more direct and possible for horsemen not hampered with a herd of cattle. Around them the birds sang, the sunlight filtered through the foliage and tiny streams whispered merrily on their way to join larger ones. Among the patches of big timber the solitude was complete and the hoofs of the horses made no sound on the thick carpet of pine needles.
Green had no eyes for the beauty through which they passed; outwardly calm, he was inwardly consumed with rage at the thought that Noreen might be at the mercy of a man like Tarman, and his one aim was to get to her as quickly as possible. Since his companion was equally eager they wasted no more time than was necessary over their meals. So it came about that it was still light when they neared their destination and halted to settle upon a plan of procedure. Securely hidden in the thick undergrowth, they could see the ranch buildings a few hundred yards away. Two spirals of smoke showed that they were occupied, and the number of ponies in the corral suggested that most of the men were about. Slipping from his own mount, Green cautiously worked his way to a position from which he could view the animals in the enclosure. Presently he was back again, his face hard with anger.
`Her hoss is there an' it's a safe bet the girl is in the ranch-house, where the foreman lives,' he said. `I'm goin' to get her. If yu don't hear nothin' from me in an hour, fork yore cayuse an' fetch Job an' the boys.'
Larry demurred. `We'd stand a better chance if both of us tackled the job. This messenger-play don't appeal none to me.'
`Don't yu ever use that head for anythin' but keepin' yore ears apart?' asked his friend sarcastically. `No, it ain't a bit o' good yu cussin' me, yu gotta do as I say, she's the on'y trail out. So long, an' don't yu come bustin' in if yu hear guns goin'. Head for the Y Z, pronto.'
`But, see here--' began Larry, and then discovered he was talking to the empty air. `Blamed idjut,' he concluded, and sat down to wait.
Green crawled to a point where the bushes most nearly approached the buildings, and then, in the deepening dusk, darted across the open space and gained the rear of the ranch-house. The door proved to be latched only and cat-footing along a passage, he came to another door, partly open, from which a gleam of light shone. Peeping in, he saw Jeffs sitting at the table, laboriously inscribing figures on a sheet of paper before him. Apparently the task was both a pleasant and engrossing one for he was smiling, and did not notice the gradual opening of the door and the entry of a visitor.
`Stick 'em up,' came a curt command.
With a jerk the foreman's head lifted, and his hands quickly followed when he saw the weapon and realised who held it. `Sudden?' he gasped.
`All o' that,' responded Green grimly. `Now, speak low an' talk straight. Where's Miss Petter?'
`Never heard of her,' replied Jeffs sullenly.
`Don't lie,' Green told him. `Yo're about two seconds from hell right now. Come clean or
The tone betrayed no anger but there was a cold deadliness in it which told the other that he must speak or die. He was a brave man and had gambled his life on a chance many a time, but here there was no chance.
`There's a skirt upstairs in a back room,' he admitted. `Some-thin' Spider took a fancy to, I s'pose. I dunno who she is.' `Stand up an' face the wall,' Green said shortly.
Stripped of his weapons, gagged, and tied securely in his chair, Jeffs still eyed his captor's movement with a sardonic expression which, had Green noted it, might have aroused his suspicion, but his mind was too full of his purpose. Having fixed the prisoner to his satisfaction, he set out in search of the girl. The first two rooms he came to were open and empty, but the door of the third was locked.
`Yu there, Miss Norry?' he asked, in low voice.
`Yes,' came the reply. `Who is that?'
He told her, with a warning to stand clear while he burst the door open. One thrust from his powerful shoulder broke the flimsy lock, and the light of a guttering candle disclosed her sitting on a ramshackle bed, her bound hands before her.
`No time to talk,' he said, as he severed her bonds, stuffing a curse when he saw where the thong had chafed her wrists. `We gotta get outa this. Larry's waitin' with the hosses.'
Cautioning the girl to follow him as quietly as possible he stole down the stairs. All went well until he had nearly reached the bottom and then his foot caught in a rope and he pitched headlong down the last few steps. As he fell, two men sprang upon him and a jarring blow on the head knocked the senses out of him.
He returned to consciousness to find himself in the room where he had left Jeffs a prisoner, but now the position was reversed, for his own wrists and ankles were tightly bound. As the mist caused by the blow he had received cleared from his brain, he realised the extent of the disaster which had befallen him, and how it had come about. Evidently after he had gone upstairs, Taxman and his gang had come upon the scene, and finding the foreman, had laid a trap. They were all there, these men who hated him, and were now watching him with malignant amusement. The girl was not present. Tarman greeted him with a mocking bow.
`This is shore an unexpected pleasure,' he sneered. `If our welcome seems a trifle rough, yu must put it down to the boys' delight at yore return to the fold, an' their desire to keep yu with us for a little while.'
The victim's head was throbbing with pain, and he looked for nothing but death ere an hour had passed, but he forced a contemptuous smile to his lips as he replied :
`I ain't complainin','
`Spoken like a true knight-errant. The brave outlaw dashes to the rescue of the fair damsel an' runs his silly neck slap into a noose,' Tarman jeered. `Bit reckless to tackle this job single-handed, wasn't it, Sudden?'
`Mebbe it was,' Green agreed. So they knew nothing of Larry, and by this time the boy should be well on his way to the Y Z. `I reckon yu hold all the cards,' he added.
`Shore I do, an' what's more, I'm agoin' to let yu see how I intend to play 'em,' Tarman returned. `After which, we'll attend to yore case.'
`Why not hang the swab right now an' have done with it?' suggested Dexter. `He knows too much.'
Tarman whirled on the speaker with such a baleful glare that the Double X man instinctively shrank back.
`He'll know more before I've done with him,' he said. `An' so will some others if they try an' ride me.' He waited a moment but Dexter had nothing to say. `Now we'll get on with the business.'
Standing there, his thumbs hooked in his gun-belt, he dominated them all, and even Green had to admit that man possessed power, misdirected though it undoubtedly was. Tarman was in a good humour, everything was coming his way, and the capture of the outlaw seemed to remove his last difficulty. But though he smiled, he watched the men before him warily; he was not of the trusting type.
`Here's how we stand,' he began. `Old Simon is peggin' out, an' when he's gone the Y Z comes to me.'
`What about his daughter?' asked Blaynes. `Ain't it willed to her?'
`She ain't his daughter--no relation at all, an' if there ever was such a will it don't exist now,' explained Tarman, and a meaning chuckle went round the room. `The Frying Pan is wide open--Leeming an' his outfit are lookin' for what they won't find, an' to-morrow mornin' we go an' take what we want. I reckon then he'll be glad to sell on my terms, an' holdin' them two ranches'll give me the say-so in these parts. Then there's the cattle; after to-morrow's clean-up, there should be pretty nigh two thousand head, an' that'll mean a heavy wad o' money for every one o' yu. On top o' that, I'll be needin' men to run the ranches an' there'll be big pay for any or all o' yu. Don't make no mistake--I'm agoin' to swing a wide loop an' fellers who tie to me get their share.'
`King o' the Rangers, eh, Joe?' Laban said.
Tarman laughed. `Shore, an', boys, there'll be plenty pickin's, believe me.'
He paused and looked round, confident of the effect of his speech, and he was not disappointed. To Green's astonishment, the men seemed pleased; apparently they could not see that the big rogue had used them merely to grab the lion's share of the plunder himself. Tarman was clever; he knew that to these men land would have small appeal in comparison with the hard cash to be realised by the sale of the stolen cattle, and that in all probability his followers were thinking they had the better of the deal. But all of them were not so satisfied, for Blaynes had listened to his leader with a face which grew more and more discontented. Evidently things were not panning out as he expected.
`What yu aimin' to do with the girl?' he asked, and there was a hint of hostility in his tone.
Tarman looked at him. `I'm aimin' to do what--I--please,' he said coolly.
`She was to be part o' my share; yu said it,' Blaynes rasped, his voice husky with anger.
