"I'm as good as I ever was," he muttered. "Look to yoreself. Mister blasted Green."
Arrived at the ranch, he went in search of Garstone, but failed to find him. The Easterner had, in fact, ridden into Rainbow with Miss Trenton. On reaching the place, however, they had separated for the time and so she was alone when Dan almost bumped into her as he came out of the store. He raised his hat and would have gone on, but she stopped and smiled.
"Why do you always try to avoid Me?" she asked.
Dan had little experience of the so-called fair sex, or he would have recognized the age-old device of putting an opponent in the wrong, so the accusation staggered him. But he was a fighter, and he had already decided that this slim, prepossessing girl could only be handled with the gloves off.
"I guess I must be hopin' you'd run after me," he smiled impudently.
The unlooked-for reply discomposed her, and all she could say was, "Not if you were the only man in the world."
The smile broadened into a grin. "You'd have to travel some then," he said. "Think o' the competition. Gee! I'd shore have to live in the tall timber."
Despite her irritation, the absurd picture he conjured up made her laugh. The parcel he was carrying provided a change of subject; the shape showed that it could only be a rifle.
"More preparations against your own kind?" she asked sarcastically.
"Precautions is a better word," he corrected. "An' don't you call the Wagon-wheel outfit my kind--they ain't. Anyways, this happens to be a present for a good boy. I fancy you know him."
"Yorky?"
"The same. He did me a service an' I want to even up."
"Wasn't there anything else you could choose? He's only a child." She herself was less than three years older.
"I reckon he never was that, but he's due to be some sort of a man, an' we'd like it to be a real one."
"And that will help?" she enquired, a little scornfully. "Quite a lot. We're gettin' him interested in work on the range an' this is part of it. If you'd seen Yorky two months ago you wouldn't recognize him."
"Well, I hope he'll like his gift."
"Like it?" Dan laughed. "He'll take it to bed with him."
She laughed too, and then her face sobered. "I must go," she said. "Mister Garstone brought me in, and is waiting." Hat in hand, he watched the two meet, and pass up the street together. The man's face was registering disapproval when the girl reached him, but all he said was:
"Had the cowboy anything of interest to tell you?"
She divined that he was jealous, and the thought thrilled, though she had not yet troubled to analyse her own feeling regarding him. But she was young, and the admiration of a physically attractive man, who had at least a semblance of culture, could not be entirely unwelcome. Still, she had no intention of letting him suspect this, and it was in rather a distant tone that she replied:
"I was under the impression that Mister Dover owned a ranch."
"Thinks he does, but maybe he's mistaken," Garstone told her. "I wasn't asking out of curiosity, Miss Trenton. The Wagon-wheel and Circle Dot are practically at war, and that fellow might have let slip information of value to us."
"Our conversation was confined to the youngest member of his outfit--the boy they call yorky."
"Member of his outfit--that's a good one," Garstone sneered. "I'd call him a bit of useless lumber."
"Hardly that, since Mister Dover has just purchased a present as a reward for good work."
"Dover must have wanted a pocket picked."
"You must not speak ill of my admirers," she said playfully.
"Why, quite recently, he rode to the Wagon-wheel just to see where I lived. There's devotion."
"The devil he did?" Garstone said. "When was that?"
She thought for a moment. "Oh yes, I remember; it was the day before that amusing attempt to rob the train. How awfully sick the second party must have felt on finding they had been anticipated, but it was childish to vent their spite on poor uncle's flour."
Garstone had little to say during the rest of the ride home, and seeing Bundy as they approached the ranch-house, made his excuses to his companion, and rode towards him. "Any news?" he asked.
"Plenty," the foreman frowned. "The fella who took the stuff back to the bank was atop of a black hoss with a white blaze."
"Green!" Garstone exploded. "I knew it."
"Then you might 'a' opened up an' saved me a journey," the other said sourly.
"I didn't learn of it until a little while ago," the big man replied, and repeated what the girl had told him. "We heard a movement in that tree we were talking under and put it down to birds. That young sneak must have seen us coming, and hopped up there to hide. He'd take the tale back to Green, and that damned cowboy out-planned and made monkeys of us. God! I'll bet the Circle Dot riders haven't stopped laughing yet."
"They'll have somethin' else to grin about afore I've done with 'em," the foreman growled. "As for Green ..." He tapped the butt of his gun. "He's for hell."
"The trouble is, they know who were in it," Garstone said, rather uneasily. "If they split to Trenton ..."
"Can't prove a thing--it's their word agin ourn," Bundy reassured. "As for puttin' Zeb wise, Dover wouldn't do that if he knowed the of fool was to be bumped off tomorrow. No, I ain't worryin' 'bout that; it's the pot we've bin done out of. Why'n blazes didn't I send a slug into that damned tree?"
"No use moaning over a lost opportunity; we must find another. Trenton has a scheme; perhaps that will be luckier--for us," the Easterner said meaningly. "How are you going to deal with Green?"
"Watch my smoke," the foreman said.
Garstone shrugged. "Watch your step; he doesn't look a simple proposition to me," was his reply. "Fie sports two guns."
"A bluff, meanin' nothin'," Bundy sneered. "Take it from me, the fella who can really shoot on'y needs one gun an' one shot; mos'ly there ain't time for more."
In the front room at the Circle Dot, Yorky was clutching the Winchester and scabbard Dan had brought home and presented to him. Usually loquacious enough, his gratitude and delight in this new possession nearly deprived him of speech.
"I dunno--how ter--thank yer, Boss," he stammered. "I didn't do nuttin'--it was jus' blind luck, an' I ..." He bogged down completely.
"Cut the cackle, Yorky," Dan said kindly. "you did a-plenty, an' I'm rememberin' it. Jim'll show you how to handle the gun, an' you got all outdoors to blaze away in. Now, I'm bettin' you wanta cut along an' show the boys."
"You win, Boss," Yorky grinned, and made for the door. There he paused to add, "I ain't forgettin' this--ever," and was gone.
"I'm thinkin' that li'l of Noo York has lost a citizen," Burke laughed.
"An' Rainbow gains one, thanks to Jim," Dover said.
"Rubbish," the puncher replied. "How long d'yu s'pose afore one o' them Wagon-wheel wastrels comes a-gunnin' for me?"
"But why?" they both asked.
"I rode my own hoss into the Bend; somebody must 'a' spotted it. I needed Nigger to make shore o' gettin' there before the train; I did it easy--the country bein' less difficult than I figured."
"It was certainly a risk, but you would have it thataway," Dan said, so seriously that the puncher laughed.
"Shucks! Fella who never takes one, takes nothin'," he rejoined. "Mebbe I'm wrong."
And when a week passed without anything occurring to disturb the serenity of the Circle Dot, it began to appear so. Every morning Yorky would depart for what the outfit called his "cure," the cherished rifle slapping against his pony's ribs. and would be absent for hours, frightening the birds, and making life a misery for any wandering jack-rabbit or coyote so unfortunate as to come within range, to return, tired but happy, and with a capacity for food which drew from the cook the ironical suggestion that he had contracted "Wur-r-ms."