第4章

THE COMPANY OF THE NOBLE SEVEN

As we were dismounting, the cries, "Hello, Jack!" "How do, Dale?""Hello, old Smoke!" in the heartiest of tones, made me see that my cousin was a favorite with the men grouped about the door.Jack simply nodded in reply and then presented me in due form."My tenderfoot cousin from the effete," he said, with a flourish.Iwas surprised at the grace of the bows made me by these roughly-dressed, wild-looking fellows.I might have been in a London drawing-room.I was put at my ease at once by the kindliness of their greeting, for, upon Jack's introduction, I was admitted at once into their circle, which, to a tenderfoot, was usually closed.

What a hardy-looking lot they were! Brown, spare, sinewy and hard as nails, they appeared like soldiers back from a hard campaign.

They moved and spoke with an easy, careless air of almost lazy indifference, but their eyes had a trick of looking straight out at you, cool and fearless, and you felt they were fit and ready.

That night I was initiated into the Company of the Noble Seven--but of the ceremony I regret to say I retain but an indistinct memory;for they drank as they rode, hard and long, and it was only Jack's care that got me safely home that night.

The Company of the Noble Seven was the dominant social force in the Swan Creek country.Indeed, it was the only social force Swan Creek knew.Originally consisting of seven young fellows of the best blood of Britain, "banded together for purposes of mutual improvement and social enjoyment," it had changed its character during the years, but not its name.First, its membership was extended to include "approved colonials," such as Jack Dale and "others of kindred spirit," under which head, I suppose, the two cowboys from the Ashley Ranch, Hi Keadal and "Bronco" Bill--no one knew and no one asked his other name--were admitted.Then its purposes gradually limited themselves to those of a social nature, chiefly in the line of poker-playing and whisky-drinking.Well born and delicately bred in that atmosphere of culture mingled with a sturdy common sense and a certain high chivalry which surrounds the stately homes of Britain, these young lads, freed from the restraints of custom and surrounding, soon shed all that was superficial in their make-up and stood forth in the naked simplicity of their native manhood.The West discovered and revealed the man in them, sometimes to their honor, often to their shame.The Chief of the Company was the Hon.Fred Ashley, of the Ashley Ranch, sometime of Ashley Court, England--a big, good-natured man with a magnificent physique, a good income from home, and a beautiful wife, the Lady Charlotte, daughter of a noble English family.At the Ashley Ranch the traditions of Ashley Court were preserved as far as possible.The Hon.Fred appeared at the wolf-hunts in riding-breeches and top boots, with hunting crop and English saddle, while in all the appointments of the house the customs of the English home were observed.It was characteristic, however, of western life that his two cowboys, Hi Kendal and Bronco Bill, felt themselves quite his social equals, though in the presence of his beautiful, stately wife they confessed that they "rather weakened." Ashley was a thoroughly good fellow, well up to his work as a cattle-man, and too much of a gentleman to feel, much less assert, any superiority of station.He had the largest ranch in the country and was one of the few men making money.