Mr. Scraggs Part 15

"'He didn't look fierce,' says Percival.

"'That's his lay,' says I; 'he goes up to a man and don't look fierce, and the first thing you know there's a funeral.'

"About sunset we hit the place we aimed for: a nice, high spot with a pool of water, overlooking the valley for miles. It was straight on three sides, and a hard pull for the mules on the other; but a patch of gra.s.s to the back, timber handy, and the lookout it gave you, together with the water, made it worth the climb. Besides, it was the very spot where the Roosian Prince Porkandbeansky camped, time I guided him ten years before. I told Percival all about the Prince whilest I was cooking supper, thus giving him a line on the proper way to behave. It was enough to say the Prince done so-and-so--or didn't--to bring Percival into line easy for the rest of the trip.

"Well, we couldn't get under that blue coverlid of Percival's any too quick that night. I didn't mind a blanket thrown in, nor him, neither, for it was colder'n sin. We was good and tired. Broad sun-up when we woke.

"Percival, he flew around like a c.o.c.k-sparrer. Happy! The Lord save us! He sung little hymns, and trotted every step he took, his sun-burnt little nose gleamin' with joy. It done you good to look at him. I took as much pride in him as though he was my sister's eldest--taught him to do this and that, till he was fit to bust with the glory of bein' such a camper. And forty times a day he'd explain to me how glad he was that I'd been his guide; how much he'd have missed otherwise. I suppose them yarns I told him had added to his romantic ideas about living uncomfortably out-of-doors, but every time he said it I felt mean again.

"Still, Satan mischief always finds for idle hands to do. After about five days of loafin' I turned the conversation to the uncertainty of things in general; we talked a good deal about it.

I gradual come to particulars, and producin' a pack of playin'-cards, proceeded to show Percival how odd five of 'em dealt at a time would come out. He was interested, and I suggested that he sh'd take five, too, and he did; and the first thing you know I had everything that Percival owned, owin' to his misjudging the way them cards would fall. Then we divided again and went at it. At the end of the next week I was proud of Percival. He fronted me out of a plump jackpot without a tremble of a gray whisker, but, to save me, I couldn't get him to play cards. He said it was wicked and led to gamblin'--I dunno but what he's right at that. We had lots of fun with the Uncertainty of Things, anyhow, and saved our morals.

"At the end of three weeks us two was twin brothers. Old Percy told me in confidence he hadn't had a real friend for years before.

And I liked him, you bet. We all has got our faults--why, even Mrs. Scraggs isn't free from 'em--but you scratch them off the top of Percival and you found a white man--the most trusting little critter in G.o.d and man, the kindest-hearted and the best-natured that ever lived. Honest, I couldn't sleep nights sometimes, thinking of the lies I told him, and if I'd never slept I couldn't 'a' quit--it was like leaving a starvin' n.i.g.g.e.r in charge of a hencoop.

"So things ambled along--not a jar. No rain, no crawling thing to spoil our fun, till one day just before dinner--Percy and me sittin' there with the blankets between us and our beans counted out at the side, raisin' and cross-liftin' each other, him having drawed one card whilest I took two to a pair of tens and a kicker, and made four tens--a shadder fell on the blanket. Percy was too busy wondering whether he'd better see my last raise to notice, but your Uncle Zeke has lived so long in lonesome and sometimes unhealthy places that the chill of that shadder, comin' so noiseless and unexpected, fell on his soul. Before I raised my eyes I looked at the shadder close; yes, there was a gun, and it was also an Injun.

"There ain't anything an Injun likes better than to sit tight and enjoy a cinch. He won't kill you as long as he can get some fun out of you.

"I ain't savin' what I felt, but old pink-and-white Percival was there, babe in the woods dependin' on me, and me covered by an Apache rifle!

"'How!' says I, throwin' it careless over my shoulder.

"There was a still second. Then the Injun answers, 'Huh!'

"Percy looked up, pleased and surprised.

"'Why, there's an Indian!' says he.

"'Go on with the game,' says I, cross. 'Don't stare at him--he has feelin's.'

"Percy got red. 'I beg your pardon!' he says to the Injun--then to me: 'What does he want?'

"I made up my mind Percy wasn't goin' to be scart if I could help it. If he _had_ to go let him go quick, without waiting. They made me wait once, and while it didn't come to nothing, I don't think I should ever really care for it.

"'He wants to ra.s.sel me,' I answers. 'Great people for sports, Injuns, and curious how they go at it. He expects me to surprise him--let's see, how many have you got there?'

"I bent over, to get my legs loose, so I could jump, and also to get a quick peep at circ.u.mstances. There wasn't but the lone buck.

I worked the cat racket. You know how a cat does? She sits still, thinkin' 'I'm goin' to move fast in a minute--I sure _am_ goin' to move fast in a minute,' until she gets such a head of steam on, she's off before she knows it. That's just what I done, exactly.

I was all over that Injun, kicked his gun out of reach and heaved him over the steepest side before you could say 'Keno.'

[Ill.u.s.tration: "I was all over that Injun."]

"Percy was surprised and displeased. He put on his specks and trotted quick to the edge.

"'Was.h.i.+ngton,' says he, 'you have hurt that man!'

"'Oh, I guess not,' says I. 'He's used to this country.'

"I hadn't hurt him half as much as I'd liked. If you slapped a white man straight down a hundred foot on top of a pile of rocks he'd depart like a Christian, but my red friend and brother promptly wriggled off behind the boulders.

"I da.s.sen't shoot. There might be a twenty of 'em in hearing, and, besides, no need of worryin' poor Percy, trustin' E. G. W., any sooner than I had to.

"'It seems to me, Was.h.i.+ngton,' says Percy, 'that's _very_ rough play.'

"'Percy,' says I, 'as you may have read, an Injun don't care so much about being hurt as he does for supportin' his family pride.

If I'd only chucked him fifteen foot or so he'd thought I didn't respect his powers of endurance proper, and like enough wouldn't 'a' spoke to me if we met.'

"'Well, of course, _you_ know all about these things,' he says.

'But to me it is very surprising.'

"'Percy,' says I to him again, real earnest, 'if a man took note of all the things in this world that are surprisin' it wouldn't be no time before every tree in the forest looked like an exclamation mark to him.'

"'I suppose,' says Percy, waggin' his head, wise, 'that's quite true.'

"And if there'd been fifty million Injuns ready to frica.s.see us the next minute I couldn't 'a' helped havin' another attack of that bronco-kitus that troubled me so.

"But your Uncle Zeke wasn't so cussed hilarious for the next four days. I expected that Injun back with his friends every minute, and what with watchin' all night and jos.h.i.+n' Percy all day I was plumb wore out. He made me kind of mad by not noticin' things was wrong, although that's the impression I'd labored to create upon him, as he'd say.

"The Injun didn't come, and he didn't come till I got mad at him, too. How was I to know that he finished up my idee by fallin'

over, further down? So I fumed and I fussed, and I yearned inside of me to get square with somebody. And at last my chance come.

"Afternoon, hot and clear as usual. Percy asleep under a rock, and then, horses' footsteps! I jumped for the edge, and, boys, for a minute my sight give out. It wasn't Injuns; it was a lot of Uncle Sam's durned soldiers. I never expected to be so glad to see a soldier; I thought I despised 'em.

"I looked at 'em for a full half minute, thinking,' G.o.d bless old Percy's blistered nose, he's safe!' and then I done what I hadn't orter did out of that, desire to get even. I slid down the mountain and whanged away over their heads. It was like pokin'

your finger in a hornets' nest. Up comes them soldiers, workin'

the finest of Injun sneaks up the hill. If there ever was a grand sight in Nature it's a two-hundred-pound soldier entirely concealed by a rock twice the size of my fist.

"Y-a-as, here they come; and I flitted my red handkercher like it was a 'Pache's head-dress, leadin' 'em on to where Percy was. I got there first and crawled into a cave where I could watch. I looked at Percy, sleeping, remarkin' 'whooo-whisss.h.!.+' at regular intervals, his little baby face surrounded by his white handkercher, his little fat hands folded on his little fat stomach, and I could scarcely wait for the time when them soldiers' eyes should fall upon their treacherous, fierce, and implackibble foe.

"The lieutenant was a kid, just gradooated--one of the kind that thinks it's glorious to get killed and read about it in the papers.

He led his men into the simple quiet of our camp, crouched and tur'ble, a gun in each hand . . . and there was the United States army and there was the sleepin' Percy, face to face!

"'What . . . !' says the lieutenant, falling back ten foot. 'What . . . !' says he, falling back twenty feet and losin' his voice.

'What . . . !'says he, gatherin'himself; 'what is this?

"And then I come out of the cave and rolled on the ground.

"The lieutenant walked over and patted me on the back with a rifle-b.u.t.t.

"'What d'ye mean, you s-c-c-coundrel!' he says. 'Stop that laughing or I'll shoot the pair of you!'

"I come to quick when I heard that. 'Look a' here, young feller,'

I says, 'you can beat me as much as you feel like, but if you make a crooked play at Percy I'll wrap you up in your diploma and send you home to your ma.'

"It just happened their half-breed scout knew me.

"'I wouldn't rile Mr. Scraggs, Lieutenant,' says he; 'it's bad luck.'