`Stick 'em up,' growled a voice, and as he instinctively complied he looked into the barrel of a six-shooter, behind which was the laughing face of Larry. `Say, yo-re easy, ain't yu?' added that satisfied young man.
`Shore,' replied Green, slipping his left heel from the corral bar over which it was hooked. Like a striking snake, his toe shot out and kicked the loosely-held weapon into the air. Then, with a flying leap, Green landed full on the other and they went to the ground together, Larry underneath.
`Shore,' Green repeated. `I'm easy--roused,' and proceeded to enthusiastically push his friend's face into the soft dust. `Let up, yu--yu catamount,' spluttered a choking voice. `I've said "Uncle"--said it four times. Yu aimin' to bust my back, as well as my fingers?'
Thus adjured, Green allowed him to rise, and having brushed the dust from his own person, performed nhe same kindly office for his friend with an energy which elicited another protest.
`Aw right, don't yu trouble, feller,' Larry said. `I ain't no carpet. What yu usin'--a fence-rail?'
`Only my hand,' came the reply.
`Only yore hand,' snorted Larry. `Try the rail next time--I'd ruther.' He found his gun, rolled and lighted a cigarette, and took up a position on the corral fence. `For a busted nickel I wouldn't tell yu any news,' he announced.
Green climbed up beside him. `Spill it,' he urged, `or Uncle will have to argue with yu some more.'
Larry moved a little further away. `I've solved the mystery o' the rustlin',' he began solemnly. `The leaves is doin' it--every time the wind blows.' He dodged a back-handed blow which would have sent him into the corral, and added, `An' yu've been ridin' with the Pretty Lady. I'm agoin' to call yu "Don" in future--short for Don Juan, see?'
`Quit yore foolin'; it's blame near time yu grew up,' retorted the other. `I don't care a cuss what yu call me, but I'd like to hear how yu knew about'--he hesitated--`the Pretty Lady.'
`Rattler told me, an' all the others. He's shore doin' his damnedest to make yu popular.'
Green was silent--thinking. He felt that he could fully trust this boy for whom he had conceived a liking at their first meeting. They had become friends since then, and under their bickering and banter was a sincere affection--though neither of them would have called it that. He soon made his decision.
`I got somethin' to tell yu,' he said.
`Speak on, Big Chief Cat o' the Mountains; I'm all ears,' Larry responded.
`Damned if yu ain't too, pretty near,' grinned Green. `Well, never yu mind; slant them long listeners o' yores this way, an' don't interrupt.'
In a low voice he proceeded to relate the humiliation of Snub, which was as yet news at the ranch!
Blaynes had heard of it from the gambler, but for once had exercised discretion about the stranger, and kept the knowledge to himself, and none of the Y Z outfit had visited the town save Snap, who did not chatter. Larry punctuated the recital with profane expressions of delight. When Green went on to recite the rescue of Noreen, the boy fell silent. The story ended--and told, as it was, in the baldest way, it did not take long--he said softly: `Yu shore have the luck. I'm speakin' for the job of foreman, early an' prompt.'
`What fool idea yu got in yore head now?' asked his friend. `Well,' replied Larry, `Ain't that the way it allus goes in the story-books? The han'some hero dashes out o' the blazin' ruins, bearin' the slender form o' the heroine, with the tears streamin' down her beautiful face, an--'
`The tears'll be streamin' down yore by no means beautiful face an' yu'll be in good shape to figure as a blazin' ruin yoreself if yu don't stop talkin' drivel,' interrupted Green. `What do yu make o' Snap bein' stood up thataway?' He went on to tell of his own share in the affair.
`Shore is an odd number,' Larry reflected. `Wonder what they split on? Pity he won't talk; but he's square, Snap is; I allus sort o' liked him.'
`There's somethin' or somebody big behind it all,' Green said musingly. `It ain't just a common steal of a few cattle. Trouble is, we ain't got an atom o' proof. Well, it's no good a-worryin'.'
`Not a bit,' responded Larry, and added the entirely irrelevant remark, `Say, Don, I hope yu get her.'
`I hope yu get sense, yu chump,' drawled Green. `Do yu s'pose a girl like that would look twice at me? 'Sides, I ain't got no time for women. When this little tangle is straightened out, I gotta job that looks like keepin' me busy for a long time.'
`If it's one that two can tackle, deal me a hand,' Larry said quickly.
`Thank yu,' said his friend, and meant it.
`Shucks!' came the ready reply. `I can keep my eye on that foreman's job thataway. S'long. It's me for the hay.'
He slid into the gloom, leaving the older man still perched on the rail of the corral. Though he had not known it, the boy's light words had left a sting behind them. The cowpuncher's eyes turned involuntarily to the still-lighted windows of the ranch-house. Was it possible that a girl like that could ever come to care for such a man as he? The idea seemed absurd, and yet he dallied with it. The feel of her arms round his neck, though it had been necessary, and he knew she had hardly been conscious of what she was doing, remained an ever-present memory. The picture of a settled home, with a wife, and perhaps kiddies, was a powerful temptation to one who had spent years of his life as a wanderer, and alone. But he thrust it aside with an almost savage laugh at his own folly.
`I'm gettin' soft,' he muttered. `An' there ain't no moon neither.'
But he looked again at the ranch-house before he turned to seek his pillow.
Chapter IX
THE Frying Pan ranch lay to the west of the Y Z, the two ranges being separated by a narrow strip of broken country difficult to cross. But there were one or two gaps in the barrier in the shape of level stretches, one of them not far from the cabin where Bud had been done to death. For years the desirability of fencing these openings had been admitted by both owners, but nothing had been done, though the line-riders cursed the omission almost daily.
The Frying Pan outfit had been busy for a week or more rounding up a herd to be trail-driven east to the nearest railway point of shipment. The result of their efforts, some five hundred head of cattle, was now gathered on an expanse of good grass only a few miles from the ranch-house, awaiting the final selection. It was a still, dark night, only a few stars were visible, and the animals were settling down contentedly. A lone rider, moving spectral-like on the outskirts of the herd, was intoning monotonously an utterly unprintable ballad. Suddenly came the howl of a coyote, and the rider pulled up and peered into the darkness. The sound seemed to come from ahead of him; a moment later came an answering cry which appeared to emanate from behind him.
`Funny,' he muttered. `Must be a couple of 'em : even a coyote couldn't cover the ground in time. Them sweet accents didn't sound just alike neither. Gimme half a chance, yu prowlin' thieves, an' I'll hang yore grey hides on the fence.'
He loosened his pistol in the holster and rode slowly on. Presently the blurred, indistinct mass of another horseman loomed up in the darkness, and the cowboy's right hand instinctively went to his gun.
`That yu, Lucky?' he asked, and when no answer came, he added, `What's eatin' yu? Ain't afraid yu'll catch cold in yore insides if yu open that hole in yore face, are yu?'
A low chuckle came in response and the blur waved an arm. A faint swish followed, and ere the cowboy could dodge the danger a loop dropped over his shoulders and he was yanked suddenly from his saddle. Even in the act of falling, however, he snatched out his gun and fired two rapid shots into the air. A second later a crashing blow from a pistol-barrel laid him senseless. Other riders instantly appeared out of the gloom.
'Grit a move on,' said one of them. `Cut out as many as we can handle an' start the rest in the other direction. We gotta hustle; we shall have the whole darn crowd here soon, now this blamed fool has given the signal,' and he kicked the unconscious boy viciously in the ribs.