The Heritage of the Hills

  CHAPTER V

  "AND I'LL HELP YOU!"

  What Jessamy Selden told Oliver Drew of the Poison Oakers was about thesame as he had heard from Damon Tamroy.

  She used his sawbuck for a seat, and sat with one booted ankle restingon a knee, idly spinning the rowel of her spur as she talked. Oliverlistened without interruption until she finished and once more levelledthat straightforward glance at him.

  "The cows have been down below on winter pasture," she added. "AdamSelden and the boys rode out yesterday to start the spring drive intothe foothills. You'll awake some morning soon to find red cattle allabout you, and they'll be here till August."

  "Well," he said, "I don't know that I shall mind them. My fence ispretty fair, and with a little more repairing will turn them, I think."

  She twirled her rowel in silence for a time, her eyes fixed on it. Thenshe said:

  "It isn't that, Mr. Drew. I may as well tell you right now what I camedown here purposely to tell you. You're not wanted here. All of thisland has been abandoned so long that Adam Selden and the gang have cometo consider it their property--or at least free range."

  "But they'll respect my right of ownership."

  "I don't know--I don't know. I'm afraid they won't. They're a law untothemselves down in here. They'll try to run you out."

  "How?"

  "Any way--every way. If nothing else occurs to them, they'll begin astudied system of persecution with the idea of making you so sick ofyour bargain that you'll pull stakes and hit the trail. That poor manDodd! Mr. Tamroy told me you happened into the saloon in time to see theshooting. Wasn't it terrible! And how they persecuted him--fairly drovehim into the rash act that cost him his life!"

  She lifted her glance again. "Mr. Tamroy tells me that you were shockedat me that day."

  "I guess I didn't fully understand the circumstances."

  "I did," she firmly declared, her lips setting in what would have been agrim smile but for the dimples that came with it. "I understood thesituation," she went on. "Digger Foss had been waiting for just thatchance. There's just enough Indian and Chinese blood in him to make hima fatalist. He's therefore deadly. Has no fear of death. He's cruel,merciless. I knew when I saw Henry Dodd covering him with that gun that,if he didn't finish what he'd started, he was a dead man. He couldn'teven have backed off gracefully, keeping Digger covered, and got awayalive. Digger is so quick on the draw, and his aim is so deadly. He's amaster gunman. Even had Dodd succeeded in getting away then, he wouldhave been a marked man. He had thrown down on Digger Foss. Digger wouldhave got the drop on him next time they met and killed him as you woulda coyote. So in my excitement I rushed in with my well meant warning,and--Oh, it was horrible!"

  "And you meant actually for Dodd to kill Foss?"

  Her black eyes dilated, and an angry flush blended with the tan on hercheeks.

  "It was one or the other of them," she told him coldly. "Mr. Dodd was anhonest, plodding man--a good citizen. Foss is a renegade. Was I so verybloodthirsty in trying to make the best of a bad situation by choosing,on the spur of the moment, which man ought to live on? I'm not thefainting kind of woman, Mr. Drew. One must be practical, if he can, evenover matters like that."

  "I'm not condemning," he said. "I'm only wondering that a woman could beso practical in such a situation."

  "Digger Foss hasn't seen me since then," she observed. "He's in jail,awaiting trial, at the county seat. He'll be acquitted, of course. I'mwondering what he'll have to say to me when he is free again."

  Oliver said nothing to this.

  "I must be going," she declared, rising suddenly. "As I said, I camedown to warn you to be on your guard against the Poison Oakers."

  He caught her pony and led it to her. She swung into the saddle, thenslued toward him, leaned an elbow on the horn and rested her chin in thepalm of her hand. Once more that direct gaze of her frank black eyeslooked him through and through.

  "Well," she asked, "will the Poison Oakers run you off?"

  "Oh, I think not," he laughed lightly.

  "They'll be ten against one, Mr. Drew."

  "There's law in the land."

  "Yes, there's law," she mused. "But it's so easy for unscrupulous peopleto get around the law. They can subject you to no end of persecution,and you won't even be able to prove that one of them is behind it."

  She looked him over deliberately.

  "I'm glad you've come," she said. "You're an educated man, and blessedwith a higher order of character than has been anybody else who stood tocross the Poison Oakers. Somehow, I feel that you are destined to betheir undoing. They must be corralled and their atrocities brought to anend. You must be the one to put the quietus on that gang. And I'll helpyou. Good-bye!"

  She lifted the white mare into a lope, opened the gate, rode through andclosed it without leaving the saddle, then, waving back at him,disappeared in the chaparral.