Lost Pueblo (1992) (21 page)

"Precisely an' exactly, lady," returned Black Dick, amiably.

"Who is he, then?"

"Wal, I ain't sure, but I think he's Phil Randolph. The cowmen hyar aboot call him Professor Bone-digger."

The guilty archaeologist dropped his hands with a laugh and sat down abruptly. Janey realized that the cat was out of the bag.

"Impostor! Liar!" burst out Mrs. Durland.

"Wal, I'll be dog-gone!" ejaculated Black Dick, with mild interest. "Snitz, somethin' up hyar, an' I've a hunch it's amoozin'. But we mustn't forget to collect all vallables fust."

"Fork over, mum," said Snitz, thus admonished, his eager hands extended.

"I--I tell you I've nothing," replied Mrs. Durland, weakly.

"Search her, Snitz," ordered Black Dick, sternly. "Hey--lady--keep them hands up."

Whereupon the little red-headed ruffian went at Mrs. Durland with an alacrity and verve that made Janey nearly choke, while at the same time she felt misgivings as to what might happen to her.

"Aha! Hyar's a lump of somethin' that feels heavy an' sounds moosical," announced Snitz, slapping at Mrs. Durland's hip pocket.

"You--thieving--lecherous--scoundrel!" Mrs. Durland screeched.

It must have hurt her to see that fat jingling bag brought to light. Snitz burst it open. Greenbacks, gold coins--jewelry!

"Whoopee!" yelled the little robber. "It's a haul, boss. This hyar lady shore didn't bulge all over fer nothin'."

"Business is lookin' up," remarked Black Dick, with satisfaction. "Now Snitz, hand all that over to me, an' hey a look at this gurl. Looks to me she'd have a million--if you jedge by eyes... Ain't she a looker?"

As Snitz approached Janey, grinning, eager, full of the devil as well as greed, she suddenly became terrified. This was not so funny.

"Phil!" she cried. "Don't let him touch me."

"Be sensible, child. They've held us up," admonished Randolph.

Janey slipped off her diamond ring and stretched it out at the length of her arm and let it drop in Snitz's palm.

"That's all I've got. Honest," she said, earnestly, in the stress of wanting to escape those rude hands.

"Little gurl, you don't look like a prevaricateer, but we jest can't trust you," returned Black Dick, soothingly.

"Peachy, if you run it'll be the wuss for you," added Snitz, reaching for her.

His touch, following the devilish little gleam in his eye, inflamed Janey. With one wrench she tore free and struck at Snitz with all her might. A quick duck of head just saved him.

"Whew!" he ejaculated, astounded and checked.

"Wow!" added Black Dick, in gleeful admiration. "She strikes like a sidewinder, Snitz. If that one had landed you've hey knowed it... Wal, now what a fiery wench!"

Janey blazed at the leering astonished robber. "You damn little beast! If you touch me again I'll knock your red head off!"

Black Dick guffawed uproariously, while Snitz, though he joined in the mirth, took her seriously.

"Who'd a thunk it, boss?" he said. "Look at that tight little fist an' the way she swings it."

"Wal, I reckon I'm noticin'," added the leader, sheathing his gun and approaching. "We gotta be gennelmen, you know, Snitz... See hyar, mighty little gurl, are you tellin' us true? You hain't nothin' on you but this ring?"

"That's all," returned Janey, breathing hard. "Wal, turn round fer inspection," he ordered. Janey did as she was bidden.

"Do it again, an' not so damn fast. This ain't no merry-go-round."

Whereupon Janey, realizing that she was to escape indignity, turned for their edification like a dress model in the Grande Maison de Blanc.

"Peachy, you ain't got a whole lot of anythin' on," remarked Snitz, fervidly.

Black Dick surveyed her with the appraising eyes of a connoisseur.

"Wal, sweetie, I reckon if you had a dime hid on you I could see it," he concluded, with finality.

Chapter
10

"Say, you're gettin' too big a kid fer sech short dresses," observed Black Dick disapprovingly to Janey.

"We were caught in the rain and my clothes shrunk," explained Janey.

"Reckon you're about sixteen years old, hain't you?"

"Oh, I'm a little more than that," dimpled Janey, very much pleased.

"How much?"

"Several years."

"Humph! No one would take you fer a grown girl. I'm afeared your mother hain't brought you up right--lettin' you run around with your fat knees all bare."

"Fat? They're not fat," retorted Janey, promptly insulted.

"Excuse me. Wal, they're bare. You can't deny that. An' after I give your ma a lecture I'll give you one," concluded Black Dick.

"Snitz," he said to his lieutenant, "you go diggin' round an' see if thar's anythin' more wuth takin'."

Then he confronted the dejected and crushed Mrs. Durland. "Look ahyar, lady," he began. "Your gurl says she's eighteen years old. An' I'm tellin' you she hain't been brought up decent. Wearin' sech clothes out hyar in the desert! Why, it ain't respectable. An' it ain't safe, neither. You might meet up with some hombres thet was not gennelmen like me an' Snitz."

Mrs. Durland was spurred out of her apathy into a wrathful astonishment that rendered her mute. Black Dick evidently saw that he had made a profound impression.

"I took her fer a kid, like them I see in town, wearin' white cotton socks thet leave their legs bare," he said. "An' hyar she's of age. There ought to be somethin' done about it. You ought to be ashamed of yourself to let your dotter run around like thet."

"My daughter?" burst out Mrs. Durland, furiously. "Not much! She's no kin of mine."

"Excoose me, lady. I had a hunch she was sister to this dude you've got with you," returned Black Dick, coolly. "Come to think aboot it I might have known from her looks."

Snitz approached at this moment, carrying various articles he had taken from Mrs. Durland's saddle. One of them was a light handbag, which Black Dick promptly turned inside out. It contained gloves, handkerchief, powder puff, cosmetics, and a magazine with a highly colored front page. The robber kept this and returned the other things.

"Snitz, you poke around some more," he said laconically, and turned to Janey. She, from her perch on the packs, had expected this and prepared herself with sad face and tearful eyes.

"Wot's your name?" he asked.

"Janey."

"Kind of suits you somehow... Wot you cryin' aboot?"

"I'm very scared and unhappy."

"Scared? Of me?"

"Oh no. I'm not afraid of you. I think you're a real man. But these people have kidnaped me--to get money out of my father."

"Ahuh. Wot'd this fellar Randolph pretend he was me fer?" asked Black Dick, growing more and more curious.

"I suppose to intimidate me. But he wasn't a bit like you."

"So thet old bird is a kidnaper?" mused Black Dick, darkly. "An' Randolph's been roped in the deal. Wal, I'll be doggoned. Shore are a lot of mean people. Now, I'm only an old desert pack rat, snoopin' round when I get broke, but I could see you was a nice girl. Kidnapin' wimmen fer money shore ain't in my line. I was jest throwed off a little by your dress bein' so short."

"Thank you, Mr. Black Dick," said Janey, thinking that never had she received more sincere approval.

"Wal, we'll see wot can be did with this old hen," said the robber. Then he happened to notice Randolph sitting there as if he had not a friend in the world.

"Say, Randolph, my Navvy friends tipped me off aboot these pickin's. And what were you up to? Don't you reckon it's dangerous pretendin' to be me? There are men who'd shoot at you fer it."

"I never thought of that at the time," returned Randolph, lowering his voice. "The honest truth is I was just in fun. And I'm not so sure it was all my idea."

Then they got their heads together and conversed in such low tones that Janey could not hear any more.

"Boss, there ain't any more stuff worth hevin', onless it's the grub," announced Snitz, coming up. "Some orful fancy eats!"

"Well, I've a grand idee," said Black Dick, slapping his knee, and he winked one of his great bold black eyes at Janey. "We're goin' to have aristocracy cook for us."

Whereupon he approached Mrs. Durland with a slow rolling step, his sombrero cocked on one side of his head, his right thumb in the armhole of his vest, and his left hand holding onto the magazine.

"Lady," said Dick, grandly, "you're goin' to be honored by cookin' a meal fer Black Dick. An' if you don't do your best I'll feel it my bounden duty to tote you off an' larn you how."

Mrs. Durland fell back with horror in her face.

"I like my wimmen with spunk," went on the desperado. "Could you lam to cuss, an' toss off a drink, an' kick me in the shins?"

"Merciful heavens--no!"

"Wal, then, you cook an' Whitepants hyar can be cookee. Rustle up some firewood... An' now, sister, waddle along. An' mebbe I'll let you off."

"Beast!" screamed Mrs. Durland, and she ran toward the campfire.

"Cook dinner thar, you two," yelled Dick. "An' don't be all day aboot it."

Janey had observed that these men, despite the earlier action of robbing the party, and their later antics, took occasion now and then to gaze up and down the canyon. The younger one, Snitz, was particularly keen. These outlaws expected someone to come along or else were just habitually cautious and watchful.

Black Dick and Snitz sat down close together, with the magazine on the former's knees. They had the air of guilty gleeful schoolboys about to partake in a thrilling and forbidden act. They made a picture Janey would never forget, and reminded her of the mischievous cowboys. All these natives of Arizona had some inimitable Western quality, the keynote of which was fun.

Dick's huge dirty hands turned the pages, until suddenly they froze; then the bent heads grew absorbed.

"Jerusalem!" ejaculated Dick.

"Ain't she a looker!" exclaimed his comrade, raptly.

They turned a page and giggled. Then Black Dick looked up, swept the immediate horizon, and happening to see Janey, he waved a hand, as if to tell her to go away far back somewhere and leave them to their joy. Dick turned another page; and they whispered argumentatively. Another page brought a loud gasp from Snitz and something that sounded very much like an oath from Black Dick. Then they were as petrified.

"My Gord!" finally burst out Dick. "Snitz, do you see wot I see?"

"I'm lookin' at thet lady in the Garden of Eden," replied Snitz, breathing heavily.

"She ain't got a damn thing on," said Dick, in consternation. "Say, this must be gettin' to be an orful world."

"Wonder who tooked thet picture," returned Snitz. "It had to be tooked by a fotoggrapher."

"It says so--an' a man at thet. Shore I wouldn't been him fer a million dollars."

"I'd tooked thet picture fer nuthin'!" said Snitz.

Black Dick continued turning the pages, very slowly, as if he expected one of them to explode and blow them to bits.

"Wal, hyar's somebody with clothes on--sech as they are," he observed, presently.

"Actress. Not so bad, huh?--You'd get a hunch there ain't any men in New Yoork."

"Men don't cut much ice nowheres," said Dick, shrewdly. "When Eve got thick with thet big snake they fixed it so men did all the work, or become tramps like us, or went to jail."

"Dick, it ain't so long ago when the pictures we seen--most on them cigarette cairds--was wimmen in tights," said Snitz, reminiscently.

"Shore, but it's longer'n you think. You can bet there ain't nothin' like that these days. The world is goin' to hell."

"Hold on," interposed Snitz, halting Dick's too impetuous hand. "Heah's a nice picture."

"Nice? Snitz, you was brought up iggnorant. Thet ain't nice. Can't you see it's two girls in a room? They're half undressed an' smokin' cigarettes. Turrible fetchin' but shore not nice."

"Aw heck, I cain't see nuthin' wrong with it," said Snitz. "At least they're real purty."

"Snitz, this hyar all ain't so damn funny. Thet's the fust picture of this kind I've seen since the war. Wal, time changes every-thin'... But, Snitz, we ain't so bad off. Shore, we're often hungry an' oftener broke waitin' fer a chance like this, an' we're dirty an' unshaved, with a few sheriffs lookin' fer us; but I'm damned if I'd change places with any of them people--even thet photoggrapher. Would you?"

"Nary time, Dick. Give me a hoss an' the open country," replied Snitz, rising to take a look up and down the canyon. Black Dick's ox eyes rolled and set under a rugged frown. Evidently in the magazine he had been confronted with a mysterious and perplexing world. Janey decided about this time that this desert rat several sheriffs were looking for was not half a bad fellow.

Presently Mrs. Durland called them to the meal she had been forced to prepare. Her face was very red and there was a black smudge on her nose, but she faced them with confidence. Snitz let out a whoop and alighted on the ground with his legs tucked under him--a marvelous performance considering the long spurs. Black Dick surveyed the white tablecloth spread upon the tarpaulin and the varied assortment of cooked and uncooked food.