To the Last Man

ched into his narrati

nge fellar was thar. Strappin' young man-not so young, either-an' he had on buckskin. Hair black as my burros, dark face, sharp eyes-you'd took him fer an Injun. He carried a rifle-one of them new forty-fours-an' also somethin' wrapped in paper thet he seemed partickler careful about. He wore a belt round his middle an' thar wa

n your money's counterfeit hya

flipped some gold twenties on the bar, where they rung lik

heerd men come in the night an' hev long confabs with him. Whatever was in the wind hedn't pleased him none. An' I calkilated thet young Isbel wasn't

you an' me I sort of took a likin' to him. An' I sure watched him as close as I could, not seemin' to, you know. Reckon they all did the same, only you couldn't see it. It got jest about the same as if Isbel hedn't been in thar, only you knowed it wasn't really the same.

het will shake you. The first fellar was your father's Mexican foreman, Lorenzo, and the other was Simm Bruce. I reckon Bruce wasn't drunk

ht at Isbel. Greaves looked up dry an' sour an' he bit out spiteful-like: 'Wal, Simm, we ain't hed a hell of a lot of choice in thi

e enough fer me to see thet thar might be a surprise any minnit. I've looked at a lot of men in my day, an' can

Isbel?' asked Bruce, sort of lolling

entified me,' said I

eep heahaboots, an' I hev interes

ol as you please. Bruce hed an eye fer the crowd thet was

onto Basin to run us sheepmen

quietly. 'I came to work fer my fathe

when he sort of choked fer more wind Greaves spoke up, 'Simm, I shore reckon thet Nez Perce handle will stick.' An' the crowd haw-

t, fer instance?, asked I

e? Huh! Why, y'u darn half-breed, y'u'll git run out fer makin' up t

heerd his moccasins pat soft on the floor. An' I bet to myself thet he was as d

llen Jorth-up on the Rim-day before yestiddy. Y'u was watched. Y'u was with her. Y'u made up to her. Y'u

iet an' cold. I seen then thet

'u.' Bruce pointed at the grinnin' greaser. 'Lorenzo is Kurnel Jorth's foreman. He seen y'u maulin' of Ellen Jorth. An' when he

eep back to one side in case this Isbel started any action.... Wal, Isbel took a look at Lorenzo. Then with one swift grab he jerked the little

u saw me?' d

r,' replie

did yo

nzanita. I see senorita like grande seno

mouth. Sure it was a crack! Lorenzo went over the counter back

ain my crazy action.... Thet was all. The greaser lied. Ellen Jorth was kind enough to show me the trail. We talked a little. Then-I suppose-because she was young an' pretty an' sweet-I lost my head. She was abs

follow. The reciting of this tale had evidently given Sprague an unconscious pleasure. He glowed. He seemed to carry the burden of a secret that

hers.... Simm Bruce haw-hawed loud an' loud.... 'Say, Nez Perce,' he calls out, most insolent-like, 'we air too good sheepmen heah to hev the w

d to the other men. I take it he was wonderin' if he'd heerd right or if they'd

't I smart

len Jorth's lovers,' said Bruce, with a leer. 'Fer if y'u

o another of them. Then facin' Greaves, he said, deliberately: 'Greaves, this drunken Bruce is excuse enough fer a show-d

eaves, dryly. He spread wide his big hands to the other m

en Jorth's defense? I tell you the Mexican lied. Believin' me or not does

l looked sort of queer. His neck had a bulge round his collar. An' his eyes was like black coals

gurl,' said Greaves, sort of cold an' thick. 'Bruce shore ought to know her. Accordi

ntion to Bruce an' I fer on

t to me!'

thet's why Im a-goin' to

in sight. When Bruce got all the way up-he's a tall fellar-why Isbel took a full swing at him an' knocked him back across the room ag'in' the counter. Y'u know when a fellar's hurt by the way he yells. Bruce got thet second smash right on his big red nose.... I never seen any one so quick as Isbel. He vaulted over thet counter jest the second Bruce fell back on it, an' then, with Greaves's gang in front so he could catch any moves of theirs, he jest slugged Bruce right an' left, an' banged his head on the counter. Then as Bruce sunk limp an' slipped down, lookin' like a bloody sack, Isbel

own she possessed. This Ellen Jorth was an unknown creature. She sobbed now as she dragged the burro down the canyon trail. She sat down only to rise. She hurried only to stop. Driven, pursued, barred, she had no way to escape the flaying thoughts, no time or will to repudiate them. The death of her girlhood, the rending aside of a veil of maiden mystery only vaguely instinctively guessed, the barren, sordid truth of her life as seen by her enlightened eyes, the bitter realization of the vileness of men of her clan in contrast to the m

ream cut its rugged boulder-strewn bed. Water flowed abundantly at this season, and the deep washes leading down from the slopes attested to the fact of cloudbursts and heavy storms. This meadow valley was dotted with horses and cattle, and meandered away between the timbered slopes to lose itself in a green curve. A singular feature of this canyon was that a heavy growth of spruce trees covered the slope facin

one door and no windows. It was about twenty feet square. The huge, ragged, stone chimney had been built on the outside, with the wide open fireplace set inside the logs. Smoke was rising from the chimney. As Ellen halted at the door and began unpacking her burro she heard the loud, lazy laughter of men. An adjoining log cabin had been built in two se

Ellen did not get along well together, and few words ever passed between them. Ellen had a canvas curtain stretched upon a wire across a small triangular corner, and this afforded her a little privacy. Her possessions were limited in number. The crude square table she had constructed herself. Upon it was a little old-fashioned walnut-framed mirror, a brush and co

was dark and smelled of smoke, of the stale odors of past cooked meals, of the mustiness of dry, rotting timber. Streaks of light showed through the roof where the rough-hewn shingles had split or weathered. A strip of bacon hung upon one side of the cupboard, and upon the other a haunch of venison. Ellen detes

r. Her mind was as busy as her hands. As she cleaned and swept and dusted she heard from time to time the voices of

ow darkened

d a lazy, drawling voice

is face was lined and hard. His long, sandy mustache hid his mouth and drooped with a curl. Spurred, booted, belted, packi

replied Ellen. "

an' Colter. Shore's playin' bad,

'?" quer

, with a lazy laugh. "There's a stack of gold on the table. Re

slow. His long' spurs clinked. He laid a r

l, give us a

replied Ellen as she slipp

onate assurance, at once bold and self-contained. Ellen, however, had to exert herself to get

p your paws off

no bear," he remonstrated

n' the matter. Y'u're to keep you

, and his movements were lazy and slow

on my knee just the oth

he blood sti

hild," she

oman. All in a few days! ... Doon't be in

now warmed by the dalliance of the moment, but there was no light, no intelligence in them to pr

eless, too, and thoughtless when I should have known better. But I hardly understood y'u men. I put

he returned, with a change of to

y'u asked me to marry y'u after y'u found y'u couldn't have your

uce an' Colter," he retorted.

ld respect them at all I'd do

ulated Daggs, thoughtfully, as

dad to make y'u let me alone. I wouldn't marry one of y'u-y'u loaf

le indolent nonchalance of th

're a bad lot of sheepmen?" he queried

ore I don't say sheepmen

on his heel he left her. Outside he encountered Ellen's father. She heard Daggs speak: "Lee

his husky voice. Ellen knew at

d Daggs. "But shore it wa

ple's tongues," sai

with his slow, cool laugh. "Reckon I nev

ight of her. Ellen knew she was the only person in the world left for him to love. And she was sure of his love. Her very presence always m

king he never kissed her. "Shore I'm glad you're home. This heah hole

did not look directly at him. She was concerned about this new sear

brown eyes, like deadened furnaces, were blue swollen welts. He had a bitter mouth and weak chin, not wholly concealed by gray mustache and pointed beard. He wore a long frock coat and a wide-brimmed sombrero, both black in color, and so old and sta

strangely that he never asked about the sheep or the new-born lambs. She div

uired her father, presently. "

im. Since then she had taken care to keep her troubles to herself. If her father had not been blind and absorbe

again and I said he belonge

ust have dragged you low-that every damned ru-er-

len dropped her eyes. Little things once never noted b

she replied. "The

had been talkin' to

ass Valley," said Ellen. "I stopped in to see

terest me?" he

cattlemen; that old Isbel had Blaisdell, Gordon, Fredericks, Blue and other well-known ranchers on his side; that his son Jean Isbel had come from Oregon with a wo

red in his sallow cheek. "Reckon none

an Isbel. If not he would hear as soon as Simm Bruce

I showed him. We-we talked a little. And shore were gettin' acquainted

orth, ponderingly. "Said he looked like an Indi

" returned Ellen, dryly. She could have laughe

trike you?" queried her father

r face. She was helpless to stop it. But her father eviden

different from men h

oot this half-Indian Isb

es

o you like a r

e acted at home in the woods. He had eyes black as night and s

stache and lost himsel

e goin' to be a war?"

lling flash blazed in h

u might as

eepmen and

es

haid of one faction and

ave it correct,

can't this fig

u're from Texa

lped?" she repea

ed, with deep,

y n

heep anywhere we like on the range.

llen, earnestly. "Y'u sheepmen do not h

ckon

for both sheep and cattle without overrunnin'. If some of the range is better in water and gras

people have been prejudicin

he cried

tides of feeling. Some will or struggle broke within him and the change w

y want it all to themselves. That's the reason. Shore there's another. All the Isbels are crooked. They're cattle an' horse thieves-have been for years. Gaston Isbel always was a maver

st the insidious convictions being brought to fruition. Perhaps in his brooding over his failures and troubles he leaned toward false judgments. Ellen could not attach dishonor to her father's motives or spee

he could hardly go on. "If they ruined you they ruined all of us. I know what we had once-what we lost again and again-and I see what we are come

e lived in the past. He even seemed younger 'in the revivifying flash of hate that ma

broke out she was engaged to Isbel. His family was rich. They influenced her people. But she loved me. When Isbel went to war she married me. He came back an' faced us. God! I

atin' my best friends. I was disgraced. Later he tangled me in the courts-he beat me

and hate. The truth of her father's ruin and her own were enough. What mattered all else? Jorth beat the t

t's got to be wiped ou

into the corner behind the curtain, and there on her couch in the semidarkness she lay with strained heart, and a res

inaction was impossible. Something young and sweet and hopeful that had been in her did not greet the sun this morn

kage out of the way, so that it would not be subjecting her to continua

four pairs of stockings, two of strong, serviceable wool, and the others of a finer texture. Ellen looked at them in amaze. Of all things in the world, these would have been the las

his sister.... He was ashamed for me-sorry for me.... And I thought he looked

aloud the conviction her intel

e mused. "I cain't do it. Sometim

the old trunk, and slowly, as she lowered the lid, looking darkly,

ed her rifle, which was unusual for her,

his sand-gray lean face; Jackson Jorth, her uncle, huge, gaunt, hulking, with white in his black beard and hair, and the fire of a ghoul in his hollow eyes; Tad Jorth, another brother of her father's, younger, red of eye and nose, a weak-chinned drinker of rum. Three other limber-legged Texans lounged there, partners of Daggs, and they were sun-browned, light-haired, blue-eyed men singularly alike in appearance, from their dusty h

say good mawnin' to this heah bad lot?"

rd-working industrious MANANA she

om her. Jackson Jorth let out a gruff haw-haw. Some of them doffed their sombreros, and Rock Wells managed a la

in' your talk," he

cards don't y'u ca

shore

calling spa

g his eyes. "Where you goin' with your g

ing my gun all the time," replied Ellen.

m Bruce and Lorenzo rode around the slope of the Knoll and trotted

ustin' with news

some, you bet,"

orth. "Bruce shore

sententiously. "You-all know

said Jackson Jorth. "Lo

o his lofty height. The face Bruce turned to Jorth was swollen and bruised, with unhealed cuts. Where his right eye should have been sho

el beat me half to

sque figure, at the battered face. But speech

be damned if yo

ith?" burst out J

but Greaves swore it was his fists

gun?" queried

arms. "Ask Lorenzo. He had a gun. An' he got a

heavy discolored swelling upon the side of his

," shouted Jor

renzo, with expressive gesture. "I see thou

sp laughter. Daggs's hard face rippled with a smile.

e ordered. "Where did it happen?

gun. I called him Nez Perce-an' I throwed all thet talk in his face about old Gass Isbel sendin' fer him--an' I told him he'd git run out of the Tonto. Reckon I was jest warmin' up.... But then it all happened. H

gh that followed Bruce's remarks. She had known that he would lie. Uncertain yet of her reaction to

doggoned," d

f this kind of figh

young Isbel really is what old Gass swears he is. Shore Bruce ain't nothin' to give an edge to a real gun

the name of drawin' firs

e up Rock Wells, quietly. "I

urs an' Jean Isbel's aboot the old stock dispute? Aboot h

ecollect all I said-I was riled.... Shore, though it was the same

e ain't got a hell of a lot to fear from this young Isbel. I've known a heap of gun fighters in my day. An' Jean Is

u've shore got my hunch thet Nez Perce Isbel is liable to handle any of you fellars jest as he did me,

rth, stridently. "An' answer me. Was th

?" shouted Bruce, with a fierc

he shadow of the tall m

a liar," she

olored places on his face turned white. He held his breath a moment, then expelled it ha

med to declare her intent of menace. "That row was not about sheep.... Jean Isbel didn't beat y'u for anythin' about sheep

gust that he could imagine she would have his blood on her hands. Then she divined that

y'u sayin'?" hoarsely cal

e this to me,"

his right side. "Let her alone Lee," he advis

dirty slur on my name,"

held it tight, "Jest what I thought," he said. "Sta

went on Ellen. "For slandering a girl w

y. "I was half drunk-an' horrible jealous.... You kn

d a scarlet wave of shame

who he was. An' through his kiss I learned a difference between men.... Y'u made Lorenzo lie. An' if I had a shred of good name left in Grass Valley you

he cocked rifle

zed at the quivering rifle barrel and then into the face of

ul Daggs showed himself

lead the Jorths, an' that's my say to you.... Simm, you're shore a low-down lyin' rascal. Keep away from Ellen after this or I'll bore you myself.... Jorth, it won't be a bad idee for you to