The Dude Wrangler Part 28

"It _would_ be an a.s.set, having the Park so close," the latter agreed, his eyes s.h.i.+ning.

Pinkey went on:

"You kin run dudes whur you can't run sheep or cattle. What you need is _room_--and we're there with the room. Fresh air, gra.s.shoppers, views any way you look--why, man, you got everything!"

"Except money," said Wallie, suddenly.

Pinkey's face lengthened.

"I hadn't thought of that."

For an instant they felt crushed. It was such a precipitous descent to earth after their flight.

They walked to the cabin, and saddled in a silence which was broken finally by Pinkey, who said vindictively:

"I'd rob a train to git money enough to turn fifty head of dudes loose on Canby. He'd be mad enough to bite himself. If he could help it he wouldn't have a neighbour within a hundred miles."

Wallie's thoughts were bitter as he remembered the many injuries he had suffered at Canby's hands. It was a subject upon which he dared not trust himself to talk--it stirred him too much, although he had long ago decided that since he was powerless to retaliate there was nothing to do but take his medicine. As he made no response, Pinkey continued while he tightened the cinch:

"If you could make a dude ranch out o' this and worry him enough, he'd give you about any price you asked, to quit."

"I'd ask plenty," Wallie replied, grimly, "but it's no use to talk."

"It wouldn't trouble my conscience none if I hazed a bunch of his horses over the line, but horses are so cheap now that it wouldn't pay to take the chance."

"There's the Prouty Bank," Wallie suggested, ironically.

"Them bullet-proof screens have made cas.h.i.+ers too hard to git at."

Pinkey spoke in an authoritative tone.

"Why don't you marry some rich widow and get us a stake?"

"Aw-w!" Resentment and disgust were in Pinkey's voice. "I'd steal was.h.i.+ngs off of clothes lines first." He added: "I don't like them jokes."

"I didn't know you were touchy, Pink."

"Everybody's touchy," Pinkey replied, sagely, "if you hit 'em on the right spot. But, do you know, this dude ranch sticks in my mind, and I can't git it out."

"We might as well let it drop. We haven't the money, so we're wasting our breath. We'll lose the jobs we've got if we don't get about our business. Let's leave the cattle in the corral and scout a little through the hills--it'll save us another trip. I don't want to come here again soon--it hurts too much."

Pinkey agreed, and they rode gloomily along the creek bank looking for a ford. A few hot days had taken off the heavy snows in the mountains so quickly that the stream was running swift and deep.

"That's treach'rous water," Pinkey observed. "They's boulders in there as big as a house where it looks all smooth on top. I know a place about a mile or so where I think it'll be safe."

They had ridden nearly that distance when, simultaneously, they pulled their horses up.

"Look at that crazy fool!" Pinkey e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, aghast.

"It's--Canby!" Wallie exclaimed.

"n.o.body else! Watch him," incredulously, "tryin' to quirt his horse across the crick!"

"Isn't it the ford?"

"I should say not! It looks like the place but it ain't--he's mixed--he'll be in a jack-pot quick if he don't back out. Onct his horse stumbles it'll never git its feet in there."

They rode close enough to hear Canby cursing as he whipped.

"Look at him punish the poor brute! See him use that quirt and cut him with his spurs! Say, that makes me sick to see a good horse abused!"

Pinkey cried, indignantly.

Wallie said nothing but watched with hard, narrowed eyes.

"I s'pose I'd oughta yell and warn him," finally Pinkey said, reluctantly.

"You let out a yip and I'll slat you across the face!"

Pinkey stared at the words--at Wallie's voice--at an expression he never had seen before.

"I know how you feel, but it's pure murder to let him git into that crick."

"Will you shut up?" Wallie looked at him with steely eyes, and there was a glint in them that silenced Pink.

He waited, wonderingly, to see what it all meant. The battle between man and horse continued while they watched from the high bank. In terrified protest the animal snorted, reared, whirled, while the rider plied the quirt mercilessly and spurred. Finally the sting of leather, the pain of sharp steel, and the stronger will won out, and the trembling horse commenced to take the water.

Pinkey muttered, as, fascinated, he looked on:

"I've no idea that he knows enough to quit his horse on the down-stream side. He'll wash under, tangle up, and be drowned before we get a chanst to snake him out. He's a gone goslin' right now."

Cautiously, a few inches to a step, the horse advanced.

"There! He's in the boulders! Watch him flounder! Look at him slip--he's. .h.i.t the current! Good-night--he's down--no, he's goin' to ketch himself!

Watch him fight! Good ol' horse--good ol' horse!" Pinkey was beside himself with excitement now. "He's lost his feet--he's swimmin'--strikin'

out for the sh.o.r.e--too swift, and the fool don't know enough to give him his head!"

They followed along the bank as the current swept horse and rider down.

"He swims too high--he's playin' out--there's so much mud he'll choke up quick. It'll soon be over now." Pinkey's face wore a queer, half-frightened grin. "Fifty yards more and----"

Wallie commenced to uncoil his saddle rope.

"You goin' to drag him out?"

Wallie made no answer but touched his horse and galloped until he was ahead of Canby and the drowning horse. Making a megaphone of his hands he yelled.

Canby lifted his wild eyes to the bank.

"Throw me a rope!" he shrieked.