Part 43 (1/2)

”I'm goin' to do that very little thing,” he declared. ”I dunno how to talk much Navajo, but I'm learnin' fast, and she got my meanin'. We understand each other, and we'll do better as time goes on. She calls me 'Emmike'! Sweet, ain't it?” He heaved a sigh, then he gargled a laugh that sounded like boilin' mush. ”It ain't often a feller like me gets a swell little dame that wors.h.i.+ps him. Horses, guns, camp-fires!

Can you beat it?”

”If that squaw had a soft palate or a nose like a eeclair, you wouldn't be so keen for this simple life,” I told him. ”She has stirred up your wickedness, Mike, and you've gone nutty. You're moon-crazy, that's all. You cut it out.”

I argued half the night; but the more I talked the more I seen that Mike was stuck to be a renegade. It's a fact. If he hadn't of been a nice kid I'd of cut his hobbles and let him go; but--pshaw! Mike b.u.t.ters could run too fast to be wasted among savages, and, besides, it's a terrible thing for a white man to marry an Injun. The red never dies out in the woman, but the white in the man always changes into a dirty, muddy red. I laid awake a long while tryin' to figger out a way to block his game, but the only thing I could think of was to tie him up and wear out a cinch on him. Just as I was dozin' off I had an idy.

I didn't like it much at first; I had to swaller hard to down it, but the more I studied it the better it looked, so for fear I'd weaken I rolled over and went to sleep.

Mike was in earnest, and so was the girl; that much I found out the next day. And she must of learned him enough Navajo to propose marriage with, and he must of learned her enough English to say ”yes,”

for she took possession of our camp and begun to order me around.

First thing she lugged our Navajo blankets to the creek, washed 'em, then spread 'em over some bushes and beat 'em with a stick until they were as clean and soft as thistle-down. I'll admit she made a pleasant picture against the bright colors of them blankets, and I couldn't altogether blame Mike for losin' his head. He'd lost it, all right.

Every time she looked at him out of them big black eyes he got as wabbly as clabber. It was plumb disgustin'.

That evenin' he give her a guitar lesson. Now Mike himself was a sad musician, and the sound of him fandangoin' uncertainly up and down the fretful spine of that instrument was a tribulation I'd put up with on account of friends.h.i.+p, pure and simple, but when that discord-lovin'

lady cliff-dweller set all evenin' in our tent and sc.r.a.ped snake-dances out of them catguts with a fish-bone, I pulled my freight and laid out in the moonlight with the dogs.

Mike's infatuation served one purpose, though; he spent so much time with the squab that it give me an opportunity to work out my scheme.

That guitar lesson showed me that vig'rous measures was necessary, so I dug up a file, a shoemaker's needle and some waxed thread, all of which we had in our kit.

On the fourth morning there was a stir in the camp, and we knew that the courier had got back with his runner. Pretty soon the whole village stormed up to our tent in a body.

”Let's go out and look him over,” I said.

”What's the use of lookin' at him?” Mike inquired. ”All Injuns look alike--except one.”

I pulled back the tent fly and stepped out; then I called to Mike, for the first thing I seen was that gold fillin' of ours. Yes, sir, right there, starin' me in the eye, was the sole and s.h.i.+nin' monument to me and Mike's brief whirl at the science of dentistry. The face surroundin' it was stretched wide and welcome, and the minute this here new-comer reco'nized me, he drawed back his upper lip and pointed proudly to his ornament, then he dug up his lookin'-gla.s.s and his polis.h.i.+n'-rag and begun to dust it off. It was plain to be seen that he thought more of it than his right eye. And it impressed the other Injuns, too; they crowded up and studied it. They took turns feelin'

of it, especially the squaws, and I bet if we'd had our dentist outfit with us we could of got rich right there. The chief's daughter, in particular, was took with the beauties of that gew-gaw, and she made signs to us that she wanted one just like it.

”I never noticed he was so rangy,” Mike told me, when he'd sized up the new arrival. ”Say, this guy looks good. He's split plumb to the larynx and I bet he can run, for all of that wind-s.h.i.+eld.”

I noticed that Mike was pretty grave when he come back in the tent, and more than once that day I caught him lookin' at the champeen, sort of studyin' him out. But for that matter this new party was gettin'

his full share of attention; everywhere he went there was a trail of kids at his heels, and every time he opened his mouth he made a hit with the grown folks. The women just couldn't keep their eyes offen him, and I seen that Mike was gettin' pretty sore.

In the evenin' he made a confession that tipped off the way his mind was workin'. ”This is the first time I ever felt nervous before a race,” said he. ”Mebbe it's because it's goin' to be my last race; mebbe it's because that Injun knows me and ain't scared of me. Anyhow, I'm scared of _him_. That open-faced, Elgin-movement buck has got me tickin' fast.”

”That ain't what's got your goat,” I told him.

”Your cooin' dove is dazzled by that show of wealth, and you know it.”

”h.e.l.l! She's just curious, that's all. She's just a kid. I--I wish I'd of known who he was when I treated him. I'd of drove a horse-shoe nail in his knee.”

But all the same Mike looked worried.

It rained hard that night, and the next morning the gra.s.s was pretty wet. Mike tried it, first thing, and come back grinnin' till the top of his head was an island.

”That sod is so slippery old Flyin' Cloud can't get a good stride in his moccasins. Me, I can straddle out and take holt with my spikes.

Them spikes is goin' to put us on easy street. You see! I don't care how good he is, they're goin' to give me four hundred head of broncs and a cute little pigeon to look out for 'em. Me, I'm goin' to lay back and learn to play the guitar. I'm goin' to learn it by note.”