CHAPTER XVII
Upon the highest ridge between the camp and old Peter's basin Hope andthe twins met Ned riding slowly along, his sturdy little legs drawn upinto the straps of a man's saddle. He had an old, discarded felt hat ofhis father's, several sizes too large for him, pulled down until hisears laid flat along the brim. From under its wide, dingy expanse hissharp, little black eyes peered out inquisitively. In imitation of acertain French breed whom he greatly admired, a large red handkerchiefwas knotted about his waist.
He made a picturesque little figure in the bright sunlight as he rodeleisurely toward them.
"Where've you all been?" he called at the top of his boyish treble. "Youboys're goin' to catch it if you don't bring in those cows beforedark!"
"Who told you?" roared Dave.
"The old man told me to come an' look you fellers up. Where've youbeen?" inquired the child, riding up alongside and swinging his horseinto pace with the others.
"Now you want to find out something," said Dan complacently.
"I don't _care_ where you've been," said the child indignantly, "butyou'd better be roundin' in them cows or you'll catch it!"
Hope rode up beside him. "I'm sorry you weren't home when we left. We'vebeen over at my cousin's camp. The next time you shall go along."
"Let's go to-morrow," suggested the boy eagerly, to which amusingproposition she immediately agreed. "Say," he continued, "I seen LongBill and some o' them fellers drive in a bunch of mavericks off'n therange, an' they're goin' to brand 'em back of old Peter's this evenin'.There was a cow with an O Bar brand on her, followed 'em all the waydown, bellerin' an' makin' a big fuss, an' they can't get rid of her.They give me a half a dollar to drive her back, but she turned so quickI couldn't do nothin' with her, so I thought I'd just let 'em take careof her themselves."
"Are you sure about that brand?" asked Hope quickly.
"Sure as anything," replied the boy. "Why?"
"I think you must be mistaken," she told him. "For it would be veryqueer if one of my father's cows should be following a stray maverick upto old Peter's place."
"I'll tell you something," whispered the boy, leaning toward her. "Theywasn't yearlings at all, they was bringin' in, only big calves."
Her face darkened savagely. "Come," she exclaimed, "I'm going to see formyself!"
"Tattle-tale!" cried the sweet-voiced twin. "Now you'll get us into ascrape for tellin'. I'll lick you for this!"
The girl turned her horse sharply about, stopped it short, facing themfiercely.
"You coward!" she exclaimed. "That child didn't know what he wastelling! He's honest. If either of you touch him, or say one unkind wordto him about this, I'll make you smart for it!"
"I didn't mean nothin'," declared the soft-voiced twin suavely.
"Well, I guess you didn't if you know what's good for you!" sheexclaimed, still angry. "Now what are you going to do about it, go homelike babies, or stand by me and do what I tell you?"
"You bet I'll stand by you!" roared Dave.
"I reckon you're our captain, ain't you?" said the other sweetly.
"I'm a scout, I am!" exclaimed the boy, Ned, riding close beside her.
She mused for a moment with darkening eyes, putting her elbow upon thesaddle's horn and resting her chin in the hollow of her hand.
"It's all right," she said at length deliberately. "Ned will show youwhere the cow is, and you boys drive it up to old Peter's corral just asquickly as you can ride. Don't let anyone see you. When you have donethat, go up to the school-house and wait there for me. Now hurry, anddon't let anyone see you drive in that cow. Go around this other side ofold Peter's."
She motioned her hand for them to go, and waited until they were out ofsight, then rode on to the school coulee which led into old Peter'sbasin. It was a long, roundabout way, but her horse covered the groundrapidly.
From the hill behind the school-house she saw Livingston driving back tohis ranch. She stood out in full relief against the green hillside, andif he had glanced in that direction must surely have seen her. From thatdistance she could not tell if he had done so or not. She wondered whathe would think if he saw her there alone. Then to get sooner out ofsight she ran her horse at full speed up the school coulee toward oldPeter's basin.
Livingston saw her quite plainly; from that distance there was nomistaking her. Then he proceeded to do a very unwise thing. He put hishorses to their full speed, reached his stables in a few moments, threwhis saddle on his best horse and set out in the direction the girl hadtaken.
Hope made her way quickly up to the top of the divide, then skirmishedfrom brush patch to brush patch, keeping well out of sight until shereached the brush-covered entrance of Peter's basin. There she had aplain view of the small cabin, the rude stable, and corral, withoutherself being observed by the occupants of the place, and there shesettled herself to wait the appearance of the cow, whose queer actionshad been reviewed to her.
It was difficult to believe that she was actually in the midst of cattlethieves, though the suspicion had more than once crossed her mind.
She held that class of men in the utmost loathing, and felt herself tobe, now, in the actual discovery of the crime, a righteous instrument inthe arm of justice.
The unmistakable figure of Long Bill loafed serenely in the doorway; oldPeter hobbled about, in and out of the house, while back near the corrala man was carrying an armful of wood. This man the girl watched withparticular interest. He took the sticks to one side of the corral, andgetting down upon his knees proceeded to arrange them on the ground inmethodical order, into the shape of a small pyramid. That done to hissatisfaction, he lounged back to the cabin and took a seat beside LongBill in the doorway.
Presently all three men went back to the corral, and looked over therails at several small creatures which were running about the enclosure.
"Them ain't bad-lookin' fellers," Long Bill was saying.
Hope, from her position in the brush, tried to imagine what they weretalking about, for the distance was too great to carry the sound oftheir voices.
"I reckon we might as well git 'em branded an' have it over with,"suggested Shorty Smith, the third man of the party.
"I reckon we might as well," replied Long Bill. Old Peter shook his headdoubtfully.
"Go ahead," he grunted. "But remember I don't know nothin' about thesehere calves! You're just usin' my corral here to-day, an' the devil keepyour skins if you git caught!"
"Oh, I don't know!" drawled Shorty Smith.
"Well, I know!" roared the old man. "If you can't take my advice an' putthis here thing off till after dark you kin take the consequences.Anybody's likely to ride along here, an' I'd like to know what kind of ayarn you'd have to tell!"
"Now you know them calves 're yourn," drawled Shorty Smith, in anaggravating tone, as he climbed up and seated himself on the top pole ofthe corral. "You know them 're yourn, every blame one, an' their mothers're back in the hills there!"
"Your cows all had twins, so you picked out these here ones to wean 'em,if anybody should ask," said Long Bill, continuing the sport.
The old man uttered a string of oaths.
"Not much you don't pan 'em off onto me!" he exclaimed. "My cows ain'thavin' twins this year!"
"Some of Harris' has got triplets," mused Shorty Smith, at which LongBill laughed, exclaiming:
"Been lary ever since them stock-inspectors was up here last fall, ain'tyou? Before that some o' your cows had a half a dozen calves. I should'a' thought you had more grit'n that, Peter!"
The old man cursed some more. Shorty Smith jumped down from his highperch and fetched a long, slender rod of iron from between two logs ofthe cow-shed.
"Might as well git down to business," he said as he threw the brandingiron on the ground beside the symmetrical pyramid of fire-wood, which heproceeded to ignite.
"Let up, old man," growled Long Bill, "I'll take the blame o' the wholeconcern an' you ken rake in your share in the fall without anyinterferen
ce whatsomever."
"Don't git scared, Peter, you ain't got long to live on this hereplanet, nohow, so you can finish your days in peace. If there's any timeto be served we'll do it for you," drawled Shorty.
"That's what I call a mighty generous proposition," remarked Long Bill,as he coiled up his rope. "We'll just git the orniments on theseinnocent creatures an' shut 'em up in the shed fer a spell."
"Yes, yes! Git the job over with if you ain't goin' to wait till aftersundown," exclaimed old Peter nervously.
They set to work at once, roping, throwing, and putting a running brandon the frightened calves. As each one was finished to the satisfactionof the operator it was put into the cow-shed nearby--a rude sort ofstable, where it was turned loose and the door securely fastened on theoutside with a large wooden peg.
They had been working industriously for perhaps half an hour when oldPeter glanced up from the calf upon which he was sitting and encounteredHope Hathaway's quiet eyes watching them interestedly. She stood besidethe cow-shed but a few feet away, and held her horse by the bridle.
"Good God!" screamed the old man, nearly losing his balance. "Where didyou come from?"
The other men, whose backs were toward her, glanced about quickly, thenproceeded in well assumed unconcern with the work upon which they wereengaged.
"I hope I'm not intruding," said the girl.
"Not at all," replied Shorty Smith politely. "It ain't often we'refavored by the company of wimmen folks."
"Those are fine-looking calves you've got there," observed the girl.
"Pretty fair," replied Shorty Smith, assisting the animal to its feet.
The visitor stepped to one side while he dragged it into the shed andclosed the door, fastening it with the peg. Then Long Bill proceeded tothrow another victim with as much coolness as though Hope had not beenthere with her quiet eyes taking in every detail.
Old Peter had not uttered a word since his first involuntaryexclamation, and though visibly agitated, proceeded in a mechanicalmanner to assist with the branding, but he kept his head down and hiseyes obstinately averted from the girl's.
Nearly a dozen had been branded, and only one, besides the last victimalready thrown to the ground, remained in the corral.
Hope's whole attention was apparently taken up with the branding, whichshe watched with great interest. Old Peter gradually regained hisequilibrium, while Long Bill and Shorty Smith had begun to congratulatethemselves that their spectator was most innocent and harmless. Yet asHope moved quietly back to her position beside the rude stable buildingshe not only observed the three men intent upon the branding, but notedthe approach of a large cow which had appeared from the right-handcoulee about the time she left her hiding-place in the brush.
If the men had not been so busy they would undoubtedly have seen thisparticular cow coming on steadily toward the corral, now but a roddistant. They would have noticed, too, the girl's hand leave her sidelike a flash and remove the large, smooth peg from where Shorty Smithhad hastily inserted it in the building. They would have seen the stabledoor open slowly by its own weight, and then the peg quickly replaced.What they did notice was that Miss Hathaway came very near to them, soclose that she leaned over old Peter's shoulders to observe the smoking,steaming operation.
For a moment she stood there quietly, then all at once exclaimed in somesurprise:
"Why, your calves are all out!" Instantly the greatest consternationreigned, then old Peter hobbled to his feet with an oath.
"Every blamed one," said Shorty Smith. "How 'n blazes did that happen?"
"I reckon you didn't put that peg in right," drawled Long Bill.
"Look!" screamed old Peter, pointing at the large cow that had comenearer and had picked out from the assortment of calves one of which itclaimed absolute possession. It was at this unfortunate moment thatLivingston, quite unobserved, rode into Peter's basin.
"I'll help you drive them in," volunteered Hope, instantly mounting herhorse and riding into their midst. Then a queer thing followed. OldPeter, with a cat-like motion, sprang toward her and covered her with asix-shooter.
"Git off'n my place, you she-devil!" he cried, his face livid with rageand fear.
"Good God, don't shoot, you fool!" cried Shorty Smith, while Long Billmade a stride toward the frenzied old man.
Livingston's heart stood still. He was some distance away and, as usual,unarmed. For an instant he stopped short, paralyzed by the sight. Thenthe girl wheeled her horse suddenly about as if to obey the command. Asshe did so a report rang out and old Peter, with the flesh ripped fromwrist to elbow, rolled over in a convulsed heap. It was all so suddenthat it seemed unreal. Hope sat on her quivering horse, motionless,serene, holding in her hand a smoking revolver.
Long Bill and his companion stood like statues, dumfounded for theinstant, but Livingston, with a bound, was at the girl's side, his facewhite, his whole being shaken.
"Thank God!" he cried in great tenderness. "You are all right!"
"What made you come here?" she exclaimed in sudden nervousness, whichsounded more like impatience.
Then their eyes met. Her own softened, then dropped, until they restedupon the gun in her hand. A flush rose to her face and her heart beatstrangely, for in his eyes she had seen the undisguised love of a great,true soul. For an instant she was filled with the wild intoxication ofit, then the present situation, which might now involve him, returned toher with all its seriousness. The danger must be averted at once, shedecided, before he learned the actual truth.
"Poor old man!" she exclaimed. Then turned to Long Bill and hiscompanion. "I'm awfully sorry I had to hurt him, but he actually made menervous! I had an idea he was crazy, but I never believed he wasperfectly mad. He ought to be watched constantly and all dangerousweapons kept away from him. Didn't you know he was dangerous?"
Shorty Smith suddenly rose to meet the situation.
"I knowed he was crazy," he said, "but I didn't know he was as plumblocoed as that."
"Well, he's out of business for awhile," remarked the girl. "You boysbetter bandage up his arm and carry him into the house. I'll send overold Mother White Blanket when I get back. I guess you can get in thecalves by yourselves all right, for really I feel very shaken and Ithink I'll go right home. You'll go with me, won't you, Mr. Livingston.But the poor old crazy man! You boys will take good care of him, won'tyou--and let me know if I can be of any assistance."
"Well, what do yo' think?" asked Shorty Smith, as Hope and her companiondisappeared from the basin.
"What'd I think?" exclaimed Long Bill. "I think we've been pretty badly_done_!"
"Oh, I don't know," drawled Shorty Smith, "I reckon she ain't goin' tosay nothin' about _me_!"