XV. THE GAME AND THE NATION--ACT SECOND
"That is the only step I have had to take this whole trip," said theVirginian. He holstered his pistol with a jerk. "I have been fearinghe would force it on me." And he looked at empty, receding Dakota withdisgust. "So nyeh back home!" he muttered.
"Known your friend long?" whispered Scipio to me.
"Fairly," I answered.
Scipio's bleached eyes brightened with admiration as he considered theSoutherner's back. "Well," he stated judicially, "start awful early whenyu' go to fool with him, or he'll make you feel unpunctual."
"I expaict I've had them almost all of three thousand miles," said theVirginian, tilting his head toward the noise in the caboose. "And I'vestrove to deliver them back as I received them. The whole lot. And Iwould have. But he has spoiled my hopes." The deputy foreman lookedagain at Dakota. "It's a disappointment," he added. "You may know what Imean."
I had known a little, but not to the very deep, of the man's pride andpurpose in this trust. Scipio gave him sympathy. "There must be quite abalance of 'em left with yu' yet," said Scipio, cheeringly.
"I had the boys plumb contented," pursued the deputy foreman, hurtinto open talk of himself. "Away along as far as Saynt Paul I had themreconciled to my authority. Then this news about gold had to strike us."
"And they're a-dreamin' nuggets and Parisian bowleyvards," suggestedScipio.
The Virginian smiled gratefully at him.
"Fortune is shinin' bright and blindin' to their delicate young eyes,"he said, regaining his usual self.
We all listened a moment to the rejoicings within.
"Energetic, ain't they?" said the Southerner. "But none of 'em waswhelped savage enough to sing himself bloodthirsty. And though they'restrainin' mighty earnest not to be tame, they're goin' back to SunkCreek with me accordin' to the Judge's awders. Never a calf of them willdesert to Rawhide, for all their dangerousness; nor I ain't goin' tohave any fuss over it. Only one is left now that don't sing. Maybe Iwill have to make some arrangements about him. The man I have partedwith," he said, with another glance at Dakota, "was our cook, and I willask yu' to replace him, Colonel."
Scipio gaped wide. "Colonel! Say!" He stared at the Virginian. "Did Imeet yu' at the palace?"
"Not exackly meet," replied the Southerner. "I was present one mawnin'las' month when this gentleman awdehed frawgs' laigs."
"Sakes and saints, but that was a mean position!" burst out Scipio. "Ihad to tell all comers anything all day. Stand up and jump language hotoff my brain at 'em. And the pay don't near compensate for the drain onthe system. I don't care how good a man is, you let him keep a-tappin'his presence of mind right along, without takin' a lay-off, and you'llhave him sick. Yes, sir. You'll hit his nerves. So I told them theycould hire some fresh man, for I was goin' back to punch cattle or fightIndians, or take a rest somehow, for I didn't propose to get jaded,and me only twenty-five years old. There ain't no regular ColonelCyrus Jones any more, yu' know. He met a Cheyenne telegraph pole inseventy-four, and was buried. But his palace was doin' big business, andhe had been a kind of attraction, and so they always keep a live bearoutside, and some poor fello', fixed up like the Colonel used to be,inside. And it's a turruble mean position. Course I'll cook for yu'.Yu've a dandy memory for faces!"
"I wasn't right convinced till I kicked him off and you gave that shutto your eyes again," said the Virginian.
Once more the door opened. A man with slim black eyebrows, slim blackmustache, and a black shirt tied with a white handkerchief was lookingsteadily from one to the other of us.
"Good day!" he remarked generally and without enthusiasm; and to theVirginian, "Where's Schoffner?"
"I expaict he'll have got his bottle by now, Trampas."
Trampas looked from one to the other of us again. "Didn't he say he wascoming back?"
"He reminded me he was going for a bottle, and afteh that he didn't waitto say a thing."
Trampas looked at the platform and the railing and the steps. "He toldme he was coming back," he insisted.
"I don't reckon he has come, not without he clumb up ahaid somewhere.An' I mus' say, when he got off he didn't look like a man does when hehas the intention o' returnin'."
At this Scipio coughed, and pared his nails attentively. We had alreadybeen avoiding each other's eye. Shorty did not count. Since he gotaboard, his meek seat had been the bottom step.
The thoughts of Trampas seemed to be in difficulty. "How long's thistrain been started?" he demanded.
"This hyeh train?" The Virginian consulted his watch. "Why, it's beenfanning it a right smart little while," said he, laying no stress uponhis indolent syllables.
"Huh!" went Trampas. He gave the rest of us a final unlovely scrutiny."It seems to have become a passenger train," he said. And he returnedabruptly inside the caboose.
"Is he the member who don't sing?" asked Scipio.
"That's the specimen," replied the Southerner.
"He don't seem musical in the face," said Scipio.
"Pshaw!" returned the Virginian. "Why, you surely ain't the man to mindugly mugs when they're hollow!"
The noise inside had dropped quickly to stillness. You could scarcelycatch the sound of talk. Our caboose was clicking comfortably westward,rail after rail, mile upon mile, while night was beginning to rise fromearth into the clouded sky.
"I wonder if they have sent a search party forward to hunt Schoffner?"said the Virginian. "I think I'll maybe join their meeting." He openedthe door upon them. "Kind o' dark hyeh, ain't it?" said he. And lightingthe lantern, he shut us out.
"What do yu' think?" said Scipio to me. "Will he take them to SunkCreek?"
"He evidently thinks he will," said I. "He says he will, and he has thecourage of his convictions."
"That ain't near enough courage to have!" Scipio exclaimed."There's times in life when a man has got to have courage WITHOUTconvictions--WITHOUT them--or he is no good. Now your friend is thatdeep constitooted that you don't know and I don't know what he'sthinkin' about all this."
"If there's to be any gun-play," put in the excellent Shorty, "I'llstand in with him."
"Ah, go to bed with your gun-play!" retorted Scipio, entirelygood-humored. "Is the Judge paying for a carload of dead punchers togather his beef for him? And this ain't a proposition worth a man'sgettin' hurt for himself, anyway."
"That's so," Shorty assented.
"No," speculated Scipio, as the night drew deeper round us and thecaboose click-clucked and click-clucked over the rail joints; "he'swaitin' for somebody else to open this pot. I'll bet he don't know butone thing now, and that's that nobody else shall know he don't knowanything."
Scipio had delivered himself. He lighted a cigarette, and no more wisdomcame from him. The night was established. The rolling bad-lands sankaway in it. A train-hand had arrived over the roof, and hanging the redlights out behind, left us again without remark or symptom of curiosity.The train-hands seemed interested in their own society and lived intheir own caboose. A chill wind with wet in it came blowing from theinvisible draws, and brought the feel of the distant mountains.
"That's Montana!" said Scipio, snuffing. "I am glad to have it inside mylungs again."
"Ain't yu' getting cool out there?" said the Virginian's voice. "Plentyroom inside."
Perhaps he had expected us to follow him; or perhaps he had meant usto delay long enough not to seem like a reenforcement. "These gentlemenmissed the express at Medora," he observed to his men, simply.
What they took us for upon our entrance I cannot say, or what theybelieved. The atmosphere of the caboose was charged with voicelesscurrents of thought. By way of a friendly beginning to the three hundredmiles of caboose we were now to share so intimately, I recalled myselfto them. I trusted no more of the Christian Endeavor had delayed them."I am so lucky to have caught you again," I finished. "I was afraid mylast chance of reaching the Judge's had gone."
Thus I said a number of things designed to be agreeable, b
ut they met mysmall talk with the smallest talk you can have. "Yes," for instance, and"Pretty well, I guess," and grave strikings of matches and thoughtfullooks at the floor. I suppose we had made twenty miles to theimperturbable clicking of the caboose when one at length asked hisneighbor had he ever seen New York.
"No," said the other. "Flooded with dudes, ain't it?"
"Swimmin'," said the first.
"Leakin', too," said a third.
"Well, my gracious!" said a fourth, and beat his knee in privatedelight. None of them ever looked at me. For some reason I feltexceedingly ill at ease.
"Good clothes in New York," said the third.
"Rich food," said the first.
"Fresh eggs, too," said the third.
"Well, my gracious!" said the fourth, beating his knee.
"Why, yes," observed the Virginian, unexpectedly; "they tell me thataiggs there ain't liable to be so rotten as yu'll strike 'em in thiscountry."
None of them had a reply for this, and New York was abandoned. For somereason I felt much better.
It was a new line they adopted next, led off by Trampas.
"Going to the excitement?" he inquired, selecting Shorty.
"Excitement?" said Shorty, looking up.
"Going to Rawhide?" Trampas repeated. And all watched Shorty.
"Why, I'm all adrift missin' that express," said Shorty.
"Maybe I can give you employment," suggested the Virginian. "I am takingan outfit across the basin."
"You'll find most folks going to Rawhide, if you're looking forcompany," pursued Trampas, fishing for a recruit.
"How about Rawhide, anyway?" said Scipio, skillfully deflecting thismissionary work. "Are they taking much mineral out? Have yu' seen any ofthe rock?"
"Rock?" broke in the enthusiast who had beaten his knee. "There!" And hebrought some from his pocket.
"You're always showing your rock," said Trampas, sulkily; for Scipio nowheld the conversation, and Shorty returned safely to his dozing.
"H'm!" went Scipio at the rock. He turned it back and forth in his hand,looking it over; he chucked and caught it slightingly in the air, andhanded it back. "Porphyry, I see." That was his only word about it. Hesaid it cheerily. He left no room for discussion. You could not damna thing worse. "Ever been in Santa Rita?" pursued Scipio, while theenthusiast slowly pushed his rock back into his pocket. "That's down inNew Mexico. Ever been to Globe, Arizona?" And Scipio talked away aboutthe mines he had known. There was no getting at Shorty any more thatevening. Trampas was foiled of his fish, or of learning how the fish'sheart lay. And by morning Shorty had been carefully instructed to changehis mind about once an hour. This is apt to discourage all but verysuperior missionaries. And I too escaped for the rest of this night. AtGlendive we had a dim supper, and I bought some blankets; and after thatit was late, and sleep occupied the attention of us all.
We lay along the shelves of the caboose, a peaceful sight I shouldthink, in that smoothly trundling cradle. I slept almost immediately, sotired that not even our stops or anything else waked me, save once, whenthe air I was breathing grew suddenly pure, and I roused. Sitting inthe door was the lonely figure of the Virginian. He leaned in silentcontemplation of the occasional moon, and beneath it the Yellowstone'sswift ripples. On the caboose shelves the others slept sound and still,each stretched or coiled as he had first put himself. They were notuntrustworthy to look at, it seemed to me--except Trampas. You wouldhave said the rest of that young humanity was average rough male blood,merely needing to be told the proper things at the right time; and onebig bunchy stocking of the enthusiast stuck out of his blanket, solemnand innocent, and I laughed at it. There was a light sound by the door,and I found the Virginian's eye on me. Finding who it was, he noddedand motioned with his hand to go to sleep. And this I did with him inmy sight, still leaning in the open door, through which came theinterrupted moon and the swimming reaches of the Yellowstone.