“You went into the basin with that low-down Mex?”
“Hold on a minute, Tom!” Stangle lifted a hand. “You mean he’s got grass?”
“Yes, he has!” Candy was pleased with the effect of her words. “The whole basin is green and beautiful! He’s got water, and lots of it. He’s dammed some of the draws, he’s dug out some pools, and he has a lot of water. He’s even got a grain crop!”
“Grain?” Hill exclaimed. “You mean he’s farmin’?”
“Not farming, just raising enough for his own stock. He told me he fed during the winter or just before taking them to market.”
“You actually saw water and grass?” Hill asked.
“He’s done nothing you all couldn’t have done, and he’s done it all in four years! Certainly, I saw it!”
“You takin’ up for him now?” Dulin asked.
“No! I am just telling you he’s proved his case. He was right, and you all were wrong.”
Stangle leaned forward, intent. “Where’d you say that water was? In Cottonwood Draw?”
“He’s dammed both Cottonwood and Spring Valley. He’s planted seedling trees around them to hold the banks and help conserve moisture.”
“Well!” Stangle slapped his thigh. “That’s it, men! That settles our problem!”
“What do you mean?” Drake looked up hopefully.
“He’s got water. Why don’t we just take down The Fence and drive our cattle in there? That sneakin’ Mexican’s got no right to all that water when our cattle are dyin’!”
Casady let his chair legs down hard. “You mean to say you’d have the gall to ask him for water after the way we’ve treated him?”
“Ask nothin’!” Stangle said. “Just tear down The Fence and let our cattle in. They’d find the water and grass soon enough.”
“We couldn’t do that,” Drake protested, “it wouldn’t be right.”
“Right?” Stangle’s voice was hoarse with bitterness. “Are you so anxious to go broke? You want to watch your cattle die?”
“You’d do a thing like that?” Casady demanded, his eyes going from one to the other.
“I would,” Rock Dulin said. “Are you too nice to save your cows?”
Candy stared at Dulin, appalled. “No, Rock,” Casady said quietly, “I’m not too nice. I hope, however, that I know something of fair play. We’ve bucked that kid and made his life pure hell. We tried to drive him out and he stuck. We fenced him out of our country and still he stayed. He tried to tell us, and we were too damned hardheaded to listen. Now, you would ruin what he has done. How long will that little grass last if we turn our herds in there? We’ve got seven or eight thousand head between us.”
“I don’t know, and I don’t give a damn!” Stangle said. “He’s got no place here in the first place. I’ve got my cattle to save, and I’ll save them.”
“He won’t stand for it,” Hill replied. “He’ll fight.”
“I hope he does!” Stangle said. “Him and his highfalutin ways! Handin’ gold right over the counter! Throwin’ it right in our faces!”
“What if he does fight?” Drake asked.
“You fought injuns to get there, didn’t you?” Dulin said. “You killed some of Scovey’s boys?”
Candy Drake stared in shocked disbelief. “You could do a thing like that? Joe Stangle, what kind of a man are you? To wreck all he’s done! To destroy everything!”
“It would save our stock, Miss Candy,” Benson protested. “We’ve families to think about. Your pa’s in the same fix I am, and I’m head over heels in debt.”
“What would you do if he wasn’t there? What if I’d not been so foolish as to tell you?”
“But he is there,” Dulin replied, “and thanks to you, we know what he’s got. There may be water enough to keep our stock alive for a month, and by then the rains might come. I’m for it.”
“So am I!” Stangle declared.
“It isn’t right,” Drake protested. “If he has water it’s due to his own hard work, and the water’s his.”
“Well, Tom, if you want to go broke, the choice is yours,” Stangle said. “I’ll be damned if I let my cattle die. If you had a water hole you’d let me use it, wouldn’t you? Why should he be the only one who’s fenced in?”
Casady’s dislike was obvious as he stared at Stangle. “And just who built The Fence? Seems to me you had a hand in it, Stangle.”
“That cuts no ice.” Stangle waved a hand. “We’ll tear it down. We’ll run our cattle in there, and then we’ll see what happens. I’m not going to let my cattle die because he keeps his water fenced up.”
“I reckon that speaks for me.” Hardy Benson spoke reluctantly. “I’m in debt. I’ll lose all I have.”
“That says it for me,” Vinnie Lake added.
Cab got to his feet. “How about you, Tom?”
Drake hesitated, before his eyes the vision of his dying cattle, the size of the bill he owed Mayer.
“I’ll string with the boys,” he said.
For a moment Casady looked around at their faces. “I’d rather my cattle died,” he said. “Good night, gentlemen!”
Dulin started to his feet, his hand reaching for his gun. “I’ll kill that — ”
“Better not try,” Hill said dryly. “You never saw the day you could match Cab with a gun.”
He looked around at their faces. “I don’t know that I like this, myself.”
“It’s settled,” Stangle declared. “Dulin, Lake, Benson, Drake, and Hill. How about you, McKesson?”
“Sure, I’ll ride along, trail my stock with yours. I never liked that Mex, no way.”
Tom Drake glanced at him thoughtfully. Curt McKesson was a new man in the valley, a big, somber man with a brooding, sullen face. Drake had seen him angry but once, but that had revealed him to have a vicious, murderous temper. He had beaten a horse to death before anyone could interfere. He disliked the man, and it disturbed him to see how McKesson’s eyes followed Candy every move she made. The light in them was not good to see.
Joe Stangle got up, satisfaction showing in his eyes and voice. “We can meet at Willow Springs Monday morning. Once The Fence is down and the cattle started for water there will be no stoppin’ them.”
Candy watched, feeling sick and empty. She wanted to protest but knew they would not listen. Their own desperation coupled with Stangle’s hatred and Dulin’s sullen brutality had led them into something most of them would live to regret. Now they were only thinking about delaying their bad times. One by one they filed out and when they had gone she turned on her father.
“Dad, you’ve got to stop them! You can’t let them destroy all that poor boy’s work!”
“Poor boy, is it? He’s got no right to all that water when our cattle are dying!”
“Who dammed those draws? What have you done to try to save your cattle? All you’ve done is sit here with the rest of them and sneer at what he thought and what he did!”
“Be quiet!” Drake’s voice boomed, his guilt making him even more angry. “I won’t have you takin’ up for that Mexican. Nor is it your place to question my actions.”
“Dad” — Candy’s tone was cold — “You’d better understand this. Barry Merrano will fight. If he fights, somebody will get killed. If I were you I’d do a lot of thinking before you start anything. It isn’t like it was when you drove out those rustlers. The country has changed.”
Despite himself, he knew what she said was the truth. He shook his head irritably. “Nonsense! He’s yellow! He won’t fight.”
He hesitated, thinking. Then he said, “He won’t fight. Joe Stangle made a fool of him and he did nothing, nothing at all!”
“Then you’d better go out to the bunkhouse and take a look at Price Taylor. Price thought he wouldn’t fight, too.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Barry rode home with me tonight and was leaving me at the gate. He had been a gentleman, no more. Price jumped him, and Barry gave him a beating.”
“He whupped Price? Girl, you’re crazy!”
“Go look at him. Ask Price if he’s yellow. Also, I seem to remember you tried to frighten him away before, and he didn’t run. He had only an idea to fight for then. Now he’s got a place worth having!”
She paused. “Remember this, Dad. He’ll fight, and somebody will get killed.”
“Bah!” Drake said, but he was disturbed. She knew her father well enough to know that he bad not liked the action taken tonight, yet these were the men he knew, men he had worked beside, men with whom he had shared trouble. He had gone along because it offered a way out of bankruptcy and failure, and because there seemed no alternative.
Tom Drake had fought Indians, outlaws, and rustlers, and now he would fight to hold the place, but he knew in his heart that if he were Merrano, he would fight. He did not approve of killing and he believed Merrano would run, yet now, listening to his daughter, he was no longer so sure.