By this time Y.D. and Transley, with four other teamsters, were observed coming in. Each driver had had the same experience. An iron stake, carefully hidden in a clump of grass, had been driven down into the ground until it was just high enough to intercept the cutting-bar. The fine, sharp knives were crumpled against it; in some cases the heavy cutting-bar, in which the knives operate, was damaged.
Y.D.‘s face was black with fury.
“That’s the lowest, mangyest, cowardliest trick I ever had pulled on me,” he was saying. “I’m plumb equal to ridin’ down to Landson’s an’ drivin’ one of them stakes through under his short ribs.”
“But can you prove that Landson did it?” said Zen, who had an element of caution in her when her father was concerned. She had a vision of a fight, with Landson pleading entire ignorance of the whole cause of offence, and her father probably summoned by the police for unprovoked assault.
“No, I can’t prove that Landson did it, an’ I can’t prove that the grass my steers eat turns to hair on their backs,” he retorted, “but I reach my own conclusions. Is there any shootin’ irons in the place?”
“Now, Dad, that’s enough,” said the girl, firmly. “There’ll be no shooting between you and Landson. If there is to be anything of that kind I’ll ride down ahead and warn him of what’s coming.”
“Darter,” said Y.D.—it was only on momentous occasions that he addressed her as daughter—“I brought you over here as a guest, not as manager o’ my affairs. I’ve taken care of those affairs for some considerable years, an’ I reckon I still have the qualifications. If you’re a-goin’ to act up obstrep’rous I’ll get Mr. Transley to lend me a man to escort you home.”
“At your service, Y.D.,” said George Drazk, who was in the crowd which had gathered about the rancher, his daughter, and Transley. “That Pete-horse an’ me would jus’ see her over the hills a-whoopin’.”
“I don’t think it would be wise to take any extreme measures, at least, not just yet,” said Transley. “It’s out of the question to suppose that Landson has picketed the whole valley with those stakes. It is now quite clear why we were left in peace yesterday. He wanted us to get started, and get a few swaths cut, so that he would know where to drive the stakes to catch us the next morning. Some of these machines can be repaired at once, and the others within a day or two. We will just move over a little and start on new fields. There’s pretty good moonlight these nights and we’ll leave a few men out on guard, and perhaps we can catch the enemy at his little game. Let us get one of Landson’s men with the goods on him.”
Y.D. was somewhat pacified by this suggestion. “You’re a practical devil, Transley,” he said, with considerable admiration. “Now, in a case of this kind I jus’ get plumb fightin’ mad. I want to bore somebody. I guess it’s the only kind o’ procedure that comes easy to my hand. I guess you’re right, but I hate to let anybody have the laugh on me.” Y.D. looked down the valley, shading his eyes with his hand. “That son-of-a-gun has got a dozen or more stacks down there. I don’t wish nobody any hard luck, but if some tenderfoot was to drop a cigar—”