"Drop that rope, yu fellas!"
Heads turned and oaths sprang from amazed lips when it was seen that the speaker was none other than the man whose murder they helieved themselves to be avenging. The C P foreman's face was of beaten bronze, and out of it his slitted eyes gleamed frostily upon the executioners; they let go the rope as though it had been red-hot.
"What's Burdette been doin' now?" Sudden asked.
A dozen voices told him the story, and as he heard it, the cow-puncher's lips curled in a sneer of disgust. Then he drawled, "Seein' as I ain't dead none to speak of, I reckon the prisoner can shuck that rope an' stand clear."
In a flurry of dust Mrs. Lavigne pulled her pony to a stop at Sudden's side. Returning from a ride, she had only just heard the news. When she saw the puncher's contemptuous smile and Bill Yago's broad grin, the colour crept slowly back into her cheeks.
"They told me you were--dead, and that they were going to hang Luce," she said breathlessly.
"All a mistake, Mrs. Lavigne," Sudden said lightly. "As yu see, I ain't cached, an' the lynchin' will--not--take place."
The marshal fancied he saw a chance to reassert his authority. "Hold on, Green," he snapped. "What right yu got to call the turn? If this fella didn't bump yu off, he tried to, an' I'm holdin' him on that." A murmur from the rougher element in the assembly encouraged him, and he went on, "As marshal o' this yer burg..."
"Yo're a false alarm," came the acid interruption. "Yu stand there like a bump on a log while a man who ain't been tried is strung up." The speaker's quick eye saw the empty holster, and he laughed aloud. "Cripes! So they took away yore gun?" He turned to the crowd in mock reproof. "Boys, that warn't noways right--it don't show a fittin' respect for the law. How'd yu know he don't want to argue with somebody--or somethin'?"
This brought a cackle from one of the audience, and the merriment spread. Conscious that they had nearly committed a terrible blunder, the men were willing to forget it in ridiculing Slype, whose sallow face grew more sour as the jesting voices rose.
"Give the man his gun," someone cried. "Whats a good of a marshal without a gun?"
"Huh! Whatsa good o' some marshals with one?" another wanted to know.
Sudden had one more thing to say. "Someone tried to get me to-day, marshal, but it wasn't this Burdette," he said meaningly. "Don't let anyone persuade yu different. It's mighty lucky for yu I came along in time; yu sabe?" The marshal did, and the chill in the quiet voice made him shiver. The foreman turned to Luce. "I'm a-goin' to the hotel; yu better come with me, if there ain't no objections."
There were none; this satirical, long-limbed young man who had beaten Whitey to the draw was clearly not a person to take chances with, and the squinting, hopeful eyes of Bill Yago, who was known as a willing and enthusiastic fighter, did not add to the attractiveness of the proposition. So the crowd opened to let through the man it had come to hang, and, with the volatile spirit of the time and place, was grimly humorous.
"We was plenty near puttin' one over on you, Luce," grinned a miner. "Yu shore oughta sell that grey; what'll yu take?"
"Damn good care yu don't get him," retorted the youth, and looked at the marshal. "Yu can tell yore boss, King Burdette, that yu've fallen down again on the job o' gettin' rid of me. I'm stayin'."
Without waiting for a reply from the rageful, stuttering officer, he joined Sudden, Yago, and Mrs. Lavigne, walking beside them as they paced up the street. At the door of "The Plaza" the girl spoke,
"Didn't you get any warning?" she asked.
"Yes, an' I'm thankin' yu, ma'am," Sudden replied. "I allow I was plumb careless--an' fortunate."
"A man can play his luck too long," she said, and with a wise little nod, left them.
Yago's gaze followed her. "She's too good for that skunk," he remarked. "Got guts, that gal has."
Which inelegance, coming from a confirmed misogynist, was indeed a compliment. The foreman regarded his friend with surprise, and then a mischievous twinkle danced in his eyes.
"Pore of Bill," he murmured. "It's wuss'n measles when yu get it late in life, love is. Look at him a-blushin,' Luce." Which was an obvious libel, since Yago's leathery skin was as incapable of blushing as a boot-sole. "Rotten trick for Master Cupid to play on a fella what's been damnin' women all his life," the tormentor went on. "Yu ain't got a chance, ol'-timer, but never yu mind, slick yoreself up, buy a new shirt--yu can do with one, anyway--an' --"
"Aw, go to hell, yu--yu blatherskite," Yago shouted.
"Let's make it the hotel--they tell me drinks ain't too plentiful where yu said, an' I'm as dry as the Staked Plain," his foreman smiled.
Chapter XIII
THAT same evening, on the verandah at the C P, Sudden related the day's happenings to an interested audience of two. The rancher's brow grew black when he learned of the attack on his foreman. Angrily he struck in on the story,
"By God ! I've a mind to round up the boys an' go clean up the Circle B right away," he said.
"Which is just what they're hopin' for," Sudden pointed out. "No, we gotta lie doggo an' let them do the movin'. Yu ain't heard all of it."
He went on to tell of the attempted lynching, and though Purdie did not interrupt again, he exploded when the tale ended.
"Pity yu didn't show up a bit later," was his cruel comment.
"But, Daddy, if Luce wasn't guilty," Nan protested, and there was a tremor in her tone.
Purdie had not seen her cheeks pale, or noticed the little gasp of relief when she heard that the accused man had been delivered from danger; he grasped one fact only--a Burdette had escaped a fate he held to be richly deserved.
"He's earned it a'ready," he growled harshly, and both his hearers knew that he was thinking of his son.
The foreman shook his head. "Still can't agree with yu on that, Purdie. As for to-day's play, it was a plain frame-up, an' a clumsy one too, though it nearly came off; if that bullet had got me right, nothin' could 'a' saved Burdette. Now, ask yoreself a question: If Luce is in with his brothers, why should they try to get him stretched?"
"I dunno, but it might 'a' been him," was the obstinate reply.
"Not a chance," Sudden said. "Luce ain't such a fool as to leave his name an' address like that."
"Huh! Any fella who has just downed another in cold blood is liable to run off an' forget a hat," Purdie persisted. "An' if he had got yu, who'd ever find the spot he fired from? It was on'y by chance Riley was passin'."
"Was it?" the foreman asked dryly. "Riley rides for the Circle B, an' was comin' to town. What was he doin' so far off the reg'lar trail?"
"Yu suggest he did the shootin'?"
"No, but I'd say he was there to take the news in an' lead the posse to the place."
"Well, I ain't convinced," the rancher replied. "An' watch out for yoreself, Jim; the Burdettes ain't quitters, which is the on'y good thing I can say for 'em."
He went into the house, and the girl followed. The foreman caught a murmured "Thank you" as she passed him. He smiled as he reflected that Luce might be having a thin time just now, but there were compensations to come. His thoughts went to "The Plaza," but he jerked them savagely away and stalked to his own quarters.
Riley, for reasons of his own, did not return to the ranch, but he took care to keep clear of "The Plaza"; the boss of the Circle B had a nasty habit of venting his displeasure on the nearest object. Therefore, no other member of the outfit having been to town, King Burdette rode in that evening blissfully ignorant of what had happened. But he knew what he expected to hear, and his darkly handsome face wore an expression of satisfaction when he tied his horse to the hitch-rail in front of "The Plaza" and walked in. Lu Lavigne greeted him with her usual smile, and the customer to whom she was chatting promptly drifted away. King's keen eyes searched the girl's face for any sign of distress and found none; she appeared to be her own gay, impudent self. The hand which poured a drink for him was perfectly steady.