BOB ate a late supper and walked to the office. Ace, Deuce, and Joe were playing coon can, but stopped the game when he came in.
“Bob,” asked Deuce, “who sawed that good-for-nothin’ shrimp out?”
Bob shrugged and dropped into a chair. “Quien sabe?”
“Look here, Bob,” said Ace seriously. “There ain’t no use beatin’ around the bush. You know who I figger done it? The same fella that Joe declares held up the stage, and the same one who lied when he said there was no fire in that park. Haslam was in the court room, and so was Bradshaw. Dodd was in jail, and you seen that red-headed Shab in the street; but where was Dick?”
“I saw him outside the courthouse right after I got my horse.”
“Was he in the court room when the shootin’ broke out?”
“No, but he might have been in the hall. A lot of men were.”
“Uh-huh. But you didn’t see him. Well, I figger he was the carpenter on the sawin’ job. And I figger that he got Pete down the ladder we found in the store-room and hustled him out the back door and onto a horse.”
Bob answered gloomily, “I hope for june’s sake that you’re wrong.”
“I do too. Sometimes I wonder if she turned him down and soured him on the world.”
“I don’t think so. I believe she cares a lot for him.”
“Then what in time does he want to go actin’ like this for?” asked Deuce angrily. “Dang it! With a gal like that in love with a fella he shouldn’t be able to do anything but go straight. Why, if it was me I’d—I’d—”
“Aw, go blow yore nose!” Ace told him. “You ain’t got nerve enough to go crooked.”
“If I ever do, my first act will be to ventilate a long-legged giraffe named Ace Talbot!”
“Me, I’m theenk Deek ees need money,” said the sagacious Joe. “Haslam ’as bought heem, and now Deek ees w’at you call too deep from get out.”
Bob stared at the Mexican; the same idea had occurred to him more than once. He dismissed the subject with a shrug. “Well, that’s all water over the dam. The thing to do is plan for the next battle. Everyone of that rustlin’ outfit is free today, walkin’ the streets, except Pete Grubb and they’re takin’ care of him. Like Deuce said, he’s the weak sister of the outfit, and they saved him to prevent his squealin’ on the stand.”
“Well, what can we do?”
“Watch the range without letup. I heard them talkin’ about a man named Vandervort who wants a thousand head of rustled cows. They’ll make an effort to find them for him.”
Deuce was skeptical. “After the way we busted up the other drive?”
“Yes. Kurt Dodd and Haslam are both tied to Lariat; they cain’t change their field of operations. In the past they have done well. They just licked us in a court trial and are feelin’ right cocky. Maybe they won’t go at it on such a large scale, but you can bet they’ll still rustle stock.”
“But if we’re watchin’ them all the time—”
“We cain’t watch every spread in the valley. And they’ll work their cattle fast, handling them in small bunches. Tomorrow I’m goin’ up county to look the ground over at Redrock. Pete had a deputy there and I don’t know whether he’s in the ring or not. I’ll see him and talk with him. At the same time I’ll try to get a line on this Vandervort. Ace, suppose you stay in town while I’m gone. Deuce, ride the north side of the valley, with headquarters at the Tumblin’ T. Joe, you patrol the south side. We’ll have to let the stage go for awhile.”
They went outside, and while his deputies went after their horses, Bob strolled down to the Paris. Duke Haslam was seated at a table idly fingering a glass and smoking. Bob dropped into a chair opposite him and regarded him calmly.
Haslam smiled. “You had tough luck today, Lee. My condolences.”
“Keep them. You’re slick, Duke, but I aim to camp on yore trail until I get you dead to rights.”
“Me? What have I to do with it?”
“Just about everything, I reckon. I’ve heard enough and seen enough to convince me that it was yore hand that downed Rutherford, yore brain that planned the stage and bank robberies, and yore decision that condemned me to death in the hills. I’m out to get you, Duke. I aim to dig up enough evidence against you so that even yore own besotted prosecutin’ attorney and dyspeptic judge will have to hand you over to me to hang.”
Haslam’s face blackened. “It seems to me you’re talking too much with your mouth, young fellow. The first thing you know you’re going to make me mad, and then you’ll be sorry you didn’t take my advice about those wide-open spaces to the north, east, south, and west.”
Bob got to his feet. “I’m hopin’ that some day I’ll make you mad enough to come out in the open and quit operatin’ through men and boys that yore money has corrupted.”
He left Haslam fuming and went over to the bar where he had espied Dick Markley. Dick eyed him apprehensively as he slipped in beside him, but Bob spoke pleasantly and ordered two bottles of beer. When they had finished drinking he said, “Dick, I wish you’d come up to the office with me a minute. I got a proposition I want to talk over with you.”
He saw the young man’s eyes waver in Haslam’s direction. “What’s it about, Bob?”
“Can’t talk it over here; somethin’ that will benefit us both.”
Dick eyed him doubtfully, then shrugged. “All right. Lead on, Macduff.”
They walked to Bob’s office, and Lee lighted the lamp on the desk. Both sat down and rolled cigarettes.
“Let her rip,” said Dick.
Bob puffed thoughtfully for a minute. “Dick, I’ve been thinkin’ about gettin’ back into the cattle business.”
Markley, who had expected the subject of the conversation to be along quite different lines, looked up interestedly. “Yeah?”
“Yes. The money I got from Tomlinson is lyin’ idle in the bank. I want to put it to work. But as it is I’m tied up with this sheriff job for some time to come. So I got to thinkin’ that if I could buy into some good outfit I might find somebody to look after my end for a share in the profits.” Dick gave a start, but Bob hurried on. “For instance, suppose I gave you twenty thousand dollars with which to buy an interest in the Tumblin’ T. You’d make out you were buyin’ for yoreself, me bein’ what you might call a silent partner. You’d keep half the profit, and I’d give you the option of buyin’ me out when you’d made enough money to carry it alone. How does that strike you?”
Dick’s voice was slightly choked. “Say that again, Bob.”
“Shore. I give you twenty thousand and you buy an interest in the Tumblin’ T. Half the profit is yores. Nominally you are Tomlinson’s partner. When you save enough to swing the deal, you buy me out. That sets you up in business and lets me put my idle money to work. Easy enough, isn’t it?”
“Too easy.” Dick’s eyes were bright. He got up and walked back and forth. “A share in the Tumblin’ T; a chance to run my own iron and boss my own men; a decent livin’ so that I can—” He broke off and came over to where Lee sat watching. “Bob, you old son-of-a-gun, I know why you’re doin’ this.” His voice broke and for a moment he fought for control. “I know why you’re doin’ it, and I’m goin’ to take yore offer. I’m ridin’ out to the Tumblin’ T tonight—now. Where’s my hat?”
Bob grinned. “On yore head. I’m glad, Dick. And don’t think I’m givin’ you all the best of it. You’ll make things hum on that spread.”
When Dick had gone, Bob leaned back in his chair and relaxed. He had given the boy his chance. Dick would surely cut himself off from his vicious associates now, would plunge into the work of the ranch, would be in a position to ask June to marry him.
The light in Bob’s eyes died, the softened lines of his face ironed out. Dick would marry June. That hurt; hurt like the devil. And yet, what else could he expect? Dick loved her and she loved him; they would be very happy together. And Bob, loving June as he did, could do no less than assure her the happiness to which she was entitled. But God! how it hurt.
The cigarette in his fingers burned out. He pinched it absently and dropped it on the floor. Slowly he got up and threw back his shoulders. He forced a grin. It was the only way. At least he had cheated Haslam; Dick was beyond his power now. The thought brought some measure of comfort.
Outside the Paris, Dick, about to swing into the saddle, stopped, removed his foot from the stirrup, and, glancing quickly about, pulled out his shirt and unbuckled Cole Bradshaw’s money belt. With it doubled up in his hand he walked steadily into the saloon. Haslam was still at the table.
Dick strode quickly to him and dropped the money belt before him. “It’s all there but thirty dollars,” he said tersely. “I’ll pay you that in a few days. I’m through, Duke, and this time neither you nor yore liquor can change me.”
Duke looked up at him, his lip curling. “You’ll squeal, I suppose?”
“I ought to slap yore face for that!”
“How about that confession?”
“Use it, and I’ll drop you in yore tracks the first time I see you.” He turned on his heel and walked out.
The distance to the Tumbling T never seemed longer; in reality, he covered it in probably quicker time than on the night of the bank robbery. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the light in the living room. As he swung off his horse, the door opened and June stood revealed in the yellow rectangle of light. Dick sprang up the steps and took both her hands.
“June, I got the greatest news for you! Bob told me to keep it to myself, but I got to tell you. Come over here and sit down.” He urged her to a shadowed end of the gallery and almost forced her into a rocker. Dropping into a chair he hitched it close to hers, bent forward earnestly.
“June, he just made me an offer that almost bowled me over. He wants me to invest the money he got from yore dad for the ranch. Offered to let me have it to buy into yore dad’s spread. Half the profit it to be mine. It means independence, a future, a chance to—to tell you somethin’ that otherwise I would have to keep to myself.”
“Dick, that’s wonderful. What a friend he is!”
“Ain’t he, though! June, I don’t know what to do. I’ve been wild and wicked and everything else, all because I needed money. I’ve stolen, I’ve double-crossed Bob, I’ve been everything I shouldn’t. But that’s past. That night I promised to go straight I went to—to the boss and told him I was through. He had somethin’ he held over me, and talked me out of it. He cain’t do it again. I told him so; dared him to do his worst.”
“Dick, I’m proud of you. I knew you could do it. I wanted you to so much. Bob has stood by you staunchly, loyally. You’ll never have another friend like him.”
“I know it, and I feel very mean and awfully little. But that’s gone now. I’m through. And June, all I did, wrong as it was, was for you. No, don’t stop me! I loved you, June; loved you from the first moment I saw you in your father’s camp with the firelight shinin’ in yore hair. I knew then that I’d never be able to do without you. But as the days went by and I realized how little I had to offer you, I began to worry how I could make some money quick. I let this man I called the boss talk me into joinin’ up with him. I was to get ten thousand dollars at the end of the year, and then I was to be free. June, I had to take it! Ten thousand dollars meant everything to me. And it was to be only for a year.”
“Did you believe that? Did you believe he would release you?”
“What else could he do?”
“A moment ago you said he held something over you. Something that made you go on. Don’t you see that at the end of the year he’d have had just that much more?”
“Yes, but he’d have to release me. If he didn’t, well, I reckon I would have settled with him.”
“And added murder to your other wrongdoings.”
“It wouldn’t have been murder. The man who kills him will be doin’ a public service. But, as I said, that’s over. He paid me a thousand dollars in advance; I returned it to him this evenin’. Tomorrow I’ll come out and talk to yore father, and then—”
“Father will be glad to take you in with him,” said June hastily. “He isn’t old, but he needs a younger man to furnish the energy and drive.”
“And can I work! June, girl, this old place will hum. And then, as I was goin’ to say, after everything is settled, I’m goin’ to ask you to make things complete by—marryin’me.”
“Dick!”
“Shore! Didn’t I tell you that I’ve been in love with you ever since I’ve seen you? Of course, it’s only been a couple of weeks, but I figure that when a fella meets the one woman he don’t need to know her for six years to find it out. No, sir, I didn’t. And June, honey—”
“Dick—please!” The distress in her voice halted him. He reached out and took her hand. She was trembling.
“Why, June honey, what’s the matter? You do love me, don’t you? Why, shucks! You took up for me, and you encouraged me, and you stuck by me and refused to tell what a skunk I was! Why—why—June, girl, you do love me, don’t you?”
“Dick, you make it so difficult!”
“What do you mean?”
“I like you; I do indeed! And I am interested in you; I want you to go straight, and I’d like to think that I had helped you. But, Dick, I can’t marry you. I wish I could! I wish I cared for you in the way you want me to, but I don’t.”
“You—don’t—love me?” Dick appeared to be stunned.
“Not that way, Dick. Oh, I’m sorry if I gave you the impression that I did! I tried to help you for Bob’s sake. It was such a pity to see your fine friendship spoiled. He believed in you, Dick, and I wanted you to be worthy of his loyalty. I thought that if you had made a misstep perhaps you would realize it before it was too late. I tried to help—to encourage.”
Dick’s voice was husky. “And you did—what you did—for Bob.”
“Yes.”
“You love him.”
“I always have, Dick.”
Markley got to his feet and stood, lean and rigid, before her. “He tricked me then! Sent me here to make a fool of myself!”
“That isn’t so. He doesn’t know how I feel toward him. For all I know he doesn’t care for me at all. Please, Dick, let’s be sensible. Take this opportunity that Bob has offered you; take it and make good. I’ll be your friend; I’ll help all I can.”
“Friend!” Dick’s laugh was short, bitter. “That’s usually what the girl offers her rejected suitors, ain’t it? Friend! No, I won’t take his offer. How could I? To be near you every day; to see you—talk with you, always rememberin’ that I must keep my hand from touchin’ yores, look at you like you were my sister, act like it didn’t matter whether you were near me or a mile away! No, I won’t take his offer.”
June got to her feet and put her hands firmly on his shoulders. “Dick, listen to me. If you don’t feel like buying in with father, speak with Mr. Enright or Mr. Trumbauer. Buy in somewhere. If you value my love so highly isn’t my friendship, my respect, worth something? Dick, tell me that it is; tell me that you’re through with this wild, irresponsible life. There are other girls far worthier of your love than I. In time—”
“Not in ten thousand years! There’ll never be another for me.”
“Dick, I’m terribly sorry.”
“Don’t go to pit yin’ me. I hate pity. I ain’t the first one got the mitten.” He turned away, but she grasped him by an arm and held him.
“Not that way, Dick. Tell me you’re not angry; promise that you’ll go straight. Please!”
Dick’s face was stony. “I’ll promise nothin’. I’m done with promises. From now on I live my life in my own way.” He turned, went down the steps, and, flinging himself into the saddle, spurred his horse to a fast run.
Straight to the Kady he headed, jaw set, eyes hard and cold. He was mortally hurt, stabbed to the quick; for once in his willful life he had been brought up short on the very verge of achievement, and his reaction was one of stubborn, reckless resentment.
At the Dodd ranch he was challenged, recognized, and passed. He flung himself from his horse and strode into the front room. Duke Haslam, Kurt Dodd, Cole Bradshaw, and Shab Cannon were seated around a table.
Haslam spoke quietly. “Hello, Dick. Change yore mind?”
Dick crossed the floor, took a bottle from the mantel and drank long and deeply. Putting it back he turned to the table.
“What’s in the wind?” he asked coldly.
“Plenty,” answered Haslam. “I’ll tell you about it. And while I think of it—” He drew the money belt from his pocket and dropped it on the table.