Sudden: The Range Robbers

by Oliver Strange

  “Four of yu, an’ then yu had to let him get away,’ he sneered. “Why didn’t yu bump him off an’ plant him ‘stead o’ makin’ that fool-play?’

  “It looked a shore thing,’ remonstrated the other. “Blamed if I know how he got clear—must be a wizard.’

  The gambler made a gesture of disgust. “Wizard nothin’. O’ course somebody happened along an’ helped him; an’ he’s got the Iaugh on yu.’

  “He shore has, an’ a new rope into the bargain,’ agreed the puncher, with a grin which aggravated his companion still further.

  “Yu don’t appear to be able to get it into yore head that this feller is dangerous—dangerous, I tell yu,’ he rapped out.

  “My gracious, yu don’t say! Fancy me never suspectin that!’ was the ironical retort.

  “An’ yu had another chance, back there in the Folly,’ the gambler went on. “He shoots yu up an’ turns his back on yu, an’ yu got yore gun. ‘Stead o’ beefin’ him, yu stand there like a blasted image.’

  “Yu seen that, did yu?’ inquired Snub.

  “I was told by them that did,’ replied Pete. “They said yu was scared cold.’

  “They was right,’ Snub admitted. “I’m allus willin’ to take a chance, but there warn’t no chance. If I’d pulled my gun I wouldn’t be here a-talkin’ to you—not that I’d be missin’ much thataway. I knew he’d get me, an’ I knew too that he wanted me to draw—he was playin’ for it. I ain’t near tired o’ life yet, an’ I ain’t no cat neither, with nine of ‘em to gamble with.’

  “Shucks! I never seen the gun-slinger yet that couldn’t be got,’ sneered Pete. “But o’ course if yo’re scared…’

  “I am,’ said Snub. “But that don’t go for everybody. If yu think yu can ride me…’

  There was an ugly look on his face, and his right hand was not far from his gun. The man on the opposite side of the fire laughed crossly.

  “I ain’t tryin’ to ride yu, yu fool,’ he said. “We gotta work together, and this feller is interferin’ an’ has gotta be suppressed.’

  “Good word that! Might mean anythin’,’ laughed the puncher. “Well, go to it, Pete. Yu shore have my best wishes. An’ if there’s any particular spot yu’d like to be buried in, let me know, an’ I’ll tend to it. Yu near got him once, didn’t yu?’

  The gambler swore luridly, and his fingers inched to pull the shoulder gun and shoot down the man who jeered at him, but the lifelong habit of control engendered by his profession enabled him to conceal his feelings.

  “I was unlucky,’ he said quietly. “The game ain’t played out yet.’

  “Yu better tell Spider—’ the puncher began.

  “Shut yore fool trap,’ fiercely interrupted the other, with an anxious glance round. “Ain’t yu got more sense than to say names?’

  “Well, who’s to hear ‘em in this Gawd-forsaken spot?’ protested the puncher. “Yu don’t reckon the cayuses’ll tell, do yu?’

  The gambler shrugged his shoulders. “Seems like I gotta work with a passel o’ idiots,’ he said contemptuously. “Less I do everythin’ myself there’s nothin’ but mistakes. What lunatic wiped Bud out? No, don’t tell me—I could see yu was just agoin’ to.’ He got up and walked to where his horse was tied. “Tell the others whan I told yu, an’ for all our sakes, keep that gap in your face closed,’ were his final words as he mounted and rode back to the trail. His companion watched him vanish with a savage scowl.

  “For less than half o’ nothin’ I’d just naturally blow yu apart, yu old lizard,’ he growled. “Yu come mighty near bein’ buzzard meat once or twice.’

  Green remained in his hiding-place until Snub had followed the gambler out of the draw, chewing over what he had heard. That the rustling was the work of white men was now beyond doubt, and at least some of the Double X gang were involved in it. He had nearly learned the name of the slayer of Bud, but the gambler had been too quick. The name that had escaped had been Spider. Green recalled Bent’s quotation in the bunkhouse when they were joshing him, and Durran’s enormous appreciation of what was apparently a not very notable witticism. Here was another little problem to solve.

  “Things is boilin’ up into a pretty mess,’ was the cowpuncher’s comment as he mounted and rode out of the draw. Reaching the spot where the trail forked, he turned and headed for the Y Z. An hour’s ride brought him within a few miles of his destination, but no nearer to a solution of the tangle he was trying to unravel. Presently, at a point where the road wound up over a rocky ridge, his horse slanted its ears and whickered. Looking up, he saw a saddled pony, the reins looped over the horn, contentedly cropping the grass along the trail side. The animal was a pinto, and he recognised it as one frequently ridden by Noreen. Securing the horse, he uttered a loud call, and a faint cry of “Help!’ came in response.

  Leading the pinto, he forced his way into the undergrowth in the direction he fancied the cry had come from and shouted again. Once more the reply came, but very feebly, and Green hurried. Soon he emerged on a little plateau covered with grass, from the edge of which the ground dropped almost vertically into a gully. At one spot the plateau was broken off sharply, as though a miniature landslide had occurred. Looking down, he saw the girl, clinging desperately to a stunted shrub about thirty feet below him. A narrow ledge gave her a little support, but it was obvious that she was exhausted and could not maintain her position much longer.”Hang on; I’m a-comin’,’ he shouted.

  She had not the strength to reply, but a movement of the head told him that she had heard. Rapidly he uncoiled his rope, and thanking his stars that he was not riding Blue, who was still an uncertain quantity, fastened one end of it to the saddlehorn. The loop he slipped under his armpits, with a grim smile at the thought that this time he was hanging himself over the cliff. At the first pull on the rope the sturdy little cowpony stiffened and prepared to take the weight; it knew what was wanted and could be trusted to do its part. Choosing a point not directly over the girl, in order to avoid sending any loose debris he might dislodge down upon her, Green gripped the rope and began the descent. As soon as he was low enough, he clawed his way to the little ledge on which she was partly lying. Standing on this precarious footing, he contrived to stoop and lift the almost senseless girl with his right arm.

  “Lock yore hands round my neck an’ hold on tight,’ he said, brusquely. “The hoss’ll pull us up.’

  He gave a familiar call and braced himself for the strain. The rope tightened with a jerk, they swung loose from the ledge, and were being gradually raised as the knowing little pony paced slowly back. With his left arm and his legs the puncher did his best to avoid the inequalities and projections of the earth wall up which they were being drawn, but both of them were bruised and breathless when at length they were dragged over the rim of the plateau. The girl, indeed, was still well-nigh unconscious. Flinging off the rope, Green staggered to his feet and fetched his canteen. The waner soon revived her.

  “Where am I?’ she asked weakly, and then, with a shiver, “Oh, I remember! I sat down and the ground gave way under me. I seemed to fall miles. How did you find me?’

  “I met up with yore pony. Plumb lucky yu forgot to trail the reins, or he wouldn’t ‘a’ drifted,’ Green replied. “Do yu reckon yu can stand up?’

  The girl flushed at the realisation that she was reclining against his knee, and that he had been the first to think of it. “I am all right now,’ she said hastily, and stood up. “How did you get me up the cliff?’

  “The little hors just naturally hauled the pair of us up; nothin’ to that,’ the puncher said nonchalantly. “We seem to have collected some real estate on the trip, though.’

  He helped her brush the dust from her clothes and brought her pony. His matter-of-fact treatment of the incident and evident desire not to prolong it were in keeping with his invariable attitude towards her, and aroused an indefinite feeling of resentment; it savoured of indifference, and she was not accustomed to that form of treatment fr
om the opposite sex. Any of the other boys… She put the ungrateful thought from her and turned to him impulsively.

  “I have to thank you again for coming to my rescue,’ she said. “You will begin to look upon me as a nuisance.’

  His right spur went home, and the pony promptly resented it by standing on its hind legs. By the time the rider had subdued this ebullition, he had his reply ready.

  “Why, I reckon I’m plain lucky, that’s all,’ he said gravely.

  “I should have it that the luck is on my side,’ she replied. “But for you I should now be—’ She shook her head no banish the ugly picture, and added, “Yes I am going to ask you to do something more.’

  “I’ll be pleased,’ he said simply.

  “It is only that I want you to say nothing of this—this accident—to my father. My motive is not entirely selfish, though I am afraid he would stop my rides, and I love them, but he worries about me quite enough as it is, and just now he has much to trouble him.’

  “I wasn’t intendin” He stopped suddenly. Confound it, did she think he would go glory-hunting to his employer? This aspect of her request had just occurred to the girl.

  “You see, he has only me,’ she said lamely.

  “Yu won’t remember yore mother, I expect,’ Green said, deliberately changing the subject.

  “No, I might almost say I never had one,’ she replied. “I think even the memory of a monher must be much for a girl.’

  The puncher nodded his head. “But yu got yore dad,’ he resumed. “Parents shore mean a lot, an’ I guess a kid that starts life without any is some handicapped.’

  Something in his voice told her he was speaking of himself. “It must make a difference,’ she agreed. “I’m sorry if you—’

  “Yes,’ he said reminiscently. “All the parents I can remember was an old Piute squaw an’ her man, who used to travel the country sellin’ hosses. I was raised among Injuns. The old woman told me I was white, but she never explained how I come to be with ‘em. They stole me, likely. Then a cattleman they sold some ponies to saw me an’ made a dicker with ‘em; took me to his ranch and treated me like a son. He was shore a regular man. Yu see, he was all alone too.’

  “And he is—dead?’

  “Yes. He passed out ‘bout three years back, an’ I lost my only friend.’

  She was silent for a few moments, and he guessed what was in her mind. “Yu are wonderin’ why I’m workin’ as a cowhand when I oughtta be ownin’ a ranch. It’s easy explained. When my friend died he was a broken-hearted an’ ruined man: his wife had a fatal illness a few years after they married, their onlychild was kidnapped by an enemy before he met up with me, an’ another scoundrel robbed him of well-nigh everythin’. All he had to leave me was his debt to these two men, an’ I’m meanin’ to pay it—when I find ‘em; not for anythin’ I lost, but for what they made him suffer.’

  The girl shivered. The threat to the unknown offenders had been quietly spoken, but she sensed the implacable resolve underlying the words. This grim-faced man meant what he said; he would show the patience and tenaciny of a vengeful Indian on the trail of a foe, and little, if any, more mercy.

  “They may be dead by now,’ she ventured.

  “So much the better—for them,’ Green replied; “but I’m bettin’ they’re still above ground. This is a big country, an’ I’ve only been searchin’ three years.’

  Silence again fell on them, for the girl was awed by the intensity of a hatred which could keep a man on such a quest for so long a time. Then the puncher spoke again and his tone was apologetic.

  “I’m shore sorry, Miss Noreen. I don’t know what come over me pesterin’ yu with my dreadful past in this fashion. Yu must think I’m loco.’

  “No, I’ve been very interested—and sorry,’ the girl protested. “I hope you won’t find those men.’

  “Yo’re condemnin’ me to a solitary life,’ returned he, with a smile, and again she realised the granite hardness beneath the smooth voice. “We are near the ranch now; yu had better go ahead.’

  She put out her hand, thanked him again, and rode on. Neither of them noticed a dark face, with sneering, vengeful eyes, watching them from a near-by thicket. Green waited a while and then rode slowly to the ranch.

  When Simon came in shortly after his daughter’s return she saw at once that something was wrong. The old man’s face wore a look of annoyance, and his voice was almost harsh when he said :

  “Hear yu been ridin’ with Green.’

  “Who told you that?’ asked the girl.

  “That ain’t nothin’ to do with it,’ replied her father. “I’m askin’ yu.’

  “I went out for a ride, and on my way home I met Green, and he accompanied me part of the way,’ said Noreen. “Do you object to me speaking to our boys if I meet them?’

  “No o’ course not; yo’re getnin’ me all wrong,’ said Simon uncomfortably. “But this feller is new, an’, as Blaynes sez to me just now, he ain’t told us nothin’ about himeslf.’

  “So in was Blaynes who gave you this interesting information, was it?’ she asked indignantly.

  “Now don’t yu go sourin’ on him. He’s foreman, an’ it’s his duty to report to me anythin’ he thinks I oughta know.’

  “He’s not foreman over me, and I won’t have him spying on my actions, the miserable sneak!’ retorted the girl spiritedly. “Green at least behaves like a gentleman, and as for knowing nothing about him, he told me quite a lot.’

  She proceeded to repeat what she knew of the new man’s past, and was astonished to see her father’s face darken and to hear a muttered oath.

  “Why, Daddy, what’s the matter?’ she asked.

  He dropped into a chair before replying. “Twinge o’ rheumatism—gets me every now an’ then. Reckon I’m growin’ old, girl. Now about this chap, Green. Dessay he’s all right, an’ there’s no harm in passin’ the time o’ day if yu meet, but I don’t want yu to be too familiar with any o’ the boys, see? Sooner or later yu will own this ranch an’ have to boss ‘em.’

  “I do that now,’ she retorted saucily.

  “Well, I guess yu do, an’ the old man as well,’ he agreed. “Sorry if I seemed riled, girlie, but things is worryin’ just now. Yu won’t hold it agin me, will yu?’

  Noreen kissed him tenderly. “Of course I won’t, you dear old silly,’ she said, and in her mind she added, “But that doesn’t apply to your case, Mr. Rattler Blaynes.’

  Chapter VIII

  Old Nugget was receiving company. Seated round the rude table in his shack were half a dozen men, in addition to himself, smoking, drinking, and conversing in lowered voices. Poker Pete, his small porcine eyes covertly watching everyone, dominated the talk. He and Dexter, from the Double X, appeared to have some authority over the rest.

  “We gotta ease up on yore ranch, Rattler, till this damned feller Green is put out o’ business,’ Pete stated. “We can’t afford to take no more risks. Better give the Frying Pan a whirl; they got some good stock there.’

  “They shore has—I was lookin’ some of it over the other day,’ laughed Dexter, and then, as he caught a sharp look from the gambler, he added, “No, they didn’t see me—don’t yu worry, old-timer.’

  “We can fetch ‘em across the “Wise-head” range—streuth! Old Simon struck a bum brand when he hit on that—an’ through the Parlour as usual,’ remarked a tall abnormally thin puncher, who was known at the Double X as “Post’ Adams. “Leeming will think Simon’s bin helpin’ hisself,’ said one of the others.

  There was a general laugh at this, and in the midst of it the door opened and another man stepped in. It was Snap Lunt. “Lo Snap. Find yoreself a seat,’ greeted Pete.

  “I ain’t stayin’ long,’ replied the gunman, and for a moment there was a tense silence; all present realised that this latest arrival had not come in friendship. “I’m here just to serve notice that I’m through with this game,’ Snap finished.

  Standing there, his hands h
anging down, he watched the effect of his announcement. He knew perfectly well that his life hung on a thread, and that only his known reputation kept him from being instantly shot to pieces. Also, he had planned well in coming late, for with his back to the half-open door he had a line of retreat, and all of the others were in front of him.

  “Bit of a tardy repentance, Snap, ain’t it?’ Poker Pete said coldly.

  “Mebbe,’ said the other. “I ain’t claimin’ to be any better’n the rest, but when it comes to knifin’ fellers in my own outfit, or hangin’ ‘em alive over the rocks for buzzards to feed on, I’m done.’

  “Aw, Bud was an accident, an’ that other play warn’t nothin’ but a joke, Snap,’ Dexner protested, though there was a grin on his face as he spoke.

  The little gunman’s lips stiffened into a sneer. “Keep that hogwash for them as is likely to swaller it, Dex,’ he said. “Understand, I’m through. Any o’ yu got notions?’

  It was a direct challenge, and the maker awaited the outcome with narrowed eyes and ready fingers, while the men he faced reckoned up the chances. They could kill him, beyond doubt, but they knew it could not be done before the claw-like hands hovering over the gun-butts got to work. Some of them would never see another sunrise. For a moment Death hesitated over the spot—and passed on. The gambler shook his head slightly, as though answering his own thought, and then said :

  “We’re shore sorry to lose yu, Snap, but she’s a free country. I take it yu won’t snitch?’

  “Yu take it correct, an’ I’m plumb glad yu put it the way yu did,’ retorted Snap meaningly. “That’s one o’ the things I never done, an’ I ain’t aimin’ to start now. What I know I’ll keep under my hat.’

  “An’ I s’pose we’ll have to reckon yu against us?’ put in Blaynes.