"That's mighty interestin'," drawled a harsh voice behind her, and King Burdette stepped from the store outside which they were standing. How long he had been there they had no means of knowing. He did not appear to be in a pleasant humour, but his scowling face did not daunt the lady. Her shapely head lifted and she faced him unflinchingly.
"'Lo, King, eavesdropping, eh?" she gibed. "Well, you know what they say about listeners."
Ignoring her, he spoke to his brother. "So yo're still around, huh?"
"Yu see me," Luce retorted. "Get yore guns back?"
The red surged into King's cheeks at the taunt. "Yu'll step in my way once too often, yu fool," he threatened. "For now, make yoreself scarce; I've got somewhat to say to this--lady."
The girl's eyes flashed at the sneer on the last word, but with the sweetest of smiles, she held out her hand to the younger man.
"So long, Luce, and the best of luck," she said. "Come and see me whenever you like." When he had gone, she turned to King and said lightly, "And what does your Majesty want with me?"
He was silent for a moment, his sullen gaze roving over her, absorbing the dark beauty, noting how her soft draperies, wafted by the wanton wind, outlined her perfect figure. She was a picture to stir the pulse of an anchorite, and King Burdette was not that. But she must have a lesson--women, like horses, had to be mastered. So he veiled the admiration in his bold eyes and said brusquely.
"What were yu sayin' to that pup?"
"So you didn't listen?" she countered.
"I was at the back o' the store, an' on'y come out in time to hear yu tellin' the town how brave yu are," he said heavily.
"If it requires courage not to sit up and beg at your order, I have it," she replied. "However, I don't mind informing you that I was trying to cheer up that poor boy, and also, I asked him to warn Green that your outfit is not particular how it squares an account."
"Yu dared?" King stormed.
"Oh, I'm brave--you said so yourself," she mocked. "It is almost my only virtue."
"What's yore interest in that damned cow-wrastler?" he rasped.
She smiled contentedly; he was jealous, and therefore victory was hers. "I like him," she said easily. "We have one quality in common--courage; he gave your hired killer more than an even break."
"I had nothin' to do with that--it was a private affair--I reckon they had met afore," King defended.
"Oh, yeah," she murmured.
"Yu don't believe me?" he queried.
Her eyes twinkled. "As if I could doubt you, George Washington Burdette," she reproached.
The man glared at her. "Lu Lavigne," he said thickly, "One day I shall twist that slim neck o' yores."
"That would be a pity--it has been admired," she smiled. "Now, I've a score of purchases to make. If Your Majesty has no further commands ..." She slanted her eyes at him and waited, demurely obedient.
Burdette was recovering his poise. "Yo're a provokin' little devil," he said. "Lemme come an' help with the shoppin'."
The girl elevated her hands in horror. "Mercy me! And what of my character?" she cried. "It would be all over the town that we were setting up housekeeping together."
"An' why not?" King said eagerly. "Come to the Circle B an'--"
"Take the peerless Miss Purdie's leavings, were you going to say?" she asked sweetly.
The change in his face astounded her; stark fury flamed from his eyes. Through his clenched teeth he hissed, "So the young skunk blabbed, did he? Well, that'll be all, for him. I'll..."
Terrified at the result of her shot in the dark, she hastened to repair the damage. "If you mean Luce, he said nothing to me of Miss Purdie and yourself," she urged. "It was a guess, King, just to tease you, and I'm sorry."
He scowled at her in savage doubt, but the dark eyes met his steadily, and he knew that, whatever her faults, Lu Lavigne was not a liar. He nodded, as though in answer to his own thought.
"I'm takin' yore word. If yu wanta do Luce a good turn, get him to punch the breeze; this place ain't big enough for both of us--an' me, I'm aimin' to stay. Shall I see yu to-night?"
"I can't prevent you. I shall be attending to my business of helping men to forget they are men," she said wearily, and turned away.
King Burdette strode up the street, his mind filled by two women. Honey-coloured hair and blue eyes warred with black hair and eyes until, with a sardonic grin, the man decided there was only one way out of the difficulty--he wanted, and would have, both. "What King Burdette goes after, he gets," he muttered darkly. As for that cursed cow-puncher and Luce, they were obstacles in his way, and must be dealt with. Whitey had failed, and even now that staggering fact seemed hardly credible. A lurid oath escaped his lips, and a small urchin trailing behind, trying to ape the great man's walk, garnered with glee the--to him--unmeaning words.
"Gee! I'll spring that one on Snubby," he promised himself. "Bet it'll make his eyebrows climb some."
The passing of Whitey and the manner of it aroused great excitement in the hunkhouse of the C P, and at once put the new foreman on a pinnacle. The prowess of the dead gunman was not mere hearsay, two of the notches on his guns having been acquired since his appearance in Windy, and it was commonly believed that only one man in the district would have any chance against him in an even break. This was King Burdette, and though the test had never been made, there were those who held him the faster of the two. At supper, on the night following the killing, the point was being discussed.
"King is fast all right, but yu gotta remember that Green let Whitey git his gun a'most clear before he started," Curly pointed out.
"A left-handed shot, an' he put the pill plumb atween the eyes," Moody contributed. "That's shootin'."
"Shorely is," Flatty agreed. "Hi, Bill, why didn't yu warn us that the noo foreman was a six-gun wizard? One of us mighta called him."
"He'd 'a' boxed yore ears," Yago grinned. "Shucks, Jim ain't so much; o' course, I'm not sayin' he's slow exactly . . ."
His deprecatory drawl was drowned by a volley of scathing expletives which brought a broad smile to his leathery countenance; his friend had made good, and the boys would follow him to hell and back again. The talk veered to other topics, and Moody began to relate a snake episode. Now snake stories in the West rank with fishing yarns in the East, and get much the same credence. This one proved no exception.
"I was 'bout half a mile from the line-house when I a'most rode on to a coupla big rattlers thrashin' about in the grass," Moody began. "The funny thing was that though they were fightin' they seemed to be tryin' to git away from one another. Pretty soon I savvied the trouble: they musta bin wrastlin' an' some way had got their tails tied together; o' course, the more they pulled the tighter the knot got, an' there they was, tuggin' an' strikin' like all possessed."
"An' yu got down, untied 'em, an' they lifted their hats, bowed politely, an' went off arm in arm," Curly suggested.
"I did not," the narrator replied. "I blowed the heads off'n them reptiles. If yu don't believe me, ask Strip; I showed 'em to him when we passed the place later. Ain't that so, Strip?"
Levens grinned widely as he said, "Yeah, but I figure yu shot them varmints first an' tied their tails afterwards."
A yell of derision greeted the statement and a rush was made for the tale-teller. In the midst of the ensuing hubbub Yago slipped away and went in search of his foreman. He found him sitting in front of his own quarters, smoking and gazing reflectively at the valley, over which the last rays of the sinking sun were shedding a golden radiance. Squatting beside him, he rolled a smoke, and for a time there was silence. Then, when the red disk had disappeared behind the shoulder of Old Stormy, and the purple shadows were deepening in the hollows, Yago said: