Prairie Flowers Page 4

  CHAPTER III

  THE STAGE ARRIVES

  The Timber City stage creaked and rattled as the horses toiled up thelong slope of the Dog Creek divide. The driver dozed on his seat, hiseyes protected from the glare of the hot June sun by the wide brim ofhis hat, opened mechanically at intervals to glance along the white,dusty trail. Inside, Winthrop Adams Endicott smiled as he noted theeager enthusiasm with which his young wife scanned the panorama ofmountains and plain that stretched endlessly away to disappear in ajumble of shimmering heat waves.

  "Oh, Win! Don't you just _love_ it? The big black mountains with theirgirdles of green timber, the miles, and miles, and miles of absoluteemptiness, the smell of the sage--yes, and the very rattle of this bumpyold stage!"

  Endicott laughed: "I believe you do love it----"

  "Love it! Of course I love it! And so do you love it! And you were justas crazy about coming as I was--only you wouldn't admit it. It's just asTex said that day way up on top of Antelope Butte. He was speaking ofyou and he said: 'He'll go back East and the refinement will cover himup again--and that's a damned shame. But he won't be just the same,because the prejudice is gone. He's chewed the meat of the cow countryand found it good.' I've always remembered that, and it's true--you arenot just the same, dear," she reached over and took his hand in both ofhers. "And, oh, Win--I'm glad--glad!"

  Endicott smiled as he raised the slim hand to his lips: "Considerable ofa philosopher--Tex. And cowboy par excellence. I hope we can find him.If we buy the ranch I've been counting on him to manage it."

  "We've got to find him! And dear Old Bat, too! And, Win, won't it bejust _grand_? We'll live out here in the summer and in the winter we'llgo to New York and Florida, and we'll never, never go back to oldHalf-Way Between. The place fairly reeks of soap and whisky--and I don'tcare if their old soap does float!"

  Again, Endicott laughed: "I suppose it will do us lots of good. I'llprobably spend my days in the saddle and come home smelling of horses,and covered with alkali dust."

  "Horses smell better than gas, anyway, and alkali dust is cleaner thancoal-soot. Look, Win, quick! A family of Indians camped beside thetrail--see the scrawny, sneaky-looking dogs and the ponies with theirfeet tied together, and the conical tepee. And, oh, on that redblanket--the darlingest little brown papoose! I can hardly wait to getinto my riding clothes and gallop for miles! And, Win, dear, you've justgot to promise me that if we do buy the ranch, you'll never bring amotor out here--not even a roadster--it would spoil everything!"

  "Don't set your heart too strongly on buying that ranch," cautioned herhusband.

  "But the man said he'd sell at a reasonable figure."

  "Yes, but you must remember that a 'reasonable figure', when you'retalking about an outfit that runs ten thousand head of cattle mounts upinto big money. It all depends upon the terms."

  "Well, if he wants to sell his old ranch, he'd be foolish to haggle overa little thing like terms. Some way, I just feel it in my bones thatwe're going to buy. A woman has intuition--you wait and see."

  "Colston was to meet us at Timber City today, and tomorrow we'll rideout and look over the ranch. Do you think you're up to a sixty-mileride?"

  "Sixty! I could ride six hundred!" The brake-shoes creaked as the driverdrew his horses up for a breathing spell at the top of the divide."See!" Alice cried, pointing far out into the foothills. "There isTimber City, with its little wooden buildings huddled against the pinesexactly as it was a year ago today when we looked back at it from thisvery spot. And way beyond you can see the river glistening in the sun,and beyond that are the bad lands." Involuntarily she shuddered: "It'sall as vivid as though it had happened yesterday--the dust storm, andthe terrible thirst--only you and Tex cheated and gave me all thewater."

  Endicott nodded: "I don't think we'll ever forget it--it was a mightyclose call for all of us." The stage descended the long slope and woundin and out among the foothills, its two occupants contenting themselveswith watching the lazy wheeling of the buzzards against the blue, andthe antics of the prairie dogs that scolded and chickered at the stage,only to dive incontinently into their holes at its approach. The littlesteepleless church loomed up before them, and Endicott glanced at hiswatch: "Four o'clock," he announced, "I wonder if Colston is waiting?"

  "Well, if he is, he can wait a little longer," smiled Alice. "Becausethe first thing we do after we have removed some of this dust, will beto go right over and call on the Camerons--there's the cottage now,dear--just think, a year ago today we stood in that little corner roomand Mr. Cameron pronounced the words that made us two the happiestpeople in the world--stop--please--Win! We're right in town! And if wehurry we can be there at the very same hour and minute we were therelast year."

  The stage drew up at the door of the little wooden hotel. The drivertossed his reins to the hostlers who were waiting with fresh horses,threw off the mail pouch, and lowered the express box to the groundwhere it was receipted for by the agent, who was also the post-master,and the proprietor of the hotel.

  Endicott approached that dignitary who, mail pouch in hand, was gazingtoward a little knot of men farther down the street: "I want to engagetwo rooms and a bath," he explained.

  The man favoured him with a glance of surprise. "Goin' to stop over?" hequeried.

  "Yes, my wife and I shall be here over night."

  "Married? What d'ye want of two rooms, then? Have 'em if you want 'em.Cost you more--'tain't none of my business. Take them two frontones--head of the stairs. Just give a hand an' we'll git yer trunk up,an' quick as the old woman gits the worsh out you c'n have a tub ofwater--that'll be four-bits extry, though--an' a dollar if I've got tofill it up twict." As they descended the stairs the man's eyes soughtthe group down the street: "Must be somethin's comin' off down to theRed Front. The boys ain't missed a mail sence the day they strung up RedKelley, an' that's seven year ago, come August the fourth----"

  "Fifth," corrected the stage driver who stood in the doorway.

  "They brung Red in on the fourth, an' some of the boys hadn't got inyet, an' they didn't git in till after dark, so they helt Red over----"

  "That was the third----"

  "'Twasn't neither! I'd ort to know--it was the day my off leader throw'dhis nigh fore shoe----"

  Alice was manifesting impatience, and Endicott interrupted with aquestion: "Is Mr. W. S. Colston here?"

  "Colston? You mean Y Bar Colston? Yer right, Slim, it was the fifth,'cause I got a tooth pulled that same day, bein' as the dentist had rodeover from Judith to see the hangin'. Why, no, Y Bar ain't here. He gitshis mail an' trades over to Claggett."

  "He was to meet me here today."

  "Well, today ain't over yet. If Y Bar said he'd be here, he'll be here.Jest go in an' make yerselves to home. You can't count on that tub foran hour er so yet, so if you want to worsh up, go right on through an'you'll find the worsh dish on the bench beside the pump--an', if thetowel's crusty from the boy's worshin' up this noon, tell the old womanI said to hang up a clean one."

  "Hurry, Win!" cried the girl as she gave her face a final rub with theclean towel. "We've got just time enough to get into our riding togs. Weboth look like awful 'pilgrims' and besides, I want it to be just likeit was last year."

  A quarter of an hour later they were receiving a cordial welcome fromthe Reverend Cameron and his wife at the door of the little cottagebeside the church. "We were speaking of you today," said the minister'swife "and wondering how your romance turned out."

  "No need to ask," laughed her husband, as he followed them into thelittle living room.

  "You see," cried Alice, pointing to the clock, "we arrived at almost theexact moment we did a year ago--" she started slightly as a volley ofshots sounded down the street. "Oh!" she cried. "They're shootingsomeone!"

  Cameron shook his head: "No," he smiled, "we've learned that it is thesingle shots or one and then another, that mean trouble. When they comein volleys that way it means that some cowboy is 'celebrating' down atthe Red Front. When
there are cowboys in town and they are singing, orracing their horses up and down the street, or shooting into the air orthe ceiling, we know they're all right. Of course, one could wish thatthey wouldn't drink--but, if they must drink, by all means let's havethe noise with it. If cowboys are drinking and silent, trouble followsas surely as night follows day."

  "Maybe it's Mr. Colston," giggled Alice.

  "Colston, of the Y Bar," smiled Cameron, "no I think we can eliminateColston. Do you know him?"

  Endicott shook his head: "No, except through correspondence. I was tomeet him here today on business."

  Cameron regarded him with sudden interest: "I heard in Lewiston, acouple of weeks ago, that the Y Bar might change hands and, frankly Iwill tell you that I was sorry to hear it."

  "Why?" asked Endicott.

  The minister frowned thoughtfully: "Well, Y Bar Colston has been a powerin this country, and if the wrong man were to step into his place theremight be no end of trouble."

  "What kind of trouble?"

  "Sheep and cattle. The Y Bar outfit has been a sort of buffer betweenthe two factions. If a rabid cattleman stepped in it would immediatelymean war, and if a weakling were to take Colston's place the resultwould be the same, because the sheep-men would immediately proceed totake advantage of him and encroach on the cattle range, and then thecowboys would take matters into their own hands and we'd have arepetition of the Johnson County War--sheep slaughtered by the thousandsupon the range, dead cattle everywhere, herders murdered and theirbodies left in the ashes of their burned camp wagons, and cowboys shotfrom ambush as they rode the range. I tell you, Mr. Endicott, I don'tenvy the man that succeeds Colston as owner of the Y Bar."

  Endicott smiled: "Thank you for the tip. It may, or may not interest youto know that, if the business can be satisfactorily arranged, I myself,am about to assume that unenviable position."

  "And the best of luck to you," said Cameron, heartily, as he extendedhis hand. "What one man has done another can do, but your job will be nosinecure. But, come, we're not going to permit you to return to thehotel for supper, because with cowboys in town the place will in allprobability be uncomfortably noisy although I will say for the boys thatMrs. Endicott's presence would be a safeguard against any unseemlytalk."

  Endicott's objections were met by the Camerons who pointed out that theroad by which Colston must enter Timber City ran right past the door andin plain view of the porch where they were accustomed to eat the eveningmeal.

  Alice insisted upon helping Mrs. Cameron, and left to themselvesEndicott skilfully led the minister to talk of the country, its needsand requirements, its advantages, its shortcomings, and its problems.Cameron was a minister in every sense of the word, a man who loved hiswork and who was beloved of the cattle country, and when, a couple ofhours later, the ladies summoned them to the table, Endicott took hisplace with the realization that proprietorship of an outfit like the YBar, carried with it responsibilities and obligations that had nothingwhatever to do with the marketing of beef on the hoof.