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"Which isn't saying that there won't be, or hasn't been," spoke Snake. "File out your men without guns, you understand!" he snapped. "And then you can hit your own trail. Looks like there'd been a mistake all round. We thought you the Yaquis." "Oh, Senor Purdee!" There was false injury in the tones. "And I'm not so sure but what it will turn out that way in the end," added the cowboy grimly.
All the cruelties, all the insults, all the traditions of the old vendetta came thronging into his mind, as distinctly presented as if they were a series of hideous pictures; for he was not used to think in detail, but in the full portrayal of scenes. The Purdee wrongs were all avenged. This result was so complete, so baffling, so ruinous temporally, so humiliating spiritually!
"That's right!" chimed in Snake. "The ones that captured Rosemary and Floyd could hardly have gotten so far north as the ones were that gave Buck Tooth that little reminder in the shoulder." This opinion, coming from one who could reason out the matter, made everyone feel less apprehensive. "There must be two or three bodies of these Yaquis," went on Snake Purdee.
"I hev been toler'ble well acquainted with the alphabit," said Spears, "fur goin' on thirty year an' better, an' I'll swar ter Heaven thar ain't nare sign of a letter thar." Purdee stared at him in wild-eyed amazement for a moment. Then he flung himself upon his knees beside the great rock, and guiding his ramrod over the surface, he exclaimed, "Hyar, Spears; right hyar!"
He knew that it was less than seven years since the enclosures had been made, acres and acres of tillable land cleared, the houses built all achieved which converted the worthlessness of a wilderness into the sterling values of a farm. He he, Roger Purdee was a rich man for the "mountings," joining his little to this competence.
Coming to a deep ravine, along which the trail led into the mountains, where it was reported the Yaquis had headed, Snake Purdee called a halt. "What's the matter now?" asked Rolling Stone. "Do you see anything?" asked Bud, for he noticed the veteran cowboy looking down into the black depths.
Purdee was silent; one or two of the gossips laughed jeeringly; he had been proved a liar once. It was well that he did not deny; he was put to open shame among them. "An' Grinnell say," continued Blinks, "ez ye hev gone an' tole big tales 'mongst the brethren fur ownin' sech ez ain't yourn, an' readin' of s'prisin' sayin's on the rocks."
It was some distance to the place where Yellin' Kid and Snake Purdee had seen evidences of the raid, and it was long past noon when the boys reached it. They had stopped for "grub" on the way, having carried with them some food. Water they could get from one of the several concrete troughs that had been installed, the fluid coming through pipes from the reservoir.
Augusta looked at him in exasperation. "I ain't keerin' ef all the Purdees war deef," she remarked, inhumanly, "but what war them words ye sent fur a message ter Purdee? 'bout pridin' on what ain't theirn." Grinnell in his turn looked at her but dubiously, However much a man is under the domination of his wife, he is seldom wholly frank.
Purdee, sitting silently smoking, glanced up at the noise. Abner took advantage of the momentary notice to claim, too, the attention of his mother. "I wish ye'd make Eunice quit talkin' 'bout the Grinnells' old baby, like she war actially demented uglies' bald-headed, slab-sided, slobbery old baby I ever see nare tooth in its head! I do despise them Grinnells."
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