`Do yu want me to?' he countered.
The blunt question made her hesitate. For some reason which she did not attempt to account for she knew that she would be sorry if he took her advice but, of course, she could not tell him so.
`I am still in your debt, and I naturally do not wish that harm should come to you,' she fenced.
`Yu don't owe me anythin',' he replied. `As for enemies, well I reckon the man who never makes any don't amount to much. I ain't runnin' away.'
`You are risking your life just for a matter of pride?' she queried.
`That, an'--other things,' he smiled. `Yu see, I've a hunch there's a gold-mine around here, an' I aim to locate it.'
Noreen gathered up her reins. She did not in the least believe he was staying to hunt gold, but she knew he would not tell her anything he did not want to--he was not the type.
`I sincerely hope you will be fortunate,' she said.
`Thank you, ma'am, if I get what I'm hopin' for I'll be more than that,' the puncher said, and again there was the look in his eyes which had stirred her pulses once before in the street at Hatchett's. At the touch of the spur her pony jumped forward, and with a wave of the hand she was gone. Green watched until a turn in the trail took her from sight, and then resumed his way.
'She shore didn't want me to clear out, but shucks, there ain't nothin' to that,' he mused. `Reckon if our ears was longer, hoss, we'd make a fair pair o' jackasses, so don't yu go puttin' on any frills either.'
It was towards noon when he reached the blind canyon, for he had travelled by devious ways; it was possible that his movements might be watched and he wished his choice of a locality to commence operations to appear haphazard. Several times during the journey he had paused and investigated certain spots as though considering them. He now did the same as he stood on the bank of the stream, about halfway along the canyon, and then he spoke aloud: `She'll do. I reckon there oughta be colour in them sands, an' there's shore enough trout in the pools below. Anyway, she's a dandy place for a camp.'
He led his horse back to a strip of grass which stretched from the shady bank of the stream to the overhanging cliff which formed one of the walls of the canyon, stripped the animal and tethered it with his rope. Then winh his axe he attacked a nearby thicket and cut a number of light poles. With these, and the strippings from them, he soon erected a lean-to shelter, choosing a spot where the rock-face shelved and formed a shallow cave. In this he deposited his baggage, and having lighted a fire, began to prepare a meal. This despatched, he pottered about the camp making his hut more weatherproof, cutting additional fuel, and gathering spruce-tops for his bed. Presently he took the spade and the shallow pan and went down to the stream to make his first bid for fortune. He found it hard and disappointing work, for no sign of the precious metal rewarded his efforts.
`Durn it, this ain't goin' to be such a picnic as I thought,' he soliloquised. `Guess I'll have to look around for likelier spots.'
He tried several other places with the same result, and at length flung down his tools in disgust and went a-fishing. Here he met with more success and soon three speckled beauties lay on the grass beside him. He broiled them for his supper and turned in. On the following morning he again tackled the search for wealth and found it no more successful or attractive than it had been the day before. But he stuck manfully to it, for he was conscious of a conviction that he was not alone in the canyon. Therefore, he was not so surprised as he appeared to be when a rider came ambling along the bank of the stream on which he was working, and pulled up to watch with a cordial greeting of, `Howdy, stranger.' Green returned the salutation, while his quick eyes gathered the details of the newcomer's appearance. He was evidently a cowhand, about forty, with a clean-shaven, open face, good-humour in every line of it. Hecarried a revolver at his hip and had a winchester on the saddle. He was riding a pinto horse the brand on which Green could not see. Pushing back his big sombrero, the visitor said: `Findin' much?'
Green, kneeling over the pan, grinned up at him. `Plenty dirt,' he replied, `but not a smidgin' o' gold so far.'
The stranger looked around. `Seems a likely place,' he remarked. `But that's the funny thing 'bout minin'; yu never can tell.'
`I take it yo're speakin' from experience.'
`Shore I am--wasted part o' my life in California. Meanin' no offence, I take it yu are new at this game.'
`Yu take it correct; I reckon I must seem plumb clumsy.'
The other man laughed. `Everythin' has to be learned, an' yu shore are makin' yoreself in a mess. Lemme show yu the trick of it.'
Dismounting from his horse, he trailed the reins, and took the pan of dirt Green was beginning to wash. In about half the time the novice had required the pan was empty save for a tiny residue of sand which the operator scanned eagerly, and then threw out.
`Not a colour,' he said. `Well, let's try her again.'
`Yu shore have got that there pannin' business thrown an' tied,' Green remarked, as he watched the deft hands of the expert. `I'm hopin' yu'll stay an' eat with me; my camp's just handy.'
`Yu bet I will. I'm short on grub an' got a goodish way to go,' replied the other.
The puncher left him busy with his self-imposed task and went to prepare a meal. A few fortunate casts provided him with fish, and when, in response to his hail, the visitor reached the camp, an appetising odour of broiled trout and coffee greeted him. Facing his host, cross-legged on the grass, he attacked the food like a hungry man.
`Say, these fish is prime,' he remarked presently. `Yu may be a mite awkward with a gold-pan but with a frying-pan yo're ace-high.'
Over the meal the newcomer grew communicative. His name, he said, was Dick West, more commonly known as `California,' and he was now punching for an outfit whose headquarters were situated at the base of the Big Chief range.
`What brand?' asked the host.
`Crossed Dumb-bell,' replied the other, watching closely.
`New to me,' Green said carelessly. `Didn't know there was a ranch in that part, but then I ain't infested this locality long my own self.' He went on to give his own name, and the bare fact of his dismissal from the Y Z, taking care that his resentment should not be too obvious. The stranger nodded understandingly.
`If you weren't wedded to thisyer grubbin' for gold, yu could come along o' me,' he offered. `I reckon we could use another man. The pay is fifty per an' shares, an' the shares is better than the fifty per I'm tellin' yu, for the right man.'
`Sounds good,' Green commented.
`It's as good as it sounds too,' said the other. `Old Jeffs ain't a bad sort either.'
`That the boss?'
'Actin'-boss--there's another feller back of him.'
For some time they smoked in silence, Green apparently turning over the proposition in his mind; it was no part of his plan to accept eagerly. That the rustlers saw in him a useful recruit was possible, and what he wanted them to believe, but there was also the chance that this was merely a trap to destroy him. Nevertheless, he intended to go, for it was what he had been hoping for. It was the visitor himself who brought matters to a head. Getting up, he stretched lazily, and remarked :
`Well, thanks for the feed. I gotta drift; yu comin' along?' `Guess I might as well,' Green replied. `I'll cache my tools here an' I can come back if I want to.'
This did not take long and having saddled his pony, he was ready.
`Ain't yu got another hoss--to carry yore pack?' queried West, and the puncher hid a smile, guessing that perhaps his visitor had expected to see the roan. He shook his head.
`Not here,' he replied. `Bullet's a good little hoss. He carried the pack an' me, though I ain't sayin' he liked it.'
`Some hosses is damn near human,' said West, as he led the way up the canyon.
They reached the tunnel and passed through into the valley, heading straight across for the far end. Green wondered how they would get out; he soon learned. On reaching the ledge which had baffled the Frying Pan posse,
West said:
`We gotta get down here an' do a bit o' work.'
Turning to the right, he conducted his companion to a thick clump of brush which at first glance appeared to be impenetrable. They found a way in, however, and in the centre lay a pile of long, roughly-fashioned planks.
`Reckon a couple'll be enough,' said California. `Give us a hand.'
The planks were stout and it required two trips to get them to where they had left the horses. Placed side by side, with ends resting on the ledge, they made a practicable gangway for the animals. They were then returned to their hiding-place and the men clambered up the face of the ledge on foot. West directed
Green to mount, and then took his blanket, rolled it and tied one end of his lariat round the middle. He too then mounted and pacing his horse directly in the wake of his companion, dragged the roll of blanket behind him, completely obliterating their tracks in the soft sand.
`Smart Injun dodge that,' commented Green. `Yu thinkin' anybody's after us?'
Nope, but we use that valley an' ain't honin' to advertise it,' was the meaning reply.
In a few moments they left the sand, descending a stony slope into another broad grass depression, and from thence plunging into a network of rocky winding gulches, ravines, and patches of forest. Through this labyrinth they followed a definite trail, over which cattle had evidently passed at no distant date. Only one incident of note occurred and that was when California got down to drink at a stream. As he lifted his foot to the stirrup his horse reared suddenly, and taken unawares, he lost his balance and toppled backwards into a bush. Instantly there came a warning rattle and a threatening head shot up, poised to strike, only a foot from the prostrate man's face. Another second and the poisonous fangs would have done their deadly work, but Green's gun spoke and the reptile's head, shattered by the bullet, fell back into the bush. When West got to his feet he was shaking.
`Gawd, that was a close call,' he said. `I'm thankin' yu, pardner, an' if ever I can square the 'count, yu can bank on me. Yu shore are some slick with a gun.'
`There wasn't much time,' Green laughed. `I just naturally didn't want to lose that job yo're gettin' me.'
West climbed his horse, cursing it good-naturedly as he did so. `There ain't many things I'm scared of, but snakes, ugh! I once see a feller pass out from a snake-bite,' he said.
The afternoon was well-advanced when they crossed a large expanse of open range and pulled up in front of a group of buildings, comprising a roomy ranch-house, bunkhouse, blacksmith's shop, and a corral. All were constructed of logs and, Green noted, had not been long erected. Several men lounging by the bunkhouse door greeted his companion.
"Lo, Dick, yu got back,' said one.
`Why, no, but I'm liable to arrive any moment,' smiled California, and the user of the conventional absurdity was immediately pounded on the back.
`Aw well, yu know what I mean,' he protested.
West led his companion to the ranch-house a little distance away, and in response to his hail, another man emerged--a shorn, bow-legged fellow with squinting eyes and a hard mouth.
He surveyed the couple narrowly for a few minutes and then asked :
`What's yore trouble, West?'
In a few brief sentences the ex-miner gave Green's history as he knew it, and finished by asking a job for him; the rattle-snake incident was omitted. The decision was soon made.
`Yo're hired; all yu gotta do is obey orders an' ask no questions,' said the bow-legged man. `Yu'll find that gold yo're huntin' for right here. Take him along, Dick.'
He turned away and the two punchers, after disposing of the horses in the corral, made their way to the bunkhouse. Here Green was casually presented to the nine or ten men present as a new hand. He saw at a glance that they were a tough lot, men of middle age or more for the most part, ruffians of a type only too plentiful in the West at that time, a cursing, hard-drinking, fighting crew who would stop at nothing when their greed or passions were aroused. After his first entrance they took but little notice of him, though he could see that his new friend, Dick, was popular enough. The bunkhouse was comfortable, the food provided both good and plentiful. He gathered nothing from the general conversation, save once, when the mysterious Spider was mentioned.
`Who is that?' he asked of West, who was seated next to him. `The main boss--ain't here much,' was the reply.
Chapter XIV
TARMAN was not one to let the grass grow under his feet; he soon became an almost daily visitor at the Y Z, where he exerted himself to the unmost to please both the owner and his daughter. The latter, though her doubts were not entirely dispelled, could not altogether resist the attraction of his personality. They rode often, and despite his defeat by Blue Devil, she had to admit that he was both at home and looked well in the saddle. Moreover, he was studiously respectful and attentive. Though he did not make open love to her, she was aware of his admiration. It was after one of these excursions, when sitting on the verandah with father and daughter, that Tarman made his first reference to Green.
`That puncher yu fired hasn't pulled his freight, I notice,' he said. The roan yu give him is still in the hotel corral.'
`Didn't yu say he was going prospectin'?' Simon asked Noreen.`That is what he told me,' she replied, and did not fail to note the little crease in Tarman's brow.
`Some folks find gold in other folks' cattle,' he sneered. 'Anybody can buy a miner's outfit. It's bein' said in town that he's got into bad company.'
Noreen laughed. `Town talk; why, I wouldn't condemn a coyote on that.'
`Neither would I, not if I was at all acquainted with the coyote,' smiled the big man, `but one o' the Double X boys claims that he saw Green over towards Big Chief, ridin' with a mighty hard-lookin' crew, strangers to these parts. I'm thinkin' he may have found them rustlers he was lookin' for.'
`Sounds queer--I don't know of any ranch over there,' said Simon. `I expect it's just as well I got rid of him.'
The girl said no more, but the information made her uneasy. She knew, of course, that Tarman was jealous of the onher, cleverly as he tried to conceal the fact, but she did not think he had invented the story, and meeting Larry later on, she asked a plain question.
`Yes, Miss Norry,' he told her. `It was Dutch who claimed to have seen him, an' o' course some o' them smart Alecks gotta start ornamentin' his yarn. Why, one of 'em told me Green had been seen alterin' brands! He warn't quite so shore of his facts when I'd done arguin' with him,' he finished, grinning at the recollection of an indignant citizen trying to curse and retract his statements at the same time, while his face was being enthusiastically jammed into the dust of the street.
The girl smiled too, for the young puncher's wholehearted faith in his friend was good to see. It cheered her also to find it was shared by others; Ginger, now well enough to sun himself on the bench outside the bunkhouse, was equally emphatic.
`Don't yu worry, Miss,' he said. `That feller's as straight as a string, an' if them bums in Hatchett's get too fresh, me an' one-two more'll have to go in an' read the Riot Act to 'em. He'll show up again, fine as silk.'
This prediction was realised sooner than the maker of it anticipated for that very evening Green rode into town. For once rumour had spoken truly, for his new job had taken him, with half a dozen others, to a small, hidden valley, and the work done there was the rebranding of a herd of Frying Pan cattle.
`Reckon yu can use a straight iron?' asked Jeffs, and on Green replying in the affirmative, that part of the job was assigned to him, the others cutting out, throwing and tying the victims. Without it being noticed, Green managed to introduce a slight variation in the brand which would enable him to identify the animals he had operated upon. He was a quick and accurate worker and Jeffs meant what he said when he complimented him.
`Yu done a good job,' was his comment, when the last of the herd staggered to its feet, shook its head, and charged blindly after its companions. `Reckon yo're due for a rest. I want somebody to
go into Hatchett's. How about it?'
`Glad to,' replied the puncher. `When do I start?'
`Right away, if yu like,' said Jeffs. 'Yu can stay the night there an' come back in the mornin'.'
On their return to the ranch, Jeffs handed Green a sealed packet. `Just leave it at the hotel--he may not be there,' he said. `Anyways, there's no answer.'
The messenger slipped the packet into the pocket of his chaps, merely noting that it was addressed in the name of `Marway,' and went off to saddle a fresh mount. He had not gone far on his journey when West caught him up.
`Wasn't expectin' yu,' remarked Green. `Jeffs forget somethin'?'
`Nope, said I could come along,' replied the other. `I'm just apinin' for civilisation.'
`There's about as much of it in Hatchett's as there was gold in that creek yu found me pannin',' Green told him.
`Mebbe, but there's liquor, an' a chance to buck the wheel an' lose some o' my hard-earned wealth,' was the smiling reply. `I ain't been there yet; what's it like?'
`Just the same as any other cow-town,' said Green. `Reckon if somebody mixed 'em up in a herd, it'd be hell of a job to cut out the town yu wanted--this is, if you was silly enough to want any of 'em.'
California laughed and went on to tell of the `boom' towns he had encountered during his mining travels, towns which sprang up like mushrooms in a night when a lucky strike was made, and vanished as quickly when the diggings petered out.
`Yes, sir,' he said. `I've gone to sleep in what looked like a thrivin' an' busy settlement an' woke up in the mornin' to find nearly every blame buildin' gone, an' me for the on'y inhabitant. Most of the said buildin's bein' tents transportation wasn't so darned difficult.'
He was one of those easy talkers who enjoy an audience, and an adventurous and by no means blameless career, regarding which he showed no reticence, provided him with plenty of material. Born in a mining camp, he had been prospector, gambler, bartender, mule-skinner, and cowpuncher, besides engaging between while in other less laudable means of getting a living. He had made fortunes and lost them.
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