Volume VIII Part 28 (1/2)

But, of course, for La Rue to give up this most valuable chattel was out of the question. What he did, therefore, was to fly into a rage, refuse the Kid's offer in language which would have precipitated a brawl had the young man been less earnest in his wooing, and consign Minnie to the watchful vigilance of her stepmother.

And the cowboy had been vainly following the show during the whole two months that had pa.s.sed since this episode, anxiously watching his poor little hard-worked sweetheart, hoping to get a word from her, meaning in any case to rea.s.sure her, and show her that he had not given up.

Matters were in this state when the ”aggregation” settled down at the Wagon-Tire House for the week during which the Fourth of July was to occur. For this occasion La Rue promised a display of fireworks ”superior to anything ever shown in West Texas.”

The fame of this spectacle had preceded the show. It had been given in Emerald the year before, and all the cowboys who had seen it there brought back word that it was ”the finest ever.” The particular feature was in the closing act which La Rue had christened ”Columbia Enlightening the World.”

For this performance a wire was stretched across the street from the top of one building to another. La Rue intended this year to have it stretched from the Roundup to the Wagon-Tire House. Across this wire Minnie was to walk, dressed as Columbia, with a high-spiked diadem upon her head, her whole form outlined with colored fires, and bearing certain rockets which were set off when she reached the center of the street.

Everybody in the Wagon-Tire House liked the girl; Frosty was offensively polite or aggressively insulting; Mrs. La Rue was, as Troy Gilbert said, ”a pretty tough specimen”; or, if one would rather follow Aunt Huldah's cheerful and charitable lead, ”She looked a heap nicer, and appeared a heap better, in the show than out of it”; the Aerial Wonder was something of a terrestrial terror; but there was no question that Minnie La Rue was one of the sweetest and best little girls ever brought up in an inappropriate circus.

Therefore, when Kid Barringer appeared, a day after the La Rue family, and told the boys freely what the situation of his affairs was, he received unlimited sympathy and offers of a.s.sistance.

”I wish I could help you, Kid,” Troy Gilbert said. ”There isn't a soul in town that doesn't feel as though that little girl ought to be taken out of that man's keeping. But you see he's her own father, I reckon--says he is--and the law can't go behind that.”

”If you boys would fix up a scheme to get me a chance to speak to Minnie--” Kid began. ”At first I thought I could steal her just as easy as anything. She'd be glad to go; I had a little note from her--Say, Gib,” he broke off suddenly, with a catch in his voice, ”he's liable to strike her--to hurt her--when he's drinking.”

”Well, if it went as far as that, here in Blowout, I would arrest him, you know,” Gilbert suggested.

”It won't,” Kid returned, dejectedly; ”not at the Wagon-Tire House. Aunt Huldy has a good effect on him--or rather, bad effect, for that purpose.

He's jest behavin' himself so straight, that Aunt Huldy won't hear a word about him bein' the meanest that ever was.”

Troy was thinking intently.

”Say, Kid, I've got an idea. Do you reckon Aunt Huldy thinks too well of Frosty to help us out a little? If she doesn't, I believe the thing's as good as done. I saw that there 'Columbia Enlightening the World' at Emerald last year, and I know exactly how I could fix it so as to let you--well, you wait a minute, and I'll give you all the details. It's the only thing on the program that separates your girl from the Signorina for five minutes.”

It must have been that Aunt Huldah saw more harm in Frosty La Rue than she was willing to mention; for an hour later Gilbert had made his arrangements.

”Now, Kid,” he counseled, ”I want you to make yourself scarce around here from now on. Don't let Frosty know you're in the diggin's at all.

We boys are going to give it out that you've gone to Fort Worth, so that he and Mrs. La Rue won't watch Miss Minnie quite so close.”

The Kid obediently withdrew from public life, spending most of his days in the back room of the big store, where a few sympathizing friends were always ready to bear him company; and the word went out that he had, in despair, given up camping on Miss Minnie's trail and gone off to Fort Worth.

This intelligence reaching old man La Rue--Gilbert wondered a little if it were possible any of it came to him through Aunt Huldah--had the desired effect of relaxing the watch upon the girl.

The first move in Gilbert's game was to waylay Frosty's Mexican, and bribe him to feign sickness. To this Jose promptly consented; and he counterfeited with such vigor, and so to the life, that the proprietor of the show was beside himself; for it was too late to teach a new man the management of the fireworks.

And now came Gilbert's second move. He approached the old man with the inquiry, ”Why, what's the racket, Frosty? Something the matter with some of your outfit?”

La Rue sweepingly condemned the whole republic of Mexico in general, and Jose Romero in particular, winding up with the statement that the no-account greaser had gone and got sick, here at the last minute--Frosty would seem to imply, out of sheer perversity--and when it was too late to teach another his duties.

Upon this, Gilbert unfolded his scheme with a careful carelessness.

”Fireworks? Why, do you know, Frosty, I believe I could do your fireworks for you all right. I know fireworks pretty well, and I saw your 'Columbia' at Emerald last year.”

”And would you do it, Gilbert?” asked La Rue. ”It wouldn't _pay_,” added the tight-fisted old fellow. ”It wouldn't pay _you_--a man like _you_; but--”

”Oh, I just don't want to see the boys disappointed and the show spoiled,” rejoined Gilbert. ”I don't want any money.”