`There wasn't much time,' Green laughed. `I just naturally didn't want to lose that job yo're gettin' me.'
West climbed his horse, cursing it good-naturedly as he did so. `There ain't many things I'm scared of, but snakes, ugh! I once see a feller pass out from a snake-bite,' he said.
The afternoon was well-advanced when they crossed a large expanse of open range and pulled up in front of a group of buildings, comprising a roomy ranch-house, bunkhouse, blacksmith's shop, and a corral. All were constructed of logs and, Green noted, had not been long erected. Several men lounging by the bunkhouse door greeted his companion.
"Lo, Dick, yu got back,' said one.
`Why, no, but I'm liable to arrive any moment,' smiled California, and the user of the conventional absurdity was immediately pounded on the back.
`Aw well, yu know what I mean,' he protested.
West led his companion to the ranch-house a little distance away, and in response to his hail, another man emerged--a shorn, bow-legged fellow with squinting eyes and a hard mouth.
He surveyed the couple narrowly for a few minutes and then asked :
`What's yore trouble, West?'
In a few brief sentences the ex-miner gave Green's history as he knew it, and finished by asking a job for him; the rattle-snake incident was omitted. The decision was soon made.
`Yo're hired; all yu gotta do is obey orders an' ask no questions,' said the bow-legged man. `Yu'll find that gold yo're huntin' for right here. Take him along, Dick.'
He turned away and the two punchers, after disposing of the horses in the corral, made their way to the bunkhouse. Here Green was casually presented to the nine or ten men present as a new hand. He saw at a glance that they were a tough lot, men of middle age or more for the most part, ruffians of a type only too plentiful in the West at that time, a cursing, hard-drinking, fighting crew who would stop at nothing when their greed or passions were aroused. After his first entrance they took but little notice of him, though he could see that his new friend, Dick, was popular enough. The bunkhouse was comfortable, the food provided both good and plentiful. He gathered nothing from the general conversation, save once, when the mysterious Spider was mentioned.
`Who is that?' he asked of West, who was seated next to him. `The main boss--ain't here much,' was the reply.
Chapter XIV
TARMAN was not one to let the grass grow under his feet; he soon became an almost daily visitor at the Y Z, where he exerted himself to the unmost to please both the owner and his daughter. The latter, though her doubts were not entirely dispelled, could not altogether resist the attraction of his personality. They rode often, and despite his defeat by Blue Devil, she had to admit that he was both at home and looked well in the saddle. Moreover, he was studiously respectful and attentive. Though he did not make open love to her, she was aware of his admiration. It was after one of these excursions, when sitting on the verandah with father and daughter, that Tarman made his first reference to Green.
`That puncher yu fired hasn't pulled his freight, I notice,' he said. The roan yu give him is still in the hotel corral.'
`Didn't yu say he was going prospectin'?' Simon asked Noreen.`That is what he told me,' she replied, and did not fail to note the little crease in Tarman's brow.
`Some folks find gold in other folks' cattle,' he sneered. 'Anybody can buy a miner's outfit. It's bein' said in town that he's got into bad company.'
Noreen laughed. `Town talk; why, I wouldn't condemn a coyote on that.'
`Neither would I, not if I was at all acquainted with the coyote,' smiled the big man, `but one o' the Double X boys claims that he saw Green over towards Big Chief, ridin' with a mighty hard-lookin' crew, strangers to these parts. I'm thinkin' he may have found them rustlers he was lookin' for.'
`Sounds queer--I don't know of any ranch over there,' said Simon. `I expect it's just as well I got rid of him.'
The girl said no more, but the information made her uneasy. She knew, of course, that Tarman was jealous of the onher, cleverly as he tried to conceal the fact, but she did not think he had invented the story, and meeting Larry later on, she asked a plain question.
`Yes, Miss Norry,' he told her. `It was Dutch who claimed to have seen him, an' o' course some o' them smart Alecks gotta start ornamentin' his yarn. Why, one of 'em told me Green had been seen alterin' brands! He warn't quite so shore of his facts when I'd done arguin' with him,' he finished, grinning at the recollection of an indignant citizen trying to curse and retract his statements at the same time, while his face was being enthusiastically jammed into the dust of the street.
The girl smiled too, for the young puncher's wholehearted faith in his friend was good to see. It cheered her also to find it was shared by others; Ginger, now well enough to sun himself on the bench outside the bunkhouse, was equally emphatic.
`Don't yu worry, Miss,' he said. `That feller's as straight as a string, an' if them bums in Hatchett's get too fresh, me an' one-two more'll have to go in an' read the Riot Act to 'em. He'll show up again, fine as silk.'
This prediction was realised sooner than the maker of it anticipated for that very evening Green rode into town. For once rumour had spoken truly, for his new job had taken him, with half a dozen others, to a small, hidden valley, and the work done there was the rebranding of a herd of Frying Pan cattle.
`Reckon yu can use a straight iron?' asked Jeffs, and on Green replying in the affirmative, that part of the job was assigned to him, the others cutting out, throwing and tying the victims. Without it being noticed, Green managed to introduce a slight variation in the brand which would enable him to identify the animals he had operated upon. He was a quick and accurate worker and Jeffs meant what he said when he complimented him.
`Yu done a good job,' was his comment, when the last of the herd staggered to its feet, shook its head, and charged blindly after its companions. `Reckon yo're due for a rest. I want somebody to go into Hatchett's. How about it?'
`Glad to,' replied the puncher. `When do I start?'
`Right away, if yu like,' said Jeffs. 'Yu can stay the night there an' come back in the mornin'.'
On their return to the ranch, Jeffs handed Green a sealed packet. `Just leave it at the hotel--he may not be there,' he said. `Anyways, there's no answer.'
The messenger slipped the packet into the pocket of his chaps, merely noting that it was addressed in the name of `Marway,' and went off to saddle a fresh mount. He had not gone far on his journey when West caught him up.
`Wasn't expectin' yu,' remarked Green. `Jeffs forget somethin'?'
`Nope, said I could come along,' replied the other. `I'm just apinin' for civilisation.'
`There's about as much of it in Hatchett's as there was gold in that creek yu found me pannin',' Green told him.
`Mebbe, but there's liquor, an' a chance to buck the wheel an' lose some o' my hard-earned wealth,' was the smiling reply. `I ain't been there yet; what's it like?'
`Just the same as any other cow-town,' said Green. `Reckon if somebody mixed 'em up in a herd, it'd be hell of a job to cut out the town yu wanted--this is, if you was silly enough to want any of 'em.'
California laughed and went on to tell of the `boom' towns he had encountered during his mining travels, towns which sprang up like mushrooms in a night when a lucky strike was made, and vanished as quickly when the diggings petered out.
`Yes, sir,' he said. `I've gone to sleep in what looked like a thrivin' an' busy settlement an' woke up in the mornin' to find nearly every blame buildin' gone, an' me for the on'y inhabitant. Most of the said buildin's bein' tents transportation wasn't so darned difficult.'
He was one of those easy talkers who enjoy an audience, and an adventurous and by no means blameless career, regarding which he showed no reticence, provided him with plenty of material. Born in a mining camp, he had been prospector, gambler, bartender, mule-skinner, and cowpuncher, besides engaging between while in other less laudable means of getting a living. He had made fortunes and lost them.