Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 07 - Sudden Rides Again(1938) (6 page)

BOOK: Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 07 - Sudden Rides Again(1938)
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The
saloon-keeper pushed the weapon back. “Not foh mah fren’s, sah,” he corrected.
“Dey’s on de house.”

 
          
“Well
sheriff,” Sudden began.

 
          
-Aw,
forget it,” the other smiled. “Dugout’s got no use for one anyways, she’s dead,
an’ on’y needs an undertaker.” Later, as they rode in the direction of the
Double K ranch, Sudden said bluntly, “What’s Keith want with me?”

 
          
“Hell,
yu ain’t gotta have four eyes to see that,” came the reply. “Didn’t yu git his
gal out’n a jam? Any o’ the boys would ‘a’ given a month’s pay for the chance.
Yu must be one o’ those lucky guys.”

 
          
“Shore,
lucky
don’t
begin to tell about me,” Sudden retorted,
with such emphatic bitterness that his companion stared. “Shucks, I don’t need
any thanks; I’ve a mind to go back.”

 
          
“Then
I’ll have to bring the outfit,” Frosty said.”When the 01’ Man wants a thing it
has gotta be got, come hell or high water. Are yu goin’ to make me fall down on
my job?”

 
          
The
puncher’s respect for his new friend’s shrewdness increased; this was an
argument to which there was only one reply.

 
          
“Yu
win,” he said, and presently, “They were talkin’ in the bar last night ‘bout
Hell City; ever seen it?”

 
          
“From
the outside on’y, an’ that’s aplenty.”

 
          
“Is
the boss of it young Keith?”

 
          
The
Double K cowboy shrugged. “Common talk sez so, an’ all the signs read that
way,” he replied. “Allasame, I dunno. Time he left here, Jeff warn’t bad, just
wild an’ headstrong. When yu ride a colt too hard yu break its spirit or turn
it into an outlaw. The Colonel didn’t savvy what he was doin’. He’s a good
rancher, an’ square, but, if he gits to Paradise—which is some doubtful—I’ll
bet he’ll want to run it.”

 
          
“Stiff-necked, huh?”

 
          
“Brother,
yu said it; I don’t reckon that fella ever does see his own feet. He wants Jeff
an’ Miss Joan to make a match, an’ a blind man could tell they’s headin’ that
way, but he gives the boy orders, puttin’ him on the prod immediate. If he’d
waited, but there, Ken Keith never could wait, an’ I’ll wager he’s cussin’ me out
right now because I can’t ride twenty mile in as many minutes.”

 
Chapter
V

 
          
The
Double K range occupied an expansive tract of open country towards the end of
the big basin and about ten miles south of Dugout. The ranch-house faced a
long, grassy incline, and was protected from the sun by lofty pines. It was a
wide, one-storied building of trimmed timber, with a roofed verandah along the
whole front, and chimneys of stone. The bunkhouse, smithy, storage-barns and
corrals were about a hundred yards distant. As the
riders
aproached, they could see a tall figure striding up and down le verandah.

 
          
“Like
I said, callin’ me everythin’ he can think of,” Frosty grinned, “an’ lemme tell
yu, he knows some words. Allasame, if he offers yu a job I hope yu’ll take it;
I’d admire to have yu here.”

 
          
“I
thought yu were tryin’ to scare me away.” Sudden smiled.

 
          
His
companion shot a sly glance at him. “I’d say yu don’t scare easy. Don’t git any
wrong ideas ‘bout the 01’ Man; he’s all wool, an’ we’re proud of him; also, the
pay an’ the grub is good.”

 
          
“The
foreman—is he good, too?”

 
          
Frosty
frowned a little. “Sam’s mouth opens too easy.”

 
          
“He
never named him,” Sudden said. “I like to know somethin’ of the man I take
orders from.”

 
          
“Him
an’ me don’t exactly hit it, but that ain’t to say he an’t cover his job,”
Frosty said bluntly.

 
          
In
a few moments they reached the ranch-house and dismounted. Colonel Keith was on
the far side of fifty, but his erect, spare frame showed no sign of age. He had
a large, high-bridged nose, keen black eyes set beneath bushy eyebrows, thin,
carefully shaven lips, and he wore his grey hair somewhat long. A suit of fine
white linen gave him the appearance of a prosperous planter rather than a
cattleman.

 
          
“Breedin’
there, an’ pride,” Sudden decided. “Wouldn’t lift his lid to a king—less he
liked him.”

 
          
“Well,
boss, I got him,” Frosty announced.

 
          
“My
feeble intellect had already divined as much,” was the unsmiling reply. “You
have not, I hope, been hurrying.” Without giving the abashed cowboy time to
answer he turned to the visitor. “That’s a fine horse you have; Homer will take
care of it.”

 
          
Sudden
shook his head. “I’d best ‘tend to that myself,” he said. “Nigger is a one-man
hoss.”

 
          
As
they unsaddled and turned the animals loose in the corral, Frosty grimaced
ruefully, and remarked, “Didn’t I say he had a razor-tongue?”

 
          
“Yu
shorely asked for it. He’s got eyes, too, ain’t he?”

 
          
Sudden
returned to the verandah alone, his companion not being anxious for another
rebuff. The rancher pointed to a chair.

 
          
“We
will sit here, if you please,” he said, “The view is considered a fine one.”

 
          
It
was indeed. The expanse of grassland, hemmed in by a strip of broken country
beyond which forested slopes climbed steeply to the craggy, battlemented hills
which formed the rim-rock of the great valley, presented a picture to please
the eye of any lover of Nature. Keith gave the puncher little time to admire
it.

 
          
“Mister
Green, I am doubly in your debt,” he began.
“For protecting
my adopted daughter from insult, and for giving me this opportunity of thanking
you.”
He finished with an old-fashioned bow.

 
          
“Nothin’
to that, seh,” Sudden protested uncomfortably. “I just happened to be there.”

 
          
“Very
fortunately for Joan,” the rancher said. “Sam is an old servant and an
excellent fellow, but he has the pluck of a rabbit.” His eyes flashed. “They
should have died,” he added vehemently. “Of course, you are a stranger….”

 
          
“I
learned ‘em a lesson,” the puncher pointed out.

 
          
“So
I heard, seh,” Keith replied, and with a wisp of a smile. “I, too, have my
magic. You see, my position renders it necessary that I should know all that
takes place in the valley; it is not idle curiosity. Neither is it when I ask
why you have come to these parts?”

 
          
“I’m
just a puncher who has pulled his picket-pin, havin’ got tired o’ lookin’ at
the same bit o’ the world every mornin’. Allus had the travel itch—never could
stay put for long. I’ve no folks an’ no friends.”

 
          
The
rancher nodded. He knew the type and had not expected to receive any definite
information. The average cowboy was a nomad by nature, liable to wander in
search of new pastures from sheer restlessness. But though he accepted the
explanation, he did so with reservations, being convinced that this nonchalant
but extremely competent-looking young man, who wore two guns and had proved his
ability to take care of himself, was something more than he had claimed.

 
          
‘Would
you care to ride for me?” he asked abruptly.

 
          
Sudden
hesitated; save in moments of stress, when he could emulate lightning itself,
he did not make rapid decisions. Keith misunderstood his silence.

 
          
“You
have heard I’m a hard man to work for?” he suggested.

 
          
“No,
seh, the word I had was that yore men are proud o’yu, an’ that the pay an’ grub
is good,” Sudden smiled. “I’m just wonderin’ why yu offer me a
job?

 
          
“You
have done me a service,” the other reminded, and when the visitor made a
gesture of dissent, “and you appear to be the kind of man I need.”

 
          
“I
can handle cattle.”

 
          
“I
want someone who can handle men—miscreants like those you dealt with
yesterday,” the rancher said harshly. “I want that nest of thieves and
cut-throats, Hell City—of which you must now have heard—wiped out. Above all, I
want to see their leader, who has robbed, flouted, and jeered at me, broken,
lying in the dust at my feet, begging for his life.”

 
          
The
low, tense tones, flaming eyes, and clamped, set jaw testified to the passion
which possessed him. In a moment it passed and Kenneth Keith was again the
cold, courteous gentleman.

 
          
“The
fellow is a menace to the whole community, Mister Green,” he went on.
“A cancerous growth which must be ruthlessly removed.
I have
written to the Governor, but apparently he can do nothing; we must take the law
into our own hands. Well, what do you say?”

 
          
Though
this was the offer for which he had hoped, Sudden did not wish to seem too
eager, and it was only after a pause that he said:

 
          
“I’m
takin’ a hand, but I gotta play the cyards my own way. To begin with I’ll be
just one o’ yore punchers—yu havin’ put me on the pay-roll for helpin’ Miss
Keith. That’ll give me time to look around.” He waited, and then, “If I get a
chance to down this leader would that be all right with yu?”

 
          
The
elder man’s face paled. “I would prefer to have him brought in for me to pass
judgment on,” he said slowly.

 
          
“I
savvy,” Sudden replied, and was glad he had asked the question. Somewhere in
this proud, hard parent there still glowed a spark of affection for the son of
his body.

 
          
The
appearance of the girl interrupted the conversation, and the cowboy had to
submit while she thanked him prettily.

 
          
“Green
is going to ride for the Double K, Joan,” Keith told her. “I scarcely think any
of that devil’s brood will interfere with you again.” His voice grew stern. “If
they do, he has my instructions to deal with them as they deserve.”

 
          
“I
hope the lesson they have received will be sufficient,” she said, but there was
fear in her eyes.

 
          
Sudden
made a mental note, and then—in response to the rancher’s hail—Frosty came up
from the corral. His face split in a broad grin when he learned that the Double
K had hired a hand.

 
          
“Show
him where he sleeps, and then”—Keith’s thin smile was in evidence—”you can go
with him to Dugout to fetch his things.”

 
          
As
they went to the corral for their horses, Frosty looked at his new friend and
said with a laugh:

 
          
“That’s
the 01’ Man all
over :
lashes yu with that tongue o’
his one minute, an’ the next, does somethin’ yu want but dasn’t ask for. I’m
thunderin’ glad yo’re joinin’ us, Jim, an’ Sam will be, too.”

 
          
“He’s
losin’ a boarder.”

 
          
“He’s
gainin’ a friend,” came the swift retort, “an’ bein’ the colour he is, he don’t
have too many.”

 
          
His
prophecy proved correct, for when they returned to Dugout with the news, the
saloon-keeper’s delight and relief were obvious.

 
          
“I’se
pow’ful pleased yo’ ain’t leavin’ us, sah,” he beamed. “Shucks, them hombres
would say I’d run away,”

BOOK: Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 07 - Sudden Rides Again(1938)
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