by Hal Dunning
Produced by Roger Frank and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
White Wolf's Law
A Western Story
_By_ HAL DUNNING
NEW YORK CHELSEA HOUSE PUBLISHERS
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White Wolf's Law
Copyright, 1928, by CHELSEA HOUSE Printed in the U. S. A.
All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian.
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CONTENTS
I. APACHES OR LAVA GANG II. AN UNEXPECTED GUEST III. KING OF LIARS IV. SONS OF THE DEVIL V. THE WOLF SHOWS HIMSELF VI. THE LAVA GANG IN ACTION VII. THE SENTENCE VIII. KIDNAPED IX. THE MINE FORTRESS X. A ROMAN BATTERING-RAM XI. THE ATTACK XII. THE WAMPUS ON STILTS XIII. THE MINERS' MEETING XIV. JIM-TWIN AND JACK-TWIN XV. THE TRAP XVI. THE MAIL ROBBER XVII. THE WOLF FILLS THE JAIL XVIII. THE LONG TRAIL XIX. DOT REED XX. SHORTY TALKS XXI. CONFERENCE WITH SLIVERS XXII. ON SQUINT'S TRAIL XXIII. AN OLD FRIEND XXIV. THE WOLF CALL XXV. THE WOLF MAKES HIS KILL
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WHITE WOLF'S LAW
CHAPTER I
APACHES OR LAVA GANG
Death had struck twice on that September afternoon, and two ridersreturning to Cannondale had marked the glow from a fire against theearly evening sky.
At first they had mistaken it for a brush fire and had swung theirhorses off the trail and headed toward it as rapidly as the going wouldpermit. The brush was as dry as tinder, and a fire, unless checked,spelled ruin both to townfolk and plainsmen.
The two riders slid their horses down the shelving bank of a widearroyo. After their horses had scrambled up the farther side, it was"Toothpick" Jarrick who first realized the truth.
"Hey, 'Dutchy,' it's a house on fire!" he cried.
"Sure is!" Dutchy grunted and checked his horse to a trot.
"Get goin'!" Toothpick cried impatiently.
"Not any," Dutchy said shortly. "Lava Gang."
"Yuh sure talk as if words hurt yuh," Toothpick grumbled.
His companion's taciturnity was always a source of irritation to thetall, lanky cow-puncher, and he lapsed into a sulky silence for a time,chewing the ever-present toothpick in his mouth, from which he derivedhis name.
"Yuh mean maybe the gents they calls the Lava Gang is makin' anotherraid, and they may be still hangin' about?" Toothpick asked.
"Yep."
"Why don't yuh open yuhr mouth and let the words come out, instead ofchoking yuhrself on 'em, and makin' me explain to myself what yuh aimto say?" Toothpick asked scornfully.
Dutchy grunted, drew his rifle out of the boot beneath his saddle flapand balanced it across the pommel.
"If we're goin' to war, I'm sure plenty glad to have yuh along,"Toothpick grumbled as he followed the example of his companion; "butyuh sure ain't no gent to relieve the tedium of existence with lightchatter."
Accustomed as they were to the grim tragedies of the border, they weretotally unprepared to find what they did close to the burning house.There was nothing left save smoldering rafters and bare adobe walls.Toothpick swung from his horse and quickly extinguished some brush thathad been fired by a spark. Then he gave an exclamation and criedsharply:
"Hey, Dutchy, come here!"
Dutchy was a grizzled two-gun fighter who, rumor said, had once ridden"the long trail." He had lived close to the border all his life, yet hewinced when he saw what the white-faced Toothpick pointed out to him.
A scant five yards from the doorway of the house, the body of a man layhalf concealed in the brush. It was mutilated and scalped.
"Apache?" Toothpick queried as he slid a nervous hand to the hammer ofhis rifle and cast apprehensive glances into the darkness.
"Maybe so," Dutchy said shortly. "Let's see if we can find any others."
After a short search they discovered the body of a woman near a smallshed. Powder marks on the back of her head told the story. She had beenmurdered deliberately--shot at close range.
"Skunks--downed a woman!" Toothpick swore.
"Cussin' never hurt no one," Dutchy growled. He wandered to the rear ofthe ruined house and a little later called: "Here's a gent what's gotbreath in him."
Toothpick hastened to the side of Dutchy and found him kneeling besidea middle-aged man who was unconscious. The two cow-punchers dressed hiswound. After a time the man's eyelids fluttered open and he stared atthem with frightened eyes.
"We're friends, old-timer," Toothpick told him. The man sighed withrelief.
"Set fire to house to bring help," the man whispered.
"Well, it come," Toothpick soothed as he forced a little water betweenthe man's parched lips. "Who done this?"
The man's eyes flashed and he raised himself on his elbow.
"_Le fils du Diable a Cheval--oui_--I knew him----"
The man sank back and grew silent. Toothpick gave him more water."Who's the gent yuh knew?" he asked.
"_Le Diable a Cheval._" The man's voice was nothing but a faintwhisper. He sighed and closed his eyes.
"Dable Chaval--huh, that's a hell of a name," Toothpick grumbled."Reckon we'll have to wait until he comes to again. Will he live?"
"Certain--then he'll talk." Dutchy was positive.
"When he does I'm aimin' to start gunnin' for the gent what murderedthat woman," Toothpick cried savagely.
"Me, too," Dutchy said quietly.
They covered the wounded man with a blanket and once more continuedtheir search of the surrounding bushes. Fifteen minutes later, just asthey had decided there was nothing more to be found, a voice hailedthem from the darkness.
"Hey, Dutchy, what's goin' on here?" the voice asked.
At the sound of the summons, both Toothpick and Dutchy instinctivelyleaped for cover. Recognition of the voice brought them to an abrupthalt.
"Huh, it's the sheriff," Toothpick said with a shamefaced grin.
Dutchy nodded and lowered the hammer of his rifle.
Three riders materialized from the darkness and entered the circle oflight cast by the smoldering ruins. Tom Powers, the sheriff, camefirst. He was followed by his deputy, "Silent" Moore, and Sam Hogg, awiry little man of fifty.
Tom Powers was a slender man of thirty. His face was gaunt, bony, andburned a brick red by the sun. At first his face looked hard, but hisdeep-set blue eyes told the character of the man. There was no hardnessthere, only force. He cast one quick glance at Dutchy's grim face andsensed the tragedy.
"Where's the Courfays?" he asked.
"Scattered about." Dutchy waved his hand.
Sam Hogg was good-natured and was forever cracking jokes. He now j
oinedin.
"You two boys sure scattered yourselves when you heard us shout," hesaid, chuckling. "You acted skittish, like a pair of heifers just outof school."
A second later his mirth came to an abrupt end when he saw the sheriff,who had dismounted, kneel beside the body of the mutilated man. Heswore excitedly and joined the sheriff.
Toothpick briefly told what he knew of the tragedy. He led them firstto the body of the woman, then to where the unconscious man lay. Theman was muttering in delirium. The sheriff kneeled beside him andlistened, but after a moment he arose to his feet and shook his head.
"Can't catch a word. I know him, though--he was a brother of the womanover there and came from across the border to visit last week," thesheriff explained.
"He was talkin' when we----" Toothpick began, but Dutchy brought hiswords to an abrupt halt by kicking him in the shins.
"Somebody comin'!" Dutchy warned in a low voice.
They listened and heard the noisy hoofs of a pair of horses and thecrunching of wheels. A minute later two men in a buckboard drove up.The sheriff and Sam Hogg walked forward to greet them. Dutchy drewToothpick aside.
"Some day yuh'll dig yuhr grave with yuhr tongue," he growled. "Don'ttell no one that that gent talked to us private."
"But he didn't say nothin' I could understand," Toothpick protested.
"Maybe the Lava Gang wouldn't believe yuh," Dutchy said grimly.
Judge Ransom, one of the two men in the buckboard, climbed out andlistened gravely to what the sheriff had to say. He was a man offifty-five, with the face of a scholar.
"Who's that jasper?" Dutchy demanded as he nodded toward the buckboard.
"With the judge?"
"Yeh."
"Gent named Bill Anderson. He's the new political boss around here,"Toothpick explained.
The man was in his forties, of medium height, and stockily built. Hehad a round, apple-cheeked face and a jovial manner--one of those menwhom others like on sight and hail as a boon companion. Yet a closeobserver might have detected something about the eyes that seemed tocontradict the first impression.
"He rides around with the judge a hull lot," Toothpick explainedfurther. "Why for did yuh ask?"
"Knew a gent what looks like him once," Dutchy muttered, with his eyesstill watching Anderson, "twenty years ago."
"Then it can't be him."
"Might have been his father," Dutchy grunted.
They walked toward the others and arrived in time to hear the judge askthem:
"Who do you suppose did this?"
There was a moment of silence which was broken by Bill Anderson.
"I was over in Arizona last week, and the papers were talking aboutsome renegade Apache who were raiding along the border. Maybe they haveworked up this way," he suggested.
"Maybe so," the sheriff said doubtfully.
Silent Moore, the sheriff's deputy, carefully examined the mutilatedman for a moment; then, for the first time since his arrival, he openedhis lips.
"I've fit the Apache--'tain't their work," he said.
"Nonsense, man, it's impossible to tell," Bill Anderson exclaimed, andthe others, with the exception of Toothpick and Dutchy, were inclinedto agree with him.
"Greasers did that work--Apaches would have tracked down the man outthere and killed him, and they would have used a club on the woman,"the deputy insisted stubbornly.
"Sure yuh're right," Sam Hogg cried with an oath. "White men or devilsstarted in to make it look like Injuns--got scared before they finishedand run for it."
"The Lava Gang!" Toothpick cried excitedly. "Judge, where's 'Snippets'and Mary?"
The judge's face went white as he whispered: "You--you mean that letterfrom _them_?"
"Yeah, but where are the girls?" Toothpick asked again.
"They're safe. I took them over to visit Sam Hogg's wife at the FryingPan Ranch this evening. Bill and I were coming back when we saw thefire."
Toothpick relaxed and uttered a sigh of relief. The Lava Gang sometimesstole girls for ransom and held them across the border.
"What's this--what letter?" the sheriff asked sharply.
"You all know that I am to preside at the trial of Pete Cable formurder, which takes place a week from to-day. Last week I received awarning signed by the Lava Gang, saying if I did not see that Cable wasacquitted, some terrible thing would happen to me."
"What did yuh do with the letter?" the sheriff demanded.
The judge shrugged. "I tore it up."
"You are not going to pay any attention to the letter?" Bill Andersonasked curiously as his eyes searched the judge's face.
"I intend to see justice done," the judge replied firmly.
Bill Anderson pursed his lips and whistled soundlessly. The othersturned and frowned at him. He smiled apologetically.
"No offense, judge. I was admiring your courage. If, as you seem tothink, the Lava Gang did this, I would stay in after dark," the plumppolitician said.
"To blazes with the Lava Gang! We'll have the whole bunch in jailbefore the trial is finished," Sam Hogg exploded.
Bill Anderson lit a cigarette, then smiled.
"You have to catch them first."
"We'll do it."
Sam Hogg spoke positively, but somehow his words brought cold comfortto the judge.
Some fifteen miles to the southwest there was a great barren waste oflava rock. The Lava Gang had received their name from the fact thatafter each raid their trail was lost on the smooth slopes of the lavafields. No one knew a single member of the gang. It was suspected thatthey had their real headquarters in Cannondale. They were as elusive asghosts. The thought that a member of the gang might be present at thatmoment made the judge grow thoughtful.
Sam Hogg growled like an angry terrier.
"If we don't trail 'em to-morrow, I'll send for that little hellion,'Jim-twin' Allen. I'm bettin' he'd trail 'em. I hears he's better thana bloodhound."
Bill Anderson laughed.
"He'd probably throw in with the Lava Gang himself."
"Him? Not any!" Toothpick snorted. "He wouldn't have no truck withhombres what steal girls. He'll come a-runnin' and a-shootin' if Itells him about it."
"Fairy tales," the judge snorted.
"You tell him to come, judge, and watch his smoke," Toothpick pleaded.
"A judge ask help from an outlaw who is wanted for murder in a dozenStates?" Anderson laughed again.
"You gents stop gabbin' and help me get this hombre in the buckboard,"the sheriff called.
A bed of blankets was made on the floor of the wagon, and theunconscious man was lifted in.
"Mr. Anderson, yuh drive him easy to town," directed the sheriff. "An'if he starts talkin', yuh listen hard, 'cause I got a hunch that hombrewill sure tell us a heap more about the Lava Gang than we knows now."
"I'll certain listen if he starts talking," Anderson replied. Heclimbed into the buckboard and picked up the reins. Dutchy watched theteam until it vanished in the night.
"I'd sure like to know where I seen that gent before, an', if I ain'tseen him, who does he remind me of?" Dutchy muttered to himself.
Silent Moore was sent to town to gather a posse. The judge calledDutchy aside and whispered an order to him. Dutchy was known as adeadly fighter and a man who could be trusted.
"Dutchy, I want you to ride to the Frying Pan Ranch, and I don't wantyou to let my daughter or Snippets out of your sight until this isover."
The grizzled puncher mounted his horse and galloped off. The othersremained.
Toward morning Silent Moore returned with the posse, and at the firststreak of dawn they took up the trail of the murderers. For a time itled due south toward the Mexican border; then it headed sharply to thewest, toward the lava fields. Here the trail was lost.
The lava fields were a maze of smooth slopes, abrupt ridges, and deepdepressions. For seventy miles they roughly paralleled the border. Andin all that expanse of rock there was no sign of verdure, save only anoccasional cactus.
The posse scattered and searched for the trail. The sun blazed down andturned the desolate place into a furnace. The hunters were grim men,not easily turned aside. The sun baked them, they suffered from thelack of water, but they continued to search.
Toward noon, "Ace" Cutts, with five of the judge's riders from the BarX Ranch, joined the search. The men dismounted and climbed the jaggedslopes. They cut their hands and tore their boots on the knifelikeedges of the lava rock.
The sun rose past meridian. The rocks and sand were too hot to touch.All that day the men of the posse continued their search, but foundnothing. At last, toward evening, they realized their hunt was in vain.Beaten, baffled, they gathered for the return trip to town.
"Yuh figure Jim Allen could track those devils?" Tom Powers asked ofToothpick.
"Sure could," the lanky cow-puncher replied.
The sheriff reined in his horse. "Then if yuh know where he is, go gethim."
Toothpick was about to answer when he saw Ace Cutts and three otherriders were closely watching him. He remembered Dutchy's warning. Hedecided to remain silent. If he sought out Jim Allen, it would be wellnot to let people know it. He shook his head.
"The little devil is like a flea--no one knows where to find him," hedeclared. The remark seemed plausible enough.
They were close to Cannondale when another of the judge's riders joinedthem. The lathered flanks of his pony told of a hard ride. He swayed inhis saddle as he sought out his boss.
"Judge, they jumped us an' downed Hank and Bill. They got me in theshoulder----"
"And those two hundred two-year-olds?"
The judge knew the answer even before he asked the question.
"They run 'em off."
Judge Ransom gripped his saddle. No one there realized what this meantto him--financial ruin. The Lava Gang had made good their threat.
The sheriff had hoped that the wounded man they had found the nightbefore would be able to identify one of the murderers. But this hopewas dashed when he met Bill Anderson as they entered the town.
"That poor fellow," Anderson told him, "got one of his bandages looseand bled to death. I never heard him move, but he was dead when I gotto town."
The sheriff, followed by Toothpick, hurried to the doctor's house,where they were shown the dead man.
"Toothpick, yuh helped do him up; look them bandages over," the sheriffsaid.
After a brief examination Toothpick straightened, caught the sheriff'seye and nodded.
"I ain't no match for sneaks. If yuh know where to find him, go fetchJim-twin Allen!" the sheriff cried passionately.
"Yuh might tell folks I've gone north to see my mother," Toothpickwarned.