`Why, Seth, what's yore hurry?' asked Tarman.
`Yu know I got a date with Rayne,' replied Laban. `I told yu comin' up I couldn't stay.'
`So yu did, Seth; I done forgot it,' agreed his friend.
When Laban had taken his leave the big man turned to his host and remarked casually, `That chap Green 'pears to be a pretty capable proposition. Handy with his weapons too, judging by the way he got that boy o' yores away from the marshal.'
`Never seen him fire a shot but I should say he ain't no novice,' Simon replied.
`Was it a fair fight, Mr. Tarman?' inquired Noreen.
`Well, it was an even break, an' I told the marshal so, but it was forced on the dead man; the Y Z boys meant to get him, an' came there a-purpose. I should say Green framed it up, an' he certainly got away with it. Funny, as I was sayin' to Seth, I believe I've seen him somewhere an' can't just fix him, but I'll bet a stack he's more gunman than cowboy.'
`He knows his work,' offered the cattleman.
`Mebbe so, but if I'm right yu gotta ask yoreself what's a gunman doin' around here?' rejoined Tarman, and having planted this seed of doubt in the minds of his hearers, he went on to talk of something else.
When Green reached the bunkhouse he found Larry lounging on the bench outside. The young man promptly greeted him, `How's the cow-thief business?'
`Not so brisk as when yu were in it,' retorted his friend, with a grin. `Yu go get that four-legged table yu got into the habit o' callin' a hoss, an' drape yoreself across it; if yu can find any more o' the boys, fetch 'em along.'
`Huh ! yu got that job as foreman a'ready?' snorted the other. `If I had I'd be handin' yu yore time,' smiled Green. `The Old Man's orders; get agoin'.'
But Larry delayed another minute. `Say, do yu know that the Pretty Lady has been ridin' with the Handsome Stranger this afternoon?' he asked. Green looked at him and saw that the boy was not joshing. `What are yu goin' to do about it?' he inquired.
`Me? What's it gotta do with me?' asked Larry.
`Well, I was wonderin' that myself,' replied Green slowly, and left the other to work it out.
`Hell's bells, can yu beat it?' muttered the young man, when he realised that he had been very neatly admonished. `If he ain't the cussedest...! He gave it up and went in search of Dirty and Simple, who were somewhere about. When he returned with them, Green had turned the roan into the corral, transferring the saddle to his other pony. He explained the situation to them while they were getting their mounts, and after snatching a hasty meal, they started for the Frying Pan ranch.
`Might've took me in yore shootin' party,' reproached Larry, who, paired with Green, was leading the way.
`No place for boys,' came the drawling reply.
`Awright, grand-pop; yu old moss-heads want to hog all the fun. D'yu reckon the marshal will start anythin'?'
`I would, in his place,' Green replied grimly. `I'd start a journey, an' I'd make it a long one.'
For the greater part of the trip, however, Green was silent. Though he had not shown it, the knowledge that Noreen had been for a ride with Tarman annoyed him. He knew that this feeling was quite unwarranted, the girl had a right to dispose of her own company, and what was more reasonable than that she should show the visitor over the ranch? Nevertheless, the thought of it made him profane. Another thing that occupied his mind was the departure of Seth at the same moment as himself; it might have been just a coincidence but he felt instinctively that it was not.
He was still puzzling over this incident when they reached their destination. In spite of the darkness they had made good time, though as Dirty ruefully remarked, `Supper must be damn near forgotten by now.' They rode past the bunkhouse, from which came the tinkle of a banjo and a powerful if unmelodious chorus.
`Huh! Tryin' to scare off rustlers, I guess,' commented Simple. `Job must be away or stone deaf.'
The ranch-owner was neither, for he came to the door in answer to Green's knock. He carried a lamp in his left hand, the right being hooked in his belt in useful proximity to his gun.
'Lo, boys,' he greeted, recognising them. `What's up?'
Green explained the reason for their visit and the effect on Leeming was ludicrous--as Dirty put it--`It fair set him alight.' `Hell's bells!' he cried. `That's the way things allus happen on this blamed ranch. Here's Dirk an' six o' the boys away with the trail herd an' me with half a staff. But we'll get 'em, yu bet yu; we'll have them cows back here an' hang every damn thief we find with 'em. Yu boys will want to hit the way, I reckon?'
`We're aimin' to come with yu--we can get there by sun-up an' have a cat-nap on the way,' Green replied, adding slyly, `That is if yu want for us to come.'
`What the...' the rancher started tempestuously, and then he caught the twinkle in the speaker's eyes and grinned himself. `Yu nearly had me goin' again, blast yu,' he said. `Course I'll be pleased to death to have yore help. Come along to the bunkhouse an' stoke up while I get the boys together.'
Scrambling into a coat and snatching up a Winchester, Job led the way. At his entrance the concert ceased abruptly, and Charlie, who was sufficiently recovered to sit up in his bunk and manipulate his banjo, laid the instrument aside.
`Hump yoreselves, boys,' Leeming cried. `Green here has located our cattle an' we're agoin' after 'em. Lucky, yu better stay with Charlie; the other five, with the Y Z boys, will be enough to turn the nrick.'
`Oh hell, boss, I'm fit all right,' protested Lucky. `An' I shore owe them fellers a crack for the one they gave me.'
`Yore turn'll come--we ain't expectin' to corral the whole bunch,' said the boss. `Somebody's gotta stay. Where in blazes is that grub I told that blasted cook to put up?'
He bustled about, pouring out torrents of abuse indiscriminately directed at his own men and the cattle- thieves, and Green was amazed at the manner in which it was received.
`Ain't he the son of a gun?' privily remarked Zeb Woods, who as acting foreman in Dirk's absence got more than his share. `But durn it, he don't mean anythin'. He'd ride from hell an'-all to give any one of us a helpin' hand, an' we shore knows it. How's Ginger makin' it?'
`Doin' fine, barrin' the swellin',' Green replied.
`Swellin'? Why, where he swole?' asked the puzzled Woods. `In the head,' said Green, smiling. `Yu see, Miss Norry is nursin' him.'
A roar of laughter greeted the explanation and Woods joined in. `I'm it,' he admitted, `and the drinks are shore on me next time I meet yu in town. Say, he'll be havin' a heart attack too, eh?'
`Shucks! He done had that years ago, an' got over it, same as the rest of us,' volunteered Dirty.
A loud inquiry from the boss as to whether he'd got to wait all night for them put a period to the conversation, and no more time was lost in starting. Having a fixed objective, they headed straight across the Y Z range, in a direction which would leave the Parlour well to their left. For a time they were able to travel at a fast lope which ate up the miles, but when they left the range-land and plunged into the wilderness beyond, the pace had to be moderated.
Nevertheless, midnight found them little more than an hour's ride from their destination, and Leeming decided to rest both men and beasts. A fire was lighted, for the night air was very keen, the horses were picketed, and the men rolled up in their blankets and slept the sleep of the healthily-tired. Around them was the black silence, broken only by the sharp crackle of the burning logs, and the occasional cry of some wild denizen of the forest abroad on a predatory quest.
They were astir again at the first pale gleam of light behind the distant mountains. Swiftly this deepened and became a roseate glow from the midst of which the flaming rim of the sun climbed majestically above the peaks, tingeing them with gold. The daily miracle which turned a world of cold and darkness into one of warmth and light had taken place. But in the gulches, canyons, and wooded tracts gloom still resisted the invading daylight.
A gulp of hot coffee, a cigarette, and the party resumed its way, and by the time the conquest of the darkness was completed the blind canyon was reached. This was soon negotiated, and one by one they led their mounts through the tunnel, Green going first, with the boss of the Frying Pan following him.
`Damnation!' said the puncher disgustedly. `They've razzledazzled us.'
The valley was empty. Some hundreds of yards from where they stood were two black mounds, and as the
