Part 4 (1/2)
Then a peculiar thing happened. Instead of running away, the boy took a step forward, and the man paused, scarcely believing his eyes. Another step forward, and yet another, came the diminutive figure, until almost within the aggressor's reach; then suddenly, quick as a cat, it veered, dropped upon all fours to the floor, and head first, scrambling like a rabbit, disappeared into the open mouth of the dog-kennel.
Too late the man saw the trick, and curses came to his lips,--curses fit for a fiend, fit for the irresponsible being he was. He himself had built that kennel. It extended in a curve eight feet into the solid sod foundation, and to get at the spot where the boy now lay he would have to tear down the house itself. The temper which had made the man what he now was, a drunkard and fugitive in a frontier country, took possession of him wholly, and with it came a madman's cunning; for at a sudden thought he stopped, and the cursing tongue was silent. Five minutes later he left the place, closing the door carefully behind him; but before that time a red jet of flame, like the ravenous tongue of a famished beast, was lapping at a hastily a.s.sembled pile of tinder-dry furniture in one corner of the shanty.
CHAPTER III
THE BOX R RANCH
Mr. Rankin moved back from a well-discussed table, and, the room being conveniently small, tilted his chair back against the wall. The protesting creak of the ill-glued joints under the strain of his ponderous figure was a signal for all the diners, and five other men likewise drew away from around the board. Rankin extracted a match and a stout jack-knife from the miscellaneous collection of useful articles in his capacious pocket, carefully whittled the bit of wood to a point, and picked his teeth deliberately. The five ”hands,” sun-browned, unshaven, dissimilar in face as in dress, waited in expectation; but the housekeeper, a shapeless, stolid-looking woman, wife of the foreman, Graham, went methodically about the work of clearing the table. Rankin watched her a moment indifferently; then without turning his head, his eyes s.h.i.+fted in their narrow slits of sockets until they rested upon one of the cowboys.
”What time was it you saw that smoke, Grannis?” he asked.
The man addressed paused in the operation of rolling a cigarette.
”'Bout an hour ago, I should say. I was just thinking of coming in to dinner.”
The lids met over Rankin's eyes, then the narrow slit opened.
”It was in the no'thwest you say, and seemed to be quite a way off?”
Grannis nodded.
”Yes; I couldn't make out any fire, only the smoke, and that didn't last long. I thought at first maybe it was a prairie fire, and started to see; but it was getting thinner before I'd gone a mile, so I turned round and by the time I got back to the corral there wasn't nothing at all to see.”
Two of the other hands solemnly exchanged a wink.
”Think you must have eaten too many of Ma Graham's pancakes this morning, and had a blur over your eyes,” commented one, slyly. ”Prairie fires don't stop that sudden when the gra.s.s is like it is now.”
The portly housewife paused in her work to cast a look of scorn upon the speaker, but Grannis rushed into the breach.
”Don't you believe it. There was a fire all right. Somebody stopped it, or it stopped itself, that's all.”
Tilting his chair forward with an effort, Rankin got to his feet, and, as usual, his action brought the discussion to an end. The woman returned to her work; the men put on hats and coats preparatory to going out of doors. Only the proprietor stood pa.s.sive a moment absently drawing down his vest over his portly figure.
”Graham,” he said at last, ”hitch the mustangs to the light wagon.”
”All right.”
”And, Graham--”
The man addressed paused.
”Throw in a couple of extra blankets.”
”All right.”
Out of doors the men took up the conversation where they had left off.
”You better begin to hope the old man finds something that's been afire up there, Grannis,” said the joker of the house. ”If he don't, you've cooked your goose proper.”
Grannis was a new-comer, and looked his surprise.