<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_EIGHT" id="CHAPTER_EIGHT"></SPAN>CHAPTER EIGHT</h2>
<h4>"IT TAKES NERVE JUST TO HANG ON"</h4>
<p>Brit was smoking his pipe after supper and staring at nothing, though
his face was turned toward the closed door. Lorraine had washed the
dishes and was tidying the room and looking at her father now and then
in a troubled, questioning way of which Brit was quite oblivious.</p>
<p>"Dad," she said abruptly, "who is the man at Whisper?"</p>
<p>Brit turned his eyes slowly to her face as if he had not grasped her
meaning and was waiting for her to repeat the question. It was evident
that his thoughts had pulled away from something that meant a good deal
to him.</p>
<p>"Why?"</p>
<p>"A man came this morning, and said he was the man at Whisper, and that
he would come again to see you."</p>
<p>Brit took his pipe from his mouth, looked at it<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</SPAN></span> and crowded down the
tobacco with a forefinger. "He seen me ride away from the ranch, this
morning," he said. "He was coming down the Whisper trail as I was taking
the fork over to Sugar Spring, Frank and me. What did he say he wanted
to see me about?"</p>
<p>"He didn't say. He asked for you and Frank." Lorraine sat down and
folded her arms on the oilcloth-covered table. "Dad, what <i>is</i> Whisper?"</p>
<p>"Whisper's a camp up against a cliff, over west of here. It belongs to
the Sawtooth. Is that all he said? Just that he wanted to see me?"</p>
<p>"He—talked a little," Lorraine admitted, her eyebrows pulled down. "If
he saw you leave, I shouldn't think he'd come here and ask for you."</p>
<p>"He knowed I was gone," Brit stated briefly.</p>
<p>With a finger nail Lorraine traced the ugly, brown pattern on the
oilcloth. It was not easy to talk to this silent man who was her father,
but she had done a great deal of thinking during that long, empty day,
and she had reached the point where she was afraid not to speak.</p>
<p>"Dad!"</p>
<p>"What do you want, Raine?"</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</SPAN></span>"Dad, was—has any one around here died, lately?"</p>
<p>"Died? Nobody but Fred Thurman, over here on Granite. He was drug with a
horse and killed."</p>
<p>Lorraine caught her breath, saw Brit looking at her curiously and moved
closer to him. She wanted to be near somebody just then, and after all,
Brit was her father, and his silence was not the inertia of a dull mind,
she knew. He seemed bottled-up, somehow, and bitter. She caught his hand
and held it, feeling its roughness between her two soft palms.</p>
<p>"Dad, I've got to tell you. I feel trapped, somehow. Did his horse have
a white face, dad?"</p>
<p>"Yes, he's a blaze-faced roan. Why?" Brit moved uncomfortably, but he
did not take his hand away from her. "What do you know about it, Raine?"</p>
<p>"I saw a man shoot Fred Thurman and push his foot through the stirrup.
And, dad, I believe it was that man at Whisper. The one I saw had on a
brown hat, and this man wears a brown hat—and I was advised not to tell
any one I had been at that place they call Rock City, when the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</SPAN></span> storm
came. Dad, would an innocent man—one that didn't have anything to do
with a crime—would he try to cover it up afterwards?"</p>
<p>Brit's hand shook when he removed the pipe from his mouth and laid it on
the table. His face had turned gray while Lorraine watched him
fearfully. He laid his hand on her shoulder, pressing down hard—and at
last his eyes met her big, searching ones.</p>
<p>"If he wanted to <i>live</i>—in this country—he'd have to. Leastways, he'd
have to keep his mouth shut," he said grimly.</p>
<p>"And he'd try to shut the mouths of others——"</p>
<p>"If he cared anything about them, he would. You ain't told anybody what
you saw, have yuh?"</p>
<p>Lorraine hid her face against his arm. "Just Lone Morgan, and he thought
I was crazy and imagined it. That was in the morning, when he found me.
And he—he wanted me to go on thinking it was just a nightmare—that I'd
imagined the whole thing. And I did, for awhile. But this man at Whisper
tried to find out where I was that night——"</p>
<p>Brit pulled abruptly away from her, got up<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</SPAN></span> and opened the door. He
stood there for a time, looking out into the gloom of early nightfall.
He seemed to be listening, Lorraine thought. When he came back to her
his voice was lower, his manner intangibly furtive.</p>
<p>"You didn't tell him anything, did you?" he asked, as if there had been
no pause in their talk.</p>
<p>"No—I made him believe I wasn't there. Or I tried to. And dad! As I was
going to cross that creek just before you come to Rock City, two men
came along on horseback, and I hid before they saw me. They stopped to
water their horses, and they were talking. They said something about the
TJ had been here a long time, but they would get theirs, and it was like
sitting into a poker game with a nickel. They said the little ones
aren't big enough to fight the Sawtooth, and they'd carry lead under
their hides if they didn't leave. Dad, isn't your brand the TJ? That's
what it looks like on Yellowjacket."</p>
<p>Brit did not answer, and when Lorraine was sure that he did not mean to
do so, she asked another question. "Dad, why didn't you want me to leave
the ranch to-day? I was nervous after that man was here, and I did go."</p>
<p>"I didn't want you riding around the country<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</SPAN></span> unless I knew where you
went," Brit said. "My brand is the TJ up-and-down. We never call it just
the TJ."</p>
<p>"Oh," said Lorraine, relieved. "They weren't talking about you, then.
But dad—it's horrible! We simply <i>can't</i> let that murder go and not do
anything. Because I know that man was shot. I heard the shot fired, and
I saw him start to fall off his horse. And the next flash of lightning I
saw——"</p>
<p>"Look here, Raine. I don't want you talking about what you saw. I don't
want you <i>thinkin'</i> about it. What's the use? Thurman's dead and buried.
The cor'ner come and held an inquest, and the jury agreed it was an
accident. I was on the jury. The sheriff's took charge of his property.
You couldn't prove what you saw, even if you was to try." He looked at
her very much as Lone Morgan had looked at her. His next words were very
nearly what Lone Morgan had said, Lorraine remembered. "You don't know
this country like I know it. Folks live in it mainly because they don't
go around blatting everything they see and hear and think."</p>
<p>"You have laws, don't you, dad? You spoke about the sheriff——"</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</SPAN></span>"The sheriff!" Brit laughed harshly. "Yes, we got a sheriff, and we got
a jail, and a judge—all the makin's of law. But we ain't got one thing
that goes with it, and that's justice. You'd best make up your mind like
the cor'ner's jury done, that Fred Thurman was drug to death by his
horse. That's all that'll ever be proved, and if you can't prove nothing
else you better keep your mouth shut."</p>
<p>Lorraine sprang up and stood facing her father, every nerve taut with
protest. "You don't mean to tell me, dad, that you and Frank Johnson and
Lone Morgan and—everybody in the country are <i>cowards</i>, do you?"</p>
<p>Brit looked at her patiently. "No," he said in the tone of acknowledged
defeat, "we ain't cowards, Raine. A man ain't a coward when he stands
with his hands over his head. Most generally it's because some one's got
the drop on 'im."</p>
<p>Lorraine would not accept that. "You think so, because you don't fight,"
she cried hotly. "No one is holding a gun at your head. Dad! I thought
Westerners never quit. It's fight to the finish, always. Why, I've seen
one man fight a whole outfit and win. He couldn't be beaten because he
wouldn't give up. Why——"</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</SPAN></span>Brit gave her a tolerant glance. "Where'd you see all that, Raine?" He
moved to the table picked up his pipe and knocked out the ashes on the
stove hearth. His movements were those of an aging man,—yet Brit Hunter
was not old, as age is reckoned.</p>
<p>"Well—in stories—but it was reasonable and logical and possible, just
the same. If you use your brains you can outwit them, and if you have
any nerve——"</p>
<p>Brit made a sound somewhat like a snort. "These days, when politics is
played by the big fellows, and the law is used to make money for 'em, it
takes nerve just to hang on," he said. "Nobody but a dang fool would
fight." Slow anger grew within him. He turned upon Lorraine almost
fiercely. "D'yuh think me and Frank could fight the Sawtooth and get
anything out of it but a coffin apiece, maybe?" he demanded harshly.
"Don't the Sawtooth <i>own</i> this country? Warfield's got the sheriff in
his pocket, and the cor'ner, and the judge, and the stock
inspector—he's <i>Senator</i> Warfield, and what he wants he gets. He gets
it through the law that you was talking about a little while ago. What
you goin' to do about it? If I had the money and<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</SPAN></span> the land and the
political pull he's got, mebby I'd have me a sheriff and a judge, too.</p>
<p>"Fred Thurman tried to fight the Sawtooth over a water right he owned
and they wanted. They had the case runnin' in court till they like to of
took the last dollar he had. He got bull-headed. That water right meant
the hull ranch—everything he owned. You can't run a ranch without
water. And when he'd took the case up and up till it got to the Supreme
Court, and he stood some show of winnin' out—he had an accident. He was
drug to death by his horse."</p>
<p>Brit stooped and opened the stove door, seeking a live coal; found none
and turned again to Lorraine, shaking his pipe at her for emphasis.</p>
<p>"We try to prove Fred was murdered, and what's the result? Something
happens: to me, mebby, or Frank, or both of us. And you can't say,
'Here, I know the Sawtooth had a hand in that.' You got to <i>prove</i> it!
And when you've proved it," he added bitterly, "you got to have officers
that'll carry out the law instead of using it to hog-tie yuh."</p>
<p>His futile, dull anger surged up again. "You call us cowards because we
don't git up on our hind legs and fight the Sawtooth. A lot <i>you</i><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</SPAN></span> know
about courage! You've read stories, and you've saw moving pictures, and
you think that's the West—that's the way they do it. One man hold off a
hunderd with his gun—and on the other hand, a hunderd men, mebby,
ridin' hell-whoopin' after one. You think that's it—that's the way they
do it. Hunh!" He lifted the lid of the stove, spat into it as if he were
spitting in the face of an enemy, and turned again to Lorraine.</p>
<p>"What you seen—what you say you seen—that was done at night when there
wasn't no audience. All the fighting the Sawtooth does is done under
cover. <i>You</i> won't see none of it—they ain't such fools. And what us
small fellers do, we do it quiet, too. We ain't ridin' up and down the
trail, flourishin' our six-shooters and yellin' to the Sawtooth to come
on and we'll clean 'em up!"</p>
<p>"But you're fighting just the same, aren't you, dad? You're not letting
them——"</p>
<p>"We're makin' out to live here—and we've been doin' it for twenty-five
year," Brit told her, with a certain grim dignity. "We've still got a
few head uh stock left—enough to live on. Playin' poker with a nickel,
mebby—but we man<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</SPAN></span>age to ante, every hand so fur." His mind returned to
the grisly thing Lorraine had seen.</p>
<p>"We can't run down the man that got Fred Thurman, supposin' he was
killed, as you say. That's what the law is paid to do. If Lone Morgan
told you not to talk about it, he told you right. He was talking for
your own good. What about Al—the man from Whisper? You didn't tell
<i>him</i>, did you?"</p>
<p>His tone, the suppressed violence of his manner, frightened Lorraine.
She moved farther away from him.</p>
<p>"I didn't tell him anything. He was curious but—I only said I knew him
because he was wearing a brown hat, and the man that shot Mr. Thurman
had a brown hat. I didn't say all that. I just mentioned the hat. And he
said there were lots of brown hats in the country. He said he had traded
for that one, just yesterday. He said his own hat was gray."</p>
<p>Brit stared at her, his jaw sagging a little, his eyes growing vacant
with the thoughts he hid deep in his mind. He slumped down into his
chair and leaned forward, his arms resting on his knees, his fingers
clasped loosely. After a little he tilted his head and looked up at
her.</p>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</SPAN></span>"You better go to bed," he told her stolidly. "And if you're going to
live at the Quirt, Raine, you'll have to learn to keep your mouth shut.
I ain't blaming you—but you told too much to Al Woodruff. Don't talk to
him no more, if he comes here when I'm gone." He put out a hand,
beckoning her to him, sorry for his harshness. Lorraine went to him and
knelt beside him, slipping an arm around his neck while she hid her face
on his shoulder.</p>
<p>"I won't be a nuisance, dad—really, I won't," she said. "I—I can shoot
a gun. I never shot one with bullets in, but I could. And I learned to
do lots of things when I was working in that play West I thought was
real. It isn't like I thought. There's no picture stuff in the real
West, I guess; they don't do things that way. But—what I want you to
know is that if they're fighting you they'll have to fight me, too.</p>
<p>"I don't mean movie stuff, honestly I don't. I'm in this thing now, and
you'll have to count me, same as you count Jim and Sorry. Won't you
please feel that I'm one more in the game, dad, and not just another
responsibility? I'll herd cattle, or do whatever there is to do. And
I'll keep my mouth shut, too. I can't stay here,<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</SPAN></span> day after day, doing
nothing but sweep and dust two rooms and fry potatoes and bacon for you
at night. Dad, I'll go <i>crazy</i> if you don't let me into your life!</p>
<p>"Dad, if you knew the stunts I've done in the last three years! It was
make-believe West, but I learned things just the same." She kissed him
on the unshaven cheek nearest her,—and thought of the kisses she had
breathed upon the cheeks of story fathers with due care for the make-up
on her lips. Just because this was real, she kissed him again with the
frank vigor of a child.</p>
<p>"Dad," she said wheedlingly, "I think you might scare up something that
I can really ride. Yellowjacket is safe, but—but you have real <i>live</i>
horses on the ranch, haven't you? You must <i>not</i> go judging me by the
palms and the bay windows of the Casa Grande. That's where I've slept,
the last few years when I wasn't off on location—but it's just as
sensible to think I don't know anything else, as it would be for me to
think you can't do anything but skim milk and fry bacon and make
sour-dough bread, just because I've seen you do it!"</p>
<p>Brit laughed and patted her awkwardly on the back. "If you was a boy,
I'd set you up as a<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</SPAN></span> lawyer," he said with an attempt at playfulness. "I
kinda thought you could ride. I seen how you piled onto old Yellowjacket
and the way you held your reins. It runs in the blood, I guess. I'll see
what I can do in the way of a horse. Ole Yellowjacket used to be a real
rim-rider, but he's gitting old; gitting old—same as me."</p>
<p>"You're not! You're just letting yourself <i>feel</i> old. And am I one of
the outfit, dad?"</p>
<p>"I guess so—only there ain't going to be any of this hell-whoopin'
stuff, Raine. You can't travel these trails at a long lope with yore
hair flyin' out behind and—and all that damn foolishness. I've saw 'em
in the movin' pitchers——"</p>
<p>Lorraine blushed, and was thankful that her dad had not watched her work
in that serial. For that matter, she hoped that Lone Morgan would never
stray into a movie where any of her pictures were being shown.</p>
<p>"I'm serious, dad. I don't want to make a show of myself. But if you'll
feel that I can be a help instead of a handicap, that's what I want. And
if it comes to fighting——"</p>
<p>Brit pushed her from him impatiently. "There yuh go—fight—fight—and I
told yuh there ain't any fighting going on. Nothing<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</SPAN></span> more'n a fight to
hang on and make a living. That means straight, hard work and mindin'
your own business. If you want to help at that——"</p>
<p>"I do," said Raine quietly, getting to her feet. Her legacy of
stubbornness set her lips firmly together. "That's exactly what I mean.
Good night, dad."</p>
<p>Brit answered her noncommittally, apparently sunk already in his own
musings. But his lips drew in to suppress a smile when he saw, from the
corner of his eyes, that Lorraine was winding the alarm on the cheap
kitchen clock, and that she set the hand carefully and took the clock
with her to bed.</p>
<hr style="width: 65%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</SPAN></span></p>
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />