"Lo, Green; yu want me?' asked Petter.
`Got some news for yu,' said the puncher, with a half-glance towards the room which served the ranch-owner as an office. But the Old Man did not take the hint.
`Well, let's hear it--our friends won't mind me 'tendin' to business for a minute,' he said, and added with a twinkle of amusement, `You met Mr. Tarman before, I think.'
Green turned his gaze upon the visitor lounging easily in his chair, and with a perfectly grave expression on his face, said quietly, `Shore, I lent him my hoss.'
For a brief instant Tarman's eyes flashed murder, and then he joined in the laugh which, started by Noreen, spread to the others.
`Yu gotta admit I didn't keep him long,' the big man said, and his laugh boomed out again. It was well done, but to the girl it did not ring true. She had caught that fleeting look and knew that the man's vanity had been rubbed on a sore spot, and that he would have cheerfully slain the offender.
`Well, well, what yu got to tell us, Green?' asked Simon.
The cowboy gave a bald account of the day's discoveries, and watched the faces of the visitors as he did so, but could see nothing more than a polite interest on either of them. His employer was plainly pleased.
`Yu didn't recognise them two fellers?'
`No, but they looked like Greasers, an' they could shoot.' `Well, if yu set 'em afoot they won't get them cows shifted without help. 'Course, mebbe they got other hosses, or there's more than just the pair of 'em.'
`If there'd been more they'd 'a' come pilin' at the first shot,' Green pointed out.
`That's so,' agreed the cattleman. `Reckon yo're tired?' `Not so as yu'd notice it,' smiled the cowboy.
`Good for yu,' said the Old Man. `Blaynes is out on the range somewheres. Get another hoss, pick up any o' the boys yu can find an' hump it to the Frying Pan. It's Job's business this time, but it's ourn too an' we got to help him. Yu didn't see any o' our cows, I s'pose?'
Green shook his head. `Hadn't time to look over the herd, but I fancy they were all Frying Pan.'
As he swung into the saddle, Seth Laban rose from his chair. 'I reckon I must be goin' too,' he said.
`Why, Seth, what's yore hurry?' asked Tarman.
`Yu know I got a date with Rayne,' replied Laban. `I told yu comin' up I couldn't stay.'
`So yu did, Seth; I done forgot it,' agreed his friend.
When Laban had taken his leave the big man turned to his host and remarked casually, `That chap Green 'pears to be a pretty capable proposition. Handy with his weapons too, judging by the way he got that boy o' yores away from the marshal.'
`Never seen him fire a shot but I should say he ain't no novice,' Simon replied.
`Was it a fair fight, Mr. Tarman?' inquired Noreen.
`Well, it was an even break, an' I told the marshal so, but it was forced on the dead man; the Y Z boys meant to get him, an' came there a-purpose. I should say Green framed it up, an' he certainly got away with it. Funny, as I was sayin' to Seth, I believe I've seen him somewhere an' can't just fix him, but I'll bet a stack he's more gunman than cowboy.'
`He knows his work,' offered the cattleman.
`Mebbe so, but if I'm right yu gotta ask yoreself what's a gunman doin' around here?' rejoined Tarman, and having planted this seed of doubt in the minds of his hearers, he went on to talk of something else.
When Green reached the bunkhouse he found Larry lounging on the bench outside. The young man promptly greeted him, `How's the cow-thief business?'
`Not so brisk as when yu were in it,' retorted his friend, with a grin. `Yu go get that four-legged table yu got into the habit o' callin' a hoss, an' drape yoreself across it; if yu can find any more o' the boys, fetch 'em along.'
`Huh ! yu got that job as foreman a'ready?' snorted the other. `If I had I'd be handin' yu yore time,' smiled Green. `The Old Man's orders; get agoin'.'
But Larry delayed another minute. `Say, do yu know that the Pretty Lady has been ridin' with the Handsome Stranger this afternoon?' he asked. Green looked at him and saw that the boy was not joshing. `What are yu goin' to do about it?' he inquired.
`Me? What's it gotta do with me?' asked Larry.
`Well, I was wonderin' that myself,' replied Green slowly, and left the other to work it out.
`Hell's bells, can yu beat it?' muttered the young man, when he realised that he had been very neatly admonished. `If he ain't the cussedest...! He gave it up and went in search of Dirty and Simple, who were somewhere about. When he returned with them, Green had turned the roan into the corral, transferring the saddle to his other pony. He explained the situation to them while they were getting their mounts, and after snatching a hasty meal, they started for the Frying Pan ranch.
`Might've took me in yore shootin' party,' reproached Larry, who, paired with Green, was leading the way.
`No place for boys,' came the drawling reply.
`Awright, grand-pop; yu old moss-heads want to hog all the fun. D'yu reckon the marshal will start anythin'?'
`I would, in his place,' Green replied grimly. `I'd start a journey, an' I'd make it a long one.'
For the greater part of the trip, however, Green was silent. Though he had not shown it, the knowledge that Noreen had been for a ride with Tarman annoyed him. He knew that this feeling was quite unwarranted, the girl had a right to dispose of her own company, and what was more reasonable than that she should show the visitor over the ranch? Nevertheless, the thought of it made him profane. Another thing that occupied his mind was the departure of Seth at the same moment as himself; it might have been just a coincidence but he felt instinctively that it was not.
He was still puzzling over this incident when they reached their destination. In spite of the darkness they had made good time, though as Dirty ruefully remarked, `Supper must be damn near forgotten by now.' They rode past the bunkhouse, from which came the tinkle of a banjo and a powerful if unmelodious chorus.
`Huh! Tryin' to scare off rustlers, I guess,' commented Simple. `Job must be away or stone deaf.'
The ranch-owner was neither, for he came to the door in answer to Green's knock. He carried a lamp in his left hand, the right being hooked in his belt in useful proximity to his gun.
"Lo, boys,' he greeted, recognising them. `What's up?'
Green explained the reason for their visit and the effect on Leeming was ludicrous--as Dirty put it--`It fair set him alight.' `Hell's bells!' he cried. `That's the way things allus happen on this blamed ranch. Here's Dirk an' six o' the boys away with the trail herd an' me with half a staff. But we'll get 'em, yu bet yu; we'll have them cows back here an' hang every damn thief we find with 'em. Yu boys will want to hit the way, I reckon?'
`We're aimin' to come with yu--we can get there by sun-up an' have a cat-nap on the way,' Green replied, adding slyly, `That is if yu want for us to come.'
`What the...' the rancher started tempestuously, and then he caught the twinkle in the speaker's eyes and grinned himself. `Yu nearly had me goin' again, blast yu,' he said. `Course I'll be pleased to death to have yore help. Come along to the bunkhouse an' stoke up while I get the boys together.'
Scrambling into a coat and snatching up a Winchester, Job led the way. At his entrance the concert ceased abruptly, and Charlie, who was sufficiently recovered to sit up in his bunk and manipulate his banjo, laid the instrument aside.
`Hump yoreselves, boys,' Leeming cried. `Green here has located our cattle an' we're agoin' after 'em. Lucky, yu better stay with Charlie; the other five, with the Y Z boys, will be enough to turn the nrick.'
`Oh hell, boss, I'm fit all right,' protested Lucky. `An' I shore owe them fellers a crack for the one they gave me.'
`Yore turn'll come--we ain't expectin' to corral the whole bunch,' said the boss. `Somebody's gotta stay. Where in blazes is that grub I told that blasted cook to put up?'