CHAPTER V--THE RELATIVE MERITS OF THE FRYING-PAN AND THE FIRE
They crowded close, a little ring of curious faces, about me and thedead man on the floor, and as a babel of talk uprose a tall, lean manpushed his way into the circle, Captain Speer of the _Moon_ at hisheels.
"I guess I'll have to take you in just for luck," the stranger said tome. "I'm town marshal. This killin' business has got t' stop."
He took me by the arm, and as he did so the cowpuncher who had lookeddown at Tupper stepped in between us, breaking the marshal's hold.
"Not this time, Bax," he said softly. "Play fair or keep out uh thegame. Yuh stay mighty close in your hole when a gun-fighter hits thetown, and I'll be damned if you build up your reputation by arrestin' akid. This red-muzzler came in huntin' trouble, and he found it. It wason the square, and yuh ain't goin' to put nobody in your stinkin'calaboose--not to-night. You and me don't hitch on _that_ proposition."
For a second or two it seemed as if there might be another clash. Behindthe two a space cleared at the first words, and I noticed more than onecowpuncher hitch his gun-belt forward. For myself, I was too dazed torealize the exact turn of affairs, and I cared less. Tupper, at least,would trouble me no more, and for that I was truly glad. But there wasno mix-up, nor even a harsh word. The marshal weakened. If he hadintended to take me he changed his mind after a brief glance at thefaces of the men who were watching him with silent intentness.
"If that's the way yuh feel about it, all right," he said--with anindifference that his flushed face belied. He turned on his heel andwalked out, Captain Speer following.
"Yuh bet it's all right," the cowpuncher flung after him derisively.
Then to me: "Throw a jolt uh Bourbon into yuh, kid, and you'll feelbetter. Yuh made a good fight. But let me tell yuh somethin'. Go heeled.And when one uh these rough-necked fist-fighters jumps yuh, ventilatehim. Show your claws a time or two, and these would-be bad actors'llleave yuh strictly alone. Say, Mr. Bar-slave let's have one _pronto_."
Three or four of them picked up the carcass of the _Moon's_ mate andlugged it unceremoniously out to a rear room, and then the crowd linedup at the bar, the play at the wheel went on, the men at the faro-tablewho had turned on their stools to watch the fight again began to placetheir bets. Life ran too full and strong there to be long disturbed bythe passing of any man.
My self-appointed champion--who, I now discovered, was just drunk enoughto welcome disturbance in any form whatsoever--and the young fellow withwhom I had been speaking before the row, wiped the blood off my face anddoctored the eye that Tupper had come near gouging from its socket. Andwhile they were thus ministering to me another stockhand clanked in fromthe street.
"Say, Matt, yuh sure stirred up somethin'," he announced. "This the kidthat got action on the St. Louis jasper? Well, there's goin' to be ahealthy ruction round here over that, let me tell yuh. Bax is red-eyedover yuh runnin' a whizzer on him, and he's collectin' a posse to takeboth of yuh in. Don't yuh reckon we better drift for camp, Matt?"
Matt smiled and beckoned to some of the others. "Not by a long shot!" hedrawled. "Whenever old Ed Bax runs me out uh town, it'll be in thegood-by wagon. I'm goin' to see that this kid gets a square deal. If Baxor anybody else wants me let 'em come and get me. Will the rest uh youfellows stand pat?"
In varying stages of hilarity they crowded about him and profanelyassured him that they would turn Benton inside out and shake the pocketsif he but said the word. In the midst of their chatter the man who hadbrought news of the marshal's action drew closer and lowered his voice.
"Look here, Matt," he argued, "you're runnin' the outfit and you're afriend of mine and all that sort of thing, and yuh know that all ofus'll back any sort of play yuh make. But it looks to me like we can dobetter'n to pull off a big fight. I ain't plumb chicken-hearted, but Baxis goin' to come down on us with a bunch uh tin-horn gamblers to helphim out, and if this kid's in sight he's goin' to try and take him. Yuhsabe? He's got to make some kind of a bluff at it, or every pilgrim thatcomes along'll run over him. So it's a cinch that there'll be more orless gun-play, and the Circle'll be shy a man or two when it's over."
"They ain't got the nerve, Dick," Matt declared confidently.
"It don't take much nerve to start anything like that," Dick replied."Somebody'll reach for his gun, and it'll be off. Now, Bax ain't goin'to jump _you_--he's afraid to. If the kid's with yuh he's got to. I movewe stake this kid to a hoss, and let him drift. That lets _him_ out. Andif Bax wants to have it out with yuh on general principles, why, we'llsee it through."
"Dick's right," one of them put in. "The kid's got to hit the trail,anyhow, and he might as well do it right away quick. That's the mainthing, ain't it. We started in to help him out, and if we can do itpeaceful, we'll live longer. Bax won't tackle us unless he just has to."
"Yuh got me on the run," Matt frowned. "I'd just as soon dehorn this Baxparty to-night as any other time. But I see where the kid better moveout, all right. You pilot him, Wall, and catch up one uh them extrahosses, and stake him to that saddle Musky left--I'll fix it with oldMusk when he comes back. He can ride my hoss to camp."
It was all arranged offhand in less time than I have taken to tell ofit, and I was hustled out to where a row of cow-ponies patiently awaitedthe pleasure of their hard-riding masters. For aught these sons of theplains knew I was a purely worthless bit of human driftwood. But I don'tthink they gave a thought to the matter. There was only one thing to bedone, in their estimation, and they proceeded to do it withoutconsulting me or doing very much talking about it themselves. So veryshortly I found myself straddle of the Circle foreman's horse andjogging out of Benton. Beside me, young Wall rode silently until wereached the top of the long hill that slopes to the town. Then he shookhis horse into a lope, and broke into cheerful whistling.
I, however, was far short of the whistling mood. The thing I should havedone I was afraid to do. Ordinarily, my instinct would have been to facethe music. I was unrepentant for the part I had played in the extinctionof Tupper. Nor would I, if I had calmly weighed the chances for andagainst, have felt any fear of consequences before the law. But myexperience with the law, in those days, was a void. That which we do notunderstand we usually fear, and that night I was stricken with a swiftfear of the law. I had killed, and there was a penalty. My spiritrevolted at the thought of a jail. Likewise, the quick action of thoseCircle cowpunchers made a deep impression on me. If incarceration was soto be avoided that they were willing to back their deeds with gunpowder,I wanted no phase of incarceration in my experience. Better the open, anunknown country, and whatever might befall therein, than to lie inBenton "calaboose"--which, to my disturbed mind, was a synonym for aplace of vague horrors.
I thought of standing my ground, of taking chances on Bax the marshaland the Benton jail, until the _Moon_ could reach St. Louis and appriseBolton of my need--and then I shuddered at the thought that the thingmight be settled beyond interference before he could make the long riverjourney. I had heard and read more or less of hasty trials in the West;I had killed a man in what seemed to me a barbarous fashion; I did notknow what the authorities, self-constituted or otherwise, might do tome--and I hadn't the nerve to stay and find out. If they should hang me,thought I, I shall be a long time dead. Flight, under thesecircumstances, made the strongest appeal to my excited imagination.
Such was the chaotic state of my ideas when Wall pulled up his horse,and I saw the white glimmer of tents close at hand.
"Night-hawk's got the bunch over here, I think," said he. "Seems like Ihear the bells. Anyhow, you stay here and I'll get yuh a _caballo_ thatcan drift."
He trotted off, leaving me standing by the clear-cut outline of a wagon.Away off in the semi-dark--for the moon was now risen--I heard a suddenscurry of hoofs, an accentuated jangling of two or three small bells.Presently Wall came loping back leading a blaze-faced sorrel horse.
From under the forward end of the wagon he dragged a saddle, a bridleand a saddle-blanke
t.
"There," he said, "there's a good rig, barrin' spurs--which yuh won'tneed much. And a good hoss to put it on. Go to it."
The stock saddle, with its high horn and deep seat, was not so differentfrom what I'd been used to--except as to weight. The double-cinchapparatus bothered me a little, but when Wall explained the uses of thelatigo and the manner of its tying, I got my horse saddled properly--thesmall imps of uneasy haste spurring me on. Then I swung up to try thestirrups, and found that I had a restive brute under me. He plunged onceor twice, but I kept his head in the air, and finally straightened himout. Wall nodded approval.
"I wasn't dead sure yuh could ride him," he owned. "But I see you've gothim in your sack, and you'll find him there when it comes to gettin'over the ground."
"I'm all ready now, I think," said I.
"Wait a minute," Wall laughed. "Don't rush off. Bax wouldn't come intothe Circle camp after yuh to-night for two farms in Iowa. Chances arehe's busy right now figuring a way to get a dead safe whack at MattDunn. Come on over to the cook-tent and get some grub to tie on yoursaddle. You'll need it."
By the light of a candle he ransacked the grub boxes on the tail end ofthe cook-wagon. A loaf of bread, some fresh-made biscuits, and a bigpiece of boiled beef, together with a trifle of pepper and salt thislight-hearted, capable youngster wrapped in a bit of burlap and tiedbehind the cantle of my saddle. And while he munched a piece of beefhimself, he gave me explicit directions as to my course.
"Once yuh get over into the MacLeod country," he concluded, "you'll beall right. Nobody'll care a cuss who yuh are nor where yuh come from, solong as yuh behave yourself. This red hoss hasn't got the Circle brand,though he belongs to the outfit, so they won't ask no fool questionsabout him. Yuh ought to pick up a job with some uh them Canadian layoutspretty easy."
"Oh, wait a minute," he exclaimed, when I was again about to mount, andhe ran over to an outspread canvas-covered bed. He fumbled among thetumbled quilts a moment and came back to me carrying a broadcartridge-belt, on which a bone-handled Colt swung in its leathernscabbard.
"I pretty near forgot this," he chuckled. "Yuh ain't heeled, and Lordknows yuh need to be at this stage uh the game. Say, how are yuh off forcoin?"
"Man alive!" I cried--and I meant it, "you've done more for me now thanI can repay in a thousand years. I don't need money."
"Oh, yes, yuh do," he returned, unruffled. "A dollar or two'll comemighty handy when yuh hit MacLeod, or wherever yuh land. I ain't goin'to make yuh rich. Here, and good luck to yuh."
He pressed a ten-dollar gold piece upon me. Then we shook hands asbrothers at parting, and I rode out of the Circle camp on ahigh-stepping horse, with the Big Dipper and the North Star to guide meto the Canada line.