The older man smiled at the boy’s quick-wittedness and gave an account of the interview.
“Guess that makes it easier—lucky she came along,’ Larry commented. “She was about our on’y chance o’ seein’ the Old Man without his goin’ on the prod. I don’t reckon there’ll be any surprise party now.’
“Then yu better wait here for me—no use yu gettin’ any deeper in this mess.’
‘Skittles! I’m in to my ears now, an’ I’m aimin’ to stay in.
Yu ain’t goin’ alone, ol’-timer, an’ yu can bet a stack on that.’
Green, having expected nothing else, raised no further objection. Leading their horses, and keeping under cover as much as possible, they started for the ranch-house.
Simon, alone and ill at ease, was sitting in his office, watching the window which opened on to the verandah. Yielding reluctantly to his daughter’s plea that he should see the cowpuncher, he had stipulated that she must go to her room. This that she might be out of danger, for he did not believe that the outlaw’s profession of peace was sincere. Nevertheless, being not lacking in courage, he meant to play fair. So intent was he on the window by which he expected his visitor to arrive that he did not hear the door, which was at the side of the room, open. Then a quiet voice said:
“Peterson!’
With a sudden start the rancher turned and saw that Green was in the room. Leaning nonchalantly against the wall, his thumbs hooked in his cartridge-belt, the outlaw was regarding him curiously. Here was the man whom for three long years he had wanted to kill. The grin on his face was not pleasant to see, and Simon’s right hand instinctively moved nearer to the gun at his hip.
“Don’t yu,’ warned the visitor, and now there was a deadly chill in his tone. “I could kill yu before you got it out but I’ve gone back on Bill Evesham an’ promised not to harm yu. What I’ve come for—’
The sentence was never finished, for at that moment a hand pushed open the window, and a triumphant voice cried, “He’s here, boys; c’mon, we’ve got him this time.’
Green whirled savagely on the rancher, his gun flashing into his hand. “So yu laid a trap, did yu?’ he snarled. “I oughtta to kill yu for that, yu skunk, but—’
He sent a bullet crashing into the window and a curse came out of the darkness. Almost at the same instant another shot rang out and Old Simon staggered and collapsed on the floor just as Noreen, aroused by the shooting, rushed down to find Tarman standing oy the door, a smoking revolver in his hand. “What has happened?’ she cried. “Is Daddy—’
“Sudden has shot him,’ Tarman said. “I heard he was comin’ here but I arrived too late. I had a shot at him but missed. We’ll get him; the place is surrounded.’
“Stand aside, please. I am going in to my father.’
Tarman shook his head. Too risky; there’s hot lead flying in there an’ some of it might get yu.’
“Which is why you are outside, I suppose,’ the girl retorted, and pushing past him flung herself on her knees by her father’s body.
Through the swirling smoke Green caught the one look she gave him—a look of horror and loathing. The men outside were firing at the wrecked window, and the outlaw realised that to remain longer in the room was to risk not only his life but that of the girl. To retreat by the way he had come was not possible, for he had seen Tarman at the door and guessed that he was not unaccompanied. Reloading both guns, he sent a hail of bullets ahead of him and sprang out of the window. From the darkness came spiteful flashes of flame and bullets hummed past his ears. A face, indistinguishable in the gloom, rose before him to vanish when he fired. Hands clutched at him and fell away before the hammer-like blows of his pistol-barrels for the weapons were empty now and he could not recharge them. Shrieks and oaths filled the air, and down towards the bunkhouse lights were moving and men were shouting.
Striking blindly right and left, the outlaw forced a way to the edge of the verandah, and leaping the rail, vanished into the night. He had not gone twenty yards when a guarded voice said: “This way, Don, to the right.’
Swerving, he almost staggered into Larry, waiting with the horses by the side of the trail. Gasping for breath, with every muscle in his body aching, and bleeding from several bullet grazes which now he had consciousness of, Green was but just able to reach the saddle. Consumed as he was with curiosity, Larry forbore to put questions, but led the way on the trail for Hatchett’s at full speed. Only when they were clear of the ranch he spoke:
“Where do we go?’
“Leeming’s first, they won’t look for us there. We’ll turn off through the dry gulch ‘bout a couple o’ miles along.’
The gulch referred to had a surface of bare rock and would show no tracks. Not until they were through this and riding rapidly across the open range did Larry break the silence. Then he said:
“I’d ‘a’ took a hand in the game my own self but I reckoned we’d want the hosses in a hurry mebbe. So the Old Man set a trap for yu, after all?’
“If he did he got catched in it himself,’ Green told him. “I’m afraid he’s cashed—no, I didn’t shoot him, an’ I dunno who did. I thought he’d double-crossed me but when I saw Tarman at the door…’
“Tarman there?’ interrupted Larry. “Didn’t I tell yu that feller West was up to some devilment, eh?’
“Well, it does look like yu mighta been right,’ Green agreed, “though how Tarman could know I wanted Peterson beats me. I figure West didn’t know what he was lettin’ me in for.’
“O’ course not, him bein’ a little tin angel,’ said the boy disgustedly, and there was a tinge of jealousy in his tone which made his friend smile.
“No, I guess this country ain’t strong for angels,’ he returned. “In fact…’
“Yu on’y know of one, an’ I’ll lay at the present moment she’s thinkin’ yu killed her daddy,’ Larry finished, bitterly.
“She couldn’t think nothin’ else, seein’ what she saw,’ Green pointed out. “Yu gotta admit it was a pretty neat frame-up—disposes of me an’ Simon if it comes off, an’ leaves Tarman holdin’ all the aces. He’s got brains, that feller.’
“I’d like to make shore o’ that,’ was the other’s grim reply. “Push along, yu blunderin’ skate, yu ain’t hobbled.’
The latter part of the remark was addressed to his mount, and was uncalled for, since the animal was already travelling at full stretch, and considering the mileage it had covered that day was doing remarkably well. Green slowed down a little.
“No need to bust the hosses,’ he said. “They can’t trail us in the dark an’ they ain’t a notion where we’d make for. Why do you reckon Tarman stains his hair an’ beard?’
“Cause he’s a double-dyed villain, like yu read of in the storybooks,’ chuckled Larry.
“Yo’re a double-ended jackass an’ neither end’s got any sense. If Leeming turns us down…’
“Shucks! I don’t never ford a stream till I come to it,’ said Larry confidently. “Job’s got savvy, an’ he ain’t no more use for Tarman than we have.’
To which came no answer. Wounded and utterly played out, the outlaw remained in his saddle by a sheer effort of will. To him, in his weakened condition, the position appeared desperate. With her father dead, the girl would be absolutely in the power of Tarman and his gang, and the charge of having killed Simon, which he could see no way of disproving, would set the hand of every man in the territory against him. True, he was playing against a stacked deck, but who would believe him in the face of Tarman’s statement, backed by the testimony of the bereaved girl? Leeming was his only hope; if the Frying Pan owner failed him, Tarman would win, but—and the outlaw’s jaws clamped on a bitter oath—he would not enjoy his victory for long.
Daylight had not yet come when they reached their destinanion. Three owl-hoots at spaced intervals—a signal already agreed upon—aroused Leeming and brought him to the back door. Blanketing the window of the sitting-room, he lighted the lamp, and then utter
ed an oath of amazement when he saw Green collapse in a chair. Snatching open a cupboard he produced whisky and glasses, and then vanished into the kitchen, returning presently with food.
“Yu shore look as if yu been in a free-for-all scrap, Green,’ he said. “Take a shot o’ whisky an’ some grub ‘fore yu chatter.’
The visitors were glad enough to take the advice. The food and drink put new life into the outlaw, and when his wounds, which were but scratches, had been attended to, he was ready to tell his story. Rolling and lighting a cigarette, he looked steadily at his host.
“Might as well get the worst over at once,’ he said. “Old Simon is dead, I guess, an’ yu will be told I shot him. I didn’t, but the evidence is good enough to hang me.’
“Simon dead?’ cried Leeming, and now they saw a strange thing, for this man who over a trifle could fly into a violent passion, in a matter of deep concern now kept iron control of himself. “Tell me about it,’ he said quietly.
Step by step the outlaw detailed what had happened since their last meeting, the visit to Big Rock, the fight in the gorge, the encountering of West, and its tragic outcome at the Y Z. Leeming did not interrupt, but sat with his eyes fixed on the narrator’s face.
“An’ Tarman’s tale will be that he heard I was after Simon an’ that he came along with a posse just too late to prevent me killin’ him,’ Green concluded.
“Yu think Tarman did it?’ Job asked.
“Him or one of his men. O’ course, it might have been meant for me but I wasn’t nowhere near Simon. I on’y fired one shot before he went down, an’ that was at the window.’
“Why did yu go to see Simon if yu’d given up the notion o’ bumpin’ him off?’ came the next question.
The outlaw looked embarrassed. “Well, I reckon yu will think it a fool’s fancy, but I wanted to hear him say he was sorry for what he done to Evesham,’ he explained. “Bill was like a father to me, an’ I figured there was an apology due to him an’ aimed to collect it. A kind o’ mad idea, but that’s how I felt.’
The owner of the Frying Pan stood up. “I’m takin’ yore word, Green,’ he said. “It’s a bad business an’ we gotta think out what’s best to be done. Yu boys better hole up here for a day or so—I reckon the Frying Pan won’t be looked over for rustlers.’ He smiled grimly, and continued. “We can hide out yore hosses, an’ my boys can be trusted to keep their traps shut. We’ll let Mister Tarman make the next move.’
The faith of the rancher braced the outlaw as nothing else could have done. Looking him square in the face, he said, “Yu are shore white, seh, an’ I’d have to be worse than my reputation to double-cross yu. We’ll get yore cattle back.’
“Damn the cattle,’ exploded the other. “What I want is for that little girl at the Y Z to get her rights, an’ not be made unhappy!’
He stamped off, motioning them to follow, and having shown them where they were to sleep, voiced a gruff good-night, and stamped back to his own room, heartily ashamed of himself for having betrayed emotion.
Chapter XX
THE Y Z ranch on the following afternoon presented its usual appearance save for the smashed window and bullet-scored walls of the room where the fight had taken place. Most of the outfit, with a large contingent from Hatchett’s, were away with the marshal scouring the country for traces of the outlaw. In a bedroom lay Simon, grievously wounded, but likely to pull through. The bullet, entering his right side, had passed out again, miraculously missing the vital organs, and though painfully weak from the shock, there were no signs of fever. He was listening to Noreen’s account of what had happened after he dropped, and his expression was troubled.
“So he got away, eh?’ he asked. “Well, I’m glad o’ that.’
The girl looked at him in astonishment, for as she well knew, he was not prone to forgive those who transgressed against him. For a moment she feared the fever might be commencing, but his eyes were clear and his voice steady as he proceeded: “No, I ain’t out o’ my head, girl, but I’m beginning to think I may have got that feller sized up wrong. He could ‘a’ shot me an’ didn’t, not even when he thought I’d stacked the cards against him. ‘Nother thing, Green wasn’t near the door an’ that’s where the bullet as downed me come from.’
A sudden suspicion clutched at the girl’s heart and her voice shook as she whispered, “Tarman was at the door, and he had just fired at Green,’ she said. “You think…?’
“I think I’ve been a damn fool, my lass,’ replied the old man, “an’ with me laid out like this we’re in a tight place. We gotta walk in the water an’ not let on that we suspect anythin’ crooked. The trouble is I dunno who to trust.’
“Snap Lunt, Dirty, Ginger, and Simple are straight, I feel certain,’ Norry replied.
“Yu send Snap up to me on the quiet, an’ spread it around general that I’m in a bad way an’ not liable to get over this.’ The girl went out, and a little later Lunt slid into the room, gripping his big Stetson by the crown and obviously ill at ease in a sick-room.
“Lo, boss, how’re yu makin’ it?’ he greeted.”Fine as silk, Snap, but there’s reasons why I want it reckoned I’m liable to cash in,’ replied the invalid, and proceeded to state them.
“I knowed it,’ said the gunman. “Sudden don’t work that way. If he wanted to put yu out he’d invite yu to pull yore gun an’ get busy; he ain’t no potshooter.’
“What do yu know about Tarman, Lunt?’ asked the ranch-owner.
“I can’t tell yu, boss; I’ve give my word,’ replied the other. “Green put pretty much the same question to me an’ got the same answer. All I can say is that I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw a steer. He’s takin’ charge an’ Rattler an’ most of the outfit ain’t objectin’.’
“But some are, eh?’ queried Simon.
“Well, me, Ginger, Dirty, an’ Simple claim that Tarman don’t pay our wages,’ grinned Snap.
“Good. Yu tell them boys how things are, an’ that I’m relyin’ on them to lookout Miss Norry’s game for her now I’m in the discard; there’s some rough trail ahead of us, Snap, but we’ll make the grade.’
“Shore we will,’ replied the gunman heartily as he went out.
When Tarman returned to the ranch in the evening after a busy day spent in searching for the outlaw, he found Noreen very depressed and soon elicited the information that the wounded man seemed no better. His endeavour to hearten her appeared to be genuine, but the girl, possibly because she was looking for that very thing, found a false note in it.
“Don’t yu worry, Miss Norry,’ the big man said. “He’ll pull through—yu can’t kill these old-timers with one bullet unless it’s a heart or head shot. An’ if he shouldn’t, well, yu got friends now.’
There was an intimacy in his tone which she hated, but she took good care not to betray her feelings. So she shared the evening meal with him and his companion, Laban, and listened with apparent interest to his account of the attempt to run down the fugitive, rejoicing inwardly at its failure; the knowledge that he had kept his word and not injured her father had made her attitude to the outlaw a very kindly one. When she returned again to the sick-room, the two men sat smoking and talking in low tones. Laban, who was now fully in the confidence of his master, did not seem to be entirely satisfied with the way things were going.
“Bah! Yo’re losin’ yore nerve, Seth,’ Tarman said, with a sneer. “The old man’s as good as done for, an’ when we get that chap Sudden, we take every trick.’
“S’pose the girl won’t marry yu,’ suggested Laban.
“What else can she do, even is she don’t want to?’ asked the other. “Simon signs a paper makin’ me a partner in the ranch—if he don’t, I’ll sign it for him; he cashes an’ the place belongs to me. The girl can’t claim—she ain’t no relation to him. I’m her only safe bet an’ if she don’t see it that way, there’s means to make her.’
“Sounds all right,’ Laban admitted, “but that outlaw gent sticks in my
gullet; I’ll sleep a heap easier when he’s stretched hemp.’
Tarman laughed. “He can’t escape—there isn’t a man in the territory that wouldn’t pull a gun on him at sight now.’
“Don’t yu be too shore o’ that, Joe,’ warned Laban. “There’s some in this outfit that wouldn’t an’ Lunt is one of ‘em.’
“Is that so?’ frowned the big man. “Well, we owe Snap somethin’ already. Jeffs had better put Gorilla on him.’
“Gorilla’s gone—vanished complete,’ Seth told him. “Went with three more to the main herd, stopped behind to make shore they wasn’t followed, an’ disappeared. His hoss drifted in next day. Looks to me as if Sudden had found out who give him that tap on the head, an’ got even.’
Tarman sat thinking, a heavy pout on his lips. Then he laughed again, and callously said, “Well, things is straightenin’ out an’ there’s too many of us anyway.’
“I reckon,’ returned Laban, with a mirthless smile, for the sentiment was one with which he entirely agreed. Gorilla was a mere tool, to be used and paid or discarded, and the fewer there were when the clean-up took place, the bigger the gains for the rest.
On the following morning Tarman insisted upon seeing the sick man despite the girl’s protest that he was not well enough to receive a visitor. Pushing her aside, he entered the room and closed the door. One glance at the pallid, sunken face on the pillow confirmed what he had been told—it seemed impossible that the old man could survive.
“Well, Simon, how’re yu comin’ along?’ he asked.
“Reckon I ain’t a-comin’, I’m a-goin’, bun yu needn’t tell Norry I said so,’ replied the invalid, with a weak attempt at a smile.
“Shucks, yu mustn’t talk like that,’ Tarman said. “Now, see here, yu needn’t worry about anythin’. I’m goin’ to stay at the Y Z an’ look after things, so all yu gotta do is set yore mind on gettin’ well. I wouldn’t ‘a’ troubled yu this mornin’ out it’ll help me considerable if the outfit knows I’m part owner o’ the ranch. I ain’t carryin’ enough cash to settle the deal around with me but I can give yu a draft. I’ve written out the agreement an’ all yu gotta do is sign it.’
Sudden: The Range Robbers Page 25