Friar Tuck Part 21

"Yes," sez I.

"It'll make folks think 'at I'm afraid for my skin, and have you along for protection," sez he, gettin' earnest.

"If you had good judgment, you would be afraid for your skin," sez I.

"I tell you that Olaf is after your blood. He's one o' the worst; he kills with his bare hands when he gets the chance."

"Fine, fine!" sez the Friar again, his eyes glowin' joyous. "I'd have a right to defend myself with my hands, Happy. I would have a right to do this, for the sake of Olaf, you see-to prevent him from risking his own soul by committin' murder. This is a great chance for me, Happy; now, please, please, go on back like a good fellow."

I was secretly tickled at the argument the Friar had put up for a chance at physical warfare-and a barehand fight between him and Olaf would have been worth goin' a long way to see-but I was as obstinate as either of 'em; so I just said 'at I was goin' along.

"Well, you're not goin' with, me," sez the Friar, as pouty as a schoolboy. "I'll not speak to ya, and I'll not have a thing to do with ya"; and he threw down his log and glared at me.

I took a certain amount o' pride because the Friar lived up to his own standards; but I also found a certain deep-rooted amus.e.m.e.nt in havin'

him slip out from under 'em for a spell and display a human disposition which was purty much kindred to my own. "What do you purpose doin' with that club, Friar?" I asked, pointin' to the log he had flung down.

He pulled in his glare and looked to be a little discomposed. "Why I-I'm livin' in a cave I got back there."

"Are you dead set again' havin' a little company?" sez I, slow an'

insinuatin', "or are ya livin' alone?"

First off, he was inclined to be resentful, then he grinned, shouldered his log again, and said: "Come and see."

I follered him back into the hills until we came to a little park in which his ponies were grazin', and then I hobbled mine, cached my gear alongside his, and trailed after him again. His path turned a crag and then skirted along the edge of a cliff as straight up and down as the real truth. The path kept gettin' narrower, until every time the Friar turned a corner ahead of me, I expected to see him walkin' off in the air with the log still on his shoulder.

Presently I turned a corner around which he had disappeared, and there wasn't a soul in sight. The ledge still led along the cliff; but it had got thinner than a lawyer's excuse, and a worm couldn't have walked along it without hangin' on. While I stood there puzzlin' about it, a hand reached out o' the side of the cliff, and the Friar's voice said mockingly: "Take my hand, little one; and then shut your eyes for fear you might get dizzy."

Then I saw a jag of rock stickin' out just above my head, I grabbed it with my left hand, and swung around into what was the mouth of a cave.

It was nothin' but a crack about eighteen inches wide, and the far side was sunk in enough to keep it hid from where I was standin'. The Friar was standin' a few feet back in the entrance with his log leanin' up again' the side. "I know not what other animals may have sought shelter here," he said, "but for the past three years this has been my castle, and, Happy Hawkins,"-here the Friar bowed low-"obstinate and unreasonable as you are, I offer you a hearty welcome."

The Friar said this in fun, but the' was an undertone to it which tightened the laces around my heart consid'able. Well, that cave was a sure enough surprise; he had three or four pelts and a couple of Injun blankets on the floor, he had a couple o' barrels fixed to catch snow water, he had some cookin' tools; and books! Say, he must have had as many as a hundred books, all of 'em hard-sh.e.l.ls, and lookin' so edicated an' officious that I had to take off my hat before I had nerve enough to begin readin' the t.i.tles.

After I'd taken everything in, I sat down in an easy chair he'd made out o' saplin's and rawhide, and looked all about; but I couldn't see any signs of their bein' any other rooms to this cave; and then I jumped square for the mark, and sez: "Friar, the's a lot o' talk about you havin' run off with Kit Murray. Now I want the straight of it."

His face went grave and a little hurt. "It's strange," he said after a time, "how hard it is for a man to believe in his own guilt, and how easy for him to believe in the guilt of his neighbor. Have you had any dinner?"

"Yes," sez I. "I didn't know just where I was headin'; so I et three different times this mornin' to make sure of havin' enough to run on in case of emergency."

"It's a fine thing to be an outdoor animal," sez the Friar, smilin'.

"Well then, I've made up my mind to take you to see Kit Murray."

He didn't waste any time askin' me not to talk about what was other folks' affairs; he just went to the door, grabbed the jag of rock, swung around to the ledge, and I follered after.

We saddled up, rode down a windin' path 'at I'd never heard of before, and then rode up again until we came to a little clump o' swamp shrubbery, backed up again' the north face o' Mount Mizner. We follered a twisty path through this and finally came out on an open s.p.a.ce in which stood a fair-sized cabin. He whistled a five-note call, and the door was opened by an old woman who was a stranger to me.

"Mother s.h.i.+pley, this is Happy Hawkins," sez he. "How's Kit?"

The old woman gave me a gimlet look, and then her sharp features expanded to a smile, and she bobbed her head. "Kit's gettin' hard to manage," sez she.

We went into the cabin, and found Kit with a bandage around her ankle, sittin' in a rockin' chair, and lookin' patiently disgusted. She was a fine-lookin' girl, with a fair streak of boy in her, and she had never had enough practice at bein' an invalid to s.h.i.+ne at it. Her face lit up at the Friar; but her gaze was mighty inquirin' when she turned it at me.

"You know Happy Hawkins, don't ya?" sez the Friar. She nodded her head, and he went on. "Well, he's one o' the fellers you can trust, if you trust him entire; but he's got such a b.u.mp of curiosity that if you don't tell it all to him in the first place, he can't do no other work until he finds it out on his own hook. He's my friend, and he'll be your friend; so I want you to tell him just how things are, and then he'll be under obligations to do whatever we want him to."

So Kit cut loose and told me her story. Her father, ol' Jim Murray, had got crippled up about ten years before, and since then had become a professional homesteader, nosin' out good places, an' then sellin'

out to the big cattle outfits. He also made it his business to find ways to drive off genuwine homesteaders; and in addition to this he was a home tyrant and hard to live with. He allus had plenty o' money, but was generally dead broke when it came to pleasant words an'

smiles-which was why Kit had gone off with the show.

While she was away, she had married a low-grade cuss, who had misused her beyond endurance; so when he had skipped with another woman, she had come back to the old man. She didn't want folks 'at knew her to find out how bad hit she'd been; so she had tried to bluff it out; but the young fellers kept fallin' in love with her and wantin' to marry her. She hadn't meant no harm; but she had played one again' the other, hopin' they'd soon have their feelin's hurt and let her alone.

This was a fool notion, but she had been honest in it.

Bud Fisher, the Texas kid in the Ty Jones outfit, had got daffy about her; and then one night at a dance she had shot some smiles into the eyes of Olaf the Swede. She said he was such a glum-lookin' cuss she had no idee he would take it serious; but he had stood lookin' into her eyes with his queer blue ones, until she had felt sort o' fainty; and from that on, he had declared war on all who glanced at her.

Bud Fisher thought it a fine joke for Olaf to fall in love, and he had teased him to the limit. This made a bad condition, and all through the spring round-up, each had done as much dirt as possible to the other; but Ty was mighty strict about his men fightin' each other; so they hadn't come to a clash.

Finally the kid brags that he is goin' to elope with Kit; and then Olaf kicks off his hobbles an' starts to stampede. The kid was wise enough to vamoose; so Olaf rides down to ol' man Murray's, and reads the riot act to him. Kit was hidin' in the back room and heard it all.

He told the old man that he would slaughter any one who eloped with Kit or who had a hand in it; and then he had gone back to hunt the kid again.

The ol' man turned in and gave Kit a complete harrowin' as soon as Olaf had left and she had told him pointedly that she'd eat dirt before she'd eat his food again; so she saddled her pony and started to ride without knowin' where. Her pony had slipped on Carter Pa.s.s and she had sprained her ankle so bad she couldn't stand. Just at this junction, the Friar had come along, and had put her up on his horse and held her on with one arm about her, because the pain in her ankle made her head light. On the way they came smack up again' the kid, and he gave 'em a grin, and went out without askin' questions.

He went straight to Olaf, and told him that Kit had eloped with the Friar. The Friar had brought her up to s.h.i.+pley's, they havin' been friends of his in Colorado. They had a daughter livin' up in Billings, Montana; and as soon as her ankle could stand it, Kit was goin' up to live with the daughter, she havin' three little children and a railroad husband who was away from home more 'n half the time.

This was the whole o' the story; but you can easy see what a fine prospect it made for gossip, and also what a fine time a young imp like Bud Fisher could have with a sober feller like Olaf. Olaf wouldn't have just grounds for makin' away with Bud for doin' nothin'

except grin, so long as the Friar remained alive with the girl in his keepin'. It was a neat little mess; and from what we found out afterwards, the kid was as irritatin' as a half-swallered c.o.c.kle-burr.

Big, silent fellers like Olaf are just like big, new boilers. A little leaky boiler fizzes away all the time, but when it comes to explode, it hasn't anything on hand to explode with; while a big, tight boiler, when it does go off, generally musses up the landscape consid'able; and when Olaf started to stampede he made more noise in a week 'n Bud Fisher had in his whole life.

When Kit had finished tellin' me the story, I shook hands with her, and said that while she hadn't used the best judgment the' was, she had probably used the best she had; and that it was more the men's fault than hers, so she could count on me as far as I could travel.

Then I went outside while the Friar and ol' Mother s.h.i.+pley fixed up her ankle.

They all seemed pleased about the way it was healin', and after it was tied up, Kit stood on it and even took a few steps. It twisted her face a time or two at first; but after she'd gone across the room and back a few times, she said it felt better 'n it had for years. This made us all laugh, 'cause fact was, she hadn't been housed in near up to the average of a sprained ankle. The Friar allowed 'at she'd be fit to travel day after the next; so it was planned to start in the evenin', and for both of us to go with her. Then we had an early supper an' started home.

On the way, I complained about the foolish way in which Kit had acted, for the sole purpose of drawin' the Friar out and gettin' his views on women. Nearly always when I got him started, I was able to pick up some little sayin' which furnished me with more thought-food than his blocked-out sermons did.

"Of course Kit was foolish," he admitted; "but what show has she ever had? Her father never was fit to bring her up; and he didn't even do the best he could. A woman has more vital strength than a man, because the future of the race depends on her; but she also has more emotions, so 'at the wear an' tear is greater. Man, on the other hand, has more muscle 'n woman, and more brutality. Foolin' man has been the best way a woman had to fight for a good many centuries; and this was the way poor Kit tried to fight. The plain, simple truth generally works best; but it takes wisdom to see this, and wisdom is seldom anything more than the dregs o' folly. The' was no one to teach Kit wisdom; so she has had to strain off her own folly; but she is a fine, brave girl, and I think she will profit by experience."

Now this was a new thought to me, about wisdom bein' nothin' but the dregs o' folly; but it's a good tough thought, and I've had a heap o'

chewin' on it since then; so I feel repaid in havin' took sides again'

Kit and lurin' the Friar into heavin' it at me.

It was dark when we reached his twistin' path along the ledge, and I stepped as cautious as a glow-worm in a powder-mill; but as soon as we had our pipes an' the fire goin', I wouldn't have swapped seats with the fattest king in the universe.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

TESTING THE FRIAR'S NERVE

As soon as we had eaten breakfast next mornin', the Friar sez: "You, bein' one o' the earth animals, have never had much chance to see a view. Yesterday your curiosity was itchin' so 'at I doubt if you could have told a mountain peak from a Mexican hat; but now that you have temporarily suppressed your thirst for gossip, had a good sleep, and a better breakfast, drag yourself out to the front porch and take a bird's-eye view of the world."