Chapter XXI
Jim Receives and Declines an Offer
From the moment that Clanton walked out of the corral and left the deadgunman lying in the dust his reputation was established. Up till thattime he had been on probation. Now he was a full-fledged killer. Nobodyany longer spoke of him by his last name, except those friends who stillhoped he might escape his destiny. "Go-Get-'em Jim" was his title atlarge. Those on more familiar terms called him "Jimmie-Go-Get-'Em."
It was unfortunate for Clanton that the killing of Champa lifted him intoinstant popularity. Mysterious Pete had been too free with his gun. Thecommunity had been afraid of him. The irresponsible way in which he hadwounded little Bud Proctor, whose life had been saved only by the courageof Lee Snaith, was the climax of a series of outrages committed by theman.
That Jim had incidentally saved Kittie McRobert from the outlaw was apiece of clean luck. Snaith came to him at once and buried the hatchet.In the war just starting, the cattleman needed men of nerve to lead hisforces. He offered a place to Clanton, who jumped at the chance to get onthe pay-roll of Lee's father.
"Bring yore friend Billie Prince to the store," suggested Snaith. "He'snot workin' for Webb now. I can make a place for him, too."
Billie came, listened to the proposition of the grim old-timer, anddeclined quietly.
"Goin' to stick by Webb, are you?" demanded the chief of the oppositefaction.
"Anything wrong with that? I've drawn a pay-check from him for threeseasons."
"Oh, if it's a matter of sentiment."
As a matter of fact, Billie did not intend to go on the trail any more,though Webb had offered him a place as foreman of one of his herds. Hehad discovered in himself unsuspected business capacity and believed hecould do better on his own. Moreover, he was resolved not to let himselfbecome involved in the lawless warfare that was engulfing the territory.
It must be remembered that Washington County was at this time as large asthe average Atlantic Coast State. It had become a sink for the riff-raffdriven out of Texas by the Rangers, for all that wild and adventurouselement which flocks to a new country before the law has establisheditself. The coming of the big cattle herds had brought money into thecountry, and in its wake followed the gambler and the outlaw. Gold andhuman life were the cheapest commodities at Los Portales. The man whowore a gun on his hip had to be one hundred per cent efficient tosurvive.
Lawlessness was emphasized by the peculiar conditions of the country. Theintense rivalry to secure Government contracts for hay, wood, andespecially cattle, stimulated unwholesome competition. The temptation to"rustle" stock, to hold up outfits carrying pay to the soldiers, to livewell merely as a gunman for one of the big interests on the river, madethe honest business of every-day life a humdrum affair.
None the less, the real heroes among the pioneers were the quiet citizenswho went about their business and refused to embroil themselves in thefeuds that ran rife. The men who made the West were the mule-skinners,the storekeepers, the farmers who came out in white-topped movers'wagons. For a time these were submerged by the more sensational gunman,but in the end they pushed to the top and wiped the "bad man" from theearth. It was this prosaic class that Billie Prince had resolved to join.
To that resolve he stuck through all the blood-stained years of thenotorious Washington County War. He went about his private affairs withquiet energy that brought success. He took hay and grain contracts,bought a freighting outfit, acquired a small but steadily increasingbunch of cattle. Gradually he bulked larger in the public eye, became ananchor of safety to whom the people turned after the war had worn itselfout and scattered bands of banditti infested the chaparral to prey uponthe settlers.
This lean, brown-faced man walked the way of the strong. Men recognizedthe dynamic force of his close-gripped jaw, the power of his quick,steady eye, the patience of his courage. The eyes of women followed himdown the street, for there was some arresting quality in the firm, crisptread that carried the lithe, smooth-muscled body. With the passage ofyears he had grown to a full measure of mental manhood. It was inevitablethat when Washington County set itself to the task of combing the outlawsfrom the mesquite it should delegate the job to Billie Prince.
The evening after his election as sheriff, Billie called at the home ofPauline Roubideau, who was keeping house for her brother. Jack Goodheartwas leaving just as Prince stepped upon the porch. It had been two yearsnow since Jack had ceased to gravitate in the direction of Lee Snaith.His eyes and his footsteps for many months had turned often toward Polly.
The gaze of the sheriff-elect followed the lank figure of the retreatingman.
"I've a notion to ask that man to give up a good business to wear adeputy's star for me," he told Pauline.
"Oh, I wouldn't," she said quickly.
"Why not? He'd be a good man for the job. I want some one game--some onewho will go through when he starts."
His questioning eyes rested on hers. She felt a difficulty in justifyingher protest.
"I don't know--I just thought--"
"I'm waiting," said Prince with a smile.
"He wouldn't take it, would he?" she fenced.
"If it was put up to him right I think he would. Of course, it would be asacrifice for him to make, but good citizens have to do that these days."
"He's had so much hard luck and been so long getting a start I don'tthink you ought to ask him." The color spilled over her cheeks like wineshaken from a glass upon a white cloth. Polly was always ardent on behalfof a friend.
"I can't help that. There's another man I have in mind, but if I don'tget him it will be up to Jack."
"Will it be dangerous?"
"No more than smoking a cigarette above an open keg of powder. But youdon't suppose that would keep him from accepting the job, do you?"
"No," she admitted. "He would take it if he thought he ought. But I hopeyou get the other man."
Billie dismissed the subject and drew up a chair beside the hammock inwhich she was leaning back.
"This is my birthday, Polly," he told her. "I'm twenty-four years old."
"Good gracious! What a Methuselah!"
"I want a present, so I've come to ask for it."
With a sidelong tilt of her chin she flashed a look of quick eyes at him.Her voice did not betray the pulse, of excitement that was beginning tobeat in her blood.
"You've just been elected sheriff. Isn't that enough?" she evaded.
"That's a fine present to hand a man," he answered grimly. "An' I didn'tnotice you bubble with enthusiasm when I spoke of givin' half the gloryto Goodheart."
"But I haven't a thing you'd care for. If I'd only known in time I'd havesent to Vegas and got you something nice."
"You don't have to send to Vegas for it, Polly. The present I want isright here," he said simply.
She reached out a little hand impulsively. "Billie, I believe you 're thebest man I know--the very best."
"I hate to hear that. You're tryin' to let me down easy."
"I'm an ungrateful little idiot. Any other girl in town would jump at thechance to say, 'Thank you, kind sir.'"
"But you can't," he said gently.
"No, I can't."
He was not sure whether there was a flash of tears in her brown eyes, buthe knew by that little trick of biting the lower lip that they were notfar away. She was a tender-hearted little comrade, and it always hurt herto hurt others.
Billie drew a long breath. "That's settled, too, then. I asked you oncebefore if there was some one else. I ask you again, but don't tell me ifyou'd rather not."
"Yes."
"You mean there is."
Again the scarlet splashed into her cheeks. She nodded her head three orfour times quickly in assent.
"Not Jim Clanton?" he said, alarmed.
A faint, tender smile flashed on her lips. "I don't think I'll tell youwho he is, Billie."
He hesitated. "That's all right, Polly. I don't want to pry into yoresecret. But--don't do anythi
ng foolish. Don't marry a man with the notionof reformin' him or because he seems to you romantic. You have lots ofsense. You'll use it, won't you?" he pleaded.
"I'll try to use it, Billie," she promised. Then, the soft eyes shiningand the color still high in her cheeks, she added impulsively: "I don'tknow anybody that needs some one to love him more than that poor boydoes."
"Mebbeso. But don't you be that some one, Polly." He hesitated, dividedbetween loyalty to his friend and his desire for this girl's good. Hisbrown, unscarred hand caught hers in a firm grip. "Don't you do it,little girl. Don't you. The woman that marries Jim Clanton is doomed tobe miserable. There's no escape for her. She's got to live with her heartin her throat till the day they bring his dead body back to her."
She leaned toward him, and now there was no longer any doubt that hereyes were bright with unshed tears. "Perhaps a woman doesn't marry forhappiness alone, Billie. That may come to her, or it may not. But she hasto fulfill her destiny. I don't know how to say what I mean, but she mustgo on and live her life and forget herself."
Prince rejected this creed flatly. "No! No! The best way to fulfill yorelife is to be happy. That's what you've always done, an' that's whyyou've made other people happy. Because you go around singin' an'dancin', we all want to tune up with you. When I was out bossin' afreight outfit I used to think of you at night under the stars as alittle Joybird. Now you've got it in that curly head of yours that you 'dought to be some kind of a missionary martyr for the sake of a man'ssoul. That's all wrong."
"Is it?" she asked him with a crooked, little, wistful smile. "How aboutyou? Do you want to be sheriff? Is it going to make you so awfully happyto spend your time running down outlaws for the good of the country?Aren't you doing it because you've been called to it and not because youlike it?"
"That's different," he protested. "When the community needs him a man'sgot to come through or be a yellow hound. But you've got no right totoss away yore life plumb foolishly just because you've got a tenderheart." Billie stopped again, then threw away any scruples he might haveon the score of friendship. "Jim is goin' to be what he is to the end ofthe chapter. You can't change him. Nobody can. In this Washington CountyWar he's been a terror to the other side. You know that. For such a girlas you he's outside the pale."
"I heard Jean say once that Jim had never killed a man that didn't needkilling," she protested.
"That may be true, too. But it wasn't up to him to do it. It isn't onlykillin' either. He's on the wrong track."
The young man could say no more. He could not tell her that Clanton wassuspected of rustling and that his name had been mentioned in connectionwith robbery of the mail. These charges were not proved. Prince himselfstill loyally denied their truth, though evidence was beginning to pileup against the young gunman. He had warned Clanton, and Jim had clappedhim on the shoulder, laughed, and invited him to take a drink with him.This was not quite the way in which Billie felt an innocent man wouldreceive news that he was being furtively accused of crime.
"Yes, he's going wrong," agreed Pauline. "But we can't desert him, canwe? You're his best friend. You know how brave he is, how generous, howat the bottom of his heart he loves people that are fine and true. If westand by him we'll save him yet."
The young man's common sense told him that Clanton's future lay withhimself and his attitude toward his environment, but he loved the spiritof this girl's gift of faith in her friends. It was so wholly like her toreject the external evidence and accept her own conviction of his innategoodness.
"I hope yore faith will work a miracle."
"I hate the things he does more than you do, Billie. It is horrible to methat he can take human life. I don't justify him at all, even thoughusually he is on the right side. But in spite of everything he has doneJim is only a wild boy. And he's so splendid some ways. Any day he wouldgive his life for you or for me or for Lee Snaith. You feel that abouthim, don't you?"
"Yes."
He was not satisfied to let the subject drop, but for the present it hadto be postponed. For a young man and a young woman were turning in at thegate. They were a handsome pair physically. Each of them moved with thelithe grace of a young puma. Pauline rose to meet them.
"I'm glad you came, Lee. Didn't know you were in town, Jim,"
Clanton smiled. "I rode up from the Hondo to congratulate our newsheriff. Don't you let any of them outlaws escape, Billie."
Prince looked directly into his audacious eyes as he shook hands withhim.
"Not if I can help it, Jim. I want you to be my chief deputy in cleanin'up the county. If you'll help me we'll make such a gather of bad men thatit won't be safe for a crook to show his head here."
Pauline clapped her hands. "What a splendiferous idea! It's a greatchance for you, Jim. You and Billie can do it too. I know you can."
The other young woman had recognized Prince only by a casual nod. It washer custom to ignore him as much as possible. Now her dark, velvety eyesjumped to meet his, then passed to Clanton. She recognized thesignificance of the moment. It was Jim's last opportunity to line up onthe side of law and order. Lee, with Billie and Pauline, had stood hisloyal friend against a growing public opinion. Would he justify theirfaith in him?
After a long silence Jim spoke. "No, I reckon not, Billie. I've gotinterests that will take all my time. Much obliged, old scout. I'd liketo ride in couples with you like we used to do. I sure would, but Ican't."
"That's all nonsense. It's no excuse at all," broke out Lee in her directfashion. "Mr. Prince has more important affairs than you a good deal.He is dropping his to serve the people. You'll have to give a betterreason than that to convince me."
Billie knew and Lee suspected what lay back of the spoken word. The dutyof the sheriff would be to hunt down the men with whom Clanton hadlately been consorting. He felt that he could not desert his friends toline up against them. Some of these were a bad lot, the riff-raff of awild country, but this would not justify him in his own mind for usinghis knowledge of their habits to run them to earth.
"No, I can't talk business with you, Billie," the young fellow saiddecisively.
"Why can't you?" demanded Lee.
Jim Clanton smiled. "You're certainly a right persistent young lady, butby advice of counsel I decline to answer."