find out the sheriff isn't here. I'll go out first and find out.'
'No, you won't.' His veto was decisive. 'We'll go together. I'll see you to your home.' 'He might follow us and get you afterward.' 'Don't worry. I'll have a gun out next time.' 'What right has he to interfere with other people's lives?' she demanded angrily. 'As if he were some kind of super man.'
'He's a wolf. One of these days he will be trapped. It will be soon.'
The telephone on her desk rang. Helen answered it. 'Yes, he's here,' she said. 'Are you in town?' A minute later she added: 'If you're coming right over, I'll have him wait for you.' She hung up. 'It's Mr. Stevens. He wants to see you and will be here in a jiffy. He phoned from the drugstore at the corner.'
'Sure it was Hal? You recognized his voice?'
She told him yes. Presently they heard his sharp quick tread on the sidewalk.
'Sorry to interrupt, but I had to see you,' Hal said.
'You're a lot more welcome than the last fellow who butted in,' Tom replied, and told him what had just taken place.
Hal did not smile. One could find no amusement in the anger of a killer like Fenwick. The man was as dangerous as a tiger loose in a jungle close to a village.
TICK BLACK drove into the hotel parking lot and clumped to the house. He went in through the back door to the lobby. Jack Lindell, the son of the woman who ran the hotel, was at the desk.
'Seen anything of Brick Fenwick today?' Black asked.
'No, I haven't,' the boy answered.
'Hmp!' Black thought for a moment and walked into the telephone booth. He called up his ranch and Frawley's voice came back to him.
'Know where Brick is?' he inquired.
Frawley told him that Fenwick had left for Big Bridge two hours earlier. Both of them spoke in low tones.
'Okey. I'll pick him up and start home. See you there before morning. Stick around till I come.'
'Cash called you up from Casa Rita. Said a fellow was around asking questions, a guy Brick talked with the other day while the man was fixing a fence. Cash thought you ought to know about it.'
'Yeah. Maybe I ought.' Black dragged the palm of a hand across his unshaven chin. 'Reckon you'd better come in and meet me here, Jim.'
'Elbert isn't around there, is he?'
'No. I left him in his office couple of hours ago. We won't be staying here long.'
'I get you. Meet you at the hotel.'
Tick hung up and walked down the street to the Rest Easy. As he entered by the front door, Brick ducked into the saloon by the back way. The young man's glance slid around the room to see who was present before he moved forward to the bar.
'Elbert is in town with a posse,' he murmured out of the corner of his mouth.
'You saw him — just now?'
'No. Tom Wall told me. He's one of the posse.'
'That's funny. I just drove over from Fair Play and left Elbert there. Maybe somebody phoned him you were expected here.'
Brick's eyes narrowed. 'Or maybe he's not here at all. Maybe that skunk Wall lied to me — to get out of the jam he was in. I'll see about that.' He turned to go, his face a map of black anger.
'Wait a minute.' The ranchman stopped him. 'If you and Wall have been having a run-in, forget it just now. He isn't important.'
'He's important to me,' the younger man flung back. 'I'm gonna hang his hide up to dry.'
Tick caught him by the arm. 'Don't go off half-cocked, Brick. Listen to me.' He drew the Texan into a far corner of the room where they would not be heard. 'I've just heard some disturbing news. The tenderfoot who calls himself Arnold is at Casa Rita nosing around. That will have to be stopped. You can't mess things up by having trouble with Wall now. He isn't going to leave the country. You can take care of him later.'
'After I've handled your chores,' Brick sneered.
'Not so much mine as yours. Don't forget that Arnold is here trying to dig up evidence as to who killed that spy Watts, if that was his name.'
'Watts wasn't killed at Casa Rita. He couldn't find any evidence there. You know damned well that if Arnold is a Government man, he is checking up on where we sell the stuff we get on the raids.'
'It all ties up together. First, let's find out if Elbert is here. Unless you want to be arrested. I'll make sure of that. Soon as I know, I'll meet you in the parking lot back of the hotel.'
'All right. Don't be long. I'm making no promises about what I'll do if he isn't here.'
They separated, each leaving the Rest Easy by the way he had come.
Black stopped a man on the street. 'I'm looking for Sheriff Elbert,' he said. 'Somebody told me he is in town.'
'Somebody told you wrong, Tick,' the man answered. 'I been around ever since dinner time. If he was here I would have seen him.'
Another man drifted along, was questioned, and corroborated the story of the first. Black was satisfied that Wall had not told the truth. Five minutes later, he reported to Brick, who received the information with a good deal of profanity. He did not like being made a monkey of, as he expressed it. Wall had butted in twice, and that was twice too often.
'Tom left town ten minutes ago driving like a man in a hurry,' Black said. 'Looks like he was scared of you. If you tried, you couldn't find him now.'
The cattleman did not know whether what he had said was true or not. Wall might still be in town. But he wanted to get Fenwick's one-track mind functioning along another line.
'All right,' Brick agreed sullenly. 'What's eatin' you? Where do we go from here?'
'We go to Casa Rita and see what this fellow Arnold is uncovering. If Cash is right, we'll have to wind up his ball of yarn. We'll wait for Frawley at the edge of town.'
Fenwick hung fire, uncertain what to do. He had a feeling by no means new that this sly schemer was using him, and he did not like it. 'I'll trail along,' he said. 'But you needn't ask me to bump off Arnold for you. I took care of Watts. I'm gonna let you have this gent.'
They got into the car and drove out of the parking lot. Black turned into the business street. As they passed the Rest Easy, the sound of laughter came to them. There were not many people on the sidewalks. Big Bridge was not a lively spot at night.
Two men came out of Sid's Garage, crossed the road, and passed into an alley. For a moment they had been under a street light's glare.
Brick leaned forward and turned off the car switch. 'You damned lying old buzzard, I might have known you couldn't tell the truth,' he said angrily, and got out of the car as soon as the speed slackened.
He had recognized Wall as the nearer of the two men who had passed into the alley.
WE'LL BOTH walk home with Miss Barnes,' Hal said. 'After that, I'll see you started for the ranch, Tom. I have to go to Casa Rita. I just heard tonight from Ranny Arnold. It looks as if he has something, and he wants me there to verify what he has found out. He was very cautious over the phone, so I don't know just what it is. But my guess is that he thinks he has discovered the destination of the cattle that have been raided by these hill outlaws.'
'You don't want me to go with you,' Wall suggested.
'No, I want you at the ranch. I don't want to close-herd you, Tom, but I think you had better stay right there for the next few days. I'm pretty short-handed, you know, and that calf cut has to be made.'
