The young man who emerged proved to be the second sentinel of the gorge and his face opened in a wide grin when he saw the new-corner.
'Shucks, it's shorely up to me to watch out for yu,' Rogue introduced. 'yu can put him wise an' make him known to the boys.'
'Pleased to,' Sandy said, shaking hands.
When the outlaw leader had gone, with a word that he would see them at supper, Sandy turned to the visitor.
'I'm lucky to get yu,' he said. 'Last fella I bunked with musta been bit by a mad dawg some time, the sight o' water gave him the fan-tods.'
Together they inspected the quarters. Two beds--mere frames with strips of rawhide nailed across them, a couple of up-ended boxes for seats, a cracked mirror, and a few pegs comprised the furniture. The previous sole owner of all this magnificence waited covertly for comment, but when the stranger spoke it was about something entirely different.
'Yu ain't been with this crowd very long,' he said.
Sandy stared at him and retorted quizzically, 'Tell me somethin' about my future, Mister Medicine Man.'
'Shore,' Sudden smiled. 'I'm sayin' yu won't be with 'em a great while, neither.'
Sandy grinned. 'Now I'll do a bit o' wizardin',' he said. 'Listen, yo're a nifty poker player, an' yu an' me is goin' to he good friends.'
They shook hands on that, and then, having brought in his saddle, blankets, and war-bag, the visitor proceeded to shave off his moustache. Sandy watched the operation in silence and then laughed slyly.
'I grow one an' yu get shut o' yores--funny, ain't it?' he emarked, and, inspecting the result critically, 'It certainlymakes a difference. What yu goin' to do with the bottle?'
'Rogue thinks my hoss would look better all black, an' I'm inclined to agree with him,' Sudden explained, his eyes twinkling.
The removal of the tell-tale marks did not take long and when the horse had been turned loose to graze, Sandy suggested that it was getting near grub-time. On the way, Sudden put a question.
'Rogue ain't a bad of scout but difficult to figure,' was the reply. 'There's times he's near human an' others when he can be a devil from hell, gotta be, I reckon, with the team he has to handle ; there ain't a tougher crowd between Kansas an' the Rio Grande.'
Sudden's own observations during the meal supported this description. Sandy alone seemed to be of a different type ; somehow he did not 'belong.' Rogue's remark anent a 'man he could trust' no longer astonished him.
They fed at a long table in the largest building, which served as a general living-room for the community. Rogue sat at one end, and at the other was a man who immediately attracted the attention of the new-comer. In the thirties, of medium height, slim and supple, he had the face of a demon. The acquiline nose, high cheek-bones, cruel mouth and lank, black hair proclaimed a mixed origin, despite his yellowish-white skin, and Sudden was not surprised to hear him addressed as 'Navajo.' His dark eyes, flashing from beneath lowered lids, and sinuous movements, were reptilian. He was, Sandy whispered, a sort of second in command of the band. Rogue's presentation was perfunctory:
'Boys, this is Jim,' he said. 'He's stayin' with us a while.'
Nods and a muttered 'Howdy' here and there came in response, and the men went on with the business of filling their bellies. The food was good and plentiful. Not until their voracious appetites were appeased and pipes or cigarettes lighted did the company take much notice of the guest. Then he came in for a good deal of furtive scrutiny.
Presently, when most of the men were playing or watching a card game, he slipped away, and from a bench outside, sat gazing over the valley. It was a restful sight : the green expanse, with its verdure-ringed pool and grazing beasts, the rock-rimmed walls where the gathering shadows heralded the approaching night, and to the west, a lingering golden glory in the sky.
'Looks peaceful, don't it?' Sandy said, squatting beside his new chum.
'Shore does.'
Sandy did not pursue the subject. He sensed the bitterness n the tone, guessed what the speaker might be thinking, but knew he must not ask. Though they felt a mutual attraction, these two, they had exchanged no confidences.
Chapter IV
ROGUE was absent from the breakfast table on the following morning, but there was a new arrival in the person of the man Sudden had seen in San Antonio. He grinned cheerfully at the cowboy and, when the meal was over, beckoned him outside.
'So yu changed yore mind?' was how he opened the conversation.
'Yu might call it that,' was the sardonic reply.
'Aimin' to throw in with Rogue?'
Sudden did not reply at once. Despite the man's apparent friendliness, he did not like him ; there was a lurking malignancy which suggested that he enjoyed the misfortunes of others.
'I ain't decided,' he said, adding savagely, 'What else is there for me to do?'
'Come a-swimmin'--that's what.'
It was Sandy who had answered the question, and he smiled ' as he waved a hand to the pool, glittering in the bright sunshine like a jewel in a green setting. Sligh--so the outlaw was called--shrugged disdainful shoulders.
'yu did oughta remember them critters has to drink that water,' he said.
'Which is why yu don't go in, huh?' Sandy retorted.
The water looked cool and inviting and Sandy hurriedly divested himself of his clothing. Sudden followed his example but more leisurely. He watched the boy step lightly towards a jutting bit of bank which afforded a good place for a plungeand then snatched a gun from the belt he had just discarded and fired. Sandy whirled instantly.
'What the hell ... ?' he cried, and then, as he saw the bullet-shattered fiat venomous head and greenish-grey body thrashing about in the long grass only a yard from where he stood, his face paled. 'A cotton-mouth!' he gasped. (The moccasin snake, when angry, appears to have its jaws stuffed with cotton-wool.) 'Jim, I'm not forgettin' this--ever.'
'Shucks,' was the reply. 'Saw him just in time.'
'yu shore did--'nother step an' I'd 'a' trod on him,' Sandy agreed, with a shiver.
A careful search of the bank revealed no more reptiles and they had their swim, but much of the enjoyment had gone. As they lay on the warm turf drying themselves in the sun, Sudden asked a question.
'There's a way out at the other end o' the valley,' Sandy said. 'Goin' ridin'?'
'Thought I'd look around ; don't seem to be much to do.'
'We'll be busy to-morrow--the boys'll fetch in a bunch o' cattle--there's plenty mavericks in the brush. I'd go with yu but I gotta relieve Ropey, durn it.'
Dried and dressed again they made their way to the bunkhouse, which they found empty, save for the cook.
Having fed, they got their horses and separated, Sandy turning east to set free a man who was eagerly awaiting him, and Sudden heading in the opposite direction.
The exit was easily found, a tunnel-like crack in the rim-rock just wide enough to permit the passage of a mounted man. There was little light, for the cliff overhead appeared to be unbroken and the far end of the opening was masked by a mass of dense scrub. The few tracks showed that this means of entering or leaving the valley was seldom used.
'Takin' a herd o' cattle through would be apt to keep a fella's tongue busy,' the cowboy ruminated. 'She'd be a useful bolt-hole though.'
Sandy had already told him that the nearest settlement on this side of the valley was some thirty miles distant, and that the only habitation of importance was the S E ranch.
'Got a big range, has Sam Eden,' the boy had said. 'They say he owns a lot o' the land too. Dessay our valley belongs to him, but up to now he ain't served no writ of ejectment.'
