197CHAPTER XIIISOMEONE FEARS
A note from a pretty woman always is a potential thing, no matter in what humor it may have been received. The mere possession titillates; and although the contents may be most exemplary to the eye, the mind is apt to go hay-making between the lines and no offense intended.
All the fatuousness that had led me astray to the lure of her blue eyes, upon the train and in hollow Benton, surged anew now—perhaps seasoned to present taste by my peppery defiance of Daniel. A man could do no less than bristle a little, under the circumstances; could do no less than challenge the torpedoes, like Farragut in Mobile Bay. Whether the game was worth the candle, I was not to be bullied out of my privileges by a clown swash-buckler who aped the characteristics of a pouter pigeon.
Mr. Jenks was just going to bed under the wagon. With pretext of warming up the coffee I kicked the fire together; while squatting and sipping I managed to unfold the note and read it by the flicker, my back to the camp.
All that it said, was:198
If you are not disgusted with me I will walk a stretch with you on the trail, during the morning.
If you are not disgusted with me I will walk a stretch with you on the trail, during the morning.
The engagement sent me to my blanket cogitating. When a woman proposes, one never knows precisely the reason. Anyway, I was young enough so to fancy. For a long time I lay outside the wagons, apart in the desert camp, gazing up at the twinkling stars, while the wolves whimpered around, and somewhere she slept beside the gentle Rachael, and somewhere Daniel snored, and here I conned her face and her words, elatedly finding them very pleasing.
Salt Lake was far, the Big Tent farther by perspective if not by miles. I recognized the legal rights of her husband, but no ruffling Daniel should quash the undeniable rights of Yours Truly. I indeed felt virtuous and passing valorous, with that commonplace note in my pocket.
We all broke camp at sunrise. She rode for a distance upon the seat of Daniel’s wagon—he lustily trudging alongside. Then I marked her walking, herself; she had shortened her skirt; and presently lingering by the trail she dropped behind, leaving the wagon to lumber on, with Daniel helplessly turning head over shoulder, bereft.
“Bet you the lady up yonder is aimin’ to pay you a visit,” quoth friend Jenks the astute. “And Dan’l, he don’t cotton to it. You ain’t great shakes with a gun, I reckon?”199
“I’ve never had use for one,” said I. “But her whereabouts in the train is not a matter of shooting, is it?”
“A feller quick on the draw, like him, is alluz wantin’ to practice, to keep his hand in. Anyhow I’d advise you to stay clear of her, else watch him mighty sharp. He’s thinkin’ of takin’ a squaw.”
We rolled on, in the dust, while the animals coughed and the teamsters chewed and swore. And next, here she was, idling until our outfit drew abreast.
“Mornin’,” Jenks grunted, with a shortness that bespoke his disapproval; whereupon he fell back and left us.
She smiled at me.
“Will you offer me a ride, sir?”
My response was instant: a long “Whoa-oa!” in best mule-whacker. The eight-team hauled negligent, their mulish senses steeped in the drudgery of the trail; only the wheel pair flopped inquiring ears. When I hailed again, Jenks came puffing.
“What’s the matter hyar?” He ran rapid eye over wagon and animals and saw nothing amiss.
“Mrs. Montoyo wishes to ride.”
“The hell, man!” He snatched whip and launched it, up the faltering team. The cracker popped an inch above the off lead mule’s cringing haunch twenty feet before. “You can’t stop hyar! Can’t hold the rest of the train. Joe! Baldy! Hep200with you!” The team straightened out; he restored me the whip. His wrath subsided, for in less dudgeon he addressed her.
“Want to ride, do ye?”
“I did, sir.”
“Wall, in Gawd’s name ride, then. But we don’t stop for passengers.”
With that, in another white heat he had picked her up bodily, swung her upon the nearest mule; so that before she knew (she scarce had time to utter an astonished little ejaculation as she yielded to his arms) there she was, perched, breathless, upon the sweaty hide. I awaited results.
Jenks chuckled.
“What you need is an old feller, lady. These young bucks ain’t broke to the feed canvas. Now when you want to get off you call me. You don’t weigh more’n a peck of beans.”
With a bantering wink at me he again fell back. Once more I had been forestalled. There should be no third time.
My Lady sat clinging, at first angry-eyed, but in a moment softened by my discomfiture.
“Your partner is rather sudden,” she averred. “He asked permission of neither me nor the mule.”
“He meant well. He isn’t used to women,” I apologized.
“More used to mules, I judge.”201
“Yes. If he had asked the mule it would have objected, whereas it’s delighted.”
“Perhaps he knows there’s not much difference between a woman and a mule, in that respect,” she proffered. “You need not apologize for him.”
“I apologize for myself,” I blurted. “I see I’m a little slow for this country.”
“You?” She soberly surveyed me as I ploughed through the dust, at her knees. “I think you’ll catch up. If you don’t object to my company, yourself, occasionally, maybe I can help you.”
“I certainly cannot object to your company whenever it is available, madam,” I assured.
“You do not hold your experience in Benton against me?”
“I got no more than I deserved, in the Big Tent,” said I. “I went in as a fool and I came out as a fool, but considerably wiser.”
“You reproached me for it,” she accused. “You hated me. Do you hate me still, I wonder? I tell you I was not to blame for the loss of your money.”
“The money has mattered little, madam,” I informed. “It was only a few dollars, and it turned me to a job more to my liking and good health than fiddling my time away, back there. I have you to thank for that.”
“No, no! You are cruel, sir. You thank me for the good and you saddle me with the bad. I accept neither. Both, as happened, were misplays. You202should not have lost money, you should not have changed vocation. You should have won a little money and you should have pursued health in Benton.” She sighed. “And we all would have been reasonably content. Now here you and I are—and what are we going to do about it?”
“We?” I echoed, annoyingly haphazard. “Why so? You’re being well cared for, I take it; and I’m under engagement for Salt Lake myself.”
The answer did sound rude. I was still a cad. She eyed me, with a certain whiteness, a certain puzzled intentness, a certain fugitive wistfulness—a mute estimation that made me too conscious of her clear appraising gaze and rack my brain for some disarming remark.
“You’re not responsible for me, you would say?”
“I’m at your service,” I corrected. The platitude was the best that I could muster to my tongue.
“That is something,” she mused. “Once you were not that—when I proposed a partnership. You are afraid of me?” she asked.
“Why should I be?” I parried. But I was beginning; or continuing. I had that curious inward quiver, not unpleasant, anticipatory of possible events.
“You are a cautious Yankee. You answer one question with another.” She laughed lightly. “Yes, why should you be? I cannot run away with you; not when Daniel and your Mr. Jenks are watching us203so closely. And you have no desire to be run away with. And Pedro must be considered. Altogether, you are well protected, even if your conscience slips. But tell me: Do you blame me for running away from Montoyo?”
“Not in the least,” I heartily assured.
“You would have helped me, at the last?”
“I think I should have felt fully warranted.” Again I floundered.
“Even to stowing me with a bull train?”
“Anywhere, madam, for your betterment, to free you from that brute.”
“Oh!” She clapped her hands. “But you didn’t have to. I only embarrassed you by appearing on my own account. You have some spirit, though. You came to the Adams circle, last night. You did your duty. I expected you. But you must not do it again.”
“Why not?”
“There are objections, there.”
“From you?”
“No.”
“From Hyrum?”
“Not yet.”
“From that Daniel, then. Well, I will come to Captain Adams’ camp as often as I like, if with the Captain’s permission. And I shall come to see you, whether with his permission or not.”
“I don’t know,” she faltered. “I—you would204have helped me once, you say? And once you refused me. Would you help me next time?”
“As far as I could,” said I—another of those damned hedging responses that for the life of me I could not manipulate properly.
“Oh!” she cried. “Of course! The queen deceived you; now you are wise. You are afraid. But so am I. Horribly afraid. I have misplayed again.” She laughed bitterly. “I am with Daniel—it is to be Daniel and I in the Lion’s den. You know they call Brigham Young the Lion of the Lord. I doubt if even Rachael is angel enough.” She paused. “They’re going to make nooning, aren’t they? I mustn’t stay. Good-bye.”
I sprang to lift her, but with gay shake of head she slipped off of herself and landed securely.
“I can stand alone. I have to. Men are always ready to do what I don’t ask them to do, as long as I can serve as a tool or a toy. You will be very, very careful. Good-day, sir.”
She flashed just the trace of a smile; gathering her skirt she ran on, undeterred by the teamsters applauding her spryness.
“Swing out!” shouted Jenks, from rear. “We’re noonin’.” The lead wagons had halted beside the trail and all the wagons following began to imitate.
205CHAPTER XIVI TAKE A LESSON
From this hour’s brief camp, early made, we should have turned southward, to leave the railroad line and cross country for the Overland Stage trail that skirted the southern edge of the worse desert before us. But Captain Hyrum was of different mind. With faith in the Lord and bull confidence in himself he had resolved to keep straight on by the teamster road which through league after league ever extended fed supplies to the advance of the builders.
Under its adventitious guidance we should strike the stage road at Bitter Creek, eighty or one hundred miles; thence trundle, veering southwestward, for the famed City of the Saints, near two hundred miles farther.
Therefore after nooning at a pool of stagnant, scummy water we hooked up and plunged ahead, creaking and groaning and dust enveloped, constantly outstripped by the hurrying construction trains thundering over the newly laid rails, we ourselves the tortoise in the race.
My Lady did not join me again to-day, nor on the morrow. She abandoned me to a sense of dissatisfaction206with myself, of foreboding, and of a void in the landscape.
Our sorely laden train went swaying and pitching across the gaunt face of a high, broad plateau, bleak, hot, and monotonous in contour; underfoot the reddish granite pulverized by grinding tire and hoof, over us the pale bluish fiery sky without a cloud, distant in the south the shining tips of a mountain range, and distant below in the west the slowly spreading vista of a great, bared ocean-bed, simmering bizarre with reds, yellows and deceptive whites, and ringed about by battlements jagged and rock hewn.
Into this enchanted realm we were bound; by token of the smoke blotches the railroad line led thither. The teamsters viewed the unfolding expanse phlegmatically. They called it the Red Basin. But to me, fresh for the sight, it beckoned with fantastic issues. Even the name breathed magic. Wizard spells hovered there; the railroad had not broken them—the cars and locomotives, entering, did not disturb the brooding vastness. A man might still ride errant into those slumberous spaces and discover for himself; might boldly awaken the realm and rule with a princess by his side.
But romance seemed to have no other sponsor in this plodding, whip-cracking, complaining caravan. So I lacked, woefully lacked, kindred companionship.
Free to say, I did miss My Lady, perched upon the207stoic mule while like an Arab chief I convoyed her. The steady miles, I admitted, were going to be as disappointing as tepid water, when not aërated by her counsel and piquant allusions, by her sprightly readiness and the essential elements of her blue eyes, her facile lips, and that bright hair which no dust could dim.
After all she was distinctly feminine—bravely feminine; and if she wished to flirt as a relief from the cock-sure Daniel and the calm methods of her Mormon guardians, why, let us beguile the way. I should second with eyes open. That was accepted.
Moreover, something about her weighed upon me. A consciousness of failing her, a woman, in emergency, stung my self-respect. She had twitted me with being “afraid”; afraid of her, she probably meant. That I could pass warily. But she had said that she, too, was afraid: “horribly afraid,” and an honest shudder had attended upon the words as if a real danger hedged. She had an intuition. The settled convictions of my Gentile friends coincided. “With Daniel in the Lion’s den”—that phrase repeated itself persistent. She had uttered it in a fear accentuated by a mirthless laugh. Could such a left-handed wooer prove too much for her? Well, if she was afraid of Daniel I was not and she should not think so.
I could see her now and then, on before. She rode upon the wagon seat of her self-appointed executor.208And I might see him and his paraded impertinences.
Except for the blowing of the animals and the mechanical noises of the equipment the train subsided into a dogged patience, while parched by the dust and the thin dry air and mocked by the speeding construction crews upon the iron rails it lurched westward at two and a half miles an hour, for long hours outfaced by the blinding sun.
Near the western edge of the plateau we made an evening corral. After supper the sound of revolver shots burst flatly from a mess beyond us, and startled. Everything was possible, here in this lone horizon-land where rough men, chafed by a hard day, were gathered suddenly relaxed and idle. But the shots were accompanied by laughter.
“They’re only tryin’ to spile a can,” Jenks reassured. “By golly, we’ll go over and l’arn ’em a lesson.” He glanced at me. “Time you loosened up that weepon o’ yourn, anyhow. Purty soon it’ll stick fast.”
I arose with him, glad of any diversion. The circle had not yet formed at Hyrum’s fire.
“It strikes me as a useless piece of baggage,” said I. “I bought it in Benton but I haven’t needed it. I can kill a rattlesnake easier with my whip.”
“Wall,” he drawled, “down in yonder you’re liable to meet up with a rattler too smart for your whip, account of his freckles. ’Twon’t do you no harm to209spend a few ca’tridges, so you’ll be ready for business.”
The men were banging, by turn, at a sardine can set up on the sand about twenty paces out. Their shadows stretched slantwise before them, grotesquely lengthened by the last efforts of the disappearing sun. Some aimed carefully from under pulled-down hat brims; others, their brims flared back, fired quickly, the instant the gun came to the level. The heavy balls sent the loose soil flying in thick jets made golden by the evening glow. But amidst the furrows the can sat untouched by the plunging missiles.
We were greeted with hearty banter.
“Hyar’s the champeens!”
“Now they’ll show us.”
“Ain’t never see that pilgrim unlimber his gun yit, but I reckon he’s a bad ’un.”
“Jenks, old hoss, cain’t you l’an that durned can manners?”
“I’ll try to oblige you, boys,” friend Jenks smiled. “What you thinkin’ to do: hit that can or plant a lead mine?”
“Give him room. He’s made his brag,” they cried. “And if he don’t plug it that pilgrim sure will.”
Mr. Jenks drew and took his stand; banged with small preparation and missed by six inches—a fact that brought him up wide awake, so to speak, badgered by derision renewed. A person needs must have a bull hide, to travel with a bull train, I saw.210
“Gimme another, boys, and I’ll hit it in the nose,” he growled sheepishly; but they shoved him aside.
“No, no. Pilgrim’s turn. Fetch on yore shootin’-iron, young feller. Thar’s yore turkey. Show us why you’re packin’ all that hardware.”
Willy-nilly I had to demonstrate my greenness; so in all good nature I drew, and stood, and cocked, and aimed. The Colt’s exploded with prodigious blast and wrench—jerking, in fact, almost above head; and where the bullet went I did not see, nor, I judged, did anybody else.
“He missed the ’arth!” they clamored.
“No; I reckon he hit Montany ’bout the middle. That’s whar he scored center!”
“Shoot! Shoot!” they begged. “Go ahead. Mebbe you’ll kill an Injun unbeknownst. They’s a pack o’ Sioux jest out o’ sight behind them hills.”
And I did shoot, vexed; and I struck the ground, this time, some fifty yards beyond the can. Jenks stepped from amidst the riotous laughter.
“Hold down on it, hold down, lad,” he urged. “To hit him in the heart aim at his feet. Here! Like this——” and taking my revolver he threw it forward, fired, the can plinked and somersaulted, lashed into action too late.
“By Gawd,” he proclaimed, “when I move like it had a gun in its fist I can snap it. But when I think on it as a can I lack guts.”
The remark was pat. I had seen several of the men211snip the head from a rattlesnake with a single offhand shot—yes, they all carried their weapons easily and wontedly. But the target of an immobile can lacked in stimulation to concord of nerve and eye.
Now I shot again, holding lower and more firmly, out of mere guesswork, and landed appreciably closer although still within the zone of ridicule. And somebody else shot, and somebody else, and another, until we all were whooping and laughing and jesting, and the jets flew as if from the balls of a mitrailleuse, and the can rocked and gyrated, spurring us to haste as it constantly changed the range. Presently it was merely a twist of ragged tin. Then in the little silence, as we paused, a voice spoke irritatingly.
“I ’laow yu fellers ain’t no great shucks at throwin’ lead.”
Daniel stood by, with arms akimbo, his booted legs braggartly straddled and his freckled face primed with an intolerant grin at our recent efforts. My Lady had come over with him. Raw-boned, angular, cloddish but as strong as a mule, he towered over her in a maddening atmosphere of proprietorship.
She smiled at me—at all of us: at me, swiftly; at them, frankly. And I knew that she was still afraid.
“Reckon we don’t ask no advice, friend,” they answered. Again a constraint enfolded, fastened upon us by an unbidden guest. “Like as not you can do better.”
Daniel laughed boisterously, his mouth widely open.212
“I couldn’t do wuss. I seen yu poppin’ at that can. Hadn’t but one hole in it till yu all turned loose an’ didn’t give it no chance. Haw haw! I ’laow for a short bit I’d stand out in front o’ that greenie from the States an’ let him empty two guns at me.”
“S’pose you do it,” friend Jenks promptly challenged. “By thunder, I’ll hire ye with the ten cents, and give him four bits if he hits you.”
“He wouldn’t draw on me, nohaow,” scoffed Daniel. “I daren’t shoot for money, but I’ll shoot for fun. Anybody want to shoot ag’in me?”
“Wasted powder enough,” they grumbled.
“Ever see me shoot?” He was eager. “I’ll show ye somethin’. I don’t take back seat for ary man. Yu set me up a can. That thar one wouldn’t jump to a bullet.”
In sullen obedience a can was produced.
“How fur?”
“Fur as yu like.”
It was tossed contemptuously out; and watching it, to catch its last roll, I heard Daniel gleefully yelp “Out o’ my way, yu-all!”—half saw his hand dart down and up again, felt the jar of a shot, witnessed the can jump like a live thing; and away it went, with spasm after spasm, to explosion after explosion, tortured by him into fruitless capers until with the final ball peace came to it, and it lay dead, afar across the twilight sand.
Verily, by his cries and the utter savagery and213malevolence of his bombardment, one would have thought that he took actual lust in fancied cruelty.
“I ’laow thar’s not another man hyar kin do that,” he vaunted.
There was not, judging by the silence again ensuing. Only—
“A can’s a different proposition from a man, as I said afore,” Jenks coolly remarked. “A can don’t shoot back.”
“I don’t ’laow any man’s goin’ to, neither.” Daniel reloaded his smoking revolver, bolstered it with a flip; faced me in turning away. “That’s somethin’ for yu to l’arn on, ag’in next time, young feller,” he vouchsafed.
If he would have eyed me down he did not succeed. His gaze shifted and he passed on, swaggering.
“Come along, Edna,” he bade. “We’ll be goin’ back.”
A devil—or was it he himself?—twitted me, incited me, and in a moment, with a gush of assertion, there I was, saying to her, my hat doffed:
“I’ll walk over with you.”
“Do,” she responded readily. “We’re to have more singing.”
The men stared, they nudged one another, grinned. Daniel whirled.
“I ’laow yu ain’t been invited, Mister.”
“If Mrs. Montoyo consents, that’s enough,” I informed, striving to keep steady. “I’m not walking214with you, sir; I am walking with her. The only ground you control is just in front of your own wagon.”
“Yu’ve been told once thar ain’t no ‘Mrs. Montoyo,’” he snarled. “And whilst yu’re l’arnin’ to shoot yu’d better be l’arnin’ manners. Yu comin’ with me, Edna?”
“As fast as I can, and with Mr. Beeson also, if he chooses,” said she. “I have my manners in mind, too.”
“By gosh, I don’t walk with ye,” he jawed. And in a huff, like the big boy that he was, he flounced about, vengefully striding on as though punishing her for a misdemeanor.
She dropped the grinning group a little curtsy. A demure sparkle was in her eyes.
“The entertainment is concluded, gentlemen. I wish you good-night.”
Yet underneath her raillery and self-possession there lay an appeal, the stronger because subtle and unvoiced. It seemed to me every man must appreciate that as a woman she invoked protection by him against an impending something, of which she had given him a glimpse.
So we left them somewhat subdued, gazing after us, their rugged faces sobered reflectively.
“Shall we stroll?” she asked.
“With pleasure,” I agreed.
Daniel was angrily shouldering for the Mormon215wagons, his indignant figure black against the western glow. She laughed lightly.
“You’re not afraid, after all, I see.”
“Not of him, madam.”
“And of me?”
“I think I’m more afraid for you,” I confessed. “That clown is getting insufferable. He sets out to bully you. Damn him,” I flashed, with pardonable flame, “and he ruffles at me on every occasion. In fact, he seems to seek occasion. Witness this evening.”
“Witness this evening,” she murmured. “I’m afraid, too. Yes,” she breathed, confronted by a portent, “I’m afraid. I never have been afraid before. I didn’t fear Montoyo. I’ve always been able to take care of myself. But now, here——”
“You have your revolver?” I suggested.
“No, I haven’t. It’s gone. Mormon women don’t carry revolvers.”
“They took it from you?”
“It’s disappeared.”
“But you’re not a Mormon woman.”
“Not yet.” She caught quick breath. “God forbid. And sometimes I fear God willing. For I do fear. You can’t understand. Those other men do, though, I think. Do you know,” she queried, with sudden glance, “that Daniel means to marry me?”
“He?” I gasped. “How so? With your—consent, of course. But you’re not free; you have a husband.”216My gorge rose, regardless of fact. “You scarcely expect me to congratulate you, madam. Still he may have points.”
“Daniel?” She shrugged her shoulders. “I cannot say. Pedro did. Most men have. Oh!” she cried, impulsively stopping short. “Why don’t you learn to shoot? Won’t you?”
“I’ve about decided to,” I admitted. “That appears to be the saving accomplishment of everybody out here.”
“Of everybody who stays. You must learn to draw and to shoot, both. The drawing you will have to practice by yourself, but I can teach you to shoot. So can those men. Let me have your pistol, please.”
I passed it to her. She was all in a flutter.
“You must grasp the handle firmly; cover it with your whole palm, but don’t squeeze it to death; just grip it evenly—tuck it away. And keep your elbow down; and crook your wrist, in a drop, until your trigger knuckle is pointing very low—at a man’s feet if you’re aiming for his heart.”
“At his feet, for his heart?” I stammered. The words had an ugly sound.
“Certainly. We are speaking of shooting now, and not at a tin can. You have to allow for the jump of the muzzle. Unless you hold it down with your wrist, you over shoot; and it’s the first shot that counts. Of course, there’s a feel, a knack. But217don’t aim with your eyes. You won’t have time. Men file off the front sight—it sometimes catches, in the draw. And it’s useless, anyway. They fire as they point with the finger, by the feel. You see, theyknow.”
“Evidently you do, too, madam,” I faltered, amazed.
“Not all,” she panted. “But I’ve heard the talk; I’ve watched—I’ve seen many things, sir, from Omaha to Benton. Oh, I wish I could tell you more; I wish I could help you right away. I meant, a dead-shot with the revolver knows beforehand, in the draw, where his bullet shall go. Some men are born to shoot straight; some have to practice a long, long while. I wonder which you are.”
“If there is pressing need in my case,” said I, “I shall have to rely upon my friends to keep me from being done for.”
“You?” she uttered, with a touch of asperity. “Oh, yes. Pish, sir! Friends, I am learning, have their own hides to consider. And those gentlemen of yours are Gentiles with goods for Salt Lake Mormons. Are they going to throw all business to the winds?”
“You yourself may appeal to his father, and to the women, for protection if that lout annoys you,” I ventured.
“To them?” she scoffed. “To Hyrum Adams’ outfit? Why, they’re Mormons and good Mormons,218and why should I not be made over? I’m under their teachings; I am Edna, already; it’s time Daniel had a wife—or two, for replenishing Utah. Rachael calls me ’sister,’ and I can’t resent it. Good at heart as she is, even she is convinced. Why,” and she laughed mirthlessly, “I may be sealed to Hyrum himself, if nothing worse is in store. Then I’ll be assured of a seat with the saints.”
“You can depend upon me, then. I’ll protect you, I’ll fight for you, and I’ll kill for you,” I was on the point of roundly declaring; but didn’t. Her kind, I remembered, had spelled ruin upon the pages of men more experienced than I. Therefore out of that super-caution born of Benton, I stupidly said nothing.
She had paused, expectant. She resumed.
“But no matter. Here I am, and here you are. We were speaking of shooting. This is a lesson in shooting, not in marrying, isn’t it? As to the pressing need, you must decide. You’ve seen and heard enough for that. I like you, sir; I respect your spirit and I’m sorry I led you into misadventure. Now if I may lend you a little something to keep you from being shot like a dog, I’ll feel as though I had wiped out your score against me. Take your gun.” I took it, the butt warm from her clasp. “There he is. Cover him!”
“Where?” I asked. “Who?”
“There, before you. Oh, anybody! Think of his heart and cover him. I want to see you hold.”219
I aimed, squinting.
“No, no! You’ll not have time to close an eye; both eyes are none too many. And you are awkward; you are stiff.” She readjusted my arm and fingers. “That’s better. You see that little rock? Hit it. Cock your weapon, first. Hold firmly, not too long. There; I think you’re going to hit it, but hold low, low, with the wrist. Now!”
I fired. The sand obscured the rock. She clapped her hands, delighted.
“You would have killed him. No—he would have killed you. Quick! Give it to me!”
And snatching the revolver she cocked, leveled and fired instantly. The rock split into fragments.
“I would have killed him,” she murmured, gazing tense, seeing I knew not what. Wrenching from the vision she handed back the revolver to me. “I think you’re going to do, sir. Only, you must learn to draw. I can tell you but I can’t show you. The men will. You must draw swiftly, decisively, without a halt, and finger on trigger and thumb on hammer and be ready to shoot when the muzzle clears the scabbard. It’s a trick.”
“Like this?” I queried, trying.
“Partly. But it’s not a sword you’re drawing; it’s a gun. You may draw laughing, if you wish to dissemble for a sudden drop; they do, when they have iron in their heart and the bullet already on its way, in their mind. I mustn’t stay longer. Shall we go to220the fire now? I am cold.” She shivered. “Daniel is waiting. And when you’ve delivered me safe you’d better leave me, please.”
“Why so?”
She smiled, looking me straight in the eyes.
“Quién sabe? To avoid a scene, perhaps; perhaps, to postpone. I have an idea that it is better so. You’ve baited Daniel far enough for to-night.”
We walked almost without speaking, to the Hyrum Adams fire. Daniel lifted upper lip at me as we entered; his eyes never wandered from my face. I marked his right hand quivering stiffly; and I disregarded him. For if I had challenged him by so much as an overt glance he would have burst bonds.
Rachael’s eyes, the older woman’s eyes, the eyes of all, men and women, curious, admonitory, hostile and apprehensive, hot and cold together—these I felt also amidst the dusk. I was distinctly unwelcome. Accordingly I said a civil “Good-evening” to Hyrum (whose response out of compressed lips was scarce more than a grunt) and raising my hat to My Lady turned my back upon them, for my own bailiwick.
The other men were waiting en route.
“Didn’t kill ye, did he?”
“No.”
“Wall,” said one, “if you can swing a rattler by the tail, all right. But watch his haid.”
Friend Jenks paced on with me to our fire.
“We were keepin’ cases on you, and so was he.221He saw that practice—damn, how he did crane! She was givin’ you pointers, eh?”
“Yes; she wanted amusement.”
“It’ll set Bonnie Bravo to thinkin’—it’ll shorely set him to thinkin’,” Jenks chuckled, mouthing his pipe. “She’s a smart one.” He comfortably rocked to and fro as we sat by the fire. “Hell! Wall, if you got to kill him you got to kill him and do it proper. For if you don’t kill him he’ll kill you; snuff you out like a—wall, you saw that can travel.”
“I don’t want to kill him,” I pleaded. “Why should I?”
Jenks sat silent; and sitting silent I foresaw that kill Daniel I must. I was being sucked into it, irrevocably willed by him, by her, by them all. If I did not kill him in defense of myself I should kill him in defense of her. Yet why I had to, I wondered; but when I had bought my ticket for Benton I had started the sequence, to this result. Here I was. As she had said, here I was, and here she was. I might not kill for love—no, not that; I was going to kill for hate. And while I never had killed a man, and in my heart of hearts did not wish to kill a man, since I had to kill one, named Daniel, even though he was a bully, a braggart and an infernal over-stepper it was pleasanter to think that I should kill him in hot blood rather than in cold.
Jenks spat, and yawned.
“I can l’arn you a few things; all the boys’ll help222you out,” he proffered, “When you git him you’ll have to git him quick; for if you don’t—adios. But we’ll groom ye.”
Could this really be I? Frank Beeson, not a fortnight ago still living at jog-trot in dear Albany, New York State? It was puzzling how detached and how strong I felt.
223CHAPTER XVTHE TRAIL NARROWS
Again we broke camp. We rolled down from the plateau into that wizard basin lying all beautiful and slumberous and spell-locked like some land of heart’s desire. We replenished our water casks from the tank cars, we swapped for a little feed, we occasionally exchanged greetings with contractor outfits, and with grading crews. In due time we passed end o’ track, where a bevy of sweated men were moiling like mad, clanging down the rails upon the hasty ties and ever calling for more, more. I witnessed little General “Jack” Casement of Ohio—a small man with full russet beard and imperative bold blue eyes—teetering and tugging at his whiskers and rampantly swearing while he drove the work forward. And we left end o’ track, vainly reaching out after us, until the ring of the rails and the staccato of the rapid sledges faded upon our ears.
Now we were following the long line of bare grade, upturned reddish by the plows and scrapers and picks and shovels; sometimes elevated, for contour, sometimes merged with the desert itself. There the navvies digged and delved, scarcely taking time to glance224at us. And day by day we plodded in the interminable clouds of desert dust raised by the supply wagons.
Captain Hyrum fought shy of their camps. The laborers were mainly Irish, trans-shipped from steerage, dock, and Bowery, and imported from Western mining centers; turbulent in their relaxations and plentifully supplied with whiskey: companies, they, not at all to the Mormon mind. Consequently we halted apart from them—and well so, for those were womanless camps and the daily stint bred strong appetites.
There were places where we made half circuit out from the grade and abandoned it entirely. In this way we escaped the dust, the rough talk, and the temptations; now and again obtained a modicum of forage in the shape of coarse weedy grasses at the borders of sinks.
But it was a cruel country on men and beasts. Our teamsters who had been through by the Overland Trail said that the Bitter Creek desert was yet worse: drier, barer, dustier and uglier. Nevertheless this was our daily program:
To rise after a shivery night, into the crisp dawn which once or twice glinted upon a film of ice formed in the water buckets; to herd the stiffened animals and place them convenient; to swallow our hot coffee and our pork and beans, and flapjacks when the cooks were in the humor; to hook the teams to the wagons225and break corral, and amidst cracking of lashes stretch out into column, then to lurch and groan onward, at snail’s pace, through the constantly increasing day until soon we also were wrung and parched by a relentless heat succeeding the frosty night.
The sleeping beauties of the realm were ever farther removed. In the distances they awaited, luring with promise of magic-invested azure battlements, languid reds and yellows like tapestry, and patches of liquid blue and dazzling snowy white, canopied by a soft, luxurious sky. But when we arrived, near spent, the battlements were only isolated sandstone outcrops inhabited by rattlesnakes, the reds and yellows were sun-baked soil as hard, the liquid blue was poisonous, stagnant sinks, the snow patches were soda and bitter alkali, the luxurious sky was the same old white-hot dome, reflecting the blazing sun upon the fuming earth.
Then at sunset we made corral; against theft, when near the grade; against Indians and pillage when out from the grade, with the animals under herd guard. There were fires, there was singing at the Mormon camp, there was the heavy sleep beneath blanket and buffalo robe, through the biting chill of a breezeless night, the ground a welcomed bed, the stars vigilant from horizon to horizon, the wolves stalking and bickering like avid ghouls.
So we dulled to the falsity of the desert and the drudgery of the trail; and as the grading camps226became less frequent the men grew riper for any diversion. That My Lady and Daniel and I were to furnish it seemed to be generally accepted. Here were the time-old elements: two men, one woman—elements so constituted that in other situation they might have brought comedy but upon such a trail must and should pronounce for tragedy, at least for true melodrama.
Besides, I was expected to uphold the honor of our Gentile mess along with my own honor. That was demanded; ever offered in cajolery to encourage my pistol practice. I was, in short, “elected,” by an obsession equal to a conviction; and what with her insistently obtruded as a bonus I never was permitted to lose sight of the ghastly prize of skill added to merit.
At first the matter had disturbed and horrified me mightily, to the extent that I anticipated evading the issue while preparing against it. Surely this was the current of a prankish dream. And dreams I had—frightfully tumultuous dreams, of red anger and redder blood, sometimes my own blood, sometimes another’s; dreams from which I awakened drenched in cold nightmare sweat.
To be infused, even by bunkum and banter, with the idea of killing, is a sad overthrow of sane balance. I would not have conceived the thing possible to me a month back. But the monotonous desert trail, the close companying with virile, open minds, and the227strict insistence upon individual rights—yes, and the irritation of the same faces, the same figures, the same fare, the same labor, the same scant recreations, all worked as poison, to depress and fret and stimulate like alternant chills and fever.
Practice I did, if only in friendly emulation of the others, as a pass-the-time. I improved a little in drawing easily and firing snap-shot. The art was good to know, bad to depend upon. In the beginnings it worried me as a sleight-of-hand, until I saw that it was the established code and that Daniel himself looked to no other.
In fact, he pricked me on, not so much by word as by manner, which was worse. Since that evening when, in the approving parlance of my friends, I had “cut him out” by walking with her to the Adams fire, we had exchanged scarcely a word; he ruffled about at his end of the train and mainly in his own precincts, and I held myself in leash at mine, with self-consciousness most annoying to me.
But his manner, his manner—by swagger and covert sneer and ostentatious triumph of alleged possession emanating an unwearied challenge to my manhood. My revolver practice, I might mark, moved him to shrugs and flings; when he hulked by me he did so with a stare and a boastful grin, but without other response to my attempted “Howdy?”; now and again he assiduously cleaned his gun, sitting out where I should see even if I did not straightway look; in this228he was most faithful, with sundry flourishes babying me by thinking to intimidate.
Withal he gave me never excuse of ending him or placating him, but shifted upon me the burden of choosing time and spot.
Once, indeed, we near had it. That was on an early morning. He was driving in a yoke of oxen that had strayed, and he stopped short in passing where I was busied with gathering our mules.
“Say, Mister, I want a word with yu,” he demanded.
“Well, out with it,” I bade; and my heart began to thump. Possibly I paled, I know that I blinked, the sun being in my eyes.
He laughed, and spat over his shoulder, from the saddle.
“Needn’t be skeered. I ain’t goin’ to hurt ye. I ’laow yu expected to make up to that woman, didn’t yu, ’fore this?”
“What woman?” I encouraged; but I was wondering if my revolver was loose.
“Edna. ’Cause if yu did, ’tain’t no use, Mister. Why,” indulgently, “yu couldn’t marry her—yu couldn’t marry her no more’n yu could kill me. Yu’re a Gentile, an’ yu’d be bustin’ yore own laws. But thar ain’t no Gentile laws for the Lord’s an’inted; so I thought I’d tell yu I’m liable to marry her myself. Yu’ve kep’ away from her consider’ble; this is to tell yu yu mought as well keep keepin’ away.”229
“I sha’n’t discuss Mrs. Montoyo with you, sir,” I broke, cold, instead of hot, watching him very narrowly (as I had been taught to do), my hand nerved for the inevitable dart. “But I am her friend—her friend, mind you; and if she is in danger of being imposed upon by you, I stand ready to protect her. For I want you to know that I’m not afraid of you, day or night. Why, you low dog——!” and I choked, itching for the crisis.
He gawked, reddening; his right hand quivered; and to my chagrin he slowly laughed, scanning me.
“I seen yu practicin’. Go ahead. I wouldn’t kill yunaow. Or if yu want practice in ’arnest, start to draw.” He waited a moment, in easy insolence. I did not draw. “Let yore dander cool. Thar’s no use yu tryin’ to buck the Mormons. I’ve warned ye.” And he passed on, cracking his lash.
Suddenly I was aware that, as seemed, every eye in the camp had been fastened upon us two. My fingers shook while with show of nonchalance I resumed adjusting the halters.
“Gosh! Looked for a minute like you and him was to have it out proper,” Jenks commented, matter of fact, when I came in. “Hazin’ you a bit, was he? What’d he say?”
“He warned me to keep away from Mrs. Montoyo. Went so far as to lay claim to her himself, the whelp. Boasted of it.”230
“Throwed it in your face, did he? Wall, you goin’ to let him cache her away?”
“Look here,” I said desperately, still a-tremble: “Why do you men put that up to me? Why do you egg me on to interfere? She’s no more to me than she is to you. Damn it, I’ll take care of myself but I don’t see why I should shoulder her, except that she’s a woman and I won’t see any woman mistreated.”
He pulled his whiskers, and grinned.
“Dunno jest how fur you’re elected. Looks like there was something between you and her—though I don’t say for shore. But she’s your kind; she may be a leetle devil, but she’s your kind—been eddicated and acts the lady. She ain’t our kind. Thunderation! What’d we do with her? She’d be better off marryin’ Dan’l. He’d give her a home. If you hadn’t been with this train I don’t believe she’d have follered in. That’s the proposition. You got to fight him anyway; he’s set out to back you down. It’s your fracas, isn’t it?”
“I know it,” I admitted. “He’s been ugly toward me from the first, without reason.”
“Reckoned to amuse himself. He’s one o’ them fellers that think to show off by ridin’ somebody they think they can ride. The boys hate to see you lay down to that; for you’d better call him and eat lead or else quit the country. So you might as well give him a full dose and take the pot.”231
“What pot?”
“The woman, o’ course.”
“I tell you, Mrs. Montoyo has nothing to do with it, any more than any woman. It’s a matter between him and me—he began it by jeering at me before she appeared. I want her left out of it.”
“Oh, pshaw!” Jenks scoffed. “That can’t be did. He’s fetched her into it. What do you aim to do, then? Dodge her? When you’re dodgin’ her you’re dodgin’ him, or so he’ll take it.”
“I’ll not dodge him, you can bet on that,” I vowed. “I don’t seek her, nor him; but I shall not go out of my way to avoid either of them.”
“And when you give him his dose, what’ll you do?”
“If that is forced upon me, nothing. It will be in defense of my rights, won’t it? But I don’t want any further trouble with him. I hope to God I won’t have.”
“Shore,” Jenks soothed. “You’re not a killer. All the same, you’re elected; he began it and you’ll have to finish it. Then you’ll needs look out for yourself and her too, for he’s made her the stakes.”
“Why will I?”
“Got to. The hull train thinks so, one way or t’other, and you’re white.”
“She can stay with the Mormons, if she wants to.”
“Oh, yes; if she wants to. But do you reckon she232does? Not much! She’s lookin’ to you—she’s lookin’ to you. She’s a smart leetle piece—knows how to play her cards, and she’s got you and Dan’l goin’.”
“But she’s married. You can’t expect——”
“Oh, yes,” he wagged again, interrupting. “Shore. There’s Montoyo. I don’t envy you your job, but damn’ if you mightn’t work harder and do wuss. She’s a clipper, and I never did hear anything ’specially bad of her, beyond cappin’. Whoa, Jinny!”
I wrathfully cogitated. Now I began to hate her. I was a tool to her hand, once more, was I? And how had it come about? She had not directly besought me to it—not by word. Daniel had decreed, and already our antagonism had been on. And I had defied him—naturally. He should not bilk me of free movement. But the issue might, on the face of it, appear to be she. As I tugged at the harness, under breath I cursed the scurvy turn of events; and in seeking to place the blame found amazing cleverness in her. Just the same, I was not going to kill him for her account; never, never! And I wished to the deuce that she’d kept clear of me.
Jenks was speaking.
“So the fust chance you get you might as well walk straight into him, call him all the names you can lay tongue to, and when he makes a move for his gun beat him to the draw and come up shootin’. Then233it’ll be over with. The longer it hangs, the less peace you’ll have; for you’ve got to do it sooner or later. It’s you or him.”
“Not necessarily,” I faltered. “There may be another way.”
“There ain’t, if you’re a he critter on two legs,” snapped Jenks. “Not in this country or any other white man’s country; no, nor in red man’s country neither. What you do back in the States, can’t say. Trust in pray’r, mebbe.”
Nevertheless I determined to make a last effort even at the risk of losing caste. In the reaction from the pressure of that recent encounter when I might have killed, but didn’t, I again had a spell of fierce, sick protest against the rôle being foisted upon me—foisted, I could see, by her machinations as well as by his animosity. The position was too false to be borne. There was no joy in it, no zest, no adequate reward. Why, in God’s name, should I be sentenced to have blood upon my hands and soul? Surely I might be permitted to stay clean.
Therefore this evening immediately after corral was formed I sought out Captain Adams, as master of the train; and disregarding the gazes that followed me and that received me I spoke frankly, here at his own wagon, without preliminary.
“Daniel and I appear to be at outs, sir,” I said. “Why, I do not know, except that he seems to have had a dislike for me from the first day. If he’ll let234me alone I’ll let him alone. I’m not one to look for trouble.”
His heavy face, with those thick pursed lips and small china blue eyes, changed not a jot.
“Daniel will take care of himself.”
“That is his privilege,” I answered. “I am not here to question his rights, Captain, as long as he keeps within them; but I don’t require of him to take care of me also. If he will hold to his own trail I’ll hold to mine, and I assure you there’ll be no trouble.”
“Daniel will take care of himself, I say,” he reiterated. “Yes, and look after all that belongs to him, stranger. There’s no use threatening Daniel. What he does he does as servant of the Lord and he fears naught.”
“Neither do I, sir,” I retorted hotly. “One may wish to avoid trouble and still not fear it. I have not come to you with complaint. I merely wish to explain. You are captain of the train and responsible for its conduct. I give you notice that I shall defend myself against insult and annoyance.”
I turned on my heel—sensed poised forms and inquiring faces; and his booming voice stayed me.
“A moment, stranger. Your talk is big. What have you to do with this woman Edna?”
“With Mrs. Montoyo? What I please, if it pleases her, sir. If she claims your protection, very good. Should she claim mine, she’ll have it.” And there, confound it, I had spoken. “But with this, Daniel235has nothing to do. I believe that the lady you mention is simply your present guest and my former acquaintance.”
“You err,” he thundered, darkening. “You cannot be expected to see the light. But I say to you, keep away, keep away. I will have no gallivanting, no cozening and smiling and prating and distracting. She must be nothing to you. Never can be, never shall be. Her way is appointed, the instrument chosen, and as a sister in Zion she shall know you not. Now get you gone——” a favorite expression of his. “Get you gone, meddle not hereabouts, and I’ll see to it that you are spared from harm.”
Surprising myself, and perhaps him, I gazed full at him and laughed without reserve or irritation.
“Thank you, Captain,” I heard myself saying. “I am perfectly capable of self-protection. And I expect to remain a friend of Mrs. Montoyo as long as she permits me. For your bluster and Daniel’s I care not a sou. In fact, I consider you a pair of damned body-snatchers. Good-evening.”
Then out I stormed, boiling within, reckless of opposition—even courting it; but met none, Daniel least of all (for he was elsewhere), until as I passed on along the lined-up wagons I heard my name uttered breathlessly.
“Mr. Beeson.”
It was not My Lady; her I had not glimpsed. The gentle English girl Rachael had intercepted me. She236stood between two wagons, whither she had hastened.
“You will be careful?”
“How far, madam?”
“Of yourself, and for her. Oh, be careful. You can gain nothing.”
Her face and tone entreated me. She was much in earnest, the roses of her round cheeks paled, her hands clasped.
“I shall only look out for myself,” said I. “That seems necessary.”
“You should keep away from our camp, and from Daniel. There is nothing you can do. You—if you could only understand.” Her hands tightened upon each other. “Won’t you be careful? More careful? For I know. You cannot interfere; there is no way. You but run great risk. Sister Edna will be happy.”
“Did she send you, madam?” I asked.
“N-no; yes. Yes, she wishes it. Her place has been found. The Lord so wills. We all are happy in Zion, under the Lord. Surely you would not try to interfere, sir?”
“I have no desire to interfere with the future happiness of Mrs. Montoyo,” I stiffly answered. “She is not the root of the business between Daniel and me, although he would have it appear so. And you yourself, a woman, are satisfied to have her forced into Mormonism?”
“She has been living in sin, sir. The truth is appointed237only among the Latter Day Saints. We have the book and the word—the Gentile priests are not ordained of the Lord for laying on of hands. In Zion Edna shall be purged and set free; there she shall be brought to salvation. Our bishops, perhaps Brigham Young himself, will show her the way. But no woman in Zion is married without consent. The Lord directs through our prophets. Oh, sir, if you could only see!”
An angel could not have pleaded more sweetly. To have argued with her would have been sacrilege, for I verily believed that she was pure of heart.
“There is nothing for me to say, madam,” I responded. “As far as I can do so with self-respect I will avoid Daniel. I certainly shall not intrude upon your party, or bother Mrs. Montoyo. But if Daniel brings trouble to me I will hand it back to him. That’s flat. He shall not flout me out of face. It rests with him whether we travel on peacefully or not. And I thank you for your interest.”
“I will pray for you,” she said simply. “Good-bye, sir.”
She withdrew, hastening again, sleek haired, round figured, modest in her shabby gown. I proceeded to the outfit with a new sense of disease. If she—if Mrs. Montoyo really had yielded, if she were out of the game—but she never had been in it; not to me. And still I conned the matter over and over, vainly convincing myself that the situation had cleared.238Notwithstanding all my effort, I somehow felt that an incentive had vanished, leaving a gap. The affair now had simmered down to plain temper and tit for tat. I championed nothing, except myself.
Why, with her submissive, in a fracas I might be working hurt to her, beyond the harm to him. But she be hanged, as to that phase of it. I had been led on so far that there was no solution save as Daniel turned aside. Heaven knows that the matter would have been sordid enough had it focused upon a gambler’s wife; and here it looked only prosaic. Thus viewing it I fought an odd disappointment in myself, coupled with a keener disappointment in her.
“You talked to Hyrum, I see,” Jenks commented.
“I did.”
“’Bout Dan’l, mebbe?”
“I wanted to make plain that the business is none of my seeking. Hyrum is wagon master.”
“Didn’t get any satisfaction, I’ll bet.”
“No. On the contrary.”
“I could have told you you’d be wastin’ powder.”
“At any rate,” I informed, “Mrs. Montoyo is entirely out of the matter. She never was in it except as she was entitled to protection, but now she requires no further notice.”
“How so?”
“That is her wish. She sent me word by Rachael.”
“She did? Wall?” He eyed me. “You swaller that?”239
“Willingly.” And I swallowed my bitterness also.
“Means to marry him, does she?”
“Rachael did not say as to that. Rather, she gave me to understand that a way would be found to release Mrs. Montoyo from Benton connections, but that no woman in Utah is obliged to marry. Is that true?”
“Um-m.” Jenks rubbed his beard. “Wall, they do say Brigham Young is ag’in promisc’yus swappin’, and things got to be done straight, ’cordin’ to the faith. But an unjined female in the church is a powerful lonely critter. Sticks out like a sore thumb. They read the Bible at her plenty. Um-m,” mused he. “I don’t put much stock in that yarn you bring me. There’s a nigger in the wood-pile, but he ain’t black. What you goin’ to do about it?”
“Nothing. It’s not my concern. Now if Daniel will mind his affairs I’ll continue to mind mine.”
“Wall, Zion’s a long way off yet,” quoth friend Jenks. “I don’t look to see you or she get there—nor Dan’l either.”
He being stubborn, I let him have the last word; did not seek to develop his views. But his contentious harping shadowed like an omen.