Chapter 6. Belle Meets An Emergency In Her Own Way

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_ CHAPTER SIX. BELLE MEETS AN EMERGENCY IN HER OWN WAY

A Meadow Lark, his conscience comfortable after a generous breakfast of big and little worms carried to his mate hidden away under a thick clump of rabbit weed down by the creek, spread rigid wings and volplaned to the crooked post beside the corral gate, folded his feathers snug and tilted his head aslant. "Cler, cler, cler, cler-ee, cler-ee!" he sang, and perked a wary eye toward the low-roofed stable.

"Oh, I hear you, you sassy little sinner! I wouldn't think you'd have the nerve, after what you've done to my radishes. I'm sure going to mix with you, if you--Rosa! Lift a heel at me and you die! Stand over--don't you try squeezing me against the wall, or I'll take my quirt to you! Get over there, before I brain you! Hay-ah-h, you--"

From the sounds one would imagine that a bear, two lions and a mule had come to handgrips in the stable, and that a woman of the Amazons was battling with them all. The meadow lark knew better. This was his second season on the Devil's Tooth ranch, and he knew that Belle Lorrigan was merely harnessing her pinto team in the stable, and that nothing out of the ordinary was taking place. Being a wise bird as well as an inquisitive one, he fluttered up to the ridge-pole of the roof and from that sanctuary listened beady-eyed to the customary tumult.

Certain staccato epithets meant merely that Subrosa was objecting to the crupper. A sudden stamping testified that Belle had approached Rosa with the bridle. A high-keyed, musical voice chanting man-size words of an intimidating nature followed which proved that the harnessing was progressing as well as could be expected. Then came a lull, and the meadow lark tilted forward expectantly, his head turned sidewise to see what came next.

First came Belle Lorrigan, walking backward, a shot-loaded quirt raised admonishingly to the chin of Subrosa who walked stiff-legged and reluctant, his white-lashed, blue eyes rolling fearsomely, his nostrils belling in loud snorts of protest. A complexity of emotions stirred Subrosa. Afraid to lunge forward, hating to walk circumspectly, eager for the race yet dreading the discipline of rein and whip, Subrosa yielded perforce to the inevitable. As his heels flicked over the low doorsill he swung round and landed one final kick against the log wall, threw up his head in anticipation of the quirt, stepped on a dragging trace chain and jumped as though it was a rattler.

"None of that, you cantankerous brute! One of these days I'm going to just naturally brain you, Sub. I'm getting good and tired of this circus business. You settle down, now, and act human, or--"

Subrosa kicked at the trace and flipped it up so that it struck him smartly on the rump. He jumped straight forward at Belle, who dodged and landed the quirt none too gently on his nose. Subrosa sat down violently, and Belle straightway kicked him in the paunch by way of hinting that she preferred him standing. Then they had it out, rampaging all over the round-pole corral until Belle, breathing a bit fast but sparkly-eyed and victorious, led Subrosa through the gate and up to the post where she snubbed him fast. She was turning to go after Rosa when a young voice called to her anxiously.

"Oh, Mrs. Lorrigan! Quick, I'm in a hurry. I mustn't stay, because they'll be here in a little while. But they're coming by the road and I came down the trail, and that gave me time. I can't take any more music lessons, Mrs. Lorrigan. Father is that angry wi' your husband--and oh, Mrs. Lorrigan! If you have any hide that isna your own, ye should hide it away at once! Because the shuriff--"

Belle laid her palms on her hips and stared blankly up at Mary Hope, who sat nervously on old Rab at the gate.

"Heavens, child! My hide is my own--and at that it's pretty well hidden. What about the sheriff? What's he got to say about it?"

"It's the stealing, Mrs. Lorrigan. Father has the shuriff wi' him, and they are going to search the ranch for the hides--"

"Good Lord! What hides?"

"The hides of my father's cattle. And if you have any, put them away quick, where the shuriff canna find them, Mrs. Lorrigan! It's ill I should go against my father, but you have been so good to me with the music lessons, and--"

"Don't let the music lessons bother you, Hope. And I guess we're entitled to all the cowhides we've got on the place, if that's what you mean. What do you think we are--thieves, Hope Douglas?"

"I dinna say it. I only came to warn ye, so that you may have time tae put your hides way oot o' their sicht when they come. I dinna want that your husband should go to prison, Mrs. Lorrigan. But father is that angry--"

"Well, say! Let me tell you something, Hope. If there's any talk of stealing and prison for the Lorrigans, your dad had better keep outa my Tom's sight. And outa mine," she added grimly. "There'll be no searching for anything on this ranch when my Tom's not here to see what goes on. You better go back and tell your dad I said it. If you don't and he brings the sheriff on here, don't blame me if somebody gets hurt."

"Oh, but it's the law they're bringing on ye! Ye canna go contrary to the law!" Mary Hope's voice quavered with fear.

"Oh, can't I!" Belle gave her head a tilt. "You beat it, while the going's good. I hear voices up on the road. If you don't want your dad to come and catch you here--"

That settled it. Terror drove Mary Hope into the Devil's Tooth trail at Rab's best pace, which was a stiff-legged lope. Her last glance backward showed her Belle Lorrigan taking her six-shooter belt off the buckboard seat and buckling it around her waist so that the gun hung well forward. Mary Hope shuddered and struck Rab with the quirt.

Belle had led Rosa from the stable and was cautiously fastening the neck yoke in place when the sheriff and Aleck Douglas rode around the corner of the stable. Rosa shied and snorted and reared, and Belle used the rein-ends for a whiplash until Rosa decided that she would better submit to authority and keep her hide whole. She stood fairly quiet after that, with little nipping dance-steps in one spot, while Belle fastened buckles and snaps and trace chains. Subrosa, having had his tantrum, contented himself with sundry head-shakings and snorts. When the team was "hooked up" to Belle's satisfaction, she tied them both firmly to the corral with short ropes, and finally turned her attention to her visitors.

"Howdy, Mr. Douglas? Fine day we're having," she greeted the dour Scotchman amiably.

The sheriff coughed behind his hand, looked sidelong at his companion, rode a step or two nearer to Belle, swung a leg over the cantle of his saddle. Perhaps he expected Aleck Douglas to introduce him, but he did not wait for the formality.

"Mrs. Lorrigan, I'm sheriff of the county," he began ingratiatingly, when his two feet were on the ground.

"You are?" Belle flashed a row of very white teeth. "You sure don't look it. I'd have taken you for a regular human being."

"Mr. Douglas, here, would like to take a look at some hides Mr. Lorrigan has got curing. He thinks possibly--"

"'Tis useless to cover the truth wi' saft words, shuriff," Douglas interrupted glumly. "'Tis stolen cattle we are tracing, and 'tis here we wad look for the hides of them. I hae guid reason--"

"You'll find my husband at the round-up. Before you do any searching, you had better go and have a talk with him. When he's gone strangers don't go prowling around this ranch."

"We'll have our talk with him after we've taken a look around," the sheriff amended, grinning a little. "It's just a matter of form--nothing you need to object to, one way or the other. I don't suppose we'll find anything--"

"No, I don't suppose you will. Not unless you find it on the road back. I hate to seem unfriendly, but I'll just have to ask you to crawl on your horse and go see Tom about it."

"Now, we don't want any unpleasantness at all, Mrs. Lorrigan. But this man has swore out a warrant--"

"Shucks! What he does never did interest me one way or the other, and does not now. I'm telling you there'll be no snooping around here while Tom's away."

"Oh, well, now!" The sheriff rather prided himself on his ability to "handle folks peaceable," as he expressed it. He injected a little more of the oil of persuasiveness into his voice. It was his standard recipe for avoiding trouble with a woman. "You don't think for a minute I'd take advantage of his absence, Mrs. Lorrigan? Nothing like that at all. We just want to see if a certain cowhide is here. If it isn't, then we won't need to bother Tom at all, maybe. Get down, Mr. Douglas, and we'll just have a look around. Mrs. Lorrigan ain't going to make no objections to that."

Belle smiled. "Oh, yes, she is. She's going to do quite a lot of objecting. You better stay right where you are, Scotty. You're a heap safer."

The sheriff began to lose patience. "Now, look here, Mrs. Lorrigan! You're dealing with the law, you know. We can't have any nonsense."

"We won't have," Belle assured him placidly. "That's what I've been trying to beat into your head. Why, good Lord! Can't you take the hint and see I'm trying not to have any trouble with yuh? I don't want to have to run you off the ranch--but as you say, there's not going to be any nonsense. I said, go. I'm waiting to see if you've got sense enough to do it."

"Sa-ay! Just look here now! Do you know it's a State's prison offense to resist an officer!" The sheriff's face was growing red.

Belle laughed. "Sure. But I'm not. You--you're irresistible! And I don't know you're an officer."

This went over the sheriff's head and was wasted, though Aleck Douglas pulled down his mouth at the corners as though he was afraid he might smile if he were not careful.

The sheriff took up his bridle reins, preparing to lead his horse over to a post and tie him. He glanced at Belle and saw that she had a six-shooter in her hand and a glitter in her eyes. Quite naturally he hesitated. Then, at a perfectly plain signal from the gun, he turned his palms toward her at a level with his shoulders.

"You needn't tie up. Crawl into the saddle and drift."

"I've got a search warrant--"

"You can keep it and show it to Tom. And get off this ranch just as quick as that horse can take you. I'll have you both arrested for trespassing. I'm not taking your word for anything, you see. I don't know anything about your warrant--hey, Riley!" This to the cook, who came, taking steps as long as his legs would let him, and swinging a damp dishcloth in one moist red hand.

"Riley, here's a man claims he's the sheriff and that he's got a warrant to search the ranch. I don't believe a word of it, and I've ordered him off the place. I wouldn't for the world resist an officer of the law--put your hands up a little higher, Mr. Man!--but when Tom ain't home no stranger is going to come snooping around here if I can stop him. Ain't that right, Riley?"

"That's right, Belle," Riley acquiesced, working his oversized Adam's apple convulsively. (Riley, by the way, would just as readily have approved of murder if Belle had asked for his approval.)

"Well, you're a witness that I'm from Missouri. I've told this man to go tell his troubles to Tom. If he's honest he'll do it. If he don't go in about ten seconds, I'm going to throw a bullet through his hat. Then if he hangs around, I shall shoot him in his left leg just about six inches above the knee. I can do it, can't I, Riley?"

"Well, now, you shore can, Belle!" Riley nodded his head emphatically. "If you say six, I'd shore gamble a year's wages it won't be five, or seven. Six inches above his knee goes, if you say six."

"All right. I'm just defending the ranch when Tom's gone. You hear me, Mr. Man. Now, you git!"

The sheriff turned and opened his mouth to protest, and Belle shot the promised bullet through his hat crown. The sheriff ducked and made a wild scramble for the stirrup.

"Open your mouth again and I'll be awfully tempted to shoot that crooked tooth out of it," Belle observed. "And in ten seconds, remember, you're going to get--"

The sheriff still had two of the ten seconds to spare when he left, Aleck Douglas following him glumly.

"It's him, all right. It's the sheriff, Belle," Riley informed her, while they watched the two clatter up the road to where the real grade began. "What's eatin' on 'em? Likely he did have a search warrant."

"He can use it, after I'm through. Old Scotty is trailing some rustled stock, they claim. They came here looking for hides. You keep an eye out, Riley, and see if they keep going. I guess they will--they'll go after Tom. I'm going to have a look at those cowhides in the old shed."

"Better let me," Riley offered. "It ain't any job for a woman nohow. You watch the trail and I'll look."

Belle would not even consider the proposition. The Lorrigan reputation never had troubled her much,--but it sent her now to the shed where hides were kept stored until the hide buyer made his next annual visit through the country. She did not believe that she would find any brand save the various combinations of the NL monogram, but she meant to make sure before any stranger was given access to the place.

The job was neither easy nor pleasant, but she did it thoroughly. Riley, roosting meditatively on the top rail of the corral where he could watch the road down the bluff, craned his long neck inquiringly toward her when she returned.

"Nothing but NL stuff, just as I thought," said Belle, holding her hands as far away from her face as possible. "I knew Tom wouldn't have any stolen hides on the place--but it was best to make sure."

"No ma'am, he wouldn't. I'm shore surprised they'd come and try to find any. Looks bad to me, Belle. Looks to me like somebody is shore tryin' to start somethin'. There's plenty in the Black Rim would like to see Tom railroaded to the pen--plenty. Looks to me like they're aimin' to pin something on him. No, sir, I don't like it. Uh course," he went on, letting himself loose-jointedly to the ground, "they couldn't get nothing on Tom--not unless they framed something. But I wouldn't put it a-past 'em to do it. No, ma'am, I wouldn't."

"Your bread's burning, Riley. I can smell it. Don't you never think they'll frame on Tom. They may try it--but that's as far as they'll get. They don't want to start anything with the Lorrigans!"

"Well, I left the oven door open. She ain't burning to hurt. Yuh see, Scotty Douglas, he's religious and he don't never pack a gun. Them kind's bad to tangle up with; awful bad. There ain't nothing much a man can do with them religious birds. Them not being armed, you can't shoot--it's murder. And that kinda ties a man's hands, as yuh might say. They always take advantage of it, invariable. No, ma'am, it looks bad."

"It'll look worse--for them that tries any funny business with this outfit," Belle assured him. "Go along and 'tend to your baking. You know I hate burnt bread. I'm going to drive over and see what they're up to."

She untied Rosa and Subrosa, and because she was in a hurry she permitted Riley to hold them by the bits while she climbed in, got the lines firmly in one hand and her blacksnake in the other. Not often did she deign to accept assistance, and Riley was all aquiver with gratified vanity at this mark of her favor.

"Turn 'em loose--and get to that bread!" she cried, and circled the pintos into the road. "You, Sub! Cut that out, now--settle down! Rosa! Stead-dy, I ain't any Ben Hur pulling off a chariot race, remember!"

At a gallop they took the first sandy slope of the climb, and Belle let them go. They were tough--many's the time they had hit the level on top of the ridge without slowing to a walk on the way up. They had no great load to pull, and if it pleased them to lope instead of trot, Belle would never object.

As she sat jouncing on the seat of a buckboard with rattly spokes in all of the four wheels and a splintered dashboard where Subrosa landed his heels one day when he had backed before he kicked, one felt that she would have made a magnificent charioteer. Before she had gone half a mile her hair was down and whipping behind her like a golden pennant. Her big range hat would have gone sailing had it not been tied under her chin with buckskin strings. Usually she sang as she hurtled through space, but to-day the pintos missed her voice.

Five miles out on the range she overtook the sheriff and Aleck Douglas riding to the round-up. Aleck Douglas seldom rode faster than a jogging trot, and the sheriff was not particularly eager for his encounter with Tom Lorrigan. For that matter, no sheriff had ever been eager to encounter a Lorrigan. The Lorrigan family had always been counted a hazard in the office of the sheriff, though of a truth the present generation had remained quiescent so far and the law had not heretofore reached its arm toward them.

The two men looked back, saw Belle coming and parted to let her pass. Belle yelled to her team and went by with never a glance toward either, and the two stared after her without a word until she had jounced down into a shallow draw and up the other side, the pintos never slowing their lope.

"Well, I'm darned!" ejaculated the sheriff. His name, by the way, was Perry. "I've heard tell of Belle Lorrigan drivin' hell-whoopin' over the country with a team of bronks, but I kinda thought they was stretching the truth. I guess not, though, if that's a sample."

"The woman hersel' is no so bad. 'Tis the men folk that are black wi' sin. Drinkin', swearin', gamblin' thieves they be, and 'tis well they should be taught a lesson." The Douglas head wagged self-righteously.

"Maybe it would be a good idea to go back and search the ranch now, while she's gone." The sheriff pulled up, considering. "I didn't want any trouble with her; I never do quarrel with a woman if I can get around it any way. She's a holy terror. I guess I'll just ride back and take a look at them hides."

Aleck Douglas eyed him sardonically, thinking perhaps of the black-edged bullet hole that showed plainly in the sheriff's hat-crown.

"'Tis a deal safer wi' the woman oot of the way," he agreed drily.

The sheriff nodded and turned back. _

Read next: Chapter 7. The Name

Read previous: Chapter 5. They Ride And They Do Not Tell Where

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