* * *
CHAPTER XII
THWARTED
Instantly a sense of elation, tingling as an electric shock, surged over Stratton, and his grip on the Colt tightened. At last he was face to face with something definite and concrete, and in a moment all the little doubts and nagging nervous qualms which had assailed him from time to time during his long vigil were swept away. Cautiously drawing his gun into position, he felt for a match with the other hand and prepared to scratch it against the side of the bunk.
Slowly, stealthily, with many a cautious pause, the crawling body drew steadily nearer. Though the intense darkness prevented him from seeing anything, Buck felt at last that he had correctly gaged the position of the unknown plotter. Trying to continue that easy, steady breathing, which had been no easy matter, he slightly raised his weapon and then, with a sudden, lightning movement, he drew the match firmly across the rough board.
To his anger and chagrin the head broke off. Before he could snatch up another and strike it viciously, there came from close at hand a sudden rustle, a creak, the clatter of something on the floor, followed by dead silence. When the light flared up, illumining dimly almost the whole length of the room, there was nothing in the least suspicious to be seen.
Nevertheless, with inward cursing, Stratton sprang up and lit the lamp he had used early in the evening and which he had purposely left within reach. With this added illumination he made a discovery that brought his lips together in a grim line.
Someone lay stretched out in the bunk next to his own—Jessup’s bunk, which had been empty when he went to bed.
For a fleeting instant Buck wondered whether Bud could possibly have returned and crawled in there unheard. Then, as the wick flared up, he not only realized that this couldn’t have happened, but recognized lying on the youngster’s rolled-up blankets the stout figure and round, unshaven face of—Slim McCabe.
As he stood staring at the fellow, there was a stir from further down the room and a sleepy voice growled:
“What’s the matter? It ain’t time to get up yet, is it?”
Buck, who had just caught a glint of steel on the floor at the edge of the bunk, pulled himself together.
“No; I—I must have had a—nightmare,” he returned in a realistically dazed tone. “I was dreaming about—rustlers, and thought I heard somebody walking around.”
Still watching McCabe surreptitiously, he saw the fellow’s lids lift sleepily.
“W’a’s matter?” murmured Slim, blinking at the lamp.
“Nothing. I was dreaming. What the devil are you doing in that bunk?”
McCabe appeared to rouse himself with an effort and partly sat up, yawning prodigiously.
“It was hot in my own, so I come over here to get the air from the window,” he mumbled. “What’s the idea of waking a guy up in the middle of the night?”
Buck did not answer for a moment but, stepping back, trod as if by accident on the end of his trailing blanket. As he intended, the movement sent his holster and belt tumbling to the floor, and with perfect naturalness he stooped to pick them up. When he straightened, his face betrayed nothing of the grim satisfaction he felt at having proved his point. The bit of steel was a hunting-knife with a seven-inch blade, sharp as a razor, and with a distinctive stag-horn handle, which Tex Lynch had used only a few evenings before to remove the skin from a coyote he had brought down.
“Sorry, but I was dreaming,” drawled Stratton. “No harm done, though, is there? You ain’t likely to stay awake long.”
Without further comment he blew out the light and crawled into bed again. He found no difficulty now in keeping awake for the remainder of the night; there was too much to think about and decide. Now that he had measured the lengths to which Lynch seemed willing to go, he realized that a continuance of present conditions was impossible. An exact repetition of this particular attempt was unlikely, but there were plenty of variations against which no single individual could hope to guard. He must bring things to a head at once, either by quitting the ranch, by playing the important card of his own identity he had so far held back, or else by finding some other way of tying Lynch’s hands effectually. He was equally reluctant to take either of the two former steps, and so it pleased him greatly when at last he began to see his way toward working things out in another fashion.
“I’m blessed if that won’t put a spoke in his wheel,” he thought jubilantly, considering details. “He won’t dare to touch me.”
When dawn came filtering through the windows, and one thing after another slowly emerged from the obscurity, Buck’s eyes swiftly sought the floor below Bud’s bunk. But though McCabe lay there snoring loudly, the knife had disappeared.
Though outwardly everything seemed normal, Buck noticed a slight restlessness and laxing tension about the men that morning. There was delay in getting to work, which might have been accounted for by the cessation of one job and the starting of another. But knowing what he did, Stratton felt that the flat failure of their plot had much to do with it.
He himself took advantage of the lull to slip away to the harness-room on the plea of mending a rip in the stitching of his chaps. Pulling a box over by the window where he could see anyone approaching, he produced pencil and paper and proceeded to write out a rather voluminous document, which he afterward read over and corrected carefully. He sealed it up in an envelope, wrote a much briefer note, and enclosed both in a second envelope which he addressed to Sheriff J. Hardenberg. Finally he felt around in his pocket and pulled forth the scrawl he had composed the night before.
“They look about the same,” he murmured, comparing them. “Nobody will notice the difference.”
Buck was on the point of sealing the envelope containing the scrawl when it occurred to him to read the contents over and see what he had written.
The letter was headed “Dear Friend,” and proved to be a curious composition. With a mind intent on other things, Stratton had written almost mechanically, intending merely to give an air of reality to his occupation. In the beginning the scrawl read very much as if the “friend” were masculine. Bits of ranch happenings and descriptions were jotted down as one would in writing to a cow-boy friend located on a distant outfit. But gradually, imperceptibly almost, the tone shifted. Buck himself had been totally unaware of any change until he read over the last few pages. And then, as he took in the subtle undercurrent of meaning which lay beneath the penciled lines, a slow flush crept up into his face, and he frowned.
It was all rot, of course! He had merely written for the sake of writing something—anything. She was a nice little thing, of course, with an attractive feminine manner and an unexpected lot of nerve. He was sorry for her, naturally, and would like to help her out of what he felt to be a most disagreeable, if not hazardous situation. But as for anything further—
Still frowning, he thrust the sheets back into the envelope and licked the flap. He was on the point of stubbornly scrawling a man’s name on the outside when he realized how foolish he would be not to carry out his first and much more sensible intention.
He wanted an excuse for asking permission to ride to town to post a letter. This, in itself, was an extremely nervy request and under ordinary conditions almost certain to be profanely refused. But Buck had a shrewd notion that after the failure of Lynch’s plans, the foreman might welcome the chance of talking things over with his confederates without danger of being observed or overheard. On the other hand, if there should be the least suspicion that his letter was not of the most innocent and harmless sort, he would never in the world be allowed to get away with it.
The result was that when he strolled out of the harness-room a little later the envelope bearing the name of Sheriff Hardenberg reposed within his shirt, while the other, addressed now to a mythical “Miss Florence Denby,” at an equally mythical street number in Dallas, Texas, protruded from a pocket of his chaps.
“I don’t s’pose you’ve got a stamp you’ll sell me,” he i
nquired of Lynch, whom he found in the bunk-house with McCabe. “I’d like to get this letter off as soon as I can.”
Balancing the envelope in his hand, he held it so that the foreman could easily read the address.
“I might have,” returned Lynch briefly. “Looks like that letter was heavy enough to need two.”
Buck allowed him to weigh it in his hand for an instant, and then, in simulated confusion, he snatched it back.
“Must be writin’ to yore girl,” grinned McCabe, who had also been regarding the address curiously.
Stratton retorted in a convincingly embarrassed fashion, received his stamps and then proffered his request, which was finally granted with an air of reluctance and much grumbling.
“I wouldn’t let yuh go, only I don’t know what the devil’s keepin’ that fool Bud,” growled Lynch. “Yuh tell the son-of-a-gun I ain’t expectin’ him to stop in town the rest of his natural life. If them wagon-bolts ain’t come, we’ll have to do without ’em. Yuh bring him back with yuh, an’ see yuh both get here by dinner time without fail.”
Buck gave the desired promise and, hastily saddling up, departed. About three miles from the ranch, he rode off to the side of the trail and dismounted beside a stunted mesquite. Under its twisting branches, he dug a hole with the toe of his boot and interred therein Miss Florence Denby’s letter, torn into small fragments.
This done he swung himself into the saddle and headed again for Paloma Springs, and as he rode he began to whistle blithely.
* * *
CHAPTER XIII
COUNTERPLOT
“The low-down, ornery liar!” sputtered Bud Jessup, face flushed and eyes snapping. “He told me to wait for them bolts if I had to stay here all day. I thought it was kinda funny he’d let me waste all this time, but I didn’t have no idea at all he’d got me out of the way a-purpose to put across that dirty deal. Why, the rotten son-of-a—”
“Easy, kid,” cautioned Buck, glancing at the open door of the store. “You’ll have Pop comin’ out to see what all the excitement’s about, and that isn’t our game—yet.”
He had found Bud alone on the rickety porch, kicking his heels against the railing and fretting at his enforced idleness; and having hitched his horse, he lost no time in giving the youngster a brief account of the happenings of the night before.
“Not him,” shrugged Jessup, though he did lower his voice a trifle. “The up train’s due in less than half an hour, an’ Pop’s gettin’ the mail-bag ready. That means readin’ all the post-cards twice at least, an’ makin’ out all he can through the envelopes, if the paper’s thin enough. I often wondered why he didn’t go the whole hog an’ have a kettle ready to steam the flaps open, he seems to get so much pleasure out of other people’s business.”
Stratton chuckled. This suited him perfectly up to a certain point. He pulled the letter out of his shirt and was pleased to see that none of the writing was visible. Then he displayed the face of the envelope to his companion.
Bud’s eyes widened. “Whew!” he whistled. “That sure looks like business. What’s up, Buck? Can’t yuh tell a man?”
“I will on the way back; no time just now. Let’s go in.”
He led the way into the store and walked down to where Daggett was slowly sorting a small pile of letters and post-cards.
“Hello, Pop!” he greeted. “Looks like I was just in time.”
The old man peered over the tops of his spectacles. “Yuh be, if yuh want to catch the up-mail,” he nodded. “Where’s it to?”
He took the letter from Stratton’s extended hand and studied it with frank interest.
“Jim Hardenberg!” he commented. “Wal! Wal! Friend of yores, eh?”
“Oh, I don’t know as you’d hardly call him that,” evaded Stratton. “Haven’t seen him in over two years, I reckon.”
Pop waited expectantly, but no further information was forthcoming. He eyed the letter curiously, manœuvering as if by accident to hold it up against the light. He even tried, by obvious methods, to get rid of the two punchers, but they persisted in hanging around until at length the near approach of the train-hour forced the old man to drop the letter into the mail-bag with the others and snap the lock. On the plea of seeing whether their package had come, both Stratton and Jessup escorted him over to the station platform and did not quit his side until the train had departed, carrying the mail-sack with it.
There were a few odds and ends of mail for the Shoe-Bar, but no parcel. When this became certain, Bud got his horse and the two mounted in front of the store.
“By gee!” exclaimed Pop suddenly as they were on the point of riding off. “I clean forgot to tell yuh. They got blackleg over to the T-T’s.”
Both men turned abruptly in their saddles and stared at him in dismay. To the bred-in-the-bone rancher the mention of blackleg, that deadly contagious and most fatal of cattle diseases, is almost as startling as bubonic plague would be to the average human.
“Hell!” ejaculated Bud forcefully. “Yuh sure about that, Pop?”
“Sartain sure,” nodded the old man. “One of their men, Bronc Tippets, was over here last night an’ told me. Said their yearlings is dyin’ off like flies.”
“That sure is mighty hard luck,” remarked Jessup as they rode out of town. “I’m glad this outfit ain’t any nearer.”
“Somewhere off to the west of the Shoe-Bar, isn’t it?” asked Stratton.
“Yeah. ’Way the other side of the mountains. There’s a short cut through the hills that comes out around the north end of middle pasture, but there ain’t one steer in a thousand could find his way through. Well, let’s hear what you’re up to, old man. I’m plumb interested.”
Buck’s serious expression relaxed and he promptly launched into a detailed explanation of his scheme. When he had made everything clear Bud’s face lit up and he regarded his friend admiringly.
“By cripes, Buck!” he exclaimed delightedly. “That sure oughta work. When are yuh goin’ to spring it on ’em?”
“First good chance I get,” returned Buck. “The sooner the better, so they won’t have time to try any more dirty work.”
The opportunity was not long in coming. They reached the ranch just before dinner and when the meal was over learned that the afternoon was to be devoted to repairing the telephone leading from the ranch-house to Las Vegas camp, which had been out of order for several weeks. As certain fence wires were utilized for line purposes, this meant considerable work, if Stratton could judge by the ruinous condition of most of those he had seen. He wondered not a little at the meaning of the move, but did not allow his curiosity to interfere with the project he had in mind.
They had left the ranch in a bunch, Kreeger and Siegrist alone remaining behind for some other purpose. They had not gone more than two miles when a remark of McCabe’s on mining claims gave Buck his cue.
“A fellow who goes into that game with a bunch takes a lot of chances,” he commented. “I knew a chap once who came mighty near being croaked, to say nothing of losing a valuable claim, by being too confiding with a gang he thought could be trusted.”
“How was that?” inquired Slim amiably, as Stratton paused.
“They wanted the whole hog instead of being contented with their share, and tried two or three times to get this fellow—er—Brown. When Brown wised up to what was going on he thought at first he’d have to pull out to save his hide. But just in time he doped out a scheme to stop their dirty work, and it sure was a slick one, all right.”
Buck chuckled retrospectively. Though the pause was unbroken by any questions, he saw that he had the complete and undivided attention of his audience.
“What he did,” resumed Stratton, “was to write out a detailed account of all the things they’d tried to put across, one of which was an attempt to—a—shoot him in his bunk while he was asleep. He sealed that up in an envelope and sent it to the sheriff with a note asking him to keep it safe, but not to open it unless the writer, Brown, got
bumped off in some violent way or disappeared, in which case the sheriff was to act on the information in it and nab the crooks. After he’d got word of its receipt, he up and told the others what he’d done. Pretty cute, wasn’t it?”
The brief pause that followed was tense and fraught with suppressed emotion.
“Did it work?” McCabe at length inquired, with elaborate casualness.
“Sure. The gang didn’t dare raise a finger to him. They might have put a bullet through him any time, or a knife, and made a safe get-away, but then they’d have had to desert the claims, which wasn’t their game at all. Darn good stunt to remember, ain’t it, if a person ever got up against that sort of thing?”
There was no direct reply to the half-question, and Buck shot a glance at his companions. Lynch rode slightly behind him and was out of the line of vision. McCabe, with face averted, bent over fussing with his saddle-strings. The sight of Doc Peters’s face, however, pale, strained, with wide, frightened eyes and sagging jaw, told Stratton that his thrust had penetrated as deeply as he could have hoped.
“We’ll start here.”
It was Lynch’s voice, curt and harsh, that broke the odd silence as he jerked his horse up and dismounted. “Get yore tools out an’ don’t waste any time.”
There was no mistaking his mood, and in the hours that followed he was a far from agreeable taskmaster. He snapped and growled and swore at them impartially, acting generally like a bear with a sore ear whom nothing can please. If he could be said to be less disagreeable to anyone, it was, curiously enough, Bud Jessup, whom he kept down at one end of the line most of the afternoon. Later Stratton discovered the reason.
“It worked fine,” Bud whispered to him jubilantly, when they were alone together for a few minutes after supper. “Did yuh see him hangin’ around me this afternoon? He was grouchin’ around and pretendin’ to be mad because he’d let yuh go to town this mornin’ just to mail a letter to some fool girl.”
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