Shoot-out at Split Rock (4 page)

Jee-ru-sa-lem!" breathed one fervently. "That'll be a change, won't it?" ^ A^diu oe

The foreman came up in time to hear the remark and gnnned as he delivered another blow

"We begin road-brandin' in the momin', boys " Sudden had a word with Sandy. "We joined this outfit too soon," he said whunsically. "We'd oughta ^^ted Si ' they was ready to drive" ^ ^

ire. how ,0 label lonSoms." ^- ^' " '''°" *«^ '"""-TTie branding promised to be a bie job rh,.f« „„

KTe^deaU ir*"' °^"■1 '^' ^^ -" »^3 work wia Ws Wend ^FaT^^^' ^"^^"^ '°'"«' •>« *^^ '» die Of sbr,L?o^^t ^t\°anT "^"^^ '°' '^' ^ "-over^^;^.-------:,?.em bawHn- bm.es

ineyU come so quickly you'll eet diTTv " f),o , man promised "I'li t^oU >"uii gei oizzy, the young m^ promisea 1II make you think it's rainin' cow^ » Sudden smiled at the boyish boa.«;t w^nTi, -.

S^'oTS; ZtaY '^^etncrhetuM^*;

.he tie-^anll-b^rS Srcl^blu'^i^ranrji

ened calves blatted as they were hauled willy-nilly to the fire. The shouts and rough banter of the riders merged with the rattle of horn in the milling herd. Sudden, looking up in a moment of respite, found Eden watching him.

"Good work, Green," he said, and as Sandy with a whoop rushed up another unwilling victim, roped and threw it, he added: "Yore friend seems to Imaw his job, too."

He rode off without waiting for a reply, and Sudden was glad; the praise worried him. He stole a glance at Sandy—^who was freeing his rope from the helpless steer —and was surprised to see that the boy's face was redder than ev^n the fierce sim and his exertions warranted. He too, had heard what the cattleman had said.

"Damnation!" he growled, wheeled his horse, and vanished in a flurry of dust.

"You boys have certainly made a hit with Sam," the foreman commented as he pressed the hot iron home. "He ain*t too fond o' givin the glad word, neither, but he's a good boss."

Sudden grunted an agreement. He liked the outfit, and its owner, and he was ^ere to help ruin him. He tried to teU himself that the world, having made him an outiaw, was to blame for any consequences, but he could not make the argument convincing.

"Told you I'd make you hustie, didn't I?" Sandy said, a littie later.

** 'Pears to me some other feUa fetches along a steer now an' then," Sudden replied, as he mopped his dirt-streaked features. "Say, I got an idea. You swap jobs with me tomorrow an' you won't have to worry 'bout shavin'. "

"Nothin' doin'. Wouldn't change places with you for a blue stack."

Sandy shot off toward the herd and had almost reached it when he saw something which made him swerve suddenly; a nearly branded steer, mad with rage and pain, was rushing full at Carol Eden, who, intent on her charges, did not see it. With a yeU of warning, Sandy raced and swung his rope. The loop dropped over the brute's horns and with a flip, he sent the slack over the rump and spurred his mount to the left, jerking the hind legs from under the steer. As it crashed down, the girl

became aware of her danger and jumped her pony away. The fall had taken the fight out of the steer; as soon as the rope was removed it scrambled to its feet and lumbered off. Carol's face was pale.

"Thank you," she smiled. "I'm afraid you'll think I'm a tenderfoot to be caught like that."

Sandy's customary assurance had deserted him; he was the picture of confusion. Also, he was finding breathing difficult, for it had indeed been a near thing; had he

missed his throw He shuddered at what might have

been.

"You are Mister Green's friend, aren't you?" she asked. "He came to my assistance, too, so I'm now obliged to both of you. I ought to be glad you joined the outfit."

"I'm hopin' you will be," Sandy managed to say, and, as he saw his employer approaching, "Gosh, I'm forget-tin' I got a job."

And he dragged a complaining calf on the end of his rope to the branding fire.

Days passed. The weather remained fine, feed was plentiful on the plain, aad the branded cattle gave no trouble.

"For which, thank the Lawd," Jeff said fervently. "If them critters took it into their fool heads to stampede, it'd be just merry hell."

Even when the herd was complete, much remained to be done. The big covered wagon, with its team of six mules, had to be overhauled and loaded with provisions. The remuda had to be selected—five horses for each man —weapons and ammunition prepared. Twelve men, including the rancher and the cook, were to accompany the herd, two older members of the outfit remaining behind to "hold down the ranch." These preparations entailed constant effort, for Eden was eager to start. So httle did he spare his men that, but for the fact that he worked as hard as any of them, there might have been discontent.

Sudden had httle chance to converse with his friend during these days of stress, for the brief hours of rest were too precious to be wasted, but he got more or less acquainted with the other members of the outfit and decided that Sam Eden was a good judge of men. Rough,

reckless, and shabby-looking in their coarse trousers, blue shirts and leather "leggin's"—they did not call them "chaps"—they were nevertheless capable. One only he did not approve of—a newcomer like himself—a big, dark, bewhlskered fellow named Lasker, who was in charge of the remuda, a position which was poorly regarded in a cow camp. He knew nothing against the man but instinctively distrusted him.

"He's got mean eyes," he explained to Sandy.

"Well, I dessay the horses won't mind," was the reply.

Sudden looked at him thoughtfully. The boy had changed since they had joined the S-E; his gay impudence had gone, to be replaced by a moody irritability. "He's pretty near played out, like the rest of us," was his unspoken reflection, but he knew it was not a satisfactory solution, for bone weary as all the men were, enthusiasm prevailed, whereas Sandy appeared disgruntled, sick of the whole business.

"Jeff tells me we're all set for an early start tomorrow,'* Sudden'offered.

' "Itll be a reUef to get away from this blasted plain," was aU Sandy had to say.

When the rancher and his daughter made their appearance in the morning they were accompanied by Baudry. Together they inspected the herd.

'They look good to me, but surely you have some oldish stuff amongst them," the gambler commented.

"Oh, I reckon they'll pass with the rest," Eden said. **You remember what the foreman o' one o' the early drives told the buyer who made the same complaint? *Stranger,' he says, 'if you'd bin through half what them critters has, you'd look twice yore age.'"

Baudry laughed. "Well, you know your business, Sam, and I wish you aU the luck there is," he rejoined. "I'll be coming north myself and shall expect to see you. Hear of the kiUing at Littleton?"

This was a settlement some thirty miles distant, and the ranch having had no visitors was without news. Eden said as much.

"Coolest thing ever," Baudry went on. "A stranger steps into Gregg's saloon just after dusk, shoots the dealer at the monte table, collects aU the cash in sight and backs

out. When the company comes to life agam, he's clean away."

"Another o' Rogue's capers, I s'pose?" the rancher said.

"They say not, unless he's got a new hand," Baudry replied. "From his looks, and a remark he made, he was Sudden, the Fourways and San Antonio killer." A rider on a big black horse, waiting to assist in starting the herd, caught his eye. "Why, that might be the fellow, by the description," he finished.

"What, Green?" the cattleman grinned. "He's been tied to the camp pretty tight the last two weeks. No, Jethro, there ain't no murderers in this outfit; Jim's aU right."

The young man heard the words but they brought him no satisfaction; the gambler's harsh voice had also carried to where he sat and the bitterness he had been trying to blot out of his life had overwhelmed him again. Another crime had been unjustly placed to his discredit. The world was determined that he should be an outiaw. Very well, since there was no other way . . .

He came out of his dark musing to find that the word had been given and the herd was already on the move, the point riders leading the way, the swing and flank men stringing the cattle out into a long fine. Two men looked after the "drag," and behind came the remuda, in charge of the horse wrangler, and the wagon. The Great Adventure had begun.

For the first week or so their trail would pass, for the most part, over the open plain, and Eden gave orders to push the herd hard so that it would arrive at the bedding-ground too tired to have any thought of breaking back to the thorny thickets from which it had been driven. In these early stages of the drive, twenty to twenty-five miles per day would be covered, to drop to half the distance later on.

Under the blazing sun the herd tramped steadily on. No great difficulty was anticipated until they crossed the Colorado River, the country south of that being familiar to most of the men. Nightfall found them camped near a httle creek. For Sudden, riding moodily round the herd, watching first one and then another, sink down to sleep, the night brought only the opportunity to brood over his

own troubles. Little more than half a mile away he could see the gleam of the campfire; if the men sitting round it knew who he was, they would hang him before dawn. And for this he had to thank Rogue, whom he was there to serve. Idly he wondered what the outlaw was doing, or about to do, and then swore savagely that he did not care. Which was not the truth.

Having watched the herd depart and waved an ironical fareweU, Baudry turned his horse's head toward San Antonio. Five miles along the trail, squatting with his back against a spreading cedar, a man was waiting. Baudry got down, glad to avail himself of the shade.

"Well, Navajo, the S-E drive has started," he said. "What are Rogue's plans?"

The half-breed grinned unpleasantly. "You better ask him," he retorted. "His word was that he'd do the job—his own way."

The gambler's face reddened but he summoned a smile. "Suits me, so long as it's done," he rephed. "Sam seems pretty confident."

"He ain't got a chanct," the other stated.

"I think he has," Baudry said coolly. "In fact, I have so strong a belief in my friend Eden's courage and determination that I'd be willing to wager that hell take his cattle through and return safely to his ranch."

The ruffian laughed evilly. "Shore you would," he sneered. "How much?"

"One thousand dollars."

"I'm takin' yore bet. Give it to me in writin'—I got a shockin' memory." The jeer in the man's voice was insulting, but Baudry chose to ignore it.

"You needn't worry, I always pay my debts,** he said.

Nevertheless, he wrote a few words in a notebook, tore out the page and passed it to the other. Navajo grinned as he tucked it away in a pocket.

"Money from home," he chuckled. "This ain't nothin* to do with Rogue, you savvy? So long."

The gambler stood watching his receding form, a heavy sneer on his thick hps.

'There's more than one way of paying a debt, you scum," he snarled. "When you've served your purpose.. .*'

Four

The Colorado River had been reached without incident, and the S-E drive was camped on the south bank waiting for daylight to make the crossing. Supper was over, and the foreman, Sudden, and several others were smoking beside the fire. There was a thicket to the right of the camp— the first timber they had seen for days—and the cook was busy chopping wood and loading it into the rawhide slung beneath die wagon.

"Well, trail-drivin* suits me. Why, it won't be no trick atall to push the bunch into Kansas." This from the gangling youth known as "Infant." The foreman surveyed him sardonically.

"Bein* a kid I s'pose you gotta talk like one," he said. "If you think it's all to be like this you got another guess comin'. An' that kind o' yap is shore unlucky. Ol' Man Trouble alius camps on the tail of a trail herd, an' we'll hear from him soon enough without askin' for it."

"That's so," agreed another, who, being reputed to be the biggest liar in Texas, was called "Truthful." "I remember once..."

"Forget it twice," Jeff snapped. "What's come o' Sands? He ain't with the herd!"

No one seemed to know. He had eaten with the rest of them and then slipped away. Sudden had seen him go and smothered an impulse to follow because he had a feeling that the boy had avoided him of late. He glanced round the camp, but there was no sign of the missing man. Against the dark background of the trees the little tent used by the women gleamed whitely. A few yards away from it, Sam Eden leaned on the wagon tongue and chatted witii the cook. Then, out of a thick tangle of bushes some forty paces from the wagon came a spurt of flame, followed by the vicious crack of a gun, and the sturdy figure of the rancher staggered and fell.

"Hell's bells!" Jeff cried, and ran to the stricken man.

The others followed, all save Sudden, who raced for the spot whence the shot had come. Noiselessly he searched, peering into the gloomy depths of the brush, listening for

the snap of a breaking twig which would tell of a stealthy retreat, but he saw and heard nothing. Then came a careless foot step, a slouching figure swung into view and halted at Sudden's curt command.

" 'Low, Jim, What's the bright idea, stickin' up yore friends?" asked a familiar voice.

It was Sandy, and despite himself, a note of suspicion crept into Sudden's question. "What are you doin' here?"

"Goin 'back to camp; what you reckon?"

"Where you 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 you. Come clean."

"Is he hurt bad?"

"I didn't wait to see; Jeff an' some o* the boys is there. You ain't answered my question."

"I had nothin' to do witii it, Jim," the boy said hoarsely, "but it's hkely I saw the fella. Mebbe ten minutes or so ago, a mere shadow sUppin' through the bush. I didn't give it much attention—reckoned it was Lasker, goin' after his bosses—^but it may not have been him atall. Hell! it'll break his gal's heart." Sudden's silence told him there was more to say. "You hear an owl hootin' while we fed?" he asked.