Charlie to the Rescue Part 49

here has Crux--a lover o' fair-play--come all this way to shove that curse right under their noses. I'd thowt better of ye, Crux, lad."

"It don't matter much what you thowt o' me, old man," returned the cowboy, somewhat sharply; "an', as to fair-play, there's a lot of men here who don't agree wi' your humbuggin' notions about temperance an'

tee-totalism--more of 'em, maybe, than you think. These want to have the drink, an' I've come to give it 'em. I see nothin' unfair in that."

Hunky Ben carried his report back to the council, which for some time discussed the situation. As in the case of most councils, there was some difference of opinion: a few of the members being inclined to carry things with a high hand--being urged thereto by Captain Stride--while others, influenced chiefly by Mr Reeves, were anxious to try peaceable means.

At last a sub-committee was appointed, at Hunky Ben's suggestion, to consider the whole matter, and take what steps seemed advisable. Hunky was an adroit and modest man--he could not have been a first-rate scout otherwise! He managed not only to become convener of the committee, but succeeded in getting men chiefly of his own opinion placed on it. At supper that night in Charlie's cottage, while enjoying May's cookery and presence, and waited on by the amused and interested b.u.t.tercup, the sub-committee discussed and settled the plan of operations.

"It's all nonsense," said Hunky Ben, "to talk of tryin' to persuade Crux. He's as obstinate as a Texas mule wi' the toothache."

"Rubbis.h.!.+" exclaimed Captain Stride, smiting the table with his fist.

"We mustn't parley with him, but heave him overboard at once! I said so to my missus this very day. `Maggie,' says I--"

"And what do _you_ think, Charlie?" asked Mr Crossley.

"I think with Hunky Ben, of course. He knows Crux, and what is best to be done in the circ.u.mstances. The only thing that perplexes me, is what shall we do with the liquor when we've paid for it? A lot of it is good wine and champagne, and, although useless as a beverage, it is useful as a medicine, and might be given to hospitals."

"Pour it out!" exclaimed Shank, almost fiercely.

"Ay, the hospitals can look out for themselves," added Shank's father warmly.

"Some hospitals, I've bin told, git on well enough without it altogether," said d.i.c.k Darvall. "However, it's a subject that desarves consideration.--Hallo! b.u.t.tercup, what is it that tickles your fancy an' makes your mouth stretch out like that?"

b.u.t.tercup became preternaturally grave on the instant, but declined to tell what it was that tickled her fancy.

Shortly after the party rose and left the house, Hunky Ben remarking, with a quiet laugh, that deeds of darkness were best hatched at night.

What the conspirators hatched became pretty evident next day, for, during the breakfast hour, a band of forty hors.e.m.e.n rode slowly down the sloping road which led to the plains, and on the side of which Crux had built his saloon.

Crux and his men turned out in some surprise to watch the cavalcade as it pa.s.sed. The band was led by Charlie Brooke, and the scout rode in advance on Black Polly as guide.

"Is it the Reds or the Buffalo you're after to-day, Hunky, with such a big crowd?" asked Crux.

"Halt!" cried Charlie, at that moment.

The forty men obeyed, and, turning suddenly to the left, faced the saloon.

"Hands up!" said Charlie, whose men at the same moment pointed their rifles at Crux and his men. These were all too familiar with the order to dare to disobey it.

Our hero then ordered a small detachment of his men to enter the saloon and fetch out all rifles and pistols, and those of Crux's people who chanced to have their weapons about them, were disarmed. Another detachment went off to the stables behind the saloon.

While they were thus engaged, Charlie addressed Crux.

"We have decided to expel you, Crux, from this town," he said, as he drew an envelope from his pocket. "We have tried to convince you that, as the majority of the people here don't want you, it is your duty to go. As you don't seem to see this, we now take the law into our own hands. We love fair-play, however, so you will find in this envelope a cheque which we have reason to believe is fully equal to the value of your saloon and all its contents. Your lost time and trouble is your own affair. As you came without invitation, you must go without compensation. Here are your rifles, and revolvers, emptied of cartridges, and there are your horses saddled."

As he spoke, one detachment of his men handed rifles and revolvers to the party, who were stricken dumb with amazement. At the same time, their horses, saddled and bridled, were led to the front and delivered to them.

"We have no provisions," said Crux, at last recovering the use of his tongue; "and without ammunition we cannot procure any."

"That has been provided for," said our hero, turning to Hunky Ben.

"Ay, Crux," said the scout, "we don't want to starve you, though the 'arth wouldn't lose much if we did. At the other end o' the lake, about five mile from here, you'll find a red rag flyin' at the branch of a tree. In the hole of a rock close beside it, you'll find three days'

provisions for you and your men, an' a lot of ammunition."

"Now, mount and go," said Charlie, "and if you ever show face here again, except as friends, your blood be on your own heads!"

Crux did not hesitate. He and his men saw that the game was up; without another word they mounted their horses and galloped away.

While this scene was being enacted a dark creature, with darker designs, entered the drinking saloon and descended to the cellar. Finding a spirit-cask with a tap in it, b.u.t.tercup turned it on, then, pulling a match-box out of her pocket she muttered, "I t'ink de hospitals won't git much ob it!" and applied a light. The effect was more powerful than she had expected. The spirit blazed up with sudden fury, singeing off the girl's eyebrows and lashes, and almost blinding her. In her alarm b.u.t.tercup dashed up to the saloon, missed her way, and found herself on the stair leading to the upper floor. A cloud of smoke and fire forced her to rush up. She went to the window and yelled, on observing that it was far too high to leap. She rushed to another window and howled in horror, for escape was apparently impossible.

Charlie heard the howl. He and his men had retired to a safe distance when the fire was first observed--thinking the place empty--but the howl touched a chord in our hero's sympathetic breast, which was ever ready to vibrate. From whom the howl proceeded mattered little or nothing to Charlie Brooke. Sufficient that it was the cry of a living being in distress. He sprang at once through the open doorway of the saloon, through which was issuing a volume of thick smoke, mingled with flame.

"G.o.d help him! the place'll blow up in a few minutes," cried Hunky Ben, losing, for once, his imperturbable coolness, and rus.h.i.+ng wildly after his friend. But at that moment the thick smoke burst into fierce flame and drove him back.

Charlie sprang up the staircase three steps at a time, holding his breath to avoid suffocation. He reached the landing, where b.u.t.tercup ran, or, rather, fell, almost fainting, into his arms. At the moment an explosion in the cellar shook the building to its foundation, and, shattering one of the windows, caused a draught of air to drive aside the smoke. Charlie gasped a mouthful of air and looked round. Flames were by that time roaring up the only staircase. A glance from the nearest window showed that a leap thence meant broken limbs, if not death, to both. A ladder up to a trap-door suggested an exit by the roof. It might only lead to a more terrible leap, but meanwhile it offered relief from imminent suffocation. Charlie bore the half-dead girl to the top rung, and found the trap-door padlocked, but a thrust from his powerful shoulder wrenched hasp and padlock from their hold, and next moment a wild cheer greeted him as he stood on a corner of the gable. But a depth of forty or fifty feet was below him with nothing to break his fall to the hard earth.

"Jump!" yelled one of the onlookers. "No, don't!" cried another, "you'll be killed."

"Hold your noise," roared Hunky Ben, "and lend a hand here--sharp!--the house'll blow up in a minute."

He ran as he spoke towards a cart which was partly filled with hay.

Seizing the trams he raised them. Willing hands helped, and the cart was run violently up against the gable--Hunky shouting to some of the men to fetch more hay.

But there was no time for that. Another explosion took place inside the building, which Charlie knew must have driven in the sides of more casks and let loose fresh fuel. A terrible roar, followed by ominous cracking of the roof, warned him that there was no time to lose. He looked steadily at the cart for a moment and leaped. His friends held their breath as the pair descended. The hay would not have sufficed to break the fall sufficiently, but happily the cart was an old one. When they came down on it like a thunderbolt, the bottom gave way. Cras.h.i.+ng through it the pair came to the ground, heavily indeed, but uninjured!

The fall, which almost stunned our hero, had the curious effect of reviving b.u.t.tercup, for she muttered something to the effect that, "dat was a mos' drefful smash," as they conveyed her and her rescuer from the vicinity of danger.

This had scarcely been done when the house blew up--its walls were driven outwards, its roof was blown off, its bottles were shattered, all its baleful contents were scattered around, and, amid an appropriate hurricane of blue fire, that drinking and gambling saloon was blown to atoms.

Would that a like fate might overtake every similar establishment in the world!

This was the first and last attempt to disturb the peace of Sweet.w.a.ter Bluff. It is said, indeed, that Crux and some of his men did, long afterwards, make their appearance in that happy and flouris.h.i.+ng town, but they came as reformed men, not as foes--men who had found out that in very truth sobriety tends to felicity, that honesty is the best policy, and that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

THE END.