Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 07 - Sudden Rides Again(1938) by Oliver Strange Read Free Book Online

appearance of a prosperous planter rather than a
cattleman.
                 “Breedin’
there, an’ pride,” Sudden decided. “Wouldn’t lift his lid to a king—less he
liked him.”
                 “Well,
boss, I got him,” Frosty announced.
                 “My
feeble intellect had already divined as much,” was the unsmiling reply. “You
have not, I hope, been hurrying.” Without giving the abashed cowboy time to
answer he turned to the visitor. “That’s a fine horse you have; Homer will take
care of it.”
                 Sudden
shook his head. “I’d best ‘tend to that myself,” he said. “Nigger is a one-man
hoss.”
                 As
they unsaddled and turned the animals loose in the corral, Frosty grimaced
ruefully, and remarked, “Didn’t I say he had a razor-tongue?”
                 “Yu
shorely asked for it. He’s got eyes, too, ain’t he?”
                 Sudden
returned to the verandah alone, his companion not being anxious for another
rebuff. The rancher pointed to a chair.
                 “We
will sit here, if you please,” he said, “The view is considered a fine one.”
                 It
was indeed. The expanse of grassland, hemmed in by a strip of broken country
beyond which forested slopes climbed steeply to the craggy, battlemented hills
which formed the rim-rock of the great valley, presented a picture to please
the eye of any lover of Nature. Keith gave the puncher little time to admire
it.
                 “Mister
Green, I am doubly in your debt,” he began. “For protecting
my adopted daughter from insult, and for giving me this opportunity of thanking
you.” He finished with an old-fashioned bow.
                 “Nothin’
to that, seh,” Sudden protested uncomfortably. “I just happened to be there.”
                 “Very
fortunately for Joan,” the rancher said. “Sam is an old servant and an
excellent fellow, but he has the pluck of a rabbit.” His eyes flashed. “They
should have died,” he added vehemently. “Of course, you are a stranger….”
                 “I
learned ‘em a lesson,” the puncher pointed out.
                 “So
I heard, seh,” Keith replied, and with a wisp of a smile. “I, too, have my
magic. You see, my position renders it necessary that I should know all that
takes place in the valley; it is not idle curiosity. Neither is it when I ask
why you have come to these parts?”
                 “I’m
just a puncher who has pulled his picket-pin, havin’ got tired o’ lookin’ at
the same bit o’ the world every mornin’. Allus had the travel itch—never could
stay put for long. I’ve no folks an’ no friends.”
                 The
rancher nodded. He knew the type and had not expected to receive any definite
information. The average cowboy was a nomad by nature, liable to wander in
search of new pastures from sheer restlessness. But though he accepted the
explanation, he did so with reservations, being convinced that this nonchalant
but extremely competent-looking young man, who wore two guns and had proved his
ability to take care of himself, was something more than he had claimed.
                 ‘Would
you care to ride for me?” he asked abruptly.
                 Sudden
hesitated; save in moments of stress, when he could emulate lightning itself,
he did not make rapid decisions. Keith misunderstood his silence.
                 “You
have heard I’m a hard man to work for?” he suggested.
                 “No,
seh, the word I had was that yore men are proud o’yu, an’ that the pay an’ grub
is good,” Sudden smiled. “I’m just wonderin’ why yu offer me a job? ”
                 “You
have done me a service,” the other reminded, and when the visitor made a
gesture of dissent, “and you appear to be