determinedly, no thought of panthers or other
“Don’t move—you murderer!”
dangers besetting her.
The stranger paid not the least
And her valiant little animal, with attention to her command, but dropped to his unerring instinct led her through the knees beside her father and inspected the treacherous badlands to a point where the bandages she had improvised.
moon shone down on a small clearing in the
“This won’t stop the flow of blood,”
scrub. The black figure of a horse stood with he said over his shoulder while his nimble drooping head near the shadow of a man who hands stripped off the cloth and readjusted lay stretched out flat near the edge of the them. “How long has he been here?”
clearing.
As he talked he took a flask of whisky
The girl slid to the ground and was
from his pocket and poured a few drops
instantly beside the person lying on his back.
between the lips of the wounded man. “That It was old Bob Lewis.
ought to bring him around,” he said.
He lay with one leg drawn up under
The girl stood by, helpless and angry.
him, twisted horribly. Blood soaked his shirt She felt foolish standing with the gun in her front. He was groaning weakly and his hands hand and yet unable to use it on the man who clutched at stray pebbles on the ground.
was ministering to her father. And the stranger The girl’s arm encircled his neck as
had knelt with his back to her as unconscious she spoke, but the man was too weak to of her presence, apparently, as though she had answer her. She tore off his shirt front and been one of the boulders that loomed darkly ripped it to pieces, binding the wound in his around them.
breast with the strips. She gently lifted his The whisky showed signs of reviving
heavy weight and shifted his great body until the rancher, and the stranger seemed relieved.
she had his leg straightened out under him.
“Now,” he asked, “can you tell us who shot This seemed to ease him somewhat and he
you? I have an idea, but—”
regained a little control of his dissipated Old Bob Lewis gazed at the stranger
senses.
and didn’t recognize him. “It must have been HIS eyes settled on his daughter and
you,” he said weakly.
he seemed to recognize her. He lifted one
hand and placed it feebly on his daughter’s THE girl heard the accusation with mixed
arm. He tried to say something.
disappointment and resolution.
“Can you tell me who shot you,
While the man still had his back to her
Daddy?” she asked brokenly.
she raised her gun and aimed it squarely at Her father looked at her with pain in
him.
his eyes and tried to speak, but his voice was
“Lift your hands straight up or I will
inaudible.
kill you,” she said in deadly earnestness.
A different voice came—
The man turned and recognized the
unexpectedly—out of the dark.
seriousness that was hers. Ha elevated his
“I think I can tell you, Miss.”
hands.
The girl turned suddenly. Limmed in
There was no longer the fleeting play
the moonlight was the stranger of the of laughter in his face which she had noted afternoon.
during the day, but even in the feeble light of
The Renegade of Painted Mesa 7
the crescent new moon she caught the bright one of the upright boulders just as the riders sparkle in his eyes and the frank but respectful came close enough for their conversation to be look he gave her. Pain shot through her but heard. She recognized Bart Bradley’s voice.
she kept to her resolution.
“You sure you got him?” Bradley
“Don’t move,” she commanded. “I’m
asked.
going to get your gun, and if you make any They were walking their horses and
movement I will shoot.”
the girl had no difficulty in hearing them talk.
She took two steps toward the man and
“Yeah,” growled the second rider.
reached for his gun. He was still looking at her
“I seen him fall when I potted him. He
and she felt her eyes drawn to his, held there was right about here somewhere.”
as though she were hypnotized by the serious
“I don’t think we oughta done it,” the
depths of his.
third man offered. “There wasn’t no use of it Then the man slowly and deliberately
as I could see. I don’t like this killin’
lowered one hand and took her gun by the
business.”
barrel.
Bradley snarled his reply. “There was
“You’d better give me this,” he said
plenty o’ use of it. He’s been askin’ me too with gentle firmness. Before she knew it he many funny questions lately. Kinda gettin’
had her weapon in his belt.
suspicious o’ our not bein’ able to stop this
“I’m sorry,” he said. “But there’s too
leak in his herd.”
much to do and I can’t let you interfere right now. Tell me all you know about what THE man wasn’t satisfied. “That don’t make happened.
him havin’ anything on us—just bein’
Something in his voice made the girl
suspicious. But killin’—now maybe we got
answer his question. It wasn’t fear that the our necks in a noose. Pottin’ a man’s different man inspired, but obedience. She told him
from just runnin’ off some of his stock.”
what the foreman had told her.
“Let up on that squawking,” Bradley
“And wasn’t your foreman here when
answered. “We got things cinched now.” As
you found your father?”
the foreman spoke he pulled up his horse and
“Why, no. I haven’t seen him since he
the three men dismounted, preparatory to
rode off. I wonder—”
searching for Lewis’ body.
“I think I know the answer to that,
“How?” the man continued.
too,” the man said. “I have an idea they’ll be
“This strange hombre that’s prowlin’
along here pretty pronto now. Will you help these hills. The girl havin’ seen him this me move your father—” He paused, listening afternoon, she’ll have to swear he was
intently.
skulkin’ around. He’s probably in here just to The girl heard the faint sound of knock off a few head o’ the old man’s cows—
horses’ hooves clattering on the stones. The which suits us perfect. We blame him with the man grasped her by the arm.
killin’, chase him down and hang him—and
“Keep quiet,” he whispered. “They that’s that. Whoa; here’s the old coyote an’ his will be looking for your dad, I’ve an idea.
horse.” Norma shivered in revulsion at what Come back here in the shadows—quick!”
she heard, and she leaned a little closer to the man who stood beside her. It was an
WITHOUT waiting for an answer the stranger unconscious gesture and the man took her arm led the girl out of the moonlight and into the reassuringly.
blackness of the scrub pines. He guided her to She felt his hand touch her arm and
Thrilling Ranch Stories
8
slide down to her own hand, then felt the
crescendo and clattered into the darkness.
smooth steel of her gun as he placed it in her The stranger b
arked an order. “Come
hand. She felt new strength rush through her.
out of there with your hands in the air,” but he The man beside her was alert, silent,
did not wait for the obedience he knew would but she felt the taut movement of his body as not be forthcoming. A new volley of bullets he breathed evenly. He was crouched almost answered him, and the roar echoed off into the on tiptoe now as the three men approached the hills.
body of her father. Old Bob Lewis’ life
The girl stood, half paralyzed,
depended on whether the stranger could watching the flaming tableau before her. Then protect him from the group.
her eyes caught a new movement, the shadow Bradley barked a curse. “Hell’s bells!
of the man who had fallen wounded on her
He’s still alive an’ somebody’s done found father. She saw the black silhouette of the man him. Look at them bandages! Wonder if he’s raise to one elbow and saw one arm extend
talked?”
with a gun pointing at the stranger’s back.
The moonlight was just enough for
She raised her gun in deliberate aim
Norma Lewis to see the indistinct form of the and squeezed the trigger. As her weapon
foreman as that worthy’s right hand went for barked a dagger of flame spouted from the
his gun, bent on making sure her father would fallen man’s gun, and the man dropped down not live to say any more. Her nerves were
again with a convulsive shudder.
keyed up almost to the breaking point.
But his own weapon had found a mark.
Near-by, the girl’s pony whinnied, as
The man beside Norma spun around as the
though it were a warning. And that startling bullet caught him. His head jerked back and sound halted Bradley’s gun-arm for a fraction he toppled over forward.
of a moment.
Heedless of the foreman and his one
In that split-second the man beside the
man hidden behind boulders, the girl rushed girl acted. His gun roared and one of the three forward to the man who was fighting for her.
men fell across the body of her father.
The other two dropped low for the
SHE dropped to one knee beside him,
protection of darkness and scuffled toward the answered a couple of shots with two from her edge of the clearing.
own gun.
She became suddenly a thing transformed. A THE stranger came out of the shadows with
fierceness took possession of her and changed his gun belching orange streaks of fire. her from the civilized creature she had been to Bradley whipped a couple of answering shots the primitive woman—fighting! Fighting with at him and scuttled to the protection of a a woman’s fury for those she loved!
boulder, closely followed by the second man.
She knew it now—as she must have
Norma’s man followed them up, filling
known it since she had seen this man the first the night with the roar of his weapon, time. This was her man who had come to her!
crouching forward as openly as though he
The stranger saw her, lying on his back
were on a public street.
as he was, and he motioned for her to get back The little hollow rang with the bark of
into the darkness. He was trying to get up onto Colt-guns as the two men behind the rocks
his knees. “Get back,” he shouted in a voice returned his fire. Orange stabs lit the clearing that did not conceal the pain he was suffering.
and the pungence of gunsmoke cut the “Quick.”
nostrils. Horses neighed in frightened
The Renegade of Painted Mesa 9
THE girl ignored the command. Instead she
perhaps. The stranger’s unaccountable
helped him to a sitting posture and handed conduct.
him his gun which had fallen in the dust.
Then she heard the soft crackle of a
The man snapped the trigger on a spent
boot on a dried twig. It sounded with the
shell.
sharpness of a rifle shot in the stillness, and it The girl took the weapon and handed
brought her back to reality.
him her own. She broke the heavy Colt and
Again the sound. And again. The
stuffed its cylinders with fresh cartridges from foreman or his man was coming out from
his gun belt. Then, while he fired at every behind the boulder. Cautiously !
intermittent flash from behind the rocks, she Three times more she heard the single
reloaded her own .32.
step. But the man beside her did not move a Crouched side by side, they settled muscle. He lay there, his hand clapped over down to a steady exchange of fire. Twice, then her mouth.
the third time, the man snapped his cylinder By the sound of the footsteps she judged the around while each time the girl refilled it.
action of the foreman. Warily he was coming Then—there were only three more shells in
out, believing that he had killed the stranger his belt. Grimly she stuffed these into the gun and the girl, but cautious nonetheless. More and showed him the three empty chambers
confident now, the man behind the boulder
before she closed the breach. Then she started ventured out. No shots greeted him, and he to crawl away.
grew bolder, his footsteps halting, light and On hands and knees she reached the
alert.
body of the man who lay beside her father, Crash!
and she unbuckled the cartridge belt from the dead man’s waist and brought it and his gun THE deafening explosion of a pistol almost back with her.
beside her ear!
They had almost emptied the last gun
Over by the boulder she made out the
when a sudden blaze of thunder roared from dim form of the foreman, saw it reel and spin, behind the rocks. The stranger yelled as then topple to the ground.
though a bullet had ploughed through his
The body was hardly fallen before the
heart. He started upward, then fell flat on the stranger was on his feet, racing with drawn ground.
gun. It was the foreman; his man lay nearby As he fell his flailing arms caught the
with a bullet in his chest. Both men were
girl and brought her down with him. Then he helpless but still alive.
quickly placed his hand over her mouth, lest The stranger gathered up all the
she should speak. Surprised, she lay without weapons in sight, then whistled for his horse.
making a sound.
“We’ll saddlebag these hombres across my
The trail that had echoed with the animal’s back,” he said to the girl. “And make sound of battle now was silent as a tomb. The a travois to get your dad home.”
eerie light played on the bodies stretched out While the man lashed his prisoners to
among the rocks.
his horse the girl worked over her father. The The girl lay, panting with the excitement, old man had fainted from loss of blood, but wondering. The seconds seemed like years.
more liquor from the stranger’s flask quickly And as she looked up at the stars, fleeting brought him around.
glimpses of the last few hours raced across her
“Now that you’re feeling better,” the
mind. Her father, lying near her, dying stranger said when he saw old Lewis
Thrilling Ranch Stories 10
examining him through eyes whose brightness is, in most cases. Anyway, my name’s
had returned. “Maybe I’d better introduce Gooding—Phil Gooding. I’ll present my myself.” The old man grunted.
credentials when we get you up to the house.”
“You done presented them as far as
I’M THAT range detective you asked the I’m conc
erned—when you gunned out that Association to send out about three months sneakin’ foreman o’ mine. Norma, I want you ago. We been so busy I couldn’t get here any to meet this feller—he’s a range detective.”
sooner. Been working down on the Rio.”
Gooding smiled at the girl. “Gooding’s
The old man spoke. “You should have
the name,” he said. “Glad to know you,
made yourself known. My foreman had us all because I have a lot of things I want to say to gunning for you and from what I just been
you.”
overhearing, they sure wanted you bad. And to
“Would it take long to say them?”
think, Bradley and them two skunks of his was Norma Lewis asked, looking at him squarely.
doing the stealing all the time.”
“Yes. A long, long time. Because I
“I don’t usually make myself known
want to keep saying them over and over—and until I get things straightened out. It makes over and over!”
things easier—” he looked at the girl—“that
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