THE FORD OF CREVECOEUR
BY
MARY AUSTIN
Reprinted from _Out West_ by permission.
YES. I understand; you are M'siu the Notary, M'siu the Sheriff has toldme. You are come to hear how by the help of God I have killed FilonGeraud at the ford of Crevecoeur. By the help of God, yes. Think you ifthe devil had a hand in it, he would not have helped Filon? For he wasthe devil's own, was Filon. He was big, he was beautiful, he had away--but always there was the devil's mark. I see that the first timeever I knew him at Agua Caliente. The devil sit in Filon's eyes andlaugh--laugh--some time he go away like a man at a window, but he comeagain. M'siu, he _live_ there! And Filon, he know that I see, so he makelike he not care; but I think he care a little, else why he make fortorment me all the time? Ever since I see him at that shearing at AguaCaliente eight, ten year gone, he not like for let me be. I have beenthe best shearer in that shed, snip--snip--quick, clean. Ah, it isbeautiful! All the sheepmen like for have me shear their sheep. Filon isnew man at that shearing, Lebecque is just hire him then; but yes,M'siu, to see him walk about that Agua Caliente you think he own allthose sheep, all that range. Ah--he had a way! Pretty soon that dayFilon is hearing all sheepmen say that Raoul is the best shearer; thenhe come lean on the rail by my shed and laugh softly like he talk withhimself, and say, "See the little man; see him shear." But me, I can nomore. The shears turn in my hand so I make my sheep all bleed same likeone butcher. Then I look up and see the devil in Filon Geraud's eye. Itis always so after that, all those years until I kill Filon. If I make alittle game of poker with other shepherds then he walks along and say:
"Ah, you, Raoul, you is one sharp fellow. I not like for play with you."Then is my play all gone bad.
But if Filon play, then he say, "Come, you little man, and bring me thegood luck."
It is so, M'siu! If I go stand by that game, Filon is win, win all thetime. That is because of the devil. And if there are women--no, M'siu,there was never _one_ woman. What would a shepherd, whose work is alwaystoward the hills, do with a woman? Is it to plant a vineyard that othersmay drink wine? Ah, non! But me, at shearings and at Tres Pinos where wepay the tax, there I like to talk to pretty girl same as othershepherds, then Filon come make like he one gran' friend. All the timehe make say the compliments, he make me one mock. His eyes they laughalways, that make women like to do what he say. But me, I have nochance.
It is so, M'siu, when I go out with my sheep. This is my trail--I go outafter the shearing through the Canada de las Vinas, then across theLittle Antelope, while the grass is quick. After that I go up toward thehills of Olancho, where I keep one month; there is much good feed andno man comes. Also then I wait at Tres Pinos for the sheriff that I paythe tax. _Sacre_! it is a hard one, that tax! After that I am free ofthe Sierras, what you call _Nieve_--snowy. Well I know that country. Igo about with my sheep and seek my meadows--_mine_, M'siu, that I haveclimbed the great mountains to spy out among the pines, that I havefound by the grace of God, and my own wit: La Crevasse, Moultrie,Bighorn, Angostura. Also, I go by other meadows where other shepherdsfeed one month with another; but these _these_ are all _mine_. I goabout and come again when the feed is grown.
M'siu, it is hard to believe, but it is so--Filon finds my meadows oneby one. One year I come by La Crevasse--there is nothing there; I go onto Moultrie--here is the grass eaten to the roots, and the little pineshave no tops; at Bighorn is the fresh litter of a flock. I think maybemy sheep go hungry that summer. So I come to Angostura. There is Filon.He laugh. Then it come into my mind that one day I goin' kill that FilonGeraud. By the help of God. Yes. For he is big that Filon, he is strong;and me, M'siu, I am as God made me.
So always, where I go on the range there is Filon; if I think to changemy trail, he change also his. If I have good luck, Filon has better. Ifto him is the misfortune--ah--you shall hear.
One year Gabriel Lausanne tell me that Filon is lose all his lambs inthe Santa Ana. You know that Santa Ana, M'siu? It is one mighty wind. Itcomes up small, very far away, one little dust like the clouds, creep,creep close by the land. It lies down along the sand; you think it isdone? Eh, it is one liar, that Santa Ana. It rise up again, it is palegold, it seek the sky. That sky is all wide, clean, no speck. Ah, itknows, that sky; it will have nothing lying about when the Santa Anacomes. It is hot then, you have the smell of the earth in your nostrils._That_, M'siu, is the Santa Ana. It is pale dust and the great push ofthe wind. The sand bites, there is no seeing the flock's length. Theyhuddle, and the lambs are smothered; they scatter, and the dogs cannothing make. If it blow one day, you thank God; if it blow two days,then is sheepman goin' to lose his sheep. When Gabriel tell me thatabout Filon, I think he deserve all that. What you think, M'siu? Thatsame night the water of Tinpah rise in his banks afar off by the hillswhere there is rain. It comes roaring down the wash where I make mycamp, for you understand at that time of year there should be no waterin the wash of Tinpah, but it come in the night and carry away one-halfof my sheep. Eh, how you make that, M'siu; is it the devil or no?
Well, it go like this eight, ten year; then it come last summer, and Imeet Filon at the ford of Crevecoeur. That is the water that comes downeastward from Mineral Mountain between Olancho and Sentinel Rock. It iswhat you call Mineral Creek, but the French shepherds call itCrevecoeur. For why; it is a most swift and wide water; it goes darklybetween earthy banks upon which it gnaws. It has hot springs which comeup in it without reason, so that there is no safe crossing at any time.Its sands are quick; what they take, they take wholly with the life init, and after a little they spew it out again. And, look you, it makesno singing, this water of Crevecoeur. Twenty years have I kept sheepbetween Red Butte and the Temblor Hills, and I say this. Make no fear ofsinging water, for it goes not too deeply but securely on a rockybottom; such a one you may trust. But this silent one, that is hot orcold, deep or shallow, and has never its banks the same one season withanother, this you may not trust, M'siu. And to get sheep acrossit--ah--it breaks the heart, this Crevecoeur.
Nevertheless, there is one place where a great rock runs slantwise ofthe stream, but under it, so that the water goes shallowly with awhisper, ah, so fast, and below it is a pool. Here on the rocks theshepherds make pine logs to lie with stones so that the sheep crossover. Every year the water carries the logs away and the shepherds buildagain, and there is no shepherd goes by that water but lose some sheep.Therefore, they call it the ford of Crevecoeur [Break-heart].
Well, I have been about by the meadow of Angostura when it come lastJuly, and there I see Narcisse Duplin. He is tell me the feed is goodabout Sentinel Rock, so I think me to go back by the way of Crevecoeur.There is pine wood all about eastward from that place. It is all shadowthere at midday and has a weary sound. Me, I like it not, that pinewood, so I push the flock and am very glad when I hear toward the fordthe bark of dogs and the broken sound of bells. I think there is othershepherd that make talk with me. But me, M'siu, _sacre! damn!_ when Icome out by the ford there is Filon Geraud. He has come up one sideCrevecoeur, with his flock, as I have come up the other. He laugh.
"Hillo, Raoul," say Filon, "will you cross?"
"I will cross," say I.
"After me," say Filon.
"Before," say I.
M'siu does not know about sheep? Ah, non. It is so that the sheep ismost scare of all beasts about water. Never so little a stream will hecross, but if the dogs compel him. It is the great trouble of shepherdsto get the flock across the waters that go in and about the Sierras. Forthat it is the custom to have two, three goats with the flocks to gofirst across the water, then they will follow. But here at Crevecoeur itis bad crossing any way you go; also that day it is already afternoon.Therefore I stand at one side that ford and make talk with Filon at theother about who goes first. Then my goat which leads my flock come pushby me and I stand on that log while we talk. He is one smart goat.
"Eh, Raoul, let the goats decide," cries Filon, and to that I haveagree. Filon push h
is goat on the log, he is one great black one that iscall Diable--I ask you is that a name for a goat? I have call mine Noe.So they two walk on that log very still; for they see what they have todo. Then they push with the head, Diable and Noe, till that log it rockin the water; Filon is cry to his goat and I to mine. Then because ofthat water one goat slip on the log, and the other is push so hard thathe cannot stop; over they go into the pool of swift water, over and overuntil they come to the shallows; then they find their feet and come up,each on his own side. They will not care to push with the heads again atthat time. Filon he walk out on the log to me, and I walk to him.
"My goat have won the ford," says he.
"Your goat cannot keep what he wins."
"But I can," say Filon. Then he look at me with his eyes like--like Ihave told you, M'siu.
"Raoul," he say, "you is one little man."
With that I remember me all the wrong I have had from this one.
"Go you after your goat, Filon Geraud," say I.
With that I put my staff behind his foot, so, M'siu, and send him intothe water, splash! He come to his feet presently in the pool with thewater all in his hair and his eyes, and the stream run strong and darkagainst his middle.
"Hey, you, Raoul, what for you do that?" he say, but also he laugh. "Ah,ha, little man, you have the joke this time."
M'siu, that laugh stop on his face like it been freeze, his mouth isopen, his eyes curl up. It is terrible, that dead laugh in the midst ofthe black water that run down from his hair.
"Raoul," he say, "_the sand is quick_!"
Then he take one step, and I hear the sand suck. I see Filon shiver likea reed in the swift water.
"_My God_," he say, "_the sand is quick_!"
M'siu, I do not know how it is with me. When I throw Filon in the pool,I have not known it is quick-sand; but when I hear that, I think I amglad. I kneel down by that log in the ford and watch Filon. He speak tome very quiet:
"You must get a rope and make fast to that pine and throw the end to me.There is a rope in my pack."
"Yes," say I, "there is a rope."
So I take my flocks across the ford, since Filon is in the water, andtake all those silly ones toward La Crevasse, and after I think aboutthat business. Three days after, I meet P'tee Pete. I tell him I findthe sheep of Filon in the pine wood below Sentinel Rock. Pete, he saythat therefore Filon is come to some hurt, and that he look for him.That make me scare lest he should look by the ford of Crevecoeur. Soafter that, five or six days, when Narcisse Duplin is come up with me, Itell him Filon is gone to Sacramento where his money is; therefore Ikeep care of his sheep. That is a better tale--eh, M'siu,--for I have tosay something. Every shepherd in that range is know those sheep ofFilon. All this time I think me to take the sheep to Pierre Jullien inthe meadow of Black Mountain. He is not much, that Pierre. If I tell himit is one gift from _Le bon Dieu_, that is explain enough for PierreJullien. Then I will be quit of the trouble of Filon Geraud.
So, M'siu, would it have been, but for that dog Helene. That is Filon'sshe-dog that he raise from a pup. She is--she is _une femme_, that dog!All that first night when we come away from the ford, she cry, cry inher throat all through the dark, and in the light she look at me withher eyes, so to say:
"I know, Raoul! I know what is under the water of Crevecoeur." M'siu, isa man to stand that from a dog? So the next night I beat her, and in themorning she is gone. I think me the good luck to get rid of her. ThatHelene! M'siu, what you think she do? She have gone back to look in thewater for Filon. There she stay, and all sheepmen when they pass thatway see that she is a good sheepdog, and that she is much hungry; sothey wonder that she will not leave off to look and go with them. Afterwhile all people in those parts is been talkin' about that dog ofFilon's that look so keen in the water of Crevecoeur. Mebbe four, fiveweeks after that I have killed Filon, one goes riding by that place andsees Helene make mourn by the waterside over something that stick in thesand. It is Filon. Yes. That quick-sand have spit him out again. So yousay; but me, I think it is the devil.
For the rest the sheriff has told you. Here they have brought me, andthere is much talk. Of that I am weary, but for this I tell you all howit is about Filon; M'siu, I would not hang. Look you, so long as I stayin this life I am quit of that man, but if I die--there is Filon. Sowill he do unto me all that I did at the ford of Crevecoeur, and more;for he is a bad one, Filon. Therefore it is as I tell you, M'siu, I,Raoul. By the help of God. Yes.