Essential Western Novels - Volume 4. Max Brand

spurring Baldy into a lope, until the ascent toward the hills became too steep.

      The arroyo he was following led to the summit of low hills near the point where he had seen the rider disappear shortly before; and as he neared the top he went more slowly, finally stopping just before he reached the ridge. Dismounting he dropped Baldy's reins to the ground and covered the remaining distance on foot.

      It was a barren ridge, supporting but a scant growth of straggling brush. As he neared the top he dropped to his hands and knees and crawled the remaining distance to a point just behind a small bush that grew upon the crest of the ridge. Here he lay on his belly and wormed himself a few inches farther upward until his eyes topped the summit.

      Beyond the ridge and below him lay a barren gully, in the bottom of which, a hundred yards up from the point at which he was spying on them, three men sat in their saddles; and one of them was addressing the other two rapidly and earnestly. This one was Cory Blaine.

      An expression of satisfaction crossed Marvel's face. "That," he said enigmatically, "will be the other two."

      For ten minutes Marvel lay there watching the three men in the gully below. Then he saw them gather their reins. Blaine spurred his horse up the side of the gully, while the other two turned down toward the valley.

      Half way up the hillside Blaine reined in his mount and turned in the saddle. "Don't you fellers do no drinking tonight," he shouted back at the two below him, "and see that you are there on time tomorrow."

      "Sure, boss," shouted back one of them in a thick, almost inarticulate voice.

      "And that what I said about drinking goes double for you, Eddie," called Blaine, as he turned his horse's head upward again toward the summit of the ridge.

      Marvel returned to Baldy and mounted him. Then he urged the horse at a reckless pace down the rough wash. Near the mouth of the arroyo he reined to the left, urging Baldy up the steep bank and across a low ridge; then he put the spurs to him, and ignoring the rocky terrain and the menace of innumerable badgers' holes he cut downward across the rolling hills parallel with the valley at a run.

      Where the ridge finally melted into the floor of the valley, he reined Baldy to the left and so came at last into the mouth of the barren gully in which he had seen the three men talking.

      Riding toward him now were two of the men, and as he came into view they eyed him intently. With what appeared to be considerable effort, he stopped Baldy in front of them, while they reined in their own ponies and viewed him with ill-concealed contempt.

      "Who let you out, sister?" demanded one of them.

      Marvel looked embarrassed. "My horse ran away with me," he explained, "and I guess I'm lost."

      "Where you lost from, sis?" demanded one of the riders with exaggerated solicitude, and in the scarcely articulate tone that Marvel had previously heard when the speaker had addressed Blaine.

      "That," soliloquized he, "would be Eddie;" and then aloud, "I'm stopping at the TF Ranch. Could you direct me how to get there?"

      "Certainly," said Eddie. "Go straight up this here gulch." Then the men moved on.

      "Them directions," said the second man, "will land the son-of- a-gun in Mexico, if he follows them."

      "Well, they aint got no business roamin' around Arizona without their nurses," replied Eddie.

      Marvel watched the two for a moment, his keen eyes taking in every detail of both men and horses. Then he rode slowly up the gulch, following the trail that the two had made going up and coming down, his eyes often bent upon the ground. When he reached the point where Blaine had spurred up over the ridge, he did likewise and presently dropped down into the valley on the other side where the ranch lay; and as he rode into the ranch yard, Eddie, far away, was still chuckling over the joke he had played upon the tenderfoot.

      Today, seeing no one about the corral, he removed the bridle and saddle himself and turned Baldy into the pasture.

      As he approached the ranch house, Blaine and Bud emerged from the former's room, which was also his office. "Find your spur?" asked Bud.

      "Yes," replied Bruce.

      "You must have had to chase it all over the county," said Blaine. "Bud says he left you three hours ago."

      "I guess I got lost again," explained Bruce.

      "You dudes are a damn nuisance," snapped Cory, all his usual suavity gone.

      Marvel raised his eyebrows. "Our money aint such a nuisance, is it?" he asked.

      "I got all your money I'm going to," said Blaine. "You'll be leavin' now. Them folks are comin' from Detroit right away."

      "I'm about ready to leave anyway," replied Marvel, "but I think I'll stay until after the paper chase. I certainly would like to be in on that."

      "The paper chase needn't detain you none," snapped Blaine, "and I'll be wantin' your room tomorrow morning."

      "What's the rush?" demanded Marvel. "Whenever those folks come they can have my room."

      Whatever reply Blaine may have contemplated was interrupted by Bud. "Here comes the bunch back from Crater Mountain," he announced; and he and Cory hurried down to the corral to meet them, followed more slowly by Marvel.

      Conversation during dinner was occupied largely with the events of the day and plans for the paper chase on the morrow. Cory explained that he and Bud would be the hares, taking one other member of the party with him, whom he would select in the morning.

      ––––––––

      XII

      "GOODBYE, KAY"

      THE guests retired early that evening, with the exception of Marvel, who sat alone on the veranda smoking. Blaine and Butts were sitting on the top rail of the corral talking. "I'm gettin' rid of Marvel tomorrow," said Cory.

      "What you so asceared of him for?" demanded Butts. "He's harmless."

      "He's sweet on Kay White," replied Blaine. "I want her for myself."

      "Well, aint you goin' to get her?"

      "Yes, but I think she sort of likes the dude; and if he's around he may bust it up after I get it fixed."

      "Now that he's goin'," said Butts, "I sure would like to make him dance."

      "Nuthin' doin'," said Blaine. "Anything like that would give us a bad reputation."

      "I sure would like to take a shot at that dude just the same," said Butts.

      "Well, you aint goin' to," said Blaine. "He don't mean nuthin' to me except to get him out of the way of Kay White as easy as I can. See that you don't go mussin' things up."

      "Just as you say, boss," replied Butts, "but my trigger finger sure itches every time I look at that son-of-a-gun."

      On the ranch house veranda Marvel had stamped out the fire of his last cigarette and was sitting with his feet on the rail thinking.

      "I guess," he meditated, "that it's just about as well that I get out of here anyway, for if I don't I'm going to fall in love with Kay White— if I haven't already fallen. Of course, I aint give no one else a promise except in my own heart, and I think she knew before she went away that I'd be waiting for her when she came back. It's a funny world. I wonder what she'll be like."

      He was sitting in the shadows at the end of the porch when a light step attracted his attention; and looking down the long veranda he saw a slender figure emerge from the house, and as he saw it a little thrill ran through his frame.

      He did not speak nor move, fearing perhaps that he might frighten her away. She came slowly along the veranda toward him, reveling in the cool night air and the