Barbed-Wire Empire by Will Ermine

Author:Will Ermine
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781590774151
Publisher: M. Evans & Company

XII

DROPPING into the old wash with a gouging slide, Kincaid pulled out of the dust opposite a broken line of weathered shanty cars. A man or two wandered about, and some peered out of the little windows. There were several lines of track here; the Pickett coach wasn’t in sight. Nearing the fence which hemmed in the right-of-way Kincaid lifted his pony into a sharp run. A guard farther along yelled at him; but Kincaid swept over the fence and sided the cars until he came to the first break in their coupling. He pushed through there.

A locomotive was trundling several tie-freighted cars up the main line. Kincaid’s pony reared and pawed in fright. Throwing his weight forward, he jumped it across the rails ahead of the first car.

His sudden appearance created a stir. Men dropped what they were doing to look; some cried out and began to start forward. An alertness ran across the cinder ballast of this camp. The work engine tooted a series of short, alarmed blasts and someone hurled a chunk of coal which curved past Kincaid’s shoulder.

“Get out of here, all of you!” he yelled. “The river’s on a tear—you’ll be washed away! Get out; get up the barranca, anywhere!”

His driving will sheared through this hard belligerence and gave them pause. They gazed with screwed-up faces, and Kincaid made an expressive sweep with his arm. “Get out, if you want to save your lives!”

Leaving it there, he pounded up the right-of-way. Beyond the strung cars ahead, a welter of paddies and tie wagons and another engine marked the end of steel. Then Kincaid saw the engineers’ cars, and past it, Jube Pickett’s private car. He headed for that. As he drew close, Limpy Smail came hurrying down the near side of the car. There was a forced intentness in the watchman’s lined old face and faded eyes and he had a gun in his hand.

“You git away!” he shrilled, stumbling back as Kincaid yanked in. “You can’t come here!” He wanted to shoot, and all that stopped him was the fact that he knew this competent breed of men of unreadable face and flashing action.

Kincaid spilled out of the saddle to tower above him. “Sorry, oldtimer,” he dropped smoothly, twisting Smail’s.45 out of his grasp. “No time to talk.” He slithered the gun under the wheeltruck and sprang for the car steps.

Valerie Pickett stood at their top. A strange expression came over her clear features as she looked at him. She said: “Mr. Kincaid! Why——I invited you, but I didn’t expect——”

“This isn’t a visit,” he cut her off swiftly. “A river dam in the hills is out; this wash will be flooded. You must leave here immediately!”

“But Mr. Kincaid—are you sure?” She stared, genuinely startled; and even in the midst of his unceremonious haste, he found time to note that she did not question his sincerity. The look on his keen, sun-darkened face answered her question. “We must do something!” she exclaimed. “I must gather my——Where’s Father, and Trace?” She fastened on Limpy, who hovered here, agog now.

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