"I heerd the flood comin' thet night," said Creech to his silent and tense-faced listeners."I heerd it miles up the canyon.'Peared a bigger roar than any flood before.As it happened, I was alone, an' it took time to git the hosses up.If there'd been an Indian with me--or even Joel--mebbe--" His voice quavered slightly, broke, and then he resumed."Even when I got the hosses over to the landin' it wasn't too late--if only some one had heerd me an' come down.I yelled an' shot.Nobody heerd.The river was risin' fast.An'
thet roar had begun to make my hair raise.It seemed like years the time Iwaited there....Then the flood came down-- black an' windy an' awful.Ihad hell gittin' the hosses back.
"Next mornin' two Piutes come down.They had lost mustangs up on the rocks.
All the feed on my place was gone.There wasn't nothin' to do but try to git out.The Piutes said there wasn't no chance north--no water--no grass--an' so I decided to go south, if we could climb over thet last slide.Peg broke her leg there, an'--I--I had to shoot her.But we climbed out with the rest of the bunch.I left it then to the Piutes.We traveled five days west to head the canyons.No grass an' only a little water, salt at thet.Blue Roan was game if ever I seen a game hoss.Then the Piutes took to workin' in an' out an'
around, not to git out, but to find a little grazin'.I never knowed the earth was so barren.One by one them hosses went down....An' at last, Icouldn't--I couldn't see Blue Roan starvin'--dyin' right before my eyes--an' Ishot him, too....An' what hurts me most now is thet I didn't have the nerve to kill him fust off."There was a long pause in Creech's narrative.
"Them Piutes will git paid if ever I can pay them.I'd parched myself but for them....We circled an' crossed them red cliffs an' then the strip of red sand, an' worked down into the canyon.Under the wall was a long stretch of beach--sandy--an' at the head of this we found Bostil's boat.""Wal,--!" burst out the profane Brackton."Bostil's boat!...Say, 'ain't Joel told you yet about thet boat?""No, Joel 'ain't said a word about the boat," replied Creech."What about it?""It was cut loose jest before the flood."Manifestly Brackton expected this to be staggering to Creech.But he did not even show surprise.
"There's a rider here named Slone--a wild-hoss wrangler," went on Brackton, "an' Joel swears this Slone cut the boat loose so's he'd have a better chance to win the race.Joel swears he tracked this feller Slone."For Slone the moment was fraught with many emotions, but not one of them was fear.He did not need the sudden force of Holley's strong hand, pushing him forward.Slone broke into the group and faced Creech.
"It's not true.I never cut that boat loose," he declared ringingly.
"Who're you?" queried Creech.
"My name's Slone.I rode in here with a wild horse, an' he won a race.Then Iwas blamed for this trick."
Creech's steady, gloomy eyes seemed to pierce Slone through.They were terrible eyes to look into, yet they held no menace for him."An' Joel accused you?""So they say.I fought with him--struck him for an insult to a girl.""Come round hyar, Joel," called Creech, sternly.His big, scaly, black hand closed on the boy's shoulder.Joel cringed under it."Son, you've lied.What for?"Joel showed abject fear of his father."He's gone on Lucy--an' I seen him with her," muttered the boy.
"An' you lied to hurt Slone?"
Joel would not reply to this in speech, though that was scarcely needed to show he had lied.He seemed to have no sense of guilt.Creech eyed him pityingly and then pushed him back.
"Men, my son has done this rider dirt," said Creech."You-all see thet.Slone never cut the boat loose....An' say, you-all seem to think cuttin' thet boat loose was the crime....No! Thet wasn't the crime.The crime was keepin' the boat out of the water fer days when my hosses could have been crossed."Slone stepped back, forgotten, it seemed to him.Both joy and sorrow swayed him.He had been exonerated.But this hard and gloomy Creech --he knew things.
And Slone thought of Lucy.
"Who did cut thet thar boat loose?" demanded Brackton, incredulously.
Creech gave him a strange glance."As I was sayin', we come on the boat fast at the head of the long stretch.I seen the cables had been cut.An' I seen more'n thet....Wal, the river was high an' swift.But this was a long stretch with good landin' way below on the other side.We got the boat in, an'
by rowin' hard an' driftin' we got acrost, leadin' the hosses.We had five when we took to the river.Two went down on the way over.We climbed out then.
The Piutes went to find some Navajos an' get hosses.An' I headed fer the Ford--made camp twice.An' Joel seen me comin' out a ways.""Creech, was there anythin' left in thet boat?" began Brackton, with intense but pondering curiosity."Anythin' on the ropes-- or so--thet might give an idee who cut her loose?"Creech made no reply to that.The gloom burned darker in his eyes.He seemed a man with a secret.He trusted no one there.These men were all friends of his, but friends under strange conditions.His silence was tragic, and all about the man breathed vengeance.
