"hullo there!"
cairness drew up his pinto pony in front of a group of log cabins, and, turning in his saddle, rested his hands upon the white and bay flanks. "hullo-o-o!" he repeated.
a mule put its head over the wall of a corral and pricked interrogative ears. then two children, as unmistakably angles as those of gregory the great, came around the corner, hand in hand, and stood looking at him. and at length a man, unmistakably an angle too, for all his top boots and flannel shirt and cartridge belt, came striding down to the gate. he opened it and said, "hullo, cairness, old chap," and cairness said, "how are you, kirby?" which answered to the falling upon each other's neck and weeping, of a more effusive race.
then they walked up to the corral together. kirby introduced him to his two partners, englishmen also, and finished nailing up the boards of a box stall which a stallion had kicked down in the night. after that he threw down his hammer, took two big nails from his mouth, and sat upon the tongue of a wagon to talk long and earnestly, after the manner of men who have shared a regretted past.
[pg 34]
"and so," said kirby, as he drew a sack of short cut from his pocket and filled his brier, "and so you have chucked up the army? what are you going to do next? going in for art?"
"good lord! no," cairness's smile was rueful. "i've lost all ambition of that sort years since. i'm too old. i've knocked about too long, and i dare say i may as well knock about to the end."
kirby suggested, with a hesitation that was born not of insincerity but of delicacy, that they would be awfully glad to have him stop with them and help run the circle k ranch. but cairness shook his head. "thanks. i'll stop long enough to recall the old times, though i dare say it would be better to forget them, wouldn't it? ranching isn't in my line. not that i am at all sure what is in my line, for that matter."
after a while kirby went back to his work, directing several mexicans, in hopelessly bad spanish, and laboring with his own hands at about the proportion of three to one.
cairness, talking to one of the other men, who was mending a halter, watched him, and recalled the youth in spotless white whom he had last seen lounging on the deck of an oriental liner and refusing to join the sports committee in any such hard labor as getting up a cricket match. it was cooler here in the arizona mountains, to be sure; but it was an open question if life were as well worth living.
when the sun was at midheaven, and the shadows of the pines beyond the clearing fell straight, the [pg 35]clanging of a triangle startled the mountain stillness. the mexicans dropped their tools, and the white teamster left a mule with its galled back half washed.
in a moment there were only the four englishmen in the corral.
kirby finished greasing the nut of a wagon. then he went to the water trough and washed his hands and face, drying them upon a towel in the harness room. he explained that they didn't make much of a toilet for luncheon.
"luncheon!" said cairness, as he smoothed his hair in front of a speckled and wavy mirror, which reflected all of life that came before it, in sickly green, "cabalistic word, bringing before me memories of my wasted youth. there was a chap from home in my troop, until he deserted, and when we were alone we would say luncheon below our breaths. but i haven't eaten anything except dinner for five years."
at the house he met kirby's wife, a fair young woman, who clung desperately here in the wilderness, to the traditions, and to as many of the customs as might be, of her south-of-england home.
the log cabin was tidy. there were chintz curtains at the windows, much of the furniture, of ranch manufacture, was chintz covered, the manta of the ceiling was unstained, there were pictures from london christmas papers on the walls, and photographs of the fair women at "home."
there were also magazines and a few books in more than one language, wild flowers arranged in many sorts[pg 36] of strange jars, and in the corner, by an improvised couch, a table stacked with cups and plates of chelsea-derby, which were very beautiful and very much out of place.
the log cabins were built, five of them, to form a square. the largest contained the sitting room and a bedroom, the three others, bedrooms and a storehouse, and the kitchen and dining room were in the fifth.
when they went into this last, the ranch hands were already at a long oilcloth-covered table. the kirbys sat at a smaller one, laid with linen, and the lank wife of one of the men served them all, with the help of a mexican boy.
cairness pitied mrs. kirby sincerely. but if she felt herself an object of sympathy, she did not show it.
the woman fairly flung the ill-cooked food upon the table, with a spitefulness she did not try to conceal. and she manifested her bad will most particularly toward the pretty children. cairness felt his indignation rise against kirby for having brought a woman to this, in the name of love.
"we have tea at five," mrs. kirby told him, as they finished, and her husband started out to superintend and help with the digging of an acequia.
so at five o'clock cairness, coming again into that part of the cabin which his hostess persistently named the drawing-room, found the three englishmen taking their tea, and a little man in clerical garb observing the rite with considerable uncertainty. he would have no tea himself, and his tone expressed a deep distrust[pg 37] of the beverage. by the side of his chair stood a tall silk hat. it was in all probability the only one in the territories, or west of the missouri, for that matter, and it caught cairness's eye at once, the more especially as it was pierced by two round holes. as he stirred his tea and ate the thin slices of buttered bread, his glance wandered frequently to the hat.
"lookin' at my stove-pipe?" asked the reverend mr. taylor. "only one in these parts, i reckon," and he vouchsafed an explanation of the holes. "them holes? a feller in tucson done that for me."
what had he done to the fellow, if he might ask, cairness inquired.
"what did i do? the same as he done unto me. let the air into his sombrero." he told them that he was studying the flora of the country, and travelling quite alone, with an indian pony, a pack-mule, and a dog—a prospector's outfit, in short.
after tea the ranchers settled down to smoke and read. the reverend taylor brought out his collection of specimens and dilated upon them to cairness.
"i put them in this here book," he said, "betwixt the leaves, and then i put the book under my saddle and set on it. i don't weigh so much, but it works all right," he added, looking up with a na?ve smile that reached from one big ear to the other. "to-morrow," he told him later, "i'm going to ride over here to tucson again. what way might you be takin'?"
"i think perhaps i'll go with you, if you'll wait over a day," cairness told him. he had taken a distinct[pg 38] fancy to the little botanist who wore his clerical garb while he rode a bronco and drove a pack-mule over the plains and mountains, and who had no fear of the apache nor of the equally dangerous cow-boy. cairness asked him further about the hat. "that chimney-pot of yours," he said, "don't you find it rather uncomfortable? it is hot, and it doesn't protect you. why do you wear it?"
the little man picked it up and contemplated it, with his head on one side and a critical glance at its damaged condition. then he smoothed its roughness with the palm of his rougher hand. "why do i wear it?" he drawled calmly; "well, i reckon to show 'em that i can."
at six o'clock kirby knocked the ashes from his pipe, the other two men, who had buried themselves in the last cornhill and punch with entire disregard of the rest of the room, put down the magazines, and all of them rose. "we dine at seven," mrs. kirby said to taylor and cairness as she passed through the door, followed by her husband.
"where are they all goin' to?" the reverend taylor asked in plaintive dismay. he had risen to his feet because he had seen cairness do it, and now he sat again because cairness had dropped back on the couch. he was utterly at sea, but he felt that the safest thing to do would be that which every one else did. he remembered that he had felt very much the same once when he had been obliged to attend a funeral service in a roman catholic church. all the purple and fine[pg 39] linen of the scarlet woman and the pomp and circumstance surrounding her had bewildered him in about this same way.
cairness reached out for the discarded cornhill, and settled himself among the cushions. "they're going to dress, i rather think," he said. the minister almost sprang from his chair. "good lord! i ain't got any other clothes," he cried, looking ruefully at his dusty black.
"neither have i," cairness consoled him, from the depths of a rehearsal of the unwisdom of isma?l pasha.
the reverend taylor sat in silence for a time, reflecting. then he broke forth again, a little querulously. "what in thunderation do they dine at such an hour for?" cairness explained that it was an english custom to call supper dinner, and to have it very late.
"oh!" said taylor, and sat looking into the fire.
a few minutes before seven they all came back into the sitting room. the men wore black coats, by way of compromise, and mrs. kirby and the children were in white.
"like as not she does up them boiled shirts and dresses herself, don't you think?" was the minister's awed comment to cairness, as they went to bed that night in the bare little room.
"like as not," cairness agreed.
"she's mighty nice looking, ain't she?"
cairness said "yes" rather half heartedly. that fresh, sweet type was insipid to him now, when there was still so fresh in his memory the beauty of a [pg 40]black-haired girl, with eagle eyes that did not flinch before the sun's rays at evening or at dawn.
"i'll bet the help don't like the seven o'clock dinner."
cairness suggested that they were given their supper at six.
"i know that. but they don't like it, all the same. and i'll bet them cutaways riles them, too."
cairness himself had speculated upon that subject a good deal, and had noticed with a slight uneasiness the ugly looks of some of the ranch hands. "they are more likely to have trouble in that quarter than with the indians," he said to himself. for he had seen much, in the ranks, of the ways of the disgruntled, free-born american.
before he left with taylor on the next morning but one, he ventured to warn kirby. but he was met with a stolid "i was brought up that way," and he knew that argument would be entirely lost.
"over here to tucson" was a three days' ride under the most favorable circumstances; but with the enthusiastic botanist dismounting at short intervals to make notes and press and descant upon specimens, it was five days before they reached, towards nightfall, the metropolis of the plains.
they went at once for supper to the most popular resort of the town, the great western saloon and restaurant. it was a long adobe room, the whitewash of which was discolored by lamp smoke and fly specks and stains. there were also bullet holes and marks of other missiles. at one end was a bar, with a tin top[pg 41] for the testing of silver coins. several pine tables were set out with cracked sugar bowls, inch-thick glasses, bottles of pickles and condiments, still in their paper wrappings, and made filthy by flies, dust, and greasy hands. already there were half a dozen cow-boys and mexicans, armed to the teeth, standing about.
they glanced sideways at the big englishman, who appeared to be one of themselves, and at the little minister. on him, more especially on his hat, their eyes rested threateningly. they had heard of him before, most of them. they answered his genial greeting surlily, but he was quite unruffled. he beamed upon the room as he seated himself at one of the tables and ordered supper, for which, in obedience to a dirty sign upon the wall, he paid in advance.
having finished, he left cairness to his own devices, and dragging a chair under a bracket lamp, set peacefully about reading the newspapers. for fully an hour no one heeded him. cairness talked to the bartender and stood treat to the aimless loungers. he had many months of back pay in his pocket, and to save was neither in his character nor in the spirit of the country.
the ill-smelling room filled, and various games, chiefly faro and monte, began. at one table two men were playing out a poker game that was already of a week's duration. the reek of bad liquor mingled with the smell of worse tobacco and of mexican-cured leather—like which there is no odor known to the senses, so pungent and permeating and all-pervading it[pg 42] is. several of the bracket lamps were sending up thin streams of smoke.
the reverend taylor gradually became aware that the air was very bad. he laid down the newspaper and looked round.
then a big cow-boy left the bar and loitering over, with a clink of spurs, touched him on the shoulder. "the drinks are on you," he menaced. the minister chose to ignore the tone. he rose, smiling, and stretching his cramped arms. "all right, my friend, all right," he said, and going with the big fellow to the bar he gave a general invitation.
in the expectation of some fun the men gathered round. those at the tables turned in their chairs and sat watching and pulling at their fierce mustaches as they peered from under the brims of their sombreros. in the midst of them all the little parson looked even smaller than he was. but he was sweetly undaunted and good-humored.
when the barkeeper had served the others, he turned to him. "what'll you take?" he demanded, not too courteously.
"i'll take a lemon soda, thanks," said taylor.
there followed one of those general pauses as explosive as a pistol shot.
then the cow-boy who had touched him on the shoulder suggested that he had better take a man's drink.
but he was not to be changed. "i'll take lemon soda," he said to the tender, with an amiability that the cow-boy made the mistake of taking for indecision.
[pg 43]
"you better do what i say!" he was plainly spoiling for a fight.
but the minister still refused to see it. he looked him very squarely in the eyes now, however. "see here, i am going to take lemon pop, my friend," he said.
the friend swore earnestly that he would take what he was told to.
"you are mistaken, my good fellow, because i won't." there was not the shadow of hesitation in his voice, nor did he lower his mild blue eyes.
the cow-boy broadened the issue. "you will, and you'll take off that plug, too, or i'll know what for."
"i reckon you'll know what for, then," beamed taylor, immovably.
cairness had been standing afar off, with his hands in his pockets, watching with a gleam of enjoyment under his knitted brows, but he began to see that there threatened to be more to this than mere baiting; that the desperado was growing uglier as the parson grew more firmly urbane. he drew near his small travelling companion and took his hands suddenly from his pockets, as the cow-boy whipped out a brace of six-shooters and pointed them at the hat.
slowly, with no undue haste whatever, the reverend taylor produced from beneath the skirts of his clerical garb another revolver. there was a derisive and hilarious howl. when it had subsided, he turned to the barkeeper. "got my lemon pop ready?" he asked. the[pg 44] man pushed it over to him, and he took it up in his left hand.
"drop that!" called the cow-boy.
"here's how," said the parson, and raised his glass. a bullet shattered it in his grasp.
cairness, his hand on the butt of his own pistol, wondered, a little angrily, if taylor were never going to be roused.
he had looked down at the broken glass and the stream of water, and then up quite as calmly but a little less smilingly. "if you do that again, i'll shoot," he said. "give me another pop."
there was a chuckle from the group, and a chorus to the effect that they would be eternally condemned, the truth of which was patent in their faces. "leave the little codger be," some one suggested; "he ain't skeered worth a sour apple."
it would have become the sentiment of the crowd in another moment, but the little codger took up the second glass, and raised it again. then it fell smashing to the floor. a second bullet had broken his wrist.
cairness started forward and levelled his colt, but the divine was too quick for him. he fired, and the cow-boy sank down, struggling, shot through the thigh. as he crouched, writhing, on the ground, he fired again, but cairness kicked the pistol out of his hand, and the bullet, deflected, went crashing in among the bottles.
"now," said taylor, distinctly, "oblige me with another lemon pop, mister." a cheer went up, and the minister standing above his fallen enemy raised the[pg 45] third glass. "here's to your better judgment next time, my friend. 'tain't the sombrero makes the shot," he said. his seamed, small face was pale underneath its leathery skin, but by not so much as a quiver of an eyelid did he give any further sign of pain.
"the gentleman who broke them glasses can settle for his part of the fun," he said, as he paid his reckoning. then he drew cairness aside and held out the limp wrist to be bound, supporting it with his other hand. and presently they went out from the restaurant, where the powder smoke was added to the other smells, and hung low, in streaks, in the thick atmosphere, to hunt up a surgeon.
the surgeon, whose lore was not profound, and whose pharmacy exhibited more reptiles in alcohol than drugs, set the bones as best he knew how, which was badly; and, taking a fancy to taylor, offered him and cairness lodgings for the night,—the hospitality of the west being very much, in those times, like that of the days when the preachers of a new gospel were bidden to enter into a house and there abide until they departed from that place.
in the morning cairness left them together and started for the san carlos agency. he was to meet a prospector there, and to begin his new fortunes by locating some mines.
