'That's bad.' The gunman's thin lips twisted to an evil smile. 'For you.'
He walked to his horse, mounted, and rode away.
Arnold reported the meeting to his host, whom he found at the corral watching a cowboy break a colt to the saddle. Hal rested his forearms on the top rail of the fence and looked sideways at his friend, a sardonic grin on his brown face.
'They're getting on to you, Ranny,' he said. 'At least, enough to be worried. Brick wouldn't think it worth while to serve notice on a lunger tenderfoot to get out. From now on they will be watching you as much as they will me.'
'I think I'll take the young scoundrel's advice — for a few days,' Arnold said, after a pause for consideration. 'This isn't ready to break yet from this end. I've got to find the receiving point for the cattle. Want to go along with me?'
Hal thought not. His job was on the ranch. If he went with Arnold, his presence would call attention to what the Government man was doing, 'You can send for me if you find I can help,' he said.
'Fact is, I don't like to leave you here,' Arnold explained. 'They mean to get you. It was just luck you weren't killed yesterday morning when some fellow took a crack at you from that hilltop over there.'
'It's a long shot,' Hal mentioned. 'He won't get a chance to try it again, since I'm keeping a man posted there.'
'You're too careless, Hal.'
'A namesake of mine once said four hundred years ago or more that out of the nettle danger he plucked the flower safety.'
'So Hotspur said,' answered Arnold dryly, 'but if I remember the play correctly, he plucked a poisonous weed called death.'
Hal laughed. 'You have me there. But don't worry, old man. The bullet isn't molded yet that will get me. Careful is going to be my middle name from now on.'
'That's a promise,' his friend said.
CHAPTER 18
Sheriff Elbert Takes a Stand
SHERIFF ELBERT looked up from the desk where he was sitting and greeted his visitor. Tick Black said, 'Mornin', Sheriff,' and eased himself into a chair.
'What can I do for you?' Elbert asked. He was thinking that no self-respecting tramp would wear the old and dirty clothes of this financially responsible ranchman.
'You can arrest Hal Stevens for the murder of Cad Hanford,' Black answered, his thin voice high and shrill.
The sheriff lit a cigar and leaned back in his chair. 'I had a talk with Hal the other day,' he said between the first few puffs. 'His story is that he was attacked by Hanford and some others. If that is true, he can claim self-defense.'
'He has to claim that to save his bacon. Fact is, Dud Calloway tried to arrest him for holding up some of the boys with a gun and robbing them. When he resisted, Dud deputized Cad and the others to take him. That was when he killed Cad. One of the most damnable murders I ever heard of.'
Elbert declined to get excited. He was a large well-fleshed man past fifty. In memory of his days as a cattleman he wore a big white Stetson, corduroy trousers and coat, and cowboy boots. His face was tanned and the back of his neck crisscrossed with deep wrinkles.
'I talked with several witnesses,' he mentioned casually. 'Among others Miss Lovell and Miss Barnes. They didn't look at this the same way you do, Tick. In fact, they agreed that if the Seven Up boys hadn't arrived in time, Stevens and young Frank Lovell would have been rubbed out.'
'Miss Lovell has to stand by her brother when the young fool gets in a jam, doesn't she? Count her out as a witness.'
The sheriff inspected the growing ash at the end of his cigar. 'I'm not satisfied with the way Dud behaved,' he said. 'He acted like a partisan. Cash Polk and his friends used him as a cover for the killing they meant to pull off. Dud did not admit that in so many words, but everything he said pointed to it. I'll say this for Dud. He didn't know how far they meant to go. His idea was they would stop with an arrest. But that wasn't their idea.'
'You've decided to tie in with the big ranches. That the long and the short of it, Elbert?'
The sheriff flushed with anger. 'I've decided to stand with honest men against rustlers and killers. But I didn't come to that decision this week or this year, as you damned well know. I would like to make some arrests in this case, but when I went into the hills looking for Cash Polk and Jim Frawley and that boy Fenwick, I couldn't find hide nor hair of them.'
'I expect they didn't know you wanted them.' Tick looked virtuously indignant. 'No reason for them to hide. They have done nothing wrong. But it's the old story. The law leans over backward to help rich folks against the poor.'
'You have money enough to burn a wet mule, Tick,' Elbert said tartly. 'But if I can show you are tied up with this gang of thieves and killers, you'll find out whether I go after the rich.'
Black leaned forward, his flinty eyes drained of expression. 'Don't make that claim, Carl, unless you can prove it,' he warned.
'When I can prove it, I won't talk but act,' the sheriff answered. 'You have come here to hurrah me, Tick. I thought you had better judgment than to try it.' He rose from his chair. 'You have your answer. If that is all the business you have with me, get out.'
'Sure I'll get out. When you ran for sheriff, you got a lot of votes from the hill country. I'll guarantee you won't get so many if you run again.'
'That will be fine,' Elbert replied. 'I don't want the votes of crooks. You might tell your friends that in my opinion when next election comes around, some of them won't be voting.'
As he went out, Black slammed the door hard behind him. He had come to find out just where the sheriff stood, though he already had a pretty fair idea. He knew Elbert could not have any sympathy with rustlers. All his background would prevent that. But he had not been sure whether he would have to count on him as an active enemy. It might be important to know. The sheriff had made his position clear.
Black got into his old rattletrap car and drove out of town. He left the paved road after a few miles, to take a dirt cross-cut to Big Bridge. Yellow dust rose behind him in thick clouds, churned to a fine powder by the wheels of the cars passing since the last rain of a month before. It hung in the air for many minutes after the automobile had stirred it up.
The hill cattleman wanted to see Brick Fenwick, and he knew the young man would probably be found at Big Bridge. Of late he had been given to hanging around the Barnes restaurant. Black had a feeling that it would be well to move fast against Hal Stevens. With the M K man out of the picture, he would feel a great deal safer. Stevens not only knew and guessed too much. He meant to know a great deal more. The man was dangerous. He had not only a sharp fighting edge, but with it the wisdom to gauge and meet the dangers facing him. Within a few hours of the time that the body of the Government man Watts had been found, Stevens had been quartering over the ground gathering evidence to prove murder and not accident. His wily boldness had detached Frank Lovell from the side of the outlaws and made the boy a menace. As long as he was alive, there would be no safety for Black and his men.
CHAPTER 19
Tom Thinks Fast
HELEN BARNES was alone in her restaurant checking up the receipts and expenditures of the day. Manuel and the colored cook had gone home. She looked up from adding a column of figures, aware that the door she had purposely left unlocked had opened very softly and been closed again. On her lips was a welcoming smile, but it died away quickly. This was not the man she had been expecting.