Who Wants to Live Forever?

'I'll have to take a raincheck on mine,' Hal said lightly. 'Too early in the day for much drinking.'

The stranger standing at the other end of the bar moved a step toward the cattleman. 'Like to speak to you a minute, sir,' he began. 'I'm looking for a job on a ranch. If you could use a man, maybe you would give me a try.'

'Are you a cowhand?' Hal asked skeptically.

'Well, no, I'm not. Fact is, I came here for my health — from Pennsylvania. But I'm a pretty good hand with horses. You need not pay me full wages at first — just what I'm worth, whatever that is.'

'Are you a sick man?'

'I had a touch of t.b. But the doctor says all I need now is to be out in the air and sunshine.'

'We've got quite a lot of both in Arizona.' Hal drummed on the top of the bar with his fingertips. 'The draft certainly has left me empty-handed.' He flung a question at the man from Pennsylvania. 'Are you a good rider?'

'Pretty good. I don't suppose I could stay on a bucker.'

'Not necessary. All right. You're hired. I can tell in a few days how much you are worth to me.'

'Mr. Stevens will treat you right,' Polk said smoothly.

'Thanks for the testimonial,' Hal returned shortly, and continued to give his attention to his new employee. 'When can you start?'

'Right now, soon as I can get my suitcase to your ranch.'

'I'll send a man in this afternoon. He'll pick you up at Flack's store. What's your name?'

'Randolph Arnold.'

Stevens let his eye range over the man once more. 'You're a city man, I take it. Do you think you can stand up to the work?'

'Give me a trial. If I'm no good, fire me.'

The cattleman and the tenderfoot walked out of the Rest Easy together and along the wooden sidewalk. They talked about the work. It was not until they reached a vacant lot that Hal said, 'When did you get in, Ranny?'

'Couple of hours ago. On the bus. You haven't changed much since our college days — except that you are browner and look tougher.'

'You've filled out a bit.' Hal grinned. 'Well, your problem jumped right up at you soon as you arrived. All you need to do is find out who is making this black market, spot the fellows who killed Curtis, arrest them, prove their guilt, and have them executed. Ought to be easy.'

'How did the criminals get onto it that Curtis was a Government man?'

Stevens shook his head. 'He must have made a slip somehow. I don't think anybody else here knows he was.'

They wandered down to the hotel, apparently in the most casual talk.

'How about that little set-to with the young ruffian Fenwick? Have you had trouble with him before?' Arnold asked.

'Not directly. His boss, Tick Black, knows how I stand. He has been watching me for some time. But he is too smooth a proposition to approve of the way Brick jumped me. Tick likes to set the time and place for settling accounts. The three beauties playing pitch were disturbed for fear I knew too much.'

'I judge you suspect them.'

'And they know I do. I was the first to discover last night's raid on the Seven Up pasture. I rode down and reported it to the Lovells. That ought to give you an idea of what you are up against, Ranny. One of their gang must have seen me at the scene of the raid and followed me down the valley, must have watched me turn in to the Seven Up and then got the word down to Big Bridge, probably by phone. Nothing goes on in this valley Black does not find out sooner or later.'

'Fenwick was ordering you, hands off.'

'Yes.'

'You had better watch your step, Hal. If they are the men I am after, they are dangerous.'

Hal chuckled. 'You'll look after me now you are here.'

'Not I. My job is to find out where this black market is and who supplies it. From what I've heard this morning, I should think that might be easy.'

'Easy to guess. Not so easy to prove. It would take thirty men to stop up every hole these rats get out of.'

'This Brick Fenwick could have followed his own advice profitably. He also talks too much.'

'He didn't give away anything the whole valley has not guessed.' Hal frowned, his eyes narrowed in reflection. 'Most of these raids have been on the Seven Up and Down pastures. The outfit is owned by a family named Lovell. They have been here a great many years. Their foreman Frawley is an oldtime cowhand. I don't savvy how the rustlers can work the Seven Up spread so much and get away with it.'

'You think Frawley is lying down on his job?'

'I don't know. Another thing, young Frank Lovell has been playing poker with these scalawags and has lost a lot. So I've heard. The games have been going on ever since last winter, long before this rustling began. Frawley sometimes plays too. Since neither the kid nor the foreman is a fool, they must suspect this hill trash of stealing their stuff. If they do, why do they keep playing cards with them?'

Arnold offered a suggestion tentatively. 'Perhaps because the Seven Up and Down is selling its stuff to a black market and only pretending to have it stolen.'

'No.' Hal vetoed this decisively. 'Dale Lovell runs the outfit. She is a vixen, and she hates me as if I were the devil.

But when you meet her, you'll know she is on the level.'

Arnold shrugged his shoulders. 'When we've proved the crooks guilty, we'll know the whole story.'

'If these gunmen haven't done us in,' Hal excepted with a laugh.

The Government man looked at him appraisingly. Arnold himself was in an occupation where danger might leap up at him any day. But if he could he always discounted it in advance, took all possible precautions, sidestepped crises for which he was not prepared. Hal lacked altogether this deliberate prudence. Now a reckless light danced in his eyes. Randolph Arnold had seen it there in their college days. It always portended trouble ahead.

'Take this Brick Fenwick's advice, Hal. Keep out of this. I'm paid to handle it.'

'Fine,' Hal agreed. 'I'm not inviting myself in. But I just had an idea. A couple of years ago I sat in two or three times at the poker games my hill neighbors used to have. Think I'll drop in at Cash Polk's house tonight and take a hand again.'

'No,' Arnold vetoed bluntly. 'These scoundrels would think it a challenge. You might never get home alive.'

'If there is a tie-up between them and the Seven Up, I could maybe find out what it is. When those fellows report to Tick Black what took place at the Rest Easy, he will order them to hold their horses. Tick does not want any unnecessary killings. And I'll back his play by acting apologetic to Fenwick for crossing him.'

Arnold shook his head. 'This Fenwick is unpredictable. As he told you, Black hasn't got him on a leash even if he is the head of the gang. He might explode any moment. It would be foolish for you to break into one of their games.'

'It was just a notion I had, Ranny,' the cattleman said meekly. 'I dare say you're right.'

He glanced at his friend, but looked quickly away before Arnold caught his eye.

CHAPTER 4

Three Kings Beat Four Aces

AT THE M K RANCH the men ate dinner with the boss in the big house. It was a democratic set-up Stevens had continued from the days of his father, one that helped to make for solidarity in the outfit.

After he had eaten and smoked a cigarette, Hal rose and stretched himself in a yawn. 'About nine hours of shut-eye for me, boys,' he said. 'Mike, I'm putting Arnold in the cabin Steve had. Will you see he has blankets and anything else he needs?'

The lights of the big house went out and Hal lay down on his bed and slept for two hours. At the end of that time he rose, put his boots on, and slipped into a holster under his arm the .38 army special revolver he kept in a case on a shelf. He did not turn on the lights, but moved in the darkness. Keeping in the shadows of some live oaks, he stepped lightly to the car back of the house. On purpose he had left it at the top of the long slope which led to the house, its nose pointed down the road.