第79章

It was a bright spot of gold that disappeared over the top of the nearest hill; then it came into view again, the whole body of a yellow-haired child, clothed in a wisp of white, and running steadily toward the north.

"The kid!" gasped the foreman."Boys, grab her.No, you'd bust her; I know how to handle her!"He was gone through the door with gigantic leaps and shot over the crest of the low hill.Then those in the cookhouse heard a small, tingling scream;after it, came silence, and the tall foreman striding across the hill with the child high in his arms.He came panting through the door and stood her up on the end of the table, a small and fearless creature.She wore on her feet the little moccasins which Dan himself had fashioned for her, but the tawny hide was not on her--perhaps her mother had thrown the garment away.

The moccasins and the white nightgown were the sum and substance of her apparel, and the cowpunchers stood up around the table to admire her spunk.

"Damed near spat pizen," observed Ben Swann, "when I hung into her--tried to bite me, but the minute I got her in my hands she quit strugglin', as reasonable as a grown-up, by God!""Shut up, Ben.Don't you know no better'n to cuss in front of a kid?"The great, dark eyes of Joan went somberly from face to face.If she was afraid, she disguised it well, but now and then, like a wild thing which sees that escape is impossible, she looked through the window and out over the open country beyond.

"Where was you headed for, honey?" queried Ben Swann.

The child considered him bravely for a time before she replied.

"Over there."

"Over there? Now what might she mean by that? Headed for Elkhead--in a nightgown? Any place I could take you, kid?"If she did not altogether trust Ben Swann, at least she preferred him to the other unshaven, work-thinned faces which leered at her around the table.

"Daddy Dan," she said softly."Joan wants to go to Daddy Dan.""Daddy Dan--Dan Barry," translated Ben Swann, and he drew a bit away from her."Boys, that mankillin' devil must be around here; and that's what them up to the house was runnin' from--Barry!"It scattered the others to the windows, to the door.

"What d'you see?"

"Nothin'."

"Swann, if Barry is comin' to these parts, I'm goin' to pack my war-bag.""Me too, Ben.Them that get ten thousand'll earn it.I heard about the Killin' at Alder.""Listen to me, gents," observed Ben Swann.If Barry is comin' here we ain't none of us goin' to stay; but don't start jumpin' out from under till I get the straight of it.I'm goin' to take the kid up to the house right now and find out."So he wrapped up Joan in an old blanket, for she was shivering in the cold of the early morning, and carried her up to the ranchhouse.The alarm had already been given.He saw Buck Daniels gallop toward the front of the place leading two saddled horses; he saw Haines and Kate run down the steps to meet them, and then they caught sight of the foreman coming with Joan on his shoulder.

The joy of that meeting, it seemed to Ben Swann, was decidedly one-sided.

Kate ran to Joan with a little wailing cry of happiness and gathered her close, but neither big Lee Haines nor ugly Buck Daniels seemed overcome with happiness at the regaining of Joan, and the child herself merely endured the caresses of her mother.Ben Swann made them a speech.

He told them that anybody with half an eye could tell they were bothered by something, that they acted as if they were running away.Now, running in itself was perfectly all right and quite in order when it was impossible to outface or outbluff a danger.He himself, Ben Swann, believed in such tactics.He wasn't a soldier; he was a cowpuncher.So were the rest of the boys out yonder, and though they'd stay by their work in ordinary times, and they'd face ordinary trouble, they were not minded to abide the coming of Dan Barry.

"So," concluded Swann, "I want to ask you straight.Is him they call Whistlin' Dan comin' this way? Are you runnin' from him? And did you steal the kid from him?"Lee Haines took upon his competent shoulders the duty of answering.

"You look like a sensible man, Swann," he said severely."I'm surprised at you.In the first place, two men don't run away from one."A fleeting smile appeared and disappeared on the lips of Ben Swann.Haines hastily went on: "As for stealing the baby from Dan Barry, good heavens, man, don't you think a mother has a right to her own child? Now go back to that scared bunch and tell them that Dan Barry is back in the Grizzly Peaks."For several reasons this did not completely satisfy the foreman, but he postponed his decision.Lee Haines spoke like one in the habit of giving orders, and Swann walked slowly back to the cookhouse.