"That ain't no way to talk. What do yore brothers think?"
The boy flushed angrily. "They allow I did it," he blurted out.
Sudden nodded comprehendingly. "It suits them," he pointed out. "I understand they've been tryin' to get Purdie to r'ar up for some time."
"I'm done with 'em--when King told me this mornin' to pull my freight from the Circle B he said somethin' he can't ever take back," Luce said passionately. "Ramon musta knowed 'bout that, or he'd never 'a' had the nerve to frame me. Yu shore yu didn't get a blink at the fella who fired the shot?"
"If I had I'd 'a' put a crimp in his getaway."
"Yu don't think it was me?"
"No, an' I told Purdie so."
Burdette's face cleared a little. "Thank yu," he said gratefully. "That's two friends I got."
Sudden fancied he could have named the other, but what he said was, "What yu aimin' to do?"
"Stick around an' clear myself," Luce said. "I'll be at the hotel if yu want me any time. I--I'd like to see yu," he finished with boyish eagerness.
"I'll be along," the puncher promised. "Mebbe we can help one another."
"Shore, but get me right," Luce insisted. "Though the Burdettes have shook me I'm not roundin' on 'em nohow, but"--he grinned mirthlessly--"I ain't related to their outfit. yu'll have to watch out for those hombres, an' that half-breed, Ramon, is pure pizen. 'Fraid I've fetched yu right up against Ol' Man Trouble."
"Him an' me have met afore, an' yu'll notice I'm still here," the puncher smiled.
When the boy had gone, Sudden drifted over to the bar, and Magee pushed forward a bottle, a look of perplexity on his face.
"Shure I can't foller your play, sorr," he said. "ye're a C P man, an' ye save the loife of a Burdette; that'll puzzle Purdie, I'm thinkin'."
Sudden looked at him quizzically. "I start with the C P to-morrow mornin'," he pointed out, "an' Luce finished with the Circle B to-day. Yes, sir, his family has turned him down cold."
The landlord whistled. "Odd that," he commented. "The Greaser knew av it too, or he'd niver 'a' dared raise a hand to a Burdette." He sipped his drink contemplatively. "So Luce is at outs wid his brothers, eh? Well, he was allus different to the rest av thim, an' I've seen the Old Man look queerly at him, as if wonderin' how he come to be in the nest. There'll be somethin' back o' his leavin' the Circle B, shure enough."
The puncher nodded, but did not pursue the topic. He liked Magee, and felt that he was straight, but he knew that he must walk warily in Windy for a while.
Chapter VI
WHEN the new foreman arrived at the C P ranch on the following morning, he found that the story of his little difficulty with the half-breed had preceded him, two of the outfit having been in town, and heard of, though they had not seen, the incident. Chris Purdie's face was not quite so genial when he greeted him.
"I didn't know the Burdettes was friends o' yores," was the oblique way he approached the subject.
Sudden's look was sardonic. "Did yu get all the story?" he asked.
"I heard yu saved young Luce's life, an' that was aplenty," retorted the ranch-owner.
"Mebbe I did, an' I'm bettin' yu'd 'a' done the same," was the reply, and the foreman went on to give the details.
When he heard of the vile insult offered to his daughter, Purdie's face flamed with fury.
"The dirty scum," he began.
"It was a plain frame-up," Sudden interrupted. "I'd say he was actin' on orders, an' whoever gave 'em knew Luce had left the Circle B."
"Left the Circle B?" the rancher repeated in surprise. "How come?"
"After the fracas I had a talk with young Burdette, an' he told me he was through with his brothers; they won't believe that he didn't kill yore son."
"An' they're dead right, too, though it's the first time I ever agreed with a Burdette," the old man said caustically.
"Yo're wrong, Purdie," the puncher urged. "I ain't no Methuselah, but I've met a mort o' men, an' I'll gamble that boy is clean strain. Why should he risk his life for yore girl's good name?"
"Dunno, 'less it was to avert suspicion."
Sudden shook his head. "He'd have to be a mighty quick thinker, the way it happened. No, sir, I'm so shore he's straight that in yore place I'd offer him a job to ride for the C P."
The cattleman laughed aloud at this amazing suggestion. "Yu bein' a stranger hereabouts, there's some excuse for yu," he said. "If I did that, folks would think I'd gone plumb loco, an' they'd be right. A Burdette workin' for the C P, huh? He'd be damn useful to them, wouldn't he? Why, it's more'n likely that's what they're playin' for. I ain't fallin' for that foolishness. Now, come along an' meet the men."
Sudden followed him to the bunkhouse; he was not convinced, but he recognized the futility of further argument. The morning meal was over, and the riders were awaiting orders. There were eight of them present, all young, and they looked a capable crew. Their employer's speech was brief and to the point:
"This is Jim Green, boys. Yu'll take orders from him in future, all same it was me."
Some of them nodded, others said "Howdy," and all of them studied the new foreman with narrowed, appraising glances. His eyes too were busy, and he early decided that none of the looks directed towards him was hostile.
"Where's Bill?" asked the rancher.
"He went down to the corral," said one. "I'll go fetch him."
"He's the daddy o' the outfit, an' the on'y one yu may have trouble with," Purdie said, for the foreman's ear only. "Been actin' sorta segundo to Kit, an' he's mebbe got ambitions. I'm leavin' yu to deal with him, yore own way; when I put a fella in charge I don't interfere."
He went out, nodding to an embarrassed outfit, and a foreman who, nonchalantly rolling a smoke, awaited the coming "trouble." For he felt pretty sure that the absence of the oldest hand was a premeditated gesture, the first move in a plan of protest against his appointment. There was an air of expectancy about the waiting men. From outside came a hail :
"Hey, Bill, the noo foreman wants to see yu."
"Is that so?" a rumbling voice replied. "Which I'm shorely sorry to keep His Royal 'Ighness waitin'. What's he like, this foreman fella?"
They could not hear the answer, but the deep voice was not so reticent. "So we gotta be bossed by a boy, huh?" it said.
"Well, Kit warn't no greybeard."
"He was the Old Man's son--future owner o' the ranch, which is some different. How do we know this yer hombre ain't been planted on us by the Circle B? He may've pulled the wool over Purdie's eyes, but he's gotta talk straight to me, yu betcha. Just yu watch yore Uncle Bill."
He swaggered through the bunkhouse door, and the new foreman's eyes twinkled when they rested on the short, sturdy figure, with its broad shoulders, long arms, and slightly-bowed legs, of this man he might have trouble with. The amusement was only momentary, and his face was gravity itself when he nodded to the newcomer. None of the outfit noticed that in removing his cigarette his fingers had rested for an instant on his lips; their attention was centred on their companion. What had come over him they could not imagine, but at the sight of the new foreman the belligerent frown had vanished, and his craggy, clean-shaven features expressed only goggling amazement.
"Yu wantin' me?" he had growled on entering, and straightway become dumb, one hand pushing back his big hat and revealing the straggly wisps of hair beneath.
"Glad to meet you, Mister...?" The foreman paused. "Yago--Bill Yago," the man replied like one in a dream.
"Shore," the newcomer nodded. "Purdie said yu would put me wise. Now, yu tell the boys what needs doin' today, an' then yu an' me'll take a look at the range."