Yeah, he had it down pat. The sweet words would surely help to melt another bit of the ice-wall. And, if that scheme didn’t pan out, he would try to play the hero by saving the Yates barn. One of the two ideas ought to work in his favor.
Staying away from the main trail, he stuck to the rugged hills and began to follow the creek. The water was not high during the middle of summer. It was twenty to thirty feet across and a couple feet deep, except for pools. There were occasional rocks or a bend in the river’s course where calmer waters ran several feet deep.
He was near one such turn when he heard the
sweet sound of a feminine voice – a girl was singing … and splashing! Kyler stopped Nipper in her tracks. Staring through the trees and tangle of foliage, he spotted a saddled horse tied to a bush. The tune was ‘Silver Threads Among the Gold’, and darned if it didn’t sound like Jessie doing the singing!
Kyler did some quick thinking and decided on a bold plan of action. He summoned a deep breath and called:
‘Would that be you, Jessie? Or have the heavens allowed an angel to visit on earth?’
There was an audible gasp and a sudden splashing sound.
‘Don’t you dare come any closer!’ Jessie cried out. ‘I’m nak …’ she hesitated, as if finding naked too
risqué
a word. ‘I’m not decent!’ she informed him.
‘Reckon you don’t think I’m decent either,’ he replied, nudging Nipper onward. The mare picked her way along the tree-bordered path until they came upon a clearing.
There was a ten-foot high sheer wall of rock carved out of the hillside. The water ran deep and dark beneath an overhanging rim. Within the maze of rocks that protruded above the water’s surface, appeared only Jessie’s head, her sleek neck and the top of her shoulders.
‘How dare you invade my privacy!’ she screeched at him.
Kyler stopped Nipper near the edge of the stream.
‘Well howdy, ma’am.’ He showed her his best smile. ‘Fancy meeting you out here in the middle of nowhere.’
‘Get out of here!’ she snapped. ‘I’m taking a bath!’
‘Don’t get all riled up, ma’am,’ he replied easily. ‘I’ve seen naked hair before – a good many heads and shoulders, too.’
‘What are you doing on Yates property?’ she demanded to know.
‘I came to see you.’ With a grin, he added: ‘Well, I don’t mean
see
you, but you know what I mean.’
‘You’ve got some nerve, invading my privacy!’
He ignored her ire. ‘I read something I wanted to share with you.’
‘And it won’t wait until I’m properly dressed?’ she demanded to know, still red-faced at being caught in such a defenseless situation.
‘Being that you have no choice, I figure you might sit still and listen.’ He excused the intrusion. ‘I promise, this won’t take but a minute.’
Jessie shivered noticeably.
‘Hurry up then. This water is cold.’
Kyler cleared his throat and summoned the words from his memory.
‘Let’s see, it goes something like this:
There is none like her, none. Nor will be when our summers have deceased.
‘Poetry?’ She was incredulous. ‘You came to spout poetry at me?’
‘You got it, ma’am. I’ve heard it said that women like that sort of thing.’
‘Not while they are freezing, vulnerable and held hostage from their clothing!’
Kyler frowned. ‘I don’t know that there are any set rules about how a man relates poetry to a girl.’
‘Well, finish the silly sonnet and get out of here!’
Kyler returned to the verse. ‘Let’s see …
summers
have deceased
…’ he repeated, trying to remember his place. ‘Next comes some gibberish which doesn’t make sense for a piece, but I especially like the last part.’ He gave her another smile; she continued to glare back at him. ‘It goes:
Of her whose gentle will has changed by fate, And made my life a perfumed altar-flame
;’ he hesitated. ‘Then an odd sort of line about
Eve, from whom she came
.’
Jessie stared at him as if his bacon had slid from his plate in to the fire.
‘Is that your idea of poetry?’
‘Not mine,’ he replied. ‘Tennyson.’
‘You big dolt!’ She gave a shake of her head. ‘You can’t quote from a master’s work and leave out half of the words!’
‘You know the poem, do you?’
‘I know it has a lot more to it than those few lines.’
He frowned defensively. ‘Yeah, but some of the words didn’t make sense –
making a sigh for Lebanon
. What’s a foreign country got to do with charming a lady?’
‘Charming a lady?’ She laughed, a derisive and cruel sounding mirth. ‘You foolish, two-bit gunman! You haven’t got the first idea of how to win a lady’s heart.’
‘I’m willing to learn,’ he countered.
‘Ride away, Mr Dane!’ she snapped. ‘You’ve ruined my bath.’
He explained. ‘I didn’t intend to find you here at the stream. I was taking a short cut to your place and
heard you singing.’
Her voice rose an octave. ‘Go away!’
Jessie was fuming. The red in her cheeks darkened, not from embarrassment, but with her anger. Kyler had failed miserably.
‘All I really wanted is for you to allow me a dance with you next Saturday night.’
‘Not if you were the last man on earth, Mr Dane. Is that plain enough for you?’
Kyler uttered a deep sigh. ‘I apologize for approaching you whilst you were in the water, ma’am. But it was the only way I could get you to let me speak the poetry.’
‘Your pitiful reciting of poetry is as detestable as your working for Huxton. I wouldn’t dance with you if it meant saving my life!’
Kyler’s self-estem was squashed, but he summoned a counter attack.
‘Miss Yates, I’m for thinking you are the girl of my dreams, but you could sure enough stand to be a little more accommodating. I’m trying to be a
gentleman
and win your respect proper like, but you won’t give me a chance.’
‘You’re no gentleman! You’re a Huxton gunman!’ she declared vehemently. ‘You’re less than human! You’re a beast, lower than a wild dog. You deserve nothing but contempt!’
Kyler neck-reined his horse over to where she had piled her clothing on a boulder.
‘And you, lady …’ he reached down and gathered up the garments, ‘could stand to learn a little humility.’
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ she wailed. ‘Leave my clothes alone!’
But Kyler ignored her protest. He tucked the bundle under his arm, swung Nipper around and started back the way he’d come. Behind him, from the creek, he heard the echo of Jessie shouting some very unladylike names after him. He knew there would be repercussions for his misdeed, but he was desperate. The dance wasn’t that far away.
‘Extreme measures for an extremely hard-headed woman,’ he said aloud.
He continued to ride until he was out of earshot, then made a wide circle and came in from above the ranch house. He located a secluded cove, picketed his horse and moved to a position where he could keep watch over all of the outbuildings. He had barely settled in when he spied a rider enter the yard. It was Jessie and she had a saddle blanket wrapped around her. She rode up to the front steps of the house, hastily jumped down and dashed into the house.
Kyler smiled to himself. Taking her clothes had been a rotten thing to do, but the gal needed to climb down off her high horse. She could have told him that his attempt at poetry stank without insulting him and calling him names. He had to admit the verse wasn’t all that polished, but he wasn’t the one who had written it. If Tennyson had used common sense words and made the poetry rhyme, he could have done a lot better.
A couple hours after dark, Strap and Mugs arrived. They stopped their horses back in the trees, climbed down and quickly tied off their animals. Each man held a can of coal-oil.
‘I’ll go around to the back,’ Strap said quietly. ‘You take the front. Soak everything in sight. When I give you the word, we’ll both set fire at the same time and light out for town. The barn will be fully ablaze before anyone can react.’
‘Stand where you are!’ The order came in a husky whisper. ‘If either of you even takes a deep breath, I’ll cut you in half!’
Strap and Mugs froze in place and dropped their buckets. Strap lifted his hands. ‘Easy, mister,’ he said. ‘We ain’t looking to get killed.’
Five minutes later Mugs and Strap were trussed up with rope and tied, belly-down, over the saddles of their own horses.
‘It’s downright underhanded to sneak around and set fire to a man’s barn,’ the husky voice told them. Subsequently the phantom assailant
unbuckled
their belts and pulled their pants down about their ankles.
‘Good thing you’re both wearing summer hides,’ he said, referring to their drawers. ‘Wouldn’t want to offend the proper folks in town.’
Strap grunted a muffled oath, but a swat sent the two men’s horses trotting in the direction of town. Bound tightly, the two could do nothing but go where the horses took them. The plan to set the Yates’s barn on fire had ended in complete failure.
Huxton looked up from his desk as Alma stormed in to his office. His account ledgers were under her arm and a dark expression was on her face. She strode across the room and planted herself in front of his desk.
‘Charles, do you have any idea what I saw just now?’ she asked.
Her obviously irate tone startled him.
‘No, what did you see?’
‘Two men, right on the main street of town. They were bound over their horses, with their pants pulled down to their ankles, exposing their … their dungy underwear to the world!’ She was livid. ‘Adding insult to my mortification, I recognized one of them as the man you had take my things to my room
yesterday
. He works for you!’
‘What!’ Huxton leapt to his feet. ‘My man was what?’
‘An older gentleman from the livery was attempting to free them.’
Huxton doubled his fists and cursed under his
breath. Before he could speak, Strap Adere burst in to the room. He skidded to a halt on seeing Alma present.
‘Boss,’ he said, ‘you ain’t gonna believe what happened to Skinny and Mugs.’
‘Alma has been telling me,’ Huxton barked. ‘What the devil is going on?’
‘They said they got too close to the Yates place. Someone jumped them and sent them to town draped over their horses like a couple corpses.’
Huxton groaned. ‘I’ll speak to them later. Get them off the street before everyone in town sees them. We’ll be the butt of a thousand jokes.’
Strap displayed a stupid grin.
‘It’s too late, boss … for being the
butt
of jokes around town, that is.’
‘Go!’ Huxton snapped.
The smirk disappeared and Strap hurried out of the room. After the man had left, Alma bore into Huxton with a stern look.
‘Tell me, Charles, do you purposely hire men on the basis of their lack of intelligence? Except for the man David and I sent you, the other three I’ve met constitute two morons and a near-idiot.’
‘The teamsters I’ve hired are good men and no one is going to cross Phoenix Cline. I admit I’ve got a couple jokers, but I’m holding some high cards too.’
Alma dismissed the discussion and turned to business.
‘Do you realize how much this venture has cost me so far?’
‘We’re about to turn it around,’ he defended.
‘Once the Concord arrives we’ll add the stage-run to our income. Also, I’ve got an option on a couple more mines.’
‘Even if you acquire some new accounts you are going to be in the red for another six months. It will be years before you’re able to repay your loan.’
‘Once the Yates line fails we’ll have more business than we can handle.’
‘I’m told their family has been here for years. What makes you so certain they are going to fold and turn over their contracts to you?’
‘They’ve been operating in the red since I arrived and I’ve arranged it so they can no longer get credit at the bank. They are about finished.’
Alma dropped the account book on his desk.
‘My father taught me that a smart business person knows when to cut their losses. I didn’t favor the idea of funding one of your schemes, but I wanted to give you a chance to make something of yourself.’
‘And it will work!’ he argued. ‘I only need a little more time.’
Alma put her hands on her hips. Her astringent look nearly crystallized Huxton’s blood, but he boldly stood his ground. After a long moment she took a step back.
‘I’ll give you thirty more days, Charles,’ she declared. ‘If you are not in a position to start showing a profit by then, this venture is over.’ She let the words sink in then asked: ‘Fair enough?’
He swallowed his misgivings and gave an affirmative bob of his head.
Alma swirled round and left the room. Huxton
held his breath until the door closed. Damn! he thought, able at last to exhale. Alma was one formidable woman. Had she been a man even Phoenix Cline would have stepped aside for her!
‘Dave,’ he spoke his brother’s name, ‘if I ever thought of you as being weak or cowardly, I take it back. You have the courage of a grizzly to live with that woman.’
He wasn’t called Big Mike because of the size of his nose or mouth. Quite the opposite, Mike Yates was known as a man who minded his own business and seldom offered superfluous words. When he spoke, however, most people listened.
Jessie’s brother was standing on the walk as Kyler left his hotel. It took but a glance to know that the man had been waiting for him.
‘Howdy … Big Mike, isn’t it?’ Kyler greeted him.
‘You done rode up on my little sister when she was taking a bath,’ the eldest Yates stolidly stated his case. ‘I’ll be taking exception to that little prank.’
Kyler held up both hands, palms outward, to stop him from continuing on that line.
‘It was an accident,’ he explained quickly. ‘I was taking a shortcut when I happened on your sister. I didn’t aim to interrupt her bath.’
‘She come home wrapped in her horse blanket,’ Mike stated imperturbably.
Kyler swallowed a lump, possibly it was his life’s expectancy. ‘We exchanged words,’ he said, ‘and I thought she needed a lesson in manners.’
‘My sister’s manners are none of your concern.’
‘She stayed in the water up to her neck,’ Kyler hurried to clarify. ‘I didn’t see no more of her than her head the whole time we was talking.’
The words bounced off of Mike like so many raindrops striking an oilskin slicker. He began to slip on a pair of work-gloves.
‘Had you not been gentlemanly to a point, Dane,’ he said, as passive as if they were speaking of the weather, ‘I’d have come looking to kill you.’
Kyler uttered a sigh of resignation and dug out his own buckskin gloves. As he slipped them on he tried one last plea.
‘I guess there’s no talking around this?’
Mike gave a shake of his head.
‘What’s right is right.’
‘OK, but one thing before we start,’ Kyler said. ‘I would never disgrace your sister. Fact is, I’d admire to come courting.’ He nodded to a package tied behind the saddle of his horse. ‘I had her clothing cleaned over at the Chinese laundry.’
‘Obliged for the courtesy,’ Mike said simply. Then he lifted his fists.
With a dread resolve, Kyler raised his guard and prepared for a fight.
The blows came like a hail storm. Big Mike was tough and felt his mission was justified. Kyler used his wits and countered with punches of his own. Five minutes later, both men were bruised and gasping for breath. However, there was no quit in Mike. Once each had gathered their wind, the two of them clashed a second time.
Kyler stood his ground and they exchanged
several vicious punches. Neither man went down, but soon the blows began to carry less force. After another five minutes, they both paused folded at the middle, completely winded.
‘You wage a good fight, teamster,’ Mike eventually spoke.
‘I’d admire to ask your sister to dance on Saturday night,’ Kyler wheezed between gulps of air.
Mike snorted his contempt.
‘Dane, you got more guts than brains, and that’s the truth. Jessie has a burning hate for every man jack who works for Huxton.’
‘I admit, winning her over is something of a
challenge
,’ Kyler replied.
‘You knock me off of my feet,’ Mike challenged him, ‘and I’ll think about giving you permission for a single dance.’
Kyler grunted, still gasping to draw air into his lungs.
‘I ain’t got the strength to do it,’ he admitted. ‘My arms feel about as heavy as lead pipes.’
Mike stood up straight. Kyler had the horrible
feeling
the man had recouped his strength, something he sorely lacked himself.
However, Mike was of a mind to talk, not continue the fight.
‘I found a couple cans of coal-oil up the hill from my barn,’ he said, staring hard at Kyler. ‘I also heard some talk about how Strap and Mugs arrived in town this morning, tied over their saddles, showing off their long handles to anyone with a mind to look. You wouldn’t know anything about it?’
‘Sounds as if the two of them ran crosswise of some mischief.’
‘Where were you headed when you surprised my sister bathing in the stream?’
Kyler shrugged. ‘I was on my way out to your ranch to ask if I could accompany Miss Jessie to the dance.’
Mike didn’t speak again, but peeled off his gloves. As he walked to the watering-trough Kyler did
likewise
, shoving his gloves into his back pocket. The spectators who had gathered to watch realized that the fight was over and began to go about their business.
Both men washed the blood from their faces. Kyler had a couple loose teeth and wasn’t sure his jaw would still work properly. Still, nothing seemed broken.
‘You’re pretty handy with your fists,’ Mike said eventually.
‘I learned how to box from a carnival fighter,’ Kyler replied. ‘Never fought anyone tougher than you.’
‘If you had anything to do with what happened to Strap and Mugs last night you might have to answer to Phoenix. Are you ready to do that?’
‘There ain’t a man alive ready to take him on.’
Mike cast a sidelong glance at Kyler.
‘You’re more than you pretend, teamster. I don’t know your game yet, but I’ll figure it out.’
‘Let’s just say I’m not your enemy,’ Kyler told him seriously. ‘I was hired to do a job, but I won’t break the law or do harm to you or your outfit.’
‘That sounds a bit strange, coming from a man
with his name already on a dodger.’
‘Mistakes of my youth,’ Kyler answered easily. ‘I’m not that man any more.’ Mike didn’t say another word. He walked over to
Nipper, removed the package of Jessie’s clothes, then gathered up his own horse. He mounted easily, as if he didn’t have a sore or stiff bone in his body. Kyler couldn’t say the same for himself. Every muscle in his body ached, he was completely jaded and even his hair hurt.
Jessie did not hide her fury. She dabbed at the cut above Mike’s eye so hard that it caused him to flinch.
‘Dang, girl! take it easy.’
‘Take it easy!’ she flared at him. ‘You big dumb lummox! I told you, if I hadn’t been singing Dane would have ridden right past the pool. You didn’t have to do this!’
‘He sent you home wearing nothing but a horse blanket.’
‘He left me my horse!’ she reminded him.
Mike put an inquisitive look on her. ‘So why did he take your clothes?’
‘Because …’ She bit her lower lip and her cheeks darkened with shame. ‘I suppose it was partly because I put cactus under his saddle and got him thrown from his horse the other day! I wanted to get even with him for … for …’
‘For winning the horse-race?’
‘I let him win!’ she snapped. ‘I could have cheated and won, but I didn’t want to win that way.’
‘So that’s what this is all about, the race?’
‘Not entirely,’ she confessed. Mike gave her an impatient look and she offered him a subtle shrug of her shoulders. ‘I also tried to take a wagonload of ore away from him the other night.’
‘You what?’ Mike was stunned. ‘You did what?’
‘It was a dumb thing to do,’ she hurried to clarify. ‘I admit it. I took the shotgun and tried to stop his wagon. I was tired of us always being the victim over the past few months. I wanted to get even.’
‘You could have been killed!’
She lowered her head again.
‘Mr Dane wasn’t the least bit intimidated. He took away my gun and gave me a ride to where I’d left my horse.’
‘That there fellow is a puzzle.’
‘He works for Huxton as a hired gun. That’s not much of a puzzle.’
‘When I got to town I learned that Strap and Mugs were found at the livery early this morning – tied over their horses, with their pants around their ankles.’
Jessie frowned at the news.
‘What do you think happened to them?’
‘I’m not sure.’
‘You could have asked around,’ she said critically, ‘if you hadn’t been so intent on beating Mr Dane to a pulp.’
‘I didn’t beat him,’ Mike admitted. ‘I hit him with my best shots a dozen times, yet he stood his ground. The guy’s as tough as rawhide.’
‘Being tough isn’t far removed from being just plain stubborn and stupid.’
Mike put a curious look on her.
‘You’re real upset about this.’
‘Worthless no-good that he is, you shouldn’t have fought with him! He’s only been after me because he wanted to …’ she didn’t finish.
‘To what?’
‘To dance with me on Saturday night!’ She blurted it out.
‘He mentioned that to me,’ Mike mused, recalling their earlier meeting. ‘He told me it was his excuse for being on our land.’
‘Yes, that, and to tell me a poem he had tried to memorize.’
Mike laughed at the thought. ‘He didn’t!’