The Ramblin' Kid Part 29

The truth was his mind was far from the pageant of which he and the little stallion were a part. He scarcely heard the music nor did he seem to see the thousands of human beings, packed tier above tier, under the mammoth roof of the grandstand. His thoughts were at the upper crossing of the treacherous Cimarron, out at the Quarter Circle KT; he was seeing again, Carolyn June, as she looked up into his eyes when he dragged her out of the quicksand--he was hearing, once more, her cry of agony as the bullet from his gun buried itself in the brain of Old Blue.

Louder hand-clapping, stamping of feet, and calling voices, than any that had sounded before, rolled out from the grandstand as the lone rider, on the quiet, unexcited little roan, came down the stretch in front of the great crowd.

Carolyn June looked back, saw the waving hats and handkerchiefs, heard hundreds of voices shouting:

"Th' Ramblin' Kid! Th' good old Ramblin' Kid!"

The crowd had recognized him as the slender rider who, a year ago, after the untamable Cyclone horse had killed d.i.c.k Stanley before their eyes and in front of where they sat, had ridden, straight-up and scotching him at every jump, that vicious, murderous-hearted outlaw.

Carolyn June's eyes moistened and she felt a thrill of pride.

The Ramblin' Kid barely glanced at the sea of faces, a faint smile hung for an instant on his lips, as he jerked his hand, the one in which he held the cigarette, to the brim of his hat when he came opposite the judges' stand.

When the parade swung down the wide, one-sided, main street of Eagle b.u.t.te, Mike Sabota, from the door of the Elite Amus.e.m.e.nt Parlor, watched it pa.s.s. He was standing there, by the side of the lanky marshal and surrounded by a group of pool-room loafers and "carnival sharks" when Carolyn June and Skinny came by. She looked around in time to see him staring, with a vulgar leer, straight into her eyes.

"There is that big, dirty, animal-looking fellow we saw the other day!"

she said, with a frown of disgust, to Skinny. "He's horrible--"

Skinny glanced at Sabota.

"Yes, he is ornery," he said. "He runs that joint and boot-legs on the side. He's got a reputation as a slugger and keeps the crowd around him buffaloed. They say he killed a feller--beat him to death--in a fight over at Sapulpa before he came to Eagle b.u.t.te. I don't like the filthy cuss. He's mean!"

"He looks it!" Carolyn June exclaimed, with the uncomfortable feeling that the big Greek's look had touched her with something vile and unclean.

After the parade disbanded Carolyn June and Skinny rode back to the car where Old Heck and Ophelia had remained.

"You made a darned good-looking cowgirl!" Old Heck said proudly to her as she stopped Red John by the side of the Clagstone "Six."

"She and Skinny both presented a very fine appearance!" the widow added, while Carolyn June playfully blew a kiss at each in acknowledgment of the compliment. Skinny sat on Old Pie Face and felt a warm glow of satisfaction at the words of Old Heck and Ophelia. He had known all the time that Carolyn June and he had shown up well, but he was glad to find that others besides himself had noticed it.

Dorsey, on a black stallion, cantered past.

A moment later the Ramblin' Kid came jogging off the race course on Captain Jack. He threw up his hand in greeting and pa.s.sed on out of the grounds.

Parked next to the Clagstone "Six" was a handsome touring car, occupied by a party consisting of a girl about Carolyn June's own age, a woman a few years older and a couple of immaculately dressed young men who wore flaring brimmed black felt hats that contrasted absurdly with their expensively tailored suits. Evidently all were "big town" people from a distance--very "superior" and patronizing in their att.i.tude toward the "natives." They had been free and voluble in their comments on the various riders. Dorsey, on the magnificent Thunderbolt, drew a murmur of admiration from the lips of the girl. As the Ramblin' Kid, the next moment, rode by on Captain Jack one of the young fellows said loudly and with a laugh of ridicule:

"Look at that one, Bess," addressing the girl; "there's the 'wild and woolly' West for you! I'll bet if that horse sneezed he'd fall down and the lonesome-looking little runt that's riding him would tumble off and root his nose in the dust!"

A cackle of derisive laughter greeted the cheap witticism.

Before any of the others could speak Carolyn June's eyes blazed with sudden wrath. She turned her body in the saddle and faced the speaker, her hands tightly clenched, her cheeks white with pa.s.sion and her lip curling wickedly.

"Which shows," she said slowly, every word stinging like the bite of a whip-lash, "that you are running, true to form and there is one fool, at least, still unslaughtered! That"--she continued with a proud toss of her head--"'lonesome-looking little runt' is the Ramblin' Kid! Not another man in Texas can ride the horse he is on--and there is not a horse in Texas that he can't ride!"

She turned again toward the Quarter Circle KT group and a shamed silence settled over the swell "out-of-town" car.

Old Heck chuckled with delight at Carolyn June's show of temper.

A whirlwind program of racing, roping, bull-d.o.g.g.i.ng--this event is that in which a rider springs from a running horse, grasps by the horns a wild steer running at his side, twists the animal's head up and backward and so throws it down and then holds the creature on the ground--rough-riding and other Rodeo sports followed immediately after the parade.

Pedro and Charley Saunders were the only Quarter Circle KT cowboys partic.i.p.ating in the events of the first day of the Rodeo. The Mexican did a fancy roping stunt in front of the grandstand and finished his exhibition directly before the Clagstone "Six" in which Carolyn June, Ophelia, Old Heck and Skinny were sitting. At the conclusion of his performance Pedro bowed to the little audience in the car and swept his sombrero before him with all the courtly grace of a great matador.

Carolyn June generously applauded the dark-skinned rider from the Cimarron and waved a daintily gloved hand in acknowledgment of his skill with the rope. Skinny gritted his teeth while a pang of jealousy shot through his heart.

Charley took part in the bull-d.o.g.g.i.ng event. He drew a black steer, rangey built, heavy and wicked. When he lunged from his horse on to the horns of the brute it dragged him for a hundred feet before he could check its mad flight. At last he slowly forced its nose in the air and with a quick wrench of the head to one side threw its feet from under it. Man and beast went down in a heap--the neck of the steer across the cowboy's body. A groan went up from the crowd in the grandstand and Carolyn June's cheeks paled with horror--it looked as if one horn of the creature had pierced Charley's breast. But it had missed by the fraction of an inch. Straightening himself up to a sitting posture the cowboy bent forward and sunk his teeth in the upper lip of the prostrate animal and threw up both hands as a signal to the judges that the brute was "bulldogged." But the fight had been too hard for him to win first place. Buck Wade, a lanky cow-puncher from Montana, in three seconds less time, had thrown a brindle Anchor-O steer and taken first money.

Before the sun dipped into the Costejo peaks the Ramblin' Kid left the Rodeo and returned alone to the Quarter Circle KT. He told Parker and the cowboys, all of whom intended to remain in Eagle b.u.t.te every night during the Rodeo, that he would be back in town the next afternoon and bring with him the Gold Dust maverick. Word had been pa.s.sed among the Quarter Circle KT crowd to keep Dorsey and his bunch in the dark as long as possible regarding the fact that the filly, Ophelia, was the famous outlaw mare of the lower Cimarron.

After supper Parker, Chuck, Bert and Charley drifted into the Elite Amus.e.m.e.nt Parlor. The place was crowded. Mike Sabota immediately singled out the Quarter Circle KT group and began jollying them about the coming two-mile sweepstakes. Dorsey and Flip Williams had been in the pool-room earlier in the evening and told him of the Ramblin' Kid's entry of the filly against the Thunderbolt horse.

Within ten minutes Bert and Charley had placed two hundred and fifty dollars each against five hundred of Sabota's money that the Vermejo stallion would not finish in first place in the big race.

Old Judge Ivory, who happened to be present, was agreed upon as stake-holder.

"That Thunderbolt horse, he is the devil," Sabota laughed evilly as the money was handed over to the gray-haired judge. "And Satan, he takes care of his own!"

"Well!" Parker drawled, "if you feel inclined to send any more money to h.e.l.l I might help you--" pulling a wad of bills from his pocket and throwing the certificates on the soft-drink bar at which they were standing.

Sabota's eyes gleamed greedily.

"I think there's two thousand in this roll," Parker continued, "and I'm willing to bet it all that the Ramblin' Kid's filly not only goes under the wire first in the two-mile run, but that she'll be kicking dirt in old Thunderbolt's face--if he ain't too d.a.m.ned far behind--when she does it!"

The Greek covered the wager eagerly.

As Judge Ivory pocketed the money Dorsey and Flip Williams stepped into the pool-room. Sabota glanced up.

"These Quarter Circle KT _hombres_ are getting bad," he laughed sneeringly to Dorsey; "they think th' Ramblin' Kid's got a colt that can beat Thunderbolt!"

"The Ramblin' Kid must have a h.e.l.l of a fast horse!" Dorsey snarled contemptuously, "a h.e.l.l of a fast horse!" he repeated, "when the Ramblin'

Kid himself declines to risk a dollar of his own money on the running qualities of the critter!" referring to the conversation a few hours before in the entry judges' office.

As he finished speaking he turned and looked squarely into the cold gray eyes of Old Heck who, with Skinny, had entered the Amus.e.m.e.nt Parlor while Dorsey was talking and heard the Vermejo cattleman's sneering insinuation.

CHAPTER XV

MOCHA AND JAVA

Old Heck and Skinny had left Ophelia and Carolyn June at the Occidental Hotel, where a room was reserved by Old Heck for the use of the two women during the Rodeo. They had then gone direct to Mike Sabota's place for the express purpose of running into Dorsey and his crowd. Old Heck knew that if any large bets were to be laid on the two-mile sweepstakes the only chance would be to place them before the Ramblin' Kid brought the Gold Dust maverick to Eagle b.u.t.te and the Vermejo bunch discovered the ident.i.ty of the horse Thunderbolt was up against.

The Quarter Circle KT cow-men stepped into the pool-room at exactly the instant most favorable for their purpose.

Dorsey had made his boast in the presence of a crowd.

He would hardly dare back up without covering, at least to some worth-while extent, his words with his money.