RANG
BRANSFORD OF
RAINBOW RANGE
THE HORSES WERE TTNWILLING TO F.NTKR THE CIRCLE OF
FTRKI.K;H r Page 181
Originally Published under tht title of
BRANSFORD IN ARCADIA
OR, THE LITTLE EOHIPPUS
BY
EUGENE MANLOVE RHODES
AUTHOR OF
THE DESIRE OF THE MOTH,
GOOD MEN AND TRUE, WEST IS WEST, ETC.
FRONTISPIBCE BY
HARVEY T. DUNN
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
M*de in the United Stale* of Anwic*
Copyright, 1913. by
CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
Copyright, 1914, by
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
Copyright, 1920, by
THE H. K. FLY COMPANY
CONTENTS
MH
PROLOGUE ......... i
THE PITCHER THAT WENT TO THE WELL . . ay
FIRST AID 35
MAXWELTON BRAES 47
THE ROAD TO ROME 61
THE MASKERS 71
THE ISLE OF ARCADY 86
STATES-GENERAL 95
ARCADES AMBO 106
TAKEN 113
THE ALIBI 125
THE NETTLE, DANGER 136
THE SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN . . . .150
THE SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN (continued) 169
FLIGHT 181
GOOD-BY 194
THE LAND OF AFTERNOON 205
TWENTIETH CENTURY r . . . ; . . 215
AT THE RAINBOW'S END . . . 226
BRANSFORD OF
RAINBOW RANGE
BRANSFORD IN ARCADIA
PROLOGUE
THE long fall round-up was over. The
wagon, homeward bound, made camp for
the last night out at the Sinks of Lost River.
Most of the men, worn with threescore night-
guards, were buried under their tarps in the deep
sleep of the weary; sound as that of the just, and
much more common.
By the low campfire a few yet lingered: old-
timers, iron men, whose wiry and seasoned
strength was toil-proof and Leo Ballinger, for
whom youth, excitement and unsated novelty
served in lieu of fitness.
The " firelighters," working the wide range
again from Ancho to Hueco, from the Mai Pais
to Glencoe, fell silent now, to mark an unstaled
miracle.
The clustered lights of Rainbow's End shone
redly, near and low. Beyond, above, dominant,
the black, unbroken bulk of Rainbow Range shut
out the east. The clear-cut crest mellowed to
2 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
luminous curves, feathery with far-off pines; the
long skyline thrilled with frosty fire, glowed,
sparkled the cricket's chirp was stilled; the slow,
late moon rose to a hushed and waiting world.
On the sharp crest she paused, irresolute, tip
toe, quivering, rosily aflush. Above floated a web
of gossamer. She leaped up, spurning the black
rim; glowed, palpitant, through that filmy lace
and all the desert throbbed with vibrant light.
Cool and sweet and fresh, from maiden leagues
of clean, brown earth the desert winds made
whisper in grass and fragrant shrub; yucca, mes-
quite and greasewood swayed so softly, you had
not known save as the long shadows courtesied
and danced.
Leo flung up his hand. The air was wine to
him. A year had left the desert still new and
strange. " Gee! " he said eloquently.
Headlight nodded. " You're dead right on that
point, son. If Christopher K. Columbus had only
thought to beach his shallops on the sundown
side of this here continent he might have made a
name for himself. Just think how much different,
hysterically, these United States "
' This United States," corrected Pringle dis
passionately. Their fathers had disagreed on the
same grammatical point.
Headlight scowled. " By Jings I ' That this
United Colonies are, and of right ought to be,
free and independent States,' " he quoted. " I was
PROLOGUE 3
goin' to give you something new to exercise your
talons on. You sit here every night, ridin' broncs
and four-footin' steers, and never grab a horn or
waste a loop, not once. Sure things ain't amusin'.
Some variety and doubtful accuracy, now, would
develop our guessin' gifts."
Aforesaid Smith brandished the end-gate rod.
" Them speculations of yours sorter opens up of
themselves. If California had been settled first
the salmon would now be our national bird in
stead of the potato. Think of Arizona, mother
of Presidents! Seat of government at Milipitas;
center of population about Butte; New Jersey
howlin' about Nevada trusts ! " He impaled a
few beef ribs and held them over the glowing
embers.
" Georgia and South Carolina would be in
fested by cow-persons in decollete leather panties,"
said Jeff Bransford. " New York and Pennsyl
vania, would be fondly turning a credulous ear to
the twenty-fourth consecutive solemn promise of
Statehood with the Senator from Walla Walla
urging admission of both as one mighty State
with Maryland and Virginia thrown in for
luck."
Headlight forgot his pique. " Wouldn't the
railroads sound funny, though? Needles and
Eastern, Northern Atlantic, Southern Atlantic,
Union, Western, Kansas and Central Atlantic!
Earnest and continuous demand for a President
4 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
from east of the Mississippi. All the prize-fights
pulled off at Boston."
" Columbus done just right," said Pringle de
cisively. " You fellers ain't got no imagination
a-tall. If this Western country'd been settled
first, the maps would read : * Northeast Territory.
Uninhabitable wilderness; region of storm and
snow, roaming savages and fierce wild beasts.'
When the intrepid explorer hit the big white
weather he'd say, * Little old San Diego's good
enough for me! ' Yes, sir! "
" Oh, well, climate alone doesn't account for
the charm of this country nor scenery," said
Leo. c You feel it, but you don't know why it
is."
" It sure agrees with your by-laws," observed
Pringle. " You're a sight changed from the fur
tive behemoth you was. You'll make a hand yet.
But, even now, your dimensions from east to west
is plumb fascinatin'. I'd sure admire to have
your picture to put in my cornfield."
" Very well, Mr. Pringle : I'll exchange photo
graphs with you," said Leo artlessly. A smoth
ered laugh followed this remark; uncertainty as
to what horrible and unnamed use Leo would
make of Pringle's pictured face appealed to these
speculative minds.
" I've studied out this charm business," said
Jeff. " See if I'm not right. It's because there's
no habitually old men here to pattern after, to
PROLOGUE 5
steady us, to make us ashamed of just staying
boys. Now and then you hit an octagonal cuss
like Wes here, that on a mere count of years and
hairs might be sized up as old by the superficial
observer. But if I have ever met that man more
addicted with vivid nonchalance as to further con
tinuance of educational facilities than this same
Also Ran, his number has now escaped me.
Really aged old people stay where they was."
" I think, myself, that what makes life so easy
and congenial in these latigos and longitudes is
the dearth of law and the ladies." Thus Pringle,
the cynic.
A fourfold outcry ensued; indignant repudia
tion of the latter heresy. Their protest rose above
the customary subdued and quiet drawl of the
out-of-doors man.
" But has the law no defenders? " demanded
Leo. " We've got to have laws to make us be
have."
" Sure thing ! Likewise, 'tis the waves that
make the tide come in," said Jeff. " A good law
is as handy as a good pocketbook. But law, as
simply such, independent of its merits, rouses no
enthusiasm in my manly bosom, no more than a
signboard the day after Hallowe'en. If it occurs
to me in a moment of emotional sanity that the
environments of the special case in hand call for
a compound fracture of the statutes made and
provided for some totally different cases that
6 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
happen to be called by the same name I fall upon
it with my glittering hew-gag, without no special
wonder. For," he declaimed, " I am endowed by
nature with certain inalienable rights, among
which are the high justice, the middle, and the
low!"
" And who's to be the judge of whether it's a
good law or not? You? "
" Me. Me, every time. Some one must. If
I let some other man make up my mind I've got
to use my judgment picking the man I follow.
By organizing myself into a Permanent Commit
tee of One to do my own thinking I take my one
chance of mistakes instead of two."
" So you believe in doing evil that good may
come, do you ? "
" Well," said Jeff judicially, " it seems to be
at least as good a proposition as doing good that
evil may come of it. Why, Capricorn, there isn't
one thing we call wrong, when other men do it,
that hasn't been lawful, some time or other.
When to break a law is to do a wrong, it's evil.
When it's doing right to break a law, it's not
evil. Got that? It's not wrong to keep a just
law and if it's wrong to break an unjust law I
want a new dictionary with pictures of it in the
back."
" But laws is useful and excitin' diversions to
break up the monogamy," said Aforesaid. " And
it's a dead easy way to build up a rep. Look at
PROLOGUE 7
the edge I've got on you fellows. You're just
supposed to be honest but I've been proved hon
est, frequent ! "
"Hark!" said Pringle.
A weird sound reached them the night wran
gler, beguiling his lonely vigil with song.
" Oh, the cuckoo is a pretty bird ; she comes in the
spring "
" What do you s'pose that night-hawk thinks
about the majesty of the law? " he said. There
was a ringing note in his voice. Smith and Head
light nodded gravely; their lean, brown faces
hardened.
" You haven't heard of it? Old John Taylor,
daddy to yonder warbler, drifted here from the
East. Wife and little girl both puny. Taylor
takes up a homestead on the Feliz. He wasn't
affluent none. I let him have my old paint pony,
Freckles him being knee-sprung and not up to
cow-work. To make out an unparalleled team, he
got Ed Poe's Billy Bowlegs, nee Gambler, him
havin' won a new name by a misunderstanding
with a prairie-dog hole. Taylor paid Poe for him
in work. He was a willin' old rooster, Taylor,
but futile and left-handed all over.
" John, Junior, he was only thirteen. Him
and the old man moseyed around like two drunk
ants, fixin' up a little log house with rock chim-
8 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
bleys, a horse-pen and shelter, rail-fencin' of the
little vegas to put to crops, and so on.
" Done you good to drop in and hear 'em plan
and figger. They was one happy family. How
Sis Em'ly bragged about their hens layin'I In
the spring we all held a bee and made their
'cequlas for 'em. Baker, he loaned 'em a plow.
,They dragged big branches over the ground for
a harrow. They could milk anybody's cows they
was a mind to tame, and the boys took to carryin'
over motherless calves for Mis' Taylor to raise.
Taylor, he done odd jobs, and they got along real
well with their crops. They went into the second
winter peart as squirrels.
" But, come spring, Sis wasn't doin' well. They
had the Agency doctor. Too high up and too
damp, he said. So the missus and Em'ly they
went to Cruces, where Em'ly could go to school.
" That meant right smart of expense rentin'
a house and all. So the Johns they hires out.
John, Junior, made his dayboo as wrangler for
the Steam Pitchfork, acquirin' the obvious name
of Felix.
" The old man he got a job muckin' in Organ
mines. Kept his hawses in Jeff Isaack's pasture,
and Saturday nights he'd get one and slip down
them eighteen miles to Cruces for Sunday with
the folks.
" Well, you know, a homesteader can't be off
his claim more'n six months at a time.
PROLOGUE 9
" I reckon if there was ever a homestead
taken up in good faith 'twas the Butterbowl.
They knew the land laws from A to Iz-
zard. Even named their hound pup Boney
Fido!
" But the old man waited at Organ till the last
bell rang, so's to draw down his wages, pay-day.
jThen he bundles the folks into his little old wagon
and lights out. Campin' at Casimiro's Well, half
way 'cross, that ornery Freckles hawse has a fit
of malignant nostolgy and projects off for But
terbowl, afoot, in his hobbles. Next day, Taylor
don't overtake him till the middle of the evenin',
and what with going back and what with Freckles
being hobble-sore, he's two days late in reachin'
home. For Lake, of Agua Chiquite, that pros
perous person, had been keeping cases. He en
tered contest on the Butterbowl, allegin' abandon
ment.
" Now, if it was me but, then, if 'twas me
I could stay away six years and two months with
out no remonstrances from Lake or his likes. I'm
somewhat abandoned myself.
" But poor old Taylor, he's been drug up where
they hold biped life unaccountable high. He sits
him down resignedly beneath the sky, as the poet
says, meek and legal. We all don't abnormally
like to precipitate in another man's business, but
we makes it up to sorter saunter in on Lake,
spontaneous, and evince our disfavor with a rope.
io BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
But Taylor says, ' No.* He allows the Land
Office won't hold him morally responsible for the
sinful idiocy of a homesick spotted hawse that's
otherwise reliable.
" He's got one more guess comin*. There ain't
no sympathies to machinery. Your intentions may
be strictly honorable, but if you get your hand
caught in the cogs, off it goes, regardless of how
handy it is for flankin' calves, holdin' nails, and
such things. * Absent over six months. Entry can
celed. Contestant is allowed thirty days' prior
right to file. Next.'
" That's the way that decision'll read. It ain't
come yet, but it's due soon.
" This here Felix looks at it just like the old
man, only different though he ain't makin' no
statements for publication. He come here young,
and having acquired the fixed habit of riskin' his
neck, regular, for one dollar per each and every
diem, shooin' in the reluctant steer, or a fool
hawse pirouettin' across the pinnacles with a nose
bag on or, mebbee, just for fun why, natural,
he don't see why life is so sweet or peace so dear
as to put up with any damn foolishness, as Pat
Henry used to say when the boys called on him
for a few remarks. He's a some serious-minded
boy, that night-hawk, and if signs is any indica
tions, he's fixin' to take an appeal under the Win
chester Act. I ain't no seventh son of a son-of-a-
gun, but my prognostications are that he presently
PROLOGUE ii
removes Lake to another and, we trust, a better
world."
" Good thing, too," grunted Headlight " This
Lake person is sure-lee a muddy pool."
" Shet your fool head," said Pringle amiably.
" You may be on the jury. I'm going to seek my
virtuous couch. Glad we don't have to bed no
cattle, viva voce, this night."
" Ain't he the Latin scholar? " said Headlight
admiringly. " They blow about that wire Julius
Caesar sent the Associated Press, but old man
Pringle done him up for levity and precision when
he wrote us the account of his visit to the Denver
carnival. Ever hear about it, Sagittarius? "
" No," said Leo. " What did he say? "
"Hie hock hike!"
II
ESCONDIDO, half-way of the desert, is der
signed on simple lines. The railroad hauls
water in tank-cars from Dog Canon. [There is
one depot, one section-house, and one combination
post-office-hotel-store-saloon-stage-station, kept by
Ma Sanders and Pappy Sanders, in about the
order mentioned. Also, one glorious green cot-
tonwood, one pampered rosebush, jointly the
pride and delight of Escondido, ownerless, but
cherished by loving care and " toted " tribute of
waste water.
12 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
Hither came Jeff and Leo, white with the dust
of twenty starlit leagues, for accumulated mail of
Rainbow South. Horse-feeding, breakfast, gossip
with jolly, motherly Ma Sanders, reading and an
swering of mail then their beauty nap; so miss
ing the day's event, the passing of the Flyer.
When they woke Escondido basked drowsily in
the low, westering sun. The far sunset ranges
had put off their workaday homespun brown and
gray for chameleon hues of purple and amethyst;
their deep, cool shadows, edged with trembling
rose, reached out across the desert; the velvet air
stirred faintly to the promise of the night.
The agent was putting up his switch-lights;
from the kitchen came a cheerful clatter of tin
ware.
" Now we buy some dry goods and wet," said
Leo. They went into the store.
" That decision's come ! " shrilled Pappy in
tremulous excitement. " It's too dum bad ! Reg
istered letters from Land Office for .Taylor and
Lake, besides another for Lake, not registered."
" That one from the Land Office, too? " said
Jeff.
"Didn't I jest tell ye? Say, it's a shame!
Why don't some of you fellers Gosh! If
I was only young! "
"It's a travesty on justice!" exclaimed Leo
indignantly. " There's really no doubt but that
they decided for Lake, I suppose? "
PROLOGUE 13
" Not a bit. He's got the law with him. Then
him and the Register is old cronies. Guess this
other letter is from him unofficial, likely."
Jeff seated himself on a box. " How long has
this Lake got to do his filing in, Pappy? "
" Thirty days from the time he signs the re
ceipt for this letter dum him ! "
" Some one ought to kidnap him," said Leo.
"Why, that's illegal! " Jeff nursed his knee,
turned his head to one side and chanted thought
fully:
" Said the little Eohippus,
* I'm going to be a horse,
And on my middle finger-nails
To run my earthly course * "
He broke off and smiled at Leo indulgently.
Leo glanced at him sharply; this was Jeff's war-
song aforetime. But it was to Pappy that Jeff
spoke :
" Dad, you're a better'n any surgeon. Wish
you'd go out and look at Leo's horse. His an
kle's all swelled up. I'll be mixin' me up a toddy,
if Ma's got any hot water. I'm feeling kinder
squeamish."
" Hot toddy, this weather? Some folks has
queer tastes," grumbled Pappy. " Ex-cuse me !
Me and Leo'll go look at the Charley-horse. [That
bottle under the shelf is the best." He bustled
out. But Jeff caught Ballinger by the sleeve.
" Will you hold my garments while I stone
Stephen? " he hissed.
" I will," said Leo, meeting Jeff's eye. " Hit
him once for me."
" Move the lever to the right, you old retro
grade, and get Pappy to gyratin' on his axis some
fifteen or twenty minutes, you listenin' reverently.
Meanwhile, I'll make the necessary incantations.
Git! Don't look so blamed intelligent, or Pap-
py'll be suspicious."
Bransford hastened to the kitchen. " Ma
Sanders, a bronc fell on me yesterday and my
poor body is one big stone bruise. Can I borrow
some boiling water to mix a small prescrip
tion, or maybe seven? One when you first
feel like it, and repeat at intervals, the doctor
says."
" Don't you get full in my house, Jeff Brans-
ford, or I'll feed you to the hawgs. You take
three doses, and that'll be a-plenty for you."
Jeff put the steaming kettle on the rusty store
stove, used as a waste-paper basket through the
long summer. Touching off the papers with a
match, he smashed an empty box and put it in.
Then he went into the post-office corner and laid
impious hands on the United States Mail.
First he steamed open Lake's unregistered let
ter from the Land Office. It was merely a few
typewritten lines, having no reference to the But-
terbowl: "Enclosing the Plat of TP. 14 E. of
PROLOGUE IS;
First Guide Meridan East Range S. of 3<i Stand
ard Parallel South, as per request."
He paused to consider. His roving eye lit on
the wall, where the Annual Report of the Gov
ernor of New Mexico hung from a nail. " The
very thing," he said. Pasted in the report was
a folded map of the Territory. This he cut out,
refolded it till it slipped in the violated envelope,
dabbed the flap neatly with Pappy' s mucilage, and
returned the letter to its proper pigeonhole.
He replenished the fire with another box, sub
jected Lake's registered letter to the steaming
process and opened it with delicate caution. It
was the decision; it was in Lake's favor; and it
went into the fire. Substituting for it the Plat
of TP. 14 and the accompanying letter he re-
sealed it with workmanlike neatness, and then re
stored it with a final inspection. " The editor
sits on the madhouse floor, and pla-ays with the
straws in his hair! " he murmured, beaming with
complacent pride and reaching for the bottle.
Pappy and Leo found him with his hands to
the blaze, shivering. " I feel like I was going to
have a chill," he complained. But with a few
remedial measures he recuperated sufficiently to
set off for Rainbow after supper.
" Charley's ankle seems better," said Leo art
lessly.
" Don't you lay no stress on Charley's ankle,"
said Jeff, in a burst of confidence. " Where ig-
1 6 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
norance is bliss, 'tis folly to be otherwise. Just
let Charley's ankle slip your memory."
The following day Bransford drew rein at
Wes Pringle's shack and summoned him forth.
" Mr. John Wesley Also Ran Pringle," he said
impressively, " I have taken a horse-ride over here
to put you through your cataclysm. Will you
truthfully answer the rebuses I shall now pro
pound to the best of your ability, and govern
yourself accordingly till the surface of Hades con
geals to glistening bergs, and that with no un
seemly curiosity? "
" Is it serious? " asked Pringle anxiously.
" This is straight talk."
Pringle took a long look and held up his hand.
" I will," he said soberly.
" John Wesley, do you or do you not believe
Stephen W. Lake, of Agua Chiquite, to be a low-
down, coniferous skunk by birth, inclination and
training? "
" I do."
" John Wesley, do you or do you not possess
the full confidence and affection of Felix, the night-
hawk, otherwise known and designated as John
Taylor, Junior, of Butterbowl, Esquire?"
" I do."
" Do you, John Wesley Pringle, esteem me,
Jeff Bransford, irrespective of color, sex or previ
ous condition of turpitude, to be such a one as
may be safely tied to when all the hitching-posts
PROLOGUE 17
is done pulled up, and will you now promise to
love, honor and obey me till the cows come home,
or till further orders ? "
" I do I will. And may God have mercy on
my soul."
" Here are your powders, then. Do you go
and locate the above-mentioned and described
Felix, and impart to him, under the strict seal of
secrecy, these tidings, to wit, namely: That you
have a presentiment, almost amounting to con
viction, that the Butterbowl contest is decided in
Lake's favor, but that your further presentiments
is that said Lake will not use his prior right. If
Taylor should get such a decision from the Land
Office don't let him or Felix say a word to no
one. If Mr. B. Body should ask, tell 'em 'twas
a map, or land laws, or something. Moreover,
said Felix he is not to stab, cut, pierce or other
wise mutilate said Lake, nor to wickedly, ma
liciously, feloniously and unlawfully fire at or upon
the person of said Lake with any rifle, pistol, mus
ket or gun, the same being then and there loaded
with powder and with balls, shots, bullets or slugs
of lead or other metal. You see to that, personal.
I'd go to him myself, but he don't know me well
enough to have confidence in my divinations.
" You promulgate these prophecies as your sole
personal device and construction sabef Then,
thirty days after Lake signs a receipt for his de
cision and you will take steps to inform yourself
1 8 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
of that you sidle casually down to Roswell with
old man Taylor and see that he puts preemption
papers on the Butterbowl. Selah 1 "
III
THE first knowledge Lake had of the state
of affairs was when the Steam Pitchfork
punchers informally extended to him the right
hand of fellowship (hitherto withheld) under the
impression that he had generously abstained from
pushing home his vantage. When, in the mid-
flood of his unaccountable popularity, the situa
tion dawned upon him, he wisely held his peace.
He was a victim of the accomplished fact. Tay
lor had already filed his preemption. So Lake
reaped volunteer harvest of good-will, bearing his
honors in graceful silence.
On Lake's next trip to Escondido, Pappy
Sanders laid aside his marked official hauteur.
Lake stayed several days, praised the rosebush
and Ma Sanders' cookery, and indulged in much
leisurely converse with Pappy. Thereafter he had
a private conference with Stratton, the Register
of the Roswell Land Office. His suspicion fell
quite naturally on Felix, and on Jeff as accessory
during the fact.
So it was that, when Jeff and Leo took in Ros
well fair (where Jeff won a near-prize at the
roping match), Hobart, the United States Mar-
PROLOGUE 19
shal, came to their room. After introducing him
self he said:
" Mr. Stratton would like to see you, Mr.
Bransford."
"Why, that's all right!" said Jeff genially.
" Some of my very great grandfolks was Daco-
tahs and I've got my name in * Who's Sioux '
but I'm not proud ! Trot him around. Exactly
who is Stratton, anyhow? "
" He's the Register of the Land Office and
he wants to see you there on very particular busi
ness. I'd go if I was you," said the Marshal sig
nificantly.
" Oh, that way! " said Jeff. " Is this an arrest,
or do you just give me this in-vitt semi-offi-
ciously? "
" You accuse yourself, sir. Were you expect
ing arrest? That sounds like a bad con
science."
" Don't you worry about my conscience. * If
I've ever done anything I'm sorry for I'm glad
of it.' Now this Stratton party is he some aged
and venerable? 'Cause, if he is, I waive cere
mony and seek him in his lair at the witching
hour of two this tarde. And if not, not."
" He's old enough even if there were no other
reasons."
" Never mind any other reasons. It shall never
be said that I fail to reverence gray hairs. I'll
be there."
20 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
" I guess I'll just wait and see that you go,"
said the Marshal.
"Have you got any papers for me?" asked
Jeff politely.
" No."
" This is my room," said Jeff. " This is my
fist. This is me. That is my door. Open it,
Leo. Mr. Hobart, you will now make rapid
forward motions with your feet, alternately, like
a man removing his company from where it is
not desired or I'll go through you like a do
mesticated cyclone. See you at two, sharp ! "
Hobart obeyed. He was a good judge of men.
Jeff closed the door. " ' We went upon the bat
tlefield,' " he said plaintively, " * before us and be
hind us, and every which-a-way we looked, we
seen a roscerhinus.' We went into another field
behind us and before us, and every which-a-way
we looked, we seen a rhinusorus. Mr. Lake has
been evidently browsin' and pe-rusing around, and
poor old Pappy, not being posted, has likely been
narratin' about Charley's ankle and how I had
a chill. Wough-ough ! "
" It looks that way," confessed Leo. " Did
you have a chill, Jeff? "
Jeff's eyes crinkled. " Not so nigh as I am
now. But shucks! I've been in worse emer
gencies, and I always emerged. Thanks be, I
can always do my best when I have to. Oh, what
a tangled web we weave when we don't keep in
PROLOGUE 2i
practice! If I'd just come out straightforward
and declared myself to Pappy, he'd 'a' tightened
up his drawstrings and forgot all about my chill.
But, no, well as I know from long experience
that good old human nature's only too willin' to
do the right thing and the fair thing if some-
body'll only tip it off to 'em I must play a lone
hand and not even call for my partner's best.
Well, I'm goin' to ramify around and scrutinize
this here Stratton's numbers, equipments and dis
position. Meet me in the office at the fatal
hour!"
The Marshal wore a mocking smile. Stratton,
large, florid, well-fed and eminently respectable,
turned in his revolving chair with a severe and
majestic motion; adjusted his glasses in a pro
longed and offensive examination, and frowned
portentously.
"Fine large day, isn't it?" observed Jeff af
fably. " Beautiful little city you have here." He
sank into a chair. Smile and attitude were of
pleased and sprightly anticipation.
A faint flush showed beneath Stratton's neatly-
trimmed mutton-chops. Such jaunty bearing was
exasperating to offended virtue. " Ah who is
this other person, Mr. Hobart? "
" Pardon my rudeness ! " Jeff sprang up and
bowed brisk apology. " Mr. Stratton, allow me
to present Mr. Ballinger, a worthy representa-
22 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
tive of the Yellow Press. Mr. Stratton Mr.
Ballinger!"
" I have a communication to make to you,"
said the displeased Mr. Stratton, in icy tones,
" which, in your own interest, should be extremely
private." The Marshal whispered to him; Strat
ton gave Leo a fiercely intimidating glare.
" Communicate away," said Jeff airily. " Ex
communicate, if you want to. Mr. Ballinger, as
a citizen, is part owner of this office. If you
want to bar him you'll have to change the venue
to your private residence. And then I won't
come."
"Very well, sir! " Mr. Stratton rose, inflated
his chest and threw back his head. His voice took
on a steady roll. " Mr. Bransford, you stand
under grave displeasure of the law! You are
grievously suspected of being cognizant of, if not
actually accessory to, the robbery of the United
States Mail by John Taylor, Junior, at Escon-
dido, on the eighteenth day of last October. You
may not be aware of it, but you have an ex
cellent chance of serving a term in the peniten
tiary!"
Jeff pressed his hands between his knees and
leaned forward. " I'm sure I'd never be satisfied
there," he said, with conviction. His white tectii
flashed in an ingratiatory smile. " But why sus
pect young John? why not old John?" He
paused, looking at the Register attentively.
PROLOGUE 23
"H'm! you're from Indiana, I believe, Mr.
Stratton? " he said.
" The elder Taylor, on the day in question,
is fully accounted for," said Hobart. " Young
[Taylor claims to have passed the night at Willow
Springs, alone. But no one saw him from break
fast time the seventeenth till noon on the nine
teenth."
" He rarely ever has any one with him when
he's alone. That may account for them not see
ing him at Willow," suggested Jeff. He did not
look at Hobart, but regarded Stratton with an air
of deep meditation.
The Register paced the floor slowly, ponder
ously, with an impressive pause at each turn, tap
ping his left hand with his eyeglass to score his
points. " He had ample time to go to Escondido
and return. The envelope in which Mr. Lake's
copy of this office's decision in the Lake-Taylor
contest was enclosed has been examined. It bears
unmistakable signs of having been tampered
with." [Turning to mark the effect of these tac
tics, he became aware of his victim's contem
plative gaze. It disconcerted him. He resumed
his pacing. Jeff followed him with a steady eye.
" In the same mail I sent Mr. Lake another
letter. The envelope was unfortunately de
stroyed, Mr. Lake suspecting nothing. A map
had been substituted for its contents, and they,
in turn, were substituted for the decision in the
24 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
registered letter, with the evident intention of de
priving Mr. Lake of his prior right to file."
" By George ! It sounds probable." Jeff
laughed derisively. " So that's it! And here we
all thought Lake let it go out of giddy generos
ity I My stars, but won't he get the horse-smile
when the boys find out? "
Stratton controlled himself with an effort.
" We have decided not to push the case against
you if you will tell what you know," he began.
Jeff lifted his brows. " We? And who's we?
You two? I should have thought this was a post-
office lay."
" We are investigating the affair," explained
Hobart.
" I see I As private individuals. Yes, yes.
Does Lake pay you by the day or by the job? "
Stratton, blazing with anger, smote his palm
heavily with his fist. " Young man ! Young man !
Your insolence is unbearable! We are trying to
spare you as you had no direct interest in the
matter and doubtless concealed your guilty knowl
edge through a mistaken and distorted sense of
honor. But you tempt us you tempt us! You
don't seem to realize the precarious situation in
which you stand."
" What I don't see," said Jeff, in puzzled tones,
" is why you bother to spare me at all. If you
can prove this, why don't you cinch me and Felix
both? Why do you want me to tell you what
PROLOGUE 25
you already know? And if you can't prove it
who the hell cares what you suspect?"
" We will arrest you," said Stratton thickly,
" just as soon as we can make out the papers ! "
" Turn your wolf loose, you four-flushers 1 You
may make me trouble, but you can't prove any
thing. Speaking of trouble how about you, Mr.
Stratton? " As a spring leaps, released from
highest tension, face and body and voice flashed
from passive indolence to sudden, startling at
tack. His arm lashed swiftly out as if to deliver
the swordsman's stabbing thrust; the poised body
followed up to push the stroke home. " You
think your secret safe, don't you? It's been some
time ago."
Words only yet it might have been a very
sword's point past Stratton's guard. For the
Register flinched, staggered, his arrogant face
grew mottled, his arm went up. He fell back a
step, silent, quivering, leaning heavily on a chair.
The Marshal gave him a questioning glance. Jeff
kept on.
" You're prominent in politics, business, society,
the church. You've a family to think of. It's up
to you, Mr. Stratton. Is it worth while? Had
we better drop it with a dull, sickening thud? "
Stratton collapsed into the chair, a shapeless
bundle, turning a shriveled, feeble face to the
Marshal in voiceless imploring.
Unhesitating, Hobart put a hand on his shoul-
26 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
der. " That's all right, old man! We won't give
you away. Brace up ! " He nodded Jeff to the
door. " You win ! " he said. Leo followed on
tiptoe.
" Why, the poor old duck ! " said Jeff remorse
fully, in the passage. " Wish I hadn't come down
on him so hard. I overdid it that time. Still, if
I hadn't "
At the Hondo Bridge Jeff looked back and
waved a hand. " Good-by, old town ! Now we
go, gallopy-trot, gallopy, gallopy-trot ! " He
sang, and the ringing hoofs kept time and tune,
" Florence Mehitabel Genevieve Jane,
She came home in the wind an' the rain,
She came home in the rain an' the snow;
' Ain't a-goin' to leave my home any mo' ! ' '
" Jeff," said the mystified Ballinger, spurring
up beside him, " what has the gray-haired Register
'done? Has murder stained his hands with
gore?"
Jeff raised his bridle hand.
"Gee! Leo, I don't know! I just taken a
chance I
CHAPTER I
THE PIOCCHER THAT WENT TO THE
WELL
" When I bend my head low and listen at the ground,
I can hear vague voices that I used to know,
Stirring in dim places, faint and restless sound;
I remember how it was when the grass began to grow."
Song of The Wandering Dust,
ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH.
THE pines thinned as she neared Rainbow
Rim, the turfy glades grew wider; she had
glimpses of open country beyond until, at last,
crossing a little spit of high ground, she came to
the fairest spot in all her voyage of exploration
and discovery. She sank down on a fallen log
with a little sigh of delight.
,The steep bank of a little canon broke away at
her feet a canon which here marked the fron
tier of the pines, its farther side overgrown with
mahogany bush and chaparral a canon that fell
in long, sinuous curves from the silent mystery of
forest on Rainbow Crest behind her, to widen
just below into a rolling land, parked with green-
black powderpuffs of juniper and cedar; and so
27
28 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
passed on to mystery again, twisting away through
the folds of the low and bare gray hills to the
westward, ere the last stupendous plunge over the
Rim to the low desert, a mile toward the level of
the waiting sea.
Facing the explorer, across the little canon, a
clear spring bubbled from the hillside and fell
with pleasant murmur and tinkle to a pool below,
fringed with lush emerald a spring massed about
with wild grapevine, shining reeds of arrow-weed;
a tangle of grateful greenery, jostling eagerly for
the life-giving water. Draped in clinging vines,
slim acacias struggled up through the jungle; the
exquisite fragrance of their purple bells gave a
final charm to the fairy chasm.
But the larger vision ! The nearer elfin beauty
Swindled, was lost, forgotten. Afar, through a
narrow cleft in the gray westward hills, the ex
plorer's eye leaped out over a bottomless gulf to
a glimpse of shining leagues midway of the desert
greatness an ever-widening triangle that rose
against the peaceful west to long foothill reaches,
to a misty mountain parapet, far-beckoning, whis
pering of secrets, things dreamed of, unseen, be
yond the framed and slender arc of vision. A'
land of enchantment and mystery, decked with
strong barbaric colors, blue and red and yellow,
brown and green and gray; whose changing ebb
and flow, by some potent sorcery of atmosphere,
distance and angle, altered, daily, hourly; deep-
THE PITCHER TO THE WELL 29
ening, fading, combining into new and fantastic
lines and shapes, to melt again as swiftly to others
yet more bewildering.
The explorer? It may be mentioned in pass
ing that any other would have found that fairest
prospect even more wonderful than did the ex
plorer, Miss Ellinor Hoffman. We will attempt
no clear description of Miss Ellinor Hoffman.
Dusky-beautiful she was; crisp, fresh and spark
ling; tall, vigorous, active, strong. Yet she was
more than merely beautiful warm and frank
and young; brave and kind and true. Perhaps,
even more than soft curves, lips, glory of hair
or bewildering eyes, or all together, her chiefest
charm was her manner, her frank friendliness.
Earth was sweet to her, sweeter for her.
This by way of aside and all to no manner of
good. You have no picture of her in your mind.
Remember only that she was young
" The stars to drink from and the sky to dance on "
young and happy, and therefore beautiful;
that the sun was shining in a cloudless sky, the
south wind sweet and fresh, buds in the willow.
The peace was rent and shivered by strange
sounds, as of a giant falling downstairs. There
was a crash of breaking boughs beyond the canon,
a glint of color, a swift black body hurtling madly
30 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
through the shrubbery. The girl shrank back.
There was no time for thought, hardly for alarm.
On the farther verge the bushes parted; an ap
parition hurled arching through the sunshine,
down the sheer hill a glorious and acrobatic
horse, his black head low between his flashing
feet; red nostrils wide with rage and fear; foam
flecks white on the black shoulders; a tossing
mane; a rider, straight and tall, superb to all
seeming an integral part of the horse, pitch he
never so wildly.
The girl held her breath through the splintered
seconds. She thrilled at the shock and storm of
them, straining muscles and white hoofs, lurching,
stumbling, sliding, lunging, careening in perilous
arcs. She saw stones that rolled with them or
bounded after; a sombrero whirled above the
dust and tumult like a dilatory parachute; a six-
shooter jolted up into the air. Through the dust-
clouds there were glimpses of a watchful face,
hair blown back above it; a broken rein snapped
beside it, saddle-strings streamed out behind; a
supple body that swung from curve to easy curve
against shock and plunge, that swayed and poised
and clung, and held its desperate dominion still.
The saddle slipped forward; with a motion in
credibly swift, as a hat is whipped off in a gust of
wind, it whisked over withers and neck and was
under the furious feet. Swifter, the rider! Cat-
quick, he swerved, lit on his feet, leaped aside.
THE PITCHER TO THE WELL 31
Alas, oh, rider beyond compare, undefeated
champion, Pride of Rainbow! Alas, that such
thing should be recorded! He leaped aside to
shun the black frantic death at his shoulder; his
feet were in the treacherous vines: he toppled,
grasped vainly at an acacia, catapulted out and
down, head first; so lit, crumpled and fell with
a prodigious splash into the waters of the pool I
Ay dl mi, Alhama!
The blankets lay strewn along the hill ; but ob
serve that the long lead rope of the hackamore
(a " hackamore," properly jaquima, is, for your
better understanding, merely a rope halter) was
coiled at the saddle-horn, held there by a stout
hornstring. As the black reached the level the
saddle was at his heels. To kick was obvious, to
go away not less so; but this new terror clung
to the maddened creature in his frenzied flight
between his legs, in the air, at his heels, his hip,
his neck. A low tree leaned from the hillside;
the aerial saddle caught in the forks of it, the
bronco's head was jerked round, he was pulled to
his haunches, overthrown; but the tough horn-
string broke, the freed coil snapped out at him;
he scrambled up and bunched his glorious muscles
in a vain and furious effort to outrun the rope
that dragged at his heels, and so passed from
sight beyond the next curve.
Waist-deep in the pool sat the hatless horse
man, or perhaps horseless horseman were the
juster term, steeped in a profound calm. That
last phrase has a familiar sound; Mark Twain's,
doubtless but, all things considered, steeped is
decidedly the word. One gloved hand was in the
water, the other in the muddy margin of the
pool: he watched the final evolution of his late
mount with meditative interest. The saddle was
freed at last, but its ex-occupant still sat there,
lost in thought. Blood trickled, unnoted, down
his forehead.
The last stone followed him into the pool ; the
echoes died on the hills. The spring resumed its
pleasant murmur, but the tinkle of its fall was
broken by the mimic waves of the pool. Save for
this troubled sloshing against the banks, the slow-
settling dust and the contemplative bust of the
one-time centaur, no trace was left to mark the
late disastrous invasion.
.The invader's dreamy and speculative gaze fol
lowed the dust of the trailing rope. He opened
his lips twice or thrice, and spoke, after several
futile attempts, in a voice mild, but clearly earnest:
" Oh, you little eohippus ! "
The spellbound girl rose. Her hand was at
her throat; her eyes were big and round, and her
astonished lips were drawn to a round, red O.
Sharp ears heard the rustle of her skirts, her
soft gasp of amazement. The merman turned his
head briskly, his eye met hers. One gloved hand
brushed his brow; a broad streak of mud ap-
THE PITCHER TO THE WELL 33
peared there, over which the blood meandered un
certainly. He looked up at the maid in silence:
in silence the maid looked down at him. He
nodded, with a pleasant smile.
" Good-morning ! " he said casually.
At this cheerful greeting, the astounded maid
was near to tumbling after, like Jill of the song.
" Er good-morning! " she gasped.
Silence. The merman reclined gently against
the bank with a comfortable air of satisfaction.
The color came flooding back to her startled face.
" Oh, are you hurt? " she cried.
A puzzled frown struggled through the mud.
"Hurt?" he echoed. " Who, me?
Why, no leastwise, I guess not."
He wiggled his fingers, raised his arms, wagged
his head doubtfully and slowly, first sidewise and
then up and down; shook himself guardedly, and
finally raised tentative boot-tips to the surface.
After this painstaking inspection he settled con
tentedly back again.
" Oh, no, I'm all right," he reported. " Only
I lost a big, black, fine, young, nice horse some
how. You ain't seen nothing of him, have you? "
" Then why don't you get out? " she demanded.
" I believe you are hurt."
"Get out? Why, yes, ma'am. Certainly.
Why not? " But the girl was already beginning
to clamber down, grasping the shrubbery to aid
in the descent.
34 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
Now the bank was steep and sheer. So the
merman rose, tactfully clutching the grapevines
behind him as a plausible excuse for turning his
back. It followed as a corollary of this generous
act that he must needs be lame, which he accord
ingly became. As this mishap became acute,
his quick eyes roved down the canon, where he saw
what gave him pause; and he groaned sincerely
under his breath. For the black horse had taken
to the parked uplands, the dragging rope had
tangled in a snaggy tree-root, and he was tracing
weary circles in bootless effort to be free.
Tactful still, the dripping merman hobbled to
the nearest shade wherefrom the luckless black
horse should be invisible, eclipsed by the inter
vening ridge, and there sank down in a state of
exhaustion, his back to a friendly tree-trunk.
CHAPTER II
FIRST AID
**Oh woman! in our hours of ease
Uncertain, coy and hard to please;
But seen too oft, familiar with thy face
We first endure, then pity, then embrace ! "
A MOMENT later the girl was beside him,
pity in her eyes.
" Let me see that cut on your head," she said.
She dropped on her knee and parted the hair with
a gentle touch.
" Why, you're real ! " breathed the injured
near-centaur, beaming with wonder and gratifica
tion.
She sat down limply and gave way to wild
laughter.
" So are you ! " she retorted. " Why, that is
exactly what I was thinking! I thought maybe
I was asleep and having an extraordinary dream.
That wound on your head is not serious, if that's
all." She brushed back a wisp of hair that blew
across her eyes.
" I hurt this head just the other day," observed
the bedraggled victim, as one who has an assort-
as
36 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
ment of heads from which to choose. He pulled
off his soaked gloves and regarded them ruefully.
" ' Them that go down to deep waters ! * .That
was a regular triumph of matter over mind,
wasn't it?"
"It's a wonder you're alive! My! How
frightened I was ! Aren't you hurt truly? Ribs
or anything? "
The patient's elbows made a convulsive move
ment to guard the threatened ribs.
" Oh, no, ma'am. I ain't hurt a bit indeed
I ain't," he said truthfully; but his eyes had the
languid droop of one who says the thing that is
not. " Don't you worry none about me not one
bit. Sorry I frightened you. That black horse
now " He stopped to consider fully the case
of the black horse. " Well, you see, ma'am, that
black horse, he ain't exactly right plumb gentle."
His eyelids drooped again.
The girl considered. She believed him both
that he was not badly hurt and that the black
horse was not exactly gentle. And her suspicions
were aroused. His slow drawl was getting
slower; his cowboyese broader a mode of speech
quite inconsistent with that first sprightly remark
about the little eohippus. What manner of cow
boy was this, from whose tongue a learned sci
entific term tripped spontaneously in so stressful
a moment who quoted scraps of the litany un
aware? Also, her own eyes were none of the
slowest. She had noted that the limping did not
begin until he was clear of the pool. Still, that
might happen if one were excited; but this one
had been singularly calm, ** more than usual
ca'm," she mentally quoted. . . . Of course, if
he really were badly hurt which she didn't be
lieve one bit a little bruised and jarred, maybe
the only thing for her to do would be to go back
to camp and get help. . . . (That meant the
renewal of Lake's hateful attentions and for the
other girls, the sharing of her find. . . . She
stole another look at her find and thrilled with
all the pride of the discoverer. . . . No doubt
he was shaken and bruised, after all. He must
be suffering. What a splendid rider he was!
" What made you so absurd? Why didn't you
get out of the water, then, if you are not hurt? "
she snapped suddenly.
The drooped lids raised; brown eyes looked
steadily into brown eyes.
" I didn't want to wake up," he said.
The candor of this explanation threw her, for
the moment, into a vivid and becoming confusion.
The dusky roses leaped to her cheeks; the long,
dark lashes quivered and fell. Then she rose to
the occasion.
" And how about the little eohippus? " she de
manded. " That doesn't seem to go well with
some of your other talk."
" Oh 1 " He regarded her with pained but un-
38 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
flinching innocence. " The Latin, you mean?
Why, ma'am, that's most all the Latin I know >
that and some more big words in that song. I
learned that song off of Frank John, just like a
poll-parrot"
"Sing it! And eohippus isn't Latin. It's
Greek."
" Why, ma'am, I can't, just now I'm so
muddy; but I'll tell it to you. Maybe I'll sing it
to you some other time." A sidelong glance ac
companied this little suggestion. The girl's face
was blank and non-committal; so he resumed: " It
goes like this:
" Said the little Eohippus,
* I'm going to be a horse,
And on my middle finger-nails
To run my earthly course '-
No; that wasn't the first. It begins:
"There was once a little animal
No bigger than a fox,
And on five toes he scampered
" Of course you know, ma'am Frank John he
told me about it that horses were little like that,
'way back. And this one he set his silly head that
he was going to be a really-truly horse, like the
song says. And folks told him he couldn't
FIRST AID 39
couldn't possibly be done, nohow. And sure
enough he did. It's a foolish song, really. I only
sing parts of it when I feel like that like it
couldn't be done and I was going to do it, you
know. The boys call it my song. Look here,
ma'am ! " He fished in his vest pocket and pro
duced tobacco and papers, matches last of all,
a tiny turquoise horse, an inch long. " I had a
jeweler-man put five toes on his feet once to make
him be a little eohippus. Going to make a watch-
charm of him sometime. He's a lucky little eohip
pus, I think. Peso gave him to me when never
mind when. Peso's a Mescalero Indian, you
know, chief of police at the agency." He gingerly
dropped the little horse into her eager palm.
It was a singularly grotesque and angular little
beast, high-stepping, high-headed, with a level
stare, at once complacent and haughty. Despite
the first unprepossessing rigidity of outline, there
was somehow a sprightly air, something endear
ing, in the stiff, purposed stride, the alert, inquir
ing ears, the stern and watchful eye. Each tiny
hoof was faintly graven to semblance of five tinier
toes; there, the work showed fresh.
"The cunning little monster! " Prison grime
was on him; she groomed and polished at his
dingy sides until the wonderful color shone out
triumphant. " What is it that makes him such a
dear? Oh, I know. It's something well, child
like, you know. Think of the grown-up child that
40 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
toiled with pride and joy at the making of him
dear me, how many lifetimes since! and fondly
put him by as a complete horse." She held him
up in the sun: the ingrate met her caress with
the same obdurate and indomitable glare. She
laughed her rapturous delight: "There! How
much better you look! Oh, you darling! Aren't
you absurd? Straight-backed, stiff-legged, thick-
necked, square-headed and that ridiculously bale
ful eye! It's too high up and too far forward,
you know and your ears are too big and you
have such a malignant look! Never mind; now
that you're all nice and clean, I'm going to reward
you." Her lips just brushed him the lucky little
eohippus.
The owner of the lucky little horse was not
able to repress one swift, dismal glance at his
own vast dishevelment, nor, as his shrinking
hands, entirely of their own volition, crept stealth
ily to hiding, the slightest upward rolling of a
hopeful eye toward the leaping waters of the
spring; but, if one might judge from her sedate
and matter-of-fact tones, that eloquent glance was
wasted on the girl.
" You ought to take better care of him, you
know," she said as she restored the little monster
to his owner. Then she laughed. " Hasn't he
a fierce and warlike appearance, though? "
" Sure. That's resolution. Look at those
legs ! " said the owner fondly. " He spurns the
FIRST AID 41
ground. He's going somewheres. He's going to
be a horse 1 And them ears one cocked forward
and the other back, strictly on the cuidado! He'll
make it. He'll certainly do to take along 1 Yes,
ma'am, I'll take right good care of him." He
regarded the homely beast with awe; he swathed
him in cigarette papers with tenderest care. " I'll
leave him at home after this. He might get hurt
I might sometime want to give him to some
body."
The girl sprang up.
" Now I must get some water and wash that
head," she announced briskly.
" Oh, no I can't let you do that. I can walk.
I ain't hurt a bit, I keep telling you." In proof
of which he walked to the pool with a palpably
clever assumption of steadiness. The girl flut
tered solicitous at his elbow. Then she ran ahead,
climbed up to the spring and extended a firm, cool
hand, which he took shamelessly, and so came
to the fairy waterfall.
Here he made himself presentable as to face
and hands. It is just possible there was a certain
expectancy in his eye as he neared the close of
these labors ; but if there were it passed unnoted.
The girl bathed the injured head with her hand
kerchief, and brushed back his hair with a dainty
caressing motion that thrilled him until the color
rose beneath the tan. There was a glint of gray
in the wavy black hair, she noted.
42 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
She stepped back to regard her handiwork.
"Now you look better!" she said approvingly.
Then, slightly flurried, not without a memory of
a previous and not dissimilar remark of hers, she
was off up the hill: whence, despite his shocked
protest, she brought back the lost gun and hat.
Her eyes were sparkling when she returned,
her face glowing. Ignoring his reproachful gaze,
she wrung out her handkerchief, led the patient
firmly down the hill and to his saddle, made him
trim off a saddle-string, and bound the handker
chief to the wound. She fitted the sombrero
gently.
"There! Don't this head feel better now?"
she queried gayly, with fine disregard for gram
mar. "And now what? Won't you come back
to camp with me ? Mr. Lake will be glad to put
you up or to let you have a horse. Do you live
far away? I do hope you are not one of those
Rosebud men. Mr. La " She bit her speech
off midword.
" No men there except this Mr. Lake? " asked
the cowboy idly.
"Oh, yes; there's Mr. Herbert he's gone
riding with Lettie and Mr. White; but it was'
Mr. Lake who got up the camping party. Mother
and Aunt Lot, and a crowd of us girls La Luz
girls, you know. Mother and I are visiting Mr.
Lake's sister. He's going to give us a masquerade
ball when we get back, next week."
FIRST AID 43
The cowboy looked down his nose for consulta
tion, and his nose gave a meditative little tweak.
"What Lake is it? There's some several
Lakes round here. Is it Lake of Aqua Chiquite
wears his hair decollete; talks like he had a
washboard in his throat; tailor-made face; walks
like a duck on stilts; general sort of pouter-
pigeon effect? "
At this envenomed description, Miss Ellinor
Hoffman promptly choked.
" I don't know anything about your Aqua
Chiquite. I never heard of the place before.
He is a banker in Arcadia. He keeps a general
store there. You must know him, surely." So
far her voice was rather stern and purposely re
sentful, as became Mr. Lake's guest; but there
were complications, rankling memories of Mr.
Lake of unwelcome attentions persistently
forced upon her. She spoiled the rebuke by add
ing tartly, " But I think he is the man you mean ! "
and felt her wrongs avenged.
The cowboy's face cleared.
" Well, I don't use Arcadia much, you sefc. I
mostly range down Rainbow River. Arcadia
folks why, they're mostly newcomers, health-
seekers and people just living on their incomes
not working folks much, except the railroaders
and lumbermen. Now about getting home. You
see, ma'am, some of the boys are riding down
that way " he jerked his thumb to indicate the
last flight of the imperfectly gentle horse " and
they're right apt to see my runaway eohippus and
sure to see the rope-drag; so they'll likely amble
along the back track to see how much who's hurt
So I guess I'd better stay here. They may be
along most any time. Thank you kindly, just the
same. Of course, if they don't come at all
Is your camp far? "
" Not not very," said Ellinor. The mere
fact was that Miss Ellinor had set out ostensibly
for a sketching expedition with another girl, had
turned aside to explore, and exploring had fetched
a circuit that had left her much closer to her start
ing-place than to her goal. He misinterpreted the
slight hesitation.
"Well, ma'am, thank you again; but I mustn't
be keeping you longer. I really ought to see
you safe back to your camp; but you'll under
stand under the circumstances you'll excuse
me?"
He did not want to implicate Mr. Lake, so
he took a limping step forward to justify his
rudeness.
"And you hardly able to walk? Ridiculous!
What I ought to do is to go back to camp and
get some one get Mr. White to help you."
Thus, at once accepting his unspoken explanation,
and offering her own apology in turn, she threw
aside the air of guarded hostility that had marked
,the last minutes and threw herself anew into this
FIRST AID 45
joyous adventure. " When or if your friends
find you, won't it hurt you to ride? " she asked,
and smiled deliberate encouragement.
" I can be as modest as anybody when there's
anything to be modest about; but in this case I
guess I'll now declare that I can ride anything
that a saddle will stay on. . . . I reckon," he
added reflectively, " the boys'll have right smart
to say about me being throwed."
" But you weren't thrown ! You rode mag
nificently ! " Her eyes flashed admiration.
" Yes'm. That's what I hoped you'd say," said
the admired one complacently. " Go on, ma'am.
Say it again."
" It was splendid ! The saddle turned that's
all!"
He slowly surveyed the scene of his late ex
ploit.
" Ye es, that was some riding for a while,"
he admitted. " But you see, that saddle now,
scarred up that way why, they'll think the eohip-
pus wasted me and then dragged the saddle off
under a tree. Leastways, they'll say they think
so, frequent. Best not to let on and to make no
excuses. It'll be easier that way. We're great
on guying here. That's most all the fun we have.
We sure got this joshing game down fine. Just
wondering what all the boys'd say that was why
I didn't get out of the water at first, before
before I thought I was asleep, you know."
46 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
" So you'll actually tell a lie to keep from being
thought a liar? I'm disappointed in you."
" Why, ma'am, I won't say anything. They'll
do the talking."
" It'll be deceitful, just the same," she began,
and checked herself suddenly. A small twinge
struck her at the thought of poor Maud, really
sketching on Thumb Butte, and now disconso
lately wondering what had become of lunch and
fellow-artist; but she quelled this pang with a
sage thought of the greatest good to the greatest
number, and clapped her hands in delight. " Oh,
what a silly I am, to be sure! I've got a lunch
basket up there, but I forgot all about it in the
excitement. I'm sure there's plenty for two.
Shall I bring it down to you or can you climb up
if I help you? There's water in the canteen
and it's beautiful up there."
" I can make it, I guess," said the invited guest
the consummate and unblushing hypocrite.
Make it he did, with her strong hand to aid;
and the glen rang to the laughter of them. While
behind them, all unnoted, Johnny Dines reined up
on the hillside; took one sweeping glance at that
joyous progress, the scarred hillside, the saddle
and the dejected eohippus in the background;
grinned comprehension, and discreetly withdrew.
CHAPTER III
MAXWELTON BRAES
" Oh the song the song in the blood !
Magic walks the forest; there's bewitchment on the air*
Spring is at the flood ! "
The Gypsy Heart.
"Well, sir, this here feller, he lit a cigarette an' throwed
away the match, an' it fell in a powder kaig; an' do you know,
more'n half that powder burned up before they could put it
out ! Yes, sir ! "^WILDCAT THOMPSON.
ELLINOR opened her basket and spread its
tempting wares with pretty hostly care or
is there such a word as hostessly?
" .There! All ready, Mr. I declare, this
is too absurd ! We don't even know each other's
names! " Her conscious eye fell upon the am-
pleness of the feast amazing, since it purported
to have been put up for one alone; and her face
lit up with mischievous delight. She curtsied.
11 If you please, I'm the Ultimate Consumer! "
He rose, bowing gravely.
" I am the Personal Devil. Glad to meet you.*'
" Oh ! I've heard of you ! " remarked the Ulti
mate Consumer sweetly. She sat down and ex-
47
48 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
tended her hand across the spotless linen. " Mr.
Lake says "
The Personal Devil flushed. It was not be
cause of the proffered hand, which he took un
hesitatingly and held rather firmly. The blush
was unmistakably caused by anger.
" There is no connection whatever," he stated,
grimly enough, " between the truth and Mr.
Lake's organs of speech."
"Oh!" cried the Ultimate Consumer tri
umphantly. " So you're Mr. Beebe? "
" Bransford Jeff Bransford," corrected the
Personal Devil crustily. He wilfully relapsed to
his former slipshod speech. " Beebe, he's gone to
the Pecos work, him and Ballinger. Mr. John
Wesley Also-Ran Pringle's gone to Old Mexico
to bring back another bunch of black, long-horned
Chihuahuas. You now behold before you the last
remaining Rose of Rosebud. But, why Beebe?"
" Why does Mr. Lake hate all of you so, Mr.
Bransford?"
" Because we are infamous scoundrels. Why
Beebe?"
" I can't eat with one hand, Mr. Brtnsford,"
she said demurely. He looked at the prisoned
hand with a start and released it grudgingly.
" Help yourself," said his hostess cheerfully.
" There's sandwiches, and roast beef and olives,
for a mild beginning."
"Why Beebe?" he said doggedly.
MAXWELTON BRAES 49
" Help yourself to the salad and then please
pass it over this way. Thank you."
"WhyBeebe?"
" Oh, very well then I Because of the little
eohippus, you know and other things you said."
" I see! " said the aggrieved Bransford. " Be
cause I'm not from Ohio, like Beebe, I'm not sup
posed "
"Oh, if you're going to be fussy! I'm from
California myself, Mr. Bransford. Out in the
country at that. Don't let's quarrel, please. We
were having such a lovely time. And I'll tell you
a secret. It's ungrateful of me, and I ought not
to; but I don't care I don't like Mr. Lake much
since we came on this trip. And I don't be
lieve " She paused, pinkly conscious of the
unconventional statement involved in this sudden
unbelief.
" what Lake says about us? " A much-
mollified Bransford finished the sentence for her.
She nodded. Then, to change the subject:
" You do speak cowboy talk one minute and
all booky, polite and proper the next, you know.
Why? "
" Bad associations," said Bransford ambigu
ously. " Also for 'tis my nature to, as little dogs
they do delight to bark and bite. [That beef sure
tastes like more."
o c
" And now you may smoke while I pack up,"
50 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
announced the girl when dessert was over, at long
last. " And please, there is something I want to
ask you about. Will you tell me truly? "
" Um you sing? '*
" Yes a little."
" If you will sing for me afterward? "
" Certainly. With pleasure."
" All right, then. What's the story about? "
Ellinor gave him her eyes. " Did you rob the
post-office at Escondido really?"
Now it might well be embarrassing to be asked
if you had committed a felony; but there was that
behind the words of this naive query in look, in
tone, in mental attitude an unflinching and im
plicit faith that, since he had seen fit to do this
thing, it must needs have been the right and wise
thing to do, which stirred the felon's pulses to
a pleasant flutter and caused a certain tough and
powerful muscle to thump foolishly at his ribs.
The delicious intimacy, the baseless faith, was
sweet to him.
" Sure, I did ! " he answered lightly. " Lake
is one talkative little man, isn't he? Fie, fie!
But, shucks! What can you expect? * The beast
will do after his kind.' '
" And you'll tell me about it? "
" After I smoke. Got to study up some plausi
ble excuses, you know."
She studied him as she packed. It was a good
face lined, strong, expressive, vivid; gay, reso-
MAXWELTON BRAES 51
lute, confident, alert reckless, perhaps. There
were lines of it disused, fallen to abeyance. What
was well with the man had prospered; what was
ill with him had faded and dimmed. He was not
a young man thirty-seven, thirty-eight (she was
twenty-four) but there was an unquenchable
boyishness about him, despite the few frosty hairs
at his temples. He bore his hard years jauntily:
youth danced in his eyes. The explorer nodded
to herself, well pleased. He was interesting dif
ferent.
The tale suffered from Bransford's telling, as
any tale will suffer when marred by the inevi
table, barbarous modesty of its hero. It was
a long story, cozily confidential; and there were
interruptions. The sun was low ere it was
done.
"Now the song,' 1 said Jeff, "and then "
He did not complete the sentence; his face
clouded.
" What shall I sing? "
" How can I tell? What you will. What can
I know about good songs or anything else?"
responded Bransford in sudden moodiness and de
jection for, after the song, the end of every
thing! He flinched at the premonition of irrev
ocable loss.
The girl made no answer. This is what she
sang. No; you shall not be told of her voice.
Perhaps there is a voice that you remember, that
52 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
echoes to you through the dusty years. How
would you like to describe that?
" Oh, Sandy has monie and Sandy has land,
And Sandy has housen, sae fine and sae grand
But I'd rather hae Jamie, wi' nocht in his hand,
Than Sandy, wi' all of his housen and land.
" My father looks sulky; my mither looks soor;
They gloom upon Jamie because he is poor.
I lo't them baith dearly, as a docther should do ;
But I lo'e them not half sae weel, dear Jamie, as you !
*' I sit at my cribble, I spin at my wheel ;
I think o' the laddie that lo'es me sae weel.
Oh, he had but a saxpence, he brak it in twa,
And he gied me the half o't ere he gaed awa' !
" He said : ' Lo'e me lang, lassie, though I gang awa' ! *
He said : ' Lo'e me lang, lassie, though I gang awa'! '
Bland simmer is cooming; cauld winter's awa',
And I'll wed wi' Jamie in spite o' them a'! "
Jeff's back was to a tree, his hat over his eyes.
He pushed it up.
" Thank you," he said; and then, quite directly:
"Are you rich?"
" Not very," said Ellinor, a little breathless
at the blunt query.
" I'm going to be rich," said Jeff steadily.
" * I'm going to be a horse,' quoth the litde
MAXWELTON BRAES 53
eohippus." The girl retorted saucily, though se
cretly alarmed at the import of this examination.
" Ex-actly. So that's settled. What is your
name? "
" Hoffman."
"Where do you live, Hoffman?"
" Ellinor," supplemented the girl.
" Ellinor, then. Where do you live, Ellinor? "
" In New York just now. Not in town. Up
state. On a farm. You see, grandfather's grow
ing old and he wanted father to come back."
" New York's not far," said Jeff.
'A sudden panic seized the girl. What next?
In swift, instinctive self-defense she rose and
tripped to the tree where lay her neglected sketch
book, bent over and started back with a little
cry of alarm. With a spring and a rush, Jeff was
at her side, caught her up and glared watchfully
at bush and shrub and tufted grass.
" Mr. Bransford ! Put me down ! "
" What was it? A rattlesnake? "
" A snake ? What an idea 1 I just noticed how
late it was. I must go."
Crestfallen, sheepishly, Mr. Bransford put her
down, thrust his hands into his pockets, tilted his
chin and whistled an aggravating little trill from
the Rye twostep.
" Mr. Bransford ! " said Ellinor haughtily.
Mr. Bransford's face expressed patient atten
tion.
54 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
"Are you lame? "
Mr. Bransford's eye estimated the distance cov
ered during the recent snake episode, and then
gave to Miss Hoffman a look of profound respect.
His shoulders humped up slightly; his head bowed
to the stroke : he stood upon one foot and traced
the Rainbow brand in the dust with the other.
" I told you all along I wasn't hurt," he said
aggrieved. " Didn't I, now? "
"Are you lame?" she repeated severely, ig
noring his truthful saying.
" c Not very.' " The quotation marks were
clearly audible.
" Are you lame at all? "
" No, ma'am not what you might call really
lame. Uh no, ma'am."
" And you deceived me like that ! " Indigna
tion checked her. " Oh, I am so disappointed in
you! That was a fine, manly thing for you to
do!"
" It was such a lovely time," observed the cul
prit doggedly. " And such a chance might never
happen again. And it isn't my fault I wasn't hurt,
you know. I'm sure I wish I was."
She gave him an icy glare.
" Now see what you've done ! Your men
haven't come and you won't stay with Mr. Lake.
How are you going to get home? Oh, I forgot
you can walk, as you should have done at first."
The guilty wretch wilted yet further. He shuf-
MAXWELTON BRAES 35
fled his feet; he writhed; he positively squirmed.
He ventured a timid upward glance. It seemed
to give him courage. Prompted, doubtless, by
the same feeling which drives one to dive head
long into dreaded cold water, he said, in a burst
of candor:
" Well, you see, ma'am, that little horse now
- he really ain't got far. He got tangled up over
there a ways "
The girl wheeled and shot a swift, startled
glance at the little eohippus on the hillside, who
had long since given over his futile struggles and
was now nibbling grass with becoming resigna
tion. She turned back to Bransford. Slowly,
scathingly, she looked him over from head to
foot and slowly back again. Her expression ran
the gamut wonder, anger, scorn, withering con
tempt.
" I think I hate you ! " she flamed at him.
Amazement triumphed over the other emotions
then a real amazement: the detected impostor
had resumed his former debonair bearing and met
her scornful eye with a slow and provoking smile.
" Oh, no, you don't," he said reassuringly.
" On the contrary, you don't hate me at all ! "
" I'm going home, anyhow," she retorted bit
terly. " You may draw your own conclusions."
Still, she did not go, which possibly had a con
fusing effect upon his inferences.
" Just one minute, ma'am, if you please. How
56 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
did you know so pat where the little black horse
was? / didn't tell you."
Little waves of scarlet followed each other to
her burning face.
" I'm not going to stay another moment.
You're detestable ! And it's nearly sundown."
" Oh, you needn't hurry. It's not far."
She followed his gesture. To her intense mor
tification she saw the blue smoke of her home
campfire flaunting up from a gully not half a mile
away. It was her turn to droop now. She
drooped.
There was a painful silence. Then, in a far-off,
hard, judicial tone :
" How long, ma'am, if I may ask, have you
known that the little black horse was tangled
up?"
Miss Ellinor's eyes shifted wildly. She broke
a twig from a mahogany bush and examined the
swelling buds with minutest care.
" Well ? " said her ruthless inquisitor sternly.
*' Since since I went for your hat," she con
fessed in a half whisper.
" To deceive me so ! " Pain, grief, surprise,
reproach, were in his words. " Have you any
thing to say? " he added sadly.
A slender shoe peeped out beneath her denim
skirt and tapped on a buried boulder. Ellinor
regarded the toetip with interest and curiosity.
Then, half-audibly :
MAXWELTON BRAES 57
" We were having such a good time. . . .,
And it might never happen again ! "
He captured both her hands. She drew back
a little ever so little; she trembled slightly, but
her eyes met his frankly and bravely.
" No, no ! . . . Not now. . . . Go, now,
Mr. Bransford. Go at once. We will have a
pleasant day to remember."
" Until the next pleasant day," said resolute
Bransford, openly exultant. " But see here, now
I can't go to Lake's camp or to Lake's ball "
here Miss Ellinor pouted distinctly " or any
thing that is Lake's. After your masked ball,
then what?"
" New York; but it's only so far on the map."
She held her hands apart very slightly to indicate
the distance. " On a little map, that is."
" I'll drop in Saturdays," said Jeff.
" Do ! I want to hear you sing the rest about
the little eohippus."
" If you'll sing about Sandy! " suggested Jeff.
" Why not? Good-by now I must go."
" And you won't sing about Sandy to any one
else?"
The girl considered doubtfully.
" Why I don't know I've known you for a
very little while, if you please." She gathered up
her belongings. " But we're friends? "
"No! No!" said Jeff vehemently. "You
won't sing it to any one else Ellinor? "
58 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
She drew a line in the dust.
** If you won't cross that line," she said, " I'll
tell you."
Mr. Bransford grasped a sapling with a firm
clutch and shook it to try its strength.
" A bird in the bush is the noblest work of
God," he announced. " I'll take a chance."
Her eyes were shining.
"You've promised!" she said. She paused:
when she spoke again her voice was low and a
trifle unsteady. " I won't sing about Sandy to
any one else Jeff I "
Then she fled.
Like Lot's wife, she looked back from the hill
side. Jeff clung desperately to the sapling with
one hand ; from the other a handkerchief hers
fluttered a good-by message. She threw him a
farewell, with an ambiguous gesture.
It was late when Jeff reached Rosebud Camp.
He unsaddled Nigger Baby, the little and not en
tirely gentle black horse, rather unobtrusively; but
Johnny Dines sauntered out during the process,
announcing supper.
" Huh ! " sniffed Jeff. " S'pose I thought you'd
wait until I come to get it? "
Nothing more alarming than tallies was
broached during supper, however. Afterward,
Johnny tilted his chair back and, through ciga-
MAXWELTON BRAES '59
rette smoke, contemplated the ceiling with inno
cent eyes.
'* Nigger Babe looks drawed," he suggested.
" Uh-huh. Had one of them poor spells of
his."
Puff, puff.
" Your saddle's skinned up a heap."
" Run under a tree."
Johnny's look of innocence grew more pro
nounced.
" How'd you get your clothes so wet?"
11 Rain," said Jeff.
Puff, puff.
" You look right muddy too."
" Dust in the air," said Jeff.
" Ah ! yes." Silence during the rolling of an
other cigarette. Then: " How'd you get that cut
on your head? "
Jeff's hand went to his head and felt the bump
there. He regarded his fingers in some per
plexity.
"That? Oh, that's where I bit myself!" He
stalked off to bed in gloomy dignity.
Half an hour later Johnny called softly:
"Jeff!"
Jeff grunted sulkily.
" Camping party down near Mayhill. Lot o r
girls. I saw one of 'em. Young person with eyes
and hair."
Jeff grunted again. There was a long silence.
6o
" Nice bear! " There was no answer.
" Good old bear! " said Johnny tearfully. No
answer. " Mister Bear, if I give you one nice,
good, juicy bite "
" Uuggrrh!" said Jeff.
" Then," said Johnny decidedly, " I'll sleep in
the yard."
THE ROAD DCO ROME
"Behold, one journeyed in the night
He sang amid the wind and rain;
My wet sands gave his feet delight-
When will that traveler come again?"
The Heart of the Road,
ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH.
A HYPOTENUSE, as has been well said, is
the longest side of a right-angled triangle.
There is no need for details. That we are all
familiar with the use of this handy little article
is shown by the existence of shortcuts at every
available opportunity, and by keep-off-o'-the-grass
signs in parks.
Now, had Jeff Bransford desired to go to Ar
cadia to that masquerade, for instance his
direct route from Jackson's Ranch would have
been eater-cornered across the desert, as has been
amply demonstrated by Pythagoras and others.
That Jeff did not want to go to Arcadia to
the masked ball, for instance is made apparent
by the fact that the afternoon preceding said ball
saw him jogging southward toward Baird's, along
the lonely base of that inveterate triangle whereof
61
62 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
Jackson's, Baird's and Arcadia are the respective
corners, leaving the fifty-five-mile hypotenuse far
to his left. It was also obvious from the tenor
of his occasional self-communings.
" I don't want to make a bally fool of myself
do I, old Grasshopper? Anyhow, you'll be too
tired when we get to 'Gene's."
Grasshopper made no response, other than a
plucky tossing of his bit and a quickening cadence
in his rhythmical stride, by way of pardonable
bravado.
" I never forced myself in where my company
wasn't wanted yet, and I ain't going to begin
now," asserted Jeff stoutly; adding, as a fervent
afterthought: " Damn Lake! "
His way lay along the plain, paralleling the
long westward range, just far enough out to dodge
the jutting foothills; through bare white levels
where Grasshopper's hoofs left but a faint trace
on the hard-glazed earth. At intervals, tempting
cross-roads branched away to mountain springs.
[The cottonwood at Independent Springs came into
view round the granite shoulder of Strawberry,
six miles to the right of him. He roused himself
from prolonged pondering of the marvelous
silhouette, where San Andres unflung in broken
masses against the sky, to remark in a hushed
whisper:
" I wonder if she'd be glad to see me? "
Several miles later he quoted musingly:
THE ROAD TO ROME 63
" For Ellinor her Christian name was Ellinor
Had twenty-seven different kinds of hell in her ! "
After all, there are problems which Pythagoras
never solved.
The longest road must have an end. Ritch's
Ranch was passed far to the right, lying low in
the long shadow of Kaylor; then the mouth of
Hembrillo Canon; far ahead, a shifting flicker
of Baird's windmill topped the brush. It grew
taller; the upper tower took shape. He dipped
into the low, mirage-haunted basin, where the
age-old Texas Trail crosses the narrow western
corner of the White Sands. When he emerged
the windmill was tall and silver-shining; the low
iron roofs of the house gloomed sullen in the sun.
Dust rose from the corral. Now Jeff's ostensi
ble errand to the West Side had been the search
for strays; three days before he had prudently
been three days' ride farther to the north. The
reluctance with which he had turned back south
ward was justified by the fact that this critical
afternoon found him within striking distance of
Arcadia striking distance, that is, should he care
for a bit of hard riding. This was exactly what
Jeff had fought against all along. So, when he
saw the dust, he loped up.
It was as he had feared. A band of horses was
in the waterpen; among them a red-roan head he
knew Copperhead, of Pringle's mount; con-
4 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
firmed runaway. Jeff shut the gate. For the first
time that day, he permitted himself a discreet
glance eastward to Arcadia.
" Three days," he said bitterly, while Grass
hopper thrust his eager muzzle into the water-
trough " three days I have braced back my feet
and slid, like a yearlin' at a brandin' bee and
look at me now! Oh, Copperhead, you darned
old fool, see what you done now! "
In this morose mood he went to the house.
There was no one at home. A note was tacked
on the door.
Gone to Plomo. Back in two or three days. Beef hangt
under platform on windmill tower. When you get it,
oil the mill. Books and deck of cards in box under bed*
Don't leave fire in stove when you go.
GENE BAIRD.
N. B.- Feed the cat.
Jeff built a fire in the stove and unsaddled
weary Grasshopper. He found some corn, which
he put into a woven-grass morral and hung on
Grasshopper's nose. He went to the waterpen,
roped out Copperhead and shut him in a side
corral. Then he let the bunch go. They strained
through the gate in a mad run, despite shrill and
frantic remonstrance from Copperhead.
" Jeff," said Jeff soberly, " are you going to be
a damned fool all your life? That girl doesn't
THE ROAD TO ROME 65
care anything about you. She hasn't thought of
you since. You stay right here and read the pretty
books. That's the place for you."
jThis advice was sound and wise beyond cavil.
So Jeff took it valiantly. After supper he hobbled
Grasshopper and took off the nosebag. Then he
went to the back room in pursuit of literature.
Have I leave for a slight digression, to commit
a long-delayed act of justice to correct a griev
ous wrong? Thank you.
We hear much of Mr. Andrew Carnegie and
His Libraries, the Hall of Fame, the Little Red
Schoolhouse, the Five-Foot Shelf, and the World's
Best Books. A singular thing is that the most
effective bit of philanthropy along these lines has
gone unrecorded of a thankless world. This shall
no longer be.
Know, then, that once upon a time a certain
soulless corporation, rather in the tobacco trade,
placed in each package of tobacco a coupon, each
coupon redeemable by one paper-bound book.
Whether they were moved by remorse to this ac
tion or by sordid hidden purposes of their own,
or, again, by pure, disinterested and farseeing love
of their kind, is not yet known; but the results
remain. There were three hundred and three vol
umes on that list, mostly but not altogether
fiction. And each one was a classic. Classics are
cheap. They are not copyrighted. Could I but
66 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
know the anonymous benefactor who enrolled that
glorious company, how gladly would I drop a leaf
on his bier or a cherry in his bitters !
[Thus it was that, in one brief decade, the cow
boys, with others, became comparatively literate.
Cowboys all smoked. Doubtless that was a chief
cause contributory to making them the wrecks they
were. It destroyed their physique; it corroded
and ate away their will power leaving them
seldom able to work over nineteen hours a day,
except in emergencies; prone to abandon duty in
the face of difficulty or danger, when human effort,
raised to the th power, could do no more all
things considered, the most efficient men of their
hands on record.
Cowboys all smoked: and the most deep-
seated instinct of the human race is to get some
thing for nothing. They got those books. In due
course of time they read those books. Some were
slow to take to it; but when you stay at lonely
ranches, when you are left afoot until the water-
holes dry up, so you may catch a horse in the
waterpen why, you must do something. The
books were read. Then, having acquired the
habit, they bought more books. Since the three
hundred and three were all real books, and since
the cowboys had been previously uncorrupted of
predigested or sterilized fiction, or by " gift,"
" uplift " and " helpful " books, their composite
taste had become surprisingly good, and they
THE ROAD TO ROME 67
bought with discriminating care. Nay, more. A
bookcase follows books; a bookcase demands a
house; a house needs a keeper; a housekeeper
needs everything. Hence alfalfa houseplants
slotless tables bankbooks. The chain which be
gan with yellow coupons ends with Christmas
trees. In some proudest niche in the Hall of
Fame a grateful nation will yet honor that hith
erto unrecognized educator, Front de Boeuf.*
*
Jeff pawed over the tattered yellow-backed vol
umes in profane discontent. He had read them
all. Another box was under the bed, behind the
first. Opening it, he saw a tangled mass of cloth
ing, tumbled in the bachelor manner; with the
rest, a much-used football outfit canvas jacket,
sweater, padded trousers, woolen stockings, rubber
noseguard, shinguards, ribbed shoes all com
plete; for 'Gene Baird was fullback of the El
Paso eleven.
Jeff segregated the gridiron wardrobe with
hasty hands. His eye brightened ; he spoke in an
awed and almost reverent voice.
" I ain't mostly superstitious, but this looks like
a leading. First, I'm here; second, Copperhead's
here; third, no one else is here; and, for the final
miracle, here's a costume made to my hand.
[Thirty-five miles. Ten o'clock, if I hurry. H'm !
"Bull Durham."
68 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
' When first I put this uniform on ' how did that
go? I'm forgetting all my songs. Getting old, I
guess."
Rejecting the heavy shoes, as unmeet for waxed
floors, and the shinguards, he rolled the rest of the
uniform in his slicker and tied it behind his saddle.
Then he rubbed his chin.
" Huh ! That's a true saying, too. I am get
ting old. Youth turns to youth. Buck up, Jeff,
you old fool! Have some pride about you and
just a little old horse-sense."
Yet he unhobbled Grasshopper, who might then
be trusted to find his way to Rainbow in about
three days. He went to the corral and tossed a
rope on snorting Copperhead. "No; I won't
go ! " he said, as he slipped on the bridle. " Just
to uncock old Copperhead, I'll make a little horse-
ride to Hospital Springs and look through the
stock." He threw on the saddle with some dif
ficulty Copperhead was fat and frisky. " She
don't want to see you, Jeff an old has-been like
you ! No, no ; I'd better not go. I won't ! There,
if I didn't leave that football stuff on the saddle !
I'll take it off. It might get lost. Whoa, Copper
head!"
Copperhead, however, declined to whoa on any
terms. His eyes bulged out; he reared, he pawed,
he snorted, he bucked, he squealed, he did any
thing but whoa. Exasperated, Jeff caught the
bridle by the cheek piece and swung into the sad-
THE ROAD TO ROME 69
die. After a few preliminaries in the pitch
ing line, Jeff started bravely for Hospital
Springs.
It was destined that this act of renunciation
should be thwarted. Copperhead stopped and dug
his feet in the ground as if about to take root.
Jeff dug the spurs home. With an agonized bawl,
Copperhead made a creditable ascension, shook
himself and swapped ends before he hit the ground
again. " Wooh! " he said. His nose was headed
now for Arcadia; he followed his nose, his
roan flanks fanned vigorously with a doubled
rope.
"Headstrong, stubborn, unmanageable brute!
Oh, well, have it your own way then, you old
fool! You'll be sorry I" Copperhead leaped out
to the loosened rein. " This is just plain kid
napping! " said Jeff.
Kidnapped and kidnapper were far out on the
plain as night came on. Arcadia road stretched
dimly to the east; the far lights of La Luz flashed
through the leftward dusk; straight before them
was a glint and sparkle in the sky, faint, diffused,
wavering; beyond, a warm and mellow glow broke
the blackness of the mountain wall, where the
lights of low-hidden Arcadia beat up against Rain
bow Rim.
Jeff was past his first vexation; he sang as he
rode:
70 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
" There was ink on her thumb when I kissed her hand,
And she whispered : ' If you should die
I'd write you an epitaph, gloomy and grand!'
' Time enough for that ! ' says I.
"Keep a-movin here, Copperhead! Time
fugits right along. "You will play hooky, will you ?
* I'm going to be a horse ! ' "
CHAPTER V
THE MASKERS
"For Ellinor (her Christian name was Ellinor)
Had twenty-seven different kinds of hell in her."
RICHARD HOVEY.
IT lacked little of the eleventh hour when the
football player reached the ballroom last
comer to the revels. A bandage round his head
and a rubber noseguard, which also hid his mouth,
served for a mask, eked out by 'crisscrossed strips
of courtplaster. One arm was in a sling for
stage purposes only.
As he limped through the door, Diogenes
hurried to meet him, held up his lantern, peered
hopefully into the battered face and shook his
disappointed head. " Stung again ! " muttered
Diogenes.
Jeff lisped in numbers which fully verified the
cynic's misgiving. " 7 1 1 4 1 1 44 ! " he an
nounced jerkily. This was strictly in character
and also excused him from entangling talk, leav
ing him free to search the whirl of dancers.
A bulky Rough Rider volunteered his help. He
fixed a gleaming eyeglass on his nose and politely
71
72 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
offered Jeff a Big Stick by way of a crutch. " Hit
the line hard!" he barked. He bit the words
off with a prize-bulldog effect. He had fine teeth.
Jeff waved him off. '* 16 2 i!" he pro
claimed controversially. He felt his spirits sink
ing, with a growing doubt of his ability to identify
the Only One, and was impatient of interruption.
He kept his slow and watchful way down the
floor.
Topsy broke away from her partner and
stopped Jeff's crippled progress. Her short hair,
braided to a dozen tight and tiny pigtails, bristled
away in all directions.
" Laws, young marsta', you suhtenly does look
puny! " she said. Then she clutched at her knee.
" Aie!" she tittered, as a loose red stocking
dropped flappingly to her ankle. Pray do not be
shocked. The effect was startling; but a black
stocking, decorously tight and smooth, was be
neath the red one. Jeff's mathematics were not
equal to the strain of adequate comment. Topsy
dived to the rescue. " Got a string? " she giggled,
as she hitched the fallen stocking back to place.
" I cain't fix this good nohow! "
Jeff jerked his thumb over his shoulder. " Man
over there with an eyeglass cord maybe you can
get that. What makes you act so? " He looked
cold disapproval; nevertheless, he looked.
Topsy hung her head, still clutching at the
stocking-top. " Dunno. I spec's it's 'cause Ise so
THE MASKERS 73
wicked ! " Finger in mouth, she looked after Jeff
as he hobbled away.
A slender witch bounced from a chair and
barred his way with a broom. Her eyes were
brimming sorcery; her lips looked saucy chal
lenge; she leaned close for a whispered word
in his ear: "How would you like to tackle
me?"
Poor Jeff! " 10, 2 10, 2!" he promised
huskily. Yet he ducked beneath the broom.
" But," said the little witch plaintively, " you're
going away! " She dropped her broom and wept.
" 8, 2 8, 2 8, 2 ! " said Jeff, almost in tears
himself, and again fell back upon English.
" Mere figures or mere words can't tell you how
much I hate to; but I've got to follow the ball.
I'm looking for a fellow."
" If he if he doesn't love you," sobbed the
stricken witch, " then you'll come back to me
won't you? I love a liar! "
" To the verv stake ! " vowed Jeff. Such
heroic, if conditional, constancy was not to go un
rewarded. A couple detached themselves from
the 'dancers, threaded their way to a corner of the
long hall and stood there in deep converse. Jeff
quickened pulse and pace for one was a Red
Devil and the other wore the soft gray costume
of a Friend. She was tall, this Quakeress, and
the hobnobbing devil was of Jeff's own height.
Jeff began to hope for a goal.
74 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
Briskly limping, he came to this engrossed
couple and laid a friendly hand on the devil's
shoulder.
" Brother," he said cordially, " will you please
go to home? "
The devil recoiled an astonished step.
" What ? What ! ! Show me your license ! "
"Twenty-three! Please! there's a good
devil 23 ! I'm the right guard for this lady, I
hope. Oh, please to go home! "
The devil took this request in very bad part.
" Go back fifteen yards for offside play and
take a drop kick at yourself ! " he suggested
sourly.
A burly policeman, plainly conscious of fitting
his uniform, paused for warning.
" No scrappin' now I Don't start nothin' or I'll
run in the t'ree av yees! " he said, and sauntered
on, twirling a graceful nightstick.
" Thee is a local man, judging from thy let
ters," said the Quaker lady, to relieve the some
what strained situation. " What do they stand
for? E. P.? Oh, yes El Paso, of course!"
" I saw you first ! " said the Red Devil. " And
with your disposition you would naturally find me
more suitable. Make your choice of gridirons!
Send him back to the side lines! Disqualify him
for interference ! "
" Don't be hurried into a decision," said Jeff.
" Eternity is a good while. Before it's over I'm
THE MASKERS 75]
going to be a well, something more than a foot
baller. Golf, maybe or tiddledywinks."
The Quakeress glanced attentively from one
to the other.
" Doubtless he will do his best to forward jThy
Majesty's interests," she interposed. " Why not
give him a chance ? "
The devil shrugged his shoulders. " I always
prefer to give this branch of work my personal
attention," he said stiffly.
" A specialty of thine? " mocked the girl.
The devil bowed sulkily.
" My heart is in it. Of course, if you prefer
the bungling of a novice, there is no more to be
said."
" Thy Majesty's manners have never been
questioned," murmured the Quakeress, bowing
dismissal. " So kind of you ! "
The devil bowed deeply and turned, pausing
to hurl a gloomy prophecy over his shoulder.
" See you later! " he said, and stalked away with
an ill grace.
Pigskin hero and girl Friend, left alone, eyed
each other with mutual apprehension. The girl
Friend was first to recover speech. Her red lips
were prim below her vizor, her eyes downcast
to hide their dancing lights. ,Timidly she spread
out fanwise the dove color of her sober cos
tume.
" How does thee like my gray gown? "
76 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
" Not at all," said Jeff brutally. " You're no
friend of mine, I hope."
A most un-Quakerlike dimple trembled to her
chin, relieving the firm austerity of straight lips.
Also, Jeff caught a glimpse of her eyes through
the vizor. They were crinkling and they were
brown. She ventured another tentative remark,
and there was in it an undertone lingering, softly
confidential.
"Istheelame?"
" Not very," said Jeff, and saw a faint color
start to the unmasked moiety of the Quaker cheek.
41 Still, if I may have the next dance, I shall be
glad if you will sit it out with me." Painfully
he raised the beslinged arm in explanation. Sobre
las Olas throbbed out its wistful call; they set
their thought to its haunting measure.
" By all means ! " She took his undamaged
arm. " Let us find chairs."
Now there were chairs to the left of them,
chairs to the right of them, chairs vacant every
where; but the gallant Six Hundred themselves
were not more heedless or undismayed than these
two. Still, all the world did not wonder. On the
contrary, not even the anxious devil saw them
after they passed behind a knot of would-be
dancers who were striving to disentangle them
selves. For, seeing traffic thus blocked, the po
liceman rushed to unsnarl the tangle. Magnifi
cently he flourished his stick. He adjured them
THE MASKERS 77
roughly: "Move on, yous! Move on!"
Whereat, with one impulse, the tangle moved on
the copper, swept over him, engulfed him, hustled
him to the door and threw him out.
So screened, the chair-hunters vanished in far
less than a psychological moment: for Jeff, in
obedience to a faint or fancied pressure on his
arm, dived through portieres into a small room
set apart for such as had the heart to prefer cards
or chess. The room was deserted now and there
was a broad window open to the night. Thus,
thrice favored of Providence, they found them
selves in the garden, chairless but cheerful.
A garden with one Eve is the perfect combina
tion in a world awry. Muffled, the music and the
sounds of the ballroom came faint and far to
them; star-made shadows danced at their feet.
The girl paused, expectant; but it was the unex
pected that happened. The nimble tongue which
had done such faithful service for Mr. Bransford
now failed him quite: left him struggling, dumb,
inarticulate, helpless tongue and hand alike for
getful of their cunning.
Be sure the maid had adroitly heard much of
Mr. Bransford, his deeds and misdeeds, during
the tedious interval since their first meeting. Re
port had dwelt lovingly upon Mr. Bransford's
eloquence at need. This awkward silence was a
tribute of sincerity above question.
With difficulty Ellinor mastered a wild desire
78 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
to ask where the cat had gone. " Oh, come ye
in peace here or come ye in war?" Such inju
dicious quotation trembled on the tip of her
tongue, but she suppressed it barely in time.
She felt herself growing nervous with the fear lest
she should be hurried into some all too luminous
speech. And still Jeff stood there, lost, speech
less, helpless, unready, a clumsy oaf, an object of
pity. Pity at last, or a kindred feeling, drove her
to the rescue. And, just as she had feared, she
said, in her generous haste, far too much.
" I thought you were not coming? "
The inflection made a question of this state
ment. Also, by implication, it answered so many
questions yet unworded that Jeff was able to use
his tongue again ; but it was not the trusty tongue
of yore witness this wooden speech:
' You mean you thought I said I wasn't coming
don't you? You knew I would come."
" Indeed? How should I know what you would
do ? I've only seen you once. Aren't you forget
ting that?"
" Why else did you make up as a Friend
then?"
" Oh ! Oh, dear, these men I There's conceit
for you ! I chose my costume solely to trap Mr.
Bransford's eye? Is that it? Doubtless all my
thoughts have centered on Mr. Bransford since I
first saw him ! "
THE MASKERS 79
" You know I didn't mean that, Miss Ellinor.
I-
** Miss Hoffman, if you please! "
" Miss Hoffman. Don't be mean to me. I've
only got an hour "
"An hour! Do you imagine for one sec
ond Why, I mustn't stay here. This is
really a farewell dance given in my honor. We
go back East day after to-morrow. I must go
in."
" Only one little hour. And I have come a
long ways for my hour. They take their masks
off at midnight don't they? And of course I
can't stay after that. I want only just to ask
you "
" Why did you come then? Isn't it rather un
usual to go uninvited to a ball? "
" Why, I reckon you nearly know why I come,
Miss Hoffman; but if you want me to say pre
cisely, ma'am "
" I don't! "
" We'll keep that for a surprise, then. Another
thing: I wanted to find out just where you live in
New York. I forgot to ask you. And I couldn't
very well go round asking folks after you're gone
could I ? Of course I didn't have any invitation
from Mr. Lake; but I thought, if he didn't
know it, he wouldn't mind me just stepping in to
get your address."
"Well, of all the assurance!" said Miss El-
8o BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
linor. " Do you intend to start up a correspond
ence with me without even the formality of asking
my consent? "
" Why, Miss Ellinor, ma'am, I thought "
" Miss Hoffman, sir ! Yes and there's an
other thing. You said you had no invitation
from Mr. Lake. Does that mean, by any chance,
that I invited you? "
" You didn't say a word about my coming,"
said Jeff. He was a flustered man, this poor
Bransford, but he managed to put a slight stress
upon the word " say."
Miss Ellinor Miss Hoffman caught this
faint emphasis instantly.
" Oh, I didn't say anything? I just looked an
invitation, I suppose? " she stormed. " Melting
eyes and that sort of thing? Tears in them,
maybe ? Poor girl ! Poor little child ! It would
be cruel to let her go home without seeing me
again. I will give her a little more happiness,
poor thing, and write to her a while. Maybe it
would be wiser, though, just to make a quarrel
and break loose at once. She'll get over it in
a little while after she gets back to New York.
Well ! Upon my word ! "
As she advanced these horrible suppositions,
Miss Hoffman had marked out a short beat of
garden path five steps and a turn; five steps back
and whirl again with, on the whole, a caged-
tigress effect. With a double-quick at each turn
THE MASKERS 81
to keep his place at her elbow, Jeff, utterly aghast
at the damnable perversity of everything on
earth, vainly endeavored to make coordinate and
stumbling remonstrance. As she stopped for
breath, Jeff heard his own voice at last, propound
ing to the world at large a stunned query as to
whether the abode of lost spirits could afford
aught to excel the present situation. The remark
struck him: he paused to wonder what other
things he had been saying.
Miss Ellinor walked her beat, vindictive. Her
chin was at an angle of complacency. She turned
up the perky corners of an imaginary mustache
with an air, an exasperating little finger, separated
from the others, pointing upward in hateful self-
satisfaction. Her mouth wore a gratified mas
culine smirk, visible even in the starlight; her
gait was a leisured and lordly strut; her hand
waved airy pity. Jeff shrank back in horror.
" M-Miss Hoffman, I n-never d-dreamed "
Miss Hoffman turned upon him swiftly."
" Never have I heard anything like it never!
You bring me out here willy-nilly, and by way of
entertainment you virtually accuse me of throwing
myself at your head."
" I never ! " said Jeff indignantly. " I did
n't "
Miss Hoffman faced him crouchingly and shook
an indictment from her fingers.
" First, you imply that I enticed you to come ;
second, expecting you, I dressed to catch your
eye; third, I was watching eagerly for you "
" Come I say now 1 " The baited and exas
perated victim walked headlong into the trap.
" The first thing you did was to ask me if I was
lame? Wasn't that question meant to find out
who I was ? When I answered, * Not very,'
didn't you know at once that it was me? "
u There I That proves exactly what I was just
saying," raged the delighted trapper. " You don't
even deny it! You say in so many words that
I have been courting you! I had to say some
thing didn't I ? You wouldn't ! You were limp
ing, so I asked you if you were lame. What else
could I have said? Did you want me to stand
there like a stuffed Egyptian mummy? That's
the thanks a girl gets for trying to help a great,
awkward, blundering butter-fingers! Oh, if you
could just see yourself! The irresistible con
queror! Not altogether unprincipled though!
You are capable of compunction. I'll give you
credit for that. Alarmed at your easy success,
you try to spare me. It is noble of you noble!
You drag me out here, force a quarrel upon
me "
" Oh, by Jove now! Really! " Stung by the
poignant injustice of crowding events, Jeff took
the bit in his teeth and rushed to destruction.
" Really, you must see yourself that I couldn't
drag you out here! I have never been in that
THE MASKERS 83
hall before. I didn't know the lay of the ground.
I didn't even know that little side room was there.
I thought you pressed my arm a little " So
the brainless colt, in the quicksands, flounders
deeper with each effort to extricate himself.
If Miss Hoffman had been angry before she
was furious now.
" So that's the way of it? Better and better! 7
dragged you out! Really, Mr. Bransford, I feel
that I should take you back to your chaperon at
once. You might be compromised, you know ! "
Goaded to desperation, he acted on this hint
at once. He turned, with stiff and stilted speech:
" I will take you back to the window, Miss
Hoffman. Then there is nothing for me to do
but go. I am sorry to have caused you even a
moment's annoyance. To-morrow you will see
how you have twisted I mean, how completely
you have misinterpreted everything I have said.
Perhaps some day you may forgive me. Here is
the window. Good-night good-by!"
Miss Hoffman lingered, however.
" Of course, if you apologize "
" I do, Miss Hoffman. I beg your pardon most
sincerely for anything I have ever said or done
that could hurt you in any way."
" If you are sure you are sorry if you take
it all back and will never do such a thing again
perhaps I may forgive you."
" I won't I am I will! " said the abject and
84 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
groveling wretch. Which was incoherent but
pleasing. " I didn't mean anything the way you
took it; but I'm sorry for everything."
" Then I didn't beguile you to come? Or mask
as a Friend in the hope that you would identify
me?"
"No, no!"
Miss Ellinor pressed her advantage cruelly.
" Nor take stock of each new masker to see if he
possibly wasn't the expected Mr. Bransford?
Nor drag you into the garden ? Nor squeeze your
arm? " Her hands went to her face, her lissome
body shook. " Oh, Mr. Bransford ! " she sobbed
between her fingers. " How could you how
could you say that? "
The clock chimed. A pealing voice beat out
into the night: " Masks off ! " A hundred voices
swelled the cry; it was drowned in waves of
laughter. It rose again tumultuously : "Masks
off Masks off! " Nearer came hateful voices,
too, that cried: "Ellinor! Ellinor! Where are
you?"
" I must go ! " said Jeff. " They'll be looking
for you. No; you didn't do any of those things.
You couldn't do any of those things. Good-by! "
"Ellinor! Ellinor Hoffman!! Where are
you? "
Miss Hoffman whipped off her mask. From
the open window a shaft of light fell on her face.
It was flushed, sparkling, radiant. " Masks off ! "
THE MASKERS 85
she said. " Stupid ! . . . Oh, you great goose !
Of course I did!" She stepped back into the
shadow.
No one, as the copybook says justly, may be
always wise. Conversely, the most unwise of us
blunders sometimes upon the right thing to do.
With a glimmer of returning intelligence Mr.
Bransford laid his noseguard on the window-sill.
" Sir! " said Ellinor then. " How dare you ? "
.Then she turned the other cheek. " Good-by! "
she whispered, and fled away to the ballroom.
Mr. Bransford, in the shadows, scratched his
head dubiously.
" Her Christian name was Ellinor," he mut
tered. " Ellinor ! H'm Ellinor ! Very appro
priate name. . . . Very! . ,.. . And I don't
know yet where she lives I "
He wandered disconsolately away to the garden
wall, forgetting the discarded noseguard.
CHAPTER VI
THE ISLE OF ARCADYi
"Then the moon shone out so broad and good
That the barn-fowl crowed:
And the brown owl called to his mate in the wood
That a dead man lay in the road! "
WILL WALLACE HARVEY.
ARCADIA'S assets were the railroad, two
large modern sawmills, the climate and
printer's ink. The railroad found it a patch of
bare ground, six miles from water; put in suc
cessively a whistling-post, a signboard, a depot,
townsite papers and a water-main from the
Alamo; and, when the townsite papers were con
firmed, established machine shops and made the
new town the division headquarters and base for
northward building.
The railroad then set up the sawmills, pri
marily to get out ties and timbers for its own
lanky growth, and built a spur to bring the forest
down from Rainbow to the mills. The word
" down " is used advisedly. Arcadia nestled on
the plain under the very eavespouts of Rainbow
Range. The branch, following with slavish fidel-
86
THE ISLE OF ARCADY 87
ity the lines of a twisted corkscrew, took twenty-
seven miles, mostly tunnel and trestlework, to
clamber to the logging camps, with a minimum
grade that was purely prohibitive and a maximum
that I dare not state; but there was a rise of six
thousand feet in those twenty-seven miles. You
can figure the average for yourself. And if the
engine should run off the track at the end of her
climb she would light on the very roundhouse
where she took breakfast, and spoil the shingles.
Yes, that was some railroad. There was a
summer hotel Cloudland on the summit, largely
occupied by slackwire performers. Others walked
up or rode a horse. They used stem-winding en
gines, with eight vertical cylinders on the right
side and a shaft like a steamboat, with beveled
cogwheel transmission on the axles. And they
haven't had a wreck on that branch to date. No
matter how late a train is, when an engine sees
the tail-lights of her caboose ahead of her she
stops and sends out flagmen.
The railroad, under the pseudonym of the
Arcadia Development Company, also laid out
streets and laid in a network of pipe-lines, and
staked out lots until the sawmill protested for lack
of tie-lumber. It put down miles of cement walks,
fringed them with cottonwood saplings, telephone
poles and electric lights. It built a hotel and a
few streets of party-colored cottages directoire,
with lingerie tile roofs, organdy facades and
88 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
peplum, intersecting panels and outside chimneys
at the gable ends. It decreed a park, with nooks,
lanes, mazes, lake, swans, ballground, grand
stand, bandstand and the band appertaining there
unto all of which apparently came into being
over night. Then it employed a competent staff
of word-artists and capitalized the climate.
The result was astonishing. The cottonwoods
grew apace and a swift town grew with them
swift in every sense of the word. It took good
money to buy good lots in Arcadia. People with
money must be fed, served and amused by people
wanting money. In three years the trees cast a
pleasant shade and the company cast a balance,
with gratifying results. They discounted the un
earned increment for a generation to come.
It was a beneficent scheme, selling ozone and
novelty, sunshine and delight. The buyers got
far more than the worth of their money, the com
pany got their money and every one was happy.
Health and good spirits are a bargain at any
price. There were sandstorms and hot days; but
sand promotes digestion and digestion promotes
cheerfulness. Heat merely enhanced the luxury
of shaded hammocks. As an adventurer thawed
out, he sent for seven others worse than himself.
Arcadia became the metropolis of the county and,
by special election, the county-seat. Courthouse,
college and jail followed in quick succession.
For the company, Arcadia life was one grand,
THE ISLE OF ARCADY 89
sweet song, with, thus far, but a single discord.
As has been said, Arcadia was laid out on the
plain. There was higher ground on three sides
Rainbow Mountain to the east, the deltas of
La Luz Creek and the Alamo to the north and
south. New Mexico was dry, as a rule. After
the second exception, when enthusiastic citizens
went about on stilts to forward a project for
changing the town's name to Venice, the company
acknowledged its error handsomely. When dry
land prevailed once more above the face of the
waters, it built a mighty moat by way of the
amende honorable a moat with its one embank
ment on the inner side of the five-mile horseshoe
about the town. This, with its attendant bridges,
gave to Arcadia an aspect singularly medieval.
It also furnished a convenient line of social de
marcation. Chauffeurs, college professors, law
yers, gamblers, county officers, together with a few
tradesmen and railroad officials, abode within.
" the Isle of Arcady," on more or less even terms
with the Arcadians proper; millmen, railroaders,
lumberjacks, and the underworld generally, dwelt
without the pale.
The company rubbed its lamp again and be
hold! an armory, a hospital and a library! It
contributed liberally to churches and campaign
funds; it exercised a general supervision over
morals and manners. For example, in the deed
to every lot sold was an ironclad, fire-tested, auto-
90 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
matic and highly constitutional forfeiture clause,
to the effect that sale or storage on the premises
of any malt, vinous or spirituous liquors should
immediately cause the title to revert to the com
pany. The company's own vicarious saloon, on
Lot Number One, was a sumptuous and mag-|
nificent affair. It was known as The Mint.
All this while we have been trying to reach the
night watchman.
In the early youth of Arcadia there came to
her borders a warlock Finn, of ruddy countenance
and solid build. He had a Finnish name, and
they called him Lars Porsena.
Lars P. had been a seafaring man. While
spending a year's wage in San Francisco, he had
wandered into Arcadia by accident. There, being
unable to find the sea, he became a lumberjack
with a custom, when in spirits, of beating the
watchman of that date into an omelet.
The indulgence of this penchant gave occasion
for much adverse criticism. Fine and imprison
ment failed to deter him from this playful habit.
One watchman tried to dissuade Lars from his
foible with a club, and his successor even went
so far as to shoot him to shoot Lars P.,
of course, not his predecessor the successor's
predecessor, not Lars Porsena's if he ever had
one, which he hadn't. (What we need is more
pronouns.)' He the successor of the predecessor
THE ISLE OF ARCADYi 91
resigned when Lars became convalescent; but
Lars was no whit dismayed by this contretemps
in his first light-hearted moment he resumed his
old amusement with unabated gayety.
Thus was one of our greatest railroad systems
subjected to embarrassment and annoyance by the
idiosyncrasies of an ignorant but cheerful sailor-
man. The railroad resolved to submit no longer
to such caprice. A middleweight of renown was
imported, who when he was able to be about
again bitterly reproached the president and de
manded a bonus on the ground that he had
knocked Lars down several times before he
Lars got angry; and also because of a disquisi
tion in the Finnish tongue which Lars Porsena
had emitted during the procedure which ad
dress, the prizefighter stated, had unnerved him
and so led to his undoing. It was obviously, he
said, of a nature inconceivably insulting; the mem
ory of it rankled yet, though he had heard only
the beginning and did not get the But let that
pass.
[The thing became a scandal. Watchman suc
ceeded watchman on the company payroll and the
hospital list, until some one hit upon a happy and
ingenious way to avoid this indignity. Lars Por
sena was appointed watchman.
This statesmanlike policy bore gratifying re
sults. Lars Porsena straightway abandoned his
absurd and indefensible custom, and no imitator
92 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
arose. Also, Arcadia within the moat the island
which was the limit of his jurisdiction, became
the most orderly spot in New Mexico.
In the first gray of dawn, Uncle Sam, whistling
down Main Street on his way home from the
masquerade, found Lars Porsena lying on his face
in a pool of blood.
The belated reveler knelt beside him. The
watchman was shot, but still breathed. " Ho I
Murder ! Help ! Murder ! " shouted Uncle Sam.
The alarm rolled crashing along the quiet street.
Heads were thrust from windows ; startled voices
took up the outcry; other home-goers ran from
every corner ; hastily arrayed householders poured
themselves from street doors.
Lars Porsena was in disastrous plight. He
breathed, but that was about all. He was shot
through the body. A trail of blood led back a
few doors to Lake's Bank. A window was cut
out; the blood began at the sill.
Messengers ran to telephone the doctor, the
sheriff, Lake. The knot of men grew to a crowd.
A rumor spread that there had been an unusual
amount of currency in the bank over night a
rumor presently confirmed by Bassett, the bare
headed and white-faced cashier. It was near pay
day; in addition to the customary amount to cash
checks for railroaders and millhands itself no
THE ISLE OF ARCADY 93
mean sum and the money for regular business,
there had been provision for contemplated loans
to promoters of new local industries.
The doctor came running, made a hasty exam
ination, took emergency measures to stanch the
freshly started blood, and swore whole-heartedly
at the ambulance and the crowding Arcadians.
He administered a stimulant. Lars Porsena flut
tered his eyes weakly.
" Stand back, you idiots ! Bash these fools r
faces in for 'em, some one ! " said the medical
man. He bent over the watchman. " Who did
it, Lars?"
Lars made a vain effort to speak. The doctor
gave him another sip of restorative and took a
pull himself.
" Try again, old man. You're badly hurt and
you may not get another chance. Did you know
him?"
Lars gathered all his strength to a broken
speech :
" No. . ;. . Bank. . . . Found window. . .
Midnight . .. . nearly. . . . Shot me. . r . .
Didn't see him." He fell back on Uncle Sam's
starry vest.
" Ambulance coming," said Uncle Sam. " Will
he live, doc? "
Doc shook his head doubtfully.
" Poor chance. Lost too much blood. If he
had been found in time he might have pulled
94 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
through. Wonderful vitality. Ought to be dead
now, by the books. Still, there's a chance."
" I never thought," said Uncle Sam to Cyrano
de Bergerac, as the ambulance bore away its un
conscious burden, " that I would ever be so sorry
at anything that could happen to Lars Porsena
after the way he made me stop singing on my own
birthday. He was one grand old fighting ma
chine!"
CHAPTER VII
STATES-GENERAE
"And they hae killed Sir Charlie Hay
And laid the wyte on Geordie."
Old Ballad.
THAT the master's eye is worth two servants
had ever been Lake's favorite maxim. He
had not yet gone to bed when the message reached
him, where he kept his masterly eye on the proper
closing up of the ballroom. He came through the
crowd now, shouldering his way roughly, still in
his police costume helmet, tunic and belt. In his
wake came the sheriff, who had just arrived,
scorching to the scene on his trusty wheel.
On the bank steps, Lake turned to face the
crowd. His strong canine jaw was set to stub-
bora lighting lines; the helmet did not wholly
hide the black frown or the swollen veins at his
temple.
" Come in, Thompson, and help the sheriff size
the thing up and you, Alec " he stabbed the air
at his choice with a strong blunt finger " and
Turnbull you, Clarke and you. . ,.; Bassett,
you keep the door. Admit no one ! "
95
96 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
Lake was the local great man. Never had
he appeared to such advantage to his admirers;
never had his ascendency seemed so unquestioned
and so justified. As he stood beside the sheriff
in the growing light, the man was the incarnation
of power the power of wealth, position, prestige,
success. In this moment of yet unplumbed dis
aster, taken by surprise, summoned from a night
of crowded pleasure, he held his mastery, chose his
men and measures with unhesitant decision
planned, ordered, kept to that blunt direct speech
of his that wasted no word. A buzz went up
from the unadmitted as the door swung shut be
hind him.
Lake had chosen well. Arcadia in epitome was
within those pillaged walls. Thompson was presi
dent of the rival bank. Alec was division super
intendent. Turnbull was the mill-master. Clarke
was editor of the Arcadian Day. Clarke had been
early to the storm-center; yet, of all the investi
gators, Clarke alone was not more or less di
sheveled. He was faultlessly appareled even to
the long Prince Albert and black string tie in
which, indeed, report said, he slept.
So much for capital, industry and the fourth
estate. The last of the probers, whom Lake had
drafted merely by the slighting personal pronoun
" you," was nevertheless identifiable in private life
by the name of Billy White being, indeed, none
other than our old friend the devil. His indige-
STATES-GENERAL 97
nous mustache still retained a Mephistophelian
twist; he was becomingly arrayed in slippers, pa
jamas and a pink bathrobe, girdled at the waist
with a most unhermitlike cord, having gone early
and surly to bed. In this improvised committee
he fitly represented Society: while the sheriff repre
sented society at large and, ex officio, that incau
tious portion under duress. Yetoneelementwasun-
represented; for Lake made a mistake which other
great men have made of failing to reckon with
the masterless men, who dwell without the wall.
Lake led the way.
"Will the watchman die, Alec, d'you think?"
whispered Billy, as they filed through the grilled
door to the counting room.
" Don't know. Hope not. Game old rooster.
Good watchman, too," said Turnbull, the mill-
superintendent.
Lake turned on the lights. The wall-safe was
blown open; fragments of the door were scattered
among the overturned chairs.
In an open recess in the vault there was a dull
yellow mass; the explosion had spilled the front
rows of coin to a golden heap. Behind, some
golden rouleaus were intact: others tottered pre
cariously, as you have perhaps seen beautiful tall
stacks of colored counters do. Gold pieces were
strewn along the floor.
" Thank God, they didn't get all the gold any
how I " said Lake, with a sigh of relief. " Then,
98 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
of course, they didn't touch the silver; but there
was a lot of greenbacks over twenty-five thou
sand, I think. Bassett will know. And I don't
know how much gold is gone. Look round and
see if they left anything incriminating, sheriff, any
thing that we can trace them by."
" He heard poor old Lars coming," said the
sheriff. " Then, after he shot him, he hadn't the
nerve to come back for the gold. This strikes
me as being a bungler's job. Must have used an
awful lot of dynamite to tear that door up like
that! Funny no one heard the explosion. Can't
be much of your gold gone, Lake. That com
partment is pretty nearly as full as it will hold."
" Or heard him shoot our watchman," sug
gested Thompson. " Still, I don't know. There's
blasting going on in the hills all the time and al
most every one was at the masquerade or else
asleep. How many times did they shoot old Lars
does anybody know? Is there any idea what
time it was done? "
" He was shot once right here," said Alec,
indicating the spot on the flowered silk that had
been part of his mandarin's dress. " Gun was
held so close it burnt his shirt. Awful hole.
Don't believe the old chap'll make it. He crawled
along toward the telephone station till he dropped.
Say ! Central must have heard that shot ! It's only
two blocks away. She ought to be able to tell
what time it was."
STATES-GENERAL 99
" Lars said it was just before midnight," said
Clarke.
" Oh 1 did he speak? " asked Lake. " How
many robbers were there ? Did- he know any of
them?"
" He didn't see anybody shot just as he
reached the window. Hope some one hangs for
this I " said Clarke. " Lake, I wish you'd have
this money picked up I'm not used to walking
on gold or else have me watched."
Lake shook his head, angry at the untimely
pleasantry. It was a pleasantry in effect only, put
forward to hide uneditorial agitation and distress
for Lars Porsena. Lake's undershot jaw thrust
forward; he fingered the blot of whisker at his
ear. It was a time for action, not for talk. He
began his campaign.
" Look here, sheriff ! You ought to wire up
and down the line to keep a lookout. Hold all
suspicious characters. Then get a posse to ride
for some sign round the town. If we only had
something to go on some clue ! Later we'll look
through this town with a finetooth comb. Most
likely they or he, if there was only one won't
risk staying here. First of all, I've got to tele
graph to El Paso for money to stave off a run
on the bank. You'll help me, Thompson? Of
course my burglar insurance will make good my
loss or most of it; but that'll take time. We
mustn T t risk a run. People lose their heads so.
ioo BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
I'll give you a statement for the Day, Clarke, as
soon as I find out where Mr. Thompson stands."
" I will back you up, sir. With the bulk of
depositors' money loaned out, no bank, however
solvent, can withstand a continued run without
backing. I shall be glad to tide you over if only
for my own protection. A panic is con
tagious "
" Thanks," said Lake shortly, interrupting this
stately financial discourse. " Then we shall do
nicely. . . . Let's see to-morrow's payday.
You fellows " he turned briskly to the two su
perintendents u can't you hold up your payday,
say, until Saturday? Stand your men off. The
company stands good for their money. They can
wait a while."
" No need to do that," said Alec. " I'll have
the railroad checks drawn on St. Louis. The
storekeepers'll cash 'em. If necessary I'll wire
for authority to let Turnbull pay off the millhands
with railroad checks. It's just taking money from
one pocket to put it in the other, anyhow."
"Then that's all right! Now for the rob
bers ! " The banker's face betrayed impatience.
" My first duty was to protect my clients ; but now
we'll waste no more time. You gentlemen make
a close search for any possible scrap of evidence
while the sheriff and I write our telegrams. I
must wire the burglar insurance company, too."
He plunged a pen into an inkwell and fell to work.
STATES-GENERAL 101
Acting upon this hint, the sheriff took a desk.
" Wish Phillips was here my deputy," he sighed.
" I've sent for him. He's got a better head than
I have for noticing clues and things." This was
eminently correct as well as modest. The sheriff
was a Simon-pure Arcadian, the company's nom
inee ; his deputy was a concession to the disgruntled
Hinterland, where the unobservant rarely reach
maturity.
"Oh, Alec!" said Lake over his shoulder,
" you sit down, too, and wire all your conductors
about their passengers last night. Yes, and the
freight crews, too. We'll rush those through first.
And can't you scare up another operator? " His
pen scratched steadily over the paper. " More
apt to be some of our local outlaws, though. In
that case it will be easier to find their trail.
They'll probably be on horseback."
" You were an old-timer yourself, were you
not? " asked Billy amiably. " If the robbers are
frontiersmen they may be easier to get track of,
as you suggest; but won't they be harder to get? "
Billy spoke languidly. The others were search
ing assiduously for " clues " in the most ap
proved manner, but Billy sprawled easily in a
chair.
" We'll get 'em if we can find out who they
were," snapped Lake, setting his strong jaw. He
did not particularly like Billy especially since
their late trip to Rainbow. " There never was
102 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
a man yet so good but there was one just a little
better."
" By a good man, in this connection, you mean
a bad man, I presume? " said Billy in a meditative
drawl. " Were you a good man before you be
came a banker? "
"Look here! What's this?" The interrup
tion came from Clarke. He pounced down be
tween two fragments of the safe door and brought
up an object which he held to the light.
At the startled tones, Lake spun round in his
swivel-chair. He held out his hand.
" Really, I don't think I ever saw anything like
this thing before," he said. " Any of you know
what it is?"
" It's a noseguard," said Billy. Billy was a
college man and had worn a nosepiece himself.
He frowned unconsciously, remembering Lis suc
cessful rival of the masquerade.
" A noseguard? What for? "
11 You wear it to protect your nose and teeth
when playing football," explained Billy. " Keeps
you from swearing, too. You hold this piece be
tween your teeth; the other part goes over your
nose, up between your eyes and fastens with this
band around your forehead."
"Why! Why!" gasped Clarke, "there was
5a man at the masquerade togged out as a football
player ! "
STATES-GENERAE 103
" I saw him," said Alec. " And he wore one
of these things. I saw him talking to Topsy."
"One of my guests?" demanded Lake scoff-
ingly. " Oh, nonsense ! Some young fellow has
been in here yesterday, talking to the clerks, and
dropped it. Who went as a football player,
White? You know all these college boys. Know
anything about this one?"
" Not a thing." There Billy lied a prompt
and loyal gentleman reasoning that Buttinski,
as he mentally styled the interloper who had mis
appropriated the Quaker lady, would have cared
nothing at that time for a paltry thirty thousand.
Thus was he guilty of a practice against which
we are all vainly warned of judging others by
ourselves. Billy remembered very distinctly that
Miss Ellinor had not reappeared until the mid
night unmasking, and he therefore acquitted her
companion of this particular crime, entirely with
out prejudice to Buttinski's felonious instincts in
general. For the watchman had been shot before
midnight. Billy made a tentative mental decision
that this famous noseguard had been brought to
the bank later and left there purposely; and re
solved to keep his eye open.
" Oh, well, it's no great difference anyhow,"
said Lake. " Whoever it was dropped it here
yesterday, I guess, and got another one for the
masquerade."
" Hold on there 1 " said Clarke, holding the
104 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
spotlight tenaciously. " That don't go ! This
thing was on top of one of those pieces of the
safe!"
For the first time Lake was startled from his
iron composure.
" Are you sure? " he demanded, jumping up.
" Sure ! It was right here against the sloping
side of this piece so."
" That puts a different light on the case, gentle
men," said Lake. " Luck is with us; and "
" And, while I think of it," said Clarke, making
the most of his unexpected opportunity, " I made
notes of all the costumes and their wearers after
the masks were off for the paper, you know
and I saw no football player there. I remember
that distinctly."
" I only saw him the one time," confirmed
Alec, " and I stayed almost to the break-up.
Whoever it was, he left early."
" But what possible motive could the robber
have for going to the dance at all? " queried Lake
in perplexity.
" Maybe he made his appearance there in a
football suit purposely, so as to leave us some
one to hunt for, and then committed the robbery
and went back in another costume," suggested
Clarke, pleased and not a little surprised at his
own ingenuity. " In that case, he would have left
this rubber thing here of design."
"H'm!" Lake was plainly struck with this
STATES-GENERAL 105
theory. " And that's not such a bad idea, either !
We'll look into this football matter after break
fast. You'll go to the hotel with me, gentlemen?
Our womankind are all asleep after the ball. [The
sheriff will send some one to guard the bank.
Meantime I'll call the cashier in and find out ex
actly how much money we're short. Send Bassett
in, will you, Billy? You stay at the <ioor and
keep that mob out."
CHAPTER VIII
ARCADES AMBO
" What means this, my lord ? "
"Marry, this is miching mallecho; it means mischief."
Hamlet.
"We are here to do what service we may, for honor and not
for hire." ROBERT Louis STEVENSON.
WITH Billy went the sheriff and Alec, the
latter with a sheaf of telegrams.
" Now . . . how did Buttinski's noseguard
get into this bank? That's what I'd like to
know," said Billy to the doorknob, when the other
committeemen had gone their ways. " I didn't
bring it. I don't believe Buttinski did. . . . :
And Policeman Lake certainly saw us quarreling.
He noticed the football player, right enough,
and he pretends he didn't. Why why why
does Policeman Lake pretend he didn't see that
football player? Echo answers why? . ,. . Den
mark's all putrefied ! "
The low sun cleared the housetops. The level
rays fell along the window-sill; and Billy, staring
fascinated at the single blotch of dried blood on
the inner sill, saw something glitter and sparkle
1 06
ARCADES AMBO 107
there beside it. He went closer. It was a dust of
finely powdered glass. Billy whistled.
A light foot ran up the steps. There was a
rap at the door.
" No entrance except on business. No business
transacted here ! " quoted Billy, startled from a
deep study. A head appeared at the window.
"Oh, it's you, Jimmy? That's different. Come
in!"
It was Jimmy Phillips, the chief deputy. Billy
knew him and liked him. He unbarred the
door.
"Well, anything turned up yet?" demanded
Jimmy. " I stopped in to see Lars. Him and me
was old side partners."
" How's he making it, Jimmy? "
" Oh, doc said he had one chance in ten thou
sand; so he's all right, I guess," responded that
brisk optimist. " ,They got any theory about the
robber?"
** They have that. A perfectly sound theory,
too only it isn't true," said Billy in a low and
guarded tone. ** They'll tell you. I haven't got
time. See here if I give you the straight tip will
you work it up and keep your head closed until
you see which way the cat jumps? Can you keep
it to yourself? "
" Mum as a sack of clams ! " said Jimmy.
" Look at this a minute ! " Billy pointed to
the tiny particles of glass on the inner sill. " Got
io8 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
that? Then I'll dust it off. This is a case for
your gummiest shoes. Now look at this ! " He
indicated the opening where the patch of glass
had been cut from the big pane. Jimmy rubbed
his finger very cautiously along the raw edge of
the glass.
" Cut out from the inside then carried out
there ? A frame-up ? "
" Exactly. But I don't want anybody else to
size it up for a frame-up not now."
" But," said Jimmy good-naturedly, " I'd 'a*
seen all that myself after a little if you hadn't 'a'
showed me."
" Yes," said Billy dryly; " and then told some
body! That's why I brushed the glass-dust off.
I've got inside information some that I'm going
to share with you and some that I am not going
to tell even you! "
"Trot it out!"
" Lake had the key of this front door in the
policeman's uniform that he wore to the dance.
Isn't that queer? If I were you I'd very quietly
find out whether he went home to get that key
after he got word that the bank was robbed. He
was still in the ballroom when he got the mes
sage."
" You think it's a put-up job? Why? "
" There is something not just right about the
man Lake. His mind is too ballbearing alto
gether. He herds those chumps in there round
ARCADES AMBO 109
like so many sheep. He used 'em to make dis
coveries with and then showed 'em how to force
'em on him. Oh, they made a heap of progress !
They've got evidence enough up in there to hang
John the Baptist, with Lake all the time setting
back in the breeching like a balky horse. It's
Lake's bank, and the bank's got burglar insur
ance. Got that? If he gets the money and the
insurance, too see? And I happen to know he
has been bucking the market. I dropped a roll
with him myself. Then there's r-r-revenge! as
they say on the stage and something else beside.
Has Lake any bitter enemies? "
"Oodles of 'em!"
" But one worse than the others one he hates
most? "
Jimmy thought for a while. Then he nodded.
" Jeff Bransford, I reckon."
"Is he in town?"
" Not that I know of."
" Well, I never heard of your Mr. Bransford;
but he's in town all right, all right! You'll see!
Lake's got a case cooked up that'll hang some
one higher than Haman; and I'll bet the first six
years of my life against a Doctor Cook lecture
ticket that the first letter of some one's name is
Jeff Bransford."
" Maybe Jeff can prove he was somewhere
else? " suggested Jimmy.
Billy evaded the issue.
no BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
" What sort of a man is this Bransford? Any
good? Besides being an enemy of Lake's, I
mean? "
" Mr. Bransford is one whom we all delight
to humor," announced the deputy, after some re
flection.
" Friend of yours? "
Jimmy reflected again.
" We-11 yes I " he said. " He limps a little in
cold weather, and I got a little small ditch plowed
in my skull but our horses was both young and
wild, and the boys rode in between us before there
was any harm done. I pulled him out of the
Pecos since that, too, and poured some several
barrels of water out o' him. Yes, we're good
friends, I reckon."
" He'll shoot back on proper occasion, then?
A good sport? Stand the gaff? "
" On proper occasion," rejoined Jimmy, " the
other man will shoot back if he's lucky. Yes,
sir, Jeff's certainly one dead game sport at any
turn in the road."
" Considering the source and spirit of your in
formation, you sadden me," said Billy. " The
better man he is, the better chance to hang. Has
he got any close friends here? "
" He seldom ever comes here," said Jimmy.
" All his friends is on Rainbow, specially South
Rainbow; but his particular side partners is all
away just now; leastways, all but one."
ARCADES AMBO in
" Can't you write to that one? "
,The deputy grinned hugely.
" And tell him to come break Jeff out o' jail? "
said he. " That don't seem hardly right, con-
siderin'. You write to him Johnny Dines,
Morningside. You might wire up to Cloud-
land and have it forwarded from there. I'll
pay."
Billy made a note of it.
" They'll be out here in a jiffy now," he said.
" Now, Jimmy, you listen to all they tell you ;
follow it up; make no comments; don't see any
thing and don't miss anything. Let Lake think
he's having it all his own way and he'll make some
kind of a break that will give him away. We
haven't got a thing against him yet except the right
guess. And you be careful to catch your friend
without a fight. When you get him I want you
to give him a message from me; but don't men
tion any name. Tell him to keep a stiff upper
lip that the devil takes care of his own. Say
the devil told you himself in person. I don't
want to show my hand. I'm on the other side
see ? That way I can be in Lake's counsels force
myself in, if necessary, after this morning."
" You think that if you give Lake rope
enough "
" Exactly. Here they come I hear their
chairs."
" Blonde or brunette? " said Jimmy casually.
H2 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
"Eh? What's that?"
" The something else that you wouldn't tell me
about," Jimmy explained. " Is she blonde or
brunette? "
"Oh, go to hell!" said Billy.
CHAPTER LX
JAKEN
"Lord Huntley then he did speak out
O, fair mot fa' his body!
'I here will fight doublet alane
Or ony thing ails Geordie!
'Whom has he robbed? What has he stole?
Or has he killed ony?
Or what's the crime that he has done
His foes they are so mony ? ' "
Old Ballad.
HUE and cry, hubbub and mystery, swept the
Isle of Arcady that morning, but the most
painstaking search and query proved fruitless. It
developed beyond doubt that the football man
had not been seen since his one brief appearance
on the ballroom floor. Search was transferred to
the mainland, where, as it neared noon, Lake's
perseverance and thoroughness were rewarded.
In Chihuahua suburb, beyond the north wall, Lake
noted a sweat-marked, red-roan horse in the yard
of Rosalio Marquez, better known, by reason of
his profession, as Monte.
Straightway the banker reported this possible
clue to the sheriff and to Billy, who was as tire-
3
ii4 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
less and determined in the chase as Lake himself.
The other masqueraders had mostly abandoned
the chase. He found them on the bridge of the
La Luz sallyport.
" It may be worth looking into," Lake advised
the sheriff. " Better send some one to reconnoiter
some one not known to be connected with your
office. You go, Billy. If you find anything sus
picious the sheriff can 'phone to the hospital if he
needs me. I'm going over to see how the old
watchman is ought to have gone before. If he
gets well I must do something handsome for him."
Billy fell in with this request. He had a well-
founded confidence in Lake's luck and attached
much more significance to the trifling matter of
the red-roan horse than did the original discoverer
especially since the discoverer had bethought
himself to go to the hospital on an errand of
mercy. Billy now confidently expected early de
velopments. And he preferred personally to con
duct tke arrest, so that he might interfere, if neces
sary, to prevent any wasting of good cartridges.
He did not expect much trouble, however, pro
viding the afair was conducted tactfully; reason
ing that a dead game sport with a clean con
science and a light heart would not seriously ob
ject to a small arrest. Poor Billy's own heart was
none of the lightest as he went on this loyal service
to his presumably favored rival.
Bicycle-back, he accompanied the sheriff beyond
TAKEN 115
the outworks to the Mexican quarter. Near the
place indicated by the banker Billy left his wheel
and strolled casually round the block. He saw
the red-roan steed and noted the Double Rain
bow branded on his thigh.
Monte was leaning in the adobe doorway, roll
ing a cigarette. Billy knew him, in a business
way.
" Hello, Monte ! Good horse you've got
there."
" Yais tha's nice hor-rse," said Monte.
"Want to sell him?"
" Thees ees not my hor-rse," explained Monte.
" He ees of a frien'."
" I like his looks," said Billy. " Is your friend
here? Or, if he's downtown, what's his name?
I'd like to buy that horse."
" He ees weetheen, but he ees not apparent.
He ees dormiendo ah yais esleepin'. He was
las' night to the baile mascarada."
Billy nodded. " Yes ; I was there myself." He
decided to take a risk: assuming that his calcula
tions were correct, x must equal Bransford. So
he said carelessly: " Let's see, Bransford went as
a sailor, didn't he? Un mariner o? "
" Oh, no; he was atir-re' lak one que cosa?
what you call thees theeng? un balon para jugar
con los pies? Ah! si, si! one feetball! Myself
I come soon back. I have no beesness. The bes'
people ees all for the dance," said Monte, with
n6 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
hand turned up and shrugging shoulder. " So,
media noche twelve of the clock, I am here back.
I fin' here the hor-rse of my frien', and one carta
letter that I am not to lock the door; porque
he may come to esleep. So I am mek to r-repose
myself. Later I am ar-rouse when my frien' am
to r-retir-re heemself. Ah, que hombre! I am
yet to esmile to see heem in thees sc r-redeeculous
vestidosf He ees ver' gay. Ah! que Jeff! Een
all ways thees ees a man ver' sufficiente, cour-
rageous, es-trong, f ormidabble ! Yet he ees keep
the disposition, the hear-rt, of a seemple leetle
chil' un muchachof"
" I'll come again," said Billy, and passed on.
He had found out what he had come for. The
absence of concealment dispelled any lingering
doubt of Jeff Buttinski. Yet he could establish
no alibi by Monte.
Perhaps Billy White may require here a little
explanation. All things considered, Billy thought
Jeff would be better off in jail, with a friend in
the opposite camp working for his interest, than
getting himself foolishly killed by a hasty posse.
If we are cynical, we may say that, being young,
Billy was not averse to the role of dens ex
machina; perhaps a thought of friendly gratitude
was not lacking. Then, too, adventure for ad
venture's sake is motive enough in youth. Or,
as a final self-revelation, we may hint that if Jeff
was a rival, so too was Lake and one more
TAKEN 117
eligible. Let us not be cynical, however, or cow
ardly. Let us say at once shamelessly what we
very well know that youth is the season for clean
honor and high emprise; that boy's love is best
and truest of all; that poor, honest Billy, in his
own dogged and fantastic way, but sought to give
true service where he loved. There, we have
said it; and we are shamed. How old are you,
sir? Forty? Fifty? Most actions are the result
of mixed motives, you say? Well, that is a nota
ble concession at your age. Let it go at that.
Billy, then, acted from mixed motives.
When Billy brought back his motives and
the sheriff Monte still held his negligent atti
tude in the doorway. He waved a graceful
salute.
" I want to see Bransford," said the sheriff.
" He ees esleepin'," said Monte.
"Well, I want to see him anyway!" The
sheriff laid a brusk hand on the gatelatch.
Monte waved his cigarette airily, flicked the
ash from the end with a slender finger, and once
more demonstrated that the hand is quicker than
the eye. The portentously steady gun in the hand
was the first intimation to the eye that the hand
had moved at all. It was a very large gun as to
caliber, the sheriff noted. As it was pointed di
rectly at his nose he was favorably situated to
observe looking along the barrel that the
hammer stood at full cock.
n8 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
" Per-rhaps you have some papers for hecm? "
suggested Monte, with gentle and delicate defer
ence. He still leaned against the doorjamb.
" But eef not eet ees bes' that you do not enter
thees my leetle house to distur-rb my gues'. That
would be to commeet a r-rudeness no ? "
The sheriff was a sufficiently brave man, if not
precisely a brilliant one. Yet he showed now in
telligence of the highest order. He dropped the
latch.
"You Billy, stop your laughing! Do you
know, Mr. Monte, I think you are quite right? "
he observed, with a smiling politeness equal to
Monte's own. " That would be rude, certainly.
My mistake. An Englishman's house is his castle
that sort of thing? If you will excuse me now
we will go and get the papers, as you so kindly
pointed out."
They went away, the sheriff, Billy and motives
Billy still laughing immoderately.
Monte went inside and stirred up his guest
with a prodding boot-toe.
" Meester Jeff," he demanded, " what you been
a-doin' now? "
Jeff sat up, rumpled his hair, and rubbed his
eyes.
" Sleepin'," he said.
" An' before? Porque, the sheriff he has been.
To mek an arres' of you, I t'eenk."
"Me?" said Jeff, rubbing his chin thought-
TAKEN 119
fully. " I haven't done anything that I can re
member now I "
"Sure? No small leetle cr-rime? Not las'
night? Me, I jus' got up. I have not hear 1 ."
Jeff considered this suggestion carefully. " No.
I am sure. Not for years. Some mistake, I
guess. Or maybe he just wanted to see me about
something else. Why didn't he come in? "
'* I mek r-reques' of heem that he do not," said
Monte.
"I see," Jeff laughed. "Come on; we'll go
see him. You don't want to get into trouble."
They crossed the bridge and met the sheriff
just within the fortifications, returning in a
crowded automobile. Jeff held up his hand. .The
machine stopped and the posse deployed except
Billy, who acted as chauffeur.
" You wanted to see me, sheriff at the ho
tel?"
" Why, yes, if you don't mind," said the
sheriff.
"Good dinner? I ain't had breakfast yet!"
" First-class," said the sheriff cordially.
" Won't your friend come too? "
" Ah, sefior, you eshame me that I am not so
hospitabble, ees eet not? " purred Monte, as he
followed Jeff into the tonneau.
The sheriff reddened and Billy choked.
14 Nothing of the sort," said the sheriff hastily,
lapsing into literalness. " You were quite withitt
120 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
your rights. For that matter, I know you were
at your own bank, dealing, when the crime was
committed. I am holding you for the present as
a possible accessory; and, if not, then as a ma
terial witness. By the way, Monte, would you
mind if I sent some men to look through your
place? There is a matter of some thirty thou
sand dollars missing. Lake asked us to look for
it. I have papers for it if you care to see them."
"Oh, no, seiior!" said Monte. He handed
over a key. " La casa es suyo! "
" Thank you," said the sheriff, with unmoved
gravity. "Anything of yours you want 'em to
bring, Bransford? "
" Why, no," said Jeff cheerfully. " I've got
nothing there but my saddle, my gun and an old
football suit that belongs to 'Gene Baird, over on
the West Side; but if you want me to stay long,
I wish you'd look after my horse."
" I too have lef there my gun that I keep to
protec' my leetle house," observed Monte.
" Tell some one to keep eet for me. I am much
attach' to that gun."
" Why, yes, I have seen that gun, I think,"
said the sheriff. " .They'll look out for it. All
right, Billy!"
The car turned back.
" Oh you were speaking about Monte being
an accessory. I didn't get in till 'way late last
night, and I've been asleep all day," said Jeff
TAKEN 121
apologetically. " Might I ask before or after ex
actly what fact Monte was an accessory? "
" Bank robbery, for one thing."
"Ah! ... That would be Lake's bank?
Anything else ? "
The sheriff was not a patient man and he had
borne much; also, he liked Lars Porsena. Per
fection, even in trifles, is rare and wins affection.
He turned on Jeff, with an angry growl.
"Murder!"
" Lake? " murmured Jeff hopefully.
The sheriff continued, ignoring and, indeed, only
half sensing the purport of Jeff's comment:
" At least, the wound may not be mortal."
" That's too bad," said Jeff. He was, if pos
sible, more cheerful than ever.
The sheriff glared at him. Billy, from the
front seat, threw a word of explanation over
his shoulder. < It's not Lake. The watch
man."
"Oh, old Lars Porsena? That's different.
Not a bad sort, Lars. Maybe he'll get well.
Hope so. ... And I shot him? Dear me!
When did it happen? "
" You'll find out soon enough ! " said the sheriff
grimly. " Your preliminary's right away."
" Hell, I haven't had breakfast yet! " Jeff pro
tested. " Feed us first or we won't be tried at
all."
122 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
Within the jail, while the sheriff spoke with his
warder, it occurred to Billy that, since Jimmy
Phillips was not to be seen, he might as well carry
his own friendly message. So he said guard
edly:
" Buck up, old man ! Keep a stiff upper lip and,
be careful what you say. This is only your pre
liminary trial, remember. Lots of things may
happen before court sets. The devil looks after
his own, you know."
Jeff had a good ear for voices, however, and
Billy's mustache still kept more than a hint of
Mephistopheles. Jeff slowly surveyed Billy's
natty attire, with a lingering and insulting interest
for such evidences of prosperity as silken hosiery
and a rather fervid scarfpin. At last his eye met
Billy's, and Billy was blushing.
"Does he?" drawled Jeff languidly. "Ah!
r . . . You own the car, then? "
Poor Billy!
Notwithstanding the ingratitude of this rebuff,
Billy sought out Jimmy Phillips and recounted to
him the circumstances of the arrest.
" Oh, naughty, naughty ! " said the deputy,
caressing his nose. " Lake's been a cowman on
Rainbow. He knew the brand on that horse; he
knew Jeff was chummy with Monte. He knew in
all reason that Jeff was in there, and most likely
he knew it all the time. So he sneaks off to see
TAKEN 123
Lars after shooting him from ambush, damn
him ! and sends you to take Jeff. Looks like he
might be willing for you and Jeff to damage either,
which or both of yourselves, as the case may
be."
" It looks so," said Billy.
" Must be a fine girl ! " murmured Jimmy ab
sently. "Well, what are you going to do? It
looks pretty plain."
" It looks plain to us but we haven't got a
single tangible thing against Lake yet. We'd be
laughed out of court if we brought an accusation
against him. We'll have to wait and keep our
eyes open."
"You're sure Lake did it? There was no
rubber nosepiece at Monte's house. All the rest
of the football outfit but not that. That looks
bad for Jeff."
" On the contrary, that is the strongest link
against Lake. I dare say Buttinski Mr. Brans-
ford is eminently capable of bank robbery at
odd moments; but I know approximately where
that noseguard was at sharp midnight after the
watchman was shot." Here Billy swore men
tally, having a very definite guess as to how Jeff
might have lost the noseguard. " Lake, Clarke,
Turnbull, Thompson, Alec or myself one of the
six of us brought that noseguard to the bank
after the robbery, and only one of the six had a
motive and a key."
124 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
" Only one of you had a key," corrected Jimmy
cruelly. " But can't Jeff prove where he was,
maybe ? "
" He won't."
" I'd sure like to see her," said Jimmy,
CHAPTER X
THE ALIBI
" And all love's clanging trumpets shocked and blew."
"The executioner's argument was, that you couldn't cut off
a head unless there was a body to cut it off from; that he had
never had to do such a thing before, and he wasn't going to
begin at his time of life." Alice in Wonderland.
r~T^HE justice of the peace, when the county
JL court was not in session, held hearings in
the courtroom proper, which occupied the entire
second story of the county courthouse. The room
was crowded. It was a new courthouse ; there are
people impatient to try even a new hearse; and
this bade fair to be Arcadia's first cause celebre.
Jeff sat in the prisoner's stall, a target for
boring eyes. He was conscious of an undesirable
situation; exactly how tight a place it was he had
no means of knowing until he should have heard
the evidence. The room was plainly hostile ; black
looks were cast upon him. Deputy Phillips, as he
entered arm in arm with the sometime devil, gave
the prisoner an intent but non-committal look,
which Jeff rightly interpreted as assurance of a
friend in ambush; he felt unaccountably sure of
135
126 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
the devil's fraternal aid; Monte, lolling within the
rail of the witness-box, smiled across at him.
Still, he would have felt better for another
friendly face or two, he thought say, John Wes
ley Pringle's,
Jeff looked from the open window. Cotton-
woods, well watered, give swiftest growth of any
trees and are therefore the dominant feature of
new communities in dry lands. The courthouse
yard was crowded with them : Jeff, from the win
dow, could see nothing but their green plumes;
and his thoughts ran naturally upon gardens or,
to be more accurate, upon a garden.
Would she lose faith in him? Had she heard
yet? Would he be able to clear himself? No
mere acquittal would do. Because of Ellinor,
there must be no question, no verdict of Not
Proven. She would go East to-morrow. Per
haps she would not hear of his arrest at all. He
hoped not. The bank robbery, the murder yes,
she would hear of them, perhaps; but why need
she hear his name? Hers was a world so dif
ferent! He fell into a muse at this.
Deputy Phillips passed and stood close to him,
looking down from the window. His back was
to Jeff; but, under cover of the confused hum
of many voices, he spake low from the corner
of his mouth:
" Play your hand close to your bosom, old-
timer! Wait for the draw and watch the
THE ALIBI 127
dealer! " He strolled over to the other side of
the judicial bench whence he came.
This vulgar speech betrayed Jimmy as one
given to evil courses; but to Jeff that muttered
.warning was welcome as thunder of Bliicher's
squadrons to British squares at Waterloo.
Down the aisle came a procession consciously
important the prosecuting attorney; the bank's
lawyer, who was to assist, " for the people " ; and
Lake himself. As they passed the gate Jeff smiled
his sweetest.
"Hello, Wally!" Lake's name was Stephen
Walter.
Wally made no verbal response; but his un
dershot jaw did the steel-trap act and there was
a triumphant glitter in his eye. He turned his
broad back pointedly and Jeff smiled again.
The justice took his seat on the raised dais
intervening between Jeff and the sheriff's desk.
Court was opened. The usual tedious prelim
inaries followed. Jeff waived a jury trial, refused
a lawyer and announced that he would call no
witnesses at present.
In an impressive stillness the prosecutor rose
for his opening statement. Condensed, it re
counted the history of the crime, so far as known;
fixed the time by the watchman's statement to
be confirmed, he said, by another witness, the
telephone girl on duty at that hour, who had
heard the explosion and the ensuing gunshot;
128 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
touched upon that watchman's faithful service and
his present desperate condition. He told of the
late finding of the injured man, the meeting in
the bank, the sum taken by the robber, and the
discovery in the bank of the rubber nosepiece,
which he submitted as Exhibit A. He cited the
witnesses by whom he would prove each state
ment, and laid special stress upon the fact that the
witness Clarke would testify that the nosepiece
had been found upon the shattered fragments of
the safe door conclusive proof that it had been
dropped after the crime. And he then held forth
at some length upon the hand of Providence, as
manifested in the unconscious self-betrayal which
had frustrated and brought to naught the pris
oner's fiendish designs. On the whole, he spoke
well of Providence.
Now Jeff had not once thought of the discarded
noseguard since he first found it in his way; he
began to see how tightly the net was drawn round
him. " There was a serpent in the garden," he
reflected. A word from Miss Hoffman would set
him free. If she gave that word at once, it would
be unpleasant for her: but if she gave it later,
as a last resort, it would be more than unpleasant.
And in that same hurried moment, Jeff knew that
he would not call upon her for that word. All
his crowded life, he had kept the happy knack
of falling on his feet: the stars, that fought in
their courses against Sisera, had ever fought for
THE ALIBI 129
reckless Bransford. He decided, with lovable
folly, to trust to chance, to his wits and to his
friends.
" And now, Your Honor, we come to the un
breakable chain of evidence which fatally links
the prisoner at the bar to this crime. We will
prove that the prisoner was not invited to the
masquerade ball given last night by Mr. Lake.
We will prove "
There was a stir in the courtroom; the pros
ecutor paused, disconcerted. Eyes were turned to
the double door at the back of the courtroom.
In the entryway at the head of the stairs huddled
a group of shrinking girls. Before them, one foot
upon the threshold, stood Ellinor Hoffman. She
shook off a detaining hand and stepped into the
room x head erect, proud, pale. Across the sea
of curious faces her eyes met the prisoner's. Of
all the courtroom, Billy and Deputy Phillips alone
turned then to watch Jeff's face. They saw an
almost imperceptible shake of his head, a finger
on lip, a reassuring gesture saw, too, the quick
pulsebeat at his throat.
The color flooded back to Ellinor's face. Men
nearest the door were swift to bring chairs. The
prosecutor resumed his interrupted speech his
voice was deep, hard, vibrant.
" Your Honor, the counts against this man are
fairly damning! We will prove that he was
shaved in a barber shop in Arcadia at ten o'clock
130 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
last night; that he then rode a roan horse; that
the horse was then sweating profusely; that this
horse was afterward found at the house of but
we will take that up later. We will prove by
many witnesses that among the masqueraders was
a man wearing a football suit, wearing a nose-
piece similar entirely similar to the one found
in the bank, which now lies before you. We will
prove that this football player was not seen in
the ballroom after the hour of eleven P.M. We
will prove that when he was next seen, without
the ballroom, it was not until sufficient time had
elapsed for him to have committed this awful
crime."
Ellinor half rose from her seat; again Jeff
flashed a warning at her.
1{ We will prove this, Your Honor, by a most
unwilling witness Rosalio Marquez " Monte
smiled across at Jeff " a friend of the prisoner,
who, in his behalf, has not scrupled to defy
the majesty of the law! We can prove by
this witness, this reluctant witness, that when
he returned to his home, shortly after mid
night, he found there the prisoner's horse,
which had not been there when Mr. Mar
quez left the house some four hours previously:
and that, at some time subsequent to twelve
o'clock, the witness Marquez was wakened by
the entrance of the prisoner at the bar, clad in a
football suit, but wearing no nosepiece with it I
THE ALIBI 131
And we have the evidence of the sheriff's posse
that they found in the home of the witness, Rosalio
Marquez, the football suit which we offer as
Exhibit B. Nay, more! The prisoner did not
deny, and indeed admitted, that this uniform was
his ; but mark this ! the searching party found
no nosepiece there!
" It is true, Your Honor, that the stolen money
was not found upon the prisoner; it is true that
the prisoner made no use of the opportunity to
escape offered him by his lawless and disreputa
ble friend, Rosalio Marquez a common gam
bler! Doubtless, Your Honor, his cunning had
devised some diabolical plan upon which he relied
to absolve himself from suspicion; and now, trem
bling, he has for the first time learned of the fatal
flaw in his concocted defense, which he had so
fondly deemed invincible ! "
All eyes, including the orator's, here turned
upon the prisoner to find him, so far from trem
bling, quite otherwise engaged. The prisoner's
elbow was upon the rail, his chin in his hand; he
regarded Mr. Lake attentively, with cheerful
amusement and a quizzical smile which in some
way subtly carried an expression of mockery and
malicious triumph. To this fixed and disconcert
ing regard Mr. Lake opposed an iron front, but
the effort required was apparent to all.
There was an uneasy rustling through the
court. The prisoner's bearing was convincing, nat-
132 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
ural; this was no mere brazen assuming. The
banker's forced composure was not natural ! He
should have been an angry banker. Of the two
men, Lake was the less at ease. The prisoner's
face turned at last toward the door. Blank un-
recognition was in his eyes as they swept past
Ellinor, but he shook his head once more, very
slightly.
There was a sense of mystery in the air a
buzz and burr of whispers; a rustle of moving
feet. The audience noticeably relaxed its implaca
ble attitude toward the accused, eyed him with
a different interest, seemed to feel for the first
time that, after all, he was accused merely, and
that his defense had not yet been heard. The
prosecutor felt this subtle change; it lamed his
periods.
" It is true, Your Honor, that no eye save
God's saw this guilty man do this deed; but the
web of circumstantial evidence is so closely drawn,
so far-reaching, so unanswerable, so damning, that
no defense can avail him except the improbable,
the impossible establishment of an alibi so com
plete, so convincing, as to satisfy even his bitterest
enemy! We will ask you, Your Honor, when
you have seen how fully the evidence bears out
our every contention, to commit the prisoner, with
out bail, to answer the charge of robbery and at
tempted murder! "
Then, by the door, Jeff saw the girl start up.
THE ALIBI 133
She swept down the aisle, radiant, brave, unfear-
ing, resolute, all half-gods gone; she shone at
him proud, glowing, triumphant!
A hush fell upon the thrilled room. Jeff was
on his feet, his hand held out to stay her; his
eyes spoke to hers. She stopped as at a com
mand. Scarcely slower, Billy was at her side.
"Wait! Wait!" he whispered. "See what he
has to say. There will be always time for that."
Jeff's eyes held hers; she sank into an offered
chair.
Cheated, disappointed, the court took breath
again. Their dramatic moment had been nothing
but their own nerves; their own excited imagin
ings had attached a pulse-fluttering significance to
the flushed cheeks of a prying girl, seeking a better
place to see and hear, to gratify her morbid curi
osity.
Jeff turned to the bench.
" Your Honor, I have a perfectly good line of
defense ; and I trust no friend of mine will under
take to change it. I will keep you but a minute,"
he said colloquially. " I will not waste your time
combating the ingenious theory which the prose
cution has built up, or in cross-examination of
their witnesses, who, I feel sure " here he bowed
to the cloud of witnesses " will testify only to
the truth. I quite agree with my learned friend "
another graceful bow " that the case he has
so ably presented is so strong that it can success-
134 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
fully be rebutted only by an alibi so clear and so
incontestable, as my learned friend has so aptly
phrased it, as to convince if not satisfy . . . my
bitterest enemy!" The bow, the subtle, icy in
tonation, edged the words. The courtroom
thrilled again at the unspoken thought: "An
enemy hath done this thing! " If, in the stillness,
the prisoner had quoted the words aloud in fierce
denunciation, the effect could not have been dif
ferent or more startling. " And that, Your
Honor, is precisely what I propose to do ! "
His Honor was puzzled. He was a good judge
of men; and the prisoner's face was not a bad
face.
" But," he objected, " you have refused to call
any witnesses for the defense. Your unsupported
word will count for nothing. You cannot prove
an alibi alone."
" Can't I ? " said Jeff. " Watch me ! "
With a single motion he was through the open
window. Bending branches of the nearest cot-
tonwood broke his fall the other trees hid his
flight.
Behind him rose uproar, tumult and hullabaloo,
a mass of struggling men at cross purposes. Gun
in hand, the sheriff, stumbling over some one's
foot Monte's ran to the window ; but the faith
ful deputy was before him, blocking the way,
firing with loving care at one particular tree-
trunk. He was a good shot, Jimmy. He after-
THE ALIBI 135
ward showed with pride where each ball had
struck in a scant six-inch space. Vainly the sheriff
tried to force his way through. There was but
one stairway, and it was jammed. Before the
foremost pursuer had reached the open Jeff had
borrowed one of the saddled horses hitched at
the rack and was away to the hills.
As Billy struggled through the press, searching
for Ellinor, he found himself at Jimmy's elbow.
" A dead game sport any turn in the road ! "
agreed Billy.
The deputy nodded curtly; but his answer was
inconsequent :
" Rather in the brunette line that bit of tangi
ble evidence I "
CHAPTER XI
THE NETTLE, DANGER
"Bushel o' wheat, bushel o' rye
All 'at ain't ready, holler 'I'!"
Hide and Sett.
DOUBLE MOUNTAIN lies lost in the
desert, dwarfed by the greatness all about.
Its form is that of a crater split from north to
south into irregular halves. Through that nar
row cleft ran a straight road, once the well-
traveled thoroughfare from Rainbow to El Paso.
For there was precious water within those up
heaved walls; it was but three miles from portal
to portal; the slight climb to the divide had not
been grudged. Time was when campfires were
nightly merry to light the narrow cliffs of Double
Mountain; when songs were gay to echo from
them; when this had been the only watering place
to break the long span across the desert. The
railroad had changed all this, and the silent
leagues of that old road lay untrodden in the
sun.
Not untrodden on this the day after Jeff had
established his alibi. A traveler followed that
136
THE NETTLE, DANGER 137
lonely road to Double Mountain ; and behind, half
way to Rainbow Range, was a streak of dust;
which gained on him. The traveler's sorrel horse
was weary, for it was the very horse Jeff Brans-
ford had borrowed from the hitching-rail of the
courthouse square; the traveler was that able
negotiator himself; and the pursuing dust, to the
best of Jeff's knowledge and belief, meant him
no good tidings.
" Now, I got safe away from the foothills be
fore day," soliloquized Jeff. " Some gentleman
has overtaken me with a spyglass, I reckon.
Civilization's getting this country plumb ruined!
And their horses are fresh. Peg along, Alibi!
Maybe I can pick up a stray horse at Double
Mountain. If I can't there's no sort of use trying
to get away on you ! I'll play hide-and-go-seek-
'em. That'll let you out, anyway, so cheer up!
You done fine, old man! If I ever get out of
this I'll buy you and make it all right with you.
Pension you off if you think you'll like it. Get
along now ! "
Twenty miles to Jeff's right the railroad paral
leled the wagonroad in an unbroken tangent of
ninety miles' stretch. A southbound passenger
train crawled along the west like a resolute centi
pede plodding to a date: behind the fugitive,
abreast, now far ahead, creeping along the shin
ing straightaway. Forty miles the hour was her
schedule; yet against this vast horizon she could
138 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
hardly be said to change place until, sighting be
yond her puny length, a new angle of the far
western wall completed the trinomial line.
Escondido was hidden in a dip of plain
whence the name, Hidden, when done into Saxon
speech. The train was lost to sight when she
stopped there, but Jeff saw the tiny steam plume
of her whistling rise in the clear and taintless air;
long after, the faint sound of it hummed drowsily
by, like passing, far-blown horns of faerie in a
dream. And, at no great interval thereafter, a
low-lying dust appeared suddenly on the hither
rim of Escondido's sunken valley.
Jeff knew the land as you know your hallway.
That line of dust marked the trail from Escon
dido Valley to the farther gate of Double Moun
tain. Even if he should be lucky enough to get
a change of mounts at the spring in Double Moun
tain Basin he would be intercepted. Escape by
flight was impossible. To fight his way out was
impossible. He had no gun; and, even if he had
a gun, he could not see his way to fight, under
the circumstances. The men who hunted him
down were only doing the right thing as they
saw it. Had Jeff been guilty, it would have been
a different affair. Being innocent, he could make
no fight for it. He was cornered.
"Said the little Eohi'ppus:
' I'm going to be a horse! ' H
THE NETTLE, DANGER 139
So chanted Jeff, perceiving the hopelessness of his
plight.
The best gift to man or, if not the best, then
at least the rarest is the power to meet the
emergency: to do your best and a little better
than your best when nothing less will serve: to
be a pinch hitter. It is to be thought that certain
stages of affection, and more particularly the pres
ence of its object, affect unfavorably the workings
of pure intellect. Certain it is that capable Brans-
ford, who had cut so sorry a figure in Eden gar
den, now, in these distressing but Eveless circum
stances, rose to the occasion. Collected, resource
ful, he grasped every possible angle of the situa
tion and, with the rope virtually about his neck,
cheerfully planned the impossible the essence of
his elastic plan being to climb that very rope,
hand over hand, to safety.
" Going round the mountain is no good on a
give-out horse. They'll follow my tracks," said
Jeff to Jeff. Men who are much alone so shape
their thoughts by voicing them, just as you prac
tice conversation rather to make your own thought
clear to yourself than to enlighten your victim
beg pardon your neighbor. Just a slip of the!
tongue. Vecino is the Spanish for neighbor, you
know. Not so much to enlighten your neighbor
as to find out for yourself precisely what it is
you think. " Hiding in the Basin is no good.
Can't get out. Would I were a bird ! Only one
140 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
way. Got to go straight up disappear vanish
in the air. 4 Up a chimney, up ' Naw, that's
backward ! ' Up a chimney, down, or down a
chimney, down; but not up a chimney, up, nor
down a chimney, up ! ' So that's settled 1 Now
let me see, says the little man. Mighty few
Arcadians know me well enough not to be fooled
mebbe so. Lake? Lake won't come. He'll
be busy. There's Jimmy; but Jimmy's got a
shocking bad memory for faces sometimes, just
now, my face. I think, maybe, I could manage
Jimmy. The sheriff? That would be real awk
ward, I reckon. I'll just play the sheriff isn't in
the bunch and build my little bluff according to
that pleasing fancy; for if he comes along it is all
off with little Jeff !
" Now lemme see ! If Gwin's working that
little old mine of his why, he'll lie himself black
in the face just for the principle of it. Mighty in-
terestin' talker, Gwin is. And if no one's there,
I'll be there. Not Jeff Bransford; he got away.
I'll be Long Tobe Long working for Gwin.
Tobe Long. I apprenticed my son to a miner,
and the first thing he took was a new name ! "
Far away on the side of Double Mountain he
could even now see the white triangle of the tent
at Gwin's mine the Ophir and the gray dump
spilling down the hillside. There was no smoke
to be seen. Jeff made up his mind there was no
one at the mine which was what he devoutly
THE NETTLE, DANGER 141
hoped and further developed his gleeful hy
pothesis.
" Let's see now, jTobe. Got to study this all
out. They most always leave all their kegs full
of water when they go away, so they won't have
to pack 'em up the first thing when they come
back. If they did, I'm all right. If they didn't,
I'm in a hell of a fix! They'll leave 'em full,
though. Of course they did else the kegs would
all dry up and fall down." He glanced over his
shoulder. " Them fellows are ten or twelve miles
back, I reckon. They'll slow up so soon as they
see I'm headed off. I'll have time to fix things
up if only there's water in the kegs at the
mine ! " He patted Alibi's head : " Now, old man,
do your damnedest! It's pretty tough on you,
but your part will soon be over."
Alibi had made a poor night of it, what with
doubling and twisting in the foothills, the bitter
water of a gyp spring, and the scanty grass of a
cedar thicket; but he did his plucky best. On
the legal other hand, as Jeff had prophesied, the
dustmakers behind had slackened their gait when
they perceived, by the dust of Escondido trail,
that their allies must cut the quarry off. So
Alibi held his own with the pursuit.
He came to the rising ground leading to the
sheer base of Double Mountain; then to the nar
row Gap where the mountain had fallen asunder
in some age-old catacylsm. To the left, the dump
142 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
of Ophir Mine hung on the hillside above the
pass; and on the broad trail zigzagging up to it
were burro-tracks, but no fresh tracks of men.
The flaps of the white tent on the dump were
tightly closed. There was no one at the mine.
Jeff passed within the walls, through frowning
gates of porphyry and gneiss, and urged Alibi
up the canon. It was half a mile to the spring.
On the way he found three shaggy burros grazing
beside the road. He drove them into the small
pen by the spring and tossed his rope on the
largest one. Then he unsaddled Alibi, tied him
to the fence by the bridle rein, and searched his
pockets for an old letter. This found, he pen
ciled a note and tied it to the saddle. It was
brief:
EN ROUTE, FOUR P.M.
Please water my horse when he cools off.
Your little friend,
JEFF BRANSFORD.
P. S. Excuse haste.
He made a plain trail of high-heeled boot-
tracks to the spring, where he drank deep; thence
beyond, through the sandy soil, to the nearest
rocky ridge. Then, careful that every step fell
on a bare rock, he came circuitously back to the
corral, climbed the fence, made his way to the
tied burro, improvised a bridle of cunning half-
hitches, slipped from the fence to the burro's
THE NETTLE, DANGER 143
back a burro, by the way, is a donkey named
the burro anew as Balaam, and went back down
the canon at the best pace of which the belabored
and astonished Balaam was capable. As Jeff had
hoped, the two other burros or the other two
burros, to be precise followed sociably, braying
remonstrance.
Without the mouth of the canon Jeff rode up
the steep trail to the mine, also to the great dis
gust of his mount; but he must not walk it
would leave boot-tracks. For the same reason,
after freeing Balaam, his first action was to pull
off the telltale boots and replace them with the
smallest pair of hobnailed miner's shoes in the
tent. With these he carefully obliterated the few
boot-tracks at the tent door.
The water-kegs were full ; Jeff swore his joyful
gratitude and turned his eye to the plain. The
pursuing dust was still far away seven miles, he
estimated, or possibly eight. The three burros
nibbled on the bushes below the dump; plainly
intending to stay round camp with an eye for
possible tips. Jeff gave his whole-hearted atten
tion to the mise-en-scene.
Never did stage manager toil so hard, so faith
fully, so effectively as this one or with so great
a need. He took stock of the available stage
properties, beginning with a careful inventory of
the grub-chest. To betray ignorance of its possi
bilities or deficiencies would be fatal. Following
144 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
a narrow trail round a little shoulder of hill, he
found the powder magazine. Taking three sticks
of dynamite, with fuse and caps, he searched the
tent for the candle-box, lit a candle and went into
the tunnel with a brisk trot. " If this was a case
of fight, now, I'd have some pretty fair weapons
here for close quarters," said Jeff; "but the way
I'm fixed I can't. No fighting goes unless Lake
comes."
In the tunnel his luck held good. He found a
number of good-sized chunks of rock stacked
along the wall near the breast evidently reserved
for the ore pile at a more convenient season. Be
neath three of the largest of these rocks he care
fully adjusted the three sticks of giant powder,
properly capped and fused, lit the fuses and re
treated to the safety of the dump. Three muf
fled detonations followed at short intervals.
Having thus announced the presence of mining
operations, he built a fire on the kitchen side of
the dump to further advertise a mind conscious
of its own rectitude. The pleasant shadow of
the hills was cool about him; the flame rose clear
and bright in the windless air, to be seen from
far away.
He looked at the location papers in the monu
ment by the ore stack; simultaneously, by way of
economizing time, emptying a can of salmon.
This was partly for the added verisimilitude of
the empty tin, partly because he was ravenously
THE NETTLE, DANGER 145
hungry. You may guess how he emptied the
tin.
The mine had changed owners since Jeff's
knowledge of it. It was no longer Gwin's sole
property. The notice bore the signatures of J.
Gwin, C. W. Sanders and Walter Fleck. Jeff
grinned and his eye brightened. He knew Fleck
only slightly; but Fleck's reputation among the
cowmen was good that is to say, as you would
see it, very bad.
Pappy Sanders, postmaster and storekeeper
of Escondido, was an old and sorely tried friend
of Jeff's. If Pappy had grub-staked the out
fit A far-away plan began to shape vaguely
in his fertile brain. He took the little turquoise
horse from his pocket and laid it in the till of
the violated trunk. Were you told about the vio
lated trunk? Never mind he had done any
amount of other things of which you have not
been told; for it was his task, in the brief time
allotted to him, to master all the innumerable
details needful for an intelligent reading of his
part. He must make no blunders.
He toiled like two men, each swifter and more
savagely efficient than himself; he upset the prim,
old he-maidenish order of that carefully packed,
spick-and-span camp; he rumpled the beds;
strewed old clothes, books, candles, specimens,
pipes and cigarette papers with lavish hand; made
untidy, sprawling heaps of tin plates; knives,
146 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
forks and spoons; spilled candle-grease and to
bacco on the scoured table; and generally gave
things a cozy and habitable appearance.
He gave a hundred deft touches here and there.
He spread an open book face downward on the
table. (It was "Alice in Wonderland," and he
opened it at the Mock-Turtle.) Meanwhile an
unoccupied eye snatched titles from a shelf of
books against possible question; he penned a short
note to himself Mr. Tobe Long in Gwin's
handwriting, folded the note to creases, twisted
it to a spill, lit it, burned a corner of it, pinched
it out and threw it under the table; and, while
doing these and other things, he somehow man
aged to shed every article of Jeff Bransford's
clothing and to put on the work-stained garments
of a miner.
The perspiration on his face was no stage
make-up, but good, honest sweat. He rubbed
stone-dust and sand on his sweaty arms and into
his sweaty hair; he rubbed most of it from his
hair and into the two-days' stubble on his face,
simultaneously fishing razor and mug from the
trunk, leaving them in evidence on the table. He
worked stone-dust into his ears, behind his ears;
he grimed it on forehead and neck; he even
dropped a little into his shoes, which all this while
had been performing independent miracles to
make the camp look comfortable. He threw on
a dingy cap, thrust in the cap a miner's candle-
147
stick, with a lighted candle, that it might properly
drip upon him while he arranged further details
and so faced the world as Tobe Long, a stooped
and overworked man!
Mr. Tobe Long, working with feverish haste,
dug a small cave halfway down the steep side of
the dump farthest from the road and buried
therein a tightly rolled bundle containing every
article appertaining to the defunct Bransford,
with the single exception of the little eohippus; a
pocketknife, which a miner must have to cut pow
der and fuse, having been found in the trunk
what time also the little turquoise horse was trans
ferred to Mr. Long's pocket to bring him luck
in his new career a poor thing compared with
the cowman's keen blade, but better for Mr.
Long's purposes, as smelling strongly of dynamite.
Then Mr. Long Tobe hid the grave by sliding
and shoveling broken rock down the dump upon it.
Next he threw into a wheelbarrow drills,
spoon, tamping stick, gads, drill-hammer, rock-
hammer, canteen, shovel and pick taking care,
even in his haste, to select a properly matched set
of drills and trundled the barrow up the drift
at a pace which would give a Miners' Union the
rabies. At the breast, he unshipped his cargo in
right miner's fashion, the drills in a graduated
stepladder row along the wall ; loaded the barrow
with broken ore, a bit of charred fuse showing at
the top, and wheeled it out at the same unpro-
148 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
fessional gait, leaving it on the dump just above
the spot where his late sepulchral rites had fresh
ened the appearance of the sunbeaten dump.
He next performed his ablutions in an ama^
teurish and perfunctory fashion, scrupulously ob
serving a well-defined waterline.
" There ! " said Mr. Long. " I near made a
break that time! " He went back to the barrow
and trundled it assiduously to the tunnel's mouth
and back several times, carefully never in quite
the same place finally leaving it not above the
sepulchered spoil, but near the ore stack, as be
fitted its valuable contents. " I got to think of
everything. One wrong break'll fix me good ! "
said Mr. Long. He felt his neck delicately, as if
he detected some foreign presence there. " In
the tunnel, now, there's only the one place where
the wheel can go; so it don't matter so much in
there."
The fire having now burned down to proper
coals, Mr. Long set about supper; with the corner
of his eye on the lookout for the pursuers of the
late Bransford. He set the coffee-pot by the fire
they were now in the edge of the tarbrush; there
were only two of them. He put on a pot of
potatoes in their jackets he could see them
plainly, diminutive black horsemen twinkling
through the brush; he sliced bacon into a frying-
pan and put it aside to await his cue; he dis
posed other cooking ware in lifelike attitudes near
THE NETTLE, DANGER 149
the fire they were in the long shadow of Double
Mountain; their horses were jaded; they rode
slowly. He dropped the sour-dough jar and
placed the broken pieces where they would be
inconspicuously visible. Having thus a perfectly
obvious excuse for not having sour-dough bread,
which requires thirty-six hours of running start
for preliminary rising, Jeff Mr. Tobe Long
mixed up a just-as-good baking-powder substitute
they rode like young men ; they rode like young
men not to the saddle born, and Tobe permitted
himself a chuckle : " By hooky, I've got an even
chance for my little bluff ! "
He shook his head reprovingly at himself for-
this last admission. With every minute he looked
more like Tobe Long than ever if only there had
been any Tobe Long to look like. His mind ran
upon nuggets, pockets, placers, faults, true fissure
veins, the cyanide process, concentrates, chlorides,
sulphides, assays, leases and bonds; his face took
on the strained wistfulness which marks the con
firmed prospector: he was Tobe Longl
The bell rang.
CHAPTER XII
THE SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN
"Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes."
The Dictionary.
"TT O-O-E-EE ! Hello-o ! "
j_ X As the curtain rose to the flying echoes
Long stepped to the edge of the dump, frying-pan
in hand, and sent back an answering shout in the
startled high note of a lonely man taken un
awares.
" Hello-o ! " He brandished his hospitable
pan. Then he put it down, cupped hands to mouth
and trumpeted a hearty welcome: "Chuck!
Come up ! Supper's ready ! "
" Can't ! See any one go by about two hours
ago?"
"Hey? Louder!"
" See a man on a sorrel horse?"
" No-o ! I been in the tunnel. Come up I "
" Can't. We're after an outlaw 1 "
"What?"
" After a murderer 1 "
" Wait a minute 1 I'll be down. Too hard to
yell so far."
150
Mr. Long started precipitately down the zig
zag; but the riders had got all the information
of interest that Mr. Long could furnish and they
were eager to be in at the death.
" Can't wait I He's inside the mountain, some-
wheres. Some of the boys are waiting for him
at the other end." They rode on.
Mr. Long posed for a statue of Disappoint
ment, hung on the steep trail rather as if he might
conclude to coil himself into a ball and roll down
the hill to overtake them.
" Stop as you come back ! " he bellowed.
" Want to hear about it."
Did Jeff Mr. Long did Mr. Long now at
tempt to escape ? Not so. Gifted with prevision
beyond most, Mr. Long's mind misgave him that
these young men would be baffled in their pleasing
expectations. They would be back before sun
down, very cross; and a miner's brogan leaves a
track not to be missed.
That Mr. Long was unfeignedly fatigued from
the varied efforts of the day need not be men
tioned, for that alone would not have stayed his
flight; but the nearest water, save Escondido,
was thirty-five miles; and at Escondido he would
be watched for not to say that, when he was
missed, some of the searching party would
straightway go to Escondido to frustrate him.
Present escape was not to be thought of.
152 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
Instead, Mr. Long made a hearty meal from
the simple viands that had been in course of
preparation when he was surprised, eked out by
canned corn fried in bacon grease to a crisp,
golden brown. Then, after a cigarette, he betook
himself to sharpening tools with laudable indus
try. The tools were already sharp, but that did
not stop Mr. Long. He built a fire in the forge,
set up a stepladder of matched drills in the black
ened water of the tempering tub ; he thrust a gad
and one short drill into the fire. When the gad
Was at a good cherry heat he thrust it hissing into
the tub to bring the water to a convincing tem
perature; and when reheated he did it again.
From time to time he held the one drill to the
anvil and shaped it, drawing it alternately to a
chisel bit or a bull bit. Mr. Long could sharpen
a drill with any, having been, in very truth, a
miner of sorts he could toy thus with one drill
without giving it any very careful attention, and
his thoughts were now busy on how best to be
Mr. Long.
Accordingly from time to time he added an
artistic touch to Mr. Long grime under his fin
gernails, a smudge of smut on an eyebrow. His
hands displeased him. After some experiment
ing to get the proper heat of it he grasped the
partially cooled gad with the drill-pincers and
held it very lightly to a favored few of those por
tions of the hand known to chiromaniacs as the
SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN 153
mounts of Jupiter, Saturn and other extinct im
mortals.
Satisfactory blisters-while-you-wait were thus
obtained. These were pricked with a pin; some
were torn to tatters, with dust and coal rubbed
in to give them a venerable appearance. The
pain was no light matter; but Mr. Long had a
real affection for Mr. Bransford's neck, and it is
trifles like these that make perfection.
The next expedient was even more heroic. Mr.
Long assiduously put stone-dust in one eye, leav
ing it tearful, bloodshot and violently inflamed;
and the other one was sympathetically red. " Bit
o' steel in my eye," explained Mr. Long. Un
selfish devotion such as this is all too rare.
All this while, at proper intervals, Mr. Long
sharpened and resharpened that one long-suffering
drill. He tripped into the tunnel and smote a
mighty blow upon the country rock with a pick
therefore qualifying that pick for repointing -
and laid it on the forge as next on the list.
What further outrage he meditated is not
known, for he now heard a horse coming up the
trail. He was beating out a merry tattoo when
a white-hatted head rose through a trapdoor
rose above the level of the dump, rather.
Hammer in hand, Long straightened up joy
fully as best he could, but could not straighten
up the telltale droop of his shoulders. It was
not altogether assumed, either, this hump. Jeff
154 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
Mr. Long had not done so much work of this
sort for years and there was a very real pain be
tween his shoulderblades. Still, but for the exi
gencies of art, he might have borne his neck less
turtlewise than he did.
" Hello ! Get him? Where's your pardner? "
" Watching the gap." The young man, rather
breathless from the climb, answered the last ques
tion first as he led his horse on the dump. " No,
we didn't get him; but he can't get away. Hiding
somewhere in the Basin afoot. Found his horse.
Pretty well done up." The insolence of the out
law's letter smote him afresh; he reddened. " No
tracks going out of the Basin. Two of our
friends guarding the other end. They say he
can't get out over the cliffs anywhere. That so? "
The speech came jerkily; he was still short of
breath from his scramble.
" Not without a flying machine," said Long.
" No way out that I know of, except where the
wagonroad goes. What's he done? "
" Robbery! Murder! We'll see that he don't
get out by the wagonroad," asserted the youth
confidently. " Watch the gaps and starve him
out!"
" Oh, speaking of starving," said Tobe, " go
into the tent and I'll bring you some supper while
you tell me about it. Baked up another batch
of bread on the chance you'd come back."
" Why, thank you very much, Mr. "
SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN 155
" Long Tobe Long."
" Mr. Long. My name is Gurdon Steele.
Glad to meet you. Why, if you will be so kind
that is what I came up to see you about. If you
can let us have what we need of course we will
pay you for it."
"Of course you won't! " It had not needed
the offer to place Mr. Gurdon Steele quite accu
rately. He was a handsome lad, fresh-complex-
ioned, dressed in the Western manner as prac
tised on the Boardwalk. " You're welcome to
what I got, sure; but I ain't got much variety.
Gwin, the old liar, said he was coming out the
twentieth and sure enough he didn't; so the
grub's running low. Table in the tent come
on!"
" Oh, no, I couldn't, you know ! Rex that's
my partner is quite as hungry as I am, you see;
but if you could give me something anything
you have to take down there? I really couldn't,
you know! " The admirable doctrine of noblesse
oblige in its delicate application by this politeness,
was easier for its practitioner than to put it into
words suited to the comprehension of his hearer;
he concluded lamely: " I'll take it down there and
we will eat it together."
" See here," said Tobe, " I'm as hungry to hear
about your outlaw as you are to eat. I'll just
throw my bedding and a lot of chuck on your
saddle. We'll carry the coffee-pot and frying-pan
156 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
in our hands and the sugar-can and things like
that. You can tank up and give me the news in
small chunks at the same time. Afterward two
of us can sleep while one stands guard."
This was done. It was growing dark when
they reached the bottom of the hill. The third
guardsman had built a fire.
" Rex, this is Mr. Long, who has been kind
enough to grubstake us and share our watch with
us."
Mr. Steele, you have observed, had accepted
Mr. Long without question; but his first impres
sion of Mr. Long had been gained under circum
stances highly favorable to the designs of the
latter gentleman. Mr. Steele had come upon him
unexpectedly, finding him as it were in medias res,
with all his skillfully arranged scenery to aid the
illusion. The case was now otherwise the thou-
sand-tongued vouching of his background lacked
to him: Mr. Long had naught save his own un
thinkable audacity to belie his face withal. From
the first instant Mr. Rex Griffith was the prey of
suspicions acute, bigoted, churlish, deep, dark,
distrustful, damnable, and so on down to zealous.
He had a sharp eye; he wore no puttees; and
Mr. Long had a vaguely uncomfortable memory,
holding over from some previous incarnation, of
having seen that long, shrewd face in a court
room.
host, on hospitable rites intent, likewise
SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN 157
all ears and eager questionings, was all uncon
scious of hostile surveillance. Nothing could be
more carefree, more at ease than his bearing; his
pleasant anticipatory excitement was the natural
outlook for a lonely and newsless man. As the
hart panteth for the water, so he thirsted for
the story; but his impatient, hasty questions,
following false scents, delayed the telling of the
Arcadian tale. So innocent was he, so open and
aboveboard, that Griffith, watching, alert, felt
thoroughly ashamed of himself. Yet he watched,
doubting still, though his reason rebelled at the
monstrous imaginings of his heart. That the
outlaw, unarmed and unasked, should venture
Pshaw! Such effrontery was inconceivable. He
allowed Steele to tell the story, himself contribut
ing only an occasional crafty question designed to
enable his host to betray himself.
" Bransford? " interrupted Mr. Long. " Not
Jeff Bransford up South Rainbow way? "
" That's the man," said Steele.
" I don't believe it," said Long flatly. He was
sipping coffee with his guests; he put his cup
down. " I know him, a little. He don't "
"Oh, there's no doubt of it!" interrupted
Steele in his turn. He detailed the circumstances
with skilful care. " Besides, why did he run
away? Gee! You ought to have seen that es
cape! It was splendid! "
"Well, now, who'd 'a' thought that?" de
158 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
manded Long, still only half convinced. " He
didn't strike me like that kind of a man. Well,
you never can tell! How come you fellows to
be chasin' him? "
" You see," said Steele, " every one was sure
he had gone up to Rainbow. The sheriff and
posse is up there now, looking for him; but we
four Stone and Harlow, the chaps at the other
end, were with us, you know we were up in the
foothills on a deerhunt. We were out early
sun-up is the best time for deer, they tell me
and we had a spyglass. Well, we just happened
to see a man ride out from between two hills,
quite a way off. Stone noticed right away that
he was riding a sorrel horse. It was a sorrel
horse that Bransford stole, you know. We didn't
suspect, though, who it was till a bit later. Then
Rex tried to pick him up again and saw that he
was going out of his way to avoid the ridges
keeping cover, you know. Then we caught on
and took after him pell-mell. He had a big
start; but he was riding slowly so as not to make
a dust that is, till he saw our dust. DChen he
lit out."
" You're not deputies, then? " said Long.
" Oh, no, not at all ! " said Steele, secretly flat
tered. " So Harlow and Stone galloped off to
town. The program was that they'd wire down
to Escondido to have horses ready for them,
come down on Number Six and head him off.
SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN 159
They were not to tell any one in Arcadia. There's
five thousand dollars' reward out for him but it
isn't that exactly. It was a cowardly, beastly mur
der, don't you know; and we thought it would
be rather a big thing if we could take him
alone."
" You got him penned all right," said Tobe.
" He can't get out, so far as I know, unless he
runs over us or the men at the other end. By
George, we must get away from this fire, too ! "
He set the example, dragging the bedding with
him to the shelter of a big rock. " He could pick
us off too slick here in the light. How're you
going to get him? There's a heap of country in
that Basin, all rough and broken, full o' boulders
mighty good cover."
" Starve him out ! " said Griffith. This was
base deceit. Deep in his heart he believed that
the quarry sat beside him, well fed and contented.
Yet the unthinkable insolence of it if this were
indeed Bransford dulled his belief.
Long laughed as he spread down the bed.
"He'll shoot a deer. Maybe, if he had it all
planned out, he may have grub cached in there
somewhere. There's watertanks in the rocks.
Say, what are your pardners at the other side
going to do for grub? "
" Oh, they brought out cheese and crackers and
stuff," said Gurd.
" I'll tell you what, boys, you've bit off more
160 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
than you can chaw," said Jeff Tobe, that is.
" He can't get out without a fight but, then, you
can't go in there to hunt for him without weaken
ing your guard; and he'd be under shelter and
have all the best of it. He'd shoot you so dead
, you'd never know what happened. I don't want
none of it! I'd as lief put on boxing gloves and
crawl into a hole after a bear! Look here, now,
this is your show; but I'm a heap older'n you
boys. Want to know what I think? "
" Certainly," said Rex.
" Coin' to talk turkey to me? " An avaricious
light came into Long's eyes.
"Of course; you're in on the reward," said
Rex diffidently and rather stiffly. " We are not in
this for the money."
" I can use the money whatever share you
want to give me," said Long dryly; " but if you
take my advice my share won't be but a little. I
think you ought to keep under shelter at the mouth
of this canon one of you and let the other one
go to Escondido and send for help, quick, and a
lot of it."
" What's the matter with you going? " asked
Griffith disingenuously. He wanted Long to
show his hand. It would never do to abandon
the siege of Double Mountain to arrest this soi-
disant Long on mere suspicion. On the other
hand, Mr. Rex Griffith had no idea of letting
Long escape his clutches until his identity was
SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN 161
established, one way or the other, beyond all
question.
That was why Long declined the offer. His
honest gaze shifted. " I ain't much of a rider,"
he said evasively. Young Griffith read correctly
the thought which the excuse concealed. Evi
dently Long considered himself an elder soldier,
if not a better, than either of his two young
guests, but wished to spare their feelings by not
letting them find it out. Griffith found this plain
solution inconsistent with his homicidal theory:
a murderer, fleeing for his life, would have
jumped at the chance.
There are two sides to every question. Let us,
this once, prove both sides. Wholly oblivious to
Griffith's lynx-eyed watchfulness and his leading
questions, Mr. Long yet recognized the futility
of an attempt to ride away on Mr. Griffith's
horse with Mr. Griffith's benison. There we have
the other point of view.
" We'll have to send for grub anyway," pursued
the sagacious Mr. Long. " I've only got a little
left; and that old liar, Gwin, won't be out for
four days if he comes then. And er look
here now if I was you boys I'd let the sheriff
and his posse smoke your badger out. [They get
paid to tend to that and it looks to me like
some one was going to get hurt. You've done
enough."
All this advice was so palpably sound that the
1 62 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
doubter was, for the second, staggered for a
second only. This was the man he had seen in
the prisoner's dock. He was morally sure of it.
For all the difference of appearance, this was the
man. Yet those blasts the far-seen fire the
hearty welcome this delivery of himself into their
hands? . . . Griffith scarcely knew what he did
think. He blamed himself for his unworthy sus
picions; he blamed Gurdy more for having no
suspicions at all.
"Anything else?" he said. "That sounds
good."
Tobe studied for some time.
" Well," he said at last, " there may be some
way he can get out. I don't think he can but
he might find a way. He knows he's trapped; but
likely he has no idea yet how many of us there
are. So we know he'll try, and he won't be just
climbing for fun. He'll take a chance."
Steele broke in :
" He didn't leave any rope on his saddle."
Tobe nodded.
" So he means to try it. Now here's five of
us here. It seems to me that some one ought to
ride round the mountain the first thing in the
morning, and every day afterward only here's
hoping there won't be many of 'em to look for
tracks. There isn't one chance in a hundred he
can climb out; but if he goes out of here afoot
we've got him sure. [The man on guard wants to
SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN 163
keep in shelter. It's light to-night there's no
chance for him to slip out without being seen.
You say the old watchman ain't dead yet, Mr.
Griffith?"
" No. The latest bulletin was that he was al
most holding his own."
" Hope he gets well," said Long. " Good old
geezer! Now, cap, I've worked hard and you've
ridden hard. Better set your guards and let the
other two take a little snooze."
Griffith was not proof against the insidious flat
tery of this unhesitant preference. He flushed
with embarrassment and pleasure.
" Well, if I'm to be captain, Gurd will take the
first guard till eleven. Then you come on till
two, Mr. Long. I'll stand from then on till day-
light."
In five minutes Mr. Long was enjoying the calm
and restful sleep of fatigued innocence; but his
poor captain was doomed to have a bad night
of it, with two Bransfords on his hands one in
the Basin and one in the bed beside him. His
head was dizzy with the vicious circle. Like the
gentlewoman of the nursery rhyme, he was
tempted to cry: " Lawk 'a' mercy on me, this is
none of I! "
If he haled his bedmate to justice and the real
Bransford got away that would be a nice pre
dicament for an ambitious young man! He was
sensitive to ridicule, and he saw here such an
1 64 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
opportunity to earn it as knocks but once at any
man's door.
If, on the other hand, while he held Bransford
cooped tightly in the Basin, this thrice-accursed
Long should escape him and there should be no
Bransford in the Basin What nonsense!
What utter twaddle! Bransford was in the
Basin. He had found his horse and saddle, his
tracks; no tracks had come out of the Basin. Im
mediately on the discovery of the outlaw's horse,
Gurd had ridden back posthaste and held the
pass while he, the captain, had gone to the mouth
of the southern canon and posted his friends. He
had watched for tracks of a footman every step
of the way, going and coming; there had been
no tracks. Bransford was in the Basin. He
watched the face of the sleeping man. But, by
Heaven, this was Bransford !
Was ever a poor captain in such a predica
ment? A moment before he had fully and defi
nitely decided once for all that this man was not
Bransford, could not be Bransford; that it was
not possible ! His reason unwaveringly told him
one thing, his eyesight the other! . . . Yet
Bransford, or an unfortunate twin of his, lay
now beside him and, for further mockery, slept
peacefully, serene, untroubled. . . . He looked
upon the elusive Mr. Long with a species of
horror! The face was drawn and lined. Yet,
but forty-eight hours of tension would have left
SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN 165
Bransford's face not otherwise. He had noticed
Bransford's hands in the courtroom noticed
their well-kept whiteness, due, as he had decided,
to the perennial cowboy glove. This man's hands,
as he had seen by the campfire, were blistered and
calloused ! Callouses were not made in a day. He
took another look at Long. Oh, thunder!
He crept from bed. He whispered a word to
sentry Steele; not to outline the distressing state
of his own mind, but merely to request Steele
not to shoot him, as he was going up to the
mine.
He climbed up the trail, chewing the unpalata
ble thought that Gurdon had seen nothing amiss
yet Gurd had been at the trial! The captain
began to wish he had never gone on that deer-
hunt.
He went into the tent, struck a match, lit a
candle and examined everything closely. There
was no gun in the camp and no cartridges. He
found the spill of twisted paper under the table,
smothered his qualms and read it. He noted the
open book for future examination in English.
And now Tobe's labors had their late reward, for
Rex missed nothing. Every effort brought fresh
disappointment and every disappointment spurred
him to fresh effort. He went into the tunnel;
he scrutinized everything, even to the drills in
the tub. The food supply tallied with Long's
1 66 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
account. No detail escaped him and every detail
confirmed the growing belief that he, Captain
Griffith, was a doddering imbecile.
He returned to the outpost, convinced at last.
Nevertheless, merely to quiet the ravings of his
insubordinate instincts, now in open revolt, he
restaked the horses nearer to camp and cautiously
carried both saddles to the head of the bed. Con
cession merely encouraged the rebels to further
and successful outrages the government was
overthrown.
He drew sentry Steele aside and imparted his
doubts. That faithful follower heaped scorn,
mockery, laughter and abuse upon his shrinking
superior: recounted all the points, from the first
blasts of dynamite to the present moment, which
favored the charitable belief above mentioned as
newly entertained by Captain Griffith concerning
himself. This belief of Captain Griffith was
amply indorsed by his subordinate in terms of
point and versatility.
" Of course they look alike. I noticed that
the minute I saw him the same amount of legs
and arms, features all in the fore part of his head,
hair on top, one body wonderful! Why, you
pitiful ass, that Bransford person was a mighty
keen-looking man in any company. This fellow's
a yokel an old, rusty, cap-and-ball, single-shot
muzzle-loader. The Bransford was an automatic,
steel-frame, high velocity "
SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN
" The better head he has the more apt he is to
do the unexpected "
" Aw, shut up ! You've got incipient paresis !
Stuff your ears in your mouth and go to sleep ! "
The captain sought his couch convinced, but
holding his first opinion, savagely minded to ar
rest Mr. Long rather than let him have a gun
to stand guard with. He was spared the decision.
Mr. Long declined Gurdon's proffered gun, say
ing that he would be right there and he was a
poor shot anyway.
Gurdon slept; Long took his place and Cap
tain Rex, from the bed, watched the watcher.
Never was there a more faithful sentinel than
Mr. Long. Without relaxing his vigilance even
to smoke, he strained every faculty lest the wily
Bransford should creep out through the shadows.
The captain saw him, a stooped figure, sitting mo
tionless by his rock, always alert, peering this way
and that, turning his head to listen. Once Tobe
saw something. He crept noiselessly to the bed
and shook his chief. Griffith came, with his gun.
Something was stirring in the bushes. After a
little it moved out of the shadows. It was a
prowling coyote. The captain went back to bed
once more convinced of Long's fidelity, but re*
solved to keep a relentless eye on him just the
same. And all unawares, as he revolved the day's
events in his mind, the captain dropped off to
troubled sleep.
1 68 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
Mr. Long woke him at three. There had been
a temptation to ride away, but the saddles were
at the head of the bed, the ground was stony; he
would be heard. He might have made an attempt
to get both guns from under the pillow, but de
tection meant ruin for him, since to shoot these
boys or to hurt them was out of the question,
Escape by violence would have been easy and
assured. Jeff preferred to trust his wits. He was
enjoying himself very much.
When the captain got his relentless eyes open
and realized what had chanced he saw that fur
ther doubt was unworthy. Half an hour later
the unworthy captain stole noiselessly to Long's
bedside and saw, to his utter rage and distraction,
that Mr. Bransford was there again. It was al
most too much to bear. He felt that he should
always hate Long, even after Bransford was
safely hanged. Bransford's head had slipped
from Long's pillow. Hating himself, Griffith
subtly withdrew the miner's folded overalls and
went through the pockets.
He found there a knife smelling of dynamite,
matches, a turquoise carved to what was plainly
meant to be the form of a bad-tempered horse,
and two small specimens of ore !
Altogether, the captain passed a wild and whirl
ing night.
CHAPTER XIII
THE SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN
(Continued)
"If the bowl had been stronger
My tale had been longer."
Mother Goose.
WHEN the sun peeped over Rainbow
Range, Captain Griffith bent over Tobe
Long's bed. His eyes were aching, burned and
sunken; the lids twitched; his face was haggard
and drawn but he had arrived at an unalterable
decision. This thing could not and should not go
on. His brain reeled now another such night
would entitle him to state protection.
He shook Mr. Long roughly.
" See here ! I believe you're Bransford him
self!"
Thus taken off his guard, Long threw back the
bedding, rose to one elbow, still half asleep, and
reached for his shoes, laughing and yawning al
ternately. Then, as he woke up a little more,
he saw a better way to dress, dropped the shoes
and unfurled his pillow which, by day, he wore
as overalls. Fumbling behind him, where the
169
1 70 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
pillow had lain, he found a much-soiled handker
chief and tenderly dabbed at his swollen eye.
" Bit of steel in my eye from a drill-head," he
explained. " Jiminy, but it's sore ! "
Plainly he took the accusation as a pleasantry
calling for no answer.
" I mean it ! I'm going to keep you under
guard ! " said Captain Griffith bitingly.
Poor, sleepy Tobe, halfway into his overalls,
stared up at Mr. Griffith; his mouth dropped open
he was quite at a loss for words. The captain
glared back at him. Tobe kicked the overalls off
and cuddled back into bed.
" Bully! " he said. " Then I won't have to get
breakfast! "
Gurdon Steele sat up in bed, a happy man. His
eye gave Mr. Long a discreetly confidential look,
as of one who restrains himself, out of instinctive
politeness, from a sympathetic and meaningful tap
of one's forehead. A new thought struck Mr.
Long. He reached over behind Steele for the
rifle at the bed's edge and thrust it into the lat-
ter's hands.
" Here, Boy Scout ! Watch me ! " he whis
pered. " Don't let me escape while I sleep a few
lines! I'm Bransford! "
Gurdie rubbed his eyes and giggled.
" Don't you mind Rex. That's the worst of
this pipe habit. iYou never can tell how they'll
break out next"
SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN 171
"Yes, laugh, you blind bat!" said Rex bit
terly. " I've got him all the same, and I'm going
to keep him while you go to Escondido ! " His
rifle was tucked under his arm; he patted the
barrel significantly.
It slowly dawned upon Mr. Long that Captain
Griffith was not joking, after all, and an angry
man was he. He sat up in bed.
"Oh, piffle! Oh, fudge! Oh, pickled moon
shine! If I'm Bransford what the deuce am I
doing here? Why, you was both asleep ! I could
'a' shot your silly heads off and you'd V never
woke up. You make me tired I "
" Don't mind him, Long. He'll feel better
when he takes a nap," said Gurd joyfully. " He
has poor spells like this and he misses his nurse.
We always make allowances for him."
Mr. Long's indignation at last overcame his
politeness, and in his wrath he attacked friend and
foe indiscriminately.
" Do you mean to tell me you two puling in
fants are out hunting down a man you never
saw? Don't the men at the other side know him
either? By jinks, you hike out o' this after break
fast and send for some grown-up men. I want
part of that reward and I'm going to have it!
Look here ! " He turned blackly to Gurdon.
" Are you sure that Bransford, or any one else,
came in here at all yesterday, or did you dream
it? Or was it all a damfool kid joke? Listen
BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
here! I worked like a dog yesterday. If you
had me stand guard three hours, tired as I was, for
nothing, there's going to be more to it. What
kind of a sack-and-snipe trick is this, anyway?
You just come one at a time and I'll lick the
stuffin' out o' both o' you 1 I ain't f eelin' like any
schoolboy pranks just now."
" No, no; that part's all straight. Bransford's
in there, all right," protested Gurdon. " If you
hadn't been working in the tunnel you'd have seen
him when he went by. Here's the note he left.
And his horse and saddle are up at the spring.
We left the horse there because he was lame and
about all in. Bransford can't get away on him.
Rex is just excited that's all the matter with
him. Hankering for glory ! I told him last night
not to make a driveling idiot of himself. Here,
read this insolent note, will you?"
Long glowered at the note and flung it aside.
" Anybody could 'a' wrote that ! How am I to
know this thing ain't some more of your funny
streaks? You take these horses to water and
bring back Bransford's horse and saddle, and
then I'll know what to believe. Be damn sure you
bring them, too, or we'll go to producing glory
right here great gobs and chunks of it! You
Griffith ! put down that gun or I'll knock your fool
head off! I'm takin* charge of this outfit now,
and don't you forget it! And I don't want no
maniac wanderin' round me with a gun. You go
SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN 173
to gatherin' up wood as fast as ever God'll let
you ! "
" Say, I was mistaken," said the deposed leader,
thoroughly convinced once more. " You do look
like Bransford, you know." He laid down his
rifle obediently.
" Look like your grandmother's left hind
foot ! " sneered the outraged miner. " My eyes
is brown and so's Bransford's. Outside o'
that "
" No, but you do, a little," said his ally, Steele.
" I noticed it myself, last night. Not much but
still there's a resemblance. Poor Cap Griffith
just let his nerves and imagination run away with
him that's all."
Long sniffed. " Funny I never heard of it be
fore," he said. He was somewhat mollified, nev
ertheless; and, while cooking breakfast, he re
ceived very graciously a stammered and half
hearted apology from young Mr. Griffith, now
reduced to the ranks. " Oh, that's all right, kid.
But say you be careful and don't shoot your
pardner when he conies back."
Gurdon brought back the sorrel horse and the
saddle, thereby allaying Mr. Long's wrathful mis
trust that the whole affair was a practical joke.
'* I told you butter wouldn't suit the works ! "
said Rex triumphantly, and watched the working
of his test with a jealous eye.
Long knew his Alice. " ' But it was the best
i?4 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
butter,' " he said. He surveyed the sorrel horse;
his eye brightened. " We'll whack up that blood-
money yet," he announced confidently. " Now
I'm going to walk over to the south side and get
one of those fellows to ride sign round the moun
tain. You boys can sleep, turn and turn about,
till I get back. Then I want Steele to go to
Escondido and wire up to Arcadia that we've got
our bear by the tail and want help to turn him
loose, and tell Pappy Sanders to send me out
some grub or I'll skin him. Pappy's putting up
for the mine, you know. I'll stay here and keep
an eye on Griffith." He gave that luckless warrior
a jeering look, as one who has forgiven but not
forgotten.
" Why don't you ride one of our horses? " saic
Gurdon.
" Want to keep 'em fresh. Then if Bransford
gets out over the cliffs you can run him down
like a mad dog," said Tobe. " Besides, if I ride
a fresh horse in here he'll maybe shoot me to get
the horse; and if he could catch you lads away
from shelter maybe so he'd make a dash for it,
a-shootin'. See here! If I was dodgin' in here
like him know what I'd do? I'd just shoot a
few lines on general principles to draw you away
from the gates. Then if you went in to see about
it I'd either kill you if I had to, or slip out if you
give me the chance. You just stay right here,
whatever happens. Keep under shelter and keep
SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN 175
your horses right by you. We got him bottled up
and we won't draw the cork till the sheriff comes.
I'll tell 'em to do the same way at the other end.
I won't take any gun with me and I'll stick to
the big main road. That way Bransford won't
feel no call to shoot me. Likely he's 'way up in
the cliffs, anyhow."
" Ride the sorrel horse then, why don't you?
He isn't lame enough to hurt much, but he's lame
enough that Bransford won't want him." Thus
Mr. Griffith, again dissimulating. Every detail
of Mr. Long's plan forestalled suspicion. That
these measures were precisely calculated to disarm
suspicion now occurred to Griffith's stubborn mind.
For he had a stubborn mind; the morning's coffee
had cleared it of cobwebs, and it clung more
tenaciously than ever to the untenable and thrice-
exploded theory that Long and Bransford were
one and inseparable, now and forever..
He meditated an ungenerous scheme for vindi
cation and, to that end, wished Mr. Long to ride
the sorrel horse. For Mr. Long, if he were in
deed the murderer as, of course, he was would
indubitably, upon some plausible pretext, attempt
to pass the guards at the farther end of the trip,
where was no clear-eyed Griffith on guard. What
more plausible that a modification of the plan
already rehearsed for Long to tell the wardens
that Griffith had sent him to telegraph to the
sheriff ? Let him once pass those warders on any
BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
pretext ! That would be final betrayal, for all his
shrewdness. There was no possibility that Long
and Bransford could complete their escape on
that lame sorrel. He would not be allowed to get
much of a start just enough to betray himself.
Then he, Griffith, would bring them back in
triumph.
It was a good scheme : all things considered, it
reflected great credit upon Mr. Griffith's imagina
tion. As in Poe's game of " odd or even," where
you must outguess your opponent and follow his
thought, Mr. Rex Griffith had guessed correctly
in every respect. Such, indeed, had been Mr.
Long's plan. Only Rex did not guess quite often
enough. Mr. Long had guessed just one layer
deeper namely, that Mr. Griffith would follow
his thought correctly and also follow him. There
fore Mr. Long switched again. It was a bully
game better than poker. Mr. Long enjoyed it
very much.
Just as Rex expected, Tobe allowed himself to
be overpersuaded and rode the sorrel horse. He
renamed the sorrel horse Goldie, on the spot,
saddled him awkwardly, mounted in like manner,
and rode into the shadowy depths of Double
Mountain.
Once he was out of sight Mr. Griffith fol
lowed, despite the angry protest of Mr. Steele
alleging falsely that he was going to try for a
deer.
SIEGE OF DOUBLE MOUNTAIN 177
,Tobe rode slowly up the crooked and brush-
lined canon. Behind him, cautiously hidden,
came Griffith, the hawk-eyed avenger waiting at
each bend until Mr. Long had passed the next
one, for closer observation of how Mr. Long
bore himself in solitude.
Mr. Long bore himself most disappointingly.
He rode slowly and awkwardly, scanning with
anxious care the hillsides before him. Not once
did he look back lest he should detect Mr. Griffith.
Near the summit the Goldie horse shied and
jumped. It was only one little jump, whereunto
Goldie had been privately instigated by Mr.
Long's thumb " thumbing " a horse, as done
by one conversant with equine anatomy, produces
surprising results! but it caught Mr. Long un
awares and tumbled him ignominiously in the
dust.
Mr. Long sat in the sand and rubbed his shoul
der: Goldie turned and looked down at him in
unqualified astonishment. Mr. Long then cursed
Mr. Bransford's sorrel horse; he cursed Mr.
Bransford for bringing the sorrel horse; he
cursed himself for riding the sorrel horse; he
cursed Mr. Griffith, with one last, longest, heart
felt, crackling, hair-raising, comprehensive and
masterly curse, for having persuaded him to ride
the sorrel horse. Then he tied the sorrel horse
to a bush and hobbled on afoot, saying it all over
backward.
178 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
Poor Griffith experienced the most intense mor
tification except one of his life. This was con
clusive. Bransford was reputed the best rider
in Rainbow. This was Long. He was convinced,
positively, finally and irrevocably. He did not
even follow Mr. Long to the other side of Double
Mountain, but turned back to camp, keeping a
sharp eye out for traces of the real Bransford;
to no effect. It was only by chance a real
chance that, clambering on the gatepost cliffs to
examine a curious whorl of gneiss, he happened
to see Mr. Long as he returned. Mr. Long came
afoot, leading the sorrel horse. Just before he
came within sight of camp he led the horse up
beside a boulder, climbed clumsily into the saddle,
clutched the saddlehorn, and so rode into camp.
The act was so natural a one that Griffith, already
convinced, was convinced again the more so be
cause Long preserved a discreet silence as to the
misadventure with the sorrel horse.
Mr. Long reported profanely that the men
on the other side had also been disposed to
arrest him, and had been dissuaded with diffi
culty.
" So I guess I must look some like Bransford,
though I would never 'a' guessed it. Reckon no
body knows what they really look like. Chances
are a feller wouldn't know himself if he met him
in the road. That squares you, kid. No hard
feelings? "
" Not a bit. I certainly thought you were
Bransford, at first," said Griffith.
" Well, the black-eyed one Stone he's com
ing round on the west side now, cutting sign. You
be all ready to start for Escondido as soon as
he gets here, Gurd. Say, you don't want to wait
for the sheriff if he's up on Rainbow. You wire
a lot of your friends to come on the train at nine
o'clock to-night. Sheriff can come when he gets
back. .There ain't but a few horses at Escondido.
You get Pappy Sanders to send your gang out
in a wagon such as can't find horses."
" Better take in both of ours, Gurd," said Grif
fith. He knew Long was all right, as has been
said, but he was also newly persuaded of his own
fallibility. He had been mistaken about Long
being Bransford; therefore he might be mistaken
about Long being Long. In this spirit of humility
he made the suggestion recorded above, and was
grieved that Long indorsed it.
" And I want you to do two errands for me,
kid. You give this to Pappy Sanders the store
keeper, you know " here he produced the little
eohippus from his pocket " and tell him to send
it to a jeweler for me and get a hole bored in it
so it'll balance. Want to use it for a watch-
charm when I get a watch. And if we pull off
this Bransford affair I'll have me a watch. Now
don't you lose that ! It's turquoise worth a heap
o' money. Besides, he's a lucky little horse."
i8o BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
" I'll put him in my pocketbook," said Gurdon.
" Better give him to Pappy first off, else you're
liable to forget about him, he's so small. Then
you tell Pappy to send me out some grub. I won't
make out no bill. He's grubstakin' the mine ; he'll
know what to send. You just tell him I'm about
out of patience. Tell him I want about every
thing there is, and want it quick; and a jar for
sour dough I broke mine. And get some news
papers." He hesitated perceptibly. " See here,
boys, I hate to mention this; but old Pappy, him
and this Jeff Bransford is purty good friends. I
reckon Pappy won't much like it to furnish grub
for you while you're puttin' the kibosh on Jeff.
You better get some of your own. You see how
it is, don't you? 'Tain't like it was my chuck."
Stone came while they saddled. He spoke apart
with Griffith as to Mr. Long, and a certain favor
he bore to the escaped bank-robber; but Griffith,
admitting his own self-deception in that line, out
lined the history of the past unhappy night.
Stone, who had suffered only a slight misgiving,
was fully satisfied.
As Steele started for the railroad Mr. Stone
set out to complete the circuit of Double Moun
tain, in the which he found no runaway tracks.
And Griffith and Long, sleeping alternately es
pecially Griffith kept faithful ward over the
gloomy gate of Double Mountain.
CHAPTER XIV
FLIGHT
"Keep away from that wheelbarrow what the hell do you
know about machinery?" ELBERT HUBBARD.*
It is not intimated that Mr. Hubbard wrote this merely
that he printed it. AUTHOR.
JUST after dark a horseman with a led horse
came jogging round the mountain on the
trail from Escondido. On the led horse was a
pack bound rather slouchily, not to a packsaddle,
but to an old riding saddle. The horses were
unwilling to enter the circle of firelight, so the
rider drew rein just beyond a slender and boyish
rider, with a flopping wide-brimmed hat too large
for him.
" Oh, look who's here ! " said Tobe, as one
who greets an unexpected friend.
" Hello, Tobe ! Here's your food, grub, chuck
and provisions! Got your outlaw yet? Them
other fellows will be out along toward midnight."
He went on without waiting for an answer: " Put
me on your payroll. Pappy said I was to go to
work and if you was going to quit work to hunt
down his friend you'd better quit for good. Lead
181
182 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
on to your little old mine. I don't know where
it is, even."
" I'll go up and unpack, Rex," said Tobe; " but,
of course, I'm not going to lose my part of that
five thousand. Pappy's foolish. He's gettin' old.
I'll be back after a while and bring down the
papers."
Chatting of the trapped outlaw, the Ophir men
climbed the zigzag to the mine. To Griffith, their
voices dwindled to an indistinct murmur; a light
glowed through the tent on the dump.
The stranger pressed into Jeff's hand some*
thing small and hard the little eohippus.
" Here's your little old token. Pappy caught on
at once and he sent me along to represent. Let's
get this pack off and get out of here. Do we
have to go down the same trail again? "
" Oh, no," said Jeff. " There's a wood-trail
leads round the mountain to the east. Who're
you? I don't know you."
" Charley Gibson. Pappy knows me. He sent
the little stone horse to vouch for me. I'm O. K.
Time enough to explain when we've made a clean
getaway."
" You're damn right there," Jeff said. " That
boy down yonder is nobody's fool. I'll light a
candle in the tent and he'll think I'm reading the
newspapers. That'll hold him a while."
" I'll be going on down the trail," said Gibson.
"This way, isn't it?"
FLIGHT 183
" Yes, that's the one. All right. Go slow and
don't make any more noise than you can help."
Jeff would have liked his own proper clothing
and effects, but there was no time for resuscita
tion. Lighting the candle, he acquired " Alice in
Wonderland " and thrust it into the bosom of his
shirt. It had been years since last he read that
admirable work; his way now led either to hiding
or to jail and, with Alice to share his fate, he
felt equal to either fortune. He left the candle
burning: the tent shone with a mellow glow.
" If he didn't hear our horses coming down
we're a little bit of all right," said Jeff, as he re
joined his rescuer on the level. " Even if he
does, he may think we've gone to hobble 'em
only he'd think we ought to water 'em first. Now
for the way of the transgressor, to Old Mexico.
This little desert'll be one busy place to-morrow ! "
They circled Double Mountain, making a wide
detour to avoid rough going, and riding at a hard
gallop until, behind and to their right, a red spark
of fire came into view from behind a hitherto in
tervening shoulder, marking where Stone and Har-
low held the southward pass.
Jeff drew rein and bore off obliquely toward
the road at an easy trot.
" They're there yet. So that's all right! " he
said. " They've just put on fresh wood. I saw
it flame up just then." He was in high feather.
He began to laugh, or, more accurately,, h* re-
1 84 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
sumed his laughter, for he had been too mirthful
for much speech. ' That poor devil Griffith will
wait and fidget and stew ! He'll think I'm in the
tent, reading the newspapers reading about the
Arcadian bank robbery, likely. He'll wait a while,
then he'll yell at me. Then he'll think we've gone
to hobble the horses. He won't want to leave the
gap unguarded. He won't know what to think.
Finally he'll go up to the mine and see that pack
piled off any which way, and no saddles. Then
he'll know, but he won't know what to do. He'll
think we're for Old Mexico, but he won't know
it for sure. And it's too dark to track us. Oh,
my stars, but I bet he'll be mad ! "
Which shows that we all make mistakes. Mr.
Griffith, though young, was of firm character, as
has been lightly intimated. He waited a reason
able time to allow for paper-reading, then he
waited a little longer and shouted; but when there
was no answer he knew at once precisely what
had happened: he had not been a fool at all, what
ever Steele and Bransford had assured him, and
he was a bigger fool to have allowed himself to
be persuaded that he had been. It is true that
he didn't know what was best to do, but he knew
exactly what he was going to do and did it
promptly. Seriously annoyed, he spurred through
Double Mountain, gathered up Stone and Harlow,
and followed the southward road. Bransford had
FLIGHT 185
been on the way to Old Mexico he was on that
road still; Griffith put everything on the one bold
cast. While the others saddled he threw fresh
fuel on the fire, with a rankling memory of the
candle in the deserted tent and Hannibal at Saint
Jo. For the first time Griffith had the better of
the long battle of wits. That armful of fuel
slowed Jeff from gallop to trot, turned assured
victory into a doubtful contest; when the fugitives
regained the El Paso road Griffith's vindictive
little band was not five miles behind them.
The night was lightly clouded not so dark but
that the pursuers noticed or thought they no
ticed the fresh tracks in the road when they
came to them. They stopped, struck matches
and confirmed their hopes : two shod horses going
south at a smart gait; the dirt was torn up too
much for travelers on their lawful occasions.
From that moment Griffith urged the chase un
mercifully; the fleeing couple, in fancied security,
lost ground with every mile.
" How on earth did you manage it? Didn't
they know you ? " demanded Gibson as the pace
slackened.
"It wasn't me! It was Tobe Long! ' Yoii
may not have lived much under the sea, and pep-
haps you were never even introduced to a lob
ster,' " quoted Jeff. Rocking in the saddle, he
gave a mirthful resume of his little evanishment.
1 86 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
" And, oh, just think of that candle burning away
in that quiet, empty tent! If I could have seen
Griffith's face ! " he gloated. " Oh me ! Oh my !
. . . And he was so sure! . . . Say, Gibson,
how do you come in this galley? " As a lone
prospector his speech had been fittingly coarse;
now, with every mile, he shook off the debasing
influence of Mr. Long. " Kettle-washing makes
black hands. Aren't you afraid you'll get into
trouble?"
" Nobody knows I'm kettle-washing, except
Pappy Sanders and you," said Gibson. " I was
careful not to let your friend see me at the fire."
" I'll do you a good turn sometime," said Jeff.
He rode on in silence for a while and presently
was lost in his own thoughts, leaning over with
his hands folded on his horse's neck. In a low
and thoughtful voice he half repeated, half
chanted to himself:
" Illilleo Legardi, in the garden there alone,
There came to me no murmur of the fountain's under
tone
So mystically, magically mellow as your own ! "
Another silence. Then Jeff roused himself, with
a start.
" I'll tell you what, Gibson, you'd better cut
loose from me. So far as I can see, you are only
a kid. You don't want to get mixed up in a mur-
FLIGHT 187
der scrape. This would go pretty hard with you
if they can prove it on you. Of course, I'm aw
fully obliged to you and all that; but you'd better
quit me while the quitting's good."
" Oh, no ; I'll see you through," said Gibson
lightly. " Besides, I know you had nothing to
do with the murder."
"Oh, the hell you do!" said Jeff. "That's
kind of you, I'm sure. See here, who'd sold you
your chips, anyway? How'd you get in this
game ? "
" I got in this game, as you put it, because I
jolly well wanted to," replied Charley, with be
coming spirit. " That ought to be reason enough
for anything in this country. Nothing against it
in the rules and I don't use the rules, anyhow.
If you must have it all spelled out for you I
knew, or at least I'd heard, that your friends were
away from Rainbow; so I judged you wouldn't
go up there. Then I knew those four amateur
Sherlocks they're in my set in Arcadia. When
two of the deerhunters, after starting at two A.M.,
came back to Arcadia the same morning they left,
looking all wise and important, and slipped off
on the train to Escondido, saying nothing to any
one and when the other two didn't come home
at all I began to think ; went down to the depot,
found they had gone to Escondido, and I came on
the next train. I found out Pappy was your
friend; and when he got your little hurry-up calf
i88 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
I volunteered my services, seeing Pappy was too
old and not footloose anyhow with a wife and
property. That's the how of it."
" Oh, yes, that's all right; but what makes you
think I'm innocent? "
" I know Mr. White, you see. And Mr. White
seems to think that at about the time the bank
was robbed you were in a garden! " Charley's
voice was edged with faint mockery.
" Huh! " said Jeff, startled. " Who in hell is
Mr. White?"
"Mr. White in hell is the devil!" said
Charley.
At this unexpected disclosure Jeff lashed his
horse to a gallop his spurs, you remember, being
certain feet under the Ophir dump and strove to
bring his thoughts to bear upon this new situation.
He slowed down and Charley drew up beside
him.
" You seem to have stayed quite a while in
a garden," suggested Charley.
" That tongue of yours is going to get you into
trouble yet," said Jeff. " You'll never live to be
grayheaded."
Charley was not to be daunted.
" Say, Jeff, she's pretty easy to get acquainted
with, what? And those eyes of hers a little on
the see-you-later style, aren't they?"
Jeff turned in his saddle.
"Now you look here, Mr. Charley Gibson!
FLIGHT 189
I'm under obligations to you, and so on but I've
heard all of that kind of talk that's good sabe? "
" Oh, I know her," persisted Charley. " Know
her by heart know her like a book. She made a
fool of me, too. She drives 'em single, double,
tandem, random and four abreast! "
" You little beast ! " Jeff launched his horse
at the traducer, but Gibson spurred aside.
" Stop now, Jeffy ! Easy does it I I've got a
gun!"
" Shut your damn head then! Gun or no gun,
don't you take that girl's name in your mouth
again, or Hark! What's that?"
It was a clatter far behind a ringing of swift
hoofs on hard ground.
" By George, they're coming! Griffith will be
a man yet ! " said Jeff approvingly. " Come on,
kid; we've got to burn the breeze! I suppose
that talk of yours is only your damn fool idea of
fun, but I don't like it. Cut it out, now, and ride
like a drunk Indian ! " He laughed loud and long.
" Think o' that candle, will you ? burning away
with a clear, bright, steady flame, and nobody
within ten miles of it! "
They raced side by side; but Gibson, heedless
of their perilous situation, or perhaps taking ad
vantage of it, took a malicious delight in goading
Jeff to madness ; and he. refused either to be silent
or to talk about candles, notwithstanding Jeff's
preference for that topic.
190 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
" I'm not joking! I'm telling you for your own
good." Here the tormentor prudently fell back
half a length and raised his voice so as to be
heard above the flying feet. " Hasn't she gone
back to New York, I'd like to know, and left you
to get out of it the best way you can? She could
'a' stayed if she'd wanted to. Don't tell me!
Haven't I seen how she bosses her mother round?
No, sir! She's willing to let you hang to save
herself a little slander or, more likely, a little
talk!"
Jeff whirled his horse to his haunches, but once
more Gibson was too quick for him. Gibson's
horse was naturally the nimbler of the two, even
without the advantage of spurs.
" That's a lie ! She was going to tell she was
bound to tell; I made her keep silent. After I
jumped out she couldn't well say anything. That's
why I jumped. Was I going to make her a target
for such vile tongues as yours for me? Oh!
You ought to be shot out of a red-hot cannon,
through a barbed-wire fence, into hell! You lie,
you coward, you know you lie ! I'll cram it down
your throat if you'll get off and throw that gun
down!"
"Yah! It's likely I'll put the gun down!"
scoffed Gibson. " Ride on, you fool ! Do you
want to hang? Ride on and keep ahead! Re
member, I've got the gun! "
" Hanging's not so bad," snarled Jeff. " I'd
FLIGHT 191
rather be hung decently than be such a thing as
you! Oh, if I just had a gun! "
The sound of pursuit was clearer now; and, of
course, the pursuers could hear the pursued as well
and fought for every inch.
Jeff rode on, furious at his helplessness. For
several miles his tormentor raced behind in si
lence, fearing, if he persisted longer in his evil
course, that Jeff would actually stop and give him
self up. They gained now on their pursuers, who
had pressed their horses overhard to make up the
five-mile handicap.
As they came to a patch of sandy ground they
eased the pace somewhat. Charley drew a little
closer to Jeff.
" Now don't get mad. I had no idea you
thought so much of the girl "
" Shut up, will you? "
" or I wouldn't have deviled you so. I'll
quit. How was I to know you'd stop to fight for
her with the very rope round your neck? It's a
pity she'll never know about it. ... You can't
have seen her more than two or three times and
Heaven only knows where that was! On that
camping trip, I reckon. What kind of a girl is
she, anyhow, to hold clandestine interviews with
a stranger? . . . She'll write to you by and by
a little scented note, with a little stilted, mean
ingless word of thanks. No, she won't. It'll be
gushy : ' Oh, my hero ! How can I ever repay
192 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
you?' She won't let you out of her clutches
anybody, so long as it's a man! Here! None
o' that! ... Go on, now, if you want to
live!"
" Who the hell wants to live? "
A noose flew back from the darkness. Jeff's
horse darted aside and Gibson was jerked sprawl
ing to the sand at a rope's end hat flew one
way, gun another. Jeff ran to the six-shooter.
"Who's got the gun now?" he jeered, as he
loosened the rope. " I only wish we had two of
'em!"
"You harebrained idiot!" Charley grabbed
up his hat and spit sand from his mouth. " Get
your horse and ride, you unthinkable donkey ! "
" Pleasure first, business afterward! " Jeff un
buckled Gibson's gunbelt and transferred it to his
own waist, jerking Gibson to his feet in the vio
lent process. " Now, you little blackguard, you
either take back all that or you'll get the lickin'
o' your life! You're too small; but all the
same "
" Oh, I'll take it back, you big bully all I said
and a lot more I only thought! " said Charley
spitefully. He was almost crying with rage as he
limped to his horse. " She's an angel on earth!
Sure she is! Ride, you maniac ride! Oh, you
ought to be hung! I hope you do hang you
miserable ruffian ! "
.The following hoofs no longer rang sharply;
FLIGHT 193
they took on a muffled beat they were in the
sand's edge not a mile behind.
" Ride ahead, you ! I've got the gun, remem
ber! " observed Jeff significantly; " but if you slur
that girl again I'll not shoot you I'll naturally
wear you out with this belt."
CHAPTER XV]
GOOD-BY
"They have ridden the low moon out of the sky; their hoofs
drum up the dawn." T<wo Strong Men, KIPLING.
"T'M not speaking of her and I'm not going
J[ to," protested Gibson, in a changed tone.
" I'll promise ! My horse is failing, Jeff. I rode
hard and fast from Escondido. Your horse car
ried nothing much but a saddle that pack was
mostly bluff, you know. And those fellows' horses
have come twenty miles less than either of ours."
No answer.
" I don't believe we're going to make it, Jeff ! "
There was a forlorn little quaver in Charley's
voice.
Jeff grunted. "Uh! Maybe not. Griffith'll
be real pleased."
Gibson rode closer. " Can't we turn off the
road and hide? "
" Till daylight," said Jeff. " Then they'll get
us. No way out of this desert except across the
edges somewhere. You go if you want to. They
won't bother to hunt for you, maybe, if they get
194
GOOD-BY 195
"No. It's my fault. . . . I'll see it out.
. . . I'm sorry, Jeff but it was so funny! "
Here, rather to Jeff's surprise, Charley's dejection
gave place to laughter.
They rode up a sandy slope where mesquites
grew black along the road. Blown sand had
lodged to hummocks in their thick and matted
growth; the road was a sunken way.
" How far is it from here, Jeff ? "
" iTen miles maybe only eight to the river.
We're in Texas now have been for an hour."
" Think we can make it? "
"Quien sabe?"
Gibson drew rein. " You go on. Your horse
isn't so tirecL"
" Oh, I guess not! " said Jeff. " Come on."
The sound of pursuit came clear through the
quiet night. There was silence for a little.
" What'll you do, Jeff? Fight? "
" I can't! " said Jeff. " Hurt those boys? I
couldn't fight, the way it is hardly, even if 'twas
the sheriff. I'll just hang, I reckon."
They reached the top of the little slope and
turned down the other side.
" I don't altogether like this hanging idea,"
said Gibson. " I got you into this, Jeff; so I'll
just get you out again like the man in our town
who was so wondrous wise. Going to use bramble
bushes, too." Volatile Gibson, in the stress of
danger, had forgotten his wrath. He was light-
hearted and happy, frivolously gay. " Give me
your rope and your gun, Jeff. Quick now!
No, I won't mention your girl not once!
Hurry!"
"What you going to do?" asked Jeff, thor
oughly mystified.
"Ever read the 'Fool's Errand'?" Charley
chuckled. "No? Well, I have. Jump off and
tie the end of your rope to that mesquite root.
Quick!"
He sprang down, snatched one end of the coil
from Jeff's hand and stretched it taut across the
road, a foot from the ground. " Now your gun!
Quick!"
He snatched the gun, tied an end of his own
saddle-rope to the stretched one, near the middle,
plunged through the mesquite, over a hummock,
paying out his rope as he went; wedged the gun
firmly in the springing crotch of a mesquite tree,
cocked it and tied the loose end of the trailing
rope to the trigger. He ran back and sprang on
his horse.
" Now ride! It's our last chance! "
" Kid, you're a wonder! " said Jeff. " You'll
do to take along! They'll lope up when they
turn down that slope, hit that rope and pile in a
heap!"
" And my rope will fire the gun off! " shrilled
joyous Charley. " They'll think it's us an am
buscade "
GOOD-BY 197
" They'll take to the sandhills," Jeff broke in.
" They'll shoot into the bushes they'll think it's
us firing back, half the time. . . . They'll scat
ter out and surround that lonesome, harmless
motte and watch it till daylight. You bet they
won't go projecting round it any till daylight,
either!" He looked up at the sky. "There's
the morning star. See it? ' They have ridden
the low moon out of the sky ' only there isn't any
moon 4 their hoofs drum up the dawn/ Then
they'll find our tracks and if I only could see
the captain's face ! * Oh, my threshings, and the
corn of my floor! ' . . . And by then we'll be
in Mexico and asleep. . . . When Griffith finds
that gun oh, he'll never show his head in Arcadia
again! . . . Say, Charley, I hope none of 'em
get hurt when they strike your skip-rope."
" Huh! It's sandy! A heap you cared about
me getting hurt when you dragged me from my
horse!" said Gibson, rather snappishly. "You
did hurt me, too. You nearly broke my neck and
you cut my arms. And I got full of mesquite
thorns when I set that gun. You don't care ! I'm
only the man that came to save your neck. That's
the thanks I get! But the men that are trying to
hang you that's different! You'd better go
back. They might get hurt. You'll be sorry
sometime for the way you've treated me. There-
it's too late now! "
A shot rang behind them. There was a brief
198 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
silence. Then came a sharp fusillade, followed by
scattering shots, dwindling to longer intervals.
Jeff clung to his saddlehorn.
" I guess they ain't hurt much," he laughed.
" Wish I could see 'em when they find out ! Slow
down, kid. We've got lots of time now."
" We haven't," protested Charley. " Keep
moving. It's hard on the horses, but they'll have
a lifetime to rest in. They've telegraphed all
over the country. You want to cross the river
before daylight. It would be too bad for you to
be caught now! Is there any ford, do you
know?"
" Not this time of year. River's up."
" Cross in a boat then? "
" Guess we'd better. That horse of yours is
pretty well used up. Don't believe he could swim
it"
" Oh, I'm not going over. I'll get up to El
Paso. I've got friends there."
" You'll get caught."
" No, I won't. I'm not going across, I tell you,
and that's all there is to it! I guess I'll have
something to say about things. I'm going to see
you safely over, and that's the last you'll ever
see of Charley Gibson."
"Oh, well!" Jeff reflected a little. "If you're
sure you won't come along, I'd rather swim. My
horse is strong yet. You see, it takes time to
find a boat, and a boat means a house and dogs;
GOOD-BY [199
and I'll need my horse on the other side. How'll
you get to El Paso? Griffith'!! likely come down
here about an hour by sun, 'cross lots, a-cryin'."
" I'll manage that," said Gibson curtly enough.
*' You tend to your own affair."
" Oh, all right! " Jeff rode ahead He whis
tled; then he chanted his war song:
"Said the little Eohippus:
' I'm going to be a horse!
And on my middle fingernails
To run my earthly course ! '
The Coryphodon was horrified;
The Dinoceras was shocked;
And they chased young Eohippus,
But he skipped away and mocked.
" Said they : ' You always were as small
And mean as now we see,
And that's conclusive evidence
That you're always going to be.
What ! Be a great, tall, handsome beast,
With hoofs to gallop on?
Why ! You'd have to change your nature! '
Said the Loxolophodon. "
"Jeff!"
" Well? " Jeff turned his head. Charley was
drooping visibly.
" Stop that foolish song! "
Jeff rode on in silence. This was a variable
200 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
person, Gibson. They were dropping down from
the mesa into the valley of the Rio Grande.
"Jeff!"
Jeff fell back beside Charley. " Tired, pard-
ner?"
"Jeff, I'm terribly tired! I'm not used to
riding so far; and I'm sleepy so sleepy! "
"All right, par'dner; we'll go slower. We'll
walk. Most there now. There's the railroad."
" Keep on trotting. I can stand it. We must
get to the river before daylight. Is it far?"
Charley's voice was weary. The broad sombrero
drooped sympathetically.
" Two miles to the river. El Paso's seven or
eight miles up the line. Brace up, old man!
You've done fine and dandy ! It's just because the
excitement is all over. Why should you go any
farther, anyhow? There's Ysleta up the track
a bit. Follow the road up there and flag the
first train. That'll be best."
" No, no. I'll go all the way. I'll make out."
Charley straightened himself with an effort.
They crossed the Espee tracks and came to a
lane between cultivated fields.
" Jeff ! I'd like to say something. It won't be
breaking my promise really. ... I didn't mean
what I said about you know. I was only teasing.
She's a good enough girl, I guess as girls go."
Jeff nodded. " I did not need to be told that."
" And you left her in a cruel position when you
GOOD-BY 201
jumped out of the window. She can't tell now, so
long as there's any other way. What a foolish
thing to do ! If you'd just said at first that you
were in the garden Oh, why didn't you?
But after the chances you took rather than to
tell why, Jeff, it would be terrible for her now.'*
" I know that, too," said Jeff. " I suppose I
was a fool ; but I didn't want her to get mixed up
with it, and at the same time I cared less about
hanging than any time I can remember. You see,
I didn't know till the last minute that the garden
was going to cut any figure. And do you suppose
I'd have that courthouseful of fools buzzing and
whispering at her? Not much! Maybe it was
foolish but I'm glad I did it."
" I'm glad of it, too. If you had to be a fool,"
said Charley, " I'm glad you were that kind of
a fool. Are you still mad at me? "
Since Charley had recanted, and more especially
since he had taken considerate thought for the
girl's compulsory silence, Jeff's anger had evap
orated.
" That's all right, pardner. ., ,. . Only you
oughtn't never to talk that way about a girl
even for a joke. That's no good kind of a joke.
Men, now, that's different. See here, I'll give
you an order to a fellow in El Paso Hibler
to pay for your horses and your gun. Here's
your belt, too."
Charley shook his head impatiently. " I don't
202 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
want any money. Settle with Pappy for the
horses. I won't take this one back. Keep the
belt. You may want it to beat me with sometime.
What are you going to do, Jeff? Aren't you ever
coming back? "
" Sure I'll come back if only to see Griffith
again. I'll write to John Wesley Pringle he's
my mainest side pardner and sick him on to find
out who robbed that bank to prove it, rather.
I just about almost nearly know who it was. Old
Wes'll straighten things out a-flying. I'll be back
in no time. I got to come back, Charley! "
The river was in sight. The stars were fading;
there was a flush in the east, a smell of dawn in
the air.
" Jeff, I wish you'd do something for me."
"Sure, Charley. What is it?"
" I wish you'd give me that little turquoise horse
to remember you by."
Jeff was silent for a little. He had framed out
another plan for the little eohippus namely, to
give him to Miss Ellinor. He sighed; but he
owed a good deal to Charley.
" All right, Charley. Take good care of him
he's a lucky little horse. I think a heap of him.
Here we arel "
The trees were distinct in the growing light.
Jeff rode into the river; the muddy water swirled
about his horse's knees. He halted for parting;
Gibson rode in beside him. Jeff took the precious
GOOD-BY 203
Alice book from his bosom, put it in the crown
of his miner's cap and jammed the cap tightly on
his head.
" Better change your mind, Charley. Come
along. We'll rout somebody out and order a dish
of stewed eggs.
" There is another shore, you know, upon the other side.
The farther off from England the nearer 'tis to France ;
Then turn not pale, beloved snail, but come and join
the dance.
Will you won't you"
" ' No, I won't! I told you once! ' " snapped
the beloved snail.
" Here's the little eohippus horse then." As
Charley took it Jeff wrung his hand. " By
George, I've got to change my notion of Arcadia
people. If there's many like you and Griffith,
Arcadia's going to crowd the map! .. ( ., . Well
so long! "
" It looks awful wide, Jeff ! "
" Oh, I'll be all right swim it myself if the
horse plays out and if I don't have no cramps,
as I might, of course, after this ride. Well here
goes nothin' ! Take care of the little horse. I
hope he brings you good luck! "
"Well so long, then!"
Bransford rode into the muddy waters. They
came to the horse's breast, his neck; he plunged
204 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
in, sank, rose, and was borne away down the swift
current, breasting the flood stoutly and so went
quartering across to the farther bank. It took
a long time. It was quite light when the hprse
found footing on a sandbar half a mile below,
rested, and splashed whitely through the shallows
to the bank. Gibson swung his sombrero. Jeff
waved his hand, rode to the fringing bushes, and
was gone.
CHAPTER XVI
THE LAND OF AFTERNOON
" Dreaming once more love's old sad dream divine."
T OS BANGS DE SANTA EULALIA DEL
1 j NORTE, otherwise known as Mud Springs,
is a Mexican hamlet with one street of about the
same length. Los Banos and Co. lies in a loop
of the Rio Grande, half of a long day from El
Paso, in mere miles ; otherwise a contemporary of
Damascus and Arpad.
Thither, mindful of the hot springs which sup
ply the preliminaries of the name, Mr. Bransford
made his way: mindful too, of sturdy old Don
Francisco, a friend twice bound by ancient service
given and returned.
He climbed the slow long ridges to the high
mesa: for the river bent here in a long ox-bow,
where a bold promontory shouldered far out to
bar the way: weary miles were to be saved by
crossing the neck of this ox-bow, and the tough
horse tired and lagged.
The slow sun rose as he reached the Rim. It
showed the wide expanse of desert behind him,
flooded with trembling light ; eastward, beyond the
205
206 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
river, the buttressed and fantastic peaks of Fray
Cristobal; their jutting shadows streaming into
the gulf beyond, athwart the silvery ribbon of
gleaming water, twining in mazy loops across the
valley floor: it showed the black Rim at his feet,
a frowning level wall of lava cliff, where the plain
broke abruptly into the chasm beneath; the iron
desolation of the steep sides, boulder-strewn, sav
age and forbidding:
" A land of old up-heaven from the abyss.",'
Long since, there had been a flourishing Mexi
can town in the valley. A wagon-road had pain
fully climbed a long ridge to the Rim, twisting,
doubling, turning, clinging hazardously to the
hill-side, its outer edge a wall built up with stone,
till it came to the shoulder under the tremendous
barrier. From there it turned northward, paral
leling the Rim in mile-long curve above a deep
gorge; turning, in a last desperate climb, to a
solitary gateway in the black wall, torn out by
flood-waters through slow centuries. Smallpox
had smitten the people ; the treacherous river had
devastated the fertile valley, and, subsiding, left
the rich fields a waste of sand. The town was
long deserted; the disused road was gullied and
torn by flood, the soil washed away, leaving a
heaped and crumbled track of tangled stone. But
it was the only practicable way as far as the sand-
THE LAND OF AFTERNOON 207
hills, and Jeff led his horse down the ruined path,
with many a turning back and scrambling detour.
The shadows of the eastern hills drew back
before him as he reached the sand-dunes. When
he rode through the silent streets of what had
been Alamocita, the sun peered over Fray Cris
tobal, gilding the crumbling walls, where love and
laughter had made music, where youth and hope
and happiness had been. . . . Silent now and
deserted, given over to lizard and bat and owl,
the smiling gardens choked with sand and grass,
springing with mesquite and tornillo; a few fruit
trees, gnarled and tangled, drooping for days de
parted, when young mothers sang low lullaby be
neath their branches. . . . Passed away and for
gotten hopes and fears, tears and smiles, birth
and death, joy and sorrow, hatred and sin and
shame, falsehood and truth and courage and love.
The sun shone cheerfully on these gray ruins as
it has shone on a thousand such, and will shine.
Jeff turned down the river, past the broken
acequias, to where a massive spur of basaltic rock
had turned the fury of the floods and spared a few
fields. In this sheltered cove dwelt Don Francisco
Escobar in true pastoral and patriarchal manner;
his stalwart sons and daughters, with their sons
and daughters in turn, in clustering adobes around
him : for neighbors, the allied family of Gonzales
y Ortega.
A cheerful settlement, this of Los Bafios,
208 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
nestling at the foot of the friendly rampart, shel
tered alike from flood and wind. South and west
the close black Rim walled the horizon, the fantasy
of Fray Cristobal closed in the narrow east: but
northward, beyond the low sand-hills and the blue
heat-haze, the high peaks of Organ, Guadalupe
and Rainbow swam across the sleepy air, far and
soft and dim.
In their fields the gente of Gonzales y
Ortega and of Escobar raised ample crops of
alfalfa, wheat, corn, frijoles and chili, with or
chard, vineyard and garden. Their cows, sheep
and goats grazed the foothills between river and
Rim, watched by the young men or boys, penned
nightly in the great corrals in the old Spanish
fashion; as if the Moor still swooped and forayed.
Their horses roamed the hills at will, only a few
being kept in the alfalfa pasture. They ground
their own grain, tanned their cow-hides at home.
Mattress and pillow were wool of their raising,
their blankets and cloth their own weave. .There
were granaries, a wine-press, a forge, a cumbrous
stone mill, a great adobe oven like a monstrous
bee-hive.
Once a year their oxen drew the great high-
sided wagons up the sandy road to El Paso, and
returned with the year's marketing salt, axes,
iron and steel, powder and lead, bolts of white
domestic or mania for sheets and shirtings,
matches, tea, coffee, tobacco and sugar. Perhaps,
THE LAND OF AFTERNOON 209
if the saints had been kind, there were a few rib
bons, trinkets or brightly colored prints of Joseph
and Virgin and Child, St. John the Beloved, The
Annunciation, The Children and Christ; perhaps
an American rifle or a plow. But, for the most
part, they held not with innovations; plowed,
sowed and reaped as their fathers did, threshing
with oxen or goats.
The women sewed by hand, cooked on fire
places; or, better still, in the open air under the
trees, with few and simple utensils. The family
ate from whitest and cleanest of sheepskins spread
on the floor. But, the walls were snowy with white
wash, the earthen floors smooth and clean, the
coarse linen fresh and white. The scant furniture
of the rooms a pine bed, a chair or two, a mirror,
a brass candlestick (with home-made candles), a
cheap print on the wall, a great chest for clothes,
blankets and simple treasures, the bright fire in the
cozy fireplace all combined to give an indescrib
able air of cheerfulness, of homely comfort and of
rest. This quiet corner, where people still lived
as simply as when Abraham went up from Ur of
the Chaldees, in the spring-time of the world,
held, for seeing eyes, an incommunicable charm.
When Jeff came at last to Casa Escobar, the
cattle were already on the hills, the pigs and
chickens far afield. Don Francisco, white-haired,
erect, welcomed him eagerly, indeed, but with
stately courtesy
2io BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
"Is it thou indeed, my son? Now, my old
eyes are gladdened this day. Enter, then, amigo
mio, thrice-welcome the house is thine in very
truth. Nay, the young men shall care for thy
horse."
He raised his voice. Three tall sons, Abran,
Zenobio, Donociano, came at the summons, gave
Bransford grave greeting, and stood to await their
father's commands. Fathers of families them
selves, they presumed not to sit unbidden, to join
in the conversation, or to loiter.
Breakfast was served presently, in high state, on
the table reserved for honored guests. Savory
venison, chile, fish, eggs, tortillas, etole, enchiladas,
cream and steaming coffee such was the fare.
Don Francisco sat gravely by to bear him com
pany, while a silently hovering damsel anticipated
every need.
Thence, when his host could urge no more
upon him, to the deep shading cottonwoods.
Wine was brought and the " makings " of ciga
rettes corn-husks, handcut; a great jar of to
bacco; and a brazier of mesquite embers. At a
little distance women washed, wove or sewed; the
young men made buckskin, fashioned quirts, whips,
ropes, bridle-reins, tie-straps, hobbles, pack-sacks
and chaparejos of raw-hide; made cinches of
horse-hair; wrought ox-yokes, plow-beams and
other things needful for their simple hus
bandry.
THE LAND OF AFTERNOON 211
Meanwhile, Don Francisco entertained his
guest with grave and leisurely recital of the year's
annals. Mateo, son of Sebastian, had slain 3
great bear in the Pass of All the Winds; Alicia,
daughter of their eldest, was wed with young
Roman de la O, of Canada Nogales, to the much
healing of feud and ancient hatred; Diego, son of
Eusebio, was proving a bold and fearless rider of
wild horses, with reason, as behooved his father's
son ; he had carried away the gallo at the Fiesta
de San Juan, with the fleet dun colt " creased "
from the wild bunch at Quemado ; the herds had
grown, the crops prospered, all sorrow passed
them by, through the intercession of the blessed
saints.
The year's trophies were brought. He fin
gered with simple pride the great pelt of the silver-
tip. Antlers there were and lion-skins, gleaming
prisms of quartz, flint arrowheads and agates
brought in by the shepherds, the costly Navajo
blanket won by the fleet-limbed dun at Canada
races.
Hither came presently another visitor Flo
rentine, breaker of wild horses, despite his fifty
years; wizened and withered and small, merry and
cheerful, singer of forgotten folk-songs; chanting,
even as he came, the song of Macario Romero
Macario, riding joyous and light-hearted, spite of
warning, omen and sign, love-lured to doom and
death.
212 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
" ' Concedame una licencia
Voy a ir a ver a me Chata.'
" Dice Macario Romero,
Parando en los estribos:
* Madre, pues, esto voy a ver,
Si todos son mis amigos! ' J
And so, listening, weary and outworn, Jeff fell
asleep.
Observe now, how Nature insists upon aver
ages. Mr. Jeff Bransford was, as has been seen,
an energetic man; but outraged nerves will have
their revenge. After making proper amends to
his damaged eye, Jeff's remnant of energy kept up
long enough to dispatch young Tomas Escobar
y Mendoza to El Paso with a message to Hibler:
which message enjoined Hibler at once to carry
tidings to John Wesley Pringle, somewhere in
Chihuahua, asking him kindly to set right what
Arcadian times were out of joint, as he, Jeff, felt
the climate of Old Mexico more favorable for
his throat trouble than that of New Mexico ; with
a postscript asking Hibler for money by bearer.
And young Tomas was instructed to buy, at
Juarez, a complete outfit of clothing for Jeff, in
cluding a gun.
This done, the reaction set in aided, perhaps,
by the enervating lassitude of the hot baths and
the sleepy atmosphere of that forgotten village.
Jeff spent the better part of a week asleep, or half
THE LAND OF AFTERNOON 213
awake at best. He had pleasant dreams, too.
One perhaps the best dream of all was that
on their wedding trip they should follow again
the devious line of his flight from Arcadia. That
would need a prairie schooner no, a prairie
steamboat a prairie yacht! He would tell her
all the hideous details show her the mine, the
camp of the besiegers, the ambuscade on the road.
And if he could have Ellinor meet Griffith and
Gibson for a crowning touch !
After the strenuous violence of hand-strokes,
here was a drowsy and peaceful time. The wine of
that land was good, the shade pleasant, the Alician
philosophy more delightful than of yore; he had
all the accessories, but one, of an earthly paradise.
Man is ungrateful. Jeff was a man ; neglectful
of present bounties, his dreaming thoughts were
all of the absent accessory and of a time when that
absence should be no more, nor paradise be empty.
Life, like the Gryphon's classical master, had
taught him Laughter and Grief. He turned now
the forgotten pages of the book of his years.
Enough black pages were there; as you will know
well, having yourself searched old records before
now, with tears. He cast up that long account
the wasted lendings, the outlawed debts, the dis*
honored promises, the talents of his stewardship,
unprofitable and brought to naught; set down
how gladly ! the items on the credit side. So men
have set the good upon one side and the evil on
214 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
the other since Crusoe's day, and before; against
the time when the Great Accountant, Whose
values are not ours, shall strike a final balance.
Take that book at your elbow yes, either one ;
it doesn't matter. Now turn to where the hero
first discovers his frightful condition long after
it has become neighborhood property. . . . He
bent his head in humility. He was not worthy of
her! . . . Something like that? Those may not
be the precise words ; but he groaned. He always
groans. By-the-way, how this man-saying must
amuse womankind! Yes, and they actually say
it too real, live, flesh-and-blood men. Who was
it said life was a poor imitation of literature?
Happily, either these people are insincere or they
reconsider the matter else what should we do for
families?
It is to be said that Jeff Bransford lacked this
becoming delicacy. If he groaned he swore also ;
if he decided that Miss Ellinor Hoffman deserved
a better man than he was, he also highly resolved
that she should not have him.
" For, after all, you know," said Jeff to Alice:
" I'm sure he's nothing extra a quiet man and plain,
And modest though there isn't much of which he could
be vain.
And had I mind to chant his praise, this were the
kindest line
Somehow, she loves him dearly this little love of
mine! "
CHAPTER XVII
TWENTIETH
"And there that hulking Prejudice
Sat all across the road.
I took my hat, I took my coat,
My load I settled fair,
I approached that awful incubus
With an absent-minded air
And I walked directly through him
As if he wasn't there ! "
An Obstacle:
CHARLOTTE PERKINS STETSON.
JOHNNY DINES rode with a pleasant jingle
down the shady street of Los Bafios de Santa
Eulalia del Norte. His saddle was new, carven,
wrought with silver; his bridle shone as the sun,
his spurs as bright stars; he shed music from his
feet. Jeff saw him turn to Casa Escobar: apple
blossoms made a fragrant lane for him. He
paused at Jeff's tree.
" Alto alii! " said Johnny. The words, as
sharp command, can be managed in two brisk
syllables. The sound is then : " Altwai! " It is
a crisp and startling sound, and the sense of it in
our idiom is: " Hands up I "
215
2 1 6* BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
Jeff had been taking a late breakfast al fresco;
he made glad room on his bench.
"Light, stranger, and look at your saddle!
Pretty slick saddle, too. Guess your playmates
must 'a' went home talking to themselves last
night."
" They're going to kill a maverick for you at
Arcadia and give a barbecue," said Johnny. The
cult of nil admirari reaches its highest pitch of
prosperity in the cow-countries, and Johnny knew
that it was for him to broach tidings unasked.
" Oh, that reminds me how's old Lars Por-
sena? " said Jeff, now free to question.
" Him? He's all right," said Johnny casually.
'* Goin' to marry one or more of the nurses.
They're holdin' elimination contests now."
" Say, Johnny, when you go back, I wish you'd
tell him I didn't do it. Cross my heart and hope
to die if I did!"
" Oh, he knows it wasn't you ! " said Johnny.
Jeff shook his head doubtfully.
"Evidence was pretty strong pretty strong!
Who was it then ?"
" Why, Lake himself the old hog! "
" If Lake keeps on like this he's going to hav&
people down on him," said Jeff. " Who did the
holmesing John Wesley?"
"Oh, John Wesley! John Wesley!" said
Dines scornfully. " You think the sun rises and
sets in old John Wesley Pringle. Naw ; he didn't
TWENTIETH CENTURY 217
get back till it was all over. I cannot tell a lie.
I did it with my little hatchet! "
" Must have had it sharpened up! " said Jeff.
'"Tell it to me!"
" Why, there isn't much to tell," said Dines,
suddenly modest. " Come to think of it, I had
right considerable help. There was a young col
lege chap he first put it into my head that it
wasn't you."
" That would be the devil? " said Jeff, ignoring
the insult.
"Just so. Name's White and so's he: Billy
White, S. M. and G. P."
" I don't just remember them degrees," said
Jeff.
" Aw, keep still and you'll hear more. They
stand for Some Man and Good People. Well,
as I was a-saying, Billy he seemed to think it
wasn't you. He stuck to it that Buttinski that's
what he calls you was in a garden just when the
bank was robbed."
Johnny contemplated the apple tree over his
head. It was a wandering and sober glance, but
a muscle twitched in his cheek, and he made no
further explanation about the garden.
" And then I remembered about Nigger Babe
throwin' you off, and I began to think maybe you
didn't crack the safe after all. And there was
some other things little things that made Billy
and Jimmy Phillips he was takin' cards in the
2i 8 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
game too made 'em think maybe it was Lake;
but it wasn't no proof not to say proof. And
there's where I come in."
" Well?" said Jeff, as Johnny paused.
" Simple enough, once you knowed how," said
Johnny modestly. " I'd been reading lots of them
detective books Sherlock Holmes and all them
fellows. I got Billy to have his folks toll Lake's
sister away for the night, so she wouldn't be
scared. Then me and Billy and Jimmy Phillips
and Monte, we broke in and blowed up Lake's
private safe. No trouble at all. Since the bank-
robbin' every one had been tellin' round just how
it ought to be done crackin' safes. Funny how a
fellow picks up little scraps of useful knowledge
like that things you'd think he'd remember
might come in handy most any time and then
forgets all about 'em. I wrote it down this time.
Won't forget it again."
"Well?" said Jeff again.
" Oh, yes. And there was the nice money
all the notes and all of the gold he could
tote."
Jeff's eye wandered to the new saddle.
" I kept some of the yellow stuff as a souvenir
half a quart, or maybe a pint," said Johnny.
" I don't want no reward for doin' a good deed.
. . . And that's all."
" Lake is a long, ugly word," said Jeff thought
fully.
TWENTIETH CENTURY 219
" Well, what do you say? " prompted Johnny.
" Oh, thank you, thank you ! " said Jeff. " You
showed marvelous penetration marvelous! But
say, Johnny, if the money hadn't been there
wouldn't that have been awkward? "
" Oh, Billy was pretty sure Lake was the man.
And we figured he hadn't bothered to move it
you being the goat that way. What made you
be a goat, Jeff? That whole performance was
the most idiotic break I ever knew a grown-up
man to get off. I knew you were not strictly
accountable, but why didn't you say, * Judge, your
Honor, sir, at the time the bank was being
robbed I was in a garden with a young lady, talk
ing about the hereafter, the here and the here
tofore? ' "
" On the contrary, what made your Billy think
it was Lake? "
Johnny told him, in detail.
" Pretty good article of plain thinking, wasn't
it?" he concluded. "Yet he mightn't have got
started on the right track at all if he hadn't had
the straight tip about your bein' in a garden."
Johnny's eye reverted to the apple tree. " Lake
found your noseguard, you know, where you left
it. I reckon maybe he saw you leave it there.
Say, Jeff! Lake's grandfather must have been a
white man. Anyhow, he's got one decent drop
of blood in him, from somewhere, For when we
arrested him, he didn't say a word about the
220 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
garden. That was rather a good stunt, I thinE
Bully for Lake, just once ! "
" Right you are ! And, Mr. J. Dines, I've been
thinking " Jeff began.
Johnny glanced at him anxiously.
" and I've about come to the conclusion
that we're some narrow contracted and bigoted
on Rainbow. We don't know it all. We ain't the
only pebble. From what I've seen of these Ar
cadia men they seem to be pretty good stuff and
like as not it's just the same way all along the
beach. There's your Mr. White, and Griffith, and
Gibson did I tell you about Gibson?"
Johnny flashed a brilliant smile. His smiles
always looked larger than they really were, be
cause Johnny was a very small man.
" I saw Griffith and he gave me his version
several times. He's real upset, Griffith. . . .
Last time he told me, he leaned up against my
neck and wept because there was only ten com
mandments 1 "
" Didn't see Gibson, did you? You lyiow
him?"
" Nope. Pappy picked him up or he picked
Pappy up, rather. Hasn't been seen since. I
guess Gibby, old boy, has gone to the wild bunch.
He wouldn't suspect you of bein' innocent, and he
dreamed he dwelt in marble walls, makin' shoes
for the state. So he gets cold feet and he just
naturally evaporates good night ! "
TWENTIETH CENTURY 221
" Yes he said he was going to hike out, or
something to that effect," responded Jeff absently
the fact being that he was not thinking of
Gibson, at all, but was pondering deeply upon
Miss Ellinor Hoffman. Had she gone to New
York according to the original plan? It did not
seem probable. Her face stood out before him
bright, vivid, sparkling, as he had seen her last,
in the court room of Arcadia. Good heavens!
Wag that only a week ago? Seven days? It
seemed seven years! No she had not gone
at least, certainly not until she was sure that he,
Jeff, had made good his escape. Then, perhaps,
she might have gone. Perhaps her mother had
made her go. Oh, well I New York wasn't far,
as he had told her that first wonderful day on
Rainbow Rim. What a marvelous day that
was!
Jeff was suddenly struck with the thought that
he had never seen Ellinor's mother. Great Scott!
She had a father, too! How annoying! He
meditated upon this unpleasant theme for a space.
Then, as if groping in a dark room, he had sud
denly turned on the light, his thought changed to
What a girl! Ah, what a wonderful girl!
Where is she?
Looking up, Jeff became once more aware of
Johnny Dines, leg curled around the horn of the
new saddle, elbow on knee, cheek on hand, con
templating his poor friend with benevolent pity.
222 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
And then Jeff knew that he could make no queries
of Johnny Dines.
Johnny spake soothingly.
"You are in North America. This is the
Twentieth Century. Your name is Bransford.
That round bright object is the sun. This direc
tion is East. This way is called ' up.' This is
a stream of water that you see. It is called the
Rio River Grand Big. We are advertised by
our loving friends. I cannot sing the old songs.
There's a reason. Two of a kind flock together.
Never trump your pardner's ace. It's a wise
child that dreads the fire. Wake up ! Come out
of it! Change cars! "
" I ought to kill you," said Jeff. " Now giggle,
you idiot, and make everybody hate you ! Wait
till I say Adios to my old compadre and the rest
of the Escobar gente and I'll side you to El
Paso."
" Not I. Little Johnny, he'll make San Elizario
ferry by noon and Helm's by dark. Thought
maybe so you'd be going along."
" Why, no," said Jeff uneasily. " I guess may
be I'll go up to El Paso and June around a spell."
" Oh, well just as you say I Such bein' the
case, I'll be jogging."
" Better wait till after dinner I'll square it
with Don Francisco if ... anything's missing."
" No that makes too long a jaunt for this
afternoon. Me for San Elizario. So long! "
TWENTIETH CENTJURY, 223
But beyond the first acequia he turned and rode
back.
" Funny thing, Jeff ! Remember me telling you
about a girl I saw on Mayhill, the day Nigger
Babe throwed you off? Now, what was that
girl's name? I've forgotten again. Oh, yes!
Hoffman Miss Ellinor Hoffman. Well she's
at Arcadia still. The mother lady was all for
going back to New York but, no, sir ! Girl says
she's twenty-one, likes Arcadia, and she's going
to stay a spell. Leastwise, so I hear."
" I will kill you ! " said Jeff. " Here, wait till
I saddle my nag and say good-by."
Beyond San Elizario, as they climbed the Pass
of All the Winds, the two friends halted to
breathe their horses.
" Jeff," said Johnny, rather soberly, " you can
kick me after I say my little piece I'll think
poorly of you if you don't but ain't you making
maybe a mistake ? That girl, now nice girl, and
all that but that girl's got money, Jeff."
" I hate a fool worse than a knave, any day in
the week," said Jeff : " and the man that would
let money keep him from the only girl why,
Johnny, he's so much more of a fool than the
other fellow is a scoundrel "
" I get you ! " said Johnny. " You mean that
a submarine boat is better built for roping steers
than a mogul engine is skilful at painting steeples,
224 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
and you wonder if you can't get a fresh horse
somewhere and go on through to Arcadia
to-night?"
" Something like that," admitted Jeff. " Be
sides," he added lightly, " while I'd like that girl
just as well if I didn't have a cent why, as it
happens, I'm pretty well fixed, myself. I've got
money to throw at the little dicky-birds all kinds
of money. Got a fifty-one-per-cent interest in a
copper mine over in Harqua Hala that's been
payin' me all the way from ten to five thousand
clear per each and every year for the last seven
years, besides what I pay a lad for lookout to
keep anybody but himself from stealing any of it.
He's been buyin' real estate for me in Los Angeles
lately."
Johnny's jaw dropped in unaffected amazement.
"All this while? Before you and Leo hit
Rainbow? "
"Sure!" said Jeff.
" And you workin' for forty a month and
stealin' your own beef? then saving up and buy
ing your little old brand along with Beebe and
Leo and old Wes', joggin' along, workin' like a
yaller dog with fleas?"
;< Why not? Wasn't I having a heap of fun?
Where can I see any better time than I had here,
or find better friends? Money's no good by it
self. I haven't drawn a dollar from Arizona since
I left. It was fun to make the mine go round
TWENTIETH CENTURY 225
at first; but when it got so it'd work I looked for
something else more amusing."
" I should think you'd want to travel, anyhow."
"Travel?" echoed Jeff. "Travel? Why,
you damn fool, I'm here now! "
" Will you stay here, if you marry her, Jeff? "
" So you've no objection to make, if I've got a
few dollars? That squares everything all right,
does it? Not a yeep of protest from you now?
See here, you everlasting fool ! I'm just the same
man I was fifteen minutes ago when you thought
I didn't have any money. If I'm fit for her now,
I was then. If I wasn't good enough then, I'm
not good enough now."
" But I wasn't thinking of her I was thinking
of how it would look."
"Look? Who cares how it looks? Just a
silly prejudice ! ' They say what say they let
them say ! ' Johnny, maybe I was just stringin'
you. If I was lying about the money how about
it then? Changed your mind again? "
" You wasn't lyin', was you? "
" Shan't tell you! It doesn't really make any
difference, anyhow."
'AT THE RAINBOW'S END
"Helen's lips are drifting dust;
Ilion is consumed with rust;
All the galleons of Greece
Drink the ocean's dreamless peace;
Lost was Solomon's purple show
Restless centuries ago;
Stately empires wax and wane
Babylon, Barbary and Spain
Only one thing, undefaced,
Lasts, though all the worlds lie waste
And the heavens are overturned,
Dear, how long ago we learned ! ''
FREDERICK LAWRENCE KNOWLES.
STARLIT and moonlight leagues, the slow,
fresh dawn ; in the cool of the morning, Brans-
ford came to the crest of the ground-swell known
as Frenchman's Ridge, and saw low-lying Arcadia
dim against the north, a toy town huddling close
to the shelter of Rainbow Range; he splashed
through the shallow waters of Alamo, failing to
a trickle before it sank in the desert sands; and
so came at last to the moat of Arcadia. With
what joyous and eager-choking heart-beat you
may well guess: not the needlessness of those
swift pulses or of that joy. For Ellinor was not
there. With Mrs. Hoffman, she had gone to
226
AT THE RAINBOW'S END 227
visit the Sutherlands at Rainbow's End. And Jeff
could not go on. Arcadia rose to greet him in im
promptu Roman holiday.
Poor Bransford has never known clearly what
chanced on that awful day. There is a jumbled,
whirling memory of endless kaleidoscopic troops
of joyful Arcadians : Billy White, Monte, Jimmy,
Clarke, the grim-smiling sheriff, the judge. It
was dimly borne upon him by one or both of the
two last, that there were yet certain formalities to
be observed in the matter of his escape from cus
tody of the Law and of the horse he had bor
rowed from the court house square. Indeed, it
seemed to Jeff, in a hazy afterthought, that per
haps the sheriff had arrested him again. If so, it
had slipped Jeff's mind, swallowed up in a grue
some horror of congratulations, hand-shakings,
back-slappings, badinage and questions; heaped
on a hero heartsick, dazed and dumb. Pleading
weariness, he tore himself away at last, almost by
violence, and flung himself down in a darkened
bedroom of the Arcadian Atalanta.
One thing was clear. Headlight was there,
Aforesaid Smith, Madison: but his nearest
friends, Pringle, Beebe and Ballinger, though they
had hasted back to Arcadia to fight Jeff's battles,
were ostentatiously absent from his hollow and
hateful triumph: Johnny Dines had pointedly re
fused to share his night ride from Helm's : and
Jeff knew why, sadly enough. The gods take pay
228 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
for the goods they give: and now that goodly
fellowship was broken. The thought clung fast:
it haunted his tossing and troubled slumbers,
where Ellinor came through a sunset glow, swift-
footed to meet him: where his friends rode slow
and silent into the glimmering dusk, smaller and
smaller, black against the sky.
The Sutherland place made an outer corner of
Rainbow's End, bowered about by a double row
of close and interlaced cottonwoods on two sides,
by vigorous orchards on the other two.
The house had once been a one-storied adobe,
heroically proportioned, thick-walled, cool against
summer, warm in what went by the name of win
ter. The old-time princely hospitality was un
changed, but Sutherland had bought lots in Ar
cadia of early days; and now, the old gray walls
of the house were smooth with creamy stucco^
wrought of gypsum from the White Sands; thv
windows were widened and there was a super
imposed story, overhanging, wide and low. Th^
gables were double-windowed, shingled and
stained nut-brown, the gently sloping roof
shingled, dormered and soft green: the overflow
projecting to broad verandas on either side, very
like an umbrella : a bungalow with two birthdays
1866 : 1896.
Miss Ellinor Hoffman had deserted veranda,
rocking-chair and hammock. With a sewing bas-
AT THE RAINBOW'S END 229
ket beside her, she sat on a pine bench under a
cottonwood of 1867, ostensibly basting together
a kimono tinted like a dripping sea shell, and faced
with peach-blossom.
The work went slowly. Her seat was at the
desert corner of the homestead which was itself
the desert outpost of a desert town : and her blood
stirred to these splendid horizons. The mys
terious desert scoffed and questioned, drew her
with promise of strange joys and strange griefs.
[The iron-hard mountains beckoned and challenged
from afar, wove her their spells of wavering
lights and shadows; the misty warp and woof of
them shifting to swift fantastic hues of trembling
rose and blue and violet, half-veiling, half-reveal
ing, steeps unguessed and dreamed-of sheltered
valleys and all the myriad-voice of moaning
waste and world-rimming hill cried " Come ! "
Faint, fitful undertone of drowsy chords, far
pealing of elfin bells; that was pulsing of busy
acequias, tinkling of mimic waterfalls. The clean
breath of the desert crooned by, bearing a grateful
fragrance of apple-blossoms near; it rippled the
deepest green of alfalfa to undulating sheen of
purple and flashing gold.
The broad fields were dwarfed to play-garden
prettiness by the vastness of overwhelming desert,
to right, to left, before; whose nearer blotches of
black and gray and brown faded, far off, to a
nameless shimmer, its silent leagues dwindling to
230 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
immeasurable blur, merging indistinguishable in
the burning sunset.
" East by up," overguarding the oasis, the
colossal bulk of Rainbow walled out the world
with grim-tiered cliffs, cleft only by the deep-
gashed gates of Rainbow Pass, where the swift
river broke through to the rich fields of Rain
bow's End, bringing fulfilment of the fabled
pot of gold or, unused, to shrink and fail and
die in the thirsty sand.
Below, the whilom channel wandered forlorn
Rainbow no longer, but Lost River to a discon
solate delta, waterless save as infrequent floods
found turbulent way to the Sink, when wild horse
and antelope revisited their old haunts for the
tender green luxury of these brief, belated springs.
Incidentally, Miss Hoffman's outpost com
manded a good view of Arcadia road, winding
white through the black tar-brush. Had she
looked, she might have seen a slow horseman, tiny
on the bare plain below the tar-brush, larger
as he climbed the gentle slope along that white-
winding road.
But she bent industrious to her work, smiling
to herself, half-singing, half-humming a foolish
and lilry little tune :
"A tisket, a tasket a green and yellow basket;
I wrote a letter to my love and on the road I lost it
I crissed it, I crossed it I locked it in a casket;
I missed it, I lost it *
AT THE RAINBOW'S END 231
And here Miss Hoffman did an unaccountable
thing. Wise Penelope unraveled by night the
work she wove by day. Like her in this, Miss
Ellinor Hoffman now placidly snipped and ripped
the basting threads, unraveled them patiently,
and set to work afresh.
"Now, there's no such thing as a Ginko tree;
There never was though there ought to be.
And 'tis also true, though most absurd,
There's no such thing as a Wallabye bird ! "
Miss Hoffman was all in white, with a white
middy blouse trimmed in scarlet, a scarlet ribbon
in her dark hair: a fine-linked gold chain showed
at her neck. A very pretty picture she made, cool
and fresh against the deep shade and the green
but of course she did not know it. She held the
shaping kimono at arm's length, admiring the deli
cate color, and fell to work again.
" Oh, the jolly miller, he lives by himself!
As the wheel rolls around he gathers in his pelf,
A hand in the hopper and another in the bag
As the wheel rolls around he calls out, ' Grab! ' J
So intent and preoccupied was she, that she
'did not hear the approaching horse.
" Good evening! "
" Oh ! " Miss Hoffman jumped, dropping the
long-suffering kimono. A horseman, with bared
head, had reined up in the shaded road alongside.
232 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
" How silly of me not to hear you coming! If
you're looking for Mr. Sutherland, he's not here
Mr. David Sutherland, that is. But Mr. Henry
Sutherland is here or was awhile ago maybe
half an hour since. He was trying to get up a
set of tennis. Perhaps they're playing over
there on the other side of the house. And yet,
if they were there, we'd hear them laughing
don't you think?"
Mr. Bransford for it was Mr. Bransford,
and he was all dressed in clothes waited with
extreme patience for the conclusion of these fever
ish and hurried remarks.
" But I'm not looking for Sutherland. I'm
looking for you ! "
" Oh! " said Ellinor again. Then, after a long
and deliberate survey, the light of recognition
dawned slowly in her eyes. " Oh, I do know you,
don't I ? To be sure I do ! You're Mr. the
gentleman I met on Rainbow Mountain, near
Mayhill, Mr. ah yes Bransford ! "
"Why, so I am!" said Jeff, leaning on the
saddle-horn. One half of Mr. Bransford won
dered if he had not been making a fool of him
self and taking a great deal for granted: the other
half, though considerably alarmed, was not at all
deceived.
Miss Ellinor did not actually put her finger in
the corner of her mouth she merely looked
as if she had. "Ah! Won't you get
AT THE RAINBOW'S END 233
down? " she said helplessly. " What a beautiful
horse!"
" Why, yes thank you I believe I will."
He left the beautiful horse to stand with
dangling reins, and came over to the bench, silent
and rather grim.
" Won't you sit down? " said Ellinor politely.
"Fine day, isn't it?"
" It's a wonderful day a marvelous day a
stupendous day!" said this exasperated young
man. " No, I guess it's not worth while to sit
down. I just wanted to find out where you lived.
I asked you once before, you know, and you didn't
tell me."
" Didn't I ? Oh, do sit down ! You look so
grumpy tired, I mean." Rather grudgingly, she
swept the sewing basket from the bench to the
grass.
Jeff's eyes followed the action. He saw if you
call it seeing the snipped threads on the grass,
the yet unpicked bastings, white against the peach-
pink facing; but he was a mere man, hardly-cir
cumstanced, and these eloquent tidings were
wasted upon his clumsy intellect: as had been the
surprising good fortune of finding Miss Ellinor
exactly where she was.
Nerving himself with memory of the Quaker
Lady at the masquerade if, indeed, that had ever
really happened Jeff took the offered seat.
The young lady matched two edges together,
234 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
smoothed them, eyed the result critically, and
plied a nimble needle. Then she turned clear and
guileless eyes on her glooming seatmate.
" You look older, somehow, than I thought you
were, now that I remember," she observed, bit
ing the thread. "You've been away, haven't'
you?"
" Thought you were going away, yourself, so
wild and fierce? " said Jeff, evading. Been away,
indeed!
Ellinor threaded her needle.
" Mamma was talking of going for a while,"
she said tranquilly. " But I'm rather glad we
didn't. We're having a splendid time here and
Mr. White's going to take us to the White Sands
next week. He'll be down to-morrow at least
I think so. He's fine ! He took us to Mescalero
early in the spring. And the young people here
at Rainbow's End are simply delightful. You
must meet some of them. Listen! There they
are now I hear them. They are playing tennis.
Come on up and I'll introduce you. I can finish
this thing any time." She tossed the poor kimono
into the basket.
" No," said this unhappy young man, rising.
" I believe I'll go on back. Good-by, Miss
Ell Miss Hoffman. I wish you much happi
ness! "
'Why surely you're not going now? There
are some nice girls here they have heard so much
AT THE RAINBOW'S END 235
of you, but they say they've never met you. Don't
you want "
Jeff groaned, fumbling blindly at the bridle.
" No, I wish I'd never seen a girl! "
"Why-y! That's not very polite, is it?
Are are you mad to me?" said Ellinor in a
meek little voice.
"Mad? No," said Jeff bitterly. "I'm just
coming to my senses. I've been dreaming. Now
I've woke up ! "
" Angry, I mean, of course. I just say it that
way ' are you mad to me ' sometimes to be
to be nice, Mr. Bransford! "
" You needn't bother ! Good-by 1 "
" But I'll see you again "
"Never!"
" when you're not so cross?"
Jeff reached for his stirrup.
"Oh, well! If you're going to be huffy!
Never it is, then, by all means! No wait! I
must give you back your present."
" I have never given you a present. Some other
man, doubtless. You should keep a list! " said
Jeff, with bitter and cutting scorn.
The girl turned half away from him and hid
her face with trembling hands; her shoulders
shook with emotion.
"Look the other way, sir! Turn your head!
You shall have your present back and then if
you're so anxious to go Go I "
236 BRANSFORD OF RAINBOW RANGE
" Miss Hoffman, I never gave you a present
m my life," Jeff protested.
" You did ! " sobbed Ellinor. She turned upon
him, stamping her foot. " You said, when you
gave it to me, that you hoped it would bring me
good luck. And you've forgotten ! You'd better
keep a list ! Turn your head away, I tell you ! "
She sank down on the bench.
Confused, mazed, bewildered, Jeff obeyed her.
She sprang to her feet. She was laughing,
blushing, glowing. In her hand was the little
gold chain.
" Now, you may look. Hold out your hand,
sir!"
Jeff's mind was whirling; he held out his hand.
She laid a little gold locket in his palm. It was
warm, that little locket.
" I have never seen this locket before in my
life!" gasped Jeff.
"Open it!"
He opened it. The little eohippus glared up at
him.
" Ellinor I Charley Gibson! "
"Tobe! Jefil Jamie!"
The little eohippus stared unwinking from the
grass.
THE BEGINNING
"The Books You Like to Read
at the Price You Like to Pay"
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to Everything
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Beatrice Waverly is robbed of $5.000 and suspicion fasten* upon Buck
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THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS
The fight of the Cardigans, father and son, to hold the
Valley of the Giants against treachery. The reader finishes
with a sense of having lived with big men and women In a
big country.
GAPPY RICKS
The story of old Gappy Ricks and of Matt Peasley, the
boy he tried to break because he knew the acid test was
good for his soul.
WEBSTER: MAN'S MAN
In a little Jim Crow Republic in Central America, a snan
and a woman, hailing from the " States," met up with a
revolution and for a while adventures and excitement came
so thick and fast that their love affair had to wait for a lull
in the game.
CAPTAIN SCRAGGS
This sea yarn recounts the adventures of three rapscal
lion sea-faring men a Captain Scraggs, owner of the green
vegetable freighter Maggie, Gibney the mate and McGuff-
cey the engineer.
THE LONG CHANCE
A story fresh from the heart of the West, of San Pasqual,
a sun-baked desert town, of Harley P. Hennage, the best
gambler, the best and worst man of San Pasqual and of
lovely Donna.
GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
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TARZAN AND THE GOLDEN LION
A tale of the African wilderness which appeals to all readers
of fiction.
TARZAN THE TERRIBLE
Further thrilling adventures of Tarzan while seeking his wife
in Africa.
TARZAN THE UNTAMED
Tells of Tarzan's return to the life of the ape-man in seeking
vengeance for the loss of his wife and home.
JUNGLE TALES OF TARZAN
Records the many wonderful exploits by which Tarzan proves
bis right to ape kingship.
AT THE EARTH'S CORE
An astonishing series of adventures in a world located inside
of the Earth.
THE MUCKER
The story of Billy Byrne as extraordinary a character as the
famous Tarzan.
A PRINCESS OF MARS
_ Forty-three million miles from the earth a succession of the
wierdst and most astounding adventures in fiction.
THE GODS OF MARS
i John Carter's adventures on Mars, where he fights the fero
cious "plant men," and defies Issus, the Goddess of Death.
THE WARLORD OF MARS
Old acquaintances, made in two other stories, reappear, Tars
Tarkas, Tardos Mors and others.
THUVIA, MAID OF MARS
The story centers around the adventures of Carthoris, the son
of John Carter and Thuvia, daughter of a Martian Emperor.
THE CHESSMEN OF MARS
The adventures of Princess Tara in the land of headleas men,
creatures with the power of detaching their heads from their
bodies and replacing them at will.
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TO THE LAST MAN
THE MYSTERIOUS RIDER
THE MAN OF THE FOREST
THE DESERT OF WHEAT
THE U. P. TRAIL
WILDFIRE
THE BORDER LEGION
THE RAINBOW TRAIL
THE HERITAGE OF THE DESERT
RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE
THE LIGHT OF WESTERN STARS
THE LAST OF THE PLAINSMEN
THE LONE STAR RANGER
DESERT GOLD
BETTY ZANE
* * * * * *
LAST OF THE GREAT SCOUTS
The life story of " Buffalo Bill " by his sister Helen Cody
Wetmore, with Foreword and conclusion by Zane Grey.
ZANE GREY'S BOOKS FOR BOYS
KEN WARD IN THE JUNGLE
THE YOUNG LION HUNTER
THE YOUNG FORESTER
THE YOUNG PITCHER
THE SHORT STOP
THE RED-HEADED OUTFIELD AND OTHER
BASEBALL STORIES
GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD'S
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THE COUNTRY BEYOND
THE FLAMING FOREST
THE VALLEY OF SILENT MEN
THE RIVER'S END
THE GOLDEN SNARE
NOMADS OF THE NORTH
KAZAN
BAREE, SON OF KAZAN
THE COURAGE OF CAPTAIN PLUM
THE DANGER TRAIL
THE HUNTED WOMAN
THE FLOWER OF THE NORTH
THE GRIZZLY KING
ISOBEL
THE WOLF HUNTERS
THE GOLD HUNTERS
THE COURAGE OF MARGE O'DOONE
BACK TO GOD'S COUNTRY
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BIG-TOWN ROUND-UP, THE
BRAND BLOTTERS
BUCKY O'CONNOR
CROOKED TRAILS AND STRAIGHT
DAUGHTER OF THE DONS, A
GUNSIGHT PASS
HIGHGRADER, THE
MAN FOUR-SQUARE, A
MAN-SIZE
MAVERICKS
OH, YOU TEX !
PIRATE OF PANAMA, THE
RIDGWAY OF MONTANA
SHERIFF'S SON, THE
STEVE YEAGER
TANGLED TRAILS
TEXAS RANGER, A
VISION SPLENDID, THg
WYOMING
YUKON TRAIL, THE
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ADVENTURE
BURNING DAYLIGHT
CALL OF THE WILD, THE
DAUGHTER OF THE SNOWS, A'
JERRY, OF THE ISLANDS
JOHN BARLEYCORN
LITTLE LADY OF THE BIG HOUSE
MARTIN EDEN
MICHAEL, BROTHER OF JERRY
MUTINY OF THE ELSINORE, THE
NIGHT BORN. THE
SEA WOLF, THE
SMOKE BELLEW
SON OF THE WOLF. THE
STAR ROVER, THE
VALLEY OF THE MOON. THE
WHITE FANG
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CASEY RYAN
CHIP OF THE FLYING U
COW-COUNTRY
FLYING U RANCH
FLYING ITS LAST STAND, THE
GOOD INDIAN
GRINGOS, THE
HAPPY FAMILY, THE
HER PRAIRIE KNIGHT
HERITAGE OF THE SIOUX. THE
LONG SHADOW, THE
LONESOME TRAIL, THE
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LURE OF THE DIM TRAILS, THE
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UPHILL CLIMB, THE
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SEVENTEEN. Illustrated by Arthur William Brown.
No one but the creator of Penrod could have portrayed
the immortal young people of this story. Ite humor is irre
sistible and reminiscent of the tune when the reader was
Seventeen.
PENROD. Illustrated by Gordon Grant.
This is a picture of a boy's heart, full of the lovable, hu
morous, tragic things which are locked secrets to most older
folks. It is a finished, exquisite work.
PENROD AND SAM. Illustrated by Worth Brehm.
Like " Penrod " and " Seventeen," this book contains
Borne remarkable phases of real boyhood and some of the best
stories of juvenile prankishness that have ever been written.
THE TURMOIL. Illustrated by C. E. Chambers.
Bibbs Sheridan is a dreamy, imaginative youth, who re
volts against his father's plans for him to be a servitor of
big business. The love of a fine girl turns Bibb's life from
failure to success.
THE GENTLEMAN FROM INDIANA. Frontispiece.
A story of love and politics, more especially a picture of
a country editor's life in Indiana, but the charm of the book
lies in the love interest.
THE FLIRT. Illustrated by Clarence F. Underwood.
The " Flirt," the younger of two sisters, breaks one giri'a
engagement, drives one man to suicide, causes the muider
of another, leads another to lose his fortune, and in the end
marries a stupid and unpromising suitor, leaving the really
worthy one to marry her sister.
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