The Night Horseman

THE CONQUEST

There was no star-storming confidence in Kate Cumberland after that first victory.  Rather she felt as the general who deploys his skirmishers and drives in the outposts of an enemy.  The advantage is his, but it has really only served to give him some intimation of the strength of the enemy.  At the supper table this night she found Whistling Dan watching her—­not openly, for she could never catch his eye—­but subtly, secretly, she knew that he was measuring her, studying her; whether in hostility, amity, or mere wonder, she could not tell.  Finally a vast uneasiness overtook her and she turned to the doctor for relief.  Doctor Randall Byrne held a singular position in the attention of Kate.  Since the night of the fire and her open talk with him, the doctor knew “everything,” and women are troubled in the presence of a man who knows the details of the past.

The shield behind which they hide in social intercourse is a touch of mystery—­or at least a hope of mystery.  The doctor, however, was not like other men; he was more similar to a precocious child and she comforted herself in his obvious talent for silence.  If he had been alert, strong, self-confident, she might have hated him because he knew so much about her; but when she noted the pale, thoughtful face, the vast forehead outbalancing the other features, and the wistful, uncertain eyes, she felt nothing towards him stronger than pity.

It is good for a woman to have something which she may pity, a child, an aged parent, or a house-dog.  It provides, in a way, the background against which she acts; so Kate, when in doubt, turned to the doctor, as on this night.  There was a certain cruelty in it, for when she smiled at him the poor doctor became crimson, and when she talked to him his answers stumbled on his tongue; and when she was silent and merely looked at him that was worst of all, for he became unable to manage knife and fork and would sit crumbling bread and looking frightened.  Then he was apt to draw out his glasses and make a move to place them on his nose, but he always caught and checked himself in time—­which added to his embarrassment.

These small maneuvres had not lasted long before the girl became aware that the silent attention of Whistling Dan had passed from her to the doctor—­and held steadily upon him.  She did not go so far as to call it jealousy, but certainly it was a grave and serious consideration that measured the doctor up and down and back again; and it left her free to examine the two men in contrast.  For the first time it struck her that they were much alike in many ways.  Physically, for instance, there was the same slenderness, the same delicacy with which the details were finished; the same fragile hands, for instance.  The distinction lay in a suggestion of strength and inexhaustible reserve of energy which Dan Barry possessed.  The distinction lay still more in their faces.  That of Byrne was worn and pallied from the long quest and struggle for truth; the body was feeble; the eyes were uncertain; but within there was a powerful machine which could work infallibly from the small to the large and the large to the small.  With Whistling Dan there was no suggestion at all of mental care.  She could not imagine him worrying over a problem.  His knowledge was not even communicable by words; it was more impalpable than the instinct of a woman; and there was about him the wisdom and the coldness of Black Bart himself.

The supper ended too soon for Kate.  She had been rallying Randall Byrne, and as soon as he could graciously leave, the poor fellow rose with a crimson face and left the room; and behind him, sauntering apparently in the most casual manner, went Whistling Dan.  As for Kate Cumberland, she could not put all the inferences together—­she dared not; but when she lay in her bed that night it was a long time before she could sleep, for there was a voice inside her, singing.

She chose her time the next day.  Dan alternated between Black Bart and old Joe Cumberland during most of the day, and no sooner had he left the wolf-dog in the morning than she went out to Bart.

As always, Black Bart lay with his head flattened against the sand, dreaming in the sun, and not an eyelid quivered when she approached, yet she understood perfectly that the animal knew every move she made.  She would have attempted to dress the wound again, but the memory of the ordeal of yesterday was too terrible.  She might break down in the midst of her effort, and the first sign of weakness, she knew, was the only spur which Black Bart needed.  So she went, instead, to the chair where Dan often sat for hours near the dog, and there she took her place, folded her hands on her lap, and waited.  She had no particular plan in mind, more than that she hoped to familiarize the great brute with the sight of her.  Once he had known her well enough, but now he had forgotten all that passed before as completely, no doubt, as Whistling Dan himself had forgotten.

While she sat there, musing, she remembered a scene that had occurred not many a month before.  She had been out walking one fall day, and had gone from the house down past the corrals where a number of cattle newly driven in from the range were penned.  They were to be driven off for shipment the next day.  A bellowing caught her ear from one of the enclosures and she saw two bulls standing horn to horn, their heads lowered, and their puffing and snorting breaths knocking up the dust while they pawed the sand back in clouds against their flanks.  While she watched, they rushed together, bellowing, and for a moment they swayed back and forth.  It was an unequal battle, however, for one of the animals was a hardened veteran, scarred from many a battle on the range, while the other was a young three-year old with a body not half so strong as his heart.  For a short time he sustained the weight of the larger bull, but eventually his knees buckled, and then dropped heavily against the earth.  At that the older bull drew back a little and charged again.  This time he avoided the long horns of his rival and made the unprotected flank of the animal his target.  If he had charged squarely the horns would have been buried to the head; but striking at an angle only one of them touched the target and delivered a long, ripping blow.  With the blood streaming down his side, the wounded bull made off into a group of cows, and when the victor pursued him closely, he at length turned tail and leaped the low fence—­for the corral was a new one, hastily built for the occasion.  The conqueror raised his head inside the fence and bellowed his triumph, and outside the fence the other commenced pawing up the sand again, switching his tail across his bleeding side, and turning his little red eyes here and there.  They fixed, at length, upon Kate Cumberland, and she remembered with a start of horror that she was wearing a bright red blouse.  The next instant the bull was charging.  She turned in a hopeless flight.  Safety was hundreds of yards away in the house; the skirts tangled about her legs; and behind her the dull impacts of the bull’s hoofs swept close and closer.  Then she heard a snarl in front, a deep-throated, murderous snarl, and she saw Black Bart racing towards her.  He whizzed by her like a black thunderbolt; there was a roar and bellow behind her, and at the same time she stumbled over a fence-board and fell upon her knees.  But when she cast a glance of terror behind her she saw the bull lying on its side with lolling tongue and glazing eyes and the fangs of Black Dart were buried in its throat.

When she reached this point in her musings her glance naturally turned towards the wolf-dog, and she started violently when she saw that Bart was slinking towards her, trailing the helpless leg.  The moment he felt her eyes upon him, Bart dropped down, motionless, with a wicked baring of his teeth; his eyes closed, and he seemed, as usual, dreaming in the sun.

Was the brute stalking her?  It was worse, in a way, than the ordeal of the day before, this stealthy, noiseless approach.  And in her panic she first thought of springing from her chair and reaching a distance which the chain would keep him from following.  Yet it was very strange.  Black Bart in his wildest days after Dan brought him to the ranch had never been prone to wantonly attack human beings.  Infringe upon his right, come suddenly upon him, and then, indeed, there was a danger to all saving his master.  But this daylight stalking was stranger than words could tell.

She forced her eyes to look straight ahead and sat with a beating heart, waiting.  Then, by slow degrees, she let her glance travel cautiously back towards Bart without turning her head.  There was no doubt about it!  The great wolf-dog was slinking towards her on his belly, still trailing the wounded foreleg.  There was something snakelike in that slow approach, so silent and so gradual.

And yet she waited, moving neither hand nor foot.

A sort of nightmare paralysis held her, as when we flee from some horror in our dreams and find that our limbs have grown numb.  Behind us races the deadly thing, closer and closer; before us is the door of safety—­only a step to reach it—­and yet we cannot move a foot!

It was not all pure terror.  There was an incredible excitement as well—­her will against the will of the dumb brute—­which would conquer?

She heard a faint rustling of the sand beside her and could hardly keep from turning her head again.  But she succeeded.  Waves of coldness broke on her mind; her whole body would have shuddered had not fear chilled her into motionlessness.  All reason told her that it was madness to sit there with the stealthy horror sliding closer; even now it might be too late.  If she rose the shaggy form might spring from the ground at her.  Perhaps the wolf had treasured up the pain from the day before and now—­

A black form did, indeed, rise from the ground, but slowly.  And standing on three legs, Bart stood a moment and stared in the face of the girl.  The fear rushed out of her heart; and her face flushed hotly with relief.  There was no enmity in the steady stare of the wolf-dog.  She could feel that even though she did not look.  Something that Whistling Dan had said long before came to her:  “Even a hoss and a dog, Kate, can get terrible lonesome.”

Black Bart moved until he faced her directly.  His ears were pricking in eagerness; she heard a snarl, but so low and muffled that there was hardly a threat in it; could it be a plea for attention?  She would not look down to the sharp eyes, until a weight fell on her knees—­it was the long, scarred head of the wolf!  The joy that swelled in her was so great that it pained her like a grief.

She stretched out her hand, slowly, slowly towards that head.  And Black Bart shrank and quivered, and his lips writhed back from the long, deadly teeth, and his snarl grew to a harsher, hoarser threat; still he did not remove his head, and he allowed the hand to touch him between the eyes and stroke the fur back to between the ears.  Only one other hand had ever touched that formidable head in such a manner!  The teeth no longer showed; the keen, suspicious eyes grew dim with pleasure; the snarl sank to murmur and then died out.

“Bart!” commanded the girl, sharply.

The head jerked up, but the questing eyes did not look at her.  He glanced over his shoulder to find the danger that had made her voice so hard.  And she yearned to take the fierce head in her arms; there were tears she could have wept over it.  He was snarling again, prepared already to battle, and for her sake.

“Bart!” she repeated, more gently.  “Lie down!”

He turned his head slowly back to her and looked with the unspeakable wistfulness of the dumb brutes into her eyes.  But there was only one voice in which Bart could speak, and that was the harsh, rattling snarl which would have made a mountain-lion check itself mid-leap and slink back to its lair.  In such a voice he answered Kate, and then sank down, gradually.  And he lay still.

So simply, and yet so mysteriously, she was admitted to the partnership.  But though one member of that swift, grim trio had accepted her, did it mean that the other two would take her in?

A weight sank on her feet and when she looked down she saw that Black Bart had lowered his head upon them, and so he lay there with his eyes closed, dreaming in the sun.