Cow Country

B >> B. M. Bower >> Cow Country

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Bud reached out his hand and patted Eddie on the shoulder."
That job of yours don't call for any killing we can avoid,"
he said. "Go ahead and tie me. No use of wasting lead on two
men when one will do. It's all right. I trust you, pardner."

Eddie's shoulders stiffened. He stood up, looked toward the
light and gripped Bud's hand. "I thought they'd be asleep--
what was home," he said. "We got to ride past the cabin to
get out through another water-wash. But you take your coat
and tie your horse's feet, and I'll tie mine. I--can't tie
you, Mr. Birnie. We'll chance it together."

Bud did not say anything at all, for which Eddie seemed
grateful. They muffled eight hoofs, rode across the canyon's
bottom and passed the cabin so closely that the light of a
smoky lantern on a table was plainly visible to Bud, as was
the shaggy profile of a man who sat with his arms folded,
glowering over a pipe. He heard nothing. Bud halted Sunfish
and looked again to make sure, while Eddie beckoned
frantically. They went on undisturbed--the Catrockers kept no
dogs.

They passed a couple of corrals, rode over springy sod where
Bud dimly discerned hay stubble. Eddie let down a set of
bars, replaced them carefully, and they crossed another
meadow. It struck Bud that the Catrockers were fairly well
entrenched in their canyon, with plenty of horse feed at
least.

They followed a twisting trail along the canyon's wall, rode
into another pit of darkness, came out into a sandy stretch
that seemed hazily familiar to Bud. They crossed this, dove
into the bushes following a dim trail, and in ten minutes
Eddie's horse backed suddenly against Sunfish's nose. Bud
stood in his stirrups, reins held firmly in his left hand,
and in his right his six-shooter with the hammer lifted,
ready to snap down.

A tall figure stepped away from the peaked rocks and paused
at Bud's side.

"I been waiting for Marian," he said bluntly. "You know
anything about her?"

"She turned back last night after she had shown me the way."
Bud's throat went dry. "Did they miss her?" He leaned
aggressively.

"Not till breakfast time, they didn't. I was waiting here,
most all night--except right after you folks left. She wasn't
missed, and I never flagged her--and she ain't showed up
yet!"

Bud sat there stunned, trying to think what might have
happened. Those dark passages through the mountains--the
ledge--" Ed, you know that trail she took me over? She was
coming back that way. She could get lost--"

"No she couldn't--not Sis. If her horse didn't act the fool--
what horse was it she rode?" Ed turned to Jerry as if he
would know.

"Boise," Bud spoke quickly, as though seconds were precious.
"She said he knew the way."

"He sure ought to," Eddie replied emphatically. "Boise
belongs to Sis, by rights. The mare got killed and Dad gave
him to Sis when he was a suckin' colt, and Sis raised him on
cow's milk and broke him herself. She rode him all over. Lew
took and sold him to Dave, and gambled the money, and Sis
never signed no bill of sale. They couldn't make her. Sis has
got spunk, once you stir her up. She'll tackle anything.
She's always claimed Boise is hers. Boise knows the Gap like
a book. Sis couldn't get off the trail if she rode him."

"Something happened, then," Bud muttered stubbornly. "Four
men came through behind us, and we waited out in the dark to
let them pass. Then she sent me down to the creek-bottom, and
she turned back. If they got her--" He turned Sunfish in the
narrow brush trail. "She's hurt, or they got her--I'm going
back!" he said grimly.

"Hell! you can't do any good alone," Eddie protested, coming
after him. "We'll go look for her, Mr. Birnie, but we've got
to have something so we can see. If. Jerry could dig up a
couple of lanterns--"

"You wait. I'm coming along," Jerry called guardedly. "I'll
bring lanterns."

To Bud that time of waiting was torment. He had faced danger
and tragedy since he could toddle, and fear had never
overridden the titillating sense of adventure. But then the
danger had been for himself. Now terror conjured pictures
whose horror set him trembling. Twenty-four hours and more
had passed since he had kissed Marian's hand and let her go--
to what? The inky blackness of those tunnelled caverns in the
Gap confronted his mind like a nightmare. He could not speak
of it--he dared not think of it, and yet he must.

Jerry came on horseback, with three unlighted lanterns held
in a cluster by their wire handles. Eddie immediately urged
his horse into the brushy edge of the trail so that he might
pass Bud and take the lead. "You sure made quick time," he
remarked approvingly to Jerry.

"I raided Dave's cache of whiskey or I'd have been here
quicker," Jerry explained. "We might need some."

Bud gritted his teeth. "Ride, why don't yuh?" he urged Eddie
harshly. "What the hell ails that horse of yours ? You got
him hobbled?"

Eddie glanced back over his bobbing shoulder as his horse
trotted along the blind trail through the brush. "This here
ain't no race track," he expostulated. "We'll make it quicker
without no broken legs."

There was justice in his protest and Bud said nothing. But
Sunfish's head bumped the tail of Eddie's horse many times
during that ride. Once in the Gap, with a lighted lantern in
his rein hand and his six-shooter in the other--because it was
ticklish riding, in there with lights revealing them to
anyone who might be coming through--he was content to go
slowly, peering this way and that as he rode.

Once Eddie halted and turned to speak to them. "I know Boise
wouldn't leave the trail. If Sis had to duck off and hide
from somebody, he'd come back to the trail. Loose, he'd do
that. Sis and I used to explore around in here just for fun,
and kept it for our secret till Lew found out. She always
rode Boise. I'm dead sure he'd bring her out all right."

"She hasn't come out--yet. Go on," said Bud, and Eddie rode
forward obediently.

Three hours it took them to search the various passages where
Eddie thought it possible that Marian had turned aside. Bud
saw that the trail through was safe as any such trail could
be, and he wondered at the nerve and initiative of the girl
and the boy who had explored the place and found where
certain queer twists and turns would lead. Afterwards he
learned that Marian was twelve and Eddie ten when first they
had hidden there from Indians, and they had been five years
in finding where every passage led. Also, in daytime the
place was not so fearsome, since sunlight slanted down into
many a passageway through the blow-holes high above.

"She ain't here. I knew she wasn't," Eddie announced when the
final tunnel let them into the graying light of dawn beyond
the Peak.

"In that case--" Bud glanced from him to Jerry, who was
blowing out his lantern.

Jerry let down the globe carefully, at the same time glancing
soberly at Bud. "The kid knows better than we do what would
happen if Lew met up with her and Boise."

Eddie shook his head miserably, his eyes fixed helpessly upon
Bud. "Lew never, Mr. Birnie. I was with him every minute
from dark till--till the cashier ,shot him. We come up the
way I took you through the canyon. Lew never knew she was
gone any more than I did."

Jerry bit his lip. "Kid, what if the gang run acrost her,
KNOWING Lew was dead?" he grated. "And her on Boise? The
word's out that Bud stole Boise. Dave and the boys rode out
to round him up--and they ain't done it, so they're still
riding--we'll hope. Kid, you know damn well your gang would
double-cross Dave in a minute, now Lew's killed. If they got
hold of the horse, do yuh think they'd turn him over to
Dave?"

"No, you bet your life they wouldn't!" Eddie retorted.

"And what about HER?" Bud cut in with ominous calm. "She's
your sister, kid. Would you be worried if you knew they had
HER and the horse?"

Eddie gulped and looked away. "They wouldn't hurt her unless
they knew't Lew was dead," he said. "And them that went to
Crater was killed or jailed, so--" He hesitated. "It looked
to me like Anse was setting up waiting for the bunch to get
back from Crater. He--he's always jumpy when they go off and
stay, and it'd be just like him to set there and wait till
daylight. It looks to me, Mr. Birnie, like him and--and the
rest don't know yet that the Crater job was a fizzle. They
wouldn't think of such a thing as taking Sis, or Boise
either, unless they knew Lew was dead."

"Are you sure of that?" Bud had him in a grip that widened
the boy's eyes with something approaching fear.

"Yes sir, Mr. Birnie, I'm sure. What didn't go to Crater
stayed in camp--or was gone on some other trip. No, I'm
sure!" He jerked away with sudden indignation at Bud's
disbelief. "Say! Do you think I'm bad enough to let my sister
get into trouble with the Catrockers? I know they never got
her. More'n likely it's Dave."

"Dave went up Burroback Valley," Jerry stated flatly. "Him
and the boys wasn't on this side the ridge. They had it sized
up that Bud might go from Crater straight across into Black
Rim, and they rode up to catch him as he comes back across."
Jerry grinned a little. They wanted that money you peeled off
the crowd Sunday, Bud. They was willing you should get to
Crater and cash them checks before they overhauled yuh and
strung yuh up."

"You don't suppose they'd hurt Marian if they found her with
the horse? She might have followed along to Crater--"

"She never," Eddie contradicted. And Jerry declared in the
same breath, "She'd be too much afraid of Lew. No, if they
found her with the horse they'd take him away from her and
send her back on another one to do the kitchen work," he
conjectured with some contempt. "If they found YOU without
the horse--well--men have been hung on suspicion, Bud.
Money's something everybody wants, and there ain't a man in
the valley but what has figured your winnings down to the
last two-bit piece. It's just a runnin' match now to see what
bunch gets to yuh first."

"Oh, the money! I'd give the whole of it to anyone that would
tell me Marian 's safe," Bud cried unguardedly in his misery.
Whereat Jerry and Ed looked at each other queerly.

CHAPTER TWENTY: "PICK YOUR FOOTING!"

The three sat irresolutely on their horses at the tunnel's
end of the Gap, staring out over the valley of the Redwater
and at the mountains beyond. Bud's face was haggard and the
lines of his mouth were hard. It was so vast a country in
which to look for one little woman who had not gone back to
see Jerry's signal!

"I'll bet yuh Sis cleared out," Eddie blurted, looking at Bud
eagerly, as if he had been searching for some comforting
word. "Sis has got lots of sand. She used to call me a 'fraid
cat all the time when I didn't want to go where she did. I'll
bet she just took Boise and run off with him. She would, if
she made up her mind--and I guess she'd had about as much as
she could stand, cookin' at Little Lost--"

Bud lifted his head and looked at Eddie like a man newly
awakened. "I gave her money to take home for me, to my
mother, down Laramie way. I begged her to go if she was
liable to be in trouble over leaving the ranch. But she said
she wouldn't go--not unless she was missed. She knew I'd come
back to the ranch. I just piled her hands full of bills in
the dark and told her to use them if she had to--"

"She might have done it," Jerry hazarded hopefully. "Maybe
she did sneak in some other way and get her things. She'd
have to take some clothes along. Women folks always have to
pack. By gosh, she could hide Boise out somewhere and--"

For a young man in danger of being lynched by his boss for
horse stealing and waylaid and robbed by a gang notorious in
the country, Bud's appetite for risk seemed insatiable that
morning. For he added the extreme possibility of breaking his
neck by reckless riding in the next hour.

He swung Sunfish about and jabbed him with the spurs, ducking
into the gloom of the Gap as if the two who rode behind were
assassins on his trail. Once he spoke, and that was to
Sunfish. His tone was savage.

"Damn your lazy hide, you've been through here twice and
you've got daylight to help--now pick up your feet and
travel!"

Sunfish travelled; and the pace he set sent even Jerry
gasping now and then when he came to the worst places, with
the sound of galloping hoofs in the distance before him, and
Eddie coming along behind and lifting his voice warningly now
and then. Even the Catrockers had held the Gap in respect,
and had ridden its devious trail cautiously. But caution was
a meaningless word to Bud just then while a small flame of
hope burned steadily before him.

The last turn, where on the first trip Sunfish lost Boise and
balked for a minute, he made so fast that Sunfish left a
patch of yellowish hair on a pointed rock and came into the
open snorting fire of wrath. He went over the rough ground
like a bouncing antelope, simply because he was too mad to
care how many legs he broke. At the peak of rocks he showed
an inclination to stop, and Bud, who had been thinking and
planning while he hoped, pulled him to a stand and waited for
the others to come up. They could not go nearer the corrals
without incurring the danger of being overheard, and that
must not happen.

"You damn fool," gritted Jerry when he came up with Bud. "If
I'd knowed you wanted to commit suicide I'd a caved your head
in with a rock and saved myself the craziest ride I ever took
in m' life!"

"Oh, shut up!" Bud snapped impatiently. "We're here, aren't
we? Now listen to me, boys. You catch up my horses--Jerry,
are you coming along with me? You may as well. I'm a deputy
sheriff, and if anybody stops you for whatever you've done,
I'll show a warrant for your arrest. And by thunder," he
declared with a faint grin, "I'll serve it if I have to to
keep you with me. I don't know what you've done, and I don't
care. I want you. So catch up my horses--and Jerry, you can
pack my war-bag and roll your bed and mine, if I'm too busy
while I'm here."

"You're liable to be busy, all right," Jerry interpolated
grimly.

"Well, they won't bother you. Ed, you better get the horses.
Take Sunfish, here, and graze him somewhere outa sight. We'll
keep going, and we might have to start suddenly."

"How about Sis? I thought--"

"I'm going to turn Little Lost upside down to find her, if
she's here. If she isn't, I'm kinda hoping she went down to
mother. She said there was no other place where she could go.
And she'd feel that she had to deliver the money, perhaps--
because I must have given her a couple of thousand dollars.
It was quite a roll, mostly in fifties and hundreds, and I'm
short that much. I'm just gambling that the size of made her
feel she must go."

"That'd be Sis all over, Mr. Birnie." Eddie glanced around
him uneasily. The sun was shining level in his eyes, and
sunlight to Eddie had long meant danger. "I guess we better
hurry, then. I'll get the horses down outa sight, and come
back here afoot and wait."

"Do that, kid," said Bud, slipping wearily off Sunfish. He
gave the reins into Eddie's hand, motioned Jerry with his
head to follow, and hurried down the winding path to the
corrals. The cool brilliance of the morning, the cheerful
warbling of little, wild canaries in the bushes as he passed,
for once failed to thrill him with joy of life. He was
wondering whether to go straight to the house and search it
if necessary to make sure that she had not been there, or
whether Indian cunning would serve him best. His whole being
ached for direct action; his heart trembled with fear lest he
should jeopardize Marian's safety by his impetuous haste to
help her.

Pop, coming from the stable just as Bud was crossing the
corral, settled the question for him. Pop peered at him
sharply, put a hand to the small of his back and came
stepping briskly toward him, his jaw working like a sheep
eating hay.

"Afoot, air ye?" he exclaimed curiously. "What-fer idea yuh
got in yore head now, young feller? Comin' back here afoot
when ye rid two fast horses? Needn't be afraid of ole Pop--
not unless yuh lie to 'im and try to git somethin' fur
nothin'. Made off with Lew's wife, too, didn't ye? Oh, there
ain't much gits past ole Pop, even if he ain't the man he
used to be. I seen yuh lookin' at her when yuh oughta been
eatin'. I seen yuh! An' her watchin' you when she thought
nobuddy'd ketch her at it! Sho! Shucks a'mighty! You been
playin' hell all around, now, ain't ye? Needn't lie--I know
what my own eyes tells me!"

"You know a lot, then, that I wish I knew. I've been in
Crater all the time, Pop. Did you know Lew was mixed up in a
bank robbery yesterday, and the cashier of the bank shot
him? The rest of the gang is dead or in jail. The sheriff did
some good work there for a few minutes."

Pop pinched in his lips and stared at Bud unwinkingly for a
minute. "Don't lie to me," he warned petulantly. "Went to
Crater, did ye? Cashed them checks, I expect."

Bud pulled his mouth into a rueful grin. "Yes, Pop, I cashed
the checks, all right--and here's what's left of the money.
I guess," he went on while he pulled out a small roll of
bills and licked his finger preparatory to counting them, "I
might better have stuck to running my horses. Poker's sure a
fright. The way it can eat into a man's pocket--"

"Went and lost all that money on poker, did ye?" Pop's voice
was shrill. "After me tellin' yuh how to git it--and showin'
yuh how yuh could beat Boise--" the old man's rage choked
him. He thrust his face close to Bud's and glared venomously.

"Yes, and just to show you I appreciate it, I'm going to give
you what's left after I've counted off enough to see me
through to Spokane. I feel sick, Pop. I want change of air.
And as for riding two fast horses to Crater--" he paused
while he counted slowly, Pop licking his lips avidly as he
watched,--"why I don't know what you mean. I only ride one
horse at a time, Pop, when I'm sober. And I was sober till I
hit Crater."

He stopped counting when he reached fifty dollars and gave
the rest to Pop, who thumbed the bank notes in a frenzy of
greed until he saw that he had two hundred dollars in his
possession. The glee which he tried to hide, the crafty
suspicion that this was not all of it the returning
conviction that Bud was actually almost penniless, and the
cunning assumption of senility, was pictured on his face.
Pop's poor, miserly soul was for a minute shamelessly
revealed. Distraught though he was, Bud stared and shuddered
a little at the spectacle.

I always said 't you're a good, honest, well-meaning boy,"
Pop cackled, slyly putting the money out of sight while he
patted Bud on the shoulder. "Dave he thought mebby you took
and stole Boise--and if I was you, Bud, I'd git to Spokane
quick as I could and not let Dave ketch ye. Dave's out now
lookin' for ye. If he suspicioned you'd have the gall to come
right back to Little Lost, I expect mebby he'd string yuh up,
young feller. Dave's got a nasty temper--he has so!"

"There's something else, Pop, that I don't like very well to
be accused of. You say Mrs. Morris is gone. I don't know a
thing about that, or about the horse being gone. I've been in
Crater. I'd just got my money out of the bank when it was
held up, and Lew was shot."

Pop teetered and gummed his tobacco and grinned foxily. "Shucks!
I don't care nothin' about Lew's wife goin', ner I don't care
nothin' much about the horse. They ain't no funral uh mine, Bud.
Dave an' Lew, let 'em look after their own belongin's."

"They'll have to, far as I'm concerned," said Bud. "What would I
want of a horse I can beat any time I want to run mine? Dave must
think I'm scared to ride fast, since Sunday! And Pop, I've got
troubles enough without having a woman on my hands. Are you sure
Marian's gone?"

"SURE?" Pop snorted. "Honey, she's had to do the cookin' for
me an' Jerry--and if I ain't sure--"

Bud did not wait to hear him out. There was Honey, whom he
would very much like to avoid meeting; so the sooner he made
certain of Marian's deliberate flight the better, since Honey
was not an early riser. He went to the house and entered by
way of the kitchen, feeling perfectly sure all the while that
Pop was watching him. The disorder there was sufficiently
convincing that Marian was gone, so he tip-toed across the
room to a door through which he had never seen any one pass
save Lew and Marian.

It was her bedroom, meagrely furnished, but in perfect order.
On the goods-box dresser with a wavy-glassed mirror above it,
her hair brush, comb and a few cheap toilet necessities lay,
with the comb across a nail file as if she had put it down
hurriedly before going out to serve supper to the men.
Marian, then, had not stolen home to pack things for the
journey, as Jerry had declared a woman would do. Bud sent a
lingering glance around the room and closed the door. Hope
was still with him, but it was darkened now with doubts.

In the kitchen again he hesitated, wanting his guitar and
mandolin and yet aware of the foolishness of burdening
himself with them now. Food was a different matter, however.
Dave owed him for more than three weeks of hard work in the
hayfield, so Bud collected from the pantry as much as he
could carry, and left the house like a burglar.

Pop was fiddling with the mower that stood in front of the
machine shed, plainly waiting for whatever night transpire.
And since the bunk-house door was in plain view and not so
far away as Bud wished it, he went boldly over to the old
man, carrying his plunder on his shoulder.

"Dave owes me for work, Pop, so I took what grub I needed,"
he explained with elaborate candor. "I'll show you what I've
got, so you'll know I'm not taking anything that I've no
right to." He set down the sack, opened it and looked up into
what appeared to be the largest-muzzled six-shooter he had
ever seen in his life. Sheer astonishment held him there
gaping, half stooped over the sack.

"No ye don't, young feller!" Pop snarled vindictively. "Yuh
think I'd let a horse thief git off 'n this ranch whilst I'm
able to pull a trigger? You fork ner that money you got on
ye, first thing yuh do! it's mine by rights--I told yuh I'd
help ye to win money off 'n the valley crowd, and I done it.
An' what does you do? Never pay a mite of attention to me
after I'd give ye all the inside workin's of the game--never
offer to give me my share--no, by Christmas, you go steal a
horse of my son's and hide him out somewheres, and go lose
mighty near all I helped yuh win, playin' poker! Think I'm
goin' to stand for that? Think two hundred dollars is goin'
to even things up when I helped ye to win a fortune? Hand
over that fifty you got on yuh!

Very meekly, his face blank, Bud reached into his pocket and
got the money. Without a word he pulled two or three dollars
in silver from his trousers pockets and added that to the
lot. "Now what?" he wanted to know.

"Now You'll wait till Dave gits here to hang yuh fer horse-
stealing!" shrilled Pop. "Jerry! Oh, Jerry! Where be yuh? I
got 'im, by Christmas--I got the horse thief--caught him
carryin good grub right outa the house!"

"Look out, Jerry!" called Bud, glancing quickly toward the
bunk-house.

Now, Pop had without doubt been a man difficult to trick in
his youth, but he was old, and he was excited, tickled over
his easy triumph. He turned to see what was wrong with Jerry.

"Look out, Pop, you old fool, You'll bust a bloodvessel if
you don't quiet down," Bud censured mockingly, wresting the
gun from the clawing, struggling old man in his arms. He was
surprised at the strength and agility of Pop, and though he
was forcing him backward step by step into the machine shed,
and knew that he was master of the situation, he had his
hands full.

"Wildcats is nothing to Pop when he gets riled," Jerry
grinned, coming up on the run. I kinda expected something
like this. What yuh want done with him, Bud?"

"Gag him so he can't holler his head off, and then take him
along--when I've got my money back, Bud panted. "Pop, you're
about as appreciative as a buck Injun."

"Going to be hard to pack him so he'll ride," Jerry observed
quizzically when Pop, bound and gagged, lay glaring at them
behind the bunk-house. "He don't quite balance your two
grips, Bud. And we do need hat grub."

"You bring the grub--I'll take Pop--" Bud stopped in the act
of lifting the old man and listened. Honey's voice was
calling Pop, with embellishments such Bud would never have
believed a part of Honey's vocabulary. From her speech, she
was coming after him, and Pop's jaws worked frantically
behind Bud's handkerchief.

Jerry tilted his head toward the luggage he had made a second
trip for, picked up Pop, clamped his hand over the mouth that
was trying to betray them, and slipped away through the brush
glancing once over his shoulder to make sure that Bud was
following him.

They reached the safe screen of branches and stopped there
for a minute, listening to Honey's vituperations and her
threats of what she would do to Pop if he did not come up and
start a fire.

She stopped, and hoofbeats sounded from the main road. Dave
and his men were coming.

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