Rim o' the World

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  THE GAME

  At the long table in the living room of the Devil's Tooth ranch TomLorrigan sat and sharpened an indelible pencil with the razor-edgedsmall blade of his jackknife. On the open space which Tom had clearedwith the sweep of his arm, a large-sized tablet of glazed and ruledpaper, with George Washington pictured in red and blue and buff on thecover, received the wood parings from the pencil. It may have beensignificant that Tom was careful in his work and made the pencil verysharp.

  Across the room, Belle swung around on the piano stool and looked athim. "Honey, if you're going to make out the order to Montgomery,Ward, I'd like to send on for some more music. I've been going overthat new list--"

  "I ain't," said Tom, removing his cigarette from the corner of hismouth and blowing the tiny, blue-painted shavings off GeorgeWashington's face. "You go ahead and make out the order yourself."

  Belle eyed the pencil-sharpening and sent a keen glance at Tom's face."Well, honey, from the way you're squaring up to that tablet, Ithought you was going to send on for a new buckboard and mower."

  Tom bent his head and blew again, gave George a sardonic grin andturned him face-down on the table, so that the ruled paper lay readyto his hand.

  "Right now I'm going to figure up what that dang spotty yearlin' ofold Scotty's cost me," he stated grimly. "And there's some other BlackRimmers I've got a bill against."

  "Hope you don't try holding your breath till you collect," Belleretorted. "Honey, you'd best leave the Black Rimmers alone. I feel asif we'd had enough excitement enough for a while. I wouldn't startanything more right now, if I was you. Every last one of them is readyto jump on your neck--and the Lord only knows why, unless it's becauseyou _didn't_ steal that darned spotted yearling! Some folks sure dolove to see the other fellow up to his eyebrows in trouble. They weresitting there in that courtroom just _wishing_ you would be sent up. Isaw it in their faces, Tom. And that old rock-hearted Scotchman lookedas if he's just lost two bits when the jury said 'Not guilty.'"

  "Mh-m--hm-m--that's what I'm figuring on now," said Tom, and bent tohis problem. "My old dad woulda gone out and shot up a few, but timesare changed and we're all getting so damn civilized we've got to stackthe cards or quit the game. Belle, what do you reckon it's worth to aman to be hauled into court and called a cow thief?"

  Belle's lips pressed together. "I don't know, Tom--but I know what itwould have cost 'em if they had sent you over the road. I had a gun onme, and when that jury foreman stood up to give the verdict, it waslooking him in the eye through a buttonhole in my coat. Him andCheyenne and old Scotty and two or three more would sure have gottheirs, if he hadn't said, 'Not guilty.'"

  "Lord bless yuh, I knew it all the time. Next time we go to courtyou'll leave the artillery at home, old girl. I like to got heartfailure there for a minute, till I seen you ease down and lay yourhand in your lap." He looked at her and laughed a little. "I've got abill of damages against several of the folks around here, but I ain'tfool enough to try and collect with a six-gun."

  He settled himself to his task, writing at the top of the page thename of Aleck Douglas and after that "Dr." A full page he covered withitems set against the names of various neighbors. When he had finishedhe folded the paper neatly and put it away with other importantmemoranda, picked up his big gray Stetson and went over to kiss Bellefull on her red lips, and to smooth her hair, with a reassuring paton her plump shoulder as a final caress.

  "Don't you worry none about the Black Rimmers," he said, "and don'tyou worry about me. I've got to ride high, wide and handsome now tomake up the time and money I lost on account of the spotty yearlin',and maybe I won't be home so much. But I ain't quarreling with myneighbors, nor getting into any kind of ruckus whatever."

  With the stilted, slightly stiff-legged gait born of long hours in thesaddle and of high-heeled riding boots, he walked unhurriedly to thecorral where the boys were just driving in a herd of horses.

  Few of them showed saddle marks, all of them snorted and tosseduntrimmed manes and tails as they clattered against the stout poles,circling the big corral in a cloud of dust and a thunder of hoofbeats. Pulling his hat down over his black brows to secure it againstthe wind, Tom climbed the corral fence and straddled the top rail thathe might scan the herd.

  "Pretty good-looking bunch, dad," said Al, reining up beside Tom. "Wehad to ride some to get 'em in--they're sure snuffy. What you going todo with 'em? Break out a few?"

  "Some. Did yuh take notice, Al, that Coaley come within an ace ofsending me over the road? That there AJ man swore to the horse when hewouldn't never have swore to me, but they all took it as a cinch itwas me he saw, because nobody else ever rides Coaley. And by the LordJohn, Al, that's the last time any man's going to swear to me in thedark by the horse I'm ridin'. The Devil's Tooth outfit is going tohave a lot more saddle horses broke gentle than what they've got now.And just between me and you, Al, any more night-ridin' that's done inthis outfit ain't going to be done on cayuses that can be told a mileoff on a dark night!"

  "You're durn tootin', dad." Al grinned while he moistened the edge ofhis rolled cigarette. "I thought at the time that Coaley was liable tobe a damn expensive horse for you to be ridin'." His eyes traveledover the restless herd, singling out this horse and that for briefstudy. "There's some right speedy stuff in that bunch," he said."They've got the look of stayers, some of 'em. Take that there bayover there by the post: He's got a chest on him like a lion--and lookat them legs! There'd be a good horse for you, dad."

  "One, maybe." Tom spat into the dust and, impelled by Al's example,drew his own cigarette papers from his shirt pocket. "I'm thinkin' ofbreakin' all we've got time for this summer. Darn this here makin' onehorse your trademark!"

  Up at the house, Riley appeared in the kitchen doorway and gave a longhalloo while he wiped his big freckled hand on his flour-sack apron."Hoo-ee! Come an' git it!" He waited a moment, until he saw ridersdismounting and leading their horses into the little corral. Then heturned back to pour the coffee into the big, thick, white cupsstanding in single file around the long oil-cloth-covered table in theend of the kitchen nearest the side door where the boys wouldpresently come trooping in to slide loose-jointedly into their placeson the long, shiny benches.

  Tom pinched out the blaze of his match and threw one long leg backover the corral fence. His glance went to the riders beyond the bigcorral.

  "Where's Lance at!" he called to Al, who was riding around to thelittle corral.

  "You can search me. He quit us when we got the horses into the corral,and rode off up the Slide trail. If I was to make a guess, I would saythat he went to meet Mary Hope. They been doing that right frequentever since she quit coming here. 'Tain't no skin off my nose--butLance, he's buildin' himself a mess uh trouble with old Scotty, sureas you're a foot high."

  "Darn fool kid--let the old folks git to scrappin' amongst themselves,and the young ones start the lovemakin'! I never knowed it to fail;but you can skin me for a coyote if I know what makes 'em do it."Grumbling to himself, Tom climbed down and followed Al. "You cantell Riley I'll be late to dinner," he said, when he had come upto where Al was pulling the saddle off his horse. "I ain't muchon buttin' into other folks' love affairs, but I reckon it maybemight be a good idea to throw a scare into them two. I'm plumb sickof Scotch--wouldn't take it in a highball right now if you was toshove one under my nose!"

  Al laughed, looking over his shoulder at Tom while he loosened thelatigo. "If you can throw a scare into Lance, you sure are a dinger,"he bantered. "That youth is some heady."

  "Looks to me like it runs in the family," Tom retorted. "You're someheady yourself, if you ever took notice. And I don't give a damn howheady any of you kids are; you can't run any rannies on your dad, andyou want to put that down in your little red book so you won't forgitit!"

  He led Coaley from the stable, mounted and rode away up the Slidetrail, more than half ashamed of his errand. To interfere in a loveaffair went against the grain, but to
let a Lorrigan make love to aDouglas on the heels of the trial was a pill so bitter that he refusedto swallow it.

  He urged Coaley up the trail, his eyes somber with resentment wheneverhe saw the fresh hoofprints of Lance's horse in the sandy places. Ofthe three boys, Lance was his favorite, and it hurt him to think thatLance had so little of the Lorrigan pride that he would ride a footout of his way to speak to any one of the Douglas blood.

  Up the Slide went Coaley, his head held proudly erect upon his high,arched neck, his feet choosing daintily the little rough places in therock where long experience had taught him he would not slip. Big asTom was, Coaley carried him easily and reached the top without so muchas a flutter in the flanks to show that the climb had cost him aneffort.

  "It's a dang darn shame I got to straddle strange horses just becausethere ain't another in the country like you, Coaley," he muttered,leaning forward to smooth the silky hide under the crinkly mane. "It'sgoing to set hard, now I'm tellin' yuh, to throw my saddle on someplain, ordinary cayuse. But it's a bet I can't afford to overlook;they made that plain enough."

  Coaley pricked up his ears and looked, his big, bright eyes taking inthe shadow of a horse beside a clump of wild currant bushes that grewin the very base of the Devil's Tooth. Tom grunted and rode over thatway, Coaley walking slowly, his knees bending springily like a dancerfeeling out his muscles.

  Lance stood with his back toward them. His hat was pushed far back onhis head, and he was looking at Mary Hope, who leaned against the rockand stared down into the valley below. Her hair, Tom observed, was not"slicked back" to-day. It had been curled a little, probably on ragstwisted in after she had gone to bed and taken out before she arose inthe morning, lest her mother discover her frivolity and lecture herlong,--and, worse still, make her wet a comb and take all of the curlout. A loose strand blew across her tanned cheek, so that she reachedup absently and tucked it behind her ear, where it would not stay forlonger than a minute.

  "I am sure I didna know you would be here," she said, without takingher eyes off the valley. "It is a view I like better than most, and Ihave a right to ride where I please. And I have no wish to ride out ofmy way to be friends with any one that tried to make my father out aliar and an unjust man. He may be hard, but he is honest. And that ismore than some--"

  "More than some can say--us Lorrigans, for instance!"

  "I didna say that, but if the coat fits, you can put it on."

  Mary Hope bit her lip and lashed a weed with her quirt. "All of thisis none of my doing," she added, with a dullness in her voice that mayhave meant either regret or resentment. "You hate my father, and youare mad because I canna side with you and hate him too. I am sorry thetrouble came up, but I canna see how you expect me to go on coming tosee your mither when you know my father would never permit it."

  "You say that like you were speaking a piece. How long did you layawake last night, making it up? You can't make me swallow that,anyway. Your father never permitted you to come in the first place,and you know it. You made believe that old skate ran away with youdown the trail, and that you couldn't stop him. You've been comingover to our place ever since, and you never asked old Scotty whetherhe would permit it or not. I'm not saying anything about myself, butit hurts Belle to have you throw her down right now. Under thecircumstances it makes her feel as if you thought we were thieves andstole your dad's yearling."

  "I'm not saying anything like that."

  "Maybe you're not, but you sure are acting it. If you don't thinkthat, why don't you go on taking music lessons from Belle? What madeyou stop, all of a sudden?"

  "That," said Mary Hope stiffly, "is my own affair, Lance Lorrigan."

  "It's mine, let me tell you. It's mine, because it hits Belle; andwhat hits her hits me. If you think she isn't good enough for you tovisit, why in thunder have you been coming all this while? She isn'tany worse than she was two months ago, is she?"

  "I'm not saying that she is."

  "Well, you're acting it, and that's a darn sight worse."

  "You ought to know that with all this trouble between your father andmy father--"

  "Well, can you tell me when they ever did have any truck together?Your father doesn't hate our outfit a darn bit worse than he everdid. He found a chance to knife us, that's all. It isn't that he neverwanted to before."

  "I'll thank you, Lance Lorrigan, not to accuse my father of knifinganybody. He's my father and--"

  "And that isn't anything to brag about, if you ask me. I'd rather havemy father doing time for stealing, than have him a darned, hide-boundold hypocrite that will lie a man into the pen, and then go around andpull a long face and call himself a Christian!"

  "My father doesna lie! And he is not a hypocrite either. If yourfather was half as--" She stopped abruptly, her face going red whenshe saw Tom sitting on his horse beyond the shoulder of rock,regarding her with that inscrutable smile which never had failed tomake her squirm mentally and wonder what he thought of her. She stoodup, trembling a little.

  Lance turned slowly and met Tom's eyes without flinching. "Hello," hesaid, on guard against the two of them, wondering what had brought hisdad to this particular point at this particular time.

  "Hello. How d'yuh do, Miss Douglas? Lance, dinner's getting coldwaiting for you." Tom lifted his hat to Mary Hope, turned, and rodeback whence he had come, never glancing over his shoulder butnevertheless keenly alert for the sound of voices.

  He was not quite through the Slide when he heard the hoof beats ofLance's horse come clicking down over the rocks. Tom smiled to himselfas he rode on, never looking back.