Читать книгу The Mystery at Dark Star Ranch - Percy Keese Fitzhugh - Страница 9

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They had dinner alone that night, for Clark and Aida had not returned from Yellow City. Richard said nothing about them, seeming rather to be too glad of their absence to talk about it, and they spent a long, delightful hour over a delicious meal which Sen served in his own inimitable way.

They sipped coffee and smoked cigarettes out on the terrace, then decided to stroll about in the sweet-smelling dusk. There were some cattle that Richard wanted Hal to see, cattle that he had hopes would bring high prices in another month.

“I’ve got them in a corral way over on the southwest end. It’s a good two miles. Want to take the horses?”

“Not unless you do,” Hal answered. “Now that I’m in the wide open spaces, I want to see if I can get some exercise.”

“O. K. We’ll hike it. These cows I’m going to show you are worth walking to see—they’d be worth walking five miles to see!”

Hal looked at his friend from the corner of his eye and a quiet smile spread over his handsome features. Here was enthusiasm such as he had rarely seen. Here was love of land and cattle so firmly imbued in a young man’s heart that it was pathetic to think of his being torn away from it!

The Dark Star Ranch was life itself to Richard Merrivale.

Hal thought about it a great deal as he listened intently to Richard’s vivid explanations of ranch life. Before he realized it, he was beginning to feel the thrill of “cows” and prices, and experienced the suspense that all ranchmen feel lest something may go wrong before market time. This market time, particularly, meant so much to Richard Merrivale—his “cows” would either bring him a little hope or very much despair.

“If prices are only right,” he was saying hopefully. “If they only are.”

“It will solve your problem a little, is that it, Rich?” Hal asked sympathetically.

“A little, yes. Enough to give me hope that I could perhaps borrow some more to add to it and so make up the balance.”

“That would be the miracle, if you could borrow it, huh?”

“You understand it perfectly.”

“But tell me, Rich, why do you have to worry and struggle along like this to make ends meet on this great ranch when a pile of your father’s money lies in the bank at Butte? Wasn’t your father a little eccentric to make such a will?”

“Eccentric, perhaps, but wise, I guess. He knew what he was doing. He knew that Clark and Aida didn’t give a darn about him nor the ranch—he knew all they cared about was the money that they could get so’s to make a hit with their snob friends. Well, he fixed it in the will that they had to live home for the five years and share in the maintenance of the ranch.”

“I guess they’ve never done much toward the maintenance?”

“Nothing,” Richard said wearily. “They insisted on entertaining their rich friends until I put a stop to it. And they buy expensive horses as if the ranch were running on the same basis as it did five or six years ago. But to get back to my father’s reason for this, Hal: he had some psychic knowledge of what was coming—you may laugh, but he predicted the droughts and the drop in prices. He knew it would tax our resources, bring out the fight or bring out the weakness that was in us. And he said in the will that if we couldn’t use what he laid aside for the ranch maintenance, then we weren’t the business people he thought we were. And he gave us five years to show what we could do. Well, Sen told you about it pretty well. I think though that Dad felt pretty certain that Clark and Aida would soon tire of the whole thing.”

“They’ve held on longer than he thought for, I bet.”

“No, he counted on their wanting the money badly enough to stick. That’s why he made that provision about keeping the money back at Butte. He said it would make laggards of us to think we could fall back on it for if we were able to dip into it we’d naturally keep right on until it was gone and the likelihood was that we’d lose not only the ranch but the money too.”

“I see. He made up his mind that you’d either love the ranch enough to fight to keep it or sell it as honorably as possible. Is that it?”

Richard nodded wistfully. “Dad didn’t figure about Elly, though, and he didn’t figure that Clark and Aida would actually oppose me. He knew they wouldn’t be much help, but he never dreamed, I guess, that they would deliberately try to play into Tuck Liggett’s hands against me. And Tuck Liggett was my father’s worst enemy.”

Hal put his arm out in the dusk and slapped Richard’s shoulder fraternally. “Disloyalty is hard to fight, Rich. Darn hard. But have you ever stopped to think what a big thing it is to fight for something you know is right? Darn it, Rich, that’s what you’ve got on your side and believe me, it’s half the battle! Man alive, you’ve got me keyed up and I’m here to try and help you fight the other half.”

“And don’t I know you’re here, Hal!” Richard cried gratefully. “Don’t I know it!”

They walked the rest of the way in thoughtful silence and crossed a narrow stream which boasted a diminutive wooden bridge not seven feet long. Beyond, looming up against the early evening sky, Hal could make out the roaming figures of the cattle.

“I suppose I should have brought you earlier,” Richard said apologetically.

“It’s O. K., Rich. It’s surprising what I’ve seen after the sun goes down.” Hal looked over the bridge rail and pointed to a sturdy looking cow drinking placidly beside the stream. “I can see her pretty well....”

Richard put out a detaining hand. “Can you see the cow beside her?” he asked in a peculiar strained voice.

“Yes, why?” Hal returned, looking at the cow in question which seemed to be lying stretched out on the ground.

Richard was already at the animal’s side by the time Hal hurried up to him. He knew something was wrong for the cow’s jaws hung open peculiarly, and her large, soft eyes looked wild and staring.

“What’s the matter, Rich? What’s wrong?” he asked, seeing the fearful look in his friend’s eyes.

“One of my best cows, Hal!” Richard was shouting excitedly. “A cool thousand she would have brought and now....”

“Rich, what is it?”

“She’s been poisoned—poisoned!”