CHAPTER XXVI
"HM-MM!"
Floyd Carson was a somewhat phlegmatic young man, but he swore anastonished oath when he saw Billy Louise galloping along the lane thatled nowhere except to the womanless abode of Samuel Seabeck. He walkedvery fast to the stable, which was the first logical stopping-place,and so he met Billy Louise before she had time to dismount, evensupposing she intended to do so.
"Hello, Floyd! Is Mr. Seabeck at home?" Billy Louise was not one towaste time in the superfluities of speech when she had anything on hermind.
"Sure. Get off, and I'll put up your horse. We're just througheatin', but our grub carpenter will rustle something for yuh, allright."
"No, I can't stop this time. I'm not hungry, anyway. Just give a yellfor Mr. Seabeck, will you? I want to see him a minute."
Floyd eyed her uncertainly, decided that Billy Louise was not in themood to yield to persuasion, and tactfully hurried off to find Seabeckwithout shouting for him--lest he bring others also, who were evidentlynot wanted at all. He took it that Billy Louise felt some diffidenceabout visiting a strictly bachelor outfit, and he set himself torelieve her of any embarrassment.
Presently Seabeck himself came from the dirt-roofed, rambling cabinwhich was his home and strode down the path, buttoning his coat as hecame. Floyd's face showed for a minute in the doorway before heeffaced himself completely, and not another man was in sight anywhere.Billy Louise was grateful to circumstance; she had dreaded this visit,though not for the reason Floyd Carson believed.
"How de do, Miss MacDonald? Pretty nice day, but I'm afraid it's aweather-breeder. The wind's trying to change, I notice."
"Yes, and so I mustn't stop. Could you ride part way home with me, Mr.Seabeck? I--want to talk with you about something. And I can't stop aminute. I must get home."
"Why, certainly, I'll go. If you'll wait just a minute while I saddleup--or if you'd rather ride on, I'll overtake you."
"I'll ride on, I think. Blue hates standing around, and he's a littlewarm, too. You're awfully good, Mr. Seabeck--"
"Oh, not at all!" Seabeck stubbed his toe on the stable doorsill inhis confusion at the praise. "I'll be right along, soon as I can slapa saddle on." He disappeared, and Billy Louise turned and loped slowlydown the lane.
So far, so good. Billy Louise tried to believe that it was all goingto be as plain sailing as this fortuitous beginning, but she was awareof a nervous fluttering in her throat while she waited, and she knewthat she positively dreaded hearing Seabeck gallop up behind her on thefrozen trail. "Why will people do things that make a lot of troublefor others?" she cried out petulantly. And then she heard the steady_pluck, pluckety-pluck_ of Seabeck's horse, and twisted her lips with awhimsical acceptance of the part she had set herself to play. Shemight smash things, she told herself, but at the worst it would be onlya premature smash. "Come, Bill," she adjured herself, pretending itwas what Ward would have said, had he looked into her mind. "Be aBill-the-Conk--and a good one! Shove in your chips and play for allthere is in it."
"You must have some lightning method of saddling, Mr. Seabeck," shesmiled over her shoulder at him when he came up.
"We learn to do things quick when we've handled cattle a few years," headmitted. He had a diffident manner of receiving compliments whichpleased Billy Louise and gave her confidence a needed brace. She wasnot a skilled coquette; she was too honest and too straightforward forthat. Still, nature places certain weapons in the hands of a woman,and instinct shows her how to use them. Seabeck, from his veryunaccustomedness to women, seemed to her particularly pliable. BillyLouise took her courage in both hands and went straight to the point.
"Mr. Seabeck, I've always heard that you're an awfully square man," shesaid. "Daddy seemed to think that you could be depended on in any kindof a pinch. I hope it's true. I'm banking a lot on your squarenessto-day."
"Why, I don't know about my being any better than my neighbors," hesaid, with a twinkle of humor in his eyes, which were a bright,unvarying blue. "But you can bank on my doing anything I can for you,Miss MacDonald. I think I could be even better than square--to help aplucky little girl who--"
"I don't mean just the ordinary squareness," Billy Louise put inquietly. "I mean bigness, too; a bigness that will make a man be morethan square; a bigness that will let him see all around a thing andjudge it from a bigger viewpoint than mere justice--"
"Hm-mm--if you could trust me enough to--"
"I'm going to, Mr. Seabeck. I'm going to take it for granted you'rebigger than your own squareness. And if you're not--if you're just aselfish, weak, letter-perfect, honest man, I'll--feel like--thrashingyou." Without a doubt that was the Billy of her which spoke.
"I'll take the thrashing if you think I need it," he promised, lookingat her with something more than admiration. "What have you done, MissMacDonald? If I can help you hide the body--"
"There!" Billy Louise dared to wrinkle her nose at him--and I don'tknow which of her did it. "I knew you'd play up like a good sport.But what if it isn't a body? What if--what if you found some of yourcattle with--with a big D--run over your brand?" She had a perfectlywhite line around her mouth and nostrils then, but she faced himsquarely.
"Hm-mm!" Seabeck gave her a quick, sidewise glance and pulledthoughtfully at the graying whiskers that pointed his chin. "I wouldhave been glad to lend you money, or help you in any way."
"Yes, I know." Billy Louise snapped her reins impatiently. "But whatwould you do about the--cattle?"
"What could I do? What would you want me to do? I should do whateverwould help you. I would--"
"Would you--be as ready to help somebody else? Somebody I--thoughta--lot--of?"
Seabeck, evidently, saw light. He cleared his throat and spat gravelyinto a bush. "I see you don't trust me, after all," he said.
"I do. I've got to; I mean, I'd have to whether I did or not. It'slike this, Mr. Seabeck. It isn't the big D brand; of course you knewit couldn't be. But it isn't yours, either. Someone was tempted andwas weak. They're sorry now. They want to do the right thing, and itrests with you whether they can do it. You can shut them up in jail ifyou like; you have a perfect right to do it. Some men would do thatand be able to sleep after it, I suppose. But I believe you're biggerthan that. I believe you're big enough to see that if a person goeswrong and then sees the mistake and wants to pull back into thestraight trail, a man--even the one who has been wronged--would becommitting a moral crime to prevent it. To take a person who wants tomake a fresh, honest start, and shut that person up amongst criminalsand brand him as a criminal, seems to me a worse wrong than to steal afew head of cattle; don't you think so, Mr. Seabeck?"
What Mr. Seabeck thought did not immediately appear in speech. He waspulling a little harder at his whiskers and staring at the ears of hishorse.
"That would depend on the person," he said at last. "Some men are borncriminals."
"Oh, we aren't talking about that kind of a man. Surely to goodnessyou don't call Charlie Fox a born criminal, or Marthy Meilke?"
"Charlie Fox! Is that the person you mean, who has been--"
"Yes, it is! And he is horribly sorry, and so is Marthy, and they'llpay you for the cattle. And if you do anything mean about it, it willsimply kill poor old Marthy. You couldn't send her to the pen, Mr.Seabeck. Think how she's worked there in the Cove; and Charlie hasworked like a perfect slave; and he was trying to get a start sohe--could--get married--"
"Hm-mm!" Rumors had reached Seabeck, thanks to Billy Louise's droppedlashes upon a certain occasion, which caused him to believe he sawfurther light.
"And if you're going to be horrid--"
"Will the--lady he wants to marry give him another chance?"
"Don't you think she ought to--if she l-loves him?" Billy Louisestudied the skyline upon the side farthest from Seabeck.
"You say he wants to pay for the cattle and--"
"He'll do anything he can to make amends," s
aid Billy Louise, withconviction. "He'll take his medicine and go to jail if you insist,"she added sorrowfully. "It will ruin his whole life, of course, andbreak a couple of women's hearts, but--"
"It's a bad thing, a mighty bad thing, when a man tries to get aheadtoo fast."
"It's a good thing when he learns the lesson without having to pay forit with his whole future," Billy Louise amended the statement.
Seabeck smiled a little behind his fingers that kept tugging at hiswhiskers.
"Did Charlie Fox send Miss Portia--"
"He doesn't know I had any intention of coming," Billy Louise assuredhim quickly and with perfect truth. "They'll both be awfully surprisedwhen they find it out"--which was also perfectly true--"and when theysee you ride up, they'll think you've got the sheriff at your back. Ihaven't a doubt they--"
"There are a few points I'd like to clear up, if you can help me,"Seabeck interrupted. "All this rustling that has been going on for thepast year and a half: are Fox and the Meilke woman mixed up in that? Iwant," he said, "to help the young man--and her. But if they have beenoperating on a large scale, I'm afraid--"
"I believe Charlie must have been influenced in some ways by badacquaintances," Billy Louise answered more steadily than she felt."But his--rustling--has been of a petty kind. I won't apologize forhim, Mr. Seabeck. I think it's perfectly awful, what he has done. ButI think it would be more awful still not to give him a chance. Theother rustling is some outside gang, I'm sure. If Charlie was mixed upwith them, it's very slightly--just enough to damn him utterly if hewere arrested and tried. He isn't a natural criminal. He's just weak.And he's learned his lesson. It's up to you, Mr. Seabeck, to saywhether he shall have a chance to profit by the lesson. And there'spoor old Marthy in it, too. She just worships Charlie and would doanything--even steal for him."
Seabeck meditated for a mile, and Billy Louise watched him uneasilyfrom the tail of her eye. To tell the plain truth, she was in a panicof fear at what she had done. It had looked so simple and sopracticable when she had planned it; and now when the words were outand the knowledge had reached Seabeck and was beyond her control, shecould not think of any good reason for telling him.
Last night, when she lay curled up by the stove under Ward's wolf-skincoat, this seemed the only possible way out: To tell Seabeck and trustto his kindness and generosity to refrain from pushing the case. Tohave Charlie Fox give back what he had stolen or pay for it--anythingthat would satisfy Seabeck's sense of justice--and let him starthonestly. She had thought that Seabeck would be merciful, if she toldhim in the right way; but now, when she stole a glance at his bent,brooding face, she was frightened. He did not look merciful, but sternand angry. She remembered then that stealing cattle is the one crime acattleman finds it hard to forgive.
Billy Louise might have spared herself some mental anguish if she couldhave known that Seabeck was brooding over the wonder of a woman's lovethat pardons and condones a man's sins. He was wishing that such alove as Billy Louise's had come to him, and he was wondering how a mancould be tempted to go wrong when such a girl loved him. He waslaboring under a misapprehension, of course. Billy Louise hadpermitted him to misunderstand her interest in the matter. If he hadknown that she was pleading solely for Marthy--poor, avaricious, gray,old Marthy--perhaps his mercy would have been less tinged with thatsmoldering resentment which was directed not so much at the wrongdoer,as at fate which had cheated him.
"I'm glad you came and told me this," he said at last. "Very glad,indeed, Miss MacDonald. Certain steps have been taken lately to pushthis--wipe out this rustling and general lawlessness, and if you hadnot told me, I'm afraid the mills of justice would have groundyour--friends. Of course the law would be merciful to Mrs. Meilke. Nojury would send an old woman like that-- By the way, that breed theyhave had working for them--he is in the deal, too, I take it."
"Yes, of course. They had to have someone to help. Marthy can't doany riding." Billy Louise spoke with a dreary apathy that betrayed howthe reaction had set in. "She stayed in the Cove, in case anyone cameprowling down there. It seems there's a wire fastened to the gate, andit rings a bell down at the house somewhere when the gate is opened.And besides that she had a dog that would tackle strangers. I don'tbelieve," she went on, after a little silence, "that Marthy would haveturned dishonest for herself. She was grasping, and all she cared forwas getting ahead. It--sort of grew on her, after the years of tryingto dig a bare living out of the ground. I--can understand that; and Ican see how she would go to any length almost for--Charlie. But--"
"Well, let's not think any more about them until we have to." Therewas a certain crude attempt at soothing her anxieties. "You've trustedme, Miss MacDonald. I'll try and not disappoint you in the matter,though, unless they are quite separate from the gang which is being rundown, it may be hard to protect them. Do you know--whether--any othercowman has suffered from their--mm-mm--haste to get rich?"
"I don't think there's anyone but you," Billy Louise replied lifelessly.
"Hm-mm--do you know, Miss MacDonald, whether there was any intimacybetween--your friends--and the man we had for stock inspector, Mr.Olney?"
"I--can't say, as to that." Billy Louise, you see, did not know muchabout details, but the little she did know made her hedge.
"There's a queer story about Olney. You know he has left the country,don't you? It seems he rode very hurriedly up to the depot at Wilmerto take the train. Just as he stepped on, a fellow who knew him bysight noticed a piece of paper pinned on the back of his coat. Hejerked it loose. It was a--m-m--very peculiar document for a man to bewearing on his back." Seabeck pulled at his whiskers, but it was notthe pulling which quirked the corners of his lips. "The man said Olneyseemed greatly upset over something and had evidently forgotten thepaper until he felt it being pulled loose. He said Olney looked backthen, and he was the color of a pork-rind. The train was pulling out.The man took the paper over to a saloon and let several others read it.They--mm-mm--decided that it should be placed in the hands of theauthorities. Have--m-m--your--friends ever mentioned the matter toyou?"
"No," said Billy Louise, and her eyes were wide.
"Hm-mm! We must discover, if we can, Miss MacDonald, whether they arein any way implicated with this man Olney. I believe that this is atpresent more important than the recovery of any--m-m--cattle of minewhich they may have appropriated."
Billy Louise looked at him for a minute. "Mr. Seabeck, you're awfullydear about this!" she told him. "I haven't been as square as you; andI've been-- Listen here, Mr. Seabeck! I don't love Charlie Fox a bit.I love somebody else, and I'm going to marry him. He's so square, I'dhate to have him think I even let you believe something that wasn'ttrue. It's Marthy I'm thinking of, Mr. Seabeck. I was afraid youwouldn't let Charlie off just for her sake, but I thought maybe if youjust thought I--wanted you to do it for mine, why, maybe--with twowomen to be sorry for, you'd kind of--"
"Hm-mm!" Seabeck sent her a keen, blue, twinkling glance that madeBilly Louise turn hot all over with shame and penitence. "Hm-mm!" hesaid again--if one can call that a saying--and pulled at his grayingwhiskers. "Hm-mmm!"