by Grey, Zane
"An' what was thet?"
"'No, damn you, Surface! I won't! Get someone else to do yore dirty work!'"
"Ahuh. Short an' sweet. I had Bess figured. Anythin' more?"
"I peeped into Hall's. Yore men air still there. Watchin' oot the window."
"Wal, thet'll be aboot all. Yu stay heah. An' when I get into Hall's yu follow pronto."
Brazos strode swiftly into the first store, traversed its length, hurried out into the alley, and ran to the side street. Here he slowed up, caught his breath, and went on to Hailey's hotel, which occupied the corner at its junction with the main street. Brazos stepped into the side entrance.
Surface stood near the door of the hall, his tall form bent over the girl, who was in the act of wrenching free from his clutch. His back was toward Brazos. Bess leaned against the wall as if for support. She looked a defiant, hounded creature, game to the finish.
"You can't, scare me, Raine Surface," she said, low and hard. "I wouldn't be in your boots for all your money."
Brazos entered the lobby.
Chapter 8
"Wal, Bess, air yu meanin' daid men's boots?" queried Brazos, as he stepped in between them.
"Oh--Brazos!" gasped the girl.
Surface's visage changed instantly, markedly in colour, monstrously in expression. Unquestionably for an instant he thought his death was imminent.
"What yu raggin' my girl for?" asked Brazos, with a pretence of jealousy.
"Your--girl?" ejaculated Surface huskily. "She's deceived you, Keene--same as all of us. She's Syvertsen's--"
"Daughter, yu mean?"
The rancher swerved. As his first shocking fear subsided he began to recover his nerve. "Daughter--hell! She's no more his daughter than mine."
"So yu say? wal, what is she, then?"
"What could she be, Keene? For a cowboy who's supposed to be so damned smart you're sure a fool."
"That'll do, Surface," cut in Bess. "I meant to tell him myself and leave Las Animas. Take care you don't drive me to tell him what you are!"
Brazos jerked as if stung. "What the hell!" he flashed. "Bess, I don't like this talk. But I trust yu. Surface, I always thought there was somethin' queer aboot yu." Dealing Surface a powerful left-handed blow, Brazos knocked him flat. The rancher, scrambling up, stuttering maledictions, lifted a bloody visage: "You'll pay for this outrage--you--"
"Come--Brazos," said Bess, low-voiced, and she touched his arm.
"Doggone it, Bess!" complained Brazos, going with her into the street. "I come pretty near gettin' sore."
"You well had reason," she replied. "I'm sorry you saw me with Surface. You might believe that influenced me--to tell you--what I must."
"Ump-umm, Bess. But yu don't have to tell me nothin'."
"I must--if it's the last honest thing I ever do."
"All right, if yu put it thet way."
"I was a cheat and a liar," she went on swiftly. "Whatever else I am you can guess. Surface told the truth. Bard Syvertsen is not my father. I never had any parents that I knew of. I was brought up in a home for--for illegitimates. Syvertsen did not ruin me--nor Orcutt. Don't hold that against them. They were hired to make away with you. I was to work on your well-known weakness for women--entice you to some secluded spot--or my room, where you'd be shot--supposedly by an angry father and lover for attempting to dishonour me. That was the plot. But I give you my word--never once since I met you have I kept faith with them. I double-crossed them. And to-day after I say good--good-bye to you--I'll tell them--"
"Ump-umm, sweetheart," returned Brazos enigmatically.
They had almost reached Hall's saloon. Inskip stood at his post across the street; Kiskadden remained where Brazos had left him; Bilyen had not come out. Brazos laid hold of Bess's arm with his left hand, so that she could not break away from him.
"Girl, when yu confessed all thet yu proved a lot. Yu won my respect--an' yu saved yoreself a term in prison, if not yore life!"
With that he swung 'her with him into the saloon, and sent her whirling, almost falling toward Syvertsen and Orcutt, who were backing away from the window. Brazos leaped back in front of the door, so that he could face them and all the big room.
"Everybody in heah freeze!" he yelled, his voice loud with strident ring.
An instant silence contrasted with the former clink and hum of the saloon. On the moment Kiskadden came sliding in behind Brazos, closely followed by Inskip. Then they backed slowly to Brazos's left step by step until the tables halted them.
"Yu hell-cat!" burst out Syvertsen. "What does this mean?".
The girl stiffened as her head swept up and back to the wall, knocking off her sombrero. Then she appeared a white-faced woman at bay.
"I told him!" she cried.
"You told him that--you told him who--" gasped Syvertsen.
"Stop!" thundered Brazos. "Yu're forgettin' I'm here. Yu ask me."
Both Bess's antagonists had actually forgotten the presence of Brazos Keene. They were rudely reminded of it and that the stiffness of the spectators, the silence, the strange position of the cowboy, bent a little, both brown, powerful hands extended a little low, and quivering--that all these constituted a tremendous menace. Then the significance of Brazos Keene dawned appallingly upon them. He confronted them. There was no escape. And the reputation of this fire-eyed cowboy might as well have been blazoned on the walls.
"You hombres murdered Allen Neece an' blamed thet job on me," went on Brazos relentlessly. "Yu murdered him because Surface wanted it done. An' yu schemed to put me oot of the way because Surface was afraid I'd take Allen Neece's trail. Wal, yu bet yore life I took it, an' it ends right heah. Surface beat Abe Neece oot of Twin Sombreros Ranch. Yu men held up Neece thet night an' robbed him. An' yu all sicked this girl on me 'cause none of yu had the nerve to meet me face to face--Wal, thet's my say. An' after all, yu're meetin' me face to face!"
As Brazos ended he read the desperate intent in Orcutt's eyes and beat him to a gun. Orcutt's heart was split even as he pulled trigger and his bullet hissed hotly by Brazos's ear.
Syvertsen, slow to realise and act, scarcely had his gun free when Brazos shot him through. The bull thudded into the wall. Syvertsen did not fall. He did not lose sight or intent. But his muscular co-ordination had been destroyed. Fire and smoke belched from his wavering gun. His frown of immense surprise, his pale lighted eyes, his incoherent ejaculations of hate were all appalling to see.
The smoke cleared away, disclosing Bess, back against the wall, her arms widespread, with her gaze fixed terribly upon the fallen men.
"He--killed--them?" she panted, as if dazed. "Brazos Keene!"
Suddenly she sprang out from the wall, formidable as a tigress.
"You fooled me--to kill them!"
"Don't draw, Bess--don't!" warned Brazos shrilly.
"I'll kill you!"
As she whipped out her gun Brazos had to be quick to save his life. He took a shot at her arm, high up. The heavy bullet spun her around like a top and sent the little gun flying. Shrieking wildly she collided with the wall, bounced out to fall beyond the two dead men.
As Brazos sheathed his gun and knelt to lift her head she ceased the cry of agony. She gazed up at Brazos, fascinated, suddenly bereft of all hate and passion.
"You've killed me--Brazos?"
"I'm terrible scared Bess," replied Brazos, and he did not lie. He saw that he had hit her in the breast or shoulder, instead of in the arm. Blood was pouring Out. He was afraid to open her blouse.
"Bess, if yu have to go--make it a clean job," said Brazos earnestly. "Confess. Tell the truth about this deal."
"The truth?" she whispered.
"Yes. Of Allen Neece's murder."
"All right," she said, smiling. "My right name is Bess Moore. I am not Syvertsen's wife. We belonged to Raine Surface's crooked outfit at Abilene. Surface is a man of two sides. One of them is black as hell. We were called here to put Allen Neece out of the way. I got him to drink--coaxed him to ride out of town
with me. Orcutt roped him from behind bushes on the road--jerked him off his horse. As he lay on the ground Bard shot him--in the back. They carried him to the Hill cabin--left him in the loft--Then Brazos Keene rode up. Bard had a few words with Brazos--thought he deceived him. He rode back to town and fastened the crime upon Brazos. But our own plot miscarried--and lately--Surface called us again--to do the same job--over--"
"Thet'll do, Bess. Give me the paper, Kiskadden. Bess, can you sign yore name heah?" importuned Brazos.
Bess signed her name and then fell back fainting. Brazos, with shaking hands, tore open her blouse, shivering at the white, swelling breast. He pulled the blouse down over the blood-stained shoulder to feel for the wound, frantic in fear that it would be too low. But he found it high up, just where the arm met the shoulder, a bad, painful wound, but not in any sense dangerous to life.
"Aw!" Brazos burst out. "She's not bad hurt at all. She's only fainted. Hank, get somebody to help carry her to Bailey's. Call the doctor. I'll be back pronto."
Brazos snatched the paper from Bilyen and relinquished the girl to him. Then he stood up, tense and eager.
"It's aboot all, men, but not quite," he said as he carefully folded the confession. "Come with me. Yu, too, Kiskadden, an' fetch somebody with yu."
At the foot of the Odd Fellows stairway Brazos halted to load his gun.
"Brazos, is yore haid cool?" asked Kiskadden. "I ain't presumin' to advise yu. I'm just askin'."
"Speak oot, old-timer."
"It might look better to hold yore hand at Surface. Yu know the range--an' he has friends. Don't let them call this a gun-man's spree."
"Wal, unless he goes for his gun--which he won't. Only I hope to Gawd he does! Come on an' step easy."
Brazos went up the stairs three steps at a time, and his followers strung after him. The door of the hall stood open. Surface was holding forth with resonant voice.
"Gentlemen, all our fellow citizens were invited to participate here. Evidently those who stayed away were satisfied to leave important matters to us. We have all voted, and the result assures Bodkin's election as sheriff of Las Animas. Formerly he was appointed by the Cattlemen's Association. That is a distinction with a difference. There remains to invite undesirable loafers, gamblers, dissolute women, suspected cowmen, and at least one notorious cowboy, to leave Las Animas."
Brazos drew his gun and stepped into the hall. "Wal, Surface," he called ringingly, "heah's yore last-named undesirable--to talk for himself."
No noticeable change showed in the rancher's pale face. He had begun to weigh this intrusion. Kiskadden, Inskip, and others filed in with grave, grim visages.
"Gentlemen, you come too late to participate in this election," he rolled out sonorously.
"Ump-umm!" retorted Brazos. "Surface, did yu heah me? I said yore jig was up. I just shot yare ootflt, Bard Syvertsen--Hen Orcutt--an' Bess!".
"Dead!"
"Wal, the girl lived to sign her confession."
Then a startling transformation made Surface another man.
"Yu're gonna heah thet confession read."
With left hand, watching the cattleman like a hawk, Brazos extracted the paper from his vest.
"Somebody read this."
Kiskadden took the paper and with slow, deliberate voice, he read it solemnly. When he had finished Surface seemed actually to have shrunken in stature.
"All right, Surface, I can't waste time waitin'," went on Brazos. "March down heah."
Brazos marched Surface down the stairway to the street, and into the rancher's buckboard. Brazos climbed into the back seat.
"Drive oot to Neece's ranch," he called, loud enough for the gathering bystanders to hear.
"Neece's ranch! Where's that?"
"Where do yu reckon, yu robber? Twin Sombreros Ranch!"
In short order the spirited team arrived at the ranch.
"Surface, I want thet bag of gold."
"What--bag--of gold?"
"Yu know. Syvertsen held Neece up an' robbed him of it."
At the point of Brazos's gun the rancher led the way into the ranch-house and into his roam, where, from under the floor of a closet, he dragged up an extremely heavy satchel.
"Open it," ordered Brazos eagerly.
Surface complied to expose packs of greenbacks and bags that gave forth a musical clink of precious metal.
"Drive to the station, Surface. Its aboot time for the afternoon train."
With gun in hand Brazos saw that the deposed rancher bought a ticket to Abilene--saw him stand on the platform, a target for all eyes--saw him mount the platform of the passenger coach of the train. Then he delivered himself of a final word.
"Surface, yu're gettin' off turrible lucky. It's due to yore daughter. Get oot of Colorado, an' stay oot. If I ever run into yu again I'll kill yu."
There were two windows in Bess's room, letting the sunlight flood in, to show her white, strained face on the pillow. But the fire, the hate, the passion were gone.
Brazos advanced to the bed as he spoke to the woman in attendance. "Leave us alone a little, nurse."
"Howdy, Brazos Keene," said the girl, looking up.
"Howdy yoreself, girl," he replied, and carefully sat down on the bed. "Air yu in Pain?"
"Not so bad now. It did hurt like hell, though."
"Close shave, Bess. Gosh, I was scared."
He bent over and kissed her as he might have if she were indeed what she had tried to deceive him into believing.
"Oh, Brazos! What have you done to me!" she cried brokenly, clinging to him.
"Wal, wearin' yu oot, for one thing," he replied, gently disengaging himself. "I'll go now, sweetheart. Yu look most as turrible as when yu lay on the floor at Hall's an' I reckoned yu was dyin'--I've excited yu too much."
"You've broken--my heart--and made me bless you--for it--and want to--to live--and be--something again."
"Wal, think of breakin' a girl's heart an' makin' her the better for it!" drawled Brazos, and he bent to kiss her again. "Thet's somethin' for a hombre like me to remember. I'll come down to the train an' see yu off."
Chapter 9
Sitting his horse, Brazos gazed down into Coglan's valley. This valley was forty miles up in the foothills from Las Animas, a secluded spot once inhabited by Ute Indians. The tribe had moved on into a more inaccessible spot, driven farther by the advance of their unscrupulous foe--the white man. They were friendly to Coglan, Brazos remembered.
Brazos rode on down into the valley and up to the log cabin among the firs. Two little girls were playing about the door. Presently a buxom, rosy-cheeked young woman looked out.
"Evenin', lady," said Brazos, taking off his sombrero. "Is Coglan anywhere aboot?"
"He was. Get down an' come in, stranger."
Brazos had scarcely dismounted when Coglan appeared. He was a strapping man, still young, half hunter and half trapper, brown as an Indian.
"Brazos Keene, by Gawd!" ejaculated the mountaineer with a whoop. "You pestiferous, long-legged cowpuncher! Put her thar!" And he nearly crushed Brazos's hand.
Later, Brazos and Coglan walked down to the corrals.
"Coglan, I want to hang aboot heah for a month or so," Brazos was saying. "Chop wood an' hunt an' loaf. An' be alone. Yu know!"
"I savvy. Tell me when you feel like it or not at all."
"Wal, I'll get it off my chest," replied Brazos, and briefly related the Las Animas tragedy.
Coglan's trips to town kept Brazos abreast of the latest developments. He learned that Neece was happily busy with his regained Twin Sombreros Ranch, and had gone into partnership with young Sisk. But he was alarmed to hear that Bodkin had been elected sheriff by popular vote, and that Raine Surface had been killed on the street in Dodge City.
Still Brazos stayed in the valley, until one October night he returned to the cabin to find Coglan back early from a trip.
"Bilyen says you're stayin' away too long. Bodkin is braggin' he will arrest you, if you ever come
back."
"Good Lord!" ejaculated, Brazos.
"There's a stranger lately dropped into town. Calls himself Knight an' say's he's a cattle buyer for a big Kansas City firm. He an' Bodkin got thick pronto. Bilyen remembers seein' this man with Bodkin once last August."
"Wal, I'll ride down soon. What else did yu heah, Coglan?"
"Not much. But I met Neece in town. No one would think he'd ever been down an' out. The Neece-Sisk-Henderson cattle deal went through. They're runnin' eighty thousand head."
"Thet's a solid combine. Reckon they're gonna buck the Miller ootfit. I reckon Bilyen is behind thet deal."
"They're buildin' a big barn at the ranch. Hauled in a saw-mill. Hank says it'll be the biggest in Colorado. They got the roof up an' the floor down when the twins stopped work with an idea. To give a grand dance."
"Aw, June wouldn't give a dance without me!" exclaimed Brazos.
"Girls are queer critters. You'd better rustle, Brazos."
Next morning Brazos paid vastly more attention to his appearance than was usual with him. "Doggone it! I could look better," he soliloquized, dissatisfied. "But at thet I'm not so pore."
When he buttoned up his new grey coat he found that only the tip of his gun sheath, belted high, showed beneath it. That afforded him great satisfaction, but when he went out to ride to Twin Sombreros he left that coat open and hitched the gun sheath to its old place. Brazos rode up to the corrals and barns at the back of the ranch house.
Cowboys watched Brazos's slow approach. He reined in before them.
"Howdy, cowboys. Is this heah Twin Sombreros Ranch?" he drawled.
"It sure is, cowboy. Get off an' be at home," answered one young fellow.
"Where's them twins? I want to hit them for a job ridin' heah."
"Say, cowboy, you can't fool us. You're Brazos Keene."
"Who'n hell said I wasn't?"
"Hey, Jack, come here," called Brazos's first interrogator, sticking his head into the door of the bunkhouse. "You're wanted."
Whereupon Jack Sam emerged to look, to stare, to give a whoop and thump clinking off the porch.
"Brazos! What you doin' on that horse? Git down!" he yelled, leaping to meet Brazos's outstretched hand.