CHAPTER IV
THE UNUSED PLATE
At sundown, when Parker and the cowboys rode in from the northern hills,the Quarter Circle KT lay under a mantle of sullen, torturing heat. Nota breath of air fanned the poplars, straight and motionless, in front ofthe house. The sun buried itself in a solid wall of black that roseabove the Costejo peaks, hidden now in the shadow of the coming storm.The horses were dripping with sweat--their coats as glossy and wet as ifthey had swum the river. At the corral the animals wearily tossed theirheads, low hung with exhaustion, seeking to shift the sticky clutch ofhead-stall or hackamore, while their riders dismounted and quicklyremoved saddle and riding gear. Freed from their burdens the bronchosdragged tired heels through the dust as they whirled and trottedunsteadily away to the pasture, eager to roll and relax their achingmuscles.
"Holy cats, but it's hot!" Bert Lilly exclaimed as he slipped off hischaps and started toward the house, leaving saddle and outfit lyingbeside the gate of the corral.
"Better put them things in the shed," Parker advised, "looks like awhale of a storm is coming."
"Reckon that's right," Bert answered, turning back and carrying hisriding gear into the shelter where the other cowboys already had takentheirs.
"Wonder if them women come?" Chuck Slithers queried as they moved towardthe gate.
"More than likely--Bet Skinny and Old Heck have had a hell of a timemaking love to 'em," Charley Saunders remarked.
"You want to be careful about cussin'," Parker warned. "It ain't politewhen women are around!"
"Listen at him!" Bert said with a laugh, "practising already--Parker isgetting polite--to-morrow is his day to be affectionate to the widow,Ophelia--"
"Which is she, Parker," Charley asked soberly, "a grass or natural?"
"Shut up, you blamed fools, they're liable to hear you," Parker growledangrily. "Anyhow, it ain't my fault they come!"
"Parker oughtn't to kick," Chuck chimed in, "look at poor oldSkinny--he's got a steady job lovin' the other one!"
"Darned if I wouldn't rather love both of them at once," Charleyobserved, "than to take another ride like that was to-day. I'm kind ofanxious to see what they look like," he continued.
"Well, don't go and get excited at the supper table and eat your piewith a spoon!" Chuck laughed.
"Aw, hell," Charley retorted, "I guess I know how to act--"
"Old Heck's going to buy some finger-bowls for you to wash your handsin," Bert said scornfully, "him and Parker--"
"Shut up, I told you, you darned idiots," Parker snapped. "They're outon the front porch and can hear you!"
"Be careful about your cussin'--" Bert mimicked with a snicker.
Notwithstanding their raillery every man in the group, including Pedro,gave unusual care to scrubbing his face and smoothing his hairpreparatory to entering the kitchen for supper and where they wouldmeet, for the first time, Ophelia and Carolyn June.
Sing Pete glided out of the kitchen door and hammered the triangleannouncing the evening meal.
At the instant Parker and the cowboys filed into the kitchen from therear, Ophelia and Carolyn June, followed by Old Heck and Skinny Rawlins,both looking sheepish and somewhat ashamed, stepped into the room fromthe front.
All stood waiting and Old Heck, ill at ease and in a voice thattrembled, gave the party formal introduction:
"Missus Ophelia Cobb and Miss Carolyn June Dixon," motioning first atthe widow and then the girl, "Mister Parker, Mister Bert Lilly, MisterCharley Saunders, Mister Chuck Slithers, Mister Pedro Valencia--"indicating each in turn with his hand as he called the names, "--Ireckon you're already acquainted with Skinny!"
The cowboys mumbled greetings which Carolyn June and Ophelia graciouslyacknowledged.
Sing Pete had laid two extra covers.
"You boys can take your regular places--all except you, Parker," OldHeck said, "--you set at that side on this end," pointing to the seat atthe left next to the head of the table. "Carolyn June, you can set atthat end and Ophelia at this end--I'll set here," taking the seat at thewidow's right and directly across from Parker.
This placed Old Heck, Bert Lilly, Pedro and Skinny Rawlins on the rightof the table in the order named, Skinny sitting at the end on Carolyn'sleft. On the opposite side sat Parker, Chuck Slithers and Charley. Nextto Charley, at the right of Carolyn June, and opposite Skinny, was avacant chair.
"Who is this for?" Carolyn June inquired, indicating the unoccupiedseat.
"That's th' Ramblin' Kid's place," Old Heck replied; "he may come in andagain he mayn't--"
"It was him you saw to-day," Skinny added, "riding down toward theNarrows when we was coming from Eagle Butte."
"Do you know; where he went, Parker?" Old Heck asked.
"No. When we started over to the Springs he was here. Said he reckonedwe could get along without him and he wouldn't go--"
"He's just got one of them lonesome spells," Bert said, "and wanted toget off by himself somewhere."
"He knowed we was going to have company, too," Chuck observed.
"More than likely that's why he went," Skinny suggested.
"Is he afraid of women?" Carolyn June laughed.
"Not particularly," Skinny replied; "he don't bother with them, that'sall."
"I think he went after that Gold Dust maverick," Charley said. "He'llprobably come in when he sees how it's going to storm--"
"He don't give a darn for storms," Bert declared. "--Pass them frijoles,Pedro.--Remember that time it blowed the hay derrick down and hewouldn't come to the house, just stayed out and watched the wind andlightning?"
"He is funny that way," Charley admitted.
"Well, he'll never catch that mare," Parker said, "she's too--"
"Oh, I don't know," Chuck interrupted, "look how he has tamed CaptainJack," referring to the Ramblin' Kid's own horse, one time a famousrenegade.
"How was that?" Carolyn June inquired carelessly.
"Captain Jack was an outlaw, too," Bert explained. "He run over on theEast Mesa on the Una de Gata. Charley and me and th' Ramblin' Kid gothim to going one day when there was some ranch mares in his bunch. Oneof them was a hand-raised filly, was a pet and she was--well, prettyhot! We worked them over the rim of the Mesa and into the canyon, itwas a box-gorge from where they hit it to its head, and at the upper endthere was a wing corral. The mare swung up the canyon towards the ranchand--Jack wouldn't quit her! We was pounding right on their heels andbefore he knowed it we had them penned--"
"That shows what happens when a he-thing goes locoed over a femalecritter," Chuck whispered to Parker; "you and Old Heck want to watchout!"
"Be careful, you danged fool!" Parker hissed as he kicked at Chuck'sshins under the table. Excited, he made a mistake in the foot he shouldhave used and viciously slammed his left toe against Ophelia's daintyankle.
The widow looked startled and suddenly sat up very straight in herchair.
Parker realized his error, turned red, choked, leaned close to Chuck andbreathed hoarsely, "I'll kill you some day for that!"
"He sure went crazy when he found he was corraled," Charley said, "andforgot all about the mare."
"He sure did," Bert continued, while Carolyn June listened intently,"and was plumb wild to bu'st down the pen and be free again. Charley norme didn't want him and so th' Ramblin' Kid said he'd take him. Just thenTony Malush--we was punchin' for him--come riding up and was going toshoot Captain Jack on account of wanting to clean the range of theoutlaw stallions. He yanked out his gun and started to pull a drop onold Jack's head. Th' Ramblin' Kid jerked his own forty-four and toldTony he'd kill him if he shot the renegade broncho. Tony backed up, butit made him sore and he fired th' Ramblin' Kid. The darned little cussset there a minute thinking, then slid off his horse, stripped him ofriding gear, flung saddle, blanket and bridle over the bars into thecorral. Before we knowed what he was aiming to do he climbed up anddropped down inside, on foot, with just his rope, and faced that outlawbattin' around trying to get outside--"
Carolyn June leaned forward on the table listening with breathlessinterest. The others stopped eating and gave all their attention to thestory Bert was telling.
"Captain Jack saw him, stopped for just a second, sort of surprised,then went right at th' Ramblin' Kid--head down, eyes blazin' like coals,mouth wide open, ears laid back and strikin' with both front feet--"
"He was some wicked!" Charley ejaculated.
"He sure was," Bert went on. "Tony and Charley and me just set on ourhorses stunned--thinkin' th' Kid had gone clean loco and was flirtin'with certain and pronto death. As Captain Jack rushed him th' Ramblin'Kid give a jump sideways, his rope went true, a quick run to thesnubbin' post and he throwed him dead! The broncho hit his feet, give asqueal and come straight back! Th' Ramblin' Kid run once more, yankin'like blazes to get the slack! That time when he went down--well, beforewe realized it, th' Ramblin' Kid had him bridled and saddled and wassafe on deck--"
"I'm tellin' you too, Captain Jack went higher than a kite when he feltthe rowels in his flanks!" Charley interrupted.
"Th' Ramblin' Kid yelled for us to let him out," Bert continued."Charley and me flung down the bars to the corral and Captain Jack comeout sun-fishin' and hittin' the breeze like a streak of twistedlightning! That was just before dinner in the forenoon. That afternoonand night th' Ramblin' Kid rode the outlaw to the Hundred andOne--ninety miles away! We didn't see either of them any more for amonth and when they hit the Kiowa again Captain Jack was a regular babyafter th' Ramblin' Kid and would follow him around like a dog--"
"That's the way he's been ever since," Charley said, "them two are justlike sweethearts."
"Nobody else ever rides him--" Bert added.
"They can't," Chuck said. "He's a one-man horse and th' Ramblin' Kid isthe man. Captain Jack would die for th' Ramblin' Kid!"
"Yes, and kill any one else if he could!" Parker exclaimed.
"Has no one but--but the Ramblin' Kid"--Carolyn June hesitated queerlyover the name--"ever ridden him?"
"Never that we know of," Bert said; "several have tried it--the lastone was a fellow from down on the Chickasaw. Guess he was trying tosteal him. Anyway, we was all up at Eagle Butte and had left our horsesout in front of the Occidental Hotel while we was in the dining-roomeating our dinners. We got outside just in time to see the stranger hitthe ground and Captain Jack jump on him with all four feet doubled up ina bunch--he's buried in that little graveyard you might have noticed onthe hill this side of the river bridge."
"Killed him?" Carolyn June gasped.
"Seemed like it." Bert answered, with a grin; "anyway, we buried him."
"What did the--the Ramblin' Kid do?" she asked.
"He just laughed kind of soft and scornful," Skinny said, "and got onCaptain Jack and rode away while we was picking the fellow up!"
During the rest of the meal Carolyn June's eyes looked frequently andcuriously at the unused plate at her right. She felt, some way, that anaffront had been shown her by the absence of the one for whom it waslaid. The other cowboys, it was quite evident to her intuitive woman'smind, had looked forward with considerable eagerness to the arrival ofherself and Ophelia. The Ramblin' Kid, at the very moment almost oftheir reaching the Quarter Circle KT, had deliberately mounted CaptainJack and ridden away. It seemed like little less than an intentionalsnub! In addition to the half-resentment she felt, there remained inher mind an insistent and tormenting picture of the slender, subtle,young rider swaying easily to the swing of Captain Jack as he gallopeddown the valley earlier in the day.
Bert, Charley, Chuck, before the meal was finished cast frankly admiringglances at Carolyn June and Skinny plainly was gaining confidence at arapid rate, while Pedro, silent throughout it all, kept, almostconstantly, his half-closed eyes fixed in a sidelong look at the girl atthe end of the table.
Attention and admiration, Carolyn June expected from men. They hadalways been hers. She was beautiful and was conscious of it. Had thecowboys of the Quarter Circle KT not registered appreciation of hercharms by their looks Carolyn June would have believed something waswrong with her dress or the arrangement of her hair. Her eyes--she wassure of them--without effort lured men to her feet.
"It's hotter than blue blazes in here," Old Heck said when all hadfinished; "we'd better go out into the big room. Maybe Carolyn June willplay some on the piano."
"The boys and me will go on out on the porch," Parker said as theyreached the front room, speaking significantly to Old Heck, but in atone both Ophelia and Carolyn June heard. "We'll leave you and Skinnywith the ladies and not intrude--"
"You won't be intruding if you remain," Ophelia said brightly. "CarolynJune and I are not partial at all and want you to feel that we enjoymeeting you all."
"Yes, stay," Carolyn June added, somewhat reluctant that of the entiregroup only one should be left to the wiles of her unconsciouslyintentional coquetry; "there is plenty of room in here and it's cool--"
"We're much obliged," Bert said, "but we'd better do the way Parkermentioned. Anyhow that was the agreement."
"Agreement?" Ophelia spoke with a questioning lift of her brows.
"Yes," Chuck said, evidently trying to relieve the embarrassment of OldHeck, Parker and Skinny who looked daggers at Bert when he spoke of anagreement, "Parker and Old Heck was to take turn about--"
"Bert meant," Parker interrupted hastily, "--he meant they--they had toagree not to loaf in this room before Old Heck would give them jobs onthe Quarter Circle KT!"
"Yes," Old Heck added quickly, "that was the bargain on accountof--of--getting it mussed up and everything and making too much work forSing Pete to clean it up!"
Ophelia and Carolyn June looked curiously at each other as if theysuspected some secret that had to do with their presence at the QuarterCircle KT.
Outside, the cowboys lounged on the porch or lay spread full length onthe grass smoking their cigarettes, and silent. Each was busy withthoughts of his own. Carolyn June had been very impartial during theevening meal, distributing her smiles and little attentions freely amongthem all. Now she was sitting at the piano playing snatches of randommelodies as they came to her mind, while Skinny sat stiffly on ahigh-backed chair at the corner of the instrument.
A drone of voices reached the ears of Parker and the cowboys as OldHeck, skilfully led on by Ophelia, told about the ranch, the Kiowa rangeand the traditions of western Texas.
"Can you play _La Paloma?_" Skinny asked as Carolyn June paused afterrunning over a dainty and vivacious one-step, memories of which made herthink of Hartville and the fashionable ballrooms where she had reignedas princess at least if not as queen, and which seemed now very faraway.
"I'm afraid not--unless I have the music, but I'll try," she answered,and her fingers again sought the keys.
The dreamy Mexican air drifted seductively out on the sultry motionlessnight.
Bert looked through the window and saw Skinny lean back in his chair,his eyes closed and an expression of supreme content stealing over hisface.
"Skinny's gone--he's surrendered," he said to Chuck, lying full lengthon the porch at his side; "look at the poor cuss with his eyes shut andgrinning as if he was seeing visions of Paradise!"
"That combination would capture most anybody," Chuck answered. "I'mstarting to feel affectionate myself."
Bert didn't reply, Chuck having expressed too nearly his own swellingemotions.
"Uncle Josiah!" Carolyn June called, suddenly whirling around on thepiano stool as she finished the last bars of _La Paloma_, "may I have ahorse?"
Old Heck, grown silent under the spell of the music, and, like Skinny,sitting dreaming dreams that almost frightened him, started quickly.
"A--a what?" he asked.
"A horse--" she answered, "a broncho to ride!"
"Oh, uh--sure! Skinny, go get her one!" he replied confusedly.
"Not now," Carolyn June laughed, "to-morrow--any time, whenever I wantto use it!"
"Can you ride?" Skinny asked eagerly.
&nb
sp; "Ever since I can remember," Carolyn June said, "daddy has kepthorses--I love 'em! Ophelia rides, too," she added.
"In automobiles--" Ophelia corrected.
"That's a good arrangement," Skinny said; "it will make everything workout all right."
"I don't understand," Carolyn June said; "what arrangement?"
"We'd better be going to bed, Skinny," Old Heck interposed anxiously,"it's getting late!"
"Guess we had," Skinny said reluctantly. "Gosh, it's warm to-night!"
"You can leave the door and windows open," Old Heck said to Ophelia andCarolyn June as he and Skinny moved toward the door; "we don't haveburglars out here."
Parker and the cowboys straightened up when they heard Skinny and OldHeck preparing to leave and went around the corner of the buildingtoward the bunk-house.
Ophelia and Carolyn June stepped out on the porch with Old Heck andSkinny.
The air was oppressively still and hot. The black cloud bank that hadhung over the Costejo Mountains earlier in the evening now covered thewhole western half of the sky. Night sounds seemed almost stifled by thesuffocating heat. From the pasture below the stables the faint call of akill-deer suddenly shrilled out, followed by intense silence. Nolightning flash filled the wall-like blackness slowly creeping over theearth from the west. A pale glow on the rim of the rolling hills acrossthe valley, herald of the moon not yet above the horizon, intensifiedthe pall beneath the approaching cloud. A sullen roar, throbbingangrily, rising and falling in volume, could be heard coming out of thedepths of the storm.
"Acts like it's going to be a bad one," Old Heck observed, studying thecloud they all were watching.
"Wicked," Skinny said, "one of them mutterin' kind until it breaks andthen all hell tears loose."
"If th' Ramblin' Kid is out in the sand-hills to-night he'll--"
A withering stream of fire poured from the cloud almost over theirheads; it was accompanied by a crashing peal of thunder that rocked theearth under their feet and stopped the words on Old Heck's lips. Theflame lighted the whole valley. They had an instant's glimpse of awrithing, overhanging curtain of dust and rain sweeping toward them. Inthe glare they saw a giant cottonwood that stood alone in the meadowwest of the house reel and sway like a drunken thing and pitch to theearth.
"It's here! It struck that tree!" Old Heck yelled. "Run for thebunk-house, Skinny, maybe we can make it! You women go inside and shutthe door!"
Carolyn June and Ophelia sprang--were blown almost--inside the house andslammed the door as another bolt fell, flooding the room with a blazethat made the light from the lamp on the reading table seem faint anddim. Old Heck and Skinny darted around the corner as the tempest pulledand tugged at the buildings of the Quarter Circle KT.
For an hour Ophelia and Carolyn June sat and listened to the storm andwhile it still raged went to bed.
Carolyn June fell asleep watching the incessant glare of the lightningas flash after flash filled the room with light and illumined the worldoutside, while the rain and wind lashed the trees in the garden nearher window. Above the tumult the words of Old Heck: "If the Ramblin' Kidis out in the sand-hills to-night"--kept repeating themselves over andover in her mind. Try as she would, she could not shut out the pictureof a slender young rider, alone, far out on the range in the storm-madnight, unsheltered from the fury and wrath of the elements.