Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 04 - Sudden Outlawed(1934) (9 page)

 
          
“Never
seed anyone tie ‘em so slick.”

 
          
“Mebbe;
but I don’t like him,” Navajo said.

 
          
“I’m
plumb astonished,” was Ropey’s unveracious retort.

 
          
THE
outlaw leader returned that same evening, and from his cheerful mood, it was
evident that his errand had been successful. After supper, he called Sudden
aside.

 
          
“Been
helpin’ the
boys
brand?” he asked casually.

 
          
“Been
helpin” ‘em blot brands,” Sudden corrected.

 
          
Rogue’s
brows ridged in a little frown. “Yu didn’t think this was a Methodis’ community
when yu come here, did yu?” he asked acidly, and then, “Shucks, what’s a few
cows anyway? I got a big thing on now, Jim, one that’ll give yu a chance o’
gettin’ away for a time. Savvy?”

 
          
Sudden
nodded, and the other went on exultantly, “Here’s the lay-out: Eden is takin’ a
hefty herd—three thousand head—
north,
an’ a fella I
know is hopin’ it won’t get there.” He smiled felinely. “In fact, he’s hopin’
so hard that he’s willin’ to pay pretty handsomely if it don’t, an’ buy—at a
fair price—all the S E cows offered him.”

 
          
“Failure
to make the drive would bust Eden wide open, huh?”

 
          
“Yeah,
it’s his last hope, I reckon; he’s been buyin’ land an’ got in deep. But that
don’t concern me; a fella has to take care of hisself. Now, he’ll want riders
an’ I’m proposin’ that yu an’

 
          
Sandy
get took on—can’t use the other boys, their
faces is
known. Yu can see how it would help me to have
a coupla men
on the inside. We’ll be on the heels o’ the herd an’ can keep in touch with yu.
Far as yo’re concerned, it gives yu a trail outa present trouble an’ a tidy wad
into the bargain. What
d’yu say
?”

 
          
“I’ll
drop in at the S E in the morning’,” Sudden told him. “Where
d’yu
aim to break the drive?”

 
          
“That’ll
depend on how things pan out, but not till they’ve got too far to come back an’
gather another herd,” the outlaw said. “Glad yo’re comin’ in, Jim; yu can wise
up Sandy.” He hesitated a moment. “Hear yu had trouble with Ropey.”

 
          
Sudden
laughed. “I just had to let the fellas know that I’m growed up. I’d say it was
Navajo’s play.”

 
          
“Like
enough,” Rogue agreed, and his face grew dark. “One day I’ll have to argue with
that hombre.”

 
          
The
cowboy came away from the interview with mixed feelings, certain only of one
thing—he would join the S E, but whether as friend or foe he had not decided;
the deliberate part of his nature was in charge at the moment. He found Sandy
loafing outside their habitation and prefaced his message from Rogue by
relating his adventure of the previous afternoon.

 
          
“Well,
if yu ain’t the lucky one!” the young man ejaculated. “
Here’s
me been ridin’ round for weeks an’ never had no chance to deliver a distressed
damsel. Bet she’s hatchet-faced, squint-eyed, an’ bellers like a sick cow.”

 
          
“Yu
musta seen the lady,” Sudden smiled.

 
          
“I
ain’t—never knowed there was any female women in this neck o’ the woods,” was
the reply. “Who is she?” For Sudden had not told
all the
story.

 
          
“Sam Eden’s daughter.”

 
          
“She
was stringin’ yu—he ain’t got any.”

 
          
“Adopted
daughter, I oughta said—orphaned kid of an old friend,” Sudden explained,
adding inconsequently, “Eden offered me a job.”

 
          
“Goin’
to take it?”

 
          
“We
are,” replied the other, and went on to tell of the outlaw leader’s
designs,
and the part they were to play. Sandy listened with
wooden features.

 
          
“Sounds
good,” he commented. “I’d shore like to be in on that drive; but Rogue’s wrong
in one thing—I ain’t such a stranger around here.” He thought awhile and then
slapped his knee.

 
          
“Got
it!” he exclaimed.

 
          
“What,
a mosquito?” Sudden asked.

 
          
“No,
an
idea—don’t yu never
have none?”

 
          
“Yeah.
Why, both my knees are sore right now.”

 
          
The
youth ignored the gentle raillery. “Where’s that stuff yu used on yore hoss?”
he inquired.

 
          
“On
the shelf inside,” Sudden replied. “Goin’ to black yore lace an’ play nigger?”

 
          
Sandy’s
retort was neither polite nor printable.

 
          
Sunrise
found a grumbling cook giving them an early breakfast; but his curiosity
regarding Sandy’s black hair, eyebrows, and moustache remained unsatisfied.

 
          
“Ask
Rogue about it,” the boy told him with a grin, knowing perfectly
weil
that he would do no such thing.

 
          
For
the first few miles the pair rode in silence. Sudden was trying to convince
himself that the affairs of the S E owner were no concern of his, and not
succeeding very Well. His companion was also deep in thought, riding head down.

 
          
The
morning air had an invigorating keenness which would presently change to a
blistering heat. Around them, Nature was awaking; birds whistled, rabbits
scuttled across their path, and once they saw the long grey form of a big wolf
slink into the brush at their approach. It was Sandy who made the first remark:

 
          
“Odd
I ain’t heard o’ this gal at the S E.”

 
          
“She’s
recently arrived from the East—educated there, I gathered,” Sudden explained.

 
          
Sandy
snorted. “I get yu,” he said. “One o’ them high-toned dames, with a forehead
bulging out like a cliff, who thinks o pore ignorant cowboys is doormats to
wipe their number eights n.” Sudden chuckled silently. “Now I know yu’ve met
her,” he said.

 
          
“Yo’re
wrong, but I savvy the breed,” the boy went on. “Thin-lipped, an’ that sot in
their ideas they’d argue with a charge o’ giant-powder.”

 
          
“She
looked liable to get her own way most times,” Sudden admitted. “She had
the of
man roped.”

 
          
“There
yu are,” Sandy cried triumphantly. “An’ let me tell yu, a mule is an easy-goin’
critter alongside Sam Eden. Why, it’s told of him that once, when he was
gettin’ the worst of an argument, he finished it by sayin’, `Well, I wouldn’t
believe it if I knowed it was true.’ What can yu do with a fella like that,
huh?”

 
          
Sudden
laughed, partly at the story, but more at the reflection that his friend was
due to receive a severe shock when he met the girl he had condemned unseen.
Sandy’s next remark changed the subject.

 
          
“I
wouldn’t be so terrible distressed if Rogue fell down on this drive-bustin’,”
he mused.

 
          
“I
don’t owe him nothin’ an’ I shore would like to see
them
northern cowtowns.”

 
          
Sudden
did not reply at once; he was wondering if the words had any hidden
significance.

 
          
“I’ve
a hankerin’ thataway my own self,” lie confessed.

 
          
They
reached the S E ranchhouse to find it apparently deserted; the morning meal was
over and the men had gone to their work. A hail brought Eden himself to the
porch. At the sight of Sudden he called a hearty greeting:

 
          
“Hello,
young fella, I’m main pleased to see yu. Hope yu aim to stay this time.”

 
          
“Shore
do
, Mister Eden, if yu’ll have me,” Sudden replied. He
pointed to his companion.

 
          
“This
is Dick Sands—he’s huntin’ a job too.”

 
          
The
rancher studied the second of the visitors closely for a moment. “Any friend o’
yores is welcome, Green, an’ I can certainly use another man,” he said, but the
warmth had gone out of his voice.

 
          
Before
another word could be said, Carol emerged from the house, her face lighting up
when she recognized the rider who had come to her rescue. Sudden stole a look
at his chum and had hard work to restrain his merriment. Sandy had snatched his
hat off and was staring goggle-eyed at the girl who had, so far, hardly looked
at him. Sudden mentioned his name again and Carol gave the young man a smile of
welcome which completed his discomfiture.

 
          
“Well,
boys, what’s the word?” Eden asked.

 
          
“We’ll
go yu,” Sandy blurted out eagerly.

 
          
“Good,”
the rancher replied. “Leave yore war-bags in the bunkhouse. There’s plenty
hosses in the corral—that mount o’ yores, Green, is too good for hazin’
longhorns out’n the brush.”

 
          
He
pointed to a cloud of dust some miles away on the plain. “The herd is there.”

 
          
He
climbed briskly into his saddle, the girl followed, and they galloped away,
Sandy watched till they vanished over a swell in the ground, and then turned to
lind his companion doubled up over his saddle-horn. He looked at him
suspiciously.

 
          
“Got
a misery in yore stumick?” he asked.

 
          
“Yeah,
these hatchet-faced, squint-eyed dames alms give me a pain,” Sudden chortled,
ashake with mirth.

 
          
Sandy
swore. “Damn funny, ain’t it? Look here, yu misfit, breathe a word o’ that to
her an’ I’ll trample the gut’s out’n u.”

 
          
“Get
her to do it with them number eights,” Sudden advised, and then his hand went
up.

 
          
“Awright,
I’ll be good. Come an’ grab them hosses; I’ll bet there’s some work
awaitin’
.”

 
          
They
soon reached the spot the rancher had indicated. Already about a thousand head
had been assembled, and, kept bunched by a couple of riders, were grazing
contentedly on the short grama grass which covered the plain. The herd was a
mixed one; evidently everything in the shape of a cow was being rounded up, and
the bellowing of the bulls mingled with the bleating of the calves as they
staggered weakly after their mothers. At the moment Sudden and his partner
approached, an addition of thirty animals arrived, convoyed by two riders who
presented a striking contrast, one of them being tall and abnormally thin while
the other was short and fat. As Sudden learned later, the pair
were
great friends, and quarrelled perpetually.

 
          
“Well,
boys, yu shore have been busy,” Eden greeted them. “Ain’t all our’n,” the tall
man explained. “Met Pebbles an’ the Infant, an’ took over their gather.”

 
          
“Here’s
a couple o’ fresh helpers, Jed.
yu
better take Green,
an’ Dumpy can put Sandy wise.”

 
          
As
the four men rode away, Jed cast a quizzical glance at his late partner and
remarked audibly, “Now I got me a real sidekick ‘stead o’ that dollop o’
drippin’ we’ll git some cows.”