credit for a lot o' things he had nothin' to do with. Feller's only got to rub out one or two toughs an' he gets half the crimes in the country ladled onto him.'
Leeming knew something of the little gunman's own past and did not pursue what was evidently a subject which aroused bitter recollections.
`Where do yu reckon Green will make for?' was his next query.
`I ain't doin' any reckonin',' came the blunt reply, and Job saw that Lunt was not to be drawn.
When he got back to the ranch-house he found Tarman on the point of returning to town, and he suddenly decided to accompany him. Before leaving, he slipped into the kitchen, where he found Noreen alone. Her pale face and the misery in her eyes made him mutter an oath.
'Oh, what does it all mean, Uncle Job? I can't believe it,' she cried.
`There, don't yu fuss yoreself, my girl, it'll all come straight,' he replied soothingly. 'I don't believe it myself, but, for the love o' Mike, don't tell yore father that.'
To Simon himself he simply said, `Send for me if you want me, an' don't trust anybody too much.'
`I ain't trustin' out-o'-work punchers no more, if that's what yu mean,' replied Simon, bitterly.
It was not, but Leeming could hardly explain in the presence of the other guest so he let it go. As they loped along the trail to Hatchett's he put a plain question: `What's yore scheme for gettin' hold o' this feller Green?'
`I ain't got it straightened out yet--just millin' round in my head,' Tarman replied evasively. 'I reckon it will work though, an' once I get my rope on him no fool girl will be able to set him foot-loose again, an' yu can stick a pin in that.'
`Huh! I guess he'll quit.'
`Yu got another guess--he won't; I know the breed. He come here to wipe out Simon an' he'll do it.'
`But yu said he don't know it's Simon he wants,' Job reminded him.
`He don't yet, but he will,' arid Tarman grinned as though an amusing idea had just occurred to him.
The Frying Pan owner pondered on this in silence. If Tarman could contrive that Green should kill Simon and hang for it, he removed an enemy and possible rival, and would only have to wed Noreen to become at once sole owner of the Y Z. Was this the game? He determined to make an attempt to find out.
`How do yu like this country, Tarman?' he asked.
`Fine,' replied the other. `It's even better than the reports that fetched me here. Yu may as well know now as later, I'm aimin' to buy in on the Y Z an' settle down here, an' I might take on yore range too if we can come to terms.'
`I've no idea of sellin',' Leeming told him.
`Mebbe yu will change yore mind,' smiled Tarman. `If yu don't, well, I'll be tickled to death to have yu as a neighbour. Yu can see now why I'm hornin' in on this rustlin' game; I don't propose to have any damned outlaw projectin' round stealin' my cattle.'
`I've allus reckoned Norry would have the Y Z,' Job said, reflectively.
`So she will,' smirked the big man. `But she'll get me with it.' `Got that fixed, have yu?' Leeming said, a trifle sarcastically. `Not altogether, but I'm bettin' there won't be no great difficulty,' was the satisfied rejoinder. `The old man's strong for it an' I fancy the girl don't exactly dislike me.'
`Huh! Yore attitude just now warn't calculated no impress her favourably.'
`Shucks! Women like a man as is a man--they fall for the rough stuff every time; I know how to handle 'em.'
Leeming was silent for a while. He did not like the fellow, and he liked still less the idea of his marrying Noreen. If Green was right, Tarman was a scoundrel of the worst description, and in any case, he showed himself to be a conceited braggart. Job determined that the girl should not be forced into such a union if he could do anything to prevent it.
`What's Green got against Petter?' he asked.
`Oh, it's an old story--nothin' to it. Yu better ask Simon himself,' was the reply.
By the time they arrived at Hatchett's Folly Leeming had learned nothing more; apparently the big man had told as much as he wished of his plans. It was early yet for the town to be waking up for the evening diversions but there was an unwonned air of excitement; little groups of men stood in the street discussing something, and when they entered the saloon they found more than the usual quota of customers for the time of day.. It was Silas who blurted out the news.
`Say, yu heard about than feller Green?' he queried as they reached the bar, and without waiting for an answer, went on, `He's Sudden, the outlaw. What do you know about that, huh?'
Tarman stifled an oath and laughed instead. `Shucks, someone's been stringin' yu, Silas,' he said.
`String nothin',' retorted the barkeeper. `He's been recognised, an' they say that Simon has him under lock an' key at the Y Z. Tonk is gettin' a posse to go an' fetch him in.'
`Then Tonk can save himself the trouble,' said Tarman. `We just come from the Y Z, an' Green ain't there.'
`Not there, yu say?' asked the marshal, who had entered in time to hear the last few words. `But he was there, warn't he?' Tarman explained why it was no longer of any use for the officer to journey to the Y Z, and Tonk's face grew redder and redder as he listened.
`She turned him loose?' he yelled. `My Gawd, I've a mind to fetch the damned hussy an' put her where he oughtta be--in the pen. She's bruk the law.'
Job Leeming's face grew stormy. `Don't overplay yore hand, marshal,' he grated. `Green warn't the law's prisoner, so there's no legal offence in setting him free. Another thing yu gotta remember--when you have to refer to that young lady yu do it respectful, or I'll just naturally bust yu wide open.'
`An' that goes for me too,' added Tarman, with an ugly look at the marshal.
A chorus of voices endorsed the sentiment and Tonk realised that he was not adding to his popularity.
`Well, o' course, I didn't mean just that,' he said, with a halfhearted grin which deceived no one. `I own to gettin' a bit het up over the chance this town has missed. Than feller's worth all of ten thousand plunks, an' to think I've had him under my hand in this very place. Gosh, if only I'd 'a' knowed.'
`Blame good thing for yu yu didn't,' sneered Tarman. `Why, yu poor simp, if yu'd tried to arrest him, yu'd have been halfway to hell before yu got yore gun out.'
`An' that's whatever,' corroborated the barkeeper. `Look what he done to Snub. I allus had a notion he warn't just an ordinary cow-wrastler.'
`Allasame, we gotta do somethin',' said the marshal. `What about a posse to search him out, Leeming?'
But the owner of the Frying Pan was no longer there. Knowing that to save his face the officer would have to make a show of activity, and having no desire to take part in it, he had discreetly slipped out of the saloon.
Chapter XVIII
GREEN stretched out his legs luxuriously as he reclined by the little fire on the glowing embers of which was a pan giving forth the appetising odour of sizzling bacon. They had ridden hard all night, and now in the early morning had camped in a deep, wooded gully well to the north of the rustlers' hidden valley.
Keen as the air was it had a tang in it that acted like a tonic, and the cowpuncher filled his lungs and was glad to be alive. Near-by, Larry, who had gone to fill the coffee-pot at a neighbouring stream, was singing lustily:
Oh, Bronco Bill was a bold, bad man, A bold, bad man was he.
An' he could ride, an' rope, an' shoot,
An' swaller the worst whiskee. Yeah, Bronco Bill could do that last
Better'n the other three.
As he came into sight warbling this gem, the man by the fire aised a warning hand. `Hush,' he said. `Ain't yu got any sense?' The singer paused in amazement. `What harm's my singin' goin' to do?' he demanded.
`Kill all the frawgs--they'll die of envy,' replied Green solemnly, and then ducked as the boy threatened to pitch the coffee-pot at him. `Put that on the fire, yu gale-in-the-night.' Larry complied, being fully as hungry as his friend.
`Mighta knowed yu couldn't appreciate good music,' he said. `I can, that's why I'm objectin',' smiled the other. `That sliced hawg's makin' all nhe melody I want to listen to just now.'
