`Quick, your bonds,' she whispered, and when she had slashed the rope apart, she added, `Larry is waiting at the big cedar with a horse. Go at once.'
`But yu will get in wrong with yore Dad over this,' protested the prisoner.
`Well, he will be furious, of course, but I can manage him,' she replied.
`Yu are savin' my life,' he said slowly. `I don't know how to thank yu.'
`Make better use of it,' she flashed back, and was gone.
The released man saw her melt into the shadow, and then, with the caution of an Indian trailer, made his way to the spot the girl had mentioned, the big cedar at the point where the trail from Hatchett's entered the ranch. Here, deep in the gloom of the foliage, he found Larry and two horses. The boy executed a silent war-dance when he saw his friend.
`No time for gassin' now,' he whispered. `Fork yore cayuse an' we'll punch the breeze.'
He himself set the example, and when Green did the like he found he was astride his own pony, Bullet.
`He was outside the corral this mornin'--musta headed for here when yu was downed,' explained Larry. `Here's yore guns; Rattler had 'em, an' thinks he has still.'
Green buckled the belt around him and tried to express his thanks, but the other cut them short. `Shucks,' he said. `I ain't done nothin'; yu gotna thank the Pretty Lady--she thought of it all. Which way we goin'?'
`We?' echoed the fugitive.
`Shore,' came the confident reply. `I'm goin' with yu. I talked it over with the Pretty Lady, an' we agreed that yu ain't to be trusted alone. No, it ain't a bit o' good yore cussin' me out thataway.'
`But, yu blazin' jackass, can't yu see what yo're doin'?' expostulated Green. `I'm a rustler, an' if yo're caught with me, yo're one an'
`It'll be neckties for two, eh? Well, we won't be catched then. Now that's settled, s'pose we decide where to head for.'
`The nearest lunatic asylum for yu, but as I reckon that's a piece away, why, we'll make for the Frying Pan.'
`That bughouse idea is a right good one for yu too. Why, yu bone-head, don't yu guess that yore pestiferous past will be known there? Ain't yu aware that Old Impatience is a friend o' Simon, an' that yu will be steppin' out o' one trap into another?'
Green's reply was no set his mouth in motion. `We gotta take chances,' he said.
Larry ranged alongside. `Chances?' he snorted disgustedly. `Yu remind me of a chap called Lukins I met up with in Dodge one time, he was dead set on 'em. Somebody roped a mountain lion an' fetched it into town in a cage, an' this fool Lukins puts up a bet he'll scratch the back of its head with his empty hand. "Cats like that," he says, "an' as this animile ain't nothin' but a big cat he'll like it too." Well, the brute didn't seem none in love with it, for Lukins lost an arm, an' the doc what attended to him reckoned he was clever to save the rest of him.'
Green laughed. `Leeming ain't no wild animal,' he said. `The fact is, he's got a leveller head than some o' yu think, but before we go any further there's one thing yu gotta right to know.'
`S'pose yu mean what I'm to call yu? I shore got a choice, ain't I? Don, Green, or--Sudden.'
If Larry had wished to surprise his friend he had his desire. `Who told yu--Miss Norry?' he queried.
`Nope,' was the reply. `Snap--he's knowed it some time; recognised yore gun-action when yu trimmed Snub's whiskers for him. He allowed I oughtta know, but he threatened to blow my liver out if I breathed a word of it.'
`When was this?'
`Couple o' hours ago, when he heard I was comin' with yu. He'd 'a' been along too but he reckoned he'd be more use at the Y Z. Told me to tell yu that he's with yu to his last chip.'
`Good old Snap,' breathed Green softly, and in truth he was deeply moved. His life had been hard for the most part, and for years now he had been a wanderer drifting from place to place, with never a friendly face to greet him, and with no future to look to but one of satisfied vengeance. And here he had found comrades who were trusting him when ninety-nine out of a hundred would have turned their backs or their guns on him. He smiled in the darkness, and then said, soberly, `Yes, I'm the man they call Sudden, an' there's somethin' like ten thousand waitin' for the man who takes me in. Don't that tempt yu, Larry?'
The boy spurred his horse and shouted savagely, `C'mon. What d'yu think I am, anyway?'
'Yo're a natural-born fool,' replied Green, `an' I must be another, 'cause I like yu for it.'
`Huh! I'm still a-chasin' that foreman's job,' retorted the boy. `Lookin' after little old me is what I'm doin', that's all.' His friend laughed softly and no more was said until they drew near the Frying Pan ranch, when the older man slowed down and cautioned: `Swing round a bit so that we don't pass the bunkhouse; I want to get Leeming by himself.'
As they noiselessly approached the ranch-house they saw that there was a light in the living-room. Dismounting and trailing the reins, they crept up to the window and saw that Leeming was alone in the room. A light tap on the glass brought him to his feet instantly, and gripping his gun, he asked, `Who's there?'
`Larry Barton, from the Y Z. I want to speak to yu on the quiet,' came the reply.
Leeming disappeared and in a moment the front door opened and the visitors slid in. Their host, still carrying his gun, was just to the left of the opening, where he could get his shot in first in case of trickery. At the sight of Barton, however, he slipped the weapon back into the holster and grinned.
"Lo, Larry, gotta be careful these days,' he said, and then as Green followed his companion, his face darkened and his hand went to his six-shooter again. `I wasn't lookin' for yu, Green; yu ain't cherishin' the notion that I got any sympathy with rustlers, are yu?'
`No, seh, not any,' drawled the other. `So yu have heard all about me? Ain't it a licker how news gets around in some parts?'
`One o' the Y Z boys met one o' mine on the range an' told him yu'd been caught rustlin' their cattle,' replied Leeming grimly. `That's all I know, an' if it's true it's a-plenty.'
`Mebbe it is, but there's more to tell,' said the other. `I came here to-night to put my cards on the table if yu are willin' to listen; if you ain't, I can go.'
`Huh, there might be two words to that,' growled the catnleman, with a glance towards the bunkhouse from which one shot would bring his men on the run.
The visitor read the thought and shook his head. `Don't yu think of it, seh,' he said gently. `I ain't got no quarrel with yu or yore outfit, but--shucks--war-talk won't get us nowheres. What's the word from yu?'
Leeming dropped into the nearest chair; he realised that his guest had him hog-tied. If he called his men he would be dead before they reached him, and while they might succeed in capturing the Y Z couple, it would only be at the cost of more lives.
`Go ahead,' he said shortly.
The cowpuncher complied. Step by step he told of his discoveries and suspicions, omitting, however, his own identity and that of Tarman and the Spider. Leeming watched him closely but did not interrupt. When the story was ended he sat for some moments turning it over.
`I allus doubted Blaynes,' he said, `but I can't see why yore own gang downed yu, 'less they suspected yu were just spyin'.' `It'll perhaps be a bit clearer when I tell yu that Tarman is the Spider,' Green explained.