Chapter XV
The Bad Man
The eyes of Beaudry, held in dreadful fascination, clung to the lupineface behind the revolver. To save his life he could have lookednowhere else except into those cold, narrow pupils where he read death.Little beads of sweat stood on his forehead. The tongue in his mouthwas dry. His brain seemed paralyzed. Again he seemed to be liftedfrom his feet by a wave of deadly terror.
Meldrum had been drinking heavily, but he was not drunk. He drew fromhis pocket a watch and laid it on the arm of the chair. Roy noticedthat the rim of the revolver did not waver. It was pointed directlybetween his eyes.
"Git down on yore knees and beg, damn you. In less 'n a minute hellpops for you."
The savage, exultant voice of the former convict beat upon Roy like theblows of a hammer. He would have begged for his life,--beggedabjectly, cravenly,--but his teeth chattered and his parched tongue waspalsied. He would have sunk to his knees, but terror had robbed hismuscles of the strength to move. He was tied to his chair by ropesstronger than chains of steel.
The watch ticked away the seconds. From the face of Meldrum the grinwas snuffed out by a swift surge of wolfish anger.
"Are you deef and dumb?" he snarled. "It's Dan Meldrum talking--theman yore dad sent to the penitentiary. I'm going to kill you. ThenI'll cut another notch on my gun. Understand?"
The brain of the young lawyer would not function. His will wasparalyzed. Yet every sense was amazingly alert. He did not miss atick of the watch. Every beat of his heart registered.
"You butted in and tried to spy like yore dad, did you?" the raucousvoice continued. "Thought you could sell us out and git away with it.Here's where you learn different. Jack Beaudry was a man, anyhow, andwe got him. You're nothing but a pink-ear, a whey-faced baby withoutguts to stand the gaff. Well, you've come to the end of yore trail.Beg, you skunk!"
From the mind of Beaudry the fog lifted. In the savage, malignant eyesglaring at him he read that he was lost. The clutch of fear sooverwhelmed him that suspense was unbearable. He wanted to shriekaloud, to call on this man-killer to end the agony. It was the sameimpulse, magnified a hundred times, that leads a man to bite on anulcerated tooth in a weak impotence of pain.
The tick-tick-tick of the watch mocked him to frenzied action. Hegripped the arms of the chair with both hands and thrust forward hisface against the cold rim of the revolver barrel.
"Shoot!" he cried hoarsely, drunk with terror. "Shoot, and be damned!"
Before the words were out of his mouth a shot echoed. For the secondtime in his life Roy lost consciousness. Not many seconds could havepassed before he opened his eyes again. But what he saw puzzled him.
Meldrum was writhing on the ground and cursing. His left hand nursedthe right, which moved up and down frantically as if to escape frompain. Toward the house walked Dingwell and by his side BeulahRutherford. Dave was ejecting a shell from the rifle he carried.Slowly it came to the young man that he had not been shot. The convictmust have been hit instead by a bullet from the gun of the cattleman.He was presently to learn that the forty-four had been struck andknocked from the hand of its owner.
"Every little thing all right, son?" asked the cowman cheerily. "Wesure did run this rescue business fine. Another minute and--But what'sthe use of worrying? Miss Beulah and I were Johnny-on-the-spot allright."
Roy said nothing. He could not speak. His lips and cheeks were stillbloodless. By the narrowest margin in the world he had escaped.
Disgustedly the cattleman looked down at Meldrum, who was trying tocurse and weep from pain at the same time.
"Stung you up some, did I? Hm! You ought to be singing hymns becauseI didn't let you have it in the haid, which I'd most certainly havedone if you had harmed my friend. Get up, you bully, and stop cursing.There's a lady here, and you ain't damaged, anyhow."
The eyes of Beaudry met those of Beulah. It seemed to him that her lipcurled contemptuously. She had been witness of his degradation, hadseen him show the white feather. A pulse of shame beat in his throat.
"W-w-what are you doing here?" he asked wretchedly.
Dave answered for her. "Isn't she always on the job when she's needed?Yore fairy godmother--that's what Miss Beulah Rutherford is. Rodehell-for-leather down here to haid off that coyote there--and done it,too. Bumped into me at the water-hole and I hopped on that Blackyhawss behind her. He brought us in on the jump and Sharp's oldreliable upset Meldrum's apple cart."
Still nursing the tips of his tingling fingers, the ex-convict scowledvenomously at Beulah. "I'll remember that, missie. That's twiceyou've interfered with me. I sure will learn you to mind yore ownbusiness."
Dingwell looked steadily at him. "We've heard about enough from you.Beat it! Hit the trail! Pull yore freight! Light out! _Vamos_!Git!"
The man-killer glared at him. For a moment he hesitated. He wouldhave liked to try conclusions with the cattleman to a fighting finish,but though he had held his own in many a rough-and-tumble fray, helacked the unflawed nerve to face this man with the cold gray eye andthe chilled-steel jaw. His fury broke in an impotent curse as heslouched away.
"I don't understand yet," pursued Roy. "How did Miss Rutherford knowthat Meldrum was coming here?"
"Friend Hart rode up to tell Tighe we were here. He met Meldrum closeto the school-house. The kids were playing hide-and-go-seek. One ofthem was lying right back of a big rock beside the road. He heard Danswear he was coming down to stop yore clock, son. The kid wentstraight to teacher soon as the men had ridden off. He told whatMeldrum had said. So, of course, Miss Beulah she sent the childrenhome and rode down to the hawss ranch to get her father or one of herbrothers. None of them were at home and she hit the trail alone towarn us."
"I knew my people would be blamed for what this man did, so I blockedhim," explained the girl with her habitual effect of hostile pride.
"You said you would let Tighe have his way next time, but you don'tneed to apologize for breaking yore word, Miss Beulah," respondedDingwell with his friendly smile. "All we've got to say is that you'vegot chalked up against us an account we'll never be able to pay."
The color beat into her cheeks. She was both embarrassed and annoyed.With a gesture of impatience she turned away and walked to Blacky.Lithely she swung to the saddle.
Mrs. Hart had come to the porch. In her harassed countenance stilllingered the remains of good looks. The droop at the corners of hermouth suggested a faint resentment against a fate which had stolen heryouth without leaving the compensations of middle life.
"Won't you light off'n yore bronc and stay to supper, Miss Rutherford?"she invited.
"Thank you, Mrs. Hart. I can't. Must get home."
With a little nod to the woman she swung her horse around and was gone.
Hart did not show up for supper nor for breakfast. It was an easyguess that he lacked the hardihood to face them after his attemptedbetrayal. At all events, they saw nothing of him before they left inthe morning. If they had penetrated his wife's tight-lipped reserve,they might have shared her opinion, that he had gone off on a longdrinking-bout with Dan Meldrum.
Leisurely Beaudry and his friend rode down through the chaparral toBattle Butte.
On the outskirts of the town they met Ned Rutherford. After they hadpassed him, he turned and followed in their tracks.
Dingwell grinned across at Roy. "Some thorough our friends are. Abulldog has got nothing on them. They're hanging around to help me digup that gunnysack when I get ready."
The two men rode straight to the office of the sheriff and had a talkwith him. From there they went to the hotel where Dave usually put upwhen he was in town. Over their dinner the cattleman renewed an offerhe had been urging upon Roy all the way down from Hart's place. Heneeded a reliable man to help him manage the different holdings he hadbeen accumulating. His proposition was to take Beaudry in as a juniorpartner, the purchase price to be paid in installments to be
earned outof the profits of the business.
"Course I don't want to take you away from the law if you're set onthat profession, but if you don't really care--" Dave lifted aneyebrow in a question.
"I think I'd like the law, but I know I would like better an activeoutdoor life. That's not the point, Mr. Dingwell. I can't takesomething for nothing. You can get a hundred men who know far moreabout cattle than I do. Why do you pick me?"
"I've got reasons a-plenty. Right off the bat here are some of them.I'm under obligations to Jack Beaudry and I'd like to pay my debt tohis son. I've got no near kin of my own. I need a partner, but itisn't one man out of a dozen I can get along with. Most old cowmen arerutted in their ways. You don't know a thing about the business. Butyou can learn. You're teachable. You are not one of these wise guys.Then, too, I like you, son. I don't want a partner that rubs me thewrong way. Hell, my why-fors all simmer down to one. You're thepartner I want, Roy."
"If you find I don't suit you, will you let me know?"
"Sure. But there is no chance of that." Dave shook hands with himjoyously. "It's a deal, boy."
"It's a deal," agreed Beaudry.