Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 07 - Sudden Rides Again(1938) (33 page)

 
          
For
a day or so, the prisoner bore his confinement with what patience he might, but
on the third morning he stopped the rancher as he was going out, and said
abruptly: “Mart, I want a pony,” and when his host hesitated, added
passionately, “I’m not running away, but if you’d been cooped up in a cave for
nigh two years wouldn’t you want to sling a leg over a horse and feel the
spring of him under you?”

 
          
The
appeal was too much for a man who almost lived in the saddle—the rancher gave
in. “But for your own sake, ride south,” he warned. “The Double K
boys is
mighty nervous o’ strangers these times an’ liable
to shoot first an’ enquire after.”

 
          
“I’ll
keep out of sight,” Keith promised.

 
          
Nevertheless,
an hour later, when he loped away from the ranch-house, an irresistible magnet
drew him towards the Double K range. The short, crisp grass sliding beneath his
horse’s feet, the aromatic tang of the sage in his nostrils, the wide expanse
with the purple hills on the far horizon, the rush of warm air on his cheeks as
he gathered speed sent a thrill of new life through his veins. Heedlessly he
rode on, exulting in the freedom he had lacked so long. Presently familiar
landmarks warned him that he was actually on his father’s land.

 
          
Greedily
his eager gaze swept over the miles of open plain, rising and falling like the
rolling billows of a greenish-brown sea dotted with timbered islands. It was a
view to delight the heart of a cattleman. And he had thrown it away, exiled himself
to become a homeless, hunted man!

 
          
Suddenly
mindful of his promise, he was about to retreat when another actor appeared on
the scene. From behind a large clump of cactus and thorn came a racing pony,
carrying a woman. Hatless, rocking in the saddle, she appeared to be trying to
halt the beast but without avail; a dangling strip of leather told the reason—a
rein had snapped. Keith swore; he recognized that slim, swaying figure and saw
that the maddened horse was heading for what the cowboys called the Glue-pot, a
quaking morass from the clammy clutch of which there was no escape.

 
          
A
rake of the spurs sent his mount hurtling forward in an attempt to intercept
the runaway, and he cursed again as he found no lariat on his saddle-horn. Yard
by yard the distance between the animals lessened until at length they were
galloping side by side. Leaning over, the young man grabbed the sound rein,
wound it round his wrist, and slackened pace. The double rawhide thong stood
the strain and slowly but surely the steady drag brought the girl’s pony to a
standstill.

 
          
For
one panting moment, Keith looked at her, noting the sun-kissed lovely face,
framed in wind-tossed curls, the parted red lips, and the lissom grace of her
youth. Here was something else he had thrown away, something—and the
realization of it overwhelmed him—worth more than anything in the whole
universe.

 
          
“You?”
she cried, and cuttingly, “What have you done with your mask?”

 
          
“I
have never worn such a thing,” he said quietly. “Is that true?”

 
          
“Lying
was not one of my faults, Joan,”

 
          
“Then
you cannot be—”

 
          
“The
boss of Hell City, as my father believes,” he finished bitterly.

 
          
“As
we all believed,” she corrected gently.
“Even I, who spoke
with him.”

 
          
“When
was this?” he asked sharply.

 
          
She
told him, and saw his jaw harden as he listened. “Changed as you seemed, I
could not doubt,” she ended. “He must know you well.”

 
          
“He
has yet to know me better,” Keith promised. “At present, I cannot move; my
hands are tied.” He anticipated her question. “I am wanted for the shooting of
young Dealtry at Red Rock.”

 
          
“Oh,
Jeff,” she breathed. “You couldn’t have …”

 
          
“I
don’t know,” he said miserably. “We’d had words, and I was drunk.” He did not
spare himself. “I can’t remember what happened that night. Lander said I did
it, and I could not contradict him. He got me away into hiding. I’ve been
buried alive, Joan, and knew nothing of the foul reputation being foisted upon
me. Hell, what a mess I’ve made of everything.”

 
          
Her
eyes were moist. “It will come right, Jeff,” she comforted. “This will be great
news for Daddy Ken—he’ll help you. He has been terribly hurt, and that has made
him hard, but—”

 
          
“He
must not be told—yet,” he broke in. “I got into the mire and must get out.
Promise to keep silent, Joan, or I will ride out of the country and never
return.”

 
          
She
smiled, albeit a little sadly. This was the old Jeff, dominant, who always got
his own way by just such a means when they played together as children. She
must give in—it was no empty threat. What had been boastfulness in the boy had
become resolution in the man.

 
          
“Very
well,” she said. “Have you any plans?”

 
          
“No,
I’m rather relying on that cowboy, Green, who took me out of Hell City. A
strange fellow; I don’t quite know what to make of him.”

 
          
“Trust
a woman’s intuition and make him a friend, Jeff,” she advised. “He has my
confidence.”

 
          
“I’d
accept the Devil himself with that backing,” he smiled, and slid from his
saddle. “Reckon that bridle wants fixing.” Busy with the task, he spared a
moment to glance up at her. “By Christmas, it’s good to see you again, Joan,
and you’re prettier than ever, which I wouldn’t have believed possible,” he
blurted out.

 
          
A
telltale flush suffused the girl’s cheeks. She shook a finger at him. “Attend
to your job, sir,” she said, and then, “I have not thanked you for saving,
perhaps, my life; this feather-brain was running straight for that horrible
swamp.”

 
          
“You
don’t ever have to thank me for anything,” Keith said earnestly. “How comes it
that you’ve nothing better than this half-broke beast to ride?”

 
          
She
stroked the animal’s neck. “He’s not bad, just young, inexperienced, and apt to
have notions—” She stopped at the sight of his rueful face. “Oh, I shouldn’t
have said that, Jeff, but I was thinking only of the horse, truly I was.”

 
          
“Never mind.
I deserve all that’s coming to me. What
happened?”

 
          
“A
road-runner got up under our feet, raced on fifty yards or so and then looked
round and waited, with the usual insulting, challenging air. Of course, an
older horse would have taken no notice, but this greenhorn has visions of
trampling that impudent bird in the dust. As a lesson, I let him try for a
while, but the runner was always two or three jumps ahead and travelling
easily. Then I saw we were heading for trouble, tried to pull up, and the rein
gave.”

 
          
“It’s
all right now,” he said, and mounted again.

 
          
She
asked where he was
staying,
and laughed
when—forgetting the brand on his pony—he teasingly told her it was a secret.

 
          
“Give
my love to Mart,” she said.

 
          
“Hi,
don’t you be too free with it,” he retorted. “One of these days some fellow
will come along and want it all. Maybe you’ll be riding this way again?”

 
          
“Maybe
I will,” she smiled.

 
          
He
grasped the outstretched hand, stooped swiftly, and pressed his lips to it. She
blushed anew as she murmured: “The same impulsive Jeff.”

 
          
“No,
not the same,” he cried.
“Changed in every way—but one.”

 
          
Abruptly
he swung his horse round and spurred it across the plain. For a space she
watched him and then turned homeward, a prayer on her lips, a song in her
heart.

 
          
“Shore
yu wasn’t abroad yestiddy mornin’?” Lagley asked. “I have said so,” Satan
replied. “Why?”

 
          
“Fancied
I saw yu, talkin’ to Joan Keith, out on our range,” the foreman explained. “The
fella looked like yu, but he warn’t masked nor ridin’ a black.”

 
          
“Was
that all you could see?”

 
          
“Couldn’t
git close—it’s pretty open round there, but he kissed her hand when they
parted.”

 
          
Fire
flashed in the stony eyes for an instant. There was a brief silence and then
Satan said harshly: “Does the Colonel still pay his visit to Dugout?”

 
          
“Shore,
he’s due there tomorrow mornin’,” Lagley’s expression was one of unease. “What
yu aimin’ to do—Jeff?”

 
          
The
familiar address produced a glare which made him regret it. “When I wish you to
know anything, I shall tell you—Judas,”
came
the
searing answer.

 
          
Lagley
left, hating the man who never lost an opportunity of humiliating him, and
cursing the day he had put himself in his power.

 
          
“His
tongue’s wuss’n his dad’s, blast him,” he raged. “But once he’s in the saddle
at the Double K he’ll have to tower his tone some, or …”

 
          
As
he reached the street, he cannoned into a tall figure, and stepped quickly back
when the half-light revealed the saturnine features of Sudden.

 
          
“Well,
if it ain’t
my of
friend, Lagley,” the puncher
exclaimed.”Cut names out, yu fool,” the foreman said hastily.

 
          
The
other stiffened. “Yu cut that sort o’ name out, too,” he rasped. “
yu
ain’t my foreman now, an’ it sticks in my mind that the
last time we met yu wanted to hang me.”

 
          
The
retort made Lagley uncomfortable. He remembered the lightning speed of this
man’s draw at their first meeting, the passing of Butch, and that they were in
a lawless place.

 
          
“Hell,
I had to obey orders,” he said. “I was meanin’ to fix it so yu could slide out
durin’ the night, but yu took charge.”

 
          
“Yu
bet I did—it was my neck,” Sudden rejoined. “Mebbe the next world is better,
but I ain’t honin’ to find out. Say, it was damn funny ‘bout them cows; the
Twin Diamond put one over on yu there, an’ twisted Satan’s tail for him good
an’ proper.”

 
          
He
had not troubled to lower his voice and the Double K man’s perturbation was
plain to see.

 
          
“For
Gawd’s sake, dry up,” he urged. “He’ll hear yu.”

 
          
A
guttural voice from the doorway interrupted: “Hey, Sudden, the Chief
sez
for you to come in when you’ve finished chin-waggin’.”

 
          
“Damnation,
what did I tell yu?” Lagley said.

 
          
The
puncher laughed. “If he could hear us he’d ‘a’ gone on listenin’. Toddle back
to the Double K an’ be good, Steve; yu ain’t got the nerve for this game.”

 
          
Without
waiting for a reply, he followed Silver, who was waiting for him at the door.
The bandit’s first question did not surprise him.

 
          
“What
were you saying to Lagley?”

 
          
“Complimentin’
him on havin’ neighbours smart enough to fetch his cattle back for him,” Sudden
grinned.