CHAPTER 4. Pink as "Chappyrone."
Rowdy was sprawled ungracefully upon somebody's bunk--he neither knewnor cared whose--and he was snoring unmelodiously, and not dreaming athing; for when a cow-puncher has nothing in particular to do, hesleeps to atone for the weary hours when he must be very wide-awake. Anavalanche descended upon his unwarned middle, and checked the rhythmicebb and flow of sound. He squawked and came to life clawing viciously.
"I'd like t' know where the devil yuh come from," a voice remarkedplaintively in a soft treble.
Rowdy opened his eyes with a snap. "Pink! by all that's good and bad!Get up off my diaphragm, you little fiend."
Pink absent-mindedly kneaded Rowdy's stomach with his knuckles, andimmediately found himself in a far corner. He came back, dimplingmischievously. He looked much more an angel than a fiend, for all hisAngora chaps and flame-colored scarf.
"Your bed and war-bag's on my bunk; you're on Smoky's; and Dixie'smakin' himself to home in the corral. By all them signs and tokens,I give a reckless guess you're here t' stay a while. That right?" Heprodded again at Rowdy's ribs.
"It sure is, Pink. And if I'd known you was holding out here, I'd 'a'come sooner, maybe. You sure look good to me, you darned little cuss!"Rowdy sat up and took a lightning inventory of the four or five otherfellows lounging about. He must have slept pretty sound, he thought, notto hear them come in.
Pink read the look, and bethought him of the necessary introductions."This is my side-kicker over the line that--you've heard about tillyou're plumb weary, boys," he announced musically. "His name is RowdyVaughan--bronco-peeler, crap fiend, and all-round bad man. He ain't asafe companion, and yuh want t' sleep with your six-guns cuddled underyour right ear, and never, on no account, show him your backs. He's areal wolf, he is, and the only reason I live t' tell the tale is becausehe respects m' size. Boys, I'm afraid for yuh--but I wish yuh well."
"Pink, you need killing, and I'm tempted to live up to my rep," grinnedRowdy indulgently. "Read me the pedigree of your friends."
"Oh, they ain't no worse--when yuh git used to 'em. That long-leggedjasper with the far-away look in his eyes is the Silent One--if he takesa notion t' you, he'll maybe tell yuh the name his mother calls him. Hemay have seen better days; but here's hoping he won't see no worse! Heonce was a tenderfoot; but he's convalescing."
The Silent One nodded carelessly, but with a quick, measuring glancethat Rowdy liked.
"This unshaved savage is Smoky. He's harmless, if yuh don'tmention socialism in his presence; and if yuh do, he'lldown-with-the-trust-and-long-live-the-sons-uh-toil, all hours uh thenight, and keep folks awake. Then him and the fellow that started himoff 'll likely get chapped good and plenty. Over there's Jim Ellisand Bob Nevin; they've both turned a cow or two, and I've seen worsespecimens running around loose--plenty of 'em. That man hidin' behindthe grin--you can see him if yuh look close--is Sunny Sam. Yuh needn'ttake no notice of him, unless you're a mind to. He won't care--he's deadgentle.
"Say," he broke off, "how'd you happen t' stray onto this range, anyhow?Yuh used t' belong t the Horseshoe Bar so solid the assessor always t'yuh down on the personal-property list."
"They won't pay taxes on me no more, son." Rowdy's eyes dwelt fondlyupon Pink's cupid-bow mouth and dimples. He had never dreamed of findingPink here; though, when he came to think of it there was no reason whyhe shouldn't.
Pink was not like any one else. He was slight and girlish to look at.But you mustn't trust appearances; for Pink was all muscle strung onsteel wire, according to the belief of those who tried to handle him.He had little white hands, and feet that looked quite comfortable ina number four boot, and his hair was a tawny gold and curled indistracting, damp rings on his forehead. His eyes were blue andlong-lashed and beautiful, and they looked at the world with babyinnocence--whereas a more sophisticated little devil never jangled spursat his heels. He was everything but insipid, and men liked him--unlesshe chose to dislike them, when they thought of him with grating teeth.To find him bullying the Cross L boys brought a warmth to Rowdy's heart.
Pink made a cigarette, and then offered Rowdy his tobacco-sack, andasked questions about the Cypress Hills country. How was this girl?--andwas that one married yet?--and did the other still grieve for him? As amatter of fact, he had yet to see the girl who could quicken his pulsea single beat, and for that reason it sometimes pleased him to affectsusceptibility beyond that of other men.
It was after dinner when he and Rowdy went humming down to the stables,gossiping like a couple of old women over a back fence.
"I see you've got Conroy's Chub yet," Pink observed carelessly.
"Oh, for Heaven's sake let up on that cayuse!" Rowdy cried petulantly."I wish I'd never got sight of the little buzzard-head; I've had himcrammed down my throat the last day or two till it's getting plumbmonotonous. Pink, that cayuse never saw Oregon. He was raised right onthis flat, and he belongs to old Rodway. I've got to lead him back thereand turn him over to-day."
Pink took three puffs at his cigarette, and lifted his long lashes toRowdy's gloom-filled face. "Stole?" he asked briefly.
"Stole," Rowdy repeated disgustedly. "So was the whole blame' bunch, asnear as I can make out."
"We might 'a' knowed it. We might 'a' guessed Harry Conroy wouldn't havea straight title to anything if he could make it crooked. I bet he neverfinished paying back that money yuh lent him--out uh the kindness uhyour heart. Did he?" Pink leaned against the corral fence and kickedmeditatively at a snow-covered rock.
"He did not, m' son. Chub's all I ever got out uh the deal--andI haven't even got him. I borrowed him from Rodway to pack my bedover--borrowed the blame' little runty cayuse that cost me sixty-fourhard-earned dollars; that's what Harry borrowed of me. And every blame'gazabo on the flat wanted to know what I was doing with him!"
"I can tell yuh where t' find Conroy, Rowdy. He's working for anoutfit down on the river. I'd sure fix him for this! Yuh got plenty ofevidence; you can send him up like a charm. It was different when he cutyour latigo strap in that rough-riding contest; yuh couldn't prove it onhim. But this--why, man, it's a cinch!"
"I haven't lost Harry Conroy, so I ain't looking for him just now,"growled Rowdy. "So long as he keeps out uh reach, I won't ask no more ofhim. And, Pink, I wish you'd keep this quiet--about him having Chub. Itold Rodway I couldn't put him next to the fellow that brought thatbunch across the line. I told him the fellow went north and got killed.He did go north--fifty miles or so; and he'd ought to been killed, if hewasn't. Let it go that way, Pink."
Pink looked like a cherub-faced child when he has been told there'sno Santa Claus. "Sure, if yuh say so," he stammered dubiously. He eyedRowdy reproachfully, and then looked away to the horizon. He kickedthe rock out of place, and then poked it painstakingly back with histoe--and from the look of him, he did not know there was a rock there atall.
"How'd yuh happen to run across Rodway?" he asked guilelessly.
"I stopped there last night. I got to milling around in that storm, andran across the schoolma'am that boards at Rodway's, She was plumb lost,too, so we dubbed around together for a while, and finally got insideRodway's field. Then Chub come alive and piloted us to the house. Thismorning Rodway claimed him--says the brand has been worked from a Romanfour. Oh, it's all straight goods," he added hastily. "Old Eagle Creekhere knew him, too."
But Pink was not thinking of Chub. He hunched his chap-belt higherand spat viciously into the snow. "I knowed it," he declared, withmelancholy triumph. "It's school-ma'amitis that's gave yuh softening uhthe vitals, and not no Christian charity play. How comes it you're tookthat way, all unbeknown t' your friends? Yuh never used t' bother aboutno female girls. It's a cinch you're wise that she's Harry's sister; andI admit she's a swell looker. But so's he; and I should think, Rowdy,you'd had about enough uh that brand uh snake."
"There's nothing so snaky about her that I could see," defended Rowdy.He did not particularly relish having his own mental argument againstMiss Conroy thrown b
ack at him from another. "She seemed to be allright; and if you'd seen how plucky she was in that blizzard--"
"Well, I never heard anybody stand up and call Harry white-livered, whenyuh come t' that," Pink cut in tartly. "Anyway, you're a blame fool. Ifshe was a little white-winged angel, yuh wouldn't stand no kind uh show;and I tell yuh why. She's got a little tin god that she says prayers toregular."
"That's Harry. And wouldn't he be the fine brother-in-law? He couldborrow all your wages off'n yuh, and when yuh went t' make a prettyride, he'd up and cut your latigo, and give yuh a fall. And he couldwork stolen horses off onto yuh--and yuh wouldn't give a damn, 'causeJessie wears a number two shoe--"
"You must have done some rimrock riding after her yourself!" jeeredRowdy.
"And has got shiny brown eyes, just like Harry's--"
"They're not!" laughed Rowdy, half-angrily. "If you say that again,Pink, I'll stick your head in a snow-bank. Her eyes are all right. Theysure look good to me."
"You've sure got 'em," mourned Pink. "Yuh need t' be close-herded byyour friends, and that's no dream. You wait till toward evening beforeyuh take that horse back. I'm going along t' chappyrone yuh, Rowdy. Yuhain't safe running loose any more."
Rowdy cursed him companionably and told him to go along, if he wantedto, and to look out he didn't throw up his own hands; and Pink grumbledand swore and did go along. But when they got there, Miss Conroy greetedhim like a very good friend; which sent Rowdy sulky, and kept him so allthe evening. It seemed to him that Pink was playing a double game, andwhen they started home he told him so.
But Pink turned in his saddle and smiled so that his dimples showedplainly in the moonlight. "Chappyrones that set in a corner and lookwise are the rankest kind uh fakes," he explained. "When she was talkingto me, she was letting you alone--see?"
Rowdy accepted the explanation silently, and stored it away in hismemory. After that, by riding craftily, and by threats, and by muchvituperation, he managed to reach Rodway's unchapperoned at least threetimes out of five--which was doing remarkably well, when one considersPink.