Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 01 - The Range Robbers(1930) (41 page)

 
          
“I
was studyin’ him mighty careful. This may be all a dodge to get yu to the Y Z.’

 
          
“I’m
agoin’ to risk it anyway, but there’s no call—’

      
 
“We done settled that a’ready.’

 
          
They
resumed their way, leisurely, for they had no desire to reach the ranch before
dark. Slow, as they were, however, it was barely dusk when, hidden in the thick
brush bordering the trail, they saw the ranch buildings a quarter of a mile
distant. Larry tied his pony.

 
          
“Yu
stay here,’ he said. “I’ll sneak up a-foot an’ have a look-see.’

 
          
Green
nodded, and rolling himself a cigarette, sat down to wait. Presently his quick
ear caught the sound of hoof-beats and peering out he saw Noreen cantering down
the trail. Evidently she had been for one of her afternoon rides and was
returning home. He noted, with an ironical spasm of satisfaction, that Tarman
was not with her and that she was riding Blue. After a moment of indecision, he
stepped into view, removing his hat as he did so. The girl would have ridden
past, but the horse, with a little whicker of pleasure, came straight to him.
The cowpuncher smiled bitterly as he fondled the velvety muzzle.

 
          
“A
feller was sayin’ to me the other day that some hosses are pretty near human
but I reckon he understand the facts,’ he said.

 
          
The
girl bit her lip and her face flushed, but she made no further attempt to
resume her way.

 
          
“What
are you doing here?’ she asked angrily, and then, noting that he hesitated, she
added, “Don’t trouble to think up any lie; I know that you are waiting for my
father, whom you believe to be one of the men you told me you were looking for,
and you want to kill him for some fancied grievance. Oh, if only I had known.’

 
          
The
man she lashed listened apparently unmoved, though her scorn and contempt were
hard to bear.

 
          
“I
reckon yu got me wrong,’ he said patiently, while wondering how she knew. “I
came intending to see yore—father, but I ain’t goin’ to hurt him.’ He saw the
question in her eyes. “He’s got to apologise,’ he finished.

 
          
“To
you?’ she asked stormily.

 
          
Green
shook his head. “No,’ he said solemnly. “
To a dead man.’

 
          
“What
do you mean?’ the girl queried, impressed in spite of herself by his demeanour.
“Is this one of your so-called jokes?’ For an instant the steel-blue eyes
flashed fire and muscles of his strong mouth corded in the effort to maintain
his self-control. The girl shivered; she had had a glimpse of a strong man
suddenly stirred to anger, and it frightened her. But in a moment the storm had
passed and the man’s face was set, passionless,
immobile
again.

 
          
“Won’t
you tell me?’ she asked.

 
          
“Yore
father must do the explainin’,’ he replied. “I’m givin’ yu my word that he’s
safe, but I’ve gotta see him, an’ I’m goin’ to see him. I’m comin’ in peace an’
I’ll go in peace, but if there’s any trap laid, well, I guess graves’ll be
wanted to-morrow. Tell yore father that.’

 
          
His
voice was harsh, rasping, implacable, and Noreen realised that he was not to be
turned from his purpose, and that even did he walk straight into an ambush he
would come to the ranch. She nodded dumbly, and the cowpuncher, having pushed
the head of the unwilling roan back towards the trail, vanished into the
bushes.

 
          
When
the girl had gone, Green sat down, took out his guns and spun the cylinders to
make sure the weapons were in perfect order. He had done his best to ensure
that his meeting with Simon should be a peaceable one, but he was not going
unprepared for the alternative. He had some black moments when he fell to
considering what the girl must be thinking of him, and whether’it would oe
better to have told her the whole story. With a shrug of his shoulders he
dismissed the idea—she would not have believed him. Presently a twig crackled
and Larry appeared.

 
          
“Yu
make near as much noise as a herd stampeding,’ was the greeting he received.
“Got any news?’

 
          
“All
is quiet around the old homestead—too quiet for my likin’,’ replied the youth,
ignoring the insult to his trailing ability. “Didn’t see hide
nor
hair of anyone ‘cept the Pretty Lady. She come bustin’
in on Vesuvius lookin’ some flustered, pushed him in the corral an’ hurried
into the house.
What yu been sayin’ to her?’

 
          
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.