Part 8 (1/2)
”There's no use in saying I'm obliged to both of you, because you know it well,” I made s.h.i.+ft to answer; and Sally Steel stroked the hair back from my forehead in sisterly fas.h.i.+on as she smiled at Thorn. ”But what about the stock? Did they all get through?”
Thorn's honest face clouded, and Sally Steel laid her plump hand on my mouth. ”You're not going to worry about that. A herd of cattle stampeded over you and you're still alive. Isn't that good enough for you?”
I moved my head aside. ”I shall worry until I know the truth. All the beasts could not have got out. How many did?” I asked.
Thorn looked at Sally, then sideways at me, and I held my breath until the girl said softly: ”You had better tell him.”
”Very few,” said the foreman; and I hoped that my face was as expressionless as I tried to make it when I heard the count. ”Some of those near the fence got clear, and some didn't. Steel had grubbed up a post, and when the wires slacked part of the rest got tangled up and went down, choking the gap. It was worse than a Chicago slaughter-house when the fire rolled up.”
”The horses, too? How long have I been ill, and has any rain fallen?” I asked, with the strange steadiness that sometimes follows a crus.h.i.+ng blow, and Thorn moodily shook his head.
”Both horses done for. You've been ill 'bout two weeks, I think. No rain worth mentioning--and the crop is clean wiped out.”
There was silence for some minutes, and Sally Steel patted my uninjured shoulder sympathetically. Then I pointed to a litter of papers on the table, and inquired if there were any letters in Lane's writing. Thorn handed me one reluctantly, and it was hard to refrain from fierce exclamation as I read the laconic missive. Lane regretted to hear of my accident, but the scarcity of money rendered it necessary to advise me that as I had not formally accepted his terms, repayment of the loan was overdue, and he would be obliged to realize unless I were willing to pledge Crane Valley or renew the arrangement at an extra five per cent.
on the terms last mentioned.
”Bad news?” said Sally. ”Then I guess Thorn sha'n't worry you any more; but it's just when things look worst the turn comes. That team will be bolting soon, Thorn. I'll sit right back in the corner, and until you want to talk to me you can forget I'm there.”
The high-pitched voice sank to a gentler tone, and I felt grateful to Sally Steel. Her reckless vagaries often formed a theme for laughter when the inhabitants of the prairie foregathered at settlement or store; but there was a depth of good-nature, as well as an overdaring love of mischief in her, and not infrequently a blessing accompanied the jest.
Thorn was moving towards the door when, recollecting another point, I beckoned him.
”How was it that when they had, or should have had, time enough, Henderson's man and Redmond did not stop the cattle bunching in the fence? It's very unlike our ways if they made no effort to save my beasts as well as their own masters' property,” I said.
Foreman Thorn looked troubled, and I saw that Sally was watching him keenly. ”I don't understand it rightly, and I guess no man ever will,”
he said. ”Of course, we struck Henderson's Jo with just that question, and this is what he made of it. He and Redmond were camping in Torkill's deserted sod-house, and when they saw the fires were bad that night, Redmond said he'd ride round the cattle. Their own lot was pretty well out of harm's way, east of the fence, but Jo told him to take a look at yours. Redmond started, and, as Jo knew that he'd be called if he were wanted, he went off to sleep.”
”That does not explain much,” I interjected, when Thorn halted, rubbing his head as though in search of inspiration.
”There isn't an explanation. Jo, waking later, saw the fire coming right down the hollow and started on foot for the fence. There was no sign of Redmond anywhere. Jo couldn't get the stock out, and he couldn't cut the fence, and he was going back for an ax when we met him. You know all the rest--'cept this. Steel and I were standing over you, and the fire was roasting the beasts mixed up in the fence, when Redmond comes along. The way he stood, the flame shone right on his face. It seemed twisted, and the man looked like a ghost. He stood there blinking at the beasts--and it wasn't a pretty sight--then shook all over as he stooped down and looked at you. There was a good deal of blood about you from the horse.
”'What the devil's wrong with you? Stiffen yourself up!' says Steel; and Redmond's voice cracked in the middle as he answered him: 'I'm feeling mighty sick. Is he dead?'
”'Looks pretty near it. If you'd seen those beasts clear he mightn't have come to this. Here, take a drink. We'll want you presently,' says Steel, and went on strapping you together with a girth and bridle, while I watched Redmond with one eye. As you know, there was never much grit in the creature, and he had another s.h.i.+vering fit.
”'Get out until you're feeling better. That kind of thing's catching, and we've lots to do,' I said; and he laughs with a cackle like an hysterical woman, and blinks straight past me. Steel and I figured he'd got hold of some smuggled whisky and been drinking bad, but afterwards Henderson's Jo said no.
”'It's murder. My G.o.d! It's horrible--an' he never done anyone no harm,'
he says, and falls to cussing somebody quietly. I can talk pretty straight when I'm hot myself, but that was ice-cold swearing with venom in it, and when he got on to Judas, with the devil in his eyes, I ripped up a big sod and plugged him on the head with it.
”'If you don't let up or quit I'll pound the life out of you,' says Steel.
”Well, we got you fixed so you couldn't make the damage worse, and when Steel went for the wagon and I looked around for Redmond he was gone.
Don't know what to think of it, anyway, 'cept his troubles or bad whisky had turned his head. You see he was never far from crazy.”
”Why didn't one of you get hold of him and make him talk next day?” I asked; and Thorn looked at me curiously.
”Because he'd gone. Lit out to n.o.body knows where and stopped there. I don't know just what to think, myself.”