Essential Western Novels - Volume 4. Max Brand

he said good-naturedly. "Butts can just as well take the folks over to Crater Mountain, and you and Bud can go tooth huntin'."

      "Oh, that's mean," said Dora; "why don't you come along with us?"

      "Maybe I'll find the tooth and catch up with you," he said; but his thoughts were not upon his words; instead they were occupied with the wish that Kay White had said that instead of Dora Crowell.

      After breakfast they all went to the corral while the men caught up the horses for the day. There was the usual rush and movement and excitement that seems never to pall even upon those most accustomed to seeing it. The cleverness of the horses and the cleverness of the men, the kaleidoscopic changes of form and color, the smell of horses, the clashing hoofs, the dust of the corral all combine to produce a spell that lingers forever in the memory.

      Blaine was issuing instructions to his men, selecting for the riders horses that had been left at home during the lion hunt.

      "I think I'll ride Baldy," said Marvel. "I won't be doing much today."

      "Suit yourself," said Blaine. "Bud, you're going with Mr. Marvel hunting teeth. Butts will take the folks over to Crater Mountain."

      "You better pack along a thirty-thirty," said Butts to Bud. "Some of them teeth is pretty wild. I knew a tenderfoot once who come out from the East huntin' teeth. He went out alone without a gun and he got bit all up."

      It being customary to laugh at such witticisms, everyone now laughed, including Marvel, who stood speculatingly scrutinizing Butts' bowed legs. "I wish Butts was going with me instead of Bud," he said.

      "Why?" demanded Butts. "I aint no wet nurse."

      "But you're just what a fellow needs when he's hunting teeth," insisted Marvel.

      "How do you make that out?" asked Butts.

      "Well, you see, I'd take along a gunny sack and stretch it between your legs and chase the teeth in."

      "Well I won't be along," said Butts; "so you better shoot 'em; but be sure to aim at somethin' else or you won't never hit 'em."

      "I guess that'll hold you, Bruce," said Dora.

      "I guess it ought to," he said grinning.

      A moment later, as Kay White's horse was led out of the corral, Marvel stepped over as she was about to mount and examined the bridle, the bit, and the cinches.

      "I'm sorry you are not going today," she said in a low voice.

      "Are you really?" he asked.

      She nodded. "But I suppose there is nothing so important as a horse's tooth."

      He looked at her and smiled. "It means a lot to me, Kay," he said. "Anything would have to mean a lot to keep me from riding to Crater Mountain today."

      There was something in his tone that checked whatever reply she might have made, and in silence she mounted as he held her horse; and then the others rode up around them and carried her along, but he watched her for a long time as she rode away toward the hills to the East.

      "Here's your horse, Mister," called Blaine from the corral, interrupting Marvel's reverie. "Want me to top him for you?"

      "Oh, I don't think he'll do anything."

      "He certainly won't do anything more than the sorrel colt," said Blaine.

      "Well he didn't do nothing; so I guess I'm safe," said Bruce.

      As Marvel and Bud rode away down the valley, Blaine stood looking after them. "I sure don't like that bozo," he said aloud. "I just aint got no time for him; but," after a pause, "I'll be damned if I know why."

      Marvel and Bud rode side by side at a slow walk. "We might have a look at that horse of Blaine's that fell dead a few weeks ago," suggested the former.

      "I'm afraid it's pretty fresh," said Bud.

      "We can have a look at it anyway," said Marvel. "Where is it?"

      They rode down the valley for about a mile and well off the road when, suddenly, several vultures rose just ahead of them.

      "There it be," said Bud.

      They rode closer. "It is a bit fresh, isn't it?" asked Marvel. Between coyotes, vultures and rodents the horse had pretty well disappeared; but the stench was still overpowering, yet Marvel rode close up to the putrid remains.

      He sat looking down at the grizzly thing for half a minute; then he turned and rode away. "I guess it's a little bit too high even for me," he said.

      "Well," said Bud, "there ought to be others. It seems to me I seen a horse's skull down the wash about a half a mile farther," but Marvel seemed suddenly to have lost interest in horse teeth.

      "Oh, never mind, Bud," he said. "I guess I'll let it go till another day."

      "That's funny," said Bud. "You sure was keen for it a little while ago."

      He did not see the figure of a horseman winding into the hills in the West, and had he, he might not have connected it with the tenderfoot's sudden loss of interest in horse teeth; but Marvel had seen and he had recognized both horse and rider, even though they were little more than a speck against the hillside.

      Marvel and Bud rode slowly toward the ranch. The former, riding slightly in the rear, was scrutinizing his companion meditatively.

      "How long you been with this outfit, Bud?" asked Marvel presently.

      "I've always been on the ranch. I was born there. My uncle used to own it. When Cory turned it into a boarding house I went to work for him."

      "Known him long?"

      "Couple of years."

      "I don't see how he makes a living out of his boarders," said Bruce.

      "It's been tough goin' until lately," replied Bud. "It's pickin' up now; but he always seems to have plenty of dough. He has a mine somewhere, he says, and a ranch, too."

      "I guess he'd be needing them," said Bruce, "to keep up this outfit; but I don't see how he runs two or three businesses."

      "Oh, he and Butts go away every once in a while to look after his other interests."

      "You never went with him?" asked Marvel.

      "No, he never took me along. He leaves me here to look after things while he's away."

      As they talked, Marvel had dropped back until Baldy's head was about opposite Bud's knee. Riding in this position, Bud did not see his companion raise one of his feet and remove a spur, which he quietly slipped inside his shirt.

      "I should think all these boarders would get on his nerves," said Bruce.

      "Some of them do," replied Bud.

      "Me, for instance," suggested Bruce. Bud grinned.

      "Hell!" exclaimed Marvel, "I've lost a spur." He reined in and so did Bud.

      "Let's go back and look for it," said Bud.

      "No," replied Marvel, "you go on back to the ranch. I'll look for it myself."

      "Pshaw!" exclaimed Bud. "I'd just as soon help you find it."

      "No, you go on back to the ranch. I've learned what a nuisance a dude is, and I'll feel better if you just go on and let me find it for myself."

      "Whatever you say," said Bud. "We aim to please, as the feller said."

      "See you later," said Marvel; and reining Baldy about he started back down the valley.

      At a point where a dry wash came out of the hills from the West he stopped and turned in his saddle. Bud was jogging quietly toward home, his back turned. For a few seconds Marvel watched him; then he headed into the dry wash, the high banks of which would hide him from Bud's view should the latter happen to turn his eyes backward.

      Now he