Sudden, the outlaw! Not a man there but had heard of him, and of his uncanny dexterity with weapons, and the ease with which he had so far eluded capture. The tale of his exploits grew as first one and then another related stories he had heard. Snap Lunt listened with an expression of tolerant contempt.
`An' more than half o' them I'll bet my hoss he never done,' he said presently. `When a feller gets a name, every killin', hold- up, or cattle-stealin' that can't be traced to anybody else gets his brand put on it.' There was a tinge of bitterness in his voice, and this deepened as he resumed. `A feller sometimes gets drove into the wrong road. Once it gets known that he's swift with a gun there always happens along a damn fool who thinks he can make a reputation by showin' he's a bit swifter. An' he ain't, so he gets wiped out, an' soon there's another damn fool--the world's full of 'em. By all accounts, Sudden fights fair, an' that's more than some did that went up against him.'
The others were silent for a moment; this was a new side to the man they had always regarded as a ruthless slayer of his fellows--one who took a delight in putting his art to its deadliest use. They sensed that he was telling his own story. It was Rattler who broke the spell; matters were not going as he wished.
'Well, Sudden may be all yu say, Snap; but some fellers sport two guns an' are afeared to use one.'
`Meanin'?' Lunt said quietly.
`Oh, I ain't referrin' to yu, Snap,' replied the foreman quickly. `We all know yo're game; yu have the right to wear a couple o' guns.'
`So has any other feller who cares to tote the weight,' came the reply. `Yu can rope yore own hoss, Rattler.'
Some of the men who knew what was toward looked at Lunt in surprise. Green watched the scene with a glint of a smile on his lips. He was well aware that the foreman was trying to engineer a quarrel between himself and Lunt, and that the latter had now definitely declined to be made use of. He began to have a feeling of respect for the little gunman.
The foreman glared; he had been plainly told to do his own dirty work, and though not lacking in animal courage, the task did not appeal to him. He was considered good with a forty-five himself, but the other man was an unknown quantity, and he could not understand why Lunt had `ducked.' It was Green himself who came to his rescue.
`There won't be any shootin', Blaynes,' he said, and there was an acid touch to his voice. `When there's any necessity, I can use my guns well enough. If yu don't choose to believe that, well'--he leaned forward, his hands hanging loosely at his sides, his eyes narrowed and alert--`pull yore own.'
For a moment there was tense silence. Blaynes, challenged in his turn, was obviously undecided. His right hand moved a fraction towards his holster, and then--he rasped out a laugh.
`Yu shore are a touchy feller, Green--can't stand a bit o' joshin',' he said. `Roundin' up rustlers 'pears to have got yu all jumpy.'
Green laughed too, and it was an unpleasant one for the foreman to swallow, but the conversation became general again, and the incident ended. Later on, Blaynes had a word with Lunt.
`Never knew yu to duck before, Snap,' he said. `What got into yu?'
`Duck nothin',' came the retort. `I ain't got no quarrel with the feller. Why didn't yu pull on him?'
`I'm foreman, an' I got my reasons,' Blaynes said sulkily. `Huh! Self-preservation don't happen to be one o' them, does it?' asked the other sarcastically.
The foreman ground out an oath. `I wait my time,' he said. `Sorry to find I can't depend on yu, that's all.'
`Yu can depend on me to do my work, but dry-nursin' yu ain't part of it,' the little gunman said bluntly, and walked away.
As he approached the bunkhouse, he met Green and Larry coming away, and stopped for a moment to say, `Green, however slick a man may be with a gun, he can be got--from behind.'
`Now what the blazes does he mean by that?' asked Larry, as the gunman, without waiting for a reply, went into the bunkhouse.
`He means a whole lot, I reckon,' answered his friend. `I fancy that's not such a bad hombre, Larry.'
`Well, he told Rattler straight out in meetin', anyways,' Larry said. `It's a point to remember.'
`Shore is. Yu got anythin' to tell me?'
`Not a durn thing,' was the disgusted rejoinder. `On'y that yu can count on Dirty, Ginger, an' Simple to back my play, whatever it is.'
`Well, that's somethin', anyhow. Trouble is, we ain't got no play to make yet. How long ago was the Double X started?' `Two-three years, I guess. Dex ain't got much of a herd.' `What's the size of his outfit?'
`Seven or eight, including the cook.'
`All of them men to handle a small herd, huh?'
`Well, now yu mention it, they shore didn't oughtta be overworked--never struck me that way before. Yu got anythin' else against 'em?'
Green shook his head. `We gotta wait, boy,' he said. `How's the Pretty Lady been treatin' yu lately?'
This was his name for Noreen, and it never failed to produce an embarrassed flush on the face of her young admirer. Larry countered quickly.
`I'm beginnin' to think she's more interested in a handsome mysterious stranger,' he retorted. `She was shore askin' me a lot o' questions.'
`An' yu told her?'
`All I knew.'
His friend grinned. `That musta taken yu quite a while,' he commented, with gentle sarcasm.
`Shore did,'. said Larry. `I explained how yore wife had left yu, takin' the kids, owin' to yu treatin' her so badly, drinkin' an' hellin' round generally, an' that two sheriffs were anxious to meet yu on account of a bank robbery, to say nothin' of the feller whose brother yu shot from behind-- Hi ! leggo my ear, yu two-gun mockery : it's long enough as it is.'
`It certainly is, an' the other's a match for it,' agreed the libelled one. `Get down on yore hunkers in the long grass an' no one could tell yu from a jack-rabbit. Yu'd be a lovely liar, Larry --on'y yu ain't always lovely.'
Larry caressed the injured member, feeling to discover if it really had started to come out by the roots.
`I wish I'd told her yu were a cannibal an' a hoss-thief,' he said regretfully. 'When're yu goin' to come alive an' catch the rustlers, huh?'
`Well, I got 'em scared, ain't I?' expostulated Green. `They ain't done nothin' for a week.'
Early on the following morning the inmates of the bunkhouse were aroused by a shout, and tumbling out half-dressed, they saw Durran drop wearily from a staggering pony. He had come in from the furthermost of the cabins used by the line-riders on the frontiers of the ranch. Rattler pushed to the front.
`What's up, Durran?' he asked.
`Rustlers, an' hell to pay,' was the gasped answer. `Few hours after dark las' night, 'bout seven or eight of 'em rushed me an' Bud, firm' as they come. They got Bud, shot my hoss, an' helped theirselves. Think. I perforated one, but I was afoot. Took me near an hour to catch Bud's pony, an' I been ridin' since.'
`Couldn't see who they were, I s'pose,' said the foreman.
`Blasted war-paints, every mother's son,' replied Durran emphatically, and Blaynes turned a triumphant eye on Green. A chorus of forceful curses greeted the news.
No more time was wasted. Breakfast was despatched in gulps, and in less than half an hour a dozen men, well-mounted and armed, were galloping at breakneck speed for the scene of the outrage. Green and Larry were of the number, and remembering the conversation of the previous night, the boy could not resist the opportunity.
`Yeah, yu got 'em scared, shore enough,' he murmured.
`Shut yore face, yu--yu jackass!' admonished his friend. `I've been expectin' this. Would yu have said that Bud and the foreman was bosom pals, so to speak?'
Barton shook his head. `No, nothin' like that, though I don't know of any trouble between 'em. Ginger was Bud's bunkie; look at him.'
The red-headed puncher was riding only a few yards from them, his young tanned face like stone, his jaws clamped and his eyes blazing. Suddenly he spoke :
`By God! if they've rubbed out Bud, I'll have a scalp for every one of his fingers if I have to go to the Reservation to get 'em.'
