Part 47 (1/2)
He started to speak but a shout checked him. They listened to a confusion of voices.
”Something's wrong,” Beal said and stepped to the veranda. ”Why ...
somebody's hurt!”
Jane ran to the doorway but he had already started up the path. She followed as she saw a close huddle of men about the lighted doorway of the bunk house move slowly in, carrying a burden gently and as she neared the building a rather tragic quiet marked the group.
n.i.g.g.e.r, Two-Bits' horse, was standing saddled in the path of light.
Inside a man was lying face down on the floor. The Reverend knelt beside him, leaning forward, and others stood close, silent and grave.
The prostrate man was Two-Bits and his shoulders dripped blood. As Jane became a part of the group he stirred and struggled to raise his head.
”What is it, brother?” Azariah asked gently, turning Two-Bits over and supporting his head. ”Tell us. You're not done for. It's ripped your back open, but that's all. Who was it?”
The other looked about slowly with bewildered eyes.
”From behind,” he said weakly. ”They got me from behind....” His gaze wavered from face to face and finally rested on Jane's. He moved feebly.
”A big bunch of your cattle must be in th' Hole, ma'am,” he said.
”There ain't ... any water there.... I was keepin' 'em ... out ... an'
somebody got me from behind.... They must of waited ... to get me ...
from behind.... And the only water's ... in fence....
”It looks like ... a lot of trouble, ma'am....”
He stopped talking, exhausted.
CHAPTER XXI
RENUNCIATION
It looked like trouble and there was trouble.
Beck, with the Reverend, Curtis and two of the ranch hands preceded Jane to the Hole at dawn and when she rode down the trail she saw them on their horses, forming a little group well away from the nester's cabin.
Her cattle were there and the fenced area was fringed with them as they moved back and forth, sniffing at the water they wanted, which they needed and which, though just on the other side of the wire strands, might as well have been days away. Inside the fence grazed Cole's herd with plenty to eat and drink.
Tom's face was troubled as he rode to meet the girl.
”It's serious,” he said. ”There's enough of your stock down here to ruin you, ma'am, unless we get 'em out to water.”
”Let's take them out, then!”
He shook his head skeptically.
”They're in bad shape. They're crazy wild and we haven't got enough men here to shove 'em up the trail. It's an awful job with quiet cattle because they have to go in single file and there's no drivin' 'em. I don't dare risk taking these through the Gap and around to water the other way. Why, Jane, that's forty miles!
”It'll be another day before we can get the boys back to help get 'em out and it looks like a heavy loss at best unless we get water. There's only one way to get it and that's to persuade Cole or his daughter that we'd ought to have it.”