Part 23 (1/2)
”Still, violence would have spoiled everything,” persisted the Friar, who was as human as a raw bronco when you tried to make him back up.
”Now, don't forget anything,” sez I. ”It wasn't my face 'at lit up when I said 'at he did his killin' with bare hands; nor it wasn't me who gloated over this as furnis.h.i.+n' an excuse to use my bare hands in defendin' myself.”
”Oh, Happy, Happy,” sez he, with one o' the bursts 'at made ya willin'
to go through fire and water for him. ”I'm the entire human race: there isn't a single sin or weakness which hasn't betrayed me at one time or another, and yet the wicked pride of me persists in stickin'
up its head an' crowin' every time I take my eyes off it.”
”Well, I like your pride full as well as any other part o' ya,” sez I; ”and before you wrangle it into its corral again, I want to say 'at no other man in the world could 'a' told Olaf what you told him this mornin', and lived to talk it over around this fire to-night-unless, he had used the best and the quickest brand o' violence the' is, in the meantime.”
”Now, that you have succeeded in flatterin' both of us, we'll go to sleep,” sez the Friar, and the' was a deep twinkle in his eyes which allus rejoiced me to call up.
Next night soon after dark, we started out with Kit Murray. She rode like a man and could tick out her fifty or sixty a day right along, without worryin' her pony. As soon as she was safe located in Billings, I turned back to the Dot, while the Friar rounded up some stray sheep he had near the border, and as far as I can recall we didn't meet again all that summer.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
OTHER PEOPLE'S BUSINESS
Olaf's theories concernin' violence didn't harmonize complete with the Friar's; but his method for discouragin' scandal was thorough to a degree. He silenced the gossipers all right, though so far as I heard, most of 'em recovered; and the outcome was 'at the Friar stood higher after the scandal 'n he had before.
The Cross brand outfit was a good deal like a pack o' dogs: they each sought Ty Jones's favor, and they were all jealous of each other. Olaf stood high on account of his mysterious insight; so Badger-face, the foreman, backed up Bud Fisher to devil Olaf as far as possible without givin' Olaf what Ty would judge a fit excuse for unscrewin' the kid's neck; and from the talk I heard, their outfit trotted along as smooth an' friendly as seven he bears. .h.i.tched to a freight wagon; but our trails didn't cross frequent, so it was all hearsay.
The winter before had been so fierce 'at a lot o' small outfits couldn't winter through their stock. Towards spring, ol' Cast Steel had bought in the Half Moon brand for a hundred an' fifty dollars; and that summer me an' Spider Kelley put in our spare time huntin' strays.
Spider had come back, flat broke and full o' repentance; so after I'd stood him on his head in a buffalo-wallow full o' mud, I forgave him free and frank, and this summer we rode together most o' the time.
Ol' Cast Steel was as lucky as a hump-back cat, and this summer the gra.s.s was fatter 'n ever I'd seen it. We rounded up over five hundred head o' ponies, and over sixty cows, which was just like bein' caught out in a gold storm without your slicker on; so we didn't sympathize any with the old man, but prospected around for pleasure whenever we felt like it.
One afternoon after the fall round-up, me an' Spider found ourselves in a mighty rough bit o' country on the north slope o' the Wind River range. We had been herdin' six or eight Half Moon ponies before us for several days, devilin' a parcel of Injuns into thinkin' 'at we was out tradin'; but we had got weary o' this, an' were just foolin' around and wis.h.i.+n' 'at somethin' would turn up to amuse us.
”Aw, let's go on back home,” sez Spider, not knowin' he was speakin'
wisdom. ”I'd sooner work at work than work at huntin' up somethin' to amuse myself with.”
”Well,” I sez, ”we'll finish out this afternoon, an' then if nothin'
turns up, we'll go back, draw our pay an' go into Boggs.”
We saw our ponies start around a b.u.t.te ahead of us an' stop to examine somethin'. We followed 'em around the b.u.t.te, and there below us on a little level, was a bunch of men-seven of 'em. We drew up an' gave 'em a look-over.
”What do you make out?” sez I.
”Olaf the Swede with a rope around his neck, an' Badger-face Flannigan holdin' the other end o' the rope,” sez Spider. ”What do you reckon they're goin' to do to him?”
”Comb his hair, or fit a new sun-bonnet on him,” sez I, sarcastic.
”What else do they put a man's neck in a noose for? Let's go down an'
see what happens.”
”A feller's not sure of a welcome at such times,” sez Spider.