The Coming of the Law Part 6

But she continued, slightly more at ease and plainly pleased to have some one in whom she might confide.

"Ed was injured a year ago through a fall," she informed Hollis. "He was breaking a wild horse and a saddle girth broke and he fell, striking on his head. The wound healed, but he has never been the same. At intervals these attacks come on and then he is irresponsible--and dangerous." She shuddered. "You were watching him," she added, looking suddenly at him; "did you find him as he is or did he attack you? Frequently when he has these attacks he comes here to Devil's Hollow, explaining that he expects to find some of Dunlavey's men. He doesn't like Dunlavey," she added with a flush, "since Dunlavey----" She hesitated and then went on determinedly--"well, since Dunlavey told him that he wanted to marry me.

But Ed says that Dunlavey has a wife in Tucson and--well, I wouldn't have married him anyway--the brute!"

"Exactly," agreed Hollis gravely, trying to repress a thrill of satisfaction; "of course you couldn't marry him." He understood now the meaning of Dunlavey's words to her in Dry Bottom. "If you wasn't such a d.a.m.n prude," he had said. He looked at the girl with a sudden, grim smile. "He said something about running you and your brother out of the country," he said; "of course you won't allow him to do that?"

The girl's slight figure stiffened. "I would like to see him try it!"

she declared defiantly.

Hollis grinned. "That's the stuff!" he sympathized. "I rather think that Dunlavey is something of a bluffer--that folks in this country have allowed him to have his own way too much."

She shook her head doubtfully. "I don't know about that," she returned.

Then she smiled. "You are the new owner of the Circle Bar, aren't you?"

Hollis startled, looking at her with a surprised smile. "Yes," he returned, "I am the new owner. But how did you know it? I haven't told anyone here except Neil Norton and Judge Graney. Have Norton and the Judge been talking?"

"They haven't talked to me," she a.s.sured him with a demure smile. "You see," she added, "you were a stranger in Dry Bottom, and after you left the Fas.h.i.+on you went right down to the court house. I knew Judge Graney had been your father's friend. And then I saw Neil Norton coming into town with the buckboard." She laughed. "You see, it wasn't very hard to add two and two."

"Why, no," Hollis agreed, "it wasn't. But how did you happen to see me go down to the court house?"

"Why, I watched you!" she returned. And then suddenly aware of her mistake in admitting that she had felt an interest in him at their first meeting, she lowered her gaze in confusion and stood, kicking with her booted toe into a hummock, her face suddenly very red.

The situation might have been embarra.s.sing for her had not her brother created a diversion by suddenly sighing and struggling to sit up. The girl was at his side in an instant, a.s.sisting him. The young man's bewilderment was pitiful. He sat silent for a full minute, gazing first at his sister and then at Hollis, and finally at his surroundings. Then, when a rational gleam had come into his eyes he bowed his head, a blush of shame sweeping over his face and neck.

"I expect I've been at it again," he muttered, without looking up.

The girl leaned over him, rea.s.suring him, patting his face lovingly, letting him know by all a woman's arts of the sympathy and love she bore for him. Hollis watched her with a grim, satisfied smile. If he had had a sister he would have hoped that she would be like her. He stepped forward and seized the young man by the arm, helping him to his feet.

"You are right now," he a.s.sured him; "there has been no harm done."

Standing, the young man favored Hollis with a careful inspection. He flushed again. "You're the man that rode through the draw," he said. "I saw you and thought you were one of Dunlavey's men. I shot at you once, and was going to shoot again, but something cracked in my head. I hope I didn't hit you." Embarra.s.sment again seized him; his eyes drooped. "Of course you are not one of Dunlavey's men," he added, "or you wouldn't be here, talking to sis. No friend of Dunlavey's could do that." He looked at the girl with a tender smile. "I don't know what I'd do if it wasn't for her," he added, speaking to Hollis. "But I expect it's a good thing that I'm not crazy all the time." He looked searchingly at Hollis. "I've never seen you before," he said. "Who are you?"

"I am Kent Hollis."

The young man's eyes lighted. "Not Jim Hollis's son?" he asked.

Hollis nodded. The young man's face revealed genuine pleasure. "You going to stay in this here country?" he asked.

"I am going to run the Circle Bar," returned Hollis slowly.

"Bully!" declared the young man. "There's some folks around here said you wouldn't have nerve enough to stay." He made a wry face. "But I reckon you've got nerve or you'd have hit the breeze when I started to stampede." He suddenly held out a hand. "I like you," he said impulsively. "You and me are going to be friends. Shake!"

Hollis saw a smile of pleasure light up the girl's face, which she tried to conceal by brus.h.i.+ng the young man's clothing with a gloved hand, meanwhile keeping him between her and Hollis.

Hollis stood near the boulder, watching them as they prepared to depart, the girl telling her brother that he would find his pony on the plains beyond the canyon.

"I am glad I didn't hit you," the young man told Hollis as he started away with the girl. "If you are not scared off you might take a run down to the shack some time--it's just down the creek a ways."

Hollis hesitated and then, catching the girl's glance, he smiled.

"I can't promise when," he said, looking at the girl, "but you may be sure that I will look you up the first chance I get."

He stood beside the boulder until he saw them disappear around the wall of the canyon. Then with a satisfied grin he walked to his pony, mounted, and was off through the draw toward the Circle Bar ranchhouse.

CHAPTER VI

HOLLIS RENEWS AN ACQUAINTANCE

Rumor, that mysterious disseminator of news whose tongues are legion, whispered that the Dry Bottom _Kicker_ was to come to life.

Wherefore curiosity led many of Dry Bottom's citizens past the door of the _Kicker_ office to steal covert glances at the young man whose figure was bent over the desk inside. Many pa.s.sed in silence after looking at the young man--he did not see them. Others commented gravely or humorously according to their whim--the young man did not hear them.

Seated at the desk he gave his attention to the tasks before him--he was not concerned with rumor; the curiosity of Dry Bottom's citizens did not affect him. Seriously, methodically, steadily, he worked at his desk, while rumor wagged her tongues and curiosity lounged past the window.

It was Hollis's first visit to the _Kicker_ office; he had come to work and there was much that he could do. He had found the _Kicker_ installed in a one story frame building, verging upon dilapidation, unpainted, dingy. The appearance of its exterior had given Hollis a queer sensation in the pit of the stomach. He was cheered a little by the businesslike appearance of the interior. It was not what he had been used to, but he felt that it would answer very well in this locality, and--well, he planned to make improvements.

About twenty by forty, he estimated the size of the interior. Originally there had been only one room. This had been divided into three sections by part.i.tions. An old, flat-topped desk sat near the front window, a swivel chair before it. Along the wall above the desk were several rows of shelving with paste-board boxes and paper piled neatly up. Calendars, posters, and other specimens of the printer's art covered the walls. In the next room was another desk. Piles of advertising electrotypes, empty forms, and papers filled the corners. The composing room was in the rear. Everything was in order here; type cases, stands, forms. There were a proof press, some galley racks, a printing press, with a forlorn-looking gasolene engine near it. A small cast-iron stove stood in a corner with its door yawning open, its front bespattered with tobacco juice. A dilapidated imposing stone ranged along the rear wall near a door that opened into the sunlight. A man stood before one of the type cases distributing type. He did not look up at Hollis's entrance.

"h.e.l.lo!" greeted Hollis.

The man hesitated in his work and looked up. "h.e.l.lo," he returned, perfunctorily.

"I suppose your name is Potter?" Hollis inquired cordially. Judge Graney had told him that if he succeeded in finding the compositor he would have him at the _Kicker_ office this morning. Potter had gone to work without further orders.

"Yes," said the man. He came forward.

"I am the new owner of the _Kicker_," Hollis informed him with a smile.

"Jim Hollis's boy?" inquired Potter, straightening. At Hollis's nod he stepped quickly forward and grasped the hand the latter offered him, squeezing it tightly. "Of course you are Jim Hollis's boy!" he said, finis.h.i.+ng his inspection. "You are the living image of him!" He swept his hand around toward the type case. "I am working, you see. Judge Graney wrote me last week that you wanted me and I came as soon as I could. Is it true that the _Kicker_ is going to be a permanent inst.i.tution?"

"The _Kicker_ is here to stay!" Hollis informed him.

Potter's face lighted with pleasure. "That's bully!" he said. "That's bully!"

He was of medium height, slender, lean faced, with a magnificent head, and a wealth of brown hair thickly streaked with silver. His thin lips were strong; his chin, though a trifle weak, was well formed; his eyes slightly bleared, but revealing, in spite of this defect, unmistakable intelligence. In the first flas.h.i.+ng glance which Hollis had taken at him he had been aware that here was a person of more than ordinary mental ability and refinement. It was with a pang of pity that he remembered Judge Graney's words to the effect that he was a good workman--"when sober." Hollis felt genuinely sorry for him.

"I have had a talk with Judge Graney," volunteered Potter. "He tells me that you are a newspaper man. Between us we ought to be able to get out a very respectable paper."

"We will," calmly announced Hollis; "and we'll get the first issue out Sat.u.r.day. Come in here and we'll talk about it."

He led the way to the front room and seated himself at the desk, motioning Potter to another chair. Within the next hour he knew all about the _Kicker_. It was a six-column sheet of four pages. The first page was devoted to local news. The second carried some local advertis.e.m.e.nts, exchange clippings, and two or three columns of syndicate plate matter. On the third page two columns were devoted to editorials, one to advertis.e.m.e.nts, and three to local news in large type. The fourth, and last page was filled with more plate matter and a litter of "foreign" advertising--patent-medicines, soaps, hair-dye.

At the first glance it appeared that the paper must be a paying proposition, for there were a goodly proportion of advertis.e.m.e.nts. Yet Hollis had his suspicions about the advertis.e.m.e.nts. When he had spoken to Potter about them he discovered that quite a number of them were what is known to the craft as "dead ads"--which meant advertis.e.m.e.nts upon which payment had ceased and which were carried either for the purpose of filling up the paper or because it was found cheaper to run them than to set type for the s.p.a.ce which would be left by their absence.

"We won't carry any dead ads!" announced Hollis.

"Several of these are big merchants," said Potter, pointing them out with inky forefinger; "though the contracts have run out the appearance of their ads lends the _Kicker_ a certain moral support--the little fellows don't know that they are not paid for and it draws their business."