CHAPTER XIV
THREE LETTERS
"Hello, Curt! When are you going back to the ranch?"
Pendleton, the invalid from the East, accosted Conrad as he emerged fromthe physician's office, where he had gone for a last dressing of hiswounds before returning to the round-up.
"Right now, Mr. Pendleton. Anything I can do for you?"
"Say, Curt, I've been wondering if I couldn't flirt gravel along withyour bunch for a while. I want to take in everything that's going whileI'm here. I've never been on a ranch, or seen a round-up, or a steer onthe prod; and I'd like to see how things are done. Would a tenderfoot bein your way?"
"Not a bit of it! Come right along, Pendy, if you think you can standit. You'll have to rough it, you know; sleep on the ground with yoursaddle for a pillow, ride hard, and eat what comes."
"Oh, I can stand whatever the rest of you do. I don't fork a horse aswell as a cowboy or a circus rider, but I can stick on, and I can getthere 'most as soon as anybody--I mighty near got there too soon when wewent after Melgares, didn't I?"
"All right, Pendleton! If you think you can stand it, come right alongwith me this morning. I'm going to ride the rest of the day and most ofthe night; but if that's too much for you you can stop over at the ranchto-night, and catch up with us to-morrow."
"I reckon I'll take it all in along with you, and I'll meet you in halfan hour in front of the court-house," and Pendleton bustled off. Conradwent after his mare, dropping into Bancroft's office for a last word.
The president of the First National Bank was reading his morning's mail.He frowned over a note from Rutherford Jenkins reminding him that thefirst of the month was approaching, and warning him not to forget theremittance due on that day. He looked at the calendar. No; he could nottake time before the first to go to Las Vegas and crack the whip he waspreparing over Jenkins's head; he would have to make this payment. Nexthe opened a letter from Dellmey Baxter:
"MY DEAR BANCROFT:--I think you'd better correct young Conrad's curious notion that I had anything to do with Jose Gonzalez's attack upon him, or with Jose's going down there. If you don't he might turn his suspicions in some other direction. Of course, there's nothing in it but that greaser's bad temper. But he thinks there is, and he's just hot-headed enough to make it uncomfortable for anybody he happens to suspect. I didn't send Jose to him and so, naturally, I can't do anything about it, even if the fellow does get angry and act like the devil.
"I'm sorry I can't help you in your desire to retire from our Rio Grande valley land business. I'm tied up so that I've got no ready money with which to buy you out. Of course, if you are determined to get out, you might find a purchaser elsewhere. But as a friend I advise you not to sell. There's going to be big money in it, and we can probably launch the enterprise within the next six months. You'll make a great mistake if you quit. If you decide to stay in I'm willing for you to keep on as a silent partner, just as we have done so far."
The banker scowled, swearing softly to himself as he read the firstparagraph. "Didn't send him, didn't he," he grumbled. "Then who did? Ididn't, that's sure. He recommended the fellow as a good cowboy, andConrad engaged him. I had nothing to do with it." He was silent again ashe studied the second part of the letter. A suspicion rose in his mindthat Baxter was purposely making it difficult, almost impossible, forhim to get out of the land scheme. What was his purpose in so doing? Didthe Congressman wish to keep a hold on him to hamper, perhaps even tocontrol, his movements? "I wonder," Bancroft thought, "if Dell is afraidI'll try to cut him out politically before he's ready to step down. I'dlike his place well enough if--but that's something out of my reckoningfor a long time yet, even if everything goes right." The surmise thatBaxter wished to have such a bridle upon him left him uneasy. Well, hewould have to let this thing go on as it was. If he tried to sell to anyone else knowledge of his connection with it might leak out and reachLucy's ears. He winced as he thought of her feeling toward Baxterbecause of this business. And the investment promised well; rich returnsmight be expected from it soon. Nobody knew of his part in it exceptDell, and if he stayed in and kept quiet it was unlikely that anybodyelse would find it out. That might be the safer plan, after all.
Conrad came to the door, and after a few minutes' talk Bancroft said tohim, remembering Baxter's injunction, "Well, Curt, I hope you won't findthat your crazy Mexican has been trying to kill off all your men."
Curtis laughed. "Oh, Jose will be all right; and he's the best cow-punchI've got on the ranch. Dell Baxter will attend to him."
"That's an absurd notion of yours that Baxter had anything to do withit," replied Bancroft, the Congressman's letter still in his mind."You're not reasonable about Dell. Why should he want you assassinated?"
"The only reason I can see is that I've been talking pretty plain abouthim. But if he doesn't like the kind of things I say he'll have to getused to it, or else reform."
"Nonsense, Curt. And even if he does think you're handling the Castletonmoney against--"
Curtis made a gesture of impatience. "I hope you don't take any stock inthat talk, Aleck. The Castletons don't care a hang about this campaign,and Dell knows it. They're not putting up a cent, or, if Ned is doinganything for his wife's sake, he's dealing with Johnny Martinez direct."
Bancroft looked at him narrowly. "Is that right, Curt? Are you sure ofit?"
"As sure as I am of anything," the cattleman responded with emphasis."They've never mentioned the subject to me."
After Conrad had gone the banker walked the floor in anxious thought.What, then, did that five-hundred-dollar check mean that Curtis hadgiven to Jenkins? Perhaps he was holding the young man off, saying hewas not yet sure of Delafield's identity and needed money to carry onhis investigation, intending to give up his secret if he should findthat he could bleed Bancroft no longer. That would be like Jenkins, hedecided. As soon as he could get away he would go to Las Vegas and seeif the fellow could be cowed by the knowledge that had come to him soopportunely. As for Conrad, it would be better to wait until he couldlearn whether those checks would produce the effect desired.
In front of the court-house the ranchman met Tillinghurst and LittleJack Wilder. The Sheriff had a subpoena commanding him to appear as awitness for the State in the Melgares trial, set for June. Curtisremarked, as they talked of the case: "I reckon you'll have Pendleton asa witness; he'll want to take in the whole thing. Have you seenanything of him? He promised to meet me here. He's going back with me;says he wants to take in a round-up and see a steer on the prod. I surereckon I'll have my hands full if I keep the boys from taking him in."
"Let 'em run him, Curt, let 'em run him," said the Sheriff. "He'sgood-natured, and he'll soon strike their gait. He was never outside ofNew England before, and he's tryin' mighty hard to be tougher thananybody else on the border. He's been in town three weeks, and he callseverybody by their first names, from Judge Banks down to my Mexicanstable-boy. He writes down all the slang he hears every day, sits upnights to study it, and the next day slings it around as free and easyas an old-timer. Is that him comin' yonder? Say, Curt, he'll stampedeevery cow-brute you've got on the range!"
Pendleton, short, stout, and large of girth, had dressed himself forroughing it according to his own idea of custom and comfort. He wore aMexican straw sombrero tied down over his ears with a red bandanna, ared flannel shirt, a long linen coat, huge spurs, and sheepskin_chaparejos_.
"Oh, where did you get that coat?" the three men sang out as he camewithin hearing distance. Pendleton caught the tails in his finger tipsand danced some sidewise steps.
"Ain't she a beaut?" he shouted. "I found it in a store down inDobytown."
"Say, Pendy," called the Sheriff, "if you go pervadin' and pesterin'around among Curt's steers in those duds I'll have to send Jack downthere to arrest you for breach of the peace."
"All right, Tilly! I'm here for my health, but I'm takin' in on the sideeverythi
ng that comes my way!"
Conrad found a letter at the ranch addressed to Jose Gonzalez, in hiscare, and grinned with satisfaction as he recognized Baxter'shandwriting. "He's buffaloed all right and is calling off his man," hethought as he opened with eager curiosity a missive from Baxter forhimself:
"MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND:--I assure you that you are barking up the wrong tree when you try to connect me with any attack the Mexican, Jose Gonzalez, may have made upon you. In fact, it is so much up the wrong tree that I feel pretty sure there isn't any tree there at all! His assault was probably the result of sudden anger. The man has worked for me a good deal, and I know that such is his character. I have some influence with him, and I shall write him at once and give him a lecture on the necessity of controlling his temper. I have had occasion to do this several times in the past, not without effect. I shall tell him that you are a man of your word, and a crack shot, and that if he doesn't keep cool he's likely to die with his boots on. Nobody could blame you, my dear Mr. Conrad, if you should shoot him under such a necessity of self-defence. I take it ill, however, that you should connect me with this greaser's outrageous temper and crazy actions. I assure you again that you are entirely mistaken in your assumption, which, permit me to say, is what might very well be called gratuitous.
"I congratulate Johnny Martinez upon having the support of a gentleman so energetic, influential, and enthusiastic as yourself, and I remain,
"Yours very cordially, "DELLMEY BAXTER."
Conrad laughed aloud over the letter, exclaiming as he finished it,"He's a slick one, he is!"
Another letter bore the imprint of Tremper & Townsend, and contained acheck for five hundred dollars and a brief note saying that theirclient, Sumner L. Delafield, wished them to send him this money as asecond instalment of the amount due his father's estate, and to addthat like sums would follow in rapid succession. Conrad scowled andgnawed his moustache as he read the letter the second time. He wasconsidering whether he had any right to accept the money and continuehis quest of vengeance. Delafield evidently meant to buy him off with itand, if he accepted, did he not tacitly accept that condition?
"I'll send it back to him," was his first thought, as he reached for apen. But another idea stayed his hand. The former check he had dividedbetween his brother and sisters, and, as they knew nothing of his schemeof revenge, this also ought to go to them. But Delafield must know uponwhat terms he accepted the money. With a grim look on his face he wroteto the Boston attorneys:
"I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a second check for five hundred dollars from your client, Sumner L. Delafield. I am reasonably grateful that an unexpected sense of remorse has led him to loose his purse-strings, even at this late day, and on behalf of my brother and sisters will ask you to send him their thanks. As for myself, you may tell him that I hope the sending of the money has eased his conscience, for it will procure him no other benefit. Every cent of money he sees fit to send me I shall turn over to my father's other children, while I shall find entire satisfaction in following out my revenge. What that is he doubtless knows, for the sending of these checks convinces me that he is moved, not by the honest wish to do what he can toward righting a dastardly wrong, but by the desire to save his own skin. Please tell him, from me, that he cannot buy immunity from my purpose, even though he should send me the whole of the debt three times over."
The Delafield Affair Page 14
