Who Wants to Live Forever?

Wall disagreed with that lightly. 'Any of Hal's rows are mine. Tell the boys to like it or lump it, whichever they please.'

While they tied up their prisoner, Wall explained that he was working at a garage in town. When he had heard that Stevens was one of the two trapped in the restaurant, he had buckled on his gun and started on the warpath. He had chanced to see Mullins heading for the brush and had thought it a good idea to follow him unobserved. His order to the hill man to drop his weapon had been one Mullins recognized reluctantly he must obey.

The guns were sounding again in front. One roared out louder than the others. Hal pushed open the swing doors.

'You all right, Frank?' he asked.

'Yep. The shots are coming from the Rest Easy and the hotel. One bullet chipped the wall almost back of me. I took a crack at the fellow upstairs.' Frank turned and caught sight of Wall dragging in the captured man. 'Where did Tom come from?' he cried in astonishment.

'He saw what Mullins was up to and got the drop on him.'

Hal's smile was ironic. 'He picked this as a good place to eat. Maybe he is right at that. If this siege lasts long, we ought to be well provisioned.'

'It won't last long,' Mullins growled. 'The boys will come right in after you.'

'Some of them,' Hal corrected gently. 'A few of them will stop before they get here.'

Another bullet tore through one of the shattered windows and splintered the leg of a chair.

'Better get back against the wall, Tom,' advised Hal. He dragged the prisoner to a less exposed place than the one where he was lying.

They heard the noise of an automobile coming down the street. It stopped directly in front of the hotel. Hal risked a peep through the window below which he was crouched. He saw armed men jumping down from the car, four or five of them. Casey and Shorty were two of them. Dale Lovell was at the wheel.

Hal called across to Frank, 'The whole Seven Up ranch has moved in.'

The boy gave a whoop and started to his feet.

'Wait a minute,' Wall suggested. 'Let's make sure the shooting is over.'

'Dale is with the boys and has gone into the hotel,' Hal reported. 'She is probably arranging an armistice.'

They waited in the restaurant to give her time.

CHAPTER 12

Dale Shakes Hands With a Killer

CASH POLK came forward with an unhappy smile to meet Dale Lovell. 'I'm right glad to see you, Miss Dale,' he told her. 'We been having a little trouble with Hal Stevens. Dud Calloway tried to arrest him and he started shooting. He's over there in the restaurant right now.'

'Where is Frank?' the young woman demanded.

'He's with Stevens. I'm sorry about that.'

'Are either of them hurt?'

'Not far as I know. Now you have come we can fix this up. You go talk to the boys and tell them they had better surrender, Miss Dale.'

'What have they been doing?'

'I think Dud wants to arrest Stevens for holding up a poker game.'

'He can't do it,' she said bluntly. 'The game was crooked. All the boys took was the money that belonged to them. You can't get away with this, Cash.'

'Now, Miss Dale, there's evidence to show different. This isn't business for a young lady to mix up in.' Casey was standing in the doorway. 'The Seven Up thinks otherwise,' he said quietly. 'The ranch boys are backing any play Miss Dale makes.'

Frawley and Brick Fenwick had come into the room through the back door.

'Keep out of this, Casey,' the former warned, 'unless you are looking for trouble.'

Dud Calloway came forward, a much-worried man. Though he was lined up with the hill men, the shooting had shaken his nerve. He was too timid to want to be involved in a killing by being made a cat's-paw. Lacking the courage to stand out against Frawley and Fenwick, he welcomed the support of the Seven Up ranch that would give him an out.

'I reckon this has gone far enough,' he said. 'I don't want any bloodshed in making this arrest. If Miss Dale feels thataway about the matter, I'll call the whole thing off for the present and put it up to Sheriff Elbert.'

Brick said, a warning in his slitted eyes and icy voice, 'Trying to crawl out of it, Dud?'

Anger for the moment choked down Dale's fear for the trapped men. 'You want to murder my brother and Hal Stevens, don't you?' she cried. 'You can't do it. I won't let you. If you take my advice, you and the rest of your despicable gang will get in a car and keep going day and night till you are a thousand miles from here. There's law in this country, and I am going to see it runs you down unless you get out.'

The young killer's laugh was low and taunting. 'You talk like you was Roosevelt,' he mocked.

'We're deputies, Miss Dale, trying to arrest two wild boys who have gone outside the law,' explained Cash in the reasonable, long-suffering voice of a parent seeking to soothe a child in a bad temper. 'You ain't got the right point of view just now. 'Course you are worked up about this on account of because Frank is one of the boys. That's natural. Only you mustn't blame us. We got to do our duty.'

His fawning impudence made the girl sick. He was as bad as Brick Fenwick, but without that young ruffian's courage.

'You always were a rat,' she exploded.

'Now — now, Miss Dale, you're excited,' he remonstrated mildly. 'When you think this over you will be sorry.'

Shorty cut in bluntly. 'Get this straight. You can't move a foot against those two boys without taking us on. We won't stand for it.'

Cash realized the immediate chance of wiping out Stevens and young Lovell had gone. They would have to wait for another opportunity. 'If you want to stand in the way of the law, Miss Dale, there is nothing we can do about it just now,' he said reprovingly. 'Maybe you think big property owners like you-all don't have to obey the law. Maybe it is only for poor folks.'

Helen Barnes stood in the doorway. 'If it is for poor folks, then it must be for me,' she told Cash. 'You and your friends have pretty nearly ruined my place. Do you intend to make the damage good?'

Cash rubbed his bristly chin and considered. 'We were sworn in as deputies to help arrest these men. Seems to me you ought to look to Stevens and Lovell for payment, Miss Helen. How about that, Brick?' He turned toward Fenwick for support, but that young man had vanished through the door. 'Well, if they ain't men enough to pay it, I'll personally attend to it, Miss. Let's go, Jim. We ain't wanted here, I reckon.'

Frawley said, glaring at Dale, 'This thing ain't over yet.' He added an angry curse before he followed Cash from the room, making his exit through the back door.

Dale and Helen went out to the porch. Four men were just emerging from the restaurant. One of them had his hands tied behind him. The two parties met in the street. In spite of his bloody face, battered twice within a few hours, Hal smiled with gay insouciance. 'This is certainly Ladies' Day at the show. Choice seats reserved in the grandstand.'

Dale said sharply, 'You've been shot.'

'No, lady. Tried to steal home and slid in on my face.'

She glanced at the wrecked car. 'When you had the smash, I suppose.'

'Correct.'

Dale turned to her brother, looked him over swiftly to make sure he was uninjured, and asked a question. 'Was it an accident?'

'No accident,' Frank answered. 'One of the scoundrels shot the tire and we crashed.'

His sister said angrily, 'We'll see if there isn't law in the land.'

Hal caught sight of Calloway on the porch. The deputy sheriff was uncertain what he ought to do. He wanted to explain away his share in this to Dale, but he was afraid he would not have much luck.

'Lots of law,' Hal said. 'There's good old Dud now, watching over us like a hen over its chickens. Can't anyone hurt us while Dud is around.'