"I'll take yu up on that--mebbe," Sudden replied, after a brief consideration.
"Right," Lagley said, with obvious relief. "Let's be goin'."
He had taken but one step when he noticed that the rotating gun had stopped, with the muzzle pointing towards him.
"Just a minute," came the correction. "I'll be goin', yu'll follow--presently."
The foreman's face grew dark with anger. "Yu don't trust me?" he snapped.
"Shore I do," Sudden answered. "Ain't I takin' yore word about that job? But I'm playin' safe, like yu did. Yu won't have a lot to walk."
He got down, still contriving to keep the other covered, scooped up the rifle and belt, hung them over the horn of the owner's saddle, and mounted again.
"How far to Dugout?" he enquired.
"Six mile--near enough," was the surly reply. "Yu can save a couple of 'em by cuttin' through Dead Tree Gulch, which'll be on yore right when yu get outa the pines."
"I'm obliged," Sudden said. "Yu'll find yore hoss an' trimmin's a piece along. I'll be seem' yu."
He moved away, by no means oblivious to the ugly scowl which followed him. When he had covered about half a mile, he tied the led horse to a branch, and, circling round from a point where the trail crossed a patch of gravel, returned to hide himself in the undergrowth. Only a few yards separated hint' from the spot where Lagley's pony stood, swishing its tail in conflict with the flies.
"Just the rottenest luck things had to break the way they did," he muttered. "O' course he'll be mad, but I gotta find out whether he's mean as well; he shore 'pears to be, but that ain't nothin' to go on--the good in lots o' men is limited to their looks. Here he comes; keep still, yu black rascal." This to his horse, which instantly froze into an ebony statue.
Moving with the clipped, clumsy step of one who spends most of his time in a saddle, Lagley came stumbling along the trail. The range-rider's boots, with their high heels, are not fashioned for walking, and the unwonted effort had not im- proved the foreman's already-frayed temper. His lips dripped profanity.
"He certainly can cuss," the watcher murmured. "Bet m'self a dollar he lams the hoss. Damnation, I'd ruther 'a' lost."
For Lagley's first act on reaching his pony was to kick it in the ribs, and when the animal squealed and tried to bite him, he snatched his quirt from the saddle and lashed it unmercifully.
"That'll larn yu to run out on me," he gasped, surveying the now cowed and trembling beast with savage satisfaction. "An' now I'll deal with the smarty what fetched yu here." He buckled on his belt, examined both pistol and rifle, and finding they had not been unloaded, laughed grimly. "Ain't so smart, after all," he commented. "If he takes the trail I told him he'll have found out that Dead Tree is a blind canyon an' be comin' back 'bout the time I arrive. `I'll be seeing' yu,' he sez. He won't, but he'll be hearin' from me."
The threatened man watched him ride away and his expression was not pretty. His ruse had been more than justified, and he never could forgive one who maltreated horses.
"If it warn't so early in the game, fella, yu an' me would be settlin' our difference right now," he told himself. "Anyways, I've shorely got yore measure."
He too mounted, but he did not follow the other. Instead, he turned abruptly to the right, picking a path for himself through thorny thickets, along shallow arroyos and across little savannahs where his mount waded belly-deep in lush grass. Presently, as he had hoped, he emerged on some sort of a road, deeply rutted by the heavy wheels of freight-wagons and scored with innumerable hoofprints. Rounding a sharp bend, he almost cannoned into a horseman travelling in the opposite direction. Both backed a little, and sat, each study-ing the other. Sudden noted the wide mouth and nose with a tendency to turn up which were the salient features of a plain but not unpleasing face. The newcomer was the first to speak:
"The world is shore a small place," he offered.
"I'm right distressed," Sudden answered, "but not bein' cock-eyed I can't see round corners."
"Me too," the other said. "Nature does play favourites, don't she? The fella with the squint has all the luck." He grinned expansively. "Yu don't happen to be lost, do yu?"
"I am unless this is the right way to the thrivin' an' populous city o' Dugout."
"Shore is. Might yu be plannin' to spend the night there?"
"Yeah, if I can find a ho-tel to take me in."
The stranger chortled. "They'll all do that, but I'd try Black Sam's--he's liable to take yu in less'n the others; barrin' his hide, he's white, an' that wife o' his can certainly cook. Gosh! ain't it hot?"
He removed his hat and fanned himself, watching slyly. Sudden stared in amazement, for though he could not be much over twenty, his hair was grey-white, that of an old man.
"I'm obliged to yu--Frosty," Sudden said.
It was the other's turn for surprise. "How in hell did yu know that?" he asked.
"I didn't, but yore ha'r ..."
The youngster laughed. "Well, yu guess pretty good. I s'pose I'll have to tell yu 'bout that. Injuns done it, raided our cabin way back an' scalped my parents before my eyes. Then a brave grabs my golden locks an' flourishes his knife, but when they turns white in his hand--which they does from fright, yu understand--he yells an' drops everythin', figurin' I'm a sort o' spirit. I snatches the weapon an' drives it into his heart. I'm five years old at the time."
"An' I expect they were the on'y parents yu ever had," Sudden said solemnly.
The white-head grinned with delight and shoved out a paw. "Stranger, I like yu more every minute," he cried. "If yu aim to infest these parts a-tall, I'm hopin' we'll be friends."
"That goes for me, too," Sudden rejoined, as their hands met. "I reckon the Double K ain't so fur away." He had already noted the brand on the other's pony.
"On'y ten mile. Ask for Rud Homer--that's me--though Frosty will do just as well."
"My name is Jim, but I add Green to it when Igo a'visitin'. Black Sam's, I think yu said?"
"Yeah," Frosty replied, and looked uncomfortable. "See here, I was stringin' yu; that's the on'y ho-tel--there ain't no more. Dugout is rightly named, a mud-hole, nothin' else. I'm sorry."
"Forget it," Sudden grinned. "Losin' yore parents thataway--"
But Frosty threw up his hands, spurred his pony, and vanished round the bend in a whirl of dust. The rider of the black went on. He had made an enemy, but that was far too common an occurrence in his turbulent life to give him any concern; he had also, he believed, made a friend, and this was a source of satisfaction.
"Lagley is bad medicine," he mused. "I'll have trouble there. As for Frosty, I'll make him wish them parents had been scalped before he was born." He laughed as he recalled the gay, impudent face of the youth who had tried to foist that amazing fabrication upon him. "I'll bet he keeps his outfit guessin'." A new thought came. "Wonder what either of em would 'a' said if I'd asked the way to Hell City?"
Chapter III
Emerging from the canopied shadow of a pine forest, Sudden saw an open stretch of plain and in the midst of it, buildings, dotted about on either side of the wagon-road to form some sort of a street. They were primitive in character, constructed of hewn timber, 'dobe, and mere earth-roofed shacks. He saw no one, but as he splashed through a little creek and rode into the place, he had a feeling that he was watched.
He passed a store, a smithy, and then found what he was seeking. It was the largest of the buildings, two-storied, and formed of stout logs, with a raised and roofed verandah in front which was reached by steps. A board over the entrance bore the words, "Black Sam's Saloon." A pony with the Double K brand was hitched outside. Sudden dismounted and entered.