by B. M. Bower
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE CATROCK GANG
A woman with a checkered apron and a motherly look came to let herchickens out and milk the cow, and woke Bud so that she could tell himshe believed he had been on a "toot", or he never would have taken sucha liberty with her corral. Bud agreed to the toot, and apologized, andasked for breakfast. And the woman, after one good look at him, handedhim the milk bucket and asked him how he liked his eggs.
"All the way from barn to breakfast," Bud grinned, and the womanchuckled and called him Smarty, and told him to come in as soon as thecow was milked.
Bud had a great breakfast with the widow Hanson. She talked, and Budlearned a good deal about Crater and its surroundings, and when he spokeof holdup gangs she seemed to know immediately what he meant, andtold him a great deal more about the Catrockers than Marian had done.Everything from murdering and robbing a peddler to looting the banks atCrater and Lava was laid to the Catrockers. They were the human buzzardsthat watched over the country and swooped down wherever there was money.The sheriff couldn't do anything with them, and no one expected him to,so far as Bud could discover.
He hesitated a long time before he asked about Marian Morris. Mrs.Hanson wept while she related Marian's history, which in substance wasexactly what Marian herself had told Bud. Mrs. Hanson, however, told howMarian had fought to save her father and Ed, and how she had married LewMorris as a part of her campaign for honesty and goodness. Now she wasdown at Little Lost cooking for a gang of men, said Mrs. Hanson, whenshe ought to be out in the world singing for thousands and her in silksand diamonds instead of gingham dresses and not enough of them.
"Marian Collier is the sweetest thing that ever grew up in thiscountry," the old lady sniffled. "She's one in a thousand and when shewas off to school she showed that she wasn't no common trash. She wantedto be an opery singer, but then her mother died and Marian done whatlooked to be her duty. A bird in a trap is what I call her."
Bud regretted having opened the subject, and praised the cooking by wayof turning his hostess's thoughts into a different channel. He askedher if she would accept him as a boarder while he was in town, and waspromptly accepted.
He did not want to appear in public until the bank was opened, andhe was a bit troubled over identification. There could be no harm, hereflected, in confiding to Mrs. Hanson as much as was necessary ofhis adventures. Wherefore he dried the dishes for her and told her hiserrand in town, and why it was that he and his horse had slept in hercorral instead of patronizing hotel and livery stable. He showed her thechecks he wanted to cash, and asked her, with flattering eagerness forher advice, what he should do. He had been warned, he said, that Jeffand his friends might try to beat him yet by stopping payment, and heknew that he had been followed by them to town.
"What You'll do will be what I tell ye," Mrs Hanson replied withdecision. "The cashier is a friend to me--I was with his wife last monthwith her first baby, and they swear by me now, for I gave her good care.We'll go over there this minute, and have talk with him. He'll do whathe can for ye, and he'll do it for my sake."
"You don't know me, remember," Bud reminded her honestly.
The widow Hanson gave him a scornful smile and toss of her head. "Anddo I not?" she demanded. "Do you think I've buried three husbands andthinking now of the fourth, without knowing what's wrote a man's face?Three I buried, and only one died his bed. I can tell if a man's honestor not, without giving him the second look. If you've got them checksyou should get the money on them--for I know their stripe. Come on withme to Jimmy Lawton's house. He's likely holding the baby while Miniedoes the dishes."
Mrs. Hanson guessed shrewdly. The cashier of the Crater County Bank wasdoing exactly what she said he would be doing. He was sitting in thekitchen, rocking a pink baby wrapped in white outing flannel with blueborder, when Mrs. Hanson, without the formality of more than one warningtap on the screen door, walked in with Bud. She held out her hands forthe baby while she introduced the cashier to Bud. In the next breath shewas explaining what was wanted of the bank.
"They've done it before, and ye know it's plain thievery and ought to becomplained about. So now get your wits to work, Jimmy, for this friendof mine is entitled to his money and should have it if it is there to behad."
"Oh, it's there," said Jimmy. He looked at his watch, looked at thekitchen clock, looked at Bud and winked. "We open at nine, in thistown," he said. "It lacks half an hour--but let me see those checks."
Very relievedly Bud produced them, watched the cashier scan each one tomake sure that they were right, and quaked when Jimmy scowled at JeffHall's signature on the largest check of all. "He had a notion to usethe wrong signature, but he may have lost his nerve. It's all right, Mr.Birnie. Just endorse these, and I'll take them into the bank and attendto them the first thing I do after the door is open. You'd better comein when I open up--"
"The gang had some talk about cleaning out the bank while they 're aboutit," Bud remembered suddenly. "Can't you appoint me something, or hireme as a guard and let me help out? How many men do you have here in thisbank?"
"Two, except when the president's in his office in the rear. That's fineof you to offer. We've been held up, once--and they cleaned us out ofcash." Jimmy turned to Mrs. Hanson. "Mother, can't you run over andhave Jess come and swear Mr. Birnie in as a deputy? If I go, or he goes,someone may notice it and tip the gang off."
Mrs. Hanson hastily deposited the baby in its cradle and went to call"Jess", her face pink with excitement.
"You're lucky you stopped at her house instead of some other place,"Jimmy observed. "She's a corking good woman. As a deputy sheriff, you'llcome in mighty handy if they do try anything, Mr. Birnie--if you're thekind of a man you look to be. I'll bet you can shoot. Can you?"
"If you scare me badly enough, I might get a cramp in my triggerfinger," Bud confessed. Jimmy grinned and went back to considering hisown part.
"I'll cash these checks for you the first thing I do. And as deputy youcan go with me. I'll have to unlock the door on time, and if they meanto stop payment, and clean the bank too, it will probably be done allat once. It has been a year since they bothered us, so they may need alittle change. If Jess isn't busy he may stick around."
"No one expects him to round up the gang, I heard."
"No one expects him to go into Catrock Canyon after them. He'll roundthem up, quick enough, if he can catch them far enough from theirholes."
Jess returned with Mrs. Hanson, swore in a new deputy, eyed Budcuriously, and agreed to remain hidden across the road from the bankwith a rifle. He nodded understandingly when Bud warned him that thelooting was a matter of hearsay on his part, and departed with anawkward compliment to Mrs. Jim about hoping that the baby was going tolook like her.
Jim lived just behind the bank, and a high board fence between the twobuildings served to hide his coming and going. But Bud took off his hatand walked stooping,--by special request of Mrs. Hanson--to make surethat he was not observed.
"I think I'll stand out in front of the window," said Bud when they wereinside. "It will look more natural, and if any of these fellows show upI'd just as soon not show my brand the first thing."
They showed up, all right, within two minutes of the unlocking of thebank and the rolling up of the shades. Jeff Hall was the first manto walk in, and he stopped short when he saw Bud lounging before theteller's window and the cashier busy within. Other men were stragglingup on the porch, and two of them entered. Jeff walked over to Bud, whoshifted his position enough to bring him facing Jeff, whom he did nottrust at all.
"Mr. Lawton," Jeff began hurriedly, "I want to stop payment on a checkthis young feller got from me by fraud. It's for five thousand eighthundred dollars, and I notify you--"
"Too late, Mr. Hall. I have already accepted the checks. Where did thefraud come in? You can bring suit, of course, to recover."
"I'll tell you, Jimmy. He bet that my horse couldn't beat Dave Truman'sBoise. A good many bet on the same thing. But my horse proved
to havemore speed, so a lot of them are sore." Bud chuckled as other Sundaylosers came straggling in.
"Well, it's too late. I have honored the checks," Jimmy said crisply,and turned to hand a sealed manila envelope to the bookkeeper withwhispered instructions. The bookkeeper, who had just entered from therear of the office, turned on his heel and left again.
Jeff muttered something to his friends and went outside as if theirbusiness were done for the day.
"I gave you five thousand in currency and the balance in a cashier'scheck," Jimmy whispered through he wicket. "Sent it to the house, Wedon't keep a great deal--ten thousand's our limit in cash, and I don'tthink you want to pack gold or silver--"
"No, I didn't. I'd rather--"
Two men came in, one going over to the desk where he apparently wrotea check, the other came straight to the window. Bud looked into theheavily bearded face of a man who had the eyes of Lew Morris. He shiftedhis position a little so that he faced the man's right side. The one atthe desk was glancing slyly over his shoulder at the bookkeeper, who hadjust returned to his work.
"Can you change this twenty so I can get seven dollars and a quarterout of it?" asked the man at he window. As he slid the bill through thewicket he started to sneeze, and reached backward--for his handkerchief,apparently.
"Here's one," said Bud. "Don't sneeze too hard, old-timer, or you'reliable to sneeze your whiskers all off. It's happened before."
Someone outside fired a shot in at Bud, clipping his hatband in front.At the sound of the shot the whiskered one snatched his gun out, and thecashier shot him. Bud had sent a shot through the outside window and hitsomebody--whom, he did not know, for he had no time to look. The youngfellow at the desk had whirled, and was pointing a gun shakily, firstat he cashier and then at Bud. Bud fired and knocked he gun out of hishand, then stepped over the man he suspected was Lew and caught theyoung fellow by the wrist.
"You're Ed Collier--by your eyes and your mouth," Bud said in a rapidundertone. "I'm going to get you out of this, if you'll do what I say.Will you?"
"He got me in here, honest," the young fellow quaked. He couldn't bemore than nineteen, Bud guessed swiftly.
"Let me through, Jimmy," Bud ordered hurriedly. "You got the man thatput up this job. I'll take the kid out the back way, if you don't mind."
Jimmy opened the steel-grilled door and let them through.
"Ed Collier," he said in a tone of recognition. "I heard he wastrailing--"
"Forget it, Jimmy. If the sheriff asks about him, say he got out. Now,Ed, I'm going to take you over to Mrs. Hanson's. She'll keep an eye onyou for a while."
Eddie was looking at the dead man on the floor, and trembling so that hedid not attempt to reply; and by way of Jimmy's back fence and the widowHanson's barn and corral, Bud got Eddie safe into the kitchen just asthat determined lady was leaving home with a shotgun to help defend thehonor of the town.
Bud took her by the shoulder and told her what he wanted her to do."He's Marian's brother, and too young to be with that gang. So keep himhere, safe and out of sight, until I come. Then I'll want to borrow yourhorse. Shall I tie the kid?"
"And me an able-bodied woman that could turn him acrost my knee?" Mrs.Hanson's eyes snapped.
"It's more likely the boy needs his breakfast. Get along with ye!"
Bud got along, slipping into the bank by the rear door and taking a handin the desultory firing in the street. The sheriff had a couple of menironed and one man down and the landlord of the hotel was doing a greatdeal of explaining that he had never seen the bandits before. Just byway of stimulating his memory Bud threw a bullet close to his heels,and the landlord thereupon grovelled and wept while he protested hisinnocence.
"He's a damn liar, sheriff," Bud called across the hoof-scarred road."He was talking to them about eleven o'clock last night. There werethree that chased me into town, and they got him up out of bed to findout whether I'd stopped there. I hadn't, luckily for me. If I had he'dhave showed them the way to my room, and he'd have had a dead boarderthis morning. Keep right on shedding tears, you old cut-throat! I wassitting on the court-house porch, last night, and I heard every wordthat passed between you and the Catrockers!"
"I've been suspicioning here was where they got their informationright along," the sheriff commented, and slipped the handcuffs onthe landlord. Investigation proved that Jeff Hall and his friends hadsuddenly decided that they had no business with the bank that day, andhad mounted and galloped out of town when the first shot was fired.Which simplified matters a bit for Bud.
In Jimmy Lawton's kitchen he received his money, and when the prisonerswere locked up he saved himself some trouble with the sheriff byhunting him up and explaining just why he had taken the Collier boy intocustody.
"You know yourself he's just a kid, and if you send him over the roadhe's a criminal for life. I believe I can make a decent man of him. Iwant to try, anyway. So you just leave me this deputy's badge, and makemy commission regular and permanent, and I'll keep an eye on him. Giveme a paper so I can get a requisition and bring him back to stand trial,any time he breaks out. I'll be responsible for him, sheriff."
"And who in blazes are you?" the sheriff inquired, with a grin to removethe sting of suspicion. "Name sounded familiar, too!"
"Bud Birnie of the Tomahawk, down near Laramie; Telegraph Laramie if youlike and find out about me.
"Good Lord! I know the Tomahawk like a book!" cried the sheriff. "Andyou're Bob Birnie's boy! Say! D'you remember dragging into camp on thesummit one time when you was about twelve years old--been hidin' outfrom Injuns about three days? Well, say! I'm the feller that packed youinto the tent, and fed yuh when yuh come to. Remember the time I rodedown and stayed over night at yore place, the time Bill Nye come downfrom his prospect hole up in the Snowies, bringin' word the Injuns wasup again?" The sheriff grabbed Bud's hand and held it, shaking it up anddown now and then to emphasize his words.
"Folks called you Buddy, then. I remember yuh, helpin' your mother cook'n' wash dishes for us fellers. I kinda felt like I had a claim on yuh,Buddy.
"Say, Bill Nye, he's famous now. Writin' books full of jokes, and allthat. He always was a comical cuss. Don't you remember how the bunchof us laughed at him when he drifted in about dark, him and fourburros--that one he called Boomerang, that he named his paper after inLaramie? I've told lots of times what he said when he come stoopin' intothe kitchen--how Colorou had sent him word that he'd give Bill justfour sleeps to get outa there. An, 'Hell!' says Bill. 'I didn't needany sleeps!' An' we all turned to and cooked a hull beef yore dad hadbutchered that day--and Bill loaded up with the first chunks we hadready, and pulled his freight. He sure didn't need any sleeps--"
"Yes, you bet I remember. Jesse Cummings is your name. I sure oughtto remember you, for you and your partner saved my life, I expect. Ithought I'd seen you before, when you made me deputy. How about the kid?Can I have him? Lew Morris, the man that kept him on the wrong side ofthe law, is dead, I heard the doctor say. Jimmy got him when he pulledhis gun."
"Why, yes--if the town don't git onto me turnin' him loose, I guess youcan have the kid for all I care. He didn't take any part in the holdup,did he Buddy?"
"He was over by the customers' desk when Lew started, to hold up thecashier."
"Well I got enough prisoners so I guess he won't be missed. But you lookout how yuh git him outa town. Better wait til kinda late to-night. Isure would like to see him git a show. Them two Collier kids never didhave a square deal, far as I've heard. But be careful, youngster. I wantanother term off this county if I can get it. Don't go get me in bad."
"I won't," Bud promised and hurried back to Mrs. Hanson's house.
That estimable lady was patting butter in a wooden bowl when Bud wentin. She turned and brushed a wisp of gray hair from her face with herfore arm and sh-shed him into silent stepping, motioning toward an innerroom. Bud tiptoed and looked, saw Ed Collier fast asleep, swaddled in ablanket, and grinned his approval.
He made sure
that the sleep was genuine, also that the blanket swaddlingwas efficient. Moreover, he discovered that Mrs. Hanson had veryprudently attached a thin wire to the foot of the blanket cocoon,had passed the wire through a knot hole in a cupboard set into thepartition, and to a sheep bell which she no doubt expected to ring uponprovocation--such as a prisoner struggling to release his feet from agray blanket fastened with many large safety pins.
"He went right to sleep, the minute I'd fed him and tied him snug,"Mrs. Hanson murmured. "He was a sulky divvle and wouldn't give a decentanswer to me till he had his stomach filled. From the way he waded intothe ham and eggs, I guess a square meal and him has been strangers for along time."
Sleep and Ed Collier must have been strangers also, for Bud attended theinquest of Lew Morris, visited afterwards with Sheriff Cummings, whowas full of reminiscence and wanted to remind Bud of everything that hadever happened within his knowledge during the time when they had beenneighbors with no more than forty miles or so between them. The sheriffoffered Bud a horse and saddle, which he promised to deliver to thewidow's corral after the citizens of Crater had gone to bed. And whilehe did not say that it would be Ed's horse, Bud guessed shrewdly thatit would. After that, Bud carefully slit the lining of his boots tuckedmoney and checks into the opening he had made, and did a very neatrepair job.
All that while Ed Collier slept. When Bud returned for his supper Ed hadevidently just awakened and was lying on his back biting his lip whilehe eyed the wire that ran from his feet to the parting of a pair ofcalico curtains. He did not see Bud, who was watching him through acrack in the door at the head of the bed. Ed was plainly puzzled at thewire and a bit resentful. He lifted his feet until the wire was wellslackened, held them poised for a minute and deliberately brought themdown hard on the floor.
The result was all that he could possibly have expected. Somewhere wasa vicious clang, the rattle of a tin pan and the approaching outcry ofa woman. Bud retreated to the kitchen to view the devastation anddiscovered that a sheep bell not too clean had been dislodged from anail and dragged through one pan of milk into another, where it wasrolling on its edge, stirring the cream that had risen. As Mrs. Hansonrushed in from the back yard, Bud returned to the angry captive's side.
"I've got him safe," he soothed Mrs. Hanson and her shotgun. "He justhad a nightmare. Perhaps that breakfast you fed him was too hearty.I'll look after him now, Mrs. Hanson. We won't be bothering you long,anyway."
Mrs. Hanson was talking to herself when she went to her milk pans, andBud released Eddie Collier, guessing how humiliating it must be to bea young fellow pinned into a blanket with safety pins, and knowing fromcertain experiences of his own that humiliation is quite as apt to breedtrouble as any other emotion.
Eddie sat up on the edge of the bed and stared at Bud. His eyes werelike Marian's in shape and color, but their expression was suspicion,defiance, and watchfulness blended into one compelling stare thatspelled Fear. Or so Bud read it, having trapped animals of variousgrades ever since he had caught the "HAWNTOAD", and seen that look many,many times in the eyes of his catch.
"How'd you like to take a trip with me--as a kind of a partner?" Budbegan carelessly, pulling a splinter off the homemade bed for which Mrs.Hanson would not thank him--and beginning to whittle it to a sharp pointaimlessly, as men have a way of doing when their minds are at work upona problem which requires--much constructive thinking.
"Pardner in what?" Eddie countered sullenly.
"Pardner in what I am planning to do to make money. I can make money,you know--and stay on friendly terms with the sheriff, too. That'sbetter than your bunch has been able to do. I don't mind tellingyou--it's stale news, I guess--that I cleaned up close to twelvethousand dollars in less than a month, off a working capital of threethoroughbred horses and about sixty dollars cash. And I'll add theknowledge that I was playing against men that would slip a cold deckif they played solitaire, they were so crooked. And if that doesn'trecommend me sufficiently, I'll say I'm a deputy sheriff of CraterCounty, and Jesse Cummings knows my past. I want to hire you to go withme and make some money, and I'll pay you forty a month and five per centbonus on my profits at the end of two years. The first year may not showany profits, but the second year will. How does it sound to you?"
He had been rolling a cigarette, and now he offered the "makings" to Ed,who accepted them mechanically, his eyes still staring hard at Bud. Heglanced toward the door and the one little window where wild cucumbervines were thickly matted, and Bud interpreted his glance.
"Lew and another Catrocker--the one that tried to rope me down in theSinks--are dead, and three more are in jail. Business won't be verybrisk with the Catrock gang for a while."
"If you're trying to bribe me into squealing on the rest, you're a damnfool," said Eddie harshly. "I ain't the squealing kind. You can lead meover to jail first. I'd rather take my chances with the others." He wasbreathing hard when he finished.
"Rather than work for me?" Bud sliced off the sharp point which he hadso carefully whittled, and began to sharpen a new one. Eddie watched himfascinatedly.
"Rather than squeal on the bunch. There's no other reason in God's worldwhy you'd make me an offer like that. I ain't a fool quite, if my headdoes run up to a peak."
Bud chewed his lip, whittled, and finally threw the splinter away. Whenhe turned toward Eddie his eyes were shiny.
"Kid, you're breaking your sister's heart, following this trail. I'dlike to see you give her a chance to speak your name without blinkingback tears. I'd like to see her smile all the way from her dimples toher eyes when she thinks of you. That's why I made the offer--that andbecause I think you'd earn your wages."
Eddie looked at him, looked away, staring vacantly at the wall. Hiseyelashes were blinking very fast, his lip began to tremble. "You--I--Inever wanted to--I ain't worth saving--oh, hell! I never had a chancebefore--" He dropped sidewise on the bed, buried his face in his armsand sobbed hoarsely, like the boy he was.