Cow-Country

by B. M. Bower

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: GUARDIAN ANGELS ARE RIDING POINT

  They plunged into darkness again, rode at a half trot over smooth, hardsand, Bud trusting himself wholly to Marian and to the sagacity of thetwo horses who could see, he hoped, much better than he himself could.His keen hearing had caught a faint sound from behind them--far back inthe crevice-like gorge they had just quitted, he believed. For Marian'ssake he stared anxiously ahead, eager for the first faint suggestion ofstarlight before them. It came, and he breathed freer and felt of hisgun in its holster, pulling it forward an inch or two.

  "This way, Bud," Marian murmured, and swung Boise to the left, againstthe mountain under and through which they seemed to have passed. She ledhim into another small gorge whose extent he could not see, and stoppedhim with a hand pressed against Sunfish's shoulder.

  "We'd better get down and hold our horses quiet," she cautioned. "Boisemay try to whinny, and he mustn't."

  They stood side by side at their horses' heads, holding the animalsclose. For a time there were no sounds at all save the breathing of thehorses and once a repressed sigh from Marian. Bud remembered suddenlyhow tired she must be. At six o'clock that morning she had fed twelvemen a substantial breakfast. At noon there had been dinner for severalmore than twelve, and supper again at six--and here she was, riskingher life when she should be in bed. He felt for her free hand, found ithanging listlessly by her side and took it in his own and held it there,just as one holds the hand of a timid child. Yet Marian was not timid.

  A subdued mutter of voices, the click of hoofs striking against stone,and the pursuers passed within thirty feet of them. Boise had liftedhis head to nicker a salute, but Marian's jerk on the reins stopped him.They stood very still, not daring so much as a whisper until the soundshad receded and silence came again.

  "They took the side-hill trail," whispered Marian, pushing Boisebackward to turn him in the narrow defile. "You'll have to get downthe hill into the creek-bed and follow that until you come to the stageroad. There may be others coming that way, but they will be two or threemiles behind you. This tunnel trail cuts off at least five miles but wehad to go slower, you see.

  "Right here you can lead Sunfish down the bluff to the creek. It's alldry, and around the first bend you will see where the road crosses. Turnto the left on that and ride! This horse of yours will have to show thestuff that's in him. Get to Crater ahead of these men that took the hilltrail. They'll not ride fast--they never dreamed you had come throughhere, but they came to cut off the distance and to head you off. Withothers behind, you must beat them all in or you'll be trapped between."

  She had left Boise tied hastily to a bush and was walking ahead of Buddown the steep, rocky hillside to show him the easiest way amongst theboulders Halfway down, Bud caught her shoulder and stopped her.

  "I'm not a kid," he said firmly. "I can make it from here alone. Notanother step, young lady. If you can get back home You'll be doingenough. Take this--it's money, but I don't know how much. And watch yourchance and go down to mother with that message. Birnie, of the Tomahawkoutfit--you'll find out in Laramie where to go. And tell mother I'm allright, and she'll see me some day--when I've made my stake. God blessyou, little woman. You're the truest, sweetest little woman in theworld. There's just one more like you--that's mother. Now go back--andfor God's sake he careful!"

  He pressed money into her two hands, held them tightly together, kissedthem both hurriedly and plunged down the hill with Sunfish slipping andsliding after him. For her safety, if not for his own, he meant to getaway from there as quickly as possible.

  In the creek bed he mounted and rode away at a sharp gallop, glad thatSunfish, thoroughbred though he was, had not been raised tenderly install and corral, but had run free with the range horses and had learnedto keep his feet under him in rough country or smooth. When he reachedthe crossing of the stage road he turned to the left as Marian hadcommanded and put Sunfish to a pace that slid the miles behind him.

  With his thoughts clinging to Marian, to the harshness which life hadshown her who was all goodness and sweetness and courage, Bud forgot tokeep careful watch behind him, or to look for the place where the hilltrail joined the road, as it probably did some distance from Crater.It would be a blind trail, of course--since only the Catrock gang andMarian knew of it.

  They came into the road not far behind him, out of rock-strewn, brushywilderness that sloped up steeply to the rugged sides of Gold Gapmountains. Sunfish discovered them first, and gave Bud warning justbefore they identified him and began to shoot.

  Bud laid himself along the shoulder of his horse with a handful of maneto steady him while he watched his chance and fired back at them. Therewere four, just the number he had guessed from the sounds as they cameout of the tunnel. A horse ran staggering toward him with the others,faltered and fell. Bud was sorry for that. It had been no part of hisplan to shoot down the horses.

  The three came on, leaving the fourth to his own devices--and that, too,was quite in keeping with the type of human vultures they were. Theykept firing at Bud, and once he felt Sunfish wince and leap forward asif a spur had raked him. Bud shot again, and thought he saw one horsemanlurch backward. But he could not be sure--they were going at a terrificpace now, and Sunfish was leaving them farther and farther behind. Theywere outclassed, hopelessly out of pistol range, and they must haveknown it, for although they held to the chase they fired no more shots.

  Then a dog barked, and Bud knew that he was passing a ranch. He couldsmell the fresh hay in the stacks, and a moment later he descried theblack hulk of ranch buildings. Sunfish was running easily, his breathunlabored. Bud stood in the stirrups and looked back. They were stillcoming, for he could hear the pound of hoofs.

  The ranch was behind him. Clear starlight was all around, and the bulkof near mountains. The road seemed sandy, yielding beneath the poundof Sunfish's hoofs. Bud leaned forward again in the saddle, and plannedwhat he would do when he reached Crater; found time, also, to hope thatMarian had gone back, and had not heard the shooting.

  Another dog barked, this time on the right. Bud saw that they werepassing a picket fence. The barking of this dog started another fartherahead and to the left. Houses so close together could only mean thathe was approaching Crater. Bud began to pull Sunfish down to a moreconventional pace. He did not particularly want to see heads thrustfrom windows, and questions shouted to him. The Catrock gang might havefriends up this way. It would be strange, Bud thought, if they hadn't.

  He loped along the road grown broader now and smoother. Many houses hepassed, and the mouths of obscure lanes. Dogs ran out at him. Bud slowedto a walk and turned in the saddle, listening. Away back, where he hadfirst met the signs of civilization, the dog he had aroused was barkingagain, his deep baying blurred by the distance. Bud grinned to himselfand rode on at a walk, speaking now and then to an inquiring dog andcalling him Purp in a tone that soothed.

  Crater, he discovered in a cursory patrol of the place, was no more thanan overgrown village. The court-house and jail stood on the main street,and just beyond was the bank. Bud rode here and there, examining closelythe fronts of various buildings before he concluded that there was onlythe one bank in Crater. When he was quite sure of that he chose placenear by the rear of the bank, where one horse and a cow occupied acomfortable corral together with hay. He unsaddled Sunfish and turnedhim there, himself returning to the bank before those other night-ridershad more than reached the first straggling suburbs of the town.

  On the porch of the court-house, behind a jutting corner pillar thatseemed especially designed for the concealment of a man in Bud'ssituation, he rolled cigarette which he meant to smoke later on when theway was clear, and waited for the horsemen to appear.

  Presently they came, rode to a point opposite the court-house and bankwith no more than a careless glance that way, and halted in front of anuninviting hotel across the street. Two remained on their horses whilethe third pounded on the door and shook it by the knob and finallyraised
the landlord from his sleep. There was a conference which Budwitnessed with much interest. A lamp had been lighted in the bareoffice, and against the yellow glow Bud distinctly saw the landlord nodhis head twice--which plainly betokened some sort of understanding.

  He was glad that he had not stopped at the hotel. He felt much morecomfortable on the court-house porch. "Mother's guardian angels must beriding 'point' to-night," he mused.

  The horsemen rode back to a livery stable which Bud had observed but hadnot entered. There they also sought for news of him, it would appear.You will recall, however, that Bud had ridden slowly into the businessdistrict of Crater, and his passing had been unmarked except by thebarking of dogs that spent their nights in yammering at every soundand so were never taken seriously. The three horsemen were plainlynonplussed and conferred together in low tones before they rode on. Itwas evident that they meant to find Bud if they could. What they meantto do with him Bud did not attempt to conjecture. He did not intend tobe found.

  After a while the horsemen rode back to the hotel, got the landlord outwith less difficulty than before and had another talk with him.

  "He stole a horse from Dave Truman," Bud heard one of the three saydistinctly. "That there running horse Dave had."

  The landlord tucked in his shirt and exclaimed at the news, and Budheard him mention the sheriff. But nothing came of that evidently. Theytalked further and reined their horses to ride back whence they came.

  "He likely's give us the slip outside of town, some place," one manconcluded. "We'll ride back and see. If he shows up, he'll likely wantto eat... And send Dick out to the Stivers place. We'll come a-running."He had lowered his voice so that Bud could not hear what was to happenbefore the landlord sent Dick, but he decided he would not pry into thematter and try to fill that gap in the conversation.

  He sat where he was until the three had ridden back down the sandy roadwhich served as a street. Then he slipped behind the court-house andsmoked his cigarette, and went and borrowed hay from the cow and thehorse in the corral and made himself some sort of bed with his saddleblanket to help out, and slept until morning.