Sudden The Range Robbers

He tried several other places with the same result, and at length flung down his tools in disgust and went a-fishing. Here he met with more success and soon three speckled beauties lay on the grass beside him. He broiled them for his supper and turned in. On the following morning he again tackled the search for wealth and found it no more successful or attractive than it had been the day before. But he stuck manfully to it, for he was conscious of a conviction that he was not alone in the canyon. Therefore, he was not so surprised as he appeared to be when a rider came ambling along the bank of the stream on which he was working, and pulled up to watch with a cordial greeting of, `Howdy, stranger.' Green returned the salutation, while his quick eyes gathered the details of the newcomer's appearance. He was evidently a cowhand, about forty, with a clean-shaven, open face, good-humour in every line of it. Hecarried a revolver at his hip and had a winchester on the saddle. He was riding a pinto horse the brand on which Green could not see. Pushing back his big sombrero, the visitor said: `Findin' much?'

Green, kneeling over the pan, grinned up at him. `Plenty dirt,' he replied, `but not a smidgin' o' gold so far.'

The stranger looked around. `Seems a likely place,' he remarked. `But that's the funny thing 'bout minin'; yu never can tell.'

`I take it yo're speakin' from experience.'

`Shore I am--wasted part o' my life in California. Meanin' no offence, I take it yu are new at this game.'

`Yu take it correct; I reckon I must seem plumb clumsy.'

The other man laughed. `Everythin' has to be learned, an' yu shore are makin' yoreself in a mess. Lemme show yu the trick of it.'

Dismounting from his horse, he trailed the reins, and took the pan of dirt Green was beginning to wash. In about half the time the novice had required the pan was empty save for a tiny residue of sand which the operator scanned eagerly, and then threw out.

`Not a colour,' he said. `Well, let's try her again.'

`Yu shore have got that there pannin' business thrown an' tied,' Green remarked, as he watched the deft hands of the expert. `I'm hopin' yu'll stay an' eat with me; my camp's just handy.'

`Yu bet I will. I'm short on grub an' got a goodish way to go,' replied the other.

The puncher left him busy with his self-imposed task and went to prepare a meal. A few fortunate casts provided him with fish, and when, in response to his hail, the visitor reached the camp, an appetising odour of broiled trout and coffee greeted him. Facing his host, cross-legged on the grass, he attacked the food like a hungry man.

`Say, these fish is prime,' he remarked presently. `Yu may be a mite awkward with a gold-pan but with a frying-pan yo're ace-high.'

Over the meal the newcomer grew communicative. His name, he said, was Dick West, more commonly known as `California,' and he was now punching for an outfit whose headquarters were situated at the base of the Big Chief range.

`What brand?' asked the host.

`Crossed Dumb-bell,' replied the other, watching closely.

`New to me,' Green said carelessly. `Didn't know there was a ranch in that part, but then I ain't infested this locality long my own self.' He went on to give his own name, and the bare fact of his dismissal from the Y Z, taking care that his resentment should not be too obvious. The stranger nodded understandingly.

`If you weren't wedded to thisyer grubbin' for gold, yu could come along o' me,' he offered. `I reckon we could use another man. The pay is fifty per an' shares, an' the shares is better than the fifty per I'm tellin' yu, for the right man.'

`Sounds good,' Green commented.

`It's as good as it sounds too,' said the other. `Old Jeffs ain't a bad sort either.'

`That the boss?'

'Actin'-boss--there's another feller back of him.'

For some time they smoked in silence, Green apparently turning over the proposition in his mind; it was no part of his plan to accept eagerly. That the rustlers saw in him a useful recruit was possible, and what he wanted them to believe, but there was also the chance that this was merely a trap to destroy him. Nevertheless, he intended to go, for it was what he had been hoping for. It was the visitor himself who brought matters to a head. Getting up, he stretched lazily, and remarked :

`Well, thanks for the feed. I gotta drift; yu comin' along?' `Guess I might as well,' Green replied. `I'll cache my tools here an' I can come back if I want to.'

This did not take long and having saddled his pony, he was ready.

`Ain't yu got another hoss--to carry yore pack?' queried West, and the puncher hid a smile, guessing that perhaps his visitor had expected to see the roan. He shook his head.

`Not here,' he replied. `Bullet's a good little hoss. He carried the pack an' me, though I ain't sayin' he liked it.'

`Some hosses is damn near human,' said West, as he led the way up the canyon.

They reached the tunnel and passed through into the valley, heading straight across for the far end. Green wondered how they would get out; he soon learned. On reaching the ledge which had baffled the Frying Pan posse, West said:

`We gotta get down here an' do a bit o' work.'

Turning to the right, he conducted his companion to a thick clump of brush which at first glance appeared to be impenetrable. They found a way in, however, and in the centre lay a pile of long, roughly-fashioned planks.

`Reckon a couple'll be enough,' said California. `Give us a hand.'

The planks were stout and it required two trips to get them to where they had left the horses. Placed side by side, with ends resting on the ledge, they made a practicable gangway for the animals. They were then returned to their hiding-place and the men clambered up the face of the ledge on foot. West directed

Green to mount, and then took his blanket, rolled it and tied one end of his lariat round the middle. He too then mounted and pacing his horse directly in the wake of his companion, dragged the roll of blanket behind him, completely obliterating their tracks in the soft sand.

`Smart Injun dodge that,' commented Green. `Yu thinkin' anybody's after us?'

Nope, but we use that valley an' ain't honin' to advertise it,' was the meaning reply.

In a few moments they left the sand, descending a stony slope into another broad grass depression, and from thence plunging into a network of rocky winding gulches, ravines, and patches of forest. Through this labyrinth they followed a definite trail, over which cattle had evidently passed at no distant date. Only one incident of note occurred and that was when California got down to drink at a stream. As he lifted his foot to the stirrup his horse reared suddenly, and taken unawares, he lost his balance and toppled backwards into a bush. Instantly there came a warning rattle and a threatening head shot up, poised to strike, only a foot from the prostrate man's face. Another second and the poisonous fangs would have done their deadly work, but Green's gun spoke and the reptile's head, shattered by the bullet, fell back into the bush. When West got to his feet he was shaking.

`Gawd, that was a close call,' he said. `I'm thankin' yu, pardner, an' if ever I can square the 'count, yu can bank on me. Yu shore are some slick with a gun.'

`There wasn't much time,' Green laughed. `I just naturally didn't want to lose that job yo're gettin' me.'

West climbed his horse, cursing it good-naturedly as he did so. `There ain't many things I'm scared of, but snakes, ugh! I once see a feller pass out from a snake-bite,' he said.

The afternoon was well-advanced when they crossed a large expanse of open range and pulled up in front of a group of buildings, comprising a roomy ranch-house, bunkhouse, blacksmith's shop, and a corral. All were constructed of logs and, Green noted, had not been long erected. Several men lounging by the bunkhouse door greeted his companion.

"Lo, Dick, yu got back,' said one.

`Why, no, but I'm liable to arrive any moment,' smiled California, and the user of the conventional absurdity was immediately pounded on the back.

`Aw well, yu know what I mean,' he protested.

West led his companion to the ranch-house a little distance away, and in response to his hail, another man emerged--a shorn, bow-legged fellow with squinting eyes and a hard mouth.

He surveyed the couple narrowly for a few minutes and then asked :

`What's yore trouble, West?'

In a few brief sentences the ex-miner gave Green's history as he knew it, and finished by asking a job for him; the rattle-snake incident was omitted. The decision was soon made.

`Yo're hired; all yu gotta do is obey orders an' ask no questions,' said the bow-legged man. `Yu'll find that gold yo're huntin' for right here. Take him along, Dick.'

He turned away and the two punchers, after disposing of the horses in the corral, made their way to the bunkhouse. Here Green was casually presented to the nine or ten men present as a new hand. He saw at a glance that they were a tough lot, men of middle age or more for the most part, ruffians of a type only too plentiful in the West at that time, a cursing, hard-drinking, fighting crew who would stop at nothing when their greed or passions were aroused. After his first entrance they took but little notice of him, though he could see that his new friend, Dick, was popular enough. The bunkhouse was comfortable, the food provided both good and plentiful. He gathered nothing from the general conversation, save once, when the mysterious Spider was mentioned.

`Who is that?' he asked of West, who was seated next to him. `The main boss--ain't here much,' was the reply.

Chapter XIV

TARMAN was not one to let the grass grow under his feet; he soon became an almost daily visitor at the Y Z, where he exerted himself to the unmost to please both the owner and his daughter. The latter, though her doubts were not entirely dispelled, could not altogether resist the attraction of his personality. They rode often, and despite his defeat by Blue Devil, she had to admit that he was both at home and looked well in the saddle. Moreover, he was studiously respectful and attentive. Though he did not make open love to her, she was aware of his admiration. It was after one of these excursions, when sitting on the verandah with father and daughter, that Tarman made his first reference to Green.

`That puncher yu fired hasn't pulled his freight, I notice,' he said. The roan yu give him is still in the hotel corral.'

`Didn't yu say he was going prospectin'?' Simon asked Noreen.`That is what he told me,' she replied, and did not fail to note the little crease in Tarman's brow.

`Some folks find gold in other folks' cattle,' he sneered. 'Anybody can buy a miner's outfit. It's bein' said in town that he's got into bad company.'

Noreen laughed. `Town talk; why, I wouldn't condemn a coyote on that.'

`Neither would I, not if I was at all acquainted with the coyote,' smiled the big man, `but one o' the Double X boys claims that he saw Green over towards Big Chief, ridin' with a mighty hard-lookin' crew, strangers to these parts. I'm thinkin' he may have found them rustlers he was lookin' for.'

`Sounds queer--I don't know of any ranch over there,' said Simon. `I expect it's just as well I got rid of him.'

The girl said no more, but the information made her uneasy. She knew, of course, that Tarman was jealous of the onher, cleverly as he tried to conceal the fact, but she did not think he had invented the story, and meeting Larry later on, she asked a plain question.

`Yes, Miss Norry,' he told her. `It was Dutch who claimed to have seen him, an' o' course some o' them smart Alecks gotta start ornamentin' his yarn. Why, one of 'em told me Green had been seen alterin' brands! He warn't quite so shore of his facts when I'd done arguin' with him,' he finished, grinning at the recollection of an indignant citizen trying to curse and retract his statements at the same time, while his face was being enthusiastically jammed into the dust of the street.

The girl smiled too, for the young puncher's wholehearted faith in his friend was good to see. It cheered her also to find it was shared by others; Ginger, now well enough to sun himself on the bench outside the bunkhouse, was equally emphatic.

`Don't yu worry, Miss,' he said. `That feller's as straight as a string, an' if them bums in Hatchett's get too fresh, me an' one-two more'll have to go in an' read the Riot Act to 'em. He'll show up again, fine as silk.'

This prediction was realised sooner than the maker of it anticipated for that very evening Green rode into town. For once rumour had spoken truly, for his new job had taken him, with half a dozen others, to a small, hidden valley, and the work done there was the rebranding of a herd of Frying Pan cattle.

`Reckon yu can use a straight iron?' asked Jeffs, and on Green replying in the affirmative, that part of the job was assigned to him, the others cutting out, throwing and tying the victims. Without it being noticed, Green managed to introduce a slight variation in the brand which would enable him to identify the animals he had operated upon. He was a quick and accurate worker and Jeffs meant what he said when he complimented him.

`Yu done a good job,' was his comment, when the last of the herd staggered to its feet, shook its head, and charged blindly after its companions. `Reckon yo're due for a rest. I want somebody to go into Hatchett's. How about it?'

`Glad to,' replied the puncher. `When do I start?'

`Right away, if yu like,' said Jeffs. 'Yu can stay the night there an' come back in the mornin'.'

On their return to the ranch, Jeffs handed Green a sealed packet. `Just leave it at the hotel--he may not be there,' he said. `Anyways, there's no answer.'

The messenger slipped the packet into the pocket of his chaps, merely noting that it was addressed in the name of `Marway,' and went off to saddle a fresh mount. He had not gone far on his journey when West caught him up.

`Wasn't expectin' yu,' remarked Green. `Jeffs forget somethin'?'

`Nope, said I could come along,' replied the other. `I'm just apinin' for civilisation.'

`There's about as much of it in Hatchett's as there was gold in that creek yu found me pannin',' Green told him.

`Mebbe, but there's liquor, an' a chance to buck the wheel an' lose some o' my hard-earned wealth,' was the smiling reply. `I ain't been there yet; what's it like?'

`Just the same as any other cow-town,' said Green. `Reckon if somebody mixed 'em up in a herd, it'd be hell of a job to cut out the town yu wanted--this is, if you was silly enough to want any of 'em.'

California laughed and went on to tell of the `boom' towns he had encountered during his mining travels, towns which sprang up like mushrooms in a night when a lucky strike was made, and vanished as quickly when the diggings petered out.

`Yes, sir,' he said. `I've gone to sleep in what looked like a thrivin' an' busy settlement an' woke up in the mornin' to find nearly every blame buildin' gone, an' me for the on'y inhabitant. Most of the said buildin's bein' tents transportation wasn't so darned difficult.'

He was one of those easy talkers who enjoy an audience, and an adventurous and by no means blameless career, regarding which he showed no reticence, provided him with plenty of material. Born in a mining camp, he had been prospector, gambler, bartender, mule-skinner, and cowpuncher, besides engaging between while in other less laudable means of getting a living. He had made fortunes and lost them.

`Some fellers can freeze on to the dollars,' he laughed. `Me, I never could nohow.'

Green listened, throwing in a remark now and then, but in no wise returning the other's confidences. Only once he asked a direct question: `Ever run across a chap named Webb, a big, beefy feller with red hair?' `Don't remember any such. What was he?' `A damn thief--but he called himself a cattleman.'

The rasp in the voice made West look at the speaker. `I'm guessin' he ain't a friend o' yores,' he hazarded.

'Yo're right,' responded Green. `I'm aimin' to make cold meat of him someday.'

Night was coming on when they reached their destination and the town was showing signs of emerging from the stagnation of the day. Green left his packet at the honel, and having arranged for beds, he and his companion were free to `take in the town.' Their first call was at the stores, for both were in need of tobacco, and the old proprietor greeted them with an odd look of surprise. All he said, however, was, `Found that gold-mine yet?'

The cowpuncher shook his head and grinned. `Them tools o' yores has been plumb unlucky so far,' he said. `But the fishhooks came in right handy. Any news?'

`Well, I dunno as there is. The marshal has bin shootin' off his mouth about a feller who was reckoned to be prospectin', an' if I was that feller an' had to come to town, I'd have a fast hoss where I could get to him easy, in case I wanted to leave in a hurry.'

The hint was plain enough. `Tonk ain't the holy terror he'd like to be thought,' smiled Green. `All the same, if I was that feller I'd be mighty obliged to yu.'

They walked down the street in the direction of the Folly. The only bit of excitement was provided by a pup which, bolting headlong from a couple of yelling children, collided with a pedestrian. The latter, swinging a heavy foot, lifted the astonished cur well into the middle of the road, where it was triumphantly pounced upon by the pursuers. The pedestrian turned into the saloon, after hesitating outside the Dance Hall, where the stamping of many feet on the boarded floor and the howl of a tortured fiddle proclaimed that a dance was in progress. Green and his companion followed. One swift glance as they crossed the space between the door and the bar told Green that, in some quarters anyway, his appearance was unlooked for.

"Lo, Silas,' he said, and then, seeing Snap Lunt, Durran, and Nigger a little further along the bar, he added, `Howdy, boys; yu joinin' me?'

`Shore,' replied Snap, but the other two mumbled some excuse and turned away. Green laughed.

`Ain't swore off, have they, Snap?' he inquired.

`Not so as yu'd notice it, but they dassn't drink with yu; Blaynes is settin' over there.'

Green looked in the direcnion indicated and saw that the foreman of the Y Z was playing poker with Pete, Laban, and Tarman.

`It don't seem to worry yu none,' he said.

The little gunman smiled grimly. `I ain't scared o' Blaynes,' he said.

Green spun a dollar on the bar to pay for the drinks and Silas picked it up. `Why don't yu pay in dust?' he bantered.

`What, an' have all town campin' on my trail for the next week. Yu must think I'm well named,' retorted the puncher.

`I never did think that,' grinned Silas. `But say, you want to watch out; it isn't none o' my business, but some people was expectin' yu to-night.'

The speaker's glance rested for a second or two on Tarman and his companions. Through apparently playing cards, it was plain that they were also deep in conversation. At that moment a boy from the hotel entered and handed Pete a package. Green recognised it. The gambler read the contents, said something in a low voice, and they all laughed.

Green sensed that something was about to happen. That he had been deliberately sent into Hatchett's he had already suspected, but for what purpose he had yet to find out. Snap and West were busy swapping gold-mining experiences, for the gunman had also followed the trail of the pick and shovel, and this left the puncher at liberty to study his surroundings. The room was fairly full, and though he had no reason to think he was disliked, he knew that if it came to a showdown, most of the men present would stand aloof or take sides against him. The entry of four Double X punchers led by their one-eyed chief did not add to his feeling of security. As though they had been waiting for this reinforcement, the poker party broke up and adjourned to the bar. Again the door swung to admit Larry and Dirty. The former gave a whoop when he saw Green.

`Gee, Dirty, we shore are in luck. There's the ruddy minin' magnit, with nobody but Snap to waste his substance on. Let's provide him with a better opportunity.'

Disregarding the scowls of their foreman, they ranged themselves by the side of Green and his companion, and glass in hand smiled genially on those around them. They had come to town quite by chance, looking for no more than a drink or two and a game of cards, but when they saw the company in the saloon they realised that something was on. Others, not in any way interested, seemed to know it too and there was an air of general expectancy about the whole gathering. Then the marshal came in, glared savagely at Green for an instant, and joined Tarman's group at the bar.

Green, replying absently to Larry, was to all appearances ignorant of the fact that he was in a hornets' nest. West, at any rate, was not deceived, for he whispered, `Get outa this; it's a frame-up an' yu ain't gotta chance.'

Even had the cowpuncher been the man to take it, however, the warning came too late, for at the same moment Tarman lifted his hand and cried, `Set 'em up for the company, Silas.' Then he looked directly at Green, and added, `With one exception, o' course; I don't drink with rustlers.'

No sooner were the words spoken than Tarman found himself standing alone; Green's companions also fell away; it was entirely the business of the two principals, and however interested the others might be, none of them wanted to stop a bullet not intended for him. The cowpuncher did not reply immediately to the insult, and there was a moment of tense, hard-breathing silence. Then suddenly he straightened up.

`Tarman,' he said slowly, `I hope yu can shoot better than yu can ride.'

The big man's vanity was touched on the raw and his face flushed redly at this allusion to his downfall. He was about to make an angry reply when the marshal pushed forward, gun in hand.

`There'll be no shootin' here, gents, 'less I do it,' he said. `I'll bore the first man that tries to pull a gun. If yu gotta difference, settle it some other way. Yu got all out-doors to do it in.'

Green laughed outright, for he knew now that Tarman had never intended to get into a gun-fight with him, the marshal's intervention having been carefully arranged. So that the big man's protest and the officer's refusal to consider it did not surprise him.

`It can't be did, Mr. Tarman,' Tonk said. `I gotta see the law...'

`Drop that gun, marshal; I've got yu covered,' broke in a sharp voice.

The marshal's eyes positively bulged as he saw Green's right-hand gun, held close to the hip, was aimed at his heart. How it had come to be drawn he could not comprehend. He could have sworn he was watching his man, and he had seen no movement, and a gasp of astonishment from the onlookers proclaimed that they were equally puzzled. The marshal's pistol clanked on the floor; he was not anxious to wear wings. The cowpuncher holstered his own weapon, then looked at Tarman.

`That lets the marshal out,' he said. `He's spoke his little piece an' obeyed orders. What's the next move in this frame-up?'

`I dunno what yo're talkin' about,' retorted Tarman. `If the marshal hadn't butted in I'd have shot it out with you, an' been damn glad o' the chance.'

The marshal won't butt again,' Green reminded.

`P'raps not, but he's put in a protest, an' I have some respect for the law, if you haven't.'

`Reckon the on'y law yu got any respect for is the law o' self-preservation,' the cowpuncher sneered, and laughed as he saw the taunt sink in. `Well, got any ideas?'

`Yes, I got the idea that yu are a professional killer an' that yu are scared to face a man without yore guns,' said Tarman. `Take off yore belt an' I'll kill yu with my hands, no holds barred. Now what have yu got to say?'

`Who'll guarannee that I get my guns back?' asked Green, suspicious that this might be a ruse to catch him unarmed. `I will,' said Snap promptly. `Give 'em to me an' yu'll have 'em when yu want 'em. What's more, yu git a square deal, or someone'll go out in the smoke.'

`An' that goes,' shouted Larry and Dirty together, with a malignant glare at the Double X faction.

Green made no further demur, but handed his belt to Snap, who buckled it above his own in such a position as to enable him no pull the guns easily. Green threw aside his coat and vest, removed his spurs, and was ready. The centre of the room was soon cleared of tables and chairs, and the spectators, cards and drinks forgotten, stood round in an eager ring. Tarman also shed his coat and vest, disclosing a mighty pair of shoulders and arms upon which the muscles stood out in bunches. He moved easily for so big a man, and as he stepped forward swinging his hands he looked a formidable opponent. He was taller and heavier than the cowboy, but the latter was in perfect physical condition and as hard as nails. He smiled confidently as the little gunman whispered: `Don't let him close with yu--he's too heavy, an' don't yu worry about anythin' but him; I'll look after the others.'

The cowpuncher nodded, aware that the advice was good. What the outcome of the fight would be he did not know, but the prospect of hammering the man before him made his body tingle and filled him with satisfaction. The primal instinct to fight with Nature's weapons possessed him, and he was glad it had not come to a shooting. A word from Snap and the combat was on.

Neither man knew much of boxing, and the ethics of pugilism were little observed in frontier encounters. It was to be a stark fight, with no respite and no mercy. There were no seconds and no referee, save the self-appointed, squinting-eyed little gunman who watched grimly, his hands never far from the butts of his guns.

For the first moment or two the men circled warily, watching for an opening. Tarman was the first to see what he took to be one, and rushing in, he swung a terrific blow at his opponent's head, which, had it landed, it might well have finished the battle. But the cowpuncher saw it in time and ducked, his shoulder taking what was meant for his head. Such was the force of the impact that he staggered and almost fell. A chorus of yells greeted this success.

Two to one on the big 'un,' shouted Blaynes, already visioning the downfall of the man he hated.

`Take yu--one hundred to fifty,' snapped Lunn.

`Good enough. Anyone else want it?' asked the foreman, his eyes on Larry and Dirty.

`Betcha life; we'll both take the same,' was the eager response of the Y Z pair.

Blaynes laughed. `Yu boys'll put in a few months workin' for nothin',' he sneered.

Meanwhile the fight went on, Tannan trying to deliver another sledgehammer blow, and Green keeping him away with savage jabs from a straight left arm and clever footwork. These tactics, though they did little damage, had the effect of misleading the big man, and many of the onlookers.

`Smash him, Joe, he's runnin' away,' growled Laban.

Probably Tarman never heard the advice but he apparently thought the same, for he rushed blindly in. At once the smaller man ducked and, as the blow whistled harmlessly over his shoulder, drove his left to the body and his right to the jaw, with a force which jerked a gasp out of the recipient. Two quick body blows from fists as hard and heavy as bags of bullets followed, and ere the big man could retaliate Green had slipped clear and was waiting for him.

Again Tarman rushed in and this time Green met him halfway and fiercely returned blow for blow. Neither man made much attempt to avoid punishment; each was intent only on hurting the other. The cowpuncher, deaf to the curses and entreaties of his friends, yielded to the madness which possessed him, took all that was coming, and was concerned only with endeavouring to give more than he got. He was conscious of but one desire--to feel his fist pounding the puffed malignant face before him. He was hardly aware of the swaying ring of shouting men, grimed with the dust which rose in clouds from the boards beneath their stamping feet, but he knew that his strength would not stand the terrific strain much longer, and that his enemy was still unbeaten.

Tarman was weakening too. For months past he had been living an easy life, and the blows to the body were beginning to tell. After five minutes of straight slogging, Nature called a halt and the men fell apart, unsteady on their feet and gasping for breath. Both showed signs of the punishment they had received; Green's cheek was gashed and one eye nearly closed, while the big man's lips were split, and both eyes badly bruised. The respite did not last a minute, for Tarman, with a grunt of rage, lurched forward with fists flying. But the breathing-space, short as it was, enabled the cowboy to regain control of himself; his wild burst of anger was sated, and he now fought warily again.

Time after time he slipped agilely away from a furious onslaught, and the task of following him was doing the bigger man no good. The adherents of the latter saw this, but Green took no notice of the taunts and jeers his tactics called forth. All at once, the very thing he had been trying to avoid happened--his foot slipped, and in an instant Tarman's mighty arms were round his shoulders. It was like being hugged by a grizzly. Fortunately for Green, the giant had caught him a shade too high, so that he was still able to administer a succession of short-arm jabs to the wind, but the clamp of those iron arms was slowly but surely crushing the life out of him. The room seemed to be swaying up and down like the deck of a ship, he saw dimly a row of contorted, bobbing faces, oaths flew from excited lips, and the swinging lights seemed to be fading. Then, at the very moment when he felt that all was over, came relief; Tarman unable to endure the torture of the body-blows another instant, broke his hold and the pair dropped apart.

Silence seized the spectators again as they watched the two men standing there apparently too exhausted to make another move. Was it to be a drawn battle? Bruised, battered, drawing their breath in great sobs, neither man looked capable of striking another blow. The harsh tones of the Y Z foreman, bitter with hatred, shattered the silence and gave the signal for the renewal of the combat.

`Yu got him beat to a frazzle, Tarman. Go in an' kill the hound.'

Like a drench of cold water the words struck the cowboy, steadied his reeling senses, and keyed up his weary body. Snap, watching him closely, saw him straighten, noted how the slack fingers bunched themselves into fists again, and promptly replied to the challenge :

Wantta double that bet, Blaynes?' he asked.

`Shore,' returned the foreman, `though it's fair robbin' yu.' `Guess yore conscience'll stand it at that,' sneered the other. `Yo're on.' And then, in an undertone to Green, he said, `Now, boy, wait for him an' give him hell.'

The cowpuncher did not have long to wait. Spitting out an oath, Tarman dashed in, his right arm swinging like a flail, intent on finishing the fight at a blow. But the smaller man was ready, alert, and watching. Instead of giving way before the onslaught he stepped to meet it and flinging his left arm upwards and outwards, knocked the advancing fist aside. The force of the parry swung the big man half round so that the left point of his jaw was towards his opponent. Like a flash of light Green's right fist shot out, with every ounce of his remaining strength behind it, and landed with a thud on the exposed spot. Tarman's head snapped back, his heels left the floor, and he crashed down. Such was the impetus of the blow that the striker also fell prone on top of the stricken man.

Green was up again at once and stood back, waiting, but Tarman lay there like a log, breathing heavily, but unconscious; the fight was finished! For a moment the onlookers gazed in amazed silence at the fallen giant, and then pandemonium broke loose. Blaynes, furious at the loss of his money and his baulked vengeance, was excitedly talking to the marshal, a point which Snap at once observed. It took but a minute to re-invest the victor with his gun-belt and discarded gear, and then the gunman whispered :

`They're hatchin' somethin'; make the back door.'

Almost unnoticed by the clamorous, wrangling crowd, Green, with Larry and Dirty, slid through the back entrance of the saloon and gained the hotel. Here, a little later, Snap and West joined them. The gunman was grinning.

`Blaynes was tryin' to get the marshal to arrest yu for disturbin' the peace, but he sorta re-considered the notion when I pointed out that he'd have to jail Tarman to, an' that same feller come alive again just in time to take in the argument, an' well, yu oughta heard him; I reckon Tonk knows all about hisself now.'

`Point is, what're yu goin' to do, Don?' asked Larry.

Green smiled rather lopsidedly at his friend. `I gotta bed here, an' I'm aimin' to occupy it a whole lot to-night,' he said. From this resolve all their arguments and entreaties failed to move him. Nor would he tell them anything regarding his future movements.

`It's mighty good o' yu boys to back me up, but I'm a lone wolf an' about as popular as a drink o' whisky at a temperance meeting; I ain't allowin' yu to get in worse than yu are. I'll be around, an' that's all I'm tellin' yu.'

With that they had to be content. But to Snap, when the other men had gone for the horses, he said, `Snap, how long have yu known Tarman?'

Despite his habitual command of self, the gunman gave a slight start of surprise, for such a question had been totally unexpected. He was silent for a moment and then he said, `That's one o' the things I can't tell yu, Green.'

It was the answer the puncher had looked for and he accepned it without further argument; right or wrong, the little man had his own code of honour, and Green was not the kind to ask him no go back on it.

As they rode home to the ranch the two younger cowboys were full of the fight, and the bulge they would have on those of the outfit who had not seen it. Snap was thoughtful, pondering on the last question.

`He's a noticin' cuss, for shore,' he unconsciously said aloud. `He's a human clam, but Gosh! he can fight,' cried Dirty. `All the same, I dunno as we oughtta left him.'

`Reckon he can take care of himself,' reassured Lunt, and smiled at a thought he did not impart to his companions.

Chapter XV

GREEN was down early next morning and having dealt with a satisfying breakfast, was watching the trail which led to the Y Z and wondering if Larry had managed to deliver the message he had charged him with. Presently his doubts were ended as he saw a familiar figure loping into the town. Noreen pulled up as the lounging puncher's hat swept from his head. The marks of the battle were plain to see, but there was a sardonic grin on his face as he looked up at her, and amusement in his tone as he said:

`I shore am a regular trouble-hunter, eh?'

`Larry said you wanted to see me,' she evaded.

`He can say that any time an' be tellin' the truth,' smiled the man. Then, dropping into gravity, he added, `I'm wantin' yu to do me a kindness. It's about Blue--I dunno what to do with him; he's too good a hoss for the job I got in hand, I figured if yu would accept him' he paused awkwardly, and then, `Yu see, I'd know he was in good hands.'

The girl's face paled a little as she realised his meaning, and at the same time it thrilled her to think that he wished her to have the animal he loved.

`You think you are in great danger?' she asked.

`Shucks, there I go a-scarin' yu most to death,' he said smilingly. `A puncher's always in danger, more or less. The trouble is I can't leave the hoss here, an' I got nowhere to take him.'

`I'll keep him for you at the ranch,' she said. `But you will have to get him there.'

He shook his head. `Yu don't know Blue,' he said. `Come along an' I'll introduce yu.'

At the hotel corral she dismounted and hitched her horse, while her companion undid the gate. The roan, with the several other occupants, promptly retreated to the far side of the enclosure. Green whistled and the roan pointed its ears but took no further notice. He whistled again, sharply, and the horse turned its head and then paced slowly towards him.

`Come here, yu old pirut; tryin' to play yu are a wild hoss again, eh?' admonished his master.

Reluctantly the animal came to his side, rolling a wicked eye on the girl. Green patted the sleek neck, pulled the quivering ears and then said: `Stroke his muzzle; he won't hurt yu.'

Little as she fancied the task, Noreen did as she was bid, and to her surprise the animal made no attempt to bite her, though its lip lifted to show the powerful teeth which could have crushed her slender wrist in an instant.

`Now feed him this,' the puncher said, slipping some pieces of sugar into her hand.

Noreen did so, and the horse took it daintily and appeared to lose its nervousness. The girl laughed as she said, `So horses are like their masters--it's a case of "Feed the brute."'

The cowboy laughed too. `That ain't quite so. I reckon they are more like ladies; yu gotta be properly introduced. Now he knows yu, yu can ride him.'

`Really?' cried Noreen.

`Shore thing,' replied Green confidently. `But yu will have to saddle him yoreself.'

He fetched her saddle and bridle, and the girl, wondering greatly, put them on the roan. Then she put her foot in the stirrup and swung up, fully expecting to be pitched headlong. But the roan, after the mildest attempt at a buck, settled down and trotted sedately round the corral. The girl cried out with delight; always she had wanted to ride this beautiful creature.

`It's just wonderful, but perhaps when you are not present--'

`No, he'll stay put, but don't let anybody else gamble with him. Yu can ride him back to the Y Z now, an' one o' the boys can fetch in yore pony. I'm shore obliged to yu for takin' him.'

`He'll be waiting for you when you come for him,' she said. `What are you going to do? Why do you have to stay here and run such risks?'

The thought that she cared what became of him sent a spasm of joy through his being, but he had his poker face on and with the gravity of an Indian he replied:

`I gotta job, an' I ain't the on'y one that's takin' risks. S'long, Blue, be a good little hoss, an' mebbe I'll come an' see yu again.'

He rubbed the twitching nostrils and the horse nuzzled his hand, snapping at it playfully. The girl, herself a horse-lover, divined what the parting meant.

`Of course you will come and see us both again,' she said. `And remember, he's still your horse.'

With a wave of her hand she rode out of the corral, and the man's eyes followed her. The approach of West cut short his meditations, and he looked up to find the one-time miner regarding him with patent disgust.

`Don't tell me yu've give that hoss away,' he said. `The owner o' this travellers' palace said he was yourn.'

`I've done that very thing,' smiled Green. `Had yore breakfast?'

`Breakfast don't look good to me this mornin',' was the rueful reply. `I reckon I must be sufferin' from what the educated sharps call the "aftermouth" o' the night before. If yo're sot on comin' back with me, I'm ready to make a start.'

The puncher had nothing to wait for, and having paid their bills, they saddled up and departed. For the first hour California rode in silence, apparently deep in thought, stealing a covert glance at his companion from time to time. Presently he burst out.

`Hell, I can't do it. See here, Green, will yu take a pal's advice "in the dark," an' clear out o' this neck o' the woods?'

`There, Bullet, listen to that,' Green said whimsically to his pony. `Ain't it astonishin' how unpopular we are? Everybody wants to see the last of us.'

`They'll see the last o' yu a damn sight sooner if yu stay around here,' retorted West. `Well, I s'pose I gotta tell yu, but for the love o' Mike don't let on who put yu wise. Do yu know who that feller is that yu licked last night?'

`Calls himself Tarman,' Green said.

`Which may be his name for all I know, but I've generally heard him called "The Spider." Yu still aimin' to go back to his ranch?'

`I shore am,' was the quiet reply, and the other man swore disgustedly.

`Well, I had to warn yu, but it's yore funeral.'

`I'll try an' see than it ain't no such thing. Anyway the cards fall, I'm obliged to yu, an' yu can bet I'll be mighty silent.'

''S'allright,' grunted West. `Couldn't watch yu ridin' into a trap blindfold.'

No more was said. The cowpuncher well understood that the warning was all the information he would get. It had not much surprised him; he had already formed the opinion that Tarman had some sinister motive for visiting Hatchett's, and his speedy friendship with Poker Pete and his crowd was suggestive of a previous acquaintance. But what was Tarman's game? The running off of a few hundred head of cattle would not satisfy a man like him. The puncher worried over the problem, searching this and that way for a solution, while he rode steadily to put himself in the power of the man he had so thoroughly thrashed and humiliated.

To Joe Tarman, as to West, breakfast on the morning after his defeat made no appeal. He and Laban were almost the first customers at the Folly, the man who beat them to it being a little dried-up chap who had drifted into town the previous evening, driving an old burro packing a prospecting outfit. He watched the pair for a moment or two, noting the disgusted scowl on Tarman's swollen features, and then sidled along the bar until he was at Laban's elbow.

`Say, boss,' he whispered, `does yore big friend know who he was up agin las' night? I gotta reason for askin'.'

`Cowpunch around here, named Green,' Seth replied.

`He he,' sniggered the old sinner. `Dog my cats if it ain't just him to choose a name like that. Say, if I can tell yore friend how to a bit more than even the score, would it be worth a twenty, d'ye reckon?'

He had designedly raised his voice, and Tarman, who had been listening, pulled out his roll, peeled off a note and laid it on the bar.

`Spill the beans, an' if they're worth it, that's yores,' he growled.

`He, he,' cackled the aged one, `it's mine shore enough. The feller yu fit, what calls hisself Green, he's Sudden.'

Tarman's face darkened. `I found that out for myself,' he snarled, `an' if yu think yu can jape with me, yu rat

The prospector backed away before the threatening gesture, `I ain't japin'--I'm tellin' yu he's Sudden, the outlaw,' he cried. `I've seen him three-four times in Texas an' Noo Mexico; I'd know him anywheres.'

`By God, he's right,' cried Tarman. `Didn't I tell yu I'd met him, Seth? It's years ago, an' he was a mere pup then but it's him shore enough.'

He thrust the note into the informer's hands, motioned him away, and stood frowning heavily in thought. Gradually his face cleared until at length he laughed aloud and slapped Laban jovially on the shoulder.

`That's it,' he said. `I've gon it, Seth, an' when I come to work it out, why, it's like takin' money from a blind man. No, it's too good to tell yu; watch my smoke. But keep this news behind yore teeth; I don't want no lynchin'-bee interferin' with my plans--yet.'

He strode over to the old prospector and held out another twenty dollar bill. `Don't tell no one else about the damned feller,' he said. `An' don't gamble with me, savvy?'

`I'm pullin' my freight from town right now,' said the gold-seeker, as he grabbed the bill and shuffled out of the bar.

The afternoon, Tarman, despite his damaged appearance, presented himself at the Y Z ranch-house. Laban had been told that he was not wanted. Old Simon received the visitor on the verandah, informing him that Noreen was out riding.

`That feller Green gave her back the roan this mornin' an' he seems to have taken the devil out o' the hoss,' Petter said. `Odd number that; I can't make him out nohow.'

`He gave Miss Noreen that hoss?' cried the visitor. `Whatever for?'

`Said he'd got no use for it,' replied. `What do yu think?'

`Somethin' back o' that, I'll lay,' Tarman said. `Say, I've got some news for yu 'bout that chap. He calls himself Green here, but he's betner known in a good many parts as Sudden, the outlaw.'

He leaned back in his chair to enjoy the surprise he knew his statement would produce and he was not disappointed. Old Simon was struck dumb, but only for a moment. Then he gasped :

`Yu shore o' that?'

`Shore as shootin'--I oughtta recognised him myself, but it's some time since I saw him.'

The cattleman jumped up. `I'll call some o' the boys an' we'll get a rope on him right away,' he said, but Tarman did not move.

`Sit down,' he said. `There's no hurry. He don't know he's been spotted an' I'm havin' him watched. 'Sides, he ain't aimin' to get away or he'd have kept that fast hoss. No, sir, he's in these parts for a purpose, an' I've got an idea that I know what it is'.

`Stealin' my cattle, blast him,' exploded the rancher.

Tarman regarded the angry man with a gleam of triumphant malice; things were going entirely right for him. `That ain't nearly all he's after,' he said slowly. `He wants yore cattle--yore ranch--yore daughter--and more.'

`My girl marry him--a murderin' cow-thief?' snarled Simon. `Not while I can pull a trigger.'

`Huh! That ain't no way to talk. Yu may be fast with a gun but yu'd last 'bout as long as a snowflake in hell with him, an' be playin' into his hands at that.'

The old man looked up. `Yu reckon he's after me?' he said.

Tarman did not make a direct reply to the question. `See here,' he began, let me tell yu the story o' this feller Sudden, an' yu can judge for yoreself. Somethin' less than twenty year ago there was two fellers livin' down in Texas, 'bout half a day's ride from the so-called town o' Crawlin' Creek. They were both cattlemen, an' their ranges ran side by side, with p'raps twenty miles between the ranch-houses, an' they got to be pretty close friends, havin' a good deal in common. Both had lost their wives early, an' each of 'em had one kid. Peterson's was a boy, an' Evesham's a girl several years younger, an' to the fathers there warn't no other kids in the world.'

The narrator paused for a moment, his keen, cruel eyes dwelling on the figure slumped in the chair before him. He had not failed to notice the start the old man had been unable to conceal at the mention of the names. He hid his own satisfaction, and continued :

`After a while, however, there come trouble over water rights which both claimed, an' things got so bad a-tween 'em that for over a year they never spoke, an' gripped their guns when they met. Then one day Peterson's son vanished, an' he let it be known pretty plain that he thought Evesham had stolen the kid out o' spite! But he couldn't prove nothin' an' though he spent six months searchin' the lad was never heard of. Then Peterson sold out an' took the trail, tellin' nobody where he was bound for, an' a month later, Evesham's little girl disappeared an' was never traced. Odd, warn't it?'

The drooping figure in the chair made no reply, and Tarman continued his story with a half sneer on his lips.

`Evesham went near mad. For months he hunted Peterson, swearing to shoot him on sight, but his former neighbour had vanished as completely as the kids. At last he gave up the search an' resumed his life on the ranch. Some years later, Evesham's in town when along comes an old Injun, trailin' a string o' ponies for sale, an' with him there's his squaw an' a half-breed boy. Evesham takes a fancy to the lad, buys him an' takes him back to his ranch. That boy is the feller yu know as Green, an' I know as Sudden, the outlaw.'

The owner of the Y Z looked up at last. `An' Bill Evesham, what's come of him?' he asked huskily, and Tarman smiled as he replied :

`Did I say his name was Bill? Well, it was anyways. He cashed 'bout three years ago, an' when the adopted son come to clean up there was nothin' for him, the old man had gambled an' drunk the ranch away. The boy, he was growed up then, o' course, went on the cross; a wizard with hosses an' weapons, he couldn't hold a steady job. Several fellers tried to beat him to the draw an' paid the penalty. He got a reputation but it's one

that keeps him movin', an' my idea is there's some purpose back o' that; he may be lookin' for somebody. What do yu think--Peterson?'

The old man jumped as though he had received an electric shock, but one glance at the inexorable, triumphant face of the man before him showed the futility of denial, and he sank back wearily into his chair. Discovered after all these years of security! For a vain second, he contemplated snanching out his gun and destroying nhe man who had surprised his secret, and Tarman read his thought.

`Don't try nothin' rash, Peterson,' he advised. `I'm yore friend, an' we'll see this out together.'

`Then drop that Peterson racket--my name's Petter,' said Simon irritably. `For the rest of it, I'll own up that yu've got the story pretty straight. An' don't yu get the idea that I'm sorry any; Bill Evesham double-crossed me, I reckon, an' I'd do the same again. He warn't the forgivin' sort either, an' it would be just like him to set this murderin' hound on my trail. Green as good as told Norry so soon after he come, though neither of 'em knows how close he was to the man he was after, an' I warn't shore. Point is, what are we goin' to do?'

He was recovering his poise; the old pioneer spirit which had enabled him to face danger and disaster unflinchingly defied the weakening influence of age, and Tarman knew that he would fight like a wounded grizzly for the girl he had come to regard as his own, and the loss of whose affection he feared more than the threat of death.

`Yu can leave Green to me,' he said deliberately. `I'm figurin' that if we let him run on the rope for a bit he'll hang himself. He don't know yet that yo're the man he's lookin' for so there's no danger thataway. You can tell the girl who he is, but yu ain't aimin' to let her know all the story, are yu?'

`No,' said Simon explosively. `She's been my daughter all these years an'...'

`I reckon yo're right,' Tarman agreed. `Women are queer an' she might take it all wrong. What's a name anyways; she'll be changin' it soon, I hope.'

The old man looked up sharply and met the smiling expressive eyes of the other. `Meanin'?' he asked.

`That I want her, yes,' came the plain answer. `I ain't a poor man, Petter, an' there's no strings tied to me. Yu got any objections?'

Simon was silent for a few moments, considering. He had, of course, expected some such development; he knew perfectly well that the big man had not visited the ranch so often on his account, but now the moment was come he found a difficulty in deciding. He knew nothing against the suitor, and yet--

`Not if Norry ain't,' he said presently. `She's the doctor.' `Then that'll be all right,' Tarman rejoined. `Now don't yu worry none about Green; we'll have him where the hair's short before he knows it:

`What yu aimin' to do when yu get him? String him up?' Tarman laughed and shook his head. `We'll let the Governor do that,' he said. `There's ten thousand dollars in all offered for the capture of Mister Sudden. I could use that money--it would make a decent settlement for a bride, for instance. Well, that's all arranged, an' I'm agoin' to take the trail before Noreen blows in--I ain't very presentable.'

Long after his visitor had gone Old Simon sat in his chair smoking and pondering on the past. So Bill Evesham had gone, but not without rearing someone to carry on his vengeance; he could figure him deliberately adopting and training the half-breed lad for that very purpose. And Norry, what would she think of it all? She must condemn him, of course, for a cruel and animal act which had robbed both her father and herself. Would affection for him survive such a blow? He did not know and would not take the risk if he could avoid it.

His thoughts turned to Tarman. Somehow, he did not like the man and yet he could not have given a reason. But he recognised that he was in need of him and in his power, a reflection which made him curse softly, for Old Simon was an independent soul, and preferred, as he put it, to `cut his own trail.' He was still brooding in the chair when Noreen returned from her ride, and the sight of her flushed face, and the lilt of her laugh, made him set his teeth and swear that Fate itself should not wrest her from him.

`Had a good ride?' he asked, as she came swinging up from the corral.

`Ripping,' she replied. `Blue behaved like a perfect angel. Mr. Green must be a wizard.'

`Mebbe he is, but yu better give over callin' him Mr. Green,' retorted the old man grimly. `He's better known down South as Sudden--the outlaw.'

The information wiped the colour from the girl's face, and her voice shook as she asked, `Is that true, or just town talk?'

`True enough, I reckon, but it ain't generally known, an' I don't want it should be,' replied the cattleman meaningly. `I ain't made up my mind what to do yet.'

`But what is he doing here, and why did he give me the roan?' asked the girl.

`Well, he's rustlin' cattle for one thing, an' as for the hoss, he can get him back next time he raids the ranch,' the told man said bitterly.

`I suppose Mr. Tarman brought the news,' Noreen guessed, and when her father nodded, she went on, `I don't believe he's an ounlaw, and if he is, I don't think he would raid the Y Z, so there. One thing I'm quite sure of, if Mr. Green had been beaten last night he wouldn't be going around spreading scandal about his opponent.'

`But, Norry,' protested Petter, `this ain't scandal. Green was recognised by a feller who knew him in Texas. Tarman was on'y warnin' me, an' come up a-purpose to do it. Yu gotta be fair.'

`I'm going to be--to both sides,' the girl retorted. `I want more proof than mere hearsay, Daddy; he didn't seem that kind of man.'

She turned and went into the house. Old Simon, staring after her in perplexity, shook his head. `Women has me beat every way from the jack,' he muttered. `Tell 'em a man's a wrong 'un an' they either won't believe it, or they get more interested. Yu can't out-guess 'em nohow.'

Chapter XVI

THE battered condition of the new hand on his return to the Crossed Dumb-bell aroused a curiosity which he left to West to satisfy, merely stipulating that the identity of his opponent be concealed. California agreed that this was sound policy, and excelled himself in a vivid, denailed description of the battle, but giving no particulars which might point to the personality of the beaten man. But old Jeffs, sitting at the head of the table, smiled cunningly once or twice, and Green divined that he had guessed.

The other men had apparently no suspicion, their attitude seemed to be simply one of brutish approval for the victor. Among the most interested of the listeners was one Green had not seen before, a dwarf in height, with a huge barrel of a body and absurd little bowed legs which seemed utterly inadequate for its support. A great shaggy head with coarse features, and arms which could reach almost to the tiny knees, completed an appearance which justified the freak's nickname of `Gorilla.'

This creature, who had been following the story of the fight with impatient interest, now shot a question at Green: `Say, stranger, d' yu ever come acrost a smaller cowpunch than me?'

The query came in the truculent tone so frequently adopted by the small man who is sensitive regarding his stature and West's eyes flashed a warning.

`Shore I have. Back on my old ranch in Texas there was a feller named "Tiny" who would have looked a kid beside yu, an' he was a blame good puncher too,' smiled Green. `It's a fact, boys, that feller was so short that when he had a pain he couldn't tell whether it was toothache or corns.'

A chorus of laughter greeted the humorous exaggeration and the dwarf's booming voice joined in.

`Haw, haw,' he bellowed. `Reckon he musta bin real small, that feller, but size ain't anythin'. I'm none so big m'self, yet I bin in a fight with fists an' the chap was damn near twice as tall as me.' He looked round and grinned triumphantly at the surprise his statement created, and then went on, `Yessir, I ain't joshin' neither. We had a sorter argument an' agreed to settle with our hands 'stead o' shootin', him claimin' there was more of him to aim at. Then some o' the boys allowed that to make it fair he orta fight on his knees, with me standin' up, an' that's how we done. We scrapped for nigh half an hour an' in the end I knocked him cold. Anybody here wantta take me on the same terms?'

He squinted at Green as he threw out the challenge and then his eyes roved round the company. The Y Z puncher laughed and replied good-humouredly :

`Not any for me, thank yu. I had a full meal o' scrappin' last night; I ain't a hog.'

The other men seemed to accept the dwarf's offer as a joke, sprung for the benefit of the newcomer. The enormous muscular power of that stunted body was known to all. The foreman clinched the discussion by saying sharply: `Draw in yore horns, Gorilla; we gotta job comin' along that'll need all the sound men we can muster.'

`Aw, Jeffs, there won't be no trouble,' protested the dwarf. `Yu can see I got 'em all razzle-dazzled--scared of a little 'un.'

In an instant the foreman's face changed from calm to snorm. His eyes flashed fire, and snatching out his gun, he cried, `One more yap from yu an' it will be yore finish. Yu know me.'

The pugnacious one subsided into his seat like a pricked bubble, and Jeffs, with a savage glare round the room, went out. The scene, begun in a farcical mood, had nearly ended in red tragedy.

`Yu want to go slow with Jeffs, Gorilla,' admonished West. `He on'y warns a man once, an' not allus that.'

The stunted man did not reply; the tempest he had so suddenly raised had routed his not over-keen faculties, and he was still in a kind of daze.

`Would he have killed him?' Green whispered to West.

`Shore thing,' replied the other. `I saw him do it once. Yu see, this is a tough crowd an' he's gotta ride 'em all the time.'

`What's the job he spoke of?'

`Ain't a notion--first I've heard of it. We'll all know soon, I guess.'

The next day was occupied with the ordinary work of the ranch, but on the following morning preparations for some expedition began. Horses were brought in and carefully examined, weapons were cleaned, and ropes looked at. There was an air of general excitement, the meaning of which Green did not discover until the foreman called him aside, and with a leering look, told him the news.

`Chance to git yore own back a bit to-night, Green,' he said, watching with narrowed eyes. `We're aimin' to lift some o' the Y Z stock. Yu'll be along.'

The puncher's face told him nothing. `Why not?' came the cool retort. `I'm workin' for yu, an' they treated me mean. I don't owe the Y Z nothin' but a grudge.'

`Well, here's where yu pay it,' smiled the other. `We start this afternoon.'

Left to himself, Green pondered on the situation; there were points he could not understand. Jeffs, of course, had received orders from Tarman, but why was the latter robbing the ranch he must surely be expecting to possess one day, for the cattle, once stolen, were the general property of the gang. Again, so far as he could judge, he had been the last to be told, even West having said nothing of the projected raid. This might be a natural precaution on the part of the foreman, who could not be sure of Green's real feelings towards his old ranch. Certainly he had made it impossible for the Y Z man to send any warning unless he deserted altogether, and Green guessed his movements were being watched. Was it a trap for himself? Looking at it every way he could find no solution, and at length, with a shrug of his shoulders, he decided that there was nothing to be done but go through with it. West provided another disquieting factor.

`No, I ain't goin'--I gotta keep house,' he said, regret in his tone, and then in a whisper, he added, `Somethin's in the wind--I dunno what, but yu better watch out. Jeffs is goin' this time an' that ain't usual.'

Green was sorry that the talkative one was not to be of the party, for not only was he good company, but the Y Z puncher felt that he could depend on him for help in a tight place. Warped as he undoubtedly was, he had laws of his own, and with the man who had saved him from a horrible death, he would play straight.

Ten men, well-mounted and fully armed, composed the raiding force, which set out early in the afternoon, headed for the Y Z. The trail taken was the one by which West had brought Green to the rustlers' headquarters. With plenty of time at theirdisposal the men rode easily, smoking and chatting in pairs. Green, indifferent as to whom he rode with, found himself companioned by Gorilla, perched on the back of a big, raw-boned pony, with a hammer head and a general lack of beauty thoroughly in keeping with its rider. The dwarf grinned at the bigger man as he ranged alongside, and noted the disparaging glance at his mount.

`Shore, he ain't much to look at, but he's wise to cattle an' he'll run till he drops,' he said, with an odd note of pride in his rumbling voice.

`Yu don't have to tell me,' responded Green. `hosses is where I live.'

`Yes, an' yu gotta good 'un,' said Gorilla.

`Bullet's a useful animal,' agreed Green, patting his pony's neck.

`I wasn't meanin' him; what about yore other hoss, the roan...' he stopped suddenly, and with some confusion added, `Huh, reckon I'm tanglin' yu up with some other feller. Well, anyways, it don't matter now.'

With which cryptic remark he relapsed into silence, merely favouring the puncher with an occasional side-glance and a sort of half-grin containing an element of malicious mirth. Here was more food for thought; these men evidently knew more about him than he had suspected. Why had the little man chopped his remark short? Had he been on the point of revealing something? And why didn't it matter now? These questions kept the cowpuncher's mind fully occupied until the band reached the hidden valley, where he had to dismount and help the others adjust the board gangway for the horses. As this was made much wider and stronger, and left in position, it was evident that the stolen herd was to be brought oack that way.

At the hut in the valley a rest and a meal were taken and Jeffs gave his final instructions. The men were told off to work in pairs and Green had Gorilla assigned to him as partner. Then loose boards in the floor of the hut were lifted, and from the cavity beneath a number of Indian head-dresses were dragged. These were donned and some of the men even daubed their faces with stain and `painted Injun.' Then, with a whild whoop, several sprang out and gave a creditable display of an Apache war-dance, while the rest looked on and applauded.

`Big Chief, "Wart-on-a-horse," him dance too,' yelled one, and slung Gorilla into the cavorting ring round the fire. Anything more ludicrous than the dwarf's great body, with eagle plumes streaming down the back, balanced on tiny legs trying to keep step with the others, could hardly be conceived, and the spectacle aroused shouts of laughter. Jeffs, however, soon put a stop to the merriment with the order to mount.

It was growing dark when they passed through the tunnel at the lower end of the valley and made their way down nhe stream. The men rode in pairs and the foreman had named the order; Green and his partner were the middle couple, and the cowpuncher could not believe that this was accidental. Moreover, Gorilla stuck to him like a burr, and he had an uneasy suspicion that the little man was riding with his gun drawn, and that he would be instantly shot down if he made a dash for it. They rode slowly, for in the dark the trail was difficult, and Jeffs wished to spare the horses. Mile after mile they paced through the darkness, amid a silence broken only by the creak of saddle-leather, the clink of a shod hoof on a stone, a laugh or an oath from one of the riders. At times the heavy foliage shut them in completely, but when threading a gully or crossing a ridge they could see the sky, ablaze with the twinkling lights of other worlds.

Several times Green endeavoured to draw his companion into converse but the dwarf replied only in monosyllables. He had the air of one who has nearly committed an indiscretion and is taking no more risks. So the Y Z man was driven to his own thoughts, and into these a laughing face, with rebellious golden hair, insisted upon intruding. He found himself wishing he could see her, but would have been sadly shocked had he known how soon his desire was to be gratified.

So far as Green could determine, the trail they were traversing was that he and Larry had followed, skirting Sandy Parlour, and striking the Y Z range near the line-house where Bud had been slain. A plainsman, travelling a new trail, instinctively picks out landmarks which, retained in the memory, will enable him to recognise it again; the contour of a bluff, the bed of an old water-course, a big tree, or even a particular clump of brush, serve him as signposts. So that the cowpuncher knew when they were nearing their destination, and was moved to comment on the lack of caution shown by the raiders.

`Shucks, they ain't expectin' us,' said Gorilla.

`Yu mean they are expectin' us, don't yu?' queried the other. `Who's at the line-house to-night?'

`Bent an' Nigger,' replied the dwarf unthinkingly, and then, with a sudden oath, `Here, what yu gettin' at? How do I know who..'

The puncher interrupted him. `Why not?' he asked easily. `I reckon Jeffs ain't the man to overlook a bet like that. Yu gotta suspicious nature, Gorilla.'

`Mebbe I have, but don't yu play no tricks on me,' came the sullen retort.

They were now in a little draw which sloped up on to the open range, and Jeffs called a halt while one of the men slipped from his saddle and vanished in the shadows. Evidently the leader of the expedition was taking no chances, and wished to be sure that the men he looked for were actually in the cabin. The rest of them waited, in silence now, for the return of the scout. Green covertly tried his guns, making sure they would instantly come from the holsters, and then, pressing his horse with his right leg, caused the animal to gradually edge further away from Gorilla. The latter at once imitated the movement, growling in an undertone, `We gotta keep together, pard.'

The puncher did not reply; he had found out what he wanted to know--that he was not trusted. Doubtless, he argued, he had been included in the party as a test; if, indeed, he was willing to rob his late employer, they would know that he was one of them, but they would take no risks till this was proved. His own plans were not yet matured, he was not ready to put his cards on the table, for he had no evidence of Tarman's connection with the rustlers other than his own knowledge.

The reappearance of the man who had gone ahead cut short his meditations. Apparently the coast was clear, for the leader gave the word and the raiders advanced through the draw to emerge on the open range. Then, in accordance with the orders already given, four of the couples spread out right and left in a wide half-circle, while Jeffs and another man headed for the line-house, the one small window of which was lighted up. Noiselessly loping over the thick grass, the outer horns of the half-circle of horsemen swept round to complete the ring, and then, at the shrill cry of a coyote, which was the agreed signal, all rode slowly towards the centre, driving in the cows. A few of the brutes tried to dodge past the riders, but the cow-ponies knew their work and soon had the fugitives turned back into the bunch. In less than an hour the gather was made, and Jeffs rode up to find a goodly herd of six or seven score awaiting him.

`Get 'em on the move, boys,' he said. `We don't want no daylight in this act.'

The men laughed and set about the task of getting the milling herd on the run. Green was taking a hand in this when a squat, leering rider slipped up behind and dealt him a crashing blow on the head with the barrel of a six-shooter. The stricken man went headlong from the saddle, and the frightened pony sprang away into the darkness before the assailant could grip the reins. With a chuckle of triumph the dwarf looked down upon the sprawling black figure, with its garish plumed head-dress.

`Reckon yu'll stay put for a bit, but yo're damn lucky,' he muttered. `I'd 'a' put a knife in yore gizzard but Jeffs wouldn't have it; swore he'd blow me apart if I killed ye, an' he'd do it too, blast him.'

Without another look at his victim, the cold-blooded little freak turned his horse and galloped after the retreating raiders.

In the first chill of the early morning, a cowboy loped easily over the plain in the direction of the line-house. It was Durran, and his eyes gleamed as he noted the almost entire absence of cattle.

`Seems they made a pretty clean sweep,' he muttered. `Hell, what's that?'

He had caught sight of the Indian head-dress and in a moment was gazing down at it, a sinister grin on his lips. `So they got him, eh?' he continued, `an' got him good by the look of it. Well, that'll put a crimp in yu, Mister Man.'

He spurred his mount to the cabin, sprang down and thrust open the door. At the sight which greeted him he leant against the doorpost and rocked winh laughter. Bent and Nigger, hog -nied and helpless, lay sprawling on the floor. A simultaneous curse from both cut short his merriment.

`Come an' ease off these ropes an' stop yore jackass bray,' supplemented Nigger. `Jeffs shore knows all about knots, blast him.'

Durran slashed them loose with his knife, still chuckling, and the bound men stood up and chafed their aching limbs. `Glad yu fellers had this end of it,' commented their rescuer. `Just a mite unnecessary, warn't it?'

`No, it warn't,' replied Bent. `Jeffs aims to play safe. S'pose one o' the other boys, or some o' the Frying Pan outfit had sifted in before yu, how's it goin' to look for us? An' he shore did a good job, cuss him.'

`Green's a-layin' out there,' Durran said, jerking his thumb towards the open door. `Looks like he's cashed.'

`Cashed nothin'--just a tap with a gun,' said Bent. `I did that when they first rushed us.'

`Yu did?' ejaculated Durran, and then suddenly comprehending, `Why, o' course, it musta been one o' yu. Ain't it hell how neat it's workin' out, an' won't Rattler be pleased to see him?'

`He'll be a gladder sight than four aces; reckon we'd better fetch him in.'

Green was still unconscious when they laid him in one of the bunks, and having removed his guns and tied his feet together, began to bathe the gash on his head. Under their ministrations he came to his senses but it was some little time before he could realise what had happened. Then he began to get a glimmering of the trap which had been so artfully prepared, and into which he had blundered blindly.

After a meal Durran rode off again to carry the news to the ranch. The other two men sat at the door conversing in low nones, and taking no notice of the prisoner. The reflections of the latter were the reverse of pleasant. He was in a tight place, caught in the act of rustling, and by the custom of the country the nearest tree and a rope would be his portion when the foreman of the Y Z arrived. His one chance lay in being taken to the ranch and having speech with Simon, and he doubted whether Blaynes would give him that opportunity. Lying there, his head throbbing painfully, he suddenly became aware that the voices from the doorway were louder, and he could hear something of what was said.

`The Y Z first an' then the Frying Pan,' said Bent. `The Spider ain't no small thinker, I reckon.'

`An' with him out o' the way things'll go a-hummin,' put in Nigger, and Green guessed that the reference was to himself. `Dunn why, but I allus suspected that feller.'

`Same here,' agreed his friend. `Well, he won't trouble none of us soon, though it seems almost a pity to rub out a chap as can lick the Spider in a fist fight, don't it?'

`Shucks, he musta been lucky.'

`Mebbe, but I saw him lay out Rattler an' there warn't no luck about that eepisode, believe me.'

`Yeah, an' Rattler ain't forgot it, so I guess yu don't have to worry,' said Nigger. `We better have a look at the tracks them damn rustlers left.'

He heard them laugh and go for their horses. They knew their prisoner was secure, for not only was he bound but he had no horse to get away on. The captive also realised the futility of thoughts of escape, and with the philosophy of a man who has been in desperate circumstances before, he awaited events. He was, in fact, asleep when the foreman, accompanied by the Y Z outfit, arrived in the afternoon. Rattler's eyes, as they rested on the bound man in the bunk, betrayed venomous satisfaction.

`Just what I allus thought,' he sneered. `Got yu with the goods, too. Well, we ain't no time to waste. Fetch him along an' pick out a good rope.'

But the foreman was taking too much for granted. His party included Snap, Larry, Dirty, and Simple, and when the prisoner saw them grouped together he wished he had not been so tight-mouthed about his plan of campaign. He need not have worried, for the foreman's order had no sooner been uttered than Lunt stepped forward.

`Hold yore horses, Blaynes,' he said quietly. `There ain't goin' to be no hangin' here.'

The foreman whirled on him, his features twisted with rage. Snap returned his glare through slitted eyes, contemptuously, his thumbs hooked in his gun-belt, but all there knew that he was ready, and that his opponent's first move would in all probability be also his last. Blaynes knew it too, and had recourse to bluster.

`How long yu been in charge o' this outfit?' he stormed. `An' where'd yu get yore authority to countermand my orders?' Takin' them questions as they come, I've been in charge ever since I joined the outfit,' sneered Lunt. `An' as for authority, well, what's the matter with these?' and he swept the tips of his fingers over the black butts of his guns.

Blaynes would have given ten years of his life for the power no snatch out his weapon, but he knew he could not do it. Had it been any other man in the outfit he would not have hesitated, but this grim bow-legged little puncher was a chilly proposinion; the squinting, mocking eyes told that he would shoot to kill, and was hungering for the opportunity. Rattler preferred to temporise.

`See here, Snap, what in hell's got into yu?' he asked. `This feller's a rustler, playin' Injun to steal our cattle and caught with the goods. 'Sides which, he's a damn sneakin' spy. What yu takin' his end for?'

Snap grinned. He knew perfectly well that this appeal was made, not to him, but to any other of the men who might take his side.

He replied promptly: `Mebbe he's all yu say, an' mebbe he ain't, but he's agoin' back to the ranch for the Old Man to decide. It ain't yore cattle that's missin' anyways. There's four of us thinks like this, an' if yu others wants argue about it yu can turn yore wolf loose as soon as yo're ready.'

The foreman stood irresolute; the odds were heavily in his favour so far as numbers were concerned, but a fight would mean wiping out some of the outfit, and he knew he would be the first to die; Snap would take care of that. Moreover, he had the same orders as Gorilla, though he had been prepared no chance that to compass his revenge. He glanced at Durran and the scowling face gave him no encouragement. He must give in.

`I don't want no gun-play 'mong ourselves, but I'm not forgettin' it,' he said. `We'll let him live long enough to get to the Y Z, where I reckon the Old Man'll string him up slick enough. Durran, yu an' Nigger take him in.'

Snap climbed his horse. `I'll go along,' he said sardonically. `He's a desperate feller. Yu better get a move on, Rattler, if yu don't want them rustlers to git away with the plunder.'

Blaynes ground his teeth with rage at the position the gunman had forced him into. His apparent duty to his employer would send him on a will-o'-the-wisp chase of cattle he had no wish to recapture, while his one desire was to go back to the ranch to make sure the prisoner did not escape or receive mercy. The very thought of the latter possibility decided the issue.

`Aw right, we'll all go back,' he said. `If Simon wants his cattle again he'll have to get me some fellers as will obey orders.'

The prisoner, his hands still bound, was hoisted upon a horse, and his feet secured beneath the animal's belly. Then with Durran and Bent on either side, and Blaynes immediately behind, they set out for the ranch. Thus Green was given no chance of converse with his friends, but the thought that they had not yet condemned him in spite of his apparent guilt was a cheering one. He smiled reassuringly at Larry, whose face showed most concern, and who appeared to be holding himself in with difficulty. He felt that the boy was loyal and would stand by him to the end.

It was growing dark when they reached the ranch-house, and the early stars were winking in the sky. Blaynes gave a hail as nhe riders pulled their mounts down in front of the verandah, and Simon promptly appeared, followed by Noreen. The cattle-owner had already been told of the raid, but Blaynes had not mentioned that one of the thieves had been taken, and for a moment he did not notice the bound man.

`Yore soon back, Blaynes,' he said. `How's that?'

The foreman told his story, truthfully enough, but saddling the whole blame for not following the stolen herd upon the rebellious members of the outfit. Old Simon's face grew stormy as he listened, and when the tale was done he turned to Lunt, who with the other three was standing apart.

`An' what's yore idea, Lunt, takin' sides with a cow-thief against me?' he asked.

`That ain't so, Simon,' replied the gunman. `If it had been, we'd 'a' turned Green loose, an' we could have.' His voice had an edge to it. `Rattler an' the prisoner ain't never been the best o' friends, an' hangin' him right away looked too much like settlin' a private quarrel in a mean way to me. Any feller is entitled to a hearin' an' by God, Green is goin' no have one.'

`Yu threatenin' me?' snarled Simon.

`Nary a threat, but I'm tellin' yu,' replied the little man. His voice was low, passionless, but there was an earnestness which could not be mistaken. Little as he liked being dictated to the ranch-owner realised that he must give in or blood would be shed. He looked at the prisoner.

`Well, Green, yore friends are doin' all the talkin'; ain't yu got nothin' to say?' he sneered.

`What I have to say is for yore ear only,' Green said. `When yu have heard it yu can go ahead with the hangin'--if yu want to.' Blaynes laughed, and the puncher went on, `Yore dirty dog of a foreman don't want that; he didn't follow yore stolen cows because he was scared I'd get a chance to speak with yu--least-ways, that was one o' the reasons. Now, yu can please yoreself; I'm through.'

`He's a rank liar,' Blaynes cried.

`It's easy to call a tied man that,' Green gibed. `Turn me loose an' yu'll see that coyote hunt his hole.'

`Huh, damn lot o' fuss about stringin' up a thief,' interjected Durran. `Anybody'd think there warn't no trees handy.'

`Keep yore mouth shut, or I'll close it for yu--permanent,' snapped Larry.

`Stop yore gassin'--all o' yu darn fools,' yelled the exasperated cattleman, and then, as he felt a touch on his arm, `Well, girl, what do yu want? No good yu mixin' up in this.'

`I'm only saying this, Dad. Why not listen to Green; that can't do any harm.'

The old man pondered for a moment. `Mebbe yo're right,' he said at last. `Green, yu come into the office. The rest o' yu can clear out.' Blaynes started to dismount, but Simon saw the movement. `I don't want yu, Rattler,' he added.

`But see here, Simon, if this feller is goin' to make charges against me, I oughtta be presenn,' protested the foreman. `Who told yu he's agoin' to?'

`Well, it seems the likely move, don't it?' said Blaynes, rather taken aback by his employer's manner.

`Awright, if he does, I won't hang yu without givin' yu a chance to speak for yoreself,' snapped Simon. `Now git.'

He followed the captive into the office, and found his daughter already there. He looked at her doubnfully and then said, `I don't remember askin' yu to be present, Norry.'

`You didn't, Dad, but I'm going to be,' she replied, and there was a quiet determination in her voice which made both men look at her. The laughing merry girl had gone and a grown serious woman had taken her place. The old man made a gesture of impanience.

`It ain't no business for a girl,' he protested.

`It's your business and therefore mine,' came the reply. 'Besides, I am in this man's debt and I'm not forgetting it.'

`Huh,' grunted the ranch-owner. `Reckon he's paid himself for that out o' my cattle, but have it yore own way. Now, Green, yu got that hearin', make the most of it.'

The prisoner did not at once avail himself of the invitation. Standing there with bound hands, unshaven, and with a bloodstained, dirty bandage on his head, he was painfully conscious that he looked a ruffian. Although the fact that she took even the slightest interest in him, due only to a sense of gratitude, stirred him, he would have preferred to speak no her father alone. Though his investigations were by no means complete he felt that he had discovered enough to convince the ranchman. `When I left the Y Z I told yu I wasn't ready to put my cards on the table,' he began. `Well, I ain't ready now, but the prospect of havin' his neck stretched forces a man's hand some...' he smiled grimly, `an' I'm agoin' to do it.'

`Go ahead,' said Simon, shortly.

`I told yu the rustlin' was the work of whites playin' Injun an' I was right,' proceeded Green.

`That warn't difficult,' sneered the old man, with a glance at the head-dress found on the prisoner, which Blaynes had handed to him.

`No, the signs were plain enough,' returned the puncher, ignoring the sneer. `What wasn't so plain was that yu were bein' robbed by a big gang, and that yore foreman an' more than half yore outfit are in it.'

`That ain't plain now,' commented the cattleman, drily.

`I've already said that I'm speakin' before I'm ready,' the prisoner pointed out. `I ain't got all the proof I want, but I know what I'm tellin' yu. The Double X an' the Crossed Dumbell are workin' with some o' yore men, liftin' cattle from yu an' the Frying Pan, an' the whole bunch is bossed by a feller they call the Spider. It was the Crossed Dumb-bell outfit that raided yu last night an' I was one of 'em, an' let me tell yu, it wasn't Bent who kicked me cold but one o' the gang I'd ridden there with.'

`Why should they do that?' demanded Simon.

`Mebbe they suspected me or mebbe it was a bit o' private spite,' replied Green. `Anyways, it wasn't either o' yore men--they never showed themselves.'

`Yu seen this boss, the Spider?' asked Simon.

`Yes, he calls himself Tarman in Hatchett's,' replied Green.

The announcement hardly produced the effect he had looked for. Noreen's eyes certainly met his in startled surprise, but her father flung himself back in his chair with a shout of laughter, while Green and the girl watched him in amazemenn.

`Well, well, if that don't beat the hand,' he gasped, as he struggled to control his mirth. `That was a poor shot o' yores, my lad. O' course, yu don't know that Tarman has offered to put fifty thousand dollars into this ranch on the day he marries my daughter. Now, what yu gotta say about that?'

Green's eyes narrowed. `That he'll find it easier to put the money in if he takes it out first,' he retorted. `Tarman's out to get this ranch an' the Frying Pan by hook or by crook.'

`An' he's robbin' the ranch he's willin' to buy into, an' the father of the girl he's hopin' to marry, eh?' sneered Simon. `Sounds likely, don't it?'

`I gotta damit that it don't,' the cowpuncher agreed. `There is ends to this tangle I ain't picked up yet, an' yu mustn't forget that there's others in the game who want a pickin'. Poker Pete, Dexter, an' yore foreman ain't the sort to work for nothin'.'

The ranch-owner smiled sardonically. `An' yu are, I s'pose? When yu come siftin' round these parts all yu wanted was a job at forty a month, warn't it? A job that would leave yu free to work with yore friends at stealin' my cows. An' I fell for it with my eyes shut, but they're open now, Mister Rustler, an' I don't swallow no more o' yore lies.'

His voice rose as he delivered this tirade, and his eyes glared malignantly at the bound man before him, who listened unmoved. It was Noreen who spoke :

`Daddy,' she murmured, reprovingly.

`Yu keep quiet, girl,' replied her father. `This feller may have pulled the wool over yore eyes too, but this is where he gets trimmed.' Turning to Green, he continued. `Yu have had the laugh over me so far; we'll see whether yu find it so damn funny to-morrow mornin' when I turn yu over to the marshal, an' tell him that yo're Sudden, the outlaw. Ha! that touches yu, don't it?'

For with all his self-control, the prisoner had not been able to suppress a start of surprise at this unexpected accusation, a movement which, slight as it was, did not escape the eyes of the man who had been looking for it.

`P'raps yu would like to deny that too?' sneered the cattleman. `Feller with yore gifts oughtta be able to think up a good explanation.'

The prisoner forced a grin to his lips and shrugged his shoulders. `Shucks,' he said. `I reckon yu take the pot this time, but yo're playin' in a deeper game than yu guess, an' I'm warnin' yu that the cards is stacked.'

`Well, yu don't need to worry--yore hand is played,' was the ironical retort. `Now yu come with me an' I'll put yu in a safe place for the night.'

Noreen sat with bowed head and as he passed the puncher caught a whispered, `I'm sorry,' which braced him up like a tonic. Silently he followed his late employer to the back of the ranch-house, where there was an empty hut which had once been a store-room. It was strongly built of adobe, with heavy wooden doors fastened by a padlock and staple.

`There's a box to sit on, an' I'll fetch yu some blankets an' grub,' said his gaoler, and left him to his reflections.

Half an hour passed and then Simon returned with a lantern, blankets, and a tray of food. He untied the captive's hands that he might eat but stood in the doorway the while with his pistol drawn. As soon as the meal was done, he replaced the rope on his wrists and locked the door.

Chapter XVII

For a long time the prisoner sat motionless, pondering on his position; it appeared hopeless enough. The unexpected discovery of his identity was a crushing blow for it meant short shrift at the hands of his enemies, and the probable loss of all his friends. More than one county was offering a big reward for the capture of Sudden the outlaw, and once it became known that he was taken, there was likely to be a `neck-tie party' in Hatchett's Folly.

The puncher, however, was not the type to give in; even while he thought, he had been busy trying to loosen the bonds on his wrists. He met with no success, for your cattleman understands knots almost as well as a sailor, and Simon had done his work well. By the dim light of the lantern Green examined his prison, and saw little hope of leaving it even with his hands free, nevertheless, he persevered with his bonds; it was, at least, something to do. Looking through the foot-square aperture which served as a window, he could see that it was very dark outside, and he judged the time to be near midnight. Suddenly he was conscious of movement, the sound of a stealthy footfall outside the hut, then the grate of a key in the padlock, and the door opened to admit Noreen. She had a knife in one hand.

`Quick, your bonds,' she whispered, and when she had slashed the rope apart, she added, `Larry is waiting at the big cedar with a horse. Go at once.'

`But yu will get in wrong with yore Dad over this,' protested the prisoner.

`Well, he will be furious, of course, but I can manage him,' she replied.

`Yu are savin' my life,' he said slowly. `I don't know how to thank yu.'

`Make better use of it,' she flashed back, and was gone.

The released man saw her melt into the shadow, and then, with the caution of an Indian trailer, made his way to the spot the girl had mentioned, the big cedar at the point where the trail from Hatchett's entered the ranch. Here, deep in the gloom of the foliage, he found Larry and two horses. The boy executed a silent war-dance when he saw his friend.

`No time for gassin' now,' he whispered. `Fork yore cayuse an' we'll punch the breeze.'

He himself set the example, and when Green did the like he found he was astride his own pony, Bullet.

`He was outside the corral this mornin'--musta headed for here when yu was downed,' explained Larry. `Here's yore guns; Rattler had 'em, an' thinks he has still.'

Green buckled the belt around him and tried to express his thanks, but the other cut them short. `Shucks,' he said. `I ain't done nothin'; yu gotna thank the Pretty Lady--she thought of it all. Which way we goin'?'

`We?' echoed the fugitive.

`Shore,' came the confident reply. `I'm goin' with yu. I talked it over with the Pretty Lady, an' we agreed that yu ain't to be trusted alone. No, it ain't a bit o' good yore cussin' me out thataway.'

`But, yu blazin' jackass, can't yu see what yo're doin'?' expostulated Green. `I'm a rustler, an' if yo're caught with me, yo're one an'

`It'll be neckties for two, eh? Well, we won't be catched then. Now that's settled, s'pose we decide where to head for.'

`The nearest lunatic asylum for yu, but as I reckon that's a piece away, why, we'll make for the Frying Pan.'

`That bughouse idea is a right good one for yu too. Why, yu bone-head, don't yu guess that yore pestiferous past will be known there? Ain't yu aware that Old Impatience is a friend o' Simon, an' that yu will be steppin' out o' one trap into another?'

Green's reply was no set his mouth in motion. `We gotta take chances,' he said.

Larry ranged alongside. `Chances?' he snorted disgustedly. `Yu remind me of a chap called Lukins I met up with in Dodge one time, he was dead set on 'em. Somebody roped a mountain lion an' fetched it into town in a cage, an' this fool Lukins puts up a bet he'll scratch the back of its head with his empty hand. "Cats like that," he says, "an' as this animile ain't nothin' but a big cat he'll like it too." Well, the brute didn't seem none in love with it, for Lukins lost an arm, an' the doc what attended to him reckoned he was clever to save the rest of him.'

Green laughed. `Leeming ain't no wild animal,' he said. `The fact is, he's got a leveller head than some o' yu think, but before we go any further there's one thing yu gotta right to know.'

`S'pose yu mean what I'm to call yu? I shore got a choice, ain't I? Don, Green, or--Sudden.'

If Larry had wished to surprise his friend he had his desire. `Who told yu--Miss Norry?' he queried.

`Nope,' was the reply. `Snap--he's knowed it some time; recognised yore gun-action when yu trimmed Snub's whiskers for him. He allowed I oughtta know, but he threatened to blow my liver out if I breathed a word of it.'

`When was this?'

`Couple o' hours ago, when he heard I was comin' with yu. He'd 'a' been along too but he reckoned he'd be more use at the Y Z. Told me to tell yu that he's with yu to his last chip.'

`Good old Snap,' breathed Green softly, and in truth he was deeply moved. His life had been hard for the most part, and for years now he had been a wanderer drifting from place to place, with never a friendly face to greet him, and with no future to look to but one of satisfied vengeance. And here he had found comrades who were trusting him when ninety-nine out of a hundred would have turned their backs or their guns on him. He smiled in the darkness, and then said, soberly, `Yes, I'm the man they call Sudden, an' there's somethin' like ten thousand waitin' for the man who takes me in. Don't that tempt yu, Larry?'

The boy spurred his horse and shouted savagely, `C'mon. What d'yu think I am, anyway?'

'Yo're a natural-born fool,' replied Green, `an' I must be another, 'cause I like yu for it.'

`Huh! I'm still a-chasin' that foreman's job,' retorted the boy. `Lookin' after little old me is what I'm doin', that's all.' His friend laughed softly and no more was said until they drew near the Frying Pan ranch, when the older man slowed down and cautioned: `Swing round a bit so that we don't pass the bunkhouse; I want to get Leeming by himself.'

As they noiselessly approached the ranch-house they saw that there was a light in the living-room. Dismounting and trailing the reins, they crept up to the window and saw that Leeming was alone in the room. A light tap on the glass brought him to his feet instantly, and gripping his gun, he asked, `Who's there?'

`Larry Barton, from the Y Z. I want to speak to yu on the quiet,' came the reply.

Leeming disappeared and in a moment the front door opened and the visitors slid in. Their host, still carrying his gun, was just to the left of the opening, where he could get his shot in first in case of trickery. At the sight of Barton, however, he slipped the weapon back into the holster and grinned.

"Lo, Larry, gotta be careful these days,' he said, and then as Green followed his companion, his face darkened and his hand went to his six-shooter again. `I wasn't lookin' for yu, Green; yu ain't cherishin' the notion that I got any sympathy with rustlers, are yu?'

`No, seh, not any,' drawled the other. `So yu have heard all about me? Ain't it a licker how news gets around in some parts?'

`One o' the Y Z boys met one o' mine on the range an' told him yu'd been caught rustlin' their cattle,' replied Leeming grimly. `That's all I know, an' if it's true it's a-plenty.'

`Mebbe it is, but there's more to tell,' said the other. `I came here to-night to put my cards on the table if yu are willin' to listen; if you ain't, I can go.'

`Huh, there might be two words to that,' growled the catnleman, with a glance towards the bunkhouse from which one shot would bring his men on the run.

The visitor read the thought and shook his head. `Don't yu think of it, seh,' he said gently. `I ain't got no quarrel with yu or yore outfit, but--shucks--war-talk won't get us nowheres. What's the word from yu?'

Leeming dropped into the nearest chair; he realised that his guest had him hog-tied. If he called his men he would be dead before they reached him, and while they might succeed in capturing the Y Z couple, it would only be at the cost of more lives.

`Go ahead,' he said shortly.

The cowpuncher complied. Step by step he told of his discoveries and suspicions, omitting, however, his own identity and that of Tarman and the Spider. Leeming watched him closely but did not interrupt. When the story was ended he sat for some moments turning it over.

`I allus doubted Blaynes,' he said, `but I can't see why yore own gang downed yu, 'less they suspected yu were just spyin'.' `It'll perhaps be a bit clearer when I tell yu that Tarman is the Spider,' Green explained.

Leeming leapt from his seat. `What?' he exploded. `Yu shore o' that?'

`Had it from one of his own men,' was the reply. `But I got no proof, an' Simon laughed at me when I told him; said the feller is goin' to buy into the Y Z an' marry Miss Norry, an' asked me was it likely he'd rustle his own cows. Well, it don't seem so, but as I pointed out, there's others in the gang as want pickin's, an' Tarman ain't put down any cash yet.'

Job stamped up and down the room. `Bah!' he said. `Simon's an old fool. What, give his girl an' his ranch to a feller like that, a stranger? I've a notion to go an' call Mr. Tarman's bluff right now.'

Green shook his head. `That wouldn't help any; he's got most o' the fools in Hatchett's eatin'--or rather, drinkin' oun of his hand. We gotta let him run on the rope a bit longer. What I want to know is, will yu an' yore boys come a-runnin' if I send the word?'

`What yu aimin' to do?' asked Job.

`Me an' Larry'll take to the woods an' snoop around. If we can catch Tarman at the Crossed Dumb-bell I reckon that'll be proof a-plenty, but before I ask yu to tie to me there's somethin' yu oughtta know.' Green paused for a space and the musclesaround his lips grew tense. `There's a feller known as "Sudden" who's bein' pretty eagerly looked for. Yu will oe told that I'm him, an'--it's true.'

The calm announcement jarred the ranch-owner into a state of petrification; with mouth and eyes wide open he stared at the man who had made it, wondering if his ears had deceived him. Then, as the full significance of the statement seeped into his bewildered brain, he snatched at his gun, only to find that Green's was already levelled at his heart, though he had seen no movement. The outlaw's left hand was in the air, palm outwards, the peace sign.

`Easy, Leeming, I ain't lookin' for trouble, but I'm ready for it,' Green said quietly. `As I just told yu, I am Sudden, but yu can take it from me I ain't guilty o' all the crimes that's been pinned to him. Why, 'bout three weeks ago he was reported to have robbed the bank at Lilyville, four hundred miles from here, an' I was on the Y Z ranch. But that don't matter; what I want yu to get into yore head is that I'm playin' straight with yu in this rustlin' game.'

`What brought yu into these parts?' asked Leeming.

`I didn't come to steal cows,' replied the outlaw. `I ain't a cattle-thief nor a hold-up, an' I never pull a gun until I have to. My business here was to look for two men--I've been all over the country in the last few years, hopin' to strike their trails. That's my job, findin' them two fellers, but I gotta live too, so I took on at the Y Z. Now that's the straight goods. I'd like to have yore help, but whether or no, I'm agoin' to clean up around here.'

`An' he won't have to go it alone, Leeming,' interposed Larry. `Me, Snap, Dirty, Simple, an' Ginger are back of him.'

The ranchman considered the pair in silence. He had been watching Green closely and believed that he was speaking the truth. On the other hand, the man was a self-confessed outlaw, and a notorious one at that. The support of the Y Z boys, whom he knew to be good fellows, carried a lot of weight; they were not the kind to take sides against their own ranch without good reason, and he never had liked Blaynes. As for Tarman--impulsively he stood up and held out his hand.

`I'll go yu, boys,' he said. `Now, what do yu want me to do?'

`Outfit us with grub an' ammunition an' be ready to come a-bilin' when yu get the call,' Green replied. `Meantime, o' course, yu ain't seen hide nor hair of us.'

`That's easy,' said their host, and led the way to his storeroom. Here they made up a parcel of bacon, beans, coffee, salt, and flour, borrowing also a coffee-pot, skillet, and two tin cups. A plentiful supply of cartridges completed their preparations,

and Leeming slid to the door to make sure that the coast was clear.

`One more point,' Green said. `We may be so fixed that we can't send a message. Well, we'll be over Big Chief way; look out for a smoke signal, balled three, two, three. If yu don't hear nothin' of us for a week or two it'll mean we're both rubbed out, an' yu might pay the Crossed Dumb-bell a visit; I've told yu how to find it. An' keep an eye on Tarman--he's the king-pin. So long.'

Leaving the ranch by the back door they faded into the darkness, found their horses, and departed without any of the men in the bunkhouse knowing of their visit. Leeming returned to his chair and loaded a pipe thoughtfully.

`Sudden, eh?' he muttered. `Damned if he don't look it too. Wouldn't care to be either o' those fellers he's after. Durn it, I believe he's straight, an' I reckon I done right; them Y Z friends o' his are the best o' the bunch. Guess I'd better mosey over an' see Simon to-morrow.'

Leeming reached the Y Z during the morning and found it, as he expected, in a fine state of commotion. Simon's attitude puzzled him; the old man was in a savage temper, but behind it all his friend sensed a kind of fear. Norry, of course, was in deep disgrace and Job shook an admonishing finger at her. Her father, he learned, had gone to visit the prisoner that morning only to find the cage open and the bird missing. He had at once assumed that some of Green's sympathisers in the outfit were guilty, and returned to the house vowing threats of vengeance, to be confronted by his daughter who calmly confessed to being the culprit. For a moment the old man fairly goggled at her.

`Yu--let--him--out?' he gasped. `Yu! What in hell for?'

The girl faced him bravely. `I paid a debt; twice he came to my help,' she said, and went on to tell of the second occasion. Simon listened and scowled. He knew that she had done right, that she had acted as he would like a daughter of his to act, but in the special circumstances it was the last thing he had wanted to happen, and man-like, he elected to see only his own side of the matter.

`Yu must be mad,' he said savagely. The feller's a thief an' a cold-blooded killer, an' yu gotta turn him loose. Whatever he did for yu was done for his own purposes--to throw dust in yore eyes an' mine, an', by heaven, he did it. Now, yu get to yore room an' keep out o' this. I'm agoin' to hunt Mister Sudden down an' hang him.'

`Simon, yu been associatin' too much with me--yu've lost yore temper,' said a satirical voice, and they looked up to findthe owner of the Frying Pan regarding them quizzically. `What yu been doin', Norry, to get him all riled up like this?' It was the old man who answered, explaining the situation in a few explosive sentences. Leeming adopted a philosophic attitude which, had his friend been less perturbed, would have aroused his suspicion; it was utterly unlike the Frying Pan man to take things quietly.

`Well, Simon, what's the use o' makin' a fuss?' he said. `The beans is spilled. O' course, Norry hadn't oughtta loosed him, but she figured it was the proper caper, an', damn me, 1 like her for it. Mebbe the feller ain't as bad as his reputation after all.'

Petter turned on the other in amazement. `Well, I'll be hanged,' he said. `I never thought to hear Job Leeming makin' excuses for a rustler.'

`I don't know yet that Green is one,' replied Job quietly. `Then yu must be devilish hard to convince, Mr. Leeming,' chimed in another voice.

It was Tarman; he had ridden up, trailed his reins, and approached the group on the verandah unnoticed. Turning to Simon, after sweeping off his hat to Noreen, he added, `I hope yu have him safe, Petter.'

`I had him fast enough, but Norry slipped down in the night an' turned him loose,' replied the rancher disgustedly. `She reckoned she owed him somethin'.'

`What? Yu turned him loose?' cried Tarman, whirling on the culprit, and before the sudden fury in his face she recoiled. `Are yu mad? Why, yu oughtta be...'

He pulled up sharply, realising that he was losing all control and on the verge of making a fool of himself. Noreen, after the first instinctive shrinking from those eyes blazing with anger, faced him coolly enough.

`Hanged in his place, were you about to say, Mr. Tarman?' she inquired.

The big man had got himself in hand again with wonderful rapidity. `If I was, yu almost deserve it,' he retorted, with a grim laugh. `Yo're takin' a hand in a game yu don't understand, an' others will have to pay. Now, see here. Yu figure to be in his debt for pullin' yu off that wild hoss an' yu let him free to square yoreself. That's fair enough from yore point of view, an' does yu credit, but yu didn't stop to think that every crime that feller commits from now on will be yore fault, did yu? There's times when private interests have got to be sacrificed to the community at large. Ain't that so?'

The reasoning was specious enough, and the speaker was his own suave self again, but the girl had had another glimpse of the real man, and somehow the picture of Tarman sacrificing anything for the benefit of his fellow-man would not take a convincing shape. Leeming saw that she was troubled and saved her the necessity of trying to justify herself.

`Women act on impulse, Tarman, an' it's a darn good thing for us that they do,' he said. `Yu just run along, Norry, an' don't worry yore pretty head about it no more.'

`That may be, but there's one thing she's got to know,' interposed Tarman, `an' that is that Green's real object in comin' to these parts was to find an' kill a man, an' there he stands.'

He pointed to Simon as he made this dramatic announcement, and the girl's eyes opened incredulously.

`Daddy,' she cried. `It can't be true.' And then, remembering what the cowpuncher had himself told her, she sank into a chair and covered her face with her hands. Tarman regarded her with grim satisfaction.

`Yu know it is, an' I know it,' he continued. `It's too long a yarn to spin now, but the old chap who befriended Green reckoned that Simon had done him dirt, which he hadn't, an' on his deathbed he set the young hound on his trail.'

Noreen looked up. `Then why hasn't he carried out his purpose? He's had plenty of opportunities.'

'He doesn't know yet that yore father is the feller he's in search of, when he does, all hell an' high water won't save him.' White to the lips and sick at heart, the girl muttered, `I'm sorry, Daddy,' and going to her room, flung herself on the bed. She could not grasp it--the whole story seemed too horrible, and it appeared impossible to her that any man, outlaw though he might be, could act in such a despicable manner as Green must have done, were the accusation true. Yet she could not forget the expression on his face when he had told her of his mission of vengeance.

When she had left the verandah, Tarman looked at his companions with malicious triumph. `Reckon she won't hanker to help him again,' he said.

Was that the straight goods or were yu makin' it up to throw a scare into her?' asked Leeming.

`The tale's true enough, Job,' Petter said. `The feller's after my scalp, though I didn't know it till Joe told me; he thought he recognised him an' ferreted around a piece. Point is, what are we goin' to do? Hunt him down?'

Tarman shook his head. `No chance in this country. We'll bait a trap for him; yu leave it to me.'

At this moment Blaynes came up. `Barton is missin' an' as he's took his own hoss an' his war-bags, it don't look like he's acomin' back,' he said. `Reckon it was him turned that damn rustler loose; they was allus pretty thick.'

`Mebbe yo're right,' said his employer, who was not anxious to advertise his daughter's interest in the late prisoner.

`What yu goin' to do about it, boss? The boys are sayin' we oughta get on his trail while it's hot,' the foreman continued. `What am I to tell 'em?'

The remark was an unfortunate one, since it provided the owner of the Y Z with an excuse for venting his pent-up anger. He whirled savagely on the speaker.

`Tell 'em to go to hell,' he stormed. `When I want any advice on runnin' my own affairs I'll shore ask for it. Get agoin' an' sic them lazy devils onto their jobs.'

Leeming, watching the foreman closely, saw him stiffen as though about to reply in kind and then, with an evil scowl, he turned and slouched away. The eyes of Tarman and the foreman had met for an instant, and Leeming fancied that the former had slightly shaken his head, but he could not be sure; the act might have been involuntary, or in general disapproval of an unedifying exhibition.

Leaving the other two, Job strolled down to the bunkhouse, of which he found Snap the sole occupant. The gunman greeted him with his rare twisted grin.

`Rattler seems to have had a mighty poor reception from the Old Man,' he volunneered. `He come back a-bilin'.'

`Well, Simon shore did get the notion that yu fellers wanta run the ranch,' Leeming replied. `He's pretty sore over losing his prisoner.'

`Too bad,' Lunt said gravely, not a muscle on his face moving. `Wonder who could 'a' done it?'

The cattleman laughed. "S'll right, Snap, I ain't tryin' to find out,' he said. `Know anythin' about Sudden, the outlaw?' Snap shot a quick look at his questioner. `No more than anybody else--he's a bit of a mystery,' he replied. `I saw him years ago an' he's shore a ring-tailed merricle with a gun, but I've allus reckoned he's been handed the credit for a lot o' things he had nothin' to do with. Feller's only got to rub out one or two toughs an' he gets half the crimes in the country ladled onto him.'

Leeming knew something of the little gunman's own past and did not pursue what was evidently a subject which aroused bitter recollections.

`Where do yu reckon Green will make for?' was his next query.

`I ain't doin' any reckonin',' came the blunt reply, and Job saw that Lunt was not to be drawn.

When he got back to the ranch-house he found Tarman on the point of returning to town, and he suddenly decided to accompany him. Before leaving, he slipped into the kitchen, where he found Noreen alone. Her pale face and the misery in her eyes made him mutter an oath.

'Oh, what does it all mean, Uncle Job? I can't believe it,' she cried.

`There, don't yu fuss yoreself, my girl, it'll all come straight,' he replied soothingly. 'I don't believe it myself, but, for the love o' Mike, don't tell yore father that.'

To Simon himself he simply said, `Send for me if you want me, an' don't trust anybody too much.'

`I ain't trustin' out-o'-work punchers no more, if that's what yu mean,' replied Simon, bitterly.

It was not, but Leeming could hardly explain in the presence of the other guest so he let it go. As they loped along the trail to Hatchett's he put a plain question: `What's yore scheme for gettin' hold o' this feller Green?'

`I ain't got it straightened out yet--just millin' round in my head,' Tarman replied evasively. 'I reckon it will work though, an' once I get my rope on him no fool girl will be able to set him foot-loose again, an' yu can stick a pin in that.'

`Huh! I guess he'll quit.'

`Yu got another guess--he won't; I know the breed. He come here to wipe out Simon an' he'll do it.'

`But yu said he don't know it's Simon he wants,' Job reminded him.

`He don't yet, but he will,' arid Tarman grinned as though an amusing idea had just occurred to him.

The Frying Pan owner pondered on this in silence. If Tarman could contrive that Green should kill Simon and hang for it, he removed an enemy and possible rival, and would only have to wed Noreen to become at once sole owner of the Y Z. Was this the game? He determined to make an attempt to find out.

`How do yu like this country, Tarman?' he asked.

`Fine,' replied the other. `It's even better than the reports that fetched me here. Yu may as well know now as later, I'm aimin' to buy in on the Y Z an' settle down here, an' I might take on yore range too if we can come to terms.'

`I've no idea of sellin',' Leeming told him.

`Mebbe yu will change yore mind,' smiled Tarman. `If yu don't, well, I'll be tickled to death to have yu as a neighbour. Yu can see now why I'm hornin' in on this rustlin' game; I don't propose to have any damned outlaw projectin' round stealin' my cattle.'

`I've allus reckoned Norry would have the Y Z,' Job said, reflectively.

`So she will,' smirked the big man. `But she'll get me with it.' `Got that fixed, have yu?' Leeming said, a trifle sarcastically. `Not altogether, but I'm bettin' there won't be no great difficulty,' was the satisfied rejoinder. `The old man's strong for it an' I fancy the girl don't exactly dislike me.'

`Huh! Yore attitude just now warn't calculated no impress her favourably.'

`Shucks! Women like a man as is a man--they fall for the rough stuff every time; I know how to handle 'em.'

Leeming was silent for a while. He did not like the fellow, and he liked still less the idea of his marrying Noreen. If Green was right, Tarman was a scoundrel of the worst description, and in any case, he showed himself to be a conceited braggart. Job determined that the girl should not be forced into such a union if he could do anything to prevent it.

`What's Green got against Petter?' he asked.

`Oh, it's an old story--nothin' to it. Yu better ask Simon himself,' was the reply.

By the time they arrived at Hatchett's Folly Leeming had learned nothing more; apparently the big man had told as much as he wished of his plans. It was early yet for the town to be waking up for the evening diversions but there was an unwonned air of excitement; little groups of men stood in the street discussing something, and when they entered the saloon they found more than the usual quota of customers for the time of day.. It was Silas who blurted out the news.

`Say, yu heard about than feller Green?' he queried as they reached the bar, and without waiting for an answer, went on, `He's Sudden, the outlaw. What do you know about that, huh?'

Tarman stifled an oath and laughed instead. `Shucks, someone's been stringin' yu, Silas,' he said.

`String nothin',' retorted the barkeeper. `He's been recognised, an' they say that Simon has him under lock an' key at the Y Z. Tonk is gettin' a posse to go an' fetch him in.'

`Then Tonk can save himself the trouble,' said Tarman. `We just come from the Y Z, an' Green ain't there.'

`Not there, yu say?' asked the marshal, who had entered in time to hear the last few words. `But he was there, warn't he?' Tarman explained why it was no longer of any use for the officer to journey to the Y Z, and Tonk's face grew redder and redder as he listened.

`She turned him loose?' he yelled. `My Gawd, I've a mind to fetch the damned hussy an' put her where he oughtta be--in the pen. She's bruk the law.'

Job Leeming's face grew stormy. `Don't overplay yore hand, marshal,' he grated. `Green warn't the law's prisoner, so there's no legal offence in setting him free. Another thing yu gotta remember--when you have to refer to that young lady yu do it respectful, or I'll just naturally bust yu wide open.'

`An' that goes for me too,' added Tarman, with an ugly look at the marshal.

A chorus of voices endorsed the sentiment and Tonk realised that he was not adding to his popularity.

`Well, o' course, I didn't mean just that,' he said, with a halfhearted grin which deceived no one. `I own to gettin' a bit het up over the chance this town has missed. Than feller's worth all of ten thousand plunks, an' to think I've had him under my hand in this very place. Gosh, if only I'd 'a' knowed.'

`Blame good thing for yu yu didn't,' sneered Tarman. `Why, yu poor simp, if yu'd tried to arrest him, yu'd have been halfway to hell before yu got yore gun out.'

`An' that's whatever,' corroborated the barkeeper. `Look what he done to Snub. I allus had a notion he warn't just an ordinary cow-wrastler.'

`Allasame, we gotta do somethin',' said the marshal. `What about a posse to search him out, Leeming?'

But the owner of the Frying Pan was no longer there. Knowing that to save his face the officer would have to make a show of activity, and having no desire to take part in it, he had discreetly slipped out of the saloon.

Chapter XVIII

GREEN stretched out his legs luxuriously as he reclined by the little fire on the glowing embers of which was a pan giving forth the appetising odour of sizzling bacon. They had ridden hard all night, and now in the early morning had camped in a deep, wooded gully well to the north of the rustlers' hidden valley.

Keen as the air was it had a tang in it that acted like a tonic, and the cowpuncher filled his lungs and was glad to be alive. Near-by, Larry, who had gone to fill the coffee-pot at a neighbouring stream, was singing lustily:

Oh, Bronco Bill was a bold, bad man, A bold, bad man was he.

An' he could ride, an' rope, an' shoot,

An' swaller the worst whiskee. Yeah, Bronco Bill could do that last

Better'n the other three.

As he came into sight warbling this gem, the man by the fire aised a warning hand. `Hush,' he said. `Ain't yu got any sense?' The singer paused in amazement. `What harm's my singin' goin' to do?' he demanded.

`Kill all the frawgs--they'll die of envy,' replied Green solemnly, and then ducked as the boy threatened to pitch the coffee-pot at him. `Put that on the fire, yu gale-in-the-night.' Larry complied, being fully as hungry as his friend.

`Mighta knowed yu couldn't appreciate good music,' he said. `I can, that's why I'm objectin',' smiled the other. `That sliced hawg's makin' all nhe melody I want to listen to just now.'

For the next fifteen minutes both were too busy to talk. Then, bacon and biscuit having been washed down with three cups of coffee apiece, they rolled smokes and prepared to take it easy for a while.

`Gosh, this suits me,' Larry said, as a delicate ring of smoke issued from his lips. `Damn punchin' cows, I say.'

`Then yu ain't so keen on that foreman's job?' asked his friend, slyly.

The boy laughed. `That's shore one to yu; first town we hit the drink is on me. We don't seem to be gettin' none nearer that foreman's job, do we?'

`Yo're shoutin',' Green agreed. 'Talkin' o' towns, where's the nearest railway point from here?'

`Big Rock is 'bout a hundred mile east, but the actual nearest is Jonesville, south, but yu gotta cross the desert.'

`Thank yu most to death, but that's the way I come.' `What we want with a town?'

`We don't want one; I do,' Green corrected him. `I gotta get a postage stamp.'

Larry looked at him; the older man's face was perfectly serious, but the boy suspected he was being joshed.

`We go together,' he said decidedly. `I'm stickin' to yu like a wart on yore skin.'

`Wart? Yu? Yo're a blister. Well, I s'pose I gotna put up with yu. As the psalmist says, "These things is sent to try us," an' by Gosh, they do.'

Larry had no answer to this and having gained his point was willing to let it go. The camp having been cleared up, they got their horses and set out for Big Rock.

`Come to think of it, this ain't a bad move,' Larry remarked presently. `It there's a posse on our trail they'll 'a' got tired o' lookin' for us time we get back, an' mebbe think we've flew the coop.'

`I was wonderin' how long it would nake yu to see that,' Green smiled. `Well, well, never yu mind; yo're young yet an' wisdom comes with years, they say.'

`Huh, somethin' has done gone wrong with the system in yore case, Methusalem,' retorted Larry, furnively jabbing his spurred heel into the flank of his friend's horse, a proceeding which caused the outraged animal to stand straight up in the air. Green, totally unprepared for such a manoeuvre, was flung backwards and nearly unseated, only saving himself by a quick clutch at the horn of the saddle. Larry gave a whoop of delight. `Yah!' he cried. `Big Chief Cat o' the Mountains, tamer of wild ones, pulls leather. Gee, Don, I thought yu could ride.'

Green was too busy to reply at the moment, but when he had restored Bullet to a proper frame of mind, and recovered the hat which had fallen off at the first jar, he told the practical joker what he thought of him.

`Yu oughta be in a home,' he said witheringly. `Not one for the half-witted--yu couldn't qualify even for that. Don't yu know yu might 'a' busted my neck, yu pie-faced idjut, makin' a play like that?'

`These things is sent to try us,' the boy quoted. `Here's a level stretch; I'll race yu to the big tree for a dollar.'

'Yu go to blazes. My hoss is all flustered up through yore foolishness an' yu want to race. Yu gotta nerve.'

`I gotta hoss too,' with a disparaging glance at Bullet. `Why don't yu use him?' came the instant retort.

Whereupon Larry surrendered gracefully, gave the Indian peace sign, and they proceeded amiably on their journey.

Big Rock, which they reached that night, had only one feature to distinguish it from any other frontier settlement, and that was the freak of Nature from which it derived its name. Thrusting up from the plain which stretched flatly for many miles on all sides of it was a great chunk of rock, bare, grey, and practically unclimbable. How it came to be there was a mystery even scientists had failed to solve; as for the inhabitants of the sordid settlement which straggled about its base, they had other things to think of. The town came to life when the railroad, hoping for cattle shipments from the big ranches, ran a branch line to the famous landmark.

Like most of the places which depended upon the cow industry, existence there was spasmodic. After the round-ups, when the herds were driven in, the place seethed with excinement, and sleep was the last thing to be thought of. The cowboys, after a long spell of deprivation and hard work, had money to spend and appetites to satisfy, and Big Rock saw that they were not disappointed. Then would follow a period of inanition, broken only by the occasional advent of a range-rider, bent on a little personal spree.

The round-ups had not yet taken place and the town was passing through one of the comatose periods when Green and Larry arrived. Skirting the station and its empty cattle-pens, they came to a pretentious two-storey board edifice which announced itself as the `Rock Saloon and Dance Hall,' and towered in shabby majesty above the squat log and adobe shacks which represented most of the other buildings. The visitors attached their mounts to the hitch-rail outside and walked in.

It was a largish room, and in the light of the oil lamps swung from the ceiling made some attempt at garish adornment. Tarnished gilt mirrors and flaming chromos punctuated the walls, and a goodly array of bottles occupied the shelves at the back of the bar, which filled the side of the room facing the door. Tables, chairs, and cuspidors were dotted about, and on the left was another opening which led to nhe dance hall. Three men were lounging at the bar talking to the fellow in charge, a heavy-jowled, red-nosed man who regarded the newcomers with a suspicious scowl.

`What yu want?' he asked truculently.

`Civility first,' Green snapped oack. `Then a drink, a meal, and a bed a-piece.'

The barkeeper looked into the slitted, boring eyes of the stranger and his own stare wavered; when he spoke again his voice had lost its edge.

`There's a restyrong down the street--we don't do meals--an' our beds is all took,' he growled, pushing forward a bottle and glasses.

They poured their drinks, and then Green said, `Gimme a sheet o' paper an' envelope.'

The bartender hesitated. `Ain't--' he began, and stopped; there was something about this customer he did not like. Ordinarily he got away with his bullying but he had an uneasy impression that this time he had picked the wrong man. He fumbled in a drawer and produced the articles asked for. The cowpuncher took them and, retiring to a table, wrote his letter and sealed it. Larry remained at the bar, coolly returning the gaze of the other three customers. He decided that if they were a fair sample of the town's inhabitants, it was a good place to keep awake in. Seeing that the letter was finished, the barkeeper, his curiosity overcoming his dislike, asked, `Want that mailed, Mister?'

`Nope,' replied the puncher, with a smile that told the dispenser of refreshment that his little ruse was seen through.

When they had departed the bartender looked at his friends. `Suthin' funny 'bout that jigger,' he remarked. `Fancy I've seen him afore somewheres.'

`He certainly has got a chilly eye,' said one. `Me, I'd sooner monkey with a buzz-saw.'

`Allasame, they'll bear watchin',' said another, a little weedy chap, with an evil glint. `I'm agoin' to trail 'em a few.'

He slipped out of the saloon and saw his quarry heading for the station-agent's, which was also the post office. He waited while they despatched their letter and then watched them enter the eating-house which the bartender had complimented with a quite unwarranted title. From there they went to the general store to supplement their supplies, for, as Green poinned out, they might have to keep clear of towns for quite a while. As they entered, another customer left, carrying a couple of vividly-labelled bottles. The proprietor of the store was enjoying a private joke.

'Dang me, if it don't beat the band,' he said. `Say, what would yu guess was in them two bottles that feller was totin' out so careful?'

`Special brand o' nose-paint,' guessed Larry.

'No, sir, but yu ain't so far out after all, he, he,' tittered the storekeeper. `It's head-paint--yes, black hair-dye--feller's goin' grey, I s'pose, an' I have to get that from Noo York for him, got a reg'lar order. No, I ain't never seen him, that's his man, comes in to fetch it. Ain't it a odd number, eh? Talk about women bein' the vain ones.'

They agreed that it certainly was singular in a country where personal appearance was not much studied. Green endeavoured, by artful questioning, to find out something more about the victim of vanity, but the storekeeper knew no more. When they had done their business and were in the street again, Larry said: `Funny idea, feller dyeing his hair out here.'

`Shore is, but the funniest part is that I recognised the messenger; he's one o' Tarman's gang,' Green said.

`Must be for him, but he don't look a subject for premature greyness.'

`Well, it don't signify much. Point is, unless the station-agent was lyin', an' I don't think he was, they ain't shippin' the cattle from here. What in the nation are they doin' with 'em?'

`They shore wouldn't run 'em across the desert,' Larry contributed. `Why do yu reckon that booze-slinger turned hostile soon as we drifted in?'

`Dunn, but we'll go an' prospect him,' smiled his friend. `I'm aimin' to occupy a bed to-night.'

They returned to the saloon and were about to enter when Green pulled his companion suddenly round the angle of the building. At the doorway a man on horseback was bending down in conversation with a second who stood on the sill, holding the door partly open. The listeners could not hear what was said, but presently the rider waved his hand and disappeared in the gloom.

`That was the hair-dye collector, warn't it?' whispered Larry. `Yeah, an' he's give me an idea,' replied Green.

`Ain't Nature wonderful?' Larry said softly. `Here's yu, born without an idea o' yore own, an' here's fellers created just to provide yu with 'em. Hi, yu lunkhead, that's my foot yu stepped on!'

`Sorry, but yu give me the idea,' Green chuckled. `It'll be yore face next time. C'mon, yo're doin' that imitation limp real well.' `Imitation, huh?' grunted Larry. `I bet I gotta crushed toe, an' for a plugged peso I'd...'

But Green was at the saloon door, and Larry, who had no intention of letting him enter alone, followed at his heels. The place was filling up, and from the dance hall came the jingle of a badly treated piano. At the bar, talking to the tender, was the man they had seen at the door, a stubby, fat fellow, with slits for eyes and a ginger moustache festooned over a loose mouth. Green lounged to the bar, called for drinks, and then, looking the barkeeper straight in the eye, said, `Found them beds yet?'

`I done told yu already as they's all spoke for,' came the surly reply.

`Why, so yu did--I shore forgot it,' smiled Green, and turning to his friend, he added, `Now yu gotta admit I was right. Didn't I tell Joe Tarman we'd have to sleep on our saddles if we come to a one-hoss town like Big Rock, eh?'

Before Larry could reply, the man with the ginger moustache interposed : `S'cuse me, stranger, do yu happen to be acquainted with Joe Tarman?'

`I happen to belong to his outfit, the Crossed Dumb-bell,' the puncher replied, telling the literal truth, for he had not yet been fired nor had he officially resigned. The effect of the information on the latter pushed the bottle forward, saying genially: `They're on the house, gents. This is Mr. Scaife, who owns this joint.'

He waved a hand at the gingery individual, and the puncher completed the ceremony of introduction by giving their names.

`Pleased to welcome anyone from Joe here,' said Scaife oilily. `Why, another of his men rode out this evening; perhaps yu saw him?'

`No, I didn't look--reckoned he'd be gone before we made it,' Green explained. `Guess Stiffy got into a little game, as usual.'

`Yo're dead right--that's just what he did,' laughed Scaife. `He'll have to ride all night to make up time, or Joe'll trim him to rights.'

The cowpuncher's ready answer and his fortunate knowledge of the rustler's little weakness had entirely dispelled all suspicion, and it did not take long to find out that the rustler chief had quite a number of friends in Big Rock, and that if he was not loved, he was certainly feared. The squint-eyed, weedy man who had watched their movements earlier now came in, to be hailed and presented as `Roddy' to `Mr. Tarman's friends.' He became a genial creature.

`An' how's Joe makin' it in Hatchett's?' he inquired. `Reckon he finds it middlin' quiet.'

Green's own opinion was that Mr. Tarman had hitherto found it anything but quiet, but what he said was that Tarman appeared to like the place and was even thinking of buying a ranch and settling down. The statement evolved a perfect gust of merriment from his listeners, which was only quelled by a well-simulated look of cold indignation on the part of Green.

`Yu doubtin' my word?' he asked.

`Nary a doubt, friend,' gasped Scaife. `Yu just gotta excuse me an' Rod an' Spike here, but it warn't fair to turn a hell of a joke like that on us without warnin', now was it?'

`Well, I expect I'm slow, but I don't see no joke,' Green replied, and the risible faculties of the three men once more disrupted their features. It was Spike who, with tears coursing down his none too clean cheeks, managed to explain:

`Yu said Joe was thinkin' of buyin' a ranch,' he spluttered.

`Ha, ha! so I did,' grinned Green. `Well, the laugh is on me, an' the drinks likewise. Set 'em up, Spike, old settler.'

A little game of draw was proposed, and the visitor lost a few dollars very pleasantly to Scaife and Rod, but mellow as those two gentlemen undoubtedly became, Green could learn nothing as to the activities and interests of Tarman in Big Rock.

`Touchin' them beds,' Larry remarked, round about midnight.

`Which I'm free to admit I want to be touchin' one of 'em; we been ridin' all day,' returned his friend.

The saloon-keeper, being ahead of the game, had no objections to offer. `Beds goes,' he said. `Yu push yore broncs into the corral an' fetch yore saddles along.'

Their bedroom was on the first floor at the back, a fact for which they had cause to be thankful later on. It was Larry who, awakened in the early hours of the morning by a pounding at the rear door of the hotel, got up to investigate. Cautiously opening their window he peered down. He heard the landlord descend the stairs and unbolt the door, and then, `Hell, Stiffy, what's brung yu back again?'

`Blasted bronc stepped in a hole an' bruk a leg--had to shoot him an' hoof it here carryin' this cussed saddle,' was the disgusted answer. `Got a drink? I'm about all in.'

`Shore. Tough luck about the hoss,' replied the host. `Yu better hole up till daylight, an' then yu can have company; I got two o' yore chaps here.'

They disappeared into the building and Larry heard no more. But he had already got an `earful,' as he phrased it, and without delay he aroused his companion.

`Yu gotta stop sawin' wood an' get a wiggle on,' he whispered, and told what he had so luckily overheard. `Now, friend

Stiffy is probably puttin' friend Scaife wise at this very moment of time. Do yu guess he knows that yu are Sudden?'

`He's liable to find out if he comes foolin' around,' smiled Green.

`Don't be sixteen sorts of a damn fool,' retorted Larry. `Yu ain't aimin' to stay an' fight it out, are yu? Chances is, he does know it, an' do yu reckon this town'll let ten thousand bucks get away from it? What we gotta consider is when will they make a move?'

`Not till the mornin' an' we'll move first,' Green said. `Stiffy is feelin' right like his name just now, an' bed will listen good to him., They're a-comin' up now, snore for all yo're worth--no, for lots more than that.'

They heard stealthy footsteps pause outside their door and then a low chuckle came from the landlord.

`Yu'd think they'd wake each other up, wouldn't yu?' he said. `Needn't worry 'bout them--they'll be here when we want 'em in the mornin'.'

After a wait of half an hour, by which time the house was quiet again, Green pushed up the window, slid through, and hanging from the sill by his hands, dropped noiselessly to the ground. Larry then lowered their saddles and followed. Stepping warily, to avoid the litter of tin cans and other refuse which might betray them, they made their way to the corral. The horses gave them little trouble, for they were well trained, and accustomed to come at a call. Once clear of the town they headed for Hatchett's at a steady lope, congratulating themselves upon having evaded an awkward predicament.

`O' course they'll follow us, but we gotta good start an' if we switch off the trail presently an' take to the brush, I reckon we can fool 'em,' Green remarked.

They did this, choosing a spot where a rocky defile offered a surface upon which hoofs would make little or no impression, and supplemented this by riding for half a mile along the bed of the first stream they came to.

`Guess that oughtta make it safe,' Larry said, as they plunged again into the undergrowth and emerged upon an open, rolling stretch of deep grass.

Their start, however, was not so good as they deemed it to be, for they had under-estimated the cupidity and ambition of Mr. Scaife. The knowledge that he had under his humble roof a famous outlaw--for Stiffy had blurted out the news, having learned it himself in Hatchett's, where it was now common property--had spoilt the landlord's rest, and less than an hour after his guests had departed, he had snolen down to make sure they were still there. Unable to hear any reassuring sounds, he had opened the lockless door to find the nest empty. Where upon, at the thought of the rewards which had gone a-glimmering, he lifted up his voice and--swore.

`They can't 'a' got far; rustle up two-three other fellers an' we'll git 'em yet,' suggested Stuffy, when he heard the dire tidings. Thus it came about that when the fugitives, leisurely crossing a little plateau, looked back, they saw five moving dots descending a ridge some seven or eight miles away. Spurring their mounts, they hastened to get out of sight, but they did not doubt but that they had been seen, for the pursuers would naturally be on the watch.

`We're a couple of bone-heads--mighta knowed that landlord feller wouldn't rest easy,' Green growled. `There's only five of 'em, anyways.'

`Mebbe there's more back o' them.'

`Reckon not--they wouldn't wanta split the reward too much. We'll have to stand 'em off; can't have 'em trailin' us all the time.'

They pushed on at a fast clip until they came to the spot they were looking for, a long, narrow gorge with precipitous sides which only a cat could hope to scale, and with little in the way of vegetation to serve as cover. Boulders and rock debris littered the sandy bed of the gorge, which had at one time been a watercourse.

`Hope she ain't a blind one,' Larry remarked, with a glance at the beetling cliffs on either side. `If she is, we'll be wantin' wings.'

`An' we may get 'em too, if them hombres can shoot,' returned his friend grimly.

`Mother's cheery little helper, ain't yu? Allus lookin' on the bright side,' grinned Larry.