Frank Merriwell's Athletes Part 49

"Oh, father!" she exclaimed, reprovingly.

"Ha! ha!" laughed Rodney, in his rough, hearty manner. "I know it's rude of me, but it's hard to learn an old dog new tricks."

Then he leaned over to Diamond, who sat near him, and whispered loud enough for every one present to hear him:

"Don't you think I've a mighty fine gal? She's cost me a heap of money, but I don't care. I'd spend all I've got on her. Look at her! Have you got any handsomer gals than that in the East?"

"If so I have not had the pleasure of seeing them," said Jack, gallantly.

Quite naturally, this confused the girl still more, and Frank hastened to crack a joke and tell a bit of a story to turn attention from her.

Merry saw that she was really ladylike and refined, for all of her honest father's good-natured coa.r.s.eness, and her position had distressed her not a little.

Hans tried to be very attentive to Miss Abigail, but she repulsed him, so that he was very crestfallen after that, not a little to the amus.e.m.e.nt of the others.

The breakfast progressed merrily.

While it was going on a horseman came dashing up to the house, walked up to the dining-room window, leaned on the sill, and looked in.

"Howdy, Rodney," he said, in a familiar manner.

Then he lifted the broad-brimmed hat from his dark curls and bowed to Sadie. After that he held the hat under his arm while he stood by the window.

He was a handsome fellow in his way, having a drooping black mustache and an imperial, while his dark eyes were keen and piercing. There was about his face a devil-may-care look, as if he feared nothing that walked on the face of the earth.

He was puffing carelessly at a Spanish cigarette, held by his full red lips, which showed beneath the mustache.

"Morning Charlie," said the rancher. "Glad to see you on hand so early.

Are the boys from the Lone Star comin' up?"

"The whole of Concho Valley will be here to-day," returned the man at the window. "It is bound to be a big time, Rodney."

"That's whatever. Bill Rodney don't do anything by halves. When did ye start?"

"Midnight."

"Wal, it's a right smart ride. Give yer horse to Kemble and come in to breakfast. You can have my chance here."

"Thank you; but I'll wait till you are through."

Then he strolled away, his handsome horse following him like a well-trained dog.

"Who is he?" asked Frank.

"That's Indian Charlie, foreman of the Lone Star Ranch," answered Rodney. "He's the best shot and roper in Texas, and the most reckless rider I ever saw. He was born in the East, and went to college, but skipped after shootin' another chap in a duel over a girl. Lucky for Charlie, t'other chap didn't die; but Charlie never went back, and now he has the most remarkable aversion for all tenderfeet of any man I ever saw. You all want to be right careful not to git him r'iled, for he is worse than a wild steer on the rampage when he's mad. He has a way of shootin' first and talkin' it over afterward."

"Such a fellow as that needs to be taught a lesson," said Frank. "Some one should take the trouble to teach him, too."

"No one who knows him dares take the trouble to try."

"That's strange. I had an idea cowboys were not afraid of anything."

"It is plain you do not understand what a dangerous man Indian Charlie is, Mr. Merriwell," said the rancher's daughter. "You must be sure to keep away from him, as you cannot be sure he will not take offense at some trivial thing and force you to apologize."

"Indeed!" smiled Merriwell, lifting his eyebrows. "This man grows more and more interesting to me."

"Yaw, he peen very inderestin mit me," broke in Hans. "I vos goin' to kept meinself a goot vays near off from him."

"Miss Rodney," said Harry, "you have said just enough to arouse Frank Merriwell's curiosity, and now he will not be able to keep away from this Indian Charlie. He is certain to do something to stir Charlie up at the first opportunity."

The girl turned pale.

"Don't do it, Mr. Merriwell, I beg of you!" she cried. "You will simply humiliate yourself, for you will be forced to apologize to save yourself from being shot."

Frank laughed.

"Don't let that worry you, Miss Rodney," he said. "I a.s.sure you there is no cause of alarm. I am not going to chase him with a chip on my shoulder."

But those who knew Frank best were certain he would not seek to avoid trouble with the foreman of the Lone Star, and they felt a foreboding of coming trouble.

CHAPTER XXVII-COWBOY PECULIARITIES

After breakfast the little party went out upon the broad veranda.

The sun was still red, but it was growing smaller and hotter as it mounted into the sky.

Its slanting rays lighted up a rolling prairie, illimitable in expanse and stretching away till its irregular, wavy outline was marked against the sky.

Now and then, miles away, small clumps of stunted jack-oaks or mesquite made dark green polka dot spots on the lighter color of the gra.s.s, while far away lay a genuine chaparral thicket.

Between the ranch and the chaparral a herd of several hundred cattle were feeding.

Near the ranch house were outbuildings and corrals.

In the vicinity of these a number of cowboys could be seen moving about.

Still urging the boys to make themselves at home, Rodney left them.

Before he departed, he sighted a body of hors.e.m.e.n riding down rapidly from the northeast.

"Here come the boys from Tilford's ranch," he said. "I knew they'd be the first ones to show up."

The boys watched the approaching riders with interest. Before long they could be plainly seen, and, as they came near the ranch, they broke into a mad gallop and came tearing across the prairie.

Anything wilder in appearance than those leather-clad "punchers" the imagination could not conceive. They yelled and cracked their quirts, spreading out into a long line, mounted on tough little ponies, which tore over the ground with a twinkling movement of the legs which was bewildering to one accustomed to the movements of an ordinary galloping horse.