The Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour: Vol 3 Part 24

Tandy nodded. He was the last man in the world to take Tom Pa.s.sman lightly, for he had seen him throw a gun, and the man was deadly. Moreover, he was a tough man with a lot of pride in his skill, no braggart, and no four flusher. Only death itself would stop his guns.

Cholo Baby, a beautiful sorrel, lifted her head and whinnied softly as he approached. She was fifteen hands high, with wide-s.p.a.ced and intelligent eyes. She stretched her velvety nose toward his hand and he touched her lightly.

"How's it, girl? You ready to run for me tomorrow?"

Baby nudged him with her nose and Tandy grinned. "I doubt if you ever lived a day when you didn't feel like running, Cholo. And I hope there never is!"

He strolled back to the wagon, his eyes alert and searching the mountainside, the willows and the trail. He ate without talking, restless and disturbed despite himself. So far everything had been too quiet. Much too quiet. He could neither rest nor relax. A hint of impending danger hung over the camp and he roved restlessly about. Snap seemed to feel it, too, and even the horses were alert as if they sensed something in the air.

Of course, Tandy reflected, if anything happened to Cholo Baby, he could ride Khari, the half-Morgan, half-Arabian horse he usually rode. Not so fast as Cholo Baby over the quarter, but still a fast horse for one with so much staying power. He still carried his rawhide riata.

He was a California rider, and like them he valued the use of the riata, and was amazingly proficient with it. The California riders always used rawhide riatas of great length, and used them with such skill they were almost part of them.

Suddenly, Tandy Meadows stopped. Hard upon the trail he heard the pounding hooves of a hard-ridden horse! Snap was on his feet, leaning against the off wheel of the wagon, his shotgun resting over the corner of the wagon box to cover the trail. Tandy fell back near the wagon where his Winchester stood, and waited, his lips tight, his eyes cool.

Yet when the rider drew nearer he saw it was Janet Bates. She drew up sharply and dropped to the ground. "Oh, Tandy!' Her face was pale. "What have you done? I just heard today you'd made a bet with Tollefson for his whole ranch! Tandy, you know you haven't that kind of money! If you lose, what will you do? One man did fail to pay off Tollefson once and he had been lashed to a tree and whipped by Tom Pa.s.sman! He'd kill you, Tandy!"

Meadows smiled at her anxiety. "So you do worry about me? You do like me a little, then?"

"Be serious." Her eyes flashed. In the dusk she seemed even more lovely than ever. "You're in trouble, and you don't even know it. Lady Luck always wins, Tandy. He'll kill you!"

"He must have figured my bet was all right," Meadows replied. "Clevenger backed me."

"Oh, I know, Tandy! But you fooled him somehow. I just know you fooled him! If you don't win, what will you do?"

"I'll win,' he replied simply. "I've got to win. I've got to win for you, Janet, and for your father and Jim Whitten. I came back here to force Tollefson out of the country, and I'll not rest until I do! Your dad was mighty kind to me when I was all shot up and dyin'. Without you two I'd not be here, so when I heard of what had happened, I figured this out. I'd heard of Lady Luck, and I knew Tollefson was a mighty big-headed and stubborn man, so I deliberately worked on his pride."

"That isn't all I heard," Janet persisted quickly. "Tollefson was up near our ranch twice. He talked to Johnny about you, asking all sorts of questions. He seemed very curious about how you'd been wounded that time, and the next day Johnny Herndon saw him riding north toward the box canyon where you left your horses that time."

Meadows scowled. What did that mean, anyway? The Alvarez gang had been notorious outlaws, and the killing of them would be considered a public service. Or would have at the time. Yet with such information a man of his influence might find some way to do him harm.

"Boss," Snap's voice was urgent, "somebody comin."

Tandy Meadows turned and watched the hors.e.m.e.n. There were four in the group and one of them he recognized instantly as Tom Pa.s.sman. When they drew nearer he saw that another was Fulton, while the two riding with them were Sheriff George Lynn and his deputy Rube Hatley.

"Meadows," Lynn said, "we rode out here after you. You've got to come back to town and answer a few questions."

"Always glad to answer questions, Sheriff. Can't I answer them here?"

"No." Lynn's voice was testy. "You can answer them in my office. There's a place for such things and this isn't it!"

"All right, Sheriff,' Meadows agreed. "But how about lettin' Hatley stay here to guard my horses?"

Lynn hesitated, disturbed by the request. It was reasonable enough, but when Art Tollefson had told him what to do, George Lynn had been reasonably certain what lay behind it. If he left Hatley he would be defeating the purpose of the trip.

"Sorry," he replied abruptly, "I need Hatley with me!"

"Then of course you'll be responsible for my horses?" Meadows persisted. "I don't think they should be left alone."

"They'll be safe enough." Lynn was growing angry. "The responsibility is your own. Are you coming," he asked sharply, "or do we take you?"

"Why, I'm coming, Sheriff. I've never suggested anything to the contrary." He put his foot into the stirrup, then swung aboard Khari. "Snap," he said loudly, "if any varmints come around, don't take chances. Shoot to kill." Then he added, "You'll be perfectly safe because n.o.body would be fool enough to come near racin' stock on the night before a race. So don't forget, shoot to kill!"

"Sure thing, boss. I got me a shotgun loaded for bear!" Nothing more was said as they rode back to town. Several times Tandy saw Pa.s.sman watching him, but when they reached town only a few loafers noticed them ride down the street to the sheriff's office. Inside, Lynn came to the point at once.

"I've brought you in to ask you questions about a shootin' sc.r.a.pe, some time back."

"Why, sure!" Meadows dropped into a chair. "I didn't figure Tollefson rode all the way up to that canyon for nothing. He must be really worried if he's tryin' this hard to find a way out of his bet. But aren't you and Pa.s.sman buckin' a stacked deck? Who will you work for if I win?"

"I work for the county!" Lynn said sharply. "That horse race has nothing to do with this inquiry!"

"Of course not! That's why Fulton and Pa.s.sman were with you, Sheriff! Because the race has nothing to do with it! That's why you waited to bring me in until the night before the race! I hope somebody tries to bother those horses tonight! Snap's a whiz with a shotgun!" He turned his head. "Pa.s.sman came along hopin' I'd make some wrong play so he could plug me."

Pa.s.sman's eyes were flat and gray. "You talk a lot," he said shortly, "but can you shoot?"

Lynn waved an irritated hand. "Who were those hombres you shot up north?"

"I shot?" Meadows looked mildly astonished. "Why, Sheriff, I didn't say I shot anybody. I did hear something about the Alvarez gang catching some lead over some horses they stole, but beyond that I'm afraid I don't remember much about it."

"You deny you shot them? You deny the fight?"

"I don't deny anything, and I don't admit anything." Tandy's voice was cool. "If you're planning to arrest me, by all means do it. Also, get me a lawyer down here, then either file charges against me or turn me loose. This whole proceeding, Sheriff, is highly irregular. All you have is Tollefson's word that he saw some skeletons somewhere. Or some dead men, or some bullet holes, or something. You know that I was wounded about the same time, but even if they were not horse thieves, you'd have a tough time proving any connection."

Lynn was uneasy. This was the truth and he knew it, but this was what Tollefson wanted, and what he wanted he got. Yet for almost three hours he persisted in asking questions, badgering Meadows with first one and then another, and trying to trap him. Yet he got nowhere.

Finally, he got to his feet. "All right, you can go. If I want any more questions answered, I'll send for you."

Meadows got to his feet and let his eyes, suddenly grown cold, go over the four men. "All right, Sheriff, I'm always glad to answer questions, but get this: if anything has happened to my horses while I was in here, I'm coming back, and I'll be looking for each and every one of you. And that, Lynn," his eyes turned to the sheriff, "goes for you, sheriff or no sheriff! I'm a law-abiding man, and have always been, but if you've conspired with that fat-headed Tollefson to keep my horse out of that race, and through it harm comes to my horses, you'd better start packing a gun for me! Get that?"

George Lynn's face whitened and he involuntarily drew back. Worriedly, he glanced at Fulton and Pa.s.sman for support. Fulton was pale as himself, and Pa.s.sman leaned against the wall, nonchalantly rolling a cigarette. Rube Hatley stood near the door, his position unchanged.

Meadows turned and walked past him, scarcely hearing the whispered, "Luck!" from Rube. After he was gone, Lynn stared at Fulton.

"Harry, what will we do?" Rube Hatley chuckled. "Only one thing you can do, Sheriff. You can light a shuck out of the country or you can die. Either way, I don't care. I wanted no part of this yellow-bellied stunt, and if they were my horses I'd shoot you on sight. "

"Pa.s.sman?" Lynn was almost pleading. "You're the gunslinger."

Pa.s.sman shrugged. "When I get my orders. Until then I don't make a move."

He turned on his heel and walked out into the night. Lynn stared at Fulton. "Harry," he begged, "you know. What did they do?"

"Do?" Fulton's hand shook as he lighted his smoke. "Tollefson's too smart to pull anything too raw. He just had some of the boys take those horses out and run them over the desert for three hours, that's all! By daylight those horses will be so stiff and stove up they wouldn't be able to walk that quarter, let alone run it!"

"What about the black boy?"

Fulton shrugged. "That's another story. Who cares about him?"

"Meadows might."

"Yeah." Fulton was thoughtful. "He might at that. But you can be sure of one thing, after the runnin' his horses got this night, through cactus, brush, and rocks, they'll do no running tomorrow. I can promise you that! You leave the rest to Pa.s.sman!"

"Did Tollefson actually see those skeletons?"

"He sure did." Fulton's voice was dry, emotionless. "And from what he said, if that was Tandy Meadows who walked into that shack after the Alvarez boys, he's got nerve enough to crawl down a hole after a nest full of rattlers, believe me!"

Chapter IV.

Gilt-Edged Collateral Morning dawned bright and still, and for the better part of two hours it remained bright and still, and then the boys from the ranches began to show up in El Poleo. Hard-riding youngsters, most of them, with here and there older men whose eyes were careful and wary with the sense of trouble. Buckboards, a fringed surrey, a Conestoga wagon, and many horseback riders, all coming in for the races, and all curious about what would happen. Some had heard there had been trouble the night before, but what or when, they did not know.

Art Tollefson came in about noon. The covered wagon stood in the creek bottom disconsolate and alone. No horses were in sight, nor movement of any kind. His lips thinned with cruelty and his eyes were bright with triumph and satisfaction. Try to buck Art Tollefson, would they!

He was walking into the saloon when he saw a buckboard draw up between two buildings, and Gene Bates and Jim Whitten got down. His lips tightened and he walked on into the saloon. The usual jovial laughter stilled as he entered. With a wave of the hand he invited all and sundry to join him at the bar. Each year this was his custom at this time, but now there was no concerted rush for the bar. This time, not a man moved.

Impatiently, he stared around the room but all eyes avoided his. Then Fulton stepped to the bar followed by several of his own Flying T riders. His face and neck crimson, Tollefson stared down at his drink, his jaw set hard. Gene Bates and Jim Whitten walked into the saloon and to the bar.

"Tollefson's buyin'," the bartender explained hurriedly.

"Not our drinks!" Bates's voice was flat. "I'll drink with no man who hires his killin' done and hires other men to ruin a man's horses so he loses a race!"

Tollefson whirled. The truth was hard to take, he found.

"Who said that?" he demanded. "That's a lie!"

Bates faced him. The white-haired old man's blue eyes were fierce. "Better back up on that, Tollefson," he advised coldly. "Pa.s.sman's not here to do your shootin' for you this time!"

Tollefson's fingers stiffened, and for an instant he seemed about to draw, but at Fulton's low-voiced warning, he turned back to the bar. Sheriff George Lynn pushed through the doors and walked to the bar. He spoke under his breath to Tollefson.

"They did it all right! They ran those horses half to death! I pa.s.sed 'em out on the flat not thirty minutes ago, and a worse lookin' bunch you never did see! I couldn't get close, but it was close enough!"

"What will Meadows do now?" Fulton asked, low voiced. Rube Hatley had come in. He overheard Fulton's remark and leaned both elbows on the bar.

"Do?" Rube chuckled without humor. "If I were you hombres I'd do one of two things. I'd start ridin' or start shootin!"

The course was the same straightaway course they had used for this race for several years. There were several two-twenty and three-thirty races to be run off before the quarter races began.

Tollefson watched nervously, his eyes roving the crowd. He saw neither Tandy Meadows nor Snap. Janet Bates rode in with Johnny Herndon, and they joined her father and Jim Whitten. Fulton sat with Tollefson and Sheriff Lynn, and the last to arrive was Tom Pa.s.sman. He dismounted but kept free of the crowd. Tollefson noted with relief that he was wearing two guns, something he rarely did.

When he walked to the edge of the track, people moved away from him. The quarter horse race was announced, and Tollefson touched his lips uneasily with his tongue as he watched Lady Luck walking into place in the line. Three other horses were entered in this race and they all showed up. All but one had been beaten by the Lady in previous races, and Tollefson began to breathe easier. What a fool he had been to take such a chance! Well, it was over now, and he was safe. But where was Meadows?

Fulton grabbed his arm. "Lookl" he gasped. "Look there!"

Another horse had moved into line, a sorrel, and beautifully made. The rider on the last horse was Snap, Meadows's Negro rider. Tollefson's face flushed, then went white. He started forward, but stopped suddenly. Gene Bates was standing in front of him with a shotgun.

"Lets let 'em run," Bates suggested. "You keep your place!" Tollefson drew back, glancing around desperately. Sheriff Lynn had disappeared, but Rube Hatley loafed nearby. "Do something, man!" Tollefson insisted.

"For what?" Hatley grinned at him, his eyes hard. "n.o.body's busted any law that I can see. That shotgun's in the hollow of his arm. n.o.body says he can't carry it there."

Now the horses were moving together toward the far end of the course. As in a trance, Art Tollefson watched them go, watched most of all that sorrel with the squat black rider. Suddenly, he felt sick. If that horse won, he was through, through! It was unthinkable. He turned sharply.

"Tom!" he said. Pa.s.sman looked around, his eyes level and gray. "When you see him! And there's a bonus in it for you!" Pa.s.sman nodded but made no other reply. Fulton felt a constriction in his chest. He had heard Tollefson order men beaten, cattle driven off, homes burned, but this was the first time he had actually heard him order a man killed. Yet nowhere was there any sign of Tandy Meadows.

Tollefson sat his horse where he could see the race, the full length of the course. His eyes went now to the far end where the horses were lining up now, and his heart began to pound. His fingers on the saddle horn were relaxed and powerless. Suddenly, the full impact of his bet came home to him, and he realized, almost for the first time, what losing would mean. How had he ever been such a fool? Such an utter and complete fool? How had he been trapped into such a situation?

His thoughts were cut sharply off by the crack of a pistol, and his heart gave a tremendous leap as he saw the horses lunge into a dead run. Lady Luck had seemed almost to squat as the pistol cracked, and then bounded forward and was down the track running like a scared rabbit. Tollefson, his breath coming hoa.r.s.ely, stood in his stirrups, his agonized stare on the charging horses, and suddenly he realized he was shouting his triumph, for the Lady was well off and running beautifully.

Then, even as he cheered, a sorrel shot from the group behind the Lady and swooped down upon her! His pulse pounding, his eyes bulging with fear and horror, he saw that rusty streak of horse come up behind the Lady, saw its head draw abreast, then the nose was at the Lady's shoulder, and the Lady was running like something possessed, as if she knew what great change rode with her.

Tollefson was shouting madly now, almost in a frenzy, for out there with those running horses was everything he owned, everything he had fought for, burned for, killed for. And now that sorrel with its crouching black rider was neck and neck with the Lady, and then with the finish line only a length away the sorrel seemed to give a great leap and shot over the finish line, winner by half a length!

Tollefson sagged back in his saddle, staring blindly down the hill. Tricked-tricked and beaten. Lady Luck was beaten. He was beaten. He was through, finished! Then he remembered Tom Pa.s.sman, and saw him standing down by the finish line, away from him. Pa.s.sman!

Tollefson's eyes suddenly sharpened. He could still win! Pa.s.sman could kill them! He could kill Meadows, Whitten, Bates! Anyone who fought or resisted him! He would turn his riders loose on the town, he would- Then a voice behind him turned him cold and still inside. "Well, you lost, Tollefson. You've got until sundown to get out of the country. You can load your personal belongings, no more. You can take a team and a buckboard. Get moving!"

Pa.s.sman seemed to have heard. He turned slowly, and he was looking at them now from forty yards away. In a daze, Tollefson saw Tandy Meadows step out toward the gunman, holding in his hands nothing but the rawhide riata. Tom Pa.s.sman crouched a little, his eyes riveted on Meadows, his mind doing a quick study. If he drew and killed an unarmed man, there was a chance not even Tollefson could save him. Yet was Meadows unarmed? At what point might he not suddenly flash a gun from his shirt front or waistband? Meadows took another step, switching the rope in his hands with seeming carelessness.

Again Pa.s.sman's eyes searched Meadows's clothing for a suspicious bulge, and saw none. Surely, the man would not come down here without a weapon? It was beyond belief.

"What's the matter, Tom?" Meadows taunted. "Yellow?"

As he spoke, his hands flipped, and as Pa.s.sman's hands swept down for his guns he saw something leap at him like a streak of light. He threw up a hand, tried to spring aside, but that rawhide riata loop snapped over his shoulders and whipped taut even as his hands started to lift the guns, and he was jerked off balance. He staggered, trying desperately to draw a gun, but his arms were pinned to his sides.

Meadows took two running steps toward him, throwing another loop of the rope over his shoulders that fell to his ankles. He jerked hard and the gunman fell, hitting hard in the dust. He struggled to get up, and Tandy jerked him from his feet again. Tandy stood off, smiling grimly.

Then, stepping in quickly, he jerked the guns from Pa.s.sman's holsters and tossed them aside. Springing back, he let Pa.s.sman fight his way free of the noose. As the loop dropped from the gunman, he wheeled on Meadows, and Tandy struck him across the mouth with the back of his hand.

It was deliberate, infuriating. Pa.s.sman went blind with rage and rushed. A left smeared his lips and a roundhouse right caught him on the ear. He staggered sideways, his ears ringing. Meadows walked into him then and slugged two wicked underhand punches into the gunman's body. Pa.s.sman sagged and went down, landing on his knees. Tandy jerked him erect, struck him again in the stomach, and ignoring the futile punches the man threw, stepped back and smashed him full in the mouth with a right. Pa.s.sman went down again. b.l.o.o.d.y and battered, he lay gasping on the ground. Meadows stood over him.

"Tom," he said coldly, "I could have killed you. You never saw the day you were as fast as I am. But I don't want to kill men, Tom. Not even you. Now get out of the country! If you ever come north of the river again, I'll hunt you down and kill you! Start moving!"

Tandy stepped back, coiling his rope. He glanced around. Tollefson was gone, and so was Fulton. Rube Hatley gestured toward Pa.s.sman. "He means it, Tom,' he said, "and so do I. I'd have run you out of here months ago if it hadn't been for Tollefson and Lynn. Take his advice and don't come back, because I may not be any faster than you, Tom, but if you ever ride this way again, you've got me to kill, and I sort of think we'd go together!"

Hatley glanced at Tandy. "You had me fooled. What happened to your horses?"

"Janet and Snap figured something would happen, so they drove them back into the hills a mile or so, and then they moved in a bunch of half broke Flying T broomtails down on that meadow. In the dark they never guessed they were drivin' some of their own remuda!"

Janet came up to Tandy, smiling gravely, her eyes lighted with something half affection and half humor. "I was glad to help. I thought if you won this race you might settle down."

Meadows shrugged, grinning. "I don't see any way out of it with a ranch to manage and a wife to support."

Janet stared suspiciously from Meadows to Clevenger. "Now tell me," she insisted. "What would you have done if Cholo Baby had lost? How could you have paid up?"