"To h.e.l.l with them, Lieutenant, and with Jethro, too. I'm not going to let the Central Pacific gain ground on me because of a few naked savages. If I wasted my time worrying about what a few miserable Indians think, I'd never get anywhere." "Is it worth a war? A war that will cost lives?"

"What war? You say the Army is here to keep the peace, so keep it."

"And how would you suggest I do that?"

"Sell them the idea that the railroad won't do any harm. It's just two tracks and a whistle."

"They won't buy it, King. You forget these Indians have seen the railroad bring people west. It isn't the tracks themselves that worries them, it's the buffalo hunters, and the sod-busters."

Mike King chuckled suddenly, his manner changing. "d.a.m.n it, Zeb, I like you! You've got guts. I could use you in my business." He got up and walked around his desk to the sideboard. "Will you have a drink? I never lied to a man over a drink."

Zeb took the gla.s.s of whiskey. He had an idea what was coming and was braced for it. At the same time he knew the limitations of his authority, and how little his arguments would mean when they reached a peaceful headquarters miles from the scene of action, with a lot of arm-chair soldiers ready to pa.s.s judgment. He could not stop the railroad. He could not force it to turn aside by so much as a foot. His job was to keep the peace, and he had tried. It might be that he should simply ride off in the hills on a long patrol and let King bear the consequences of his act ... the trouble was, there were so many others who would suffer. And King had never had to bury a woman who had fallen into Indian hands, or seen the result of an outbreak.

If there was an attack the railroad could do a fair job of defending itself, for many of the track-layers were Civil War and Indian war veterans, and not a few had served in European armies before emigrating. "Look"a"King filled his own gla.s.sa""you've seen the buffaloa"millions of them! Why, we had a train stopped for two days while a herd of buffalo pa.s.sed, and that was only last week! How long will it take the settlers to kill off that many buffalo? Not in my lifetime nor in the lifetime of any youngsters we may have. "I don't have any love for the n.o.ble red man, and never did. Whenever two peoples come together and one has the superior culture, the superior technical skill, the other will fold up or decline. I've heard you and Jethro say the same thing, although maybe the words were different, but it's inevitable. "The Indian could cope with anything before the white man arrived, but now he's out of date. He's done for. Personally, I want to see all this country filled with ranches and farms. I want to see mines and mills. I want to see this country filling out and growing up, and that's the way it will do and n.o.body can stop ita"not those fool Indians, nor you, nor anybody else. The Indian has to become a part of it, or fade from the picture.

"It isn't me who is doing this. It isn't anybody, really. It is simply that the Indian's way of life doesn't fit him to compete with a white man for land or a living. Don't blame me. I don't make the laws of nature. "But look at the logic of it. These hunting grounds are safe for at least our lifetime and for the lifetime of the Indians you've talked to. And the sooner the Indian comes in contact with the white man and his way of life, the better his chances of surviving. The point is, however, that he has nothing to worry about. It will be fifty, maybe a hundred years before people move into this country."

Zeb Rawlings looked at the amber liquid in his gla.s.s. There was much truth in what King said, and he knew some of the older Indians felt the same way. The trouble was that he did not trust King, or any argument he might offer. Nor could he trust the young bucks who would be hunting scalps and stealing horses. Yet why did he not trust King? Was it jealousy? Zeb scowled into his gla.s.s. He did not like to think he might be misjudging a man because of his own personal feelings.

No, it was not a matter of personal feeling; it was simply that he knew that to Mike King only one thing mattered: the railroad. To put that railroad through on schedule Mike King would ride roughshod through and over anything that got in the way. And that included Zeb Rawlings.

"All right," he said at last, "I'll see what I can do. I'll talk to them." King went to the car door with him, his hand on Zeb's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, Rawlings. We're just crossing their land. I give you my worda"n.o.body is going to stay."

"I'll be going."

"You seeing Julie?"

Zeb Rawlings looked up, his eyes cold and level. "Yes. Any comment?"

King smiled, that taunting smile that always seemed to be concealing so much.

"No, no! You're a lucky man, that's all."

Zeb walked to his horse and paused there, making a business of tightening the cinch. He had a feeling that King had bested him, but with King one usually had that feeling, whether the issue had been lost or not. Stepping into the saddle, he turned to Jethro, who was waiting. "Can you get me a chance to talk to the chief?"

Jethro merely nodded, turning his horse away. Together they rode into the hills.

Chapter 16.

Day had scarcely come when they rode into the village of Walks-His-Horses. At the first sight of it, Zeb Rawlings felt the skin tighten on the back of his scalp. There were at least two hundred lodges, which could mean close to five hundred warriors.

Dogs rushed out, yapping furiously, and an Indian stepped from one of the lodges.

"How safe are we?" Zeb asked. "Pa used to say if you came of your own accord into an Indian village you were safe as long as you stayed there." "That's true ... generally." Jethro chewed on the idea for a minute or so. "I'd say you are safe enough this time. Walks-His-Horses is a reasonable man, and smart enough to figure it is better to talk than to fight. It's his young men you have to worry abouta"they want to count coups so they can stand tall among the squaws."

Walks-His-Horses was a tall, powerfully built Indian of perhaps forty years. He had a large-boned, intelligent face and such dignity as only an Indian can have. He looked at them, then invited them into his lodge. When they were seated, Jethro began to speak slowly, in Arapahoe, of which Zeb knew only a few words. However, Jethro spoke in sign language as well, the graceful and fluent movements of his hands lending a weird touch to the moment. Slowly, other warriors began to enter the lodge. Jethro spoke to Zeb out of the side of his mouth. "Says there's an Indian he knows who knows your pa ... an Osage named Arrow-Going-Home. Says your pa had the name of being a great man, a great warrior and hunter." "Heard pa speak of the Osage. They crossed the plains together back in *forty-four or *forty-five."

Zeb could follow some of the talk, for he knew the sign language, which was universal among the tribes, although few Indians knew any tribal tongue but their own.

The lodge filled with warriors. The air became stifling. The pipe was lighted and it went slowly around the circle. Zeb pulled on it gravely, then pa.s.sed it along.

"The old man is in good temper," Jethro whispered, indicating a white-haired man of n.o.ble features who sat behind and to the right of Walks-His-Horses, "and that counts for plenty."

The talk droned on, Jethro translating from time to time items that Zeb could not grasp.

Suddenly, Walks-His-Horses began to speak. His voice was low, but filled with somber power, and as he spoke his eyes moved from one to the other. "When I see you here in my lodge, I feel glad as do the ponies when first the green gra.s.s comes to the hills at the beginning of the year. My heart fills with joy that we can talk together as old friends, for I have no wish for trouble with my white brothers, least of all with you who speak to me here, my friend, and the son of the man known to all among Inuaina. "When first the white man came among us and spoke of blazing an iron trail for the Iron Horse, we were amazed and wished to see this thing, but at the same time we were frightened, for word had come to us that wherever the Iron Horse drew its wagons, there the white man came to hunt, not in dozens, but in hundreds, perhaps even thousands. These hunters we feared would kill the buffalo and leave the redman hungry, his squaws and papooses without food. "We heard the white man killed the buffalo and took only the skin, leaving the meat to rot beneath the sun while the children of the Indian died from hunger. "The white man promised the Iron Horse would not come close to our hunting grounds, but would take the other side of the hills. Now this has been changed and the Iron Horse and its wagons have come among us. We see the game frightened off into the far hills, where we must go with many dangers to find food. "Now the Iron Horse has come and my young men come to me and shout their anger. They shake the arrow of war and mix paint for their faces, and they bring their war ponies in from the gra.s.s.

"We do not wish to fight the white man, but our young men are angry. They demand war. They demand the iron trail be destroyed before it brings hunters to our hunting grounds."

Zeb Rawlings was silent, choosing the words with which to reply. Why did he feel guilty before this old man? And before Walks-His-Horses? Had not Mike King given his word?

He spoke slowly, taking his time to make himself understood, and to allow for translation of those words he missed. "We look upon the Arapahoe as brothers, and your problems are our problems also. It is true the trail of the Iron Horse has been changed, for it cannot run everywhere as a pony can do. Where the trail is now the way is smooth for it, and it can run swiftly without cutting through hills or bridging streams.

"Many men will ride the Iron Horse's wagons, but they are men who go far away to the land beside the blue waters where the sun sets. They will pa.s.s over your lands but they will not stop. The man who builds the iron trail has promised me this."

The eyes of Walks-His-Horses burned into those of Zeb Rawlings. "Blue Coat, son of the man we know, I speak to you. I do not speak to the man who makes the iron trail. You sit in my lodge, you smoke the pipe, it is your voice I hear. "I do not smoke with the man who makes the iron trail. He does not sit in my lodge, he does not hear my voice. What do you say? What is it you will promise?" Lieutenant Zeb Rawlings hesitated, for he did not need to look around him to know his audience. The lodge was packed with warriors, many of them the young warriors who demanded war. From these he could feel bitter animosity. They were held back only by the authority of their chief ... for how long? When they attacked, who would die? At first it would be lonely travelers, settlers, innocent people who had done nothing to invite the red rage that would sweep the plains. Only later would they attack the railroad. Innocent people would die unless he could stop this now, unless he could stop it here. Walks-His-Horses was an able man. He knew how fiercely the white man could retaliate, and he had come to know how ruthlessly they followed their enemies. The Indian way was to fight a great battlea"one battlea"and on the outcome would the decision rest. Not until the white man came did the Indian discover what a campaign meant. The Indian fought, then retired to his lodge; but the white man followed after, destroyed the Indian's corn, his meat, and his lodge. He drove off the ponies and hounded the Indian until the snow was red with his b.l.o.o.d.y tracks. The chief knew this, as did the old man who sat at his elbow. The young men did not know, or they believed they could win. They did not understand that against the white man no victory was possible.

"What I have said," Zeb Rawlings reiterated slowly, "is true. Men will ride the Iron Horse, but they go to the lands in the west where there is gold and silver. The man who makes the iron trail has given me his word. I give you my word. No one will stop. The hunting grounds of the Arapahoe will remain the hunting grounds of the Arapahoe."

The sun was setting when the two rode out again upon the hill overlooking the still distant End of the Track. As they drew rein to give their horses a chance to catch their wind, a far-off train whistle blew. "That blamed whistle!" Jethro said irritably. "It's like the crack of doom for all that's natural."

"What's natural and what isn't? My ma came from a settling family. They believed a man should make his scratch on the land and leave it a little different. Anyway, thanks for fixing things with the chief." "Me? I fixed nothing. You put the words in my mouth and I said what you couldn't say for yourself. That won't make *em come true." "I said what had to be said to keep the peace. There's a risk, I know." "Risk? You pledged your word back there, Rawlings. Not my word. Not Mike King's word, and not the Army's. It was your word they'd keep their huntin' grounds." "I think they will."

"You got more trust in your fellow man than I have. Especially when your fellow man is Mike King." Jethro took out his tobacco, looked at it thoughtfully, and then said, "Look, son, how do you figure they aim to pay for this road? Do you think carryin' the mail and a few pa.s.sengers to Californy will do it? If you do, you got another think a-comin'. They need farms and folks and towns. They need men shippin' cattle and farmers shippin' grain. Your treaty's goin' to be broken, Rawlings, and I don't want to be around when it happens. Look me up sometime when you've got a belly full."

"Where you going?"

"I'm heading back into the mountains, and it won't be Arapahoe country where I stop, neither."

"What about Julie?"

Jethro's eyes twinkled slightly. "Well, son, you just talked yourself into an Indian treaty. I reckon you will have to talk to Julie. She mightn't be no harder to convince."

The ride back was silent, each man busy with his thoughts. Zeb Rawlings did not consider, for the moment at least, the promise he had made to Walks-His-Horses. He was thinking about Julie.

No girl in her right mind would marry an Army lieutenant with plans to resign his commission, when she could marry a man like Mike King. Whatever else could be said about him, King had a future. He was a man on the way, and moving fast. With his ruthlessness and drive, he could scarcely miss having the success he wanted.

Zeb had nothing to offer but life with him, and the chance he must take, with the Army or without it. And now he had staked everything on King's worda"a man whom he did not trust. Yet what else could he have done? For the moment at least, war was averted.

After leaving Jethro, he hastily went to his quarters and bathed. Grimly, he considered the one clean uniform he had. It wasn't much, but he would wear it tonight.

Jethro Stuart had stopped at the big tent. Rowdy Jim Lowe ran the place, a powerful brute of a man, and by reputation a killer, a man who had made a business of gambling tents at the End of the Track. Leaving his mount at the hitch rail, Jethro walked through the room, weaving among the tables toward the bar.

At this hour the big tent was relatively deserted; not half a dozen tables were occupied, and only three men stood at the bar. One of them was Mike King. Turning, King saw Jethro. "Come have a drink, Jethro," King said cheerfully. "I want to talk to you."

"What's the matter?" Jethro asked dryly. "Did the Central Pacific have a wreck?

Or did you find somebody to take over my job?"

"I heard you went to the Arapahoes with young Rawlings. Well, thanks." "I sat there and listened, mostly. I wish I believed what you promised as much as Rawlings did."

The bartender filled two shot gla.s.ses and left the bottle. "You mean you don't trust me?" King grinned knowingly, tauntingly. "You'd have done it different?" "Been me, I'd have told *em to raid that car of yours and hang your scalp out to dry. That'd stop your d.a.m.ned railroad."

Mike King chuckled. He felt good and did not intend to be disturbed. At some future date he would remember all of this, and use it. "You've put Rawlings right in the middle, King, and you know it. And that boy has notions."

"What kind of notions?"

"Fool notions about honor. No use talkin' to youa"you wouldn't understand." King chuckled again. "Forget that talk, Jethro. Tonight's a big night." He grinned at him. "We should be friendsa"at least." "What's that mean?" Jethro asked suspiciously.

"Julie and I have had a talk," King replied. "We see things eye to eye. That's quite a girl you have there, Jethro. A lady ... every inch a lady." "What's that mean?" Jethro asked once more.

King tossed off his drink. "We'll both tell you later. I'm seeing her tonight." Slapping Jethro on the shoulder, he turned and walked from the tent. Jethro glanced down at his drink with sudden distaste and turning abruptly, he left it standing and went out of the tent. Rowdy Jim watched him go, his eyes thoughtful. Jethro Stuart drank little, but it was the first time since he had worked for the railroad that he had not taken an evening drink. Rowdy Jim recalled the expression on Jethro's face. "Something's up," he commented to the bartender, "I never saw Stuart look so mean." "He's no gunman, is he?"

Lowe spat. "No, he ain't, but no gunfighter in his right mind would buy trouble with Jethro Stuart. One thing you learn in this country, talk soft around those old mountain men. You might kill one, but you'll have lead in you first. They die mighty harda"mighty hard, indeed!"

Stuart had been talking with King and considered that. Maybe he should drop around and see him. On the other hand, what did King ever do for anybody? To h.e.l.l with him!

Jethro Stuart lifted the flap of his tent and stood there looking at Julie. She was fixing her hair in front of the mirror that used to belong to her ma. G.o.d only knew how she'd kept it in one piece all this time. Quietly, he began gathering his things together and putting them into a pack.

She watched him in the mirror without speaking. At last she turned around.

"Well, pa, this is the longest we've been together since I was a little girl.

You're going off again?"

"Uh-huh."

He always went to the mountains when something went wrong, and she had been expecting it for days.

"Are you leaving me alone in thisa"this place? You never did that before, pa." "You ain't goin' to be alone for long, I'm thinkin'." He straightened up and looked at her. "You made your mind up Julie? You decided?" "Why, pa! Whatever was there to decide?" She came up to him and tugged at his mustache. She had done that when she was a little girl, and she knew he liked it.

"Now, don't you start that again." He studied her shrewdly. "You sure you're doin' the right thing?"

"Of course." Suddenly her eyes became wistful. "Don't go, pa. Not this time. I don't want you to go away again."

He felt a lump coming into his throat, and it irritated him. "Now, you stop that. I'm goin'. What you do is your own affair." He paused. "We tried to raise you right, your ma and me. Admittin' I was gone much of the time, when I was there I tried to do the right thing ... and I never knew any way to make a livin' but with a rifle or a gather of traps. "Now you're a lady. No use my tryin' to live your life for you. You've got it to do." He bundled his gear together. "You sure you're doin' right?" "Of course!" she repeated.

He went outside and let the flap fall behind him. He walked to his horse and then stopped. It was jaded, needed rest. Maybe he could make a swap with the Army.

He swung into the saddle and started away, then said aloud, "I tried, Linus. I sure enough tried."

Chapter 17.

Spring came late to the western lands. The brown hills still carried dark patches from the dampness left by melting snow, while here and there in a shadowed place could still be found a streak of snow or reluctant ice. Zeb Rawlings rode down the hill toward Willow Springs Station, cold with anger and despair.

The train of five cars standing at Willow Springs chilled him even more. "There's trouble, Sergeant," he said, indicating the traina""trouble for us. More settlers, more buffalo hunters, and the railroad not yet out of Arapahoe country."

"We might have expected it, Lieutenant. Where people can get, there people will go."

Of course that was true, and down deep within him Zeb had known it very well. Why should he not know it? Had not his own people come west by the Erie Ca.n.a.l and the Ohio?

Why had he allowed himself to be persuaded by King? Yet, in the last a.n.a.lysis, he could blame no one but himself. He should have let King make his own promises to Walks-His-Horses.

Nothing Zeb could have done would have stopped the building of the railroad, nor even the changing of the route. All he could do was protest, and report to headquarters, and it was all too easy for some desk soldier, far from the place itself, to overrule him.

Mike King stood on the platform as the patrol rode up. "Not in your lifetime, you said." Zeb Rawlings rested his palms on the saddle horn and looked down at King.

King grinned his tantalizing grin. "You can't stop the march of progress, Lieutenant. Anybody should have known people would come west if the railroad gave them a chance. h.e.l.l, that was why we were building the road!" "You lied." Zeb's jaw had set hard. "You made a liar out of me. You said this could not happen in your lifetime."

"Who expected to live so long? Get down, Lieutenant, and let's have a drink.

It's no skin off your nose."

"I gave them my word."

"You shame too easy, Rawlings. Did an Indian ever build a railroad? Those tracks are worth more than you, me, or all those Arapahoes put together, and they will be here when all of us are gone.

"The government gave us land along the right-of-way to sell to make the road pay; but to make it pay we need settlersa"ranchers, farmers, businessmen. And there they are.

"See them? More than half came all the way from Europe, and they'll have a rough time of it, but they're tough and they will come through because they are willing to change their ways in order to survive and grow. The Arapahoes will have to change, too. If they don't, they're finished." "That doesn't get me off the hook."

"Aw, forget it! So you gave them your word. They're just naked savages, so who cares?"

"It may surprise you, King, but I care. Walks-His-Horses is a gentleman, and in his way, a statesman. He has lived up to his agreement. The railroad hasn't lost a man or a horse since the day I talked to him." Zeb Rawlings reined his horse around. "A few minutes ago, King, you were talking of these people who have come out from Europe and the East. Before the month is out some of them will die, and some of your men too. By now Walks-His-Horses knows they are coming, and we'll have a full moon the first of the week. You'd better have your men armed for trouble."

King's expression hardened. "Don't blame me for what happens! It's your job to protect them."

"You changed the route of the railroad and violated an agreement. You changed it on your own authority, without consulting anyone. In your crazy drive to get the road through, you changed the route through Arapahoe country and you had influence enough to get backing for your change, even though it was unnecessary. Furthermore"a"Rawlings tone was filled with contempta""you failed in your object." He wheeled his horse and led the troop away, and Mike King stared after him, his eyes ugly with anger.

"Lieutenant!" King shouted, stepping down off the platform. Rawlings drew up. "Sergeant, take the troop on in. Get them fed and see to the horses. Get some sleep if you can, but be ready for trouble. I think all h.e.l.l's going to break loose."

As Rawlings turned he loosened the flap on his holster. King saw the movement and grew wary. Rawlings walked his horse back to him, and King's eyes lifted to meet Rawlings' eyes. Mike King was nothing if not a wise man in his own way. He was wise now.