bridle reins nearly in half. I instantly returned the shot with my .45, getting jest a glimpse of something in the bresh, and a man let out a squall and jumped out into the open, wringing his hands. My bullet had hit the lock of his Winchester and mighty nigh jarred his hands offa him.
'Cease that ungodly noise,' I said sternly, p'inting my .45 at his bay-winder, 'and explain how come you waylays innercent travellers.'
He quit working his fingers and moaning, and he said: 'I thought you was Joel Cairn, the outlaw. Yo're about his size.'
'Well, I ain't,' I said. 'I'm Breckinridge Elkins, from Bear Creek. I was jest ridin' over to find out what all the shootin' was about.'
The guns was banging in the trees behind the feller, and somebody yelled what was the matter.
'Ain't nothin' the matter,' he hollered back. 'Just a misunderstandin'.' And he says to me: 'I'm glad to see you, Elkins. We need a man like you. I'm Sheriff Dick Hopkins, from Grizzly Run.'
'Where at's yore star?' I inquired.
'I lost it in the bresh,' he said. 'Me and my deputies have been chasin' Tarantula Bixby and his gang for a day and a night, and we got 'em cornered over there in a old deserted cabin in a holler. The boys is shootin' at 'em now. I heered you comin' up the trail and snuck over to see who it was. Just as I said, I thought you was Cairn. Come on with me. You can help us.'
'I ain't no deperty,' I said. 'I got nothin' against Tranchler Bixby.'
'Well, you want to uphold the law, don't you?' he said.
'Naw,' I said.
'Well, gee whiz!' he wailed. 'If you ain't a hell of a citizen! The country's goin' to the dogs. What chance has a honest man got?'
'Aw, shet up,' I said. 'I'll go over and see the fun, anyhow.'
So he picked up his gun, and I tied Cap'n Kidd, and follered the sheriff through the trees till we come to some rocks, and there was four men laying behind them rocks and shooting down into a hollow. The hill sloped away mighty steep into a small basin that was jest like a bowl, with a rim of slopes all around. In the middle, of this bowl they was a cabin and puffs of smoke was coming from the cracks between the logs.
The men behind the rocks looked at me in surprise, and one of 'em said: 'What the hell?'
The sheriff scowled at them and said, 'Boys, this here is Breck Elkins. I done already told him about us bein' a posse from Grizzly Run, and about how we got Tarantula Bixby and two of his cutthroats trapped in that there cabin.'
One of the deputies bust into a loud guffaw and Hopkins glared at him and said: 'What you laughin' about, you spotted hyener?'
'I swallered my terbaccer and that allus gives me the hystericals,' mumbled the deputy, looking the other way.
'Hold up yore right hand, Elkins,' requested Hopkins, so I done so, wondering what for, and he said: 'Does you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, e pluribus unum, anno dominecker, to wit in status quo?'
'What the hell are you talkin' about?' I demanded.
'Them which God has j'ined asunder let no man put together,' said Hopkins. 'Whatever you say will be used agen you and the Lord have mercy on yore soul. That means yo're a deputy. I just swore you in.'
'Go set on a prickly pear,' I snorted disgustedly. 'Go catch yore own thieves. And don't look at me like that. I might bend a gun over yore skull.'
'But Elkins,' pleaded Hopkins, 'with yore help we can catch them rats easy. All you got to do is lay up here behind this big rock and shoot at the cabin and keep 'em occupied till we can sneak around and rush 'em from the rear. See, the bresh comes down purty close to the foot of the slope on the other side, and gives us cover. We can do it easy, with somebody keepin' their attention over here. I'll give you part of the reward.'
'I don't want no derned blood-money,' I said, backing away, 'And besides--ow!'
I'd absent-mindedly backed out from behind the big rock where I'd been standing, and a .30-30 slug burned its way acrost the seat of my britches.
'Dern them murderers!' I bellered, seeing red. 'Gimme a rifle! I'll learn 'em to shoot a man behind his back! Gwan, and git 'em from behind whilst I attracts their attention with a serenade of hot lead!'
'Good boy!' says Hopkins. 'You'll git plenty for this!'
It sounded like somebody was snickering to theirselves as they snuck away, but I give no heed. I squinted cautiously around the big boulder and begun sniping at the cabin. All I could see to shoot at was the puffs of smoke which marked the cracks they was shooting through, but from the cussing and yelling which begun to float up from the shack, I must of throwed some lead mighty close to them.
They kept shooting back, and the bullets splashed and buzzed on the rocks, and I kept looking at the further slope for some sign of Sheriff Hopkins and the posse. But all I heard was a sound of hosses galloping away towards the west. I wondered who it was, and I kept expecting the posse to rush down the oppersite slope and take them desperadoes in the rear, and whilst I was craning my neck around a corner of the boulder--whang! A bullet smashed into the rock a few inches from my face and a sliver of stone taken a notch out of my ear. I don't know of nothing that makes me madder'n getting shot in the ear.
I seen red and didn't even shoot back. A ordinary rifle was too paltry to satisfy me. Suddenly I realized that the big boulder in front of me was jest poised on the slope, its underside partly embedded in the earth. I throwed down my rifle and bent my knees and spread my arms and gripped it.
I shook the sweat and blood outa my eyes, and bellered so them in the hollow could hear me: 'I'm givin' you-all a chance to surrender! Come out with yore hands up!'
They give loud and sarcastic jeers, and I yelled: 'All right, you ring-tailed jackasses! If you gits squashed like a pancake, it's yore own fault. Here she comes!'
And I heaved with all I had. The veins stood out onto my temples, and my feet sunk into the ground, but the earth bulged and cracked all around the big rock, rivulets of dirt began to trickle down, and the big boulder groaned, give way and lurched over.
A dumbfounded yell riz from the cabin. I lept behind a bush, but the outlaws was too surprised to shoot at me. That enormous boulder was tumbling down the hill, crushing bushes flat and gathering speed as it rolled. And the cabin was right in its path.
Wild yells bust the air, the door was throwed vi'lently open, and a man hove into view. Jest as he started out of the door I let bam at him and he howled and ducked back jest like anybody will when a .45-90 slug knocks their hat off. The next instant that thundering boulder hit the cabin. Smash! It knocked it sidewise like a ten pin and caved in the wall, and the whole structure collapsed in a cloud of dust and bark and splinters.
I run down the slope, and from the yells which issued from under the ruins, I knowed they warn't all kilt.
'Does you-all surrender?' I roared.
'Yes, dern it!' they squalled. 'Git us out from under this landslide!'
'Throw out yore guns,' I ordered.
'How in hell can we throw anything?' they hollered wrathfully. 'We're pinned down by a ton of rocks and boards and we're bein' squoze to death. Help, murder!'
'Aw, shet up,' I said. 'You all don't hear me carryin' on in no such hysterical way, does you?'
Well, they moaned and complained, and I sot to work dragging the ruins offa them, which warn't no great task. Purty soon I seen a booted laig and I laid hold of it and dragged out the critter it was fastened to, and he looked more done up than what my brother Buckner did that time he rassled a mountain lion for a bet. I taken his pistol out of his belt, and laid him down on the ground and got the others out. They was three, altogether, and I taken their arms and laid 'em out in a row.
Their clothes was nearly tore off, and they was bruised and scratched and had splinters in their hair, but they warn't hurt permanent. They sot up and felt of theirselves, and one of 'em said: 'This here's the first earthquake I ever seen in this country.'
''Twarn't no earthquake,' said another'n. 'It was a avalanche.'
'Lissen here, Joe Partland,' said the first'n, grinding his teeth. 'I says it was a earthquake, and I ain't the man to be called a liar--'
'Oh, you ain't, hey?' says the other'n, bristling up. 'Well, lemme tell you somethin', Frank Jackson--'
