Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 01 - The Range Robbers(1930) (42 page)

 
          
“No
need to bust the hosses,’ he said. “They can’t trail us in the dark an’ they
ain’t a notion where we’d make for. Why do you reckon Tarman stains his hair
an’ beard?’

 
          
“Cause
he’s a double-dyed villain, like yu read of in the storybooks,’ chuckled Larry.

 
          
“Yo’re
a double-ended jackass an’ neither end’s got any sense. If Leeming turns us
down…’

 
          
“Shucks!
I
don’t never
ford a stream till I come to it,’ said
Larry confidently. “Job’s got savvy, an’
he ain’t no more use
for Tarman than we have
.’

 
          
To
which came no answer. Wounded and utterly played out, the outlaw remained in
his saddle by a sheer effort of will. To him, in his weakened condition, the
position appeared desperate. With her father dead, the girl would be absolutely
in the power of Tarman and his gang, and the charge of having killed Simon,
which he could see no way of disproving, would set the hand of every man in the
territory against him. True, he was playing against a stacked deck, but who
would believe him in the face of Tarman’s statement, backed by the testimony of
the bereaved girl? Leeming was his only hope; if the Frying Pan owner failed
him, Tarman would win, but—and the outlaw’s jaws clamped on a bitter oath—he
would not enjoy his victory for long.

 
          
Daylight
had not yet come when they reached their destinanion. Three owl-hoots at spaced
intervals—a signal already agreed upon—aroused Leeming and brought him to the
back door. Blanketing the window of the sitting-room, he lighted the lamp, and
then uttered an oath of amazement when he saw Green collapse in a chair.
Snatching open a cupboard he produced whisky and glasses, and then vanished
into the kitchen, returning presently with food.

 
          
“Yu
shore look as if yu been in a free-for-all scrap, Green,’ he said. “Take a shot
o’ whisky an’ some grub ‘fore yu chatter.’

 
          
The
visitors were glad enough to take the advice. The food and drink put new life
into the outlaw, and when his wounds, which were but scratches, had been
attended to, he was ready to tell his story. Rolling and lighting a cigarette,
he looked steadily at his host.

 
          
“Might
as well get the worst over at once,’ he said. “Old Simon is dead, I guess, an’
yu will be told I shot him. I didn’t, but the evidence is good enough to hang
me.’

 
          
“Simon
dead?’ cried Leeming, and now they saw a strange thing, for this man who over a
trifle could fly into a violent passion, in a matter of deep concern now kept
iron control of himself. “Tell me about it,’ he said quietly.

 
          
Step
by step the outlaw detailed what had happened since their last meeting, the
visit to Big Rock, the fight in the gorge, the encountering of West, and its
tragic outcome at the Y Z. Leeming did not interrupt, but sat with his eyes
fixed on the narrator’s face.

 
          
“An’
Tarman’s tale will be that he heard I was after Simon an’ that he came along
with a posse just too late to prevent me killin’ him,’ Green concluded.

 
          
“Yu
think Tarman did it?’ Job asked.

 
          
“Him or one of his men.
O’ course, it might have been meant
for me but
I wasn’t nowhere near Simon
. I on’y fired
one shot before he went down, an’ that was at the window.’

 
          
“Why
did yu go to see Simon if yu’d given up the notion o’ bumpin’ him off?’ came
the next question.

 
          
The
outlaw looked embarrassed. “Well, I reckon yu will think it a fool’s fancy, but
I wanted to hear him say he was sorry for what he done to Evesham,’ he
explained. “Bill was like a father to me, an’ I figured there was an apology
due to him an’ aimed to collect it. A kind o’ mad idea, but that’s how I felt.’

 
          
The
owner of the Frying Pan stood up. “I’m takin’ yore word, Green,’ he said. “It’s
a bad business an’ we gotta think out what’s best to be done. Yu boys better
hole up here for a day or so—I reckon the Frying Pan won’t be looked over for
rustlers.’ He smiled grimly, and continued. “We can hide out yore hosses, an’
my boys can be trusted to keep their traps shut. We’ll let Mister Tarman make
the next move.’

 
          
The
faith of the rancher braced the outlaw as nothing else could have done. Looking
him square in the face, he said, “Yu are shore white, seh, an’ I’d have to be
worse than my reputation to double-cross yu. We’ll get yore cattle back.’

 
          
“Damn
the cattle,’ exploded the other. “What I want is for that little girl at the Y
Z to get her rights, an’ not be made unhappy!’

 
          
He
stamped off, motioning them to follow, and having shown them where they were to
sleep, voiced a gruff good-night, and stamped back to his own room, heartily
ashamed of himself for having betrayed emotion.

 
          
THE
Y Z ranch on the following afternoon presented its usual appearance save for
the smashed window and bullet-scored walls of the room where the fight had
taken place. Most of the outfit, with a large contingent from Hatchett’s, were
away with the marshal scouring the country for traces of the outlaw. In a
bedroom lay Simon, grievously wounded, but likely to pull through. The bullet,
entering his right side, had passed out again, miraculously missing the vital
organs, and though painfully weak from the shock, there were no signs of fever.
He was listening to Noreen’s account of what had happened after he dropped, and
his expression was troubled.

 
          
“So
he got away, eh?’ he asked. “Well, I’m glad o’ that.’

 
          
The
girl looked at him in astonishment, for as she well knew, he was not prone to
forgive those who transgressed against him. For a moment she feared the fever
might be commencing, but his eyes were clear and his voice steady as he
proceeded: “No, I ain’t out o’ my head, girl, but I’m beginning to think I may
have got that feller sized up wrong. He could ‘a’ shot me an’ didn’t, not even
when he thought I’d stacked the cards against him. ‘Nother thing, Green wasn’t
near the door an’ that’s where the bullet as downed me come from.’

 
          
A
sudden suspicion clutched at the girl’s heart and her voice shook as she
whispered, “Tarman was at the door, and he had just fired at Green,’ she said.
“You think…?’

 
          
“I
think I’ve been a damn fool, my lass,’ replied the old man, “an’ with me
laid
out like this we’re in a tight place. We gotta walk in
the water an’ not let on that we suspect anythin’ crooked. The trouble is I
dunno who to trust.’

 
          
“Snap
Lunt, Dirty, Ginger, and Simple are straight, I feel certain,’ Norry replied.

 
          
“Yu
send Snap up to me on the quiet, an’ spread it around general that I’m in a bad
way an’ not liable to get over this.’ The girl went out, and a little later
Lunt slid into the room, gripping his big Stetson by the crown and obviously
ill at ease in a sick-room.

 
          
“Lo,
boss, how’re yu makin’ it?’ he greeted.”Fine as silk,
Snap
,
but there’s reasons why I want it reckoned I’m liable to cash in,’ replied the
invalid, and proceeded to state them.

 
          
“I
knowed it,’ said the gunman. “Sudden don’t work that way. If he wanted to put
yu out he’d invite yu to pull yore gun an’ get busy; he ain’t
no
potshooter.’

 
          
“What
do yu know about Tarman, Lunt?’ asked the ranch-owner.

 
          
“I
can’t tell yu, boss; I’ve give my word,’ replied the other. “Green put pretty
much the same question to me an’ got the same answer. All I can say is that I
wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw a steer. He’s takin’ charge an’
Rattler an’ most of the outfit ain’t objectin’.’

 
          
“But
some are, eh?’ queried Simon.

 
          
“Well,
me, Ginger, Dirty, an’ Simple claim that Tarman don’t pay our wages,’ grinned
Snap.

 
          
“Good.
Yu tell them boys how things are, an’ that I’m relyin’ on them to lookout Miss
Norry’s game for her now I’m in the discard; there’s some rough trail ahead of
us, Snap, but we’ll make the grade.’

 
          
“Shore
we will,’ replied the gunman heartily as he went out.

 
          
When
Tarman returned to the ranch in the evening after a busy day spent in searching
for the outlaw, he found Noreen very depressed and soon elicited the
information that the wounded man seemed no better. His endeavour to hearten her
appeared to be genuine, but the girl, possibly because she was looking for that
very thing, found a false note in it.

 
          
“Don’t
yu worry, Miss Norry,’ the big man said. “He’ll pull through—yu can’t kill
these old-timers with one bullet unless it’s a heart or head shot. An’ if he
shouldn’t, well, yu got friends now.’

 
          
There
was an intimacy in his tone which she hated, but she took good care not to
betray her feelings. So she shared the evening meal with him and his companion,
Laban, and listened with apparent interest to his account of the attempt to run
down the fugitive, rejoicing inwardly at its failure; the knowledge that he had
kept his word and not injured her father had made her attitude to the outlaw a
very kindly one. When she returned again to the sick-room, the two men sat
smoking and talking in low tones. Laban, who was now fully in the confidence of
his master, did not seem to be entirely satisfied with the way things were
going.

 
          
“Bah!
Yo’re losin’ yore nerve, Seth,’ Tarman said, with a sneer. “The old man’s as
good as done for, an’ when we get that chap Sudden, we take every trick.’

 
          
“S’pose
the girl won’t marry yu,’ suggested Laban.

 
          
“What
else can she do, even is she don’t want to?’ asked the other. “Simon signs a
paper makin’ me a partner in the ranch—if he
don’t
,
I’ll sign it for him; he cashes an’ the place belongs to me. The girl can’t
claim—she ain’t
no
relation to him. I’m her only safe
bet an’ if she
don’t
see it that way, there’s means to
make her.’

 
          
“Sounds
all right,’ Laban admitted, “but that outlaw gent sticks in my gullet; I’ll
sleep a heap easier when he’s stretched hemp.’

 
          
Tarman
laughed. “He can’t escape—there isn’t a man in the territory that wouldn’t pull
a gun on him at sight now.’

       
“Don’t yu be too shore o’ that, Joe,’
warned Laban. “There’s some in this outfit that wouldn’t an’ Lunt is one of
‘em.’

       
“Is that so?’
frowned
the big man. “Well, we owe Snap somethin’ already. Jeffs had better put Gorilla
on him.’

 
          
“Gorilla’s
gone—vanished complete,’ Seth told him. “Went with three more to the main herd,
stopped behind to make shore they wasn’t followed, an’ disappeared. His hoss
drifted in next day. Looks to me as if Sudden had found out who give him that
tap on the
head,
an’ got even.’

 
          
Tarman
sat thinking, a heavy pout on his lips. Then he laughed again, and callously
said, “
Well
, things is straightenin’ out an’ there’s
too many of us anyway.’

 
          
“I
reckon,’ returned Laban, with a mirthless smile, for the sentiment was one with
which he entirely agreed. Gorilla was a mere tool, to be used and paid or
discarded, and the fewer there were when the clean-up took place, the bigger
the gains for the rest.

 
          
On
the following morning Tarman insisted upon seeing the sick man despite the
girl’s protest that he was not well enough to receive a visitor. Pushing her
aside, he entered the room and closed the door. One glance at the pallid,
sunken face on the pillow confirmed what he had been told—it seemed impossible
that the old man could survive.