they stood with the wind taking them with its teeth and pressing them heavily back. they could hear the fire flare and flutter in the stove; then the wind screamed again, and the wail came down to them.
"uncle bill!" repeated bull and, lowering his head, strode into the storm.
the others exchanged frightened glances and then followed, but not outside of the shaft of light from the door. in the first place it was probably not their father. who could imagine bill shouting for help? such a thing had never been dreamed of by his worst enemies, and they knew that their father's were legion. besides it was cold, and this was a wild-goose chase which meant a chilled hide and no gain.
but, presently, through the darkness they made out the form of a horseman and the great bulk of bull coming back beside him. then they ran out into the night.
they recognized the hatless, squat figure of their father at once, even in the dark, with the wind twitching his beard sideways. when they called to him he did not speak. then they saw that bull was leading the horse.
plainly something was wrong, and presently they discovered that bill campbell was actually tied upon his horse. he gave no orders, and they cut the ropes in silence. still he did not dismount.
"bull," he commanded, "lift me off the hoss!"
the giant plucked him out of the saddle and placed him on the ground, but his legs buckled under him, and he fell forward on his face. any of the three could have saved him, but the spectacle of the terrible old man's helplessness benumbed their senses and their muscles.
"carry me in!" said bill at last.
bull lifted him and bore him gingerly through the door and placed him on the bunk. the light revealed a grisly spectacle. crimson stains and dirt literally covered him; his left leg was bandaged below the knee; his right shoulder was roughly splinted with small twigs and swathed in cloth.
the long ride, with his legs tied in place, had apparently paralyzed his nerves below the hips. he remained crushed against the wall, his legs falling in the odd position in which they were put down by bull. it was illustrative of his character that, even in this crisis, not one of the three dared venture an expression of sympathy, a question, a suggestion.
crumpled against the wall, his head bowed forward and cramped, the stern old man still controlled them with the upward glance of his eyes through the shag of eyebrows.
"gimme my pipe," he commanded.
three hands reached for it—pipe, tobacco, matches were proffered to him. before he accepted the articles he swept their faces with a glance of satisfaction. without attempting to change the position which must have been torturing him, he filled the pipe bowl, his fingers moving as if he had partially lost control of them. he filled it raggedly, shreds of tobacco hanging down around the bowl. he bent his head to meet the left hand which he raised with difficulty, then he tried to light a match. but he seemed incapable of moving the sulphur head fast enough to bring it to a light with friction. match after match crumbled as he continued his efforts.
"here, lemme light a match for you, dad!"
harry's offer was received with a silent curling of the lips and a glint of the yellow teeth beneath that made him step back. the old man continued his work. there were a dozen wrecked matches before the blood began to stir in his numbed arm and he was able to light the match and the pipe. he drew several breaths of the smoke deep into his lungs. for the moment the savage, hungry satisfaction changed his face; they could tell by that alteration what agonies he had been suffering before.
presently he frowned and set about changing his position with infinite labor. the left leg was helpless, and so was the right arm. yet, after much labor, he managed to stuff a roll of the blankets into the corner and then shift himself until his back rested against this support. but his strength deserted him again. his pipe was dropped down in the left hand, his head sagged back.
still they dared not approach him. his two sons stood about, shifting from one foot to another, as if they expected a blow to descend upon them at any moment, as if each labored movement of terrible old bill campbell caused them the agony which he must be suffering.
as for bull hunter, he sat again on the floor, his chin dropped upon his great fist, and wondered for a time at his uncle. it was the second great event to him, all in one day. first he had discovered that by fighting a thing, one can actually conquer. second, he discovered that great fighter, his uncle, had been beaten. the impossible had happened twice between one sunrise and sunset.
but men and the affairs of men could not hold his eye overlong. presently he dropped his head again and was deep in the pages of his book. at length bill campbell heaved up his head. it was to glare into the scared faces of his sons.
"how long are you goin' to keep me waiting for food?"
the order snapped them into action. they sprang here and there, and presently the thick slices of bacon were hissing on the pan, and the clouds of bacon smoke wafted through the cabin. when they reached bill campbell he blinked. pain had given him a maddening appetite, yet he puffed steadily on his pipe and said nothing.
the tin plate of potatoes and bacon was shoved before him, and the big tin cup of coffee. the three younger men sat in silence and devoured their own meal; the two sons swiftly, but bull hunter fell into musings, and part of his food remained uneaten. then his glance wandered to his uncle and saw a thing to wonder at—a horrible thing in its own way.
the nerveless left hand of the mountaineer, which had barely possessed steadiness to light a match, was far too inaccurate to handle a fork; and bull saw his uncle stuffing his mouth with his fingers and daring the others to watch him.
something like pity came to bull. it was so rare an emotion to connect with human beings that he hardly recognized it, for men and women, as he knew them, were brilliant, clever creatures, perfectly at home in the midst of difficulties that appalled him. but, as he watched the old man feed himself like an animal, the emotion that rose in bull was the sadness he felt when he watched old maggie stumbling among the rocks. there was something wrong with the forelegs of maggie, and she was only half a horse when it came to going downhill on broken ground. he had always thought of the great strength that once must have been hers, and he pitied her for the change. he found himself pitying uncle bill campbell in much the same way.
when bill raised his tin cup he spilled scalding coffee on his breast. the old man merely set his teeth and continued to glare his challenge at the three. but not one of the three dared speak a word, dared make an offer of assistance.
what baffled the slow mind of bull hunter was the effort to imagine a force so great that battle with it had reduced the invincible campbell to this shaken wreck of his old self. mere bullets could tear wounds in flesh and break bones; but mere bullets could not wreck the nerves of a man so that his hand trembled as if he were drunk or hysterical with weariness.
he tried to work out this problem. he conceived a man of gigantic size, vast muscles, inexhaustible strength. the power of a bear and the swift cunning of a wild cat—such must have been the man who struck down uncle bill and sent him home a shattered remnant of his old self.
there was another mystery. why did the destroyer not finish his task? why did he take pity on uncle bill campbell and bind up the wounds he had himself made? here the mind of bull hunter paused. he could not pass the mysterious idea of another than himself pitying uncle bill. it was pitying a hawk in the sky.
harry was taking away the dishes and throwing them in the little tub of lukewarm water where the grease would be carelessly soused off them.
"did you get up that stump?" asked uncle bill suddenly.
there was a familiar ring in his voice. woe to them if they had not carried out his orders! all three of the young men quaked, and bull laid aside his book.
"we done it," answered joe in a quavering voice.
"you done it?" asked bill.
"we—we dug her pretty well clear, then bull pulled her up."
some of the wrath ebbed out of the face of bill as he glanced at the huge form of bull. "stand up!" he ordered.
bull arose.
the keen eye of the old man went over him from head to foot slowly.
"someday," he said slowly, speaking entirely to himself.
"someday—maybe!"
what he expected from bull "someday" remained unknown. the dishwashing was swiftly finished. then uncle bill made a feeble effort to get off his boots, but his strength had been ebbing for some time. his sons dared not interfere as the old man leaned slowly over and strove to tug the boot from his wounded leg; but bull remembered, all in a flood of tenderness, some half-dozen small, kind things that his uncle had said to him.
that was long, long ago, when the orphan came into the campbell family. in those days his stupidity had been attributed largely to the speed with which he had grown, and he was expected to become normally bright later on; and in those days bill campbell occasionally let fall some gentle word to the great boy with his big, frightened eyes. and the half-dozen instances came back to bull in this moment.
he stepped between his cousins and laid his hand on the foot of his uncle. it brought a snarl from the old man, a snarl that made bull straighten and step back, but he came again and put aside the shaking hand of uncle bill. his cousins stood at one side, literally quaking. it was the first time that they had actually seen their father defied. they saw the huge hand of bull settle around the leg of their father, well below the wound and then the grip closed to avoid the danger of opening the wound when the boot was worked off. after this he pulled the tight riding boot slowly from the swollen foot.
uncle bill was no longer silent. the moment the big hand of his nephew closed over his leg he launched a stream of curses that chilled the blood and drove his own sons farther back into the shadow of the corner. he demanded that they stand forth and tear bull limb from limb. he disinherited them for cowardice. he threatened bull with a vengeance compared with which the thunderbolt would be a feeble flare of light. he swore that he was entirely capable of taking care of himself, that he would step down into his grave sooner than be nursed and petted by any living human being.
all the while, the great bull leaned impassively over the wounded man and finally worked the boot free. that was not all. uncle bill had slipped over until he could reach a billet of wood beside his bunk. he struck at bull's head with it, but the stick was brushed out of his palsied fingers with a single gesture, and, while uncle bill groaned with fury and impotence, bull continued the task of preparing him for bed. he straightened the old body of the terrible campbell; he heated water in the tub and washed away stains and dirt; he took off the stained bandages and replaced them with clean ones.
his cousins helped in the latter part of this work. weakness had reduced uncle bill to speechlessness. finally the head of bill campbell was laid on a double fold of blanket in lieu of a pillow. a pipe had been tamped full and lighted by bull and—crowning insult—set between bill's teeth. when all this was accomplished bull retired to his corner, picked up his book, and was instantly absorbed.
in the hushed atmosphere it seemed that a terrible blow had fallen, and that another was about to fall. harry and joe were as men stunned, but they looked upon their father with a gathering complacency. they had found it demonstrated that it was possible to disobey their father without being instantly destroyed. they were taking the lesson to heart. and indeed old bill campbell himself seemed to be slowly admitting that he was beaten.
the illusion of absolute self-sufficiency, which he had built up through the years for the sake of imposing upon his sons and bull hunter, was now destroyed. at a single stroke he had been exposed as an old man, already beaten in battle by a foeman and now requiring as much care as a sick woman. the shame of it burned in him; but the comfort of the smoothed bunk and the filled pipe between his teeth was a blessing. he found to his own surprise that he was not hating bull with a tithe of his usual vigor. he began to realize that he had come to the end of his period of command. when he left that sickbed he could only advise.
as a king about to die he looked at his heirs and found them strong and sufficient and pleasing to the eye. nowhere in the mountains were there two boys as tall, as straight, as deadly with rifle and revolver, as fierce, as relentless, as these two boys of his. he had sharpened their tempers, and he rejoiced in the sullen ferocity with which they looked at him now, unloving, cunning, biding their time and finding that it had almost come. but he was not yet done. his body was wrecked; there remained his mind, and they would find it a great power. but he did not talk until the lights had been put out and the three youths were in their separate bunks. then, without the light to show them his helpless body, in the darkness, which would give his mind a freer play, he began to tell his story.
it was a long narrative. far back in the years he had prospected with a youth named pete reeve. they had located a claim and they had gone to town together to celebrate. in the celebration he had drunk with reeve till the boy stupefied. then he had induced reeve to gamble for his share of the claim and had won it. afterward pete swore to be even with him. but the years had gone by without another meeting of the men.
only today, riding through the mountains, he had come on a dried-up wisp of a man with long, iron-gray hair, a sharp, withered face, and hands like the claws of a bird. he rode a fine bay gelding, and had stopped bill to ask some questions about the region above the timberline because he was drifting south and intended to cross the summits. bill had described the way, and suddenly, out of their talk, came the revelation of their identities—the one was bill campbell, the other was pete reeve.
at this point in the story bull heaved himself slowly, softly up on one arm to listen. he was beginning to get the full sense of the words for the first time. this narrative was like a book done in a commoner language.
