Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 04 - Sudden Outlawed(1934) (27 page)

 
          
“He
let her go,” the cowboy reminded.

 
          
“Yes,
at your request,” came the sneer. “Were you ever one of his gang?”

 
          
“No,
were yu?” Sudden asked.

 
          
Pebbles, who was
one of the listening riders, chuckled
audibly, and the visitor’s face flushed with anger.

 
          
“Damn
your impudence,” he shouted. “What do you mean by that?”

 
          
Sudden
bent forward, his eyes bleak. “Just what I said,” he replied. “Listen to me,
Mister Man. On’y two fellas here can talk down to me with safety—my boss an’
his foreman.
yo’re
speakin’ outa turn.”

 
          
For
a moment the gambler’s narrow eyes clashed with those of the speaker and then
turned in mute appeal to his host. Sam Eden was nonplussed. Torn between
gratitude and friendship, he did not know how to deal with the tiny tempest
which had so swiftly arisen. Carol came to his aid.

 
          
“Mister
Baudry appears to be forgetting that these two men risked their lives to save
me, first from Indians, and thenfrom outlaws,” she said.
“To
my mind, that alone matters.”

 
          
Like
a dash of cold water the words brought Baudry to his senses; his ill-humour
vanished and he achieved some sort of a smile.

 
          
“You’re
right, Miss Eden,” he said heartily. “Nothing else counts. I’m sorry, Sam, but
I let my ideas run away with me. If that Rogue fellow happened to be here, I’d
thank him, whatever his motive may have been.”

 
          
This
ended the discussion, but as Sudden and the foreman went to get their horses,
the cowboy asked casually: “yu known friend Baudry long?”

 
          
“Nope,
an’ yu needn’t name him my friend neither,” Jeff said bluntly. “Don’t fancy the
fella nohow, an’ I’ll bet if he had a tail there’d be rattles on it.”

 
          
“Sandy
an’ me ain’t popular in that quarter,” Sudden reflected aloud.

 
          
“Aw,
yu should worry,” Jeff told him. “So yu don’t think Rogue will try again yet?”

 
          
“I
ain’t worryin’, not that yu’d notice,” was the reply, and then, “No, barrin’
Injuns, flooded rivers, stampedes, storms an’ dry stretches, I figure we’ll
have an easy trip for a while.”

 
          
Jeff’s
expression was one of mock disgust. “Yo’re a cheerful cuss, I don’t believe,”
he said.

 
          
Later,
Sudden had a word with Sandy. That young man was still puzzling over the
outlaw’s complicity in their escape, and said so.

 
          
“Shake
yore head an’ start that stuff yu think with workin’,” was the smiling advice
he received. “Without us, the S E would be short-handed an’ Rogue wants the
herd to go through yet awhile.”

 
          
“Then
why did he stampede it?”

 
          
“I
figure his idea then was to sell the cows to the jasper
who
was payin’ him to break the drive. Now, he’s aimin’ to handle ‘em himself an’
clean up a packet.”

 
          
“Then
he’s double-crossin’ the other man.”

 
          
“It
don’t
follow. Rogue is a pretty ornery proposition,
but he’s got points. He told me that this fella was willin’ to take the S E
cows, but he didn’t say he’s promised to let him have ‘em.”

 
          
“Glad
yu put brother Baudry back a bit. What yu think of him?”

 
          
“I
don’t,” Sudden grinned. “But—I’m goin’ to.”

 
          
THE
cattle, rested by the stay in the valley, made good progress, and the tally of
the miles covered grew as the peaceful days passed. The members of the outfit,
living in their saddles through the long, lazy hours, became jubilant at the
thought that their tremendous task might soon be accomplished. Jed, .true to
his nature, was pessimistic.

 
          
“It’s
too easy,” he complained. “Like slidin’ down a steep hill, yu gotta watch out
for the bump at the bottom.”

 
          
Sandy
too was not of the cheerful ones, but for a different reason. Baudry’s monopoly
of Carol was so complete that the young man rarely had an opportunity of riding
with her.

 
          
Moreover,
the gambler, as a guest, ate with the women and Eden, a circumstance which did
not lessen Sandy’s resentment.

 
          
“Cuss
it, he’s got all the chances,” he grumbled.

 
          
“Too
bad,” Sudden commiserated. “Now if yu could show her that red head o’ yores …”

 
          
The
boy had to laugh. “
yu
misbegotten son o’ misfortune.
Someday I’ll tell her all about yu,” he threatened.

 
          
Sudden’s
hands went up. “Keno!” he cried. “Wait till I’m outa the country.”

 
          
Sandy’s
soreness over the situation would have been diminished had he known that Carol
was beginning to find the constant company of the visitor irksome. Hitherto it
had never occurred to her to regard him as a possible suitor, but his
attentions and rather fulsome compliments were forcing her to face the fact.
She had never liked him; but Baudry, with all his astuteness, had not
discovered this.

 
          
Like
most of his type, he held a poor opinion of the other sex; they were all alike,
save that some were more desirable than others. The budding beauty and dewy
freshness of this prairie flower had aroused in him a physical intoxication
which he called love, but was little more than lust. He wanted, and would have
her, and if marriage was the price he would pay it, but …

 
          
In
the cowboy, Sandy, he recognized an obstacle to his hopes, just as in the
fellow’s friend, Green, he saw a menace to his other plans. Bitterly he cursed
Rogue for releasing them.

 
          
Somehow,
they must be got out of the way.

 
          
Camp
was pitched on the tree-fringed bank of a widish ver, but the fact that it had
to be negotiated on the morrow gave them no uneasiness. They had crossed
several streams of varying size during the past weeks and had come to regard
the operation as of no more than ordinary moment.

 
          
The
herd was bedded down and the crooning voices of the watching riders came
faintly to the rest of the outfit loafing and smoking round the fire.

 
          
To
Sudden, as they went to take their trick of nightriding, Jeff addressed a
query: “Can yu make any sort o’ guess where we’re at?”

 
          
“Never
been north,” Sudden told him. “This river might be the Wichita, but that don’t
mean we’re clear o’ the redskins; they hunt all over.”

 
          
“I
ain’t worryin’ much about the war-whoops—it’s that lousy outlaw loses me
sleep—not knowin’ when he’s goin’ to strike.”

 
          
“I’m
allowin’ it won’t be yet,” the cowboy assured him. Pacing slowly around the
slumbering herd, under a star-specked sky, he found himself thinking of Rogue.
An odd mixture, this miscreant who robbed and killed without compunction, yet
retained a respect for women. An outcast, leader of a band recruited from the
scum of the settlement, afraid to show his face in any decent community, that,
for such a man as Rogue must once have been could only mean hell on earth. It
was easy to understand how, whipped by his degradation, in savage disdain, he
plunged more deeply into the mire. Sudden knew the feeling, had experienced and
almost yielded to it.

 
          
But for this drive to a new country where he might start afresh….
A wise Providence veils the future; Sudden could not know that events were even
then shaping to hurl him back into the quicksands of shame and danger. Two men,
seated out of hearing of the camp, were discussing him.

 
          
“Those
cowboys have to be got rid of, Davy,” the gambler said. “They’re liable to make
things difficult. Why in hell Rogue let them go I can’t guess. What’s his
game?”

 
          
“I’d
say he’s tryin’ to double-cross us,” was the reply.

 
          
“If
he does, I’ll kill him,” Baudry said. “No man ever did that to me and got away
with it.”

 
          
There
was no anger, no boastfulness in the low, even voice, and well aware that it
might be a warning to
himself
, Dutt, toughened as he
was, was conscious of a slight shiver which was not due to the night air. He
had no illusions regarding Jethro Baudry, knowing that he would slay his best
friend if it suited his purpose.

 
          
“I’ve
got the glimmerings of a scheme,” the gambler resumed. “Let you know when it’s
worked out. In the meantime, keep a close eye on those fellows.”

 
          
At
dawn they crossed the river without mishap and resumed the long trek northwards
across a plain which spread out before them as far as the eye could reach;
there were no trees, no hills, and the foreman—fearing the next stream might be
far away—took care that the beasts were well watered before a start was made.
The air was cool yet, but the sun, thrusting up into a clear sky, promised
plenty of heat presently.

 
          
Baudry,
as usual, had loped his horse to Carol’s side. The gambler’s greedy eyes
gloated over the girl’s slim, supple form as it swayed easily to the paces of
her pony. Schooled as he was by his profession to conceal all emotion, and
cold-blooded as a fish, her beauty and desirableness turned the ice in his
veins to fire. He bent low over his horse’s neck lest his look should betray
him.

 
          
“You
get more charming every day,” he murmured. “This nomad life seems to suit you.”

 
          
“I
love it,” she smiled.

 
          
“The
West is wonderful,” he said, “but don’t you ever have a hankering to see the
real big cities of the world, New York, London, Paris, Rome, with their fine
streets, famous picture-galleries, palaces, cathedrals, theatres, and to join
in the whirl of pleasure they offer?”

 
          
“Why,
certainly, that would be great, and I expect every girl has such dreams,” Carol
confessed. “But after a while I would want to come home to Texas.”

 
          
“Just
to go on raising cows,” the gambler
said,
a suspicion
of contempt in his tone.

 
          
It
brought a faint flush to the girl’s lightly tanned cheeks. “Just to go on
raising—
a new Empire,” she said quietly Her shining eyes and
low voice proclaimed her earnestness. This was a phase of her he had not
suspected, but—though he might inwardly sneer at her vision—he was quick to
take his cue.

 
          
“You’re
entirely right, Miss Carol, though I’ll admit I hadn’t looked at it quite that
way,” he responded. “And I’m proposing to do my share by starting a ranch not
very far away from the S E—just to raise cows.” He smiled, hesitated a moment
and then, “But first, I’m taking a holiday, to see all the places I mentioned,
and others.” He leant across and laid a hand on one of hers.

 
          
“Will
you come with me—Carol?”

 
          
Completely
taken by surprise, she could only stare at him. He did not wait for a reply.

 
          
“I
want you for my wife, girl,” he said hoarsely. “I’m mad about you—have been
since we first met. I’ll give you everything you ask for. We’ll see
all the
world can show us and then come back—to Texas. I’m
planning big, my dear, but I can swing it; the West is going to hear of Jethro
Baudry, believe me.”