Conagher (1969) (2 page)

WHEN Jacob Teale had bee n gone three weeks the stage cam e by the Teale cabin.

Ruthie saw it first. She was up on th e slope gathering chips for kindling whe n she saw the dust far away up the valley.

For a moment she stared, then , dropping the chips, she ran for the house , calling out , Ma! Ma! Somebody's corning !

Evie put down her dishcloth and, dryin g her hands on her apron, she went to th e door. Laban came running from th e corral, where he was in the process o f building a crude shelter of brush for th e three horses and the milk cow they ha d brought from Missouri, led behind th e wagon.

Shading their eyes, they saw the stag e coming, galloping horses obscured by th e accompanying cloud of dust, and the n suddenly the racing teams swung fro m the trail and came up the road into th e yard.

It was a Concord stage drawn by fou r horses, and two men rode the box. Inside , they could see two other men. The drive r pulled up and stared down at them.

Now where in the Lord's name di d you come from ?
he demanded.

I am Mrs. Jacob Teale , Evie replied , with dignity , and these are my children.

Won't you step down? You must be ver y hungry .

That we are
, the driver agreed.

Ma'am, this here gent is Beaver Sampson.

He's riding shotgun. He's ridin g against Injuns more than road agents.

The tall gentleman stepping down i s torn Wildy. He's superintendent of thi s stretch of stage line, God help him, an d you will recognize the uniform of the U
. S
.

Cavalry on the other feller. He's Cap'
n Hurley. I'm Charlie McCloud, and we'r e runnin' the first stage through to th e Plaza .

Come in, won't you ?
Evie said .
W
e weren't expecting company, but I am sur e we can find something. Laban, will yo u bring in an armful of wood? I'll make fres h coffee .
t orn Wildy glanced at the stone cabin , then at the corrals .
You will forgive ou r astonishment, Mrs. Teale. We were tol d there was no one in this area at all. Comin g upon your place is quite a surprise .

Sampson glanced from her to th e children .
Anybody tell you this wa s Injun country, ma'am ?

We haven't seen any. Of course, w e have stayed close to home. Just gone fo r wood, and all. Mr. Teale is away at th e momenthe has gone to the settlement s to buy cattle .

Teale? I haven't heard the name. No t that I know all the folks who com e through, but a man buying cattle . .. well , usually you hear about such things .

Evie led the way into the cabin .
We ar e not set up for company yet, gentlemen , but you're welcome .

Thank you
, Wildy said, seatin g himself and holding his hat on his knee.

Mrs. Teale, we'll be running a somewha t makeshift affair for a while, so I wonder i f you could take on the feeding o f passengers until we get our station s established? Your place here is just twent y miles from our last planned stop, and yo u could make yourself as well as th e company a bit of money. That's scarce, I presume .

Indeed it is, Mr. Wildy .
Sh e smoothed her apron self-consciously.

Yes, I could do that, but we would hav e to lay in supplies .

No problem. Mrs. Teale, you woul d be saving us a lot of trouble and expense i f you could handle this until we get settle d down. You make up a list of whatever yo u need and I'll have McCloud bring it on th e next stage ... at our expense. Th e company will foot the bill to get yo u started, in consideration of the favor yo u would be doing us. After that you wil l have to manage on your own profits .

That would be fine .

We will be having another stage sto p fifteen miles west, but you could save u s the expense of building for the tim e being .

He turned to Laban .
How are you wit h horses, son? Could you harness the team s and get them out for us until your pa get s home ?

Yes, sir. I help pa with the horses, sir.

I hitched up and drove when we came wes t from Missouri .
to You're from Missouri, then ?
Captai n Hurley said.

My husband is a Missourian, Captain.

I am from Ohio .

As she talked she was moving about , getting things ready. She was flushed an d excited. It was a pleasure to have visitors , and she enjoyed hearing them speak of th e common places of travel, of road conditions , the possibilities of rain, and th e grazing of stock.

You will be having neighbors to th e south , Hurley said .
Some big cattl e outfits are moving in about thirty mile s down the country .

It will be a pleasure. Will the stage s come often, Mr. Wildy ?

Not at first. Then they will come ever y other day. Two, sometimes three a wee k one going west, and another going east. I t will depend on the business .

She bustled about, getting food on th e table and refilling their cups.

Later, when they had eaten and wer e filing out to get aboard the stage, McClou d lingered .
Ma'am, you keep a sharp watc h out for Injuns. They ain't been troublesom e right now, but it can start any time , and there's always young bucks out fo r mischief.

Don't give 'em anything. If you do , they'll figure it's a sign of fear. Make 'e m trade. Any Injun understands trade an d they cotton to it, but they're notional, an d their thinkin' ain't like ours .

Thank you, Mr. McCloud. I wil l remember .

You say your man went to buy cattle ?

He was looking for breeding stock. W
e hope to raise a good herd and start sellin g in about three years .

If I see him, I'll tell him you're al l well .
McCloud touched the brim of hi s hat .
Be seein' you, ma'am .

They stood out in front of the cabin an d watched the stage until it disappeare d around the next curve of the road. The n Evie turned .
Come, children , she said.

We've got a lot to do .

All of them felt a new excitement.

Laban was puffed up with importanc e over his new job. He was to be a hostler, a t least until pa got home, and even after tha t if he could talk pa into letting him keep o n with itunder pa's supervision, of course.

At sunset Evie walked away from th e cabin and stood alone, her hair stirring a little in the faint breeze. She stood on th e edge of the trail, a hundred yards from th e cabin. All was very still.

She never tired of the mornings an d evenings here, the soft lights, the changin g colors of sunlight and cloud upon th e hills, the stirring of wind in the grass.

Out here there was no escaping the sky o r the plains, and Evie knew that until sh e came west she had never really know n distance.

The air was incredibly clear. Fresh an d cool as it was, one breathed it in lik e drinking cool water; and always there wa s a definite odor on it, the odor dependin g on the direction from which the win d blew: the smell of cedar, and of pine s beyond, the smell of sage, or, from th e dryer lands after a rain, the smell of th e creosote bush.

She looked down now at the tracks i n the road, the tracks of the passing stage , the first tracks in their road since Jaco b left.

Suddenly, she felt a chill. Superimpose d on the tracks of the stage were th e tracks of unshod ponies . . . Indian ponies!

When could they have passed? Ho w could she have missed seeing them?

It must have been at suppertime, whe n they were at the table. The stage had lef t shortly after noon, and they had worke d around the place, inside and out. Laba n had fed the stock . . . yes, it must hav e been at suppertime.

She walked a little way, studying th e tracks. There seemed to have been tw o horses, and at one point the riders ha d drawn up, facing toward the cabin , perhaps listening to them talking.

That was not over an hour ago. Sh e turned abruptly and, gathering her skirt , started for the cabin. Even now they migh t be up in the cedars, watching her. Sh e moved quickly.

Laban met her at the door, brushing ha y from his clothes. Ruthie was reading a newspape r one of the men had left with them.

What is it, ma? What's wrong ?
Laba n asked.

She hesitated for a moment, but the y must be told .
Indians, Laban. I saw thei r tracks in the road. They must have com e along while we were eating supper. W
e must be very careful .

That night she left a crack of th e window open looking toward the corrals , and she placed the shotgun beside her. I f the Indians came she supposed it would b e for the horses, but although the coyote s howled the long night through, she hear d no other sound.

Before it was time for the stage to com e again, she carefully tamped down th e earthern floor, and then, as she had see n her grandmother do years ago on thei r farm in Ohio, she traced a floral pattern o n the floor to resemble a carpet. She wa s pleased with the result.

When they were expecting the stage sh e put water on the fire and got food ready t o serve, and then they waited.

They heard the stage coming long befor e it arrived, heard the rattle of the wheels ove r stones, and the running horses.

Charlie McCloud was driving again , and a different man was riding shotgun.

He was a lean, round-shouldered ma n with a tough face and a hard-cut mouth.

He was sporting a cut on his cheekbon e and a black eye.

This here is Kiowa Staples , Charli e said .
It looks like he run into somethin g in the dark .

Staples threw him a hard glance .
I t was some no-account saddle bum , Staples said irritably .
I misjudged him.

The next time we meet it won't be fist s we'll use .

Aw, forget it Kiowa , Charlie said.

You brought it on yourself. There's som e men you just can't push, an' you pushe d that one too far. You think it over an' yo u won't blame him none .

I won't blame him , Staples replied , but I'll kill him .

There was one passenger, a portly ma n in a black derby and black suit wh o descended stiffly from the stage, stretched , and started toward the house.

My advice to you, Kiowa, is to leav e that gent alone , Charlie McClou d advised .
I've seen his kind before. Yo u don't find them swaggering aroun d hunting trouble, because they've see n trouble a-plenty. They've been u p the creek an' over the mountain , they've hunted buffalo an' they've fi t Injuns an' maybe outlaws, an' they'v e done it like you an' me hitch a tea m of hossesit's ever' day work to them.

You steer clear of that kind if you wan t to keep a whole hide . . . an' a reputation .

Together McCloud and Kiowa packe d the supplies in and placed them o n the floor out of the way, while Evie pu t the food on the table. It was good soli d food and all three men ate wit h relish.

Stays with you, that kind of grub , Charlie said .
If I wasn't married, Mr s Teale, I'd surely come a-courtin'
.

Evie blushed
.
Thank you, Mr.

McCloud. I've always liked to see a ma n enjoy his food .

Kiowa looked up at her .
No Injuns ?

We saw tracks
, Laban said , righ t after you folks left, the last time. Ther e were two of them .

They were scoutin' you , Kiowa said , and us. You keep a fresh eye, ma'am, an d you worry some. It'll likely be you r saving .

When they were gone, Evie and Ruthi e put the supplies away, while Laban wen t back to work on the shelter for th e animals. It was crudely built and scarcel y more than a windbreak, but Evie , watching him from a distance, saw that th e boy worked with some assurance and not a little skill. Evidently he had watched hi s father and others, and perhaps had helpe d at such jobs before.

Since his father had been gone Laba n had been getting up earlier and workin g harder, and he had fussed much less wit h Ruthie than before. His sister wa s mystified by the change. Laban seeme d suddenly grown up and far away from her.

He went about his work with grea t seriousness, and did not wait to be asked.

He did what needed doing, and Ruthie'
s respect grew despite herself. She foun d herself speaking to him as she might t o someone much older. At times it irked her , but Laban seemed not to notice; sometime s she deliberately teased him, hopin g to arouse his irritation, to make him wan t to fight back, but he assumed a loft y attitude and only smiled or, worse yet , ignored her.

In the week that passed the stag e stopped only twice, and then on the day i t was due to come again, three rider s appeared, driving a herd of horses, a i dozen of them to be left at the Teale place.

One of the cowhands was a youngster , not over seventeen, the others were olde r men. Johnny McGivern came gallopin g on ahead, yelling at Laban .
Open th e bars there, boy! We're a-bringin' in th e hosses !