hand, Tommy Fayne showed shock, his face paled under the tan and his lips drew into tight lines.
“It’s Sammy and Pike!” he said in a strangled voice. “That damned murdering skunk Gooch killed them.”
“Easy, boy,” Jerome said, laying a hand on Tommy’s sleeve. “We don’t know for sure it was him who did this.”
“Who else but a stinking murdering bounty hunter’d gun down two kids like Sammy and Pike without giving them a chance?” Tommy answered hotly. “They weren’t neither of ’em good with a gun, and you know it, Buck.”
“Hosses are tied, Buck, that’s why they never come back,” Lyle said quietly. “Happen this feller hadn’t found them, they might have laid here for days.”
“Might at that,” admitted the rancher and turned to Danny. “No offense, but how did you come to find them? You know how it is when you find something like this, questions have to be asked.”
“Sure,” Danny agreed. “I was headed for those buzzards when I put up a herd of pronghorns and they went down into this hollow. Only they came bursting out like the devil after a yearling. Got me curious to find out what spooked them. I figured it might be either bear, cougar or wolves and that I might be able to pick up a few dollars on its hide. So I came down and found this.”
All the time Danny spoke, he felt the other three’s eyes on him taking in every detail of his dress and appearance. Not that he had any need to fear detection on that score. Before leaving Austin, Danny dressed for the part he aimed to play. He retained his hat, boots, gunbelt and saddle, but the rest of his clothing no longer bore the mark of a good tailor. Instead he wore a cheap, gaudy bandana, a blue flannel shirt and faded, washed-out jeans. Not was there anything out of the ordinary in the arrangement. Many young cowhands bought the best they could manage in saddlery, hats and gunbelts, but took what they could afford for the rest of their clothing.
After studying Danny, Jerome and Lyle exchanged glances. Both had reached the same conclusion—and just the one Danny wanted folks to make about him. Although this soft-spoken youngster wore two guns and looked proficient in their use, he had none of the ear-marks of a proddy trigger-fast-and-up-from-Texas kid. A good cowhand, most likely, and probably one with a yen to see new ranges around him.
“If Gooch shot the boys, why’d he leave ’em here?” asked Lyle, voicing one of the problems which had been worrying Danny.
“He knew I wouldn’t pay him,” Jerome answered.
“Then why’d he bother shooting?” growled the foreman. “Gooch didn’t give a damn whether the cow thieves stole us blind as long as he got his bounty.”
“He maybe aimed to take the boys back to the Forked C and claim he downed them on Crither’s range,” guessed Jerome. “Cut for sign, Ed, see what you can learn while we start loading the boys. We’ll have to take them into town and report this to Farley Simmonds.”
“If he handles this as well as he done the rest of the stealing, we’ll sure see some action,” sniffed Lyle and went to obey his boss’s orders.
None of the men expected the task of loading the bodies to be pleasant and they were not wrong. While Lyle examined the ground, Danny, Jerome and Tommy wrapped the bodies in their slickers and loaded them, stiff with
“Was another one here,” he remarked, coming up with the same conclusions that Danny had earlier. “Smallish, not too heavy-built feller I’d say. Took out
“That’d be the ones they’d branded he took,” Jerome guessed.
“Maybe that other feller led Gooch so far he couldn’t find his way back to here,” Tommy put in.
“Could be,” admitted the rancher. “Only I can’t think of anybody round here as fits that description, smallish and light built. Can hardly believe that Sammy and Pike were stealing from me, neither. Why Sammy was fixing to get his-self married to one of Ella Watson’s gals real soon.”
“Yeah,” Tommy said bitterly. “Sammy and Pike were my pards. They’d never steal from anybody, boss. Maybe they was trying to stop the cow thieves.”
“Maybe,” grunted Jerome. “Where’d they go last night, boy?”
“Into town. Sammy wanted to see his gal and Pike went along for the ride. I was fixing to go with them, only one of my mounts was needing tending.”
Danny listened to the conversation without asking any questions or making any comments. Above all else, he must not show too much knowledge of Caspar County affairs. A chance-passing drifter would be unlikely to know much about the situation and showing that he was acquainted with the affairs of the county would cause suspicion. So he kept quiet and listened, which had always been a good way to learn things one wanted to know.
“Let’s go into town,” the rancher suggested. “You’d best come along with us, Danny, the sheriff’ll want to see you.”
“Sure,” Danny agreed. “I was headed that way when I came on this lot.”
“I’d best take the running irons with me, Boss,” Lyle remarked.
“Do that Ed,” answered Jerome. “Only don’t let on that Sammy and Pike were using them. I know their folks and they were good kids.”
The words increased Danny’s growing liking for Jerome. Some men would have started ranting about ingrates, or damning the cowhands as stinking, untrustworthy cow thieves and not giving a damn who knew that the youngsters had gone bad. From Jerome, Danny turned his attention to the younger of the hired men. Clearly Tommy was badly shaken by the death of his two friends. But did he possess any guilty knowledge of how they came to die? Maybe the youngster had an idea of the identity of the third cow thief. Or perhaps he was merely thinking that, but for a stroke of luck, it might be him lying by the fire.
Mounting their horses, the men rode out of the clearing, Lyle and Tommy leading the dead cowhands’ animals, each toting its stiff bundle. None of them spoke until they came out on to open land. Then the sight of the whirling vultures recalled what brought them together.
“How about those buzzards?” asked Danny.
“They’re on our way to Caspar, we’d best check,” Jerome answered. “Ed, go scout around and see if you can track down that third jasper. I’ll lead Sammy’s hoss in for you.”
“Yo!” replied the foreman and gave Danny a calculating glance. “I’ll look around real good.”
Much as he would have liked to accompany Lyle, Danny restrained himself. He guessed that the foreman intended to check on his tracks also, making sure that he was what he pretended to be. Not that Danny blamed Lyle. Under similar circumstances he would have done the same; and Lyle could learn little enough by back-tracking Danny for a few miles.
While riding toward the cottonwood, Danny started to get an uneasy feeling that he could guess what they would find. So he did not feel unduly surprised when, from over two hundred yards distance, he saw a body lying beneath the spreading branches of the cottonwood.
“Another,” Jerome breathed. “Who the hell this time?”
A few seconds later Tommy supplied the answer. “It’s Bat Gooch. I recognize that hoss of his there.”
At thirty yards Jerome halted the party. “Hold the hosses here, Tommy. I don’t reckon Farley Simmonds’ll make much of it, but we’ll not muss up the sign in case he wants to come out.”
Leaving their horses, Danny and Jerome walked toward the bounty hunter’s body. Both kept their eyes on the ground, studying the sign and reading much the same conclusions from what they saw.
“Can you read sign, Danny?” asked the rancher.
“My pappy was a hunting man. Taught me to know whether a foot pointed forward or back.”
“Huh huh. Way I see it is that the feller Gooch was chasing got swept off his hoss by a branch. Fell just here and Gooch left his hoss to come over to him. Only the other feller wasn’t hurt bad and started to throw lead. How d’you see it?”
“Just about the same,” replied Danny.
However, although he did not intend to mention it, Danny saw more; a whole heap more than the rancher’s description of what happened. First thing to strike Danny was the fact that Gooch’s gun lay in its holster. No man who knew sic ’em about gun fighting would approach a potentially dangerous enemy without taking the elementary precaution of drawing his gun. Certainly a man like Gooch would not fail to take so basic a piece of self-
