"Jim, I just can't believe it--the 0I' Man must be loco. It warn't no use sayin' a word--on'y 'a' made him wuss."
"I know, ol'-timer," Sudden said, with a hard smile. "It's a queer yarn--too long to tell now--truth an' lies all snarled up. I ain't blamin' the boss--much ; he's sick, an' with Rogue hangin' on his heels, it ain't surprisin' he's suspicious. Things look bad, but yu can take it Sandy didn't fire that shot an' I'm not as black as Nigger here."
"Is it true yo're the fella they call `Sudden,' Jim?"
"yeah, but there's an explanation to that too. Keep a-smilin', Jeff ; there was never a rope so badly tangled it couldn't be straightened out."
At this moment Peg-leg stumped up, carrying a small package. "Here's a bit o' grub an' a skillet my of gal has sent," he began. "Said she didn't care what yu'd done but she'd be teetotally damned if she let yu be turned loose without the means o' makin' a mouthful o' coffee. She's agoin' to give Sam hark from the tomb when she gits him alone."
"She's a lady, Peg-leg," Sudden replied, tying the parcel to the cantle of his saddle. "This will shorely be welcome."
From the back of the big black he smiled wryly down at the two men. "We'll be seein' yu--mebbe," he said.
For upwards of two miles neither of the outcasts spoke and then Sandy's bitterness overflowed: "Damnation, even she believes I shot the 0I' Man."
"yu ain't no right to say that. yu weren't lookin' but I fancy I saw a hand wave from the tent as we left camp."
Sandy's doleful face changed magically. "yu did, Jim?" he asked eagerly.
His companion grinned.
"He's just as happy as if she had waved," he reflected. "An' anyways, he'd do more'n tell a lie for me."
"Where do we head for, Jim?" the subject of his thoughts asked. "We got plenty choice."
"We have to find Rogue," was the unexpected reply.
Sandy stared at him. "Hell, Jim, yu ain't goin' to throw down the 0I' Man, are yu?" There was real concern in hisvoice. "I'm admittin' he's treated us pretty mean, but he's been misled, an' the boys are our friends ..."
"Findin' don't mean joinin'," Sudden pointed out. "The S E is finished with us--or fancies so--but I ain't finished with them. I don't figure on lettin' Rogue beat me, an' I'm mighty interested in Mister Baudry."
"Me too, in fact, I was so interested that I damn near beefed him where he sat."
"I guessed that an' was all set to knock yore gun up."
"Whatever for?" Sandy inquired.
"It would 'a' turned that camp into a slaughter-pen. Now, we gotta keep cases on Rogue an' the herd, an' be ready to sit in the game."
"yo're right, Jim," the boy agreed. "I'm a durned fool."
"yu said it," his friend smiled. "There's time when yore brain wouldn't keep a flea outa trouble."
"Awright, Solomon the Second," Sandy grinned. "Mebbe yu can tell me who pulled the floor from under us."
"Rollitt is my guess, but who put him up to it?" Sudden debated. "Was it Rogue, tryin' to get rid of us, or that tinhorn card-cheat? An' what's he after, anyways? Hell's flames, it's one fine tangle to unravel an' we got on'y loose ends."
"Here's another," Sandy contributed. "Baudry is goin' in for cattle--startin' a range somewhere near the S E."
Sudden whistled and relapsed into a long silence. At dusk they camped in a dense thicket of scrub and dwarf-oak little more than a mile to the right of the herd, with which they had been keeping pace. They were building a small fire when a low voice called, "Howdy, friends!" and a man slid from the shadows. The flickering flame showed that it was Tyson.
"Didn't hear me a-comin', did ye?" he asked, and chuckled at his own cleverness.
"We're glad to see yu," Sudden said heartily.
When the business of eating was concluded, the little man filled his pipe and looked quizzically at his hosts. "So the S E has give yu the air?" he remarked.
"They told yu?" Sandy queried.
"Ain't talked with 'em," Tyson said. "Here's the how of it. When yu busted away an' the Injuns took after yu, I follered. . Bein' on the hoof, I didn't arrive till the fandango was finished. I collects them scalps yu left lyin' around, for which I'm thankin' yu ; worth ten wheels apiece, them top-knots is, if yu know where to take 'em. Then I trails yu, figurin' yo're still in dutch an' that mebbe I can turn the trick, but I'm too late, yu've went. I points for the S E."
"So yu know all about it?"
Tyson shook his head. "I ain't clost enough to hear much, but my eyesight is fair an' I'm a good guesser," he said. "When I see Monte Jack in the company I knowed dirty work was afoot."
"Monte Jack?" both his hearers repeated.
"Yeah, fella sittin' next the gal."
"He calls hisself `Baudry' now."
"Like enough, but he was knowed as Monte Jack in Kansas City less'n two year ago, an' bad medicine. Catched cheatin' at poker an' shot the fella under the table--gun on his knees, yu know. It warn't the first time an' he had to flit plenty rapid. A close call for Monte, that was."
"An' Eden believes in him," Sandy said.
"Well, yu don't have to worry," Tyson laughed. "He fired yu, didn't he?".
"yeah, he fired us, shore enough," the boy agreed. "But there's Miss Carol, that toad's got his poisonous eye on her, an' the outfit--decent fellas--are dependin' on puttin' that drive through. They're our friends--still."
"An' not likin' Mister Monte Jack nothin' to notice we're kind o' hankerin' to pile him up," Sudden added. He went on to tell of the decision he and Sandy had come to, and the "still-hunter" listened, his bright little eyes darting from one to the other, his jaw working on a plug of tobacco, alert as, and very like, a squirrel.
"Well, I took a fancy to yu boys," he said, when their plans had been made plain. "If yo're willin', me an' Betsy"--he patted the rifle beside him--"will take a hand. Three pairs o' peepers is better nor two, an' I savvy Injuns."
The cowboys were glad to have him, and said so. Apart from his bloodthirsty occupation, there was a great deal that was attractive in this odd little man. Moreover, they were already deeply in his debt, and neither of them was of the type to forget that.
Chapter XXII
EARLY on the following morning Tyson left them. "Hang on to the herd an' I'll be with yu come dark, or sooner," he said. Then he plunged into the thicket and was lost to sight and sound in a few seconds.
They spent a lazy day, their only concern being to keep under cover. Several times, lying flat on a ridge, they got a sight of the herd, a long, twisted string of dots, dipping into hollows, plodding up slopes, inexorably pushing northwards. And though the distance was too great for him to recognize the rider, Sandy cursed when he saw that Carol had a companion.
The shadows were gathering when Tyson joined them in the dry arroyo where they had decided to spend the night. He had the hump ribs of a buffalo calf, wrapped in part of the skin, and a bow and arrows, for which, he grimly explained, the late owner had no further use.
"I can use her pretty good--lived with 'Paches onct. She'll fill the pot an' save powder."
But this was not what the cowboys were thinking of. A brave with a bullet in his brain might well bring his tribesmen on the trail. The little man divined their thoughts and grinned as he pushed a gory hank of black hair into his pack.
"Nothin' to go grey over, boys," he said lightly. "I used steel an' blinded my tracks. 'Sides, I'm wearin' 'Pache moccasins, so them devils will git the blame. Allasame, I could 'a' shot him, so Betsy gits her tally."
Calmly he cut a nick in the stock of the gun, one more in that terrible register, using the knife which had let the life out of the red man, and, as they knew, must later have skinned and cut up the flesh they were about to eat. Life in the wilds, however, knocked the fastidiousness out of one, and the broiled ribs tasted none the worse.