Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 01 - The Range Robbers(1930) by Oliver Strange Read Free Book Online Page B

make their gather, an’ git back without
leavin’ a sign yu can swear to.’
                 “They’d
shore be hard to trail about here,’ Green said.
                 “Hard
to trail?’ cried his host. “I believe yu. Why, the way they vanish sometimes
yu’d think the beggers had wings; an’ that’s somethin’ no Injun’ll ever wear,
in this world or the next. I’ve give up; but any war-plume what comes prancin’
round here is apt to die o’ lead-poisonin’ mighty sudden.’
                 “I
never had no use for Injuns,’ Green agreed.
                 He
declined a second drink on the ground that he must get back to the Y Z before
dark, and asked the nearest way. He was not surprised when Dexter advised an
entirely different route from the one which had brought him there.
                 “Straight
across the valley an’ through that notch in the rim’ll bring yu to a plain
trail to Hatchett’s. If yu meet my boys tell ‘em I’m a-gettin’ hungrier every
minit. So long! Drop in any time yo’re passin’.’
                 The
visitor returned the salutation and, mounting his horse, rode across the valley
as directed. The non-appearance of the miner puzzled him, though he inclined to
the belief that Nugget was there, keeping out of sight. The owner of the Double
X had not impressed him favourably, but he had discovered nothing to connect
him with the rustlers except the repetition of the redskin theory, and it was
conceivable that the man might be losing stock and blaming the Indians for it.
                 In
crossing the valley he purposely passed near one of the groups of feeding
cattle. He did not slow up, for that would have aroused suspicion, but he got
close enough to get a good look at the brand, a crude double X, roughly done,
but apparently honest enough. Nevertheless, it provided him with food for thought.
He reached the notch in the rim, climbed up a narrow stony pathway out of the valley,
and found, as his host had promised, a plain trail. He had covered some miles
of this when he heard singing, and presently round a bend came a lumbering
wagon, with one man driving and three others riding beside it. The driver
pulled up with an oath when he saw the puncher, and the right hands of the
riders slid to their holsters.
                 “All
right, boys,’ Green called out genially. “I’ve just been visitin’ yore boss,
an’ he said that if I met up with yu, I was to say that he’s a-gettin’ hungrier
every minit, an’ he shore enough looked it.’
                 One
of the men laughed, and the attitude of guarded hostility relaxed somewhat.
None of the four was young, and all had the look of men toughened by
experience—good or bad. A nasty crowd to tangle up with, the cowpuncher
decided.
                 “Dex
may reckon hisself lucky to see us tonight,’ commented one. “If Pete had been
in town it would’ve bin to-morrow mawnin’.’
                 Green
guessed that they knew who he was, and that the reference to the gambler had
been made purposely, but he decided to ignore it.
                 “Well,’
he drawled. “I gotta be pushin’ along if I want any supper myself; that Y Z
gang is real destructive at mealtimes.’
                 His
refusal to take up the challenge, for so they regarded it, created a bad
impression, and the laugh which greeted his remark was frankly sneering. With a
curt “S’long’ they rode on, grinning at one another. Green also resumed his
journey, and he too was smiling.
                 “They’re
thinkin’ that little ruckus at the Folly was just a grand-stand play, an’ that
I’m shy the sand to back it up, which is just what ,I want ‘em to think,’ he soliloquised.
                 All
the same, he had to confess that it had been an entirely disappointing day.

  Chapter
V