CHAPTER XXI
SEVEN LEAN KINE
"And you looked good, all up above here?" Billy Louise held Bluefirmly to a curved-neck, circling stand, while she had a last word withJohn before she went off on one of her long rides.
"All up in the hills, and round over by Cedar Creek, and all over."John's mittened gesture was even more sweeping than his statement. "Iguess mebby them rustlers git 'em."
"Well, I'm going up to the Cove. I may not be back before dark, sodon't worry if I'm late. Maybe I'll look along the river. I know oneplace where I believe cattle can get down to the bottom, if they'recrazy enough to try it. You didn't look there, did you?"
"No, I never looked down there. I know they can't git down nohow."
"Well, all right; maybe they can't." Billy Louise slackened the reins,and Blue went off with short, stiff-legged jumps. It had been a longtime since he had felt the weight of his lady, and his mood now wasexuberant, especially so, since the morning was clear, with a nip offrost to tingle the skin and the glow of the sun to promise falsely thenearness of spring. The hill trail steadied him a little, though hewent up the steepest pitch with rabbit-jumps and teetered on his toesthe rest of the way.
Billy Louise laughed a little, leaned, and grabbed a handful of slateymane. "Oh, you Blue-dog!" she said, for that was his full name. "Lifeis livable, after all, as long as a fellow has got you and can ride.You good-for-nothing old ten-dollar hoss! I--wonder would it be wickedto sing? What do you think, Blue? You'd sing, I know, at the top ofyour voice, if you could. Say, Blue! Don't you wish, you were adonkey, so you could stick out your neck and go _Yee-ee_-haw!_Yee-ee_--haw? Try it once. I believe you could. It's that or a run,one or the other. You'll bust, if you don't do something. I know you!"
At last on the high level, seeing Blue could not bray his joy to theworld, Billy Louise let him go. She needed some outlet, herself, afterthose horrible, dull weeks weighted with tragedy. She had been raisedon horseback, almost; and for two terrible months she had not been inthe saddle. And there is nothing like the air of the Idaho hills tostir one's blood and send it singing.
Through the sagebrush and rocks, weaving in and out, slacking speed alittle while he went down into deep gullies, thundering up the otherside, and racing away over the level again, went Blue. And with him,laughing, tingling with new life, growing pinker-cheeked every minute,went Billy Louise. Her mother's death did not oppress her then. Shethought of her as she raced, but she thought of her with a little,tender smile. Her mother was resting peacefully, and there was no morepain or worry for the little, pale, frail woman who had lived her lifeand gone her way.
"Dear old mommie!" said Billy Louise under her breath. "Your kid isalmost as happy as you are, right now. Don't be shocked, there's adear, or think I'm going to break my neck. Blue and I have just simplygot to work off steam. You, Blue!" She leaned another inch forward.
Blue threw up his head, lifted his heels, and ran like a scaredjackrabbit over the uneven ground. They were not keeping to the trailat all; trails were too tame for them in that mood. They ran along therim-rock at the last, where Billy Louise could glance down, now andthen, at the river sliding like a bright-blue ribbon with icy edgesthrough the gray, snow-spotted hills.
"Hold on, Blue!" Billy Louise pulled up on the reins. "Quit it, youold devil! A mile ought to be enough for once, I should think.There's cattle down there in that bottom, sure as you live. And we, mydear sir, are going down there and take a look at them." She managedto pull Blue down to stiff-legged jumps and then to a walk. Finallyshe stopped him, so that she could the better take in her surroundingsand the possibilities of getting down.
In the country it is as in the cities. One forms habits of journeying.One becomes perfectly familiar with every hill and every little hollowin certain directions, while some other, closer part remainspractically unexplored. Billy Louise had always loved the Wolverinecanyon, and its brother, Jones canyon, which branched off from thefirst. As a child she had explored every foot of both, and had riddenthe hills beyond. As a young woman she had kept to the old playground.Her cattle ranged at the head of the canyons.
The river bottoms came as near being unknown territory as she couldhave found within forty miles of her home. For one thing, the riverbottom was narrow, except where was the Cove, and pinched in placestill there seemed no way of passing from one to another. Littlepockets there were, tucked away under the rocky bluff with its collarof "rim-rock" above. One might climb down afoot, but Billy Louise wastrue to her range breeding; she never went anywhere afoot if she couldpossibly get there on a horse. And down there by the river she neverhad happened to find it necessary to go, either afoot or a-horseback.Still, if cattle could get down there--
"I guess we'll have to ride back a way," she said, after a briefinspection, during which Blue stood so close to the rim that BillyLouise must have had a clear head to feel no tremor of nerves ordizziness.
She turned and rode slowly back along the edge, looking for the placewhere she believed cattle could get down if they were crazy enough totry.
"Don't look very encouraging, does it, Blue?" Billy Louise stareddoubtfully at the place, leaning and peering over the rim. "What d'yethink? Reckon we can make it?"
Blue had caught sight of the moving specks far down next the river andup the stream half a mile or more. He was a cow-horse to the bone. Heknew those far-off specks for cattle, and he knew that his lady wouldlike a closer look at them. That's what cattle were made for: to hazeout of brush and rocks and gullies and drive somewhere. So far as Blueknew, cattle were a game. You hunted them out of ungodly places, andthe game was to make them go somewhere else against their wishes. Heprided himself on being able to play that game, no matter what were theodds against him.
Now he tilted his head a little and looked down at the bluff beneathhim. The game was beginning. He must get down that bluff and overtakethose specks and drive them somewhere. He glanced up and down thebluff to see if a better trail offered. Billy Louise laughedunderstandingly.
"It's this or nothing, Blue. Looks pretty fierce, all right, doesn'tit? Of course, if you're going to make a perfect lady get off andwalk--"
Blue snuffed at the ledge with his neck craned. The rim-rock hadcrumbled and sunk low into the bluff, like a too rich pie-crust whenthe oven is not quite hot enough. From a ten- or fifteen-foot wall itshrunk here to a three-foot ledge. And below the rocks and bowlderswere not actually piled on top of one another; there were clear spaceswhere a wary, wise, old cow-horse might possibly pick his way.
Blue chose his trail and crumpled at the knees with his hoofs on thevery edge of the ledge; went down with a cat-jump and landed with allfour feet planted close together. He had no mind to go on sliding inspite of himself, and the bluff was certainly steep enough to excuse abungle.
"So far so good." Billy Louise glanced ruefully back at the ledge."We're down; but how the deuce do you reckon we'll get up again?"
Blue was not worrying about that part. He went on, picking his waycarefully among the bowlders, with his nose close to earth, setting hishindlegs stiffly and tobogganing down loose, shale slopes. BillyLouise sat easily in the saddle and enjoyed it all. She was making upin big doses for the drab dullness of those hospital weeks. She oughtto walk down the bluff, for this was dangerous play; but she craveddanger as an antidote to that shut-in life of petty rules andregulations.
It was with a distinct air of triumph that Blue reached the bottom,even though he slid the last forty feet on his haunches and landedbelly-deep in a soft snow-bank. It was with triumph to match his perkyears that Billy Louise leaned and slapped him on the neck. "We madeit!" she cried, "and I didn't have to walk a step, did I, Blue? You'rethere with the goods, all right!"
Blue scrambled out of the bank to firm footing on the ripened grass ofthe bottom, and with a toss of his head set off in a swinging lope,swerving now and then to avoid a badger hole or a half-sunken rock.They had
done something new, those two; they had reached a place whereneither had ever been before, and Blue acted as if he knew it andgloried in the escapade quite as much as did his lady.
The cattle spied them and went trotting away up the river, and Bluequickened his stride a little and followed after. Billy Louise leftthe reins loose upon his neck. Blue could handle cattle alone quite asskillfully as with a rider, if he chose.
The cattle dodged into a fringe of bushes close to the river anddisappeared, which was queer, since the bluff curved in close to thebank at that point. Blue pricked up his ears and went clatteringafter, slowed a little at the willow-fringe, stuck his nose straightout before him, and went in confidently. The cattle were just ahead.He could smell them, and his listening ears caught their heavybreathing. It was very rocky there in the willows, and he must pickhis way with much care. But when he crashed through on the far side,and Billy Louise straightened from leaning low along his neck to avoidthe stinging branches, the cattle gave a snort and went lumbering away,still following the river.
This was another small, grassy bottom. Blue went galloping after them,indignant that they should even attempt to elude him. They were makingfor the head of that pocket, and Billy Louise twitched the reinssuggestively. Blue obeyed the hint, which proved that the human brainis greater in strategy than is brute instinct, and raced in an anglefrom the fleeing cattle. Billy Louise leaned and called to him sharplyfor more speed; called for it and got it. They jumped a washout thatthe cattle went into and out of with great lunges, farther down towardits mouth. They gained a little there, and by a burst of hard runningthey gained more on the level beyond.
The cattle began to swerve away from them, closer to the river. Bluepulled ahead a little, swerving also, and as Billy Louise tightened thereins, he slowed and circled them craftily until they huddled on thesteep bank, uncertain which way to go. Billy Louise pulled Blue downto a walk as she drew near and eyed the cattle sharply. They did notlook like any of hers, after all. There were five dry cows and twosteers.
One of the steers stood broadside to Billy Louise. The brand staredout from his dingy red side, the most conspicuous thing about him.Billy Louise caught her breath. There was no faintest line that failedto drive its message into her range-trained brain. She stared andstared. Blue looked around at her inquiringly, reproachfully. BillyLouise sent him slowly forward and stirred up the huddled little bunch.She read the brand on each one; read the story they shouted at her, ofbungling theft. She could not believe it. Yet she did believe it, andshe went hot with anger and disappointment and contempt. She sat andthought for a minute or two, scowling at the cattle, while she decidedwhat to do.
Finally she swung Blue on the down-stream side and shouted the rangecattle-cry. The animals turned awkwardly and went upstream, as theyhad been going before Billy Louise stopped them. Blue followedwatchfully after, content with the game he was playing. Where thebluffs drew close again to the river, the cattle climbed to a narrow,shelving trail through the rocks and went on in single file, pickingtheir way carefully along the bluff. Below them it fell sheer to theriver; above them it rose steeply, a blackened jumble, save where thesnow of the last storm lay drifted.
Billy Louise had never known there was a trail up this gorge. She eyedit critically and saw where bowlders had been moved here and there tomake its passage possible. Her lips were set close together and theystill bore the imprint of her contempt.
She thought of Ward. Mentally she abased herself before him because ofher doubts. How had she dared think him a thief? Her brave buckaroo!And she had dared think he would steal cattle! Her very remorse was awhip to lash her anger against the guilty. She hurried the cattlealong the dangerous trail, impatient of their cautious pace.
When finally they clattered down to the level again, it was to plungeinto willow thickets whose branches reached out to sweep her from thesaddle. Blue went carefully, stopping now and then at a word from hislady, to wait while she put a larger, more stubborn branch out of herway. She could not see just where she was going, but she knew that shewas close upon the cattle, and that they seemed familiar with thetrail. Now and then she caught sight of a rough-haired rump andswitching tail in the thicket before her. Then the whip-like brancheswould swing close, and she could see nothing but their gray tanglereaching high above her head. She could hear the crackling progress ofthe cattle close ahead, and the gurgling clamor of the river fartheraway to her right. But she could not see the bluff for theclose-standing willows, and she did not know whether it was near or farto its encircling wall.
Then, just as she was beginning to think the willows would never end,she came quite suddenly out into the open, and Blue lifted himself andjumped a dry ditch. The cattle were before her, shambling along thefenced border of a meadow.