Adventure stories; Mines and mineral resources -- Fiction; Western stories
"No, no; you did not ask them to," said Apache, in a mock-conciliatory
tone, and then, with a smile on his lips, he said gently: "But you were
thinking that, and I—know—every—thought—that passes through your mind,
Mr. Farrell."
You should have seen the man Pete at these soft-spoken words.
I must give you an idea of what this fellow looked like. To begin with,
I think I may safely say he looked like a villain, but more of the wolf
order of the villain than the panther; he had what you would call an
ignorant face,—a heavy brow, high cheek-bones, very glassy and
constantly wandering eyes, far too many teeth for his mouth, and they
very large and animal like. And if ever I saw superstitious fear on a
man’s face, it was on the face of that cut-throat.
He looked at Apache Kid, who sat with his hat tilted back and his open,
cheery, and devil-may-care face radiant to the leaping firelight,—looked
at him so that the firelight made on his face shadows, instead of
lighting it; for he held his chin low and the mouth open. His hat was
off and only his forehead was lit up. The rest was what I say—loose
shadows. Then he looked at Farrell, as though to see if Farrell were not
at all fearful, and, "Say!" he said, "I ’ll take ’herd’ to-night."
Farrell turned on him with a leer and laughed.
"I guess you ’d better go first then," said he, "before midnight comes,
and let Dan go second, after a three hours’ tend. You ’re the sort of
man that is all very good robbing a train, but when you get in among the
mountains with the boodle you get scared. And what for? For nothing!
That’s the worst of you Cat’licks."
So Farrell pronounced the word, and the man flung up his head at that
with an angry and defiant air, so that one only saw there the bravo now,
and not the ignorant and superstitious savage. He was on the point of
speech, but Apache Kid said:
"Sir, sir! it is very rude, to say the least of it, to malign any
gentleman’s religion. I presume from your remark that you are of the
Protestant persuasion, but my own personal opinion is that you are both
equally certain of winning into hell. If our Roman Catholic friend is
kind enough to offer to relieve us of the monotony of night-herding
duty, we can only thank him."
So Pete rose and tightened his belt, and went his ways; and that in no
less than time, for the horses were already restive, as though the
loneliness of the place had taken possession of them. Of all beasts I
know, I think horses the most influenced by their environment.
"Well, if this don’t beat cock-fightin’!" I heard Mr. Pinkerton’s voice
behind me, where he lay now, leaning on an elbow; and then he said a
word or two to the half-breed, who rose and departed out of the circle
of the fire-shine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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