This creature, who had been following the story of the fight with impatient interest, now shot a question at Green: `Say, stranger, d' yu ever come acrost a smaller cowpunch than me?'
The query came in the truculent tone so frequently adopted by the small man who is sensitive regarding his stature and West's eyes flashed a warning.
`Shore I have. Back on my old ranch in Texas there was a feller named "Tiny" who would have looked a kid beside yu, an' he was a blame good puncher too,' smiled Green. `It's a fact, boys, that feller was so short that when he had a pain he couldn't tell whether it was toothache or corns.'
A chorus of laughter greeted the humorous exaggeration and the dwarf's booming voice joined in.
`Haw, haw,' he bellowed. `Reckon he musta bin real small, that feller, but size ain't anythin'. I'm none so big m'self, yet I bin in a fight with fists an' the chap was damn near twice as tall as me.' He looked round and grinned triumphantly at the surprise his statement created, and then went on, `Yessir, I ain't joshin' neither. We had a sorter argument an' agreed to settle with our hands 'stead o' shootin', him claimin' there was more of him to aim at. Then some o' the boys allowed that to make it fair he orta fight on his knees, with me standin' up, an' that's how we done. We scrapped for nigh half an hour an' in the end I knocked him cold. Anybody here wantta take me on the same terms?'
He squinted at Green as he threw out the challenge and then his eyes roved round the company. The Y Z puncher laughed and replied good-humouredly :
`Not any for me, thank yu. I had a full meal o' scrappin' last night; I ain't a hog.'
The other men seemed to accept the dwarf's offer as a joke, sprung for the benefit of the newcomer. The enormous muscular power of that stunted body was known to all. The foreman clinched the discussion by saying sharply: `Draw in yore horns, Gorilla; we gotta job comin' along that'll need all the sound men we can muster.'
`Aw, Jeffs, there won't be no trouble,' protested the dwarf. `Yu can see I got 'em all razzle-dazzled--scared of a little 'un.'
In an instant the foreman's face changed from calm to snorm. His eyes flashed fire, and snatching out his gun, he cried, `One more yap from yu an' it will be yore finish. Yu know me.'
The pugnacious one subsided into his seat like a pricked bubble, and Jeffs, with a savage glare round the room, went out. The scene, begun in a farcical mood, had nearly ended in red tragedy.
`Yu want to go slow with Jeffs, Gorilla,' admonished West. `He on'y warns a man once, an' not allus that.'
The stunted man did not reply; the tempest he had so suddenly raised had routed his not over-keen faculties, and he was still in a kind of daze.
`Would he have killed him?' Green whispered to West.
`Shore thing,' replied the other. `I saw him do it once. Yu see, this is a tough crowd an' he's gotta ride 'em all the time.'
`What's the job he spoke of?'
`Ain't a notion--first I've heard of it. We'll all know soon, I guess.'
The next day was occupied with the ordinary work of the ranch, but on the following morning preparations for some expedition began. Horses were brought in and carefully examined, weapons were cleaned, and ropes looked at. There was an air of general excitement, the meaning of which Green did not discover until the foreman called him aside, and with a leering look, told him the news.
`Chance to git yore own back a bit to-night, Green,' he said, watching with narrowed eyes. `We're aimin' to lift some o' the Y Z stock. Yu'll be along.'
The puncher's face told him nothing. `Why not?' came the cool retort. `I'm workin' for yu, an' they treated me mean. I don't owe the Y Z nothin' but a grudge.'
`Well, here's where yu pay it,' smiled the other. `We start this afternoon.'
Left to himself, Green pondered on the situation; there were points he could not understand. Jeffs, of course, had received orders from Tarman, but why was the latter robbing the ranch he must surely be expecting to possess one day, for the cattle, once stolen, were the general property of the gang. Again, so far as he could judge, he had been the last to be told, even West having said nothing of the projected raid. This might be a natural precaution on the part of the foreman, who could not be sure of Green's real feelings towards his old ranch. Certainly he had made it impossible for the Y Z man to send any warning unless he deserted altogether, and Green guessed his movements were being watched. Was it a trap for himself? Looking at it every way he could find no solution, and at length, with a shrug of his shoulders, he decided that there was nothing to be done but go through with it. West provided another disquieting factor.
`No, I ain't goin'--I gotta keep house,' he said, regret in his tone, and then in a whisper, he added, `Somethin's in the wind--I dunno what, but yu better watch out. Jeffs is goin' this time an' that ain't usual.'
Green was sorry that the talkative one was not to be of the party, for not only was he good company, but the Y Z puncher felt that he could depend on him for help in a tight place. Warped as he undoubtedly was, he had laws of his own, and with the man who had saved him from a horrible death, he would play straight.
Ten men, well-mounted and fully armed, composed the raiding force, which set out early in the afternoon, headed for the Y Z. The trail taken was the one by which West had brought Green to the rustlers' headquarters. With plenty of time at theirdisposal the men rode easily, smoking and chatting in pairs. Green, indifferent as to whom he rode with, found himself companioned by Gorilla, perched on the back of a big, raw-boned pony, with a hammer head and a general lack of beauty thoroughly in keeping with its rider. The dwarf grinned at the bigger man as he ranged alongside, and noted the disparaging glance at his mount.
`Shore, he ain't much to look at, but he's wise to cattle an' he'll run till he drops,' he said, with an odd note of pride in his rumbling voice.
`Yu don't have to tell me,' responded Green. `hosses is where I live.'
`Yes, an' yu gotta good 'un,' said Gorilla.
`Bullet's a useful animal,' agreed Green, patting his pony's neck.
`I wasn't meanin' him; what about yore other hoss, the roan...' he stopped suddenly, and with some confusion added, `Huh, reckon I'm tanglin' yu up with some other feller. Well, anyways, it don't matter now.'
With which cryptic remark he relapsed into silence, merely favouring the puncher with an occasional side-glance and a sort of half-grin containing an element of malicious mirth. Here was more food for thought; these men evidently knew more about him than he had suspected. Why had the little man chopped his remark short? Had he been on the point of revealing something? And why didn't it matter now? These questions kept the cowpuncher's mind fully occupied until the band reached the hidden valley, where he had to dismount and help the others adjust the board gangway for the horses. As this was made much wider and stronger, and left in position, it was evident that the stolen herd was to be brought oack that way.
At the hut in the valley a rest and a meal were taken and Jeffs gave his final instructions. The men were told off to work in pairs and Green had Gorilla assigned to him as partner. Then loose boards in the floor of the hut were lifted, and from the cavity beneath a number of Indian head-dresses were dragged. These were donned and some of the men even daubed their faces with stain and `painted Injun.' Then, with a whild whoop, several sprang out and gave a creditable display of an Apache war-dance, while the rest looked on and applauded.
`Big Chief, "Wart-on-a-horse," him dance too,' yelled one, and slung Gorilla into the cavorting ring round the fire. Anything more ludicrous than the dwarf's great body, with eagle plumes streaming down the back, balanced on tiny legs trying to keep step with the others, could hardly be conceived, and the spectacle aroused shouts of laughter. Jeffs, however, soon put a stop to the merriment with the order to mount.