CHAPTER XIX
The Day of Reckoning
The sun was high next day when the door of Pat Bylow's abode was opened,and a man entered. The scene that met his eyes is better undescribed,but to him it gave no shock. He came expecting to see it. In his hand hecarried a tin pail. There were men and women lying about the floor. Hestepped over them toward a tall form in soiled black clothes and kneltbeside it. Pouring some water on a cloth he laid it on the paleforehead. The prostrate man opened his eyes and groaned.
"Mr. Hartigan," said the other. "It's me. It's Charlie Bylow. Won't yoube after having a drink of water?"
Hartigan raised himself on his elbow, peered out of his bloodshot eyes,and drank eagerly. The cup was three times emptied.
"You better come over to my shanty and go to bed," said Charlieseriously. The Preacher groaned:
"Oh! God what have I done? What have I done?" He clutched his throbbingbrow with both hands, as he rose and shakily followed Charlie.
"Oh! fool that I am. Oh, God! Ruined. All is ruined. I wish I weredead!" he exclaimed. "Oh! God forgive me."
As they passed the fence where Blazing Star had been hitched, Hartiganstopped and stared. Charlie said:
"It's all right, Mr. Hartigan, I took care of him. He is in the stable."
Coming to Bylow's house, Jim passed the entrance and went on to thestable. With trembling hands he opened the door and hesitated. He halfexpected Blazing Star to spurn and disown him. He was prepared for anyand every humiliation, but the long, joyous neigh that greeted him was ashock, and a help.
"Oh! Blazing Star, if you only knew, you would not even look at me."
Charlie took the Preacher by the arm and led him to the house.
"Here, Mr. Hartigan, take off your clothes and go to bed. I will giveyou a wet towel for your head and, by and by, I will bring you somecoffee."
"Oh! God be merciful, or strike me dead," and Jim broke down in an agonyof remorse. "This is the end. All I hoped for gone. I don't want to livenow."
"Mr. Hartigan, sure now I know how you feel. Ain't I been through it?But don't be after making plans that are rash when you ain't justyourself. Now go to bed and rest awhile," and his kind Irish heart waswrung as he looked on the utter degradation of the manly form beforehim, and the shocking disfigurement of the one-time handsome face.Charlie and his wife left Hartigan alone. They shut the door and Charliewent back to his brother's shanty to help the other victims of the orgy.
Jim tossed around uneasily, winning snatches of sleep, groaning,talking, abasing himself.
"Oh, Belle!" he moaned aloud. "Will you ever look at me again? Oh, God!And me a preacher."
Cedar Mountain was not so big but that every one knew everybody else'sbusiness; and Mary Bylow understood when she heard the name "Belle." Butshe didn't know just what to do. After an hour she again heard him.
"Oh! Belle, Belle, what will you say?"
Taking the hot coffee from the stove, Mrs. Bylow knocked at the door andwent in.
"Take this, it will make you feel better."
She hoped he would talk, but he didn't. He only thanked her feebly. ThenCharlie came back from his brother's shanty. He had remembered that, itbeing Sunday, the Preacher would be missed and he saddled his horse toset out for Cedar Mountain. As he left, his wife came out and said:
"While you are there, drop a hint to Belle Boyd," and Charlie nodded.
Arriving at Dr. Jebb's, Charlie explained the case to the pastor withoutdetail:
"Sure, Mr. Hartigan had a little accident at our corner last night andsprained his ankle. My wife is nursing him, but he won't be able topreach to-day."
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! Well, it is all right, I will take both services,"and the blind and gentle old man turned to his books.
Then Bylow rode to the Boyd home. Here, he realized, was a much moredifficult job. But he was determined to go into no details. It was Bellewho answered his knock. Charlie began:
"My wife told me to tell you that Mr. Hartigan got hurt last night. Heis at our house. He won't be in town to-day."
"What? Did he interfere in a spree?"
"Yes."
"Is he shot?"
"No."
"Is he wounded?"
"No, not exactly."
"What is the matter?"
"Only a general shakeup, he had a bad fall," and Bylow moved uneasily.
It was a simple matter to bluff a simple old clergyman, but it wasanother thing altogether to mislead an alert young woman. Belle knewthere was something wrong--something more and different from what shehad been told.
"Is the doctor with him?"
"No."
"I will get the doctor and come at once."
"No, I wouldn't; at least, not till morning."
Bylow's manner roused Belle all the more to prompt action. Seeing thatall his explanations made things worse, Charlie abruptly left, mountedhis broncho, and went "rockity rockity" as the pony's heels went "puff,puff" on the dusty trail around the hill and away.
The doctor was not to be found that morning and Belle found it hard toawait his return. In the meantime, some strange rumour must have reachedthe town for in Sunday-school Belle met Eliza Lowe, the recently arrivedsister of the schoolteacher. The look on her face, the gleam in her eye,were unmistakable. She had not yet learned of her brother's part in theaffair. Belle found herself avoiding the sister's gaze.
As the hours passed the conviction deepened in Belle that there wassomething seriously wrong; she could feel it in the air. It wassomething more than an accident to Hartigan. There was the indefinableshadow of shame about it. The oppression became unbearable and onleaving Sunday-school, she went down to the doctor's house. He had justgot in from a case near Fort Ryan and was eating a belated meal. Bellewent straight to the point:
"Dr. Carson, I want you to take me at once to Bylow's Corner."
"Why?"
"There's something wrong. Mr. Hartigan is in serious trouble. I don'tbelieve that he has fallen from his horse as they say. I want to knowthe truth."
Her face was pale, her mouth was set. The doctor looked keenly at her amoment and then, comprehending, said:
"All right, I will"; and in ten minutes the mudstained buckboard with afresh horse in it was speeding over the foot of Cedar Mountain on thetrail to Bylow's.
* * * * *
While Belle was fretting under the delay and marshalling her forces forthe trip to the Corner, Hartigan lay in the quiet Bylow cabin and underthe influence of cold water, coffee, and a more collected mind,gradually acquired some degree of composure. He had risen and dressedand was sadly musing on the wreck of all his life which that one fierysip had brought about, when the thought of Blazing Star came to him. Hewent eagerly to the stable and as he rubbed the animal down he foundhelp in the physical action. He hammered the currycomb on a log to cleanit before putting it in the box, then gazing to the eastward along thetrail that climbed around the shoulder of Cedar Mountain, he saw abuckboard approaching. In the Black Hills one identifies his visitor byhis horse, and Jim recognized the Carson outfit. Sitting beside thedoctor was a woman in a light-coloured dress with a red parasol raisedabove her. It smote him as no man's fist had ever done. He turned intothe stable, put saddle and bridle on Blazing Star, swung to the seat,gave rein to the willing beast and, heading away from Cedar Mountain onthe Deadwood Trail, went bounding, riding, stricken, too hard hit andshamed to meet the eyes of the woman whose praise he had come to valueas the best approval he might hope to win.
The doctor's buckboard came to the door, tied up, and the two occupantswent in.
"Where is your patient, Mrs. Bylow?"
The woman pointed to the bedroom door, went to it, knocked, opened it,and finding the room empty said:
"He was here a few minutes ago. I expect he is out to the stable."
Belle sat down. The nervous strain of the past hours was telling on her.She felt unstrung and vaguely depressed.
The doctor and Mary B
ylow went to the stable. The empty stall, with nosign of saddle, bridle, or preacher, were enough. They returned to thehouse.
In answer to Belle's look the doctor made a gesture, and said simply:
"Gone."
"Where?"
The doctor shook his head and pointed northward.
"Please tell me all about it, Mrs. Bylow," said Belle.
"There is times to tell lies," said Mary naively, "but this ain't. I'lltell you the whole truth," and she did in a quivering voice, while tearsran from her eyes.
"Trapped, trapped," was Belle's only comment. "Where do you suppose hewent?"
"Not to Cedar Mountain," said Carson, "that's sure. No one passed us."
Charlie Bylow, coming into the cabin, heard the doctor's last comment.
"He was heading due north and going hard when last we saw him," was hiscontribution.
"Dr. Carson, he's headed for Deadwood, and I'm going after him to bringhim back." Belle stood up with sudden decision. The need for action oncemore present, all her strength responded.
The doctor shook his head. "I don't think you should go. You know whatall the town would say."
"You are going with me," was the answer.
"When?"
"Right now."
"Better go home first."
"And have a fight with my folks? No, no! We go now. I have an aunt inDeadwood, you know!"
"It's forty-five miles, and we can't get there till midnight, even if myhorse holds out."
"We may overtake him before that," said Belle, though she knew quitewell they would not, for Hartigan would ride like a madman.
It had not been difficult to enlist Carson's sympathies. A sincerefriendship had sprung up between the boyish preacher and himself andtheir total dissimilarity had made them congenial. Carson was amused inhis quiet way to note how exactly Belle was moving as he thought bestand surest, so now he merely added:
"Deadwood it is," and with a farewell word to the Bylows they were off.