Again a silence fell, dread, premonitory. It was plain to every man of the outfit, awake and listening, that Dorgan had a grievance--whether real or imaginary, it made little difference--and that he was determined to force trouble. Only Owen, apparently, knowing the real state of affairs, knew that the reference to Randerson's inefficiency was a mere pretext. But that violence, open, deadly, was imminent, foreshadowed by Dorgan's word, every man knew, and all sat tense and pale, awaiting Randerson's reply.

They knew, these men, that it was not Randerson's way to force trouble--that he would avoid it if he could do so without dishonor. But could he avoid it now? The eyes that watched him saw that he meant to try, for a slow, tolerant smile appeared on his lips.

"I reckon you're plumb excited--Owen wakin' you up out of your sleep like he did," said Randerson. "But," he added, the smile chilling a little, "I ain't askin' no man to work for me, if he ain't satisfied. You can draw your time tomorrow, if it don't suit you here."

"I'm drawin' it now!" sneered the gunman. "I ain't workin' for no p.u.s.s.y-kitten specimen which spends his time gallivantin' around the country with a girl, makin' believe he's bossin', when--" Here he added something that made the outfit gasp and stiffen.

As he neared the conclusion of the speech, his right hand fell to his gun-holster. Owen had been watching him, and at the beginning of the movement he shouted a warning:

"Look out, Wrecks!"

He had been afraid to tell Randerson that it was Kelso who was facing him, for fear that the information, bursting upon Randerson quickly, would disconcert him.

But Randerson had been watching, understanding the drift of the gunman's words. And when he saw the shoulder of his gun-arm move, his own right hand dropped, surely, swiftly. Kelso's gun had snagged in its holster years before. It came freely enough now. But its glitter at his side was met by the roar and flame spurt of Randerson's heavy six, the thumb snap on the hammer telling of the lack of a trigger spring, the position of the weapon indicating that it had not been drawn from its holster.

Apparently not a man in the outfit had noticed this odd performance, though they had been held with dumb astonishment over the rapidity with which it had been executed. But they saw the red, venomous streak split the night; they heard the gunman's gurgling gasp of amazement, and they watched, with ashen faces, while he dropped his weapon, sagged oddly forward and tumbled headlong into the sand near the fire. Then several of them sprang forward to drag him back.

It had seemed that none of the men had noticed that Randerson had seemed to shoot his pistol while it was still in the holster. One, however, had noticed. It was Red Owen. And while the other men were pulling the gunman back from the fire, Owen stepped close to Randerson, lifted the holster, and examined it quickly. He dropped it, with a low exclamation of astonishment.

"I was wonderin'--Holy smoke! It's a phony holster, fixed on the gun to look like the real thing! An' swung from the belt by the trigger guard!

Lord, man! Did you know?"

"That Dorgan was Kelso?" said Randerson, with a cold smile. "I reckon. I knowed him the day he asked for a job. An' I knowed what he come for--figurin' on settlin' that grudge."

Randerson and Owen started toward the gunman, to determine how badly he had been hit; they were met by Blair. There was amazement and incredulity in the man's eyes.

"He's goin' to cash in--quick," he said. "You got him, pretty nearly proper--just over the heart. But, but, he says he's Watt Kelso! An' that that eastern dude, Masten, sent him over here--payin' him five hundred cold, to perforate you!"

Randerson ran to where Kelso lay, gasping and panting for breath. He knelt beside him.

"You talkin' straight, Kelso?" he asked. "Did Masten hire you to put me out of business?"

"Sure," whispered Kelso.

"Where's Masten stayin'?"

"With Chavis--in the shack. He's been there right along, except," he finished, with a grim attempt at humor, "when he's been rushin' that biscuit-shooter in Lazette."

Five minutes later, standing near one of the wheels of the chuck-wagon, gazing somberly at the men, who were carrying Kelso away, Randerson spoke grimly to Owen, who was standing beside him.

"Pickett an' then Kelso! Both of them was sure bad enough. But I reckon Masten's got them both roped an' hog-tied for natural meanness." He turned to Owen. "I reckon I had to do it, old man," he said, a quaver in his voice.

"Buck up, Wrecks!" Owen slapped him on the shoulder, and turned toward the men.

Randerson watched him, but his thoughts were elsewhere. "I reckon she'd have wanted it different," he said to himself.

CHAPTER XIX

READY GUN AND CLEAN HEART

Uncle Jepson understood the cow-punchers because he understood human nature, and because he had a strain of the wild in him that had been retained since his youth. Their simplicity, their directness, had been his own; their frankness and generosity, their warm, manly impulses--all reminded him of the days before age, with its accompanying conservatism of thought and action, had placed a governor upon them. They understood him, too, recognizing him as their kind. Blair, especially, had taken a fancy to him, and therefore it was not many days after the shooting of Kelso that Uncle Jepson got the story, with all its gruesome details, from his lips.

The tale was related in strictest confidence, and Uncle Jepson did not repeat it.

But the main fact, that Randerson had killed another man in his outfit, found its way to Ruth's ears through the medium of a roaming puncher who had stopped for an hour at the ranchhouse. Ruth had confirmed the news through questioning several Flying W men, and, because of their reluctance to answer her inquiries, their expressionless faces, she gathered that the shooting had not met with their approval. She did not consider that they had given her no details, that they spoke no word of blame or praise. She got nothing but the bare fact--that Randerson's gun had again wrought havoc.

She had not seen Masten. A month had slipped by since the day of his departure, when she got a note from him, by messenger, from Lazette, saying that his business was not yet concluded, and that possibly, two weeks more would elapse before he would be able to visit the Flying W.

Had Randerson, standing near the chuck wagon on the night of the shooting of Kelso, known what effect the news would have on Ruth? "I reckon she would have wanted it different," he had reflected, then. And he had been entirely correct, for the news had destroyed something that had been growing and flourishing in her heart. It had filled her soul with disappointment, at least; repugnance and loathing were not very far away.

She had almost been persuaded, that day when he had taught her how to use the pistol. The killing of Pickett had grown dim and distant in her mental vision; Randerson had become a compelling figure that dominated her thoughts. But this second killing! She could no longer interpret the steady, serene gleam in his eyes as mild confidence and frank directness; as she saw them now they reflected hypocrisy--the cold, designing cunning of the habitual taker of human life.

She had been very near to making a mistake; she had almost yielded to the lure of the romance that had seemed to surround him; the magnetic personality of him had attracted her. He attracted her no longer--her heart was shut to him. And, during the days of Masten's continuing absence--in the times when she reflected on her feelings toward Randerson on the day he had taught her the use of the pistol, she bitterly reproached herself for her momentary lack of loyalty to the Easterner.

She had been weak for an instant--as life is measured--and she would make it up to Masten--by ceasing to be irritated by his moods, through paying no attention to his faults, which, she now saw, were infinitely less grave than those of the man who had impressed her for an instant--and by yielding to his suggestion that she marry him before the fall round-up.

In these days, too, she seriously thought of discharging Randerson, for he had not ridden in to report the killing and to offer a defense for it, but she remembered Vickers' words: "Randerson is square," and she supposed that all cowboys were alike, and would shoot--to kill--if they considered their provocation to be great enough.

But these thoughts did not occupy all of her time. She found opportunities to ride and sew and talk--the latter mostly with Aunt Martha and Uncle Jepson. And she kept making her visits to Hagar Catherson.

Of late Ruth had noticed a change in the girl's manner. She seemed to have lost the vivacity that had swept upon her with the coming of her new clothes; she had grown quiet and thoughtful, and had moods of intense abstraction. Ruth rode to the cabin one morning, to find her sitting on the edge of the porch, hugging Nig tightly and whispering to him. Her eyes were moist when Ruth rode up to the porch and looked down at her, but they filled with delight when they rested upon her visitor.

She did not get up, though, and still held Nig, despite the dog's attempts to release himself.

"Have you been crying, Hagar?" Ruth inquired as she dismounted and sat on the edge of the porch close to the girl.

Hagar smiled wanly and rubbed her eyes vigorously with the back of her free hand, meanwhile looking sidelong at Ruth.

"Why, I reckon not," she answered hesitatingly, "that is, not cryin'

regular. But I was just tellin' Nig, here, that he's the only sure enough friend I've got--that can be depended on not to fool anybody."

"Why, Hagar!" Ruth was astonished and perhaps a little hurt by this pessimistic view. "What an odd idea for you to have! Who has fooled you, Hagar?"

"n.o.body," said the girl almost sullenly. She dug her bare toe into the deep sand at the edge of the porch and looked down at the miniature hill she was making, her lips set queerly. Ruth had already noticed that she was dressed almost as she had been at their first meeting--a slipover ap.r.o.n that Ruth had given her being the only new garment. It was the lonesomeness, of course, Ruth reflected, and perhaps a vision of the dreary future, prospectless, hopeless, to be filled with the monotony of the past. Her arm stole out and was placed on Hagar's shoulder.

"I haven't fooled you, Hagar," she said; "have I?"

"No, ma'am." Her lips quivered. She glanced furtively at Ruth, and a half frightened, half dreading look came into her eyes. "n.o.body's fooled me,"

she added with a nervous laugh. "I was just feelin' sorta dumpish, I reckon."

"You mustn't brood, you know," consoled Ruth. "It ruins character."

"What's character?"

"Why--why," hesitated Ruth, "the thing that makes you yourself--apart from every other person; your reputation; the good that is in you--the good you feel."