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He looked sullenly determined and the gleam in his eye was one of fearlessness. "Son, I know Daggs," said his father. "An' I know Jorth. They've come to kill us. It 'll be shore death for y'u to go out there." "I'm goin', anyhow. They can't steal my hosses out from under my eyes. An' they ain't in range." "Wal, Guy, you ain't goin' alone," spoke up Jacobs, cheerily, as he came forward.
"He's playin' cairds with Jackson an' Colter. Shore's playin' bad, too, an' it's gone to his haid." "Gamblin'?" queried Ellen. "Mah child, when'd Kurnel Jorth ever play for fun?" said Daggs, with a lazy laugh. "There's a stack of gold on the table. Reckon yo' uncle Jackson will win it. Colter's shore out of luck." Daggs stepped inside. He was graceful and slow. His long' spurs clinked.
Daggs an' some others shot them down." "Killed them that way?" put in Ellen, sharply. "So Evarts says. He was on the ridge an' swears he seen it all. They killed Guy an' Jacobs in cold blood. No chance fer their lives not even to fight! ... Wall, hen they surrounded the Isbel cabin. The fight last all thet day an' all night an' the next day. Evarts says Guy an' Jacobs laid out thar all this time.
Whoever it was had a loud, coarse voice, and this and his actions impressed Jean with a suspicion that the man was under the influence of the bottle. Presently Bill Isbel called Jean in a low voice. "Jean, I got the hole made, but we can't see anyone." "I see them," Jean replied. "They're havin' a powwow. Looks to me like either Jorth or Daggs is drunk.
Ellen's glance ran over them swiftly Daggs, with his superb head, like that of a hawk, uncovered to the sun; Colter with his lowered, secretive looks, his sand-gray lean face; Jackson Jorth, her uncle, huge, gaunt, hulking, with white in his black beard and hair, and the fire of a ghoul in his hollow eyes; Tad Jorth, another brother of her father's, younger, red of eye and nose, a weak-chinned drinker of rum.
The wimminfolks come out the red-headed one, Guy's wife, an' Jacobs's wife they drove the hogs away an' buried their husbands right there in the pasture. Evarts says he seen the graves." "It is the women who can teach these bloody Texans a lesson," declared Ellen, forcibly. "Wal, Daggs was drunk, an' he got up from behind where the gang was hidin', an' dared the Isbels to come out.
Finally Daggs decided to put it off until they could get some pitch and dry grass ready, so as to set fire to the roof. "It was nearly daylight by this time, and they started back through the reeds toward their sloop, leading me along with them. We travelled half a mile or so, down a crooked black trail only wide enough for one man at a time, and ankle deep in the mud of the swamp.
He opened his eyes without moving, and from where he lay could see a man busy at something opposite him. As the figure turned and straightened, he knew it for the man with the broken nose. The boy was instantly on the alert, for he had every reason to distrust Daggs. Without making a sound he worked nearer to the edge of the bunk and pulled the cover up to hide all but his eyes.
She deliberately gazed into his eyes. Like the eyes of an eagle, they were clear and hard, just now warmed by the dalliance of the moment, but there was no light, no intelligence in them to prove he understood her. The instant separated Ellen immeasurably from him and from all of his ilk. "Daggs, I was a child," she said. "I was lonely hungry for affection I was innocent.
"Say, Bruce," said Daggs, "was this heah palaverin' of yours an' Jean Isbel's aboot the old stock dispute? Aboot his father's range an' water? An' partickler aboot, sheep?" "Wal I I yelled a heap," declared Bruce, haltingly, "but I don't recollect all I said I was riled.... Shore, though it was the same old argyment thet's been fetchin' us closer an' closer to trouble."
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