Frances of the Ranges Part 3

Captain Rugley saw his eyes wandering from one thing to the other as Ming served a perfect soup.

"Just pick-ups over the Border," the old man explained, with a comprehensive wave of his hand toward the candelabra and other articles of value. "I and a partner of mine, when we were in the Rangers years and years ago, raided over into Mexico and brought back the bulk of these things.

"We cached them down in Arizona till after I was married and built this ranch-house. Poor Lon! Never have heard what became of him. I've got his share of the treasure out of old Don Milo Morales' _hacienda_ right here. When he comes for it we'll divide. But I haven't heard from Lon since long before Frances, here, was born."

This was just explanation enough to whet the curiosity of Pratt. Talk of the Texas Rangers, and raiding over the Border, and looting a Mexican _hacienda_, was bound to set the young man's imagination to work.

But the dinner, as it was served in courses, took up Pratt's present attention almost entirely. Never--not even when he took dinner at the home of the president of the bank in Amarillo--had he eaten so well-cooked and well-served a meal.

Despite his commonplace speech, Captain Rugley displayed a familiarity with the niceties of table etiquette that surprised the guest. Frances'

mother had come from the East and from a family that had been used to the best for generations. And the old ranchman, in middle age, had set himself the task of learning the niceties of table manners to please her.

He had never fallen back into the old, careless ways after Frances'

mother died. He ate to-night in black clothes and a soft, white shirt in the bosom of which was a big diamond. Although he had sat on the veranda without a coat--contrary to his doctor's orders--he had slipped one on when he came to the table and, with his neatly combed hair, freshly shaven face, and well-brushed mustache, looked well groomed indeed.

He would have been a bizarre figure at a city table; nevertheless, he presided at his own board with dignity, and was a splendid foil for the charming figure of Frances opposite.

In the midst of the repast the Captain said, suddenly, to the soft-footed Chinaman:

"Ming! telephone down to Sam at the bunk-house and see if a hobo has just struck there, on his way to Amarillo. I told him he could get chuck and a sleep. Savvy?"

"Jes so, Clapen," said Ming, softly, and shuffled out.

It was evident that the tramp was on the Captain's mind. Pratt believed there must be some special reason for the old ranchman's worrying over marauders about the Bar-T.

There was nothing to mar the friendliness of the dinner, however; not even when Ming slipped back and said in a low voice to the Captain:

"Him Slilent Slam say no hobo come to blunk-house."

They finished the meal leisurely; but on rising from the table Captain Rugley removed a heavy belt and holster from its hook behind the sideboard and slung it about his hips.

Withdrawing the revolver, he spun the cylinder, made sure that it was filled, and slipped it back in the holster. All this was done quite as a matter of course. Frances made no comment, nor did she seem surprised.

The three went back to the porch for a little while, although the night air was growing chill. Frances insisted that her father wear his coat, and they both sat out of the brighter radiance of the hanging lamp.

She and her guest were talking about the forthcoming pageant at the Jackleg schoolhouse. Pratt had begun to feel enthusiastic over it as he learned more of the particulars.

"People scarcely realize," said Frances, "that this Panhandle of ours has a history as ancient as St. Augustine, Florida. And _that_, you know, is called the oldest white settlement in these United States.

"Long, long ago the Spanish explorers, with Indian guides whom they had enslaved, made a path through the swarming buffaloes up this way and called the country _Llano Estacada_, the staked plain. Our geographers misapplied the name 'Desert' to this vast country; but Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma threw off that designation because it was proven that the rains fell more often than was reported."

"What has built up those states," said Pratt, with a smile, "is farming, not cattle."

The Captain grunted, for he had been listening to the conversation.

"You ought to have seen those first hayseeds that tried to turn the ranges into posy beds and wheat fields," he chuckled. "They got all that was coming to them--believe me!"

Frances laughed. "Daddy is still unconverted. He does not believe that the Panhandle is fit for anything but cattle. But he's going to let me have two hundred acres to plow and sow to wheat--he's promised."

The Captain grunted again.

"And last year we grew a hundred acres of milo maize and feterita.

Helped on the winter feed--didn't it, Daddy?" and she laughed.

"Got me there, Frances--got me there," admitted the old ranchman. "But I don't hope to live long enough to see the Bar-T raising more wheat than steers."

"No. It's stock-raising we want to follow, I believe," said the girl, calmly. "We must raise feed for our steers, fatten them in fenced pastures, and ship them more quickly."

"My goodness!" exclaimed Pratt, admiringly, "you talk as though you understood all about it, Miss Frances."

"I think I _do_ know something about the new conditions that face us ranchers of the Panhandle," the girl said, quietly. "And why shouldn't I? I have been hearing it talked about, and thinking of it myself, ever since I can remember."

Secretly Pratt thought she must have given her attention to something beside the ranch work and cattle-raising. Of this he was a.s.sured when they went inside later, and Frances sat down to the piano. The instrument was in a big room with a bare, polished floor. It was evidently used for dancing. There was a talking machine as well as a piano. The girl played the latter very nicely indeed. There were a few scratches on the floor of the room, and she saw Pratt looking at them.

"I told Ratty M'Gill he shouldn't come in here with the rest of the boys to dance if he didn't take his spurs off," she said. "We have an old-time hoe-down for the boys pretty nearly every week, when we're not too rushed on the ranch. It keeps 'em better contented and away from the towns on pay-days."

"Are the cowpunchers just the same as they used to be?" asked Pratt. "Do they go to town and blow it wide open on pay-nights?"

"Not much. We have a good sheriff. But it wasn't so long ago that your fancy little city of Amarillo was nothing but a cattleman's town. I'm going to have a representation of old Amarillo in our pageant--you'll see. It will be true to life, too, for some of the very people who take part in our play lived in Amarillo at the time when the sight of a high hat would draw a fusillade of bullets from the door of every saloon and dance-hall."

"Don't!" gasped Pratt. "Was Amarillo ever like _that_?"

"And not twenty years ago," laughed Frances. "It had a few hundred inhabitants--and most of them ruffians. Now it claims ten thousand, has bricked streets that used to be cow trails, electric lights, a street-car service, and all the comforts and culture of an 'effete East.'"

Pratt laughed, too. "It's a mighty comfortable place to live in--beside Bill Edwards' ranch, for instance. But I notice here at the Bar-T you have a great many of the despised Eastern luxuries."

"'Do-funnies' daddy calls them," said Frances, smiling. "Ah! here he is."

The old ranchman came in, the holstered pistol still slung at his hip.

"All secure for the night, Daddy?" she asked, looking at him tenderly.

"Locked, barred, and bolted," returned her father. "I tell you, Pratt, we're something of a fort here when we go to bed. The court's free to you; but don't try to get out till Ming opens up in the morning. You see, we're some distance from the bunk-house, and n.o.body but the two c.h.i.n.ks are here with us now."

"I see, sir," said Pratt.

But he did not see; he wondered. And he wondered more when, after separating from Frances for the night, he found his way through the hall to the door of the room that had been a.s.signed to him for his use.

On the other side of the hall was another door, open more than a crack, with a light shining behind it. Pratt's curiosity got the better of him and he peeped.

Captain Dan Rugley was standing in the middle of the almost bare room, before an old dark, Spanish chest. He had a bunch of keys in one hand and in the other dangled the ancient girdle and the bracelet Frances had worn.

"That must be the 'treasure chest' she spoke of," thought the youth.

"And it looks it! Old, old, wrought-iron work tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs of Spanish design. What a huge old lock! My! it would take a stick of dynamite to blow that thing open if one hadn't the key."

The Captain moved quickly, turning toward the door. Pratt dodged back--then crept silently away, down the hall. He did not know that the eye of the old ranchman watched him keenly through the crack of the door.