Dorn Of The Mountains Read Online Free PDF Page B

but he offered his hand. “Wal, Milt Dorn, I reckon this is the first time I ever seen you thet I couldn’t lay you flat on your back,” replied the rancher. His tone was both testy and full of pathos.
    “I take it you mean you ain’t very well,” replied Dorn. “I’m sorry, Al.”
    “No, it ain’t thet. Never was sick in my life. I’m just played out, like a hoss thet had been strong an’ willin’, an’ did too much…. Wal, you don’t look a day older, Milt. Livin’ in the woods rolls over a man’s head.”
    “Yes, I’m feelin’ fine, an’ time never bothers me.”
    “Wal, mebbe you ain’t such a fool after all. I’ve wondered lately…since I had time to think…. But, Milt, you don’t git no richer.”
    “Al, I have all I want an’ need.”
    “Wal, then you don’t support anybody…you don’t do any good in the world.”
    “We don’t agree, Al,” replied Dorn with his slow smile.
    “Reckon we never did…. An’ you jest come over to pay your respects to me, eh?”
    “Not altogether,” answered Dorn ponderingly. “First off, I’d like to say I’ll pay back them sheep you always claimed my tame cougar killed.”
    “You will! An’ how’d you go about thet?”
    “Wasn’t very many sheep, was there?”
    “A matter of fifty head.”
    “So many? Al, do you still think old Tom killed them sheep?”
    “ Humph! Milt, I know damn’ well he did.”
    “Al, now how could you know somethin’ I don’t? Be reasonable now. Let’s don’t fall out about this again. I’ll pay back the sheep. Work it out….”
    “Milt Dorn, you’ll come down here an’ work off that fifty head of sheep!” ejaculated the old rancher incredulously.
    “Sure.”
    “Wal, I’ll be damned!” He sat back and gazed with shrewd eyes at Dorn. “What’s got into you, Milt? Hev you heerd about my niece thet’s comin’ an’ think you’ll shine up to her?”
    “Yes, Al, her comin’ has a good deal to do with my deal,” replied Dorn soberly. “But I never thought to shine up to her, as you hint.”
    “ Haw! Haw! You’re jest like all the other colts hereabouts. Reckon it’s a good sign, too. It’ll take a woman to fetch you out of the woods…. But, boy, this niece of mine, Helen Rayner, will stand you on your head. I never seen her. They say she’s jest like her mother. An’ Nell Auchincloss…what a girl she was!”
    “Honest, Al…,” he began.
    “Son, don’t lie to an old man.”
    “Lie! I wouldn’t lie to anyone. Al, it’s only men who live in towns an’ are always makin’ deals. I live in the forest where there’s nothin’ to make me lie.”
    “Wal, no offense meant, I’m sure,” responded Auchincloss. “An’ mebbe there’s somethin’ in what you say…. We was talkin’ about them sheep your big cat killed. Wal, Milt, I can’t prove it, thet’s sure. And mebbe you’ll think me doddery when I tell you my reason. It wasn’t what them greaser herders said about seein’ a cougar in the herd.”
    “What was it, then?” queried Dorn, much interested.
    “Well, thet day, a year ago, I seen your pet. He was lyin’ in front of the store an’ you was inside tradin’ fer supplies, I reckon. It was like meetin’ an enemy face to face…. Because, damn me if I didn’t know thet cougar was guilty when he looked in my eyes! There.”
    The old rancher expected to be laughed at. But Dorn was grave.
    “Al, I know how you felt,” he replied as if they were discussing an action of a human being. “Sure I’d hate to doubt old Tom. But he’s a cougar. An’ the ways of animals are strange…. Anyway, Al, I’ll make the loss of your sheep good.”
    “No, you won’t,” rejoined Auchincloss quickly. “We’ll call it off. I’m takin’ it square of you to make the offer. So forget your worry about work, if you had any.”
    “There’s somethin’ else…Al…I wanted to say,” began Dorn with hesitation. “An’ it’s about Beasley.”
    Auchincloss started violently and a