CHAPTER XVI
I DO THE DEED
We had camped well beyond a last bunch of the red-shirted graders, so thatthe thread of a trail wended before, lonely, sand-obscured, leadingapparently nowhere, through this desert devoid of human life. Line stakesof the surveyors denoted the grade; but the surveyors' work was done,here. Rush orders from headquarters had sent them all westward still, toset their final stakes across other deserts and across the mountains,clear to Ogden at the north end of the Salt Lake itself.
Seemingly we had cut loose and were more than ever a world to ourselves.The country had grown sterile beneath ordinary, if possible; and ourthoughts and talk would have been sterile also were it not for that onerecurrent topic which kept them quick. In these journeyings men seize uponlittle things and magnify them; discuss and rediscuss a phase untillaunched maybe as an empty joke it returns freighted with tragedy.
However, now that once My Lady had eliminated herself from my field I didnot see but that Daniel and I might taper off into at least an armedneutrality. If he continued to nag me, it would be wholly of his own freewill. He had no grievance.
Then in case that I did kill him--if kill him I must (and that eventualityhung over me like the sword of Damocles) I should be not ashamed to telleven my mother. In this I took what small comfort I might.
I had not spoken at length with Mrs. Montoyo for several days. We hadexchanged merely civil greetings. To-day I did not see her during themarch; did not attempt to see her--did not so much as curiously glance herway, being content to let well enough alone, although aware that my caremight be misinterpreted as a token of fear. But as to proving the caseagainst me, Daniel was at liberty to experiment with the status in quo.
Toward evening we climbed a second wide, flat divide. We were leaving theRed Basin, they said, and about to cross into the Bitter Creek Plains,which, according to the talk, were "a damned sight wuss!" Somewhere in theBitter Creek Plains our course met the course of the Overland Stage road,trending up from the south for the passage of the Green River at thefarther edge of the Plains.
I had only faint hope that Mrs. Montoyo would be delivered over to thestage there. It scarcely would be her wish. We were destined to travel onto Salt Lake City together--she, Daniel and I.
If the Red Basin had been bad and if the Bitter Creek Plains were to beworse, assuredly this plateau was limbo: a gray, bleak, wind-sweptelevation fairly level and extending, in elevation perceptible mainly bythe vista, as far as eye might see, northward and southward, separatingbasin from basin--one Hell, as Jenks declared, from the other.
Nevertheless there was a wild grandeur in the site, flooded all withcrimson as the sun sank in the clear western sky beyond the Plainsthemselves, so that our plateau was still bathed in ruddy color when theRed Basin upon the one hand had deepened to purple and the white blotchesof soda and alkali down in the Plains upon the other hand gleamed evillyin a tenuous gloaming.
We had corralled adjacent to another tainted pond, of which the animalsrefused to drink but which furnished a little rank forage for them and anoasis for a half dozen ducks. A pretty picture these made, too, as theylightly sat the open water, burnished to brass by the sunset so that thesurface shimmered iridescent, its ripples from the floating bodies flowingmolten in all directions.
After supper I took the notion to go over there, in the twilight, on idleexploration. Water of any kind had an appeal; a solitary pond always has;the ducks brought thoughts of home. Many a teal and widgeon and canvasbackhad fallen to my double-barreled Manton, back on the Atlantic coast--verylong ago, before I had got entangled in this confounded web ofmisadventure and homicidal tendencies.
To the pond I went, mood subdued. It set slightly in a cup; and when I hademerged from a little swale or depression that I had followed, attractedby the laughter of children playing at the marge, whom should I see,approaching on line diagonal, but Mrs. Montoyo--her very hair andform--coming in likewise, perhaps with errand similar to mine: simpleinclination.
And that (again perhaps) was a mutual surprise, indeed awkward to me, forwe both were in plain sight from the camp. Certainly I could not turn off,nor turn back. Not now. It was make or break. Hesitate I did, withinvoluntary action of muscles; I thought that she momentarily hesitated;then I drove on, defiant, and so did she. The fates were resolved thatthere should be no dilly-dallying by the principals chosen for this dramathat they had staged.
Our obstinate paths met at the base of a small point white with alkali,running shortly into the sedges. Had we timed by agreement beforehand wecould not have acted with more precision. So here we halted, in narrowquarters, either willing but unable to yield to the other.
She smiled. I thought that she looked thinner.
"An unexpected pleasure, Mr. Beeson. At least, for me. It has been somedays."
"I believe it has," I granted. "Shall I pass on?"
"You might have turned aside."
"And so," I reminded, "might you."
"But I didn't care to."
"Neither did I, madam. The pond is free to all."
I was conscious that a hush seemed to have gripped the whole camp, so thateven the animals had ceased bawling. The children near us stared, eyes andmouths open.
"You have kept away from me purposely?" she asked. "I do not blame yourdiscretion."
"I am not courting trouble. And as long as you are contented yonder----"
"I contented?" She drew up, paling. "Why do you say that, when you mustknow." She laughed weakly. "I am still for the Lion's den."
"You have become more reconciled--I've been requested not to interfere."
"You? Without doubt. By Daniel, by Captain Adams, likely by others. Morethan requested, I fancy. And you do perfectly right to avoid trouble ifpossible. In fact, you can leave me now and continue your walk, sir, withno reproaches. Believe me, I shall not drag you farther into my affairs."
"Daniel and Captain Adams have no weight with me, madam," I stammered."But when you yourself requested----"
"That was merely for the time being. I asked you to leave me at the firebecause I felt sure that Daniel would kill you."
"But yesterday evening--I refer to yesterday," I corrected. "You sent meword, following my talk with Hyrum."
"I did not."
"Not by Rachael?"
"No, sir."
"I so understood. I thought that she intimated as much. She said that youwere to be happy; were already content. And that I would only be makingyou trouble if I continued our acquaintance."
"Oh! Rachael." She smiled with sudden softness. "Rachael cannotunderstand, either. I'm sure she intended well, poor soul. Were they alllike Rachael---- But I had no knowledge of her talk with you. Anyway,please leave me if you feel disposed. Whether I marry Daniel or not shouldbe no concern of yours. I shall have to find my own trail out. Look! Therego the ducks. I came down to watch them. Now neither of us has any excusefor staying. Good----"
The hush had tightened into a strange pent stillness like the poise ofearth and sky and beast and bird just before the breaking of a great andlowering storm. The quick clatter of the ducks' wings somehow alarmedme--the staring of the children, their eyes directed past us, sharpened mysenses for a new focus. And glancing, I witnessed Daniel nearing--stridingrapidly, straight for the point, a figure portentous in the fading glow,bringing the storm with him.
She saw, too. Her eyes widened, startled, surveying not him, but me.
"Please go. At once! I'll keep him."
"It is too late now," I asserted, in voice not mine. "I am here first andI'll go when I get ready."
"You mean to face him?"
"I mean to hear what he has to say, and learn what he intends to do. Idon't see any other way--unless you really wish me to go?"
"No, no!" cried My Lady. "I don't want you to be harmed; but oh, how Ihave suffered." All her countenance was suffused--with anger, with shame,and even with hope. She trembled, gazing at me, and fluctuant.
"So have I, madam,"
said I, grimly.
"I think," she remarked in quiet tone, "that in a show-down you will besthim. I'm sure of it; yes, I know it. You will play the man. You act cool.Good! Watch him very close. He'll give you little grace, this time. Butremember this: I'll never, never, never marry him. Rather than be bound tohim I'll deal with him myself."
"It won't be necessary, madam," said I--a catch in my throat; for while Iwas all iciness and clamminess, my hands cold and my tongue dry, I feltthat I was going to kill him at last. Something told me; the sheer horrorof it struck through; the inevitable loomed grisly and near indeed.
A panoramic lifetime crowds the brain of a drowning man; that same crowdedmy brain during the few moments which swung in to us Daniel, scowling,masterful, his raw bulk and his long shambling stride never before soinsolent.
From New York and home and peace I traveled clear here to desert, outlawryand blood--and thence on through a second life as a marked man; but whileI knew very well where I should shoot him (right through the heart), Iturned over and over the one doubtful pass: where would he shoot me? Shootme he would--chest, shoulder, arm, head; I could not escape, did not hopeto escape. Yet no matter where his ball ploughed (and I poignantly felt itenter and sear me) my final bullet would end the match. Also, I argued myrights in the business; argued them before my father and mother, beforethe camp, before the world.
These thoughts which precede a certain duel to the death are not inspiringthoughts; since then I have learned that other men, even practicedgun-men, have had the same trepidation to the instant of pulling weapon.
Daniel charged in for us. I did not touch revolver butt; he did not. MyLady lifted chin, to receive him. My eyes, fastened upon him, noted her,and noted, beyond us, the spying visages of the camp folk, all turned ourway, transfixed and agog.
He barked first at her.
"Go whar yu belong, yu Jezebel! Then I'll tend to this----" The rabidepithet leveled at me I shall not repeat.
She straightened whitely.
"Be careful what you say, Daniel. No man on this earth can speak to melike that."
All his face flushed livid with a sneer, merging together yellow frecklesand tanned skin.
"Can't, can't he? I kin an' I do. Why yu--yu--yu reckon yu kin shame me'fore that hull train? Yu sneak out this-away, meetin' this spindle-shank,no-'count States greenie who hain't sense enough to swing a bull whip an'ain't man enough to draw a gun? I've told yu an' I'm done tellin' yu. Nowyu git. I've stood yore fast an' loose plenty. I mean business. Git! Wharyu'll be safe. I'll not hold off much longer."
"You threaten _me_?"
Her blue eyes were blazing above a spot of color in either cheek--with agrowl he took a step, so that she shrank from his clutching hand, itsscarred, burly fingers outcurved. And the time, perhaps the very momenthad arrived. I must, I must.
"No more of that, you brute," I uttered, while my pounding heart floodedme with a cold, tingling stream. "If you have anything to say, say it tome."
He whirled.
"Yu! Why, yu leetle piece o' nothin'--yu shut up!" By sudden reach hegripped her arm; to her sharp, short scream he thrust her about.
"Git! I'm boss hyar." And at me: "What yu goin' to do? She's promised tome. I'm takin' keer of her; she's rode on my wagon; an' naow yu think totoll her off? Yu meet her ag'in right under my nose arter I've warned yu?Git, yoreself, or I'll stomp on yu like on a louse."
Absolutely, hot tears of mortification, of bitter injury, showed in hisglaring eyes. He was but a big boy, after all.
"Our meeting here was entirely by accident," I answered. "Mrs. Montoyo hadno expectation of seeing me, nor I of seeing her. You're making a fool ofyourself."
He burst, red, quivering, insensate.
"Yu're a liar! Yu're a sneakin', thievin' liar, like all Gentiles. Yu'reboth o' yu liars. What's she?" And he spoke it, raving with insult. "ButI'll tame her. She'll be snatched from yu an' yore kind. We'll settlenaow. Yu're a liar, I say. Yu gonna draw on me? Draw, yu Gentile dog; forif I lay hands on yu once----"
"Look out!" she gasped tensely. But she had spoken late. That cold bloodwhich had kept me in a tremor and a wonderment, awaiting his pistolmuzzle, exploded into a seethe of heat almost blinding me. I forgotinstructions, I disregarded every movement preliminary to the onset, Iremembered only the criminations and recriminations culminating here atlast. Bullets were too slow and easy. I did not see his revolver, I sawbut the hulk of him and the intolerable sneer of him, and that his fleshwas ready to my fingers. And quicker than his hand I was upon him, intohim, climbing him, clinging to him, arms binding him, legs twining aroundhis, each ounce of me greedy to crush him down and master him.
The shock drove him backward. Again My Lady screamed shortly; the childrenscreamed. He proved very strong. Swelling and tugging and cursing he brokeone grip, but I was fast to him, now with guard against his holstered gun.We swayed and staggered, grappling hither and thither. I had his armspinioned once more, to bend him. He spat into my face; and shifting, sethis teeth into my shoulder so that they champed like the teeth of a horse,through shirt and hide to the flesh. I raised him; his boots hammered atmy shins, his knee struck me in the stomach and for an instant I sickened.Now I tripped him; we toppled together, came to the ground with a thump.Here we churned, while he flung me and still I stuck. The acrid dust ofthe alkali enveloped us. Again he spat, fetid--I sprawled upon him,smothering his flailing arms; gave him all my weight and strength; smelledthe sweat of him, snarled into his snarling face, close beneath mine.
Once he partially freed himself and buffeted me in the mouth with hisfist, but I caught him--while struggling, tossed and upheaved, dimly sawthat as by a miracle we were surrounded by a ring of people, men andwomen, their countenances pale, alarmed, intent. Voices sounded in a dullroar.
Presently I had him crucified: his one outstretched arm under my knees,his other arm tethered by my two hands, my body across his chest, whilehis legs threshed vainly. I looked down into his bulging crooked eyes,glaring back presumably into my eyes, and might draw breath.
"'Nuf? Cry "Nuf,'" I bade.
"'Nuf! Say "Nuf,'" echoed the crowd.
He strained again, convulsive; and relaxed.
"'Nuf!" he panted through bared teeth. "Lemme up, Mister."
"This settles it?"
"I said "Nuf,'" he growled.
With quick movement I sprang clear of him, to my feet. He lay for amoment, baleful, and slowly scrambled up. On a sudden, as he faced me, hishand shot downward--I heard the surge and shout of men and women, to thestunning report of his revolver ducked aside, felt my left arm jerk andsting--felt my own gun explode in my hand (and how it came there I did notknow)--beheld him spin around and collapse; an astonishing sight.