the Rustlers Of West Fork (1951) (18 page)

"Well," he said quietly, "if Avery Sparr comes back here, he can die mighty easy."

Soper nodded: "He should. He is a man better off dead."

He got to his feet. "Take your time eating.

If you want to rest, take it easy around the house.

No use going to the bunkhouse unless you want to have trouble with lesser lights. Sparr may show up anytime. Just stick around. I'll be back shortly."

He walked outside and paused. Right now he felt very much like a slack-wire walker above Niagara Falls. Death lay with any misstep.

Actually, he liked the feel of it. He drew deeply on his cheroot and considered what lay ahead.

Mesquite was deadly, and the other man was probably competent, but he himself would be standing in the shadows of the porch with a rifle. He would leave nothing to chance. As for the others- He would call the bunch from Turkey Springs Canyon, in the Elks. They would handle these. Only four men he had, but picked men. He smiled suddenly. Avery Sparr had been a fool to lay a thing like this in his lap! Where Avery had made enemies, he had made friends, and Avery Span little knew how carefully his groundwork had been laid. Two could play at such a steal, and between the gun and the brain the latter must always be victor.

Yet confident as he was, he was a careful and a considering man. So now, even at this stage of the game, with the whole situation far advanced, he went over every detail again in his mind. It was much like playing poker, and the secret of it was never to let your antagonists guess how little or how much you might be holding.

It was a law of survival that one must always adapt oneself to changes and conditions. He who refuses to adapt does not last. He may win credit for being stubborn, but he loses or dies.

It was in the nature of Arnold Soper to adapt himself, and his every sense was alert to every change. Behind him Mesquite stared into his coffee cup and then looked up at Johnny. "Something about this doesn't look so good."

"Nothing about it looks good."

"Maybe this hombre is on the level."

"Maybe--an' again maybe not."

"Let's figger like he's not, then we'll be on the safe side."

"When you read sign," Johnny suggested, "you don't get far if you foller only what you see.

A man has got to use his imagination, put himself in the place of the man he's follerin', and see where you would go if you was him."

"This here Soper looks smart."

"Uh-huh. He looks smart, he acts smart, but he takes orders an' does what he's told like a good little boy, all white an' innocent."

"Yuh think so? Maybe. But let's, like we said, play like he's smart. Let's figger he gets wise that somethin' doesn't smell right.

Maybe the Jordans were prisoners here. Maybe Sparr is tryin' for a big steal. Maybe this Soper ain't honest."

"Let's figger he's not."

"All right. He can be partners with Sparr, he can work for him, or he can work for himself an' pretend he's worldn' for him. If he's doin' that last, he knows Sparr is nobody to fool with. He knows he's double-crossin' a tough hombre who would fill him with lead so quick it would make his head swim if he figgered there was a reason. Maybe he figgers Sparr smells somethin' wrong, what would he do?"

"Try to get Sparr killed."

"Right. An' who better to do it than two wanderin' pilgrims like us? Two gun-handy pilgrims who figger they've a grudge against him."

"He's right about one thing," Johnny said. "We can't help Hopalong now. That chase is too far away. If we can help him, it would be here, or maybe Horse Springs."

"Maybe we better have a look around. Around this house, I mean. An' maybe that Mexican woman can tell us somethin'. his "I'll bet she can."

Mesquite eased back the bench on which he sat and got to his feet. He stepped quickly through the door into the empty room beyond. Johnny, after a quick glance, turned toward the kitchen. Both men worked rapidly, and both were accustomed to reading sign, to observing, that is, and drawing deductions from what they saw.

Mesquite noticed the door to the Jordans' room and stepped through. The first thing he saw was the bar.

It was not reasonable to expect a bar on the inside of a door within a house. A quick survey of the room and he was positive of one thing. Two people had lived here. Two beds, a closet full of the girl's clothing, and one partly filled with clothing belonging to Dick Jordan. Nowhere did he find a gun or where one had been. Why would two people owning a large ranch house with all of a dozen rooms confine themselves to one? Without doubt the Jordans had been prisoners here, and they had evidently had instructions to allow nobody into the room but Avery Sparr or some one or two of his henchmen. That was obvious from the bar on the inside.

Also, Mesquite correctly deduced what he was already cer- 163 tain of, that they had left swiftly and taken few things with them. He returned to the dining room and glanced out. Soper stood by the corrals, looking off toward the mountains. He stood as if listening.

Johnny emerged from the kitchen, his face bright with knowledge.

"We hit it!" he said eagerly and grimly. "She talked plenty! She has no use for Sparr, less for Soper. This hombre Soper is peculiar. He looks so nice, but he whacked this Mexican cook a couple of times when she didn't give him fast enough service.

"She says they were prisoners here, the Jordans. Only a few people were allowed to see them.

She's afraid of Sparr, but she is more afraid of Soper."

Mesquite nodded. "We've done some good guessing. Now to figger this a little bit. Let's figger Hoppy isn't comin' back." At Johnny's shocked expression Mesquite hastily said, "Not that I think he ain't. I'd gamble my life on it. He's tough to handle. What I mean is, let's figger he ain't comin' back.

This here place goes to whoever's next of kin if Jordan's daughter is killed. It don't go to either Sparr or Soper, all right?" "Uh-huh.

So we scotch their snake."

"Right." Mesquite chuckled. "Wouldn't Red an' Lanky be happy to be here now? They'll throw a fit when they find out we tied up with Hoppy after all."

"Hey."

Johnny was looking out the window, and Mesquite stepped to his shoulder. The air was filled with slowly drifting snowflakes. Johnny stared at Mesquite's face, colder than death now. Both men were thinking the same thing. Hopalong Cassidy was in the mountains, high in the mountains with few passes and no winter clothing.

Both men knew how bitterly cold those mountains could be. Both knew how rapidly a man loses the warmth from his body in the biting and icy winds at high altitudes, even under the best of conditions. Hoppy alone was bad enough, but burdened with a crippled man and a girl-

"If he don't make it"-Mesquite's voice was low and ugly-"I'll kill every man ever connected with this mess!"

"Yeah," Johnny said soberly. "I'm in on that too."

"I feel like goin' out there, an'-was Mesquite's lips thinned with fury and his fingers strayed to a gun butt.

"No good," Johnny said quietly. "We'll wait. Maybe somethin' will break that will show us our way. One thing we know. Come hell or high water, we clean out this rat's nest or they bury us both on the Gila!"

Arnold Soper stared toward the house.

The two gunfighters had not come out yet. Well, let them take it easy. There would be time enough. In the meantime-he glanced at his gold watch-it would be better if the boys in Turkey Spring Canyon were down here. Maybe he could slip away and ride up there, but it was long, almost twenty miles. The snow was falling faster and faster now, and the ground was white with it.

Johnny Nelson came out and took both horses and led them to the stable. Mesquite lounged just inside the door. Arnold Soper still stood before the corrals, watching the snow and occasionally glancing toward the higher mountains.

Mesquite heard the Mexican cook raking the ashes from her stove and preparing to begin a new fire for the evening meal. Yet it was still early and much could happen. Restlessly, irritably, he got to his feet. If he could only get to Hoppy! At least he could be doing something instead of waiting!

He walked back to the window, and he was standing there watching Soper when suddenly the man started forward and stared toward the mountains. He started to run, ran a few steps, then stopped as two riders raced pell-mell into the yard.

Mesquite stiffened and leaned forward, staring. Neither rider was Hopalong, and from the descriptions neither was Avery Sparr. Yet he could see at a glance that both these men had been hurt and their horses had been run half to death. He went to the door and stepped out on the porch, but could hear nothing of what was said, although both men were talking.

Finally a man came from the bunkhouse and took their horses, and Soper went into the bunkhouse with the new arrivals.

Snow fell softly but thickly in an ever-deepening blanket. Johnny walked from the stable and stood staring down at the snow where the two men had stood, and then he walked on to the house.

"Bleedin'," he said, "both of "em hurt. One of 'em opened a wound on the ride.

"Looks like they caught up with Hoppy," he said grimly, "an" Sparr wasn't one of them. That means that Hopalong is still movin' west."

"Or cornered."

"Let's go find out!"

They started for the door and crowded through it. In swift strides they crossed the snow-covered yard toward the bunkhouse. As they reached the door, it opened, and framed in the doorway was Arnold Soper. He glanced quickly from one to the other. "Don't go in there!" he said sharply.

"There's no need!"

"We want to talk to those hombres that just came in."

"You don't have to. I'll tell you what you need to know." He stepped outside and closed the door behind him.

"Those men were wounded." Mesquite's voice was flat. He was beginning to dislike Soper, and he had never cared for him.

Only before he had been indifferent to the man. Now he was beginning to resent him. .

"That's right." Soper spoke easily. For an instant he had been in a panic. If these two should happen to repeat some of what he had said, it might spoil everything. "Cassidy tricked Sparr. He led some Apaches into Sparr, then slipped away while they were fighting. These men were wounded in that fight.

One than was killed."

"Cassidy got away?"

"Yes. And when these men left they still had not found his trail. Of course by now they probably have. They have a Piute tracker with them." The important thing was that Hopalong was still alive; he was still moving.

Mesquite chuckled as he thought of Hopalong leading the Apaches into Sparr's outfit, who were, if anything, worse than the Apaches.

That was like Hoppy. He was a man who knew how to fight, and when you started anything with him, he went all the way.

"I think," Johnny Nelson said, "we'll go in and talk to them anyway!"

Chapter
11

GUN GHOST
OF THE
GOLD COUNTRY

Arnold Soper hesitated. For an instant his anger had been about to get the better of him, but he realized the futility of that. Nor could he think of any diplomatic way in which the two Double y hands could be kept out of the bunkhouse. "Let them alone!" he protested. "Both men are wounded. They need rest."

"They'll get rest." Mesquite's eyes turned to Soper's, and for an instant the two measured each other. Soper's eyes shifted first and he was furious. "You see," Mesquite added, "Johnny an' me aim to keep up with the news around here. Don't we, Joeyea[*thorn]

"Uh-huh."

Johnny Nelson teetered on his boot heels, his eyes hard but smiling as he looked at Soper.

"We sure do. Figgers to get mighty interestin' aroun' here. An' we sort of figger to stick around," he added, "until Hoppy gets back. If he don't get back, we'll sort of finish what he started comall the way."

The last three words were uttered with his eyes on Soper, and the smooth-talking front man for Avery Sparr felt a strange queasy feeling inside him. There was something about these men comand Hopalong Cassidy inspired the same feeling-that frightened him. No men he had ever seen seemed more ready for trouble. Inside the bunkhouse he could hear low voices as the two men talked.

Maybe he was worrying needlessly, and nothing would be asked or mentioned that would reveal his own story to be lies. There were always ways out, anyway, for a clever man.

"Talk to them if you like," he said carelessly, "but they are merely hands. They don't know anything, but what they suspect is probably plenty. The short one," he added, "is Tony Cuyas, a halfbreed badman from Sonora. The other is Hank Lydon. It was his brother who was killed in that Apache fight."

"Thanks." Mesquite turned to the door.

"We'll be seein' you." He opened the door and stepped through, then to the left. Johnny followed. The two men inside the room looked up, and the calm left their faces as they saw the two strangers.

"Who are you?" Lydon demanded. He was a burly bearded man with cruel eyes.

"Couple of passin' strangers with some questions."