IT TOOK SOME PERSUASION TO INDUCE SHORTY to consent to go through with the marriage ceremony which Bob had proposed. It wasn't because he didn't secretly want Daisy, but because he was afraid he was tying a millstone around his neck.
They were walking from the stable back to the saloon. "It's the only thing, Shorty," Bob was saying. "We need Daisy. We can't leave her here. Don't you know, you bow-legged rascal, she'd stand on her head in the middle of the Clearwater River for you if you said the word?"
"Wal, I ain't sayin' I could always git along without Daisy, fer I knows that sometime, in a fit o' weakness, I'd go 'stray an' be damned glad o' it. I guess I might as well shut my eyes an' take the pill one time as well as 'tother."
"I wish I were as lucky as you, partner. My poor gal is way out between here and the Basin, and in the hands of the worst bunch of cutthroats who ever trod the earth. We've got to find her partner, and Daisy will be great company for her."
Shorty ate a worried supper, and shied nervously when Daisy brushed blushingly beside him. Bob enjoyed their confusion. Jim, who hadn't had a chance to talk to Shorty and verify what Daisy had told him, sat glum. It was evident from his looks that he considered the marriage a calamity.
"What did you bring back from Lewiston, Jim?" Bob sat down beside him. "We've got to check up as soon as we can, for we're loading out for the Basin."
"Miss Daisy done tol' me that, Bob, so I took it on myself tuh stock up. I got flour; beans, bacon salt, brown sugar loaf, coffee, some garden seeds--even melons."
"How in the name o' all heck air yuh goin' tuh work a placer claim with melon seeds?" Shorty snorted.
"Wal, I thought we might want tuh plant a little garden," Jim answered helplessly, looking to Bob for support.
"A splendid idea, Jim." Bob slapped him on the back. "Did you forget boots and tools?"
Jim grinned. "Shore didn't, Bob. Daisy, she tol me about the tools, an' I got the boots out o' my own hard. I bought six more pack mules. Daisy said tuh buy four, but I had enough tuh git six. Got a bargain on 'em."
"Let's see " Bob figured, "that gives us fourteen pack animals again."
"That gives us eighteen," Jim corrected. "I bought four last trip."
Bob slapped him on the back again, so hard he almost choked on a mouthful of potatoes.
"You're a trump, Jim. You didn't forget anything. Now, Daisy, you'd better turn the place back to the cook and get spruced up. Jim, have the fiddlers start the music. The crowd 's coming already."
Shorty grabbed Bob's arm. "Gawd! I'm fidgety as a hen with a flock o' little ones, Bob! What do I do, take her on my knee, er somethin'? Yuh got tuh stand by me through this, podner! I'm doin' this tuh please yuh. I hopes tuh the good Lord I gits this back on yuh!"
It was an odd assemblage that gathered in Ford's Saloon that night to witness the first marriage ceremony in Oro Fino. Rough-bearded miners had come en masse in their best jeans; and the dancehall girls, flashily dressed, cast envious glances at the lucky Daisy, who was now coming down the stairway. She was wearing a close-fitting, gold colored bodice, with a full ruffled skirt to match, made to stand out more by several starched ruffled petticoats underneath. In her red hair she wore an oak leaf. Her face was aglow with happiness.
She was accompanied by Nora, the chaperon who had come into Oro Fino with her. In striking contrast with the slender Daisy, Nora was fat, well-hipped, with shining black hair parted in the middle and knotted at the nape of her neck. She wore a beruffled white dress which made her look pounds heavier.
Bob and Shorty were standing near the banisters. Shorty was self-conscious in his new buckskin pants and double-breasted flowered vest. His knees would have knocked together if he hadn't ridden so many horses in his life. His teeth chattered as he reached up to whisper to Bob.
"Yuh durned fool, see what that danged petticoat done tuh me out thar in the timber that day? An' yuh remembers how I axed yuh tuh shoot me, like a gentleman, an' yuh wouldn't? The blame rests on yore haid, an' be damned! Them's my last words!"
"Come on, brace up, Shorty!" Bob admonished.
"Honest, Bob, I'd rather face a firin' squad'" Shorty bemoaned, but he got no further sympathy.
Bob was not much on making speeches, but he did his best. "Gents and gals! Shorty here, and Daisy are going to get married. Has anyone in the house got such a thing as a Bible?"
There was a silence; then someone tittered.
Finally, an old man, stoop-shouldered and grey, hobbled forward.
"Here's a Testament, neighbor. Many is the couple I've married intuh wedlock."
"Just the thing. Are you a minister?" Bob asked.
"No. I was a Jestice o' the Peace once back in Iowa. I ain't got no jurisdiction here."
"You've got as much of that as anyone, and I think it will be all right. Come on, they're both anxious." Bob handed him back the small Testament.
The old man smiled as he took it. "Stand here, young man," the Justice said, pulling Shorty from behind Bob. "The gal, here. Now, take hold of hands."
Daisy shot a shy happy glance at Shorty, who looked small beside her.
"What's yore name, young man?"
"Wha-a-t?" Shorty stuttered.
"Yore name?"
"Shorty Windless!" prompted Bob, seeing that Shorty was paralyzed with fright.
"An' yores, gal?"
"Daisy Anna May Babcock," she answered promptly. "Quit shaking like that," she whispered to Shorty. "Look at the people staring at you."
"Tha-t's what's the matter," he mumbled.
Holding the small Testament toward them the old man began. "Put your free hands on the Bible." They obeyed. "Shorty Windless, do you take this gal to be yore lawful wedded woman, so help me, God?"
"Shore!" He swallowed. "Parson."
"An' Daisy Anna May Babcock, do you take Shorty Windless to be yore lawful wedded man, an' do you promise to love, honor an' obey him, in sickness an' in health, so help me that same Person?"
"I do," she answered, then added the proviso, "especially in sickness."
"Then I pronounces you man an' woman. Kiss her, Shorty."
Upon the word, Daisy caught his two cheeks in her hands, stooped and kissed him square on the mouth. It was a great show and cheers rent the old shake roof. A general handshaking followed. Gradually Shorty came out of his shell of fear and called everybody to the bar and the celebration was on.
The two fiddlers, beating time with their feet, were playing with all the enthusiasm of the masters, as their instruments throbbed and screeched with the pounding and scraping of many boots on the rough floor. Girls being in the minority, men danced together and sang boisterously as they whirled.
As soon as Bob could slip away unnoticed, he went to bed, dead tired. For a time he lay thinking; his troubled mind traveled into unknown territory, following the trail of a flaxen-haired girl, while in fancy he took part in a scene similar to the one that had been enacted downstairs this night.
Then his mind slipped back to the more immediate problems. It would be several days before they could get ready to start for the Basin. Some disposition of the business here must be made, and Jack would be the most likely buyer. However, from a recent conversation, he knew that Jack could see the handwriting on the wall.
Sometime there would most likely be found easier trails into the Basin. If the rumors of gold strikes proved to be correct, the mule trails would be followed by wagon trails, which would take business from Oro Fino. Of course that might be a long time coming, but the change was sure to come, since the trail through this rough mountainous country was not only difficult but dangerous and offered the greatest advantages and protection to the professional road agents and bandits. Scarcely a day passed that someone did not bring in news of being held up and robbed of both horses and dust.
As Bob pondered these things he realized that all this lawlessness could be abolished with the destruction of two king-pins, Plummer and Three Finger Smith. He felt that he personally was duty-bound to bring them to justice to avenge his sister, and his friend, Ford. How long would it be before he would be able to meet them? In his deep concentration he gripped the bedpost until his knuckles were white. After a restless hour he fell asleep.
He arose at dawn to begin checking over the supplies to be taken to the Basin. Jim named them over while Bob wrote them down.
One pack train with ten men and fifteen pack animals came through during the morning, stopping just long enough to wet up at the saloon and buy a few things at the post. It was a hard bunch of adventurers, and Bob began to wonder where they all came from.
Bob and Jim arranged the supplies in separate stacks the way they wished them packed. They counted the pack saddles and found there were sixteen. Next came the mending of cinches and taking inventory of rope, for it would take an almost endless amount of rope to tie sixteen packs.
Bob was glad when the bow-legged bridegroom of last night showed up.
Shorty grinned sheepishly. "Whatcha in sech a hell-roarin' hurry about, Bob?" he greeted. "Can't a man have no honeymoon at all? I ain't had nary a danged wink o' sleep--worryin' about what yuh was up tuh."
"Oh, you'll sleep better after a while, Shorty. Now that you're up, better take a look at the mules. Look their feet over. That reminds me, Jim, did you get any more horse shoes or mule shoes?" Jim shook his head.
"Then go over to the post and buy all he's got in stock. Better get nails, too, and a shoeing hammer."
Jim was cutting a coil of rope. "Didn't need tuh buy no more shoes, Bob. I had them all shod in Lewiston but the two yuh had with yuh, an' yuh lost one o' them. That makes only one mule tuh shoe. They's shoein' hammer an' everything here."
"Lord love us! Look what's comin' here, fellers, will you?" exclaimed Shorty, getting to his feet.
Bob gazed in wonder. It was a train almost as large as the Grimes string.
Shorty was counting them. "Forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty, fifty-one, fifty-two, fifty-three--Gawdamighty, where'd they all come from?"
"That's the second string today, Shorty. And look at the pack animals! Why, there's gals too. This must be a moving saloon and dance hall!"
They halted at the saloon, and Bob and his partners dropped their work at the shed and went to talk with them.
Bob sought out the captain, a squat little man, John Thomas by name, and asked him where they were from. He learned that they were from Walla Walla and that they were hurrying to beat the snow into the Basin.
"Are there any following you, Mr. Thomas?" Bob solicited.
"More?" he asked in surprise. "Why, they's herds of 'em! Wait till the next boat gets in from Portland. If some of 'em ain't snowed in somewhere in the Bitterroot Mountains, my name ain't Henry John Thomas."
Bob sought out Shorty and Jim and took them back to the shed. "Get busy, fellows. We've got to get out of here. The stampede is on. Shorty, go tell your wife to pack her duds and be ready to start on the trail in the morning at daybreak. It looks like the Boise Basin is going to be the center of the new empire."
"I was jest thinkin', Bob. I wondered if you figgered about headin' out on that trail with three men an' one gal, with sixteen mules an' two thousand dollars' worth o' supplies? Yuh knows the woods is maybe full o' murderin' robbers. The Injuns ain't goin' tuh be too friendly, neither, when they sees this band o' whites clutterin' up their huntin' grounds."
Bob scratched his head thoughtfully for a few moments. "Tell you what, we'll trail the first train out in the morning, or maybe in ahead of them. We might be able to throw in with them. We've got to get through, Shorty. Every hour's wait is giving our enemies that much more advantage. As it is, we can't hope to reach there before the middle of October. Then we'll have to throw up a shack or two and get things ready for winter."
Feverishly they worked that afternoon and far into the night. After all was in readiness for an early start if a train should show up, Bob went to Jack Darling's room, where he made a deal with him, selling him the partners' half of the saloon for five thousand dollars.
It was almost noon the next day, September twentieth, when they trailed a company of twenty men from Walla Walla. They decided it would be better not to throw in with them, but keep their outfit separate and travel close together. When the company got strung out there were fifty-six pack mules and twenty-four saddle horses, twenty-three men and one woman. Bob also had three extra saddle horses. Bob and Jim took the lead of their outfit, then came the eighteen pack animals, while Shorty and Daisy brought up the rear.
The company ahead was pushing as fast as possible, but Bob and his outfit took the first day easier until their animals got used to traveling. It would be a long hard grind to the Basin, barring all accidents.
That night they camped on a little creek a quarter of a mile from the lead company. They made camp early because of the work attached to unpacking the animals and getting them to good grazing ground.
They set up the big tent and made a fire for Daisy, who began getting supper. Bob and Jim staked the saddle horses which would not be in use the fore part of the night, and drove the others onto the side of the mountain, where the grass was knee high. The mules were so hungry that Bob knew they would not stray for several hours. They put bells on two of the leaders so they would be warned if anything disturbed them.
When they got back to camp supper was sizzling in the pans. Shorty had cut boughs and made all the beds. Daisy spread the supper on a wagon cover and they all squatted around it and began eating hungrily.
In the distance they could hear the tinkling of the bells on the mules, and the nearby horses munching the tall grass. Supper over, the men edged back against a big log and filled their pipes for a peaceful smoke, while Daisy gathered up the dishes.
"Shorty, you and Jim take the first watch of the animals tonight. I'll take the morning watch. It isn't likely we'll have trouble tonight, but we can never tell. Is that arrangement all right with you, Daisy?"
"Sure, Bob. I don't aim to be a millstone around Shorty's neck. Only I think you better let Shorty and me take the first shift, and you and Jim relieve us about one o'clock. I wouldn't sleep a wink anyhow until Shorty comes in."
"Daisy, you're sure a pippin, and if you feel that way about it you can sure do it," Bob said admiringly. "I'd rather have you in the company than a man, any day."
"Shore yuh ain't too tired, gal?" asked Shorty, solicitous of her comfort.
"Sure, dear. Anyway, I'd feel better taking my turn with you," she answered, stooping over and patting him lovingly on the cheek.
Shorty squirmed but otherwise took it without remonstrance.
Just then the brush cracked behind them. Bob whirled about, a gun in each hand. The brush parted and a man's head appeared in the light. He stared at them wild-eyed.
"Put 'em up! You're covered!" Bob spat savagely.
The man hesitated a moment, then stumbled and fell in front of the fire. His bandana pack, containing only a small piece of bacon, rolled almost into the fire. His clothes were snagged and his boots run over at the heels. Bob rushed toward him, but Shorty was quicker. They turned him over.
"What's the matter? Air yuh shot?" Shorty asked the man excitedly. The man feebly shook his head.
"Here, Jim, bring us a cup of hot coffee! The man's fagged out!" Bob lifted his head.
Daisy had already poured the coffee. "Here," she said, holding the cup to his lips. "Drink this. Lucky I didn't throw it out."
"I can take it, gal," he protested weakly. "I'll tell you about it in a minute."
"Pour soul," Daisy sympathized, "he's near starved."
While she got something for the man to eat, Bob stood observing him critically. He was anxious to hear the man's explanation.
After the first few bites he began talking. "I was robbed by five men yesterday afternoon. They took ten thousand in dust, two pack mules and my saddle horse and left me afoot. I tried to find a short cut to Oro Fino and got lost. My two scones gave out this morning. I've been climbin' up and down mountains so long I was completely petered out. I was up on the point yonder when I saw your camp fire and dragged myself to it."
"Where'd you come from?" Bob interrogated.
"Elk City," he answered. "Had a claim there. Sold it and was goin' out." Then he added bitterly, "It don't matter what I do now. I couldn't buy a grubstake and go back to the Basin."
"Then you know about it? I mean the big strike?"
"Sure. There's been train after train go through Elk City hell bent on beatin' each other into the Boise Basin."
"Were you in Elk City when the Grimes train went through?"
"I sure was, stranger."
Bob was almost afraid to ask the next question. Anxiously he leaned toward him. "Was there another outfit following them close?"
The man frowned, in deep thought. Suddenly his face lighted up. "Oh, yes, of course. A hard-looking gang, and I heard after that they was a bunch of the Plummer outfit. Funny thing, too, there was the prettiest gal ridin' with them I ever gazed on. I was standin' in front of the post when they hit the trail, and she didn't seem none too happy about the company she was in. I heard her say she didn't want to go into the Basin; she could fare for herself."
Bob's shoulders drooped. He closed his eyes tight as he ran a hand roughly across his forehead as though to efface the pain. His heart was pounding heavily with despondency. Suddenly he arose and walked out from the light of the fire.
"Don't mention the gal agin, stranger," Shorty cautioned. "She's his gal. Poor podner's damn near crazy."
"There's a real man if there ever was one," Daisy eulogized. "Bob Bainbridge, the empire builder, and the one thorn in the side of the Plummer Gang."
"Not Pokerface Bob?" the stranger asked in surprise.
"That same," Shorty smiled. "The best shot an' the best man in Bannock Territory, barrin' none. He's the one man who puts the fear o' hell intuh Three Finger Smith an' Plummer. It was him that killed "
"That's enough, Shorty!" The voice of Bob seemed so near it startled him and the speech froze on his lips. Bob had been standing just out of the shadow, but near enough to hear what they had been saying. "What's your handle, stranger?" he demanded sharply.
"Pete Ranger," he answered without hesitation, looking Bob square in the eye.
After a pause Bob said simply, "You'll do. Want to join us?"
"That's the one thing I'd like to do, but I'm broke, Bainbridge. Haven't even got a horse."
"We'll take care of that. You'll have to ride on a blanket until we get to Elk City. Then I'll get you a saddle. Jim, what do you and Shorty and Daisy say?"
"Shore! An' damn glad tuh have him!" Shorty voiced.
Both Daisy and Jim approved. They would have approved anything Bob Bainbridge suggested.
"It will help a lot having you along, Pete. We're pushing through as fast as possible, and I warn you that we're going to see some fast action when we meet up with Three Finger Smith and Plummer. Unless you like to fight and are willing to go all the way, better turn back now."
"I'll go plumb to hell with Pokerface Bob! I got a score to settle myself! Shake!"