Louisiana Lou

by William West Winter

  CHAPTER VIII

  GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS

  Mademoiselle was having a series of enlivening shocks. First cameWilding, with Miss Pettis. He was received by Solange in the mezzaninegallery of the hotel and she learned, for the first time, that DeLaunay was sending her a lawyer to transact her business for her. Thismade her angry, his assuming that she needed a lawyer, or, even if shedid, that he could provide her with one. However, as she needed adivorce from her incubus, and Wilding practiced also in the Nevadacourts, she thought better of her first impulse to haughtily dismisshim. As for Wilding, he began to conclude that he had gone crazy orelse had encountered a set of escaped lunatics when he beheld Solange,slender and straightly tailored, but with hair hidden under aclose-fitting little turban and face masked by a fold of netting.

  Marian Pettis was another shock. The extraordinary De Launay, whom shehad supposed lost in some gutter, and without whose aid she had beenpuzzled how to proceed on her quest, was evidently very much on thejob. Here was a starting point, at least.

  Although, behind her mask, her face registered disapproval of thegirl, she welcomed her as cordially as possible. In her sweet, bellvoice, she murmured an expression of concern for her grandfather and,when Marian bluntly said, "He's dead," she endeavored to convey hersorrow. To which Miss Pettis, staring at her with hard, bold eyes, asat some puzzling freak, made no reply, being engaged in uneasilywondering what "graft" the Frenchwoman was "on." Marian disliked beingreminded of her grandfather's demise, having been largely responsiblefor it when she had run away with a plausible stranger who had assuredher that she had only to present herself at Hollywood to becomeinstantly famous as a moving-picture star, a promise that had sadlymiscarried.

  "But it was not so much of your grandfather as of my father that Iwished to see you," mademoiselle explained, ignoring Marian's lack ofresponse. "As for Monsieur Wilding, it is later I will require hisservices, though it may be that he can aid me not only in procuring adivorce from this husband, but in another matter also, Miss Pettis,and perhaps, Monsieur Wilding, you know how my father was murdered?"

  Wilding shook his head but Marian nodded at once.

  "Gee, yes!" she said. "I was a kid when he was croaked, but I rememberit all right. There was a guy they called Louisiana, and he was oneof those old-time gunmen, but at that he was some kid believe me! Hetook a shot at a fellow here in Sulphur Falls--that was before therewas any town here at all--and they was givin' him the gate outa theneighborhood. Going to lynch him if they caught him, I guess. I don'tremember much of it except how this guy looks, but I've heard the oldman tell about it.

  "He come ridin' out to our place all dressed up like a moviecow-puncher and you'd never have dreamed there was a mob about threejumps behind him. He sets in with us and takes a great shine to me. Iwas quite a doll in those days they tell me." She tossed her head asmuch as to say that she was still able to qualify for thedescription.

  "Believe me, he was a regular swell, and you'd never in the world athought he was what he turned out to be. Delaney, his name was, orsomething like that. Well, he plays with me and when he goes away Icried and wanted him to stay. I remember it just as vivid! He had onthese chaps--leather pants, you know--and a Stetson slanting on hishead, and a fancy silk neckerchief which he made into comical dollsand things. Oh! he sure made a hit with Marian!

  "He swore he was comin' back, like young Lochinvar, and marry me someday, and I was all tickled to think he would do it.

  "Then, would you believe it, the murdering villain rides away abouthalf an hour before the mob comes and goes south toward the mountains.Next day or so, we pick up your father, shot something terrible, andthis awful 'Louisiana' Delaney had done it, in cold blood and just tobe killing something."

  "Ah!" Mademoiselle stiffened and quivered. Her voice was like brass."In cold blood, you say? Then he had no provocation? He was not anenemy of my father?"

  "Naw. Your father didn't have no enemies. So far as I know, thisLouisiana didn't even know him. He was a cattleman and they hated thesheepmen, you know, and used to fight them. Then, he was one of thesegunmen, always shooting some one, and they used to be terrible. They'dkill some one just for the fun of it--to sort of keep in practice."

  Mademoiselle shuddered, envisioning some bloodthirsty, evil thing,unspeakably depraved. But it was momentary. She spoke again in hermetallic voice.

  "That is well to know. I will look for this Louisiana."

  "You ain't likely to find him. He never was seen or heard of aroundhere no more. I've heard granddad call him 'the last of the gunmen,'because the country was settling up and getting civilized then. Onething sure, he never made good on that Lochinvar sketch, I can promiseyou."

  "It is no matter. He will come back--or I will follow him. It is ofanother matter I would talk. There was something of a mine that myfather had found."

  "I've heard of that," said Wilding. "It's quite a legend around here.The Lunch Rock mine, they call it, and Jim Banker, the prospector,looks for it every year."

  "But he ain't found it----"

  A bell boy passed, singing out: "Call for Mad'mo'selle Dalbray! Callfer Mad'mo'selle Dalbray!" Mademoiselle rose and beckoned to him.

  "Three men in the lobby wish to see yuh, miss!" the boy told her."Said Mr. Delonny sent 'em."

  "Monsieur de Launay! What next? Well, show them up here."

  A few moments later Sucatash and Dave Mackay stalked on their highheels up the stairs and into the alcove of the mezzanine balcony,holding their broad hats in their hands. Sucatash gulped asmademoiselle's slender figure confronted him, and Dave's mouth fellopen.

  Behind them lurched another man, slinking in the background.

  "What is it, messieurs?" asked Solange, her voice once more clear andsweet. The cow-punchers blushed in unison.

  "This here Mr. Delonny done sent us here to see you, ma'am. He allowsyou-all wants a couple of hands for this trip you're takin' into theEsmeraldas. He likewise instigates us to corral this here horned toad,Banker, who's a prospector, because he says you'll want to see himabout some mine or other, and, Banker, he don't know nothing aboutnothing but lookin' for mines: which he ain't never found a whole lot,I reckon, none whatever."

  Solange smiled and her smile, even with veiled face, was something toput these bashful range riders at their ease. Both of them felt warmedto their hearts.

  "I am very glad to see you," she said. "It is true that I requirehelp, and I shall be glad of yours. It is kind of you to enter myemploy."

  Dave uttered a protest. "Don't you mention it, mad'moiselle. Sucatashand me was both in France and, while we can't give that there countryany rank ahead of the U.?S.?A., we hands it to her frank, that anytime we can do anything fer a mad'moiselle, we does it pronto! We'reyours, ma'am, hide, hair an' hoofs!"

  "Which we sure are," agreed Sucatash, not to be outdone. "That'swhatever!"

  "And here is this minin' sharp," said Dave, turning about and reachingfor the shrinking Banker. "Come here, Jim, and say howdy, if you ain'therded with burros so long you've forgotten human amenities that away. Mad'mo'selle wants to talk to you."

  Banker emerged from behind them. He, too, held his hat in hand, anincredibly stained and battered felt atrocity. His seamed face was nutbrown under constant exposure to the sun. His garments were fadednondescripts, and on his feet were thick-soled, high-lacing boots. Hegave an impression of dry dinginess, like rawhide, and his eyes weremean and shifty. He might have been fifty or he might have been older;one could not tell.

  Mademoiselle was uncertain. She hardly knew enough to question thisqueer specimen, and so she turned to Marian Pettis.

  "Miss Pettis, can you explain to him? I can hardly tell him what wewish to know. And, if the mine is found, half of it will be yours, youknow."

  "Mine! Lord sakes, I ain't counting on it. You gotta fat chance tofind it. This bird, here, has been searchin' for it ever since theyear one and he ain't found it. Say, Banker, this is Mad'mo'selleDalbray. She's the daughter of
that French Pete that was killed----"

  "Hey?" said Banker, sharply.

  "Ah, you know the yarn. You been huntin' his mine since Lord knowswhen. This lady is lookin' for it and she wants some dope on how to goabout findin' it."

  "An she expects me to tell her?" cried Banker, in a falsetto whine."Yuh reckon if I knowed where it was I wouldn't have staked it longago? I don't know nothin' about it."

  "Well, you know the Esmeraldas, old Stingin' Lizard," growledSucatash. "You can tell her what to do about gettin' there."

  "I can't tell her nothin' no more than you can," said Banker. "She'sgot Ike Brandon's letters, ain't she? He told her where it was, didn'the? What's she comin' to me fer? I don't know nothin'."

  "Were you here when my father was killed?" Solange asked, kindly. Shefelt sorry for the old fellow.

  "Hey! What's that? Was I here? No'm, I wasn't here! I was--I reckon Iwas over south of the range, out on the desert. I don't know nothin'about the killin'."

  He was looking furtively at her veil, his eyes shifting away and backto it, awed by the mystery of the hidden eyes. He was like a wild, shyanimal, uneasy in this place and among these people so foreign to hisnatural environment.

  Solange sighed. "I am sorry, monsieur," she said. "I had hoped youcould tell me more."

  He broke in again with his whining voice. "It was this here Louisiana,every one says."

  "Louisiana! Yes----" Solange's tones became fierce and she leanedcloser to the dry desert rat, who shrank from her. "And when I findhim--when I find this man who shot my father like a dog----"

  Her voice was tense and almost shrill, cutting like steel.

  "I shall kill him!"

  The dim, veiled face was close to Banker's. He raised his corded, leanhand to the corded, lean throat as though he was choking. He stared ather fixedly, his shifty eyes for once held steady. There was horrorand fear in the back of them. He put one foot back, shifted his weightto it, put the other back, then the first again, slowly retreatingbackward, with his stricken eyes still on her. Then he suddenlywhirled about and scuttled down the stairs as though the devil wereafter him.

  Solange remained standing, puzzled.

  "That is queer," she said. "Why is he frightened? I did not mean tostartle him. I suppose he is shy."

  "No. Just locoed, like all them prospectors," said Sucatash."Furthermore, he's ornery, ma'am. Probably don't like this talk ofkillin'. They say he beefed Panamint Charlie, his partner, some yearsago and I reckon he's a mite sensitive that a way."

  "He doesn't seem to know where the mine is," said Solange. "Nor doyou, mademoiselle?"

  "Me?" said Marian, airily. "If I knew where that mine was, believe me,you'd be late looking for it. I'd have been settled on it long ago."

  "I wish," said Solange, "that I knew what to do. Perhaps, if thisunspeakable De Launay were here----"

  "I can telephone the Greek's and see if he's there," suggestedMacKay. Solange assented and he hurried to a telephone.

  "It ain't likely he knows much that will help, mad'mo'selle," saidSucatash, also eager to aid, "but my old man was around here whenthese hostilities was pulled off, and it's possible he might help you.He could tell you as much as any one, I reckon."

  "Your father?"

  "Yes, ma'am. I recommend that you get your outfit together, except ferhosses, hire a car to take it out and start from our ranch at WillowSpring. It's right near the mountains and not far from ShoestringCanyon, which it's likely you'll have to go that way to get into thehills. And you'll be able to get all the hosses you want rightthere."

  "That sounds as though it might be the wise thing to do," saidWilding.

  Solange turned to him. "That is true. I thank Monsieur Sucatash. And,Monsieur Wilding, there is one thing you can do for me, besides thearrangements for that divorce. Can you not search the records to findout what is known of my father's death and who killed him?"

  "But it appears that the killer was Louisiana."

  "Yes--but who is Louisiana? Where did he go? That is what I must findout. Oh! If this depraved De Launay were of any benefit, instead ofbeing a sorrow and disgust to me----"

  At this moment Dave MacKay reappeared. Solange turned to him eagerly."Did you find him, monsieur?"

  "I sure did," said Dave, with disgust. "Leastways, I located him. Thatanimated vat of inebriation has done went and landed in jail."