Kid Wolf of Texas Part 25

"Harry's played the hand of a real man to-night," Kid Wolf put in for him.

"I'm through as a gambler," said Harry. "Boys, will yuh take me for a friend?"

"Well, I should say we will!" Lathum cried, and all three shook his hand warmly.

"Yore mother will be mighty proud, son--and glad," old Anton said.

"Now, men," said The Kid, "get those steers movin' toward the S Bar.

Yuh ought to have 'em across the Rio by sunup. Theah won't be any pursuit. Don Floristo isn't in any position to ordah it. I'll see yo'-all at Ma Thomas' dinnah table."

"Where are you goin', Kid?" Lathum asked in astonishment.

"Harry will help yo' get the cattle home," said The Kid. "I'm ridin'

like all get-out to make Mistah Goliday, Esquiah, a social call."

"But why----" Wise began.

"I've just remembahed," drawled The Kid, "wheah I saw a pair of low-heeled, square-toed ridin' boots."

Anton gave a low whistle.

"By golly, boys. He's right! I remember now, too."

"So do I!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Lathum.

"How about lettin' us go, too?" asked Wise. "Goliday has some hard hombres workin' for him, and----"

"Please leave this to me," begged The Kid. "Yo' duty is heah with these cattle. All mah life I've made it mah duty to right wrongs--and not only that, but to put the wrongdoers wheah they can't commit any mo' wrongs. Goliday is the mastah mind in all this trouble. Is theah a sho't cut to his ranch?"

Anton knew the trails of the district like a memorized map, and he gave The Kid detailed instructions. By following the mountain chain to the westward he would reach a dry wash that would lead him to a point within sight of Goliday's hacienda.

"Still set on it?"

The Kid nodded. "Adios! Yuh'll probably get through to the S Bar in good time. Good-by, Harry."

"Good luck!" they shouted after him.

At the crest of a mesquite-dotted swell of white sand, several hours later, The Kid paused to look over the situation that confronted him.

Ahead of him, to the westward, were the buildings of the Goliday ranch.

Strangely enough, there was no sign of life around it--save for the horses in the large corral and the cattle meandering about the water hole.

Was the entire ranch personnel in San Felipe? Impossible! And yet he had seen no one. The Kid hoped that Goliday was not in town.

A desert wash led its twisting way to one side of him, and he saw that by following its course he could reach the trees about the water hole un.o.bserved.

"Easy, Blizzahd," he said softly.

The sand deadened the sound of the big white horse's hoofs as it took the dry wash at a speedy clip. Kid Wolf crouched low, so that his body would not show above the edge of the wash. At the water hole he drew up in the shelter of a cottonwood to listen. His ears had caught a succession of steady, measured sounds. They came from one of the small adobe outbuildings. Inside, some one was hammering leather. This was the ranch's saddle shop evidently.

Very quietly The Kid dismounted. The saddle shop was not far away. He strolled toward it, wading through the sand that reached nearly to his ankles. He paused in the doorway, and the hammering sound suddenly ceased.

"_Buenos dias_," drawled the Texan.

The man in the shop was Goliday! He had whirled about like a cat. The hammer slipped from his right hand and dropped to the hard-packed earth floor with a thud.

Kid Wolf's eyes went from Goliday's dark, amazed face, with its shock of black hair, down to his boots. They were low-heeled, square-toed boots, embellished with scrolls done in red thread. The Kid's quiet glance traveled again back to Goliday's startled countenance. Dismay and fury were mingled there. Kid Wolf had made no movement toward his guns. His hands were relaxed easily at his sides. He was smiling.

Goliday's ivory-handled gun was in his pistol holster. His hand moved a few inches toward it. Then it stopped. Goliday hesitated. Face to face with the show-down, he was afraid.

"Well," the ranchman's words came slowly, "what do yuh want with me?"

"I want yo'," said The Kid in a voice ringing like a sledge on solid steel, "fo' the murdah of the ownah of the S Bar!"

"Bah!" sneered Goliday, but a strange look crossed his dark eyes. His legs were trembling a little, either from excitement or nervousness.

"Yo're loco," he added. "My men are in town or I'd have yuh rode off of my place on a rail!"

"Goliday," snapped Kid Wolf crisply, "the man who shot Thomas down, wore low-heeled, square-toed boots."

"Yuh can't convict a man on that," replied the ranchman with a forced laugh.

"No?" The Kid drawled. "Well, that isn't all. The man who fired the death shot used a very peculiah revolvah--very peculiar. The caliber was .45. Wait a moment--a .45 with unusual riflin'."

"Yo're crazy," said Goliday, but his face was pale.

"By examinin' the cahtridge," continued the Texan in a dangerous voice, "I found that the fatal gun had five grooves and five lands. The usual six-shootah has six grooves and six lands. Let me see yo' gun, sah!"

The command came like a whip-crack and little drops of perspiration stood out suddenly on Goliday's ashen forehead.

"It's a lie," he stammered. "I----"

"Yo' had bettah confess, Goliday. The game's up. Majah Stovah died early this mohnin' from heart trouble. Goliday, yo' can do just two things. The choice is up to yo'.'"

"The choice?" repeated the rancher mechanically.

"Yes, yo' can surrendah--and in that case, I'll turn yo' ovah to the nearest law, if it's a thousand miles away. Or--yo' can shoot it out with me heah and now. It's up to yo'."

"Yuh wanted to see my gun," said Goliday, with a sudden, deadly laugh.

"All right, I'll show yuh what's in it!"

Like a flash his hairy right hand shot down toward the ivory-handled Colt.

The ranchman's hand touched the handle before Kid Wolf made even a move toward his own weapons. Goliday's eager, fear-accelerated fingers snapped the hammer back. The gun slid half out of its holster as he tipped it up.

There was a noise in the little adobe like a thunderclap! A red pencil of flame streaked out between the two men. Then the smoke rolled out, dense and choking. _Thud!_ A gun dropped to the hard, dirt floor.

Goliday groped out with his two empty hands for support. His face was distorted. A long gasp came from his lips. A round dot had suddenly appeared two inches left of his breast bone. He dropped heavily, grunting as he struck the ground.