Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 06 - Sudden Gold-Seeker(1937) by Oliver Strange Read Free Book Online

like the proposition, though it appeared to be in his favour; he had
but to pull and fire his gun before the other struck. But he knew the
incredible speed with which the lash would come at him, like a striking ‘snake,
and with force sufficient to cut through the tough hide of an ox. If he fired
and missed there would be no second shot; he would be cut to ribbons, perhaps—blinded!
A shiver shook him, and in that moment he came to a decision; there were safer
ways of compassing his revenge.
                 “I
ain’t puffin’ on a man what isn’t `heeled’,” he said sullenly, and turned to
where his horse was standing.
                 “You
lousy yeller dawg,” the teamster shouted, and swung his weapon.
                 Sudden
raised a protesting hand. “He’s all o’ that but yu gotta let him go,” he said.
                 Amid
a chorus of jeers the discomfited ruffian climbed to his saddle. The cowboy had
a final word for him:
                 “If
any accident happens to our friend here”—he pointed to the teamster—“I’ll be lookin’
for yu,” he warned, adding with a hard smile, “an’ I shall be heeled.” He had
to eat with the teamster’s family, his wife, a plump, homely woman, the
daughter—cause of all the trouble—a pretty girl with rosy cheeks and a shy
smile, and a tow-headed boy of twelve who could not take his eyes off the
visitor’s guns.
                 “Say,
mister, you ever wiped anybody out with those?” he presently blurted out.
                 Sudden’s
smile faded. “Do I look like a killer?” he fenced. “I’m allowin’ you don’t,”
was the reply. “But if you was riled, I’d step around
mighty careful.”
                 “Shet
yore trap,” his father ordered, and, apologetically to his guest, “Dunno what
kids is comin’ to; if I’d spoke out like that in company my
of man would have had the hide off’n me. So you won’t trail along with
us to Oregon?” Sudden shook his head. “I got other plans,” he excused. When he
returned to his own outfit, Mason was mildly facetious. “What was it yu forgot?”
he inquired, and grinned at his friend’s look of bewilderment. “Yu must ‘a’
gone back to Wayside for somethin’.” Sudden joined in the laugh at his own
expense. “Nigger’s a good hoss but he ain’t got wings,” he said. “I’ve been
makin’ the acquaintance of yore friend with the barrel-hoop legs.”
                 “What,
Bandy?” Mason asked.
                 “He
certainly is. I never met anyone whose knees were such total strangers.”
                 “How come?” Sudden told the story in his own whimsical
fashion, passing lightly over his part in it, but Gerry was beginning to know
this habit of careless indifference.
                 “An’
he ate crow?” he said incredulously. “I s’pose he ain’t exactly in love with
yu?”
                 “I’m
afraid I hurt his feelin’s,” Sudden said, an unrepentant twinkle in his eyes,
and then he sobered. “I should ‘a’ warned yu, Gerry, that I’m one o’ 0I’ Man
Trouble’s special favourites; yu oughta cut loose from me.”
                 “Like
hell!” came the hearty rejoinder. “I didn’t come West to pick flowers an’—there’s Miss Ducane.” There was a reverence in the boy’s
tone as he spoke the name which swept the good-natured jest from the other’s
lips. He liked this frank-faced young fellow whose companionship meant much to
a lonely, friendless man. For since he had come North ,
unjustly driven as an outlaw from his own country, Texas, his quixotic search
had kept him moving and he could form no ties.

  Chapter
V
                 Deadwood!
One narrow street, formed by irregular rows of nondescript buildings of the
crudest character, the most pretentious of which were constructed of unbarked
logs or