Part 19 (1/2)
”Man, we've got them here in chains! Two thousand pesos d'oro! _Por Dios!_ You have made me rich with your news!”
”In chains, corporal? Then they did not escape after all! They fought like caballeros, and now they'll be claimed for extradition, taken back, and hanged! _Hombre_, that's no death for caballeros! How did you ever take such fighters, corporal?”
”Oh, just arrested them.”
”But they fought a hundred Americanos!”
”Yes, yes, but we are Frontier Guards--me and another man; we just arrested them, that's all. Two thousand pesos!”
”They fought?”
”Oh, yes, we had to disable one of them; in fact I myself shot him through the pistol arm. Then they surrendered, made their bow to force.
Two thousand golden dollars!”
”Miraculous! Well, senor corporal, may it be permitted to ask where forage is sold?”
”Certainly, step this way. I, Pablo Juarez, rich! Two thousand! Santa Catalina, thou shalt have candles, a box of candles!”
The voices faded out, and Jim lay back, wiping the sweat from his face.
”Wheugh”--then he burst out laughing--”the liars,” he howled, ”the gentle, earnest liars! Oh, pat me, Curly, for I'm weak--the lop-eared, spavined, sway-backed, c.o.c.k-eyed liars!”
But Curly was shy of Spanish, and wanted the news. ”What liars?”
”Everybody--they're all liars--the whole world--liars! Liars! They couldn't leave it to facts, which are bad enough, but they've lied, and sworn to lies and perjured themselves with oaths, the thugs, the dirty bar-room toughs, selling their souls to that young Ryan--and made a remnant sale of themselves for witnesses that I murdered an old man!”
”What, Ryan? It wasn't you who spoiled old Ryan. It was your father in honest fighting!”
”Who cares for honesty when there's a millionaire to pay for souls in cash? They swear that I hired you and all your robbers to have old Ryan murdered, then did the killing myself, and turned loose your gang to ma.s.sacre Ryan's friends--the cowards, the lying cowards!”
”But them boys with masks was Chalkeye's riders, and he just covered their faces, Jim, to save them afterwards.”
”And who'll believe that? Here's a millionaire to buy the witnesses, the lawyers, the judge, the law! The only man who was there and can't be bribed is that leary old cow-thief Chalkeye, but he's mixed up with us, and likely enough a prisoner by now. Do you think that a Grave City court of justice would believe an honest man? No, we're trapped, and we're sold, and we're going to be butchered now.”
”Well,” says Curly in that slow, soft way he had, ”I allow it's done you good to turn yo' wolf loose, and you've sh.o.r.ely howled; it done me good to hear all the cussing said while I lay restin'. That's relieved me a lot and made me plumb forgetful of being in pain.”
Jim began talking haughty, and wanted to know if Curly liked the notion of being hanged.
”That I sh.o.r.ely do,” says Curly very soft. ”You see, only a while back we was going to be taken out sudden and shot--which it was a caution to yaller snakes only to think of. That didn't make me happy a lil' bit, but now we got more prospects, a slow trial coming, time to turn around in, and think out how to escape.”
That sobered Jim, but it made him hostile, too. ”Youngster, will nothing scare you?” he asked; ”can't get a whimper out of you even for company's sake--you're so beastly selfish.”
Curly rolled over, resting his face on his hand. ”I was raised that way,” says he very quiet, ”goin' to be shot up or hung most of the time.
It's a risky thing bein' alive when you come to think of it, eh? We-all is mighty or'nary folks in a trifling sort of world, Jim; but I reckon it's sure nice being heah. We got sweet range hay to lie on, and hopes of a feed in the mawning; the place is sure quiet, but we cayn't complain of being dull. As to our lil' worries, I don't fuss about crossing a river until I done reached the bank.”
”I wish,” Jim groaned, ”that I'd got half your courage.”
”I've suffered some,” says Curly, ”and I reckon that what you call courage is just training. Now you, Jim, you lie down, and think about something to eat, and presently yo're goin' to drop off asleep, dreaming of good camps where there's feed and water. If that ain't good I'll wake you up in the night, so's you'll get two sleeps, which is even better'n one.”