Part 10 (1/2)

Steel's possessions had been sold off that day, and bought up at ridiculously inadequate prices by two strangers, who we all suspected had been financed by Lane. Few of us had a dollar to spare, and the auctioneer, who was also probably under the money-lender's thumb, demanded proof of ability to make the purchase when one or two neighbors attempted to force up the bidding. Steel rode with slack bridle and his head bent, and I was heavy of heart, for I held Gaspard's Trail only on sufferance, and the same fate must soon overtake me. The prairie stretched before us a desolate waste, fading on the horizon into gray obscurity, and, together with the gloom of the heavens above, its forlorn aspect increased my depression. So we came moodily to the dip to the Sweet.w.a.ter, and I saw Mackay standing beside a deeper pool below. A rapid flowed into the head of it, and the lines of froth shone with a strange lividness. The time was then perhaps an hour before sunset. When we dismounted to water and rest the horses, Mackay turned sharply and glanced at Cotton.

”All went off quietly?” And the trooper nodded.

”Yes,” I said. ”We have a long patience, Sergeant; but there were signs on some of the faces that things may go differently some day.”

”Ay?” said the sergeant, fixing his keen eyes on me as he stood, a lean, bronze-skinned statue beside the river. ”What were ye meaning, Rancher Ormesby?”

”I was merely giving you a hint,” I said. ”We have paid all demanded from us and kept the law, but now, when the powers that rule us stand by and watch us ground out of existence to enrich a few unprincipled schemers, it is hard to say what might not happen.”

”Ye did well,” was the dry answer. ”It will be my business to see ye keep it still; but in this country any man has liberty to talk just as foolishly as it pleases him. Can the law change the seasons for ye, or protect the careless from their own improvidence? But let be. I'm older than most o' ye, and have seen that there's a measure set on oppression.”

He concluded with a curious a.s.surance which approached solemnity; but Steel added, with a Western expletive, that he had already let be until he was ruined. Then I broke in: ”If I can find Redmond and wring the truth from him I hope to prove that the limit has been reached; and I purpose, in the first place, to see what the law will do for me. Have you any word of him?”

”No,” and the sergeant's tone was very significant. ”If he were still above the prairie-sod we should have found him. But there was a bit freshet last night--and I am expecting him.”

Steel, I fancied, s.h.i.+vered, and though the speaker might well be mistaken, anything that served to divert our thoughts was a relief, and for a while we lay among the gra.s.ses, smoking silently. The sky was heavily overcast, there was no breath of air astir, and the slow gurgle of the river drifted mournfully down the hollow. For some reason, I felt strangely restless and expectant, as though something unusual would shortly happen. A faint drumming of hoofs rose up from somewhere far off across the prairie, as well as a sound which might have been made by an approaching wagon.

”That's Lane striking south for the railroad with a few of the boys behind him,” Steel said listlessly. ”There'll be thunder before he reaches it, and Lardeau's team is wild, but there's no use hoping they'll bolt and break Lane's neck for him. Accidents do not happen to that kind of man.”

A little time had pa.s.sed, and the beat of horses' feet broke in a rhythmic measure through the heavy stillness, when Cotton, who had followed his sergeant along the bank, raised a shout, and I leaped to my feet, for something that circled with the current was drifting down stream. We ran our hardest, and, for I was not strong yet, the others were standing very silent, with tense faces and staring eyes, when I rejoined them.

”Yon's Redmond,” said Sergeant Mackay. ”I was expecting him.”

The object he pointed to slid slowly by abreast of us, and I felt a shock of physical nausea as I stared at it. At that distance it was without human semblance, a mere shapeless ma.s.s of sodden clothing, save for the faint white glimmer of a face; but the shock gave place to a fit of sullen fury. Heaven knows I cherished no anger against the unfortunate man. Indeed, from the beginning, I had regarded him as a mere helpless tool; but death had robbed me of my only weapon, and I remembered Lane's prediction that Redmond would be of little use to me if I found him.

”If one of ye has a lariat ye had better bring it,” said Sergeant Mackay.

We followed the object down stream. It floated slowly, now half-submerged, now rising more buoyantly, with the blanched countenance turned towards the murky heavens, out of which the light was fading, until Steel, poising himself upon the bank, deftly flung a coupled lariat. The noose upon its end took hold, and I shrank backwards when we drew what it held ash.o.r.e, for Redmond's face was ill to look upon, and seemed to mock me with its staring eyes.

”Stan' clear!” said the sergeant, perhaps feeling speech of any kind would be a relief, for n.o.body showed the least desire to crowd upon him.

”If it had not been for the regulations a drop of whisky would have been acceptable, seeing that it's my painful duty to find out how he came by his end.”

The words were excusable, but there was no whisky forthcoming; and though, perhaps, only one man in a hundred would have undertaken that gruesome task, the sergeant went through it with the grim thoroughness which characterized all his actions.

”There's no sign of a blow or bullet that I can find, and I'm thinking only the Almighty knows whether he drowned himself or it was accidental death. Ye can identify him, all of ye?”

We thought we could, but had been so intent that n.o.body noticed the trampling of horses' hoofs until a wagon was drawn up close by, and several riders reined in their beasts.

”Here's a man who ought to,” said Steel. ”Come down and swear to your partner, Lane.”

Turning, I saw my enemy start as he looked over the side of the wagon at what lay before him. Every eye was fixed upon him, and Steel stood quietly determined by the wheel.

”I'm in a hurry, and don't fill the post of coroner,” the former said.

”Will you come down?” Steel added; and there was a low growl from the a.s.sembly, while Lane shrank back from that side of the vehicle. ”I guess it's certain this man was the last to see Redmond alive.”

”Drive on!” said Lane to the teamster; but the man hesitated, while, when his employer s.n.a.t.c.hed up the reins, there was another murmur deeper than before, and mounted men closed about the wagon, their figures cutting blackly against the fading light. Why they were journeying homewards in such company I did not learn, but, overtaking it, they had perhaps ridden beside the wagon for the purpose of expressing their frank opinion of its occupant.

”Ye cannot pa.s.s until ye have answered my questions,” said Sergeant Mackay. ”If he does not dismount ye have authority to help him, Steel.

Ye will hold the horses, Trooper Cotton.”