The Untamed - Max Brand
"All right," said Dan. "Stop it, boys."
He had not raised his voice, but they ceased their wild gambols
instantly, the stallion, with head thrown high and arched tail and
heaving sides, while the wolf, with lolling red tongue, strolled
calmly towards his master.
The latter paid no further attention to them, but set about kindling a
small fire over which to cook supper. Calder joined him. The marshal's
mind was too full for speech, but now and again he turned a long
glance of wonder upon the stallion or Black Bart. In the same silence
they sat under the last light of the sunset and ate their supper.
Calder, with head bent, pondered over the man of mystery and his two
tamed animals. Tamed? Not one of the three was tamed, the man least of
all.
He saw Dan pause from his eating to stare with wide, vacant eyes among
the trees. The wolf-dog approached, looked up in his master's face,
whined softly, and getting no response went back to his place and lay
down, his eyes never moving from Dan. Still he stared among the trees.
The gloom deepened, and he smiled faintly. He began to whistle, a low,
melancholy strain so soft that it blended with the growing hush of the
night. Calder listened, wholly overawed. That weird music seemed an
interpretation of the vast spaces of the mountains, of the pitiless
desert, of the limitless silences, and the whistler was an
understanding part of the whole.
He became aware of a black shadow behind the musician. It was Satan,
who rested his nose on the shoulder of the master. Without ceasing his
whistling Dan raised a hand, touched the small muzzle, and Satan went
at once to a side of the clearing and lay down. It was almost as if
the two had said good-night! Calder could stand it no longer.
"Dan, I've got to talk to you," he began.
The whistling ceased; the wide brown eyes turned to him.
"Fire away--partner."
Ay, they had eaten together by the same fire--they had watched the
coming of the night--they had shaken hands in friendship--they were
partners. He knew deep in his heart that no human being could ever
be the actual comrade of this man. This lord of the voiceless desert
needed no human companionship; yet as the marshal glanced from the
black shadow of Satan to the gleaming eyes of Bart, and then to
the visionary face of Barry, he felt that he had been admitted by
Whistling Dan into the mysterious company. The thought stirred him
deeply. It was as if he had made an alliance with the wandering wind.
Why he had been accepted he could not dream, but he had heard the word
"partner" and he knew it was meant. After all, stranger things
than this happen in the mountain-desert, where man is greater and
convention less. A single word has been known to estrange lifelong
comrades; a single evening beside a camp-fire has changed foes to
partners. Calder drew his mind back to business with a great effort.
"There's one thing you don't know about Jim Silent. A reward of ten
thousand dollars lies on his head. The notices aren't posted yet."
Whistling Dan shrugged his shoulders.
"I ain't after money," he answered.
Calder frowned. He did not appreciate a bluff.
"Look here," he said, "if we kill him, because no power on earth will
take him alive--we'll split the money."
"If you lay a hand on him," said Dan, without emotion, "we won't be
friends no longer, I figger."
Calder stared.
"If you don't want to get him," he said, "why in God's name are you
trailing him this way?"
Dan touched his lips. "He hit me with his fist."
He paused, and spoke again with a drawling voice that gave his words
an uncanny effect.
"My blood went down from my mouth to my chin. I tasted it. Till I get
him there ain't no way of me forgettin' him."
His eyes lighted with that ominous gleam.
"That's why no other man c'n put a hand on him. He's laid out all for
me. Understand?"
The ring of the question echoed for a moment through Calder's mind.
"I certainly do," he said with profound conviction, "and I'll never
forget it." He decided on a change of tactics. "But there are other
men with Jim Silent and those men will fight to keep you from getting
to him."
"I'm sorry for 'em," said Dan gently. "I ain't got nothin' agin any
one except the big man."
Calder took a long breath.
"Don't you see," he explained carefully, "if you shoot one of these
men you are simply a murderer who must be apprehended by the law and
punished."
"It makes it bad for me, doesn't it?" said Dan. "An' I hope I won't
have to hurt more'n one or two of 'em. You see,"--he leaned forward
seriously towards Calder--"I'd only shoot for their arms or their
legs. I wouldn't spoil them altogether."
Calder threw up his hands in despair. Black Bart snarled at the
gesture.
"I can't listen no more," said Dan. "I got to start explorin' the
willows pretty soon."
"In the dark?" exclaimed Calder.
"Sure. Black Bart'll go with me. The dark don't bother him."
"I'll go along."
"I'd rather be alone. I might meet him."
"Any way you want," said Calder, "but first hear my plan--it doesn't
take long to tell it."
The darkness thickened around them while he talked. The fire died
out--the night swallowed up their figures.
CHAPTER XIII
THE LONE RIDERS ENTERTAIN
When Lee Haines rode into Silent's camp that evening no questions were
asked. Questions were not popular among the long riders. He did not
know more than the names of half the men who sat around the smoky
fire. They were eager to forget the past, and the only allusions
to former times came in chance phrases which they let fall at rare
intervals. When they told an anecdote they erased all names by
instinct. They would begin: "I heard about a feller over to the Circle
Y outfit that was once ridin'--" etc. As a rule they themselves were
"that feller over to the Circle Y outfit." Accordingly only a few
grunts greeted Haines and yet he was far and away the most popular man
in the group. Even solemn-eyed Jim Silent was partial to the handsome
fellow.
"Heard the whistling today?" he asked.
Purvis shook his head and Terry Jordan allowed "as how it was most
uncommon fortunate that this Barry feller didn't start his noise."
After this Haines ate his supper in silence, his ear ready to catch
the first sound of Kate's horse as it crashed through the willows and
shrubs. Nevertheless it was Shorty Rhinehart who sprang to his feet
first.
"They's a hoss there comin' among the willows!" he announced.
"Maybe it's Silent," remarked Haines casually.
"The chief don't make no such a noise. He picks his goin'," answered
Hal Purvis.
The sound was quite audible now.
"They's been some crooked work," said Rhinehart excitedly. "Somebody's
tipped off the marshals about where we're lyin'."
"All right," said Haines quietly, "you and I will investigate."
They started through the willows. Rhinehart was cursing beneath his
breath.
"Don't be too fast with your six-gun," warned Haines.
"I'd rather be too early than too late."
"Maybe it isn't a marshal. If a man were looking for us he'd be a fool
to come smashing along like that."
He had scarcely spoken when Kate came into view.
"A girl, by God!" said Rhinehart, with mingled relief and disgust.
"Sure thing," agreed Haines.
"Let's beat it back to the camp."
"Not a hope. She's headed straight for the camp. We'll take her in and
tell her we're a bunch from the Y Circle X outfit headed north. She'll
never know the difference."
"Good idea," said Rhinehart, and he added with a chuckle, "it's been
nigh three months since I've talked to a piece of calico."
"Hey, there!" called Haines, and he stepped out with Rhinehart before
her horse.
"Oh!" cried Kate, reining up her horse sharply. "Who are you?"
"A beaut!" muttered Rhinehart in devout admiration.
"We're from the Y Circle X outfit," said Haines glibly, "camping over
here for the night. Are you lost, lady?"
"I guess I am. I thought I could get across the willows before the
night fell. I'm trying to find a man who rode in this direction."
"Come on into the camp," said Haines easily. "Maybe some of the boys
can put you on his track. What sort of a looking fellow is he?"
"Rides a black horse and whistles a good deal. His name is Barry. They
call him Whistling Dan."
"By God!" whispered Rhinehart in the ear of Haines.
"Shut up!" answered Haines in the same tone. "Are you afraid of a
girl?"
"I've trailed him south this far," went on Kate, "and a few miles away
from here I lost track of him. I think he may have gone on across the
willows."
"Haven't seen him," said Rhinehart amiably. "But come on to the camp,
lady. Maybe one of the boys has spotted him on the way. What's your
name?"
"Kate Cumberland," she answered.
He removed his hat with a broad grin and reached up a hand to her.
"I'm most certainly glad to meet you, an' my name's Shorty. This here
is Lee. Want to come along with us?"
"Thank you. I'm a little worried."
"'S all right. Don't get worried. We'll show you the way out. Just
follow us."
They started back through the willows, Kate following half a dozen
yards behind.
"Listen here, Shorty," said Haines in a cautious voice. "You heard her
name?"
"Sure."
"Well, that's the daughter of the man that raised Whistling Dan. I
saw her at Morgan's place. She's probably been tipped off that he's
following Silent, but she has no idea who we are."
"Sure she hasn't. She's a great looker, eh, Lee?"
"She'll do, I guess. Now get this: The girl is after Whistling Dan,
and if she meets him she'll persuade him to come back to her father's
place. She'll take him off our trail, and I guess none of us'll be
sorry to know that he's gone, eh?"
"I begin to follow you, Lee. You've always had the head!"
"All right. Now we'll get Purvis to tell the girl that he's heard a
peculiar whistling around here this evening. We'll advise her to stick
around and go out when she hears the whistling again. That way she'll
meet him and head him off, savvy?"
"Right," said Rhinehart.
"Then beat it ahead as fast as you can and wise up the boys."
"That's me--specially about their bein' Y Circle X fellers, eh?"
He chuckled and made ahead as fast as his long legs could carry him.
Haines dropped back beside Kate.
"Everything goes finely," he assured her. "I told Rhinehart what to
do. He's gone ahead to the camp. Now all you have to do is to keep
your head. One of the boys will tell you that we've heard some
whistling near the camp this evening. Then I'll ask you to stay around
for a while in case the whistling should sound again, do you see?
Remember, never ask a question!"
It was even more simple than Haines had hoped. Silent's men suspected
nothing. After all, Kate's deception was a small affair, and her
frankness, her laughter, and her beauty carried all before her.
The long riders became quickly familiar with her, but through their
rough talk, the Westerners' reverence for a woman ran like a thread of
gold over a dark cloth. Her fear lessened and almost passed away while
she listened to their talk and watched their faces. The kindly human
nature which had lain unexpressed in most of them for months together
burst out torrent-like and flooded about her with a sense of security
and power. These were conquerors of men, fighters by instinct and
habit, but here they sat laughing and chattering with a helpless girl,
and not a one of them but would have cut the others' throats rather
than see her come to harm. The roughness of their past and the dread
of their future they laid aside like an ugly cloak while they showed
her what lies in the worst man's heart--a certain awe of woman. Their
manners underwent a sudden change. Polite words, rusted by long
disuse, were resurrected in her honour. Tremendous phrases came
labouring forth. There was a general though covert rearranging of
bandanas, and an interchange of self-conscious glances. Haines alone
seemed impervious to her charm.
The red died slowly along the west. There was no light save the
flicker of the fire, which played on Kate's smile and the rich gold of
her hair, or caught out of the dark one of the lean, hard faces which
circled her. Now and then it fell on the ghastly grin of Terry Jordan
and Kate had to clench her hand to keep up her nerve.
It was deep night when Jim Silent rode into the clearing. Shorty
Rhinehart and Hal Purvis went to him quickly to explain the presence
of the girl and the fact that they were all members of the Y Circle
X outfit. He responded with nods while his gloomy eyes held fast on
Kate. When they presented him as the boss, Jim, he replied to her
good-natured greeting in a voice that was half grunt and half growl.
CHAPTER XIV
DELILAH
Haines muttered at Kate's ear: "This is the man. Now keep up your
courage."
"He doesn't like this," went on Haines in the same muffled voice, "but
when he understands just why you're here I think he'll be as glad as
any of us."
Silent beckoned to him and he went to the chief.
"What about the girl?" asked the big fellow curtly.
"Didn't Rhinehart tell you?"
"Rhinehart's a fool and so are the rest of them. Have you gone loco
too, Haines, to let a girl come here?"
"Where's the harm?"
"Why, damn it, she's marked every man here."
"I let her in because she is trying to get hold of Whistling Dan."
"Which no fool girl c'n take that feller off the trail. Nothin' but
lead can do that."
"I tell you," said Haines, "the boy's in love with her. I watched them
at Morgan's place. She can twist him around her finger."
A faint light broke the gloom of Silent's face.
"Yaller hair an' blue eyes. They c'n do a lot. Maybe you're right.
What's that?" His voice had gone suddenly husky.
A russet moon pushed slowly up through the trees. Its uncertain light
fell across the clearing. For the first time the thick pale smoke of
the fire was visible, rising straight up until it cleared the tops of
the willows, and then caught into swift, jagging lines as the soft
wind struck it. A coyote wailed from the distant hills, and before
his complaint was done another sound came through the hushing of the
willows, a melancholy whistling, thin with distance.
"We'll see if that's the man you want," suggested Haines.
"I'll go along," said Shorty Rhinehart.
"And me too," said a third. The whole group would have accompanied
them, but the heavy voice of Jim Silent cut in: "You'll stay here, all
of you except the girl and Lee."
They turned back, muttering, and Kate followed Haines into the
willows.
"Well?" growled Bill Kilduff.
"What I want to know--" broke in Terry Jordan.
"Go to hell with your questions," said Silent, "but until you go there
you'll do what I say, understand?"
"Look here, Jim," said Hal Purvis, "are you a king an' we jest your
slaves, maybe?"
"You're goin' it a pile too hard," said Shorty Rhinehart.
Every one of these speeches came sharply out while they glared at
Jim Silent. Hands were beginning to fall to the hip and fingers were
curving stiffly as if for the draw. Silent leaned his broad shoulders
against the side of his roan and folded his arms. His eyes went round
the circle slowly, lingering an instant on each face. Under that cold
stare they grew uneasy. To Shorty Rhinehart it became necessary to
push back his hat and scratch his forehead. Terry Jordan found a
mysterious business with his bandana. Every one of them had occasion
to raise his hand from the neighbourhood of his six-shooter. Silent
smiled.
"A fine, hard crew you are," he said sarcastically at last. "A great
bunch of long riders, lettin' a slip of a yaller-haired girl make
fools of you. You over there--you, Shorty Rhinehart, you'd cut the
throat of a man that looked crosswise at the Cumberland girl, wouldn't
you? An' you, Purvis, you're aching to get at me, ain't you? An'
you're still thinkin' of them blue eyes, Jordan?"
Before any one could speak he poured in another volley between wind
and water: "One slip of a girl can make fools out of five long riders?
No, you ain't long riders. All you c'n handle is hobby hosses!"
"What do you want us to do?" growled swarthy Bill Kilduff.
"Keep your face shut while I'm talkin', that's what I want you to do!"
There was a devil of rage in his eyes. His folded arms tugged at each
other, and if they got free there would be gun play. The four men
shrank, and he was satisfied.
"Now I'll tell you what we're goin' to do," he went on. "We're goin'
out after Haines an' the girl. If they come up with this Whistlin' Dan
we're goin' to surround him an' fill him full of lead, while they're
talkin'."
"Not for a million dollars!" burst in Hal Purvis.
"Not in a thousan' years!" echoed Terry Jordan.
Silent turned his watchful eyes from one to the other. They were ready
to fight now, and he sensed it at once.
"Why?" he asked calmly.
"It ain't playin' square with the girl," announced Rhinehart.
"Purvis," said Silent, for he knew that the opposition centred in the
figure of the venomous little gun fighter; "if you seen a mad dog
that was runnin' straight at you, would you be kep' from shootin' it
because a pretty girl hollered out an' asked you not to?"
Their eyes shifted rapidly from one to another, seeking a way out, and
finding none.
"An' is there any difference between this hero Whistlin' Dan an' a mad
dog?"
Still they were mute.
"I tell you, boys, we got a better chance of dodgin' lightnin' an'
puttin' a bloodhound off our trail than we have of gettin' rid of this
Whistlin' Dan. An' when he catches up with us--well, all I'm askin' is
that you remember what he done to them four dollars before they hit
the dust?"
"The chief's right," growled Kilduff, staring down at the ground.
"It's Whistlin' Dan or us. The mountains ain't big enough to hold him
an' us!"
* * * * *
Before Whistling Dan the great wolf glided among the trees. For a full
hour they had wandered through the willows in this manner, and Dan had
made up his mind to surrender the search when Bart, returning from
one of his noiseless detours, sprang out before his master and whined
softly. Dan turned, loosening his revolver in the holster, and
followed Bart through the soft gloom of the tree shadows and the
moonlight. His step was almost as silent as that of the slinking
animal which went before. At last the wolf stopped and raised his
head. Almost instantly Dan saw a man and a woman approaching through
the willows. The moonlight dropped across her face. He recognized
Kate, with Lee Haines walking a pace before her.
"Stand where you are," he said.
Haines leaped to one side, his revolver flashing in his hand. Dan
stepped out before them while Black Bart slunk close beside him,
snarling softly.
He seemed totally regardless of the gun in Haines's hand. His manner
was that of a conqueror who had the outlaw at his mercy.
"You," he said, "walk over there to the side of the clearing."
"Dan!" cried Kate, as she went to him with extended arms.
He stopped her with a gesture, his eyes upon Haines, who had moved
away.
"Watch him, Bart," said Dan.
The black wolf ran to Haines and crouched snarling at his feet. The
outlaw restored his revolver to his holster and stood with his arms
folded, his back turned. Dan looked to Kate. At the meeting of their
eyes she shrank a little. She had expected a difficult task in
persuading him, but not this hard aloofness. She felt suddenly as if
she were a stranger to him.
"How do you come here--with him?"
"He is my friend!"
"You sure pick a queer place to go walkin' with him."
"Hush, Dan! He brought me here to find you!"
"_He_ brought you here?"
"Don't you understand?"
"When I want a friend like him, I'll go huntin' for him myself; an'
I'll pack a gun with me!"
That flickering yellow light played behind Dan's eyes.
"I looked into his face--an' he stared the other way."
She made a little imploring gesture, but his hand remained on his
hips, and there was no softening of his voice.
"What fetched you here?"
Every word was like a hand that pushed her farther away.
"Are you dumb, Kate? What fetched you here?"
"I have come to bring you home, Dan."
"I'm home now."
"What do you mean?"
"There's the roof of my house," he jerked his hand towards the sky,
"the mountain passes are my doors--an' the earth is my floor."
"No! no! We are waiting for you at the ranch."
He shrugged his shoulders.
"Dan, this wild trail has no end."
"Maybe, but I know that feller can show me the way to Jim Silent, an'
now----"
He turned towards Haines as he spoke, but here a low, venomous snarl
from Black Bart checked his words. Kate saw him stiffen--his lips
parted to a faint smile--his head tilted back a little as if he
listened intently, though she could hear nothing. She was not a yard
from him, and yet she felt a thousand miles away. His head turned full
upon her, and she would never forget the yellow light of his eyes.
"Dan!" she cried, but her voice was no louder than a whisper.
"Delilah!" he said, and leaped back into the shade of the willows.
Even as he sprang she saw the flash of the moonlight on his drawn
revolver, and fire spat from it twice, answered by a yell of pain,
the clang of a bullet on metal, and half a dozen shots from the woods
behind her.
That word "Delilah!" rang in her brain to the exclusion of all the
world. Vaguely she heard voices shouting--she turned a little and saw
Haines facing her with his revolver in his hand, but prevented from
moving by the wolf who crouched snarling at his feet. The order of his
master kept him there even after that master was gone. Now men ran out
into the clearing. A keen whistle sounded far off among the willows,
and the wolf leaped away from his prisoner and into the shadows on the
trail of Dan.
* * * * *
Tex Calder prided himself on being a light sleeper. Years spent in
constant danger enabled him to keep his sense of hearing alert even
when he slept. He had never been surprised. It was his boast that he
never would be. Therefore when a hand dropped lightly on his shoulder
he started erect from his blankets with a curse and grasped his
revolver. A strong grip on his wrist paralysed his fingers. Whistling
Dan leaned above him.
"Wake up," said the latter.
"What the devil--" breathed the marshal. "You travel like a cloud
shadow, Dan. You make no sound."
"Wake up and talk to me."
"I'm awake all right. What's happened?"
There was a moment of silence while Dan seemed to be trying for
speech.
Black Bart, at the other side of the clearing, pointed his nose at
the yellow moon and wailed. He was very close, but the sound was so
controlled that it seemed to come at a great distance from some wild
spirit wandering between earth and heaven.
Instead of speaking Dan jumped to his feet and commenced pacing up and
down, up and down, a rapid, tireless stride; at his heels the wolf
slunk, with lowered head and tail. The strange fellow was in some
great trouble, Calder could see, and it stirred him mightily to know
that the wild man had turned to him for help. Yet he would ask no
questions.
When in doubt the cattleman rolls a cigarette, and that was what
Calder did. He smoked and waited. At last the inevitable came.
"How old are you, Tex?"
"Forty-four."
"That's a good deal. You ought to know something."
"Maybe."
"About women?"
"Ah!" said Calder.
"Bronchos is cut out chiefly after one pattern," went on Dan.
"They's chiefly jest meanness. Are women the same--jest cut after one
pattern?"
"What pattern, Dan?"
"The pattern of Delilah! They ain't no trust to be put in 'em?"
"A good many of us have found that out."
"I thought one woman was different from the rest."
"We all think that. Woman in particular is divine; woman in general
is--hell!"
"Ay, but this one--" He stopped and set his teeth.
"What has she done?"
"She--" he hesitated, and when he spoke again his voice did not
tremble; there was a deep hurt and wonder in it: "She double-crossed
me!"
"When? Do you mean to say you've met a woman tonight out here among
the willows?--Where--how----"
"Tex----!"
"Ay, Dan."
"It's--it's hell!"
"It is now. But you'll forget her! The mountains, the desert, and
above all, time--they'll cure you, my boy."
"Not in a whole century, Tex."
Calder waited curiously for the explanation. It came.
"Jest to think of her is like hearing music. Oh, God, Tex, what c'n I
do to fight agin this here cold feelin' at my heart?"
Dan slipped down beside the marshal and the latter dropped a
sympathetic hand over the lean, brown fingers. They returned the
pressure with a bone-crushing grip.
"Fight, Dan! It will make you forget her."
"Her skin is softer'n satin, Tex."
"Ay, but you'll never touch it again, Dan."
"Her eyes are deeper'n a pool at night an' her hair is all gold like
ripe corn."
"You'll never look into her eyes again, Dan, and you'll never touch
the gold of that hair."
"God!"
The word was hardly more than a whisper, but it brought Black Bart
leaping to his feet.
Dan spoke again: "Tex, I'm thankin' you for listenin' to me; I wanted
to talk. Bein' silent was burnin' me up. There's one thing more."