Sudden The Range Robbers (1930) s-9

by Oliver Strange

  `Got him, by God!' he exulted.

  A cry of despair from the powerless spectator brought a grin of malicious triumph to his lips. `Sudden exit of Mr. Sudden,' he sneered. `Reckon yu will have to put up with me for yore husband--or yore lover--after all. Some day yu will learn that when Joe Tarman goes after a thing, he gets it. I've got yu, the hoss is there, an' if those damn fools don't split about the cattle, I'll get them too.'

  Sliding the rifle back into the sheath, he took the lariat from the saddlehorn and led the animal down the slope to where the cowpuncher was lying. He trailed the reins, and drawing a gun stood looking down upon his fallen foe. He could see but little of the face, which, turned downwards, was almost hidden in the curve of the left arm, but the outflung right arm and the sprawling legs told their tale. The rustler raised his weapon.

  `Dead as mutton,' he said aloud, `but I reckon I'll waste just one cartridge on yu for luck, my friend.'

  He was on the point of pulling the trigger when Noreen's horse began to pitch and he turned to curse it, and her. `Put 'em up, Tarman!'

  The harsh command brought the rustler round like a flash and then--his hands shot heavenward. The cowpuncher was still lying prone but now there was a gun in his right hand.

  Slowly, and with his eyes fixed on the big man, he got to his feet. Looking into that stark, grim face Tarman could not repress a shiver of fear; the man who could risk such a ruse and lie motionless with a gun trained on him, was to be dreaded. Standing there, one hand holding aloft his pistol and the other the lariat, he waited for the bullet he himself would not have hesitated to fire. But again he had misjudged his man.

  Put yore gun back,' came the order, and when he had complied Green holstered his own. `Now Webb, or Tarman, whichever yore name is, I'm going to give yu what yu never gave any man yet--an even break. Pull yore gun as soon as yu want to.'

  He waited, his own hands clear of his gun-bunts, but the big man seemed in no hurry to accept the invitation. Instead, his lips curled in a wolfish snarl.

  `Even break, eh?' he sneered. `Knowin' damn well that yo're quicker'n I am. Makin' a grand-stand for the girl's sake, eh? Well, it don't go with me.'

  `Then I'll take yu back an' hang yu with the other thieves,' retorted the puncher, drawing his gun and stepping forward to disarm his prisoner.

  `If that damn hoss had kept still yu would be buzzard-meat by now,' growled Tarman, as he looked malevolently at Noreen. `If I thought--'

  `Keep yore thoughts to yoreself an' turn yore back,' ordered the other sharply.

  Under the menacing grin, Tarman complied, but instead of making the half-turn he whirled completely round, at the same time slinging the heavy coiled lariat full into the face of the advancing man. Completely taken by surprise and blinded for the moment, Green pulled the trigger, but the shot went wide, and the next instant the weapon was struck from his grasp and his enemy was upon him. A savage blow sent him staggering back and when sight returned to his smarting eyes, Tarman's hands were reaching for his throat. He ducked and drove a fist into the gloating, furious face, but he could not evade the arms which closed round his body like a vice. Swaying, slipping, they reeled to and fro like drunken men. The puncher knew that the other was trying to throw and throntle him and he strove desperately to keep his feet and break the hold by pounding away at Tarman's ribs. That this hammering was beginning to tell he soon learned, for the bigger man's breath was coming in gasps.

  Suddenly Tarman changed his tactics. Releasing his opponent, he slung in a terrific blow with his right which, had it landed, might well have proved fatal. But the puncher got his head away just in time and as the massive fist whistled past his ear, he sent in a return which drew a bellow of rage from the big man and brought him rushing blindly forward. The next few moments were a medley of whirling fists with no attempt at defence; both men were obsessed by the brute instinct to hurt, and the fight became one of insensate fury. To the bound girl who was the sole spectator it seemed impossible that such violence could continue. The thud of bone meeting bone or flesh sent a shudder through her and yet, barbarous as the scene was, she could non take her eyes away; they were fighting for her, and the issue meant more than life.

  Backwards and forwards the bruised, blood-spattered figures heaved, neither appearing to gain any supremacy. Tarman's bulk gave him an advantage, but it was offset by the puncher's wiry toughness and superior condition. Every muscle in his body pulsed with pain, yet the blows went home and if there was less power behind them he had the satisfaction of knowing that the other man was in no better case. Tarman's gashed and gaping mouth, noisily sucking air into his labouring lungs, told a plain story of distress, and Green, reading it, summoned his remaining strength and again closed. A crashing blow to the jaw which he was too weak to avoid sent the big man headlong, and as he fell, his hand encountered a hard object in the grass. Green remained standing, waiting for the fallen man to rise, glad indeed of a moment's inaction. He failed to read the devilish look of cunning which the prostrate ruffian darted at him.

  `Another grand-stand play,' Tarman sneered. `Goin' to let me get up, eh?'

  `I don't hit a man when he's down, even if he is a cur an' a coward,' retorted Green.

  `Different here; I fight to win, an' take my chances,' the big man said, as he rose painfully to his feet, his right hand slightly behind him. `Come on, yu

  He lurched as he spoke, as though from extreme weakness, and the puncher fell into the trap. Refreshed by the respite, he sprang in to finish the fighn. Tarman waited, a wicked light gleaming in his swollen eyes. Though he was still wearing his gun he had been afraid to attempt to use it, for the outlaw's second weapon still hung at his hip, and the rustler knew better than to take the chance! But now Fate had dealt him the winning card, for in falling, he had dropped upon Green's other Colt.

  Taking no risk, he waited until Green was upon him before his right hand flashed into view and the gun roared. The impact of the heavy slug stopped the oncoming man like a blow and sent him reeling, but even as he fell his left hand streaked to his side, there came a flash and report from his hip and Tarman, with a choked cry, pitched forward on his face. Head to head the two men lay, while the girl stared at them in horror. Above,a mere speck in the sky, an eagle wheeled in ever-narrowing circles.

  `Well, I reckon that was the prettiest scrap I ever seen, an' a right good finish.'

  The harsh voice jarred the girl back to consciousness, and looking round, she saw Laban. Leisurely dismounting he walked to the body of his friend, callously turned it over, and snood contemplating it, a satirical grin on his thin lips.

  `I reckon yo're good an' dead, Joe,' he said. `Plumb between the eyes, a left-hand shot, an' him plugged too. Sudden shore deserved his reputation. Well, seein' as there ain't no one else, I guess I must be the missin' heir.' He looked malevolently at the girl. `Not that I'm wantin' yu the way Joe was, but I reckon Old Simon'll pay somethin' no get yu back. As for him'--he nodded towards the cowpuncher--`by Gosh! he ain't gone yet --he's breathin'.'

  Running to the girl he slashed her bonds with a knife and pulled her from the saddle.

  `Help me tie him up--he's worth ten thousand alive,' he ordered. `An' don't try no tricks for I'd as soon shoot yu as not.'

  The threat was not necessary, for Noreen's one anxiety was to help the wounded man. An examination of his hurt showed that the bullet had entered the right side of the chest, fairly high up, and had passed clean through. Strips from her underskirt and handkerchiefs supplied bandages, and Laban showed some skill in their adjustment. When this was done to his satisfaction he rose and grinned at her.

  `He'll live to decorate a tree yet, if we can get him away from here. Fetch that hoss o' mine, he's quiet; we'll have to tie him on.'

  `It will kill him,' the girl said indignantly.

  `Do as you're told,' he snarled. `Or--'

  His threatening hand was still in the air when a quiet but meaning voice said, `Put the other up too, Seth, an' keep '
em up.'

  Laban knew that voice and his biceps were cuddling his ears when he faced round to find Snap Lunt standing, gun in hand, a bare dozen yards away. Busy with the bandaging, neinher he nor the girl had noticed his approach. The little gunman's eyes were blazing and the expression on his face was that of a devil. Laban tried to temporise.

  `Hello, Snap, yo're just in time to take Miss Petter home--I was wonderin' what to do with her,' he began. `Joe an' Sudden had a mix up an'

  `Step back, an' keep doin' it,' came the cold command, emphasised by the levelled gun.

  Laban, thinking the other merely wanted him further from the girl, obeyed, and for each step backward that he took, Lunt took one forward. So they went for perhaps twenty paces, and then Laban said: `What's the idea, Snap? If yu got anythin' to say--' `Keep movin',' was the stern reply.

  Some instinct made the rustler glance over his shoulder and he suddenly shrieked. One more pace backward would have sent him over the precipice to crash upon the rocks hundreds of feet below. Shivering with fear he tried to edge forward away from the ghastly chasm.

  `Back,' came the inexorable command, and a bullet tore off the upper part of an ear.

  Flinging himself on his knees the miserable creature begged for mercy, crying aloud that he had not hurt the outlaw, whose wound he had bound up, that he had always liked Snap, and that he meant no harm to Noreen. He might as well have pleaded to a stone man. Snap took another step forward.

  `Seth,' he said. `Yu are agoin' over, dead or alive. Which is it to be?'

  He meant it; the lust to kill was upon him, and he well knew that the grovelling wretch before him was as unfit to live as he was to die. But the sight was more than the girl could bear. She laid her hand on the gunman's arm.

  `Please let him go, Snap,'-she begged. `He has not harmed me, and whatever his motive, he bound up Mr. Green's wound. Perhaps he will go straight in future.'

  `Huh! 'bout as straight as a corkscrew,' Lunt growled. `He's a bad lot an' yo're doin' the world a poor service turnin' him loose on it agin, but yu don't have to ask me twice for anythin', Miss Norry, an' that goes.'

  He walked no Laban took away his gun, and pointed up the pass. `Get,' he said. `An' remember this, next time we meet yu better see me first for I'll be shootin' on sight.'

  `Yu ain't turnin' me loose afoot an' without grub, are yu?' quavered Laban.

  `Make tracks,' ordered the gunman. `Yu got yore life an' that's all I'm givin' yu.'

  Having watched the broken rustler stagger up the pass and vanish round a bend, Snap turned his attention to the problem of getting the sick man home. Green was conscious--he even essayed a grin when he saw Lunt--and he also grasped the situation.

  `Tie me to the saddle,' he said. `I reckon I can make it.'

  With both of them helping, and by making a supreme effort which brought the sweat in beads to his brow, he managed to climb to the back of Laban's pony, which appeared to be the most docile. Then with the girl on one side, and Snap, leading the spare horse, on the other, they began the journey. Never will Noreen forget those hours of torture. Compelled to move at a walking pace, constantly watching that the wounded man did not slip from the saddle, the ordeal seemed endless. Ere a mile had been traversed, Green's head sagged forward and he began to mutter. References to Tarman, Bill Evesham, and to Larry came indistinctly to her ears, and then she heard her own name, and blushed furiously while her heart sang.

  `Don't yu heed him, Miss Norry,' said Lunt, when the delirious man ripped out an oath. `He's out of his head, that's all.'

  `This ride will kill him,' the girl replied anxiously. 'Do yu think the hurt is very bad?'

  `Can't say, Miss Norry, but I've seen wuss,' Snap told her. `I'm hopin' the lead has missed the lungs an' in that case he'll likely be as good as new in a month or two; he's a clean-liver an' tough as rawhide.'

  Noreen rode on in silence. Only when she had seen him go down before Tarman's treacherous bullet had she realised what this nameless stranger with the terrible reputation really meant to her. She summed it up in one word--everything, and as she helped to hold the swaying, lurching form, with its death-white face, in the saddle, she prayed as she had never done before. Mile after mile they crawled and the patient drooped more and more over his saddlehorn until Noreen feared that he must collapse entirely.

  She herself was little better and only the courage of despair enabled her to endure that terrible ride. At length, when it seemed that she could hold out no longer, came a cheerful word from Lunt :

  `Yonder's the house,' he said. `An' I reckon the dance is over.' He was right. When they presently rode into the clearing they found the attackers busy rounding up their mounts and preparing to depart. The shout which greeted their arrival brought Leeming on the run. Green, who had been lifted down and laid on a blanket, had a spell of sanity.

  `Did yu get him?' asked the Frying Pan owner.

  `Yes,' replied the puncher. `Yu 'pear to have cleaned up here too.'

  `All but them, an' they won't take long,' said Job grimly, pointing to a group of five men, sitting on their horses but with their hands bound behind them. One of these was West, and the rustler grinned cheerily when he saw Green looking at him.

  `Good-bye, partner,' he called. `Glad yu got her--an' him.' Painfully the hurt man raised himself on an elbow. `That man goes free, Job,' he said. `He saved my life an' turned me loose to follow Tarman.'

  `He was in the house with 'em,' Leeming said. `He helped steal my cattle an' mebbe shot some o' my men.'

  `Aw, partner, I'll take my medicine with the rest,' the Californian said.

  `He goes free,' Green repeated stubbornly. `But for him I'd be cashed, an' Miss Norry'

  Leeming gave in, and when the condemned were conducted into the forest by half a dozen of the Frying Pan boys the Californian was not among them. To the surprise of his captors, however, he made no attempt to get away.

  `I'm stayin' around,' he explained to Larry. `I reckon I'll be able to thank him when he's good an' well again.'

  For having paid his debt to the rustler, Green had lapsed into unconsciousness, and was giving his friends a good deal of anxiety.

  Chapter XXIV

  SOME three weeks later it was `visiting day' at the Y Z ranch-house; for the first time since he had been carried there, a limp, unconscious form, Green was allowed to see his friends. One at a time the punchers came into the room, chatted for a few moments and then, at a nod from Noreen, who was in charge of the invalid, went out again. Stereotyped as the inquiries and wishes were, the girl sensed the genuine feeling which prompted them, and her pride in her patient grew. The pale-faced man, propped up by pillows, had a smile for all and there was a look in his eyes which told the girl that he too realised the affection beneath the awkwardness. When West came in and gripped his hand, all the usually loquacious Californian could find to say was: `I'm thankin' yu, partner.'

  `S'pose we call it square,' suggested the sick man.

  West shook his head. `Not yet,' he said, and then, `I'm stayin' here.'

  `I'm right pleased,' Green replied. `I was hopin' yu would.'

  Then came Old Simon, who had nearly recovered, and with him Job Leeming. The Frying Pan owner, having regained his cattle, and as he put it, `cleaned up the country,' was in the best of humours. He grinned at the occupant of the bed.

  `Humph!' he remarked. `I shall certainly know where to come for a nurse when I get shot up.'

  `Miss Noreen has been wonderful; I reckon I wouldn't 'a'made the grade but for her,' Green replied, and the girl flushed at the warmth in his tone and the look which accompanied the words. Job's eyes went from one to the other. Then, with a chuckle, he said :

  `I've been havin' an argument with Simon here, an' I'd like yore opinion, Green. Three o' my best punchers, who came to me after bein' given their time at the Y Z, want to renig an' come back, an' Simon is encouragin' them revolutionary notions. I say it ain't fair.'

  Green looked at the twinkling eyes and
his own crinkled at the corners as he replied :

  `Mebbe it ain't, but it's cold common sense all the same. We shore can't get along without Ginger, Dirty, an' Simple.' `We can't, eh?' queried the other.

  `He's the new foreman o' the Y Z, on shares,' explained Old Simon. `I figure I owe him that.'

  `Yu shore do an' then some,' returned his friend bluntly. `But durn me if I ever see such a feller as yu for grabbin' everythin' in sight. Here's me short-handed, an' wantin' a housekeeper--' He looked quizzically at the girl, who laughed and shook her head at him.

  `As I said, grabbin' ' everythin',' he repeated, and then, more soberly, `Say, yu ain't forgettin' that our friend here is totin' a past, are yu?'

  The abrupt reminder swept the merriment from their faces, but before anyone could speak, the door opened and in walked Tonk. Close on his heels came Larry.

  `The marshal insisted on comin' up an' not wantin' to start a ruckus, I let him,' announced the puncher. `If yu say the word, boss, I'll be pleased to throw him out on his ear.'

  `It's all right, Larry,' replied the ranch-owner quietly, and when the puncher had regretfully withdrawn, `What do you want, Tonk?'

  `That,' replied the marshal, pointing to the sick man, his pig-like eyes gloating over the ravages illness had left behind. `He is still too weak to be moved,' Noreen said, her face almost as white as that of her charge.

  `Oh, I reckon not; yu don't have to be fit an' well to be hanged, anyway.' The brutal retort brought Old Simon to his feet, one hand on his gun, and the marshal shrank back. `Now, see here, Simon,' he protested, `it ain't no use yu a-kickin' agin the law. That feller is wanted, an' I got a posse of a dozen outside a-waitin' to take him.'

  The rancher sank back in his chair. `What yu aimin' to do with him?' he asked.

  `Tote him to Big Rock, an' then by rail to the capital--they got a fine gaol there,' was the reply.