Chapter Twelve

Ed Wayne was smoking a thick, black cigar. Jim Hunter was sticking to his brown-paper cigarettes, which he rolled, lit, and relit at constant intervals. The men spoke in tones that hardly carried beyond the table at which they sat.

“You know, I’m not expecting you to tell me anything, Jim,” old Ed was saying, “unless you want to. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you, and, when I saw you last, you were jake, so far as I knew.”

“I played the game,” said Hunter. “I never could get the start you did because I was too wild. I needed something to take it out of me, but that something never came along. I was fast with my gun and tough with my fists, and I needed excitement as much as I needed food. I kept on that trail, and it’s a trail that’s bound to lead to one of two things … soft money, as they call it, or a six-foot trench, providing they’re decent enough to bury you. I’ve had one foot in the trench for a number of years now, Ed.”

The stockman nodded. “They tell me you’re running with Darling,” he said casually. “Just how bad is Darling, Jim?”

Hunter’s gaze never flinched. “He’s as bad as they make ’em,” he said simply. “That’s talk you’ll understand from me, Ed.”

Ed Wayne nodded again. “So I’ve heard. That’s about all I’m going to ask you about him. You could tell me a lot more, but I don’t see why you should.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t.” Hunter smiled grimly.

“You know, Jim, I didn’t send for you to ask about Darling, or his gang, or what they’re up to. I sent to ask you to do me a favor … a personal favor. You’ll remember … now, I hate to bring this up, Jim … but you’ll remember back some years I had a chance to lend you a hand, and …”

“Put it straight,” Hunter broke in. “You saved my life at the risk of your own, and against big odds, to boot, Ed. We shook on my promise to come if you ever needed me. I’m here, and glad of the chance to make my promise good if I can.”

“That wasn’t the only reason why I sent for you,” old Ed said slowly. “You’re about the only man I know who I believe can do what I want done, and do it right. Besides that, I’ve got to have a man I can trust. I feel that I can trust you, Jim. And I’ve got to have a man who is tough, tough as cactus, Jim, and with plenty of spine. I reckon that’s you, too. This is going to be delicate business, Jim, if you take the job on.”

“Sounds interesting,” was Hunter’s comment. “You’ve got to be guessing both way from the jack. It … maybe you want to hire my gun, Ed?” Hunter’s gaze was keen.

But the rancher shook his head. “Not exactly,” he said. “You might have to use it, but I hope not. I’m hoping there won’t have to be any shooting, but I’ve got my doubts. And maybe I’m making a mistake, dang it! But you know you said you were following a wild trail when we were younger, and nothing happened to steer you off it?”

“That was the way it was,” Hunter affirmed.

“Well, Jim,” said old Ed earnestly, leaning toward the other man with his hands on his knees, “that’s just the situation my boy Ted is in. He’s wilder than an electric storm, and I need a lightning rod. Now … do you begin to see what I’m getting at?”

Hunter was silent for a spell. “You want me to be the lightning rod,” he decided aloud.

“You’ve hit it.” The stockman nodded. “I suppose it’s a whole lot my own fault that Ted’s so wild. I haven’t kept any check rein on him. He can’t go to town without getting into some kind of a mess. He was in one a few days ago after the Fourth. I don’t know what it was and I don’t want you to tell me, if you know. I told him I wouldn’t let anyone else tell me after I refused to let him tell me himself. Yes, I can see by your look that you know about it. I reckon it was bad. I can tell a lot by the way men act and what I see in their eyes. Ted showed it was bad, and my foreman, McCurdy, showed it was bad. I’ll let him tell me about it in case there’s something I should do. But these scrapes he gets into have got me worried. Sooner or later there’s going to be a shooting, and you know what that means. I’ve got a big ranch here, Jim, and it’s stocked to the limit, almost, with good cattle. I haven’t got a scrub in my herds. I want Ted to have all this someday, but I don’t want him to pass out before he can get it, and I don’t want him to throw it away after he gets it. That’s why I sent for you.”

“I can understand everything except what it is that you can possibly want me to do,” said Hunter, genuinely surprised. “If it’s a lecture, you should know better. I know that young fellow’s stock and he isn’t bad.”

“Not yet,” said old Ed gravely. “No, I don’t want you to try any silly lecture. I want you to take him out and give him what he wants till he gets his fill of it, and shows it by his own actions. Now, if you think that isn’t a big order, I’ll tell you that the wages will be ten thousand dollars and expenses, with no limit on the last.”

Hunter raised his brows. “It’s a big order,” he confessed. “Just how far would you want me to go?”

“Go the limit,” replied Ed Wayne tersely. “Give him all this wild stuff he wants … the wilder the better! I’ll even pay the gambling bills. If this experiment turns out all right, and brings Ted to his senses, fifty thousand will be cheap.”

“When you say the limit, you’re saying a mouthful, Ed,” said Hunter. “And it’ll get around that he’s traveling in fast company. Folks’ll talk. It’ll hurt, Ed.”

“That may all be, but if the boy has the stuff in him, he’ll work out the solution. I’m banking on Wayne stock, and Ted has it, Jim. If he doesn’t come through …” Old Ed looked steadily into Hunter’s eyes. “I’d just as soon lose him,” he finished soberly.

Hunter pursed his lips. In his quiet tone, Ed Wayne had succeeded in putting tremendous feeling, possibly without realizing it. Hunter was struck by the gravity of the mission that the rancher wished to entrust to him. He hadn’t told him about Ted’s adventure in the badlands near the butte, or his night adventure in town. He felt that the stockman should know about these affairs, for, if Hunter took Ted in charge, he would be sure to meet up with trouble in the same direction again. That would mean but one thing: gun play. He cleared his throat. “How do you know Ted will fall in with this idea?” he asked.

“I’m not goin’ to let him suspect anything,” said Ed Wayne. “I’m going to make him think he’s doing it of his own accord. I’m going to make him mad, Jim … deliberately make him mad. He’s sort of quick-tempered, anyway … gets it from me, I suppose. It’s up to you to steer him. Lead him along by easy stages. Put him right in with the Darling gang.”

Hunter half started from his chair, his eyes wide. “You don’t want me to go that far, do you?” he gasped. “That outfit isn’t just bad, it’s wicked.”

“I know,” said old Ed grimly. “They’re a bunch of cutthroats, without principle, without scruples, and, so far as I know, without fear. A month with a bunch like that would cure him.”

Hunter smiled wryly. “You seem to have a good line on ’em, Ed,” he said quietly.

“I think I have, Jim. And that’s why nobody could make me believe that you’re in with Darling clear up to the hilt. For one thing, I don’t believe you’d rustle cattle. You know I’ve naturally got more respect for a man who’d touch a bank or an express shipment than I’d have for one who’d trail a loose rope.”

Hunter frowned. “Suppose we leave me out of it so far as anything except your proposition is concerned,” he suggested coldly. “I’m telling you straight that I haven’t sprouted any wings since you knew me last. Maybe you’re picking the wrong man for this job.”

“I’m willing to take the chance,” said the rancher firmly. “If you don’t want to tackle the job, say so. I don’t want any half measures, which is why I sent for you. But it’s a big order, like I said, and you won’t make me sore if you turn it down. In fact, I half expect it.”

“I can’t turn it down!” exclaimed Hunter, his frown deepening. “That’s the devil of it. I don’t feel that I could trust the job to anybody else, even if you could find somebody. You’ve got me interested in this thing in a personal way. You know, I suppose”—his tone became whimsical and he looked at Ed Wayne quizzically—“that I’ve got a reputation over east as a gunman and suspected outlaw?”

“Seems I heard something to that effect.” Old Ed nodded. “I’m more than just a member of the Cattlemen’s Association, you know.”

“Your investigation department isn’t any too well informed,” said Hunter dryly. “I suppose Pete Arnold’s head is stuffed with information. He’s the woman gossip breed.”

“I don’t know anything about that, Jim,” said old Ed. “I’ve never gossiped with him. And I don’t think he’s got much use for Ted, since Ted and Polly Arnold are pretty thick.”

Hunter looked up quickly. “So? Well, Arnold and me never could run in the same traces.” He paused, and old Ed remained silent. “I guess I’ll have to take this job on, Ed,” he said finally. “Now then, how’re we goin’ to go about it?”

For another half hour they talked in low tones. Ed Wayne brought forth a bottle of old bourbon and they took a drink. Then Hunter went to the bunkhouse where he was to sleep.

* * * * *

Ted Wayne had thought better of the impulse to burst in upon his father and Jim Hunter. After all, just what did he want to know from Hunter that he had the right to ask? He couldn’t very well delve into the man’s personal affairs openly. Even if he was certain and had proof of all he suspected, he could not bring the older man to task about it. He had been sent to find Hunter and deliver his father’s request that Hunter come to see him. This he had done, Hunter had agreed, and there Ted’s interest in the man’s business should end, except as to natural curiosity. Hunter would be leaving shortly and Ted regretted that his acquaintance with such an interesting character should come to an end.

He inquired for Jack McCurdy, but the foreman was out on the range. He walked about the courtyard between the ranch buildings and was in front of the big barn when Hunter came out of the ranch house and crossed to the bunkhouse. Wayne wondered just how much Hunter had told his father, but refrained from asking. He went into the living room. It was vacant, but the light was shining from the little office opening off from it. When Ted was seated across the desk from his parent, he found it was not to be so easy to say what he thought he had to say as he had expected.

“Well, I found him,” he ventured by way of an opening.

“Yes, Hunter says you caught up with him in the badlands over there,” his father remarked, examining a paper on his desk.

Then Hunter hadn’t said anything about the trouble near the butte, Ted thought. “It wasn’t as easy as you may think,” he said with a frown. “Did Hunter tell you anything about the trouble I had in finding him?”

“He said you missed him in town and had to chase out after him,” his father replied.

“Oh, yes?” Ted was irritated to hear this. “Well, it wasn’t my fault, in a way, that I missed him in town. You put so much mystery into this thing, along with your friend Miles Henseler over there, that I wanted to be dead sure I had the right man before I tackled him. That’s one reason why I missed him in town, and the other is because Henseler stalled me off.”

“He must have known what he was doing,” said Ed Wayne calmly.

“What’s the idea in all this mystery about Hunter, anyway?” Ted demanded. “It seems to me, if he’s such a dangerous person, and so touchy and all that, that you could have given me more of a line on him and how to go about your job.”

“You seem to have done very well,” his father observed.

“Is this Hunter in with that Darling outfit?” asked Ted.

His father raised his eyes for the first time since Ted had started speaking. “Just why do you ask that?” he countered.

“Because it looks to me as if he is,” Ted retorted stoutly. “What’s he hanging around Rainbow and those badlands for? There’s only one outfit that stays in the badlands over there any length of time, and that’s Darling’s gang. I can’t see why the owner of the WP should be wanting to see a member of that crowd.”

His father’s eyes grew cold. “We’ve known each other a long time,” he said slowly, looking Ted in the eyes. “We knew each other before you were born. I’m not sure what he’s doing now, but I was sure of what he did in the days when we were more or less together. That’s one reason why I wanted to see him, and the other doesn’t concern you. You can tell me something, though.”

“What’s that?” Ted asked angrily.

“Who’d you have this last fight in Riverdale with?”

“Haven’t you heard yet?” Ted’s brows went up. “Didn’t Hunter tell you?”

“I didn’t ask him to tell me, and I haven’t heard,” replied his father sternly. “I don’t mind saying that I might have let you tell me the other morning if you hadn’t lit out so early, and I did ask McCurdy, who wisely kept his mouth shut. So now you can tell me yourself.” His eyes shot the question.

“Jake Barry!” Ted exploded. “That’s who I had the fight with. Maybe you know how tough he is. I saw to it that we discarded our guns and the only way I could get the best of him was to close both his eyes so he couldn’t see. I suppose you know that he is one of Darling’s men.”

His father’s eyes were snapping. It was no mean trick to beat Barry in an encounter, and he felt rather inclined to be proud. But he couldn’t permit this feeling to interfere with his plan. The fact that it was Barry, however, who Ted had made an enemy worried him a little.

“I suppose it started in the usual way,” he said sarcastically.

“I don’t know just what that crack means, but Barry started it with his mouth,” said Ted, his face darkening. “I don’t think you’d have wanted me to take the slurs he shot at me. Tried to make out he was drunk, but I know the whole thing was intentional, although I don’t know why.” Ted was mad.

“It seems as though somebody is always picking on you,” his father observed. “This last stunt wasn’t very wise. Barry isn’t a good choice for an enemy.”

Ted stared at his parent with a look of incredulity, as if he were trying to believe his own ears. “You mean to say I … I should have stood there … and taken it?” he stammered, his face turning red.

Old Ed looked at the narrow slip of paper he was fondling. “You should use judgment in these affairs, if you have to have them, which I take it you do,” he said tersely. “I won’t stand for this continual round of brawls any longer. Every stockman on the range is wondering why I’ve stood for it so long. You’ve got so wild you’re practically no use on the ranch.”

“Then I better get off of it!” Ted exclaimed hotly.

“Maybe you’d better,” said his father. His tone was quiet but decisive. “You seem to want to run wild, so go and run wild.” He pushed the slip of paper across the desk. “There’s my check for five thousand dollars. You won’t have any trouble cashing it. If you don’t take it, I’ll know you’re a fool and not independent. Go ahead and run wild somewhere else besides around here. Take up with Hunter, if you think he’s so bad. He might be able to teach you a few tricks, at that.” The stockman smiled wryly, then he looked at Ted coldly. “There’s just one thing to remember … don’t come back here unless you’re ready.”

Ted’s first impulse as he fingered the check was to tear it up and throw the pieces into his father’s face. Instead, on second thought, he folded it carefully and stowed it in a pocket. “I guess it’ll be worth a loan of five thousand to get rid of me, the way you feel,” he said grimly. “I’ll be going in the morning.”

His face was white as he left the little office and went out upon the porch into the cool night air. But his mind, angry as he was, was made up instantly. He would take his father’s dare. He would trail with Hunter, if Hunter would let him. If he wouldn’t, he would follow him, anyway. For the first time in his life he was completely on his own. Adventure spread its far-flung carpet of mystery before him, and he stepped out upon it.