Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 03 - The Marshal of Lawless(1933) by Oliver Strange Read Free Book Online

he was on’y joshin’,” one of them called out.
                 “Do
yu still think yu can beat me to it?” the marshal asked, and without waiting
for a reply slipped the borrowed pistol back into its place. “If
yu do, well, have another try.”
                 There
was a sardonic smile on his lips, but his eyes were friendly, and the beaten
man was now sober enough to see it. He achieved a difficult grin.
                 “Not
any more for me, thank yu all the same,” he said. “I ain’t a hawg, an’ I wanta
say I’m sorry we shot up yore shingle this evenin’.”
                 Green’s
eyes twinkled. “Shucks! a coat o’ paint’ll put that
right,” he said meaningly.
                 Rusty
looked at his friends. “We shore owe him that,” he suggested. “I’m stayin’ in
town to-night, boys, an’ it’s up to me.”
                 After
a round of drinks the Box B party returned to its game, and Green found his
deputy beside him. Pete’s wide grin moved the marshal to mirth.
                 “If
it warn’t for yore ears that smile would go clean round yore haid,” he
commented.
                 Barsay
ignored the insult and produced a five-dollar bill. “Which yu shore earned it,
yu ol’ he-wizard,” he said. “How d’yu work it?”
                 “All
done by kindness,” Green told him. “Hello! who’s wantin’ me now?”
                 Andy,
who had just entered the saloon, was heading straight for the marshal. He
plunged at once into his business.
                 “I’m
Bordene o’ the Box B, an’ I’m supposin’ you’re the man Miss Sarel spoke to this
afternoon,” he began, and when Green nodded; “If yo’re still huntin’ that job—”
                 “I’m
obliged to her, an’ yu, but—” the marshal flipped aside his vest, disclosing
his badge.
                 The
young man’s eyebrows rose. “Yo’re the new marshal?” he asked, and then he
smiled.
                 “Congratulations,”
he added.
                 “Thank
yu, seh,” Green smiled back. “Yo’re the first; the others just asked which was
my favourite flower.”
                 “Well,
Lawless certainly takes a whole man to ride her, but I wish yu luck, an’ if yu
want help, yu’ll find it at the Box B,” Andy replied.
                 The
marshal thanked him, and meant it; Bordene might have all the recklessness and
inexperience of youth, but the stuff of which good men are made was there also.
The Box B boys greeted their young boss with a familiarity that showed he was
one of them.
                 “Say,
Andy, don’t yu get to presumin’ any with that marshal fella; he’s a friend of
ours, an’ bad medicine to fool with. Yo’re liable to lose out: ask Rusty,” said
one.
                 “This
fella’s white,” the culprit confessed. “I sized him up all wrong. I’m stayin’
in town to-night.”
                 The
young rancher nodded, and then, hearing his name called, turned to find Seth
Raven, with a stranger. The latter had ridden into town during the afternoon
and had at once proceeded to the Red Ace. Raven, seated in his office, did not
welcome the visitor too effusively.
                 “‘Lo,
Parson, what yu wantin’?” he asked.
                 “A
stake, Seth,” the man in shabby black replied. “That damned hold-up skunk
cleaned me out. But I’ll get him, curse his thievin’
hide, if I spend the rest o’ my life at it.”
                 He
snarled the words out savagely, and his little eyes gleamed with hatred. The
saloonkeeper’s thin lips curled contemptuously as he replied, “Better forget
it, Parson; yu’d stand one hell of a chance against Sudden, wouldn’t yu?”
                 “I’ll
get him,” the other repeated