Johnny Nelson: How a one-time pupil of Hopalong Cassidy of the famous Bar-20 ranch in the Pecos Valley performed an act of knight-errantry and what came of itMulford, Clarence Edward
General
Johnny Nelson: How a one-time pupil of Hopalong Cassidy of the famous Bar-20 ranch in the Pecos Valley performed an act of knight-errantry and what came of it
Mulford, Clarence Edward
Cowboys -- Fiction; Ranch life -- Fiction; Western stories
"Mebby; but I'm not sayin' till I know," snapped Wolf, pacing again.
"I'm askin' you: Do you figger ropin' an' kidnappin' Wolf Forbes was
any one-man job? Is there any man in this country that would tackle
that job, alone, for th' fun of it? Yo're right. I says not, too. An'
if he didn't do it for th' fun of it, would he 'a' dared tackle it, at
all? What I mean is, if he did it to get rid of me, wouldn't he 'a'
killed me from that ambush. I'm tellin' you he'd 'a' figgered it would
be a lot safer to shoot me, for there wouldn't be th' risk at th' time,
an' th' dead shore danger of th' comeback. One man, alone, would 'a'
shot; three or four might 'a' took a chance with th' rope. I'm ridin'
to town to learn for shore; an' I'm ridin' now. Carson, saddle me that
hoss, while I get th' guns I want. Gimme a drink of yore flask, Tom."
"You shore you want it?"
"Gimme a drink. I know what I want."
In a few minutes he rode north at a dead run, headed for the
over-mountain trail, and it was not until he was gone that the foreman
realized that he had not told his puncher a word about the events which
had taken place during his absence.
Wolf crossed the mountain, turned to the left, and went around Gunsight
on the west, heading back toward town to approach it on its blind side.
He rode up behind the hotel shed, dismounted and crept along it, and
as he passed a crack in the warped boards his eye caught a movement,
and he stopped to peer through the crack. Two-Spot was crawling out
from under the saloon. Arising to his feet, the tramp looked carefully
around for signs of any of Cimarron's outfit who might have come after
him, and then slipped through Dave's rear door.
The watcher stiffened, and a sudden thought sent his rage up to the
border line of madness. Two-Spot's mysterious sleeping quarters were
no longer a mystery to him. His eyes swept the side of the saloon, and
the narrow space between its foundation sills and the ground. This
open space ran along three sides of the building and he knew that a
man under the floor could see the feet and ankles of anyone who passed
along the building. Returning to his horse he mounted and rode off the
way he had come, careful to keep the shed between him and Dave's rear
wall. Reaching an arroyo, he dropped into it and followed it until far
enough from town, and then, keeping under the cover of hills and brush,
he emerged upon the trail and loped along it into Gunsight. Dismounting
in front of Dailey's, he walked swiftly and quietly toward Dave's,
bending low to keep under the two front windows, and paused at the door
to listen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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