第80章

"Thar it is; a squar' case of stand-off.Thar ain't a gent who's game to make a move.Seein' we ain't got a kyard left to play, this yere Pinon Bill grins wide an' satisfactory, an' swings into the saddle.

"All this time--which, after all, it ain't so long--the baby ain't sayin' nothin', and takes the deal in plumb silence.But jest as Pinon Bill lands in the saddle it onfurls a yell like a wronged panther.That's what brings the Deef Woman stampedin' to the scene.

She don't hear a morsel of all this riot Jack an' Tutt an' Pinon Bill kicks up; never even gets a hint of Pinon Bill's six-shooter.

But with the earliest squeak of that infant that a-way, you bet! she comes a-runnin'.

"The second she sees where her baby's at, up in the saddle along with Pinon Bill, she makes a spring for the whole outfit.We-alls stands lookin' on.Thar ain't one of us dares crook a finger, for this Pinon Bill is cool an' ca'm plumb through.He's still got the drop on the kid, while he's holdin' baby an' bridle both with the other arm an' hand.His sharp eyes is on the Deef Woman, too.

"She springs, but she never makes it.Pinon Bill jumps his pony sideways out of her reach, an' at that the Deef Woman c'lapses on her face an' shoulder in a dead swoon.

"'Adios!' says Pinon Bill, to the rest of us, backin' an' sidlin'

his pony up the street so he don't lose sight of the play.'Ten minutes from now you-alls finds this yere infant a mile from camp as safe an' solid as a sod house.'

"'Bill,' says Enright, all at once, 'I makes you a prop'sition.

Restore the baby to me, an' thar ain't a gent in camp who follows you a foot.I gives you the word of Wolfville.'

"'Does that go?' demands Pinon Bill, turnin to Jack, who's shakin'

the blood offen his fingers where it runs down his arm.

"'It goes,' says Jack; 'goes wherever Enright sets it.I makes good his bluffs at all times on foot or in the stirrups.'

"'An' I takes your promise,' says Pinon Bill with a laugh, 'an'

yere's the baby.Which now I'm goin', I don't mind confidin' in you-alls,' goes on this Pinon Bill, 'that I never intends to hurt that infant nohow.'

"Enright gets the child, an' in no time later that Pinon Bill is fled from sight.You can believe it; it takes a load offen the public mind about that infant when the kyards comes that a-way.

"Which the story's soon told now.It's three days later, an', seein'

it's refreshed in our thoughts, Enright an' the rest of us is resoomed op'rations touchin' this Deef Woman, about gettin' her outen camp, an' she's beginnin' to recover her obduracy about not sayin' or hearin' nothin', when in comes a package by Old Monte an'

the stage.It's for Enright from that hoss.thief, Pinon Bill.

Thar's a letter an'

Soo for the baby.

"'Tell that Decf Woman,' says this yere Pinon Bill, 'that I has an even thousand dollars in my war-bags, when I stacks in her offspring ag'inst the camp to win; an' I deems it only squar' to divide the pot with the baby.The kid an' me's partners in the play that a-way, an' the enclosed is the kid's share.Saw this yere dinero off on her somehow; an' make her pull her freight.Wolfville's no good place to raise that baby.'

"'Which this Pinon Bill ain't so bad neither,' says Dan Boggs, when he hears it.'Gents, I proposes the health of this outlaw.Barkeep, see what they takes in behalf of Pinon Bill.'

"The letter an' the money's dead straight, an' the Deef Woman can't dodge or go 'round.All of which Missis Rucker takes a day off an'

beats it into her by makin' signs.It's like two Injuns talkin'.It all winds up by the Deef Woman p'intin' out on her way some'ers East, an' thar ain't one of us ever sees the Major, the Deef Woman, the kid, nor yet this Pinon Bill, no more.Which this last, however, is not regarded as food for deep regrets,"