Book: Bar 20 Days

C >> Clarence E. Mulford >> Bar 20 Days




"All right; hot iron, you!"

Early the next morning the inspector looked them over and made his
count, the herd was started north and at nightfall had covered twelve
miles. For the next week everything went smoothly, but after that, water
began to be scarce and the herd was pushed harder, and became harder to
handle.

On the night of the twelfth day out four men sat around the fire in
West Valley at a point a dozen miles south of Bennett's Creek, and ate
heartily. The night was black--not a star could be seen and the south
wind hardly stirred the trampled and burned grass. They were thoroughly
tired out and their tempers were not in the sweetest state imaginable,
for the heat during the last four days had been almost unbearable even
to them and they had had their hands full with the cranky herd. They ate
silently, hungrily--there would be time enough for the few words they
had to say when the pipes were going for a short smoke before turning
in.

"I feel like hell," growled Red, reaching for another cup of coffee, but
there was no reply; he had voiced the feelings of all.

Hopalong listened intently and looked up, staring into the darkness, and
soon a horseman was seen approaching the fire. Hopalong nodded welcome
and waved his hand towards the food, and the stranger, dismounting,
picketed his horse and joined the circle. When the pipes were lighted he
sighed with satisfaction and looked around the group. "Driving north, I
see."

"Yes; an' blamed glad to get off this dry range," Hopalong replied.
"The herd's getting cranky an' hard to hold--but when we pass the creek
everything'll be all right again. An' ain't it hot! When you hear us
kick about the heat it means something."

"I'm going yore way," remarked the stranger. "I came down this trail
about two weeks ago. Reckon I was the last to ride through before the
fence went up. Damned outrage, says I, an' I told 'em so, too. They
couldn't see it that way an' we had a little disagreement about it. They
said as how they was going to patrol it."

"Fence! What fence?" exclaimed Red.

"Where's there any fence?" demanded Hopalong sharply.

"Twenty mile north of the creek," replied the stranger, carefully
packing his pipe.

"What? Twenty miles north of the creek?" cried Hopalong. "What creek?"

"Bennett's. The 4X has strung three strands of barb wire from Coyote
Pass to the North Arm. Thirty mile long, without a gate, so they says."

"But it don't close this trail!" cried Hopalong in blank astonishment.

"It shore does. They say they owns that range an' can fence it in all
they wants. I told 'em different, but naturally they didn't listen to
me. An' they'll fight about it, too."

"But they _can't_ shut off this trail!" exclaimed Billy, with angry
emphasis. "They don't own it no more'n we do!"

"I know all about that--you heard me tell you what they said."

"But how can we get past it?" demanded Hopalong.

"Around it, over the hills. You'll lose about three days doing it, too."

"I can't take no sand-range herd over them rocks, an' I ain't going to
drive 'round no North Arm or Coyote Pass if I could," Hopalong replied
with quiet emphasis. "There's poison springs on the east an' nothing but
rocks on the west. We go straight through."

"I'm afraid that you'll have to fight if you do," remarked the stranger.

"Then we'll fight!" cried Johnny, leaning forward. "Blasted coyotes!
What right have they got to block a drive trail that's as old as
cattle-raising in these parts! That trail was here before I was born,
it's allus been open, an' it's going to stay open! You watch us go
through!"

"Yo're dead right, Kid; we'll cut that fence an' stick to this trail,
an' fight if we has to," endorsed Red. "The Bar-20 ain't crawling out of
no hole that it can walk out of. They're bluffing; that's all."

"I don't think they are; an' there's twelve men in that outfit,"
suggested the stranger, offhand.

"We ain't got time to count odds; we never do down our way when we know
we're right. An' we're right enough in this game," retorted Hopalong,
quickly. "For the last twelve days we've had good luck, barring the few
on this dry range; an' now we're in for the other kind. By the Lord,
I wish we was here without the cows to take care of--we'd show 'em
something about blocking drive trails that ain't in their little book!"

"Blast it all! Wire fences coming down this way now," mused Johnny,
sullenly. He hated them by training as much as he hated horse-thieves
and sheep; and his companions had been brought up in the same school.
Barb wire, the death-knell to the old-time punching, the bar to riding
at will, a steel insult to fire the blood--it had come at last.

"We've shore got to cut it, Red,--" began Hopalong, but the cook had to
rid himself of some of his indignation and interrupted with heat.

"Shore we have!" came explosively from the tail board of the chuck
wagon. "Got to lay it agin my li'l axe an' swat it with my big ol'
monkey wrench! An' won't them posts save me a lot of trouble hunting
chips an' firewood!"

"We've shore got to cut it, Red," Hopalong repeated slowly. "You an'
Johnny an' me'll ride ahead after we cross the creek to-morrow an' do
it. I don't hanker after no fight with all these cows on my han's, but
we've got to risk one."

"Shore!" cried Johnny, hotly. "I can't get over the gall of them fellers
closing up the West Valley drive trail. Why, I never heard tell of such
a thing afore!"

"We're short-handed; we ought to have more'n we have to guard the
herd if there's a fight. If it stampedes--oh, well, that'll work out
to-morrow. The creek's only about twelve miles away an' we'll start at
daylight, so tumble in," Hopalong said as he arose. "Red, I'm going out
to take my shift--I'll send Pete in. Stranger," he added, turning, "I'm
much obliged to you for the warning. They might 'a' caught us with our
hands tied."

"Oh, that's all right," hastily replied the stranger, who was in hearty
accord with the plans, such as they were. "My name's Hawkins, an' I
don't like range fences no more'n you do. I used to hunt buffalo all
over this part of the country before they was all killed off, an' I
allus rode where I pleased. I'm purty old, but I can still see an'
shoot; an' I'm going to stick right along with you fellers an' see it
through. Every man counts in this game."

"Well, that's blamed white of you," Hopalong replied, greatly pleased by
the other's offer. "But I can't let you do it. I don't want to drag you
into no trouble, an'--"

"You ain't dragging me none; I'm doing it myself. I'm about as mad as
you are over it. I ain't good for much no more, an' if I shuffles off
fighting barb wire I'll be doing my duty. First it was nesters, then
railroads an' more nesters, then sheep, an' now it's wire--won't it
never stop? By the Lord, it's got to stop, or this country will go
to the devil an' won't be fit to live in. Besides, I've heard of your
fellers before--I'll tie to the Bar-20 any day."

"Well, I reckon you must if you must; yo're welcome enough," laughed
Hopalong, and he strode off to his picketed horse, leaving the others to
discuss the fence, with the assistance of the cook, until Pete rode in.



CHAPTER XXI

THE FENCE

When Hopalong rode in at midnight to arouse the others and send them out
to relieve Skinny and his two companions, the cattle were quieter than
he had expected to leave them, and he could see no change of weather
threatening. He was asleep when the others turned in, or he would have
been further assured in that direction.

Out on the plain where the herd was being held, Red and the three other
guards had been optimistic until half of their shift was over and it was
only then that they began to worry. The knowledge that running water was
only twelve miles away had the opposite effect than the one expected,
for instead of making them cheerful, it caused them to be beset with
worry and fear. Water was all right, and they could not have got along
without it for another day; but it was, in this case, filled with the
possibility of grave danger.

Johnny was thinking hard about it as he rode around the now restless
herd, and then pulled up suddenly, peered into the darkness and went
on again. "Damn that disreputable li'l rounder! Why the devil can't
he behave, 'stead of stirring things up when they're ticklish?" he
muttered, but he had to grin despite himself. A lumbering form had
blundered past him from the direction of the camp and was swallowed up
by the night as it sought the herd, annoying and arousing the thirsty
and irritable cattle along its trail, throwing challenges right and left
and stirring up trouble as it passed. The fact that the challenges were
bluffs made no difference to the pawing steers, for they were anxious to
have things out with the rounder.

This frisky disturber of bovine peace was a yearling that had
slipped into the herd before it left the ranch and had kept quiet and
respectable and out of sight in the middle of the mass for the first
few days and nights. But keeping quiet and respectable had been an awful
strain, and his mischievous deviltry grew constantly harder to hold in
check. Finally he could stand the repression no longer, and when he gave
way to his accumulated energy it had the snap and ginger of a tightly
stretched rubber band recoiling on itself. On the fourth night out he
had thrown off his mask and announced his presence in his true light
by butting a sleepy steer out of its bed, which bed he straightway
proceeded to appropriate for himself. This was folly, for the ground was
not cold and he had no excuse for stealing a body-warmed place to lie
down; it was pure cussedness, and retribution followed hard upon the
act. In about half a minute he had discovered the great difference
between bullying poor, miserable, defenceless dogies and trying to bully
a healthy, fully developed, and pugnacious steer. After assimilating
the preliminary punishment of what promised to be the most thorough and
workmanlike thrashing he had ever known, the indignant and frightened
bummer wheeled and fled incontinently with the aroused steer in angry
pursuit. The best way out was the most puzzling to the vengeful steer,
so the bummer cavorted recklessly through the herd, turning and twisting
and doubling, stepping on any steer that happened to be lying down in
his path, butting others, and leavening things with great success. Under
other conditions he would have relished the effect of his efforts,
for the herd had arisen as one animal and seemed to be debating the
advisability of stampeding; but he was in no mood to relish anything and
thought only of getting away. Finally escaping from his pursuer, that
had paused to fight with a belligerent brother, he rambled off into the
darkness to figure it all out and to maintain a sullen and chastened
demeanor for the rest of the night. This was the first time a brick had
been under the hat.

But the spirits of youth recover quickly--his recovered so quickly that
he was banished from the herd the very next night, which banishment, not
being at all to his liking, was enforced only by rigid watchfulness and
hard riding; and he was roundly cursed from dark to dawn by the
worried men, most of whom disliked the bumming youngster less than they
pretended. He was only a cub, a wild youth having his fling, and there
was something irresistibly likable and comical in his awkward antics and
eternal persistence, even though he was a pest. Johnny saw more in him
than his companions could find, and had quite a little sport with him:
he made fine practice for roping, for he was about as elusive as a
grasshopper and uncertain as a flea. Johnny was in the same general
class and he could sympathize with the irrepressible nuisance in its
efforts to stir up a little life and excitement in so dull a crowd;
Johnny hoped to be as successful in his mischievous deviltry when he
reached the town at the end of the drive.

But to-night it was dark, and the bummer gained his coveted goal with
ridiculous ease, after which he started right in to work off the high
pressure of the energy he had accumulated during the last two nights.
He had desisted in his efforts to gain the herd early in the evening and
had rambled off and rested during the first part of the night, and the
herders breathed softly lest they should stir him to renewed trials. But
now he had succeeded, and although only Johnny had seen him lumber past,
the other three guards were aware of it immediately by the results and
swore in their throats, for the cattle were now on their feet, snorting
and moving about restlessly, and the rattling of horns grew slowly
louder.

"Ain't he having a devil of a good time!" grinned Johnny. But it was not
long before he realized the possibilities of the bummer's efforts and
he lost his grin. "If we get through the night without trouble I'll see
that you are picketed if it takes me all day to get you," he muttered.
"Fun is fun, but it's getting a little too serious for comfort."

Sometime after the middle of the second shift the herd, already
irritable, nervous, and cranky because of the thirst they were enduring,
and worked up to the fever pitch by the devilish manoeuvres of the
exuberant and hard-working bummer, wanted only the flimsiest kind of
an excuse to stampede, and they might go without an excuse. A flash
of lightning, a crash of thunder, a wind-blown paper, a flapping wagon
cover, the sudden and unheralded approach of a careless rider, the
cracking and flare of a match, or the scent of a wolf or coyote--or
water, would send an avalanche of three thousand crazed steers crashing
its irresistible way over a pitch-black plain.

Red had warned Pete and Billy, and now he rode to find Johnny and send
him to camp for the others. As he got halfway around the circle he heard
Johnny singing a mournful lay, and soon a black bulk loomed up in the
dark ahead of him. "That you, Kid?" he asked. "That you, Johnny?" he
repeated, a little louder.

The song stopped abruptly. "Shore," replied Johnny. "We're going to
have trouble aplenty to-night. Glad daylight ain't so very far off. That
cussed li'l rake of a bummer got by me an' into the herd. He's shore
raising Ned to-night, the li'l monkey: it's getting serious, Red."

"I'll shoot that yearling at daylight, damn him!" retorted Red. "I
should 'a' done it a week ago. He's picked the worst time for his cussed
devilment! You ride right in an' get the boys, an' get 'em out here
quick. The whole herd's on its toes waiting for the signal; an' the wink
of an eye'll send 'em off. God only knows what'll happen between now
and daylight! If the wind should change an' blow down from the north,
they'll be off as shore as shooting. One whiff of Bennett's Creek is all
that's needed, Kid; an'--"

"Oh, pshaw!" interposed Johnny. "There ain't no wind at all now. It's
been quiet for an hour."

"Yes; an' that's one of the things that's worrying me. It means a
change, shore."

"Not always; we'll come out of this all right," assured Johnny, but he
spoke without his usual confidence. "There ain't no use--" he paused
as he felt the air stir, and he was conscious of Red's heavy breathing.
There was a peculiar hush in the air that he did not like, a closeness
that sent his heart up in his throat, and as he was about to continue
a sudden gust snapped his neck-kerchief out straight. He felt that
refreshing coolness which so often precedes a storm and as he weighed it
in his mind a low rumble of thunder rolled in the north and sent a chill
down his back.

"Good God! Get the boys!" cried Red, wheeling. "It's _changed_! An'
Pete an' Billy out there in front of--_there they go_!" he shouted as a
sudden tremor shook the earth and a roaring sound filled the air. He was
instantly lost to ear and eye, swallowed by the oppressive darkness as
he spurred and quirted into a great, choking cloud of dust which swept
down from the north, unseen in the night. The deep thunder of hoofs and
the faint and occasional flash of a six-shooter told him the direction,
and he hurled his mount after the uproar with no thought of the death
which lurked in every hole and rock and gully on the uneven and unseen
plain beneath him. His mouth and nose were lined with dust, his throat
choked with it, and he opened his burning eyes only at intervals, and
then only to a slit, to catch a fleeting glance of--nothing. He realized
vaguely that he was riding north, because the cattle would head for
water, but that was all, save that he was animated by a desperate
eagerness to gain the firing line, to join Pete and Billy, the two
men who rode before that crazed mass of horns and hoofs and who were
pleading and swearing and yelling in vain only a few feet ahead
of annihilation--if they were still alive. A stumble, a moment's
indecision, and the avalanche would roll over them as if they were
straws and trample them flat beneath the pounding hoofs, a modern
Juggernaut. If he, or they, managed to escape with life, it would make
a good tale for the bunk house some night; if they were killed it was in
doing their duty--it was all in a day's work.

Johnny shouted after him and then wheeled and raced towards the camp,
emptying his Colt in the air as a warning. He saw figures scurrying
across the lighted place, and before he had gained it his friends raced
past him and gave him hard work catching up to them. And just behind
him rode the stranger, to do what he could for his new friends, and as
reckless of consequences as they.

It seemed an age before they caught up to the stragglers, and when they
realized how true they had ridden in the dark they believed that at last
their luck was turning for the better, and pushed on with renewed hope.
Hopalong shouted to those nearest him that Bennett's Creek could not be
far away and hazarded the belief that the steers would slow up and stop
when they found the water they craved; but his words were lost to all
but himself.

Suddenly the punchers were almost trapped and their escape made
miraculous, for without warning the herd swerved and turned sharply to
the right, crossing the path of the riders and forcing them to the east,
showing Hopalong their silhouettes against the streak of pale gray low
down in the eastern sky. When free from the sudden press of cattle they
slowed perceptibly, and Hopalong did likewise to avoid running them
down. At that instant the uproar took on a new note and increased
threefold. He could hear the shock of impact, whip-like reports, the
bellowing of cattle in pain, and he arose in his stirrups to peer ahead
for the reason, seeing, as he did so, the silhouettes of his friends
arise and then drop from his sight. Without additional warning his horse
pitched forward and crashed to the earth, sending him over its head.
Slight as was the warning it served to ease his fall, for instinct freed
his feet from the stirrups, and when he struck the ground it was feet
first, and although he fell flat at the next instant, the shock had been
broken. Even as it was, he was partly stunned, and groped as he arose
on his hands and knees. Arising painfully he took a short step forward,
tripped and fell again; and felt a sharp pain shoot through his hand as
it went first to break the fall. Perhaps it was ten seconds before he
knew what it was that had thrown him, and when he learned that he also
learned the reason for the whole calamity--in his torn and bleeding hand
he held a piece of barb wire.

"Barb wire!" he muttered, amazed. "Barb wire! Why, what the--_Damn
that ranch_!" he shouted, sudden rage sweeping over him as the situation
flashed through his mind and banished all the mental effects of the
fall. "They've gone an' strung it south of the creek as well! Red!
Johnny! Lanky!" he shouted at the top of his voice, hoping to be heard
over the groaning of injured cattle and the general confusion. "Good
Lord! _are they killed_!"

They were not, thanks to the forced slowing up, and to the pool of water
and mud which formed an arm of the creek, a back-water away from the
pull of the current. They had pitched into the mud and water up to their
waists, some head first, some feet first, and others as they would go
into a chair. Those who had been fortunate enough to strike feet first
pulled out the divers, and the others gained their feet as best they
might and with varying degrees of haste, but all mixed profanity and
thankfulness equally well; and were equally and effectually disguised.

Hopalong, expecting the silence of death or at least the groaning of
injured and dying, was taken aback by the fluent stream of profanity
which greeted his ears. But all efforts in that line were eclipsed when
the drive foreman tersely explained about the wire, and the providential
mud bath was forgotten in the new idea. They forthwith clamored for war,
and the sooner it came the better they would like it.

"Not now, boys; we've got work to do first," replied Hopalong, who,
nevertheless, was troubled grievously by the same itching trigger
finger. They subsided--as a steel spring subsides when held down by a
weight--and went off in search of their mounts. Daylight had won the
skirmish in the east and was now attacking in force, and revealed a
sight which, stilling the profanity for the moment, caused it to flow
again with renewed energy. The plain was a shambles near the creek, and
dead and dying steers showed where the fence had stood. The rest of the
herd had passed over these. The wounded cattle and three horses were
put out of their misery as the first duty. The horse that Hopalong had
ridden had a broken back; the other two, broken legs. When this work was
out of the way the bruised and shaken men gave their attention to the
scattered cattle on the other side of the creek, and when Hawkins rode
up after wasting time in hunting for the trail in the dark, he saw
four men with the herd, which was still scattered; four others near the
creek, of whom only Johnny was mounted, and a group of six strangers
riding towards them from the west and along the fence, or what was left
of that portion of it.

"That's awful!" he cried, stopping his limping horse near Hopalong. "An'
here come the fools that done it."

"Yes," replied Johnny, his voice breaking from rage, "but they won't go
back again! I don't care if I'm killed if I can get one or two of that
crowd--"

"Shut up, Kid!" snapped Hopalong as the 4X outfit drew near. "I know
just how you feel about it; feel that way myself. But there ain't
a-going to be no fighting while I've got these cows on my han's. That
gang'll be here when we come back, all right."

"Mebby one or two of 'em won't," remarked Hawkins, as he looked again
over the carnage along the fence. "I never did much pot-shooting, 'cept
agin Injuns; but I dunno--" He did not finish, for the strangers were
almost at his elbow.

Cranky Joe led the 4X contingent and he did the talking for it
without waste of time. "Who the hell busted that fence?" he demanded,
belligerently, looking around savagely. Johnny's hand twitched at the
words and the way they were spoken.

"I did; did you think somebody leaned agin it?" replied Hopalong, very
calmly,--so calmly that it was about one step short of an explosion.

"Well, why didn't you go around?"

"Three thousand stampeding cattle don't go 'round wire fences in the
dark."

"Well, that's not our fault. Reckon you better dig down an' settle up
for the damages, an' half a cent a head for water; an' then go 'round.
You can't stampede through the other fence."

"That so?" asked Hopalong.

"Reckon it is."

"Yo're real shore it is?"

"Well there's only six of us here, but there's six more that we can get
blamed quick if we need 'em. It's so, all right."

"Well, coming down to figures, there's eight here, with two
hoss-wranglers an' a cook to come," retorted Hopalong, kicking the
belligerent Johnny on the shins. "We're just about mad enough to tackle
anything: ever feel that way?"

"Oh, no use getting all het up," rejoined Cranky Joe. "We ain't a-going
to fight 'less we has to. Better pay up."

"Send yore bills to the ranch--if they're O. K., Buck'll pay 'em."

"Nix; I take it when I can get it."

"I ain't got no money with me that I can spare."

"Then you can leave enough cows to buy back again."

"I'm not going to pay you one damned cent, an' the only cows I'll leave
are the dead ones--an' if I could take them with me I'd do it. An' I'm
not going around the fence, neither."

"Oh, yes; you are. An' yo're going to pay," snapped Cranky Joe.

"Take it out of the price of two hundred dead cows an' gimme what's
left," Hopalong retorted. "It'll cost you nine of them twelve men to pry
it out'n me."

"You won't pay?" demanded the other, coldly.

"Not a plugged peso."

"Well, as I said before, I don't want to fight nobody 'less I has to,"
replied Cranky Joe. "I'll give you a chance to change yore mind.
We'll be out here after it to-morrow, cash or cows. That'll give you
twenty-four hours to rest yore herd an' get ready to drive. Then you
pay, an' go back, 'round the fence."

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