Paradise Bend Part 32

"Yep."

"I queet, too. I go wit' you."

"What for? No need o' you losin' yore job, too."

"---- de job! I been here long tam--two, t'ree year. I wan' for move along un see w'at happen een de worl'. Een you' beesness, two gun ees better dan only wan. Are you me?"

"Oh, I'm you all right enough. I'll be glad to have yuh with me, Telescope, but----"

"Den dat ees settle'," interrupted Telescope, his eyes glittering in the glow of his cigarette. "Wen you go, I go, un togedder we weel geet de leetle hoss. Ah, my frien', eet ees de luck I have you to go wit'.

I been knowin' for week now I mus' go soon."

"Gettin' restless?"

Telescope nodded, his eyes fixed on the far-away line of saw-toothed mountains black against the stars. When he spoke, his voice had altered.

"Tom, de ole tam have come back to me, un w'en de old tam do dat I can not stay. I mus'---- My frien', have you evair love a woman?"

"Once I did."

"Den you weel understan'. Wan tam, fifteen year ago, I have woman. I have odder woman now un den--five, six mabbe, but dey was Enjun un breed. Dees woman she was not Enjun. She was Francaise, un we was marry un leeve over on de Sweet.w.a.tair Riviere near de Medicine Mountain.

"Well, we was happy, she un me, un I was hunt de buffalo for Ole Man Rantoul. Rantoul she have de post dere on de Sweet.w.a.tair. Dere was odder men keel de buffalo for Rantoul, un wan of dese men she see my wife Marie w'en she go wit' me to de post. Dees man she yong man name'

Taylor--Pony George dey call heem, 'cause she was all tam bust de pony.

"Well, wan tam I go 'way two--t'ree week, mabbe. I come home een de afternoon. No leetle dog she play 'roun' de log-house. No smoke from de chimeny. No Marie she stan' at de door.

"I go queeck to de house. Leetle dog lie dead in front de door. Door shut. I go een. I fin' Marie--I fin' Marie!" A wild, fierce note crept into the low monotone. "I fin' my Marie on de floor. She varree weak, but she can talk leetle. She tell me w'at happen. Two day before I geet back Pony George come to de log-house. Pony George she try for mak' de love to my wife. Marie she go for rifle. Pony George geet de rifle firs'. Dog try for bite heem. Pony George keeck de dog out un shoot heem.

"My wife she grab de knife. She fight. But Pony George strong man.

Get cut leetle, but not bad. He--he--well, I can do nothin' for my wife. Nex' day she die.

"I ride to de post of Ole Man Rantoul. Pony George not dere. Rantoul say Pony George go 'way t'ree day before--not come back. I go after Pony George. I not fin' heem. I go sout' to de Nation. I go to Dakota. I go all de way from Canaday to de Rio Grande. Five year I heet de trail, but I never fin' Pony George.

"Now I work on de ranch, but always I can not stay. W'en de ole tam come back I mus' go. Well, my frien', some day I fin' Pony George, un w'en dat day come I weel hang hees hair on my bridle. Ah, I weel keel dat man--keel heem slow, so she weel have plenty tam for see hees deat'

before she die."

Abruptly Telescope Laguerre slipped down to the ground and vanished in the darkness.

CHAPTER XIII

THE DANCE

A week later, while the outfit was eating supper, Swing Tunstall burst yelling into the bunkhouse. He flung his hat on the floor and thudded into his seat.

"Dance!" he whooped, hammering on the table with his knife and fork.

"Dance! Big dance! Down at the Bend. Next week. Sat.u.r.day night.

They're a-goin' to have it in the hotel. Hooray!"

"Pa.s.s him the beans, quick!" shouted Doubleday. "Get him to eatin'

before the roof pulls loose. When djuh say it was, Swing?"

"Sat.u.r.day night, next week. b.u.t.ter, b.u.t.ter, who's got the grease? An'

the canned cow. That's the stuffy. Say, that's gonna be a reg'lar elephant of a dance, that is. They's a new girl in town--I seen her.

She's stayin' at Mis' Mace's, an' she's as pretty as a royal flush.

Miss Kate Saltoun her name is, an' she's from the Bar S down on the Lazy River."

"We'll all go," announced Doubleday.

"You bet we will," said Giant Morton. "Swing, where's that necktie o'

mine yuh borried last week?--yes, the red one. You know the one I mean. You wanted it so's yuh could make a hit with that hash-slinger at the hotel. Can't fool me, yuh old tarrapin. Where is it?"

"I'll git it for yuh later," gurgled Tunstall, his mouth full. "I don't guess I lost it. Ca'm yoreself. Giant, ca'm yoreself. What's a necktie?"

"Don't guess yuh've lost it! Well, I like that! I paid a dollar six bits for that necktie down at the Chicago Store. There ain't another like it in the territory. Ragsdale said so himself. You gimme that necktie or I'll pizen yore bronc."

"Goin' to de Bend to-morrow?" inquired Telescope of Loudon, when they were riding the range the day before the dance.

"I don't guess so. I don't feel just like dancin'. Don't enjoy it like I used to. Gettin' old, I guess."

"I'm goin', but not to de dance een de hotel. I'm goin' to de dance hall, un I weel play de pokair, too. Ah, I weel have de good tam. W'y not you come wit' me?"

"Maybe I will. See how I feel to-morrow. I'm goin' to pull my freight next week sometime. Got an engagement in Farewell in five weeks or so, an' I want to find the little hoss before then."

"We'll fin' heem, you un me. I am ready any tam you say."

That evening Scotty Mackenzie halted Loudon on his way to the bunkhouse.

"Goin' to the dance, Tom?" queried Scotty.

"I'm goin' to the Bend, but no dance in mine."

"Say, you make me sick! Dorothy'll be at that dance, an' yuh'll hurt her feelin's if yuh don't go. She'll think yuh don't want to dance with her or somethin'."

"I can't help what she thinks, can I? I don't have to go to that dance."

"Yuh don't have to, o' course not, but yuh got to think o' other folks.

Why, only day before yesterday when I was at the Bend she was askin'

after yuh, an' I told her yuh'd sh.o.r.e see her at the dance."

"Yuh did, did yuh? All right, I'm goin' to the Bend to-morrow with the rest o' the boys, but I've got a little poker game in mind. The dance is barred, Scotty."

"Oh, all right. Have it yore own way. I'm only tryin' to help yuh out. Say, Tom, y'ain't still thinkin' o' goin' away, are yuh? Yuh can have that bay like I said, an' another pony, too, if yuh like. Yuh see, I want yuh to stay here at the Flyin' M. I'm hard up for men now, an'----"

"Say," interrupted Loudon, on whom a great light had suddenly dawned, "say, is that why yo're so anxious to have me go see Miss Burr, huh?

So I'll fall in love with her, an' stay here, huh? Is that it?"