"Dessay yo're right, but I'm wonderin'," Jeff insisted. "Then stop it, yu fool," his employer told him. "All yu gotta worry about is the cows ; they're goin' through if we have to carry 'em one at a time. yu sabe?"
In his excitement he raised both his voice and his body, only to sink back with an oath. Instantly the hard-faced woman on the driver's seat thrust her head through the canvas flaps. "yu, Jeff, pull yore freight, pronto," she ordered. "Ain't there critters enough out there to pester but yu gotta come here an' git my patient all het up? If yu didn't wear a hat yu'd have no use for yore head."
The foreman made no reply ; he knew better than to engage in verbal warfare with the lady. Sam Eden, however, promptly protested:
"Jeff's doin' his duty, reportin' to me, Judy," he said. "It ain't his fault if I'm restive, lyin' in this damn wagon day after day." He looked at her slyly. "Mebbe, if I could have a smoke ..."
"Sam Eden, yo're plumb crazy," she snapped. "Here's yu with yore innards all tore up an' yu want baccy. Where'd yu be if it makes yu cough an' starts a bleedin'?" She looked at Jeff. "Beat it," she added.
The foreman obeyed, leaving them wrangling, but there was a smile on his face. Riding beside the wagon he stooped and peeped through a hole in the cover. The patient had a pipe in his mouth and his nurse was striking a match.
"Pure gold, that woman," Jeff murmured. "But her tongue cuts like a bowie."
Quickening his pace, he rode after the herd. As he passed the remuda, he spoke to Lasker:
"We must be near Injun country now. Best not let yore hosses stray far to-night. yu can have help if yu want it." The wrangler nodded sullenly. "I can manage," he said. "Been this way afore?" Jeff asked.
"Nope, it's new to me," the man replied.
Two or three miles were covered and their eyes were gladdened by the sight of trees in the far distance. For days past they had seen no timber--for the sparse scrub-oak and stunted mesquite could not be so designated--and they knew the line of foliage indicated a river.
"Reckon that'll be the Red," Sudden remarked to Sandy. "She'll be high," Sandy predicted.
Their fears proved to be well founded, when, a little later, Sudden and the foreman--who had ridden ahead--halted on the bank of the river. Jeff's face fell as he surveyed the swift-moving, eddying torrent, murky with the red sediment which stained the timber and driftwood along the banks and gave the river its name. He shook his head.
"She's all of six hundred yards acrost an' with the drift thatmeans swimmin' near twice as fur, an' she's carryin' too much sand," he said. "We'll never make it as the cards lie."
"Better play it safe, ol-timer," Sudden agreed. "These streams, I've heard, rise an' fall in a day."
He was studying the ground ; there were cattle-tracks in plenty but his experienced eye told him that they had not been recently made.
"S'pose them jaspers in front of us beat the floodwater, but I'm guessin' they didn't cross here," he remarked.
"They may still be this side--further downstream," the foreman suggested. "The trail forked a few miles back. Well, we gotta wait, whether Sam likes it or not."
The wagon was drawn up beneath some tall pines, and the cook was busy with his pots and pans when a horseman rode in from the gloom. Sudden, watching the leaping flames of the big fire, stepped forward.
"This Sam Eden's outfit?" the new arrival queried, and then, peering from his saddle, "but of course it must be, unless you're riding for someone else. Isn't your name Green?"
Sudden did not reply. Directly the rider had come within the circle of firelight he had seen that it was Jethro Baudry, and, for some reason he did not attempt to track down, the aversion he had experienced on first meeting the man returned.
"And where is Sam? Not working while his men warm their hands, I hope?" Baudry went on, with clumsy facetiousness. "yu'll find Mister Eden in the wagon, seh," the cowboy said stiffly, and walked away.
The gambler's eyes followed him and their expression was scarcely amiable. "Starchy, eh?" he muttered. "Odd about Sam though."
He rode over to the wagon, got down, and looked in. By the light of a hanging oil-lamp he saw the invalid, pale and haggard, but obviously on the mend.
"Hello, Sam, what's the meaning of this?" he greeted. "Howdy, Jethro," the cattleman responded. "Come right in an' I'll tell yu."
Squatting on a sack of meal, chewing a black cigar, the visitor listened in silence to the story and then gave his opinion :
"Looks like redskins ; who else would want to lay you out?"
"yu can search me. But how come yu here, Jethro?"
"Meeting a man at Doan's Store--some way down the river.
Got news of a herd arriving and suspicioned it might be the S E. you're making good time, Sam."
"Barrin' this," Eden tapped his chest, "we've been lucky. Mebbe all our troubles is to come."
"Likely enough, and that's one reason I wanted to see you," Baudry said. "I've been told there's some pretty tough gangs haunting the trail, waiting for herds, and I thought I'd warn you to be on the lookout."
"Mighty good o' yu, Jethro," the rancher said warmly. "I've had word a'ready to the same effect but"--his eyes twinkled--"if they wait for the S E they're liable to get tired o' the job." Baudry looked puzzled.
"We're aimin' to turn west and cut our own trail," Eden explained triumphantly.
"you're a sly old fox, Sam," the gambler said. "But isn't it risky? you may euchre the rustlers but you'll certainly run into the redskins."
"I figure them varmints will be watchin' the trail too," the cattleman argued. "As for bein' risky, the whole damn drive is that. Seen anythin' of another herd this way?"
"yes, they crossed some miles lower down--just beat the flood. The river's dropping--you'll get over tomorrow, I'd say."
"Hope so. I fair hate hangin' about. Comin' with us, Jethro?" The gambler shook his head, and rose. "Have to wait for my man," he said. "I'll be seeing you later. Good luck to ye, Sam."
He was about to mount when he saw Carol talking to one of the outfit and walked towards them, leading his horse. The cowboy turned away when he saw the newcomer. The girl asked the inevitable question and got the same explanation her father had received.
"Of course, I had no notion of Sam being hurt," Baudry said. "He's not looking too bad."
"His recovery is wonderful," Carol agreed.
The man's eyes dwelt on her, absorbing the straight slimness of her figure and the healthy freshness of her young beauty. She stirred him, and there was warmth in his usually cold voice when he said :
"He's had a wonderful nurse."
There was a mischievous gleam in Carol's eyes. "He certainlyhas. If ever you fall sick, Mister Baudry, I can recommend Judy."
The gambler's lips tightened. Was the girl playing with him? But a man who depends upon cards for a living must learn to mask his emotions and Jethro Baudry was no novice.
"you have some new faces," the gambler remarked. "I don't recollect the young fellow you were talking to."
"Oh, you mean Sandy--the boys call him that," she added rather hastily. "He's a friend of Mister Green."
Baudry had a black moment ; the use of the cowboy's nickname did not please him, the less so since he knew it had been involuntary.
"Looks a likely lad," he said carelessly.
But the girl was on her guard. "We've a good outfit," was her reply.
"Well, the hardships of the trail seem to suit you. Never seen you look so bonny." Again there was warmth in his tone and it made her flush a little.
"I love it," she replied, and with a smile, "Dad always says I ought to have been a boy."
"I can't agree with Sam on that, and he won't find another man that will," the gambler said gallantly. "There's plenty boys but only one Carol Eden."
With a wide sweep of his hat, he hoisted himself into the saddle and rode away, leaving her pondering. She did not like the man, though she could have given no reason. He was a friend of her father, who was under a considerable obligation to him, and to her he had always been courteous and respectful, and yet .. .