“There’s a hound-dog sleepin’ on yourbed,” retorted Larry, “and you’re drunk.”
“No, I ain’t neither,” growled Stretch,“I’m sober.”
“C’mon,” said Larry. “We got company.”
As Stretch tagged him to the parlorentrance, he asked, “Anybody we know?”
“Never saw him before,” said Larry. “A bigshot soldier—a colonel, no less. Says his name is Lansing.”
They entered the parlor. Lansing put hiseyes on the taller Texan and asked himself again, “Could Max besincere about this—or is he pulling my leg?” Right now, StretchEmerson looked far from formidable. Barefooted, he stood close tosix feet six. His sandy hair was tousled and he was bleary-eyed. Hewas a beanpole. But, paying closer attention to that lean frame,Lansing conceded there was muscle aplenty.
Side by side, the Texans perched on thechaise-lounge. It groaned a protest under their combined weight. Itdidn’t occur to Larry to apologize for the condition of the room,but he felt obliged to explain.
“We’ve been havin’ a party.”
“I got that impression,” frownedLansing.
“Where is everybody?” asked Stretch.
“Sleeping it off,” grinned Larry. “You andyour consarned Texas Tornado—Professor Emerson’s Lone Star Elixir.I told you not to mix that stuff, didn’t I?”
“It couldn’t hurt anybody,” gruntedStretch. “Just rum and gin and whisky and a mite of brandy...”
“All in one glass,” scoffed Larry.
“If you gentlemen will spare me a fewmoments of your valuable time ...” began Lansing.
“Talks plumb polite, don’t he?” observedStretch.
“Polite enough,” shrugged Larry. “All right,Colonel, say your piece.”
“It has been suggested by one of myofficers,” said Lansing, “that you might be interested in a certaincrisis confronting the citizens of Bosworth County.”
“Seems to me I’ve heard of Bosworth,” musedLarry. “A ways west of here, huh?”
“About two days’ ride,” nodded Lansing. “Theterritory is partially under martial law.”
“Why?” demanded Larry.
“Because of the proximity,” said Lansing, “Imight say the uncomfortable proximity of Sun Dog Mesa—which happensto be an Apache reservation.” He talked on for a full ten minutes,briskly, precisely, reporting the theft of the rifle shipment, andstressing the obvious danger to an entire community, should thatshipment fall into the wrong hands.
Namely, the greedy hands of thepaleface-hating Gayatero. He told of the energetic but abortiveefforts of the local authorities—civil and military—to cut sign ofthe hijackers. He admitted, with some reluctance, that ColonelStone’s garrison forces could do naught but patrol all approachesto the reservation, hoping to intercept the shipment in the eventthe hijackers tried to transfer it to the aggressive butpoorly-armed Apaches. “I can’t imagine why,” he told them inconclusion, “any whites would want to arm Gayatero with thoserepeaters. It seems an outlandish notion, yet we dare not disregardthe possibility.”
“It’s happened before,” Larry soberlyreminded him.
“Colonel Stone believes ...” beganLansing.
“Who?” asked the Texans, in perfectunison.
“Colonel Stone,” frowned Lansing, “the C.O.of the Ninth Cavalry. Are you acquainted with him?”
“Are we acquainted with him?” Larry repeatedthe question and, somehow, resisted the impulse to laugh out loud.“Yeah. Kind of.”
To say the Lone Star Hellions wereacquainted with the 9th Cavalry would have been a masterpiece ofunderstatement. On several occasions during the past few years,they had tangled with the Texas-hating Stone and with his entirecommand. They admired Stone the way they admired rattlesnakes,cardsharps, rustlers, horse thieves and pompous law officers,meaning not at all.
Lansing finished what he had begun tosay.
“Colonel Stone believes the stolenshipment has been cached somewhere within the county. With theassistance of Sheriff Upshaw, he conducted a full-scaleinvestigation and ...”
“And couldn’t find any of those hijackedrepeaters,” drawled Larry, “nor any tracks of the hijackers.”
“But he has established,” stressedLansing, “that no heavy-laden wagons have quit the county since theambush. The whole territory is under tight surveillance, Valentine.Patrols are stopping every wagon and checking the cargo. We arecertain the rifles haven’t left the county. And now our only hopeof avoiding a clash with Gayatero’s forces is to locate theshipment—and quickly—before the thieves devise some means oftransferring it to the mesa.”
“You’re pretty sure Gayatero would go on thewarpath again,” prodded Larry.
“I doubt if he could resist thetemptation,” sighed Lansing. “Of course, he has abided by the termsof the treaty for quite some time, but ...”
“But only because he knows the Bosworthcitizens could outshoot his braves,” guessed Larry.
“That’s it,” nodded Lansing. “Armed withthose repeaters, and all that stolen ammunition, there’d be noholding him.”
“That’s kind of a rough situation,” musedStretch.
“I ask you to consider the potential threatto the people of Bosworth,” said Lansing. “Men, women and children.You might argue that the garrison force would provide ampleprotection, and no doubt they would, but we aren’t merely concernedwith the winning of a war against the Apaches. It will be betterfor all concerned if there is no war, if open violence can beavoided.”
“Sure,” grunted Larry. “That makessense.”
“What he wants,” Stretchopined, “is for me and you to head for Bosworth County, snooparound a mite and find them repeaters—before somebody passes ’em to theseconsarned Injuns. That’s what he wants.”
“That is exactly what I’m asking of you,”muttered Lansing. “And, if you refused, I could hardly blame you.You’d be acting in an unofficial capacity, working undercover. Thehijackers, for all we know, may be masquerading as honest citizens.Obviously, your operations would have to be conducted in thestrictest secrecy. You can’t appeal to the army for help, shouldyou run into trouble. You ...” He shrugged sadly, “you won’t evenbe paid for your services—successful or otherwise. Your only profitwould be the certain knowledge that you’d saved many a life. Evenwith the Ninth aiding the civilian population, Bosworth couldbecome a bloody battleground.”
Both Texans were now cold-sober. They tradedglances, and wry grins. Stretch summed up their reaction with anoft-repeated remark.
“Here we go again.”
“Yeah.” Larry nodded pensively. “Here we goagain.”
Three
Gold, Guns andGreed
Before quitting the suite,Lansing answered, as accurately as he was able, every query firedat him by the quick-thinking Larry. There was a great deal hewanted to know about the general set-up of Bosworth County. Hisquestions were pertinent and always logical; Lansing was impressed,ready to believe that Telliger had advised him shrewdly. Though hewore the look of a case-hardened rowdy, it was obvious
