Sudden Law o The Lariat (1935)

by Oliver Strange

  Severn, having noted these details, rolled a cigarette as well as his bound wrists permitted, lighted it, and gave himself up to meditation.

  "I'll begin to believe I did rob the durn bank presently," he muttered.

  Painstakingly he turned the matter over in his mind, seeking for some clue that might provide an explanation, and suddenly it came to him. When the bandits had raided the Lazy M and stolen the girl, the money had not been taken, though it was in a place where the most casual search must have unearthed it. At the time it had struck him as curious that such men should forego an opportunity for plunder.

  "They rung the changes on me," he soliloquised. "Took my notes an' left stolen ones in their place. But why? Shadwell might a'done it outa spite, but he warn't the sort o' man to passup mostoftwo thousand plunks, an' it wouldn't be his way o' evenin' up."

  Though he was satisfied that he had solved the mystery of how the stolen money had come into his possession, he could see no wayofproving it, and as manyofthe inhabitantsofHope had suffered by the bank robbery, he knew his chancesofclearing himself were slim indeed. So far as the murder charge was concerned he did not give that much thought, regarding it as mainly a bluff on the partofTyler. Nevertheless, he did not propose to remain idle; there was a certain evidence he hoped to be able to hand to Embley.

  "I gotta get outa this," he muttered, and began to consider how that might be achieved.

  Nothing could be done until his hands were free, and he strained at the thongs; they did not yield in the least. Then he tried the knots with his teeth, but the man who had tied them knew his job. An idea occurred to him. Going to the door, he yelled, and immediately oneofthe deputies appeared.

  "What's yore trouble?" he growled.

  "Thirst," replied the prisoner promptly. "This damned hole is like an oven."

  The man grinned and went away, to return presently with a pail of water and a tin dipper, putting them down just inside the door.

  "There yu are, an' don't make a beast o' yoreself," he said facetiously.

  The prisoner did not reply to this pleasantry, but having made sure that the man was not watching him from the spy-hole, he took a drink, and kneeling down by the bucket, plunged his bound wrists into the water and kept them there. At the endofhalf an hour he had the satisfactionoffinding the rawhide give a little. Working at the bonds and renewing the soaking at intervals, he succeeded after some hours in stretching them sufficiently to slip them off when he wished.

  Darkness was drawing on before he made his next move. Tyler, he surmised, would spend his evening, as usual, at the "Come Again" and the two deputies would be left in charge. As the dusk deepened he again began to shout through the door, and the man who had answered the previous summons showed himself.

  "What yu belly-achin' about now?" he asked.

  "Belly-achin' is right," Severn snorted. "Don't yu feed folks in thisyer Bumptious ho-tel?"

  "Damme if I didn't forget about yu," the man chuckled. "See what I can do."

  "So will I," murmured the prisoner, and smiled felinely as he slipped his hands free of the bonds.

  The deputy returned soon with a hunkofmeat and bread. Unlocking the door, he came in, put the provender on the floor and straightened up.

  "Ain't got no cof--" he began.

  Before he could finish, Severn leaped forward, his fist shot out and the guard went down under the bitter blow like a poleaxed steer. A few seconds sufficed to tie and gag him.

  "Thank the Lord he was totin' his gun," murmured the captive, and making sure that it was loaded, slipped it into the band of his pants and buttoned his vest over it.

  He listened at the door but heard nothing--the falling body on the earthen floor had made but little noise--and satisfied that all so far was well, he stepped lightly along the passage which led to the street. As he passed the half-open door of the sheriff's office, a voice called out :

  "That yu, Jake? Where yu off to?"

  "Back right away," Severn said gruffly.

  "Huh! Hen's orders was to stay on the job," said the other.

  "To hell with Hen," Severn grunted, edging nearer the exit. "He's stayin' on it hisself, ain't he?"

  He did not hear the answer, for the street door was in frontofhim, and in a moment he was outside. Slouching his hat over his eyes, he slid round the cornerofthe first building he came to and picked his way along the backsofthe others. It was darkish now, but there was a moon, and he had to slink quickly from shadow to shadow. Presently he reached the rear of Bent's saloon, and saw what he had hoped to find--the tethered horse he knew the owner usually kept there. He wondered whether Bent's friendship had been strong enough to survive the apparently conclusive evidenceofhis guilt. He believed it would be, but he dared not run the riskofmaking himself known.

  "If he ain't changed, he won't mind my borrowin' the cayuse," he reasoned. "If he has, well, I ain't carin'."

  Hauling in the picket-rope, he fashioned a hackamore, and without waiting to search for the saddle, mounted the animal and spurred for the nearest cover in the direction of the Bar B. He had just ridden in among the trees when a confused medley of shouts from the buildings behind informed him that his escape had probably been discovered.

  Well aware that the regular trails would be searched, he took care to keep clearofthe one to the Bar B, forcing his way through the brush and zigzagging along draws and gullies to avoid showing himself on the skyline. He did not trouble to hide his trail, knowing they could not track him in the night, even with the help of the moon. Beyond a general senseofdirection he had nothing to guide him, and presently, without realisinghow he had come there, he found himself passing the ruined cabin of the nester Forby. The big cottonwood, with the 4 B brand and nhe sinister row of notches, looked eerie in the moonbeams. The Lazy M man gave it but a glance, and was about to ride on when a horseman loped outofthe trees and pulled up with an oath, only a few yards away. It was Penton, and at the sightofSevern, he snatched out his gun and covered him.

  "Put 'em up, pronto," he ordered, and laughed in his throat when he saw that the other man was unarmed. "This is yore finish," he continued. "Bart wants to see yu danglin' from that tree, an' so do I. The on'y difference is he's hopin' to string yu up alive an' I ain't pertic'ler, so I'm goin' to shoot yu first. Anythin' to say?"

  His face twisned with malignant hate, he leaned forward and menaced the man with his gun, exulting in the power chance had given hirn, and hoping to detect fear in the eyes of his foe. But he saw only an expression of cold contempt, and in stark cruelty he struck savagely with his left fist. The blow was his own undoing. Winh a low snarl, a long, lean, grey shadow shot across the open space and leapt for his throat. The force of the impact flung the man backwards to the ground. Severn seized his chance and slipped from his mount. He was on his feet just as Penton beat off the beast which had thrown him and turned to finish his work. He found the conditions altered; Severn was erect, facing hirn with folded arms and a sneer on his lips.

  "Penton, the tree is waiting for yu," he said.

  Callous as he was, the threat chilled the man's spine, but he remembered that the speaker was weaponless, and with a laughofscorn he raised his gun. He was actually pressing the trigger when Severn's hand flashed out, fire flamed from it, and Penton reeled and dropped. The grey shadow came up wagging a joyous tail.

  He looked at the dog. "Yu shore do pay a debt, don't yu?" he said, and going to where the Bar B man's pony was standing, he lifted the rope from the saddle.

  Ten minutes later he was on his way again. He had not gone far when he heard the soundofhofs, and waited, gun drawn. He grinned and concealed it again when he saw the newcomer was Larry.

  "How the hell--?" he began.

  "Followed the dawg, yu chump," the young man explained impolitely. "Started for town to see yu, an' that four-legged fleabag sneaked after--artful too, didn't show up till it was too late to take him back. When I got to Hope it was just a-hummin'. They're offerin' five hundred bucks for yu
, dead or alive."

  "That's a right useful sum," the foreman said reflectively.

  "Thinkin' o' earnin' it?" Larry quizzed.

  "I might be," his friend replied. "Get on with yore recitation."

  "Well, I'm ridin' past Bent's--past it, I said," he repeated as he saw the other's grin, "when Quirt goes off like Old Nick was after him. O' course I guessed he'd struck yore trail an' followed. Good thing yu wash sometimes, or the scent would 'a'been that strong T'd 'a'lost him.

  "What yu want to see me for?" Severn asked, ignoring for the time the slur on his habits.

  "Didn't want to see yu--had to," Larry smiled. "Snap's hoss bruk a leg on the way from Desert Edge, an' he had to hoof it. He was all in when he got to the ranch. I come in to tell yu the Judge ain't there. 'Pears that two-three nights ago, four fellas called to see him an' he rode away with 'em. Hard-looking lot, with their faces pretty well hidden, his landlady said; she didn't know 'em, but she fancied one o' the party had been there before. Embley ain't been heardofsince."

  This was bad news for the foreman, but he took the blow with his customary calm.

  "So they've got him too," he said. "They ain't overlookin' no bets, I'm tellin' yu."

  "Yu ain't tellin' me. Who is `they' an' where have they got him?" Barton asked peevishly.

  " `They' is the unknown quantity we're a-lookin' for, an' the Judge is in the Pinnacles with the girl," he was told.

  The reminder that the actual whereaboutsofhis lady was yet to be discovered moved Larry to express himself. Severn regarded him sardonically.

  "When yu've finished poisonin' the atmosphere, we'll push along," he suggested.

  Larry subsided. "Where yu headin' for?" he asked.

  The foreman told him, and the boy promptly swore again. "Yu must be loco," he said. "Don't yu know that half the town is spraddled over the country searchin' for yu right now, an' yu make for the very place--"

  "Where they wouldn't expect to find me," Severn finished. "Anyways, I'm goin'--I got business there."

  "Yu got no business there, an' yu know it," grumbled the other. "Yore on'y business is to be punchin' the breeze for parts unknown. Like as not yu'll find Mister Penton at the Bar B, waitin' for yu with a gun in his paw.

  "I guess not," his friend said. "Didn't yu come past the old shack?"

  "Nope; heard yu an' took a short cut. Gawd knows yu was makin' noise enough," Larry accused. "What's the shack gotta do with it?"

  Severn told him why Penton would not be at the Bar B towelcome thern, and the boy's face hardened to granite as he listened. Then he looked at the dog trotting contentedly beside them, and it sfnened again.

  "Good old Quirt," he said. "T take it back; yu ain't no fleabag--yo're folks."

  Half an hour later they halted in the brush fifty yards from the Bartholomew ranch. Telling his companion to stay there with the horses and to keep the dog quiet, Severn stole forward. No lights were showing, and as he cat-footed past the bunkhouse, no sound came from within.

  "Pretty plain Bart ain't scared o' the White Masks," the intruder smiled to himself.

  Though this was his first visit to the place, he guessed that the two windows in the front were probably thoseofthe living-room, and a glance through one of thern told him he was right. Pushing up the sash, which was unfastened, he climbed in and looked round. At one side of the room was a writing-desk littered with books and papers. Hurriedly turning them over, he found what he was looking for--an old account book, one of the numbered pages of which was missing. He then tried the drawers of the desk, and finding one fastened, forced it open with the bladeofhis knife, lately the propertyofPenton. Lying just inside the drawer as though it had been put there in haste, was a rollofnotes. Severn snatched them out, and by the lightofthe moon was able to decipher the numbers; they were the ones he had received frorn Rapson when he withdrew the herd rnoney.

  "Yu certainly stacked the cards good, Mister Bartholomew, but the hand ain't played out yet," he soliloquised. "I'm bound to admit yu got somethin' besides sawdust in that ugly head o' yores."

  Having methodically searched the rest of the drawers and found nothingofmoment, he rejoined Larry, who was getting impatient.

  "Ain't yu fetched the ranch with yu?" he asked. "Yu've been long enough to pack it up."

  "Sunset, there's times when yu don't show no more sense than a sage-hen," the foreman reproved. "I got what I wanted, an' here it is."

  He produced his plunder, and the boy's eyes opened as Severn explained their significance.

  "That means Bart is in cahoots with the White Masks," he said.

  "I was hopin' I wouldn't have to tell yu that," the elder man smiled.

  "Aw right, Solomon, what's the next move?"

  "Climb yore cayuse an' carry these things to Bent; he'll takecareof'em an' have 'em handy when they're wanted. Take Quirt with yu an' keep off the trails."

  "What yu aimin' to do?"

  "Go back to the sheriff, o' course, to claim than five hundred wheels."

  Larry stared at him in doubt, which changed to blank astonishment when he saw that Severn was entirely serious. "Yu are loco," he declared. "Plumb loco."

  "I should be if I ran away," the other pointed out. "Why, it would be twin-brother to ownin' up. Even yu oughna be able to see that."

  Larry could see it, but he was not going to say so, and he knew that when Severn spoke in that tone it was useless for him to argue. He mounted, called the dog, and turned to depart.

  "Yo're every sort of a damn fool, Don," he said. "They'll stretch yu, shore."

  "Shucks, I'll dance at yore weddin' yet, yu red-faced little rooster," the foreman replied affectionately, and swinging his horse round, headed for town.

  He took his time, for he had no desire to get back before the early morning, and it was necessary to avoid any zealous reward-hunters, for to be ignominiously conducted back to confinement was no part of his plan. So he ambled along by a circuitous route, and a golden glow was spreading in the sky behind the eastern range when he again sighted the unlovely, squalid huddleofhuts which the optimists who dwelt there called "Hope".

  Under coverofthe brush, Severn dismounted, turned the horse's head in the directionofthe Bar B, and gave it a vigorous smack on the rump; he knew the beast would drift homewards. He then threw pistol and knife into the undergrowth and made his way to the open street, stopping at the sheriff's quarters. Picking up a lump of rock he hammered upon the door.

  "Hello, the house," he shouted.

  There was no answer, and he repeated the summons, supplementing it with another tattoo on the woodwork. Tn the still airofthe dawn the noise he made sounded prodigious, and it brought curious heads to windows and doors along the street. It also brought the sheriff. He had not yet slept off his overnight liquor, and stood staring in pop-eyed perplexity at his visitor.

  "What yu want?" he asked stupidly.

  "Why, to come in, o' course," Severn said, smiling easily. "I'm tired, an' bed listens good to me. Also five hundred dollars. I can use that money. Have yu got it about yu, Sheriff?"

  "No, I ain't, an' yu wouldn't git it if I had," Tyler snapped, his muddled brain clearing a little.

  By this time the buildings had vomited their occupants, and a goodly crowdofnondescriptly-attired onlookers had assembledto witness the unusual spectacle of a criminal clamouring to be reinstated in his cell. This was what the Lazy M man had played for. He promptly appealed to them.

  "What sort of a town is this?" he asked grievedly. "It offers a reward for bringin' in Jim Severn, an' when I fill the bill an' fetch him in, the sheriff renigs. Ain't there no honesty in this burg?"

  The twinkling eyes belied the indignant tone, and there was a burst of merriment from the rnercurial citizens, severalofwhom advised Tyler to "pay up an' look pleasant."

  "Where yu been then?" Tyler queried.

  "Well, I'll tell yu," grinned the prisoner. "Yu see, that hole yu put me into ain't none too well ventilated--yu oughta see to that, sheriff,
or yu'll lose custom--an' so I took a walk."

  The whimsical explanation, delivered in a drawling, nonchalant voice, tickled the onlookers. The amusement created apprised the sheriff that he was again being made a figureoffun, and as usual, it rendered him furious. Why the accused man had returned he did not know, but here he was, unarmed and helpless. By some miracle, he, Tyler, had been delivered from the wrathofBartholomew. His bullying nature reasserted itself.

  "Took a walk, huh?" he sneered. "Well, yu won't take another till yu go to the tree."

  "Tried me a'ready, have yu?" Severn asked quietly.

  With a gesture of rage, the sheriff turned to his two deputies, who had now appeared.

  "Take him in an' tie his hands an' feet this time," he ordered, and beat a retreat, following his prisoner into the building.

  "That fella's either loco or not guilty, an' he shore don't appear scatty," was one comment as the spectators dispersed.

  Which was the impression the prisoner had aimed to create.

  Chapter XX

  FOR hours after Bartholomew had left her, Phil sat motionless in dull despair, waiting fearfully for his return. Her world seemed to have tumbled about her, and she could see no gleam of hope. The prospect of marrying the Bar B owner was utterly hateful; even had there been no other reason--and her heart told her different--he had shown too plainly the mannerofman he really was. Only once was the silence disturbed, when the dull reports of two pistol-shots startled her.

  The harsh gratingofthe padlock--a now unwelcome sound --reminded her that Bartholomew was coming back for her answer, and she stood up. But insteadofthe bulky frame she expected, she saw that her visitor was the little one-eyed, bearded stranger she had seen in Hope. He beckoned to her.

  "C'mon," he said hoarsely, but the girl shrank back.

  "Where?" she asked nervously. "Is this a trap?"

  "Shore it's a trap an' I'm takin' yu outofit," he retorted. "Glad yu done what I whispered to yu through the logs there."

  "So it was you," she breathed, still doubtful.