People ran to the livery yard, peered in and then, seeing nothing but
those still bodies, they gained courage and crowded forward. A man,
mounted on a dun, swung from his saddle, pushed through the crowd,
glanced at the bodies, and gave a sigh of relief.
"The Wolf made his kill," he said grimly. Then catching sight of the
hostler, he grinned at him and added: "What yuh think of Jim now?"
"He ain't human," the hostler said. "He was laughin' horrible--jumpin'
about like a grasshopper, and his guns goin' so fast I couldn't see
'em. No, sir, he ain't no man, nor wolf, neither, 'cause he ain't like
nothin' possible."
Jack Allen turned his prisoners over to the local sheriff and then told
the story as told to him by Boston Jack. This was later corroborated by
two of the wounded rustlers.
It had been Boston Jack who had discovered that hidden valley. Spur
Treadwell had refused to go with him unless things were so arranged
that no one, except Boston Jack and One-wing McCann, knew of his
connection with the rustling. They had blotted the Double R brands,
driven the stolen cattle into the Nations, then swung them about and
sold them back to old man Reed. Slivers Hart's ranch was too close to
the secret entrance to the valley, so Boston and Spur Treadwell framed
him for murder, drove him from the country, and later bought his ranch.
After that things were easy. Men each night kept the cattle drifting
from the south of the range to the north, so it was easy for the
rustlers to drive fifty or a hundred head each night into the hidden
valley. Later, after Dot Reed had been forced to sell and the three had
bought the ranch through an agent, they planned to return the cattle
from the hidden valley to the open range. It was arranged that the day
after Dot Reed signed away her ranch, Spur was to collect a number of
honest punchers and raid the valley, wipe out the rustlers, and thus
remove all men who even suspected his dishonesty. Boston Jack, of
course, would not be there. But Boston Jack, when the valley was raided
by Allen's men, believed that Spur had tried to double cross him and
get rid of him at the same time he removed the rustlers. Hence, he had
told what he knew.
"An' who killed old man Reed?" Slivers asked.
"The twins," said Jack. "Then they killed the two rustlers, who, they
thought, knew too much, and so they downed two thirds with one
stone--got rid of Mr. Reed and silenced two tongues."
Dot Reed, her arm around Slivers, had listened in silence.
"And where is the--the Jim Allen now? I want to thank him," she said.
"I'm goin' to join him pronto--but he won't come back here, I reckon,"
Toothpick said, with a grin at the sheriff.
"You know where he is?" the sheriff asked sharply.
"Yuh figurin' on arrestin' him?" Toothpick asked sarcastically.
"Yuh is a fool if yuh does," the hostler warned. "'Cause your family
will sure wear crape if yuh starts after him. I tells yuh the little
devil ain't human."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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