The Sky Pilot | Page 8

it, even if it was a blanked centipede." And this, coming from
one who made a profession of "bronco busting," was unquestionably
high praise. The Duke lived alone, except when he deigned to pay a
visit to some lonely rancher who, for the marvellous charm of his talk,
was delighted to have him as guest, even at the expense of the loss of a
few games at poker. He made a friend of no one, though some men
could tell of times when he stood between them and their last dollar,
exacting only the promise that no mention should be made of his deed.
He had an easy, lazy manner and a slow cynical smile that rarely left
his face, and the only sign of deepening passion in him was a little
broadening of his smile. Old Latour, who kept the Stopping Place, told
me how once The Duke had broken into a gentle laugh. A French
half-breed freighter on his way north had entered into a game of poker
with The Duke, with the result that his six months' pay stood in a little
heap at his enemy's left hand. The enraged freighter accused his smiling
opponent of being a cheat, and was proceeding to demolish him with
one mighty blow. But The Duke, still smiling, and without moving
from his chair, caught the descending fist, slowly crushed the fingers
open, and steadily drew the Frenchman to his knees, gripping him so

cruelly in the meantime that he was forced to cry aloud in agony for
mercy. Then it was that The Duke broke into a light laugh and,
touching the kneeling Frenchman on his cheek with his finger-tips, said:
"Look here, my man, you shouldn't play the game till you know how to
do it and with whom you play." Then, handing him back the money, he
added: "I want money, but not yours." Then, as he sat looking at the
unfortunate wretch dividing his attention between his money and his
bleeding fingers, he once more broke into a gentle laugh that was not
good to hear.
The Duke was by all odds the most striking figure in the Company of
the Noble Seven, and his word went farther than that of any other. His
shadow was Bruce, an Edinburgh University man, metaphysical,
argumentative, persistent, devoted to The Duke. Indeed, his chief
ambition was to attain to The Duke's high and lordly manner; but,
inasmuch as he was rather squat in figure and had an open, good-
natured face and a Scotch voice of the hard and rasping kind, his
attempts at imitation were not conspicuously successful. Every mail
that reached Swan Creek brought him a letter from home. At first, after
I had got to know him, he would give me now and then a letter to read,
but as the tone became more and more anxious he ceased to let me read
them, and I was glad enough of this. How he could read those letters
and go the pace of the Noble Seven I could not see. Poor Bruce! He had
good impulses, a generous heart, but the "Permit" nights and the hunts
and the "roundups" and the poker and all the wild excesses of the
Company were more than he could stand.
Then there were the two Hill brothers, the younger, Bertie, a fair-
haired, bright-faced youngster, none too able to look after himself, but
much inclined to follies of all degrees and sorts. But he was
warm-hearted and devoted to his big brother, Humphrey, called
"Hump," who had taken to ranching mainly with the idea of looking
after his younger brother. And no easy matter that was, for every one
liked the lad and in consequence helped him down.
In addition to these there were two others of the original seven, but by
force of circumstances they were prevented from any more than a

nominal connection with the Company. Blake, a typical wild Irishman,
had joined the police at the Fort, and Gifford had got married and, as
Bill said, "was roped tighter'n a steer."
The Noble Company, with the cowboys that helped on the range and
two or three farmers that lived nearer the Fort, composed the settlers of
the Swan Creek country. A strange medley of people of all ranks and
nations, but while among them there were the evil- hearted and
evil-living, still, for the Noble Company I will say that never have I
fallen in with men braver, truer, or of warmer heart. Vices they had, all
too apparent and deadly, but they were due rather to the circumstances
of their lives than to the native tendencies of their hearts. Throughout
that summer and the winter following I lived among them, camping on
the range with them and sleeping in their