Sudden Rides Again (1938) s-4 Read online

The blood left her cheeks and she said no more.

  Chapter IX

  A week passed and life on the Double K ranch pursued the even tenor of its way. The two punchers continued to patrol the northern boundary, but encountered no further sign of rustlers. Twice Sudden climbed again to Battle Mesa. His explanation to his companion--received with profane disbelief--was that the lady might give information of use when it came to an open clash with Hell City.

  "Just wastin' yore time," Frosty said. "If she's Satan's woman, she'll be talkin' on his side; yu'll on'y get lies."

  "Dessay yo're right, for once," the other conceded. "Allasame, she could let slip a pointer, unmeanin'."

  A small discovery puzzled Sudden. Rummaging in his. war-bag one evening, he found that something was missing. This was a roughly printed notice offering the sum of five hundred dollars for the capture of--himself, wanted for robbery and murder. Though it had been issued some years earlier, the descriptions both of man and horse were sufficiently near to make recognition almost inevitable. It bore the name of the sheriff of Fourways, Texas. Sudden had brought it for a definite purpose, and he wished to use it in his own way. He went at once to the ranch-house.

  "Well, Green, what's the trouble?" his employer asked. "None a-tall, seh--yet," Sudden replied, adding, "Yu hired me in the dark."

  "I backed my judgment."

  "Yeah, an' I'm askin' yu to keep on doin' that, no matter what tale comes to yu. Mebbe yu'll be shown what 'pears to be, an' is, certain proof, but I want yu to remember I'm playin' straight with yu, right to the end o' the game."

  The rancher sat silent, considering the maker of this odd request, but he could read nothing in the lean, tanned, immobile face. From the first he had taken to this competent-looking stranger, instinct with youth yet moulded by experience into a man. Had his own son been of this type ..

  He dismissed the thought with a gesture of impatience.

  "This is all very mysterious, Green," he said.

  "I'm askin' a whole lot, seh," the puncher admitted.

  "Very well," Keith said. "After all, a person's past is no concern of other folks, except perhaps--a sheriff's."

  Sudden was not to be drawn. "I'm thankin' yu, seh."

  From his seat on the verandah the Colonel watched his visitor return to the bunkhouse, moving with a long swinging stride which told of supple joints and perfectly coordinating muscles.

  "He moves like a cougar," he murmured. "Wonder what he's done? Doesn't look a desperate character, but ..." The gravel crunched as the foreman came hurrying up. "Anything to report, Steve?"

  "Betcha life," Lagley replied triumphantly. "That fella vu took on, who calls hisself Green, dropped this. Might interest yu."

  The rancher read the damning document slowly. "The descriptions arc certainly similar, but that may be just a coincidence," he said.

  "What's he totin' it around for, then?"

  "As a curiosity, perhaps. If it really concerned himself, I imagine he would have destroyed it."

  "Oh, these killers have their pride," Lagley fleered. "As for it bein' him, there ain't no doubt; Turvey was in Texas 'bout the time this hombre was raisin' hell there, an' had to skip 'cause things got too lively. No, he never seen him, but afriend o' his was rubbed out tryin' to stop this Sudden when he made a getaway from San Antonio, with a sheriff's posse behind him."

  Keith deliberated. This was the tale he had been warned might come to him. The new hand had discovered his loss and acted promptly; that was the kind of man he wanted. "What do you suppose brought him here?" was his question.

  "Headed for Hell City, I'd say," the foreman replied. "Then he runs into trouble with Roden an' figures it ain't goin' to make him over-welcome there, so when yu push a job at him he naturally jumps at it."

  "Admirably reasoned."

  "An' yu can add that Mister Satan would be damn glad to put on his pay-roll a fella already on yourn."

  -

  "That seems possible."

  "Shore as death," the other rejoined. "Point is, what yu goin' to do? Me, I'd boot him off'n the ranch."

  "Having first obtained his permission, of course," the Colonel said drily. "No, if he's the man you claim, he's dangerous, and it would be poor policy to present him to the enemy. Here, we can keep an eye on his activities. Do the men know?"

  "I ain't told nobody, but Turvey may have talked."

  "If so, it can't be helped. Give Green to understand that his past doesn't matter, and especially, that I am ignorant of it. Keep him tied to Homer--I think that lad is loyal, and we shall have news of any treachery."

  "Well, yo're the boss, but it's takin' a devil of a risk," Lagley grimaced.

  For some time after the foreman had departed, Keith sat in the gathering gloom, chewing at the butt of his cigar, thinking the situation over. He could not doubt what he had heard, for Green himself had admitted that the tale would be true. The puzzling point was the presence of a notorlous outlaw, presumably fleeing from justice, in that part of the country, if it were not to seek sanctuary in Hell City. Texas was a long way off, but other offences might have been committed since, perhaps in Arizona, necessitating a hiding-place.

  "It certainly seems that Steve must be right," he mused aloud. "All the same, I don't believe it."

  "Don't believe what, yu ol' slave-owner?" boomed a big voice from a few yards distant. "That the North beat the South? Well, they did; I was there, an' seen it."

  Keith stood up. "Hello, Martin, I hear you've been rustling some of my cows," he retaliated. "Come right in."

  "Druv over a-purpose to pay yu for 'em."

  "Why?" the Double K man snorted. "You and your damned Yankee Government didn't mind stealing my niggers, so--"

  A slim form slipped from the lighted window which led on to the verandah. "If you two are going to fight the Civil War all over again, supper will be ruined," Joan said. "Good evening, Mister Merry; I fancied I recognized your voice."

  "Yu know darned well there ain't another like it in Arizony," the visitor responded, and shook a warning finger at her. "Don't yu go gettin' sarcastic--one in yore family is a-plenty. An' yu needn't to `mister' me neither, just because yu got a good-lookin' new rider; he ain't half the man I am, anyways."

  "Just about, I should guess," she dimpled, with a calculating glance at the other's squat bulk, "but he's more--distributed."

  "Yu sassy young chipmunk--"

  The voice of the host intervened. "Stop wrangling, you--infants; I'm hungry. And Joan, you'd better hear what I have just learned before you decide to fall in love with Green."

  "I haven't the remotest intention of doing so," she laughed. "It would break Martin's heart."

  "Shore would," the fat man agreed. "I'd have to shoot him up, an' I'm admittin' that's a task I wouldn't fancy."

  "You'll fancy it less presently," Keith said sardonically. During the meal, he told his news. The Twin Diamond owner nodded his head, as though not surprised.

  "A gunman, huh?" he commented. "Guessed he warn't just an ornery cow-punch. Sudden! Seem to have heard of him some time, but ... What arc yu goin' to do, Ken?"

  "Watch him," the rancher replied, "an' if he's straight, use him to clean up that den of infamy in the hills." Merry looked at the girl, whose face was now pale; he knew of what she was thinking. His own expression belied his name.

  "A clean-up means on'y one thing to such a man," he stated. "Does he know about--Jeff?"

  Keith's aristocratic features might have been carved in white marble. "Yes," he said, in a cold, passionless tone which effectually closed the subject.

  In the bunkhouse, Sudden soon sensed an air of restraint in regard to himself. He caught some of the outfit eyeing him furtively, and, while no one deliberately avoided him, even the men he knew best appeared to be afflicted with a feeling of awkwardness utterly foreign to their care-free souls. Evidently the purloiner of the placard had lost no time in making use of it. Frosty was not there, having gone to Dugout, and Sudden speculated, rath
er bitterly, whether the new friendship would stand the strain. Presently the foreman threw back the door and called him outside.

  "They figure I'm goin' to be fired," he reflected.

  Lagley went to the point at once. "The 01' Man sent for me," he began. "Someone has told him that yo're a Texas outlaw named Quick, no, that ain't it--Sudden--knowed it was somethin' to do with speed. He's mighty sore, said for me to give yu yore time, pronto."

  The darkness hid the cowboy's smile; he knew the man was lying, and had his answer ready. In an aggrieved tone, he said: "So that's his sort? All right, I'll take the trail straight away; Black Sam'll put me up."

  This, as he had expected, was not to Lagley's liking. "Hold on," he cried. "Hell, they got yu named right. I spoke up for yu--told Ken he was doin' a damn-fool thing, seein' yo're the kind o' fella we can use. He give in--usually does, when I stand up to him," he concluded boastfully.

  "Why, that's mighty good o' yu, Steve. Who put him wise?"

  "I dunno; all he said was that one o' the boys reckernized yu, an' that don't tell much--we git 'em from all over."

  Sudden nodded. "I'm obliged to yu. I warn't honin' to travel; this is a good ranch."

  "It would be a better one if young Jeff was in charge," the foreman said meaningly. "Some of us would like to see it. Keith has changed a lot of late; goin' loco, I'd say. If anythin' happened to him, well, I don't fancy bein' bossed by a gal."

  "Wouldn't suit me neither," Sudden replied. "Yu figure the boy ain't such a hard case, huh?"

  "Oh, he's tough all right, an' yu can't wonder. But he's a swell leader an'--generous. I ain't askin' yu to take my word; go see for yoreself."

  The puncher laughed grimly. "I guess I wouldn't be very popular in Hell City."

  "That needn't to worry yu. If yo're there to see him, nobody will dare cock an eye at yu; he's got the whole b'ilin' waitin' on his word."

  "Yu seem to know him."

  "Know him?" Lagley repeated. "Shore I do, since he was a pup; worked with him on the range, an' hope to again. Now, see here, Green, I didn't cotton to yu right off--mebbe it was that trick yu played when we first met, but a fella's a fool if he can't change his mind for good reason. I guess we understand one another better now. Think over what I've said, an' if yu wanta see Satan, I can fix it. Yu sabe?"

  Sudden did. He had learned what he wanted--that the foreman was a traitor, willing to double-cross his employer, and that he and others of the outfit were already planning to put the son in the father's place. The idea of Lagley interceding with Keith on his behalf amused him; either he was making the best of what he regarded as a bad job, or setting a trap for a man he did not like.

  "An' that man is goin' to walk right into it," he told himself. "But not with his eyes shut, Mister Steve."

  When he returned to the bunkhouse, he found the atmosphere altered, evidently the foreman had been talking. Genial looks greeted him from all save one--Turvey's warped, malignant mind retained its rancour despite the instructions he had received.

  "I'm told yu come from Texas, Green," he said, in his high-pitched, reedy voice. "A fine country."

  "Shore is," Sudden replied, and waited.

  "Over-run with sheriffs, though--fair lousy with 'em," the other went on.

  Sudden smiled sweetly. "Well now, I was wonderin' why yu didn't stay."

  A ripple of laughter proclaimed that he had scored and Turvey's expression was not pretty.

  "Who told yu I ever was there?" he grated.

  "Why, yu seemed to know the place," Sudden retorted, and shot a shaft at a venture, "Didn't meet up with Rogue's Riders, I s'pose?"

  He saw the man's eyes flicker, but the denial came promptly. "Never heard of 'em," and the sneer, "Friends o' yourn?"

  "I knew Rogue," was the quiet reply. "He was as crooked as they make 'em, but he played straight with those who trusted him. I've met worse men, an' how that fella could use a six-gun!"

  Turvey laughed scornfully. "Rogue shoot?" he jeered. "Why, he couldn't hit a barn 'less he was inside it."

  He saw the snare into which he had stumbled when Sudden said, "I expect yu !mowed him better than I did."

  "I was told that--I never seen the man," he protested.

  "Yu said yu hadn't heard of him," Lazy pointed out. Turvey scowled, but showed no desire to continue an argument in which he had very obviously been worsted.

  For some time that night Sudden lay awake, trying to place this man who had apparently played a part in a page of his own past, but without success; after all, he had not seen all the members of Rogue's gang of bandits.

  Chapter X

  In the morning, on the pretence that he needed another shirt, Sudden again searched his belongings, but the telltale notice was not there. Either the thief had destroyed, or could find another use for it. The circumstance did not worry him; he had a shrewd suspicion it would be put to the purpose he had intended. On his way to the corral, the rancher stopped him.

  "You and Homer get along all right?" he asked. "Good, I've told Steve you are to work together."

  "I'm thankin' yu," the puncher replied.

  As he threw the saddle on Nigger, and tightened the cinches, he was puzzling over Keith's attitude, unburdening himself to his four-footed friend.

  "Either Steve was lyin' complete, or the 01 Man is playin' ignorant, Nig," he muttered. "The on'y certain thing is they ain't trustin' me; Frosty is to keep cases. Wonder where the chucklehead has got to?"

  "Stick 'em up !" hissed a low voice, and something hard was jammed in the small of his back.

  Sudden froze for an instant, and then, with lightning speed, whirled on the balls of his feet and flung himself on the man who had cat-footed up behind him. They went to the ground together, Sudden on top, but at once he was erect again, brushing the dust from his clothes.

  "yu perishin' idjut," he said. "I might 'a' broke yore fool neck."

  Frosty rose also, filled his depleted lungs, and spoke feelingly. "Namin' yu `Sudden' was shorely an inspiration."

  "So yu know?"

  "All of us knows--Turvey, for once, was plenty chatter-some."

  "Was it him put Keith wise?"

  "Dunno, but if he did, why ain't yu been sent packin'?"

  "Mebbe they'd rather have me here than in Hell City."

  "Which would be sound reasonin'. Let's go."

  For several miles nothing was said, but Sudden was conscious that his companion was covertly observing him. Presently the boy blurted out: "Jim, I just can't believe it; vu don't seem that sort o' man."

  Sudden divined his thoughts. To be a famous gunman was one thing, and murder for money was another. Moved by an impulse he did not attempt to analyse he told the story of his notorious nickname.' Charged with a crime of which he :new nothing, forced to fight to free his neck from the noose, hunted like a beast of prey and driven to take refuge with the type of outcast the world had made him. Baldly, briefly, the f acts were stated.

  "I ain't squealin'--a man has to play the cyards he gets," he said in conclusion, "but I reckoned yu'd a right to be told, case yu--"

  "Forget it," Frosty said gruffly. "I'm proud to know yu. I figure yu can't choose yore friends--either yu like a fella or vu don't, that's all there is to it. Luck has played yu some scurvy tricks, Jim. Can I tell the boys?"

  "No, keep it behind yore teeth--I ain't carin' what the others think--an' there's another reason to that. I'm told that some o' the outfit would like to see Jeff ownin' the ranch. Yu one of'em?"

  Frosty shook his head. "Ken Keith hired me, an' that goes for most of us," he said. "Mebbe the 01' Man's rasp of a ongue has roughed up a few o' the older men."

  Soon afterwards they separated, riding in opposite directions. Sudden had said nothing of the foreman's proposal. He believed that Homer could be trusted, but he was playing in a desperate game and dared not add to the risks. Also, he wanted to learn if he was watched. So he kept under cover, weaving his way through thickets of tall grass, thorn and mesquite.

/>   Presently the clink of iron against stone sounded faintly. Forcing his mount further into the undergrowth, he waited, a bitter sneer on his lips; his "friend" was spying upon him. To his amazement, however, the rider who came into view was Lagley, sitting slackly in his saddle, and with no attempt at concealment. He was apparently heading for Coyote Canyon, and, after a mental apology to Frosty, Sudden decided to follow.

  "Fly at it, Steve," he grinned. "I never did like advertisin' myself"

  As he had surmised, the foreman turned into the canyon and proceeded along it at a leisurely pace. Sudden, at a safe distance in the rear, kept him in sight. At the end of the gully the ground sloped up to a little forest of dwarf pines and continued to rise until a scrub-covered level was reached. Here the cowboy lost his quarry but the whinny of a horse from a black blob of brush told him that Lagley could not be far away Leaving Nigger, he circled the spot and found a faint trail.

  Stepping lightly as an Indian, he moved slowly forward until he reached a small cleared space at one side of which the foreman's pony was tied to a shrub. The dim light which filtered through the foliage overhead enabled him to see that Lagley was not there, and an opening in the ground suggested the reason. Knotted round a near-by tree was a lariat, the end of which vanished in the hole. Sudden peered down but could see nothing but a kind of cave, only barely visible. It was but a drop of a dozen feet, and the rope made descent simple.

  He now found himself in a large, irregularly shaped room, - !lowed out of the living rock. The uneven floor was littered rubble and at one side the wall was pierced by a tunnel orifice through which came a diffused daylight. Searching around, he discovered another opening, with a rude ladder leading to a lower chamber. He went down, to find it similar in every respect to the one he had left, even to a second ladder. He was about to descend this when an indistinct mutter of voices warned him that it might not be wise. Instead, he crawled along the tunnel-like opening and peeped out. Below was a kind of street, with rock walls on both sides pitted with holes identical with the one he was using. On the ground level these were larger, and in some cases, had rough doors fitted to them. Even as he watched, the foreman emerged, crossed the street, and disappeared through one on the far side; he had the familiar red badge pinned on his breast.