`Huh, damn lot o' fuss about stringin' up a thief,' interjected Durran. `Anybody'd think there warn't no trees handy.'
`Keep yore mouth shut, or I'll close it for yu--permanent,' snapped Larry.
`Stop yore gassin'--all o' yu darn fools,' yelled the exasperated cattleman, and then, as he felt a touch on his arm, `Well, girl, what do yu want? No good yu mixin' up in this.'
`I'm only saying this, Dad. Why not listen to Green; that can't do any harm.'
The old man pondered for a moment. `Mebbe yo're right,' he said at last. `Green, yu come into the office. The rest o' yu can clear out.' Blaynes started to dismount, but Simon saw the movement. `I don't want yu, Rattler,' he added.
`But see here, Simon, if this feller is goin' to make charges against me, I oughtta be presenn,' protested the foreman. `Who told yu he's agoin' to?'
`Well, it seems the likely move, don't it?' said Blaynes, rather taken aback by his employer's manner.
`Awright, if he does, I won't hang yu without givin' yu a chance to speak for yoreself,' snapped Simon. `Now git.'
He followed the captive into the office, and found his daughter already there. He looked at her doubnfully and then said, `I don't remember askin' yu to be present, Norry.'
`You didn't, Dad, but I'm going to be,' she replied, and there was a quiet determination in her voice which made both men look at her. The laughing merry girl had gone and a grown serious woman had taken her place. The old man made a gesture of impanience.
`It ain't no business for a girl,' he protested.
`It's your business and therefore mine,' came the reply. 'Besides, I am in this man's debt and I'm not forgetting it.'
`Huh,' grunted the ranch-owner. `Reckon he's paid himself for that out o' my cattle, but have it yore own way. Now, Green, yu got that hearin', make the most of it.'
The prisoner did not at once avail himself of the invitation. Standing there with bound hands, unshaven, and with a bloodstained, dirty bandage on his head, he was painfully conscious that he looked a ruffian. Although the fact that she took even the slightest interest in him, due only to a sense of gratitude, stirred him, he would have preferred to speak no her father alone. Though his investigations were by no means complete he felt that he had discovered enough to convince the ranchman. `When I left the Y Z I told yu I wasn't ready to put my cards on the table,' he began. `Well, I ain't ready now, but the prospect of havin' his neck stretched forces a man's hand some...' he smiled grimly, `an' I'm agoin' to do it.'
`Go ahead,' said Simon, shortly.
`I told yu the rustlin' was the work of whites playin' Injun an' I was right,' proceeded Green.
`That warn't difficult,' sneered the old man, with a glance at the head-dress found on the prisoner, which Blaynes had handed to him.
`No, the signs were plain enough,' returned the puncher, ignoring the sneer. `What wasn't so plain was that yu were bein' robbed by a big gang, and that yore foreman an' more than half yore outfit are in it.'
`That ain't plain now,' commented the cattleman, drily.
`I've already said that I'm speakin' before I'm ready,' the prisoner pointed out. `I ain't got all the proof I want, but I know what I'm tellin' yu. The Double X an' the Crossed Dumbell are workin' with some o' yore men, liftin' cattle from yu an' the Frying Pan, an' the whole bunch is bossed by a feller they call the Spider. It was the Crossed Dumb-bell outfit that raided yu last night an' I was one of 'em, an' let me tell yu, it wasn't Bent who kicked me cold but one o' the gang I'd ridden there with.'
`Why should they do that?' demanded Simon.
`Mebbe they suspected me or mebbe it was a bit o' private spite,' replied Green. `Anyways, it wasn't either o' yore men--they never showed themselves.'
`Yu seen this boss, the Spider?' asked Simon.
`Yes, he calls himself Tarman in Hatchett's,' replied Green.
The announcement hardly produced the effect he had looked for. Noreen's eyes certainly met his in startled surprise, but her father flung himself back in his chair with a shout of laughter, while Green and the girl watched him in amazemenn.
`Well, well, if that don't beat the hand,' he gasped, as he struggled to control his mirth. `That was a poor shot o' yores, my lad. O' course, yu don't know that Tarman has offered to put fifty thousand dollars into this ranch on the day he marries my daughter. Now, what yu gotta say about that?'
Green's eyes narrowed. `That he'll find it easier to put the money in if he takes it out first,' he retorted. `Tarman's out to get this ranch an' the Frying Pan by hook or by crook.'
`An' he's robbin' the ranch he's willin' to buy into, an' the father of the girl he's hopin' to marry, eh?' sneered Simon. `Sounds likely, don't it?'
`I gotta damit that it don't,' the cowpuncher agreed. `There is ends to this tangle I ain't picked up yet, an' yu mustn't forget that there's others in the game who want a pickin'. Poker Pete, Dexter, an' yore foreman ain't the sort to work for nothin'.'
The ranch-owner smiled sardonically. `An' yu are, I s'pose? When yu come siftin' round these parts all yu wanted was a job at forty a month, warn't it? A job that would leave yu free to work with yore friends at stealin' my cows. An' I fell for it with my eyes shut, but they're open now, Mister Rustler, an' I don't swallow no more o' yore lies.'
His voice rose as he delivered this tirade, and his eyes glared malignantly at the bound man before him, who listened unmoved. It was Noreen who spoke :
`Daddy,' she murmured, reprovingly.
`Yu keep quiet, girl,' replied her father. `This feller may have pulled the wool over yore eyes too, but this is where he gets trimmed.' Turning to Green, he continued. `Yu have had the laugh over me so far; we'll see whether yu find it so damn funny to-morrow mornin' when I turn yu over to the marshal, an' tell him that yo're Sudden, the outlaw. Ha! that touches yu, don't it?'
For with all his self-control, the prisoner had not been able to suppress a start of surprise at this unexpected accusation, a movement which, slight as it was, did not escape the eyes of the man who had been looking for it.
`P'raps yu would like to deny that too?' sneered the cattleman. `Feller with yore gifts oughtta be able to think up a good explanation.'
The prisoner forced a grin to his lips and shrugged his shoulders. `Shucks,' he said. `I reckon yu take the pot this time, but yo're playin' in a deeper game than yu guess, an' I'm warnin' yu that the cards is stacked.'
`Well, yu don't need to worry--yore hand is played,' was the ironical retort. `Now yu come with me an' I'll put yu in a safe place for the night.'
Noreen sat with bowed head and as he passed the puncher caught a whispered, `I'm sorry,' which braced him up like a tonic. Silently he followed his late employer to the back of the ranch-house, where there was an empty hut which had once been a store-room. It was strongly built of adobe, with heavy wooden doors fastened by a padlock and staple.
`There's a box to sit on, an' I'll fetch yu some blankets an' grub,' said his gaoler, and left him to his reflections.
Half an hour passed and then Simon returned with a lantern, blankets, and a tray of food. He untied the captive's hands that he might eat but stood in the doorway the while with his pistol drawn. As soon as the meal was done, he replaced the rope on his wrists and locked the door.
Chapter XVII
For a long time the prisoner sat motionless, pondering on his position; it appeared hopeless enough. The unexpected discovery of his identity was a crushing blow for it meant short shrift at the hands of his enemies, and the probable loss of all his friends. More than one county was offering a big reward for the capture of Sudden the outlaw, and once it became known that he was taken, there was likely to be a `neck-tie party' in Hatchett's Folly.
The puncher, however, was not the type to give in; even while he thought, he had been busy trying to loosen the bonds on his wrists. He met with no success, for your cattleman understands knots almost as well as a sailor, and Simon had done his work well. By the dim light of the lantern Green examined his prison, and saw little hope of leaving it even with his hands free, nevertheless, he persevered with his bonds; it was, at least, something to do. Looking through the foot-square aperture which served as a window, he could see that it was very dark outside, and he judged the time to be near midnight. Suddenly he was conscious of movement, the sound of a stealthy footfall outside the hut, then the grate of a key in the padlock, and the door opened to admit Noreen. She had a knife in one hand.