CHAPTER II--THADY SHEA ENCOUNTERS PURPOSE
"Your man Shea is settin' in my car yonder," said Mrs. Crump.
Heedless of the glaring sun, she picked up her pipe and disposed hergiant frame for converse. From narrowed lids the sheriff eyed the lanky,up-drawn figure of Shea, which he now noticed for the first time. Thenhe produced the "makings" and proceeded to roll a cigarette.
"Glad you picked him up," said he. "I'll take him back with me."
"No, ye won't," retorted Mrs. Crump, calmly. "You'll not touch him, SamTracy."
"He's a thief and a drunkard and a hobo," said the sheriff.
"If they wasn't no drinks to be had in heaven, I reckon hell would bemajority choice," quoth the lady. "When it comes to that, I've seen youand Crump so paralyzed you couldn't talk. There was that night down toMagdalena when the railroad spur was finished and they held acelebration----"
The sheriff grinned. "No need to argue further along them lines, ma'am.You win!"
"I reckon I do, Sam. Besides, you ain't got no authority over in thiscounty. You can run a bluff on ignorant hoboes an' greasers, but not onMehitabel Crump! Your authority quit quite a ways back. Thady Shea onlystole because he was starving, which I'd do the same in his place. Ipicked him up here and I'm goin' to keep him."
"You always was soft-hearted," reflected Tracy. "Now you got him, what'syour programme?"
Mrs. Crump refilled and lighted her corncob with deliberation, then maderesponse:
"Sam, I'm sure in a thunderin' bad pinch. Damned good luck it ain'tworse, as Crump used to say at times. You know I ain't no legal shark,huh? Well, three weeks ago I had a blamed good hole in the hills, untilAbel Dorales come along and located just below me. Then in rides oldSandy Mackintavers and offers a thousand even for my hole, saying thatAbel had located the thrown apex of my claim----"
"The apex law don't obtain here," put in Tracy.
"I know it; but who's goin' to argue with Mackintavers? If it wasn'tthat, it'd be somethin' worse. Anyhow, he offered to compromise and soon."
The sheriff nodded. "I see how you come to have the flivver," heobserved, drily.
"Yas, ye do!" Mrs. Crump's response was raw-edged. "If you was the kindo' man you used to be, ye'd up and give them jumpers a hemp necktie! Butnow ye play politics, Sam Tracy, and ye lick the boots o' SandyMackintavers----"
"That's enough, Mis' Crump!" broke in the sheriff, icily. "I don't blameye for feelin' sore, but the likes of us can't fight Mackintavers in thecourts. We ain't slick enough! And Dorales is a Mormon-bred greaser,than which the devil ain't never fathered a worse combination. Now, Mis'Crump, you show me the least excuse for doin' it legally, and I'll pumpthem two men full o' lead any day! I'm only surprised that you didn't doit."
"I did." A smile of grim satisfaction wreathed the lady's firm lips."First I took Sandy's money, then I lets fly. They was several hiredgreasers with Dorales, and I reckon I got two-three; ain't right sure. Ionly got Abel glancingly, and when I threw down on Sandy his arms wasboth elevated for safety. All I could decently do was to nick his earso's he'd remember me."
"You didn't kill Dorales?"
"Afraid not." Mrs. Crump sadly shook her head. "I didn't wait to inquirenone, but it looked like I'd only blooded his shoulder and he was layin'low to plug me in the back, so I belted him over the head with the butt,and slid for home."
The sheriff, astounded, emitted a long whistle. "Whew-w!" he said,slowly. "Say, whereabouts did all this happen?"
"Down the Mogollons. Over Arizony way."
"Why didn't ye go west into Arizony, then? After that doin's this statewill be too hot to hold ye----"
"Oh, Sandy won't go to law over the shootin'. It'd make him look tooridic'lous."
The sheriff threw back his head and laughed with all the uproariousabandon of a man who laughs seldom but well.
"Best look out for yourself," he cautioned. "That there Dorales will beon your trail till hell freezes over, ma'am! I sure would admire to seeyou in action on that crowd!"
"You'll see me in action when that there car gets movin' again," sheretorted. "She bucks like a range hoss and kicks to beat hell--why, Icouldn't hardly keep the saddle!"
The sheriff arose and went to the dust-white flivver. He adjusted thespark, cranked, and for a moment listened to the engine before killingit. Then he threw back the hood, and, under the sombre eyes of ThadyShea, worked in silence. At length he finished his task, started theengine again, and with a nod of satisfaction shut it off.
"Thought mebbe so," he stated, rejoining the lady. "Your spark plugs wasfouled. Well, ma'am, what can I be doin' for you?"
"Ye might send me a wire in care of Coravel Tio whenever ye get a lineon Dorales or Mackintavers. I'm fixing to meet them again."
"How come?" demanded the sheriff in surprise.
Mrs. Crump gestured with her pipe toward the flivver.
"I got a sack of ore in there that I found in the lava beds orthereabouts. I suspicions it's one o' these new-fangled things nobodygive a whoop for in the old days, but that draws down the money now. Ifit is, then you can lay that Sandy will hear I've found it, and he'll beafter me to jump the claim."
"He sure does keep a line on prospectors," reflected the sheriff. "Andskins 'em, too, mostly. But he does it legal."
"Yep. If this here stuff is any good, Sam, they's going to be some smoke'fore he gets his paws on it! Where you goin' from here? Back toAlbuquerque?"
"Nope. I got some business up at the capital."
"Will ye tote that ore sack and a letter up to Coravel Tio for me--anddo it strictly under your hat?"
"You bet I will, ma'am!"
Mrs. Crump unstrapped the burlap sack. With the sheriff's pencil andpaper she settled down to write a letter. The process was obviouslypainful and laborious, but at length it was finished. The sheriff shookhands, picked up the sack, and turned to his car. Mrs Crump had alreadyrestored him his revolver.
"Take good care of yourself, ma'am--and your hobo! Adios."
Mrs. Crump watched the trail of dust disappear in the direction of SantaFe, then she turned to the flivver and looked up at Thady Shea.
"They's a new corncob laying in back somewheres. You can have it, Thady.Get out here and settle down for a spell o' talk. If ye act real goodI'll give ye a drink."
"I don't want any," came Shea's muffled voice as he leaned back insearch of the pipe.
"That's a lie. You're fair shaking for liquor and a drop will brace yeup."
Shea procured the pipe, filled and lighted, and promptly assumed, as agarment, his usual histrionic pose. The gulp of liquor which Mrs. Crumpcarefully measured out sent a thin thread of colour into his gaunt,unshaven cheeks.
"Madam, I owe you all," he announced sonorously. "I have not missed theheart of things set forth in this your discourse to the sheriff's ear,and I have gathered that your need is great for the strong arms offriends, the counsel wise----"
"You got it," cut in Mrs. Crump, curtly. "The p'int is, Thady, where doyou come in? Listen here, now! I got a good eye for men; ye ain't muchaccount as ye stand, but ye got the makin's. Now cut out the booze andI'll take ye for partner, savvy? What's more, I'll spend a couple o'weeks attending to it that ye _do_ cut out the booze! I sure need apartner who ain't liable to sell me out to them heathen. Can ye down thebooze, or not?"
Something in her tone cut through the man's posturing like a knife. As amatter of fact, he was miserable in spirit; his soul quivered nakedlybefore him, and he was ashamed. For a space he did not answer, butstared at the far mountains. The strong tragedy of his face wasaccentuated and deepened into utter bitterness.
What Mrs. Crump had only vaguely and darkly seen Thady Shea observedclearly and with wonder; yet, just as she missed the more mystical sideof it, he missed the more practical side. More diverse creatures wearinghuman semblance could scarce have been found than these twain, here metupon a desert upland of New Mexico--the woman, a self-reliantmountaineer and prospector who knew only her own little world
, the man adrunkard, a broken-down "hamfatter," who knew all the outside worldwhich had rejected him. They had come together from different spheres.
As he sat there staring, he mentally and for the last time reviewed thelife that lay behind him; before him uprose all the contemptuous years,the sad wreckage of high hopes and tinsel glories, the hard and wretchedfact of liquor. He would shut it out of his mind forever, after to-day,he thought. He would live in the present only, from day to day. He wouldtry a new life--and let the dead bury their dead!
He turned to Mrs. Crump, his sad and earnest eyes looking oddly cynical.
"I do not think it humanly possible that I can resist liquor," he said,gravely. "I am frank with you. It were easy to swear that I would pluckout drowned honour by the roots--but, madam, I think that this morning Iam weary of swearing. I have tried to abstain, and I cannot. Always itis the first week or two of torture that downs me----
"You're showin' sense, now," said the lady. "Want to try it or not?"
He rose in the car and attempted a bow in his showy and pitiful manner.In this bow, however, was an element of grace, the more pronounced byits sharp contrast to his gaunt, sombre aspect.
"Madam, I am deeply sensible of the compliment you pay me. Yet, inpicking from the gutter a drunken failure, are you wise? I am entirelyignorant of prospecting and----"
"Don't worry none. Ye'll learn that quick enough."
Again Thaddeus bowed. "But, madam, I understand that prospectors go offinto the desert places and live. In justice to yourself, do you notthink that your enemies might seize viciously upon the least excuse formisinterpretation of character----"
For the first time Shea saw Mehitabel Crump gripped in anger. He paused,aghast.
Her gigantic form quivered with rage then stiffened into towering wrath.Her tanned, age-touched features suddenly hardened into sentient bronzefrom which her blue eyes blazed forth terribly, jewelled indices of anindomitable and quick-flaming spirit within.
"Thady Shea, it's well for you them words come from an honest heart,"said she, with a slow and grim emphasis. "They ain't no one goin' to saya word agin' me, except them for what I don't give a tinker's dam; andif one o' them dasts to say it in my hearin', chain lightnin' is goin'to strike quick and sudden! This here territory--state, I mean--knowsMehitabel Crump and has knowed her for some years back. Paste that inyour hat, Thady Shea!"
As some dread lioness hears in dreams the horns and shouts of hunters,and starting erect with bristling front mutters her low and terriblegrowl of challenge, so Mehitabel Crump defiantly faced Thaddeus.
He, poor soul, inwardly cursed his too-nimble tongue, and shrank visiblyfrom the spectacle of wrath. Before the hurt and amazed eyes of him Mrs.Crump suddenly abandoned her righteous attitude. Having palpablyoverawed him, she now felt ashamed of herself.
"There, buck up," she brusquely ordered.
"Tell me, now! If I answer for it that ye stay sober a couple o' weeksor so, will ye make the fight?"
"Yes." Hope fought against despair in Shea's voice; he knew his ownweakness well.
"All right. Let's go, then!"
"We're going to Santa Fe?"
Mrs. Crump advanced to the front of the flivver, and seized the crank.Then she paused, her blue eyes striking up over the radiator at Shea.
"No, I ain't goin' to Santy Fe; neither are you! We're goin' to the mostman-forsaken spot they is in all the world, I reckon. We got grub, andeverything else can wait a couple o' weeks or so. Accordin' to the GoodBook, Providence was mighty rushed about creation, but I ain't in nospecial hurry about makin' a man of you----"
Her words were drowned in the engine's roar. Thaddeus Roscius Shea madehimself as small as possible; Mrs. Crump crowded in under the wheel, thecar swaying to her weight, and they leaped forward.
In silence she drove, pushing the flivver with a speed and abandon whichleft Shea clinging desperately to his seat. Twenty minutes later anintersecting road made its appearance; Mrs. Crump left the highway andfollowed this road due north for a couple of miles. There, coming to aneast-and-west road which was decidedly rough, she headed west.
"This here's the trail to Cochiti pueblo," she announced, enigmatically.
Four miles of this, and she struck an even worse road that headednorthwest. Shea's eyes opened as they progressed. Never in all his lifehad he encountered such grotesque country as this which now lay on everyhand as though evoked by magic--utter desolation of huge rock masses,blistered and calcined by ancient fires, eroded into strange spires andpinnacles of weird formation. To the north towered Dome Rock with itsadjacent crater. No sign of life was anywhere in evidence.
Shea was helplessly gripped by the personality of the woman beside him.Mentally he was overborne and awed; physically he was sick--not ill, butdownright sick, possibly due to the sparse gulps of liquor which he haddowned, possibly to the glaring sun. He cared not whether he lived ordied. He felt that this day had brought him to the end of his rope, andthat nothing more could matter.
"Getting into the lava beds," observed Mrs. Crump, cheerfully. Sheaunderstood her words only dimly. "This here Henry sure does go pokin'where you'd think nothin' short of a mule could live! The trail petersout a bit farther, then we got to hoof it over to the Rio Grande andmake camp."
Poor Shea shivered. The frightful desolation of the scene horrified him.He had never been an outdoor man. His had ever been the weakness, thedependency of the sheltered and civilized being. Contact with thisstrangely primitive woman frightened him. He felt like babbling in histerror, begging to be taken back and allowed to resume his place amongthe swine. Here was something new, awful, incredible! But he held hispeace.
Had he been able to look a few miles ahead; had he foreseen what laybefore him in that camp in White Rock Canon, a place which in grandeurand inaccessibility rivalled the great canon of the Colorado; had heknown that he was about to tread a trail which few white men had everfollowed--in short, had he understood what Mehitabel Crump's plan heldin store for him, he would at that moment have yielded up the ghost,cheerfully!
At last, reaching a sheer incline where boulders larger than the caritself filled all the trail and rendered further progress impossible,Mrs. Crump killed her engine and set her brakes hard.
"I guess Henry can lay here all his life and never be stole," she said,with a sigh of relaxation. "Well, Thady, here we are! D'you know what?It ain't lack of ambition that makes folks mis'able and unsatisfied;it's lack o' purpose. Now, I aim to teach ye some purpose, Thady. Lookat me! I been prospectin' all my life, and still goin' strong, justbecause I got a definite object ahead--to strike it rich somewheres!
"Well, climb down. We got to rig up some grub into packs, hoof it to thenearest canoncito, and reach the Rio Grande. It's less'n two mile in astraight line to water, but twenty 'fore we gets there, if we gets therea-tall. Come on, limber up!"
Thaddeus Roscius Shea groaned inaudibly--but limbered up.