Wash Gibbs reached stealthily for his weapon, but hesitated when he saw that the dark faced man noted his movement.
Jim continued, in his drawling tones, but his voice rang cold and clear, “I ain’t never been mealy mouthed with no man, and I’m too old to begin now. I know the law of the order, and I reckon Gibbs there will try to have you keep it. You boys have got to say whether you’ll stand by him or me. It looks like you was goin’ to go with him alright. But whether you do or don’t, I don’t aim to stay with nobody that stands by such as Wash Gibbs. I’m goin’ to side with decent folks, who have stood by my girl, and you can do your damnedest. You take this stuff away from here. And as for you, Wash Gibbs, if you ever set foot on my place again, if you ever cross my path after to-night I’ll kill you like the measly yeller hound you are.” As he finished, Jim stood with his back to the corner of the room, his hand inside of the hickory shirt where the button was missing.
While her father was speaking, Sammy forgot everything, in the wild joy and pride of her heart. He was her Daddy, her Daddy Jim; that man standing so calmly there before the wild company of men. Whatever the past had been, he had wiped it clean to-night. He belonged to her now, all to her. She looked toward Wash Gibbs. Then she remembered the posse, the officers of the law. They could not know what she knew. If her father was taken with the others and with the stolen gold, he would be compelled to suffer with the rest. Yet if she called out to save him, she would save Wash Gibbs and his companions also, and they would menace her father’s life day and night.
The girl drew back from the window. She must think. What should she do? Even as she hesitated, a score of dark forms crept swiftly, silently toward the cabin. At the same moment a figure left the side of the house near the girl, and, crouching low, ran to the two horses that were tied near the barn.
Sammy was so dazed that for a moment she did not grasp the meaning of those swiftly moving forms. Then a figure riding one horse and leading another dashed away from the barn and across a corner of the clearing. The silence was broken by a pistol shot in the cabin. Like an echo came a shot from the yard, and a voice rang out sharply, “Halt!” The figure reeled in the saddle, as if to fall, but recovered, and disappeared in the timber. The same instant there was a rush toward the house—a loud call to surrender—a woman’s scream—and then, came to Sammy, blessed, kindly darkness.
“I WILL LIFT UP MINE EYES UNTO THE HILLS.”
WHEN Sammy opened her eyes, she was on the bed in her own room. In the other room someone was moving about, and the light from a lamp shone through the door.
At first the girl thought that she had awakened from a night’s sleep, and that it was her father whom she heard, building the fire before calling her, as his custom was. But no, he was not building the fire, he was scrubbing the floor. How strange. She would call presently and ask what he meant by getting up before daylight, and whether he thought to keep her from scolding him by trying to clean up what he had spilled before she should see it.
She had had a bad dream of some kind, but she could not remember just what it was. It was very strange that something seemed to keep her from calling to her father just then. She would call presently. She must remember first what that dream was. She felt that she ought to get up and dress, but she did not somehow wish to move. She was strangely tired. It was her dream, she supposed. Then she discovered that she was already fully dressed, and that her clothing was wet, muddy and torn. And with this discovery every incident of the night came vividly before her. She hid her face.
After awhile, she tried to rise to her feet, but fell back weak and dizzy, Who was that in the other room? Could it be her father? Would he never finish scrubbing the floor in that corner? When she could bear the suspense no longer, she called in a voice that sounded weak and far away; “Daddy, Oh, Daddy.”
Instantly the noise ceased; a step crossed the room; and the shepherd appeared in the doorway. Placing the lamp on a little stand, the old man drew a chair to the side of the bed, and laid his hand upon her forehead, smoothing back the tangled hair. He spoke no word, but in his touch there was a world of tenderness.
Sammy looked at him in wonder. Where had he come from? Why was he there at all? And in her room? She glanced uneasily about the apartment, and then back to the kind face of her old teacher. “I—don’t think I understand.”
“Never mind, now, dear. Don’t try to understand just yet. Aunt Mollie will be here in a few minutes. Matt has gone for her. When she comes and you are a little stronger, we shall talk.”
The girl caught his hand; “You—you won’t leave me, Dad? You won’t leave me alone? I’m afraid, Dad. I never was before.”
“No, no, my child; I shall not leave you. But you must have something warm to drink. I have been preparing it.” He stepped into the other room, soon returning with a steaming cup. When she had finished the strengthening draught, Young Matt, with his mother and father, arrived.
While helping the girl into clean, dry clothing, Aunt Mollie spoke soothingly to her, as one would reassure a frightened child. But Sammy could hear only the three men, moving about in the other room, doing something and talking always in low tones. She did not speak, but in her brown eyes, that never left the older woman’s face, was that wide, questioning look.
When Mrs. Matthews had done what she could for the comfort of the girl, and the men had finished whatever they were doing in the other room, Sammy said, “Aunt Mollie, I want to know. I must know. Won’t you tell Dad to come, please?” Instinctively she had turned to her teacher.
When the shepherd came, she met him with the old familiar demand, “Tell me everything, Dad; everything. I want to be told all about it.”
“You will be brave and strong, Sammy?”
Instantly, as ever, her quick mind grasped the meaning that lay back of the words and her face grew deathly white. Then she answered, “I will be brave and strong. But first, please open the window, Dad.” He threw up the sash. It was morning, and the mists were over the valley, but the mountain tops were bathed in light.
Sammy arose, and walked steadily to a chair by the open window. Looking out upon the beautiful scene, her face caught the light that was on the higher ground, and she said softly, “‘I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills.’ That’s our word, now, isn’t it, Dad? I can share it with you, now.” Then the shepherd told her. Young Matt had been at the ranch with Mr. Howitt since early in the evening, and was taking his leave for the night when they heard horses stopping at the corral, and a voice calling. Upon their answering, the voice said, “There is trouble at Jim Lane’s. Take these horses and go quick.” And then as they had run from the house, the messenger had retreated into the shadow of the bluff, saying, “Never mind me. If you love Sammy, hurry.” At this they mounted and had ridden as fast as possible.
The old man did not tell the girl that he had found his saddle wet and slippery, and that when he reached the light his hands were red.
They had found the officers ready to leave with their prisoners. All but two of the men were captured with their booty—Wash Gibbs alone escaping badly hurt, they thought, after killing one of the posse.
When they had asked for Sammy, one of the officers told them that she was at Ford’s over on Jake Creek, but another declared that he had heard a woman scream as they were making the attack. Young Matt had found her unconscious on the ground behind the cabin.
When the shepherd finished his brief account, the girl said, “Tell me all, Dad. I want to know all. Did—did they take Daddy away?”
The old man’s eyes were dim as he answered gently, “No, dear girl; they did not take him away.” Then Sammy knew why Dad had scrubbed the cabin floor, and what the three men who talked so low had been doing in the other room.
She made no outcry, only a moan, as she looked away across the silent hills and the valley, where the mists were slowly lifting; lifting slowly like the pale ghost of the starlight that was. “Oh, Daddy, Daddy Jim. You sure kept your promise. Yo
u sure did. I’m glad—glad they didn’t get you, Daddy. They never would have believed what I know; never—never.”
But there were no tears, and the shepherd, seeing after a little touched her hand. “Everything is ready, dear; would you like to go now?”
“Not just yet, Dad. I must tell you first how I came to be at home, and why I am glad—oh, so glad, that I was here. But call the others, please; I want them all to know.”
When the three, who with her teacher loved her best, had come, Sammy told her story; repeating almost word for word what she had heard her father say to the men. When she had finished, she turned her face again to the open window. The mists were gone. The landscape lay bright in the sun. But Sammy could not see.
“It is much better, so much better, as it is, my child,” said the old scholar. “You see, dear, they would have taken him away. Nothing could have saved him. It would have been a living death behind prison walls away from you.”
“Yes, I know, Dad. I understand. It is better as it is. Now, we will go to him, please.” They led her into the other room. The floor in the corner of the cabin where the shepherd had washed it was still damp.
Through it all, Sammy kept her old friend constantly by her side. “It is easier, Dad, when you are near.” Nor would she leave the house until it was all over, save to walk a little way with her teacher.
Young Matt and his father made the coffin of rough boards, sawed at the mill; and from the country round about, the woods-people came to the funeral, or, as they called it in their simple way, the “burying.” The grave was made in a little glen not far from the house. When some of the neighbors would have brought a minister from the settlement, Sammy said, “No.” Dad would say all that was necessary. So the shepherd, standing under the big trees, talked a little in his simple kindly way, and spoke the words, “Earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes.” “As good,” declared some, “as any preacher on earth could o’ done hit;” though one or two held “it warn’t jest right to put a body in th’ ground ‘thout a regular parson t’ preach th’ sermon.”
When the last word was spoken, and the neighbors had gone away over the mountains and through the woods to their homes, Aunt Mollie with her motherly arm about the girl, said, “Come, honey; you’re our girl now. As long as you stay in the hills, you shall stay with us.” And Old Matt added, “You’re the only daughter we’ve got, Sammy; and we want you a heap worse than you know.”
When Sammy told them that she was not going to the city to live, they cried in answer, “Then you shall be our girl always,” and they took her home with them to the big log house on the ridge.
For a week after that night at the Lane cabin, Pete was not seen. When at last, he did appear, it was to the shepherd on the hill, and his voice and manner alarmed Dad. But the boy’s only reply to Mr. Howitt’s question was, “Pete knows; Pete knows.” Then in his own way he told something that sent the shepherd to Young Matt, and the two followed the lad to a spot where the buzzards were flying low through the trees.
By the shreds of clothing and the weapons lying near, they knew that the horrid thing, from which as they approached, carrion birds flapped their wings in heavy flight, was all that remained of the giant, Wash Gibbs.
Many facts were brought out at the trial of the outlaws and it was made clear that Jim Lane had met his death at the hands of Wash Gibbs, just at the beginning of the attack, and that Gibbs himself had been wounded a moment later by one of the attacking posse.
Thus does justice live even in the hills.
ANOTHER STRANGER
MR. MATTHEWS and his son first heard of the stranger through Lou Gordon, the mail carrier, who stopped at the mill on his way to Flag with the week’s mail.
The native rode close to the shed, and waited until the saw had shrieked its way through the log of oak, and the carriage had rattled back to first position. Then with the dignity belonging to one of his station, as a government officer, he relieved his overcharged mouth of an astonishing quantity of tobacco, and drawled, “Howdy, men.”
“Howdy, Lou,” returned Young Matt from the engine, and Old Matt from the saw.
“Reckon them boards is fer a floor in Joe Gardner’s new cabin?”
“Yes,” returned Old Matt; “we ought to got ‘em out last week, but seems like we couldn’t get at it with the buryin’ an’ all.”
“‘Pears like you all ‘r gettin’ mighty proud in this neighborhood. Puncheon floors used t’ be good enough fer anybody t’ dance on. Be a buildin’ board houses next, I reckon.”
Mr. Matthews laughed, “Bring your logs over to Fall Creek when you get ready to build, Lou; we’ll sure do you right.”
The representative of the government recharged his mouth. “‘Lowed as how I would,” he returned. “I ain’t one o’ this here kind that don’t want t’ see no changes. Gov’ment’s all th’ time makin’ ‘provements. Inspector ‘lowed last trip we’d sure be a gettin’ mail twice a week at Flag next summer. This here’s sure bound t’ be a big country some day.
“Talkin’ ‘bout new fangled things, though, men! I seed the blamdest sight las’ night that ever was in these woods, I reckon. I gonies! Hit was a plumb wonder!” Kicking one foot from the wooden stirrup and hitching sideways in the saddle, he prepared for an effort.
“Little feller, he is. Ain’t as tall as Preachin’ Bill even, an’ fat! I gonies! he’s fat as a possum ‘n ‘simmon time. He don’t walk, can’t; just naturally waddles on them little duck legs o’ hisn. An’ he’s got th’ prettiest little ol’ face; all red an’ white, an’ as round’s a walnut; an’ a fringe of th’ whitest hair you ever seed. An’ clothes! Say, men.” In the pause the speaker deliberately relieved his overcharged mouth. The two in the mill waited breathlessly. “Long tailed coat, stove pipe hat, an’ cane with a gold head as big as a ‘tater. ‘Fo’ God, men, there ain’t been ary such a sight within a thousand miles of these here hills ever. An’ doin’s! My Lord, a’mighty!”
The thin form of the native doubled up as he broke into a laugh that echoed and re-echoed through the little valley, ending in a wild, “Whoop-e-e-e. Say! When he got out of th’ hack last night at th’ Forks, Uncle Ike he catched sight o’ him an’ says, says he t’ me, ‘Ba thundas! Lou, looky there! Talk ‘bout prosperity. I’m dummed if there ain’t ol’ Santa Claus a comin’ t’ th’ Forks in th’ summa time. ‘Ba thundas! What!’
“An’ when Santa come in, he—he wanted—Now what d’ you reckon he wanted? A bath! Yes, sir-e-e. Dad burn me, ‘f he didn’t. A bath! Whoop-e-e, you ought t’ seen Uncle Ike! He told him, ‘Ba thundas!’ he could give him a bite to eat an’ a place to sleep, but he’d be pisined bit by rattlers, clawed by wild cats, chawed by the hogs, et by buzzards, an’ everlastin’ly damned ‘fore he’d tote water ‘nough fer anybody t’ swim in. ‘Ba thundas! What!’
“What’s he doin’ here?” asked Mr. Matthews, when the mountaineer had recovered from another explosion.
Lou shook his head, as he straightened himself in the saddle. “Blame me ‘f I kin tell. Jest wouldn’t tell ‘t all last night. Wanted a bath. Called Uncle Ike some new fangled kind of a savage, an’ th’ old man ‘lowed he’d show him. He’d sure have him persecuted fer ‘sultin’ a gov’ment servant when th’ inspector come around. Yes he did. Oh, thar was doin’s at the Forks last night!”
Again the mail carrier’s laugh echoed through the woods.
“Well, I must mosey along. He warn’t up this mornin’ when I left. Reckon he’ll show up ‘round here sometime ‘fore sun down. Him an’ Uncle Ike won’t hitch worth a cent an’ he’ll be huntin’ prouder folks. I done told th’ old man he’d better herd him fer a spell, fer if he was t’ get loose in these woods, there wouldn’t be nary deer er bear left come Thanksgivin’ time. Uncle Ike said ‘Ba thundas!’ he’d let me know that he warn’t runnin’ no dummed asylum. He ‘lowed he was postmaster, ‘Ba thundas!’ an’ had all he could do t’ keep th’ dad burned gov’ment straight.”
Late
that afternoon Lou’s prophecy was fulfilled. A wagon going down the Creek with a load of supplies for the distillery stopped at the mill shed and the stranger began climbing carefully down over the wheels. Budd Wilson on his high seat winked and nodded at Mr. Matthews and his son, as though it was the greatest joke of the season.
“Hold those horses, driver. Hold them tight; tight, sir.”
“Got ‘em, Mister,” responded Budd promptly. The mules stood with drooping heads and sleepy eyes, the lines under their feet.
The gentleman was feeling carefully about the hub of the wheel with a foot that, stretch as he might, could not touch it by a good six inches.
“That’s right, man, right,” he puffed. “Hold them tight; tight. Start now, break a leg sure, sure. Then what would Sarah and the girls do? Oh, blast it all, where is that step? Can’t stay here all day. Bring a ladder. Bring a high chair, a table, a box, a big box, a—heh—heh—Look out, I say, look out! Blast it all, what do you mean?” This last was called forth by Young Matt lifting the little man bodily to the ground, as an ordinary man would lift a child.
To look up at the young giant, the stranger tipped back his head, until his shining silk hat was in danger of falling in the dirt. “Bless my soul, what a specimen! What a specimen!” Then with a twinkle in his eye, “Which one of the boys are you, anyway?”
At this the three mountaineers roared with laughter. With his dumpy figure in the long coat, and his round face under the tall hat, the little man was irresistible. He fairly shone with good humor; his cheeks were polished like big red apples; his white hair had the luster of silver; his blue eyes twinkled; his silk hat glistened; his gold watch guard sparkled; his patent leathers glistened; and the cane with the big gold head gleamed in the sunlight.
The Shepard of the Hills Page 18
