Ranch War

“I still reckon they’re the same pair’s tried to bust into my room last night, Kail!” the girl was insisting.

“You said that the big feller called his pard ‘Houghton,’” Beauregard objected. “That’s not a Mexican name.”

“Maybe he was shouting to that skinny-gutted cuss the Kid dropped,” Calamity suggested.

“Was he there? The dead feller, I mean.”

“If he was, I never saw him. It wasn’t him at the door, I’m sure of that. Should he’ve been there?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Beauregard admitted. “Looked him over, back there. His name’s ‘Smith,’ for what that proves. Been around town for a couple of months now. Never did a lick of work, but always seemed to have money. That sort of feller always interests me. Never heard him called ‘Houghton,’ or anything other than ‘Smith.’”

“There must’ve been somebody born called ‘Smith,’” Calamity replied. “Anyways, I’m sure that big jasper said ‘Houghton.’”

“If he did, his pard at the hotel wouldn’t be a Mexican,” Beauregard pointed out. “In which case, the two who jumped you aren’t the same pair as at the hotel.”

“I wouldn’t be sure of that, Kail,” Freddie put in. “It could have been ‘Oton’, O-t-o-n, he said. That’s Spanish for the name ‘Otto.’”

“You could have it, Freddie,” the Kid enthused, surprised to discover that she spoke Spanish.

“It could’ve been,” Calamity agreed, eyeing the marshal triumphantly. “I just knew I didn’t have two sets of folks riled up at me.”

“You wouldn’t want to bet on that, would you?” drawled the Kid.

“So you think they were after you for that letter they took?” asked Beauregard, before Calamity could give the Kid an appropriate answer.

“That’s what I reckon,” Calamity replied.

“Was it valuable, Miss Canary?” Talbot asked, having followed the conversation without joining in it up to that point.

“Shuckens no!” the girl answered. “’Least, not to anybody else. It was only the stuff I showed you on the train last night, Freddie. My birth certificate and a letter Maw left with the sisters, telling who I am and why she was doing it. They weren’t worth a plugged nickel.”

They had reached the door to the lawyer’s office by that time. The conversation lapsed until Talbot had escorted them into his comfortably furnished private room and seated them around his large, impressive desk. Watching him, Freddie knew that something was troubling the lawyer. With his visitors settled, Talbot gave a cough which Freddie recognized as expressing perturbation.

“I’m afraid you’re wrong about the papers, Miss Canary,” the lawyer said. “If they establish your identity, they would have been comparatively valuable.”

“How come?” the girl asked, sinking with relief into the comfortable chair.

“Well,” Talbot replied, looking more worried, “I’m not sure that I can divulge——”

Having the frontier man’s distrust for manipulators of the law, even when he knew them to be as trustworthy as Talbot, the Kid bristled indignantly and growled, “Losing them papers don’t change who Calam is. If you could’ve told her what it’s about after you’d read ’em, I don’t see why you can’t do it now.”

“If it will help, Charles,” Freddie went on. “I saw the papers last night, and read them. I’m willing to swear an affidavit as to their contents.”

“I don’t doubt that Miss Canary is telling the truth, Freddie,” Talbot answered. “However, in a court of law, your ability to recognize or detect forged documents might be called into question.”

“Feller who did the calling wouldn’t do it twice, was we around,” the Kid remarked in that gentle, mild- sounding tone so well known and feared in the Rio Grande border country.

“Let’s hear Charles out,” Freddie smiled, “shall we, Lon?”

“I’ve no objection to telling Miss Canary the reason for her being asked to come here,” Talbot declared. “But——”

“If it’s confidential, we’ll leave until you’ve told her,” Freddie promised and the marshal nodded his agreement.

“That’s up to Miss Canary,” Talbot stated.

“Stay put, all of you,” Calamity requested, eyeing the open cigar-box on the lawyer’s desk with interest. There had been one like it in front of her all through the interview with Grosvenor, but he did not offer her a smoke from it. “If whatever you’ve got to tell me ties in with those two yahoos stealing the letter, Kail’s going to hear about it anyways; and they’re all my friends. Tell ahead, Counselor.”

For a moment Calamity thought that Talbot was going to offer the cigar-box around. Instead, he opened the desk’s drawer, fumbled inside and produced a sheet of paper. Calamity wondered if all the legal profession were so all-fired stingy with their cigars.

“Three weeks ago,” Talbot announced, tapping the paper, “I received this letter from an old law-school classmate of mine, Orde Endicott. He is in practice at Hollick City, over in Nebraska, and asked me to assist him. It seems that your father bought the Rafter C ranch in your name in Hollick County——”

“My pappy owns a ranch?” Calamity gasped.

“No,” Talbot corrected. “You own the ranch. The deeds to it, properly registered, are in your name. So, legally, you own the Rafter C.”

“Whee doggie!” Calamity ejaculated. “If that don’t beat all. So your pard asked you to find me for him?”

“Not exactly,” the lawyer answered. “He said that arrangements had already been made for Pinkerton’s Agency to look for you. My share in the affair was to offer you the sum of six thousand dollars for the ranch.”

“That’s a tidy sum of money,” Calamity remarked.

“Or nowheres near enough, depending on the ranch,” the Kid went on.

Freddie saw the worry and embarrassment grow on Talbot’s face and began to guess at the cause of the emotions. Once again Talbot coughed. Then he threw an imploring glance at the beautiful English girl and turned back to Calamity.

“I’m afraid, as things now stand, that I can’t make you the offer, Miss Canary. While I accept your bona fides——”

“I never knowed I had any of ’em,” Calamity put in. “What in hell’re they?”

“While I accept that you are Robert Howard Canary’s daughter, Martha Jane,” Talbot explained, looking like a man sitting on a powder keg that was about to explode, “I can’t hand over the money for the ranch without seeing documentary proof that it is so.”

“Is that the legal law?” demanded the Kid, scowling across the desk and looking as mean as a Pehnane Dog Soldier on the war trail.

“I’m afraid it is,” the lawyer confirmed.

“Then I’m pleased as hell’s I’ve never been——!” the Texan blazed.

“I don’t know what you’re starting to paw and beller for,” Calamity interrupted. “Seeing’s how I’m not fixing to sell out anyways.”

“You’re not?” Talbot asked, looking relieved.

“Nope. Way I see it, if pappy bought me a ranch, least I can do is go over to Hollick City and take a look at it.”

“It won’t do you any good,” Talbot warned. “You can’t establish your identity there any more than you can here.”

“And it might be dangerous,” Beauregard went on. “If you’re right about them two fellers being after your letter, and it looks like you are, they’ll not take kind to you showing up in Hollick City.”

“I don’t take kind to what they done to me out on the street!” Calamity replied, then winced and touched her jaw delicately with a fingertip.

“How’d they know where to find you, Calam?” the Kid asked.

“Now that’s a thing’s’s been bothering me,” the girl admitted. “The Railroad House’d be the last place anybody’s knowed me’d expect to find me in.”

“They didn’t know you,” Freddie pointed out. “If they had known you as Calamity Jane, I doubt if they would have tried to break into your room last night.”

“Perhaps I can explain that,” Talbot remarked. “According to his letter, Orde Endicott was under the impression that you had been left in the East by your parents. He didn’t know that the young lady he sought was