CHAPTER XIII
BEAR CAT ASKS QUESTIONS
A man bow-legged into Gillespie's and went straight to the bar. "Gimme adrink--something damned hot," he growled.
He was a big, broad-shouldered fellow, hook-nosed, with cold eyes setclose. Hair and eyebrows were matted with ice and a coat of sleet coveredhis clothes. Judging from voice and manner, he was in a vile humor.
A young fellow standing near was leaning with his back against the bar,elbows resting on it. One heel was hooked casually over the rail.
"Anything been seen of a strange girl in town to-night?" the newcomerasked. "She ain't right in her head an' I was takin' her to her dad'splace when she slipped away. I'm worried about her, out in this storm."
The cowpuncher looked at him coldly, eye to eye. "I'd say you got alicense to be. If she's lost out to-night she's liable to be frozen todeath before mo'ning."
"Yes," agreed Houck, and his lids narrowed. What did this young fellowmean? There was something about his manner both strange and challenging.If he was looking for a fight, Houck knew just where he could beaccommodated.
"In which case--"
The puncher stopped significantly.
"In which case--?" Houck prompted.
"--it might be unlucky for the guy that took her out an' lost her."
"What's yore name, fellow?" Jake demanded.
"Fellow, my name's Dud Hollister," promptly answered the other. "D'youlike it?"
"Not much. Neither it nor you."
Houck turned insolently back to the bar for his drink.
Mike was stirring into the glass of liquor cayenne pepper which he wasshaking from a paper. He was using as a mixer the barrel of aforty-five.
The salient jaw of Houck jutted out. "What monkey trick are you tryin' toplay on me?" he asked angrily.
"You wanted it hot," Mike replied, and the bartender's gaze too was coldand level.
It seemed to the former rustler that here was a second man ready tofasten a quarrel on him. What was the matter with these fellows anyhow?
Another puncher ranged himself beside Hollister. "Who did this bird claimhe was, Dud?" he asked out loud, offensively.
"Didn't say. Took that li'l' bride out in this storm an' left her there.Expect he'll be right popular in Bear Cat."
Houck smothered his rage. This was too serious to be settled by anexplosion of anger and an appeal to arms.
"I tell you she hid whilst I was openin' a gate. I been lookin' for hersix hours. Thought maybe she'd come to town. My idee is to organize asearch party an' go out after her. Quick as we can slap saddles on broncsan' hit the trail."
Fragments of the facts had drifted out to the boys from the sick-room.
Dud tried an experiment. "Where'll we hunt for her--up toward Piceance?"
Houck deliberated before answering. If he were to tell the truth--thatshe had escaped from him in the hills nine miles down the river--thesemen would know he had been lying when he said he was taking June to herfather. If he let the search party head toward Piceance, there would beno chance for it to save the girl. The man was no coward. To his credit,he told the truth.
A half-circle of hostile faces hemmed him in, for the word had spreadthat this was the man who had carried off June Tolliver. He was the focusof a dozen pairs of eyes. Among the cattlemen of the Old West you willstill look into many such eyes, but never among city dwellers will youfind them. Blue they are for the most part or gray-blue, level, direct,unfearing; quiet and steady as steel, flinging no flags of flurry,tremendously sure of themselves. They can be very likable eyes, frank andkind, with innumerable little lines of humor radiating from the corners;or they can be stern and chill as the Day of Judgment.
Jake Houck found in them no gentleness. They judged him, inexorably,while he explained.
"Where was you takin' her?" asked Larson, of the Wagon Rod outfit.
In spite of his boldness, of the dominating imperiousness by means ofwhich he had been used to ride roughshod over lesser men, Houck felt achill sensation at his heart. They were too quiet--too quiet by half.
"We was to have been married to-day," he said surlily. "This Dillon boygot her to run off with him. He was no good. I rode hell-for-leather intotown to head 'em off."
Blister brought him back to the question of the moment. "An' you weret-takin' her--?"
"To Brown's Park."
"Forcin' her to go. Was that it?" Hollister broke in.
"No, sir. She went of her own accord."
"Asked you to take her there, mebbe?"
"None o' yore damn business."
"How old is she, Mr. Houck?" Larson questioned.
"I dunno."
"I do. Sixteen coming Christmas," said Dud. "Dillon told me."
"An' how old are you, Mr. Houck?" the quiet, even voice of the owner ofthe Wagon Rod pursued.
"I d'no as that's got anything to do with it, but I'm forty-three," Jakeretorted defiantly.
"You meant to live with her?"
"I meant to treat her right," was the sullen reply.
"But livin' with her, an' her another man's wife."
"No, sir. That fake marriage with Dillon don't go. She was promised tome." He broke out suddenly in anger: "What's eatin' you all? Why don'tyou go out an' help me find the girl? These whatfors an' whyfors canwait, I reckon."
Blister dropped a bomb. "She's found."
"Found!" Houck stared at the fat man. "Who found her? Where? When?"
"Coupla hours ago. Here in this r-room. Kinda funny how she'd swim theriver a night like this an' walk eight-ten miles barefoot in the snow,all to get away from you, an' her goin' with you of her own accord."
"It wasn't eight miles--more like six."
"Call it six, then. Fact is, Mr. Houck, she was mighty scared of you--ina panic of terror, I'd say."
"She had no call to be," the Brown's Park settler replied, his voiceheavy with repressed rage. "I'm tellin' you she wasn't right in herhead."
"An' you was takin' advantage of that to make this li'l' girl yore--toruin her life for her," Hollister flung back.
In all his wild and turbulent lifetime Jake Houck had never before beenbrought to task like this. He resented the words, the manner, the quietinsistence of these range men. An unease that was not quite fear, but wasvery close to it, had made him hold his temper in leash. Now the savagein him broke through.
"You're a bunch of fool meddlers, an' I'm through explainin'. You can goto hell 'n' back for me," he cried, and followed with a string ofcrackling oaths.
The eyes of the punchers and cattlemen met one another. No word wasspoken, but the same message passed back and forth a score of times.
"I expect you don't quite understand where you're at, Mr. Houck," Larsonsaid evenly. "This is mighty serious business for you. We aim to give youa chance to tell yore story complete before we take action."
"Action?" repeated Houck, startled.
"You're up against it for fair," Reeves told him. "If you figure ongettin' away with a thing like that in a white man's country you've suregot another guess comin'. I don't know where you're from or who you are,but I know where you're going."
"D-don't push on the reins, Tom," the justice said. "We aim to bereasonable about this, I reckon."
"Sure we do." Dud countered with one of Blister's own homely apothegms."What's the use of chewin' tobacco if you spit out the juice? Go through,I say. There's a cottonwood back of the kitchen."
"You're fixin' for to hang me?" Houck asked, his throat and palate gonesuddenly dry.
"You done guessed it first crack," Tom nodded.
"Not yet, boys," protested Haines in his whispering falsetto. "I reckonwe'd ought to wait an' see how the girl comes out."
"Why had we?" demanded a squat puncher from the Keystone. "Whatdifference does it make? If ever any one needed stringin' up, it's theguy here. He's worse than Douglas or any other Injun ever was. Is it yorenotion we'd oughta sit around with our hands in our pockets, Blister,while reptiles like this Ho
uck make our girls swim the river at night an'plough barefoot through snowstorms? I ain't that easy-dispositionedmyself."
"Shorty's sure whistlin'. Same here," another chap-clad rider chippedin.
"An' here."
Blister dropped into the background inconspicuously and vanished. Heappeared to be in a minority of one, not counting Houck, and he neededreenforcements.
"We'll hear what Mr. Houck has to say before we pass judgment," Larsonsaid.
But Houck, looking into the circle of grim faces that surrounded him,knew that he was condemned. Nothing that he could say would make anydifference. He shrugged his heavy shoulders.
"What's the use? You've done made up yore minds."
He noticed that the younger fellows were pressing closer to him. Prettysoon they would disarm him. If he was going to make a fight for his life,it had to be now. His arm dropped to his side, close to the butt of therevolver he carried.
He was too late. Hollister jumped for his wrist and at the same time Mikeflung himself across the bar and garroted him. He struggled fiercely tofree himself, but was dragged down to the floor and pinioned. Before hewas lifted up his hands were tied behind him.
Unobserved, the front door of the barroom had opened. An ice-coatedfigure was standing on the threshold.
Houck laughed harshly. "Come right in, Tolliver. You'll be in time totake a hand in the show."
The little trapper's haggard eyes went round in perplexity. "What's thetrouble?" he asked mildly.
"No trouble a-tall," answered the big prisoner hardily. "The boys arehangin' me. That's all."