[CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE—THE FRIAR A COMPLICATION]
We all felt purty down-hearted after Promotheus had rode away, and we sat before the fire in Olaf’s settin’ room a good deal the same as if we were holdin’ a wake.
“Olaf,” I sez, “you can’t have any finicky notions about treatin’ Ty Jones square, after all the persecutin’ he’s handed you. Do you know anything on him you could have him sent to prison for?”
Olaf shook his head. “He’s too clever to get caught in a trap,” sez he. “He scarcely ever gave any orders to have things done. He’d just say aloud as though talkin’ to himself, that some one or other was in his way; and then his men would begin to take spite on that feller. If the calf tally showed a hundred percent increase, he would think that about right, and no questions; but if ever it fell short o’ what he expected, we had it to make up some way. He’d send us out until we had brought in enough to satisfy; but he’d never give us straight orders to rustle. He is a smart man. When one of his men got into trouble, he got him out, no matter what cost; but he expected his men to do what he wanted, without askin’ questions. He has no fear, none at all. I know, I have seen. He has no fear, and he is very strong. It is bad to be at war with him; but I should like to have my hands at his throat once, and none to interfere.”
“Maybe you will, Olaf,” sez I, “maybe you will; and I don’t mind sayin’ that I hope to be on hand to see it.”
We kept two men allus at the look-out with Horace’s field glasses. It was a queer sort o’ summer, the air wasn’t clear like it usually is, but hazy, as though full o’ dust; and in lots of places they were turnin’ stock on the grass they generally aimed to save for winter. There were only a few punchers around the Cross brand ranch houses; but we saw Promotheus every day. He hobbled about with a stick part o’ the time, holdin’ his hand on his back as though he had the rheumatiz, which was natural enough from bein’ shut up in an island prison. Some days we saw the woman; but she never came up the ravine path any more.
Promotheus didn’t make a report to us for about a week. Then he came out one night about eleven. He said ’at Ty hadn’t doubted a word he’d said; but had done everything possible to make him comfortable, tellin’ him to just loaf until he got in good order. He said ’at Ty and the woman didn’t have much to do with each other and hadn’t had since she’d come out. He said ’at the woman was kind to all the animals, in spite of everything ’at Ty could do, and the dogs was gettin’ to act like regular, ordinary dogs. He said all but a few new pups had remembered him, and one had even wagged his tail, though he couldn’t see any sense in this, he never havin’ as much as spoke a kind word to the dog, so far as he could recollect.
He said he had held several talks with Ty, and Ty had asked him if he thought ’at Olaf was in league with any big outfits. He said ’at he had told Ty that he was sure Olaf had been in league with ’em several years before, but o’ course, he couldn’t know anything o’ what had happened since. Ty said he had come to the conclusion that Olaf was set out for a kind of bait to draw him into trouble, which was why he had let him alone; but that he was short o’ grass this season, and wanted Pearl Crick Spread bad. He also told The about the two Greasers disappearin’, though he wasn’t sure what had happened to ’em. He knew about us bein’ over at Olaf’s off and on, and The warned us to be careful, as Ty expected to have Olaf’s place watched as soon as he got through movin’ several bands o’ cattle.
The said ’at the woman had a soft spot for any dumb brute, or even a human in distress, and that he had touched her by hobblin’ around with the stick. He said she had cooked him some flabby invalid-food with her own hands, and that it was mighty captivatin’. He said she didn’t speak much; but he was tryin’ his best to get on the good side of her. He said ’at all the boys claimed ’at Ty treated her well; but didn’t seem to care much for her. Horace didn’t happen to be with us when The came; but we said we’d move our camp higher up on the slope, to be on the safe side when Olaf’s was watched, and would have Horace on deck sure the next time The came out; and we did this the next day.
The land was all slashed an’ twisted around and broken, up west o’ the Cross brand ranch houses. The ravine leadin’ down to ’em ran east and west, the path leadin’ up out of it to the trees where we had first seen the woman wasn’t near so steep as the one comin’ out of it on the north side toward the clump o’ rocks. After the north path came out, the ravine narrowed down until it wasn’t more than a crack, the south side not risin’ so high as on the north; so that soon the north side stood up like a cliff above the land leadin’ down to the clump of trees, and the only way we could get over to it was to go down the ravine and up again on the other side.