Virginian — 26 - Ch 35 - With Malice Aforethought (Part 2)
So at the hotel she let her lover go with a kiss, and without a thought of Trampas.
She in her room unlocked the possessions which were there waiting for her, and changed her dress.
Wedding garments, and other civilized apparel proper for a genuine frontiersman when he comes to town, were also in the hotel, ready for the Virginian to wear.
It is only the somewhat green and unseasoned cow-puncher who struts before the public in spurs and deadly weapons.
For many a year the Virginian had put away these childish things.
He made a sober toilet for the streets.
Nothing but his face and bearing remained out of the common when he was in a town.
But Scipio had told him not to change his clothes; therefore he went out with his pistol at his hip.
Soon he had joined his three friends.
“I’m obliged to yu’,” he said.
“He passed me this mawnin’.
” “We don’t know his intentions,” said Wiggin.
“Except that he’s hangin’ around,” said McLean.
“And fillin’ up,” said Scipio, “which reminds me--” They strolled into the saloon of a friend, where, unfortunately, sat some foolish people.
But one cannot always tell how much of a fool a man is, at sight.
It was a temperate health-drinking that they made.
“Here’s how,” they muttered softly to the Virginian; and “How,” he returned softly, looking away from them.
But they had a brief meeting of eyes, standing and lounging near each other, shyly; and Scipio shook hands with the bridegroom.
“Some day,” he stated, tapping himself; for in his vagrant heart he began to envy the man who could bring himself to marry.
And he nodded again, repeating, “Here’s how.
” They stood at the bar, full of sentiment, empty of words, memory and affection busy in their hearts.
All of them had seen rough days together, and they felt guilty with emotion.
“It’s hot weather,” said Wiggin.
“Hotter on Box Elder,” said McLean.
“My kid has started teething.
” Words ran dry again.
They shifted their positions, looked in their glasses, read the labels on the bottles.
They dropped a word now and then to the proprietor about his trade, and his ornaments.
“Good head,” commented McLean.
“Big old ram,” assented the proprietor.
“Shot him myself on Gray Bull last fall.
” “Sheep was thick in the Tetons last fall,” said the Virginian.
On the bar stood a machine into which the idle customer might drop his nickel.
The coin then bounced among an arrangement of pegs, descending at length into one or another of various holes.
You might win as much as ten times your stake, but this was not the most usual result; and with nickels the three friends and the bridegroom now mildly sported for a while, buying them with silver when their store ran out.
“Was it sheep you went after in the Tetons?
” inquired the proprietor, knowing it was horse thieves.
“Yes,” said the Virginian.
“I’ll have ten more nickels.
” “Did you get all the sheep you wanted?
” the proprietor continued.
“Poor luck,” said the Virginian.
“Think there’s a friend of yours in town this afternoon,” said the proprietor.
“Did he mention he was my friend?
” The proprietor laughed.
The Virginian watched another nickel click down among the pegs.
Honey Wiggin now made the bridegroom a straight offer.
“We’ll take this thing off your hands,” said he.
“Any or all of us,” said Lin.
But Scipio held his peace.
His loyalty went every inch as far as theirs, but his understanding of his friend went deeper.
“Don’t change your clothes,” was the first and the last help he would be likely to give in this matter.
The rest must be as such matters must always be, between man and man.
To the other two friends, however, this seemed a very special case, falling outside established precedent.
Therefore they ventured offers of interference.
“A man don’t get married every day,” apologized McLean.
“We’ll just run him out of town for yu’.
” “Save yu’ the trouble,” urged Wiggin.
“Say the word.
” The proprietor now added his voice.
“It’ll sober him up to spend his night out in the brush.
He’ll quit his talk then.
” But the Virginian did not say the word, or any word.
He stood playing with the nickels.
“Think of her,” muttered McLean.
“Who else would I be thinking of?
” returned the Southerner.
His face had become very sombre.
“She has been raised so different!
” he murmured.
He pondered a little, while the others waited, solicitous.
A new idea came to the proprietor.
“I am acting mayor of this town,” said he.
“I’ll put him in the calaboose and keep him till you get married and away.
” “Say the word,” repeated Honey Wiggin.
Scipio’s eye met the proprietor’s, and he shook his head about a quarter of an inch.
The proprietor shook his to the same amount.
They understood each other.
It had come to that point where there was no way out, save only the ancient, eternal way between man and man.
It is only the great mediocrity that goes to law in these personal matters.
“So he has talked about me some?
” said the Virginian.
“It’s the whiskey,” Scipio explained.
“I expect,” said McLean, “he’d run a mile if he was in a state to appreciate his insinuations.
” “Which we are careful not to mention to yu’,” said Wiggin, “unless yu’ inquire for ’em.
” Some of the fools present had drawn closer to hear this interesting conversation.
In gatherings of more than six there will generally be at least one fool; and this company must have numbered twenty men.
“This country knows well enough,” said one fool, who hungered to be important, “that you don’t brand no calves that ain’t your own.
” The saturnine Virginian looked at him.
“Thank yu’,” said he, gravely, “for your indorsement of my character.
” The fool felt flattered.
The Virginian turned to his friends.
His hand slowly pushed his hat back, and he rubbed his black head in thought.
“Glad to see yu’ve got your gun with you,” continued the happy fool.
“You know what Trampas claims about that affair of yours in the Tetons?
He claims that if everything was known about the killing of Shorty--” “Take one on the house,” suggested the proprietor to him, amiably.
“Your news will be fresher.
” And he pushed him the bottle.
The fool felt less important.
“This talk had went the rounds before it got to us,” said Scipio, “or we’d have headed it off.
He has got friends in town.
” Perplexity knotted the Virginian’s brows.
This community knew that a man had implied he was a thief and a murderer; it also knew that he knew it.
But the case was one of peculiar circumstances, assuredly.
Could he avoid meeting the man?
Soon the stage would be starting south for the railroad.
He had already to-day proposed to his sweetheart that they should take it.
Could he for her sake leave unanswered a talking enemy upon the field?
His own ears had not heard the enemy.
Into these reflections the fool stepped once more.
“Of course this country don’t believe Trampas,” said he.
“This country--” But he contributed no further thoughts.
From somewhere in the rear of the building, where it opened upon the tin cans and the hinder purlieus of the town, came a movement, and Trampas was among them, courageous with whiskey.
All the fools now made themselves conspicuous.
One lay on the floor, knocked there by the Virginian, whose arm he had attempted to hold.
Others struggled with Trampas, and his bullet smashed the ceiling before they could drag the pistol from him.
“There now!
there now!
” they interposed; “you don’t want to talk like that,” for he was pouring out a tide of hate and vilification.
Yet the Virginian stood quiet by the bar, and many an eye of astonishment was turned upon him.
“I’d not stand half that language,” some muttered to each other.
Still the Virginian waited quietly, while the fools reasoned with Trampas.
But no earthly foot can step between a man and his destiny.
Trampas broke suddenly free.
“Your friends have saved your life,” he rang out, with obscene epithets.
“I’ll give you till sundown to leave town.
” There was total silence instantly.
“Trampas,” spoke the Virginian, “I don’t want trouble with you.
” “He never has wanted it,” Trampas sneered to the bystanders.
“He has been dodging it five years.
But I’ve got him coralled.
” Some of the Trampas faction smiled.
“Trampas,” said the Virginian again, “are yu’ sure yu’ really mean that?
” The whiskey bottle flew through the air, hurled by Trampas, and crashed through the saloon window behind the Virginian.
“That was surplusage, Trampas,” said he, “if yu’ mean the other.
” “Get out by sundown, that’s all,” said Trampas.
And wheeling, he went out of the saloon by the rear, as he had entered.
“Gentlemen,” said the Virginian, “I know you will all oblige me.
” “Sure!
” exclaimed the proprietor, heartily, “We’ll see that everybody lets this thing alone.
” The Virginian gave a general nod to the company, and walked out into the street.
“It’s a turruble shame,” sighed Scipio, “that he couldn’t have postponed it.
” The Virginian walked in the open air with thoughts disturbed.
“I am of two minds about one thing,” he said to himself uneasily.
Gossip ran in advance of him; but as he came by, the talk fell away until he had passed.
Then they looked after him, and their words again rose audibly.
Thus everywhere a little eddy of silence accompanied his steps.
“It don’t trouble him much,” one said, having read nothing in the Virginian’s face.
“It may trouble his girl some,” said another.
“She’ll not know,” said a third, “until it’s over.
” “He’ll not tell her?
” “I wouldn’t. It’s no woman’s business.
” “Maybe that’s so.
Well, it would have suited me to have Trampas die sooner.
” “How would it suit you to have him live longer?
” inquired a member of the opposite faction, suspected of being himself a cattle thief.
“I could answer your question, if I had other folks’ calves I wanted to brand.
” This raised both a laugh and a silence.
Thus the town talked, filling in the time before sunset.
The Virginian, still walking aloof in the open air, paused at the edge of the town.
“I’d sooner have a sickness than be undecided this way,” he said, and he looked up and down.
Then a grim smile came at his own expense.
“I reckon it would make me sick--but there’s not time.
” Over there in the hotel sat his sweetheart alone, away from her mother, her friends, her home, waiting his return, knowing nothing.
He looked into the west.
Between the sun and the bright ridges of the mountains was still a space of sky; but the shadow from the mountains’ feet had drawn halfway toward the town.
“About forty minutes more,” he said aloud.
“She has been raised so different.
” And he sighed as he turned back.
As he went slowly, he did not know how great was his own unhappiness.
“She has been raised so different,” he said again.
Opposite the post-office the bishop of Wyoming met him and greeted him.
His lonely heart throbbed at the warm, firm grasp of this friend’s hand.
The bishop saw his eyes glow suddenly, as if tears were close.
But none came, and no word more open than, “I’m glad to see you.
” But gossip had reached the bishop, and he was sorely troubled also.
“What is all this?
” said he, coming straight to it.
The Virginian looked at the clergyman frankly.
“Yu’ know just as much about it as I do,” he said.
“And I’ll tell yu’ anything yu’ ask.
” “Have you told Miss Wood?
” inquired the bishop.
The eyes of the bridegroom fell, and the bishop’s face grew at once more keen and more troubled.
Then the bridegroom raised his eyes again, and the bishop almost loved him.
He touched his arm, like a brother.
“This is hard luck,” he said.
The bridegroom could scarce keep his voice steady.
“I want to do right to-day more than any day I have ever lived,” said he.
“Then go and tell her at once.
” “It will just do nothing but scare her.
” “Go and tell her at once.
” “I expected you was going to tell me to run away from Trampas.
I can’t do that, yu’ know.
” The bishop did know.
Never before in all his wilderness work had he faced such a thing.
He knew that Trampas was an evil in the country, and that the Virginian was a good.
He knew that the cattle thieves--the rustlers--were gaining, in numbers and audacity; that they led many weak young fellows to ruin; that they elected their men to office, and controlled juries; that they were a staring menace to Wyoming.
His heart was with the Virginian.
But there was his Gospel, that he preached, and believed, and tried to live.
He stood looking at the ground and drawing a finger along his eyebrow.
He wished that he might have heard nothing about all this.
But he was not one to blink his responsibility as a Christian server of the church militant.
“Am I right,” he now slowly asked, “in believing that you think I am a sincere man?
” “I don’t believe anything about it.
I know it.
” “I should run away from Trampas,” said the bishop.
“That ain’t quite fair, seh.
We all understand you have got to do the things you tell other folks to do.
And you do them, seh.
You never talk like anything but a man, and you never set yourself above others.
You can saddle your own horses.
And I saw yu’ walk unarmed into that White River excitement when those two other parsons was a-foggin’ and a-fannin’ for their own safety.
Damn scoundrels!
” The bishop instantly rebuked such language about brothers of his cloth, even though he disapproved both of them and their doctrines.
“Every one may be an instrument of Providence,” he concluded.
“Well,” said the Virginian, “if that is so, then Providence makes use of instruments I’d not touch with a ten-foot pole.
Now if you was me, seh, and not a bishop, would you run away from Trampas?
” “That’s not quite fair, either!
” exclaimed the bishop, with a smile.
“Because you are asking me to take another man’s convictions, and yet remain myself.
” “Yes, seh.
I am.
That’s so.
That don’t get at it.
I reckon you and I can’t get at it.
” “If the Bible,” said the bishop, “which I believe to be God’s word, was anything to you--” “It is something to me, seh.
I have found fine truths in it.
” “‘Thou shalt not kill,’” quoted the bishop.
“That is plain.
” The Virginian took his turn at smiling.
“Mighty plain to me, seh.
Make it plain to Trampas, and there’ll be no killin’.
We can’t get at it that way.
” Once more the bishop quoted earnestly.
“‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.
’” “How about instruments of Providence, seh?
Why, we can’t get at it that way.
If you start usin’ the Bible that way, it will mix you up mighty quick, seh.
” “My friend,” the bishop urged, and all his good, warm heart was in it, “my dear fellow--go away for the one night.
He’ll change his mind.
” The Virginian shook his head.
“He cannot change his word, seh.
Or at least I must stay around till he does.
Why, I have given him the say-so.
He’s got the choice.
Most men would not have took what I took from him in the saloon.
Why don’t you ask him to leave town?
” The good bishop was at a standstill.
Of all kicking against the pricks none is so hard as this kick of a professing Christian against the whole instinct of human man.
“But you have helped me some,” said the Virginian.
“I will go and tell her.
At least, if I think it will be good for her, I will tell her.
” The bishop thought that he saw one last chance to move him.
“You’re twenty-nine,” he began.
“And a little over,” said the Virginian.
“And you were fourteen when you ran away from your family.
” “Well, I was weary, yu’ know, of havin’ elder brothers lay down my law night and mawnin’.
” “Yes, I know.
So that your life has been your own for fifteen years.
But it is not your own now.
You have given it to a woman.
” “Yes; I have given it to her.
But my life’s not the whole of me.
I’d give her twice my life--fifty--a thousand of ’em.
But I can’t give her--her nor anybody in heaven or earth--I can’t give my--my--we’ll never get at it, seh!
There’s no good in words.
Good-by.
” The Virginian wrung the bishop’s hand and left him.
“God bless him!
” said the bishop.
“God bless him!
” The Virginian unlocked the room in the hotel where he kept stored his tent, his blankets, his pack-saddles, and his many accoutrements for the bridal journey in the mountains.
Out of the window he saw the mountains blue in shadow, but some cottonwoods distant in the flat between were still bright green in the sun.
From among his possessions he took quickly a pistol, wiping and loading it.
Then from its holster he removed the pistol which he had tried and made sure of in the morning.
This, according to his wont when going into a risk, he shoved between his trousers and his shirt in front.
The untried weapon he placed in the holster, letting it hang visibly at his hip.
He glanced out of the window again, and saw the mountains of the same deep blue.
But the cottonwoods were no longer in the sunlight.
The shadow had come past them, nearer the town; for fifteen of the forty minutes were gone.
“The bishop is wrong,” he said.
“There is no sense in telling her.
” And he turned to the door, just as she came to it herself.
“Oh!
” she cried out at once, and rushed to him.
He swore as he held her close.
“The fools!
” he said.
“The fools!
” “It has been so frightful waiting for you,” said she, leaning her head against him.
“Who had to tell you this?
” he demanded.
“I don’t know.
Somebody just came and said it.
” “This is mean luck,” he murmured, patting her.
“This is mean luck.
” She went on: “I wanted to run out and find you; but I didn’t!
I didn’t!
I stayed quiet in my room till they said you had come back.
