CHAPTER XVIII
A CHANGE OF BASE
Stratton staggered back against the wall and leaned there, panting. Allhis strength had gone out in that last terrific blow, and for a space heseemed incapable of movement. At length, conscious of a warm, moisttrickle on his chin, he raised one hand mechanically to his face andbrought it away, dabbled with bright crimson. For a moment or two heregarded the stiff, crooked fingers and bruised knuckles in a dazed,impersonal fashion as if the hand belonged to some one else. Then hebecame aware that Bud was speaking.
"Sure," he mumbled, when the meaning of the reiterated question penetratedto his consciousness. "I'm--all--right."
Then his head began to clear, and, slowly straightening his saggingshoulders, he glanced down at the hulking figure sprawling motionlessamidst the debris of the wrecked table.
"Is--he--" he began slowly.
"He's out, that's all," stated Jessup crisply. "Golly, Buck! That wassome punch." He paused, regarding his friend eagerly. "What are yuh goin'to do now?" he asked.
A tiny trickle of blood from Stratton's cut lip ran down his chin andsplashed on the front of his torn, disordered shirt.
"Wash, I reckon," he answered, with a twisted twitch of his stiff lipsthat was meant to be a smile. "I sure need it bad."
"But I mean after that," explained Bud. "Don't yuh want me to saddle upwhile you're gettin' ready? There ain't no point in hangin' around till hecomes to."
Buck took a step or two away from the wall and regarded the prostrateLynch briefly, his glance also taking in McCabe, who bent over him.
"I reckon not," he agreed briefly. "Likewise, if I don't get astride acayuse mighty soon, I won't be able to climb onto him at all. Go ahead andsaddle up, kid, and I'll be with you _pronto_. You'd better ride to townwith me and bring back the horse."
Bud nodded and, breaking the Colts one after another, pocketed the shellsand dropped the weapons into a near-by bunk.
"Yuh needn't bother to do that," commented McCabe sourly. "Nobody ain'tgoin' to drill no holes in yuh; we're only too tickled to see yuh get out.If you're wise, kid, you'll stay away, likewise. I wouldn't be in yoreshoes for no money when Tex comes around an' remembers what yuh done?"
"I reckon I can take care of m'self," retorted Jessup. "It ain't Tex'sgame to be took up for no murder yet awhile."
Without further comment he gathered up most of Stratton's belongings anddeparted for the corral. Buck took his hand-bag and, leaving the cabin,limped slowly down to the creek. He was surprised to note that theencounter seemed to have attracted no attention up at the ranch-house.Then he realized that with the door and windows closed, what little noisethere had been might well have passed unnoticed, especially as the menwere at work back in the barns.
At the creek he washed the blood from his face and hands, changed hisshirt, put a strip of plaster on his cut lip, and decided that any furtherrepairs could wait until he reached Paloma.
When he arrived at the corral Bud had just finished saddling the secondhorse, and they lost no time making fast Buck's belongings. The animalswere then led out, and Stratton was on the point of mounting when thesound of light footsteps made him turn quickly to find Miss Manning almostat his elbow.
"But you're not leaving now, without waiting to say good-by?" sheexpostulated.
Buck's lips straightened grimly, with a grotesque twisted effect caused bythe plaster at the corner.
"After what's happened I hardly supposed anybody'd want any farewellwords," he commented with a touch of sarcasm.
Miss Manning stamped her shapely, well-shod foot petulantly. "Rubbish!"she exclaimed. "You don't suppose I believe that nonsense, do you?"
"I reckon you're about the only one who doesn't, then."
"I'm not. Mrs. Archer agrees with me. She says you couldn't be a--a thiefif you tried. And down in her heart even Mary-- But whatever has happenedto your face?"
Stratton flushed faintly. "Oh, I just--cut myself against something," heshrugged. "It's nothing serious."
"I'm glad of that," she commented, dimpling a little. "It certainlydoesn't add to your beauty."
She was bare-headed, and the slanting sunlight, caressing the crisp wavesof hair, revealed an unsuspected reddish glint amongst the dark tresses.As he looked down into her clear, friendly eyes, Buck realized, and notthe first time, how very attractive she really was. If things had onlybeen different, if only the barrier of that hateful mental lapse of hishad not existed, he had a feeling that they might have been very goodfriends indeed.
His lips had parted for a farewell word or two when suddenly he caught theflutter of skirts over by the corner of the ranch-house. It was MaryThorne, and Buck wondered with an odd, unexpected little thrill, whetherby any chance she too might be coming to say good-by. Whatever may havebeen her intention, however, it changed abruptly. Catching sight of thegroup beside the corral fence, she stopped short, hesitated an instant,and then, turning square about, disappeared in the direction she had come.As he glanced back to Stella Manning, Buck's face was a little clouded.
"We'll have to be getting started, I reckon," he said briefly. "Thank youvery much for--for seeing me off."
"But where are you going?"
"Paloma for to-night; after that I'll be hunting another job."
The girl put out her hand and Stratton took it, hoping that she wouldn'tnotice his raw, bruised knuckles. He might have spared himself themomentary anxiety. She wasn't looking at his fingers.
"Well, it's good-by, then," she said, a note of regret underlying thesurface brightness of her tone. "But when you're settled you must send mea line. We were such good pals aboard ship, and I haven't enough friendsto want to lose even one of them. Send a letter here to the ranch, and ifwe're gone, Mary will forward it."
Buck promised, and swung himself stiffly into the saddle. As he and Budrode briskly down the slope, he turned and glanced back for an instant.Miss Manning stood where they had left her, handkerchief fluttering fromher upraised hand, but Stratton scarcely saw her. His gaze swept the frontof the ranch-house, scrutinizing each gaping, empty window and thedeserted porch. Finally, with a faint sigh and a little shrug of hisshoulders, he mentally dismissed the past and fell to considering thefuture.
There was a good deal yet to be talked over and decided, and when he hadbriefly detailed to Bud the various happenings he was still ignorant of,Buck went on to outline his plans.
"There are several things I want to look into, and to do it I've got to beon the loose," he explained. "At the same time I don't want Lynch to getthe idea I'm snooping around. What sort of a fellow is this Tenny, over atthe Rocking-R?"
"He's white," returned Bud promptly. "No squarer ranch-boss around thecountry. I'd of gone there instead of the Shoe-Bar, only they was full up.What was yuh thinkin' of--bracin' him for a job?"
"Not exactly, though I'd like Lynch to think I'd been taken on there. Doyou suppose, if I put Tenny wise to what I was after, that he'd let mehave a cayuse and pack-horse, and stake me to enough grub to keep me aweek or two in the mountains back of the Shoe-Bar?"
"He might, especially when he knows you're buckin' Tex; he never was muchin love with Lynch." Jessup paused, eyeing his companion curiously. "Say,Buck," he went on quickly, "What makes yuh so keen about this, anyhow? Yuhain't no deputy sheriff, or anythin' like that, are yuh?"
For a moment Stratton was taken aback by the unexpectedness of thequestion. He had come to regard Jessup and himself so completely at one intheir desire to penetrate the mystery of Lynch's shady doings that it hadnever occurred to him that his intense absorption in the situation mightstrike Bud as peculiar. It was one thing to behave as Bud was doing,especially as he frankly had the interest of Mary Thorne at heart, andquite another to throw up a job and plan to carry on an unproductiveinvestigation from a theoretical desire to bring to justice a crookedforeman whom he had never seen until a few weeks ago.
"Why, of course not," parried Buck. "What gave you that notion?"
"I dunno exac
tly. I s'pose mebbe it's the way you're plannin' to give yoretime to it without pay or nothin'. There won't be a darn cent in it foryuh, even if yuh do land Tex in the pen."
"I know that," and Buck smiled; "but I'm a stubborn cuss when I getstarted on anything. Besides, I love Tex Lynch well enough to want to seehim get every mite that's comin' to him. I've got a little money saved up,and I'll get more fun spending it this way than any other I can thinkof."
"There's somethin' in that," agreed Jessup. "Golly, Buck! I wisht I couldgo along with yuh. I never was much on savin', but I could manage a coupleof weeks without a job."
Stratton hesitated. "I'd sure like it, kid," he answered. "It would be awhole lot pleasanter for me, but I'm wondering if you wouldn't do moregood there on the Shoe-Bar. With nobody at all to cross him, there's notellin' what Lynch might try and pull off. Besides, it seems to mesomebody ought to be there to sort of look after Miss--" He broke off,struck by a sudden possibility. "You don't suppose he'll get really nastyabout what you--"
"Hell!" broke in Bud sharply. "I wasn't thinking about that. He'll benasty, of course, but he can't go more than so far. I reckon you're right,Buck. Miss Mary oughtn't to be left there by herself."
"Of course, there's Manning--"
Bud disposed of the aristocratic Alfred with a forceable epithet whichought to have made his ears burn. "Besides, that bird ain't goin' to stayforever, I hope," he added.
This settled, they passed on to other details, and by the time theyreached Paloma, everything had been threshed out and decided, including apossible means of communication in case of emergency.
Ravenously hungry, they sought the ramshackle hotel at once, and though itwas long after the regular supper hour, they succeeded in getting a fairmeal cooked and served. Concluding that it would be pleasanter all aroundto give Lynch as much time as possible to recover from his spleen, Buddecided to defer his return to the ranch until early morning. So when theyhad finished eating, they walked down to the store to arrange for hiringone of Daggett's horses again. Here they were forced to spend half an hourlistening to old Pop's garrulous comments and the repeated "I told youso," which greeted the news of Stratton's move before they could tearthemselves away and turn in.
They were up at dawn, ate a hurried breakfast, and then set out along thetrail. Where the Rocking-R track branched off they paused for a few casualwords of farewell, and then each went his way. A few hundred yards beyond,Buck turned in his saddle just in time to see Jessup, leading Stratton'sold mount, ride briskly into a shallow draw and disappear.
He had a feeling that he was going to miss the youngster, with hischeerful optimism and dependable ways; but he felt that at the most a fewweeks would see them together again. Fortunately for his peace of mind, hehad not the least suspicion of the circumstances which were to bring abouttheir next meeting.
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