not forget what she owes you.'
'Why, I ain't done nothin',' he protested.
'You think not? Yet if that murderer learns of it he will treat the pair of us as he did Pedro.'
'We won't tell him,' Sudden smiled. 'Adios.'
He swung his horse over towards the corral, and when he had vanished in the gloom, Anita returned to the hovel she called home. Sinking down on the pile of rugs, she shook her head in perplexity.
'Why is he here?' she asked herself. 'He's not like the rest.' She had heard he was a gunman, renowned in the West, and he looked it, but there was a cleanness, a self-reliance, and lack of bluster which made him stand out among the criminals and outcasts who found a refuge in Hell City. The thought that this stranger was no admirer of the man she had vowed vengeance upon brought a tigerish smile to her lips.
Sudden's appearance in the saloon earned him no more than a glance or two; a new face was a common occurrence, and his was not even that. Some two dozen men were present, playing cards, dicing, or drinking at the bar. Among the latter was Muley, who seemed to be the chief attraction. He was evidently proud of his morning's performance and could speak of nothing else, his one grievance being that it had not lasted longer.
'You hit too hard,' one of the group round him remarked.
'Hard?' bellowed Muley. 'Why, I hadn't mor'n begun to stroke him when he goes an' dies on me. I'm tellin' you, the Chief's gittin' poor stuff these days; calls theirselves men an' ain't got the guts of a louse.'
His malignant gaze travelled round the room, rested for an instant on the puncher, and passed on to a youth sitting alone on a stool at the end of the bar. Sudden had already noticed him and speculated as to what boyish escapade had brought him there. With a wink to his companions, the flogger lurched across, and said roughly: 'What's yore name, you?'
The lad looked at him with drink-bemused eyes. 'Ben Holt,' he replied, adding, 'I on'y come in to-day.'
'Well, if that ain't good news. The rule is for newcomers to set up drinks for the crowd. What about it?'
Ben Holt laughed dismally. 'Yo're too late, mister, I'm near busted,' he explained. 'If I'd knowed earlier ... '
The bully growled an oath, and swinging his right arm struck the boy a flat-handed blow on the side of his head which swept him to the floor. Then he seated himself on the vacant stool, and with an impudent grin at Sudden, said: 'That's what we do to fresh fellas who don't pay their footin'.'
All eyes were on the puncher as he stepped unhurriedly forward. 'I'm a fresh fella, an' I'm not buyin'. So what?'
For ten tense seconds, Muley stared into the grey-blue eyes of the man who had called his bluff, seeking a way out. The other found it for him.
'Yu yaller dawg,' he grated. 'If I'd a whip yu should have a taste of yore own medicine, but as it is ...'
His hand rose and fell, landing on the fellow's bloated cheek with such force as to send him sprawling. Lying in the dirt, spitting out inarticulate curses, he clawed feebly at the gun he dared not draw. Covert grins were on the faces of most of the onlookers--a bully has few friends in the day of discomfiture. Sudden took no further notice of him, but went to the boy, who had got up and was watching the scene with wide eyes.
'A mouthful o' fresh air won't do yu no harm,' he said, and led the way to the door.
Outside the corral the puncher paused, ostensibly to make a cigarette, but actually to give his companion time to shake off the fumes of the spirit he had imbibed. The cool cleanness of the night appeared to bring him out of the semi-dazed state. Sudden surveyed him sardonically.
'I'm guessin' yu an liquor ain't very well acquainted,' he remarked. 'Drownin' yore sorrows is a poor way-- the blame things can anus swim.'
The boy made a desperate attempt to smile. 'I expect yo're right,' he said. 'But you were drinkin' too.'
'I was takin' a drink. To sit there lappin' 'em up one after the other is somethin' different. What brought yu here?'
It was a common enough tale. A gambling debt he could not pay, an attempt to get the money dishonestly which failed, and he was outside the law.
'The sheriff an' his men was hot on our trail an' we lined out for here. They got the other two, but I made it. I most wish I hadn't,' he finished miserably.
'That's no way to talk,' Sudden told him. 'Keep yore chin up an' stay away from liquor an' cards. When did yu lose that posse?'
'Two days back, 'bout forty mile off,' was the reply. 'I rode in the water some.'
'Good for yu. I'm bettin' they've turned tail.'
Holt remembered something. 'I'm thankin' you,' he said shyly.
'Don't yu. That windbag was aimin' at me. So long.'
Purely as a matter of policy, the puncher returned to the saloon, the owner of which greeted him with a grin.
'He's went,' he said. 'Got the face-ache, I figure; that was a daddy of a wallop you give him.' He lowered his voice. 'Don't forget that anythin' goes in this man's town.'
Sudden realized that the warning was well-meant. 'I'm obliged, friend,' he smiled. 'Right now, bed goes for me.'
Lying on his blankets in the darkness he turned over the day's doings. He had put two people under an obligation, and had made another enemy; the latter troubled him not at all. His examination of the place had only convinced him of its strength. As for its ruler ... It seemed incredible that Kenneth Keith could be father to such a son.
'He's a throw-back,' Sudden mused. 'The 01' Man musta had a pirut ancestor, one o' the bloodthirsty kind that made prisoners walk the plank just to amuse hisself, though that would be too tame for this fella.'
Satisfied with this solution, he went to sleep. In the morning he idled about, studying the life in this human warren. Itwas a peaceful enough scene. Men, and a few women, sunning themselves in the open, or chatting in groups outside the store or the saloon; it might have been any one of a hundred frontier settlements he had seen. Once, a hard-eyed rider galloped in, scattering dust and dogs in all directions, to disappear into the Chief's abode. He encountered the woman, Anita, but she went by without a glance. Then he ran into Holt, and saw that something was troubling him.
'Head bad?' he asked.
'Feels like it had been split open with an axe an' joined wrong,' the boy said ruefully. 'But that ain't anythin'.' He hesitated a moment and then blurted out, 'I tried to git away this mornin', but the fella at the gate said I had to have a permit.'
The puncher shook his head. 'It ain't that easy. Better stay an' lay for a chance. Mebbe I'll be able to help yu.'
In the afternoon he went to see the Chief. He found Miss Dalroy there, and would have retired, but the masked man stayed him.
'Come in,' he said. 'You know Belle, I believe.'
'We met at a very fortunate moment--for me,' the girl smiled, her fine eyes dwelling on the lithe, athletic form of the visitor. 'I owe you a great deal, Mister Sudden.'
'My name is Green, ma'am,' he corrected stiffly, 'an' yu don't owe me nothin'.'
'Well, I give in about the name,' she replied. 'For the rest, I shall--'
'I take the debt upon myself, Belle,' Satan interrupted, and to the cowboy, 'So you didn't avail yourself of Silver's hospital?'
'I like to sleep near my hoss,' Sudden replied curtly. 'And you occupied your time antagonizing another of your comrades,' the cold voice continued. 'Was that wise?'
'He was tryin' to run a blazer on me, an' I don't stand for that--from anyone.'
The belligerent tone and very obvious challenge brought the merest ghost of a smile to the straight lips beneath the mask, an effect the speaker did not expect.
'I'm goin' back to the Double K to-night,' he announced.
Sudden saw the man's fists tighten, but, furious as the bandit was at this slighting of his authority, he showed no other sign.
'The great gunman is already weary of us,' he said mockingly to the girl. 'We can only hope that he will return soon--and stay longer.'
