THE SHERIFF STATES SOME FACTS
THE of the Star C his over the post which near the sheriff’s door and heavily, the of his from him. Quick, steps approached the house and the door open.
“Hullo, Tom!” Shields cried, hands with his friend. “Come right in–I you would come if we you a little.”
“You don’t have to do much coaxing–I can’t away, Jim,” Blake with a laugh. “How do you do, Mrs. Shields?”
“Very well, Tom,” she answered. “Miss Ritchie, Helen, Mary, this is Tom Blake; Tom, Miss Ritchie and James’ sisters. They are to with us just as long as they can, and I’ll see that it is a good, long time, too.”
“How do you do?” he heartily, the introduction. “I am to meet you, 241for I’ve a whole about you. I you’ll like this country–greatest country under the sky! You out here a month and I’ll you’ll be just like of people, and not want to go East again.”
“It as though we have always Mr. Blake, for James has about you so much,” Helen, and then she laughed: “But I am not so sure about this country, although very to take place in it. The was very trying, and it to as we our destination.”
“Well, I’ll have to that the stage-ride part of it is a drawback, and also that Apaches don’t make good committees. They are a little too pressing at times.”
“But, speaking seriously,” Helen, “I have had a time. James has managed to me a very after a long search, and I have taken many about the country.”
“Wait ’til you see that horse, Tom,” laughed the sheriff. “It’s not to any devilment, but it can’t, for it has all it can do to up alone, and can’t very well away.”
242“I see that The Orphan delivered my message, to the of men,” the sheriff’s wife as she took the guest’s and offered him a seat. “I spoke to James about it days ago, and asked him to send you word when he could, for you have not been here for a long time. And the thing about it is that he to tell The Orphan.”
“Thank you,” he replied, seating himself. “Yes, he delivered it all right, it was about the second thing he said. But I just couldn’t here any sooner, Mrs. Shields. And I was just if I over to-night when he told me. When he said ‘apricot pie’ he looked of sad.”
“Poor boy!” she exclaimed. “You must take him one–it was a to send such a message by him, poor, boy!”
“Well, he ain’t so now,” laughed Blake.
Helen had looked up at the mention of The Orphan’s name, and the to her look of inquiry.
“I sent him out to for Blake, Helen,” he said quickly. “If he has the right in him he’ll along with the Star C outfit; if he hasn’t, 243why, he won’t on with anybody. But I Tom will out all the good in him; he’ll have a show, anyhow.”
“And you told us about it!” Helen reproachfully.
“Oh, I was saving it up,” laughed the sheriff. “What do you think of him, Tom?” he asked, to the foreman.
“Why, he’s a clean-looking boy,” answered Blake. “I like his looks. He to be a what can be on in a pinch, and after all I had about him he of took me by surprise. I he would be a tough-looking killer, and there he was only a overgrown, kid. But there is a look in his that says there is a limit. But he me, all right.”
“You want to that, Miss Ritchie,” the sheriff, broadly. “Anything that takes Tom Blake by must have of some kind. And he is a good judge of men, too.”
“I do so he on well,” she earnestly. “He was a perfect when he was here, and his was sharp, too. And out 244there on that plain, when he with weakness, he looked just splendid!”
“Pure grit, pure grit!” the in reply. “That’s why I’m banking on him,” he added, his as he remembered. “Any who turn a like that, and who has so much clean-cut courage, must be looking after. He’s got a reputation, but he’s white and square with me, and I’m going to be square with him. And when you know all that I know about him you’ll take his as a natural result of hard luck, spunk, and other people’s and foolishness. But he’s going to have a now, all right.”
“What did your men say when they saw him? Do they know who he is?” asked Mrs. Shields anxiously.
Blake laughed: “Oh, yes, they know who he is. They ain’t the talking in a case like that; they won’t say a word to him about what he has done. Besides, he was under their roof, their food, and that’s for them. Of course, they were a little surprised, but not as much as I they would be. He is a man who a good impression, and the boys are all fellows, 245big-hearted, square, clean-living and peaceful. Reputations don’t count for much with them, for they know that are gossip-made in most cases. I asked him to stay, and they haven’t got no to object, and they won’t waste no time looking for reasons, neither. If there is any trouble at all, it will be his own fault. Then again, they know that he is all and that his is and sudden; not that they are of him, or else, for that matter, but he is the of a man they like–somebody who can up on his own and give than he gets.”
“I he that bill, all right,” laughed the sheriff. “He can up on his own legs, and when he he makes good. And as for gunplay, good Lord, he’s a wizard! I I do with a gun, but he can me. He ain’t no Boston pet, and he ain’t no city tough, not nohow. And I’d have him with me in a mix-up than against me. He’s the in this part of the country at any game, and I know what I’m talking about, too.”
“You promised to tell us about him, all you knew,” Helen. “And I am sure that it will be well hearing.”
246“Well, I was saving it up ’til I tell it all at once and when you would all be together,” he replied. “There wasn’t any use of telling it twice,” he as he out a box of cigars. “These are the same you last time you were here,” he his friend as he the box.
“By George, that’s fine!” the foreman, out the cigar he see. “I taste them for a whole week, they was so good. There’s nothing like a good Perfecto to make a like he’s too lucky to live.”
“Oh,” said Mrs. Shields. “Then you won’t for the coffee and and gingerbread,” she sighed. “I’m very sorry.”
Blake jumped: “Lord, Ma’am,” he hastily, “I meant in the line! Why, I’ve been sleep a-dreaming of your cooking. Every time the cook my cup with his to coffee I so that it hurts!”
“You want to look out, Tom!” laughingly the sheriff, “or you’ll disliked! When I don’t for Margaret’s cooking I ain’t to say so, not a of it.”
“You’re a one to talk like that!” his 247wife. “You are just like a little boy on day–I can keep you out of the kitchen. You me to death, and it is all I can do to cook for you!”
After the laugh had and a cup of coffee had been at the foreman’s elbow, Helen her to his story.
He his cigar with and then laughed softly: “Gosh! I’m to be a second around here. From to night all I is The Orphan. The thing that me when I come home is, ‘Have you The Orphan?’ or, ‘Have you anything about him?’ The are Miss Ritchie and Helen. They me to death about him. But here goes:
“I I’d with Old John Taylor,” he slowly began. “I’ve been doing some lately, and in the of it I ran across Old John in Crockettsville. You him, don’t you, Tom? Yes, I you wouldn’t the man who got us out of that Apache scrape. Well, I had a good talk with him, and this is what I learned:
248“About twenty years ago a family named Gordon moved into Texas and put up a in one of the valleys. There was three of them, father, mother, and a little five-year-old boy, and they about two hundred of cattle, a and a whole of books. Gordon up a of land from a at almost a song, and he of for a deed–who would, there in those days? There wasn’t a who owned more than a section; you know the game, Tom–take up a hundred and sixty on a and then about a million, and like the very to it. We’ve all done it, I reckon, but there is of land for everybody, and so there is no kick. Well, he was lucky, for his on two was a fair-sized that dry, and you know how that is–a whole than a gold mine to a cattleman.
“They got along all right for a while, had a tenderfoot’s luck with their cattle, which soon to be more than a on the plain, and he was very well satisfied with everything, that there wasn’t no school. Old man Gordon 249was on education, which is a good thing to be over, and he was some in that line himself, having been a teacher East. But he took his boy in hand and him all he knew, which must have been a whole lot, from in general, and the kid was a smart, quick youngster. He was about two things–books and guns. He read and re-read all the books he borrow, and got so he a gun with any man on the range.
“About five years after he had located, the from he his range and water and died. Some of the heirs, who were not what you would call square, to an for Gordon’s land, which was by the in Texas. There was a garden and a good orchard, which was just to fruit. It was pure, hoggishness, for there was more land than had any use for, but they must in sight, no what the cost. Trouble was the after that, and the old man was up against it all the time. But he managed to his own, though he did a of cattle.
250“His was a gridiron, which wasn’t much different from the circle of the big ranch. It ain’t much trouble to use a iron through a wet and a like that when you know how, and the Gridiron Circle how. Their with a iron would have questions to be asked, and a bee, in other parts of the country, but there they were well alone. They let Gordon know that he had jumped the range, which was just what they had done, that he didn’t own it, and that the sooner he left the country the it would be for his health. But he had ideas about justice, and he was full of and obstinacy. He he was right, that he had paid for the land, and that he had it. And he had a of in the law, not that he hadn’t anything to the law. And he didn’t know that law and don’t always the same thing, not by a long shot.
“Well, one day he out looking for a of coal, which he ought to be thereabouts, according to his books, and it ought to be close to the surface of a fissure. He that of 251any quality would be some than and the little he owned, so he got busy. But he didn’t coal, but something that him it to his books. When the report came from the office he that he had on a of native silver, which was some than coal.
“It didn’t take long for the news to around, though God Himself only how it did, unless the told that a had gone through his hands to the office, and to in chunks. He three Gridiron Circle his cows, and he was naturally about it and just up the they he was around. He killed one and the health of the other two for some time to come, which naturally with a big W. Then about this time his wife and died, which was a big to his troubles. As he above her grave, all up, and about to give up the and go East, he was at from cover. He didn’t much if he was killed or not, until he that he had a boy to take of. Then he got all at once, all of his 252coming up him in a bunch, and he got his gun and hunting, which was only right and proper under the circumstances.”
The the of his cigar into a flower pot which was with white ribbons, and himself a cup of coffee.
“I to think that it is possible to a whole of from the owner down,” he continued, “but the nature of the owner a dirty foreman, and a dirty needs dirty men, and there you are. That the case of the Gridiron Circle to a T. There was not one white man in the whole gang,” and he sat in for a space.
“Well, the boy, who was about fifteen years old by this time, took his gun and out to his daddy, and he succeeded. He cut him and him and then home. That night the to the ground, the was and the boy disappeared. Some people said that the kid took what he wanted and the house than to have it as a range house by the who his dad; and some said the other thing, but from what I know of the kid, I he did it himself.
“Right there and then to 253that the and safety of the Gridiron Circle. Cows were all over the range–juglars cut in every case. Three of their were in one week–a .5O-caliber Sharps had done it. A regular of terror and the on the jump all the time. They and and and swore, and if one of them off by himself he was to be buried. Ten experienced, old-time were of by a fifteen-year-old kid, who was by that long to tell about it. When he got hungry, he just killed another cow and had a two others over a good fire. He ate the middle steak, which had all the of the two ones, and the others away. Three a day for six months, and one cow to a meal, was the order of on the of the Gridiron Circle. He had of ammunition, every was his when and his were or gone; and early in the game the boy had a master stroke: he the of the one night and away about five hundred of in his bags, with a of 254Colts and a Winchester of the latest pattern, and he all the of the he his hands on. Humorous kid, wasn’t he, up the with its own and cartridges?
“Finally, however, after the news had spread, which it did quick, a regular party was arranged, and the U-B, which about sixty miles to the east, sent over a dozen men to take a hand. Then the Gridiron Circle had a rest, but while the was for him and all of to catch him, the boy was over on the U-B, it how it had been to take up another man’s quarrel. By this time the whole country about it, and some Eastern papers to give it much attention. One of the of the Gridiron Circle, when he a friend and saw the of the kid in the sand, and that it was ‘that d––n Orphan’ who had done it, and the name stuck. He had an and was for any man who had the and to turn the trick. For ten years he has been all over the range like a wolf, for his life at every turn against 255all of odds, and natural. And I that why he is of doing so much killing. He has been and to shoot to save his own life, and a is a when cornered. I know that I wouldn’t give up the if I help it, and neither would else.”
“Oh, it is a shame, an shame!” Helen, of in her eyes. “How they do it? I don’t him, not a bit! He did right, terrible as it was! And only a boy when they began, too! Oh, it is awful, almost unbelievable!”
“Yes, it is, Sis,” Shields earnestly. “It ain’t his fault, not by any manner or means–he was warped.” And then he added slowly: “But Tom and I will him out, and if some don’t like it, they can it, or fight.”
“Tell me how you met him, Jim,” Blake in the of silence. “I’ve some of it, second-handed, or third-handed, but I’d like to have it straight.”
“Well,” the continued, “when he came to these parts I didn’t know anything about him 256except what I had heard, which was only bad. He had a way of his gun, a hair-trigger and a on his gun, and he had a way of using one cow to a meal, so I got busy. I didn’t much trouble in him. I that he was only a and I on my fifty years, and most of them of experience, him. Being young, I he would be and and in his wisdom; but, Lord! it was just like trying to catch a in the dark. He was here, there and everywhere. While I was south along his he would be up north to the sheep in and his bill of with choice of and mutton. And by the time I got south he would be–God only where, I didn’t. I only guess, and I until the last one. And then it was the of a coin that it.
“After a while he to more daring, and when I say more I an open game with no limit. He to prove my ideas about his age making him reckless, though he was enough, to be sure. One day, not long ago, 257he had a run-in with two out by the U of the creek, who had their up on Cross Bar-8 land and over the dead-line by the ranch. They must have taken him for some Cross Bar-8 and he was going to up a about the trespass, or else they him. Anyway, when I got on the they were to be planted, which I did for them. Then I after him on a plain north–and almost too plain to me, it looked like it had been plain as an invitation. He had out the ground and left of good tracks. But I was some and didn’t much what I into. I he had the whole of baa-baas over that high bank and into the creek, for the number of sheep was scandalous.
“I that north, east, south, west and then all over the whole United States, it to me. And it was always older, I had to waste time in and like that that might him and his gun. I my way on a past of and 258gardens, over and else, and the more I about the I got. I ain’t no real, fool, and I’ve had some at trailing, but I had to that I was just a plain, ordinary monkey-on-a-stick when up against a kid that was only about my age, the of the and I was left out on the middle of a to the answer as best I could. I what he had done, all right, but that didn’t help me a whole lot. Did you that used padded-leather on his cayuse’s feet, and that on a walk, out the ground? No? Well, I have, and it’s no cinch.
“I got of myself to the same place four times out of five, and I that it wouldn’t be very long he had his circle and got me in of him. It ain’t no church to be a like him under the best conditions, and it’s a whole less like one when he you doing the same thing. I didn’t know he had to the north or south, so I up a coin and for north–and it was tails. I cut at 259a and had been for some time when I saw something through an opening in the to the east of me, and it moved. I my on it, and I’m if it wasn’t an Apache party north. They were about a mile to the east of me, and if they on going ahead they would across my in about three hours, for it their way. I right then and there and west for a time, south again until I the Cimarron Trail, which I east. Well, as I around one of the six Apaches around the other, and they my too soon to me. I a hair-raising and out in the direction of Chattanooga as hard as I go, with a a mile me.
“I had just passed that on the Apache Trail when the man I was looking for up, and with the drop, of course. We that two was needed to stop the war-paints, which we did, him the game and doing most of the playing. I like I was his guest he had to in the festivities. He had of to 260me if he wanted to, and he had in on a game that he didn’t have to take cards in; and to help me out. He have let them me and they would have that I had done all the and that there wasn’t another man on the desert. But he didn’t, and I to think he wasn’t as as he was painted.”
Then he told of the trouble The Orphan and Jimmy of the Cross Bar-8, and of the which out on the ranch.
“That settled it for the Cross Bar-8. They wanted of gore, and they got it, all right, when he played five of their against the very party he had sent north to meet me, while I was him. That party must have something to their liking, about the country all that time.”
Blake him: “War party that he sent north to meet you?” he asked in surprise. “How he do that?”
“That’s just what I said,” Shields, and then he about the arrow. “Any man who a like that and use one to out another ain’t going to by an of lunkheads–by George! if he didn’t 261work nearly the same on the Cross Bar-8 crowd! Oh, it’s great, great!”
The his enthusiastically: “Fine! Fine!” he exulted. “That has got brains, of them! And he’ll make use of them to the good of this country, too, we through with him.”
Shields continued: “After he sic’d the of the Cross Bar-8 on the Apaches he the on the and I was asked to go out and things, which I did, or I would do. Charley and I and the two Larkin boys out on the plain all night, up with sand, waiting for him to up us and the windows–and the thing I saw in the was Helen’s flower pot here–it used to be Margaret’s–setting up on top of a of under my very nose where he had it while I waited for him–and if he hadn’t his name in the at its base!” He to his sister: “Tell Tom about him calling on you while I was waiting for him out on the ranch, Helen.”
Helen did so and the way she told it the to look at her.
262Blake laughed heartily: “Now, don’t that all!” he cried.
“It don’t this,” the sheriff, again to Helen. “Tell him about the stage coach, Sis.”
“Well, I don’t know much about the part of it,” she replied. “All I is a terrible –oh, it was awful!” she cried, as she the of the Concord. “But when we stopped and after I managed to out of the coach I saw the driver a man on his and toward us. He his and him–and he was a man, and with blood.” Then she paused: “He was and and didn’t to think that he had done anything out of the ordinary. Then we on and he left us.”
The laughed and an at her:
“You have left out a whole lot, Sis,” he said affectionately. “Helen just like the she is, Tom,” he continued. “I Bill told you all about it, for he’s it well. Why, she her gold pin a-helping him!” and he broadly.
263Helen him a glance, but it was too late; Mary sat upright, her one of surprise.
“Helen Shields!” she cried, “and I of it before! How you do it! Why, that man will your pin and about it to everybody! The idea! I’m at you!”
“Tut, tut,” Shields. “I that pin is all right. He might it some day to return it, it’ll be a good when he on his feet. And I’d to be the man to laugh at it, or try to take it from him. Now, come, Mary, think of it right; it was the act he had since he his daddy. And that pin is one of my main stand-bys in this game. I that he’ll be square as long as he has it.”
“Well, I don’t care, James,” Mary. “It was not a thing to do when she had him before, and he her brother’s enemy and an outlaw!”
“How I have the bandage, sister dear?” asked Helen, her more than its natural shade. “It was so very little to do after all he had done for us!”
264“Well, Tom and I have some to talk over, so we’ll you to the out among yourselves,” the said, arising. “Come to my room, Tom, I want to talk over that with you. You the coffee pot and the and I’ll the and gingerbread,” he laughed as he the way.
“Oh, Tom!” called Mrs. Shields after good-nights had been said, and just the door closed; “I promised you a dinner for your boys when Helen and Mary came, and if you think you can them this Sunday I will have it then.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Shields,” Blake, on the threshold. “It is good of you to put out that way, and you can that the boys will be your after. If you must go to that trouble, why, Sunday or any day you may name will do for us. Gosh, but won’t they be tickled!” he as he pictured them on goodies. “It’ll be than a circus, it will!”
“Why, it’s no trouble at all, Tom,” she replied, at being able to to a of men, lonely, as she thought. “And you will 265to have The Orphan with them, won’t you?”
“I most will,” he replied. “It’ll do for him.” He at Helen, but she was in a under the lamp shade.
“Good night, all,” he said as he closed the door.
