'Actin'-boss--there's another feller back of him.'
For some time they smoked in silence, Green apparently turning over the proposition in his mind; it was no part of his plan to accept eagerly. That the rustlers saw in him a useful recruit was possible, and what he wanted them to believe, but there was also the chance that this was merely a trap to destroy him. Nevertheless, he intended to go, for it was what he had been hoping for. It was the visitor himself who brought matters to a head. Getting up, he stretched lazily, and remarked :
`Well, thanks for the feed. I gotta drift; yu comin' along?' `Guess I might as well,' Green replied. `I'll cache my tools here an' I can come back if I want to.'
This did not take long and having saddled his pony, he was ready.
`Ain't yu got another hoss--to carry yore pack?' queried West, and the puncher hid a smile, guessing that perhaps his visitor had expected to see the roan. He shook his head.
`Not here,' he replied. `Bullet's a good little hoss. He carried the pack an' me, though I ain't sayin' he liked it.'
`Some hosses is damn near human,' said West, as he led the way up the canyon.
They reached the tunnel and passed through into the valley, heading straight across for the far end. Green wondered how they would get out; he soon learned. On reaching the ledge which had baffled the Frying Pan posse, West said:
`We gotta get down here an' do a bit o' work.'
Turning to the right, he conducted his companion to a thick clump of brush which at first glance appeared to be impenetrable. They found a way in, however, and in the centre lay a pile of long, roughly-fashioned planks.
`Reckon a couple'll be enough,' said California. `Give us a hand.'
The planks were stout and it required two trips to get them to where they had left the horses. Placed side by side, with ends resting on the ledge, they made a practicable gangway for the animals. They were then returned to their hiding-place and the men clambered up the face of the ledge on foot. West directed
Green to mount, and then took his blanket, rolled it and tied one end of his lariat round the middle. He too then mounted and pacing his horse directly in the wake of his companion, dragged the roll of blanket behind him, completely obliterating their tracks in the soft sand.
`Smart Injun dodge that,' commented Green. `Yu thinkin' anybody's after us?'
Nope, but we use that valley an' ain't honin' to advertise it,' was the meaning reply.
In a few moments they left the sand, descending a stony slope into another broad grass depression, and from thence plunging into a network of rocky winding gulches, ravines, and patches of forest. Through this labyrinth they followed a definite trail, over which cattle had evidently passed at no distant date. Only one incident of note occurred and that was when California got down to drink at a stream. As he lifted his foot to the stirrup his horse reared suddenly, and taken unawares, he lost his balance and toppled backwards into a bush. Instantly there came a warning rattle and a threatening head shot up, poised to strike, only a foot from the prostrate man's face. Another second and the poisonous fangs would have done their deadly work, but Green's gun spoke and the reptile's head, shattered by the bullet, fell back into the bush. When West got to his feet he was shaking.
`Gawd, that was a close call,' he said. `I'm thankin' yu, pardner, an' if ever I can square the 'count, yu can bank on me. Yu shore are some slick with a gun.'
`There wasn't much time,' Green laughed. `I just naturally didn't want to lose that job yo're gettin' me.'
West climbed his horse, cursing it good-naturedly as he did so. `There ain't many things I'm scared of, but snakes, ugh! I once see a feller pass out from a snake-bite,' he said.
The afternoon was well-advanced when they crossed a large expanse of open range and pulled up in front of a group of buildings, comprising a roomy ranch-house, bunkhouse, blacksmith's shop, and a corral. All were constructed of logs and, Green noted, had not been long erected. Several men lounging by the bunkhouse door greeted his companion.
'Lo, Dick, yu got back,' said one.
`Why, no, but I'm liable to arrive any moment,' smiled California, and the user of the conventional absurdity was immediately pounded on the back.
`Aw well, yu know what I mean,' he protested.
West led his companion to the ranch-house a little distance away, and in response to his hail, another man emerged--a shorn, bow-legged fellow with squinting eyes and a hard mouth.
He surveyed the couple narrowly for a few minutes and then asked :
`What's yore trouble, West?'
In a few brief sentences the ex-miner gave Green's history as he knew it, and finished by asking a job for him; the rattle-snake incident was omitted. The decision was soon made.
`Yo're hired; all yu gotta do is obey orders an' ask no questions,' said the bow-legged man. `Yu'll find that gold yo're huntin' for right here. Take him along, Dick.'
He turned away and the two punchers, after disposing of the horses in the corral, made their way to the bunkhouse. Here Green was casually presented to the nine or ten men present as a new hand. He saw at a glance that they were a tough lot, men of middle age or more for the most part, ruffians of a type only too plentiful in the West at that time, a cursing, hard-drinking, fighting crew who would stop at nothing when their greed or passions were aroused. After his first entrance they took but little notice of him, though he could see that his new friend, Dick, was popular enough. The bunkhouse was comfortable, the food provided both good and plentiful. He gathered nothing from the general conversation, save once, when the mysterious Spider was mentioned.
`Who is that?' he asked of West, who was seated next to him. `The main boss--ain't here much,' was the reply.
Chapter XIV
TARMAN was not one to let the grass grow under his feet; he soon became an almost daily visitor at the Y Z, where he exerted himself to the unmost to please both the owner and his daughter. The latter, though her doubts were not entirely dispelled, could not altogether resist the attraction of his personality. They rode often, and despite his defeat by Blue Devil, she had to admit that he was both at home and looked well in the saddle. Moreover, he was studiously respectful and attentive. Though he did not make open love to her, she was aware of his admiration. It was after one of these excursions, when sitting on the verandah with father and daughter, that Tarman made his first reference to Green.
`That puncher yu fired hasn't pulled his freight, I notice,' he said. The roan yu give him is still in the hotel corral.'
`Didn't yu say he was going prospectin'?' Simon asked Noreen.`That is what he told me,' she replied, and did not fail to note the little crease in Tarman's brow.
`Some folks find gold in other folks' cattle,' he sneered. 'Anybody can buy a miner's outfit. It's bein' said in town that he's got into bad company.'
Noreen laughed. `Town talk; why, I wouldn't condemn a coyote on that.'
`Neither would I, not if I was at all acquainted with the coyote,' smiled the big man, `but one o' the Double X boys claims that he saw Green over towards Big Chief, ridin' with a mighty hard-lookin' crew, strangers to these parts. I'm thinkin' he may have found them rustlers he was lookin' for.'
`Sounds queer--I don't know of any ranch over there,' said Simon. `I expect it's just as well I got rid of him.'
The girl said no more, but the information made her uneasy. She knew, of course, that Tarman was jealous of the onher, cleverly as he tried to conceal the fact, but she did not think he had invented the story, and meeting Larry later on, she asked a plain question.
`Yes, Miss Norry,' he told her. `It was Dutch who claimed to have seen him, an' o' course some o' them smart Alecks gotta start ornamentin' his yarn. Why, one of 'em told me Green had been seen alterin' brands! He warn't quite so shore of his facts when I'd done arguin' with him,' he finished, grinning at the recollection of an indignant citizen trying to curse and retract his statements at the same time, while his face was being enthusiastically jammed into the dust of the street.
The girl smiled too, for the young puncher's wholehearted faith in his friend was good to see. It cheered her also to find it was shared by others; Ginger, now well enough to sun himself on the bench outside the bunkhouse, was equally emphatic.
