The Sheriffs Son | Page 3

peace.

He had moved West and been flung into the wild, turbulent life of the
frontier. In the Big Creek country there was no peace for strong men in
the seventies. It was a time and place for rustlers and horse-thieves to
flourish at the expense of honest settlers. They elected their friends to
office and laughed at the law.
But the tide of civilization laps forward. A cattlemen's association had
been formed. Beaudry, active as an organizer, had been chosen its first
president. With all his energy he had fought the rustlers. When the time
came to make a stand the association nominated Beaudry for sheriff
and elected him. He had prosecuted the thieves remorselessly in spite
of threats and shots in the dark. Two of them had been put by him
behind bars. Others were awaiting trial. The climax had come when he
met Anse Rutherford and his companion at Battle Butte, had defeated
them both single-handed, and had left one dead on the field and the
other badly wounded.
Men said that John Beaudry was one of the great sheriffs of the West.
Perhaps he was, but he would have to pay the price that such a
reputation exacts. The Rutherford gang had sworn his death and he
knew they would keep the oath.
The man sat with one hand resting on the slim body of the sleeping boy.
His heart was troubled. What was to become of little Royal without
either father or mother? After the manner of men who live much alone
in the open he spoke his thoughts aloud.
"Son, one of these here days they're sure a-goin' to get yore dad. Maybe
he'll ride out of town and after a while the hawss will come galloping
back with an empty saddle. A man can be mighty unpopular and die of
old age, but not if he keeps bustin' up the plans of rampageous two-gun
men, not if he shoots them up when they're full of the devil and bad
whiskey. It ain't on the cyards for me to beat them to the draw every
time, let alone that they'll see to it all the breaks are with them. No, sir.
I reckon one of these days you're goin' to be an orphan, little son."
He stooped over the child and wrapped the blankets closer. The
muscles of his tanned face twitched. Long he held the warm, slender

body of the boy as close to him as he dared for fear of wakening him.
The man lay tense and rigid, his set face staring up into the starry night.
It was his hour of trial. A rising tide was sweeping him away. He had to
clutch at every straw to hold his footing. But something in the man--his
lifetime habit of facing the duty that he saw--held him steady.
"You got to stand the gaff, Jack Beaudry. Can't run away from your job,
can you? Got to go through, haven't you? Well, then!"
Peace came at last to the tormented man. He fell asleep. Hours later he
opened his eyes upon a world bathed in light. It was such a brave warm
world that the fears which had gripped him in the chill night seemed
sinister dreams. In this clear, limpid atmosphere only a sick soul could
believe in a blind alley from which there was no escape.
But facts are facts. He might hope for escape, but even now he could
not delude himself with the thought that he might win through without
a fight.
While they ate breakfast he told the boy about the mother whom he had
never seen. John Beaudry had always intended to tell Royal the story of
his love for the slender, sweet-lipped girl whose grace and beauty had
flooded his soul. But the reticence of shyness had sealed his lips. He
had cared for her with a reverence too deep for words.
She was the daughter of well-to-do people visiting in the West. The
young cattleman and she had fallen in love almost at sight and had
remained lovers till the day of her death. After one year of happiness
tragedy had stalked their lives. Beaudry, even then the object of the
rustlers' rage, had been intercepted on the way from Battle Butte to his
ranch. His wife, riding to meet him, heard shots and galloped forward.
From the mesa she looked down into a draw and saw her husband
fighting for his life. He was at bay in a bed of boulders, so well covered
by the big rocks that the rustlers could not easily get at him. His
enemies, scattered fanshape across the entrance to the arroyo, were
gradually edging nearer. In a panic of fear she rode wildly to the
nearest ranch, gasped out her appeal