Several times I walked to the edge of the woods. Noon came and I could see no sign of work around the town, so evidently they were drinking and talking. Cap was breathing easier, and Ange was feeding him when I came into camp, but she paid me no mind and I sat down to eat what there was.
If they made an all-out attack on us, we might be able to hold them off, but if we had to get out of there our only chance was up the mountain, and with a sick man on our hands we weren't likely to get far.
Taking an axe, I went out to check our defenses. I added a few logs, and rooted out some brush here and there to give us a better field of fire.
Joe Rugger was worried, I could see that, but there was no rabbit in him. He had come in with us and he planned to stick.
"What led you to throw in with us, Joe?" I asked him.
"Drifted in here with the wrong crowd before I measured them for calibre. Seemed to me you and Rountree were more my type. Fact was, I figured to try leasing that store from you. Back in Ohio I operated a small store for another man, but it seemed to me I'd get nowhere working for the other fellow, so I quit. I've done some mining, but a store is what I always wanted."
"Joe, you've just bought yourself a lease. Cap and me, we want to build a town that shapes up to something, and we would be proud to lease that store to you."
Thanks, Tell."
It made a body restless, wondering what they were cooking up down there in town. Same time, I never was one to keep a serious view of things. Time to time folks get the idea I'm slighting my problems because ofttimes they strike me as funny. Now I kept thinking of all those men down there, arguing and drinking and drinking and arguing, and working up a nerve to come after us. It struck me, a man might sort of wander down there of a nighttime and have himself some fun.
Rousting around in our gear I found about a hundred feet of rope Cap had packed along, on account of rope is always handy. Joe had some more, and I knotted the two together and went inside and got my field glasses and studied that town.
There were four tents--one large, like the saloon
tents at the end of the tracks in railroad towns, and the others small. A couple of horses were saddled, with packs behind the saddles . . . some men were in the street.
Something about it bothered me. If there actually were forty men around the town, where were they?
I took my Winchester and scouted around the edge of the trees, studying the bench, searching every possible approach. It scarcely seemed likely that they would try another attack with me here, when Cap and Joe had driven them off alone. But they might
Thinking of it worried me, with Ange Kerry at the camp, and Cap Rountree a sick man. Looked to me like I was going to have to go after them, after all.
Come evening time, Joe Rugger came out to Stand watch, and I went into camp for grub. Cap was conscious and he looked up at me. "You've got it all on your hands, Tell. I'll be no help to you."
"You've been a help." I squatted on my heels beside his pallet, nursing a cup of coffee in my hands. "Cap, I'm going to take it to them tonight." "You be careful."
"Else they'll come a-hunting. We can't have them shooting around with Ange here, and you laid up." "That's a fine girl."
"You should see that country up yonder. Blessed if I can see how she made it ... months up there, all alone."
I could see Cap was done up. He would need time and plenty of good food to get his strength back... it was lucky Ange was there.
She came in, bringing a cup of soup for Cap, but she kept her eyes away from me. What did she expect me to do? Stand still and get shot? Sure, I got the jump, but Kitch had warning. And when he came out of the trees like that he wasn't looking to play patty-cake.
She was mighty pretty. A little thing, slim and lovely. Though the only clothes she had were wore-out things, and she was not likely to have better until one of us could cut loose for Silverton or Del Norte.
Her face had taken on some color, and she had combed out that hair of hers and done it up like some of those fancy pictures I'd seen in Godey's Lady's Book. I declare, she was pretty!
"See you," I said, and stood up. "You take care."
There was a moment there I thought of talking with her, but what could I say? Seemed to me she didn't want any words from me, and I went away feeling mighty miserable inside. Walking out to the edge of the trees, I stood looking toward the two or three lights and thinking what a fool a man could be.
What was she, after all? Just a slim girl with a lot of red-gold hair... nothing to get upset about.
The humor of what I'd been thinking of doing there in town went out of me. I looked at that town and felt like walking over there and shooting it out.
Only there was no sure way I could win if I did that, and I had to win. Joe was a solid man, but he was no gunfighter. First time in my life I wished I could look up and see Tyrel coming down the pike.
Only Tyrel was miles away and days away, and whatever happened now was up to me. Anyway, it never does a man much good to be thinking of what he could do if he had help . . . better spend his time figuring a way of doing it himself.
Gathering up that rope, I taken it to my horse and saddled up.
"Joe," I said, "yon be careful. They may come a-winging it over this way. If they do, and if I'm able, I'll come a-smoking, but you stand 'em off until I get here."
Ange was standing with the fire behind her and I couldn't see her face. Only when I rode out, I lifted a hand. "See you," I said, and let the palouse soft-foot if off the bench and into the stream bed.
It was cool, with no wind. The clouds were low, making it especial dark. There was a smell of pine woods in the air, and a smell of wood smoke and of cooking, too.
Nigh the town site I drew up and got down, tying the appaloosa to some willows in the stream bed. I put my hand on his shoulder. "Now you stand steady, boy. I won't be gone long."
But I wondered if that was truth or not.
Maybe it would be just as well if I was to get the worst of them. That Ange, now--she had no use for me, and sure as shooting I was getting a case on her.
Not that it was likely she could ever see me. Girl that pretty had her choice of men. Nobody ever said much about me being good-looking--except Ma--and even Ma, with the best intentions in the world, looked kind of doubtful when she said it.
I didn't shape up to much except for size. Only thing I could do better than anybody else I knew was read sign ... and maybe shoot as good as most. Otherwise, all I had was a strong back.
That Blackstone, now. I'd been worrying that book like a dog worries a bone, trying to get at the marrow of it, but it was a thing took time. Days now I'd been at it, off and on, and everything took a sight of thinking out.
He said a lot of things that made a man study, although at the wind-up they made a lot of sense. If I could learn to read ... I would never get to be a lawyer like Orrin there, but...
This was no time for dreaming. Pa, he always advised taking time for contemplating, but this was the wrong time.
Taking that rope and my Winchester, I edged in close. Working soft on moccasin feet, I ran my rope through the guy ropes of that big tent, up behind about four guy ropes, and then a loop clean around one of the smaller tents and around the guy ropes of another. Then I walked back to my horse and loosed him, mounting up and taking a dally around the pommel with the loose end.
Everything at the town seemed mighty peaceful.
Inside I could hear folks a-cutting up some touches, the clatter of glasses and poker chips. Seemed almost a shame to worry them.
Walking my horse alongside the building, I stood up on the saddle and pulled myself to the roof. I slid out of my shirt, and shoved it into the chimney. Then I stepped back to the eaves and, about time I touched saddle, all hell broke loose inside. The room had started to fill up with wood smoke and I heard folks a-swearing something awful and coughing.