Rainbow Range

by Robert J. Horton

  Ted took the horses to the barn and put them up. When a hand showed a little later, he sent the man to get him another horse to use that night. Then he went into the house to wash and change his clothes.

  Supper, with Ed Wayne, Ted, and Hunter at the table, witnessed an animated conversation between the rancher and his guest. From the talk Ted learned they had known each other well during the early days on that range. Hunter was older than he had thought. They dealt mostly in reminiscences, and the younger man gathered that the pair had been involved in more than one wild escapade. For some reason that he could not fathom, he sensed that this talk was, in a way, for his benefit. But why?

  Supper over, the stockman and Hunter went into the big living room. So far, Ted’s father had not sought a word with Ted alone. He went out to the barn and saddled the horse that the man had brought in. He rode down the lane and straight across the open plain toward the Bar A ranch house. Polly Arnold was just riding up to the benchland when he sighted her.

  Polly turned off into the northeast, riding fast in the cool evening breeze that came with the first drifting veil of the twilight. Wayne gave chase, but the horse he was riding was not his regular mount, and Polly stood fair to outdistance him. He waved his hat, and after a spell the girl slowed her pace.

  “You know, I’ve only got one horse that can run with yours,” he told her, when he caught up with her. “Did you want to leave me behind, Polly?”

  She was looking at him gravely, he thought. She did not seem her natural self, the whimsical, laughing, taunting Polly that he loved. Now what was wrong? he wondered.

  “Let’s ride up to Nine-Mile Spring,” she suggested.

  “But that’s quite a distance,” he demurred. “And I want to talk with you, Polly. It seems ages since I saw you last. So much has happened.” He shouldn’t have said that, he realized as the words came out. “Won’t you get down and sit with me a few minutes on this knoll? Look! There’s a first star way up in the west.”

  He was off his horse in a moment, and Polly yielded. She even allowed him to help her down from the saddle, which was most unusual. And when she was on the ground beside him, he took her in his arms and kissed her and held her for what seemed to be a long time to both of them. Then they sat down on the warm grass, with the freshening breeze in their faces, and the horses grazing with reins dangling.

  “You were gone quite a while, Ted,” said the girl.

  “Only two days after I saw you,” he said. “But it does seem long. Polly, right out here on this clean prairie, with the wind in the grass, and the twilight sort of wrapping us up, I want to tell you that I love you more than ever. You’re my girl!”

  She looked at him quickly and the old light was in her eyes. Polly always seemed more beautiful to Ted in the twilight, or moonlight, or in the soft gleam of the hanging stars. She threw an arm about his shoulders and kissed him. The world was sweet, so Ted Wayne thought. And Polly Arnold must have thought so, too.

  “Now,” she said as his arm slipped about her, “tell me all that happened to keep you so long on a business trip to Rainbow.”

  The first brave star seemed to pour an icy waterfall upon Wayne’s spirits. That slip of speech he had made had tripped him. Now he was caught in a predicament. There were but two things he could do: tell Polly everything, which he had promised not to tell anyone, or lie to her, which he did not wish to do.

  “You ever been in Rainbow?” he asked.

  “No, Ted. But I’d like to go over to see it, since Father says it’s such a bad place. Surely a girl would be safe over there, don’t you think so, Ted?”

  “I don’t see why not,” he replied. “It’s a tough town and all that, but I don’t think the real and would-be bad men there are looking for chances to be rude to women. I didn’t see many women, as a matter of fact. Come to think of it, I didn’t see any except those who were working in the hotel.”

  “Did you gamble, Ted?” the girl asked quietly.

  “I didn’t turn a card,” said Ted with the truth ringing in his voice.

  “Oh, I don’t care if you gamble some, Ted,” said Polly, stroking his free hand. “My father gambled when he was young, and so did yours. It’s the other that bothers me, makes me afraid that you will have some great trouble. You’re so … so aggressive. Did you have any fights?” Her eyes searched his.

  “No!” Surely that scuffle in the alley when Barry’s men had attacked him could not come under the category of a regular fight, and the struggle with Barry on the rim of Devil’s Hole, well, he would have to lie. He would have to lie to protect the true course of their love, that was all. He had a growing presentiment that his trouble with Jake Barry was not over, not finished. If it came to a finish, he could tell Polly all. In time he could tell her all, anyway. He would leave it to her sense of fairness to forgive him for lying to her under the involved circumstances.

  “I’m so glad, Ted,” Polly was saying. “Oh, how I dread the ruckuses you get into. I don’t say that you look for trouble, Ted dear, but trouble seems to be riding herd on you most of the time. You never can tell. You’d be sure death with your gun, Ted, if anyone tried to draw on you in one of those affairs. And … oh, Ted, boy, I don’t know what I would do or think if you were to kill a man. I could never think of you the same again. I guess it would kill me, too.”

  Wayne became cold all over for a few moments. He saw Boyd lying in the grass, his frozen features turned up to the sky. He hadn’t thought of the reaction the knowledge that he had actually killed a man might have on Polly Arnold and their close relations.

  “Never mind, girlie, I’m not looking to killing anybody,” he said, managing with an effort to keep his voice steady. “Now, let’s talk about something pleasant. Polly, we can find other topics, for I’m going to marry you one of these days … maybe when you least expect it, now that you’ve promised me.” He drew her closer to him and kissed her hair.

  She was silent for a space, then: “Father seemed upset when he came home for supper, Ted. He said he met you and a man riding from Rainbow.”

  “Yes?” Ted was nonplussed. So Arnold hadn’t gone to town at all. He had lied to him when he had said he was going in, or he had changed his mind after leaving them. If the latter was the case, then the presence of Hunter must have been responsible.

  “He doesn’t like the man you were with, Ted,” the girl went on slowly. “He said he had thought he wasn’t the right kind of a man to be in your company, but after … after some of the things that had happened lately, he wasn’t sure. Don’t blame Daddy, for he seems to be hard-worked these days. He’s out on the range more than he has been in years.”

  “I don’t see why he should object to my just riding along with a man going in the same direction.” Wayne frowned.

  “He said the man was a Jim Hunter. Is that so, Ted?”

  “Yes, that’s who it was.”

  “Daddy says Hunter used to be a square cowman, but he found easy money more to his taste,” said the girl. “He said he has become a professional gambler, and is running with that terrible outlaw, Darling, in the bargain. Said he wouldn’t leave his own range while Hunter was near it.”

  Wayne started. So Hunter was responsible for Arnold’s sudden change of mind. He had told Polly these things to cause her to doubt Wayne. The young scion of the Whippoorwill bristled. “It seems to me that your dad goes out of his way to paint me any color except white,” he said. “Just because I happen to be riding along with this Hunter isn’t anything against me, is it?”

  “I didn’t say it was,” Polly returned with spirit, catching the resentment in Wayne’s tone. “And Father didn’t say that. He was speaking of that man. He said he wouldn’t put rustling past him, either.” She added the last in a vexed voice.

  “I don’t know anything about him,” said Ted stoutly. “And I’m not saying anything against your dad, exactly. But if he had anything to say, he should have said it to my face right there in front of Hunter, or have waited
and told me when he saw me afterward.”

  Polly withdrew from his arm and rose suddenly. “Ted, you’re disagreeable tonight. I’m going home.”

  Wayne was on his feet in an instant, trying to grasp her hands. “Polly! Are we going to let such a silly business disturb us?” he pleaded. “Now, don’t you think it’s silly?”

  “I don’t think it’s silly, Ted Wayne, when you talk in cryptic fashion,” she answered, walking to her horse and catching up the reins. “You’re keeping something from me, and goodness knows what it is. You worry me to death, and there’s no reason why I should keep on worrying indefinitely.”

  “But, Polly! What is it you want to know?”

  “Nothing,” she replied shortly, swinging into her saddle. “Oh, Ted, maybe I’m not myself. It’s not far and I wish you’d not ride with me to the bench above home tonight.” Her lips were quivering. “So long,” she murmured, and rode away at the fastest gallop of which her splendid mount was capable.

  Wayne knew there was no chance to catch her with the horse he was riding. He started back to the Whippoorwill, tight-lipped, grim-faced. He was going to ask a few questions of his father and Jim Hunter. He was going to break out of the dark.

  At that very moment, Ed Wayne and Jim Hunter were seated close together in the WP ranch house living room under the yellow glow of a lamp, talking earnestly.

  Chapter Twelve

  Ed Wayne was smoking a thick, black cigar. Jim Hunter was sticking to his brown-paper cigarettes, which he rolled, lit, and relit at constant intervals. The men spoke in tones that hardly carried beyond the table at which they sat.

  “You know, I’m not expecting you to tell me anything, Jim,” old Ed was saying, “unless you want to. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you, and, when I saw you last, you were jake, so far as I knew.”

  “I played the game,” said Hunter. “I never could get the start you did because I was too wild. I needed something to take it out of me, but that something never came along. I was fast with my gun and tough with my fists, and I needed excitement as much as I needed food. I kept on that trail, and it’s a trail that’s bound to lead to one of two things … soft money, as they call it, or a six-foot trench, providing they’re decent enough to bury you. I’ve had one foot in the trench for a number of years now, Ed.”

  The stockman nodded. “They tell me you’re running with Darling,” he said casually. “Just how bad is Darling, Jim?”

  Hunter’s gaze never flinched. “He’s as bad as they make ’em,” he said simply. “That’s talk you’ll understand from me, Ed.”

  Ed Wayne nodded again. “So I’ve heard. That’s about all I’m going to ask you about him. You could tell me a lot more, but I don’t see why you should.”

  “Don’t worry, I won’t.” Hunter smiled grimly.

  “You know, Jim, I didn’t send for you to ask about Darling, or his gang, or what they’re up to. I sent to ask you to do me a favor … a personal favor. You’ll remember … now, I hate to bring this up, Jim … but you’ll remember back some years I had a chance to lend you a hand, and …”

  “Put it straight,” Hunter broke in. “You saved my life at the risk of your own, and against big odds, to boot, Ed. We shook on my promise to come if you ever needed me. I’m here, and glad of the chance to make my promise good if I can.”

  “That wasn’t the only reason why I sent for you,” old Ed said slowly. “You’re about the only man I know who I believe can do what I want done, and do it right. Besides that, I’ve got to have a man I can trust. I feel that I can trust you, Jim. And I’ve got to have a man who is tough, tough as cactus, Jim, and with plenty of spine. I reckon that’s you, too. This is going to be delicate business, Jim, if you take the job on.”

  “Sounds interesting,” was Hunter’s comment. “You’ve got to be guessing both way from the jack. It … maybe you want to hire my gun, Ed?” Hunter’s gaze was keen.

  But the rancher shook his head. “Not exactly,” he said. “You might have to use it, but I hope not. I’m hoping there won’t have to be any shooting, but I’ve got my doubts. And maybe I’m making a mistake, dang it! But you know you said you were following a wild trail when we were younger, and nothing happened to steer you off it?”

  “That was the way it was,” Hunter affirmed.

  “Well, Jim,” said old Ed earnestly, leaning toward the other man with his hands on his knees, “that’s just the situation my boy Ted is in. He’s wilder than an electric storm, and I need a lightning rod. Now … do you begin to see what I’m getting at?”

  Hunter was silent for a spell. “You want me to be the lightning rod,” he decided aloud.

  “You’ve hit it.” The stockman nodded. “I suppose it’s a whole lot my own fault that Ted’s so wild. I haven’t kept any check rein on him. He can’t go to town without getting into some kind of a mess. He was in one a few days ago after the Fourth. I don’t know what it was and I don’t want you to tell me, if you know. I told him I wouldn’t let anyone else tell me after I refused to let him tell me himself. Yes, I can see by your look that you know about it. I reckon it was bad. I can tell a lot by the way men act and what I see in their eyes. Ted showed it was bad, and my foreman, McCurdy, showed it was bad. I’ll let him tell me about it in case there’s something I should do. But these scrapes he gets into have got me worried. Sooner or later there’s going to be a shooting, and you know what that means. I’ve got a big ranch here, Jim, and it’s stocked to the limit, almost, with good cattle. I haven’t got a scrub in my herds. I want Ted to have all this someday, but I don’t want him to pass out before he can get it, and I don’t want him to throw it away after he gets it. That’s why I sent for you.”

  “I can understand everything except what it is that you can possibly want me to do,” said Hunter, genuinely surprised. “If it’s a lecture, you should know better. I know that young fellow’s stock and he isn’t bad.”

  “Not yet,” said old Ed gravely. “No, I don’t want you to try any silly lecture. I want you to take him out and give him what he wants till he gets his fill of it, and shows it by his own actions. Now, if you think that isn’t a big order, I’ll tell you that the wages will be ten thousand dollars and expenses, with no limit on the last.”

  Hunter raised his brows. “It’s a big order,” he confessed. “Just how far would you want me to go?”

  “Go the limit,” replied Ed Wayne tersely. “Give him all this wild stuff he wants … the wilder the better! I’ll even pay the gambling bills. If this experiment turns out all right, and brings Ted to his senses, fifty thousand will be cheap.”

  “When you say the limit, you’re saying a mouthful, Ed,” said Hunter. “And it’ll get around that he’s traveling in fast company. Folks’ll talk. It’ll hurt, Ed.”

  “That may all be, but if the boy has the stuff in him, he’ll work out the solution. I’m banking on Wayne stock, and Ted has it, Jim. If he doesn’t come through …” Old Ed looked steadily into Hunter’s eyes. “I’d just as soon lose him,” he finished soberly.

  Hunter pursed his lips. In his quiet tone, Ed Wayne had succeeded in putting tremendous feeling, possibly without realizing it. Hunter was struck by the gravity of the mission that the rancher wished to entrust to him. He hadn’t told him about Ted’s adventure in the badlands near the butte, or his night adventure in town. He felt that the stockman should know about these affairs, for, if Hunter took Ted in charge, he would be sure to meet up with trouble in the same direction again. That would mean but one thing: gun play. He cleared his throat. “How do you know Ted will fall in with this idea?” he asked.

  “I’m not goin’ to let him suspect anything,” said Ed Wayne. “I’m going to make him think he’s doing it of his own accord. I’m going to make him mad, Jim … deliberately make him mad. He’s sort of quick-tempered, anyway … gets it from me, I suppose. It’s up to you to steer him. Lead him along by easy stages. Put him right in with the Darling gang.”

  Hunter half star
ted from his chair, his eyes wide. “You don’t want me to go that far, do you?” he gasped. “That outfit isn’t just bad, it’s wicked.”

  “I know,” said old Ed grimly. “They’re a bunch of cutthroats, without principle, without scruples, and, so far as I know, without fear. A month with a bunch like that would cure him.”

  Hunter smiled wryly. “You seem to have a good line on ’em, Ed,” he said quietly.

  “I think I have, Jim. And that’s why nobody could make me believe that you’re in with Darling clear up to the hilt. For one thing, I don’t believe you’d rustle cattle. You know I’ve naturally got more respect for a man who’d touch a bank or an express shipment than I’d have for one who’d trail a loose rope.”

  Hunter frowned. “Suppose we leave me out of it so far as anything except your proposition is concerned,” he suggested coldly. “I’m telling you straight that I haven’t sprouted any wings since you knew me last. Maybe you’re picking the wrong man for this job.”

  “I’m willing to take the chance,” said the rancher firmly. “If you don’t want to tackle the job, say so. I don’t want any half measures, which is why I sent for you. But it’s a big order, like I said, and you won’t make me sore if you turn it down. In fact, I half expect it.”

  “I can’t turn it down!” exclaimed Hunter, his frown deepening. “That’s the devil of it. I don’t feel that I could trust the job to anybody else, even if you could find somebody. You’ve got me interested in this thing in a personal way. You know, I suppose”—his tone became whimsical and he looked at Ed Wayne quizzically—“that I’ve got a reputation over east as a gunman and suspected outlaw?”

  “Seems I heard something to that effect.” Old Ed nodded. “I’m more than just a member of the Cattlemen’s Association, you know.”

  “Your investigation department isn’t any too well informed,” said Hunter dryly. “I suppose Pete Arnold’s head is stuffed with information. He’s the woman gossip breed.”

  “I don’t know anything about that, Jim,” said old Ed. “I’ve never gossiped with him. And I don’t think he’s got much use for Ted, since Ted and Polly Arnold are pretty thick.”