`Yu send Snap up to me on the quiet, an' spread it around general that I'm in a bad way an' not liable to get over this.' The girl went out, and a little later Lunt slid into the room, gripping his big Stetson by the crown and obviously ill at ease in a sick-room.
'Lo, boss, how're yu makin' it?' he greeted.`Fine as silk, Snap, but there's reasons why I want it reckoned I'm liable to cash in,' replied the invalid, and proceeded to state them.
`I knowed it,' said the gunman. `Sudden don't work that way. If he wanted to put yu out he'd invite yu to pull yore gun an' get busy; he ain't no pot-shooter.'
`What do yu know about Tarman, Lunt?' asked the ranch-owner.
`I can't tell yu, boss; I've give my word,' replied the other. `Green put pretty much the same question to me an' got the same answer. All I can say is that I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw a steer. He's takin' charge an' Rattler an' most of the outfit ain't objectin'.'
`But some are, eh?' queried Simon.
`Well, me, Ginger, Dirty, an' Simple claim that Tarman don't pay our wages,' grinned Snap.
`Good. Yu tell them boys how things are, an' that I'm relyin' on them to lookout Miss Norry's game for her now I'm in the discard; there's some rough trail ahead of us, Snap, but we'll make the grade.'
`Shore we will,' replied the gunman heartily as he went out.
When Tarman returned to the ranch in the evening after a busy day spent in searching for the outlaw, he found Noreen very depressed and soon elicited the information that the wounded man seemed no better. His endeavour to hearten her appeared to be genuine, but the girl, possibly because she was looking for that very thing, found a false note in it.
`Don't yu worry, Miss Norry,' the big man said. `He'll pull through--yu can't kill these old-timers with one bullet unless it's a heart or head shot. An' if he shouldn't, well, yu got friends now.'
There was an intimacy in his tone which she hated, but she took good care not to betray her feelings. So she shared the evening meal with him and his companion, Laban, and listened with apparent interest to his account of the attempt to run down the fugitive, rejoicing inwardly at its failure; the knowledge that he had kept his word and not injured her father had made her attitude to the outlaw a very kindly one. When she returned again to the sick- room, the two men sat smoking and talking in low tones. Laban, who was now fully in the confidence of his master, did not seem to be entirely satisfied with the way things were going.
`Bah! Yo're losin' yore nerve, Seth,' Tarman said, with a sneer. `The old man's as good as done for, an' when we get that chap Sudden, we take every trick.'
`S'pose the girl won't marry yu,' suggested Laban.
`What else can she do, even is she don't want to?' asked the other. `Simon signs a paper makin' me a partner in the ranch--if he don't, I'll sign it for him; he cashes an' the place belongs to me. The girl can't claim--she ain't no relation to him. I'm her only safe bet an' if she don't see it that way, there's means to make her.'
`Sounds all right,' Laban admitted, `but that outlaw gent sticks in my gullet; I'll sleep a heap easier when he's stretched hemp.'
Tarman laughed. `He can't escape--there isn't a man in the territory that wouldn't pull a gun on him at sight now.' `Don't yu be too shore o' that, Joe,' warned Laban. `There's some in this outfit that wouldn't an' Lunt is one of 'em.' `Is that so?' frowned the big man. `Well, we owe Snap some-thin' already. Jeffs had better put Gorilla on him.'
`Gorilla's gone--vanished complete,' Seth told him. `Went with three more to the main herd, stopped behind to make shore they wasn't followed, an' disappeared. His hoss drifted in next day. Looks to me as if Sudden had found out who give him that tap on the head, an' got even.'
Tarman sat thinking, a heavy pout on his lips. Then he laughed again, and callously said, `Well, things is straightenin' out an' there's too many of us anyway.'
`I reckon,' returned Laban, with a mirthless smile, for the sentiment was one with which he entirely agreed. Gorilla was a mere tool, to be used and paid or discarded, and the fewer there were when the clean-up took place, the bigger the gains for the rest.
On the following morning Tarman insisted upon seeing the sick man despite the girl's protest that he was not well enough to receive a visitor. Pushing her aside, he entered the room and closed the door. One glance at the pallid, sunken face on the pillow confirmed what he had been told--it seemed impossible that the old man could survive.
`Well, Simon, how're yu comin' along?' he asked.
`Reckon I ain't a-comin', I'm a-goin', bun yu needn't tell Norry I said so,' replied the invalid, with a weak attempt at a smile.
`Shucks, yu mustn't talk like that,' Tarman said. `Now, see here, yu needn't worry about anythin'. I'm goin' to stay at the Y Z an' look after things, so all yu gotta do is set yore mind on gettin' well. I wouldn't 'a' troubled yu this mornin' out it'll help me considerable if the outfit knows I'm part owner o' the ranch. I ain't carryin' enough cash to settle the deal around with me but I can give yu a draft. I've written out the agreement an' all yu gotta do is sign it.'
Simon shook his head feebly. `Guess it'll have to wait, Tarman, I ain't in no condition to do business,' he said. `You spoken to Norry yet?'
`No, nothin' definite, but I reckon she knows,' replied the other, striving to keep the irritation he felt from his voice. `What's the use o' delayin'? This place needs a man to handle it just now an' yu won't be in a fit state to tackle it for some time.'
`It'll have to wait,' reiterated the sick man, and although Tarman went on to argue the question at greater length, he stuck to his decision.
`Well, it's yore say-so, o' course, but I claim yu ain't treatin' me fair? Peterson,' the big man said meaningly. The ranch-owner's face flushed at the name and the implied threat, but before he could reply the door opened and Noreen entered.
`Time's up, Mr. Tarman,' she said. `I cannot allow my patient to be bothered with business any longer.'
`I've been tryin' to fix things so that he won't be troubled with it at all,' was the reply. `So long, Simon; keep a-smilin'.'
He went out, after telling the girl that it was worth while being shot up to have such a nurse, a compliment which did not produce the effect he intended. Noreen had no illusions about him now, and when she heard of his attempt to get hold of the ranch, her temper flared up.
`The coward, to try and bully you into doing that when you are so ill,' she cried. `Don't sign anything, Daddy.'
The old man assured her that he had no intention of doing so and the girl was satisfied, but she found it difficult to appear friendly with the unwelcome guest. This difficulty increased as the days passed and Tarman acted more and more as master of the ranch and of herself. Had it not been that the invalid claimed most of her time she would have resented this, for she would have seen more of it than she did. It was Snap who opened her eyes fully.
`Blaynes has got orders to give Ginger, Dirty, an' Simple their time,' he said. `Mebbe yu ain't heard?'
The girl stared at him in astonishment. `Orders? From whom?' she asked.
`Tarman, I s'pose; I'm bettin' high the Old Man never give 'em,' said Lunt.
`I should think not,' the girl cried indignantly. `What have those boys done to be turned off?'
`They were friendly to Green, an' they ain't made any secret of it.'
`They are not to go--I will speak to Mr. Tarman. Have you any idea where Green is now, Snap?'
`I ain't, Miss Norry, I wish I had. Tonk an' his posse have
combed the country an' ain't seen a trace of him; he seems to have vanished complete, but I'm dead shore he's around.' He watched her walk back to the house, his face set grimly. `An' he'll stay around too, as long as yu need him, or I'm a gopher,' he muttered. `An' if he don't, I will.'
Noreen found Tarman in the office, which had been resnored to a state of neatness again. The sight of him sitting at her father's desk drove discretion to the wind and she plunged at once into her business.
`I understand that you are dismissing some of the men,' she began. `Is my father aware of it?'
Tarman looked at her in surprise; this was a different Noreen, and he suddenly realised that instead of a chattel to be disposed of at his will, she had become a factor to be considered, and one requiring careful handling.
