Sudden Rides Again (1938) s-4

by Oliver Strange

  "They were putting Merry's brand on my cows?" Keith asked, when the cowboy concluded. "Why should they do that?"

  "Jim figured it was to get yu in bad with the Twin Diamond."

  "Pretty far-fetched reason, that," the foreman commented.

  "Can you think of a better one?" his employer snapped. "What was Merry's view?"

  "He agreed it was like enough, an' said for me to tell yu he's buyin' the cows," Frosty replied. "The brandin' was mighty careless."

  "Did you know the men?"

  "The two at the fire was Greasers, three more was in the ruckus at Sam's, Jim sez; we didn't see the other."

  The rancher pondered for a moment. "If it didn't seem impossible, one might think they were waiting for you."

  "Shore looked thataway," Frosty said bluntly. "The fire was bound to be seen if anybody rode within miles."

  Lagley's laugh was scornful. "They claim Satan is a wizard, but I reckon he can't guess as good as that," he said. "Ain't but once in a while we ride that line."

  He regretted the words as soon as they were spoken. Keith whirled on him. "Is--that--so?" he said slowly. "No wonder I'm losing stock when you leave the door wide open for rustlers. Why don't you put up a board with `Welcome' on it?"

  The foreman's hard face flushed beneath the tan at this savage sarcasm. "We ain't strong enough to fight Hell City," he said sullenly. "Though I'm bettin' we'll have to now." This with a baleful glare at the two punchers.

  "If you are blaming these two men for to-day's work you can forget it," the Colonel said brusquely. "I am only sorry they couldn't exterminate them all. Green, I've something to say to you." He waited until the others had gone, and then, "What's your opinion of Lagley?"

  "Ain't got one--yet," was the non-committal reply. "Some of the men don't like him."

  "A popular foreman is either mighty good or mighty poor," Sudden stated, and changed the subject. "How many men does this Hell City jasper have?"

  "Rumour says anything from thirty to fifty."

  "Split the difference an' call it two score. Ain't it odd that out of all them, three at least should be the ones I tangled with?"

  "True," Keith agreed. "I think you were expected. Well, probably Lagley is right, it means war." His face became set with a swift resolve. "Have you been told that this masked miscreant is my--son?"

  "Yeah, by folk who don't believe it."

  "The evidence leaves little doubt," the rancher replied, with icy calmness. "Even if it be so, the welfare of the community demands that he be brought to justice." The stern voice did not falter, but the gaunt, white face told what an effort the word had cost. It was some moments before he spoke again. "What do you propose to do?"

  "It's his turn to move," the puncher pointed out. "Me an' Frosty will scout around like we did to-day; I want to get wise to the country."

  When he returned to the bunkhouse, he found it in a state of excitement over the defeat of the rustlers.

  "Sorta levels up for poor ol' Tim," one said.

  "Huh!" Lanky snorted. "A dozen Greasers wouldn't do that."

  The jubilation was not quite universal, several of the older men taking a pessimistic view of the matter. Turvey spoke plainly.

  "Askin' for trouble, I'd say," was how he put it. "What's a few steers compared with a man's life?"

  "How about that time yu shot a fella for tryin' to cheat yu out'n a measly ten dollars?" Frosty asked, recalling a story Turvey was fond of telling.

  "That was different," the other defended.

  "Yeah, the dollars was yourn, the steers is the 01' Man's," was the pointed reply.

  "Yu kids think yu know it all, an' then some. When yu git yore growth ..."

  Lazy headed off the impending quarrel. "What d'yu reckon Mister Satan will do?" he enquired of the company at large.

  "Tuck his tail into his rump an' punch the breeze, pronto, o' course," Turvey sneered. "Me, I'd be scared to death to know Frosty was after my scalp."

  That young man shared in the laugh. "Yu ain't got no scalp, yu bald-headed ol' buzzard," he said genially.

  Lagley had listened to the discussion in frowning silence. Now he spoke. "Green, yu'll ride the north line for a spell. I figure, after the fright yu've given 'em"--the sarcasm was pronounced--"one man'll be enough."

  Frosty started to open his mouth, but closed it again when he caught his friend's warning glance. Later, Sudden contrived to find the foreman alone.

  "Oh, Lagley, I didn't say nothin' before the others, but the Colonel said for me an' Frosty to double-team it," he explained.

  The foreman's eyes flashed. "O' course, if yo're afeard to go it alone--" he began.

  Sudden laughed. "I'm shakin' in my shoes, but when the owner--Keith is that, I s'pose?--gives orders ..."

  "They gotta be obeyed, huh, even if the foreman don't agree?"

  "I wasn't sayin' that, but the hand the orders is given to has to carry 'em out. The foreman can argue--"

  "Me argue with that bull-headed ol' fool?" Lagley savagely interrupted. "I got somethin' better to do. If he wants to run his damned ranch to hellangone ..."

  He stalked angrily away, leaving the cowboy in a thoughtful mood.

  Chapter VIII

  The following morning found the friends on the scene of the previous day's encounter, which, Sudden now learned, was known as Coyote Canyon. The bodies had gone, but not far, as two newly made mounds of stones testified. The ashes of the fire had been covered with sand.

  "Someone has tidied up," was Sudden's comment. "How far to Hell City from here?"

  " 'Bout eight mile, straight along the canyon," Frosty told him. "Thinkin' o' payin' a visit?"

  "Not till I get an invite," was the smiling reply, and the other grinned too, never dreaming that the remark was meant.

  Since their task was ostensibly the driving of strays from the stretches of scrub which clothed the foothills, they decided to separate. Two quick shots would be the signal for rejoining with the utmost speed. Frosty having departed eastwards, Sudden turned his horse's head in the opposite direction. For a mile or so, he threaded a way through clumps of thorny brush, forcing the few cattle he unearthed out on to the plain, and then turned abruptly to the north. A steady, devious climb along rocky, cactus-strewn defiles brought him at length to a lofty ledge of level ground, bare save for patches of grass, a sprinkling of gay flowers, and scattered groups of spruce and pine trees. On the far side of this expanse were more hills, with a break in the middle of them masked by forest growth. He was making towards this when the scream of a frightened horse dissipated the silence, and a noment later the animal came into view, galloping furiously hrough the boulders and brush which littered the approach o the pass.

  "A woman!" the puncher ejaculated. "What the hell ...?" His question was soon answered; little more than a hundred paces behind, a long, lithe tawny form flashed in the sunlight as it leapt over an obstacle in pursuit of its prey. The dangling reins told that the rider had lost control of her mount; clinging desperately to the saddle-horn, she could only urge it on in the vain hope of outrunning the peril. But the spectator saw another danger of which she evidently knew nothing : crazed by terror, the pony was racing blindly for the edge of the plateau and a sheer drop of a thousand feet on to the jagged rocks below.

  A word, and Nigger shot away to the right in an endeavour to intercept the fugitives, the mighty muscles bunching under the silken skin and transforming the animal into a black thunderbolt. A few tense moments at full speed and Sudden, standing in his stirrups, whirled his rope.

  "Steady, boy," he warned, as the loop settled over the head of the runaway, and Nigger slowed down sufficiently to check the captive pony without throwing it. For a few more yards the maddened beast fought onwards, but the increasing drag of the rope and the choking effect of the tightening noose prevailed; it pulled up, spent and trembling, almost on the brink of the abyss.

  One peril was past, but another still threatened. The mountain lion--doubtless made bold
by hunger--was not content to be baulked of its booty and was preparing to spring when Sudden's bullet smashed into its brain. With a word to his horse, the puncher got down, stepped swiftly to the woman and lifted her limp form from the saddle.

  "Everythin's right now, ma'am," he assured her. "How yu feelin'?"

  "Damned queer," was the surprising answer, as she subsided on a near-by stone. "What possessed my pony to jerk the reins from my hands and bolt like a mad thing?"

  "A big cat was needin' a meal--badly, I guess," he told her, and, when she looked round fearfully, added, "He ain't needin' it no longer."

  "So that was the shot," she said, and for a space was silent, studying him.

  Through narrowed lids, he returned the scrutiny. She was young, about his own age, he estimated, and, in any company, would be adjudged a beautiful woman. Thick braided coils of ebon hair matched the velvety darkness of her slumbrous eyes; a straight nose, full lips, and rounded cheeks which the sun had but faintly tinted, formed a face which compelled admiration. She was tall, for a woman, and her smart riding-costume displayed her fine, well-built figure to perfection. Presently she smiled, showing white, even teeth.

  "It just comes to me that I haven't thanked you for saving me from being devoured," she said. "But perhaps the lion would have preferred the pony.""

  "I reckon not, if he'd any taste," Sudden said.

  She smiled again at the compliment. "Why did you stop us before shooting the beast? Suppose you had missed ..."

  "Mebbe it was a risk, but I didn't expect to miss."

  His gaze went involuntarily to the edge of the plateau; she rose and stepped towards it, only to come hurrying back, horror and contrition in her eyes.

  "Forgive me, my friend," she cried. "You have saved me from a dreadful death, and I find fault. I did not know ..."

  "Shucks," he smiled. "Nothin' to that, ma'am; yu may be able to help me one day."

  "If that time ever comes, you may rely upon me," she said soberly. "But for now, I should like to know to whom I am indebted."

  He gave his name, adding that he was riding for Keith. "The Double K? Aren't you off your range a little?"

  "I'm kind o' new, an' don't know the lay-out," he explained. "Took a notion to come up here an' look around."

  "Which was as well for me. Do you think my horse can be trusted to carry me home?"

  "I reckon." He whistled, and Nigger trotted up, the other animal having perforce to follow. The woman's eyes swept over the black approvingly.

  "Your own?" she asked, and when he nodded, "Take care of him, my friend; he's a temptation."

  "Any stranger who tried to ride him would have a real interestin' time," the puncher told her.

  He went to her pony, which was still wild-eyed and nervous, but when he had slipped the noose from its neck, soothed and spoken to it for a moment or two, it quietened down and allowed its mistress to mount.

  "You seem to understand horses," she commented.

  "I was raised among 'em," he said. "Like dawgs, they know their friends." He coiled his rope, and got into his own saddle. "An' where now?"

  "I'm going to look for my hat--it fell off," she replied, but when he offered to help she shook her head. "You have done enough, and I shall remember, but we part here."

  "For good?" he queried.

  "Quien saber'" She smiled. "Fate, having brought us together so dramatically, must mean us to meet again."

  He clasped the firm, gloved hand she extended and turned his horse southwards. It was only when she had vanished among the trees that he remembered she had not told him her name--the brand on the pony was his only clue to her identity. Cursing himself for a bonehead, he retraced his steps to the plain, where he soon met Frosty.

  "Thought I heard a shot," that young man greeted."'Yu did--ran into a mountain lion.

  "Git him?"

  "Yeah," Sudden replied. "Anybody own a B D iron around here?"

  "No, an' we don't usually brand our lions neither," was the flippant answer.

  "Nor yore jackasses--at least, I ain't noticed yu wearin' one," Sudden returned pleasantly.

  It was some time later that, without even a warning chuckle, Frosty emitted a bellow of laughter which sent both their mounts into the air, and it was some moments before they could convince the startled animals that the end of the world had not arrived. Even Nigger, who would stand like a rock when a pistol was discharged by his ear, was not proof against that explosive shriek of merriment. When quiet had been restored, Sudden looked disgustedly at the cause of the trouble.

  "What's the idea, yu snowy-pated pie-eater, tryin' to bust our necks thataway?" he demanded.

  "I just remembered somethin'," the culprit spluttered, suppressing a second outburst with difficulty.

  "Must be a helluva joke if yu've on'y just seen it."

  "Shore is," his friend grinned. "Might them letters, B D, stand for `Bewitchin' Damsel'?" Getting no response, he went on, "She's a good-looker all right, but so is a cactus or a cougar an' they're safer to have truck with."

  Sudden spoke to his steed. "Don't yu never eat locoweed, ol' hoss, now yu see what it does. Here's a fella who looks a'most intelligent at times, an'--"

  "Quit joshin', Jim," Frosty broke in. "B D means Belle Dalroy, an' her address is Hell City. Come clean."

  Whereupon Sudden told his adventure, which drew a long whistle from his companion. "She's reputed to be hand and glove with Satan an' as cold-blooded as a frawg," he said.

  "She seemed very grateful; might be useful if ever we go visitin' there."

  "If ever we go? Leave me out, cowboy; I'd as soon try the real place."

  "Oh, I dunno; it'd be kind o' interestin'."

  "Yeah, Scar an' his crew would make it that for yu."

  He got no reply; Sudden's mind was busy with the woman, wondering what had brought her to this refuge of the reckless. Was she, too, in hiding? It was more than possible, for with all her beauty, he had sensed a hardness which told of contacts with a world which had not been too kind. He became aware that Frosty was speaking.

  "If I hear o' yu tryin' to go there alone, yu an' me'll take the floor together."

  At which Sudden laughed and was well content.

  The guard at the entrance to Hell City did not keep Belle Dalroy waiting, the ponderous gate swinging back as she reached it. With a smile of thanks she passed through and rode to the Chief's quarters. Here again she encountered no difficulty; even before she knocked, the door opened. She passed the dwarf with a mere glance and failed to see the look of desire in the animal eyes.

  The Chief was standing at one of the deep, curtained openings which did duty as windows, from which could be seen a considerable portion of the great basin. Less than a dozen miles distant, to the east, lay the settlement of Dugout. From the windows themselves, the cliff face fell, almost vertically, to the tree-tops a hundred feet below.

  "Did you have a nice ride, Belle?" he asked.

  "yes, and no," she replied. "I wish you wouldn't wear that hideous disguise when I come to visit you."

  Her petulance appeared to amuse him. "Hideous?" he repeated. "I think it rather intriguing, and--as I am tired' of telling you--I have made a vow. And it is useful to me; the unknown fascinates the ignorant and keeps them interested; you know, one can weary of even the most lovely things, and it is a theory of mine that if married couples wore masks there would be fewer unhappy unions."

  The quaint suggestion made her smile. "If I thought you were serious, Jeff, I would get one," she replied.

  Instantly his humour changed. "I think I referred to married couples," he retorted crushingly, and laughed at the furious look the reminder evoked. "Ah, now you are angry--a beautiful wild-cat, who would use her claws--if she dared."

  The pale blue eyes challenged her; they had, at times, the curious quality of appearing to be dead, expressionless, as though made of stone. The girl was silent, held by the un-winking gaze of those lifeless orbs.

  "Where did you ri
de?" he asked.

  "South, through the gorges, to a high, flat-topped hill. I don't know the name."

  "Battle Mesa," he told her. "Many years ago, the Hopi Indian tribe which dwelt in these commodious but somewhat incomplete apartments was almost exterminated there by Apaches--hence the name. Foolish of them to fight in the open--this rock stronghold is impregnable."

  "You are very sure of yourself, Jeff, but one day the Governor will move," she said.

  "When he does I shall know of it, and all his plans," he boasted. "You do not believe me. Listen: didn't I warn you that the mountain lion could be dangerous? Well, you know now that it is so. But for the advent of a stranger the coyotes would be wrangling over your broken bones at the foot of the Mesa cliff."

  "You saw?" she cried in amazement.

  "I have not been out of this place," he replied. "Yet I watched your pony, crazy with fear, carrying you to destruction. Luckily, a tall, dark cowboy, on a black horse, arrived in time to rope your mount and shoot the beast pursuing you. A capable fellow, that Mister Green, of the Double K."

  The completeness of his information struck her dumb. She did not doubt him, for she knew how seldom he went abroad. It was incredible--and disturbing.

  "I trust you did not tell him anything about yourself?" he continued.

  "You should know," she answered.

  "I do," he said quietly. "You even refused his escort, which was wise. I only asked--"

  "To see if I would lie to you," she cut in passionately. "Precisely," he confessed. "I have faith in none, save, perhaps, Silver, who would die rather than betray me."

  "A mere brute."

  "True, but one who, at a word from me, would tear you to shreds," he replied. "Now, I must find a way to thank this man who has put me in his debt." The sneering smile expressed anything but gratitude. "In future, you must not ride alone--it is too dangerous."

  "Life here is so damned dull, Jeff," she urged. "One might as well be--"

  "In a penitentiary, were you about to say?" he enquired icily.