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Updated: May 17, 2025
"I reckon Mr. Tolliver won't let this Houck bully you none," the boy said. "I ain't scared of him," she answered. But June knew there would be small comfort for her in the thought of her father's protection. She divined intuitively that he would be a liability rather than an asset in any conflict that might arise between her and Jake Houck.
The Brown's Park man bought a plug of chewing tobacco and a shirt. "Guess the soldiers got the Utes corralled all right by this time. Hear anything new about that?" Platt asked by way of making conversation. "No," Houck replied shortly. "Got an empty gunnysack I could have?" "Sure." The storekeeper found one and a string with which to tie it.
She's too young to be figurin' on marryin'. Better give her time." "No." Houck flung the word out like an oath. "Now. Right away." The trapper's voice took on a plaintive note, almost a whine. "You was sayin' yoreself, Jake, that she'd have to get used to it. Looks like it wouldn't be good to rush " "She can get used to it after we're married."
"Didn't you hear this guy say Harshaw sent them here? Use yore horse sense, man." Houck turned to Hollister. "Yore bronc's with the others. The saddle's over by that rock. Take 'em an' hit the trail." In sullen rage Houck watched Dud saddle and cinch. Not till the Slash Lazy D riders were ready to go did he speak again. "Tell you what I'll do," he proposed.
But how could Houck be with June, strolling across the park in intimate talk with her, leaning toward her in that confidential, lover-like attitude Jake Houck, who had robbed the bank a few hours earlier and was being hunted up and down the river by armed posses ready to shoot him like a wolf? June was a good hater. She had no use whatever for this fellow.
If he could have heard the talk between them, Bob would have better understood the situation. Ever since that memorable evening when Bear Cat had driven him away in disgrace, Houck had let loose the worse impulses of his nature. He had gone bad, to use the phrase of the West. Something in him had snapped that hitherto had made him value the opinions of men.
His mind flashed back to the boy he had met less than a year ago, a pallid, trembling weakling who had shriveled under the acid test of danger. He had traveled a long way since then in self-conquest. "Houck was down in the open last I seen him," Hawks said. "Did he crawl to the willows?" "I kinda helped him," Bob said, a little ashamed. "Hmp!
A cloud had come over the beautiful world. "We'll go on now," he said gently. "I'll come back later with your father." They rode in silence up the long hill. At the top of it he drew rein and smiled at his bride. "You'll not let that spoil the day, will you, June? He had it coming, you know. Houck had gone bad. If it hadn't been the Utes, it would have been the law a little later."
If that mad dog had not come round the corner just when it did, he would have evened the score between him and Dillon. June had seen the whole thing. She had been a partner in the red-headed boy's ovation. Houck ground his teeth in futile anger. Presently he slouched into the dining-room. Mollie saw him and walked across the room to June. "I'll wait on him if you don't want to."
They can be very likable eyes, frank and kind, with innumerable little lines of humor radiating from the corners; or they can be stern and chill as the Day of Judgment. Jake Houck found in them no gentleness. They judged him, inexorably, while he explained. "Where was you takin' her?" asked Larson, of the Wagon Rod outfit.
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