“Get your cotton-picking hands offen her, Schatz!” Tommy yelled as he rushed forward.
While Tommy did not lack guts, he showed a considerable amount of poor judgment in his method of attack. Schatz thrust himself to his feet, still holding Mousey with his left hand. Even before Tommy could land a blow, the burly man’s big fist shot out. Running in added force to a powerful blow and Tommy went down like a pole-axed steer.
“Tommy!” Mousey screeched and landed a kick on Schatz’s shin with enough force to make him howl and release her. “Tommy!” she repeated and dropped to her knees at the youngster’s side.
“Why you little whore!” Schatz snarled and started to move forward. “I’ll——!”
“Get your lousy, buffalo-mange stinking, gut-turning self away from her, lard-guts!” Calamity spat out. Lacking her whip, she reached for the neck of the nearest bottle as a means of defense.
Before Calamity could lay hands on the weapon, Schatz turned and caught her by the arm. “I likes a gal with spunk,” he told her.
“You like licking kids, too,” a cold voice cut in.
Slowly Schatz turned, pulling Calamity around after him. In that he might have counted himself lucky, for Calamity had just been preparing to drive up her knee into his lower regions hard enough to chill down his milk for a spell. However, she refrained as she saw the speaker and hoped that Danny had learned fighting in the same school as his elder brother; because if he had, mister, that unwashed, square-headed, bristle-haired, no-account hard-case was sure as hell due for a real Texas-size shock.
“My, the cowhands are sure snuffy tonight,” said Schatz and shoved Calamity away from him, then launched a blow straight at Danny’s head.
Only this time he struck at a different proposition to his previous challenger. Danny might not be much older than Tommy, but bore the advantage of training at the hands of masters of the art of rough-house brawling.
Up came Danny’s left hand, but he did not clench his fist. With the open palm he slapped Schatz’s driving-out right arm in a snappy motion which deflected it away from him. Instantly Danny ducked under the deflected punch and took a short step forward with his left foot so as to halt slightly behind Schatz’s back. At the same time Danny brought up his right arm, across Schatz’s body to grip the burly man’s shirt at the right shoulder. Pushing hard on to the shoulder with his hand, Danny hooked his right leg behind Schatz’s left calf and thrust with it. The moves took Schatz by surprise. He gave a startled yell as his feet left the floor and he went over to land on his back.
Calamity gave a sigh of relief. It appeared that Danny had learned fighting at the same source as did his illustrious elder brother. From the expression on Schatz’s face as he came up from the floor, Calamity figured Danny was likely to need all the learning he could lay hands on.
Watching Danny’s fists come up, Schatz charged at the blond Ranger with big hands raised to grab. Only he fell into the trap Danny laid for him. Danny did not figure to try using his fists against the bigger man—not until after setting Schatz up for them.
Suddenly and unexpectedly Danny raised his left leg and drove it out to land a stamping kick on the other’s kneecap, bringing Schatz’s rush to a sudden halt. Even as agony knifed through Schatz and he bent to clutch at the injured knee, Danny threw a right-hand punch. It landed hard and with precision on the side of Schatz’s jaw and the big man crashed to the floor again. Spitting out curses and blood, Schatz jerked the Colt from his holster but did not get a chance to use it. Danny leapt forward and stamped down with his left foot. A cowhand’s boots carried high heels designed to spoke into the ground and hold firm while roping cattle or horses on foot. Human flesh being less hard, it did not stand up well to the impact of a boot heel smashing down upon it. Schatz let out a screech of pain, lost his hold on the Colt and jerked up into a sitting position. Like a flash, Danny kicked up with his other leg. The boot toe caught Schatz under the jaw, snapping back his head and slamming him down again. This time he did not look like he would be getting up to make more trouble.
“Hold it, Stocker!” a voice boomed.
Hearing the order, and the accompanying click as a gun came to full cock, Stocker froze. He had only half rose and his hand still gripped the butt of his gun, but a glance at the main doors of the saloon told him the futility of going further. Holding his Remington ready for use, Jerome stood just inside the doors and Lyle leaned a shoulder against the door jamb at his boss’s side.
“Who cut you in, Jerome?” Stocker growled.
“Danny there rides for me,” answered Jerome. “What happened?”
“I’d say that Schatz just got round to picking the wrong feller,” Lyle remarked calmly, looking to where Danny stood over the burly hard-case.
Ella Watson knew better than allow such a situation to develop too far. So she thrust herself from the bar and walked across the room, taking care not to come into the line of fire.
“All right, boys,” she said. “The fun’s over.” Her eyes went to Stocker and she went on, “I’ve told you before about Schatz abusing the boys.”
“Looks like he picked on one as didn’t take to being abused,” Lyle drawled and walked to where Mousey helped Tommy to rise. “You all right, boy?”
“Just about,” Tommy answered and felt his jaw. “Where’s he at?”
“Sleeping. Got his-self all tuckered out,” grinned the foreman.
Seeing that nothing more of interest would come from the situation, the occupants of the room resumed their interrupted pleasures. Jerome watched Ella’s bouncers haul Schatz from the room, then he turned to Ella and asked what started the fuss.
“It wasn’t Danny here’s fault,” she replied, “Schatz started to rough-handle Mousey and Tommy, then Danny cut in. That boy’s some fighter. Dirty, but good.”
“Always reckoned it’s better to fight dirty and win, than fair and get all licked, ma’am,” Danny put in and turned to Calamity. “Say, how’s about taking a drink with me, Red?”
“Right with you and the name’s Marty, not Red,” she replied.
Watching the two walk away, Ella decided that an efficient young man like Danny Forgrave ought to be a valuable asset to her organization. Of late there had been a considerable amount of independence building at Stocker’s end and she guessed that the rancher might be figuring he could run the business without her aid. Wren could take Stocker, but lacked the experience in cattle matters to handle the holding of the stolen stock. Given the right kind of bait, say plenty of money, that blond Texas cowhand might make an ideal replacement should Stocker go too far.
For a time Calamity and Danny celebrated in typical cowhand-saloon-girl style, helped by Mousey and Tommy. They had a few drinks, tried the gambling games with Tommy winning a few dollars, danced and generally enjoyed themselves. Ella watched it all, noting the way “Marty” persuaded Danny to spend more and more on her. The girl had the right idea and it seemed that Danny was struck on her. This showed in the way he blocked any other customer’s request that the girl danced or joined him. So Ella watched and waited for a chance to speak with her latest employee away from the crowd.
Ella’s chance came when Calamity and Mousey left the room to go out back. On their return, the girls found their boss waiting in the rear passage behind the bar room. Telling Mousey to go on in, Ella kept Calamity with her.
“You’re handling that cowhand real well, Marty,” she said as Mousey went through the door to the bar room.
“Shucks, that’s no problem. He reckons I’m the only gal in the world and wants to prove it.”
“Keep him going. I want him broke, but eager to come back for more.”
“Sure, boss. Say, he wants to go to the cabin with me for the night.”
“Take him up on it and sting him for ten bucks. If you can get any more than that off him, it’s yours.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Calamity said eagerly and turned to go.
Shooting out a hand, Ella caught Calamity’s arm and stopped her. “Don’t act stupid, Marty. No rolling him or anything like that. I want him coming back here all hot and eager for another session. Understand?”
“Yes, ma’am. I understand.”
While Mousey did not go to the cabin with the customers herself, she had a fair idea of what went on in it. She wished that Marty would not go, but made no objections when her new friend left with Danny. Sighing, the little girl looked at Tommy and wondered whether she ought to make an exception in his case, then decided against it as they could not afford the money Miss Ella insisted was paid for the loan of a room.
“We’re going to have to play this straight, Calam,” Danny remarked as he entered the dimly-lit cabin and
