Ridgwell Cullum - The Twins of Suffering Creek

They were approaching the higher hills. Towering, broken crags loomed ahead darkly in the gathering gloom. The vast riven facets cut the sky-line, and black patches of pine forests, and spruce, gave a ghostly, threatening outlook. They must have been riding over two hours when Scipio realized they were passing over a narrow cattle track on the summit of a wooded hill. Then presently their horses began a steep shelving descent which required great caution to negotiate. And as they proceeded the darkness closed in upon them, until they appeared to be making an almost precipitate descent into a vast black pit. There was no light here at all except for the stars above, for the last glow of twilight was completely shut off by the great wall they were now leaving behind them.

No word was spoken. Each man was busy with his horse, and the animals themselves were stumbling and floundering as they picked their uncertain way. A quarter of an hour of this went by, then, suddenly, ahead, still farther down the slope, two or three dim lights shone up at them like will-o’-the-wisps. They seemed to dance about before Scipio’s eyes as they rode. Nor, as he pointed them out to his companion, did he realize that this peculiarity was due to the motion of his mare under him.

“Yep,” replied Conroy dryly. “Them’s James’ lights.”

“He’s got a large place,” said Scipio, with some awe in his tone.

“He sure has,” agreed Conroy, smiling in the darkness. “He’s got the biggest an’ best-stocked ranch in Montana.”

“You say he’s a–cattle thief?” Scipio was struggling to get things into proper focus.

“He sure is.” And Conroy’s tone of satisfaction had the effect of silencing further comment by his companion.

A few moments later the descent was completed, and the soft grass under her feet set Gipsy dancing to get on, but Conroy pulled up.

“Here,” he said authoritatively, “you set right here while I get on an’ get thro’ with my business. I’ll come along back for you.”

Without demur Scipio waited, and his companion vanished in the darkness. The little man had entered into an agreement, and had no desire, in spite of his eagerness to be doing, of departing from the letter of it. So he possessed himself in what patience he could until Conroy’s return.

The soft pad of the retiring horse’s hoofs on the thick grass died away. And presently one of the twinkling lights ahead was abruptly shut out. The horseman had intervened on Scipio’s line of vision. Then the yellow gleam as suddenly reappeared, and the last sign of Conroy passed. The waiting man watched with every faculty alert. His ears and eyes straining for the least unusual sound or sight. But there was none forthcoming.

Then he began to think. He began to consider the situation. He began to picture to himself something of the scene that he hoped would shortly take place between himself and the man James. It was the first time he had thought of the matter deliberately, or attempted to estimate its possibilities. Hitherto he had been too torn by his emotions to consider anything in detail. And, even now, so imbued was he with the right of his cause that he only saw his own point of view, which somehow made James a mere plaything in his hands.

He found himself dictating his will upon the thief in firm tones. He demanded his wife without heat, but with the knowledge of the power of his gun lying behind his words. He felt the restraint he would use. He would not bully. Who was he to bully after having had Jessie restored to him? James should be dealt with as gently as his feelings would permit him. Yes, thank God, he had no actual desire to hurt this man who had so wronged him. The man was foolish, and he could afford to be generous, having had Jessie restored to him. No, he would try hard to forgive him. It would be a tremendous struggle, he knew, yet he felt, with Jessie restored to him, he ought to make the effort. Somehow, even now, he almost felt sorry for so misguided a–

But his reflections were suddenly cut short by the sound of horses’ hoofs returning, and, a moment later, Conroy loomed up in the darkness. He came quite close up before he spoke, and then it was almost in a whisper.

“I’ve located things,” he said, with an air of deep satisfaction. “Guess we’ll make Mr. ‘Lord’ James hunt his hole ’fore we’re thro’ with him. I figger a rawhide fixed neat about his neck’ll ’bout meet his case. An’ say, I’ve news fer you. Ther’s some o’ his boys around. He’s jest right in ther’ wher’ you ken see that biggish light,” he went on, pointing at the illuminated square of a window. “I see him through an open door round back. He’s lyin’ on a heap o’ blankets readin’ a book. Ef you git along now you’ll get him wher’ you need him, an’–an’ I wouldn’t take no chances. Get a drop on him from outside the door, an’–wal, guess a feller like you’ll know what to do after that. I’m gettin’ back to home.”

Scipio glowed. He felt he could have hugged this good-natured stranger. But he did not altogether agree with the man’s suggestion of getting the drop on James. He felt it would hardly be playing the game. However, he intended to be guided by circumstances.

“Thanks, friend,” he said, in his simple fashion. “You must let me call you that,” he went on eagerly. “You see, you’ve done something for me to-night I can’t never forget. Maybe you’ve got a wife of your own, and if so you’ll sure understand.”

“Can’t rightly say I’ve got a–wife,” the man replied, “but I ken understan’ all right. James is low–doggone low,” he added. And his face was turned well away so that he could grin comfortably without fear of the other seeing it.

“Well, so long,” said Scipio hastily. “Seeing I shan’t see you here when I get back, I’d just like to thank you again.”

“So long,” replied the other. “An’ you needn’t to thank me too much.”

Scipio urged his mare forward, and the man sat looking after him. And somehow his face had lost something of its satisfied expression. However, he sat there only a moment. Presently he lifted his reins and set his horse at a canter in the direction of one of the more distant lights.

“He’s a pore fule,” he muttered, “but it’s a lousy trick anyways.” Thus he dismissed the matter from his mind with a callous shrug.

In the meantime Scipio neared the house from which shone the larger light. As he drew towards it he saw its outline against the starlight. It was a large, two-storied frame house of weather-boarding, with a veranda fronting it. There were several windows on the hither side of it, but light shone only in one of them. It was by this light the horseman saw a tie-post some yards from the house. And without hesitation he rode up to it, and, dismounting, secured his mare. Then, following Conroy’s directions, he proceeded on foot to the back of the house where he was to find an open door. He turned the angle of the building. Yes, the door was there all right, but whereas Conroy had said that James was lying on his blankets reading, he now discovered that the doorway was filled by that handsome thief’s presence.

Before he realized what had happened, Scipio found himself in the full glare of the light from the doorway, and James was smiling down upon his yellow head with a curious blending of insolence and curiosity.

“I was wondering when you’d get around,” he said, without shifting his position. Then, as Scipio made no answer, he bestirred himself. “Come right in,” he added, and, lounging out of the doorway, he dropped back into the room. “You’ll find things a bit untidy,” he went on calmly, “you see I’m making changes in my domestic arrangements. This is temporary, I guess. However, if you don’t just mind that, why–come right in.”