`Shore is, but the funniest part is that I recognised the messenger; he's one o' Tarman's gang,' Green said.
`Must be for him, but he don't look a subject for premature greyness.'
`Well, it don't signify much. Point is, unless the station-agent was lyin', an' I don't think he was, they ain't shippin' the cattle from here. What in the nation are they doin' with 'em?'
`They shore wouldn't run 'em across the desert,' Larry contributed. `Why do yu reckon that booze-slinger turned hostile soon as we drifted in?'
`Dunn, but we'll go an' prospect him,' smiled his friend. `I'm aimin' to occupy a bed to-night.'
They returned to the saloon and were about to enter when Green pulled his companion suddenly round the angle of the building. At the doorway a man on horseback was bending down in conversation with a second who stood on the sill, holding the door partly open. The listeners could not hear what was said, but presently the rider waved his hand and disappeared in the gloom.
`That was the hair-dye collector, warn't it?' whispered Larry. `Yeah, an' he's give me an idea,' replied Green.
`Ain't Nature wonderful?' Larry said softly. `Here's yu, born without an idea o' yore own, an' here's fellers created just to provide yu with 'em. Hi, yu lunkhead, that's my foot yu stepped on!'
`Sorry, but yu give me the idea,' Green chuckled. `It'll be yore face next time. C'mon, yo're doin' that imitation limp real well.' `Imitation, huh?' grunted Larry. `I bet I gotta crushed toe, an' for a plugged peso I'd...'
But Green was at the saloon door, and Larry, who had no intention of letting him enter alone, followed at his heels. The place was filling up, and from the dance hall came the jingle of a badly treated piano. At the bar, talking to the tender, was the man they had seen at the door, a stubby, fat fellow, with slits for eyes and a ginger moustache festooned over a loose mouth. Green lounged to the bar, called for drinks, and then, looking the barkeeper straight in the eye, said, `Found them beds yet?'
`I done told yu already as they's all spoke for,' came the surly reply.
`Why, so yu did--I shore forgot it,' smiled Green, and turning to his friend, he added, `Now yu gotta admit I was right. Didn't I tell Joe Tarman we'd have to sleep on our saddles if we come to a one-hoss town like Big Rock, eh?'
Before Larry could reply, the man with the ginger moustache interposed : `S'cuse me, stranger, do yu happen to be acquainted with Joe Tarman?'
`I happen to belong to his outfit, the Crossed Dumb-bell,' the puncher replied, telling the literal truth, for he had not yet been fired nor had he officially resigned. The effect of the information on the latter pushed the bottle forward, saying genially: `They're on the house, gents. This is Mr. Scaife, who owns this joint.'
He waved a hand at the gingery individual, and the puncher completed the ceremony of introduction by giving their names.
`Pleased to welcome anyone from Joe here,' said Scaife oilily. `Why, another of his men rode out this evening; perhaps yu saw him?'
`No, I didn't look--reckoned he'd be gone before we made it,' Green explained. `Guess Stiffy got into a little game, as usual.'
`Yo're dead right--that's just what he did,' laughed Scaife. `He'll have to ride all night to make up time, or Joe'll trim him to rights.'
The cowpuncher's ready answer and his fortunate knowledge of the rustler's little weakness had entirely dispelled all suspicion, and it did not take long to find out that the rustler chief had quite a number of friends in Big Rock, and that if he was not loved, he was certainly feared. The squint-eyed, weedy man who had watched their movements earlier now came in, to be hailed and presented as `Roddy' to `Mr. Tarman's friends.' He became a genial creature.
`An' how's Joe makin' it in Hatchett's?' he inquired. `Reckon he finds it middlin' quiet.'
Green's own opinion was that Mr. Tarman had hitherto found it anything but quiet, but what he said was that Tarman appeared to like the place and was even thinking of buying a ranch and settling down. The statement evolved a perfect gust of merriment from his listeners, which was only quelled by a well-simulated look of cold indignation on the part of Green.
`Yu doubtin' my word?' he asked.
`Nary a doubt, friend,' gasped Scaife. `Yu just gotta excuse me an' Rod an' Spike here, but it warn't fair to turn a hell of a joke like that on us without warnin', now was it?'
`Well, I expect I'm slow, but I don't see no joke,' Green replied, and the risible faculties of the three men once more disrupted their features. It was Spike who, with tears coursing down his none too clean cheeks, managed to explain:
`Yu said Joe was thinkin' of buyin' a ranch,' he spluttered.
`Ha, ha! so I did,' grinned Green. `Well, the laugh is on me, an' the drinks likewise. Set 'em up, Spike, old settler.'
A little game of draw was proposed, and the visitor lost a few dollars very pleasantly to Scaife and Rod, but mellow as those two gentlemen undoubtedly became, Green could learn nothing as to the activities and interests of Tarman in Big Rock.
`Touchin' them beds,' Larry remarked, round about midnight.
`Which I'm free to admit I want to be touchin' one of 'em; we been ridin' all day,' returned his friend.
The saloon-keeper, being ahead of the game, had no objections to offer. `Beds goes,' he said. `Yu push yore broncs into the corral an' fetch yore saddles along.'
Their bedroom was on the first floor at the back, a fact for which they had cause to be thankful later on. It was Larry who, awakened in the early hours of the morning by a pounding at the rear door of the hotel, got up to investigate. Cautiously opening their window he peered down. He heard the landlord descend the stairs and unbolt the door, and then, `Hell, Stiffy, what's brung yu back again?'
`Blasted bronc stepped in a hole an' bruk a leg--had to shoot him an' hoof it here carryin' this cussed saddle,' was the disgusted answer. `Got a drink? I'm about all in.'
`Shore. Tough luck about the hoss,' replied the host. `Yu better hole up till daylight, an' then yu can have company; I got two o' yore chaps here.'
They disappeared into the building and Larry heard no more. But he had already got an `earful,' as he phrased it, and without delay he aroused his companion.
`Yu gotta stop sawin' wood an' get a wiggle on,' he whispered, and told what he had so luckily overheard. `Now, friend
Stiffy is probably puttin' friend Scaife wise at this very moment of time. Do yu guess he knows that yu are Sudden?'
`He's liable to find out if he comes foolin' around,' smiled Green.
`Don't be sixteen sorts of a damn fool,' retorted Larry. `Yu ain't aimin' to stay an' fight it out, are yu? Chances is, he does know it, an' do yu reckon this town'll let ten thousand bucks get away from it? What we gotta consider is when will they make a move?'
`Not till the mornin' an' we'll move first,' Green said. `Stiffy is feelin' right like his name just now, an' bed will listen good to him., They're a-comin' up now, snore for all yo're worth--no, for lots more than that.'
They heard stealthy footsteps pause outside their door and then a low chuckle came from the landlord.
`Yu'd think they'd wake each other up, wouldn't yu?' he said. `Needn't worry 'bout them--they'll be here when we want 'em in the mornin'.'
After a wait of half an hour, by which time the house was quiet again, Green pushed up the window, slid through, and hanging from the sill by his hands, dropped noiselessly to the ground. Larry then lowered their saddles and followed. Stepping warily, to avoid the litter of tin cans and other refuse which might betray them, they made their way to the corral. The horses gave them little trouble, for they were well trained, and accustomed to come at a call. Once clear of the town they headed for Hatchett's at a steady lope, congratulating themselves upon having evaded an awkward predicament.
`O' course they'll follow us, but we gotta good start an' if we switch off the trail presently an' take to the brush, I reckon we can fool 'em,' Green remarked.
They did this, choosing a spot where a rocky defile offered a surface upon which hoofs would make little or no
