Meanwhile, as he ate he studied the situation.
The Circle J lay well to the south, and the sooner he rode down there and got in touch with Pamela or her father, the better he would feel. Yet it did not pay to ride blind in a country like this, and he knew the hours spent around Horse Springs would not be wasted.
Ignoring Rebb and the stranger in the tweed suit, he sat long over his coffee and did a lot of careful thinking. Then he went to the livery barn to see how his horse was being cared for. Here and there he made comments about the weather and did much listening. He knew how to fit facts together and how to make a complete picture of isolated bits of information.
This he was doing now, and the final result was not reassuring.
He had no hope that he would remain long unknown. In the first place, Bizco would be somewhere around, and might even now be reporting to Avery Sparr that Hopalong Cassidy had started West with fifteen thousand dollars for Dick Jordan.
Certainly, if he had not already done so, he soon would, and if not, they were sure to meet sooner or later if Bizco had continued on West. The draw poker session was on when he returned to the saloon, but for once he had no desire to sit in.
Johnny Rebb was loafing about, and Cassidy drifted toward him and dropped into a seat nearby.
"Leeds go home?" "Yeah." Rebb looked up, grinning slightly. "He shore was proud o' you.
Said you saved his bacon-an' no mistake."
"Got him a good place?"
"Fair to middlin'. He does all right."
"What's McClellan like?"
"Cowtown. Some minin'. Used to be soldiers around."
"Money in town?"
Rebb shrugged. "Sometimes. One big mine over thataway. Big for this country, anyway, and when the ranches pay off, she's loaded."
"Bank held up over there, they tell me."
Rebb's eyes lifted. They were suddenly veiled. "Who tells you?" "Hombre back down the line." Hopalong jerked his head over his shoulder in the direction of Texas. "Had a letter from there."
"Yeah, there was a holdup."
"Catch anybody?"
Rebb chuckled. "Why, they couldn't catch cold, not that outfit! An', again, maybe they didn't want to."
"Friendly sheriff?"
Rebb was uneasy. He did not like leading questions, but he thought he saw a IQ-NDRED spirit in this stranger calling himself Tuck. "Not exactly, but he might be gun-shy."
Hopalong chuckled. "Towns with loaded banks shouldn't have gun-shy sheriffs."
"That bank," Hopalong suggested after a minute, "may have more trouble." Johnny Rebb glanced up.
"What d'you mean?"
Hopalong shrugged. "Can't tell. Some fellers might figure"... He hesitated, then let his eyes meet Rebb's-"that now'd be a good time to cash in a six-shooter over there. Right after the one holdup they'd not be lookin' for another."
Rebb scowled. It was a good idea. Was this stranger feeling him out? Who was he? He glanced up and caught Mark Connor's eye, and suddenly he did not feel so good. "Got to light a shuck," he said.
"See you." Hopalong let Rebb rise to his feet before he spoke again. "Come around someday an' we'll talk about this again. Might be right interestin'."
Rebb hesitated, then shook his head. "I don't rightly figger you, amigo," he said quietly, "but in this country you better not get any ideas. Local folks take care of local business."
Cassidy let his blue eyes show their steel.
"Meanin' you?" There was a hint of challenge in the tone of his voice that stiffened and angered Rebb.
"No," he said, "meanin' other folks, who don't take to buttin'
Hopalong went to his room. Once inside he dropped on the bed and pulled off a boot.
It dropped on the floor. After a few minutes he pulled off the other and let it fall. Then he took off his hat and leaned back on the bed. He did not go to sleep.
Miles to the south, at the Circle J, Avery Sparr sat on a cowhide-covered divan and stared at the man who was talking. He was a slim, dark-faced young man with one lowered eyelid.
"An' he's got that fifteen thousand on him!
He's comin' right out here with it!"
Sparr was a tall, spare man with shoulders narrower than his hips, but rounded and bowed with muscle.
He stared at Bizco with shrewd eyes. "An' he got the boys? Both of "em?"
Bizco was nervous. "Yeah." He touched his dry lips with his tongue tip. "Jumped me from behind, then called the Kid. You know he was green. When he started the ball rollin" it took in the whole street."
"You get this hombre's name?"
Bizco nodded. "He's a two-bit cowpoke from out on some ranch near town."
"What was his name?" Sparr's voice showed his irritation. "Hopalong Cassidy." was Who?" Avery Sparr sat up straight. "Did you say Hopalong y?"
"Yeah." Bizco was surprised at the reaction.
"You know him. Sparr snorted. "Know him? Why, he's one of that crazy Bar 20 outfit! The worst one o' the lot, an' poison with any kind of a gun! Sure, I know him! Know of him, anyway.
I never had a run-in with him, although some friends of mine did. Those friends," he added, "are in Boot Hill."
Bizco stood silent, but mentally he was congratulating himself on escaping as easily as he had. If Cassidy's name drew that kind of reaction from Avery Sparr, then he, Bizco, had no business fooling with him. Bizco was a shrewd and cunning young man. It had been said that what he couldn't do with a running iron just simply couldn't be done. He knew how to use a cinch ring effectively, too, and had profited by the coming of wire to the plains country by using it also to make convenient designs for branding. A hot wire could burn a brand as well as an iron and could be twisted and shaped into any kind of a brand.
He was adept in his own way. He could read sign, too, and he knew a lot of unusual things about driving cattle by night. But he had no illusions about himself. Nor did he have any urge to die by a gun. He had long discovered that the difference between living and dying was a fast horse-and he made sure his horses were always fast.
Sparr got to his feet. Standing, he towered above Bizco. He was three inches over six feet and heavier than his lean, hard body indicated.
Turning impatiently, he strode toward the door across the room. He was a gray-eyed man with a haggard face, drawn cheeks, and hard, prominent cheek and jawbones. His hair was brown, thin, and always clung tightly to his long skull. Without another thought for Bizco he opened the door, went through, and closed it behind him. Then, crossing the room beyond, he tapped on another door, from under which a thread of light showed. A girl's apprehensive voice replied, "Who is it?" "Span. Open up."
There was the sound of a bar being removed, and then the door opened and the girl stepped back.
The room was large and pleasantly furnished. A fire burned on the hearth, but the place was always heated by a potbellied stove. There were books and papers lying about but no sign of a weapon anywhere.
The two occupants of the room were the girl and a huge old man, who sat in a chair with his legs wrapped in a blanket.
Dick Jordan was not old as men go, but in the past few months he had aged a dozen years. It had started with the frightening of his team and the plunge they took over a steep bank. He had been thrown free and had fallen among the jagged boulders down the hillside. His pelvis, both thighs, and a collarbone had been broken. The bones had been set, but during the period when he was slowly regaining strength, Avery Span had moved in and taken over.
Jordan was a mere shell of his former self. It had been a bitter thing when he realized the accident had left him a hopeless cripple, that he could do nothing to aid either his daughter or himself. Pamela was a slender, beautiful girl of eighteen, and there was no love in her eyes as she looked at Avery Sparr.
"What would Hopalong Cassidy be comin' here for?" Span demanded. Jordan's old eyes fired. "Cassidy? Comin' here?" He grinned suddenly. "Want to say good-bye now, Sparr?
Or are you goin' to wait an' eat lead?
"
"Don't be an old fool!" Sparr snapped.
"He owe you any money?" "Him? Lord, no! Buck Peters did, though," he added thoughtfully. "Could be he's bringin' that money from Buck."
Avery Sparr turned to Pamela. In her eyes he caught the glow of triumph. He stared at her suspiciously, his crafty mind studying the situation. He had allowed the girl to write from time to time, not wishing suspicion aroused until he had the ranch in his possession, for his own plans were deep and well laid. In his mind he reviewed the letters she had written, for he had read every one of them. There had been nothing suspicious. Yet he was no fool, and realized that Cassidy's visit might be more than mere chance. "Don't put any hopes on his gettin' here," he warned them. "And don't make any fool moves. Nobody even approaches this here ranch without me knowin'. Why"-there was pride in the statement "when a man gits within seventy mile of here in any direction, I know it. We'll know as soon as Hopalong shows up." "Then he isn't here yet?" Pamela asked. At the first question she had decided at once that Hopalong was in the vicinity.
"Him?" Sparr shook his head, dropping into a chair. "No, he ain't around. That fool Bizco an' a couple of the boys saw him gettin' fifteen thousand dollars from the banker back there in his hometown. They figured to make an easy touch, not knowin' Cassidy."
"Bizco's dead?" Jordan said, grinning widely.
Sparr stared at him irritably. Jordan retained altogether too much spunk for a man in his position, a man crippled and helpless in the hands of outlaws who would strip him of everything. "No, he ain't dead," he replied carelessly, "but he's got him a sore jaw.
Only gettin' now so he can eat proper. The other two didn't make out so good."
Dick Jordan chuckled. "I'd like to see Cassidy an' that old crowd ride in here about now!
Or just Hoppy an' Johnny Nelson! Why, the two of them alone would make this bunch eat dirt, an' mighty quick!" Sparr snorted his contempt.
"Don't be a fool! Cassidy never bucked a setup like this in his life. He does all right against two-bit horse thieves an rustlers."
He got to his feet. "Jordan, I'll have some papers for you to sign come noon tomorrow. Better get your mind made up."
"I won't sign "em!" Jordan said, but his tone lacked conviction. Sparr shrugged.
He had heard these protests before and knew how to handle them. "You'll sign 'em," he said confidently; "you'll sign anything away rather than have something happen to your girl."
"How do I know you'll play straight when everythin's gone?" Jordan protested. "I should stop now."
"You don't know." Sparr was casual. "You don't know at all. You do know that if you don't do as I say, I take Pamela myself or turn her over to the Gleasons. The longer you delay that happenin" the better chance you got." He went out and closed the door behind him, and Pamela listened until she heard his footsteps cross the other room and the door close. Then she went swiftly to her father. "Daddy, I sent for Hoppy!"
Jordan stared. "You what? But how?"
"In that last letter. Remember how he used to teach me to read trail sign, and how we played games with codes? I used one of them!" "But how do you know he even thought of readin' it thataway?" Jordan said doubtfully. Hope was rising within him. One man against all of Sparr's outfit was not much, but Hopalong- Well, he had done many things that seemed impossible for one man.
"It was a chance, and I took it. But even if he didn't know, when he brings that money here he will guess something is wrong."
"If he gets here."
Dick Jordan was worried now. Secretly, it had been Cassidy who remained in his mind all through his struggle to stay alive and to delay as much as possible the seizure of his ranch by Sparr.
Hopalong Cassidy had a penchant for wandering,.
Jordan knew. Also, the time was approaching when the money Buck owed him was due, and who more likely to bring it West than Hopalong himself? There was every chance that he would come, and he was shrewd. He saw much that other men missed. He would, Jordan was sure, immediately realize that all was not well on the Circle J.
Yet, why hope for the impossible? Hopalong was only a man, even if trail-wise and Indian-crafty. As much as Dick Jordan hated the man who had moved in on him when he was sick and helpless, he did not sell that man short.
Avery Sparr had learned his lessons in a hard, fierce school. He coupled the shrewdness of a cunning lawyer with the utter ruthlessness of an Apache. On every hand Jordan saw evidences of his careful planning. And with him was the immaculate, intelligent, and attractive Soper, the man who fronted for Sparr in most of his contacts with outside people. Soper inspired confidence and friendship wherever he went, and the steel-trap brain beneath the smooth, friendly surface was not at all evident to those who did business with him or knew him but slightly. The two made a combination that was difficult to touch, and where the loophole would be found Jordan could not guess.
Had he been on his feet and able when Sparr first began his plan to take over the vast holdings of the Circle J, much might have been avoided.
Crippled, and in the shadows between life and death, he had been helpless. Avery Sparr had come to the Circle J as a drifting rider, and, as all such, he was granted the hospitality of the ranch.
He came to spend the night, asked to stay on for some hunting, then helped with the roundup. Hands were few and hard to get in this Apacheridden country, so his help had been gratefully accepted.
Sparr's reputation was known to him, but the man was quiet and friendly without pushing himself forward. Then Charley Kitchen, Jordan's experienced and able foreman, was killed in a gun battle at Horse Springs. Nobody at the time thought to connect it with Sparr's presence, for the two had apparently no connection. Johnny Rebb and Bizco had been the killers, and how the fight started nobody knew, but Kitchen had been caught in a cross fire and killed instantly.
Three days afterward four of the oldest hands on the ranch had been ambushed, supposedly by Apaches.
Avery Sparr's presence then had seemed a favorable thing, and he had stayed on, refusing wages, but doing a cowhand's work. Then had come Jordan's accident, and almost without realizing it, Jordan had transmitted orders to the men through Sparr. While Jordan hovered between life and death, and while Pamela was worried sick and busy with nursing him, Avery Sparr had quietly taken over. On the flimsy basis that Jordan had given him orders for the crew, he declared himself foreman, stated that Jordan had made him foreman, and defied anyone to call him a fiar. Among the crew of the Circle J were some hard hands, but the toughest of them had been killed in the ambush and none of those left dared challenge the truth of Sparr's statement.
At first he had been merely efficient. He had come to Pamela time and again to ask about her father and offer to help in any way. The distraught girl thought him only friendly until too late. Her first realization of what was happening came when she found that both Bizco and Johnny Rebb had been employed by Sparr.
She ordered them fired, and Sparr protested. When she insisted, he agreed, and she had seen no more of them for several days. In those days three of the older men quit. They were paid off by Sparr and sent on their way. One of them talked loudly at Horse Springs and was found dead in an alley a few hours later.
Quiet hung over the ranch. Jordan was better, but he was now aware, for the first time, that he was to be crippled for the remainder of his life. Only then, weeks after Sparr's plan for controlling the ranch had been conceived, did Jordan become aware of what had happened. And he was helpless to do anything. He tried sending a message to the sheriff, and it never left the ranch. Pamela tried to go herself, and found the house guarded, and was not allowed to leave.
Prisoners in their own home, with a half-dozen more of Sparr's tough hands on the ranch, Avery Sparr came to them himself and in a quiet tone told them the situation.
He was in the saddle. If they did what he asked them and obeyed orders without question, they would live. If not, they could die. Alone, he hinted to Pamela that her help in his p
lan would insure her father's safety. To Jordan, Sparr promised protection for Pamela if he would agree to everything. Yet Sparr was well aware that Jordan had powerful friends. At first he considered merely selling off the stock and taking the money, but the ranch tempted him, and he decided gradually to take over the whole place. But he wanted no investigation later. He wanted to give the whole procedure the appearance of legality so his future ownership could never be questioned. He let word go out that Jordan was giving him a working partnership and might latex sell out to him. He kept reports of Jordan's poor health circulating in the right quarters, and holding off carefully, he wore Jordan down with threats, pressure, and bullying until the man was almost willing to agree, just to be free once more. It was a lonely country with few white men about. All was serene and smiling on the surface at the Circle J. Few passers-by noticed anything unusual about the place. Dick Jordan was very ill and not seeing visitors. His daughter was nursing him and rarely left his side.
Avery Sparr walked back into the main room of the ranch house and seated himself. Cassidy would surely come by Clifton House, and Goff would spot him at once. Still, he had better get word to Goff.
Johnny Rebb drifted back to the ranch at noon and hung up his saddle. He was thinking of the man named Tuck. Sparr had some tough jobs planned, for Sparr wanted money. Rebb gathered that Sparr intended to buy the ranch, or a larger piece of it than he was said to have. He wanted to do this for a reason. Maybe this man Tuck would be a help.
Avery Sparr looked up when the buck-toothed gunman came into the room. "Boss," he said, "hombre sprung one on me t'day. I figger he was feelin' aroun' to suggest the two of us stick up the McClellan Bank. Tough-lookin' blister, packin' two guns."
Sparr shook his head. "We don't need any more men." An idea came to him, and he looked up sharply, his eyes pinpoints of steel. "What was his name? What did he look like?"
"His name was Tuck," he said. "Silver hair, blue eyes that git so cold you figger they'd bore right through you if you looked at him long, an'-was Sparr was on his feet. "Did you say silver hair? A slopeshouldered hombre?" Sparr's eyes narrowed at Rebb's puzzled nod. Then he said swiftly, "Get Bizco, an' keep him out of sight, but let him git a look at this hombre!
the Rustlers Of West Fork (1951) Page 4