The Max Brand Megapack (42 page)

“Long-riders?” queried Bard.

“Fellers that got tired of workin’ and took to ridin’ for their livin’. Mostly they worked in little gangs of five and six. They was called long-riders, I guess, partly because they was in the saddle all the time, and partly because they done their jobs so far apart. They’d ride into Eldara and blow up the safe in the bank one day, for instance, and five days later they’d be two hundred and fifty miles away stoppin’ a train at Lewis Station.

“They never hung around no one part of the country and that made it hard as hell to run ’em down—that and because they had the best hosses that money could buy. They had friends, too, strung out all over—squatters and the like of that. They’d drop in on these little fellers and pass ’em a couple of twenties and make themselves solid for life. Afterward they used ’em for stoppin’ places.

“They’d pull off a couple of hold-ups, then they’d ride off to one of these squatter places and lay up for ten days, maybe, drinkin’ and feedin’ up themselves and their hosses. That was the only way they was ever caught. They was killed off by each other, fighting about the split-up, or something like that.

“But now and then a gang held together long enough to raise so much hell that they got known from one end of the range to the other. Mostly they held together because they had a leader who knew how to handle ’em and who kept ’em under his thumb. That was the way with old Piotto.

“He had five men under him. They was all hell-benders who had ridden the range alone and had their share of fights and killings, which there wasn’t one of ’em that wouldn’t have been good enough to go leader in any other crew, but they had to knuckle under to old Piotto. He was a great gunman and he was pretty good in scheming up ways of dodging the law and picking the best booty. He had these five men, and then he had his daughter, Joan. She was better’n two ordinary men herself.

“Three years that gang held together and got rich—fair rich. They made it so fast they couldn’t even gamble the stuff away. About a thousand times, I guess posses went out after Piotto, but they never came back with a trace of ’em; they never got within shootin’ distance. Finally Piotto got so confident that he started raidin’ ranches and carryin’ off members of well-off ranchers to hold for ransom. That was the easiest way of makin’ money; it was also pretty damned dangerous.

“One time they held up a stage and picked off of it two kids who was comin’ out from the East to try their hands in the cattle business. They was young, they looked like gentlemen, they was dressed nifty, and they packed big rolls. So wise old Piotto took ’em off into the hills and held ’em till their folks back East could wire out the money to save ’em. That was easy money for Piotto, but that was the beginnin’ of the end for him; because while they was waitin’, them two kids seen Joan and seen her good.

“I been telling you she was better’n two common men. She was. Which means she was equal to about ten ordinary girls. There’s still a legend about how beautiful Joan Piotto was—tall and straight and big black eyes and terrible handy with her gun. She could ride anything that walked and she didn’t know what fear meant.

“These two kids seen her. One of ’em was William Drew; one of ’em was John Bard.”

He turned to Anthony and saw that the latter was stern of face. He had surely scored his point.

“Same name as yours, eh?” he asked, to explain his turning.

“It’s a common enough name,” murmured Bard.

“Well, them two had come out to be partners, and there they was, fallin’ in love with the same girl. So when they got free they put their heads together—bein’ uncommon wise kids—and figured it out this way. Neither of ’em had a chance workin’ alone to get Joan way from her father’s gang, but workin’ together they might have a ghost of a show. So they decided to stay on the trail of Piotto till they got Joan. Then they’d give her a choice between the two of ’em and the one that lost would simply back off the boards.

“They done what they agreed. For six months they stuck on the trail of old Piotto and never got in hailin’ distance of him. Then they come on the gang while they were restin’ up in the house of a squatter.

“That was a pretty night. Drew and Bard went through that gang. It sounds like a nice fairy-story, all right, but I know old fellers who’ll swear it’s true. They killed three of the men with their guns; they knifed another one, an’ they killed Riley with their bare hands. It wasn’t no pretty sight to see—the inside of that house. And last of all they got Piotto, fightin’ like an old wildcat, into a corner with his daughter; and William Drew, he took Piotto into his arms and busted his back. That don’t sound possible, but when you see Drew you’ll know how it was done.

“The girl, she’d been knocked cold before this happened. So while Bard and Drew sat together bindin’ up each other’s wounds—because they was shot pretty near to pieces—they talked it over and they seen pretty clear that the girl would never marry the man that had killed her father. Of course, old Bill Drew, he’d done the killing, but that wasn’t any reason why he had to take the blame.

“They made up their minds that right there and then with the dead men lyin’ all around ’em, they’d match coins to see which one would take the blame of havin’ killed Piotto—meanin’ that the other one would get the girl—if he could.

“And Bard lost. So he had to take the credit of havin’ killed old Piotto. I’d of give something to have seen the two of ’em sittin’ there—oozin’ blood—after that marchin’ was decided. Because they tell me that Bard was as big as Drew and looked pretty much the same.

“Then Bard, he asked Drew to let him have one chance at the girl, lettin’ her know first what he’d done, but jest trustin’ to his power of talk. Which, of course, didn’t give him no show. While he was makin’ love to the girl she outs with a knife and tries to stick him—nice, pleasant sort she must have been—and Drew, he had to pry the two of ’em apart.

“That made the girl look sort of kind on Drew and she swore that sooner or later she’d have the blood of Bard for what he’d done—either have it herself or else send someone after him to the end of the world. She was a wild one, all right.

“She was so wild that Drew, after they got married, took her over on the far side of the range and built that old house that’s rottin’ there now. Bard, he left the range and wasn’t never seen again, far as I know.”

It was clear to Anthony, bitterly clear. His father had had a grim scene in parting with Drew and had placed the continent between them. And in the Eastern states he had met that black-eyed girl, his mother, and loved her because she was so much like the wild daughter of Piotto. The girl Joan in dying had probably extracted from Drew a promise that he would kill Bard, and that promise he had lived to fulfil.

“So Joan died?” he queried.

“Yep, and was buried under them two trees in front of the house. I don’t think she lived long after they was married, but about that nobody knows. They was clear off by themselves and there isn’t any one can tell about their life after they was married. All we know is that Drew didn’t get over her dyin’. He ain’t over it yet, and goes out to the old place every month or so to potter around the grave and keep the grass and the weeds off of it and clean the head-stone.”

The candle guttered wildly on the floor. It had burnt almost to the wood and now the remnant of the wick stood in a little sprawling pool of grease white at the outer edges.

Bard yawned, and patted idly the blanket where it touched on the shape of the revolver beneath. In another moment that candle would gutter out and they would be left in darkness.

He said: “That’s the best yarn I’ve heard in a good many days; it’s enough to make any one sleepy—so here goes.”

And he turned deliberately on his side.

Nash, his eyes staring with incredulity, sat up slowly among his blankets and his hand stole up toward the noose of the lariat. A light snore reached him, hardly a snore so much as the heavy intake of breath of a very weary, sleeping man; yet the hand of Nash froze on the lariat.

“By God,” he whispered faintly to himself, “he ain’t asleep!”

And the candle flared wildly, leaped, and shook out.

CHAPTER XXI

THE SWIMMING OF THE SAVERACK

Over the face of Nash the darkness passed like a cold hand and a colder sense of failure touched his heart; but men who have ridden the range have one great power surpassing all others—the power of patience. As soundlessly as he had pushed himself up the moment before, he now slipped down in the blankets and resigned himself to sleep.

He knew that he would wake at the first hint of grey light and trusted that after the long ride of the day before his companion would still be fast asleep. That half light would be enough for his work; but when he roused while the room was still scarcely more visible than if it were filled with a grey fog, he found Bard already up and pulling on his boots.

“How’d you sleep?” he growled, following the example of the tenderfoot.

“Not very well,” said the other cheerily. “You see, that story of yours was so vivid in my mind that I stayed awake about all night, I guess, thinking it over.”

“I knew it,” murmured Nash to himself. “He was awake all the time. And still—”

If that thrown noose of the lariat had settled over the head and shoulders of the sham sleeper it would have made no difference whether he waked or slept—in the end he would have sat before William Drew tied hand and foot. If that noose had not settled? The picture of the little piece of paper fluttering to the floor came back with a strange vividness to the mind of Nash, and he had to shrug his shoulders to shake the thought away.

They were in the saddle a very few moments after they awoke and started out, breakfastless. The rain long ago had ceased, and there was only the solemn silence of the brown hills around them—silence, and a faint, crinkling sound as if the thirsty soil still drank. It had been a heavy fall of rain, they could see, for whenever they passed a bare spot where no grass grew, it was crossed by a thick tracery of the rivulets which had washed down the slopes during the night.

Soon they reached a little creek whose current, barely knee deep, foamed up around the shoulders of the horses and set them staggering.

“The Saverack will be hell,” said Nash, “and we’d better cut straight for the ford.”

“How long will it take?”

“Add about three hours to the trip.”

“Can’t do it; remember that little date back in Eldara to-night.”

“Then look for yourself and make up your mind for yourself,” said Nash drily, for they topped a hill, and below them saw a mighty yellow flood pouring down the valley. It went leaping and shouting as if it rejoiced in some destruction it had worked and was still working, and the muddy torrent was threaded with many a ridge of white and swirling with bubbles.

“The Saverack,” said Nash. “Now what d’you think about fording it?”

“If we can’t ford it, we can swim it,” declared Bard. “Look at that tree-trunk. If that will float I will float, and if I can float I can swim, and if I can swim I’ll reach the other bank of that little creek. Won’t we, boy?”

And he slapped the proud neck of the mustang.

“Swim it?” said Nash incredulously. “Does that date mean as much as that to you?”

“It isn’t the date; it’s the promise I gave,” answered the other, watching the current with a cool eye, “besides, when I was a youngster I used to do things like this for the sport of it.”

They rode down to the edge of the stream.

“How about it, Nash, will you take the chance with me?”

And the other, looking down: “Try the current, I’ll stay here on the shore and if it gets too strong for you I’ll throw out a rope, eh? But if you can make it, I’ll follow suit.”

The other cast a somewhat wistful eye of doubt upon the cowpuncher.

“How far is it to the ford?” he asked.

“About eight miles,” answered Nash, doubling the distance on the spot.

“Eight miles?” repeated the other ruefully. “Too far. Then here goes, Nash.”

Still never turning his back on the cowpuncher, who was now uncoiling his lariat and preparing it for a cast, Bard edged the piebald into the current. He felt the mustang stagger as the water came knee-deep, and he checked the horse, casting his eye from shore to shore and summing up the chances.

If it had been simply water against which he had to contend, he would not have hesitated, but here and there along the course sharp pointed rocks and broad-backed boulders loomed, and now and then, with a mighty splashing and crashing one of these was overbalanced by the force of the current and rolled another step toward the far-off sea.

That rush of water would carry him far downstream and the chances were hardly more than even that he would not strike against one of these murderous obstructions about which the current foamed.

An impulse made him turn and wave a hand to Nash.

He shouted: “Give me luck?”

“Luck?” roared the cowboy, and his voice came as if faint with distance over the thunder of the stream.

He touched the piebald with the spurs, and the gallant little horse floundered forward, lost footing and struck into water beyond its depth. At the same instant Bard swung clear of the saddle and let his body trail out behind, holding with his left hand to the tail of the struggling horse and kicking to aid the progress.

Immersed to the chin, and sometimes covered by a more violent wave, the sound of the river grew at once strangely dim, but he felt the force of the current tugging at him like a thousand invisible hands. He began to wish that he had taken off his boots before entering, for they weighted his feet so that it made him leg-weary to kick. Nevertheless he trusted in the brave heart of the mustang. There was no wavering in the wild horse. Only his head showed over the water, but the ears were pricking straight and high, and it never once swerved back toward the nearer shore.

Their progress at first was good, but as they neared the central portion of the water they were swept many yards downstream for one that they made in a transverse direction. Twice they missed projecting rocks by the narrowest margin, and then something like an exceedingly thin and exceedingly strong arm caught Anthony around the shoulders. It tugged back, stopped all their forward progress, and let them sweep rapidly down the stream and back toward the shore.