The dogs were the first to hear Harrison as he approached the house. This strange man was pleased to find himself greeted by three slavering hounds that barked and yelped a savage welcome. He beat them off with jovial curses, using toe and heel with some dexterity. They realized they had met their master and retreated in a howling circle to eye him balefully and the master of the house appeared on the lower gallery.
He eyed his visitor coldly, but just the same came forward to greet him, ordering the dogs off. The creatures obeyed him with the alacrity with which all living creatures seemed to obey him. If he wondered at Harrison’s quick return, he didn’t remark on it. Harrison was at his smoothest. Tying his horse, he turned to Rolf with an open smile, showing the face of a guileless and honest man.
“Mr. Rolf,” he said, “I reckon you’re surprised to see me back so soon. I rode a-ways and I got to thinkin’. My thoughts kinda went this a-way — me bein’ on the brink of entering the stock growin’ business, as you might say, an’ you bein’ the breeder of the finest stock in the country, why it only seemed reasonable that you should be the man I turned to. I seen them fine upstandin’ bulls of yourn and there was success starin’ me in the face. I reckoned if n I had me one or even two of them handsome creatures, why I’d of gotten me more’n half-ways to success.”
Rolf’s coldness did not leave him, but a new light came into his eyes. Business was business, even if he did not relish the reappearance of this man whom he considered to be a primitive.
“Always ready to do business,” he declared softly and he started calculating his areas of profit, surmising that if a man were thinking of purchasing two bulls, he might be persuaded to up his needs to three or even four. With the dollar sign bright in his brain, he ushered the buckskin-clad figure in through the portals of his house, sitting him down like an honored visitor and calling for servants to attend. A silent-footed Mexican appeared, wine was poured and the two men drank, toasting each other politely.
Harrison looked around and was slightly disappointed not to see the beautiful Manuela. He relished the situation with enormous delight. He reckoned he wasn’t getting to be any younger, but the close proximity of danger and a fine woman who might shortly be his, if he played his cards right, made him feel young again. He decided that he had gotten himself into a real deep rut living as he had been with the Indians and it was time he made a change. A man was young while he could still contemplate change in relation to himself.
He praised the wine, accepted a second glass and thought privately that it didn’t match up with a good slug of whiskey. But he wasn’t paying, so he decided that he might as well enjoy it.
They discussed cattle, they argued the merits and demerits of the various breeds, summed up the gains to be made by crossing the Texas longhorn with Eastern breeds, each man assessing the other’s knowledge, each man jockeying for a dickering position.
“It strikes me,” Rolf said, “that you can hardly choose good stock at night, sir. We had best leave this over to the morning.”
“Ah,” cried Harrison, “you don’t allow for my unusualness, Rolf. I am a man who acts upon his whim. There was I riding’ through the hills, not a cow on my mind, as you might say. Then it struck me — get into the cattle business, Prescott. Fill some lordly acres with some fine stock, play landed gentry as did your ancestors in the Old Country. Without another thought, I turned my horse in this direction. I shall buy tonight, if the price is right and get on my way.”
If it struck Rolf that the rough mountain speech of Prescott Harrison was not so apparent during this speech, he gave no sign. He offered Harrison a cigar, Harrison fired and puffed with great aplomb and accepted more wine. He spoke on, slurring his speech a little to give his host the impression that the wine might be gaining ascendancy over his wits.
The door opened and he heard the rustle of silk.
He turned and there stood Manuela Salazar. He had never seen her more beautiful. She was dressed like a lady of her country, hair glossy and smooth as a raven’s wing, eyes bright. She stopped short at the sight of him and he stood for her with a gallantry he had never shown one of his Indian loves.
“Mr. Harrison,” she said, “I did not know —”
“I could not stay away, señorita,” he declared, hand on heart, bowing. “Once seen —” He left the sentence unfinished. She lowered her eyes.
“Mr. Harrison,” Rolf said, “came back to buy bulls.”
Harrison thought that the corners of her delicious mouth curved in a tiny smile.
“The bulls,” he said, “were purely secondary, madam. I hope you will join us at wine.
Rolf went to protest, for at that moment, he had no wish for the woman to be present, but Harrison had already found a glass and was already pouring for her. He topped up his own glass while he was about it.
Raising his glass, he said: “To the finest eyes in the West, Miss Manuela.”
Rolf bristled. Harrison ignored him.
Rolf cleared his throat and said: “We were discussing business, Manuela.”
“I apologize,” she said, “I will go.”
“No,” said Harrison. “I insist. Let the lady stay and advise me on my choice of animals.”
“Oh, very well,” Rolf agreed. He shouted for servants, they came running. He gave rapid orders in bad Spanish. They ran to carry them out. Rolf turned to Harrison. “They are preparing horses. We shall ride down to the corrals and you will take your pick. Four bulls, you said, sir?”
“No, sir,” said Harrison, “I did not. But we shall see.”
In a moment, they went out onto the gallery and there were riders and saddled horses ready. Harrison did some quick thinking — this was going to be difficult. He reckoned he was gambling on the turn of a single card. He wasn’t fooling when he told young Jody Storm that he might not come out of this alive. He toyed with the idea of cutting his losses and just lighting out with the bulls and calling it a day. He looked at Manuela Salazar and decided, no, he’d take everything he had come for and settle for nothing less. He owed it to himself.
Nobody was helping her mount. He hurried forward and made a hand for her, finding her extraordinarily light as he hefted her into the saddle. He had not had so delightful an experience for a great many years. She sat side-saddle and smiled her thanks. He mounted his own horse and prayed that it should prove faster than any horse here present. There was some good horse-flesh there and he doubted it. Speed would not get him out of this one. Only guile and gall would win through.
As he rode amidst the small cavalcade he had to admit to himself that he was enjoying this. His blood was running free and hot, his pulse was beating with a youthful excitement. It proved to him that he was still very much alive.
The corrals were not far. Within a few minutes he heard the sonorous bawling of the bulls. The men started to light lanterns and torches. The bright patches of light brought out the men’s faces in dramatic contrasts of light and deep shadow. Harrison found that Rolf’s eyes were on him. He knew that this fellow would take some beating. Harrison would have to pay for these bulls in cash money. But he’d be damned if he paid for the woman with anything but lead. That was a matter of honor.
A vaquero opened a gate and with several of the men Rolf rode into the corral. Harrison was left alone with Manuel and a Mexican hand. He leaned from his saddle. Her fine eyes turned to appraise him.
“Miss Manuela,” he said, “does that man understand English?”
“He does not. But if you speak in Spanish, he will not hear. He is of my people and he is loyal to me.”
“Here goes then,” he said. “Now you jest listen real hard. I’m goin’ to talk fast an’ ever’ word’s goin’ to count. I reckon I lied to li’l ole Rolf there. Sure, I come to dicker for bulls, but I come to steal women too. This is an honorable offer, I give you my word. An’ that’s good any place between the Border an’ Canada. The offer’s marriage an’ a place to call your own. I’m through foolin’ around with savages an’ I’m all set to raise cows and children. Say me yes or no, ma’am.”
She looked at him wide-eyed for a moment as if she suspected that he had taken leave of his senses.
He must have read her thoughts.
“I mean ever’ durned word of it,” he asserted.
“Mr. Harrison,” she said, “I know you do me an honor. But I am what you would call a fallen woman.” She said it calmly, without bitterness.
Earnestly, he said: “You don’t look like you fell too far to be pulled right back up.”
“Do you think it is possible?”
“Jest take a-hold of my hand,” he said, “an’ you’ll see if it’s possible.”
There was a scurry of movement on the far side of the corral. Men were roping bulls. Dust teased their nostrils. They heard Rolf shouting orders.
“A woman needs time to decide a thing like this,” she said.
“That’s what I don’t have to offer you, gal,” he said. “Come dawn li’l ole Rolf’s goin’ come after me loaded for bear. See here, I have all the gold a man needs and I ain’t ezackly repulsive. We could raise fine children.”
“But Rolf would always be in your mind,” she said. “You are not so different from other men.”
He laughed.
“Girl,” he cried, “you’re plumb mistook. The good Lord never raised a man like me before. Who’s this feller Rolf you mentioned?”
She could not help laughing.
The Mexican hand spoke.
“Go, señorita,” he said. “God has sent this man.”
Harrison looked at the small swart man.
“Listen to that,” he exclaimed, “this hombre sure has observation. Hell, ma’am, what do you have to lose. I can’t be no worse than that feller out yonder whose name I don’t recollect.”
She smiled.
“Very well,” she said. “I will do it. I hope that I shall prove that you have not made a mistake.”
The Mexican said: “You have not made a mistake, senor. This is the best thing you ever did in your life.”
“You said it,” said Harrison.
“They are coming,” said the Mexican.
Harrison turned in the saddle and saw the torches and lanterns coming back their way. He started to talk fast. He gave the woman the same directions that he had given Jody. “Get goin’ now.” he said. “I’ll tell Rolf you changed your mind and rode back to the house.”
She hesitated for a moment. He reached out and touched her hand. “You won’t regret it,” he told her. She smiled and turned her horse. Harrison found that his mouth was dry. He knew that he had just made the biggest decision of his life.
The riders were approaching. He saw that they had roped three bulls and were leading them forward.
The Mexican said: “Not the one with the blaze, Don Prescott. He is no good with the cows.”
Harrison thanked him.
Rolf rode up.
“There, Mr. Harrison,” he declared. “The best of my herd. I swear it.”
Harrison urged his horse through the open gateway and looked the animals over. All three looked magnificent to him. The one with the blaze the best of all. He was the biggest bull he had ever laid eyes on in his life. But he knew his adviser could be right. Some of the puniest men sired the best kids. And breeding potential was what he was after.
“I’ll take these two,” he said.
Rolf exclaimed: “But the third. He is the best animal of the three.”
“Not to my liking. I told you I was a man of whims, Rolf.”
“But every man here will tell you that he’s the best.”
“I’m goddam sure they will,” said Prescott. “What’s your price?”
“A thousand dollars,” said Rolf.
The men sat their horses, watching, enjoying it. They liked a trade.
“Mighty high price for two bulls” said Harrison. “Throw in another an’ I might think about it. An’ not that big bluffer younger.”
“A thousand dollars each,” said Rolf.
Harrison turned slowly in the saddle to stare at him.
“Man,” he said, “ifn I fall clean offn my horse, don’t you be surprised now. You done take my breath away. Them horns made of solid gold or somethin’?”
“That’s my price,” said Rolf.
Harrison pointed to his beard.
“There’s silver amongst the gold,” he said. “I ain’t no fool yearlin’, Rolf. Leave us start all over. Say three hunnerd each an’ I’ll start listening with considerable interest.”
“Two thousand dollars the pair,” Rolf maintained.
“There’s other bulls,” Harrison said. “You ain’t the on’y gopher on the prairie.”
“But none like mine.”
“Who wants bulls like yourn? Jumpin’ snakes, if one was to breathe extry hard I’d feel like havin’ the vapors at that price. Leave me outa here where I kin buy a li’l ole longhorn for a few dollars and live happy.” He turned his horse away. He decided he would have to cut his losses if his bluff didn’t work. He’d have the horses and the woman. Jody Storm would have to go whistle for his fool bull.
Rolf let him cover twenty yards when he called: “Harrison!”
Harrison halted his horse and turned in the saddle.
“What is it?”
“You’re not bluffing me. You’ll be back.”
“That’s one thing I shall not be, Rolf. I can’t abide avarice and you sure is an avaricious man. I don’t reckon you aim to sell them bulls. You jest wanta keep ’em all for yourself. You go chargin’ prices like that an’ you’ll sure have ’em all for yourself.”
“Nine hundred dollars each.”
Harrison laughed and rode on.
Rolf shouted: “Eight hundred.”
Harrison bawled back: “The pair.”
“Each.”
Harrison walked his horse on. He heard men riding after him. Four men came up, two on either side. One of them said: “The boss ain’t through talking with you.” He was an Anglo. Harrison couldn’t see his face, but the voice sounded hard and cold. Pride made him want to smash his fist into the man’s face and knock him from the saddle. But he wasn’t playing the pride card that night.
“He ain’t talkin’ the kinda language I savvy,” he said. “But I’ll continue the conversation if he starts talkin’ my language.”
“Go back an’ try him,” said the rider.
Harrison turned back. He found Rolf where he had left him.
“You jest made me a little mad,” he said. “It didn’t do you one little bit of good. I’m offering you four hunnerd the pair an’ I ain’t budgin’. Take it or leave it.”
“I’m a reasonable man,” said Rolf. “I’ll take fourteen hundred for both animals.”
“That ain’t a offer,” Harrison said. “That’s an insult.”
The Anglo rider said: “Don’t talk to Mr. Rolf that way. He don’t like it.”
Harrison grunted.
He turned very slowly and looked at the man. He could see his face now in the flickering light of the torches. The face fitted the voice. This was Rolf’s gun-hand and general handy man. Amusement and delight warmed Harrison.
“From that remark, son,” he said gently, “a man would gather that you would aim to do somethin’ about it ifn I kinda got outa line.”
“That’s the size of it,” the man said, “you catch on fast.”
“I do,” said Harrison, “real fast.”
It was his philosophy that violence was an unpleasant last resort. It could get a man killed and that man could be you. If you talked about it before you resorted to it, the odds against you were increased considerably.
So when he moved, he moved fast. So fast in fact that nobody there was ever too sure of what exactly happened. Certainly, Harrison lifted his gun from the leather. That much they were all sure of. Most reckoned that the barrel of the gun kissed the gun-hand’s mouth. They knew that the said gun-hand pitched from his saddle and hit the ground spitting out teeth and making whimpering sounds.
If any of them were tempted to lift their own guns from leather they changed their minds when Harrison’s vintage but excellently cared for Colt’s gun came to full-cock and was held unwaveringly pointed at their employer’s heart.
“My friends,” Harrison said. “One of you looks at me wrong an’ I’ll blow the mean heart outa that big wheel yonder. Get around behind him and I’ll look at your hands while you do it.”
They started to move. Harrison knew that he was in considerable danger. The shadows were deep and a man could have made a lethal move under their cover. Harrison would have liked them all disarmed, but the only way that he could remove their guns from leather was to demand they do it themselves. He didn’t want the butts of their guns so near their hands. Some fool might have been tempted.
As for Rolf, he sat his horse experiencing a fury which he could not hide. The calm exterior was whisked away, revealing the bully boy who had made his pile on the Barbary Coast by means mostly foul. The eyes were those of a man who in the early years had done his own killing. One look at him convinced Harrison that getting away from here alone was going to be difficult. Getting away with a couple of bulls in tow was going to be nigh on impossible. That, however, did not deter him from his determination to depart from there alive and with two bulls. He needed help. His mind rested for a moment on the Mexican who had aided him in his brief courting of Manuela Salazar. Maybe ... Another risk might solve his problem.
In Spanish, he said: “You, my friend, go around behind these men and take their guns from them. You will throw them as far you can into the darkness. Don’t forget that one wrong move will bring about the death of your patron.”
The Mexican gave a pretty good performance of being scared out of his hide. Maybe he wasn’t acting at that. He dismounted and walked around behind the riders who were lined up behind Rolf. As he started to pluck belt-guns from their holsters and hurl them into the night, Rolf spoke.
“You will not get away with this, Harrison,” he said. “I shall come after you and hang you.”
“Foolish talk,” Harrison said, knowing the man meant what he said. “You’re askin’ for me to kill you here an’ now. But we’re wastin’ time. I’ll make you a fair offer for the crittus yonder. Three hunnerd each.”
“No,” said Rolf. “You’d best steal them while you have the gun.”
“Not me,” said Harrison. “I pay cash in front of witnesses. I want a script.”
“You’ll not have a script for three hundred.”
“Make it four.”
“Six.”
“I’ll meet you on five.”
Rolf’s jaw set like a trap.
“Done,” he said.
Harrison slipped fingers under his sash and brought out a tightly rolled wad of bills. He grinned and said: “I had the exact sum ready.” That thrust defeat into Rolf’s face. The man ground his teeth and looked fit to be tied. One of the riders tittered.
Harrison said: “I’ll take a bill o’ sale.”
Rolf said: “That won’t save your neck from the rope.”
“It’ll mean I’ll die an honest man which is more’n you’ll ever do, Rolf.”
Paper and pencil were found. Rolf dismounted and wrote with the paper resting on his saddle. He handed the paper to a rider and the man brought it to Harrison.
By this time, the man with the mashed mouth was on his feet. He stood holding his mouth and watching Harrison, who folded the paper, slipped it under his sash and said to the Mexican who had disarmed the others: “You will drive those bulls toward the creek. See that you do not misbehave yourself or you will find yourself very dead.”
“That,” said the Mexican, “I would not like.” He swung astride his horse and started the two fine bulls out of the corral.
To Rolf, Harrison said: “You come after me, Rolf, an’ I’ll nail your hide out for a parfleche.”
Rolf sat his horse as if he were made of stone. Only his eyes were violently alive.
Harrison listened carefully to measure how far the Mexican had gone with the bulls, then backed his horse from the corral, spun it and quickly disappeared into the darkness.
The Rolf riders were at once piling from the saddle to search for their weapons. Rolf halted them.
“Take your time,” he said, putting Harrison’s money away. “He’ll be traveling slowly with those animals. We shall have no trouble picking him up soon after first light. We shall stretch his neck before noon. Get some sleep.”
Meanwhile, Harrison caught up with the Mexican. He saw the flash of the man’s white teeth in the dim light.
“It was a great pity and a greater waste to pay good money for these bulls,” he said.
Harrison chuckled.
“You are a bandit at heart, amigo,” he said.
“No,” the man told him. “Just a good hater.”
“How do they call you?”
“Hijinio Chavez.”
“Hijanio,” Harrison told him. “You drive these bulls to where they’re going and I will pay you one hundred Yankee dollars.”
“I’m your man,” said the Mexican.
He told the man to cross the creek and gave him detailed directions. He knew that he was taking a big chance, but he reckoned that this was a night of chances. He was banking on the man’s loyalty to Manuela. When they reached the creek, Harrison halted and listened. There was no sound of pursuit. He thought that Rolf would most likely wait for daylight to come after him. The man was in for a shock. Or so Harrison hoped.
He now dismounted and handed the lines to Hijinio.
“I shall come later with fresh horses. If I do not come, you will take the senorita to safety.”
“My word on it.”
The man offered his hand and they gripped.
Harrison waited while Hijinio drove the bulls through the creek water. He listened as they turned south and he could hear them no more. He wondered how young Storm was making out.
There was brush along the edge of the creek here and the cover was good. He worked his way west until he had the corral in sight. During his previous visit he had drawn a mental map of the place and he knew where the horses were. He waited while Rolf and his riders went back in the direction of the buildings. He then drifted through the dim light and waited until he was certain that most of the men were under cover. He now worked his way south around the corral of the bulls and came up west of the horse corrals. There were two of them. Jody Storm’s animal, Sox was in the one to the north. The majority of the hands’ remuda was in the southern one. Harrison decided he might as well take the ultimate gamble and deprive Rolf, even though temporarily, of all his horse stock. It pleasured Harrison to make Rolf mad and it would hold up the pursuit for a while.
He started cutting through the rawhide that held the poles of the southern corral together. If he left a wide enough gap, he hoped that these horses would take off when he ran the bunch with Jody’s horses among them off. He told himself that he hadn’t enjoyed himself so much for years.
He remembered Henry Carrington Wilder. He wondered why he hadn’t seen hide or hair of the Englishman. He hadn’t met a real snag yet. Maybe Wilder was the snag.
A few horses drifted out of the darkness to see what he was doing. He spoke to them in a low voice, they tossed their heads and wheeled away. When he had opened up about thirty feet of fence, he went on to the next corral. He started work with his knife again. He found that he was sweating. This surprised him because he thought he was keeping pretty calm. But the tension must be rising in him now.
He walked through the gap he had cut. The horses turned and bunched in a far corner of the enclosure. He walked toward them, talking to them. He had to go carefully now. He was afoot and he didn’t want to stay that way. If these critturs spooked and lit out without his catching one he was a dead man for sure.
An animal detached itself from the bunch and ran around the edge of the corral, kicking its heels and squealing. Harrison cursed softly and with fluency. The noise could bring some of the hands running.
He neared the horses. Two more broke away and went running.. He heard the first horse find the gap and go through it.
He made a quick move forward.
That was a mistake. The whole bunch of them took fright and were off.
He turned and ran for the gap as fast as he could go. The horses were thundering around the edge of the corral, travelling fast, thoroughly alarmed now. The opening in the fence seemed an eternity away. His legs were going like pistons. The whole world seemed to be full of the racket kicked up by the horses. If that didn’t bring the men out, nothing would.
He saw the pale shape of white. It reached the gap, swung through it and headed on south. At least the sonovabitch was going in the right direction. Three or four more followed it. The whole bunch was going to be free before he could get his hand on one.
Then it seemed that the whole bunch rocketed through and away. The dust kicked his nostrils, got into his eyes.
He reached the gap and halted, chest heaving, defeat swamping him.
He heard a sound behind him and turned.
A laggard was coming.
It loomed up suddenly, on him almost before he was ready. He jumped for it and it dodged to the right. He yelled. It shied, dodged back into the corral, spun and made a run for the gap again.
He lunged for its mane and missed. He kept his legs going, driving himself into a wild sprint. The flowing tail came under his hand and he grasped it. The pace of the horse nearly tore him from his feet, but he managed to keep them under him. Together he and the animal tore over the ground.
He had the horse and he didn’t have it. He couldn’t mount it and he dared not let it go. Yet a few more yards and he knew that he would be forced to. This pace could not be held for long. He thought of dropping-to the ground so the weight of his body would slow the animal, but he knew that those wicked hoofs could kick his head in. He tried digging his heels in, but the animal nearly tore him from his feet again.
The horse started pitching and kicking out with his hind legs. Harrison was forced to let go as a heel caught him agonizingly on the thigh. The animal went pitching and kicking away from him. Harrison didn’t stop running. There was still a faint chance. The horse had slowed itself with its pitching. Suddenly, Harrison was alongside it. It reared high, screaming its rage.
As it came down, Harrison jumped and caught its mane, hanging onto the coarse hair as though it were a life-line. It reared again, lifting him violently from his feet.
He grabbed an ear with his left hand, wrenching the head down mercilessly with all his strength. It tried to bite him, but he hung on. Once more he was ripped from his feet, but his grip on the ear was telling. The animal tried to rear again and again, but the fight was going out of it.
Harrison vaulted astride and the horse went into a wild paroxysm of pitching and screaming again. It bent its head back, snapping with its teeth. Harrison balled his fist and struck it in the face. It staggered and seemed to sober a little. Harrison didn’t give it a chance to think matters over, but yelled to it and kicked it in the barrel with his heels. It went forward pitching and jumping.
Then suddenly, it stood, trembling.
A shot sounded from the far side of the corral and Harrison heard lead hum through the night away to his left.
It was time to move out and no fooling. He got that horse on the move and it ran forward in a wild untidy run. Harrison clung to the mane and yelled it on. It settled down and ran. Ahead of him, Harrison could see the forms of more horses. He yelled like a Comanche and prayed that he could keep them spooked for a good many miles. He also prayed that he could keep a good many of them together.