`Yore what?' yelled the boy.
`I ain't deaf, an' I ain't a mile away,' exposnulated the other `Didn't yu know I gon a gold-mine? If yo're a good boy...'
But Larry consigned both him and the gold-mine to a place good boys know nothing about, and raced off. Green followed more leisurely, a demure glint in his eyes. Some hours later they halted for a meal of the despised bacon and then pushed on, reaching the spot where Green had cached his mining outfit late at night, too tired to do more than roll up in their blankets and sleep. When Larry awakened in the morning it was to see his friend squatting by a fire, tending a pan from which an odourmuch more delightful than that of bacon was coming. He sprang up and took a peep.
`Trout, by the Jumping Jiminy,' he exclaimed. Where'd yu get 'em, Don?'
'Catched 'em lookin' for worms in the long grass, yu chump,' laughed the other. `Don't yu know fish allus come ashore to feed in the early mornin'?'
`An' the wise worms take to the water 'bout the same time on that account,' added another voice, and they looked up to find West grinning at them. "Lo, Green,' he went on. `I was ridin' right by when I got a whiff o' them trout. Might there be enough for three?"
`Shore, but four would be too many,' replied the puncher, meaningly.
`I'm as lonely as the devil at the prayer-meetin', an' durned glad to see yu again,' replied California. `What's happened? We been expectin' yu back at the ranch.'
He got down as he spoke, tied his horse, and took a seat at the fire. The other two watched him closely. His pleasure at the meeting seemed genuine, and it was quite possible that he did not know of the treacherous trap which had been sprung upon the Y Z man.
`Yu ain't heard?' Green asked, as he passed over a generous portion of the food.
`There's bin tales told but I don't reckon I've heard the straight of it,' the visitor returned. `Jeffs claims that he never knowed yu was missin' till they were halfway home; then we heard one o' the Y Z boys had bumped yu off. Next comes the news that yu ain't cashed but they've got yu, an' then we hears that yu got away an' the marshal's tore hisself near baldheaded.'
`It was Gorilla who knocked me cold, West,' Green explained.
`The hell it was!' said California. `Well, he may have bin actin' on orders, or he may not--he's a bitter, mischievous devil--but yu gotta remember that yu thrashed the Spider, an' he ain't noted for a forgivin' nature. I suspicioned somethin' was up an' I warned yu to be on the lookout.'
`I ain't forgettin' that,' Green replied. `Jeffs send yu to look for me?'
`Shucks! I happened on yore camp just like I said. I warn't lookin' for yu an' I warn't lookin' for no ten thousand dollars neither; that sort o' money never appealed to me.' He rolled a cigarette, and then remarked casually, `Funny about Old Simon.'
`What was that?' asked both his listeners.
`Hatchett's is tickled to death over it,' laughed the rustler. `He's bin carryin' on like a scalded pup 'cause yu give him a name that warn't yore own, an' now it comes out that his name ain't Petter, nor even Simon.' He drew at his cigarette, exhaled the smoke slowly, and continued, `Changin' names is common enough in these parts an' ain't no crime, but the feller as does it oughtn't to complain if others do it too.'
`Seems fair,' agreed Green. `What have we gotta call Old Simon now?'
`Well, it 'pears his right name is Les Peterson--Les bein' the short for Leslie,' came the careless reply, but the speaker's eyes were watching the other closely. He saw nothing more than polite, amused interest.
`The old catawampus--he shore oughtta be ashamed of himself,' the puncher observed. `Wonder how many sheriffs is lookin' for him?'
West was nonplussed, though he guessed the other man was bluffing him. He had given the information as instructed, and although he did not know its significance to Green, he had expected it to produce an effect of some sort. Defnly he changed the subject.
`Am I to tell Jeffs yu ain't comin' back?'
`Nope, tell him I am--later,' said Green, and he smiled grimly.
West was clearly uneasy. He liked the puncher, and would have warned him had he known what to warn him against, but he was a mere unit in the gang, a tool in the hands of the rogues who did the scheming. So that all he said was, `Well, don't forget yu gotta friend there when yu do.'
`I ain't likely to--I got none too many,' smiled the outlaw.
When the visitor had mounted and gone, Green sat staring in silence at the fire, pondering on the astounding news which had come to him so strangely. Fate had presented him with a pretty problem. Here was a man for whom he had been searching for years with one object only, to fight and kill or be killed himself. Always he had held that the cruel wrong done to his benefactor could only be wiped out in blood. And now to learn that the hunted man is the father of the girl of his dreams, or at least, all the father she has ever known. `It would be the same; I just couldn't do it, old feller,' he muttered, unaware that he was speaking aloud.
Up to this point Larry had respected his friend's silence, but the spoken remark was too much.
`Say, when yu done chatterin' to yoreself yu might tell a feller what it's all about an' see if he can help yu,' he suggested.
Green roused himself. ` "Out o' the mouths o' babes" idea, eh?' he quoted, smiling.
`Awright, grandpa,' grinned Larry. `Fly at it.'
The amusement soon faded from the young man's face as he listened to the story, and consternation took its place.
`Ain't it just hell,' he said, when the tale was done. `Yu can't hurt Old Simon; he ain't a bad sort, an' it would break Miss Norry all up.'
`I know that, yu chump,' was the reply. `But I gotta see him.'
`We gotta see him, yu mean,' corrected Larry. `Wonder if West knew yu'd be interested to hear Old Simon's real name?', `Couldn't 'a' been--I never mentioned Peterson to anyone round here. What's bitin' yu, anyway?'
`Dunno, but it shore seems odd his happenin' along like that. It looks...'
`As if we're careless an' damn lucky,' interjected Green. `It might just as well have been Blaynes, or another o' that rustlin' lot, an' we'd 'a' been cold meat. C'mon, we'll shove for the Y Z an' watch our chance.'
Larry gave in, but he was not satisfied. To visit the Y Z just now appeared to be sheer madness, but when he pointed this out the only answer he got was that this very reason made it possible.
`They won't be lookin' for us,' Green argued.
`Wish I was shore o' that,' grumbled the other.
However, he offered no further opposition for he saw that it would be useless; his companion was determined to prove the trunh of the story he had heard without delay, and to settle accounts, though not in the way he had intended, with the man he had sought so long. For the boy knew that, so far as Sudden was concerned, Old Simon was safe, though he had been guilty of an offence for which death was the inevitable penalty; the abduction of a child could hardly be less heinous than the stealing of a horse or steer. He fell to studying the man riding silently beside him, grim and saturnine, and some conception of the power of human passions came to him. Here was a man who could be ruthless with his fellows, who had killed and would kill again if necessity arose, instantly abandoning a just vengeance cherished and pursued for years because it would hurt a girl.
`It's odd,' he said aloud, unthinkingly.
`What is?' asked Green.
Larry did not want to say; he hesitated and looked round for an excuse. They were crossing a wooded ridge, and between the trees over towards the place they had come from a thin pencil of smoke stabbed the sky. Even as he looked it was cut off, and then shot up again. He pointed towards it.
`Somebody signallin' back there.'
Green looked at him doubtfully; he did not believe that was what he had referred to, for Larry's back had been to the smoke when he spoke. While they watched the signal ceased and reappeared three more times, then faded out.