Part 11 (2/2)

The jingling of spurs, and the shadow of McKinstry and his shot-gun falling at this moment between the speaker and Cressy, spared her the necessity of a reply. McKinstry cast an uneasy glance around the apartment, and not seeing Mrs. McKinstry looked relieved, and even the deep traces of the loss of a valuable steer that morning partly faded from his Indian-red complexion. He placed his shot-gun carefully in the corner, took his soft felt hat from his head, folded it and put it in one of the capacious pockets of his jacket, turned to his daughter, and laying his maimed hand familiarly on her shoulder, said gravely, without looking at Stacey, ”What might the stranger be wantin', Cress?”

”Perhaps I'd better answer that myself,” said Stacey briskly. ”I'm acting for Benham and Co., of San Francisco, who have bought the Spanish t.i.tle to part of this property. I”--

”Stop there!” said McKinstry, in a voice dull but distinct. He took his hat from his pocket, put it on, walked to the corner and took up his gun, looked at Stacey for the first time with narcotic eyes that seemed to drowsily absorb his slight figure, then put the gun back half contemptuously, and with a wave of his hand towards the door, said: ”We'll settle this yer outside. Cress, you stop in here. There's man's talk goin' on.”

”But, Paw,” said Cressy, laying her hand languidly on her father's sleeve without the least change of color or amused expression. ”This gentleman has come over here on a compromise.”

”On a--WHICH?” said McKinstry, glancing scornfully out of the door for some rare species of mustang vaguely suggested to him in that unfamiliar word.

”To see if we couldn't come to some fair settlement,” said Stacey. ”I've no objection to going outside with you, but I think we can discuss this matter here just as well.” His fine feathers had not made him a coward, although his heart had beaten a little faster at this sudden recollection of the dangerous reputation of his host.

”Go on,” said McKinstry.

”The plain facts of the case are these,” continued Stacey, with more confidence. ”We have sold a strip of this property covering the land in dispute between you and Harrison. We are bound to put our purchaser in peaceable possession. Now to save time we are willing to buy that possession of any man who can give it. We are told that you can.”

”Well, considerin' that for the last four years I've been fightin' night and day agin them low-down Harrisons for it, I reckon you've been lied to,” said McKinstry deliberately. ”Why--except the clearing on the north side, whar I put up a barn, thar ain't an acre of it as hasn't been s.h.i.+fted first this side and then that as fast ez I druv boundary stakes and fences, and the Harrisons pulled 'em up agin. Thar ain't more than fifty acres ez I've hed a clear hold on, and I wouldn't hev had that ef it hadn't bin for the barn, the raisin' alone o' which cost me a man, two horses, and this yer little finger.”

”Put us in possession of even that fifty acres, and WE'LL undertake to hold the rest and eject those Harrisons from it,” returned Stacey complacently. ”You understand that the moment we've made a peaceable entrance to even a foothold on your side, the Harrisons are only trespa.s.sers, and with the t.i.tle to back us we can call on the whole sheriff's posse to put them off. That's the law.”

”That ar the law?” repeated McKinstry meditatively.

”Yes,” said Stacey. ”So,” he continued, with a self-satisfied smile to Cressy, ”far from being hard on you, Mr. McKinstry, we're rather inclined to put you on velvet. We offer you a fair price for the only thing you can give us--actual possession; and we help you with your old grudge against the Harrisons. We not only clear them out, but we pay YOU for even the part they held adversely to you.”

Mr. McKinstry pa.s.sed his three whole fingers over his forehead and eyes as if troubled by a drowsy aching. ”Then you don't reckon to hev anythin' to say to them Harrisons?”

”We don't propose to recognize them in the matter at all,” returned Stacey.

”Nor allow 'em anythin'?”

”Not a cent! So you see, Mr. McKinstry,” he continued magnanimously, yet with a mischievous smile to Cressy, ”there is nothing in this amicable discussion that requires to be settled outside.”

”Ain't there?” said McKinstry, in a dull, deliberate voice, raising his eyes for the second time to Stacey. They were bloodshot, with a heavy, hanging furtiveness, not unlike one of his own hunted steers. ”But I ain't kam enuff in yer.” He moved to the door with a beckoning of his fateful hand. ”Outside a minit--EF you please.”

Stacey started, shrugged his shoulders, and half defiantly stepped beyond the threshold. Cressy, unchanged in color or expression, lazily followed to the door.

”Wot,” said McKinstry, slowly facing Stacey; ”wot ef I refoose? Wot ef I say I don't allow any man, or any bank, or any compromise, to take up my quo'r'lls? Wot ef I say that low-down and mean as them Harrisons is, they don't begin to be ez mean, ez low-down, ez underhanded, ez sneakin'

ez that yer compromise? Wot ef I say that ef that's the kind o' hogwash that law and snivelization offers me for peace and quietness, I'll take the fightin', and the law-breakin', and the sheriff, and all h-ll for his posse instead? Wot ef I say that?”

”It will only be my duty to repeat it,” said Stacey, with an affected carelessness which, however, did not conceal his surprise and his discomfiture. ”It's no affair of mine.”

”Unless,” said Cressy, a.s.suming her old position against the lintel of the door, and smoothing the worn bear-skin that served as a mat with the toe of her slipper, ”unless you've mixed it up with your other arbitration, you know.”

”Wot other arbitration?” asked McKinstry suddenly, with murky eyes.

Stacey cast a rapid, half indignant glance at the young girl, who received it with her hands tucked behind her back, her lovely head bent submissively forward, and a prolonged little laugh.

”Oh nothing, Paw,” she said, ”only a little private foolishness betwixt me and the gentleman. You'd admire to hear him talk, Paw--about other things than business. He's just that chipper and gay.”

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