Read the Light Of Western Stars (1992) Online
Authors: Zane Grey
These men, the two deputies who had remained in the background with the pack-horses, did not wait for Nels
.
They spurred their mounts, wheeled, and galloped away
.
"Now, Nels, cut the gurl loose," ordered Monty
.
Nels ran forward, jerked the halter out of Sneed's hand, and pulled Bonita's horse in close to the porch
.
As he slit the rope which bound her she fell into his arms
.
"Hawe, git down!" went on Monty
.
"Face front an' stiff!"
The sheriff swung his leg, and, never moving his hands, with his face now a deathly, sickening white, he slid to the ground
.
"Line up there beside your guerrilla pard
.
There!You two make a damn fine pictoor, a damn fine team of pizened coyote an' a cross between a wild mule an' a Greaser
.
Now listen!"
Monty made a long pause, in which his breathing was plainly audible
.
Madeline's eyes were riveted upon Monty
.
Her mind, swift as lightning, had gathered the subtleties in action and word succeeding his domination of the men
.
Violence, terrible violence, the thing she had felt, the thing she had feared, the thing she had sought to eliminate from among her cowboys, was, after many months, about to be enacted before her eyes
.
It had come at last
.
She had softened Stillwell, she had influenced Nels, she had changed Stewart; but this little black-faced, terrible Monty Price now rose, as it were, out of his past wild years, and no power on earth or in heaven could stay his hand
.
It was the hard life of wild men in a wild country that was about to strike this blow at her
.
She did not shudder; she did not wish to blot out from sight this little man, terrible in his mood of wild justice
.
She suffered a flash of horror that Monty, blind and dead to her authority, cold as steel toward her presence, understood the deeps of a woman's soul
.
For in this moment of strife, of insult to her, of torture to the man she had uplifted and then broken, the passion of her reached deep toward primitive hate
.
With eyes slowly hazing red, she watched Monty Price; she listened with thrumming ears; she waited, slowly sagging against Stillwell
.
"Hawe, if you an' your dirty pard hev loved the sound of human voice, then listen an' listen hard," said Monty
.
"Fer I've been goin' contrary to my ole style jest to hev a talk with you
.
You all but got away on your nerve, didn't you? 'Cause why?You roll in here like a mad steer an' flash yer badge an' talk mean, then almost bluff away with it
.
You heerd all about Miss Hammond's cowboy outfit stoppin' drinkin' an' cussin' an' packin' guns
.
They've took on religion an' decent livin', an' sure they'll be easy to hobble an' drive to jail
.
Hawe, listen
.
There was a good an' noble an be-ootiful woman come out of the East somewheres, an' she brought a lot of sunshine an' happiness an' new idees into the tough lives of cowboys
.
I reckon it's beyond you to know what she come to mean to them
.
Wal, I'll tell you
.
They-all went clean out of their heads
.
They-all got soft an' easy an' sweet-tempered
.
They got so they couldn't kill a coyote, a crippled calf in a mud-hole
.
They took to books, an' writin' home to mother an' sister, an' to savin' money, an' to gittin' married
.
Onct they was only a lot of poor cowboys, an' then sudden-like they was human bein's, livin' in a big world thet hed somethin' sweet even fer them
.
Even fer me-an ole, worn-out, hobble-legged, burned-up cowman like me!Do you git thet?An' you, Mister Hawe, you come along, not satisfied with ropin' an' beatin', an' Gaw knows what else, of thet friendless little Bonita; you come along an' face the lady we fellers honor an' love an' reverence, an' you-you- Hell's fire!"
With whistling breath, foaming at the mouth, Monty Price crouched lower, hands at his hips, and he edged inch by inch farther out from the porch, closer to Hawe and Sneed
.
Madeline saw them only in the blurred fringe of her sight
.
They resembled specters
.
She heard the shrill whistle of a horse and recognized Majesty calling her from the corral
.
"Thet's all!" roared Monty, in a voice now strangling
.
Lower and lower he bent, a terrible figure of ferocity
.
"Now, both you armed ocifers of the law, come on!Flash your guns! Throw 'em, an' be quick!Monty Price is done!There'll be daylight through you both before you fan a hammer!But I'm givin' you a chanst to sting me
.
You holler law, an' my way is the ole law
.
"
His breath came quicker, his voice grew hoarser, and he crouched lower
.
All his body except his rigid arms quivered with a wonderful muscular convulsion
.
"Dogs!Skunks!Buzzards!Flash them guns, er I'll flash mine! Aha!"
To Madeline it seemed the three stiff, crouching men leaped into instant and united action
.
She saw streaks of fire-streaks of smoke
.
Then a crashing volley deafened her
.
It ceased as quickly
.
Smoke veiled the scene
.
Slowly it drifted away to disclose three fallen men, one of whom, Monty, leaned on his left hand, a smoking gun in his right
.
He watched for a movement from the other two
.
It did not come
.
Then, with a terrible smile, he slid back and stretched out
.
XXI - Unbridled In waking and sleeping hours Madeline Hammond could not release herself from the thralling memory of that tragedy
.
She was haunted by Monty Price's terrible smile
.
Only in action of some kind could she escape; and to that end she worked, she walked and rode
.
She even overcame a strong feeling, which she feared was unreasonable disgust, for the Mexican girl Bonita, who lay ill at the ranch, bruised and feverish, in need of skilful nursing
.
Madeline felt there was something inscrutable changing her soul
.
That strife-the struggle to decide her destiny for East or West-held still further aloof
.
She was never spiritually alone
.
There was a step on her trail
.
Indoors she was oppressed
.
She required the open-the light and wind, the sight of endless slope, the sounds of corral and pond and field, physical things, natural things
.
One afternoon she rode down to the alfalfa-fields, round them, and back up to the spillway of the lower lake, where a group of mesquite-trees, owing to the water that seeped through the sand to their roots, had taken on bloom and beauty of renewed life
.
Under these trees there was shade enough to make a pleasant place to linger
.
Madeline dismounted, desiring to rest a little
.
She liked this quiet, lonely spot
.
It was really the only secluded nook near the house
.
If she rode down into the valley or out to the mesa or up on the foothills she could not go alone
.
Probably now Stillwell or Nels knew her whereabouts
.
But as she was comparatively hidden here, she imagined a solitude that was not actually hers
.
Her horse, Majesty, tossed his head and flung his mane and switched his tail at the flies
.
He would rather have been cutting the wind down the valley slope
.
Madeline sat with her back against a tree, and took off her sombrero
.
The soft breeze, fanning her hot face, blowing strands of her hair, was refreshingly cool
.
She heard the slow tramp of cattle going in to drink
.
That sound ceased, and the grove of mesquites appeared to be lifeless, except for her and her horse
.
It was, however, only after moments of attention that she found the place was far from being dead
.
Keen eyes and ears brought reward
.
Desert quail, as gray as the bare earth, were dusting themselves in a shady spot
.
A bee, swift as light, hummed by
.
She saw a horned toad, the color of stone, squatting low, hiding fearfully in the sand within reach of her whip
.
She extended the point of the whip, and the toad quivered and swelled and hissed
.
It was instinct with fight
.
The wind faintly stirred the thin foliage of the mesquites, making a mournful sigh
.
From far up in the foothills, barely distinguishable, came the scream of an eagle
.
The bray of a burro brought a brief, discordant break
.
Then a brown bird darted down from an unseen perch and made a swift, irregular flight after a fluttering winged insect
.
Madeline heard the sharp snapping of a merciless beak
.
Indeed, there was more than life in the shade of the mesquites
.
Suddenly Majesty picked up his long ears and snorted
.
Then Madeline heard a slow pad of hoofs
.
A horse was approaching from the direction of the lake
.
Madeline had learned to be wary, and, mounting Majesty, she turned him toward the open
.
A moment later she felt glad of her caution, for, looking back between the trees, she saw Stewart leading a horse into the grove
.
She would as lief have met a guerrilla as this cowboy
.
Majesty had broken into a trot when a shrill whistle rent the air
.
The horse leaped and, wheeling so swiftly that he nearly unseated Madeline, he charged back straight for the mesquites
.
Madeline spoke to him, cried angrily at him, pulled with all her strength upon the bridle, but was helplessly unable to stop him
.
He whistled a piercing blast
.
Madeline realized then that Stewart, his old master, had called him and that nothing could turn him
.
She gave up trying, and attended to the urgent need of intercepting mesquite boughs that Majesty thrashed into motion
.
The horse thumped into an aisle between the trees and, stopping before Stewart, whinnied eagerly
.
Madeline, not knowing what to expect, had not time for any feeling but amaze
.
A quick glance showed her Stewart in rough garb, dressed for the trail, and leading a wiry horse, saddled and packed
.
When Stewart, without looking at her, put his arm around Majesty's neck and laid his face against the flowing mane Madeline's heart suddenly began to beat with unwonted quickness
.
Stewart seemed oblivious to her presence
.
His eyes were closed
.
His dark face softened, lost its hardness and fierceness and sadness, and for an instant became beautiful
.
Madeline instantly divined what his action meant
.
He was leaving the ranch; this was his good-by to his horse
.
How strange, sad, fine was this love between man and beast!A dimness confused Madeline's eyes; she hurriedly brushed it away, and it came hack wet and blurring
.
She averted her face, ashamed of the tears Stewart might see
.
She was sorry for him
.
He was going away, and this time, judging from the nature of his farewell to his horse, it was to be forever
.
Like a stab from a cold blade a pain shot through Madeline's heart
.
The wonder of it, the incomprehensibility of it, the utter newness and strangeness of this sharp pain that now left behind a dull pang, made her forget Stewart, her surroundings, everything except to search her heart
.
Maybe here was the secret that had eluded her
.
She trembled on the brink of something unknown
.
In some strange way the emotion brought back her girlhood
.
Her mind revolved swift queries and replies; she was living, feeling, learning; happiness mocked at her from behind a barred door, and the bar of that door seemed to be an inexplicable pain
.
Then like lightning strokes shot the questions:Why should pain hide her happiness?What was her happiness?What relation had it to this man?Why should she feel strangely about his departure?And the voices within her were silenced, stunned, unanswered
.