Good men and true, and Hit the line hardRhodes, Eugene Manlove
General
Good men and true, and Hit the line hard
Rhodes, Eugene Manlove
Cowboys -- Fiction; Frontier and pioneer life -- Fiction; New Mexico -- Fiction; Western stories
Supper over, Leo loafed aimlessly; and so became involved in many games
of pool with a person in a voluble plaid vest--who beat him shamefully.
After this hanger-on had been encouraged a few times, a careless
mention of the big man ‘on the bat’ elicited the information that the
big man’s name was Borrowman, that he was off his schedule by reason
of his hilarity, since he usually did night work--running a stationary
engine, the pool shark thought, or something like that--that he was a
sulky swine and several other things.
Ballinger lost enough more games and departed to ’phone Aughinbaugh.
Not getting him, he next sent urgent summons to Billy Beebe’s hotel,
the whereabouts of John Wesley being problematical in the extreme. Mr.
Beebe was not in; but the clerk would deliver any message when he came.
So Leo made an appointment, naming a hostelry in the block adjacent to
the International, whither he repaired, engaged a room and kept sharp
watch till Billy came.
After consultation, Billy registered at the International. Borrowman
had not seen him before, whereas he might easily remember Ballinger’s
face and become suspicious. This was no ordinary chase: an alarm meant,
in this case, not a mere temporary setback, but irremediable disaster.
Leo went to El Paso, left an ad. with the papers, the purport of the
same being that the search was “getting warm for enemy of good men and
true,” and then hunted up Pringle and Aughinbaugh. They returned to
Juarez and there separated, to a loitering patrol of the streets east,
south and north of the International House.
Billy passed a tedious evening in the office and barroom of the
International. At midnight Borrowman had not shown up as expected; it
began to look as though his work had gone by the board for that night.
But he came down shortly before one, little the worse for his liquor,
and set forth at once.
When Borrowman came out he turned east at the first corner. A
little in front of him was a slim and sauntering youth--Aughinbaugh
by name--who presently quickened his pace and drew ahead, keeping
straight on. Far behind, Beebe brought up the rear, and on the next
streets, paralleling the quarry’s course, came Pringle on the north and
Ballinger on the south, with varying gaits; one or the other waiting at
each corner till the chase had crossed between them.
So the pursuit drew on for blocks. Aughinbaugh was far ahead, when,
near the town’s edge, Borrowman turned to the left again, northward
to the river. The chase wheeled with him--Pringle, a block to the
north, crossed the street openly and walked briskly ahead; Billy turned
riverward on the street west of him; Aughinbaugh brought up the east
side, and Ballinger fell in behind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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