Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 01 - The Range Robbers(1930) (40 page)

 
          
“What
we goin’ to do now?’ asked Larry.

 
          
Put
‘em up; I got yu covered,’ came a hoarse command from the surrounding bushes.

 
          
A
touch of the spurred heel sent Larry’s horse into the air and at the same
instant
came
a shot which scorched Green’s neck. Like
lightning, the puncher sent three bullets into the bush from which the smoke
was spiralling, and a grunt, followed by the crash of a falling body showed
they had not been fired in vain. For some moments the two men waited tensely,
guns ready, for any further demonstration, but nothing happened. Dismounting,
they forced their way into the bush. Sprawled before them, a neat hole between
his sightless eyes and a distorted sneer on his misshappen
lips,
was Gorilla.

 
          
“We’re
gettin’ careless, Larry,’ Green said. “We oughtta noticed that there was only
three with the herd when they struck the valley an’ then we’d have known that
one of ‘em was watchin’ the trail. We gotta get rid o’ this’—he pointed to the
body—‘it tells too much.’

 
          
A
deep crevice between two rocks, winh more stones on top to protect it from wild
creatures, formed the dwarf’s last resning-place. His horse they found tied to
a tree not far away and turned it loose. A glance at the valley showed a thin
wisp of smoke; apparently the rustlers had not heard the firing and were about
to feed before making the return trip.

 
          
“Well,
I owed that jigger somethin’ but I didn’t know I was payin’ a debt,’ Green
mused. “
Odd how things work out.
I never did nothin’
to him an’ yet he hated me at sight. We’d better be movin’.’

 
          
“Where
for?’ asked Larry.

 
          
“Frying Pan.
We gotta put Leeming wise to this place in case
we both get rubbed out.’

 
          
“Yu
allus do see the bright side, don’t yu? Awright, awright, we’ll go to Job;
he’ll give us somethin’ better to eat than pig’s belly, anyway.’

 
          
Green
grinned. “Yu certainly do make a Gawd o’ yore innards, don’t yu?’ he said.
“We’ll have a look at my claim on our way.’

 
          
“Yore
what?’ yelled the boy.

 
          
“I
ain’t deaf, an’ I ain’t a mile away,’ exposnulated the other “Didn’t yu know I
gon a gold-mine? If
yo’re a good boy
…’

 
          
But
Larry consigned both him and the gold-mine
to a place good
boys
know nothing about, and raced off. Green followed more leisurely, a
demure glint in his eyes. Some hours later they halted for a meal of the
despised bacon and then pushed on, reaching the spot where Green had cached his
mining outfit late at night, too tired to do more than roll up in their
blankets and sleep. When Larry awakened in the morning it was to see his friend
squatting by a fire, tending a pan from which an odourmuch more delightful than
that of bacon was coming. He sprang up and took a peep.

 
          
“Trout,
by the Jumping Jiminy,’ he exclaimed.
Where’d yu get ‘em,
Don?’

 
          
‘Catched
‘em lookin’ for worms in the long grass, yu chump,’ laughed the other. “Don’t
yu know fish allus come ashore to feed in the early mornin’?’

 
          
“An’
the wise worms take to the water ‘bout the same time on that account,’ added
another voice, and they looked up to find
West
grinning at them. “Lo, Green,’ he went on. “I was ridin’ right by when I got a
whiff o’ them trout. Might there be enough for three?”

 
          
“Shore,
but four would be too many,’ replied the puncher, meaningly.

 
          
“I’m
as lonely as the devil at the prayer-meetin’, an’ durned glad to see yu again,’
replied California. “What’s happened?
We been
expectin’ yu back at the ranch.’

 
          
He
got down as he spoke, tied his horse, and took a seat at the fire. The other
two watched him closely. His pleasure at the meeting seemed genuine, and it was
quite possible that he did not know of the treacherous trap which had been
sprung upon the Y Z man.

 
          
“Yu
ain’t heard?’ Green asked, as he passed over a generous portion of the food.

 
          
“There’s
bin tales told but I don’t reckon I’ve heard the straight of it,’ the visitor
returned. “Jeffs claims that he never knowed yu was missin’ till they were
halfway home; then we heard one o’ the Y Z boys had bumped yu off. Next comes
the news that yu ain’t cashed but they’ve got yu, an’ then we
hears
that yu got away an’ the marshal’s tore hisself near
baldheaded.’

 
          
“It
was Gorilla who knocked me cold,
West
,’ Green
explained.

 
          
“The
hell it was!’ said California. “Well, he may have bin actin’ on orders, or he
may not—he’s a bitter, mischievous devil—but yu gotta remember that yu thrashed
the Spider, an’ he ain’t noted for a forgivin’ nature. I suspicioned somethin’
was up an’ I warned yu to be on the lookout.’

 
          
“I
ain’t forgettin’ that,’ Green replied. “Jeffs send yu to look for me?’

 
          
“Shucks!
I happened on yore camp just like I said. I warn’t lookin’ for yu an’
I warn’t lookin’ for no ten thousand dollars neither
; that
sort o’ money never appealed to me.’ He rolled a cigarette, and then remarked
casually, “Funny about Old Simon.’

 
          
“What
was that?’ asked both his listeners.

 
          
“Hatchett’s
is tickled to death over it,’ laughed the rustler. “He’s bin carryin’ on like a
scalded pup ‘cause yu give him a name that warn’t yore own, an’ now it comes
out that his name ain’t Petter,
nor
even Simon.’ He
drew at his cigarette, exhaled the smoke slowly, and continued, “Changin’ names
is common enough in these parts an’ ain’t no crime, but the feller as does it
oughtn’t to complain if others do it too.’

 
          
“Seems
fair,’ agreed Green. “
What have we gotta call Old Simon now?’

 
          
“Well,
it ‘pears his right name is Les Peterson—Les bein’ the short for Leslie,’ came
the careless reply, but the speaker’s eyes were watching the other closely. He
saw nothing more than polite, amused interest.

 
          
“The
old catawampus—he shore oughtta be ashamed of
himself
,’
the puncher observed. “Wonder how many sheriffs
is
lookin’ for him?’

 
          
West
was nonplussed, though he guessed the other man was bluffing him. He had given
the information as instructed, and although he did not know its significance to
Green, he had expected it to produce an effect of some sort. Defnly he changed
the subject.

 
          
“Am
I to tell Jeffs yu ain’t comin’ back?’

 
          
“Nope,
tell him I am—later,’ said Green, and he smiled grimly.

 
          
West
was clearly uneasy. He liked the puncher, and would have warned him had he
known what to warn him against, but he was a mere unit in the gang, a tool in
the hands of the rogues who did the scheming. So that all he said was, “Well,
don’t forget yu gotta friend there when yu do.’

 
          
“I
ain’t likely to—I got none too many,’ smiled the outlaw.

 
          
When
the visitor had mounted and gone, Green sat staring in silence at the fire,
pondering on the astounding news which had come to him so strangely. Fate had
presented him with a pretty problem. Here was a man for whom he had been
searching for years with one object only, to fight and kill or be killed
himself. Always he had held that the cruel wrong done to his benefactor could
only be wiped out in blood. And now to learn that the hunted man is the father
of the girl of his dreams, or at least, all the father she has ever known. “It
would be the same; I just couldn’t do it, old feller,’ he muttered, unaware
that he was speaking aloud.

 
          
Up
to this point Larry had respected his friend’s silence, but the spoken remark
was too much.

 
          
“Say,
when yu done chatterin’ to yoreself yu might tell a feller what it’s all about
an’ see if he can help yu,’ he suggested.

 
          
Green
roused himself. “‘Out o’ the mouths o’ babes’ idea, eh?’ he quoted, smiling.

 
          
“Awright,
grandpa,’
grinned
Larry. “Fly at it.’

 
          
The
amusement soon faded from the young man’s face as he listened to the story, and
consternation took its place.

 
          
“
Ain’t
it just hell,’ he said, when the tale was done. “Yu
can’t hurt Old Simon; he ain’t a bad sort, an’ it would break Miss Norry all
up.’

 
          
“I
know that, yu chump,’ was the reply. “But I gotta see him.’

 
          
“We
gotta see him, yu mean,’ corrected Larry. “Wonder if West knew yu’d be
interested to hear Old Simon’s real name?’, “Couldn’t ‘a’ been—I never mentioned
Peterson to anyone round here. What’s bitin’ yu, anyway?’

 
          
“Dunno,
but it shore seems odd his happenin’ along like that. It looks…’

 
          
“As
if we’re careless an’ damn lucky,’ interjected Green. “It might just as well
have been Blaynes, or another o’ that rustlin’ lot, an’ we’d ‘a’ been cold
meat. C’mon, we’ll shove for the Y Z an’ watch our chance.’

 
          
Larry
gave in, but he was not satisfied. To visit the Y Z just now appeared to be
sheer madness, but when he pointed this out the only answer he got was that
this very reason made it possible.

 
          
“They
won’t be lookin’ for us,’ Green argued.

 
          
“Wish
I was shore o’ that,’ grumbled the other.

 
          
However,
he offered no further opposition for he saw that it would be useless; his
companion was determined to prove the trunh of the story he had heard without
delay, and to settle accounts, though not in the way he had intended, with the
man he had sought so long. For the boy knew that, so far as Sudden was
concerned, Old Simon was safe, though he had been guilty of an offence for
which death was the inevitable penalty; the abduction of a child could hardly
be less heinous than the stealing of a horse or steer. He fell to studying the
man riding silently beside him, grim and saturnine, and some conception of the
power of human passions came to him. Here was a man who could be ruthless with
his fellows, who had killed and would kill again if necessity arose, instantly
abandoning a just vengeance cherished and pursued for years because it would
hurt a girl.

 
          
“It’s
odd,’ he said aloud, unthinkingly.

 
          
“What
is?’ asked Green.

 
          
Larry
did not want to say; he hesitated and looked round for an excuse. They were
crossing a wooded ridge, and between the trees over towards the place they had
come from a thin pencil of smoke stabbed the sky. Even as he looked it was cut
off, and then shot up again. He pointed towards it.

 
          
“Somebody signallin’ back there.’

 
          
Green
looked at him doubtfully; he did not believe that was what he had referred to,
for Larry’s back had been to the smoke when he spoke. While they watched the
signal ceased and reappeared three more times, then faded out.

 
          
“Do
yu reckon it might be
West
?’ asked Larry.

 
          
“No
tellin’ an’
it’s
too far away to investigate,’ came
the answer. “Yu seem sot on the idea that his meetin’ up with us wasn’t an
accident.’