CHAPTER VI. What Happened to Andy
With the sun shining comfortably upon his back, and with a cigarettebetween his lips, Andy sat upon his horse and watched in silent gleewhile the irate Happy Family scurried here and there behind the band,swinging their ropes down upon the woolly backs, and searching theirvocabularies for new and terrible epithets. Andy smiled broadly as acolorful phrase now and then boomed across the coulee in that clear,snappy atmosphere, which carries sounds so far. He did not expect todo much smiling upon his own account, that day, and he was thereforegrateful for the opportunity to behold the spectacle before him.
There was Slim, for instance, unwillingly careening down hill towardhome, because, in his zeal to slap an old ewe smartly with his rope, hedrove her unexpectedly under his horse, and so created a momentary panicthat came near standing both horse and rider upon their heads. And therewas Big Medicine whistling until he was purple, while the herder, with asingle gesture, held the dog motionless, though a dozen sheep brokeback from the band and climbed a slope so steep that Big Medicine wascompelled to go after them afoot, and turn them with stones and profaneobjurgations.
It was very funny--when one could sit at ease upon the hilltop and smokea cigarette while others risked apoplexy and their souls' salvationbelow. By the time they panted up the last rock-strewn slope of thebluff, and sent the vanguard of the invaders under the fence, Andy'smood was complacent in the extreme, and his smile offensively wide.
"Oh, you needn't look so sorry for us," drawled the Native Son, jinglingover toward him until only the fence and a few feet of space dividedthem. "Here's where you get yours, amigo. I wish you a pleasant day--anda long one!" He waved his hand in mocking adieu, touched his horse withhis silver spurs, and rode gaily away down the coulee.
"Here, sheepherder's your outfit. Ma-aa-a-a!" jeered Big Medicine."You'll wisht, by cripes, you was a dozen men just like yuh beforeyou're through with the deal. Haw-haw-haw-w!"
There were others who, seeing Andy's grin, had something to say upon thesubject before they left.
Weary rode up, and looked undecidedly from Andy to the sheep, and backagain.
"If you don't feel like tackling it single-handed, I'll send--"
"What do yuh think I am, anyway?" Andy interrupted crisply, "aMontgomery Ward two-for-a-quarter cowpuncher? Don't you fellows wasteany time worrying over me!"
The herders stared at Andy curiously when he swung in behind thetail-end of the band and kept pace with their slow moving, but they didnot speak beyond shouting an occasional command to their dogs. Neitherdid Andy have anything to say, until he saw that they were swingingsteadily to the west, instead of keeping straight north, as they hadbeen told to do. Then he rode over to the nearest herder, who happenedto be the bug-killer.
"You don't want to get turned around," he hinted quietly. "That's north,over there."
"I'm workin' fer the man that pays my wages," the fellow retortedglumly, and waved an arm to a collie that was waiting for orders. Thedog dropped his head, and ran around the right wing of the band, withsharp yelps and dartings here and there, turning them still more to thewest.
Andy hesitated, decided to leave the man alone for the present, and rodearound to the other herder.
"You swing these sheep north!" he commanded, disdaining preface orexplanation.
"I'm workin' for the man that pays my wages," the herder made answerstolidly, and chewed steadily upon a quid of tobacco that had stainedhis lips unbecomingly.
So they had talked the thing over--had those two herders--and werefollowing a premeditated plan of defiance! Andy hooked at the man aminute. "You turn them sheep, damn you," he commanded again, and laid ahand upon his saddle-horn suggestively.
"You go to the devil, damn yuh," advised the herder, and cocked a waryeye at him from under his hat-brim. Not all herders, let it be saidin passing, take unto themselves the mental attributes of their sheep;there are those who believe that a bold front is better than weakcompliance, and who will back that belief by a very bold front indeed.
Andy appraised him mentally, decided that he was an able-bodied manand therefore fightable, and threw his right leg over the cantle with aquite surprising alacrity.
"Are you going to turn them sheep?" Andy was taking off his coat when hemade that inquiry.
"Not for your tellin'. You keep back, young feller, or I'll sick thedogs on yuh." He turned and whistled to the nearest one, and Andy hithim on the ear.
They clinched and pummeled when they could and where they could. Thedog came up, circled the gyrating forms twice, then sat down upon hishaunches at a safe distance, tilted his head sidewise and lifted hisears interestedly. He was a wise little dog; the other dog was alsowise, and remained phlegmatically at his post, as did the bug-killer.
"Are you going to turn them sheep?" Andy spoke breathlessly, but withdeadly significance.
"N-yes."
Andy took his fingers from the other's Adam's apple, his knee from theother's diaphragm, and went over to where he had thrown down his coat,felt in a pocket for his handkerchief, and, when he had found it,applied it to his nose, which was bleeding profusely.
"Fly at it, then," he advised, eyeing the other sternly over thehandkerchief. "I'd hate to ask you a third time."
"I'd hate to have yuh," conceded the herder reluctantly. "I was sure Ic'd lick yuh, or I'd 'a' turned 'em before." He sent the dog racing downthe south line of the band.
Andy got thoughtfully back upon his horse, and sat looking hard at theherder. "Say, you're grade above the general run uh lamb-hickers," heobserved, after a minute. "Who are you working for, and what's yourobject in throwing sheep on Flying U land? There's plenty of range tothe north."
"I'm workin'," said the herder, "for the Dot outfit. I thought you couldread brands."
"Don't get sassy--I've got a punch or two I haven't used yet. Who ownsthese woollies?"
"Well--Whittaker and Oleson, if yuh want to know."
"I do." Andy was keeping pace with him around the band, which edgedoff from then and the dogs. "And what makes you so crazy about Flying Ugrass?" he pursued.
"We've got to cross that coulee to git to where we're headed for; we gota right to, and we're going to do it." The herder paused and glanced upat Andy sourly. "We knowed you was a mean outfit; the boss told us so.And he told us you was blank ca'tridges and we needn't back up just'cause you raised up on your hind legs and howled a little. I've hadtruck with you cowmen before. I've herded sheep in Wyoming." He walked afew steps with his head down, considering.
"I better go over and talk some sense into the other fellow," he said,looking up at Andy as if all his antagonism had oozed in the fight. "Youride along this edge, so they won't scatter--we ought to be grazin' 'emalong, by rights; only you seem to be in such an all-fired rush--"
"You go on and tell that loco son-of-a-gun over there what he's upagainst," Andy urged. "Blank cartridges--I sure do like that! If youonly knew it, high power dum-dums would be a lot closer to our brand.Run along--I am in a kinda hurry, this morning."
Andy, riding slowly upon the outskirts of the grazing, blatting band,watched the two confer earnestly together a hundred yards or soaway. They seemed to be having some sort of argument; the bug-killergesticulated with the long stick he carried, and the sheep, whilethe herders talked, scattered irresponsibly. Andy wondered what madesheepmen so "ornery," particularly herders. He wondered why the fellowhe had thrashed was so insultingly defiant at first, and, afterthe thrashing, so unresentful and communicative, and so amenable toauthority withal. He felt his nose, and decided that it was, allthings considered, a cheap victory, and yet one of which he need not beashamed.
The herder cane back presently and helped drive the sheep over the edgeof the bluff which bordered Antelope coulee. The bug-killer, upon hisside, also seemed imbued with the spirit of obedience; Andy heard himcurse a collie into frenzied zeal, and smiled approvingly.
"Now you're acting a heap more human," he observed; and the man fromWyoming
grinned ruefully by way of reply.
Antelope coulee, at that point, was steep; too steep for riding, so thatAndy dismounted and dug his boot-heels into the soft soil, to gain afoothold on the descent. When he was halfway down, he chanced to lookback, straight into the scowling gaze of the bug-killer, who was slidingdown behind him.
"Thought you were hazing down the other side of 'em," Andy called back,but the herder did not choose to answer save with another scowl.
Andy edged his horse around an impracticable slope of shale stuff andwent on. The herder followed. When he was within twelve feet or soof the bottom, there was a sound of pebbles knocked loose in haste, ascrambling, and then came the impact of his body. Andy teetered, losthis balance, and went to the bottom in one glorious slide. He landedwith the bug-killer on top--and the bug-killer failed to remove hisperson as speedily as true courtesy exacted.
Andy kicked and wriggled and tried to remember what was thathigh-colored, vituperative sentence that Irish had invented over astubborn sheep, that he might repeat it to the bug-killer. The herderfrom Wyoming ran up, caught Andy's horse, and untied Andy's rope fromthe saddle.
"Good fer you, Oscar," he praised the bug-killer. "Hang onto him whileI take a few turns." He thereupon helped force Andy's arms to his side,and wound the rope several times rather tightly around Andy's outraged,squirming person.
"Oh, it ain't goin' to do yuh no good to buck 'n bawl," admonishedthe tier. "I learnt this here little trick down in Wyoming. A bunch uhpunchers done it to me--and I've been just achin' all over fer a chanceto return the favor to some uh you gay boys. And," he added, withmalicious satisfaction, while he rolled Andy over and tied a perfectlyunslippable knot behind, "it gives me great pleasure to hand the doseout to you, in p'ticular. If I was a mean man, I'd hand yuh the boot afew times fer luck; but I'll save that up till next time."
"You can bet your sweet life there'll be a next time," Andy promisedearnestly, with embellishments better suited to the occasion than to achildren's party.
"Well, when it arrives I'm sure Johnny-on-the-spot. Them Wyomingpunchers beat me up after they'd got me tied. I'm tellin' yuh so you'llsee I ain't mean unless I'm drove to it. Turn him feet down hill, Oscar,so he won't git a rush uh brains to the head and die on our hands. Nowyou're goin' to mind your own business, sonny. Next time yuh set out toherd sheep, better see the boss first and git on the job right."
He rose to his feet, surveyed Andy with his hands on his hips, mentallypronounced the job well done, and took a generous chew of tobacco, afterwhich he grinned down at the trussed one.
"That the language uh flowers you're talkin'?" he inquired banteringly,before he turned his attention to the horse, which he disposed of bytying up the reins and giving it a slap on the rump. When it had trottedfifty yards down the coulee bottom, and showed a disposition to gofarther, he whistled to his dogs, and turned again to Andy.
"This here is just a hint to that bunch you trot with, to leave us andour sheep alone," he said. "We don't pick no quarrels, but we're goin'to cross our sheep wherever we dern please, to git where we want to go.Gawd didn't make this range and hand it over to you cowmen to put in yerpockets--I guess there's a chance fer other folks to hang on by theireyebrows, anyway."
Andy, lying there like a very good presentation of a giant cocoon, ropedround and round, with his arms pinned to his sides, had the doubtfulpleasure of seeing that noisome, foolish-faced band trail down Antelopecoulee and back upon the level they had just left, and of knowing to agloomy certainty that he could do nothing about it, except swear; andeven that palls when a man has gone over his entire repertoire threetimes in rapid succession.
Andy, therefore, when the last sheep had trotted out of sight, hearingand smell, wriggled himself into as comfortable a position as his bondswould permit, and took a nap.