CHAPTER XIII
COUNTERPLOT
"The low-down, ornery liar!" sputtered Bud Jessup, face flushed and eyessnapping. "He told me to wait for them bolts if I had to stay here allday. I thought it was kinda funny he'd let me waste all this time, but Ididn't have no idea at all he'd got me out of the way a-purpose to putacross that dirty deal. Why, the rotten son-of-a--"
"Easy, kid," cautioned Buck, glancing at the open door of the store."You'll have Pop comin' out to see what all the excitement's about, andthat isn't our game--yet."
He had found Bud alone on the rickety porch, kicking his heels against therailing and fretting at his enforced idleness; and having hitched hishorse, he lost no time in giving the youngster a brief account of thehappenings of the night before.
"Not him," shrugged Jessup, though he did lower his voice a trifle. "Theup train's due in less than half an hour, an' Pop's gettin' the mail-bagready. That means readin' all the post-cards twice at least, an' makin'out all he can through the envelopes, if the paper's thin enough. I oftenwondered why he didn't go the whole hog an' have a kettle ready to steamthe flaps open, he seems to get so much pleasure out of other people'sbusiness."
Stratton chuckled. This suited him perfectly up to a certain point. Hepulled the letter out of his shirt and was pleased to see that none of thewriting was visible. Then he displayed the face of the envelope to hiscompanion.
Bud's eyes widened. "Whew!" he whistled. "That sure looks like business.What's up, Buck? Can't yuh tell a man?"
"I will on the way back; no time just now. Let's go in."
He led the way into the store and walked down to where Daggett was slowlysorting a small pile of letters and post-cards.
"Hello, Pop!" he greeted. "Looks like I was just in time."
The old man peered over the tops of his spectacles. "Yuh be, if yuh wantto catch the up-mail," he nodded. "Where's it to?"
He took the letter from Stratton's extended hand and studied it with frankinterest.
"Jim Hardenberg!" he commented. "Wal! Wal! Friend of yores, eh?"
"Oh, I don't know as you'd hardly call him that," evaded Stratton."Haven't seen him in over two years, I reckon."
Pop waited expectantly, but no further information was forthcoming. Heeyed the letter curiously, manoeuvering as if by accident to hold it upagainst the light. He even tried, by obvious methods, to get rid of thetwo punchers, but they persisted in hanging around until at length thenear approach of the train-hour forced the old man to drop the letter intothe mail-bag with the others and snap the lock. On the plea of seeingwhether their package had come, both Stratton and Jessup escorted him overto the station platform and did not quit his side until the train haddeparted, carrying the mail-sack with it.
There were a few odds and ends of mail for the Shoe-Bar, but no parcel.When this became certain, Bud got his horse and the two mounted in frontof the store.
"By gee!" exclaimed Pop suddenly as they were on the point of riding off."I clean forgot to tell yuh. They got blackleg over to the T-T's."
Both men turned abruptly in their saddles and stared at him in dismay. Tothe bred-in-the-bone rancher the mention of blackleg, that deadlycontagious and most fatal of cattle diseases, is almost as startling asbubonic plague would be to the average human.
"Hell!" ejaculated Bud forcefully. "Yuh sure about that, Pop?"
"Sartain sure," nodded the old man. "One of their men, Bronc Tippets, wasover here last night an' told me. Said their yearlings is dyin' off likeflies."
"That sure is mighty hard luck," remarked Jessup as they rode out of town."I'm glad this outfit ain't any nearer."
"Somewhere off to the west of the Shoe-Bar, isn't it?" asked Stratton.
"Yeah. 'Way the other side of the mountains. There's a short cut throughthe hills that comes out around the north end of middle pasture, but thereain't one steer in a thousand could find his way through. Well, let's hearwhat you're up to, old man. I'm plumb interested."
Buck's serious expression relaxed and he promptly launched into a detailedexplanation of his scheme. When he had made everything clear Bud's facelit up and he regarded his friend admiringly.
"By cripes, Buck!" he exclaimed delightedly. "That sure oughta work. Whenare yuh goin' to spring it on 'em?"
"First good chance I get," returned Buck. "The sooner the better, so theywon't have time to try any more dirty work."
The opportunity was not long in coming. They reached the ranch just beforedinner and when the meal was over learned that the afternoon was to bedevoted to repairing the telephone leading from the ranch-house to LasVegas camp, which had been out of order for several weeks. As certainfence wires were utilized for line purposes, this meant considerable work,if Stratton could judge by the ruinous condition of most of those he hadseen. He wondered not a little at the meaning of the move, but did notallow his curiosity to interfere with the project he had in mind.
They had left the ranch in a bunch, Kreeger and Siegrist alone remainingbehind for some other purpose. They had not gone more than two miles whena remark of McCabe's on mining claims gave Buck his cue.
"A fellow who goes into that game with a bunch takes a lot of chances," hecommented. "I knew a chap once who came mighty near being croaked, to saynothing of losing a valuable claim, by being too confiding with a gang hethought could be trusted."
"How was that?" inquired Slim amiably, as Stratton paused.
"They wanted the whole hog instead of being contented with their share,and tried two or three times to get this fellow--er--Brown. When Brownwised up to what was going on he thought at first he'd have to pull out tosave his hide. But just in time he doped out a scheme to stop their dirtywork, and it sure was a slick one, all right."
Buck chuckled retrospectively. Though the pause was unbroken by anyquestions, he saw that he had the complete and undivided attention of hisaudience.
"What he did," resumed Stratton, "was to write out a detailed account ofall the things they'd tried to put across, one of which was an attemptto--a--shoot him in his bunk while he was asleep. He sealed that up in anenvelope and sent it to the sheriff with a note asking him to keep itsafe, but not to open it unless the writer, Brown, got bumped off in someviolent way or disappeared, in which case the sheriff was to act on theinformation in it and nab the crooks. After he'd got word of its receipt,he up and told the others what he'd done. Pretty cute, wasn't it?"
The brief pause that followed was tense and fraught with suppressedemotion.
"Did it work?" McCabe at length inquired, with elaborate casualness.
"Sure. The gang didn't dare raise a finger to him. They might have put abullet through him any time, or a knife, and made a safe get-away, butthen they'd have had to desert the claims, which wasn't their game at all.Darn good stunt to remember, ain't it, if a person ever got up againstthat sort of thing?"
There was no direct reply to the half-question, and Buck shot a glance athis companions. Lynch rode slightly behind him and was out of the line ofvision. McCabe, with face averted, bent over fussing with hissaddle-strings. The sight of Doc Peters's face, however, pale, strained,with wide, frightened eyes and sagging jaw, told Stratton that his thrusthad penetrated as deeply as he could have hoped.
"We'll start here."
It was Lynch's voice, curt and harsh, that broke the odd silence as hejerked his horse up and dismounted. "Get yore tools out an' don't wasteany time."
There was no mistaking his mood, and in the hours that followed he was afar from agreeable taskmaster. He snapped and growled and swore at themimpartially, acting generally like a bear with a sore ear whom nothing canplease. If he could be said to be less disagreeable to anyone, it was,curiously enough, Bud Jessup, whom he kept down at one end of the linemost of the afternoon. Later Stratton discovered the reason.
"It worked fine," Bud whispered to him jubilantly, when they were alonetogether for a few minutes after supper. "Did yuh see him hangin' aroundme this afternoon? He was grouchin' around and pretendin' to be
madbecause he'd let yuh go to town this mornin' just to mail a letter to somefool girl."
"Of course I pulled the baby stare an' told him I didn't see no letter tono girl. Yuh sure didn't mail one while I was with yuh, I says.
"'Didn't mail no letter at all?' he wants to know, scowlin'."
"'Sure,' I says. 'Only it went to Jim Hardenberg over to Perilla. I seenhim hand it to old Pop Daggett, who was peevish as a wet hen 'cause hecouldn't find out nothin' about what was in it, 'count of Buck hangin'around till it got on the train. That's the only letter I seen.'
"He didn't have no more to say, but walked off, scowlin' fierce. I'll betyuh my new Stetson to a two-bit piece, Buck, he rides in to town mightyquick to find out what Pop knows about it."
Stratton did not take him up, for it had already occurred to him that sucha move on Lynch's part was almost certain. As a matter of fact the foremandid leave the ranch early the next morning, driving a pair of blacksharnessed to the buckboard. Buck and Jessup were both surprised at thisunwonted method of locomotion, which usually indicated a passenger to bebrought back, or, more rarely, a piece of freight or express, too large orheavy to be carried on horseback, yet not bulky enough for the lumberingfreight-wagon.
"An' if it was freight, he'd have sent one of us," commented Bud, as theysaddled up preparatory to resuming operations on the fences. "Still an'all, I reckon he wants to see Pop himself and get a line on what that oldhe-gossip knows. He'll have his ear full, all right," he finished in atone of vindictive satisfaction.
To make up for the day before, the whole gang took life very easily, andknocked off work rather earlier than usual. They had loafed ten or fifteenminutes in the bunk-house and were straggling up the slope in answer toPedro's summons to dinner when, with a clatter of hoofs, the blackswhirled through the further gate and galloped toward the house.
Buck, among the others, glanced curiously in that direction and observedwith much interest that a woman occupied the front seat of the buckboardwith Tex, while a young man and two small trunks more than filled therear.
"Some dame!" he heard Bud mutter under his breath.
A moment later Lynch pulled up the snorting team and called Jessup to holdthem. Buck was just turning away from a lightning appraisal of thenew-comers, when, to his amazement, the young woman smiled at him from herseat.
"Why, Mr. Green!" she called out in surprise. "To think of finding youhere!"
Buck stared at her, wide-eyed and bewildered. With her crisp, dark hair,fresh color, and regular features, she was very good to look at. But hehad never consciously set eyes on her before in all his life!
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