Who is the Man? A tale of the Scottish Border ... Third thousand

Front matter

tfjejaitf A Tale of tl\e pcottisl^ JJ order, 3«y J^mes^elWjrtT^it London: Cnapmansj Hall, Limited ROWLANDS' MACASSAR Produces lux;: riant Hair, A §3 eradicates Scurf aud Dan- I driff, and is specially V§L recommended for Children's Hair. It is unsurpassed as a BE.IL LIANTIKE for the WHISKERS and MUSTACHES. It. is now also sold in a GOLDEN COLOUR for fair haired Children and Ladies. Sues ; 3/6, 7,'-, 10/6 Family Bottles (equal to I small) and 21/* ROWLANDS3 ODONTQ. THE BEST Tooth Powder. I2« WHITENS THE TEE PREVENTS DEOAV. GIVES PLEASING FRAGRANCE TO THE BREATH. SOLD BY CHEMISTS; ASIC FOR ROWLANDS7 ARTICLES, of 20 Hato Garden, London. And avoid Cheap and Worthless Imitations. % &nk of the Scottish §m-ber. P % Cale of % Stottislj §orbtt\ BY JAMES SELWIN TAIT, AUTHOR OF "THE NEAPOLITAN BANKER," "THE LOST WEDDING RING," ETC. Œfnrti Œjiouflatrt. LONDON: CHAPMAN AND HALL, Limited. 1890. LONDON: PRINTED BY STRANGEWAYS AND SONS, Tower Street, Cambridge Circus, W.C.

Preface

. In presenting this work to the public I disclaim all intention of "pointing a moral." In the intervals of an exacting business I have at times found grateful relief and rest in the change of thought afforded by the perusal of some work of fiction, in which character painting was neglected in the unbroken recital of a stirring narrative, such as neither fatigued the tired brain by its intricacy, nor exhausted the patience by long stretches of irritating padding, sandwiched between its points of interest. In writing the following pages I have assumed that at least a portion of the reading public is endowed with a taste, and probably placed in circumstances, somewhat similar to my own ; and it is for such that I have written my story. The object of the book is not to instruct but to interest, and it has to some extent served its purpose before it left my hands, for in writing it I have found that relief and distraction from business which I designed for others.

In the framing of the narrative I have set myself to consider the probable effect of a series of unaccountable murders upon a comparatively isolated community, and the best means of allaying the terrible consequences of these crimes upon the public mind. VI

PREFACE.

. In justice to that once war-like but now most peaceful of localities, the Scottish Border, where the scene is laid, I desire to say that so far as the murders are concerned the story is not in any way founded on fact. It is also, perhaps, due to the Border Bankers of the past to say that all of them, without exception, so far as my own knowledge goes, descended in due time to their graves with characters in every way stainless and unimpeachable. On the other hand, the descriptions and customs of the different localities and the traits of the people are as absolutely accurate as it has been in my power to paint them, and, with the exceptions noted, the pictures presented of men and things are reliable, although in one or two instances they may partake of the character of composite photographs. J. Selwin Tait. CONTENTS. CHAP. PAGE

Prologue

— THE BULL-FIGHT AND DUEL ... 1 I. THE WANDERER'S RETURN . . . . .14 II. A POOR WELCOME . . . . . . .24 III. AN EPIDEMIC OF MURDER . . . . .32 IV. THE ARREST ........ 39 V. THE TRIAL ........ 42 VI. "WHO IS SHE?" . 51 VII. "I AM ALICE, YOUR SISTER !" 53 VIII. THE TRIAL ........ 63 ix. the trial — continued . . . ... 75 x. at the new club, edinburgh . . 84 xi. the net contracts . . . . - .91 xii. daft peter's charge . . . . . .95 xni. ardrossan's suspicions aroused .... 97 XIV. NE51ESIS 101 xv. a tender reconciliation . . . . .105 xvi. nicoll's dream . . . . . . .108 XVII. NICOLL TURNS DETECTIVE . . . . .113 XVIII. THE BANKER'S FLIGHT . . . . . .120 XIX. " SEND FOR THE SCOTS GREYS " . . . .125 XX. COLLECTING EVIDENCE . . . . . .130 XXI. A HORRIBLE DISCOVERY . . ... 136 XXII. THE BANK TROUBLED . , . , .140 CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE XXIII. THE RUN ON THE BANK . . . . .145 XXIV. THE GAOLER'S DESPAIR . . . . . .149 xxv. daft peter's friendship. — major maxwell's RETURN ....... 153 XXVI. AN OCEAN TRAGEDY ...... 157 XXVII. THE PRISONER'S RELEASE . . . . .162 XXVIII. THE FUNERAL . . . . . . .166 XXIX. THE BANKER'S RETURN . . . . .169 XXX. DEAD ! . . . . . . . .176 XXXI. THE DISCOVERY OF THE MURDERER . . .180 XXXII. THE END . . . . . . . .185 THE

Epilogue

PROLOGUE.

. The Bull-fight and Duel. The valley of the Sweetwater in Wyoming Territory, usually wrapped in the silence of the Prairie, was all alive with men and animals. A herd of Oregon cattle, eastward bound, had debouched from the Rocky Mountain pass which marks the old Californian trail, and, with its lordly leader, a roan bull, well in front, measuring the valley with his suspicious and threatening eye, now left the shadow of the rock-bound way and passed into the plain. As the dark eye of the bull swept the vast valley it caught in its glance the vision of a rival herd officered by a dun-colored Mexican animal armed with prodigious horns. The instant and mutual recognition of an enemy was followed by the hoarse bel low of a simultaneous challenge, as with stiffening tail, bristling crest, and blood-red, vicious eye, eaoh gallant veteran plunged to the front with fell intent in full and appreciative sight of his proud and faithful followers, whose keen, expectant, but dis criminating glance followed each movement of the would-be combatants.

A score of cow-boys, however, belonging to the two herds, swept around each " bunch " of cattle and gathered it net-like into a solid mass, rounding off each rebellious angle and turning the excited animals, after a brief struggle, back into the herd. These, after a time, were succeeded by other line riders whose duty it was to ride around the sleeping herd all night long to prevent straying or stampeding. B HAN ? As the dusk came on, the more tranquil members of each herd composed themselves to rest. The irritated leaders, it is true, still glared at each other across the intervening space, but their hoarse belligerent taunts became less frequent, and finally died away into silence as the daylight faded. After a time they too slept, each at the point nearest to his enemy, slumbering as it were, Spartan like, on his shield and ready for the fray.

When the horses had been seen to, the cook of the outfit an nounced supper, a welcome signal in that hard-working, sharp set country. In the middle of the meal a new arrival presented himself. This was no less a person than " California Ben," the owner of the Oregon herd and its war-like brown leader. " Ben" was large of frame and uniformly tempestuous of man ner, and he entered the low-roofed ranch like a tropic cyclone. Among the Western cattle men, who ruled a territory larger than any European Empire except Russia, Ben's word was wont to be law, and the promptness and efficiency of the weapons in his belt rarely failed to render his authority absolute. Ben had that most envied of all reputations where might is right among the miners and cattlemen of the great plains — he had the quickest "draw" west of the Mississippi River ; in other words, it was be lieved that, on emergency and under equal conditions, he could draw his pistol and " get the drop " on his enemy quicker than any man living ; and, in the eyes of a rancher or miner, earth had no higher praise and life no loftier or more legitimate am bition than this.

That "Ben" was a dead shot was also true, but mere infalli bility of aim was a very moderate accomplishment in comparison, and one in which he had numerous rivals. Ben was hungry and therefore for a while moderately silent. But when the line riders had eaten their suppers and gathered themselves round a bright, sweet-smelling cedar-wood fire out of doors, he joined the group and became its immediate and un bending autocrat. As the conversation lagged some one referred to the threatened fight between the rival bulls. Ben listened snortingly and at the end of the remark laughed scornfully. " Why ! " he burst out with his hurricane accent, " that bull of mine could whip anything on four legs ; he has killed a dozen good bulls and has never yet been beaten. He made a big Cinna mon turn tail this morning in the Canon."

The ferocity of the speaker's manner, coupled with his sinister reputation, would have cowed most men into acquiescence. The man to whom his remark seemed to be addressed, however, merely shrugged his shoulders by way of reply, and as he rose to go inside he turned to the warlike Ben and expressed himself thus : " Ben, I dare say you are right in thinking that your big brute could beat my little Mexican, which is 400 pounds lighter, but he will get whipped too some day like the rest of the world, for there never was a bull, or a man for that matter, hoV ever good he might be, but met his match in the end. And I have this to say about my Mexican, that if he is willing why 1 am will. ing, and you can order the fight for the morning if you like. Weight, I know, is a good deal, but it isn't everything in a fight."

Ben's profanity at the other's audacity was both sultry in tem perature and volcanic in character, but the offender passed through it to his rest apparently unscathed, and, as the conversation became too dogmatic to be interesting, Ben's audience slipped away one by one to unstrap their beds and plunge half -dressed beneath the thick coverlets, some in the shelter of the Ranch, others, indifferently, with only the starry heavens above them, but all to sleep peacefully, with their lungs filled with the unpol luted ozone from a thousand lofty hills, and all alike, with their six-shooters and their cartridge-belts within easy reach of their hands. Truly a strange people for the last half of the nineteenth century to show or to see. The chill morning air failad to cool the still smouldering fires of the warlike Ben's wrath.

Gruff, ill-humored and thoroughly " ugly " in temper, he vented his spleen on everything that came in his way, throwing even his faithful mustang to the ground, because it struggled when the viciously thrown lariat bit into its windpipe. Other men caught their horses each morning as he did, by the lasso round the neck, but the average cowboy, though fond of sport, is not needlessly cruel. When two of the "boys" saw Ben kick his fallen mustang as he loosened the strangling lariat, they exchanged glances expres sive of contempt. " Wall, 'tain't our funeral," summed up one. "So, but it's likely to be our funeral if we interfere," dryly replied the other. In the course of breakfast Eugene, the cook, a pale, delicate youth of fifteen, by an accident, spilled a little of the gravy on Ben's fingers.

Striding over the wooden bench which formed ? 4 the common seat Ben felled the boy to the ground — an unpar donable act under any provocation, as he was at the time the guest of the owner of the ranch, but, in the circumstances, an act also of gross brutality, seeing that the boy was weak and del icate, and already a pledged victim to consumption. Eugene, however, was a boy -with a record, notwithstanding his lack of strength. He had floated through " Hell Gate " on a log as an afternoon's amusement, curious to know the pathway of the Sweetwater River where it plunged out of sight under the range of mountains to the right. The passage of the river under ground was fully two miles in length, and even the most fearless cowboy shrank at the thought of that fearsome journey in mid night darkness, which the boy, then only 13 years of age, had undertaken of his own accord and alone.

Of refined appearance, in spite of the roughness of his garb, Eugene had that inborn gentleness of manner commonly sup posed to be the distinguishing trait of the scions of families of ancient lineage — commonly but erroneously. As the boy rose to his feet dazed by the blow, he glanced round te two lines of keen faces, then catching the malignant eye of <_he ferocious Ben, he seized his little three-legged stool and struck that much astonished worthy with all his force across the head. Ben's stout crsinium succumbed to the shock and he fell to the floor. When he rose, furious with passion, he found that all his table companions had risen to their feet and gathered themselves, pistol in hand, between him and the boy. " It won't do, Ben — let up on the boy," quietly remarked the spokesman of the group, and Ben, recognizing the persuasive force of a dozen drawn revolvers, accepted the situation and turned to his breakfast with an explosion of rich and picturesque language such as roused the envy of all present.

After breakfast Ben found some relief for his wounded feelings in reminding the owner of the Mexican bull of his offer of the previous evening, to match the latter against his roan animal; and as the herds would be benefitted by a rest it was resolved that they should devote the day to the bull-fight, and such other sports as riding bucking horses, pistol shooting, etc. The outfits of tbe two herds on the trail, together with that of the Sweetwater Ranch, where they had stopped on their way, made up a total of fully forty cowboys, and as it was seldom that such a body of men was found together on the plains excepting at the semi-annual round-up, the occasion was worth celebrating. These "cowboys" were all "fit" and capable men, firm of eat in the saddle, and for the most part, dead shots ; men whom the Indian dreaded more — ten-fold — than the soldiers sent against him, because they could read the language of the prairie as well as he could, because they waited for no orders to pursue but were a law unto themselves, and because they were sure of aim and in troublous times killed " at sight."

"A good Injun is a dead Injun," was the cowboy's verdict, and from his standpoint he was probably correct. But little preparation was needed for the bull-fight, all that was necessary being the posting of a certain number of cowboys to keep the animals of each herd together, so as to avoid straying, intermingling, or stampeding. When the preliminary arrangements had been completed the sun had overtopped the Eastern mountains, and the valley of the Sweetwater — looking a realm rather than a cattle range — lay bathed in the early sunshine. On the left rose the foot hills of the Rocky Mountains, backed by the giant ridge itself; on the right, forty miles distant, and yet looking scarce half a dozen miles away in that clear atmosphere, shone, clear and distinct, the Semi nole Mountains and Independence Rock ; to the north, hazy in the distance, stretched the Wind River Mountains, while to the south the converging hills showed the gateway of the northern trail.

The whole scene furnished an amphitheatre such as the ghosts of long dead and gone Roman Emperors, addicted to gladiatorial dis plays, would have longed to visit. The vast plain lay as level as some great land-locked bay in dead calm ; but the breeze which swept it at that high elevation of seven thousand feet, somewhat dwarfed the comparison. When the cowboys had got the respective herds into fine it was curious to note how suddenly alive the cattle became to what was going on. The stupid bovine aspect disappeared altogether the moment they faced each oth'ir. Each animal knew, or seemed to know, intuitively, what was about to happen. Even the oldest cow in the herd became, as it were, a connoisseur in physical excellence, and the solid " bunches," or herds straggled out as far as their guardians would permit, into a thin line, through the eagerness of their members to see the approaching event.

Looking down these lines there might be seen the face of ? 6 a third and by no means disinterested party. Here and there, pressing to the front, was observable the square, hard looking head and full fierce eye of the youthful bulls. These animals bowed to the supremacy of their acknowledged lord, but if he should be beaten in the coming fight, why then , the future was one of boundless possibilities, and already they, metaphorically speaking, threw their pledges into the ring and declared them selves ready to fight for the mastery. And now the rival bulls eager for the fight had advanced to the front, each held in check by two cowboys, lasso in hand. To the uninitiated it would have appeared a simple matter for the bulls to break through the guards, but the onlookers knew, and the animals themselves knew from past experience, that they could not have gone a dozen yards before the lasso would have thrown them headlong had they gone without permission.

While the herds were being got in order, a new addition of some moment was made to the crowd of onlookers. The owner of the Crescent Range, on the Sweetwater River, had invited his sister to keep house for him, and the lady, Miss Kate Legard, now joined the group of stockmen. It is, perhaps, quite safe to say that Miss Legard preferred the life her brother had offered her or she would not have joined him. Looking at the firm determined face, the bold commanding eyes, and superb animal physique, it was impossible to imagine that anyone should successfully dictate to Miss Legard what she should do. Action was her essential quality, and it was " writ large" in every lineament of her face and in every movement of her full and graceful figure. As she sat on her horse with the easy grace of long familiarity with the saddle, she looked a picture of border life — unlike anything to be seen elsewhere in the World.

The men around her paid her the most subservient obedience, and she took this obedience as her just and proper due — a trifle, perhaps, too imperiously. The only man upon whom her eyes rested with even the faint est glimpse of toleration was "California Ben," the acknowl edged King of Cowboys and Cattlemen ; and it is perfectly safe to say that his reputation was his only charm in her coldly discriminating eyes. Still " Ben " was a notable figure and one not unworthy of a border Queen's esteem. As he sat like a granite statue on his powerful steed he formed a striking and commanding figure, and the deeply carved lines in his face showed him to be a man of resolute will and one accustomed to be obeyed. Ben, it was known, was a worshipper at the shrine of this Queen of the Prairie, and everyone else, therefore, held aloof.

He was not only a man of men in himself, but he was a cattle king who could on occasion muster his 20,000 head of cattle. Ben presently gave the signal and the rival bulls, released from control, plunged towards each other. As they rushed across the plain the massive outline of the Roan bull shone in striking comparison with the thin figure of the Mexican animal. In the first shock the lighter animal was borne backward upon his haunches by the superior weight of the other, and before he could regain his position the shorter horn of the Roan bull had ripped an ugly mark through the skin of his neck, half a yard long. Of this, however, the Mexican seemed to be unconscious, and as if anxious to avoid the rush of the other's additional weight, he kept close to him when he retreated to gain additional impetus.

It was clear to the onlookers that the heavier weight of the Roan bull was of immense advantage in the rush, while his shorter horns were also equally serviceable at close quarters. "A hundred to ten on the Roan bull," shouted Ben. " I'll take you," said a quiet voice at his elbow, " if you will make it a thousand to a hundred." The speaker was a tall impassive looking individual, unknown to Ben, and the latter brusquely replied, " table your money." This ceremony having been performed and a hasty glance having been given to the new comer by the other cattlemen, all eyes were turned again to the combat. The preliminary round had been altogether in favor of the heavier animal, and the subsequent skirmish having been devoid of serious result, the two animals drew off. The Roan bull was scatheless thus far, but a deep red rut on the neck of the Mexican animal showed where the horn of his adversary had ploughed its wicked way.

Still the lighter animal bore himself well. The Roan went to the encounter like a wary old swordsman, ruthless, but cool and guarded, whereas the Southern animal's hide rose on his back, and his eyes gleamed with a hot flame on his antagonist ga he rushed to the shock. ? 8 " A thousand to twenty," called out Ben as he saw the result of the second meeting, when the Mexican was driven back and thrown forcibly over on its side by the shock of the heavier animal. "Taken," said the cold voice of the stranger, Again the Mexican got away without serious harm — this time owing to a certain prompt dexterity in presenting one of his long horns at his opponents throat, as the latter attempted to gore. The onlookers themselves were now worthy of notice. As for the animals, each female member of the herd regarded the com batants with keen discerning eye, while the younger bulls, unable to control themselves, stamped impatiently on the ground and filled the air with short gutteral bark-like roars.

The human onlookers gathered themselves close together and the color mantled on the cheek of the beautiful Kate Legard. The fresh attack had a different result. As the two animals rushed to the encounter the Mexican evaded the full shock, and with his long horn ripped the hide of his antagonist from fetlock to shoulder. Nor was that all — as the Roan bull turned to the attack the Mexican's second horn being now in good position transfixed the dewlap of the other, and instantly dyed the ground with a flood of crimson. In the interchange of blows at close quarters the long horn of the lighter animal tore through the Roan's ear and filled his eyes with blood, blinding him so that he could not direct his blows accurately. This was the Mexican's opportunity, and he used it to the utmost. At the end of five minutes, blinded with blood and with his hide rent and slashed, hanging from him here and there in ittrips, the Roan bull yielded the battle to his fierce opponent and lied towards his own herd, pursued by the enemy.

Alas ! — and sad to relate — the callous members of his own much prized family recognized no beaten lord, and with one impulse the cows, with lowered horns, drove their vanquished leader forth from the herd, never to return, but to die on the plains of his wounds or to wander alone thenceforward like a ' ' rogue " ele phant, an embittered animal and an enemy to all his race and to everything else that treads the earth. There was much surprise manifested at the result, and California Ben made himself especially obnoxious in the process of paying over the money which he had lost in his bet with the stranger. The latter took Ben's remarks with an air of indifference which increased rather than assuaged that gentleman's ire. Everyone could see that a quarrel was imminent, and that Ben was thirsting for gore.

As for the lady, she looked on with smiling eyes, and to Ben it seemed that she nodded cordial approval whenever he perpetrated some more glaring rudeness towards the new-comer. Still, the imperturbable front of the other baffled him ; it was like firing red-hot arrows against the wall of a granite quarry to use satire upon him, and the hot shafts simply rebounded and had to cool at their leisure. Suddenly a bright inspiration seized Ben. " Say, stranger, where did you get that horse f " " Bought him," was the laconic reply. " Ah ! that won't wash here — that's Bill Jackson's brand on his shoulder, and everybody knows Bill was raided by horse-thieves.-' The stranger still preserved the same immovable calm, but he loosened his feet from the long Mexican stirrups and swung himself to the ground.

Every one crowded nearer, curious to note the result, and a soft flush gathered anew on the cheek of the beautiful Kate, as she tightened her rein and moved closer, for Kate dearly loved to see a quarrel. " Do I understand you to infer that I stole this horse ? " quietly enquired the stranger, walking up to Ben with the reins through his arm. The eyes of the woman he loved were on Ben— keenly, scruti nizir_gly, as if to note how he bore himself under trial, for every one felt that the stranger was no common man to deal with. "Yes ; you are a horse-thief and nothing else," frothed Ben, full in the other's face. "Gentlemen," said the stranger, turning towards the others and throwing up the blanket which covered his horse's flank. " You know BillJackson's brand — there's his quit-claim," show ing the transfer mark, which was simply a repetition on a smaller scale of the brand on the shoulder.

With one movement the assembled cow-boys nodded their recognition of the new ownership. _ " Now, sir ! " and the stranger's voice rang out full and clear as he turned towards Ben, " Do you take back your words?" "Not I !" exclaimed Ben, with much unnecessary ornamenta tion of language, t 10 The stranger stood by his assailant's saddle girth as he spoke, and before the last word had died from Ben's lips the latter was hurled from his horse to the ground, where the force of his fall raised a miniature cloud of alkali dust. As Ben turned on his side, his ready hand sought his pistol, but he was already covered by the weapon of Eugene the cook, who remarked quietly : " Fair play, Ben — give the stranger a show." Ben read the resolution in the boy's eyes and took his hand from his pistol. "Yes, fair play," called out the others as each drew his long barrelled revolver and held it ready with finger on the trigger.

"All right," snorted Ben, "you'll fight of course?" turning with bloodshot eyes to the stranger. The latter nodded coldly by way of reply. "Stranger," said the owner of the victorious Mexican animal — the placid cow-boy who had so enraged Ben the previous even ing — " You know of course who Ben is ? He is the quickest man in this country with his gun, and about the surest. The choice of weapons rests with you. You had better think of some weapon that you are familiar with and that will give you some chance ; and, stranger, you'll excuse me for saying it, but Ben is an ugly customer to deal with, and if you have any little business to at tend to before the fight I'll take your commands and carry them out if it is possible." The stranger, by way of reply, took from an inside pocket a small note-book, and, using his saddle for a desk, he added to it a few lines in pencil.

Then he closed the book and handed it to his friend, saying, with a strange, far-away look in his eyes, "I thank you; that will tell you everything which it will be necessary to do. Your name, sir ? " " Well, real names don't count for much here ; I'm usually known as Arizona Jim. I think we can insure you fair play, for the boys are square and honest men in a fight." " Let it be knives," whispered a low voice at his elbow, and Jim nodded his approval, adding, "I think Eugene's advice is good." Meantime Ben was standing by the lady's saddle-bow and her full glowing eyes looked down with pride on the man who, going to mortal combat, could yet, in his indifference of life, spend the last moments available for preparation with her. As Ben left her side he raised her gloved hand to his lips, and, bowing with quite a courtly air, he rejoined the group.

The coming fight and the presence of his lady love had lent an air of dignity to the usually brusque and bloodthirsty Ben, which sat well on his erect and muscular figure. The arrangements for the fight were simple in the extreme. A circle was marked on the ground and midway across this a line was drawn. This line the combatants were to toe and that was all. As the men divested themselves of their upper clothing, many a covert glance was directed towards the lady to see whether she would retire. Her brother whispered in her ear apparently a word of remonstrance, but his remarks, whatever they were, were negatived impatiently by a decisive shake of the head, and the on-lookers knew that the lady was to be counted in as a spec tator. Only the nervous movement of the small boot in the stirrup and a growing pallor in her cheeks showed the fair Kate's excitement.