The Ramblin' Kid Part 39

He and Old Heck started toward the house.

"Hey, you fellows!" Old Heck called, pausing and turning toward the barn where the cowboys were putting away their saddles, "when you get through all of you come on up to the house! Ophelia and me's married and the bride is waiting to be congratulated!"

"Good lord," Charley gasped, "hear that, fellers? Old Heck said him and the widow's married!"

"Gosh!" Chuck laughed, "it must have been a jolt to Parker! I bet his heart's plumb bu'sted!"

As soon as their saddles were put away the cowboys hurried toward the house. They met the Ramblin' Kid, crossing from the circular corral to the bunk-house.

"Come on," Bert called to him, "Old Heck and Ophelia's gone and got married! We're going up to the house to sympathize with the widow!"

"I ain't needed," the Ramblin' Kid answered with a careless laugh. "You fellers can take my 'love' to th' afflicted couple!"

After the cowboys had gone to the house Skinny went and got Old Pie Face. Stopping at the stable, he saddled the pinto and strolled over to the bunk-house. The Ramblin' Kid was lying stretched on his bed. Skinny rolled the white shirt carefully into a bundle and wrapped a newspaper around it.

"What you goin' to do?" the Ramblin' Kid asked.

"I'm goin' to town!" Skinny answered shortly. "I'm going up to Eagle b.u.t.te and get on a h.e.l.l of a drunk--if I can get hold of any boot-leg whisky--Carolyn June and me have bu'sted up on our love-making!"

"Going to get drunk, are you?" the Ramblin' Kid queried with a note of scorn in his voice, "an' forget your sorrows?"

"Yes," Skinny retorted, "I'm going to get drunk as you was the day of the race!"

"Drunk as I was th' day of th' race?" the Ramblin' Kid repeated quizzically. "Oh, h.e.l.l, yes--now I understand--" pausing, while a smile curled his lips.

"Yes," Skinny retorted again. "Where'd you get yours that day?"

"Never mind," was the answer. "I guess I'll go to Eagle b.u.t.te with you!

You'll need somebody to ride herd on you while you're snortin' around.

Anyhow, I feel like goin' on a tear myself--not a drunk--a man's a darned fool that'll let any woman make a whisky barrel out of him! But I got an itchin' for a little poker game or somethin'. Wait till I get Captain Jack!"

"Where's Skinny and th' Ramblin' Kid?" Old Heck asked after he and Parker and the cowboys were at the house and the first flush of embarra.s.sment had pa.s.sed.

Carolyn June thought she knew where Skinny was, but did not answer.

"I don't know what's become of Skinny," Parker said. "Th' Ramblin' Kid's probably out mopin' somewhere. I think he's getting ready to 'ramble'

again--he's been acting plumb despondent ever since the Rodeo in Eagle b.u.t.te!"

Carolyn June stepped to the door. Dimly through the darkness she saw two riders pa.s.s up the grade that led to the bench and turn their horses to the west, toward Eagle b.u.t.te, and ride straight into the outflung shadow of the thunder-storm--from which now and then leaped jagged flashes of lightning--and which was rolling from the Costejo Mountains across the Kiowa range in the direction of the Quarter Circle KT.

Silent and with a heavy heart she turned away from the door.

CHAPTER XIX

THE GREEK GETS HIS

It was long after midnight when the Ramblin' Kid and Skinny rode into Eagle b.u.t.te and the heels of Captain Jack and Old Pie Face echoed noisily on the board floor of the livery stable as the bronchos turned into the wide, open doorway of the barn. A drowsy voice from the cubby-hole of an office called:

"In just a minute--I'll be out!"

"Aw, thunder," Skinny answered, "go on back to sleep, we'll find stalls and put 'em up!"

Captain Jack and Old Pie Face cared for, Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid stepped out into the deserted street.

Eagle b.u.t.te was sleeping.

Here and there a blaze of light from a store window invited belated pa.s.sers to covet the bargains offered within; a half-dozen incandescent bulbs, swung on cross-wires at intervals along the street, glowed feebly as if weary with the effort to beat back the darkness clutching at the throat of the town; over the sidewalk in front of the Elite Amus.e.m.e.nt Parlor an illuminated red and green sign told that Mike Sabota's place was still open; across the porch of the Occidental Hotel and spilling itself on the ground out in the street a stream of light guided weary travelers to the portals of that ancient, though hospitable, inst.i.tution; from the sides of the b.u.t.te beyond the railroad tracks a coyote yelped shrilly a jerky, wailing challenge--a dozen dogs, suddenly aroused in different parts of the town, answered.

"Pretty dead-lookin'," the Ramblin' Kid remarked. "Let's go down to Sabota's."

"All right," Skinny replied, and they moved down the street.

The pool-room offered nothing of interest. A couple of traveling men, waiting for the early morning train, were playing a listless game of billiards at one of the tables; a pair of j.a.p sugar-beet workers and a negro section hand sat half-asleep and leaned against the wall; "Red"

Jackson, Sabota's chief lieutenant, with an air of utter boredom, lounged behind the soft-drink bar. Sabota was not there.

"What's happened to everybody?" Skinny asked; "where's Mike?"

"Everybody's got religion, I guess," Red yawned, "and gone to bed. What do you want with Sabota?" looking suspiciously at the Ramblin' Kid; "he's over at Vegas; won't be back till to-morrow--or to-day it is now, I reckon--evening sometime!"

"Th' Ramblin' Kid and me have been out in the rain," Skinny said suggestively, "and thought we might take cold--"

"Nothing doing!" Red laughed, "ain't a drop around! When Mike gets back he'll fix you up, maybe--that's what he's gone after!"

"We'd just as well go to bed!" Skinny grumbled disgustedly to the Ramblin' Kid.

"I reckon," was the laconic answer.

They returned to the hotel, roused the clerk from his doze, secured a room and retired.

It was eight o'clock when they got up.

Both went directly to the livery stable and saw that Captain Jack and Old Pie Face were properly attended to. While at the barn Skinny took the bundle he had wrapped in the bunk-house at the ranch from the saddle where he had tied it.

"What's that?" the Ramblin' Kid queried.

"It's that darned shirt!" Skinny retorted. "I'm going to make Old Leon eat it--it wasn't the size Parker asked for!"

The Ramblin' Kid laughed, but said nothing.

They returned to the hotel and had breakfast. Manilla Endora waited on them. Before Carolyn June and Ophelia came to the Quarter Circle KT Manilla's yellow hair and blue eyes were the flames that fanned the affections of Skinny. He felt guilty as, sweetly as ever and without a hint of reproach, Manilla took their orders and served them with their ham and eggs and coffee.

After breakfast Skinny and the Ramblin' Kid explored the town.

Eagle b.u.t.te had come to life. The stores were open. Business was brisk.

The "dray" was delivering the express acc.u.mulated the night before at the depot. Here and there a morning shopper was pa.s.sing along the street. At the post-office there was quite a crowd.