Part 28 (1/2)
After Olaf had rode out o' sight to the north, Horace sez: ”Has he allus been crazy?”
”He's not crazy,” sez I.
”Then what did he mean by sayin' I had a very brave flame an' that I spoke true?” sez Horace. ”Course he's crazy. Didn't you notice his eyes.”
”Yes,” I sez, ”I've noticed his eyes a lot; but I don't think he's crazy-except in thinkin' 'at Kit Murray'll marry him. Why, she would as soon think o' marryin' a he-bear as Olaf.”
”Well, I think they have drove him crazy,” sez Horace; ”but I'm goin'
to bestir myself in his favor.”
He took himself as serious as if he had been Napoleon an' David both; an' I could smell trouble plain. We decided to move our camp down to Olaf's, an' wrangle his herd into the Spread every night. Pearl Crick Spread was as fine a little valley as a body ever saw; filled with cottonwoods an' snugglin' down out o' the wind behind high benches.
The crick came in through a gorge, an' went out through a gorge; an'
it was plain to me that the Spread was worth fightin' for.
When we got back to the camp we found that a couple o' Cross brand boys had happened along, by accident, of course, an' were tryin' to swap news o' the weather for news o' the neighbors. Our crowd hadn't loosened up none; and as soon as we came back the Cross-branders left.
Horace looked pleased. ”I bet I got one of 'em last night,” sez he, shakin' his head.
Well, we all grinned, we couldn't help it. ”I bet you get another chance at 'em, too,” sez Slim. Our outfit had been peaceable for so long that the prospect of trouble actually made us feel nervous enough to show it.
We moved down to Olaf's, and each night we fetched in his little bunch o' cows, an' allus kept up some hosses in the corral. The Cross-branders used to wander by our place purty frequent, but allus in the matter o' business.
One day, after we'd been livin' at Olaf's about a week, Badger-face Flannigan, an' a pair of as mean-lookin' Greasers as ever I saw, came ridin' along. Me an' Horace had been up in the hills after some fresh meat, an' we see them before they saw us. They were ridin' slow an'
snoopin' about to see what they could pick up, an' when they saw us they looked a bit s.h.i.+fty for a moment.
Then Badger wrinkled up his face in what was meant for a friendly grin, an' sez: ”h.e.l.lo, fellers. Have you-un's bought Olaf out?”
”Nope,” sez I. ”We're just out here for a little huntin'; an' Olaf got us to look after his stuff for a few days while he went visitin'.”
”Wasn't the' any huntin' closer to home?” sez Badger-face, a little sarcastic.
”Not the kind o' huntin' we prefer,” sez Horace, sort o' dreamy like.
Badger-face drilled a look into Horace, who had put on his most no-account expression. ”What's your favorite game,” sez he, ”snow-shoe rabbits?”
”Oh, no,” drawled Horace as if he felt sleepy, ”silver-tips an' humans is our favorite game; but o' course the spring is the best time-for silver-tips.”
”Where might you be from?” asked Badger-face.
”I might be from Arizona or Texas,” sez Horace; ”but I ain't. I'm a regular dude. Can't you tell by my whiskers?”
Badger-face was so puzzled when Horace gave a little rat-laugh that I had to laugh too; and ya could see the blood come into Badger's cheeks, but still, he couldn't savvy this sort o' game, so he couldn't quite figure out how to start anything.
Horace had practiced what he called a muscle-lift, which he said he used to see the other kids do on parallel bars; and now he slipped to the ground an' tightened his cinch an' cussed about the way it had come loose, as natural as life. Then he put one hand on the horn an'
the other on the cantle an' drew himself up slow. He kept on pus.h.i.+n'
himself after his breast had come above the saddle until he rested at arm's length. Then he flipped his right leg over, an' took his seat as though it was nothin' at all. Any one could see it was a genuwine stunt, though it was of no earthly use to a ridin' man.
Now, just because the' was no sense to this antic, it made more of an impression on Badger-face than the fanciest sort o' shootin' or ropin'