Hurley

“ Mundy laughed. "No one at the ranch today but Hurley, the water-mason. He's all right!"
•⁠•⁠•⁠• "VERRA weel. Do you send him away betimes on that beastie atween your knees, and I will be water-mason to you—the mair that I can run your steam pump as well as the best. The story will be that the outlaw body passed by night, unseen, liftin’ your night horse as he flitted, and leavin’ this sorrel of mine. Your man Hurley can join your outfit and lose himself. ”

“ His habitual expression was a scowl; his habitual position was with a cigarette in the fingers of his left hand, and his right hand resting on his hip. He sat in a chair directly behind that of Hurley, and Pierre's new-found acquaintance explained: "He's the bodyguard for Hurley. Maybe there's some who could down Hurley in a straight gunfight; maybe there's one or two like McGurk that could down Diaz—damn his yellow hide—but there ain't no one can buck the two of 'em. It ain't in reason. So they play the game together. Hurley works the cards and Diaz covers up the retreat. ”

“ Betty could not easily miss the way back. The trail was perfectly plain. She rode fast at first, for with all her sorrow for Joe Hurley’s disappointment, she could not bear him near her now.
Because she had no thought of ever considering him other than a friend, the girl, who was after all quite inexperienced, had not dreamed Hurley would come to regard her warmly. She could not understand how it had happened. It seemed unbelievable!
Love—romance; a lover—happiness; these things were not for Betty Hunt. She had long ago told herself this. She was devoted to one man only, her brother. ”

“ Besides, Hurley was snoring mercilessly.
We two had chosen for our resting-place the little mow of half a load or so, which had not been stowed away above, but lay ready for present use over by the side-door opening on the cow-yard. Temporary beds had been spread for the women with fresh straw and blankets at the further end of the central threshing-floor. Abner himself had taken one of the rescued ticks and a quilt over to the other end, and stretched his ponderous length out across the big doors, with the gun by his side. No one had, of course, dreamed of undressing. ”

“ Hurley went and stood for a moment before the window and looked out across the valley.
"The point is this, boys," he said at last, turning quickly and looking at the two sturdy young fellows before him, "you and I and the rest of these people here"—he waved his hand towards the window—"have come into this valley because we believed in it. We're playing a kind of a hunch, boys, that the place is a good place to live in, an' when a man does what we've done he's playing pretty heavily. If we throw up the game now, we lose. ”

“ Joe Hurley was very busy at the mine that week, and he had not much to say to his friend from the 147 East when they met. But he showed curiosity as to what had befallen Hunt when he talked with Nell Blossom.
“I fear I began wrong,” admitted the parson.
“I reckon however you began you wouldn’t get far with Nell,” observed Hurley. “I’ll keep my eye on Tolley. He’s just boiling inside. But unless he has a gang behind him he hasn’t any more spunk than a rabbit. Nell’s too popular—just now, especially—for him to dare spring anything against her. ”

“ The parson took it without hesitation and slipped it into his pocket. He ran out to see Joe Hurley coming out of Colorado Brown’s place with Jib Collins and Cale Mack behind him. In another few seconds, so rapidly did the driving ice thicken the air, Hunt lost sight of the trio and they fairly bumped into him when they reached the spot where he stood.
“That you, Willie?” shouted Hurley. “We’ll get a rope and tie ourselves together. Tie mufflers over our faces. Say, there may be some more fellers in the Grub Stake who will help.” ”

“ From what he had seen of Hurley, and what Saginaw and Slue Foot had told him, the boy was confident that the big boss was square and honest as the day is long—but there was Mike Gillum, himself an honest man and a friend of Waseche, [117] who had reported that Hurley was in the pay of the Syndicate; and Connie knew that men like Mike Gillum did not lie about other men, nor would they make an open accusation unless reasonably sure of their ground. ”

“ I want Steele put off my ranch. Forcibly, if necessary."
"But," returned Hurley, "he sends back word that he is not trespassing; that he is on his own land; that he owns eighty acres at the Goblet."
A little gasp from Miss Corliss as her leaping fancy sought to measure those supreme heights of impudence to which Bill Steele might rise. And after the gasp a curt, angry,
"Liar! Mr. Hurley, you should know once and for all that you can believe nothing that that man says. He ... he ..."
The wire connecting the ranch house with Hurley's cabin recorded a sharply indrawn breath of impotent fury. ”

“ I can see."
"What you can't see means a lot more than what you can. I've been in the same room when Hurley worked his gun once. It wasn't any killin', but it was the prettiest bit of cheatin' I ever seen. But even if Hurley wasn't enough, what about Carl Diaz?"
He glared his triumph at Pierre, but the latter was too puzzled to quail, and too stirred by the pale, gloomy face of Cochrane to turn toward the other.
"What of Diaz?"
"Look here, boy. You're a kid, all right, but you ain't that young. D'you mean to say that you ain't heard of Carlos Diaz?" ”

“ Hurley negligently, and he turned the searchlight of his gaze upon the three bedrooms, which he examined as carefully as he had examined anything in the house. The failure to discover in any cupboard or corner even the shadow of a human being did not appear to discourage him in the slightest degree. In the third bedroom—that is to say, the one nearest the head of the stairs and farthest from the tank-room—he suddenly beckoned to Audrey, who was standing in the doorway. ”

“ It had been apparent enough that no spirit of prayer abode in the farmer's breast.
“'Twas a fine bold sinsible man, that Job!” remarked Hurley to me, when the door was closed behind us, and the women had gone off to talk the scene over among themselves in the butter-room. “Would it be him that had thim lean turkeys?”
With some difficulty I made out his meaning. “Oh, no!” I exclaimed, “the man Abner read about was Jo-ab, not Job. They were quite different people.”
“I thought as much,” replied the Irishman. “'Twould not be in so grand a man's nature to let his fowls go hungry. ”

“ We'll even stage a rough and tumble fist fight, if it'll help any. My love to Rose and the kid. They're the good old game sort, Ed. You can't down people of their kind."
And he was gone, headed at gallop for Summit City, a little mist whipped into his eyes by the last look of Hurley's face.
In the little resort town he observed interestedly the many fresh indications of prosperity. Several new cottages were being built, the addition to the hotel had already assumed goodly and picturesque proportions. ”

“ It's like he was follerin' a log road, an' got switched off onto a cross-haul—but, he's back on the main road again, an' it's Jake Hurley'll keep him there."
"He's all right, an' the men like him—but he ain't got the head the other one has."
"Sure he ain't!" agreed Hurley. "You kin [214] take it from me, Lon, before that there Connie is thirty, he'll be ownin' timber of his own."
"I'd almost bet money on it," said Saginaw Ed, who had come up in time to hear Hurley's prophecy. "Say boss, them irons come in fer the cook's bateau; I expect we better put to work on it. ”

“ The village of Hurley, five minutes’ walk from the lock, is as old a little spot as there is on the river, dating, as it does, to quote the quaint phraseology of those dim days, “from the times of King Sebert and King Offa.” Just past the weir (going up) is Danes’ Field, where the invading Danes once encamped, during their march to Gloucestershire; and a little further still, nestling by a sweet corner of the stream, is what is left of Medmenham Abbey. ”

“ Twilight deepened and the forest road became dim with black shadows.
"The moon'll be up directly," observed Hurley, who was walking beside Connie. "But it don't [48] give none too much light, nohow, here in the woods. I've got to go on ahead and pilot."
"I'll go with you," said the boy, and Hurley eyed him closely.
"Say, kid, don't let these here jay-hawkers talk ye inter walkin' yerself to death. They don't like nawthin' better'n to make a greener live hard. Let 'em yelp theirself hoarse an' when you git tuckered jest you climb up beside Frenchy there an' take it easy. ”

“ When the leader of the pack springs and fails to kill, the rest of the pack tear him to pieces. Remembering this, Mac Hurley forced his glance back to Pierre. Moreover, there was a soft voice from behind, and he remembered Diaz. ”

“ But I'll show you how us guys handles the boss's pets when he ain't around." The boy hurried away as Hurley approached.
"Be'n gittin' in his brag on ye?" grinned the boss, as his eyes followed the retreating back. "He's no good—all mouth. But he's bigger'n what you be. If he tries to start anything just lam him over the head with anything that's handy. [44] He'll leave you be, onct he's found out you mean business."
"Oh, I guess we won't have any trouble," answered Connie, as he followed Hurley to the ground. ”

“ Hurley, who was as ignorant of foreign travel as of everything else, was easily tricked by some tale of no evening trains for the Continent. Shinburne plied him well with liquor, taking care to mix the bottles, and when he had got him helplessly drunk he took the bonds and with his little luggage slipped quietly off to the Continent, never to see his dupe or his New York friends again.
He went to Germany, called himself "Count" Shinburne, bought an estate and began to exercise large hospitality toward his neighbors.
No man on all the length of the Rhine was so popular as he. ”

“ The contrack is all signed and delivered, an' when Dogfish lets go tonight or tomorrow, the logs'll start."
"Where is Slue Foot?" asked the sheriff, after listening to Hurley's explanation.
"Up to Camp Two, we'll be goin' up there now. [296] Me an' you an' the kid an' Lon'll go long. An' a crew of men with paint buckets and brushes. Saginaw, he'll have to stay here to boss the breakin' out of the rollways, in case she let's go before we git back."
At the edge of Camp Two's clearing Hurley called a halt: "We'll wait here 'til the kid gits Slue Foot's signature to them vouchers. ”

“ It ain't right to leave him loose." The other boot thudded upon the floor and Hurley leaned back in his chair, stretched out his legs and regarded the toes of his woollen socks. "I've often thought," he continued, after a moment of silence, "that men is oncommon like timber. There's the select, straight-grained, sound stuff, an' all the grades down through the culls 'til you come to the dozy, crooked, rotten-hearted stuff that ain't even fit to burn. There's sound stuff that's rough-barked an' ugly; an' there's rotten-hearted stuff that looks good from the outside. ”

“ But he got it quite a while ago—this here kind of busi [91] ness ain't no startin' job. They're all of a piece, kid. It's best we jest let the tail go with the hide."
"What will Hurley do about it? If he agrees with us, won't the men overrule him?"
"I don't know what he'll do—I only wish't he was here to do it. But, as fer as overrulin' him goes—" Saginaw paused and eyed Connie solemnly, "jest you make it a p'int to be in the same township sometime when a crew of men ondertakes to overrule Hurley. ”

“ It was not merely Joe Hurley that she could not marry. She could not marry any man.
She came out of the majestic forest and reached the open stretch of the trail from Hoskins. This she followed toward the wagon track which edged the brink of the Overhang. She had brought her 173 pony to a quieter pace and jogged along, deep in her unhappy thoughts. Suddenly, turning a clump of brush, she quite involuntarily drew in her pony and halted. There was a rider on the trail ahead of her, a stranger.
It was for only a moment that Betty saw him. ”

“ He had gathered up the lines, and we were ready to start, before any suitable words came to his tongue.
“Well, then, sir,” he said, “anything to be agreeable. If I hear a man speaking a good word for your firkins, I’ll dispute him.”
“The firkins are well enough,” growled the cooper at us, “an’ they’re made to sell, but I ain’t so almighty tickled about takin’ Copperhead money for ‘em that I want to clap my wings an’ crow over it.”
He turned scornfully on his heel at this, and we drove away. The new revelation of our friendlessness depressed me, but Hurley did not seem to mind it at all. ”

“ By this time word had passed to the men at the rollways and the fifth was held, but too late to save Slue Foot, for a moment later the great brown mass of rolling tumbling logs reached him, and before the eyes of the whole crew, the boss of Camp Two disappeared for ever, and the great brown mass rolled on.
"Mebbe ut's best," said Hurley, as with a shudder he turned away, "'tis a man's way to die—in the river—an' if they's an-ny wan waitin' fer him um back there, they'll think he died loike a man." ”

“ You see, it was Slue Foot who advised them to go to Willow River."
"O-ho, so that's it!" grinned the sheriff. "Well, mebbe, now they'll find that they kin pump me a little after all."
"And while I'm here I may as well swear out a couple of more warrants, too. You are a friend of Hurley's, and you want to see him make good."
"You bet yer life I do! There's a man! He's played in hard luck all his life, an' if he's got a chanct to make good—I'm for him." ”