The Ramblin' Kid Part 20

"Listen: Before Ophelia Cobb and Carolyn June Dixon ever arrived at this Quarter Circle KT their 'lovers' were already picked out for them--officially chosen, delegated, appointed, foreordained and everything! The 'arrangements' had all been made--"

"I don't understand," the widow said, bewildered by the rapid flow of legal-sounding words.

"Nor did I at first," Carolyn June went on, "but I have figured it all out! I have 'discovered' what all this mysterious hinting about 'arrangements,' 'the agreement,' 'Old Heck's day,' 'Parker's time,'

'Skinny's job,' and so forth means! I have studied it out. Why is Skinny Rawlins thrown into my lap as my 'regular' lover? It's his 'job'--that is why! And why the day-and-day-about courting of yourself by Uncle Josiah and Parker? It is the 'agreement'--the one is to have you one day and the other the next! Before we came some such arrangement was fixed up. I am sure of it--"

"Impossible," Ophelia protested, "preposterous!"

"Outrageous!" Carolyn June added vehemently, "but truth just the same!

To start with they didn't want us to come. That telegram lying about them all having the smallpox proved as much. We were, for some reason or other, considered 'afflictions,' Why, I don't know. I guess they thought we were a pair of female vampires or something and had to be disposed of in advance to prevent our stirring things up and causing a lot of murders or suicides or duels on the Quarter Circle KT!"

"I can't believe it," Ophelia muttered as if stunned. "Why, that would be 'dealing' with us just as though we were cattle!"

"That's it!" Carolyn June exclaimed vindictively, her anger for the moment getting the better of her sense of the ridiculous, "they 'dealt'

in us! More than likely they played poker to decide how to divide us up--to see who should love you and which should love me! As if the heart of a woman can be made to run in a groove cut to order by the hand of any masculine--insect!" she finished, thoughtless of the incongruous metaphor.

"Then Skinny and your Uncle Josiah," the widow murmured, "and Parker--are--are--pretending?"

"No," Carolyn June answered, "they started out 'pretending,' but they've stepped into their own trap! They are painfully serious now--they are 'intending!'"

"What shall we do about it?" Ophelia asked helplessly.

"We ought to a.s.sa.s.sinate them!" Carolyn June snapped, then laughed as the absurdity of the situation dawned upon her and her sense of humor overcame the moment of anger and indignation. "I have it--I've got it!

We will Vamp' them in dead earnest! We'll fix the 'fixers,' we'll frame the 'framers'!"

"But how?" doubtfully.

"From now on," Carolyn June replied decisively, "I am going to flirt, individually and collectively--desperately and wickedly--with the whole male population of this ranch! We'll show them what premeditated love-making really is! When it comes to Uncle Josiah and, well, possibly Parker, you will have to take care of that giddy pair yourself and, incidentally, you might work some on Charley Saunders," mentioning the oldest of the cowboys. "I'll just flicker an eyelid occasionally at Parker, unless you object?"

"Not in the least," Ophelia answered, blus.h.i.+ng a trifle.

"Well, then, we will make it a free-for-all," Carolyn June said, "and--"

"How about the Ramblin' Kid?" the widow interrupted, "do you think he is one of the conspirators--is in on the--the--'frame-up?' Is he also to be a 'Victim'?"

Carolyn June colored the least bit, paused a moment before she replied, then said rather stiffly:

"He--yes, he is probably having more fun watching us being 'officially'

made love to than any other one of the entire bunch. The Ramblin' Kid will have to take his medicine along with the rest! Every man-thing on the Quarter Circle KT--eliminating Sing Pete from that cla.s.sification --is my meat!"

"When does the slaughter begin?" Ophelia laughed.

"Right now!" Carolyn June answered. "War is declared--"

She stopped suddenly as a step sounded on the porch and a moment later Skinny entered the room. He was painfully "dressed up." The instant Old Heck and Parker, in the Clagstone "Six," started for Eagle b.u.t.te and the cowboys disappeared down the lane in the direction of the big pasture, Skinny struggled into the white s.h.i.+rt. He planned to try its effect on Carolyn June while the others were away. If it did not produce results he would slip back to the bunk-house before they returned and change again to his normal dress.

When Skinny stepped into the room he was fully conscious of his unusual appearance. The morning was warm and he had not put on a coat. The s.h.i.+rt billowed over his shoulders, arms and chest in a snowy cloud. It seemed impossible to Skinny that anything in all the world could be so vividly, persistently white as the cloth that literally enveloped the upper half of his body. It actually gleamed. The sleeves of the s.h.i.+rt were too long. A pair of sky-blue, rosette-fastened, satin ribbon sleeve-holders above his elbows kept the cuffs from slipping over his hands. Parker had been unable to get the purple necktie and had brought, instead, one that was a solid Shamrock green. Skinny swore when he saw the tie, but decided to wear it anyhow. Parker had explained by saying he had forgotten the errand until he was starting from town and then stepped into Old Leon's--a cheap general store in Eagle b.u.t.te--and purchased the outfit from the Jew. That accounted also for the surplus length of sleeve--the s.h.i.+rt was a size and a half larger than Skinny had ordered and for which Parker declared positively he had asked. Eternal hatred for all Hebrews was born in Skinny's heart the moment he saw the layout.

But, well, it was there; he was anxious to see if a white s.h.i.+rt would have any effect, and he would wear it anyway.

Skinny knew instantly that he made an impression on Carolyn June.

She looked at him once and was speechless!

"By gosh," he said to himself, "Chuck was right! It sure does beat h.e.l.l how clothes affect a woman!"

Carolyn June, unquestionably, was overcome. The surprise had been too much for her. He had knocked her cold! The s.h.i.+rt had done the work! She bit nervously at the nail of her thumb, pressed desperately against her teeth. Her whole body trembled. Her face flamed scarlet. Skinny saw her agitation and resolved at that moment that he would never again be without a white s.h.i.+rt!

Ophelia also was visibly affected. The widow gave one look at Skinny, glanced quickly at Carolyn June, then, with her hands clasped tightly against her breast, she leaned weakly against the table and chewed at her underlip. She started to speak and stopped.

"Well, I--I--got back!" Skinny said, breaking the spell while he grinned somewhat sheepishly and yet with an air of complete satisfaction.

"I--I--see you--did!" Carolyn June choked hysterically.

"I was gone longer than I aimed to be," Skinny continued, rapidly gaining confidence as he saw the confusion of the women; "after I got the ch.o.r.es done I concluded to fix up a little. This is the first time I ever wore this s.h.i.+rt," he went on, feeling that a bit of explanation was entirely proper and would probably help in restoring the composure of Carolyn June and the widow. "Parker just brought it out yesterday and it was a good deal of trouble to make the collar work right. It seemed like it was pretty stiff or something. Generally speaking the whole outfit's bigger than it really ought to be, but maybe it'll shrink up some when it's washed," he finished in a casual matter-of-fact way.

"It--it--is wonderful!" Carolyn June stammered, "it is--I don't think I ever saw one that was--was--whiter--"

"It looked that way to me," Skinny interrupted as if glad some one else had noticed a peculiarity of the garment that already had troubled him somewhat, "I thought it was uncommonly white!"

"Perhaps it just seems that way because we are not used to it," Ophelia suggested sympathetically.

"That's it!" Carolyn June exclaimed feverishly, "it is because we are not used to it--it will be perfectly all right when we have looked at it a little more!"

Skinny decided he would risk the gauntlet of comment from Parker, Old Heck and the cowboys and wear the s.h.i.+rt the rest of the day.

Carolyn June was really sorry for Skinny, but--she needed air--she felt she must have it.

"Please," she cried suddenly and with, an effort, "excuse me! I--I--have something I wish to do! You," speaking to Skinny, "and Ophelia stay here and visit each other a while!"

Without waiting for an answer she stepped quickly into the kitchen, asked Sing Pete for a handful of sugar and hurried out to the circular corral.

"Oh, Skinny, Skinny, you are so funny," she laughed aloud as she went through the back-yard gate. "It breaks my heart to break your heart--but you are one of the 'fixers' and you've got to be 'fixed.'"

The Gold Dust maverick at first was shy when Carolyn June opened the gate and entered the corral. After a few moments she recognized the girl and was soon eating the sugar from the hand of Carolyn June. Before the supply was exhausted the friends.h.i.+p and confidence of the two, begun yesterday, was firmly reestablished. The maverick allowed Carolyn June to swing her weight from the glossy withers, to clasp her arms tightly about the trim, clean-built neck, and when, after an hour, the girl started toward the house, the outlaw mare protested so eagerly against being left alone that she turned back to the corral and leaning against the fence stroked the soft muzzle thrust between the bars.

Carolyn June was cooing endearing terms to the filly and playing with the quivering underlip when she heard a horse galloping swiftly up the lane and past the barn. Instinctively she stepped back and turned just as the Ramblin' Kid, riding Captain Jack, wheeled around the end of the shed near the corral.

His sudden appearance surprised her. She had thought he was with the cowboys over at the upland pasture helping skin the steers killed by the lightning.

When they left the ranch the Ramblin' Kid had ridden away with Charley and the others, but not with any intention of going to the big pasture.

Where the road turned toward the lower ford he held Captain Jack to the left.

"Ain't you going with us," Charley Saunders asked, "and help skin them steers?"

"No," the Ramblin' Kid replied quietly. "I ain't. I've got something else to do. Anyhow, I ain't a butcher--I work with live cattle, not dead ones!" he concluded as Captain Jack continued in the direction of the upper crossing.

"He's the independentest darn' cuss I ever saw!" Charley remarked to his companions as the Ramblin' Kid disappeared. "It's a wonder Old Heck don't fire him."

"He can't," Bert laughed. "Th' Ramblin' Kid don't stay at the Quarter Circle KT by the grace of Old Heck, but by the choice of th' Ramblin'