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OVER THE BORDER
A NOVEL
BY
HERMAN WHITAKER
AUTHOR OF "THE SETTLER," "THE PLANTER," "THE PROBATIONER," Etc.
NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS
Published by Arrangement with Harper & Brothers
Books by HERMAN WHITAKER
OVER THE BORDER THE PROBATIONER THE SETTLER THE PLANTER THE MYSTERY OF THE BARRANCA CROSS TRAILS
HARPER & BROTHERS NEW YORK Established 1817
Over The Border Copyright, 1917, by Harper & Brothers
Printed in the United States of America Published May, 1917
TO Jack London IN MEMORY OF OLD FRIENDSHIP
GORDON SEIZED ILARIAN WITH HIS NAKED HANDS]
Contents
I: THE THREE BAD MEN OF LAS BOCAS II: OVER THE BORDER III: EVEN A RUSTLER HAS HIS TROUBLES IV: THE TRAIL OF THE COLORADOS V: THE "HACIENDA OF THE TREES" VI: BULL TURNS NURSE VII: THE RUSTLERS ARE ADOPTED VIII: "THE LEOPARD'S SPOTS" IX: A PARTY AND ITS CONSEQUENCES X: WANTED--A HUSBAND XI: GORDON'S DEBUT XII: THE RECRUIT IS TRIED OUT--IN SEVERAL WAYS XIII: AMERICAN RUSTLERS _VS._ MEXICAN RAIDERS XIV: NEMESIS DOGS THE THREE--AND IS "DOGGED," IN TURN, BY LEE XV: BULL AND THE WIDOW CONSPIRE XVI: ONE MAN CAN TAKE A HORSE TO WATER, BUT-- XVII: --BUT TWENTY CANNOT MAKE HIM DRINK XVIII: THE "WIND" BLOWS CONTRARY XIX: A KISS--ITS CONSEQUENCES XX: SLIVER IS DULY CHASTENED XXI: THE WIDOW TO THE RESCUE XXII: LEE, TOO, IS CONFESSED XXIII: IN WHICH THE WIDOW GOES AND SLIVER COMES XXIV: UNDERSTANDING XXV: LOVE AND BUSINESS XXVI: A SETTLEMENT XXVII: AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE XXVIII: A "REQUISITION" XXIX: TEMPTATION XXX: THE OTHER HALF OF THE TRUTH XXXI: "BRAINS WIN" XXXII: TRAVAIL XXXIII: THE DEATH IN THE NIGHT XXXIV: ---------------------? XXXV: WHY? XXXVI: "IN THE MIDST OF LIFE--" XXXVII: THE THREE--AGAIN XXXVIII: FIRE XXXIX: "VENGEANCE IS MINE" XL: SLIVER "MAKES GOOD" XLI: JAKE BETTERS THE "EXCHANGE" XLII: BULL DREAMS A DREAM! XLIII: THE LAST OF THE THREE BAD MEN
I: THE THREE BAD MEN OF LAS BOCAS
The Three had chosen their lair wisely.
In the picturesque Spanish phrase, it "situated itself" midway of thedesert, the great Mexican desert that is more varied in its heatedmonotony than a land of woods and fields and streams. Here it runs tosparse grass land under upland _pinon_; there spreads over wide, cleansands that reflect like burnished brass the intolerable glare of thesun. Now it marches for leagues with the yuccas that fling crazed armsand shrunken limbs like posturing dwarfs; again it is dotted with lonely_mesas_, monolithic masses that raise orange and vermilion facades outof a violet mirage. A magic land it is, made out of shattered rainbows,girded with crimson-and-gold mountains that wear around their highforeheads cooling bandages of snow; a land of deathless calms, cyclonicstorms, torrential rains, peopled only by the vultures that wheelagainst the sky and the little golden dust-whorls which dance togetherover its heated face. A country where dwells the very spirit of romance;of which anything might be predicted and come to pass; therefore, asbefore said, the very place for a lair.
Secondly, the Three had shown a nice discrimination in the selection ofa site. Its capacities in the way of offense and defense would haveearned the instant commendation of a medieval baron, Mexican bandit,revolutionist, or "movie" director in search of an ideal robber's roost.Years ago a Yankee "prospector" with more faith than sense and moneyenough to have left prospecting severely alone, had kept a raft of_peones_ busy for the better part of two years ripping the heart out ofa mountain-top in a feverish search for fabulous gold. Rumors that stilllinger in Sonora _jacales_ tell that the _gringo_ worked under thedirection of the spirits--or a spiritualist, which may or may not bequite the same. The results--to wit, a huge gap in the mountain and anabandoned adobe powder house, now serving as a residence for the ThreeBad Men--seem to favor the rumor. Spirits were never good miners. Butthat is neither here nor there, the Three concerning themselves onlywith the natural fortifications they thus inherited.
The adobe stood well back in a semicircular gap, protected on threesides by the curving walls of the excavation. Behind them, the mountaindropped almost a thousand feet sheer, and the level bench in front ofthe house could only be gained by a narrow path that fell like a yellowsnake down the steep slopes into thick chaparral. From its edge oneoverlooked the vast reaches of the central Sonora desert, an ashen seaof sage and mimosa shored in by far mountains that loomed dusky purpleor stood out stark yellow as they happened to lie to the sun. Since theYankee went back on his "controls," or they on him, a _sahuaro_ cactushad raised its fluted barrel within the excavation, captaining a squadof dwarf yuccas that poked grotesque arms in pathetic entreaty out ofthe rubble. To these natural improvements the Three had added a_ramada_, broad porch of poles and cornstalks, in the shade of whichthey took their ease one hot nooning, two playing _pedro_ at a roughwooden table while the third dozed and nodded with stool tilted backagainst the adobe wall.
It did not require more than a cursory glance to know the Three formembers of that sad colony which is doomed by its past to remain on thewrong side of the Mexican border. Beginning with Sliver Smith, thesleeper; his drowsy lids hid blue eyes that were hard as chips of agateand exactly fitted his reckless face. Just now sleep had softened itslines and brought a certain underlying good-nature. But for the mouthand deep creases down each side of the nose, which bespoke passionsviolent and unrestrained, one would have put him down now for that whichhe had been--a cowman from the New Mexican ranges.
The other two, however, really looked the "bad man." "Bull" Perrin, thebiggest and eldest, might have been especially cast by nature for thepart. Big, burly, black-visaged, and heavy-jowled, excessive drinkinghad dyed his face out of all relation to the creamy skin the gods hadgiven him. The hot brown eyes under straight bushy brows bespoke acyclonic temper. But though Bull conveyed the impression of an "uglycustomer" at first sight, a physiognomist would have picked Jake Evers,his partner, as a far more dangerous man. The cold, bleak sparks of eyesin his lean, lantern-jawed face scintillated with cunning. But for acertain humor that lurked about the corners of his mouth, his face wouldhave been utterly repulsive.
Yet after granting their "badness," there was about them no taint of themean, rat-like wickedness of the city criminal. Their composite was ofstrong impulses, misdirected forces gone to waste, of men cast by birthin a wrong age. In the councils of a nation in the olden time, theirstrength, ferocity, would have gained them power and place; here, out inthe desert, they exactly fitted their environment. As much as the hornedtoad in the sand at Bull's feet, as much as the lizard that coursedswiftly along the adobe wall above the sleeper's head; as much as the_sahuaro_ and the tormented yucca, they belonged to the land. Its goldglowed in their bronze. It were a safe bet that--horses and cattle notbeing in question--they would, at a given emergency, live in the letterof its best traditions.
Looking at Bull and Jake as they sat at play, the former might belikened to a grizzly; the latter to a tiger, alert, stealthy, cunning,ferocious; qualities which sprang i
nto evidence with startlingsuddenness when a shrill burst of woman's scolding presently disruptedthe heated silence.
Apparently the noise issued from a white cloud that hid the doorway; butas this settled and cleared away, a buxom slattern of a Mexican girlstood revealed. While flicking out the last dust of flour from an emptysack she bitterly reviled the Three. Though delivered in Spanish, thesubstance of her complaint was international and goes easily intoEnglish.
"Flojos! Lazy ones! how shall one cook without flour? The coffee, too,is gone--and the sugar. Of lard or grease there is not a smear for thepan. You must go forth, to-day."
This was merely the text. While she enlarged thereon with copiousillustrations to prove their worthlessness as providers, the two men atthe table proceeded quietly with their play. It was the third thatfinally interrupted the harangue with the irascibility of one arousedfrom pleasant sleep.
"Shut up, Dove!"
In its literal sense the word stands for the most innocent of birds. Butshe chose to take the opposite meaning of the sarcastic Spanish.
"Si, senor! I am that or I should not be here now, cooking for threebeasts." After a comparison between them and the lower animals thatgreatly favored the latter, she ran on with increasing heat:
"'Dove,' indeed? Then where is my price? Where are they, the fineclothes, the silks and satins and linen, the jewelry and laces you wereto gain for me? Was it by this I was bought?" She held out her dirtyblack skirt. "I, that might be now sitting in the cantina of IgnacioFlores at Las Bocas, selling aguardiente and anisette to his custom? Si,senores, _where are they_, the velvets, ribands, and neck chains? I--"
It was at this point that Jake displayed his quality. Swinging swiftlyaround, he threw his knife, so hard and quickly that it stuck quiveringin the door lintel close to the girl's throat before she had time toclose her mouth.
"Here! don't be so careless." Bull's bushy brows drew down over hisburning eyes in quick reproof. But his next remark proved that theinterference was not based on altruism. "If you croak her, who's to dothe cooking? Any corn left, Rosa?"
Whereas Sliver's rude interruption had merely stimulated her tongue;whereas, also, she had stuck out that member at Jake the instant shemade sure the knife had missed, she now caught her breath with a little,frightened gulp. "Si, senor."
"Then make some tortillas and serve them along with the jerky," hecalled after her. "And bring us out a drink."
At this Sliver, who had resumed his doze, sat up again. His lugubriousexclamation, "Oh, _hell_!" caused the others to look up a moment later.With an empty demijohn held upside down Rosa stood in the doorway. Shedid not speak. But her tragic pose, vindictive nod, said quite plainly,"Now will you go?"
Neither did they speak. The situation was beyond revilings. Slowly Jakepicked up and pocketed the cards. Sliver rose to his feet. In singlefile they marched down the path to find their horses. Indeed, they hadcaught the animals, saddled up at the stable on the flat below and wereriding away through the chaparral before they recovered sufficiently toattempt to fix the blame for the shortage.
Sliver--who, by the way, had gained his nickname under the law ofopposites because he was short and stout--remembered that he had warnedthem several times "notter hit it so hard." But his testimony lost forceby reason of certain "lone drinks" in the absorption of which he had, bythe others, been caught. Jake, on the other hand, had pleaded for moreliquor and less flour the last time they stocked up at Las Bocas. Byfrank confession, moreover, he reduced the force of Sliver's charge thathe would never be satisfied with less liquor than "he ked swim in."
"That's right. I never really seen at one time more whisky than I felt Ic'd drink."
From this he went on with invectives against the wave of reform which,by its sudden flooding of the "Territ'ries"--as he still called theStates of Arizona and New Mexico--might be held indirectly responsiblefor his present thirst. "For a cowman, like Sliver here, it don't matterso much, him being used to dry spells out on the range. But for a manthat's dealt faro in a s'loon for a spell of years with two fingers ofbourbon allus under his nose, it comes some bitter. Them was the goldendays. What a man made in beef cattle or gold was his'n to plank down ona bar or place on a card. Till them pinch-faces from the Middle Westdescended like locusts upon the lan', drought was unknown save by a fewfool prospectors that got themselves lost in the desert. Locusts? Iwrong 'em! A locust does live up to its natural instincts. Locusts is ablessing compared to pinch-faces. Why--" But certain lengthy reflectionsthat established the place of the "Middle-Wester" beneath even the lowlybedbug in the scale of creation, must give place to his conclusion. "Si,senores! 'twas them druv' me to rustling. But for them I'd still beliving honest, dealing straight faro to all comers with on'y anoccasional turn from the bottom of the box for the good of the house."
"Pity for you!"
Bull's pithy comment was enlarged upon by Sliver.
"An' you-all needn't to be howling so loud, either, about them dryspells on the ranges. We allus had it in the bunk-houses an' 'twas apoor cook that couldn't hide a keg in the chuck-wagon. As for yourfaro--'twas to play the odd card you wolves dealt from the bottom that Imed my first rustle. But for you I'd be taking my copa right now out ofthe cook's keg instead of dying of thirst in this lousy desert."
There was real heat in the accusation, but the ex-gambler's lean,leathery face merely split in a dry grin.
"If your mother bred you a fool, don't blame me. The flea bit the dog,the dog bit me; I kicked the dog an' killed the flea. Take a drink ofwater, Sliver; it all works out in the end. You next, Bull. Which wasit--water, wine, or weemen?"
"None of 'em." The big rustler shook his head. "Early piety did for me.Prayers morning, noon, an' night; grace before meals; two long sermonson Sundays, an' two hours, Sabbath-school, and what would you expect? Iwas so well brought up I jest had to go wrong. But if we don't jog alongwe won't make Las Bocas to-night."
As Bull spurred on ahead, Sliver looked at Jake. "Say, he ain't exactlywhat you-all 'd call frank in his conversings. If there's a thing hedon't know about us--well, 'tain't our fault. But him? When you come tothink of it did you ever hear him say how he kem to take up rustling?"
The gambler shook his head. "In a gen'ral way--so gen'ral that Icouldn't tell jest how I got it--I've sorter gathered that he oncecroaked a man. But whether 'twas before or after he took up the profeshI couldn't say. In the natural order of things, a rustler's bound,sooner or later, to down some prying fool. There's so many that try tomix in his business. But if it was before, Bull done it--I'll bet youthe gent had it coming."