Read Robber's Roost (1989) Online
Authors: Zane Grey
Robber's Roost (1989) (9 page)
"Cigars!" ejaculated Smoky Slocum.
"Hank, trot out some champagne," jeered Brad Lincoln.
"Nothin' to drink, fellers," returned Hays. "We're a sober outfit.
No gamblin' for real money. No arguin' or fightin'. . . . Any of you who doesn't like thet can walk out now."
They were impressed by his cool force, as well as by the potency of the future. Certainly not one of them moved.
"All right. Wal an' good. We're set," he went on. "Today I changed my mind about goin' slow with this job. Never mind why."
Jim Wall had a flash of divination as to this sudden right-about- face. Hays was deeper than he had appeared at first.
"Herrick reckons there are upwards of ten thousand head of stock on the range. Some of these Mormons he bought out sold without a count. I bought half a dozen herds for Herrick. An' I underestimated say rough calculatin' around two thousand head. So there's twelve thousand good. Thet's a herd, fellers. Can it be drove?"
"Are we a lot of cowboys?" queried Lincoln, scornfully.
"No, an' neither air we a lot of rustlers," resumed Hays, just as sarcastically. "If you can't help me figger, why, just keep still. . . . Air there any of you who wouldn't care to play a game for twelve thousand head of cattle at forty dollars per?"
There did not appear to be a single one.
"Ahuh. Wal, thet's okay. Now can we drive such a big herd?" Hays this time directed his query at Jim.
"How far?" asked Jim.
"Fifty miles. Fair to middlin' road. We can meet buyers there who'll pay an' no questions asked. No stiff count."
"Yes. With eight riders well mounted it can be done in three days-- provided they don't have to fight."
"Aha!" said Smoky puffing a cloud of smoke.
"Wal, we'd have to fight shore as hell. An' Heeseman's outfit is bigger than ours."
"No sense in stealin' stock for some other outfit," added Brad Lincoln.
"Agree with you," returned Hays, promptly. "I didn't like the idee. But it's so damn easy!"
"Boss, listen to this idee," spoke up Smoky. "Most of these Star cattle range down the valley twenty miles below here. How'd it do for say five of us to quit Herrick an' hide below somewhere?
Meanwhile you go to Grand Junction an' arrange to have your buyers expect a bunch of cattle every week. A thousand to two thousand head. We'd make the drives an' keep it up as long as it worked.
You're boss, an' Wall here is foreman. You could keep the cowboys close to the ranch."
"Smoky, it's shore a big idee," declared Hays, enthusiastically.
"But what about Heeseman?"
"Wal, we couldn't keep it from him."
"Not very long, anyway."
"Heeseman's the rub. We gotta do away with him."
"Let's clean out his bunch."
Hays shook his shaggy head over these various replies.
"Fellers, if we pick a fight with thet outfit, some of us will get killed an' others crippled. Then we couldn't pull the deal. A better idee is for one of us to kill Heeseman."
"Reckon it would. Thet'd bust the outfit."
"Who'd you pick on to do thet, Hank?"
Jeff Bridges boomed out: "Why, Smoky, of course, or Brad."
"Nope," said Hays, shaking his head. "With all thet's due Smoky an' Brad I wouldn't choose either. Jim, here, is the man for thet job."
"An' why?" demanded Smoky, in the queerest of tones.
Whether he was insulted or jealous would have been difficult to say.
"Wal, for two reasons. Jim has it on any of us handlin' a gun, an' second--"
"How do you know thet?" interposed Lincoln, acidly.
"Hell's fire!" burst out Hays, suddenly ablaze. "There you go, you ---- ---- ----! I suppose you think I ought to let you try Jim out? Wal, you can gamble on this. If I did we'd be two men out."
His fiery intensity silenced them. Jim personally was relieved to see this little by-play. It showed Hays was a strong leader and it gave a line on the testy Slocum and the taciturn Lincoln.
"Go on, boss. I'm shore we figger you have the best for all of us at heart," spoke up Mac, for the first time. "You never played no favorites."
"Jim, it'd be murder for you to throw a gun on Heeseman," said Hays, spreading wide his hands.
"I'm like Brad. How do you know that?" rejoined Jim, coolly.
"Wal, Heeseman's gifts don't lie thet way. He's killed a couple of men that I know of. But I'll bet I can go pick a quarrel with him an' do it myself. To be dead certain, though, we'd better sic Jim on him. Besides, Heeseman doesn't know Jim."
"If you ask me, I say the better plan is to waylay Heeseman an' his outfit," said Lincoln. "Do for him sure an' all or most of his men. There's a couple of rattlesnakes among them."
"Waylay them, huh," mused Hays, scratching his unshaven chin.
"Sort of low-down for US."
"We're playin' for big stakes."
"Mebbe we could drive off six or eight thousand head of stock before Heeseman ever found out," put in Smoky. "What's the sense of fightin' it out till we have to? Let's don't cross any Dirty Devils till we come to them."
The suggestion found instant favor on all sides.
"But we don't want Heeseman trailin' us," expostulated Hays.
"You mean after we pull the deal?" queried Brad, incredulously.
"Shore I mean after."
"Wal, what in thunderation do we give a damn for him, when we've got the coin an' on our way to thet roost we're due to find?"
"I don't just like the idee, fellers," replied Hays, evasively.
Jim Wall, studying the robber leader closely, imagined that Hays was not exposing all the details of his plot.
"Aw, to hell with Heeseman, before or after!" exclaimed Smoky.
"Let's put my idee to a vote."
When this suggestion was solemnly complied with, making use of the deck of cards, it was found that Slocum had won.
"So far so good," said Hays, as if relieved. "Now let's see. . . .
Smoky, tomorrow you take your gang, includin' Brad, an' quit. Pack a slue of grub an' grain, an' hide out below. Cache what you don't need. I'll go to Grand Junction for new hands. See? But all I'll come back with will be instructions for you to follow. Then you can go drivin'."
"Good! An' how about the cash?"
"Wal, them buyers won't pay me in advance, you can gamble on thet.
But they'll pay you. Just divide with your outfit an' save our share."
"Short an' sweet. I like it more all the time," declared Smoky.
The trust imposed upon him sat lightly. Jim had no doubt of his honesty with his leader and comrades. Herein lay another reason for the loyalty to Hays. The robber began to loom to Jim.
"We'll want to know where your camp is," went on Hays. "Reckon I'd better ride out with you tomorrow."
"No. You rustle for Grand Junction. We'll see thet Happy an' Jim know where to find our camp."
Jim thought of something. "Men, has it occurred to you that you can't drive cattle up this road and through the ranch?"
"Shore. No need. It'd be a seventy-mile drive if we came this way. But we'll drive round by Limestone, an' up the other valley road. About the same distance to Grand."
"Air we forgettin' anythin'?" muttered the leader, his big eyes staring into space.
"Nothin' but Heeseman," croaked Lincoln.
"Wal, there are a couple of more things, but we needn't go into them now," responded the leader. He slid several cigars into his vest pocket, and throwing the box upon the table he said: "Divide 'em even. An' I hope it won't be your last dollar smoke."
The conference ended. Hays turned to the open fire, and seeking a seat in the shadow by the chimney, he pondered. It was Jim's opinion that the chief had vastly more on his mind than he had divulged. Lincoln gave him a suspicious stare. The others seemed eminently pleased with the outlook, though no more was said in Jim's hearing. They joked and smoked.
"Let's play noseys," suggested Happy Jack. A howl of protest and derision went up from half those present.
"I'd play for two-bits a card, but not just to have my beak all red," said Smoky.
"What kind of game is noseys?" asked Jim, curiously.
"Set in with Happy an' see."
"What's it like, Happy?"
"Wall, it's better'n poker, any day," replied Happy Jack. "Takes as good playin'. A hell of a lot more guts. An' doesn't lose you much money. . . . You deal three cards around. First feller left of dealer leads. You have to follow suit. If you can't you draw off the deck till you can. High card, of course, takes trick.
When the deck's all drawn you have to eat the card led. Thet is you take it up an'. . . . But come an' let me show you."
"Not me. I want to know where the noseys come in."
"Wal, whoever gets left with any cards, even one, is the loser.
An' everybody gets three whacks at his nose with three cards only.
Also he has to pay two-bits to every player for each card he's left with."
"Fine game for this outfit," laughed Jim.
"Shore there air a lot of big beaks to beat. It's the fightenest game you ever seen."
Jim bade them good-night and went out. His last glimpse of Hays was thought-provoking. Lighting another cigar, which he vowed would be the last of his smoking for a while, Jim strolled up and down the porch, revolving in mind the conference.
It was a spring night, starry, with an edge on the mountain air that meant frost in the morning. Coyotes were barking. And there came another sound which never failed to rend--the peeping of spring frogs. Plaintive, sweet, they probed the deeps of memory.
Jim did not like the night so well as the day. And although he had crossed the Rubicon, had involved his word and meant to see this deal through, he liked it less and less. Was it possible that this lantern-eyed robber had evil intentions toward Herrick's sister?
Jim scouted the suspicion. Certainly, if the man was susceptible to women, he would react normally under favorable conditions. But to plot more than he had expressed, to involve his men in something vastly worse than the mere stealing of a herd of cattle, to betray them with murder and abduction--No! this Hank Hays was too big a man for that. He had the loyalty of his band. And yet--
"Damn the girl part of it, anyhow," he muttered, flinging his half- smoked cigar out into the noisy brook. Why did a woman have to come along to upset the best-laid plans of men?
Jim went to his comfortable bed up under the dark pines, and lay awake in the shadows, listening to the whispers about him. The very rocks seemed to have voices. Nature had endowed Jim with sensitiveness and life had dealt him iron. The harder he grew the more this secret, deeply-hidden faculty of feeling had to be resisted.
The next morning brought sombre faces and action. Five of Hays' outfit rode away with six of the pack horses and most of the supplies. Hays watched them until they disappeared among the cedars.
"Wal, now I'll brace the boss," he said.
"What excuse will you give him?"
"Anythin' would do to tell Herrick. But Heeseman will see through me, I'm afeared."
"Very well. You tell Herrick that your outfit split over me."
"Over you--? dog-gone! That ain't so poor. But why?"
"Both Slocum and Lincoln are sort of touchy about gun-throwing, aren't they? Well, tell him how queer that brand of gunmen is--how he instinctively hates the real gunman. And that Slocum and Lincoln made you choose between them and me. You chose me and they rode off with their pards."
"Ahuh. Sort of so the idea will get to Heeseman's ears that in a pinch with guns I'd rather have you backin' me than them?"
"Exactly. Only elaborate it. Herrick won't understand, so the more mysterious you make it the better."
Not long afterward Hays returned to the cabin jubilant. "You'd never guess, Jim. That Englisher laughed like the very devil. An' he ordered me to ride off after some desperadoes who're not afraid of Jim Wall."
"Ha! Ha! But Heeseman won't get a laugh out of it."
"See here. Don't fetch things to a ruction with him."
"I'll steer clear, Hays. But if Heeseman should happen to brace me--"
"Shoot the lights out of him," interrupted Hays, fiercely. "Wal, I'm off for Grand. Happy, pack me a snack of grub."
"How long will it take you to ride over?"
"Eight hours, I reckon. An' I'll be back tomorrow night."
"Won't take you long, then, to make connection with your buyers?"
"Wal, I should smile not."
"Excuse my curiosity, boss, but I can't help wondering how you can establish connection so quickly, since you claim you are not a rustler."
"Thet's my affair, Jim. But I'll tell you some day."
"Certainly these buyers will know you're selling stolen cattle?"