The Lonesome Trail and Other Stories Part 20

THE REVELER

Happy Jack, coming from Dry Lake where he had been sent for the mail, rode up to the Flying U camp just at dinner time and dismounted gloomily and in silence. His horse looked f.a.gged--which was unusual in Happy's mounts unless there was urgent need of haste or he was out with the rest of the Family and constrained to adopt their pace, which was rapid. Happy, when riding alone, loved best to hump forward over the horn and jog along slowly, half asleep.

"Something's hurting Happy," was Cal Emmett's verdict when he saw the condition of the horse.

"He's got a burden on his mind as big as a haystack," grinned Jack Bates. "Watch the way his jaw hangs down, will yuh? Bet yuh somebody's dead."

"Most likely it's something he thinks is _going_ to happen," said Pink.

"Happy always makes me think of a play I seen when I was back home; it starts out with a melancholy cuss coming out and giving a sigh that near lifts him off his feet, and he says: 'In _soo-ooth_ I know not _why_ I am so sa-ad.' That's Happy all over."

The Happy Family giggled and went on with their dinner, for Happy Jack was too close for further comments not intended for his ears. They waited demurely, but in secret mirth, for him to unburden his mind.

They knew that they would not have long to wait; Happy, bird of ill omen that he was, enjoyed much the telling of bad news.

"Weary's in town," he announced heavily, coming over and getting himself a plate and cup.

The Happy Family were secretly a bit disappointed; this promised, after all, to be tame.

"Did he bring the horses?" asked Chip, glancing up over the brim of his cup.

"I dunno," Happy responded from the stove, where he was trying how much of everything he could possibly pile upon his plate without spilling anything. "I didn't see no horses--but the one he was ridin'."

Weary had been sent, two weeks ago, to the upper Marias country after three saddle horses that had strayed from the home range, and which had been seen near Shelby. It was quite time for him to return, if he expected to catch the Flying U wagon before it pulled out on the beef roundup. That he should be in town and not ride out with Happy Jack was a bit strange.

"Why don't yuh throw it out uh yuh, yuh big, long-jawed croaker?"

demanded Pink in a voice queerly soft and girlish. It had been a real grievance to him that he had not been permitted to go with Weary, who was his particular chum. "What's the matter? Is Weary sick?"

"No," said Happy Jack deliberately, "I guess he ain't what yuh could call _sick_."

"Why didn't he come out with you, then?" asked Chip, sharply. Happy did get on one's nerves so.

"Well, I ast him t' come--and he took a shot at me for it."

There was an instant's dead silence. Then Jack Bates laughed uneasily.

"Happy, how many horses did yuh ride out to camp?"

Happy Jack had, upon one occasion, looked too long upon the wine--or whisky, to be more explicit. Afterward, he had insisted that he was riding two horses home, instead of one. He was not permitted to forget that defection. The Happy Family had an unpleasant habit of recalling the incident whenever Happy Jack made a statement which they felt disinclined to credit--as this last statement was.

Happy Jack whirled on the speaker. "Aw, shut up! I never kidnaped no girl off'n no train, and--"

Jack Bates colored and got belligerently to his feet. That hit him in an exceedingly tender place.

"Happy, look here," Chip cut in authoritatively. "What's wrong with Weary? If he took a shot at you, it's a cinch he had some reason for it."

Weary was even dearer to the heart of Chip than to Pink.

"Ah--he never! He's takin' shots permisc'us, lemme tell yuh. And he ain't troublin' about no _reason_ fer what he's doin'. He's plumb oary-eyed--that's what. He's on a limb that beats any I ever seen.

He's drunk--drunk as a boiled owl, and he don't give a d.a.m.n. He's lost his hat, and he's swapped cayuses with somebody--a measly old bench--and he's shootin' up the town t' beat h.e.l.l!"

The Happy Family looked at one another dazedly. Weary drunk? _Weary_?

It was unbelieveable. Such a thing had never been heard of before in the history of the Happy Family. Even Chip, who had known Weary before either had known the Flying U, could not remember anything of the sort.

The Happy Family were often hilarious; they had even, on certain occasions, shot up the town; but they had done it as a family and they had done it sober. It was an unwritten law among the Flying U boys, that all riotous conduct should occur when they were together and when the Family could, as a unit, a.s.sume the consequences--if consequences there were to be.

"I guess Happy must a rode the whole blame saddle-bunch home, this time," Cal remarked, with stinging sarcasm.

"Ah, yuh can go and see fer yourselves; yuh don't need t' take _my_ word fer nothing" cried Happy Jack, much grieved that they should doubt him. "I hain't had but one drink t'day--and that wasn't nothin' but beer. It's straight goods: Weary's as full as he can git and top a horse. He's sure enjoyin' himself, too. Dry Lake is all hisn--and the way he's misusin' the rights uh owners.h.i.+p is plumb scand'l'us. He makes me think of a cow on the fight in a forty-foot corral; n.o.body dast show their noses outside; Dry Lake's holed up in their sullers, till he quits camp.

"I seen him cut down on the hotel China-cook jest for tryin' t' make a sneak out t' the ice-house after some meat fer dinner. He like t' got him, too. c.h.i.n.k dodged behind the board-pile in the back yard, an'

laid down. He was still there when I left town, and the chances is somebody else 'll have t' cook dinner t'day. Weary was so busy close-herdin' the Chinaman that I got a chanst t' sneak out the back door uh Rusty's place, climb on m' horse and take a shoot up around by the stockyards and pull fer camp. I couldn't git t' the store, so I didn't bring out no mail."

The Happy Family drew a long breath. This was getting beyond a joke.

"Looks t 'me like you fellows 'd come alive and do something about it,"

hinted Happy, with his mouth full. "Weary'll shoot somebody, er git shot, if he ain't took care of mighty quick."

"Happy," said Chip bluntly, "I don't grab that yarn. Weary may be in town, and he _may_ be having a little fun with Dry Lake, but he isn't drunk. When you try to run a whizzer like that, you can put me down as being from Missouri."

"Same here," put in Pink, ominously soft as to voice. "Anybody that tries to make me believe Weary's performing that way has sure got his work cut out for him. If it was Happy, now--"

"Gee!" cried Jack Bates, laughing as a possible solution came to him.

"I'm willing to bet money he was just stringing Happy. I'll bet he done it deliberate and with malice aforethought, just to _make_ Happy sneak out uh town and burn the earth getting here so he could tell it scarey to the rest of us."

"Yeah, that's about the size of it," a.s.sented Cal.

The Family felt that they had a new one on Happy Jack, and showed it in the smiles they sent toward him.

"By golly, yes!" broke out Slim. "Weary's been layin' for Happy for a long while to pay off making the tent leak on him, that night; he's sure played a good one, this time!"

Happy carefully balanced his plate on the wagon-tongue near the doubletrees, and stood glaring down upon his tormentors.

"Aw, look here!" he began, with his voice very near to tears. Then he gulped and took a more warlike tone. "I don't set m'self up t' be a know-it-all--but I guess I can tell when a man's full uh booze. And I ain't claimin' t' be no Jiujitsu sharp" (with a meaning glance at Pink) "and I know the chances I'm takin' when I stand up agin the bunch--but I'm ready, here and now, t' fight any d.a.m.n man that says I'm a liar, er that Weary was jest throwin' a load into me. Two or three uh yuh have licked me mor'n once--but that's all right. I'm willing t' back up anything I've said, and yuh can wade right in a soon as you're a mind to.

"I don't back down a darn inch. Weary's in Dry Lake. He _is_ drunk.

And he _is_ shootin' up the town. If yuh don't want t' believe it, I guess they's no law t' make yuh--but if yuh got any sense, and are any friends uh Weary's, yuh'll mosey in and fetch him out here if yuh have t' bring him the way he brung ole Dock that time Patsy took cramps. Go on in and see fer yourselves, darn yuh! But don't go shootin' off your faces to me till yuh got a license to."

This, if una.s.suring, was convincing. The Happy Family stopped smiling, and looked at one another uncertainly.

"I guess two or three of you better ride in and see what there is to it," announced Chip, dryly. "If Happy is romancing--" His look was eloquent.

But Happy Jack, though he stood a good deal in awe of Chip and his sarcasm, never flinched. He looked him straight in the eye and maintained the calm of conscious innocence.

"I'll go," said Pink, getting up and throwing his plate and cup into the dishpan. "Mind yuh, I don't believe a word of it; Happy, if this is just a sell, so help me Josephine, you'll learn some brand new Jiujitsu right away quick."

"I'll go along too," Happy boldly retorted, "so if yuh want anything uh _me_, after you've saw Weary, yuh won't need t' wait till yuh strike camp t' git it. Weary loadin' me, was he? Yuh'll find out, all uh yuh, that it's _him_ that's loaded."

They caught fresh horses and started--Cal, Pink, Jack Bates and Happy Jack. And Happy stood their jeers throughout the ten-mile ride with an equanimity that was new to them. For the most part he rode in silence, and grinned knowingly when they laughed too loudly at the joke Weary was playing.

"All right--maybe he is," he flung back, once. "But he sure looks the part well enough t' keep all Dry Lake indoors--and I never knowed Weary t' terrorize a hull town before. And where'd he git that horse? and where's Glory at? and why ain't he comin' on t' camp t' help you chumps giggle? Ain't he had plenty uh time t' foller me out and enjoy his little joke? And another thing, he was hard at it when I struck town.