CHAPTER XXIII
BOB CRAWLS HIS HUMP SUDDEN
There was a game of stud after supper in the bunkhouse. Bob lay on hisbed, a prey to wretched dread. He had made up his mind to have it outwith Bandy, but his heart was pumping water instead of blood. When helooked at the squat puncher, thick-necked and leather-faced, an uglysneer on his lips, the courage died out of his breast.
Dud was sitting with his back to the wall. His attention was ostensiblyon the game, but Bob knew he was waiting for developments.
Bandy sat next Dud. "Raise you once," he snarled. His card-playing waslike everything else he did, offensive by reason of the spirit back ofit. He was a bad loser and a worse winner.
"And another blue," said Hollister easily when it came his turn again."Got to treat an ace in the hole with respect."
The other two players dropped out, leaving only Bandy to contest the potwith Dud.
"Once more," retorted the bow-legged puncher, shoving in chips.
"And again."
"Hmp! Claim an ace in the hole, do you? Well, I'll jes' give it one moreli'l' kick."
Hollister had showing a deuce of hearts, a trey of clubs, an ace ofspades, and a four of hearts. He might have a five in the hole or an ace.Bandy had a pair of jacks in sight.
Dud called.
"You see it," growled Bandy. "One pair."
His opponent flipped over an ace of diamonds. "One pair here--aces."
"Knew it all the time. Yore play gave it away," jeered Bandy with obviousill-temper.
"I reckon that's why you kept raisin'," Dud suggested, raking in thepot.
"All I needed was to hook a jack or another pair to beat you."
"If I didn't catch another ace or a small pair."
The game was breaking up.
"Hell! I was playin' poker before you could navigate, young fellow,"Bandy boasted. He had lost four dollars and was annoyed.
"An' you're still an optimist about hookin' another pair when you need'em." Dud was counting his winnings placidly. "Six-fifty--seven--sevenand two bits. Wish I had yore confidence in the music of the spearsworkin' out so harmonious."
This last was a reference to a book left at the ranch recently by theReverend Melancthon Browning, the title of which was, "The Music of theSpheres." Its philosophy was that every man makes his own world by theway he thinks about it.
Bandy jingled back to his bunk. He unstrapped his spurs, hooked one footbehind the knee of the other leg, and tried to work the wet boot off. Theslippery leather stuck.
He called to Bob. "Come here, fellow, an' yank this boot off for me."
Dillon did not move. His heart stood still, then began to race. A chokingfilled his throat. The hour was striking for him. It was to be now ornever.
The bow-legged puncher slewed his head. "I'm talkin' to you."
Slowly, reluctantly, Bob rose. He did not want to move. Somethingstronger than his will lifted him out of the bed and dragged him acrossthe floor. He knew his hands were trembling.
Malignant triumph rode in Bandy's eye. It was always safe to bully thistimid youth. Dud Hollister had a "No Trespass" sign displayed in hisquiet, cool manner. Very well. He would take it out of his riding mate.That was one way of getting at him.
"What's ailin' you? Git a move on. You act like you'd like to tell me togo take a walk. I'll bet you would, too, if you wasn't such a rabbitheart."
Bob stooped and picked up the dirty boot. He zigzagged it from the foot.As he straightened again his eyes met those of Dud. He felt a roaring inthe temples.
"O' course any one that'd let another fellow take his wife from him--an'him not married more'n an hour or two--"
The young fellow did not hear the end of the cruel gibe. The sound ofrushing waters filled his ears. He pulled off the second boot.
Again his gaze met that of Hollister. He remembered Dud's words. "Crawlhis hump sudden. Go to it like a wild cat." The trouble was he couldn't.His muscles would not obey the flaccid will.
The flood of waters died down. The roaring ceased. The puncher's wordscame to him clear.
"... not but what she was likely glad enough to go with Jake. She was outwith him four-five hours. Where was they, I ask? What was they doing? Youcan't tell me she couldn't 'a' got away sooner if she'd wanted to sodarned bad. No, sir, I'm no chicken right out of a shell. When it comesto a woman I say, Where's the man?"
A surge of anger welled up in Dillon and overflowed. He forgot about Dudand his threats. He forgot about his trepidation. This hound was talkingof June, lying about her out of his foul throat.
One of the boots was still in his hand. He swung it round and brought theheel hard against the fellow's mouth. The blood gushed from the crushedlips. Bob dropped the boot and jolted his left to the cheek. He followedwith a smashing right to the eye.
Taken at disadvantage, Bandy tried to struggle to his feet. He ran intoone straight from the shoulder that caught the bridge of his nose andflung him back upon the bunk.
His hand reached under the pillow. Bob guessed what was there and droppedhard with both knees on his stomach.
The breath went out of Bandy suddenly. He lay still for a moment. When hebegan to struggle again he had forgotten the revolver under the pillow.With a sweeping gesture Bob brushed pillow and gun to the floor.
The man underneath twisted his red, wrinkled neck and bit Bob's forearmsavagely. The boy's fingers closed like a vice on the hairy throat andtightened. His other fist beat a merciless tattoo on the bruised andbleeding face.
"Take him off!" Bandy presently gasped.
Dud appointed himself referee. With difficulty he unloosed the fingersembedded in the flesh of the throat.
"Had enough, Bandy? You licked?" he asked.
"Take him off, I tell you!" the man managed to scream.
"Not unless you're whipped. How about it?"
"'Nough," the bully groaned.
Bob observed that Hawks had taken charge of the revolver. He releasedWalker.
The bow-legged puncher sat at the side of the bed and coughed. The bloodwas streaming from a face bruised and cut in a dozen places.
"He--he--jumped me--when I wasn't lookin'," the cowboy spat out, a wordat a time.
"Don't pull an alibi, Bandy. You had it comin'," Dud said with a grin. Hewas more pleased than he could tell.
Dillon felt as though something not himself had taken control of him. Hewas in a cold fury, ready to fight again at the drop of a hat.
"He said she--she--" The sentence broke, but Bob rushed into another."He's got to take it back or I'll kill him."
"Only the first round ended, looks like, Bandy," Dud said genially. "Youbetter be lookin' this time when he comes at you, or he'll sure eat youalive."
"I'm not lookin' for no fight," Bandy said sulkily, dabbing at his facewith the bandanna round his neck.
"I'll bet you ain't--not with a catamount like Miss Roberta here," TomReeves said, chuckling with delight.
One idea still obsessed Bob's consciousness. "What he said aboutJune--I'll not let him get away with it. He's got to tell you-all he waslyin'."
"You hear yore boss speak, Bandy," drawled Dud. "How about it? Do we getto see you massacreed again? Or do you stand up an' admit you're a dirtyliar for talkin' thataway?"
Bandy Walker looked round on a circle of faces all unfriendly to him. Hehad broken the code, and he knew it. In the outdoor West a man does notslander a good woman without the chance of having to pay for it. Thepuncher had let his bad bullying temper run away with him. He had done itbecause he had supposed Dillon harmless, to vent on him the spleen hecould not safely empty upon Dud Hollister's blond head.
If Bob had been alone the bow-legged man might have taken achance--though it is doubtful whether he would have invited thatwhirlwind attack again, unless he had had a revolver close at hand--buthe knew public sentiment was wholly against him. There was nothing to dobut to swallow his words.
That he did this in the most ungracious way possible was like him. "Sinceyou
're runnin' a Sunday School outfit I'll pack my roll an' move onto-morrow to where there's some he-men," he sneered. "I never met thisgirl, so I don't know a thing about her. All I did was to make a generalremark about women. Which same I know to be true. But since you're abunch of sky pilots at the Slash Lazy D, I'll withdraw anything thathurts yore tender feelin's."
"Are you takin' back what you said--about--about her?" Bob demandedharshly.
Bandy's smouldering, sullen eyes slid round. "I'm takin' it back. Didn'tyou hear me say I don' know a thing about her? I know Houck, though. So Ijudged--" He spat a loose tooth out on the floor venomously. It wouldperhaps not be wise to put into words what he had deduced from hisknowledge of Jake Houck.
"The incident is now clo-o-sed if Miss Roberta is satisfied," Dudannounced to the public at large.
His riding mate looked at Hollister. "Don't call me that," he said.
For a moment Dud was puzzled. "Don't call you what?"
"What you just called me."
Dud broke into a grin of delight. He wondered if it would not be a goodidea to make Bob give him a licking, too. But he decided to let goodenough alone. He judged that Blister would be satisfied without any moregore. Anyhow, Bob might weaken and spoil it.
"Boy, I'll never call you Miss--what I called you--long as I liveexceptin' when I'm meanin' to compliment you special." Dud slapped himhard between the shoulder blades. "You're a young cyclone, but you can'tget a chance to muss Dud Hollister up to-night. You work too rapid.Doggone my hide, if I ever did see a faster or a better piece o' work.How about it, Tom?"
Reeves, too, pounded Dillon in token of friendship. If Bob had not wipedthe slate clean he had made a start in that direction.
"You're some scrapper when you get started. Bandy looks like he's beenthrough a railroad wreck," he said.
Bandy was by this time at the wash-basin repairing damages. "Tell you hejumped me when I wasn't lookin'," he growled sulkily. "Fine business.You-all stood by an' watched him do it."
"After you'd deviled him for a week," amended Big Bill. "Mebbe in thatoutfit of he-men you're expectin' to hit the trail for to-morrow they'llwrop you up in cotton an' not let a hundred-an'-thirty-pound giant jumpyou."
"I ain't askin' it of 'em," Bandy retorted. "I can look out for myselfan' then some. As for this sprout who thinks he's so gosh-mighty, I'lljus' say one thing. Some o' these days I'll settle with him proper."
He turned as he spoke. The look on his battered face was venomous.