Essential Western Novels - Volume 4. Max Brand

didn't either," said Marvel.

      "Come on, Birdie, pay up," said her husband, "and don't be a poor loser."

      "Try and collect," said Mrs. Talbot.

      "That's what you get for betting with your wife," laughed Dora Crowell.

      Talbot laughed. "I win anyway," he said, "for if anyone else had taken her up, I would have had to pay."

      Marvel had unrolled his blankets and was looking at them ruefully. "Why here is the bullet," he exclaimed. "It didn't go all the way through. I'll have to keep it as a reminder of my marksmanship;" and he slipped it into his pocket.

      After supper that night, Marvel strolled over to Bryam's camp, where the hunter was sitting upon his doorstep, puffing on his pipe. Bryam had shown no desire to associate with the members of the hunting party; nor was there anything about his manner to invite friendly advances, but Marvel seemed unabashed by the surly expression upon the man's face.

      "Good evening," he said.

      Bryam grunted.

      "It must get lonesome up here alone," observed Marvel.

      "Must it?"

      "What do you do to pass away the time?" persisted the younger man.

      "It takes about all of my time minding my own business," growled Bryam.

      Apparently unaffected by these rebuffs, Marvel seated himself upon the doorstep at the hunter's side. In the silence that followed Bryam puffed intermittently at his pipe, while Marvel bent his eyes upon the ground in thought.

      Hi Bryam, he concluded, was a peculiar man, certainly hard to get acquainted with; and he saw that he was peculiar physically, too, as he noted the size of the man's boots. Surreptitiously he placed his own beside one of them. There was fully an inch and a half difference between them in length.

      "Many lion up here?" asked Marvel presently.

      "Not as many as there was this morning," said Bryam.

      There followed a considerable silence. "It must be quiet up here nights," suggested Marvel.

      "It is when there aint some damn fool shooting off his face," replied the hunter.

      Again there was a long silence. "You got a nice cabin," said Marvel.

      "Have I?"

      Marvel rose. "You mind if I look in it?" he said. "I'd like to see the inside of a hunter's cabin."

      Bryam rose and stood in the doorway. "There aint nuthin' in here to interest you," he said. "You better run along to bed now."

      "Well, may be you're right," said Marvel. "Good night, and thank you for the pleasant evening."

      Bryam made no reply, and Marvel walked back to the campfire where the other members of the party were gathered. "We were just wondering where you were," said Birdie Talbot.

      "Thought you'd wandered off and lost yourself," said Butts.

      "No, I was just calling on Mr. Bryam," said Marvel.

      "I hope you enjoyed your visit," said Blaine.

      "Very much indeed," replied Marvel.

      "Bryam must have changed then," said Butts. "He wouldn't aim to entertain no tenderfoot if he knew it. He aint got much use for 'em."

      "He didn't know it," said Marvel. He moved off toward his blankets. "Good night, folks," he said. "I'm going to turn in."

      "I just naturally don't like that fellow," said Butts, when Marvel was out of earshot.

      "Then keep it to yourself," snapped Blaine, rising. "I think you'd all better turn in if we want to get an early start in the morning."

      When the others had retired to their tents and blankets, Blaine and Butts made their way to Bryam's cabin, the interior of which was faintly lighted by a single oil lamp standing upon a rough table where Bryam was playing solitaire with a deck of greasy cards.

      As the two men entered the shack, a shadow seemed to move among the denser shadows of the pine trees, to come to rest opposite an open window.

      "I won't get another chance to talk with you before we leave in the morning, Hi," said Blaine; "and I want to be sure there aint goin' to be no misunderstanding. Mart and Eddie know just what to do. When they get here, keep 'em one night; and let 'em rest. Get an early start the next morning. Take the south trail to the summit, and then follow the One Mile Creek trail around into Sonora. Eddie and Mart know the trail to Kelly's place from there on. They just been down there and got it fixed up with the old man; and remember this, Hi, no funny business and no rough stuff. If you pull anything raw, I'll croak you sure; and that goes for Mart and Eddie and Kelly; and they know it, too."

      Bryam grunted. "I aint crazy yet," he said.

      ––––––––

      VII

      THE BUR

      IT was a cold morning that broke fair and beautiful as the hunters struck their camp. The horses felt the cinches with humped backs. Baldy was even more convex than usual.

      "Aren't you going to top him for me this morning, Blaine?" asked Marvel, as Cory started to mount his own horse.

      "I guess you don't need nobody to top your horses for you," said Blaine shortly.

      "He looks like he was going to buck for sure this morning," said Marvel.

      "I'll top him for you, Mister," said Butts.

      "Thanks," said Marvel. "I certainly don't want to get an arm or leg broken way up here in the mountains."

      "Here, hold my horse," said Butts.

      He swung gently into Marvel's saddle; and, true to form, Baldy took two or three jumps and bolted for a few hundred yards. Butts rode him on a little farther, and those at the camp saw him dismount and pick something up from the ground. Then he remounted and returned to camp at a lope.

      "What did you find?" asked Marvel.

      "Oh, I thought I seen something," said Butts, "but I didn't." He dismounted and looked to Baldy's cinches, readjusting the saddle and straightening out the blanket back of the cantle, raising the skirt of the saddle to do so; then he turned the horse over to Marvel, but it was noticeable to all that Baldy had more of a hump now than before. In fact, he was moving about nervously, and seemed to be of a mind to start bucking before he was mounted.

      As Butts threw his leg over his own horse, he winked at Bud. "It ought to be a large mornin'," he said.

      Marvel raised the skirt of his saddle and reached under the blanket. When he withdrew his hand he held it out to Butts. "This yours?" he asked, and opening his hand he revealed a bur.

      Butts tried to look innocent. "What do you mean?" he asked.

      "Oh, nothing," said Marvel, dropping the bur to the ground and mounting Baldy, from whose back the hump had immediately disappeared with the removal of the bur.

      The day's ride was to include an excursion to a point of scenic interest that would profitably occupy the time of the mounted members of the party while the chuck wagon was moving by a more direct route to the next camp.

      As they started out, Cory Blaine succeeded in pairing himself off with Kay White. The Talbots rode together, as did Bud and Butts, leaving Dora and Bruce as companions of the trail. Bert Adams rode ignominiously in the chuck wagon.

      "Well, how is the mysterious Mr. Marvel this morning?" asked the girl.

      "Just as mysterious as an old shoe," he replied.

      "Or a ladder," she suggested.

      "I