Arizona Nights

MITTAN

ng from the cave and disappeared in the direction of the overhang beneath which they had spread their bed. After a moment we tore off long bundles of

By careful scrutiny of the footing I gained the entrance to our cave without mishap. I looked back. Here and there irregularly gleamed and spluttered my companions' tor

our blankets, the persistent waters had soaked down and through. The thousand-foot roof had a sprung a leak. Three separate and distinct streams of water ran as from s

ong a wet and disagreeable trail, happy and peaceful in anticipation of warm

otect the fire in his pipe. He gained the

e, hawk-like features relaxed. A faint grin appeared under h

him with a comical expression of d

s sorry for those othe

d to enter, straightened his lank figure, a

tur'ble dry, and was thinkin' I would have to

l in the centre of th

ar the entrance. We ignited it, and while it blazed we hastily

opped abruptly to the left, and was strewn with boulders and blocks of stone. Collisions and stumbles were frequent. Once I stepped off a little ledge five or six fee

e later were engaged in struggling desperately up the slant that

a man had ought to have hooks o

rs, our feet we hung over the ledge toward the blaze, our backs we leaned against the hollow slant of the cave's wall. We were not uncomforta

d from consciousness or returned fantastic to our half-awakening; a delicious numbness o

that the constant pressure of the hard rock had impeded our c

ew aside my hat and looked out. Jed Parker, a vivid patch-work comforter wrapped about his shoulders, stood upright and silent by the fire. I kept still, fearing to a

re than bat guano, tons of it. The fire, eating its way beneath, had rendered untenable its immediate vicinity. We felt as though we were living over a volcano. How soon our ledge, of the same material,

rwise than we had expected. Windy Bill br

but all at once, as though someone had turned on a faucet. In ten seconds a very competent streamlet six inches wide had eroded a course down through the guano, past the fire an

kind friend," said he. "Kind friend

e bad news for you. Yo

!' says t

he worst. Your cow

!' says t

the worst. Your h

!' says t

he barn set fire to the house,

' groans t

orst. Your wife and ch

rmer began to ro

iend, astonished, 'what in the wor

ers the farmer. 'Why,

"that's what strikes me about

s it?" asked

t," I an

ice quiet job at gardenin' in the East where you could belly up to the bar re

he Cattleman with decision; whereupon

he had been educated in England, and except for his accent he was more an Englishman than anything else. A freight outfit br

ket, and was surrounded by a half-dozen baby trunks. His face was red-cheeked and aggressively clean, and his eye limpid as a

e in these very mountains. Of course he was offered plenty of advice, and would proba

e, "I don't want to be inquisitive, b

was green myself in those days,

of family history," said I, "but

smi

at," said he, "but in a manner of

a younger son and likely to forget myself and do someth

you're a queer cha

ou in the mountains, you'll be outrageously cheated,

ourself, now?" he asked,

flar

, "go to the devil in your own wa

as at my elbow, his

o wait one moment until I dispose of these boxes of mine,

runks over to the hotel, then link

let's go somewhere for a B & S,

ws, names, and confidences, and before noon we had

lare and I had a most excellent month's excursion, shot se

ond expedition; crept in the gullies, tied bushes about ourselves when monumenting corners, and so helped establish the town of Tombstone. We made nothing, nor attempted

h an abundance of enthusiasm that he generally succeeded. The balloon pants soon went. In a month his outfit was irreproachable. He used to study us by the hour, taking in every deta

uch high heels to your boots?" he would ask. "

eeps your foot from slipping through the stirrup. In the second p

hat's true!

se things. He seemed to delight in his six-shooter and his rope just as ornaments

ould absorb all his thoughts. He'd bang away at inte

plain. "I believe if I extended my thumb alo

r filing the sights. In time he got to b

roping and hog-tyi

"If you were going to be a buckeroo,

" was alway

s favourite; and I never saw a Britisher yet who could play poker. I used to he

unding Tombstone I was bu

," said Tim, "an

told him, "but your mo

ine of the Chiricahua raids, which was true. But Buck had been in there with Agency steers, and thought he knew. So he collected a trail crew, brought some Oregon cattle across, a

queer atmospheric conditions that prevailed that summer, I never saw the desert more wonderful. It

too near the Reservation for them to do more than pick up a few stray head on their way through. The troops were always after them full jump, and so they never had time to round up the beef. But of course we had to look

rning out the horses a buckboard drew in, and from it descended Tony Br

the ranch, because it's Friday and the

only man in sight, the

ng manner I have since learned to be English,

him are you?" said I.

I didn't intend to deliv

e, and stared me over. I must have looked uncompromising, for after a few seconds he abruptly wrinkled his nose so tha

CASE, B

" said I s

am not here to do your young friend a harm. In fact, m

ed the way to the one-room a

ld home, I would have been disappointed. Tim was sitting with his back to th

reading. After a moment he said

eet, and looked about him daintily at our rough quarters. I made a move to go, whereu

er, "what is it this time? Must be something devilish important to b

s dry sing-song tones; "but my journey might have bee

pening his eyes. "My dear

sual to your Ne

e paused, pulling his moustache. "I'm truly sorry you had to come so far," he continued, "and if your business is, as I suspect, the old one of inducing me to retu

nt Mar, was very fond of you,"

his generosity

the terms of his will, and those te

ary is dead

y the sixteent

t pause

ar you," said Tim

ped and began to f

, with some impatience. "

ressed his finger points

entire estate of Staghurst, together with its buildings, rentals, and privileges. This,

sand dollars a year, Harry," T

condition," pu

im, his crest falling. "Wel

verts in its discontinuance, but may I be permitted to observe that the majority of men, myself among the number, are content to spend the most of their lives, not merely in the confines of a kingdom, but be

hy had recovered fro

ons are not complie

at law, and you receive an annuity of

e reason for this ext

d the lawyer, "but"-and a twinkle appeared in his e

st out

ell, Mr. Case, I am sure Mr. Johnson, the owner of this

go. Then, too, I was ruffled, in the senseless manner of youth, by the sudden altitude to which his changed fortune

looking up, "you're a ver

at and stood me up in the centre of the

apped. "You damn little foo

urst well, and told me all about the big stone house, and the avenue through the trees; and the hedg

e how much I wanted to see it. And I'll be a man

n as I could get together the money for the passage. He had the delicacy

little lawyer. I am not ashamed to say that I watc

ck Creek country. We witnessed the start of many Indian campaigns, participated in a few little brushes with the Chiricahuas, saw the beginning of the cattle-rustling. A man had not much opportunity to think o

ed open the door and walked in. I was young, but I'd seen a lot, an

pened again, and Buck

d he; "I saw

ou do," r

, and I don't want to know-it's none of my business-and I ain't goin' to tell you just what kind of a damn fool I thin

sir," said Ti

e man. Your money's nothin' to me, but the principle of the thing is. The country is plumb pestered with remittance men, doin' nothin', and I don't aim to run no home for inc

loaf," put in Tim

jest an ordinary cow-puncher's job at forty a month. An

isfactory,"

Case wanted me to give you a lot of advice. A man generally has

ent

at's up?" I cried,

though he had seen me the

ought you couldn't leave the es

" sa

e mone

N

n wh

s, that I couldn't afford t

do you

given

t up! Wh

me bac

s all in

en up an English estate and fifty thousand dollars a year to be a

ly," s

him solemnly, "yo

," he

ou do it?"

to where the mountains hovered like soap-bubbles on the

u recall the day we trailed across the Yuma deserts, and the sun beat into our skulls, and the dry, brittle hills looked like papier-mache, and the grey sage-bush ran off into the rise of the hills; and then came sunset and the hard, dry mountains grew filmy, like gauze veils of many colours, and melted and glowed and faded to slate blue, and the stars came out? The

n a half-dozen times

has seen nothing else. Case can exist in four walls; he has bee

the slack of your rope, and your pony sits back! Where in England can I buy that? You know the rising and the falling of days, and the boundless spaces where your heart grows big, and the thirst of the desert and the hunger of the trail, and a sun that shines and fills the sky, and a wind that blows fresh from the wide places! Where in parcelled, snu

s subsiding. Windy Bill reported a few stars shining through rifts in the showers. The chill

old 'alkali' is never happy anywhere else. However," he concluded emphatically, "one thing I do know: rain, cold, hunger, discomfort,