Skyrider

by B. M. Bower

  CHAPTER TEN

  SIGNS, AND NO ONE TO READ THEM

  Bill Hayden's mouth was pinched into a straight line across hisdesert-scarred face. He shortened his hold on the rope that held Jake andpassed the flat of his hand down Jake's neck under the heavy mane. Heheld up a moistened palm and looked at it needlessly. He stepped back andsurveyed the drawn-in flanks, and with his eye he measured the length anddepth of the saddle marks, as though he half hoped thereby to identifythe saddle that had made them. His eyes were hard with the cold fury thatlumped the muscles on his jaw.

  He turned his head and surveyed the scattered group of boys busy withropes, bridles and saddles--making ready for the day's work, whichhappened to be the gathering of more horses to break, for the war acrossthe water used up horses at an amazing rate, and Sudden was not the manto let good prices go to waste. The horse herd would be culled of itslikeliest saddle horses while the market was best.

  To-day, and for several days, the boys would ride north and west, combingthe rough country that held two broad-bottomed streams and therefore fairgrazing for horses. Bill had meant to ride Jake, but he was changing hismind. Jake, from the look of him, had lately received exercise enough tolast him for one day, at least. Suspicion dwelt in Bill's eyes as theyrested on each man in turn. They halted at Tex, who was standing with hishead up, staring at Jake with more interest than Bill believed aninnocent man had any right to feel. Tex caught his glance and came over,trailing his loop behind him.

  "What yo' all been doing to Jake, gantin' him up like that, Bill?" Texinquired, his black eyes taking in the various marks of hard riding thathad infuriated Bill.

  Bill hesitated, spat into the dust, and turned half away, stroking Jake'sroughened shoulder.

  "Me, I been workin' him out, mebby. What's it _to_ yuh?"

  "Me? It ain't nothin' a-tall to me, Bill. Only--yo' all shore done itthorough," grinned Tex, and passed on to where a horse he wanted wasstanding with his head against the fence, hoping to dodge the loop hefelt sure would presently come hissing his way.

  Bill watched him from under his eyebrows, and he observed that Tex sentmore than one glance toward Jake. Bill interpreted those glances to suithimself, and while he unobtrusively led Jake into a shed to give him ahurried grooming before saddling another horse, Bill did some hardthinking.

  "Shore is a night-rider in this outfit," he summed up. "He shore did pickhimself a top hoss, and he shore rode the tail off'n 'im just about. Me,I'm crazy to know who done it."

  Bill had to hurry, so he left the matter to simmer for the present. Butthat did not mean that Bill would wear "blinders," or that he would sleepwith his head under his tarp for fear of finding out what black-heartedrenegade had sacrilegiously borrowed Jake. Black-hearted renegade, by theway, was but the dwindling to mild epithets after Bill's more colorfulvocabulary had been worn to rags by repetition.

  All unconsciously Mary V had set another man in the outfit to sweatinghis brain and swearing to himself. Tex would not sleep sound again untilhe knew who had taken to night-riding--on a horse of Jake's quality. Texwould have believed that Bill himself was the man, had he not read thelook on Bill's face while he studied the marks of hard riding. Tex wasno fool, else his income would have been restricted to what he could earnby the sweat of his skin. Bill had been unconscious of scrutiny when Texhad caught that look, and Bill had furthermore betrayed suspicion whenTex spoke to him about the horse. Bill was mad, which Tex took as proofthat Bill had lain in his bed all night. Besides, Bill would hardly haveleft Jake in the corral where he could have free access to the watertrough after such a ride as that must have been. Some one had broughtJake home in such a hurry that he had merely pulled his saddle and bridleoff and--hustled back to bed, perhaps.

  Tex was worried, and for a very good reason. He had been abroad the nightbefore, dodging off down the draw to the west until he could circle theridge and ride south. He had been too shrewd to ride a fagged horse homeand leave him in the corral to tell the tale of night prowling, however.He had taken the time to catch a fresh horse from the pasture, tie hisown horse in a secluded place until his return, and re-saddle it to rideback to the ranch, careful not to moisten a hair. He felt a certaincontempt for the stupidity that would leave such evidence as Jake, butfor all that he was worried. Being the scoundrel he was, he jumped to theconclusion that some one had been spying on him. It was a mystery thatbred watchfulness and much cogitation.

  "What's that about some geeser riding Jake las' night?" Bud, ridingslowly until Bill overtook him, asked curiously, with the freedom ofclose friendship. "Tex was saying something about it to Curley whenthey rode past me, but I didn't ketch it all. Anything in it?"

  Bill cleared his mind again with blistering epithets before he answeredBud directly. "Jake was rode, and he was rode hard. It was a coolnight--and I know what it takes to put that hawse in a lather. I wishtI'd a got to feel a few saddle blankets this morning! The--" Bill cussedhimself out of breath.

  When he stopped, Bud took up the refrain. It was not his horse, ofcourse, but an unwritten law of the range had been broken, and that wasany honest rider's affair. Besides, Bill was a pal of Bud's. "Hangin''stoo good for 'im, whoever done it," he finished vindictively. "I'd laylow, if I was you, Bill. Mebby he'll git into the habit, and you kinketch 'im at it."

  "I aim to lay low, all right. And I aim to come up a-shootin' if the--"

  "Yore dead right, Bill. Night-ridin' 's bad enough when a feller rideshis own hawse. It'd need some darn smooth explainin' then. But when a mantakes an' saddles up another feller's hawse--"

  "I kin see his objeck in that," Bill said. "He had a long trail tofoller, an' he tuk the hawse that'd git 'im there and back the quickest.Now what I'd admire to know is, who was the rider, an' where was he goin'to? D' you happen to miss anybody las' night, Bud?"

  "Me? Thunder! Bill, you know damn well I wouldn't miss my own beddin'roll if it was drug out from under me!"

  "Same here," mourned Bill. "Ridin' bronks shore does make a feller readyfor the hay. Me, I died soon as my head hit my piller."

  "Mary V, she musta hit out plumb early this morning," Bud observedgropingly. "She was saddled and gone when I come to the c'rel at sun-up.Yuh might ast her if she seen anybody, Bill. Chances is she wouldn't, butthey's no harm askin'."

  "I will," Bill said sourly. "Any devilment that's goin' on around thisoutfit, Mary V's either doin' it er gettin' next to it so's she kin holda club over whoever done it. She mebby mighta saw him--if she was a mindto tell."

  "Yeah--that shore is Mary V," Bud agreed heartily. "Bawl yuh out quickenough if they's anything yuh want kep' under cover, and then turnin'right around and makin' a clam ashamed of itself for a mouthy cuss if yuhwant to know anything right bad. Bound she'd go with us getherin' hosseswhen she wasn't needed nor wanted, and now when we're short-handed, sheain't able to see us no more a-tall when we start off. You'll have to gitupon 'er blind side some way, Bill, er she won't tell, if she does knowwho rode Jake."

  "Blind side?" Bill snorted. "Mary V ain't got no blind side 't I everseen."

  "And that's right too. Ain't it the truth! I don't guess, Bill, yuhbetter let on to Mary V nothin' about it. Then they's a chance she maytell yuh jest to spite the other feller, if she does happen to know. Aslim chance--but still she might."

  "Slim chance is right!" Bill stated with feeling.

  During this colloquy Mary V's ears might have burned, had Mary V not beentoo thoroughly engrossed with her own emotions to be sensitive to theemotions of others.

  Mary V was pounding along toward Black Ridge--or Snake Ridge, as somepreferred to call it. She was tired, of course. Her head ached, and morethan once she slowed Tango to a walk while she debated with herselfwhether it was really worth while to wear herself completely out in thecause of righteousness.

  Mary V did not in the least suspect just how righteous was the cause. Howcould she know, for instance, that Rolling R horses were being selectedjust as carefully on the southern range as they were
to the north, sinceeven that shrewd range man, her father, certainly had no suspicion thatthe revolutionists farther to the east in Mexico would presently beginto ride fresh mounts with freshly blotched brands? He had vaguely feareda raid, perhaps, but even that fear was not strong enough to impel him tokeep more than one man at Sinkhole.

  Sudden was not the man to overlook a sure profit while he guarded againsta possible danger. He needed all the riders he had, or could get, tobreak horses for the buyers that were beginning to make regular tripsthrough the country. He knew, too, that it would take more than two orthree men at Sinkhole to stand off a raid, and that one man with atelephone and a rifle and six-shooter could do as much to protect hisherds as three or four men, and with less personal risk. Sudden bankedrather heavily on that telephone. He was prepared, at any alarmingsilence, to send the boys down there posthaste to investigate. Butso long as Johnny reported every evening that all was well, thehorse-breaking would go on.

  It is a pity that he had not impressed these facts more deeply uponJohnny. A pity, too, that he had not confided in Mary V. Because Mary Vmight have had a little information for her dad, if she had understoodthe situation more thoroughly. As thoroughly as Tex understood it, forinstance.

  Tex knew that any suspicion on the part of the line rider at Sinkhole, orany failure on his part to report every evening, would be the signal forSudden to sweep the Sinkhole range clean of Rolling R horses. He hadworried a good deal because he had forgotten to tell his confederatesthat they must remember to take care of the telephone somehow, in caseJohnny was lured away after the airplane. It had been that worry whichhad sent him out in the night to find them and tell them--and to learnjust what was taking place, and how many horses they had got. When a manis supposed to receive a commission on each horse that is stolensuccessfully, he may be expected to exhibit some anxiety over the truthof the tally. You will see why it was necessary to the peace andprosperity of Tex that the surface should be kept very smooth andunruffled.

  Tex, of course, overlooked one detail. He should have worried over Mary Vand her industrious gathering of "Desert Glimpses," lest she glimpsesomething she was not wanted to see. I suppose it never occurred to Texthat Mary V's peregrinations would take her within sight of Sinkhole, orthat she would recognize a suspicious circumstance if she met it face toface. Mary V was still looked upon as a spoiled kid by the Rolling Rboys, and she had not attained the distinction of being taken seriouslyby anyone save Johnny Jewel. Which may explain, in a roundabout way,why her interest had settled upon him, though Johnny's good looks and hispeppery disposition may have had something to do with it too.

  Mary V, having climbed to the top of Black Ridge, adjusted her fieldglasses and swept every bit of Sinkhole country that lay in sight. Almostimmediately she saw a suspicious circumstance, and she straightwayrecognized it as such. Away over to the east of Sinkhole camp she saw twohorsemen jogging along, just as the Rolling R boys jogged homeward aftera hard day's work at the round-up. She could not recognize them, thedistance was so great. She therefore believed that one of them might beJohnny Jewel, and the suspicion made her head ache worse than before.He had no business to be away at night, and then to go riding offsomewhere with someone else so early in the morning, and she stamped herfoot at him and declared that she would like to _shake_ him.

  She watched those two until they were hidden in one of the million or soof little "draws" or arroyos that wrinkle the face of the range west.When she finally gave up hope of seeing them again, she moved the glassesslowly to the west. Midway of the arc, she saw something that was morethan suspicious; it was out-and-out mysterious.

  She saw something--what it was she could not guess--moving slowly in thedirection of Sinkhole Camp,--something wide and queer looking, with ahorseman on either side and with a team pulling. Here again the distancewas too great to reveal details. She strained her eyes, changed the focushopefully, blurred the image, and slowly turned the little focusing wheelback again. She had just one more clear glimpse of the thing before it,too, disappeared.

  Mary V waited and waited, and watched the place. If it was crossing agully, it would climb out again, of course. When it did not do so shelost all patience and was putting the glasses in their case when she sawa speck crawling along a level bit, half a mile or so to the left ofwhere she had been watching.

  "Darn!" said Mary V, and hastened to readjust the glasses. But she had nomore than seen that it was the very same mysterious object, only now itwas not wide at all, but very long--when it crawled behind a ridge like acaterpillar disappearing behind a rock. Mary V waited awhile, but it didnot show itself. So she cried with vexation and nervous exhaustion,stamped her foot, and made the emphatic assertion that she felt like_shooting_ Johnny Jewel for making her come all this long way to bedriven raving distracted.

  After a little, when the mysterious thing still failed to reappearanywhere on the face of the gray-mottled plain, she ate what was left ofher lunch and rode home, too tired to sit up straight in the saddle.