Part 14 (1/2)

The Long Shadow B. M. Bower 61180K 2022-07-22

He was glad in his heart when came the time to go. Maybe she would get over her foolishness by the time he came in with the round-up. At any rate, the combination at the ranch did not tempt him to neglect his business, and he galloped down the trail without so much as looking back to see if Flora would wave--possibly because he was afraid he might catch the flutter of a handkerchief in fingers other than hers.

It was when the round-up was on its way in that Billy, stopping for an hour in Hardup, met Dill in the post office.

”Why, h.e.l.lo, Dilly!” he cried, really glad to see the tall, lank form come shambling in at the door. ”I didn't expect to see yuh off your own ranch. Anybody dead?” It struck him that Dill looked a shade more melancholy than was usual, even for him.

”Why, no, William. Every one is well--very well indeed. I only rode in after the mail and a few other things. I'm always anxious for my papers and magazines, you know. If you will wait for half an hour--you are going home, I take it?”

”That's where I'm sure headed, and we can ride out together, easy as not. We're through for a couple uh weeks or so, and I'm hazing the boys home to bust a few hosses before we strike out again. I guess I'll just keep the camp running down by the creek. Going to be in town long enough for me to play a game uh pool?”

”I was going right out again, but there's no particular hurry,” said Dill, looking over his letters. ”Were you going to play with some one in particular?”

”No--just the first gazabo I could rope and lead up to the table,”

Billy told him, sliding off the counter where he had been perched.

”I wouldn't mind a game myself,” Dill observed, in his hesitating way.

In the end, however, they gave up the idea and started for home; because two men were already playing at the only table in Hardup, and they were in no mind to wait indefinitely.

Outside the town, Dill turned gravely to the other, ”Did you say you were intending to camp down by the creek, William?” he asked slowly.

”Why, yes. Anything against it?” Billy's eyes opened a bit wider that Dill should question so trivial a thing.

”Oh, no--nothing at all.” Dill cleared his throat raspingly. ”Nothing at all--so long as there is any creek to camp beside.”

”I reckon you've got something to back that remark. Has the creek went and run off somewhere?” Billy said, after a minute of staring.

”William, I have been feeling extremely ill at ease for the past week, and I have been very anxious for a talk with you. Eight days ago the creek suddenly ran dry--so dry that one could not fill a tin dipper except in the holes. I observed it about noon, when I led my horse down to water. I immediately saddled him and rode up the creek to discover the cause.” He stopped and looked at Billy steadily.

”Well, I reckon yuh found it,” Billy prompted impatiently.

”I did. I followed the creek until I came to the ditch Mr. Brown has been digging. I found that he had it finished and was filling it from the creek in order to test it. I believe,” he added dryly, ”he found the result very satisfying--to himself. The ditch carried the whole creek without any trouble, and there was plenty of room at the top for more!”

”h.e.l.l!” said Billy, just as Dill knew he would say. ”But he can't take out any more than his water-right calls for,” he added. ”Yuh got a water right along with the ranch, didn't yuh say?”

”I got three--the third, fourth, and fifth. I have looked into the matter very closely in the last week. I find that we can have all the water there is--after Brown gets through. His rights are the first and second, and will cover all the water the creek will carry, if he chooses to use them to the limit. I suspect he was looking for some sort of protest from me, for he had the papers in his pocket and showed them to me. I afterward investigated, as I said, and found the case to be exactly as I have stated.”

Billy stared long at his horse's ears. ”Well, he can't use the whole creek,” he said at last, ”not unless he just turned it loose to be mean, and I don't believe he can waste water even if he does hold the rights. We can mighty quick put a stop to that. Do yuh know anything about injunctions? If yuh don't, yuh better investigate 'em a lot--because I don't know a d.a.m.n' thing about the breed, and we're liable to need 'em bad.”

”I believe I may truthfully say that I understand the uses--and misuses--of injunctions, William. In the East they largely take the place of guns as fighting weapons, and I think I may say without boasting that I can hit the bull's-eye with them as well as most men.

But suppose Mr. Brown _uses_ the water? Suppose there is none left to turn back into the creek channel when he is through? He has a large force of men at work running laterals from the main ditch, which carries the water up and over the high land, and I took the liberty of following his lines of stakes. As you would put it, William, he seems about to irrigate the whole of northern Montana; certainly his stakes cover the whole creek bottom, both above and below the main ditch, and also the bench land above.”

”h.e.l.l! Anything else?”

”I believe not--except that he has completed his fencing and has turned in a large number of cattle. I say completed, though strictly speaking he has not. He has completed the great field south of the creek and east of us. But Mr. Walland was saying that Brown intends to fence a tract to the north of us, either this fall or early in the spring. I know to a certainty that he has a good many sections leased there. I tried to obtain some of it last spring and could not.” Into the voice of Dill had crept a note of discouragement.

”Well, don't yuh worry none, Dilly. I'm here to see yuh pull out on top, and you'll do it, too. You're a crackerjack when it comes to the fine points uh business, and I sure savvy the range end uh the game, so between us we ought to make good, don't yuh think? You just keep your eye on Brown, and if yuh can slap him in the face with an injunction or anything, don't yuh get a sudden attack uh politeness and let him slide. I'll look after the cow brutes myself--and if I ain't good for it, after all these years, I ought to be kicked plumb off the earth. The time has gone by when we could ride over there and haze his bunch clear out uh the country on a high lope, with our six guns backing our argument. I kinda wish,” he added pensively, ”we _hadn't_ got so d.a.m.n' decent and law-abiding. We could get action a heap more speedy and thorough with a dozen or fifteen buckaroos that liked to fight and had lots uh sh.e.l.ls and good hosses. Why, I could have the old man's bunch shoveling dirt into that ditch to beat four aces, in about fifteen minutes, if--”

”But, as you say,” Dill cut in anxiously, ”we are decent and law-abiding, and such a procedure is quite out of the question.”

”Aw, I ain't meditating no moonlight attack, Dilly--but the boys would sure love to do it if I told 'em to get busy, and I reckon we could make a better job of it than forty-nine injunctions and all kinds uh law sharps.”