CHAPTER XXII
THE BILLY OF HER
Since she had closed up on the cattle and had read on their sides theshameful story of theft, Billy Louise had known that she wouldeventually come out at the lower end of the Cove; and that in spite ofthe fact that the Cove was not supposed to have any egress save throughthe gorge. What surprised her was the short distance; she had notrealized that the bluff and the upland formed a wide curve, and thatshe had cut the distance almost in half by riding next the river.
She seemed in no doubt as to what she would do when she arrived. BillyLouise was not much given to indecision at any time. She drove thecattle into the corral farthest from the house, rode on to the stable,and stopped Blue with his nose against the fence there and with hisreins dragging. Then, tight-lipped still, she walked determinedlyalong the path to the gate that led through the berry-jungle to thecabin.
She opened the gate and stepped through, closing it after her. She hadnot gone twenty feet when there was a rush from the nearest thicket,and Surbus, his hair ruffed out along his neck, growled and made a leapat her with bared fangs.
Billy Louise had forgotten about Surbus. She jumped back, startled,and the dog missed landing. When he sprang again he met a thirty-eightcalibre bullet from Billy Louise's gun and dropped back. It had been asnap shot, without any particular aiming; Billy Louise retreated a fewsteps farther, watching the dog suspiciously. He gathered himselfslowly and prepared to spring at her again. This time Billy Louise,being on the watch for such a move, aimed carefully before she fired.Surbus dropped again, limply--a good dog forever more.
Billy Louise heard a shrill whistle and the sound of feet running. Shewaited, gun in hand, ready for whatever might come.
"Hey! Charlie! Somebody's come; the bell, she don't reeng." PeterHowling Dog, a pistol in his hand, came running down the path from thecabin. He saw Billy Louise and stopped abruptly, his mouth half open.
From a shed near the stable came Charlie, also running. Billy Louisewaited beside the gate. He did not see her until he was close, for atangled gooseberry bush stood between them.
"What was it, Peter? Somebody in the Cove? Or was it you--"
"No, it wasn't Peter; it was me." Billy Louise informed him calmly andungrammatically. "I shot Surbus, that's all."
"Oh! Why, Miss Louise, you nearly gave me heart failure! How are you?I thought--"
"You thought somebody had gotten into the Cove without your knowing it.Well, someone did. I rode up from below, along the river."
"Oh--er--did you? Pretty rough going, wasn't it? I didn't think itcould be done. Come in; Aunt Martha will be--"
"I don't think she'll be overjoyed to see me." Billy Louise stoodstill beside the gooseberry bush, and she had forgotten to put away hergun. "I drove up those cattle you had down below. You're awfullycareless, Charlie! I should think Peter or Marthy would have told youbetter. When a man steals cattle by working over the brands, it's verybad form to keep them right on his ranch in plain sight. It--isn'tdone by the best people, you know." Her voice stung with the contemptshe managed to put into it. And though she smiled, it was such a smileas one seldom saw upon the face of Billy Louise.
"What's all this? Worked brands! Why, Miss Louise, I--I wouldn't knowhow to--"
"I know. You did an awful punk job. A person could tell in the darkit was the work of a greenhorn. Why didn't you let Peter do it, orMarthy? You could have done a better job than that, couldn't you,Marthy?"
Poor old Marthy, with her rheumatic knees and a gray hardness in herleathery face, had come down the path and stood squarely before BillyLouise, her hands knuckling her flabby hips, her hair blowing in gray,straggling wisps about her bullet head.
"Better than what? Come in, Billy Louise. I'm right glad to see yeback and lookin' so well, even if yuh do 'pear to be in one of yourtantrums. How's yer maw?"
Billy Louise gasped and went white. "Mommie's dead," she said. "Shedied the ninth." She drew another gasping breath, pulled herselftogether, and went on before the others could begin the set speeches ofsympathy which the announcement seemed to demand.
"Never mind about that, now. I'm talking about those Seabeck cattleyou folks stole. I was telling Charlie how horribly careless he is,Marthy. Did you know he let them drift down the river? And a blindman could tell a mile off the brands have been worked!" Billy Louise'stone was positively venomous in its contempt. "Why didn't you makeCharlie practise on a cowhide for awhile first?" she asked Marthycuttingly.
Marthy ignored the sarcasm. Perhaps it did not penetrate her stolidmind at all. "Charlie never worked any brands, Billy Louise," shestated with her glum directness.
"Oh, I beg his pardon, I'm sure! Did you?"
"No, I never done such a thing, neither. I don't know what you'retalkin' about."
"Well, who did, then?" Billy Louise faced the old woman pitilessly.
"I d'no." Marthy lifted her hand and made a futile effort to tuck in afew of the longest wisps of hair.
"Well, of all the--" The stern gray eyes of Billy Louise flew wideopen at the effrontery of the words. If they expected her to believethat!
"That's it, Miss Louise. That's the point we'd like to settle,ourselves. I know it sounds outrageous, but it's a fact. Peter and Ifound those cattle up in the hills, with our brand worked over the V.On my word of honor, not one of us knows who did it."
"But you've got them down here--"
"Well--" Charlie threw out a hand helplessly. His eyes met hers withappealing frankness. "We couldn't rub out the brands; what else couldwe do? I figured that somebody else would see them if we left them outin the hills, and it might be rather hard to convince a man; you see,we can't even convince you! But, so help me, not one of us brandedthose cattle, Miss Louise. I believe that whoever has been rustlingstock around here deliberately tried to fix evidence against us. I'm astranger in the country, and I don't know the game very well; I'm aneasy mark!"
"Yes, you're that, all right enough!" Billy Louise spoke with bluntdisfavor, but her contemptuous certainty of his guilt was plainlywavering. "To go and bring stolen cattle right down here--"
"It seemed to me they'd be safer here than anywhere else," Charlieobserved naively. "Nobody ever comes down here, unknown to us. I hadit sized up that the fellow who worked those brands would never dreamwe'd bring the stock right into the Cove. Why, Miss Louise, even Iwould know better than to put our brand on top of Seabeck's and expectit to pass inspection. If I wanted to steal cattle, I wouldn't go atit that way!"
Billy Louise glanced uncertainly at him and then at Marthy, facing hergrimly. She did not know what to think, and she showed it.
"How do you mean--the real rustlers?" She began hesitatingly; andhesitation was not by any means a mental habit with Billy Louise.
"I mean just what I said." Charlie's manner was becoming more natural,more confident. "I've been riding through the hills a good deal, andI've seen a few things. And I've an idea the fellow got a littleuneasy." He saw her wince a little at the word "fellow," and he wenton, with an impulsive burst of confidence. "Miss Louise, have youever, in your riding around up above Jones Canyon, in all those deeplittle gulches, have you ever seen anything of a--corral, up there?"
Billy Louise held herself rigidly from starting at this. She bit herlips so that it hurt. "Whereabouts is it?" she asked, without lookingat him. And then: "I thought you would go to any length before youwould accuse anybody."
"I would. But when, they deliberately try to hand me the blame--andI'm not accusing anybody--anybody in particular, am I? The corral isat the head of a steep little canyon or gulch, back in the hills whereall these bigger canyons head. Some time when you're riding up thatway, you keep an eye out for it. That," he added grimly, "is wherePeter and I ran across these cattle; right near that corral."
The heart of Billy Louise went heavy in her chest. Was it possible?Doubts are harder to kill than cats or snakes. You think they'
re donefor, and here they come again, crowding close so that one can seenothing else.
"Have you any idea at all, who--it is?" She forced the words out ofher dry throat. She lifted her head defiantly and looked at him full,trying to read the truth from his eyes and his mouth.
Charlie Fox met her look, and in his eyes she read pity--yes, pity forher. "If I have," he said, with an air of gently deliberate evasion,"I'll wait till I am dead sure before I name the man. I'm not at allsure I'd do it even then, Miss Louise; not unless I was forced to do itin self-defense. That's one reason why I brought the cattle down here.I didn't want to be placed in a position where I should be compelled tofight back."
Billy Louise ran her gloved fingers down the barrel of her gun, andstuck the weapon back in its holster. "I killed Surbus, Marthy," shesaid dully. "I had to. He came at me."
Marthy turned heavily toward the spot which Billy Louise indicated withher downward glance. She had not seen the dog lying there half hiddenby a berry bush. Marthy gave a grunt of dismay and went over to whereSurbus lay huddled. Her hard old face worked with emotion.
"You shot him, did yuh?" Marthy's voice was harsh with reproach."What did he do to yuh, that you had to go t' work and shoot him? Hewarn't your dog, he was mine! I must say you're gittin'high-an'-mighty, Billy Louise, comin' here shootin' my dog and accusin'Charlie and me to our faces uh bein' thieves. And your maw not cold in'er grave yit! I must say you're gitting too high-an'-mighty fer oldMarthy. And me payin' fer your schoolin' and never gitting so much asa thankye fer it, and scrimpin' and savin' to make a lady out of yuh.And here you come in a tantrum, callin' me a thief right in my face!You knowed all along who worked them brands. If yuh don't, I kinmighty quick tell ye--"
"Now, Aunt Martha, never mind scolding Billy Louise; you know you thinkas much of her as you do of me, and that's throwing a big bouquet atmyself!" Charlie went up and laid his arm caressingly over the oldwoman's shoulder. "You don't want to let this upset you, Aunt Martha.Surbus was a mean-tempered brute with strangers. You know that. Idon't blame Miss Louise in the least. She was frightened when he cameat her, and she hadn't presence of mind enough to see he was onlybluffing and wouldn't hurt--"
"Bluffing, was he?" Billy Louise roused herself to meet this covertattack upon her courage. "So are you bluffing. And so is Marthy, whenshe says she paid for my--" She stopped, confronting an accusingmemory of mommie's mysterious silence about the school money, and herown passing curiosity which had never been satisfied. "Even if shedid, I don't know why she need throw it up to me now. I never askedher for money. Nobody ever did. And that has nothing to do withSurbus, anyway. He's a nasty, mean brute that ought to have beenkilled long ago. I'm not a bit sorry. I'm glad I did kill him."
"Yes, I know yuh be. You're hard as--"
"I wouldn't talk about hardness, if I were you, Marthy! What are you,right now--and always? Was I to blame for thinking those cattle hadbeen stolen? They're in the Cove, with your brand on. And unless youpay Seabeck for them, you're stealing them if you keep them. Itdoesn't matter who put the brand on; you're keeping the cattle. Whatdo you call that, I'd like to know? They're down here in the bigcorral now. If you mean to do what's square, you'll take them up toSeabeck's and explain--"
"Explain who it was ran our brand on?" Charlie's voice was silk overiron. "I'm afraid if I were forced into explanations, I'd have to tellall I know, Miss Louise. Do you advise that--really?"
"I don't advise anything." Baffled and angry and hurt to the very soulof her, Billy Louise opened the gate and went out. "It strikes me youCove folks are not wanting advice these days, or needing it. If youknow anything to tell, for heaven's sake don't hold back on my account!It's nothing to me, one way or the other. I'm no rustler, and nofriend of rustlers, if that's what you're hinting at." She left themwith a proud lift to her chin and a very straight back, went to Blue,and mounted him mechanically. Billy Louise was "seeing red" just then.She rode back past the gate, the three were still standing there closetogether, talking. Billy Louise swung round in the saddle so that shefaced them.
"You needn't worry, Marthy, about that school-money," she called outangrily. "I'll take your word for it and pay you back every cent, withlegal rate of interest. And I'm darned glad I did shoot Surbus!"
"Oh, say, Miss Louise!" Charlie called placatingly. "Please don't goaway feeling--"
"You go to the devil!" Billy Louise flung back at him and touched Bluewith her heel. "I hope that shocked some of the politeness out of him,anyway," she added grimly to herself. "Oh, I hate everything--Ward andGod and all! I hate life--I hate it!"
She pulled Blue down to a walk and rode slowly for a couple of rods,fighting against the reaction that crept inexorably over her anger,chilling it and making it seem weak and unworthy. With a suddenimpulse born of her stern instincts of justice, she jerked Blue aroundand galloped back. Charlie had disappeared, and Peter Howling Dog waswalking sullenly toward the corraled cattle. Marthy was going slowlyup the path to the cabin, looking old and bent and broken-spiritedbecause of her bowed shoulders and stiff, rheumatic gait, but harsh andunyielding as to her face. Billy Louise stopped by the fence andcalled to her. Marthy turned, stared at her sourly, and stood whereshe was.
"Wall, what d'yuh want now?" she asked uncompromisingly.
Billy Louise fought back an answering antagonism. She must be just;she could not blame Marthy for feeling hard toward her. She hadinsulted them horribly and killed Marthy's dog.
"I want to tell you I'm sorry I was so mean, Marthy," she said bravely."I haven't any excuse to make for it; only you must see yourself what ashock it would be to a person to find those cattle down here. But Iknow you're honest, and so is Charlie. And I know you'll do what'sright. I'm sorry I told Charlie to go to the devil, and I'm sorry Ishot your dog, Marthy."
Apologies did not come easily to Billy Louise. She wheeled then androde away at a furious gallop, before Marthy could do more than openher grim lips for reply.