"Where's Jud?" the fat man asked.
"Ain't a notion, sheriff," the saloon-keeper replied. "Should 'a' bin back hours ago. He warn't"
He stopped, mouth and eyes opening as the swing-door jerked wide and a man staggered in, flung his arms out, and pitched forward on the sanded floor. Mallick, the sheriff, hurried to the prone figure.
"By God, it's Jud hisself ! " he cried. "What the hell ... ?"
Others sprang to help and the senseless man was lifted to a chair. One of them looked at his hand in surprise ; it was smeared with blood. He snatched aside the open vest, disclosing an ominous patch of red on the coarse woollen shirt front.
"He's bin drilled!" he cried.
Astonishment, expressed in lurid language, greeted the statement, and the excited onlookers, eager to get a sight of the wounded man, crowded in and threatened to engulf him. The sheriff, feeling for a fluttering pulse, looked up and cursed them savagely.
"Satan burn yu," he snapped. "Stand back an' give him a chanct, he ain't cashed yet. Gimme some liquor."
The circle widened and the saloon-keeper brought a glass of whisky. Mallick tilted back the hurt man's head and administered a stiff dose. The fiery spirit took effect. Jim, who had helped with the lifting, saw the pale lips move and caught the whispered words:
"Bushwhacked me--one man--waitin' in th' chaparral." He paused, and then, "On'y 'nother--mile--bronc. Guess--we can -make it."
His mind was wandering, living over again those terrible hours during which, hurt to death, he had clung to the back of his horse and paced the long, long miles which lay between him and help. Then out of the pain-drawn face, sickly grey under the tan, a gleam of recognition flashed from the heavy-lidded eyes as they met those of Jim.
"I saw--that fella--on the trail. He ..." The voice faded out and the speaker's head fell forward.
"He's gone," someone said.
"He ain't. Carry him to the hotel an' fetch the doc," Mallick replied. "I got suthin' to see to."
Four men picked up the chair and its burden, while another held open the door. When they had gone the sheriff turned abruptly to Jim, an ugly look in his eyes. For a moment there was silence, and then:
"yu heard him," the officer rasped, jerking a thumb in the direction of the door. "What yu gotta say?"
"I met that hombre this afternoon, 'bout twelve miles out on my way here," Jim explained. "I asked him if I was on the ight road for Fourways, an' mentioned that I aimed to spend he night there. He took a shine to my hoss an' wanted to rade, but I told him there was nothin' doin'. He said he was comin' back hisself in a coupla hours an' he'd talk to me again this evenin'. That's all I know."
The sheriff's sneer deepened. "He didn't say he was goin' o collect two thousand bucks for cattle he'd sold, huh?"
"No. Would he he likely to tell a stranger his business?"
"Mebbe. Jud was allus a trustful kind o' cuss. I'm sayin' :e did, an' that yu laid for him, an' helped yoreself." The accused man shrugged his shoulders. "If yu can find hat amount o' coin on me ..."
"I ain't expectin' to," Mallick cut in. "yu wouldn't be such a damn fool as to tote it round with yu."
"An' I wouldn't be such a damn fool as to come here a-tall," the young man retorted hotly.
"Shucks, yu figured him cashed, an' that trail ain't used much." the other countered. He turned as the door swung back to admit a tall, cadaverous man whose bent shoulders were encased in a long, shabby black coat. "How's yore patient, doc?"
"He's powerful bad," replied the man of medicine, grabbing the glass the saloon-keeper pushed out. "I'm afraid Jud is peekin' through the pearly gates right now."
A growl of anger from those present greeted the news and the sheriff's mean eyes shifted to the stranger.
"That settles it, young fella," he said. "I'm holdin' yu, an' if Jud ain't able to clear yu in the mornin' ... " The unfinished sentence was charged with menace. "Take his hardware," he added.
Jim's glance swept swiftly over the company and read the grim faces. If Jud died--and he was not too sure they would even wait for that--he was doomed to a shameful end. The odds were impossible, but if he must die, it should be fighting. He had a shrewd suspicion that the sheriff did not care whether he was guilty--he wanted a victim. Well, he would get one, but not easily.
In obedience to Mallick's order, two of the bystanders stepped forward and reached for the weapons. Instantly the motionless figure came to life, the hanging fists shot out right nd left, and the unsuspecting men went down as though struck by lightning. With a bellow of rage the sheriff snatched out his gun, only to drop it and clutch his right wrist in agony as a bullet smashed it. For though no man saw how it came about, both the stranger's Colts were out and spitting lead. Through the swirling smoke they got a glimpse of him, his young face tense and savage, his guns held at a hip level.
"Come on, yu curs," he taunted, and sent a shot crashing into one of the lamps.
The invitation was unnecessary ; they meant to have him nd he knew it. To shoot him down would have been easy, but that was not what they wanted. With a sudden surge they drove forward. Three times he fired, aiming low--he had no desire to kill any of them--and then one of the men he had felled clutched him round the knees. Thrown violently backwards, Jim had to drop his guns and grab a nearby chair to keep his feet. He kicked himself free, felt his boot-heel impact on flesh and bone, and they were upon him. Swinging the chair above his head he flailed the leaders with it. Two went downgroaning, and of the weapon only the back remained in his grasp. With this and his fist he continued the unequal contest until a blow from behind brought him to his knees and the human avalanche submerged him.
For a few hectic moments the cowboy struck or kicked whenever he could free a limb but at last the writhing tangle broke up to disclose a battered, unconscious form on the floor. The sheriff regarded it with savage satisfaction.
"Tie an' chuck him in the calaboose," he ordered. "He'll pay for this, even if Jud comes through."
When the prisoner had been carried away, willing hands helped to straighten up the battlefield, rearranging overturned tables and chairs and removing fragments of others. The saloon-keeper's expression was one of deep disgust.
"Many customers like him an' this business would be plain hell," he remarked. "Allasame, he put up the purtiest scrap agin odds I ever see, an' warn't he sudden?"
"Sudden?" ejaculated the man who had received the first blow, tenderly touching a swollen jaw. "I reckon yu said it, Teddy. `Sudden' describes him from hair to toe-nails ; we'll have to christen him thatt Set 'em up, of hoss."
The idea appealed to their sense of humour, and with jesting comments, they drank to the new name of the man they had fought with, and whom they would just as cheerfully help to hang. The sheriff, cursing as the doctor bandaged his damaged wrist, contributed a grim witticism :
"Mister Sudden'll come to a sudden end in the mornin'."
"An' that'll be a pity," the medico smiled, as he surveyed the group of patients awaiting his services. "He'd make my fortune if he settled here."
At which even some of the sufferers grinned. After all, though about a dozen had been more or less crippled, no one had been killed, a fact to which the saloon-keeper drew attention :
"I'm bettin'--if he'd wanted to--he could 'a' turned three or four o' yu into cold meat," was how he put it. "I was watchin' an' them guns 'peared to leap into his paws. yu can gamble he can use 'em ; yore head is a bigger mark than yore wrist, sheriff."
Mallick turned a malignant eye upon him. "Why not make a gory hero out'n this murderin' thief an' be done with it?" he sneered. "Jud'll be pleased."