`Yu was here when Old Simon sifted in from--now where was it I heard he came from?'
`Texas. Though I can't call to mind the name o' the place. Yes, that'd be around eighteen years back. It was him comin' decided me to stop on. Curious feller, Old Simon. Kept his affairs strictly under his own hat. Allus give me the idea he didn't want to be found.'
`How was that?' Green asked interestedly.
`Just a fancy o' mine, p'raps; but years ago I've seen him in thisyer store, an' if a stranger come into town he'd keep outa sight till he'd had a good look at him.'
`Ever see his wife?'
`He didn't have none when he come here. There was just him, and the girl, and a Injun woman to keep house an' look after the kid.'
Glancing out of the door, Green saw the Double X puncher crossing the street to the hotel, outside which he was joined by the slouching figure of the gambler, Poker Pete. They stood conversing a few moments, and then the cowboy got his horse, mounted, and rode in the direction of his ranch. His companion re-entered the hotel. Green turned no the storekeeper.
`How long has that tinhorn card-sharp, Pete, been infestin' these parts?' he asked.
The old man made a gesture of caution. `For the love o' Mike don't shout it,' he urged. `While I allow he's all that an' more, it ain't noways wise to say so. He's got a powerful pull in these parts, an' fellers as go against him don't seem to last long. He don't live here--been sort o' payin' visits off an' on 'bout two years, stayin' at the hotel.'
`Well, I'm shore scared,' laughed the customer, as he paid for his purchases. `So long, old-timer.'
Crossing the street, he mounted his horse, fully conscious that he was being watched by at least a dozen citizens. The story of his `joke' on Snub was now common property and men who had not seen the shooting naturally wanted a look at the man who had done it. Opposite the hotel he pulled up and sat looking at the building. `The buzzard shan't say I didn't give him a chance no make a play,' he muntered. But the gambler did not appear, and after a wait of some minutes, Green rode on.
Three miles out of the town the trail forked, one way leading to the Y Z, and the other to the Double X. Green hesitated here, and then selected the latter. Passing through a narrow, winding gorge a faint clink, as of metal upon stone, warned him that another traveller was behind. He could see no one, but not feeling in the mood for risks, promptly took cover behind a clump of scrub-oak some ten yards from the trail. As the rider emerged round the bend, the watcher gripped the nostrils of his pony to prevent it from whinnying. The other traveller proved to be Poker Pete. He loped past unsuspectingly, hunched in his saddle, and with a dark frown on his unprepossessing feanures.
Now where's he goin'?' speculated nhe cowboy. `Can't be follerin' me--he'd expect me to take the other trail. Well, there's on'y one way to find out.'
He mounned and rode cautiously in the wake of the gambler, keeping well to the rear, and guiding his horse into the soft parts of the trail so that no sound of hoof should reach the man in front. The frequent bends and twists in the trail made it a simple matter to keep out of sight. It was after a rather abrupt turn that he feared he had lost his quarry. The gambler was not in view, despite a straight stretch ahead which he could hardly have covered in the time without a considerable speeding up. Green looked about for another explanation of his disappearance. A cracking twig supplied one. It came from a narrow draw on the left of the trail. There was a faint pathway, and the puncher, keeping a wary eye on the undergrowth, followed it. Presently a thin spiral of smoke showed against the right-hand wall of the draw, and he heard a voice say: "Lo, Pete. Yu bin a long time a-comin'.'
Green slid from the saddle, tied the animal in the bushes, and began to climb the side of the draw. Foot by foot he worked his way up and along until, by parting the coarse grass, he could see the spot from which the smoke was ascending. By the side of a small fire Pete and Snub were squatting cross-legged, and the cowboy was pouring coffee from a battered pot into two tin mugs. Green had missed some of the conversation, but he soon gathered that Pete was in a vile temper.
`Four of yu, an' then yu had to let him get away,' he sneered. `Why didn't yu bump him off an' plant him 'stead o' makin' that fool-play?'
`It looked a shore thing,' remonstrated the other. `Blamed if I know how he got clear--must be a wizard.'
The gambler made a gesture of disgust. `Wizard nothin'. O' course somebody happened along an' helped him; an' he's got the Iaugh on yu.'
`He shore has, an' a new rope into the bargain,' agreed the puncher, with a grin which aggravated his companion still further.
`Yu don't appear to be able to get it into yore head that this feller is dangerous--dangerous, I tell yu,' he rapped out.
`My gracious, yu don't say! Fancy me never suspectin that!' was the ironical retort.
`An' yu had another chance, back there in the Folly,' the gambler went on. `He shoots yu up an' turns his back on yu, an' yu got yore gun. 'Stead o' beefin' him, yu stand there like a blasted image.'
`Yu seen that, did yu?' inquired Snub.
`I was told by them that did,' replied Pete. `They said yu was scared cold.'
`They was right,' Snub admitted. `I'm allus willin' to take a chance, but there warn't no chance. If I'd pulled my gun I wouldn't be here a-talkin' to you--not that I'd be missin' much thataway. I knew he'd get me, an' I knew too that he wanted me to draw--he was playin' for it. I ain't near tired o' life yet, an' I ain't no cat neither, with nine of 'em to gamble with.'
`Shucks! I never seen the gun-slinger yet that couldn't be got,' sneered Pete. `But o' course if yo're scared...'
`I am,' said Snub. `But that don't go for everybody. If yu think yu can ride me...'
There was an ugly look on his face, and his right hand was not far from his gun. The man on the opposite side of the fire laughed crossly.
`I ain't tryin' to ride yu, yu fool,' he said. `We gotta work together, and this feller is interferin' an' has gotta be suppressed.'
`Good word that! Might mean anythin',' laughed the puncher. `Well, go to it, Pete. Yu shore have my best wishes. An' if there's any particular spot yu'd like to be buried in, let me know, an' I'll tend to it. Yu near got him once, didn't yu?'
The gambler swore luridly, and his fingers inched to pull the shoulder gun and shoot down the man who jeered at him, but the lifelong habit of control engendered by his profession enabled him to conceal his feelings.
`I was unlucky,' he said quietly. `The game ain't played out yet.'
`Yu better tell Spider--' the puncher began.
`Shut yore fool trap,' fiercely interrupted the other, with an anxious glance round. `Ain't yu got more sense than to say names?'
`Well, who's to hear 'em in this Gawd-forsaken spot?' protested the puncher. `Yu don't reckon the cayuses'll tell, do yu?'
The gambler shrugged his shoulders. `Seems like I gotta work with a passel o' idiots,' he said contemptuously. "Less I do everythin' myself there's nothin' but mistakes. What lunatic wiped Bud out? No, don't tell me--I could see yu was just agoin' to.' He got up and walked to where his horse was tied. `Tell the others whan I told yu, an' for all our sakes, keep that gap in your face closed,' were his final words as he mounted and rode back to the trail. His companion watched him vanish with a savage scowl.
`For less than half o' nothin' I'd just naturally blow yu apart, yu old lizard,' he growled. `Yu come mighty near bein' buzzard meat once or twice.'
Green remained in his hiding-place until Snub had followed the gambler out of the draw, chewing over what he had heard. That the rustling was the work of white men was now beyond doubt, and at least some of the Double X gang were involved in it. He had nearly learned the name of the slayer of Bud, but the gambler had been too quick. The name that had escaped had been Spider. Green recalled Bent's quotation in the bunkhouse when they were joshing him, and Durran's enormous appreciation of what was apparently a not very notable witticism. Here was another little problem to solve.