CHAPTER XXIII
Breakfast was over at the Double S, and Reuben Sarel had climbed into the buckboard and set out to interview the manager of the Sweetwater bank. Tonia, having seen him off, went about her household duties. She was in the midst of a gay little song when a rattle of hoofs outside brought her to the veranda. The song ceased and her face hardened when she saw the lank, stooping figure of the saloon-keeper, head forward, his coat-tails suggesting the wings of the carrion-eating bird to which men likened him.
'Mornin', Tonia, yo're lookin' right peart,' he commenced. 'Reub around?'
'My uncle has gone to Sweetwater,' she replied, flushing at the caller's familiar manner.
'Well, I guess we can get along without him--two's company, ain't it?' he said with a smirk, as, not waiting for an invitation, he stepped on the veranda and sat down.
'If your business is with my uncle--' she began.
'Take a seat, Tonia. My business--though I shore wouldn't call it that--is with yu,' the visitor told her. 'An' I'm bettin' yu can guess what it is.'
The girl sat down. 'I haven't the remotest idea,' she said.
'I've allus understood that a pretty gal is wise when a fella comes a-courtin',' he leered.
'Courting? You?' Tonia cried. He was right, she had known, but now that the thing had actually happened, the enormity of it staggered her.
'Why not? I ain't so old,' he urged. 'See here, girl, I don't have the trick o' pretty speeches, but I'm askin' yu to marry me. As my wife yu'll be somebody; I got the dollars.'
'You can leave that entirely out of it,' Tonia said quietly. 'For the rest, I don't like you, Air. Raven, and I am already promised.'
'To Andy Bordene, huh?--the half-wit who, when I say the word, won't be worth ten cents.'
'And even then preferable to one who makes his money by selling poison to poor fools, cheating at cards, and stealing other folks' cattle,' she flamed.
The half-breed's yellow cheeks burned redly at the accusation, and his little eyes were alight with rage as he saw his hopes go glimmering. But she was lovely and desirable even in her anger, and he fought to control the passion that devoured him.
'So yu think I'm a rustler, huh?' he said. 'Well, I'll tell yu somethin'. When I shot Jevons, it was for yore sake. The cattle he was charged with stealin' were handed over, on the quiet, by yore manager.'
'Nothing of the kind. The cattle were mine, and he had my permission to take them,' she said hotly.
'After he had crawfished, mebbe,' the man said shrewdly. 'Shucks! war-talk won't get us anywheres. What yu gotta understand is that it depends on yu whether Bordene gits another chance.'
To his astonishment she laughed outright. 'I am quite aware of it,' was her reply. 'That is why Uncle Reuben has gone to Sweetwater.'
The merriment and triumphant tone brought a deeper scowl on the face of the unwelcome suitor, but, to her chagrin, he showed no discomfiture. On the contrary, a wintry smile distorted his thin lips.
'If he's expectin' to git a loan at the bank on the Double S he's due for a disappointment,' he stated.
It was now Tonia's turn to be surprised. 'I don't know what you mean,' she said.
'Yu will,' he sneered, and added harshly. 'Look here, girl, yu've been takin' a middlin' high hand with me, an' so far I've let you run on the rope. But the rope's there, an' it's time yu took a tumble.' He waved a hand at the range lying before them. 'Yu think yu own all this?' he asked, and, when she nodded, 'Well, yu don't, an' that's why the Sweetwater bank won't lend yu money on it.'
'You must be crazy,' Tonia said.
He grinned wolfishly. 'Not any.' He drew a paper from his pocket. 'This is a deed o' mortgage on the Double S, executed by yore father shortly afore he--died, an' given to me as security for sixty thousand dollars lent by me. Look for yourself.'
He held the document out and she saw that he was speaking the truth. For a moment the revelation stunned her and then she rallied.
'That is not my father's writing.'
'No, Potter drew it up an' witnessed yore dad's signature. Nothin' crooked 'bout that, huh?'
She could find no answer; the news had hit her like a landslide, sweeping away all hope. She forced herself to speak:
'Why have you kept silent about this?'
'Didn't wanta worry yu, Tonia,' he replied, and his voice was less harsh. 'Hoped I'd git the Double S in a pleasanter way, an' tear this up.' He tapped the deed. 'I'm still hopin',' he added.
Tonia drew herself up, and the look that had been her father's shone in her steady eyes.
'Please remember that I am 'Tonia' only to my friends, Mr. Raven,' she reminded. 'As for your proposal, why I'd sooner marry a Gila monster.'
The bitter scorn and contempt stung him like a knotted whiplash, rousing the dormant savage in his nature. Leaping to his feet, his face a mask of fury, he poured out a stream of threats and curses, his clenched fist raised as though to strike her.
'Yu damned Jezebel,' he raved, 'I'll tame yu--I'll lower yore pride. I'll get--'
'Outta here, if yo're wise.'
An iron hand seized his collar, shook him like a rat, and flung him backwards so violently that he catapulted over the veranda rail and spread-eagled, face downwards, in the dust. Looking up, he saw the marshal standing above him, a gun in his hand, and death in his eyes. Visiting Renton, he had walked up from the bunk-house and come upon the scene unobserved.
'Fade, yu yellow dawg,' Green rasped, and kicked the man's hat towards him. 'If I catch yu speakin' to Miss Sarel again I'll make yu dumb for keeps. Now, climb that bronc and vamoose; yu don't improve the scenery, none whatever.'
Seth Raven picked up his hat, dusted himself, and moved towards his mount. For an instant he glanced at the girl as though about to speak, but the marshal was not one to utter idle threats and he thought better of it. Only when he was some hundreds of yards away did he turn and shake a furious fist at them. The marshal grinned as he saw the action.
'Played it safe, didn't he?' he said. 'What's the coyote been doin' to upset yu, Miss Sarel?'
'He wants to marry me,' she told him.
'Wish I'd broken his neck,' Green said fervently. 'I reckon yu set him back some.'
'I said I'd rather marry a Gila,' she confessed, a glint of a smile lightening her woebegone face.
'Which shorely showed yore good taste,' the marshal laughed. 'Well, I'm bettin' he won't bother yu no more.' . 'But he will--both Andy and myself are in his clutches,' she said miserably, and related the rest of her conversation with Raven. The marshal's face lengthened.
'That's bad--that's awful bad,' he admitted, when he had heard it all. 'No reason to doubt the genuineness o' that paper he showed yu, I s'pose?'
'It looked like Daddy's signature.'
'Potter is the king-pin,' Green mused. 'If he could speak--'
'I'm sorry to have made trouble for you.'
'Don't yu worry yore head about that. I never was a popular fella anyways. I'm on my way to Sweetwater to see Strade. Keep a-smilin'; Raven ain't got yore ranch yet.'
She watched him swing up into the saddle with the easy grace of the born horseman, and ride away. Three times this long, lithe puncher, with his slow Southern drawl and level, smiling eyes, had, like a veritable knight of the plains, come to her rescue, and it heartened her to know that he was on her side. Nevertheless,, the future looked bleak enough, and the mere thought of losing the home she loved brought a lump into her throat.
* * *
As the marshal rode along the street of Sweetwater a shabby, hard-featured woman came out of a store, and at the sight of him, stood staring.
'Say, mister, who's that fella?' she asked of a passer-by.
The Parson, for he it was chance had thrown in her way, pulled up and eyed her curiously. 'Town marshal o' Lawless--calls hisself Green,' he replied. 'Why, do yu know him?'
'Not by name,' she said. 'Over to Texas they used to call him Sudden.'
