The Coming of Cassidy by Clarence E. Mulford (children's ebooks online .txt) 📖

rather than let any trouble come to her. But you’ll get an even break, because I ain’t never going to shoot a man when he’s helpless. Got anything to say?”

“Yes; yo’re th’ biggest fool I ever saw,” replied Greener. “Yo’re locoed through an’ through; an’ I’m goin’ to take great pleasure in putting you away. But I want to thank you for one thing you did. You were drunk at the time an’ may not remember it. When you hit Nolan for talking like he did I liked you for it, an’ I’m goin’ to tell you so. Now we’ll get at th’ matter before us so I can move along.”

Neither had paid any attention to Norah in the earnestness and keen-eyed scrutiny of each other and the first sign they had of her actions was when she threw her arms around Greener’s neck and shielded him. He was too much of a man to fire from cover and Johnny realized it while the other tried to get her to leave the scene.

“I won’t leave you to be murdered I know what it means, I know it,” she cried. “My place is here, and you can’t deny your wife’s first request! What will I do without you! Oh, dear, let me stay! I will stay! What woman ever had such a wedding day before! Dear, dear, what can I do? Tell me what to do!”

Johnny sniffled and wished the posse had taken him. This was a side he had never thought of. His wife! Greener’s wife! Then he was too late, and to go on would be a greater evil than the one he wished to eliminate. When she turned on him like a tigress and tore him to pieces word by word, tears rolling down her pallid cheeks and untold misery in her eyes, he shook his head and held up his hand.

“Greener, you win; I can’t stop what’s happened,” he said, slowly. “But I’ll tell you this, an’ I mean every word: If you don’t treat her like she deserves, I’ll come back some of these days and kill you shore. Nolan got his because he talked ill of her; an’ you’ll get yours if I die the next minute, if you ain’t square with her.”

“I don’t need no instructions on how to treat my wife,” retorted the other. “An’ I’m beginnin’ to see th’ cause of yore insanity, and it pardons you as nothing else will. Put up yore gun an’ get back to th’ ranch, where you belong an’ keep away from me. Savvy?”

“Not much danger of me gettin’ in yore way,” growled Johnny, “when I’m hunted like a dog for doing what any man would ‘a’ done. When th’ sheriff gets well, if he ever does, mebby I’ll come back an’ take my medicine. How was he, anyhow, when you left?”

“Dead tired, an’ some under th’ influence of liquor,” replied Greener, a smile breaking over his frown. He knew the whole story well, as did the whole range, and he bad laughed over it with the Bar-20 outfit.

“What’s that? Ain’t he near dead?” cried Johnny, amazed.

“Well, purty nigh dead of fatigue dancin’ at our weddin’ last night; but I reckon he’ll be driftin’ home purty soon, an’ all recovered.” Greener suddenly gave way and roared with laughter. There was a large amount of humor in his make-up and it took possession of him, shaking him from head to foot. He had always liked Johnny, not because he ever wanted to but because no one could know the Bar-20 protege and keep from it. This climax was too much for him, and his wife, gradually recovering herself, caught the infection and joined in.

Johnny’s eyes were staring and his mouth wide open, but Greener’s next words closed the eyes to a squint and snapped shut the open mouth.

“That there paralysis of th’ cure-a-friend nerve didn’t last; an’ when I heard why you licked him I said a few words that made him a wiser man. He didn’t hunt you after th’ first day. Now you go up an’ shake han’s with him. He knows he got what was coming to him and so does everybody else know it. Go home an’ quit playin’ th’ fool for th’ whole blamed range to laugh at.”

Johnny stirred and came back to the scene before him. His face was livid with rage and he could not speak at first. Finally, however, he mastered himself and looked up: “I’m cured, all right, but they ain’t! Wait till my turn comes! What a fool I was to believe ‘em; but they usually tell th’ truth. ‘Cura-a-friend nerve’! They’ll pay me dollar for cent before I’m finished!” He caught the sparkle of his diamond pin, the pin he had won, when drunk, at El Paso, and a sickly grin flickered over the black frown. “I’m a little late, I reckon; but I’d like to give th’ bride a present to show there ain’t no hard feelin’s on my part, an’ to bring her luck. This here pin ain’t no fit ornament for a fool like me, so if it’s all right, I’ll be plumb tickled to see her have it. How ‘bout it, Greener?”

The happy pair exchanged glances and Mrs. Greener, hesitating and blushing, accepted the gift: “You can bend it into a ring easy,” Johnny hastily remarked, to cut off her thanks.

Greener extended his hand: “I reckon we can be friends, at that? Nelson. You squared up with me when you licked Nolan. Come up an’ see us when you can.”

Johnny thanked him and shook hands and then watched them ride slowly down the canyon, hand in hand, happy as little children. He sat silently, lost in thought, his anger rising by leaps and bounds against the men who had kept him on the anxious seat for a month. Straightening up suddenly, he tore off the navy blue necktie and, hurling it from him, fell into another reverie, staring at the canyon wall, but seeing in his mind’s eye the outfit planning his punishment; and his eyes grew redder and redder with fury. But it was a long way home and his temper cooled as he rode; that is why no one knew of his return until they saw him asleep in his bunk when they awakened at daylight the following morning. And no one ever asked about the diamond, or made any explanations for some things are better unmentioned. But they paid for it all before Johnny considered the matter closed.

THE END