Most of the combatants having emptied their weapons and reloading being an operation which required time, the battle became one of single-handed encounters in which guns and pistols served the purpose of clubs. Grunts, curses, and the thud of blows replaced the crash of exploding powder.
Sudden, having fired his last shot, bringing a man down, slipped aside just in time to get his head out of the path of a swinging rifle-butt. Ere the wielder of the weapon could recover his balance, the cowboy stepped in and drove a venomous fist to his jaw. The fellow collapsed limply, dropping like a sack of meal, and at the same instant, claw-like talons encircled Sudden's neck from behind, sinking into the flesh and shutting off his breath.
'Got yu, yu damned spy,' came a sibilant hiss.
It was Navajo. With all his weight on the cowboy's back he was striving to fling him to the ground. Sudden knew that would be the end and fought desperately to keep his feet. But the strangling clutch on his wind-pipe was sapping his strength, his lungs ached for air, sharp pains pierced his eyeballs and sight seemed to be leaving him. With groping fingers he tried to loosen the half-breed's hold but it was of no use ; the relentless fingers might have been hooks of steel. Then, in despair, he savagely jabbed an. elbow backwards into the body behind him. The result was magical ; caught fairly in the solar plexus, Navajo's hands fell away, and he tottered back, gasping, helpless.
For some seconds the cowboy could do no more than suck air into his starved lungs, and then, seeing that his enemy was recovering, he ripped across a blow which sent the outlaw reeling to earth. Snarling curses, he sprang up, and as Sudden ran in, flung a handful of sand in his face, and bolted. For the moon was up and a quick glance had shown him that his men were scuttling like rabbits. Completely blinded by the stinging particles of grit, Sudden could do no more than express himself, stamping about, dabbing his smarting eyes with his neckerchief. So Sandy found him, listened awestruck for a moment, and then, with a mischievous grin, remarked:
'Don't yu take no notice, Miss Carol ; I reckon he's loco.'
The irate cowboy whirled round, only to find he had been caught. The relief of the discovery restored his good-humour. Somewhat ashamed of himself, he explained the reason for the outburst.
* 'Tough luck,' the boy commiserated. 'What yu goin' to do?'
'Search out that pond,' Sudden replied. 'I got half the Staked Plains in my eyes an' the other half down my neck.'
'Hi, yu wait till we've fed,' Sandy cried in affected alarm. 'We gotta drink that water.' He paused. 'Not that I wanta stop yu from washin', Gawd knows.'
Sudden chuckled. 'Talkin' o' washin', I wonder how yu'd look with half yore head scrubbed?' he queried.
'Yu go to blazes,' Sandy retorted. 'Poison the whole damn herd if yu gotta.'
The foreman arrived, bringing the news that save for sundry slight wounds and bruises, the outfit had come out of the ordeal unscathed. 'I reckon we've discouraged them cattle-thieves a whole lot,' he concluded grimly.
They had ; the struggling light of the dawn revealed the twisted, contorted bodies of seven men between the brush and the barricade. Two prisoners had been taken and now sat, withbound limbs, in a far corner of the camp. Rugged, ill-favoured rogues, both of them, stolidly refusing to answer questions. yet not without a certain courage. They knew what was to come and could joke about it. One of them had awakened the other.
'Take a look at yore last sunrise, Hank,' he said. 'yu don't wanta oversleep--it's goin' to be a mighty short day for us.'
'Shucks!' the other replied. 'We'll have a long night to make up for it, hombre.'
They fed and smoked, interestedly watching the preparations for breaking camp. When the wagon rolled ponderously away, the foreman and three of the outfit remained behind with two unsaddled horses. Sudden, the last to leave, saw that the prisoners were lighting fresh cigarettes. He felt no pity for them ; they had gambled, lost, and must pay, but he had a swift vision of two limp forms dangling in the sunlight-shafted shade of the trees, and was aware of a chilly sensation in the region of his spine. He had come near to meeting the same fate, and would yet if the sheriff of San Antonio or of Fourways laid hands on him.
Chapter XXV
HE was a long, scraggy fellow of middle-age, with a thin humorous face, and his rig-out proclaimed that he had recently visited a settlement, clothes, saddle and weapons being patently new. He came into view as they were about to bed-down the herd, and Eden rode to meet him.
'Howdy, friend,' the stranger opened, and then, as his gaze ranged over the milling horde of lean-limbed, fierce-eyed beasts, with their wide-branching horns, he added, 'Where in hell have yu fetched 'em from?'
Eden laughed. 'On'y from Texas,' he said. 'We passed through the place yu mentioned.'
Karson--so the stranger named himself--told the rancher that Abilene was less than a dozen miles distant.
'Mebbe we can do business. I'm in these parts to buy cattle.'
'I'm here to sell 'em,' Eden replied, not too eagerly. The experiences of the past few months had made him distrustful The cattle-buyer slept in camp, having decided to accompany them on the final day's march. He advised that the herd be halted a couple of miles short of Abilene, where there was good grazing.
'She's the toughest burg I ever see--an' I've been in a few,' he said. 'yu wanta warn yore boys to stick together an' step light. Crooked men, women, an' games are as plenty as ticks on a cow.'
Darkness was still distant when they sighted a haze of smoke on the horizon and realized that the end of the long trail was within reach. But no more than that, for until the herd was sold, the cowboys would lack money, and to visit town without anything to spend would be worse than not going at all. So. when the cattle were bunched and bedded on a raised stretch covered with short curly grass, it was but a small party which headed for Abilene ; Karson, Eden, and the women would stay the night there, and the foreman had urged that Sudden should go also.
'Like enough Baudry an' that Navajo fella is infestin' the place,' he said. ''Sides, yu may need to send me a word.'
They reached the town as dusk was falling. After months in the silent wilderness the noise and bustle amazed them. The principal street, a dusty strip between two rows of flimsy buildings, was ant-like in its activity, thronged with a hustling horde. Loaded freight wagons, driven by bull-voiced, blasphemous men churned up the surface, filling the air with a grey powdery deposit which covered everyone and everything ; reckless riders flickered to and fro, swinging their mounts dexterously around pedestrians ; at the hitch-rails stood rows of patient ponies, heads down, tails swishing in an endless battle against a myriad flies. From the windows of saloons. dance-halls, and gambling 'joints' came a warm glow as the lamps within were lighted.
Karson conducted them to his hotel, where they secured rooms and dined. Then he carried the cattleman off to 'take in the town.' Eden, having warned his daughter to remain indoors, told Sudden he was at liberty to amuse himself. The cowboy did not like this arrangement, but could hardly protest.
Leaving the hotel, he mingled with the motley mob streaming along the street.
At the door of the Palace Saloon he hesitated a momentand then went in. Ordering a modest drink he leant against the bar, studying the ebb and flow of mixed humanity, drinking, gambling, and exulting or complaining as fortune favoured or flouted them. A bleary-eyed individual sidled up to him.
'yo're a stranger,' he accused, shooting out a grimy finger. 'Yu must be a magician,' the cowboy quizzed.
'I ain't, but I savvy all the fellas in thisyer burg,' the other replied. He pointed to a big, red-faced, flashily dressed man near the bar. 'Know who that is? Mick Donagh, owner o' this joint. They say he's good for a hundred thousand dollars.'
The corner of the cowboy's eyes crinkled up. 'What of it?' he asked lazily. 'I'd be good my own self for a lot less'n that.'
The bleary citizen decided to take this in a friendly spirit ; the nonchalant young stranger did not look too easy.
'I'm bettin' yu would,' he agreed. 'Me too, don't yu reckon?'
This time he got it straight from the shoulder. 'yu?' the cowboy drawled. 'I'd figure yu good--for-- nothin'.'
The level look which accompanied the contemptuous speech apprised the bleary one that he had selected the wrong victim, and muttering something about 'fresh fellas,' he drifted away. His place was soon taken by a short,
