you are looking for a horse."
"Yes, I am wanting to buy one if I find one to suit me at my price."
"I have a horse to trade that would suit anyone, and as to its price,I am ready to let him go a bargain."
"I should like to have a look at him," Hugh said.
"Well, he is in the stable now."
"Yes; but I should want to see him by daylight, get on his back, andtry him."
"Look here," the man said. "Me and my mate are pressed for time.Perhaps we have got an appointment with the president, perhaps wehaven't; anyhow, we want to go on. We have got two spare horses, and wedon't wish to bother with them no further."
"Well, I will look at the horse now," Hugh said, and, accompaniedby Bill Royce, he followed the man to the stables. Two horses werestanding, ready saddled and bridled, hitched to hooks outside the shed.Inside were two others. One was an ordinary-looking horse, bony andangular. A pack-saddle hung on a beam close by. He had evidently beenused for carrying baggage. The other was a handsome roan, which snortedangrily as they approached with lanterns.
"That is something like a horse," the man said. "Five years old,strong, and up to anything, clean-limbed, full of courage, and fast."
"He has got a temper," Hugh said as the horse laid back his ears andmade a sudden and vicious snap at the man's hand.
"He is a bit playful," the man said.
"Well, I don't like buying him without trying him," Hugh said. "He maybe up to all sorts of tricks, and may kick his saddle over his head.What do you want for him?"
"I tell you what," the man said. "That horse would be dirt cheap at twohundred and fifty dollars, but as I have told you we want to be movingon, and I will sell him for a hundred and fifty. I would rather put abullet through his head than let him go for less than that."
"Well, let us go back into the saloon and talk it over," Hugh said. "Itis a rum way to buy a horse, but I like his looks."
The other man was still standing at the bar when they entered. Hugh,knowing that it would be an unheard-of thing to buy a horse without theceremony of taking drinks being performed, went to the bar and orderedthem for the four. "If I buy that horse," he said, "it will be on onecondition. You see I don't know where he has come from. The man yougot him from may have stolen him, and I might happen to come acrossthe former owner, and I haven't any fancy for being strung up as ahorse-thief."
"You don't mean, stranger, to say as we have stolen him?" one of themen said angrily.
"Not at all. It may have gone through half a dozen hands before it cameinto yours, and yet it may have been stolen. Of course, if you knowanyone here who can guarantee that you raised the horse, or have ownedhim for a couple of years, I shall be quite content; but if you don't,you can hardly expect me to take your word any more than I shouldexpect them to take my word if a party were to ride up to me and accuseme of stealing it. That is right enough, isn't it, landlord?"
"I don't see as there is anything to be said against that," thelandlord said. "It is a mighty unpleasant thing in this country to befound riding on the back of a horse that has mayhap been stolen."
"What I propose is this," Hugh went on. "Seeing that these gentlemenare strangers here, I propose that I should call in the sheriff andJames Pawson, who is a justice, and that they should witness the saleand give me a signed paper saying that they know me as a resident here,and that I have in their presence bought this horse. I don't thinkthere is anything unreasonable in that. If at any time I am held up forstealing it I can show this paper, and if they doubt it they can writeto the sheriff here, and find that it is genuine."
The two men exchanged a few words together in a low voice, and then theone who had shown the horse said, "Well, I reckon that is a fair enoughoffer. We know we came by the horse honestly, but as we are strangersit is right enough you should be cautious. Bring your sheriff along,and let's be done with it."
"I will fetch the sheriff across," Royce said, "if you go over toPawson's, Hugh."
In five minutes they returned with the two men. The sheriff lookedsharply at the two horse-dealers. They were unknown to him.
"Will you give me my belt, landlord?" Hugh said.
The landlord went out, and returned with Hugh's belt, which had beenlocked up in his chest since Hugh arrived in the town. The lattercounted out 150 dollars in gold.
"Wait a moment," the sheriff said. "I must see the horse first, and seewhat brand is on him. I cannot describe the horse unless I see him."
Again taking lanterns the party went out to the stable. The horse hadbeen branded with a circle in which was the letter E. There was noother mark on him. The sheriff brought across with him some officialpaper, and returning to the bar wrote: "I bear witness to the purchaseby"--and he paused--"Hugh Tunstall," Hugh put in,--"who is well knownto me as having been working for six months in and near the town, of aroan horse branded [brand E] of"--"of Jake Wittingham," the mansaid--"and to the passing of payment for the same." The sheriff thenadded his name, writing under it, "Sheriff of M'Kinney County," andJames Pawson added his signature with the word "Judge."
"That is right and square," the sheriff said. "Now, hand over the moneyand the trade is done."
"I will throw in the other horse for twenty dollars."
"I will take it," Hugh said; and adding this sum to that he had countedout, handed it over to the men.
"If you will just step over with me, Hugh," the sheriff said, "I willput my official seal to that paper. I have not a doubt," he went onas they left the saloon, "that those two fellows have stolen thathorse. They would never have sold him for that money had they come byhim honestly. I should have been glad to buy him myself for anythinglike that price. I don't know the men, and I reckon I know most of therogues for a hundred miles round here; so that, if it has been stolen,it has probably been brought a good distance. I shouldn't be surprisedif there has been murder as well as robbery. If I knew the men Iwould seize them and have them searched; but as I have never seen thembefore, and know nothing against them, I cannot do that. I think it isa very good idea of yours getting me in to witness the sale. That horsemight get you into serious trouble if you could not prove that you cameby it honestly."
He had now reached his house, and proceeded to stamp the document withthe official seal. "You may as well put your signature to this," hesaid, "and I will witness it. Then if there is any question about yourbeing Hugh Tunstall you would only have to sign your name and theywould see that you are the man mentioned. That is right; my fee is twodollars."
Hugh gladly paid the money, and putting the document in his pocketreturned to the hotel.
"Those fellows have just ridden off," Royce said when he entered."Pretty hard couple that. I wonder where they got that horse. Nowhereabout here, or the sheriff would have known it; a horse like that wouldbe sure to catch the eye."
The next morning Hugh got up early to inspect his purchase. The horseagain made hostile demonstrations when he approached it; but, talkingto it quietly, Hugh went into the stall, patted and soothed it. When ithad quieted down he took the head-rope and led it out into the yard.
"You are a beauty," he said; "there is no mistake about that," and,tying it up to a post, he walked round it. "Well put together, plentyof muscle, fine bone, and splendid quarters. What a hunter you wouldmake if I had you
at home!" The landlord came out as he was admiringthe animal.
"A mustang," he said; "bigger than they usually run a good bit, anda beauty all over; he is worth double what you gave for him. This isnot much of a horse country; if you had him down south you could getthree hundred for him any day. I expect those fellows were afraid totake him down there; too well known, I reckon. Look here, I will giveyou a paper too; and if I were you I would get another from Pawson,saying that you have been working for him at his sawmill, and that herecommends you as a good hand at that work. You can't have too manycertificates as to who you are when you are riding on an animal likethat in this country. If you want a saddle and bridle, Jim Hoskings hasgot one to sell; he was speaking to me about it a fortnight ago."
Half an hour later Hugh became the owner of a saddle and bridle. Theformer was made in the Texan fashion, which closely resembles theMexican, being very heavy, and with high peak and cantle.
"I hardly see how a man can be thrown off a horse with such a saddle asthis," Hugh said as he examined it; "one would be boxed in before andbehind."
"Wait till you get on a bad bucking horse," the man said with a smile."You won't wonder about it then."
Carrying it back to the hotel Hugh saddled his horse and mounted.He felt strange and uncomfortable at first, for the stirrup-leatherswere placed much further back than those to which he was accustomed.The stirrups were very large and broad, and the position of thestirrup-leathers rendered it necessary for him to ride almost witha straight leg, so that his grip was with his thighs instead of hisknees.
"I shall get accustomed to him in time," he said to himself, "but atpresent I feel as if I was riding barebacked. Well, I had plenty ofpractice at that, so I ought to be able to stick on." He rode at aquiet pace down the street, and then shook the reins, and the horseat once started at a hand-gallop. Hugh was delighted with his pace,which was wonderfully smooth and easy, and returned in an hour fullysatisfied with his purchase.
