“Give me these hills,” he cried. “It’s peace here, Jim. It’s peace an’—if you ain’t yearning for fancy feeding—plenty. We’re out of it all, an’ up against all the things God A’mighty reckoned was good fer us. Taste the mountain air, look at the sun, see the grass grow, an’ the woods packed with every pelt and feed a boy needs. There’s no by-your-leave here. Ther’s no crazy say-so. Act the man or go plumb under. If ther’s any kickin’ get after it quick. It’s peace here, the only peace I’ve ever known. Ther’s folks in Hartspool an’ Calford, when I get around with cattle, pass a whisper all the time. I know it. I bin told. I’ve ‘taken the blanket.’ I’m ‘white Injun.’ An’ all because I married Cama right, an’ she’s raised a dandy bunch of kids to me. I don’t care a curse. Why shouldn’t I? Ain’t haf the whole world mongrels of colour? If they ain’t they were oncet. Psha! I ain’t lookin’ fer no halo. I got some three-score an’ ten to put in on this crazy old earth, an’ I’m goin’ to do it the best way that suits me. I ken scratch a livin’ right here fer myself an’ my whole bunch. I got Cama, an’ I’m happy. Ther’ ain’t a saloon fer miles, which is God’s blessin’ to a crazy Irishman like me. An’ then, things bein’ so, I’ll go down when the time comes singin’ thanks to the good God who’s passed me the peace an’ happiness I never found under the electric sky signs of civilisation. Say, I’ll hold up this bunch till fall, an’ then run ’em right over the border into Montana without making any pow-wow with the United States border folk. We got to go slow Calford way. Folks there are pushing their noses our way.”
Pryse’s interest in the branding had passed. Dan Quinlan had absorbed it all. The man’s philosophy suited his own mood. Somehow he felt that deep inside that burly ruffian dwelt a great, strong, human spirit—a reckless, untamed spirit, whose genuine good almost completely smothered the weakness he sometimes saw peeping out.
“I was wondering that way, Dan,” he said quietly. “The curiosity of folk was one of the things I didn’t search closely enough. Yes, we must surely spread our market. I’ve been thinking hard. Our bluff isn’t all it needs to be. We’ve got to bluff harder. You’ve got your brand registered. That’s all right. Now we must play right up to it with a ‘full house.’ Do you get me? We got to set up a swell sort of ranch place right here for you, and your Cama, and her folk to live in. It must be big and good. And we’ll need bloodstock ranging this valley. Then, when folks get around, as they surely will, they’ll see the meaning of things as we want ’em to see. You’ve built yourself into a swell stock-raising proposition. Then they’ll rub their foolish eyes and forget their talk of ‘taking the blanket,’ and they’ll lift their hats to Dan Quinlan, and we can trade our stock all we please down at Calford and Hartspool.”
Dan hawked and spat. He was watching an Indian approaching the “pinch” from the forge. The man was flourishing a nearly white-hot branding-iron. He let out a shout.
“What in hell?” he cried. “Quit it, Ash-te! Quit it, you seven sorts of darn fool! Are you lookin’ to roast the poor crittur? Cool it down, you crazy son of a goat. Fer the sake of Holy Mary! Ah, to hell wid ye!”
His moment of angry disgust passed, and his smile broke out at once. And, as the Indian scuttled back to the forge, he turned again to the man beside him.
“Sure an’ you’re right, Jim,” he cried, with a laugh. “You’ll set Cama crazy fer joy building her a swell home. And these boys, too. Gee! I wish I could lick ’em into the things they were before the missioner got after ’em,” he added regretfully. Then: “How’s things going inside?”
Pryse laughed.
“Why, fine,” he said. Then he added significantly: “I got more hands than I can pass work to. They come from the cities east, and west, and south. They’re all sorts, from crook politicians right down to the boys who’ve skidded on the main trail. It’s just wonderful. There’s a great estate there, and well-nigh a settlement. And I’ve just had to case-harden myself to hold a discipline of sheer steel. We’ll be shipping grain this year as well as stock. And if nothing goes amiss I’d say it’ll come in a flood. I must get right back now. It needs me all the time.”
“Yep. I guess that’s so. Well, so long, Jim,” Dan said, as the other turned to go. “I’ll start right in building—out in the open. We can’t be too quick with it. I’ll stop right here now. I can’t leave these fool boys. You’ll look in on Cama an’ the kids before you quit?”