Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 07 - Sudden Rides Again(1938) (44 page)

 
          
The
flush of passion on the killer’s face faded, leaving it ghastly. Sudden! What
freak of Fortune had brought him to bar the way to liberty and life? The swift
advent of peril found him unprepared. Instinctively he looked at Belle.

 
          
“What
can I do?” he muttered.

 
          
“Play
the man—for once,” she replied harshly, and he knew that his infamy had turned
her love to hate.

 
          
Into
his craven heart crept a cold despair. Wantonly, without a qualm, he had sent
others into the Great Unknown, and now … It seemed incredible; he was young,
strong, and yet, out there in the sunlight, death awaited him. His numbed
senses could not realize it.

 
          
“Lander!”

 
          
The
one word carried a threat. Motionless as a statue, the woman watched the man
fight his fear, and heard the horrible croaking laugh as the actor in him came
to the surface.

 
          
“I
believe that is my cue,” he said, and stepped, with leaden feet, into the open.

 
          
The
puncher was standing about fifteen paces distant, hands hanging by his sides.
He was alone, and this brought the bandit a faint hope, and
a
regret
—that he had slain Silver.

 
          
“What
do you want with me?” he demanded. “Payment,” Sudden said sternly. “Yu forced
me to take the life of one I had been sent to save—Dolver.”

 
          
As
the full import of this statement seeped into Satan’s brain, tempestuous rage
took the place of terror. This fellow, emissary of the Governor he had derided,
had outplayed him at every point and wrought the ruin of his plans. He, the
clever schemer and born leader, had been deceived and defeated by this—cowboy.
The shock to his abnormal vanity bred only one craving—to kill. After all, they
were man to man, and he was a fine shot.

 
          
“So
you’re a dirty spy, too?” he jeered. “Well, why don’t you shoot?”

 
          
“I’m
giving’ yu what yu never gave—a chance,” Sudden replied. “We’ll walk towards
each other, an’ at the word `Three,’ go for yore gun.”

 
          
He
took a pace and called, “One,
”;
a second, “Two”; and
then it happened: with an inarticulate curse, the other man whipped a weapon
from his belt and fired. Incredibly fast as the movement was, Sudden had seen
it, yellow flame jetted from his right hip, and Satan stumbled to fall
headlong, his fingers clawing convulsively at the grass. Out of the swirling
smoke, Sudden advanced gun in hand; Silver might still to be reckoned with. But
instead of the stunted, uncouth figure, it was Belle Dalroy who appeared.
Gazing dry-eyed at the body, she said: “Crooked to the last.”

 
          
“Where
is Miss Keith?” the puncher asked, and when she had told him, added, “We owe yu
somethin’ for that.”

 
          
“No,
I wanted her out of the way,” she said sharply. Somewhere in her warped nature
was a streak of honesty. “What are you going to do with me?”

 
          
He
pointed to the plain; two riders were approaching. “One o’ those fellas is
sheriff o’ Red Rock. In yore place, I’d climb a hoss an’ beat it.”

 
          
Her
set features softened. “You’re a good sort,” she murmured. “I wish—”

 
          
“They’ll
be here mighty soon,” he said meaningly. “Take the pony with the pretty
saddle.”

 
          
She
understood; that had been Satan’s, and he would not have left Hell City
empty-handed. By the time the horsemen arrived, the trees had hidden her from
view. Dealtry jumped down and turned the corpse over; the bullet had entered
between the eyes.

 
          
“That’s
Lander, shore enough,” he remarked with grim satisfaction. “Lucky, after all,
yore bronc went lame—he’d ‘a’ got away; it was one damned smart dodge. You
see—”

 
          
“I
had’ it from Miss Dalroy,” Sudden said. “It was her notion, not his. Dressed as
he was—a woman’s whim—and with the hoss and the mask, it looked a cinch. He
thought she was takin’ the ride, but she swapped duds with Miss Keith.”

 
          
“Yeah,
an’ a nice chase she gave us. That black can run, I’m tell n’ you; we’d still be
admirin’ his hind-quarters if Jeff hadn’t fired. Shore he missed, but I s’pose
it scared her, for she stopped an’ faced round. You oughta seen him when we
rode up, three growed men with guns drawed on that slip of a gal, but mebbe we
looked as sick as he did. Frosty an’ me gits the same idea—that we’d important
business elsewhere. We left Jeff to do the explainin’ an’ I reckon he’s still
doin’ it. What’s come o’ that Dalroy woman?”

 
          
“A
pony is missin’ but I didn’t see her go,” the puncher replied, omitting to add
that he was looking the other way at the time.

 
          
“How
did yu know Lander was here, Jim?” Frosty enquired.

 
          
“Crossing
the valley, I saw Silver enter one o’ the caves an’ heard a shot,” was the
reply. “I figure we shall find him.”

 
          
They
did, and the sheriff pointed to the heavy Colt’s revolver thrust through the
waistband of the dead dwarf.

 
          
“Just—plain—murder,”
he pronounced.

 
          
Sudden
nodded. “He killed the man who might have saved him; he shorely had `lost his
medicine.’ “

 
          
“We’ll
plant this one, but the other goes back with us—folk has to see him,” Dealtry
decided. “Pity we ain’t got the mask.”

 
          
“We
have,” Frosty told him, and produced it from a pocket. “I scooped her up as we
came away; Miss Joan must ‘a’ dropped it.”

 
          
So,
hanging limply across the back of a pony, the Boss of Hell City returned to his
shattered kingdom.

 
          
Out
amongst the sagebrush, two young people who had so much to say, sat
tongue-tied. The girl, painfully conscious of her masculine attire, kept her
head bent, or the warm admiration in the boy’s eyes might have reassured her.
He was the first to speak.

 
          
“Thank
Heaven you are safe, Joan. But why are you here?” Falteringly she told of
Belle’s offer. “I had no choice; she would have gone herself if I did not, and
that would have left me alone with … I knew I was helping him, but my one
thought was to get away. I had to ride hard—Belle said they would shoot.”

 
          
“I
shall never forgive myself for that. God! I might have killed you.”

 
          
“You
could not know,” she reminded gently.

 
          
“Dealtry
and Frosty will be too late,” he said moodily. “That devil has slipped through
our fingers, and now …”

 
          
She
read his thought. “Your friends will believe, Jeff,” she consoled.

 
          
“There
will always be some to doubt,” he replied bitterly, and then forced a smile to
his lips. “I’m an ungrateful cuss, Joan. After all, you have escaped from that
dog, and I am free of one horrible suspicion; Dealtry knows now that it was
Lander who shot his son.”

 
          
“Oh,
Jeff, I am so glad,” she cried. “Of course, I never believed …” She broke off
breathlessly, and then added, “you will come back to the Double K now?”

 
          
“Yes,
I must take my medicine,” he replied.

 
          
“I
don’t think it will be a very bad dose,” she smiled happily. “Let’s go at
once.”

 
          
He
was turning his horse when an exclamation of dismay arrested him.

 
          
“Not
that way, Jeff; I can’t be seen in these awful clothes.”

 
          
“But
you make the prettiest kind of boy, Joan,” he protested. “The outfit will be
falling in love with you all over again, and I’ll have to lick the lot of
them.” He paused, fearing he might have offended, but her downcast eyes and
flushed cheeks did not indicate anger. “I’ve no right to talk like this, but
while I was in that living tomb, I used to have visions of you as the wife of
another man, and it was torment. Tell
me
, dear, is
there …?”

 
          
Joan
Keith was no coquette. She shook her head, and said softly, “It was always you,
Jeff. Even when I could not but believe—the worst, I—still—cared.”

 
          
Perhaps
the horses understood, or had also something to say to one another, for without
either rider being conscious of movement, they were side by side. Jeff had but
to stretch out his arms.

 
          
When
Sudden and his companions reached Hell City again they were met by Mart Merry,
who surveyed the red-masked, gruesome burden they brought with callous
complacency.

 
          
“So
yu got him?” he said. “Where’s Joan?” The information produced a hoarse
chuckle. “Durn that boy; we get him outa one scrape an’ right off he tumbles
into another,” quoth the hardened bachelor. “It looks like Ken will have his
own way after all.” He turned to the sheriff.
“Mighty near
straightened up here.
A few made their getaway, but we’ve some prisoners
for yu.
Come an’ look ‘em over.”

 
          
Apart
from the shattered gate, and the fact that men were digging holes in the
corral, the bandit town wore its customary appearance. Near the whipping-post
was a group of bound men, among them Squint.

 
          
“Where’s
Roden?” Sudden asked.

 
          
“He
stopped a slug an’ it stopped him,” the ruffian replied. Dirk too was there.
The puncher pointed to him. “He warn’t one o’ the gang—just ran the saloon—got
a wife an’ kids, too,” he said.

 
          
The
sheriff looked at the other prisoners. “Did this fella fight against us?” he
enquired, and when several of them growled a sullen negative, gave orders for
his release.

 
          
The
moment he was free the saloon-keeper looked for his benefactor, but Sudden had
vanished; he did not like being thanked. Moreover he wanted Nigger, so he and
Frosty used the secret exit and having regained their own steeds, set out for
the Twin Diamond.

 
          
“Satan’s
saddle warn’t on the black
nor
any o’ the other
hosses,” Frosty remarked. “D’yu
reckon
the Dalroy
woman hived it?”

 
          
“Likely,”
his friend replied.

 
          
“Bet
it was worth takin’,” the Double K rider ruminated, and with a sly glance, “Why
didn’t yu go with her, Jim? She’s as pretty as a picture, an’ she’ll have a
wad—now.”

 
          
“When
a man marries he wants more’n a picture, even if it does have a gold frame,”
Sudden told him. “I got somethin’ to do before I start fussin’ around females.”

 
          
And
Frosty, who knew what that “
somethin’ ”
was, had
nothing to say.

 
          
The
day following the fall of Hell City was one of rejoicing tempered with regret,
for casualties had not been confined to the conquered; there were gaps in both
outfits, Dugout and Red Rock had lost citizens, and the wounded were many. But
the job was done, thoroughly.

 
          
At
the Double K ranch-house, the Colonel was receiving visitors. He had heard a
wellnigh incredible story, and insisted on seeing the Principal performers in
the drama. So, one by one, Merry, the Red Rock sheriff, Sudden, Frosty, and the
Double K foreman filed into the bedroom, where the invalid—propped up by
pillows, with Joan sitting beside him—apologized with old-world courtesy.