William MacLeod Raine

“ I’ll not wake the way I often do and find that it is all a dream, will I?” He caught at the lapel of O’Connor’s coat and searched his face.
“No, your dreams are true at last, Dave Henderson. Come, old friend, take a drink of this to steady you. It’s all coming out right now.”
Tears streamed down the face of the man rescued from a living grave. He dashed them away impatiently with a shaking hand. “I used to be as game as other men, young man, and now you see what a weakling I am. Don’t judge me too hard. Happiness is a harder thing to stand than pain or grief. ”

“ Bucky lit his cigar, leaned back, and began to tell the story of Frank Hardman and the knife-thrower. Only one thing he omitted to tell, and that was the conviction that had come home to him a few moments ago that his little comrade was no boy, but a woman. O’Halloran was a chivalrous Irishman, a daredevil of an adventurer, with a pure love of freedom that might very likely in the end bring him to face a row of loaded carbines with his back to a wall, but Bucky had his reticencies that even loyal friendship could not break down. ”

“ We shall have to wait. It wouldn’t be fair to my mother to lose me just as soon as she finds me. It is her right to get acquainted with me just as if I belonged to her alone. You understand what I mean, Bucky. She must not feel as if she never had found me, as if she never had been first with me. We can love each other more simply if she doesn’t know about you. We’ll have it for a secret for a month or two.”
She put her little hand on his arm appealingly to win his consent. His eyes rested on it curiously, Then he took it in his big brown one and turned it palm up. ”

“ Bucky was registered and receipted for at the prison office, after which he was conducted to his cell. The corridors dripped as he followed under ground the guide who led the way with a flickering lantern. It was a gruesome place to contemplate as a permanent abode. But the young American knew that his stay here would be short, whether the termination of it were liberty or the gallows.
Reaching the end of a narrow, crooked corridor that sloped downward, the turnkey unlocked a ponderous iron door with a huge key, and one of the guards following at Bucky’s heels, pushed him forward. ”

“ That she set herself to humor the Wolf’s whims was no more for her own safety than for that of the man who had been her friend. She curbed her fears, clamped down her startled maiden modesty, parried his advances with light words and gay smiles. Once Neil passed, and his eyes asked a question. She shook her head, unnoticed by Leroy. She would fight her own battle as long as she could. It was to divert him that she proposed they go down to the corral and look at the wild cattle the men had driven down. ”

“ I’m your uncle. I’ve raised you from a kid, and, by the great mogul! you can’t sneak off with the first good-for nothing scoundrel that makes eyes at you. Thought you had slipped away from me, you white-faced, sniveling little idiot, but I’ll show you who is master.”
The lash of a whip rose and fell twice on quivering flesh before Bucky leaped into the fireglow and wrested the riding-whip from the hands of the angry man who was plying it.
“Dare to touch a woman, would you?” cried the ranger, swinging the whip vigorously across the broad shoulders of the man. ”

“ Bucky laid down his pen and pretended to glare at him. “You young rascal, what do you mean by bothering me like that? Act like that, you young imp, and you’ll never grow up to be a gentleman.”
Their glances caught and held, the minds of each of them busy over that last prediction of his. For one long instant masks were off and both were trying to find an answer to a question in the eyes opposite. Then voluntarily each gaze released the other in a confusion of sweet shame. For the beating of a lash, soul had looked into naked soul, all disguise stripped from them. She knew that he knew. ”

“ A great bull pawed the ground lowered its head, and made a rush at the unconscious man. Alice called to him to look out, then whipped open the gate and ran after him. Leroy turned, and, in a flash, saw that which for an instant filled him with a deadly paralysis. Between him and the bull, directly in the path of its rush, stood this slender girl, defenseless.
Even as his revolver flashed out from the scabbard the outlaw knew he was too late to save her, for she stood in such a position that he could not hit a vital spot. Suddenly her umbrella opened in the face of the animal. ”

“ May I in the meantime offer you a glass of wine, Dictator O’Halloran?” At the Irishman’s smile, the Mexican governor hastened to add, misunderstanding him purposely: “Perhaps I assume too much in taking the part of host here. May I ask whether you will be governor in person or by deputy, señor?”
“You do me too much honor, excellency. Neither in person nor by deputy, I fear. And, as for the glass of wine—with all my heart. Good liquor is always in order, whether for a funeral or a marriage.” ”

“ Notwithstanding the ranger’s occasional moments of exasperation, the two got along swimmingly. Each of them found a continued pleasure in delving into the other’s unexplored mental recesses. They drifted into one of those quick, spontaneous likings that are rare between man and man. Some subtle quality of affection bubbled up like a spring in the hearts of each for the other. Young Hardman could perhaps have explained what lay at the roots of it, but O’Connor admitted that he was “buffaloed” when he attempted an analysis of his unusual feeling. ”

“ Colonel Onate leaned forward and whispered something to General Carlo, who shook his head and frowned. Presently the black head of Chaves joined them, and the three were in excited discussion. Arms waved like signals, as is usual among the Latin races who talk with their hands and expressive shrugs of the shoulders. Outvoted by two to one, Onate appealed to the governor, who came up and listened, frowning, to both sides of the debate. In their excitement the voices raised, and to Bucky came snatches of phrases that told him his life hung in the balance. ”

“ Bucky did not at the time understand it.
“Why don’t you shoot? It’s about your size, you pinhead, to kill an unarmed man.”
“Tell all you know and I promise you your life.” It was Megales who spoke.
“I’ll tell you nothing, except that I’m Bucky O’Connor, of the Arizona Rangers. Chew on that a while, governor, and see how it tastes. Kill me, and Uncle Sam is liable to ask mighty loud whyfor; not because I’m such a mighty big toad in the puddle, but because any man that stands under that flag has back of him the biggest, best, and gamest country on God’s green footstool.” ”

“ Bucky laughed. “You’re ce’tainly the queerest kid I’ve run up against. I guess you didn’t scramble up in this rough-and-tumble West like I did. You’re too soft for this country.” He let his firm brown fingers travel over the lad’s curly hair and down the smooth cheek. “There it is again. Shrinking away as if I was going to hurt you. I’ll bet a biscuit you never licked the stuffing out of another fellow in your life.” ”

“ Bucky waved a hand easily into space. “That’s all right, too, son. There’s a heap of directions you can hit from here. Take any one you like. But if I was as beat as you are, I think I’d keep on the Epitaph road.” He laughed his warm, friendly laugh, before the geniality of which discord seemed to melt, and again his arm went round the other’s weary shoulders with a caressing gesture that was infinitely protecting.
The boy laughed tremulously. “You’re awfully good to me. I know I’m a cry-baby, sissy boy, but if you’ll be patient with me I’ll try to be gamer.” ”

“ If he took up that devil-may-care challenge he must fight it out alone. Moreover, as his furtive glance went round the ring of faces, he doubted whether a rope and the nearest telegraph pole might not be his fate if he went the limit. Sourly he accepted defeat, raging in his craven spirit at the necessity.
“Hell! I don’t fight with boys,” he snarled,
“So?”
Bucky moved forward with the curious lightness of a man spring-footed. His gaze held the other’s shifting eyes as he plucked the knife from his opponent’s hand. ”

“ As the champion knife thrower in the universe I claim—”
What he claimed his audience had to guess, for at this instant another person took a part in the act. Bucky had stepped lightly across the intervening space on the shoulders of the tightly packed crowd and had dropped as lightly to the ground in front of the astonished champion of the universe.
“I reckon you’ve about wore out that target. What’s the matter with trying a brand new one,” drawled the ranger, his quiet, unwavering eye fixed on the bloated, mottled face of the imitation “bad man.” ”

“ But before they had started Juan Valdez and Carmencita Megales came running toward them.
“Where are you going? It is too late. The palace is surrounded!” cried the young man. “Look!” He swept an excited arm toward the window. “There are thousands and thousands of frenzied people calling for the lives of the governor and General Carlo.”
Carlo shook like a leaf, but Megales only smiled at O’Halloran his wintry smile. “That is the trouble in keeping a mad dog, señor. One never knows when it may get out of leash and bite perhaps even the hand that feeds it.” ”

“ As a simple child of nature I’m no ornament to the scenery, but art’s a heap improving sometimes.”
She thought, but did not say, that art would go a long way before it could show anything more pleasing than this rider of the plains. It was not alone his face, with the likable blue eyes that could say so many things in a minute, but the gallant ease of his bearing. Such a springy lightness, such sinewy grace of undulating muscle, were rare even on the frontier. ”

“ For he sat him down on the counter with his back against the wall and his legs stretched full length in front of him and glanced over the Tucson Star in leisurely fashion, while Pat’s arms still projected roofward.
The operator, beginning to get over his natural fright, could not withhold a reluctant admiration of this man’s aplomb. There was a certain pantherish lightness about the outlaw’s movements, a trim grace of figure which yet suggested rippling muscles perfectly under control, and a quiet wariness of eye more potent than words at repressing insurgent impulses. ”

“ Bucky thought he could trust O’Halloran to see that he did not stay long behind bars and bolts, unless indeed the game went against that sanguine and most cheerful plotter. In which event—well, that was a contingency that would certainly prove embarrassing to the ranger. It might indeed turn out to be a good deal more than embarrassing in the end. The thing that he had done would bear a plain name if the Megales faction won the day—and the punishment for it would be easy to guess. But it was not of himself that O’Connor was thinking. ”

“ The newcomer was a slender, graceful man, dark and lithe, with quick, piercing eyes, set deep in the most reckless, sardonic face she had ever seen.
The man bowed, with a sweep of his hat almost derisive. “Miss Mackenzie, I believe.”
She met him with level eyes that confessed no fear.
“Who are you, sir?”
“They call me Wolf Leroy.”
Her heart sank. “You and he are the men that held up the Limited.”
“If we are, you are the young lady that beat us out of thirty thousand dollars. We’ll collect now,” he told her, with a silky smile and a glitter of white, even teeth. ”

“ THE SHERIFF INTRODUCES HIMSELF
Bear-trap Collins, presuming on the new intimacy born of an exciting experience shared in common, stepped across the aisle, flung aside Miss Wainwright’s impedimenta, and calmly seated himself beside her. She was a young woman capable of a hauteur chillier than ice to undue familiarity, but she did not choose at this moment to resent his assumption of a footing that had not existed an hour ago. Picturesque and unconventional conduct excuses itself when it is garbed in picturesque and engaging manners. ”

“ Why shouldn’t the lads rotting behind those walls have another chance at the game? By the mother of Moses! they shall, if Mike O’Halloran has anything to say about it.”
“You ce’tainly conduct your lawful elections in a beautifully lawless way,” grinned the ranger.
“And why not? Isn’t the law made for man?”
“For which man—Megales?”
“In order to give the greatest liberty to each individual man. But here comes young Valdez riding back as if he were in a bit of a hurry.”
The filibuster rode forward and talked with the young man for a few minutes in a low voice. ”

“ For he knew that not the least charm of the extraordinary fascination she had for him lay in her sweet innocence of heart, a fresh innocence that consisted with this gay Romany abandon, and even with a mental experience of the sordid, seamy side of life as comprehensive as that of many a woman twice her age. She had been defrauded out of her childish inheritance of innocence, but, somehow, even in her foul environment the seeds of a rare personal purity had persistently sprung up and flourished. Some flowers are of such native freshness that no nauseous surroundings can kill their fragrance. ”

“ One or two Papago Indians, with their pottery wares, squatted in the shade of the buildings, but otherwise the plaza was deserted. Not even a moving dog or a lounging peon lent life to the drowsy square. Silence profound and peace eternal seemed to brood over the land.
Such was the impression borne in upon the young man riding townward on a wiry buckskin that had just topped the rise which commanded the valley below. The rider presented a striking enough appearance to take and hold the roving eye of any young woman in search of romance. He was a slender, lithe young Adonis of medium height. ”

“ The first thing Bucky did after leaving the two young women was to go down in person with one of the guards to the cell of David Henderson. The occupant of the cell was asleep, but he woke up when the two men entered.
“Who is it?” he demanded.
“Webb Mackenzie’s man come to release you,” answered Bucky.
The prisoner fell to trembling like an aspen. “God, man, do you mean it?” he begged. “You wouldn’t deceive an old man who has lived fifteen years in hell?”
“It’s true, friend, every word of it. You’ll live to ride the range again and count your cattle on the free hillside. ”

“ Don’t lose any time, lad, for as soon as Megales learns of what has happened his fellows will scour the town for every mother’s son of us. Of course you have been under surveillance, and it’s likely he’ll try to bag you with the rest of us. It was a great piece of foolishness me forgetting about the line of the Chihuahua Northern and its telegraph. But there’s a chance Chaves has forgot, too. Anyway, get back as soon as you can; after we’re hidden, it will be like looking for a needle in a haystack to put his fat finger on us.”
Bucky went singing up the stairway of the hotel to his room. ”

“ She don’t look none played out from her little trek across the desert. Funny, ain’t it, how she could have wandered that far and her afoot?”
The Arizona sun was setting in its accustomed blaze of splendor, when Val Collins and Alice Mackenzie put their horses again toward the ranch and the rainbow-hued west. In his contented eyes were reflected the sunshine and a serenity born of life in the wide, open spaces. ”

“ Now, Master Frank, you want to learn one thing prompt if you and I are to travel together. I can’t stand a liar. You tell the truth, or I’ll give you the best licking you ever had in your life.”
“You’re as bad a bully as he is,” the boy burst out, flushing angrily.
“Oh, no, I’m not,” came the ranger’s prompt unmoved answer. “But just because you’re such a weak little kid that I could break you in two isn’t any reason why I should put up with any foolishness from you. I mean to see that you act proper, the way an honest kid ought to do. Savvy?” ”

“ The ranger was a social democrat to the marrow. He had breathed in with the Southwest breezes the conviction that every man must stand on his own bottom, regardless of adventitious circumstance, but he was not fool enough to think all men equal. It had been his experience that some men, by grace of the strength in them, were born to be masters and others by their weakness to be servants. He knew that the best any civilization can offer a man is a chance. ”

“ I was thinking maybe you’d like to enlist, old filibuster.”
“Is the pay good?”
“Nothing a day and find yourself,” answered Bucky promptly.
“No reasonable man could ask fairer than that,” agreed O’Halloran, his grin expanding. “Well, then, what’s the row? Would ye like to be dictator of Chihuahua or Emperor of Mexico?”
“There’s an American in the government prison here under a life sentence. He is not guilty, and he has already served fifteen years.” ”

“ Came at that instant O’Halloran’s ungentle knock, on the heels of which his red head came through the open door.
“You’re the very lad I’m wanting to see, Bucky,” he announced, and followed this declaration by locking all the doors and beckoning him to the center of the room.
“Is that tough neck of yours aching again, Reddy?” inquired his friend whimsically.
“It is that, me bye. There’s the very divil to pay,” he whispered.
“Cough it out, Mike.”
“That tyrant Megales is onto our game. Somebody’s leaked, or else he has a spy in our councils—as we have in his, the ould scoundrel.” ”

“ If there’s no hope for me, don’t say there is.” The prisoner’s voice shook and his hands trembled. He was only the husk of the man he had been, but it did Bucky’s heart good to see that the germ of life was still in him. Back in Arizona, on the Rocking Chair Ranch, with the free winds of the plains beating on his face, he would pick up again the old strands of his broken life, would again learn to love the lowing of cattle and the early morning call of the hooter to his mate. ”