Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 04 - Sudden Outlawed(1934) (17 page)

 
          
“Fools
for luck,” he murmured. “If rattlers didn’t have to coil afore they can
strike….”

 
          
He
did not pursue the unpleasant reflection, but pulled a gun and felt ahead with
it before making a move. The voice was nearer now, only a few yards distant,
but he could see nothing of the owner.

 
          
“Make
a good job of it an’ the two-fifty is yourn.
yu’ll
have a clear field when the cows start runnin’—which’ll be soon now.
Them
hombres will have suthin’ else to occupy ‘em.” The
eavesdropper stiffened; he knew that voice.
Navajo !
He could not hear the mumbled reply, but a cracking twig told him that the men
were moving—away from him. As silently as speed would permit he retraced his
steps, his brain busy with the problem so abruptly presented. Rogue’s men were
to stampede the herd and something was to be tried. It was not difficult to
guess what this was. He hurried to his horse, leapt into the saddle, and raced
for the camp.

 
          
The
sight there drew an oath from his lips. Seated round the cook’s fire were Sam
Eden, Jeff, and the two women; blanketed forms at the other fire were preparing
for their turn of night riding; they were doomed to have their rest rudely
interrupted. Sudden strode up to the foreman.

 
          
“Jeff,
I’ve just got wind of a plot to run off the cows—right now,” he cried. “Get
busy—no time to talk.” He turned to his employer. “Yu didn’t oughta be here,
seh,” he went on. “
Yu. .

 
          
An
outburst of gun-fire and wild yells from over the plain, with the drumming
thunder of thudding hooves cut him short.
“God!
they’ve
done it!” he exclaimed.

 
          
Stooping
swiftly, he seized the seated cattleman by the shoulder and thrust him sideways
to the ground. Almost at the same instant, a jet of yellow flame punctured the
gloom surrounding the camp and a bullet buried itself in the log against which
the invalid had been leaning.

 
          
Sudden’s
gun barked viciously, twice, and the reports were followed by the breaking of
dead wood, as of a body falling among the bushes and then—silence.
Half-crouched, his smoking weapon poised, the cowboy waited for one tense
moment.

 
          
“Guess
I got him,” he said quietly. “Saw the glint o’ the fire on his gun-barrel—just
in time.”

 
          
“What th’ hell?”
Eden began, as he struggled back to an
upright position.

 
          
“Explanations’ll
have to wait,” Sudden told him. “Yu’d be better in the wagon, seh. That whelp
over there had friends.” Though the foreman was at first stunned by the
abruptness of the calamity his natural sturdiness soon reasserted itself. The
awakened sleepers were sent to the rope corral for mounts, the cattleman,
vehemently cursing his helplessness, was lifted back into the wagon, and the
women ordered to stay in it also.

 
          
“We’ll
have to leave yu in charge o’ Peg-leg, Sam,” the foreman pointed out. “Mebbe we
can git back some o’ the cows.”

 
          
“Damn
the cows,” the old man exploded. “Let daylight into the dirty thieves what
rustled ‘em.
Now, gimme a gun an’ get agoin’.”

 
          
Sending
the others on, Jeff and Sudden turned towards the spot whence the bushwhacker
had fired. Sprawling in the undergrowth was the body of a man. Sudden turned it
over and struck a match.

 
          
“Lasker!”
the foreman breathed. “Well, I’m damned.”

 
          
Leaving
the corpse in the bushes, they rode to the bedding-ground. Jeff was puzzling
over this latest development.

 
          
“Lasker, huh?
Never did cotton to him, somehow,” he mused.
“Likely he was planted on us, an’ mebbe we’ve binfollered right along.” He
looked curiously at the man beside him. “How did yu git on to it, Jim?”

 
          
Sudden
told of the coyote calls and the fragment of conversation he had overheard, but
did not reveal that he recognized one of the voices. He had just finished when
a limping figure, carrying a saddle, loomed up out of the gloom. It proved to
be Sandy.

 
          
“Yu
hurt?” Sudden asked, observing that the boy staggered. “Bullet burned my
ribs—nothin’ broke,” was the reply. “What happened?”
This
from the foreman.

 
          
“Yu
can search me. First we knowed was the fireworks an’ the shoutin’–-they musta
crept up on us. An’, believe
me,
them steers didn’t
wait to ask questions none whatever. I tried to head ‘em off an’ some jasper
started slingin’ lead—got my hoss too, blast his soul.”

 
          
“Which
way was the herd travellin’?” Jeff asked. “West—must be damn near the Pacific
Slope by now,” was the bitter retort. “Gawd, what a mess
! ”

 
          
“How many of ‘em?”

 
          
“Couldn’t say.
It was as dark as the inside of a cow. I on’y
saw the fella who creased me.

 
          
Fancy
I nicked him—heard him cuss.”

 
          
Sandy
having assured them he could make the camp unaided the other two rode on. Mile after
mile was covered without a trace of the missing herd save the hoofprints which
showed that they were following at least a portion of it. At length, in the
dim, grey light of the dawn, they saw two riders, driving a bunch of about a
hundred steers. They were less than half a mile distant and not hurrying,
apparently deeming themselves safe from pursuit. Sudden pulled his rifle from
the sheath.

 
          
“Hold
on, Jim, they may be our fellas,” Jeff warned. “They wouldn’t be headed west,”

 
          
Sudden
pointed out. “That’s so,” the foreman admitted, “but I’d ruther be shore than
sorry. I’ll give ‘em a hail our boys would reckernize. They can’t outrun us
with the cows.”

 
          
His
voice rang out in a shrill cowboy call, familiar on many ranges, but with
variations Sudden had not heard before. The result dispelled their doubt
effectively. The riders’ heads jerked round and then their right arms rose and
fell as they vigorously plied the quirt. Sudden’s face was grim as he levelled
his weapon.

 
          
“Steady,
boy,” he said to his horse, and pulled the trigger.

 
          
They
saw the pony on the right stumble and fall, throwing its rider headlong. The
other man, with no more than a glance at his companion, spurred his mount
furiously and soon left the herd behind. Sudden sent an unavailing shot which
only served to hurry his movements. A few moments brought them to the fallen
man and one look at the oddly-twisted, huddled form told them what had
happened.

 
          
“Kruk
his neck,” Jeff said. “
yu
got the hoss. Damn good
shootin’ too, at that range an’ from the saddle. Yu don’t know the gent, I
s’pose, Jim?”

 
          
The
reply in the negative was not all the truth, for Sudden had seen the fellow
during his sojourn with Rogue.

 
          
“Well,
let’s git after them cows,” the foreman said, adding harshly, “This ain’t my
day for buryin’ cattle thieves.”

 
          
The
stolen steers had not run far and the S E men soon had them rounded up and
pointed east again. The foreman’s expression as he regarded the recovered
remnant of his charge was savagely morose. Sudden too was feeling the same. To
have the patient endeavour and strenuous labour of many weeks so wantonly
wrecked was a bitter bullet to bite on. So they rode in silence for an hour,
and then, from the mouth of a shallow arroyo—a mere crack in the face of the
plain—a horseman emerged and hailed them joyfully:

 
          
“‘Lo, Jeff.
So yu got some too?” It was Dumpy, and as he
spoke, his sweaty, dirt-laden features broke into a tired grin of welcome.
“Where’s the rest o’ the outfit?”

 
          
The
foreman raised his shoulders. “
yu
alone?” he asked.

 
          
“Jed’s
in there”—Dumpy pointed to the arroyo—“Can’t lose that fella nohow, an’ say, we
got near three hundred cows. She’s a dandy place, plenty feed, a pond, an’ the
way in is the on’y way out.”

 
          
“See
here, Jeff, why not
fetch
the wagon an’ camp in the
arroyo?” Sudden suggested.

 
          
“Two
men could hold the herd in there while the rest of us comb the country.”

 
          
“Yo’re
right, Jim,” the foreman agreed. “She’s our best bet.”

 
          
Having
driven the beasts they had brought through the narrow entrance to the gully,
they again rode east, taking Dumpy with them. As they approached the spot where
the stampede had taken place the sight of cattle and encircling riders brought
a lighter look to Jeff’s face. “We’ll make a herd yet, boy,” he said.

 
          
“Shore
we will,” Sudden rejoined.

 
          
All
the rest of the
outfit were
there with the exception
of Truthful, of whom no one had any tidings save that he had been with the herd
when it began to run. The other men, unable to stay the tide of terrified
brutes, contented themselves with following bunches of them and, when the scare
died out, driving them back. In this way they had salvaged over four hundred
and a dozen horses.

 
          
At
the camp itself they found Sandy and Peg-leg sitting by the wagon with rifles.
The women were inside with the invalid, who listened silently to his foreman’s
report.

 
          
“We’ve
got around eight hundred an’ I guess we can search out enough others to go on,”

 
          
Jeff
concluded.

 
          
The
old man glared at him. “Yo’re damn right we’ll go on,” he rasped. “Get this,
an’ get it straight: I said I’d make this drive an’ I’ll do it, if there’s on’y
one blasted cow to take into Kansas.”

 
          
“That
goes with me, an’ with all of us, I reckon,” the foreman said quietly, and went
on to tell of Sudden’s suggestion to move camp.

 
          
“Sounds
a good idea,” the cattleman agreed. He looked at the cowboy. “Young fella, I
figure yu saved my life-though I shore thought yu’d gone loco. That lead pill
went in just where my head had been, an’ I’m thankin’ yu. What had Lasker
against me, Jeff?”

 
          
“We’ve
bin framed, Sam; they just waited their chance. Jim got one of ‘em.”

 
          
He
related the passing of the unknown rustler and the old man’s eyes glowed with
savage approval.

 
          
“One
skulking thief less, anyways,” he grated. “I’m thankin’ yu again, Jim.”

 
          
As
they left the wagon, Peg-leg handed each of them a steaming mug and hurried
away in search of his beloved mules. Jeff took a big gulp of the liquid and
nodded at the retreating figure.

 
          
“Peg
used to ride hisself an’ he knows that `coffee at any time’ makes a cook the
boys will swear by instead of at,” he remarked.

 
          
The
foreman went to give some instructions to the men and Sandy strolled up.

 
          
“I’m
owin’ yu somethin’, Jim,” he began, and noting his friend’s look of surprise,
added,

 
          
“For downin’ that rat, Lasker.”

 
          
I’m
beginnin’ to suspect that fella warn’t popular,” Sudden said.
“Why gratitude from yu?”