Trailin'!

THE CANDLE

“Yes,” said Nash, “that’s a queer stunt, because when you’re lyin’ like that with your head right over the gun and the blankets in between, it’d take you a couple of seconds to get it out.”

“Not when you’re used to it.  You’d be surprised to see how quickly a man can get the gun out from under.”

“That so?”

“Yes, and shooting while you’re lying on your back is pretty easy, too, when you’ve had practice.”

“Sure, with a rifle, but not with a revolver.”

“Well, do you see that bit of paper in the corner there up on the rafter?”

“Yes.”

The hand of Bard whipped under his head, there was a gleam and whirl of steel, an explosion, and the bit of paper came fluttering slowly down from the rafter, like a wounded bird struggling to keep upon the air.  A draft caught the paper just before it landed and whirled it through the doorless entrance and out into the night.

He was yawning as he restored the gun beneath the blanket, but from the corner of his eye he saw the hardening of Nash’s face, a brief change which came and went like the passing of a shadow.

“That’s something I’ll remember,” drawled the cowpuncher.

“You ought to,” answered the other quickly, “it comes in handy now and then.”

“Feel sleepy?”

The candle guttered and flickered on the floor midway between the two bunks, and Bard, glancing to it, was about to move from his bed and snuff it; but at the thought of so doing it seemed to him as if he could almost sense with prophetic mind the upward dart of the noose about his shoulders.  He edged a little lower in the blankets.

“Not a bit.  How about you?”

“Me?  I most generally lie awake a while and gab after I hit the hay.  Makes me sleep better afterward.”

“I do the same thing when I’ve any one who listens to me—­or talks to me.”

“Queer how many habits we got the same, eh?”

“It is.  But after all, most of us are more alike than we care to imagine.”

“Yes, there ain’t much difference; sometimes the difference ain’t as much as a split-second watch would catch, but it may mean that one feller passes out and the other goes on.”

They lay half facing each other, each with his head pillowed on an arm.

“By Jove! lucky we reached this shelter before the rain came.”

“Yep.  A couple of hours of this and the rivers will be up—­may take up all day to get back to the ranch if we have to ride up to the ford on the Saverack.”

“Then we’ll swim ’em.”

The other smiled drily.

“Swim the Saverack when she’s up?  No, lad, we won’t do that.”

“Then I’ll have to work it alone, I suppose.  You see, I have that date in Eldara for tomorrow night.”

Nash set his teeth, to choke back the cough.  He produced papers and tobacco, rolled a cigarette with lightning speed, lighted it, and inhaled a long puff.

“Sure, you ought to keep that date, but maybe Sally would wait till the night after.”

“She impressed me, on the whole, as not being of the waiting kind.”

“H-m!  A little delay does ’em good; gives ’em a chance to think.”

“Why, every man has his own way with women, I suppose, but my idea is, keep them busy—­never give them a chance to think.  If you do, they generally waste the chance and forget you altogether.”

Another coughing spell overtook Nash and left him frowning down at the glowing end of his butt.

“She ain’t like the rest.”

“I wonder?” mused the Easterner.

He had an infinite advantage in this duel of words, for he could watch from under the shadow of his long, dark lashes the effect of his speeches on the cowboy, yet never seem to be looking.  For he was wondering whether the enmity of Nash, which he felt as one feels an unknown eye upon him in the dark, came from their rivalry about the girl, or from some deeper cause.  He was inclined to think that the girl was the bottom of everything, but he left his mind open on the subject.

And Nash, pondering darkly and silently, measured the strength of the slender stranger and felt that if he were the club the other was the knife which made less sound but might prove more deadly.  Above all he was conscious of the Easterner’s superiority of language, which might turn the balance against him in the ear of Sally Fortune.  He dropped the subject of the girl.

“You was huntin’ over on the old place on the other side of the range?”

“Yes.”

“Pretty fair run of game?”

“Rather.”

“I think you said something about Logan?”

“Did I?  I’ve been thinking a good deal about him.  He gave me the wrong tip about the way to Eldara.  When I get back to the old place—­”

“Well?”

The other smiled unpleasantly and made a gesture as if he were snapping a twig between his hands.

“I’ll break him in two.”

The eyes of Nash grew wide with astonishment; he was remembering that same phrase on the lips of the big, grey man, Drew.

He murmured:  “That may give you a little trouble.  Logan’s a peaceable chap, but he has his record before he got down as low as sheepherdin’.”

“I like trouble—­now and then.”

A pause.

“Odd old shack over there.”

“Drew’s old house?”

“Yes.  There’s a grave in front of it.”

“And there’s quite a yarn inside the grave.”

The cowpuncher was aware that the other stirred—­not much, but as if he winced from a drop of cold water; he felt that he was close on the trail of the real reason why the Easterner wished to see Drew.

“A story about Drew’s wife?”

“You read the writing on the headstone, eh?”

“‘Joan, she chose this place for rest,’” quoted Bard.

“That was all before my time; it was before the time of any others in these parts, but a few of the grey-beards know a bit about the story and I’ve gathered a little of it from Drew, though he ain’t much of a talker.”

“I’d like to hear it.”

Sensitively aware of Bard, as a photographic plate is aware of light on exposures, the cowpuncher went on with the tale.

And Bard, his glance probing among the shadowy rafters of the room, seemed to be searching there for the secret on whose trail he rode.  Through the interims the rain crashed and volleyed on the roof above them; the cold spray whipped down on them through the cracks; the wind shook and rattled the crazy house; and the drawling voice of Nash went on and on.