Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 04 - Sudden Outlawed(1934) (12 page)

 
          
It
was Sandy, and despite himself, a note of suspicion crept into Sudden’s
question,

 
          
“What
are yu doin’ here?”

 
          
“Goin’
back to camp; what yu reckon?”

 
          
“Where
yu been?”

 
          
“Pickin’
flowers,”
came
the ironic reply.

 
          
“Quit
foolin’,” Sudden said sternly. “Sam Eden was shot from ‘bout here less’n a
quarter of an hour back.”

 
          
“Sam—Eden—shot?”
Sandy repeated.
“God!
An’ yo’re guessin’ I did it?”

 
          
“I
ain’t doin’ any guessin’,” Sudden told him. “I came to catch the skunk an’ bump
into yu. Come clean.”

 
          
“Is
he hurt
bad
?”

 
          
“I
didn’t wait to see; Jeff an’ some o’ the boys
is
there.
yu
ain’t answered my question.”

 
          
“I
had nothin’ to do with it, Jim,” the boy said hoarsely, “but it’s likely I saw
the fella.

 
          
Mebbe ten minutes or so ago, a mere shadow, slippin’ through the
bush.
I didn’t give it much attention—reckoned it was Lasker, goin’
after his hosses—but it may not have been him a-tall.

 
          
Hell!
it’ll
break his gal’s heart.” Sudden’s silence told
him there was more to say. “
yu
hear an owl hootin’
while we fed?” he asked.

 
          
“Yeah,
an’ judged he was a pretty early bird,” Sudden said.

 
          
The
other nodded. “Overlookin’ details like that’ll land Rogue’s neck in a noose
some day,” he remarked. “
yeah
, I saw him.”

 
          
Sudden’s
eyes narrowed. “When did he leave yu?”

 
          
“Pretty
near half an hour back—I didn’t hurry.”

 
          
“Then
he mighta done the shootin’?”

 
          
“Could
have—he had time, but it don’t fit with his plans.”

 
          
“We
better get back—it won’t look too good for us to be absent, an’ together,”
Sudden suggested. “We’ll have a powwow later.”

 
          
They
had almost reached the camp when Lasker pounded en up wail a strung of
night-horses. He stopped on seeing then “Heard about the ol’ Man bein’
bushwhacked, Lasker?”

 
          
Sudden
asked.

 
          
The
man’s surprise seemed genuine. “Hell, no;
who done
it?”

 
          
“Yore
guess is as good as mine,” was the reply.

 
          
“With
him cashed the drive ends, I s’pose,” the wrangler offered.

 
          
“Who
told yu he’s dead?” Sudden asked quietly, and then, “Well, mebbe he is; we’ll
soon know.”

 
          
The
camp was very still. The other men had sought their blankets but the foreman sat
near the fire, rifle beside him, and his face a mask of worry. He looked up as
the two friends approached; the horse-wrangler was seeing to his charges.

 
          
“This
is a turr’ble business, Jim,” he said, and sensing the question uppermost in
their minds, “No, Eden ain’t cashed—yet. We got him bedded down in the wagon,
an’ I’ve tended the wound—it ain’t the first time I’ve played doctor by a-many.
The slug went clean through an’ ‘pears to have missed the vital parts. Plenty
desperate, but it might be wuss; he’s got a fightin’ chance.”

 
          
“Then
he’ll make it,” Sudden said confidently. “He’s the fightin’ sort.”

 
          
“Beats
me who the murderin’ houn’ could be?” Jeff pondered.

 
          
“I
went to see if I could catch him but didn’t have
no
luck.” Sudden explained. “Sandy saw someone hot-footin’ through the brush an’
figured it was Lasker.”

 
          
“Lasker,
huh?” the foreman muttered. “Well, he’s a new hand, but there ain’t
no
reason.

 
          
Yu
boys better turn in—I’ll be needin’ yu presently; gotta have four men watchin’
the herd tonight.”

 
          
It
was two hours later when Jeff’s low voice awakened them —in those dangerous
days it was unwise to arouse a sleeper by touching him. They approached the
slumbering herd slowly, exchanged a few words with the men they had come to
relieve, and separated.

 
          
Sudden
was riding Nigger, for the night-horse has to be the surest-footed,
clearest-sighted,
most
intelligent of the cowboy’s
string of mounts. Knowing that the black would give instant warning of anything
wrong, the rider allowed himself to think. The cold-blooded attempt to remove
Eden had brought him definitely to the parting of the ways. He had little doubt
but that the outlaw chief had been concerned in it, and the thought of working
with men capable of such a deed sickened him. The world had given him the name,
but not the stomach, of a desperado.

 
          
Another
point which worried him was the attitude of Sandy. “The girl has him
spell-bound, an’ yet he’s runnin’ with Rogue,” he mused.

 
          
The
two things did not seem to jibe and he resolved to clear the situation at the
earliest opportunity. This came when, relieved in their turn, they were riding
slowly back to camp.

 
          
“I’m
puttin’ a plain question,” Sudden said. “Are yu workin’ for Rogue, or ain’t
yu?”

 
          
“I’m
given’ yu a plain answer,” Sandy replied. “To hell with
Rogue,
an’ yu can tell him I said so.
yu
may be in his debt
but I ain’t.
Sabe?”

 
          
Sudden’s
laugh was bitter. “I’ll tell yu what I owe him,” he said slowly.

 
          
Pacing
side by side in the ‘starlight, he could not see the listener’s face, but the
muttered exclamations the story evoked showed his interest. When it was ended,
Sandy drew a deep breath.

 
          
“My
Gawd, yu have shorely had a tough break, Jim,” he said. “I reckon all that’s
due Rogue from yu is a slug o’ lead.”

 
          
“Well,
he got me in a jam unmeanin’ an’ he certainly took a risk to get me out
again—which some wouldn’t,” Sudden replied. “Anyways,
it’s
past mendin’; even if I could prove I didn’t kill Judson, the San Antonio
affair an’ this other, would hang me.
yo’re
ridin’
with a shore-enough outlaw, Sandy.”

 
          
“An’
damn glad to be,” the boy said impulsively, thrusting out a fist. “I’m with yu
to the finish, Jim, whatever it may be.” Sudden gripped the hand; it did him
good to feel that he had a friend who, knowing
all,
trusted him.

 
          
“I’m
obliged,” he said simply. “When I joined this outfit my mind was all
twisty-ways an’

 
          
I
didn’t know what I was goin’ to do. Now, I’ve got things straightened out; I’m
on Sam Eden’s pay-roll.”

 
          
“That
goes for me too,” Sandy rejoined. “We’ll beat that gang o’ chaparral thieves
yet.”

 
          
Immediately
after breakfast, the foreman called a meeting of all the men in camp to discuss
what should be done. Lasker was the first to speak:

 
          
“Nothin’
for it but to turn back, fur as I
c’n see
.”

 
          
“Then
yore eyesight ain’t what it oughta be,” Sudden put in. “I’m for goin’ on; the

 
          
Ol’
Man’ll want.
that
, I’m bettin’.” Other opinions, for
and against, were expressed and in the middle of the argument a hail from the
cook apprised Jeff that his employer wanted him. From his bed in the wagon the
rancher glared at his foreman.

 
          
“What’s
all the chatter about?” he asked in a weak but angry voice. “Why ain’t yu
startin’ the herd?”

 
          
“We
was
sorta settlin’ which way to go,” the foreman
excused.

 
          
“There’s
on’y one, yu ol’ fool—north’ards,” Eden snapped, and then, as comprehension
came to him, “Yu wasn’t thinkin’ o’ goin’ back?”

 
          
Jeff
looked uneasy. “Well, yu see, Sam, we figured yu oughta have proper medical
attention,” he explained.

 
          
The
patient’s pale face grew red with rage. “Medical attention, huh?” he sneered. “
yu
talk like a perfessor, an’ a damn silly one at that. D’yu
reckon
I’ve never been shot afore? Pretty fine outfit
I got if yo’re goin’ to turn tail an’ run at the first bit o’ trouble.”

 
          
“That’s
not fair, Dad,” Carol reproved. “They are thinking of you.”

 
          
“Yo’re
right, honey,” Eden said. “I didn’t mean that, Jeff, but yu can cut out the
doctor-talk—I don’t need
no
help to die. An’ let me
hear no more o’ goin’ back; we’ll take this herd through come hell or high
water. Now, git them cows movin’, or I’ll be up an’ see to it my own self.”

 
          
“An’,
by Christmas, he’d ‘a’ tried it,” Jeff said, when he reported the conversation
to the others. “Stubborn as two mules, ol’ Sam is, an’ tough as rawhide. They
say he once rode fifty miles with a busted leg—tied hisself to the saddle,
knowin’ if he fell off he’d never git on again.”

 
          
The
only man who did not seem pleased was Lasker. “It’s a fool play,” he said
sullenly.

 
          
“He’ll
never make the trip—we’ll have to plant him.”

 
          
“Awright,
we won’t ask yu to dig the hole,” Jeff retorted. “Take care o’ yor hosses—we’re
shorely goin’ to need ‘em.” Sudden had a small investigation to make. In a
patch of bare earth in the brush from whence the shot had
come
he found clear prints of a pair of moccasins, and scorched shrivelled leaves
showed where the weapon had been fired through the foliage. With a strip of
rawhide he measured the marks, making knots to indicate the width and length.
His search for further footprints proved fruitless.

 
          
“Either
made his getaway over grass or wanted them tracks to be seen,” was his muttered
conclusion.

 
          
Dismissing
the matter for the moment he rode to the river, where preparations for crossing
were in full swing. Conditions were favourable, shelving banks, and not much
current.

 
          
Already
the cattle, grazed and watered, were being strung out and headed for the
stream. Jeff, bawling orders right and left, was watching the operation.

 
          
The
riders who had to guide the herd across the stream had stripped to the middle,
also removing boots and saddles, and were shivering in the keen morning air.
One of them had already made the trip, returning with the tidings that the bed
of the river seemed fairly firm and the deep water not too extensive.

 
          
“Don’t
rush ‘em, boys,” the foreman instructed. “Haze ‘em along gradual-like but keep
‘em movin’. We want to be over before the sun gits too high, an’
these damn streams is
liable to rise mighty sudden.”

 
          
There
was little trouble; the leading steers, when they felt the cold water sweeping
beneath their bellies, tried to retreat, but the watchful riders, with quirts
and the ends of their ropes kept them from turning and soon they took the
plunge and swam steadily for the opposite bank.