CHAPTER 15. JUDD MORGAN PASSES
Gimlet Butte devoted the night of the Fourth to a high old time. Theroping and the other sports were to be on the morrow, and meanwhile thenight hours were filled with exuberance. The cowboy's spree comesonly once in several months, but when it does come he enters into theoccasion with such whole-hearted enthusiasm as to make up swiftly forlost time. A traveling midway had cast its tents in a vacant square incompetition with the regular attractions of the town, and everywhere thehard-riding punchers were "night herding" in full regalia.
There was a big masked ball in the street, and another in the MasonicHall, while here and there flared the lights of the faker with somethingto sell. Among these last was "Soapy" Sothern, doing a thriving businessin selling suckers and bars wrapped with greenbacks. Crowds tramped thestreets blowing horns and throwing confetti, and everywhere was a largesprinkling of men in high-heeled boots, swinging along with the awkward,stiff-legged gait of the cowboy. Sometimes a girl was hanging on hisarm, and again he was "whooping it up with the boys"; but in either casethe range-rider's savings were burning a hole through his pockets withextreme rapidity.
Jim McWilliams and the sheepman Bannister had that day sealed afriendship that was to be as enduring as life. The owner of the sheepranch was already under heavy obligation to the foreman of the Lazy D,but debt alone is not enough on which to found soul brotherhood. Theremust be qualities of kinship in the primeval elements of character. Bothmen had suspected that this kinship existed, but to-day they had provedit in the way that one had lost and the other had won the covetedchampionship. They had made no vows and no professions. The subject hadnot even been touched in words; a meeting of the eyes, followed by thehandshake with which Bannister had congratulated the winner. That hadbeen all. But it was enough.
With the casual democracy of the frontier they had together escortedHelen Messiter and Nora Darling through a riotous three hours ofcarnival, taking care to get them back to their hotel before the nightreally began "to howl."
But after they had left the young women, neither of them cared to sleepyet. They were still in costume, Mac dressed as a monk, and his friendas a Stuart cavalier, and the spirit of frolic was yet strong in them.
"I expaict, mebbe, we better hunt in couples if we're going to helppaint the town," smiled Mac, and his friend had immediately agreed.
It must have been well after midnight that they found themselves"bucking the tiger" in a combination saloon and gambling-house, whosepatrons were decidedly cosmopolitan in character. Here white and redand yellow men played side by side, the Orient and the Occident andthe aboriginal alike intent on the falling cards and the little rollingball. A good many of them were still in their masks and dominos, thoughthese, for the most part, removed their vizors before playing.
Neither McWilliams nor his friend were betting high, and the luck hadbeen so even that at the end of two hours' play neither of them had atany time either won or lost more than fifteen dollars. In point of fact,they were playing not so much to win as just to keep in touch with thegay, youthful humor of the night.
They were getting tired of the game when two men jingled in for a drink.They were talking loudly together, and it was impossible to miss thesubject of their conversation.
McWilliams gave a little jerk of his head toward one of them. "JuddMorgan," his lips framed without making a sound.
Bannister nodded.
"Been tanking up all day," Mac added. "Otherwise his tongue would not beshooting off so reckless."
A silence had fallen over the assembly save for the braggarts at thebar. Men looked at each other, and then furtively at Bannister. ForMorgan, ignorant of who was sitting quietly with his back to him at thefaro-table, was venting his hate of Bannister and McWilliams.
"Both in the same boat. Did y'u see how Mac ran to help him to-day? Bothwaddies. Both rustlers. Both train robbers. Sho! I got through puttinga padlock on me mouth. Man to man, I'm as good as either of them--damnsight better. I wisht they was here, one or both; I wisht they wouldstep up here and fight it out. Bannister's a false alarm, and thatforeman of the Lazy D--" His tongue stumbled over a blur of vilificationthat ended with a foul mention of Miss Messiter.
Instantly two chairs crashed to the floor. Two pair of gray eyes metquietly.
"My quarrel, Bann," said Jim, in a low, even voice.
The other nodded. "I'll see y'u have a clear field."
The man who was with Morgan suddenly whispered in his ear, and thelatter slewed his head in startled fear. Almost instantly a bulletclipped past McWilliams's shoulder. Morgan had fired without waitingfor the challenge he felt sure was at hand. Once--twice the foreman'srevolver made answer. Morgan staggered, slipped down to the floor, abullet crashing through the chandelier as he fell. For a moment his bodyjerked. Then he rolled over and lay still.
The foreman's weapon covered him unwaveringly, but no more steadily thanBannister's gaze the man who had come in with him who lay lifeless onthe floor. The man looked at the lifeless thing, shuddered, and backedout of the saloon.
"I call y'u all to witness that my friend killed him in self-defense,"said Bannister evenly. "Y'u all saw him fire first. Mac did not evenhave his gun out."
"That's right," agreed one, and another added: "He got what was comingto him."
"He sure did," was the barkeeper's indorsement. "He came in huntingtrouble, but I reckon he didn't want to be accommodated so prompt."
"Y'u'll find us at the Gimlet Butte House if we're wanted for this,"said Bannister. "We'll be there till morning."
But once out of the gambling-house McWilliams drew his friend to oneside. "Do y'u know who that was I killed?"
"Judd Morgan, foreman before y'u at the Lazy D."
"Yes, but what else?"
"What do y'u mean?"
"I mean that next to your cousin Judd was leader of that Shoshone-Tetonbunch."
"How do y'u know?"
"I suspected it a long time, but I knew for sure the day that yourcousin held up the ranch. The man that was in charge of the crowdoutside was Morgan. I could swear to it. I knew him soon as I clappedeyes to him, but I was awful careful to forget to tell him I recognizedhim."
"That means we are in more serious trouble than I had supposed."
"Y'u bet it does. We're in a hell of a hole, figure it out any wayy'u like. Instead of having shot up a casual idiot, I've killed NedBannister's right-hand man. That will be the excuse--shooting Morgan.But the real trouble is that I won the championship belt from yourcousin. He already hated y'u like poison, and he don't love me any toohard. He will have us arrested by his sheriff here. Catch the point.Y'U'RE NED BANNISTER, THE OUTLAW, AND I'M HIS RIGHT-BOWER. That's theplay he's going to make, and he's going to make it right soon."
"I don't care if he does. We'll fight him on his own ground. We'll provethat he's the miscreant and not us."
"Prove nothing," snarled McWilliams. "Do y'u reckon he'll give us achance to prove a thing? Not on your life. He'll have us jailed firstthing; then he'll stir up a sentiment against us, and before morningthere will be a lynchingbee, and y'u and I will wear the neckties. Howdo y'u like the looks of it?"
"But y'u have a lot of friends. They won't stand for anything likethat."
"Not if they had time to stop it. Trouble is, fellow's friends thinkawful slow. They'll arrive in time to cut us down and be the mourners.No, sir! It's a hike for Jimmie Mac on the back of the first bronc hecan slap a saddle on."
Bannister frowned. "I don't like to run before the scurvy scoundrels."
"Do y'u suppose I'm enjoying it? Not to any extent, I allow. But thatsweet relative of yours holds every ace in the deck, and he'll playthem, too. He owns the law in this man's town, and he owns the lawless.But the best card he holds is that he can get a thousand of the bestpeople here to join him in hanging the 'king' of the Shoshone outlaws.Explanations nothing! Y'u rode under the name of Bannister, didn't y'u?He's Jack Holloway."
"It does make a strong combination,"
admitted the sheepman.
"Strong! It's invincible. I can see him playing it, laughing up hissleeve all the time at the honest fools he is working. No, sir! I drawout of a game like that. Y'u don't get a run for your money."
"Of course he knows already what has happened," mused Bannister.
"Sure he knows. That fellow with Morgan made a bee-line for him. Justabout now he's routing the sheriff out of his bed. We got no time tolose. Thing is, to burn the wind out of this town while we have thechance."
"I see. It won't help us any to be spilling lead into a sheriff's posse.That would ce'tainly put us in the wrong."
"Now y'u're shouting. If we're honest men why don't we surrenderpeaceable? That's the play the 'king' is going to make in this town. Nowif we should spoil a posse and bump off one or two of them, we couldn'tpile up evidence enough to get a jury to acquit. No, sir! We can'tsurrender and we can't fight. Consequence is, we got to roll our tailsimmediate."
"We have an appointment with Miss Messiter and Nora for to-morrowmorning. We'll have to leave word we can't keep it."
"Sure. Denver and Missou are playing the wheel down at the SilverDollar. I reckon we better make those boys jump and run errands for uswhile we lie low. I'll drop in casual and give them the word. Meet y'uhere in ten minutes. Whatever y'u do, keep that mask on your face."
"Better meet farther from the scene of trouble. Suppose we say the northgate of the grand stand?"
"Good enough. So-long."
The first faint streaks of day were beginning to show on the horizonwhen Bannister reached the grand stand. He knew that inside of anotherhalf-hour the little frontier town would be blinking in the earlymorning sunlight that falls so brilliantly through the limpidatmosphere. If they were going to leave without fighting their way outthere was no time to lose.
Ten minutes slowly ticked away.
He glanced at his watch. "Five minutes after four. I wish I had gonewith Mac. He may have been recognized."
But even as the thought flitted through his mind, the semi-darknessopened to let a figure out of it.
"All quiet along the Potomac, seh?" asked the foreman's blithe voice."Good. I found the boys and got them started." He flung down a Mexicanvaquero's gaily trimmed costume.
"Get into these, seh. Denver shucked them for me. That coyote must havenoticed what we wore before he slid out. Y'u can bet the orders are towatch for us as we were dressed then."
"What are y u going to do?"
"Me? I'm scheduled to be Aaron Burr, seh. Missou swaps with me when hegets back here. They're going to rustle us some white men's clothes,too, but we cayn't wear them till we get out of town on account ofshowing our handsome faces."
"What about horses?"
"Denver is rustling some for us. Y'u better be scribbling your billy-dooto the girl y'u leave behind y'u, seh."
"Haven't y'u got one to scribble?" Bannister retorted. "Seems to me y'ubetter get busy, too."
So it happened that when Missou arrived a few minutes later he foundthis pair of gentlemen, who were about to flee for their lives, busilyinditing what McWilliams had termed facetiously billets-doux. Eachof them was trying to make his letter a little warmer than friendshipallowed without committing himself to any chance of a rebuff. Mac got asfar as Nora Darling, absentmindedly inserted a comma between the words,and there stuck hopelessly. He looked enviously across at Bannister,whose pencil was traveling rapidly down his note-book.
"My, what a swift trail your pencil leaves on that paper. That's goingsome. Mine's bogged down before it got started. I wisht y'u would startme off."
"Well, if you ain't up and started a business college already. I hadought to have brought a typewriter along with me," murmured Missouironically.
"How are things stacking? Our friends the enemy getting busy yet?" askedBannister, folding and addressing his note.
"That's what. Orders gone out to guard every road so as not to let youpass. What's the matter with me rustling up the boys and us holding downa corner of this town ourselves?"
The sheepman shook his head. "We're not going to start a little privatewar of our own. We couldn't do that without spilling a lot of blood. No,we'll make a run for it."
"That y'u, Denver?" the foreman called softly, as the sound ofapproaching horses reached him.
"Bet your life. Got your own broncs, too. Sheriff Burns called upDaniels not to let any horses go out from his corral to anybody withouthis O.K. I happened to be cinching at the time the 'phone messagecame, so I concluded that order wasn't for me, and lit out kinderunceremonious."
Hastily the fugitives donned the new costumes and dominos, turned theirnotes over to Denver, and swung to their saddles.
"Good luck!" the punchers called after them, and Denver added anironical promise that the foreman had no doubt he would keep. "I'll lookout for Nora--Darling." There was a drawling pause between the first andsecond names. "I'll ce'tainly see that she don't have any time to worryabout y'u, Mac."
"Y'u go to Halifax," returned Mac genially over his shoulder as he lopedaway.
"I doubt if we can get out by the roads. Soon as we reach the end of thestreet we better cut across that hayfield," suggested Ned.
"That's whatever. Then we'll slip past the sentries without being seen.I'd hate to spoil any of them if we can help it. We're liable to getourselves disliked if our guns spatter too much."
They rode through the main street, still noisy with the shouts of laterevelers returning to their quarters. Masked men were yet in evidenceoccasionally, so that their habits caused neither remark nor suspicion.A good many of the punchers, unable to stay longer, were slipping outof town after having made a night of it. In the general exodus the twofriends hoped to escape unobserved.
They dropped into a side street, galloped down it for two hundred yards,and dismounted at a barb-wire fence which ran parallel with the road.The foreman's wire-clippers severed the strands one by one, and they ledtheir horses through the gap. They crossed an alfalfa-field, jumped anirrigation ditch, used the clippers again, and found themselves in alarge pasture. It was getting lighter every moment, and while theywere still in the pasture a voice hailed them from the road in anunmistakable command to halt.
They bent low over the backs of their ponies and gave them the spur. Theshot they had expected rang out, passing harmlessly over them. Anotherfollowed, and still another.
"That's right. Shoot up the scenery. Y'u don't hurt us none," theforeman said, apostrophizing the man behind the gun.
The next clipped fence brought them to the open country. For half anhour they rode swiftly without halt. Then McWilliams drew up.
"Where are we making for?"
"How about the Wind River country?"
"Won't do. First off, they'll strike right down that way after us.What's the matter with running up Sweetwater Creek and lying out in thebad lands around the Roubideaux?"
"Good. I have a sheep-camp up that way. I can arrange to have grub sentthere for us by a man I can trust."
"All right. The Roubideaux goes."
While they were nooning at a cow-spring, Bannister, lying on his back,with his face to the turquoise sky, became aware that a vagrant impulsehad crystallized to a fixed determination. He broached it at once to hiscompanion.
"One thing is a cinch, Mac. Neither y'u nor I will be safe in thiscountry now until we have broken up the gang of desperadoes that isterrorizing this country. If we don't get them they will get us. Thereisn't any doubt about that. I'm not willing to lie down before thesemiscreants. What do y'u say?"
"I'm with y'u, old man. But put a name to it. What are y'u proposing?"
"I'm proposing that y'u and I make it our business not to have any otherbusiness until we clean out this nest of wolves. Let's go right afterthem, and see if we can't wipe out the Shoshone-Teton outfit."
"How? They own the law, don't they?"
"They don't own the United States Government. When they held up amail-train they did a fool thing, for they bucked up against Un
cleSam. What I propose is that we get hold of one of the gang and make himweaken. Then, after we have got hold of some evidence that will convict,we'll go out and run down my namesake Ned Bannister. If people once getthe idea that his hold isn't so strong there's a hundred people thatwill testify against him. We'll have him in a Government prison insideof six months."
"Or else he'll have us in a hole in the ground," added the foreman,dryly.
"One or the other," admitted Bannister. "Are y'u in on this thing?"
"I surely am. Y'u're the best man I've met up with in a month ofSundays, seh. Y'u ain't got but one fault; and that is y'u don't smokecigareets. Feed yourself about a dozen a day and y'u won't have a blamedtrouble left. Match, seh?" The foreman of the Lazy D, already followinghis own advice, rolled deftly his smoke, moistened it and proceeded toblow away his troubles.
Bannister looked at his debonair insouciance and laughed. "Water off aduck's back," he quoted. "I know some folks that would be sweating fearright now. It's ce'tainly an aggravating situation, that of being anhonest man hunted as a villain by a villain. But I expaict my cousin'senjoying it."
"He ain't enjoying it so much as he would if his plans had worked out alittle smoother. He's holding the sack right now and cussing right smahtover it being empty, I reckon."
"He did lock the stable door a little too late," chuckled the sheepman.But even as he spoke a shadow fell over his face. "My God! I hadforgotten. Y'u don't suppose he would take it out of Miss Messiter."
"Not unless he's tired of living," returned her foreman, darkly. "Onething, this country won't stand for is that. He's got to keep his handsoff women or he loses out. He dassent lay a hand on them if they don'twant him to. That's the law of the plains, isn't it?"
"That's the unwritten law for the bad man, but I notice it doesn't seemto satisfy y'u, my friend. Y'u and I know that my cousin, Ned Bannister,doesn't acknowledge any law, written or unwritten. He's a devil and hehas no fear. Didn't he kidnap her before?"
"He surely would never dare touch those young ladies. But--I don't know.Bann, I guess we better roll along toward the Lazy D country, afterall."
"I think so." Ned looked at his friend with smiling drollery. "I thoughty'u smoked your troubles away, Jim. This one seems to worry y'u."
McWilliams grinned sheepishly. "There's one trouble won't be smokedaway. It kinder dwells." Then, apparently apropos of nothing, he added,irrelevantly: "Wonder what Denver's doing right now?"
"Probably keeping that appointment y'u ran away from," bantered hisfriend.
"I'll bet he is. Funny how some men have all the luck," murmured thedespondent foreman.
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