Track's End Page 19

  CHAPTER XVI

  Telling of how Pike and his Gang come and of what Kaiser and I do toget ready for them: together with the Way we meet them.

  Here, now, I must tell of how the outlaws came to Track's End, and ofthe fight we, that is to say, Pike and his gang on the one side and I,Judson Pitcher, on the other side, had that day.

  I may speak in prejudice, though I mean to be fair, when I say that Ibelieve them to have been as bad a gang of cutthroats as you couldwell scare up. Though I fought them all as best I could I make nobones of saying that I should ten thousand times rather have been athome blowing the bellows, or doing anything else.

  I was very lucky with these villains and was not caught away from homeflat on my back, as I had been by those other scoundrels, the Indians;if I had not been lucky I should not now be here to tell the tale.Those fellows meant no good to me nor to anybody else. It would havebeen no bad thing if they could all have been hanged by the neck.

  They came, then, to Track's End to rob, and to murder if needs be, onSaturday, February 5th. My good luck consisted in this: The eveningbefore, just as the sun was about to go down, I saw them at Mountain'sfrom the windmill tower with Tom Carr's field-glass. I had gone up onpurpose to have a look about, as I did two or three times every daywhen the weather was so I could see. For three days the weather hadbeen much better than at any time before, and it had even thawed alittle; so I was not much surprised when I saw horses coming up to theshack from the west. I made out seven men all told, and some extra ledhorses. I could see that the men went into the shack and that many ofthe horses lay down. By this I knew they were tired, and guessed thatthe gang would probably stay there that night and rest. I wassurprised that they had got through on horses at all. I stayed on thetower till it was so dark that I could not see any more. The longer Istayed the louder my heart thumped.

  I knew they might, after all, come that night, either with the horsesor on snow-shoes, so I did what I could to get ready for them. Thefires were all going well, and I lit several lamps about town. Iwished a thousand times for the population I was pretending I had. Ithought if I could have even one friend just to talk to perhaps myheart wouldn't act quite so unreasonably. But after a while it tiredout and quieted down. My knees got stronger and more like good,sensible knees that you don't have to be ashamed of. I took a look atall the guns and wiped them up. I locked and bolted everything exceptthe doors or windows which led into the tunnels. There wasn't anythingmore I could do except wait and try to keep that crazy heart of mine alittle quiet.

  I knew that whenever or however they came they would be most likely tocome in on the grade, so I thought the best place to wait was inTownsend's store, as they would have to come up facing the back of it.The windows were planked up; but I knew that there were no windows intown, or even sides of houses, either, which would stop a bullet froma good rifle. I calculated if they came in the night it would probablybe about one or two o'clock, and if they waited till morning I couldlook for them when it began to get light.

  I went over to Townsend's early in the evening and sat down close to aback window in the second story. I had Kaiser with me. I think he wasgradually getting the thing through his head, because he had stoppedwagging his tail and begun to growl once in a while. I thought I couldtrust him to hear any sound for three or four hours, and I tried tosleep, but I couldn't. Every few minutes I went up a short ladder andput my head out the scuttle in the roof to look and listen. I heard agood deal, but except for the wolves away off it was all in my ears.About midnight by the stars I went to sleep in my chair before I knewit.

  When I woke up I gave a great jump. It seemed as if I had been asleepa week; and it certainly had been several hours. Kaiser was sitting onthe floor beside my chair. I knelt down and threw my arms around hisneck and gave him such a prodigious hug that it must have hurt him."We will do the best we can!" I said to him.

  From the roof I could see a faint light in the east. The wind wasfresher from the northwest and it was drifting a little; this wasgood. I scolded myself for having slept so long. I knew if they hadcome that I should not have been ready for them.

  I hurried around and fixed the fires. I drank a cup of coffee at thehotel, but couldn't eat anything. I think if I had had outlaws everyday that my keep wouldn't have cost Sours very much. I was back atTownsend's in a jiffy. It was getting red in the east now, and themoon, which had shone all night, was about down. It was light enoughso I could see pretty well by this time; but I heard the crunching ofthe crust by the horses' feet before I could see them at all. Then Isaw the whole gang coming on a dog-trot along the grade, two abreast,with one ahead, seven pleasant neighbors coming to call on me atTrack's End. I let them come as near as they deserved to come to anyhonest town and then fired a shot in front of them. I tried to see ifthe bullet skipped on the snow, but the smoke got in my eyes.

  Anyhow, they stopped pretty quick, and stood all in a bunch, talking."Maybe you don't like to be shot at," I said out loud. I don't knowhow it was, but my heart was doing better. I thought I would wait andsee before I did any more shooting.

  They talked a few minutes; then one of them got off his horse, handedhis gun and belt to one of the others, took off his big fur coat,pulled out a white cloth and waved it and came walking very slowlytoward the town. This seemed fair enough; I had heard my Uncle Bentell about flags of truce in the war. I waved my handkerchief out ofthe port-hole and then waited three or four minutes as if we in thehouses were talking it over; then I walked boldly out the back door.Kaiser wanted to go along, so I let him.

  The man walked very slowly, and I did the same, but we came up withina few steps of each other at last. This was out not very far from thewater-tank. I had expected it was Pike himself, and, sure enough, itwas, wearing a leather jacket with the collar turned up.

  MY MEETING WITH PIKE, TRACK'S END, FEBRUARY FIFTH]

  "It's you, is it, Jud?" said he in a kind of sneering tone. (It seemedstrange to me to hear a man's voice, I had been so long alone.)

  "Yes, it's me," I answered. "What do you want?"

  "I sort of thought these here Track's Enders might send out afull-grown man to talk to me about such an important matter," he wenton.

  "I was man enough to catch you a couple of times and it was only yourgood luck that you weren't hung up here in Track's End by the neck," Isaid, a little put out by the way he spoke, because I was almost asbig as he was.

  "Oh, well, no matter. Now you--"

  "I'll tell you the reason I was sent out," I broke in, just thinkingof something.

  "What is it?"

  "I can say all there is to say as well as anybody, but I'm a poorshot, so it was decided that if I didn't get back it wouldn't makemuch difference in the matter of shooting you fellows down if you comeany nearer."

  He pulled his collar down and looked at me over his crooked nose.Kaiser began to growl, but I poked him in the ribs with my foot to lethim understand that there was a flag of truce on and he must behavehimself. I guess Pike didn't like it, because this sounded as if wecouldn't trust him, but he didn't say anything.

  "Well," he broke out, "there's no use of us standing here and talking.We've come after that $5,000, and you fellers know it."

  "We told you all we had to say about that in the letter."

  "Then we'll bust that safe and burn your town," he said, like asavage.

  "Go ahead and try it," I answered. "We're ready for you."

  His face, which had looked black as night all the while, now turnedwhite with rage.

  "We'll try it fast enough and we'll do it fast enough, too," he cried,with some prodigious oaths, bad enough for any pirate. "Look here; Iain't got any gun with me, and I s'pose you ain't, if you're any manat all. But you're as near your gun as I am mine, hey?"

  "Yes," I said.

  "Then this here flag of truce is ended right now. When I get hold ofmy gun I shoot, and you're welcome to do the same!"

  He turned and started back on the run. So there was not
hing for me butto face about and do the same.