Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 04 - Sudden Outlawed(1934) (29 page)

 
          
“Yu
went after yore fellow-thief—I’ll give yu that much credit,” the cattleman
snapped.

 
          
“I’m
obliged,” the cowboy countered.

 
          
Baudry
drew a paper from his pocket, unfolded, and held it up. “Isn’t this your
description?” he asked.

 
          
Sudden
did not need to read it—every word had been branded on his brain as by a hot
iron. Nevertheless, he leant forward and scanned it leisurely.

 
          
“Them
particulars might apply to a hundred others,” he evaded. “An’ my hoss ain’t got
a white face.”

 
          
“Hasn’t
it?” the gambler rapped out. “I’d like to be sure of that.
Rollitt,
fetch that black.”

 
          
Sudden’s
face hardened to stone. “Don’t yu—unless yu want to die,” he warned.

 
          
“Sometime,
when he was a colt, I
reckon,
that hoss had an
adventure with a skunk, an’ he hates ‘em.”

 
          
“Never
seen the bronc I couldn’t handle,” Rollitt growled. “Go ahead,” Sudden said.
“I’m givin’ yu permission, but I won’t promise to bury yu;
I
don’t like skunks neither
.” The wrangler hesitated, and was obviously
relieved when the cattleman broke in angrily: “To hell with the hoss. Where’s
the need o’ that when Rollitt heard yu referred to as ‘Sudden’ by the outlaws?
yu
denyin’ it?”

 
          
“I’m
not denyin’ anythin’,” Sudden said tersely.
“An’ now —what?”

 
          
“I
oughta tell my men to string the pair o’ yu up to the nearest tree.”

 
          
The
unjust threat stirred the cowboy to anger. “Come alive, Eden,” he said roughly.

 
          
“What
sort of an outfit would yu have left?”

 
          
“Showin’
your true colours now—gunman stuff, eh?” Baudry said scornfully.

 
          
“Lettin’
myself be hanged wouldn’t prove my innocence,” the other retorted. He looked at
the rancher. “Eden, yo’re followin’ a false trail,” he said quietly. “One o’
these days yu’ll find that out. For now—I’m goin’.”

 
          
The
old man did not reply at once; doubts were disturbing him. He could not forget
that Sudden had saved Carol from the Indians, but—as Baudry had been at pains
to point outthe worst outlaw in the wilds would have done no less in like
circumstances. His troubled gaze travelled to Sandy. The youth forestalled him.

 
          
“Jim’s
my friend; if he goes, I do,” he said.

 
          
The
defiant tone roused the rancher’s quick temper again. “Yo’re damn right there,”
he rasped. “But first yu’ll answer a question. What took yu outa camp the night
I got this?” He tapped his wounded chest.

 
          
The
boy’s face flamed at the accusation—for it amounted to that. “
yu
think I creased yu?” he cried indignantly, and then,
“Hell!
what’s
the good … ?”

 
          
“I
don’t think—I know,”
came
the passionate assertion. “
yore
boss, Rogue, put yu up to bump me off, an’ when yu
failed, Lasker had to try.”

 
          
“He’d
have got yu too, with a second shot, if Jim here hadn’t stopped him,” Sandy
savagely reminded. “
yu
explainin’ that?”

 
          
“Simple,”
Eden sneered. “Lasker had bungled it an’ might ‘a’
talked
.
It was a safe play to silence him an’ get solid with me.”

 
          
Sandy
had no more to say. His world had come crashing about his ears and he could see
nothing but the set, pale face of a girl, who, with downcast eyes, had been a
witness of his degradation. Baudry, seated next to her, was watching him with
an expression of contemptuous amusement. Little did the gambler suspect how
near he was to death at that
moment.
Eden made a
violent gesture.

 
          
“Punch
the breeze, the pair o’ yu,” he said hoarsely. “Jeff, yu go along an’ see they
don’t take nothin’ but what belongs to ‘em.”

 
          
At
this gratuitous insult, Sudden, his thumbs hooked in his belt, shot a scornful
look at the speaker. “Don’t overplay yore hand, Eden,” he warned. “As for yore
threats, there ain’t a man in yore outfit would pull a gun on me, ‘cept that
cardsharp an’ his two friends, an’ they haven’t the guts.” His cold, appraising
gaze travelled from Baudry to Dutt and Rollitt. “Like I said,” he added, as
they made no move.
“Three yeller—dawgs.
Adios!”

 
          
As
he turned away, the gambler’s hand went to his pistol, but the rancher spoke
sharply:

 
          
“None o’ that, Jethro.
Call him back if yu want, but yu
should ‘a’ took .him up when he offered.”

 
          
The
other shrugged his shoulders indifferently, but there was a frozen fury in his
voice as he replied, “you’re too squeamish, Sam; you don’t give a rattler an
even break—if you’re wise.”

 
          
In
the rope corral which held the night-horses Sudden and Sandy found their
mounts. The foreman watched in silence as they rolled their blankets, and then
burst out:

 
          
“Jim,
I just can’t believe it—the 0I’ Man must be loco. It warn’t
no
use sayin’ a word—on’y ‘a’ made him wuss.”

 
          
“I
know, ol’-timer,” Sudden said, with a hard smile. “It’s a queer yarn—too long
to tell now—truth an’ lies all snarled up. I ain’t blamin’ the boss—much; he’s
sick, an’ with Rogue hangin’ on his heels, it ain’t surprisin’ he’s suspicious.
Things look bad, but yu can take it Sandy didn’t fire that shot an’ I’m not as
black as Nigger here.”

 
          
“Is
it true yo’re the fella they call `Sudden,’ Jim?”

 
          
“Yeah, but there’s an explanation to that too.
Keep
a-smilin’, Jeff; there was never a rope so badly tangled it couldn’t be
straightened out.”

 
          
At
this moment Peg-leg stumped up, carrying a small package. “Here’s a bit o’ grub
an’ a skillet my ol’gal has sent,” he began. “Said she didn’t care what yu’d
done but she’d be teetotally damned if she let yu be turned loose without the
means o’ makin’ a mouthful o’ coffee. She’s agoin’ to give Sam hark from the
tomb when she gits him alone.”

 
          
“She’s
a lady, Peg-leg,” Sudden replied, tying the parcel to the cantle of his saddle.
“This will shorely be welcome.”

 
          
From
the back of the big black he smiled wryly down at the two men. “We’ll be seein’
yu—mebbe,” he said.

 
          
For
upwards of two miles neither of the outcasts spoke and then Sandy’s bitterness
overflowed: “Damnation, even she believes I shot the 0I’ Man.”

 
          
“Yu
ain’t
no
right to say that.
yu
weren’t lookin’ but I fancy I saw a hand wave from the tent as we left camp.”

 
          
Sandy’s
doleful face changed magically. “Yu did, Jim?” he asked eagerly.

 
          
His
companion grinned.

 
          
“He’s
just as happy as if she had waved,” he reflected. “An’ anyways, he’d do more’n
tell a lie for me.”

 
          
“Where
do we head for, Jim?” the subject of his thoughts asked. “We got plenty
choice.”

 
          
“We
have to find Rogue,” was the unexpected reply.

 
          
Sandy
stared at him. “Hell, Jim, yu ain’t goin’ to throw down the 0I’ Man, are yu?”
There was real concern in his voice. “I’m admittin’ he’s treated us pretty
mean, but he’s been misled, an’ the boys are our friends …”

 
          
“Findin’
don’t
mean joinin’,” Sudden pointed out. “The S E is
finished with us—or fancies so—but I ain’t finished with them. I don’t figure
on lettin’ Rogue beat me, an’ I’m mighty interested in Mister Baudry.”

 
          
“Me
too, in fact, I was so interested that I damn near
beefed
him where he sat.”

 
          
“I
guessed that an’ was all set to knock yore gun up.”

 
          
“Whatever for?”
Sandy inquired.

 
          
“It
would ‘a’ turned that camp into a slaughter-pen. Now, we gotta keep cases on
Rogue an’ the herd, an’ be ready to sit in the game.”

 
          
“Yo’re
right, Jim,” the boy agreed. “I’m a durned fool.”

 
          
“Yu
said it,” his friend smiled. “There’s time when yore brain wouldn’t keep a flea
outa trouble.”

 
          
“Awright,
Solomon the Second,” Sandy grinned. “Mebbe yu can tell me who pulled the floor
from under us.”

 
          
“Rollitt
is my guess, but who put him up to it?” Sudden debated. “Was it Rogue, tryin’
to get rid of us, or that tinhorn card-cheat? An’ what’s he after, anyways?
Hell’s flames,
it’s
one fine tangle to unravel an’ we
got on’y loose ends.”

 
          
“Here’s
another,” Sandy contributed. “Baudry is goin’ in for cattle—startin’ a range
somewhere near the S E.”

 
          
Sudden
whistled and relapsed into a long silence. At dusk they camped in a dense
thicket of scrub and dwarf-oak little more than a mile to the right of the
herd, with which they had been keeping pace. They were building a small fire
when a low voice called, “Howdy, friends!” and a man slid from the shadows. The
flickering flame showed that it was Tyson.

 
          
“Didn’t
hear me a-comin’, did ye?” he asked, and chuckled at his own cleverness.

 
          
“We’re
glad to see yu,” Sudden said heartily.

 
          
When
the business of eating was concluded, the little man filled his pipe and looked
quizzically at his hosts. “So the S E has give yu the air?” he remarked.

 
          
“They
told yu?” Sandy queried.

 
          
“Ain’t
talked with ‘em,” Tyson said. “Here’s the how of it.
When yu
busted away an’ the Injuns took after yu, I follered.
Bein’ on the hoof,
I didn’t arrive till the fandango was finished. I collects them scalps yu left
lyin’ around, for which I’m thankin’ yu; worth ten wheels apiece, them
top-knots is, if yu know where to take ‘em. Then I trails yu, figurin’ yo’re
still in
dutch
an’ that mebbe I can turn the trick,
but I’m too late, yu’ve went. I points for the S E.”

 
          
“So
yu know all about it?”

 
          
Tyson
shook his head. “I ain’t clost enough to hear much, but my eyesight is fair an’
I’m a good guesser,” he said. “When I see Monte Jack in the company I knowed
dirty work was afoot.”

 
          
“Monte
Jack?” both his hearers repeated.

 
          
“Yeah, fella sittin’ next the gal.”

 
          
“He
calls hisself `Baudry’ now.”

 
          
“Like
enough, but he was knowed as Monte Jack in Kansas City less’n two year ago, an’
bad medicine. Catched cheatin’ at poker an’ shot the fella under the table—gun
on his knees, yu know. It warn’t the first time an’ he had to flit plenty
rapid. A close call for Monte, that was.”

 
          
“An’
Eden believes in him,” Sandy said.