"i'll take a seegar," mr. damon tamroy replied in response to oliver's invitation.
they lighted up and sat at a card-table against one wall of the gloomy saloon.
"you speak of this as a gun country," remarked oliver.
"well, it's at least got traditions," returned mr. tamroy, adding the unlettered man's apology for his little fanciful flight, "'as the fella says.' like father like son, you know. the seldens are gunmen. old adam selden's dad was a 'forty-niner; and adam selden—the old man selden of today—was born right close to here when his dad was about twenty-five years old. le's see—that makes old adam 'round about seventy. but he's spry and full o' pep, and one o' the best rifle shots in the country.
"he takes after the old man, who was a bad actor in the days o' 'forty-nine, and his boys take after him. they're a bad outfit, takin' 'em all in all. the boys are hurlock, moffat, bolar, and winthrop—four of 'em. all gunmen. then there's jessamy selden—the only girl—who ain't rightly a selden at all. none o' the old man's blood in jessamy, o' course. mis' selden—she was an ivison before she married lomax—myrtle ivison was her name—she's a fine lady. but she won't leave the old man for all his wickedness, and miss jessamy won't leave her mother. so there you are!"
"i see," said oliver musingly, not at all displeased with the present subject of conversation.
"now, here's this digger foss," tamroy went on. "he's half-american, quarter-chinaman, and quarter-digger-indian. the last's what gives him his name. there's a tribe o' digger indians close to here. he's killed two men and got away with it. now he's added a third to his list, and likely he'll get away with that. the rest o' the poison oakers are obed pence, ed buchanan, jay muenster, and chuck allegan—ten in all."
"just what are the poison oakers?" oliver asked as damon tamroy paused reflectively.
"well, anybody who lives in this country is called a poison oaker. you're one now. the woods about this country are full o' poison oak, and that's where we get the name. that's what outsiders call us. but when we ourselves speak of poison oakers we mean old man selden's gang—him, his four sons, and the hombres i just mentioned—a regular old back-country gang o' rowdies, toughs, would-be bad men. you know what i mean.
"they just drifted together by natural instinct, i reckon. old man selden shot a man up around willow twig, and come clean at the trial. obed pence is a thief, and did a stretch for cattle rustlin' here about three years ago. chuck and ed have both done something to make 'em eligible—knife fightin' at country dances, and the like. and the selden boys are chips off the old block."
"but what is the gang's particular purpose?"
"meanness, s'far's i c'n see! just meanness! old man selden owns a ranch down your way that you can get to only by a trail. no wheeled vehicle can get in. all the boys live there with him. kind of a colony, for two o' the boys are married. the other poison oakers live here and there about the country, on ranches. ambition don't worry none of 'em much. old man selden's said to distil jackass brandy, but it's never been proved."
"now about the old tabor ivison place?" said oliver.
"well, it's there yet, i reckon; but i ain't been down that way for years. now and then a deer hunt leads me into clinker creek cañon, but not often.
"it's a lonely, deserted place, and the road to it is fierce. several families lived down in there thirty years ago; but the places have been abandoned long since, and all the folks gone god knows where. it's a pretty country if a fella likes trees and rocks and things, and wild and rough; but down in that cañon it's too cold for pears and such fruit—and that's about all we raise on these rocky hills.
"old tabor ivison homesteaded your place. he's been dead matter o' fifteen years. died down there. for years he'd lived there all by 'imself. good old man. asked for little in life—and got it.
"but for years now all that country's been abandoned. there's pretty good pickin's down in there; and old man selden and some more o' the poison oakers have been runnin' cattle on all of it."
"i'm glad there's pasture," oliver interposed.
"oh, pasture's all right. but selden's outfit has looked at that land as theirs for so long that you won't find it particularly congenial. you're bound to have trouble with the poison oakers, mr. drew, and i'd consider the land not worth it. why, i can buy a thousan' acres down in there for two and a half an acre! you'll starve to death if you have to depend on that forty for a livin'. how come you to own the place?"
"my father willed it to me," oliver replied.
"your father?"
"yes, peter drew. have you ever heard of him?"
"no," returned damon tamroy. "i reckon he was here before my time. how'd he come by the place? i thought one o' the ivison girls—nancy—still owned it."
"i'm sure i can't tell you how dad came to own it," oliver made answer. "i haven't an abstract of title. i know, though, that dad owned it for some time before his death."
"well, well!" damon tamroy's eyes roved curiously over the young man once more. they steadied themselves on the silver-mounted spanish spurs on oliver's riding boots. "travellin' horseback?" he wanted to know, and his look of puzzlement deepened.
"yes," said oliver a little bitterly. "i'm riding about all that i possess in this world, since you have pronounced the old tabor ivison place next to worthless." he grew thoughtful. "you're puzzled over me," he smiled at last. "frankly, though, you're no more puzzled over me than i am over myself and my rather odd situation. i'm a man of mystery." he laughed. "i think i'll tell you all about it.
"as far back as i can remember, my home has been on a cow ranch in the southern part of the state. i can't remember my mother, who died when i was very young. i always thought my father wealthy until he died, two weeks ago, and his will was read to me. he had orange and lemon groves besides the cattle ranch, and was a stockholder in a substantial country bank. i was graduated at the state university, and went from there to france. since, i've been resting up and sort of managing dad's property.
"my father was a peculiar man, and was never overly confidential with me. he was uneducated, as the term is understood today—a rough-and-ready old westerner who had made his strike and settled down to peaceful days—or so i always imagined. but two weeks ago he died suddenly from a stroke of apoplexy; and when his will was read to me i got a jolt from which i haven't yet recovered.
"the home ranch and the other real estate, together with all livestock and appurtenances—with one exception, which i shall mention later—were willed to the catholic church, to be handled as they saw fit. it seemed that there was little else to be disposed of. i was left five hundred dollars in cash, a saddle horse named poche, a silver-mounted bridle and saddle and martingales, the old spanish spurs you see on my feet, and the old tabor ivison place, in chaparral county, of which i knew almost nothing. that was all—with the exception of the written instructions in my father's handwriting that were given me by his lawyers. maybe you can throw some light on the matter, mr. tamroy. would you care to hear my father's last message to me?"
tamroy evinced his eagerness by scraping forward his chair.
oliver took from a leather billbook a folded piece of paper. "i don't know that i ought to," he smiled, "but, after all, i'll never learn the mystery of it if i keep the matter from people about here. so here goes:
"'my dear son oliver:
"'as you know perfectly well, i am an ignorant old westerner. there is no use mincing matters in regard to this. when i was young i didn't have much of a chance to get an education; but when i grew up and married, and you was born, i said you'd never be allowed to grow up in ignorance like i did. so i tried to give you an education, and you didn't fail me.'
"'i did this for a double purpose, oliver. i knew that i was going to die someday, and that then you'd have to settle a little matter that's bothered me since before you was born. for pretty near thirty years, oliver, i've had a problem to fight; and i never knew how to settle the matter because i wasn't educated. so i let it rest and waited for you to grow up, and go through college. and now that's happened; and you're educated and fit to answer the question that's bothered me for nearly half my life. the answer is either yes or no, and you've got to find out which is right.'
"'i'm leaving you poche, the best cow horse in southern california, my old silver-mounted saddle that's carried me thousands of miles, the martingales, and my old silver-mounted bridle, which same three things made me the envy of all the vaqueros of the clinker creek country over thirty years ago, and my spanish spurs that go along with the outfit. these things, oliver, and five hundred dollars in cash, and forty acres of land on clinker creek, in chaparral county, called the old tabor ivison place.'
"'they are all you'll need to find the answer to the question that's bothered me for thirty years. buckle on the spurs, throw the saddle on poche, bridle him, put the five hundred dollars and the deed to the old tabor ivison place in your jeans, and hit the trail for clinker creek. stay there till you know whether the answer is yes or no. then go to my lawyers and tell them which it is. and the god of your mother go with you!'
"'your affectionate father,'
"'peter drew.'
"'in his seventy-third year.'"
oliver folded the paper. damon tamroy only sat and stared at him.
