Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 01 - The Range Robbers(1930) (45 page)

 
          
Green
had no eyes for the beauty through which they passed; outwardly calm, he was
inwardly consumed with rage at the thought that Noreen might be at the mercy of
a man like Tarman, and his one aim was to get to her as quickly as possible.
Since his companion was equally eager they wasted no more time than was
necessary over their meals. So it came about that it was still light when they
neared their destination and halted to settle upon a plan of procedure.
Securely hidden in the thick undergrowth, they could see the ranch buildings a
few hundred yards away. Two spirals of smoke showed that they were occupied,
and the number of ponies in the corral suggested that most of the men were
about. Slipping from his own mount, Green cautiously worked his way to a
position from which he could view the animals in the enclosure. Presently he
was back again, his face hard with anger.

 
          
“Her
hoss is there an’ it’s a safe bet the girl is in the ranch-house, where the
foreman lives,’ he said. “I’m goin’ to get her. If yu don’t hear nothin’ from
me in an hour, fork yore cayuse an’ fetch Job an’ the boys.’

 
          
Larry
demurred. “We’d stand a better chance if both of us tackled the job. This
messenger-play don’t appeal
none
to me.’

 
          
“Don’t
yu ever use that head for anythin’ but keepin’ yore ears apart?’ asked his
friend sarcastically. “No, it ain’t a bit o’ good yu cussin’ me, yu gotta do as
I say,
she’s
the on’y trail out. So long, an’ don’t yu
come bustin’ in if yu hear guns goin’.
Head for the Y Z,
pronto.’

 
          
“But,
see here—’ began Larry, and then discovered he was talking to the empty air.
“Blamed idjut,’ he concluded, and sat down to wait.

 
          
Green
crawled to a point where the bushes most nearly approached the buildings, and
then, in the deepening dusk, darted across the open space and gained the rear
of the ranch-house. The door proved to be latched only and cat-footing along a
passage, he came to another door, partly open, from which a gleam of light
shone. Peeping in, he saw Jeffs sitting at the table, laboriously inscribing
figures on a sheet of paper before him. Apparently the task was both a pleasant
and engrossing one for he was smiling, and did not notice the gradual opening
of the door and the entry of a visitor.

 
          
“Stick
‘em up,’
came
a curt command.

 
          
With
a jerk the foreman’s head lifted, and his hands quickly followed when he saw
the weapon and realised who held it. “Sudden?’ he gasped.

 
          
“All
o’ that,’ responded Green grimly. “Now, speak low an’ talk straight. Where’s
Miss Petter?’

 
          
“Never
heard of her,’ replied Jeffs sullenly.

 
          
“Don’t
lie,’ Green told him. “Yo’re about two seconds from hell right now. Come clean
or

 
          
The
tone betrayed no anger but there was a cold deadliness in it which told the
other that he must speak or die. He was a brave man and had gambled his life on
a chance many a time, but here there was no chance.

 
          
“There’s
a skirt upstairs in a back room,’ he admitted. “Somethin’ Spider took a fancy
to, I s’pose. I dunno who she is.’

       
“Stand up an’ face the wall,’ Green
said shortly.

 
          
Stripped
of his weapons, gagged, and tied securely in his chair, Jeffs still eyed his
captor’s movement with a sardonic expression which, had Green noted it, might
have aroused his suspicion, but his mind was too full of his purpose. Having
fixed the prisoner to his satisfaction, he set out in search of the girl. The
first two rooms he came to were open and empty, but the door of the third was
locked.

 
          
“Yu
there, Miss Norry?’ he asked, in low voice.

 
          
“Yes,’
came the reply. “Who is that?’

 
          
He
told her, with a warning to stand clear while he burst the door open. One
thrust from his powerful shoulder broke the flimsy lock, and the light of a
guttering candle disclosed her sitting on a ramshackle bed, her bound hands
before her.

 
          
“No
time to talk,’ he said, as he severed her bonds, stuffing a curse when he saw
where the thong had chafed her wrists. “We gotta get outa this. Larry’s waitin’
with the hosses.’

 
          
Cautioning
the girl to follow him as quietly as possible he stole down the stairs. All
went well until he had nearly reached the bottom and then his foot caught in a
rope and he pitched headlong down the last few steps. As he fell, two men
sprang upon him and a jarring blow on the head knocked the senses out of him.

 
          
He
returned to consciousness to find himself in the room where he had left Jeffs a
prisoner, but now the position was reversed, for his own wrists and ankles were
tightly bound. As the mist caused by the blow he had received cleared from his
brain, he realised the extent of the disaster which had befallen him, and how
it had come about. Evidently after he had gone upstairs, Taxman and his gang
had come upon the scene, and finding the foreman, had laid a trap. They were
all there, these men who hated him, and were now watching him with malignant amusement.
The girl was not present. Tarman greeted him with a mocking bow.

 
          
“This
is shore an unexpected pleasure,’ he sneered. “If our welcome seems a trifle
rough, yu must put it down to the boys’ delight at yore return to the fold, an’
their desire to keep yu with us for a little while.’

 
          
The
victim’s head was throbbing with pain, and he looked for nothing but death ere
an hour had passed, but he forced a contemptuous smile to his lips as he
replied :

 
          
“I
ain’t complainin’,’

 
          
“Spoken
like a true knight-errant. The brave outlaw dashes to the rescue of the fair
damsel an’ runs his silly neck slap into a noose,’ Tarman jeered. “Bit reckless
to tackle this job single-handed, wasn’t it, Sudden?’

 
          
“Mebbe
it was,’ Green agreed. So they knew nothing of Larry, and by this time the boy
should be well on his way to the Y Z. “I reckon yu hold all the cards,’ he
added.

 
          
“Shore
I do, an’ what’s more, I’m agoin’ to let yu see how I intend to play ‘em,’
Tarman returned. “After which, we’ll attend to yore case.’

 
          
“Why
not hang the swab right now an’ have done with it?’ suggested Dexter. “He knows
too much.’

 
          
Tarman
whirled on the speaker with such a baleful glare that the Double X man
instinctively shrank back.

 
          
“He’ll
know more before I’ve done with him,’ he said. “An’ so will some others if they
try an’ ride me.’ He waited a moment but Dexter had nothing to say. “Now we’ll
get on with the business.’

 
          
Standing
there, his thumbs hooked in his gun-belt, he dominated them all, and even Green
had to admit that man possessed power, misdirected though it undoubtedly was.
Tarman was in a good humour, everything was coming his way, and the capture of
the outlaw seemed to remove his last difficulty. But though he smiled, he
watched the men before him warily; he was not of the trusting type.

 
          
“Here’s
how we stand,’ he began. “Old Simon is peggin’ out, an’ when he’s gone the Y Z
comes to me.’

 
          
“What
about his daughter?’ asked Blaynes. “Ain’t it willed to her?’

 
          
“She
ain’t his daughter—no relation at all, an’ if there ever was such a will it
don’t exist now,’ explained Tarman, and a meaning chuckle went round the room.
“The Frying Pan is wide open—Leeming an’ his outfit are lookin’ for what they
won’t
find,
an’ to-morrow mornin’ we go an’ take what
we want. I reckon then he’ll be glad to sell on my terms, an’ holdin’ them two
ranches’ll give me the say-so in these parts. Then
there’s
the cattle; after to-morrow’s clean-up, there should be pretty nigh two
thousand head, an’ that’ll mean a heavy wad o’ money for every one o’ yu. On
top o’ that, I’ll
be needin’
men to run the ranches
an’ there’ll be big pay for any or all o’ yu. Don’t make no mistake—I’m agoin’
to swing a wide loop an’ fellers who tie to me get their share.’

 
          
“King o’ the Rangers, eh, Joe?’
Laban said.

 
          
Tarman
laughed. “Shore, an’, boys, there’ll be plenty pickin’s, believe me.’

 
          
He
paused and looked round, confident of the effect of his speech, and he was not
disappointed. To Green’s astonishment, the men seemed pleased; apparently they
could not see that the big rogue had used them merely to grab the lion’s share
of the plunder himself. Tarman was clever; he knew that to these men land would
have small appeal in comparison with the hard cash to be realised by the sale
of the stolen cattle, and that in all probability his followers were thinking
they had the better of the deal. But all of them were not so satisfied, for
Blaynes had listened to his leader with a face which grew more and more
discontented. Evidently things were not panning out as he expected.

 
          
“What
yu aimin’ to do with the girl?’ he asked, and there was a hint of hostility in
his tone.

 
          
Tarman
looked at him. “I’m aimin’ to do what—I—please,’ he said coolly.

 
          
“She
was to be part o’ my share; yu said it,’ Blaynes rasped, his voice husky with
anger.

 
          
“I
hadn’t seen her then,’ Tarman grinned, and several of the others laughed.

 
          
The
Y Z foreman did not join in. Standing in the middle of the room, slightly
crouching, with head thrust forward and malevolent
eyes,
he was indeed the human presentment of a reptile about to strike. Even his
voice had a hiss in it.

 
          
“She
was promised to me an’ I mean to have her—an’ a share in the ranch,’ he said.
“Double-cross me, Tarman, an’ I’ll put a crimp in yore schemes if I have to
give myself up to the Governor o’ the Territory to do it.’

 
          
Tarman
regarded him curiously, alert for the slightest movement; he knew the man meant
what he said and that tragedy threatened. He had expected trouble over the
girl, but not that Blaynes would push it to the point of open insubordination.
In a moment he had made his decision.

 
          
“Hell’s
bells, there’s plenty o’ pretty girls, Blaynes,’ he laughed, “but if yo’re set
on this one, well, yu shall have her—when I’ve done with her.’

 
          
The
taunt was deliberate, intentional; it was a challenge, and a deadly silence
followed it. For a heart-stopping half-minute Blaynes stood as though frozen,
only his eyes glaring hatred at the man who mocked him. Then the fingers of his
hanging right hand slowly opened claw-like, and with an almost inarticulate
oath he snatched at his gun. To the onlookers the reports seemed to be
simultaneous, but then, through the swirling smoke, they saw the Y Z foreman
stagger under the shock of the heavy bullet, and, as his knees gave way, pitch
forward to the floor, his weapon clattering beside him. Twisting in a last
agony, he shook his fist at Tarman and
cried :

 
          
“Damn
yu, Webb, yu got me, but yore own time ain’t far off, yu treacherous hound.’

 
          
He
rolled over and was silent. Tarman, his gun poised for a second shot, watched
him with narrowed, relentless gaze. Then, seeing that all was ended, he thrust
the weapon back into the holster.

 
          
“Well,
boys, yu all heard what he threatened an’ seen him go for his-gun,’ he said.
“Anybody want to take up his end of it?’

 
          
“Even
break; he got what was comin’ to him, the sneakin’ cur,’ said Pete, and that
seemed to be the general opinion.