Sudden: Outlawed

by Oliver Strange

  Eden and the gambler were alone at the fire. The women had retired to their tent and Dutt had expressed a desire to view the sleeping herd. Baudry, biting on a black cigar, was the first to speak.

  “Damned if I can fathom Rogue’s game, Sam,” he said reflectively. “He has you cold and throws the hand in. Why?’

  “Yu can search me,” the rancher replied. “Carol figures he has a soft spot, but gals get romantic notions ‘bout fellas like him. He’s reckoned the most ruthless ruffian in Texas, an’ that’s sayin’ a lot.”

  “Those two men joined you for the drive, dropping in from nowhere,” Jethro proceeded.

  “And one of them—Green answers pretty well to the printed description of Sudden.”

  “Whose last job was pulled off while Green was at the S E.”

  “True, but it would be a safe play for one of Rogue’s men to put the blame on a fellow he knew could prove an alibi.”

  “Yu suggestin’ that Green an’ Sandy are in cahoots with Rogue?” Eden asked, and there was a rasp in his voice.

  “I’m saying it’s possible, that’s all,” was the reply. “your daughter said some of the outlaws knew them.”

  “Then why did them two boys fetch back near a thousand head after the stampede?”

  Baudry chuckled. “You have to admit they knew where to find them,” he pointed out.

  “See here, Sam. Mightn’t it be that Rogue realized that the stampede was a mistake, that it would pay him better to let you drive the cattle north for him to steal within reach of a market where they’d fetch four or five times as much. Why, that may be the reason he ain’t forcing your hand now.”

  The rancher’s brows drew together. Put like this the plan seemed all too probable, and the idea that he was being played with was far from pleasant. Little devils of doubt began to trouble him, but his obstinate disposition drove him to argue. “Tryin’ to bump me off don’t seem to fit in.”

  “Why not, if his first scheme was to grab the herd as soon as he could? I’m supposing it was later he got the notion of aiming for the bigger prize, an’ I’d wager something it was Green gave it him; he ain’t a fool, that fellow, believe me.”

  “I don’t think yo’re right, Jethro,” Eden said stubbornly. Baudry smiled. “Well, perhaps not,” he said easily. “But I’m telling you, those two men will be back before long; they’re more use to Rogue here.”

  “I’ll be glad to see ‘em,” the cattleman said stoutly, but the seeds of suspicion had been sown. “Aimin’ to travel with us, Jethro?”

  “Maybe we can be of some use,” was the reply.

  “Pleased to have yu,” the rancher said heartily.

  The visitor was silent for a time, and then, with the air of one who has come to a decision, he flung the butt of his cigar into the glowing ashes, and looked across at his host.

  “Sam, you know what I do for a living,” he began. “Well, I’m planning to give myself a fresh deal and drop the cards. With the coin I get when you cash in on your herd I’m starting a ranch—I’ve got options on land not far from the S E; with the railways coming west and the northern ranches needing stock, there’s going to be money in cattle. But more than that, I want to settle down, with a home of my own—and a wife.”

  “Why, that’s good hearin’, Jethro,” the rancher said. “Mebbe yo’re on the way to fetch the lady, huh?”

  The gambler’s teeth gleamed as his thick lips parted in a half-smile. “Not exactly,” he said. “The lady is travelling north too; in fact, she’s less than fifty yards away at this moment.”

  Eden straightened up, his eyes wide. “Yu—mean—Carol?” he cried incredulously.

  “Sickness hasn’t dulled your wits, Sam,” the other replied with a heavy attempt at jocularity. “And why not?”

  “I never dreamt of it,” the old man evaded.

  This was true; though Baudry had been a frequent visitor at the S E, the possibility that the girl was the attraction had not once occurred to its owner. Now, faced with the fact, he suddenly realized that he knew very little about the man, save his profession. A chance meeting over a card game in San Antonio had been the beginning of their friendship, and later, Baudry helped him in his plan of purchasing land. Still on the right side of forty, suave, well-dressed and apparently wealthy, the gambler did not lack attraction for the other sex, but… Sam Eden shook his head, as though in answer to his own query, and Baudry’s narrowed, watching eyes grew cold.

  “Any objections, Sam?”

  “Have yu spoken to her?”

  “No, I reckoned the square thing was to ask you first.”

  Eden breathed his relief; it gave him a way out. Sandy’s devotion to the girl was patent, and once or twice he had seen her looking at the boy; women were queer, but he could not conceive that she would prefer the older, sophisticated man for her mate. So he replied with more confidence:

  “It’s entirely her affair, Jethro. Even if I could claim her as my own child, I wouldn’t attempt to influence her. Whatever she says, goes, with me.”

  The gambler lit another cigar. “Fair enough,” he said evenly. “I’m not asking you to do my courting, Sam. When do you expect to pull out from here?”

  “Can’t say; must give them boys a chance to come in.”

  “They’ll do it—with a fine tale of how they hoodwinked Rogue and got away,” Baudry sneered.

  Long after, when he had been lifted back into his bed in the wagon, the words recurred to the rancher. He fought against the fear that they might be the truth but could not completely convince himself; Baudry’s arguments had seemed all too plausible. Moreover, the outlaw’s impudent warning that he intended to have the herd was disturbing; Eden was well aware that his outfit was numerically weak and if two members of it could not be depended upon …

  Chapter XIX

  SANDY experienced little difficulty in finding the outlaws’ camp again. A bright moon enabled him to recognize the landmarks —a twisted tree, a jutting spire of rock, a wedge of chaparral, which the plainsman instinctively notes when travelling a trail by which he must return. As he rode in, a man with a levelled gun stepped from the shadow of a tree and ordered him to halt. A glance satisfied him.

  “So yu come back?” Sligh said, for he it was. “Damned if I thought yu’d be such a fool.”

  “It warn’t folly, Sligh, just pure affection—for yu,” was the flippant reply. “What’s the next move?”

  “Yu pass yore gun to me.”

  Sandy pulled out his revolver but instead of handing it over, he pointed the muzzle at Sligh. “Now yu can blaze away an’ we’ll go to hell together,” he said pleasantly.

  “Rogue’s orders,” the man growled.

  “Then I’ll take ‘em from him,” Sandy retorted. “Where is he?”

  The outlaw pointed to a small fire apart from the larger one in the centre of the glade.

  Sandy grinned.

  “Go ahead,” he said. “I might lose my way.”

  “Think yo’re smart, huh?” came the sneer.

  “Smart’s my middle name,” the young man chuckled. “Do we take root here?”

  With a curse the sentinel slouched off. Two men were sitting by the fire and when Sandy reached it, Sligh had already voiced his complaint.

  “Pulled his gun on me,” he growled. “If it hadn’t bin for yore orders, I’d ‘a’ blowed him apart.”

  Rogue looked up as the boy slid from his saddle. “‘Lo, Sandy, I’m wantin’ that weapon,” he said quietly.

  Sandy’s eyes were on the other figure at the fire. “What’s the word, Jim?” he asked.

  “Yu got Miss Eden back?” Sudden queried, and when his friend nodded, he drew his own guns, handing them, butts first, to the outlaw leader. “Ante up, Sandy,” he went on. “Rogue has kept his part o’ the bargain an’ we gotta keep our’n.” He smiled sardonically across the flames.

  “We’re yore prisoners, Rogue, but I’m givin’ yu warnin’ that we’ll light out if we get a chance.”<
br />
  “Then I’ll have to tie yu,” Rogue rapped.

  “I don’t blame yu,” Sudden smiled, and at a nod from him, Sandy relinquished his revolver.

  Later, three shapeless, blanket-covered forms lay round the smaller fire. The only difference between them was that two of them were tied hand and foot and appeared to be fast asleep. The third was wide awake, wrestling with the problem of what to do with his prisoners.

  The disarming and binding had been merely a bluff, for he did not want them; they could only be a burden. The girl had been a different proposition—a weapon —but he could not credit the rancher with great solicitude for two of his hands. Their detention would mean two less to defend the herd, but be dismissed this aspect; his own force was strong enough. A gleam of steel in the flickering firelight caught his eye; it was a knife, used in the binding and forgotten. It helped him to a decision.

  He glanced at the sky, where clouds had now blotted out the moon, flinging a pall of darkness over the camp. Soundlessly he edged over until he was close to Sudden, and able to reach the knife. The cowboy was breathing stertorously. Carefully raising the blanket, Rogue severed the bonds which confined the sleeper’s wrists, and dropping the blade, rolled back to his former position. For a time nothing happened and then he saw Sudden stretch and lie still again.

  Rogue knew he had discovered that his arms were free.

  Presently the dark blotch of the cowboy’s blanket stirred as he slowly sat up. He saw the knife, reached for it, and freed his ankles. With a whispered warning, he did the same for his fellow-prisoner. Then, on hands and knees, Sudden crept to the outlaw, whose heavy breathing suggested deep slumber. The confiscated weapons were beside him. Leaving their blankets rolled in some semblance of human forms, the captives crawled away from the fire, and reached the edge of the glade.

  “The hosses are on the far side,” Sudden whispered. “We’ll have to pass Sligh. While I deal with him, yu slip around an’ get the broncs.”

  Skirting the edge of the encampment, they moved swiftly and silently over the floor of matted pine-needles and presently saw the sentinel leaning against a pine, his rifle beside him.

  Like a shadow Sudden darted from tree to tree, and then. dropping on his belly, wormed his way forward. All that the unsuspecting watcher knew was that out of the murk a figure rose at his very feet and fingers of steel clutched his throat, prisoning any sound he might have uttered.

  Savagely he fought back, twisting, striking, kicking, but the relentless pressure of that vice-like grip was paralysing; he could not breathe, his throat throbbed with pain, and the world went black before his bulging eyes. A few moments and the man was a limp and senseless weight.

  Sudden let him fall and hurried after Sandy. That young man had not been idle; he had found the horses. and saddles. Soon the outlaw camp was behind them. For a while they rode in silence and then Sandy could restrain his curiosity no longer.

  “How in hell did yu manage it, Jim?” he asked.

  “I didn’t,” Sudden smiled. “Some kind gent cut my paws loose an’ left the knife handy.”

  “Cripes, I’ll bet it wasn’t Sligh.”

  “Yu’d win. It was another fella, an’ when he came creepin’ up on me with that sticker in his fist, well, I’ve knowed happier moments. I played I was asleep-snored real hearty.”

  “Yu can too,” Sandy complimented. “Did yu recognize him?”

  “It was Rogue hisself.”

  “Oh, yeah,” came the sarcastic reply. “Havin’ tied us up he would turn us loose, wouldn’t he?”

  “Them bonds was just eyewash for the gang. Rogue didn’t .rant us—we gotta be watched allatime, an’ he knows Eden tin’t goin’ to part with a single steer on our account, so he gets rid of us—his own way. That was Sligh’s knife—I saw him drop it; he’ll get the blame an’ we’ll get the credit. Rogue ‘s one smart hombre.”

  A smudge of grey in the eastern sky had turned to a golden glow and the red rim of the sun was pushing above the horizon when they rode down the valley and sighted the S E wagon.

  Peg-leg, busy preparing the morning meal, let out a yell which brought men leaping from their blankets and grabbing for guns. When they saw that it was not an Indian raid they laughed and swore at the cook. The foreman, his wrinkled: ace one smile, surveyed the pair delightedly.

  “Nice damn couple, ain’t yu?” he said. “Holdin’ the drive up thisaway. The 0I’ Man oughta give yu yore time.”

  “An’ yore chin would hit yore toes if he did, yu holy fraud,” Sudden retorted. “Now, Sandy an’ me ain’t had no sleep for ‘bout a year. Who’s got spare blankets? We had to leave our’n behind.”

  For a couple of hours they slept like dead men and then Jeff aroused them. “Sam’s askin’ for yu,” he said.

  They found the cattleman sitting at the end of the wagon. He was recovering rapidly; the tonic air of the prairies, aided by his tough constitution, had worked wonders. Baudry and Carol were with him, and several of the outfit lingered near.

  “Here’s the truants, boss,” the foreman grinned. “I was tellin’ Jim yu oughta give ‘em their time.”

  Eden had smothered his doubts and his rugged face softened as he surveyed the men to whom he owed so much. “I reckon they oughta have anythin’ they ask for, but I’m hopin’ it won’t be that,” he said. “Green, Sandy tells me I gotta thank yu for gettin’ my girl back.”

  “Sandy’s modesty’ll be the ruin of him,” Sudden smiled.

  “I ain’t forgettin’ his part,” Eden replied. “I’m curious to learn how yu persuaded that ruffian to let her go; he had me thrown an’ tied.”

  “Yeah, he knowed that,” the cowboy agreed. “I gambled on two cards—his past an’ his pride. I figured that, sunk as he is, some respect for a good woman might remain, an’ I was right.

  For the rest, his message to yu explains it—just the natural vanity o’ the man. These were his weak spots, an’ I hit ‘em good an’ hard.”

  “Then we’ll hear more of him?”

  “Shorely. He’ll strike when he’s ready, but I’m guessin’ that won’t be till we’re nearer a market. He’s got nigh a score o’ men.”

  Baudry looked at the cattleman and nodded; he had expressed the same view of the rustler’s intentions. With a half-sneer he turned to Sudden.

  “Yu seem pretty well acquainted with this cattle-thief,” he said. “Perhaps he turned you loose too?”

  “Now I wonder who told yu?” Sudden debated. “He did that very thing.”

  Sam Eden’s keen eyes widened at this and there was suspicion in them.

  “D’yu mean that, Green?” the rancher asked sharply, and when the other nodded, “Why should he do that?” The cowboy related the manner of their escape.

  Sudden sensed the hostility in the tone. “His men had none of his finer feelin’s.”

  “Fine feelings—in an outlaw?” gibed the gambler savagely. “That’s more than I can swallow.”

  “He let her go,” the cowboy reminded.

  “Yes, at your request,” came the sneer. “Were you ever one of his gang?”

  “No, were yu?” Sudden asked.

  Pebbles, who was one of the listening riders, chuckled audibly, and the visitor’s face flushed with anger.

  “Damn your impudence,” he shouted. “What do you mean by that?”

  Sudden bent forward, his eyes bleak. “Just what I said,” he replied. “Listen to me, Mister Man. On’y two fellas here can talk down to me with safety—my boss an’ his foreman. yo’re speakin’ outa turn.”

  For a moment the gambler’s narrow eyes clashed with those of the speaker and then turned in mute appeal to his host. Sam Eden was nonplussed. Torn between gratitude and friendship, he did not know how to deal with the tiny tempest which had so swiftly arisen. Carol came to his aid.

  “Mister Baudry appears to be forgetting that these two men risked their lives to save me, first from Indians, and thenfrom outlaws,” she said. “To my mind, that alo
ne matters.”

  Like a dash of cold water the words brought Baudry to his senses; his ill-humour vanished and he achieved some sort of a smile.

  “You’re right, Miss Eden,” he said heartily. “Nothing else counts. I’m sorry, Sam, but I let my ideas run away with me. If that Rogue fellow happened to be here, I’d thank him, whatever his motive may have been.”

  This ended the discussion, but as Sudden and the foreman went to get their horses, the cowboy asked casually: “yu known friend Baudry long?”

  “Nope, an’ yu needn’t name him my friend neither,” Jeff said bluntly. “Don’t fancy the fella nohow, an’ I’ll bet if he had a tail there’d be rattles on it.”

  “Sandy an’ me ain’t popular in that quarter,” Sudden reflected aloud.

  “Aw, yu should worry,” Jeff told him. “So yu don’t think Rogue will try again yet?”

  “I ain’t worryin’, not that yu’d notice,” was the reply, and then, “No, barrin’ Injuns, flooded rivers, stampedes, storms an’ dry stretches, I figure we’ll have an easy trip for a while.”

  Jeff’s expression was one of mock disgust. “Yo’re a cheerful cuss, I don’t believe,” he said.

  Later, Sudden had a word with Sandy. That young man was still puzzling over the outlaw’s complicity in their escape, and said so.

  “Shake yore head an’ start that stuff yu think with workin’,” was the smiling advice he received. “Without us, the S E would be short-handed an’ Rogue wants the herd to go through yet awhile.”

  “Then why did he stampede it?”

  “I figure his idea then was to sell the cows to the jasper who was payin’ him to break the drive. Now, he’s aimin’ to handle ‘em himself an’ clean up a packet.”

  “Then he’s double-crossin’ the other man.”

  “It don’t follow. Rogue is a pretty ornery proposition, but he’s got points. He told me that this fella was willin’ to take the S E cows, but he didn’t say he’s promised to let him have ‘em.”