Chapter XX
At the Lazy Double D
Dingwell squinted over the bunch of cattle in the corral. "Twentydollars on the hoof, f.o.b. at the siding," he said evenly. "You totake the run of the pen, no culls."
"I heard you before," protested the buyer. "Learn a new song,Dingwell. I don't like the tune of that one. Make it eighteen and letme cull the bunch."
Dave garnered a straw clinging to the fence and chewed it meditatively."Couldn't do it without hurting my conscience. Nineteen--no culls.That's my last word."
"I'd sure hate to injure your conscience, Dingwell," grinned the manfrom Denver. "Think I'll wait till you go to town and do business withyour partner."
"Think he's easy, do you?"
"Easy!" The cattle-buyer turned the conversation to the subjectuppermost in his mind. He had already decided to take the cattle andthe formal agreement could wait. "Easy! Say, do you know what I sawthat young man put over to-day at the depot?"
"I'll know when you've told me," suggested Dingwell.
The Denver man told his story and added editorial comment. "Gamestthing I ever saw in my life, by Jiminy--stood there with his back tothe man-killer and lit a cigarette while the ruffian had his finger onthe trigger of a six-gun ready to whang away at him. Can you beatthat?"
The eyes of the cattleman gleamed, but his drawling voice was stillcasual. "Why didn't Meldrum shoot?"
"Triumph of mind over matter, I reckon. He _wanted_ to shoot--wascrazy to kill your friend. But--he didn't. Beaudry had talked him outof it."
"How?"
"Bullied him out of it--jeered at him and threatened him and man-calledhim, with that big gun shining in his eyes every minute of the time."
Dingwell nodded slowly. He wanted to get the full flavor of thisjoyous episode that had occurred. "And the kid lit his cigarette whileMeldrum, crazy as a hydrophobia skunk, had his gun trained on him?"
"That's right. Stood there with a kind o' you-be-damned placard stuckall over him, then got out the makings and lit up. He tilted back thathandsome head of his and blew a smoke wreath into the air. Looked likehe'd plumb wiped Mr. Meldrum off his map. He's a world-beater, thatyoung fellow is--doesn't know what fear is," concluded the buyer sagely.
"You don't say!" murmured Mr. Dingwell.
"Sure as you're a foot high. While I was trying to climb up the sideof a railroad car to get out of range, that young guy was figuring itall out. He was explaining thorough to the bad man what would happenif he curled his fore-finger another quarter of an inch. Just as cooland easy, you understand."
"You mean that he figured out his chances?"
"You bet you! He figured it all out, played a long shot, and won. Thepoint is that it wouldn't help him any if this fellow Meldrum starredin a subsequent lynching. The man had been drinking like a blueblotter. Had he sense enough left to know his danger? Was his brainsteady enough to hold him in check? Nobody could tell that. But yourpartner gambled on it and won."
This was meat and drink to Dave. He artfully pretended to make lightof the whole affair in order to stir up the buyer to more details.
"I reckon maybe Meldrum was just bluffing. Maybe--"
"Bluffing!" The Coloradoan swelled. "Bluffing! I tell you there wasmurder in the fellow's eye. He had come there primed for a killing.If Beaudry had weakened by a hair's breadth, that forty-four would havepumped lead into his brain. Ask the train crew. Ask the stationagent. Ask any one who was there."
"Maybeso," assented Dave dubiously. "But if he was so game, why didn'tBeaudry go back and take Meldrum's gun from him?"
The buyer was on the spot with an eager, triumphant answer. "That justproves what I claim. He just brushed the fellow's gun aside and actedlike he'd forgot the killer had a gun. 'Course, he could 'a' gone backand taken the gun. After what he'd already pulled off, that would havebeen like stealing apples from a blind Dutchman. But Beaudry wasn'tgoing to give him that much consideration. Don't you see? Meldrum, orwhatever his name is, was welcome to keep the revolver to play with.Your friend didn't care how many guns he was toting."
"I see. It he had taken the gun, Meldrum might have thought he wasafraid of him."
"Now you're shouting. As it is the bad man is backed clear off theearth. It's like as if your partner said, 'Garnish yourself withforty-fours if you like, but don't get gay around me.'"
"So you think--"
"I think he's some bear-cat, that young fellow. When you 're lookingfor something easy to mix with, go pick a grizzly or a wild cat, butdon't you monkey with friend Beaudry. He's liable to interfere withyour interior geography. . . . Say, Dingwell. Do I get to cull thisbunch of longhorn skeletons you're misnaming cattle?"
"You do not."
The Denver man burlesqued a sigh. "Oh, well! I'll go broke dealingwith you unsophisticated Shylocks of the range. The sooner thequicker. Send 'em down to the siding. I'll take the bunch."
Roy rode up on a pinto.
"Help! Help!" pleaded the Coloradoan of the young man.
"He means that I've unloaded this corral full of Texas dinosaurs on himat nineteen a throw." explained Dave.
"You've made a good bargain," Beaudry told the buyer.
"'Course he has, and he knows it." Dingwell opened on Roy his gaysmile. "I hear you've had a run-in with the bad man of Chicito Canon,son."
Roy looked at the Denver man reproachfully. Ever since the affair onthe station platform he had been flogging himself because he had drivenaway and left Meldrum in possession of the field. No doubt all BattleButte knew now how frightened he had been. The women were gossipingabout it over their tea, probably, and men were retailing the story insaloons and on sidewalks.
"I didn't want any trouble," he said apologetically. "I--I just lefthim."
"That's what I've been hearing," assented Dave dryly. "You merelyshowed him up for a false alarm and kicked him into the discard.That's good, and it's bad. We know now that Meldrum won't fight you inthe open. You've got him buffaloed. But he'll shoot you in the backif he can do it safely. I know the cur. After this don't ride alone,Roy, and don't ride that painted hoss at all. Get you a nice quietbuckskin that melts into the atmosphere like a patch of bunch grass.Them's my few well-chosen words of advice, as Manana Bill used to say."
Three days later Beaudry, who had been superintending the extension ofan irrigation ditch, rode up to the porch of the Lazy Double D ranchhouse and found Hal Rutherford, senior, with his chair tilted backagainst the wall. The smoke of his pipe mingled fraternally with thatof Dingwell's cigar. He nodded genially to Roy without offering toshake hands.
"Mr. Rutherford dropped in to give us the latest about Meldrum,"explained Dave. "Seems he had warned our friend the crook to lay offyou, son. When Dan showed up again at the park, he bumped into MissBeulah and said some pleasant things to her. He hadn't noticed thatJeff was just round the corner of the schoolhouse fixing up some dingusas a platform for the last day's speaking. Jeff always was hot-headed.Before he had got through with Mr. Meldrum, he had mussed his hair upconsiderable. Dan tried to gun him and got an awful walloping. He hitthe trail to Jess Tighe's place. When Mr. Rutherford heard of it, hewas annoyed. First off, because of what had happened at the depot.Second, and a heap more important, because the jailbird had threatenedMiss Beulah. So he straddled a horse and called on Dan, who shook thedust of Huerfano Park from his bronco's hoofs _poco tiempo_."
"Where has he gone?" asked Roy.
"Nobody knows, and he won't tell. But, knowing Meldrum as we do,Rutherford and I have come to a coincidentical opinion, as you mightsay. He's a bad actor, that bird. We figure that he's waiting in thechaparral somewhere to pull off a revenge play, after which he means_pronto_ to slide his freight across the line to the land of old Porf.Diaz."
"Revenge--on Jeff Rutherford--or who?"
"Son, that's a question. But Jeff won't be easily reached. On thewhole, we think you're elected."
Roy
's heart sank. If Meldrum had been kicked out of Huerfano Park,there was no room for him in New Mexico. Probably the fear of theRutherfords had been a restraint upon him up to this time. But nowthat he had broken with them and was leaving the country, the man wasfree to follow the advice of Tighe. He was a bully whose prestige wastottering. It was almost sure that he would attempt some savage act ofreprisal before he left. Beaudry had no doubt that he would be thevictim of it.
"What am I to do, then?" he wanted to know, his voice quavering.
"Stay right here at the ranch. Don't travel from the house till wecheck up on Meldrum. Soon as he shows his hand, we'll jump him and runhim out of the country. All you've got to do is to sit tight till welocate him."
"I'll not leave the house," Roy vowed fervently.