Sudden--Strikes Back (A Sudden Western #1) (17 page)

‘
A couple o’ things, Judge. Yu got the time and the contacts; I
don’t. First of all, do yu know what the Slash 8 mortgage
is?’

‘
I’m almost sure it’s fifteen hundred dollars. George wrote me
about it. He was short of ready cash to make improvements so he
negotiated the loan at Hanging Rock, using the ranch as
security.’

‘
Yu got a copy o’ the actual mortgage, Judge?’

‘
No,’ replied the old man, ‘but I can easily get one. Do you
want me to?’

Sudden
nodded, and to himself admired the lawyer’s lack of unnecessary
questioning. He was obviously a powerful and worthwhile ally. They
talked for a while longer, and the judge promised to look into
several matters for which Green could simply not spare the time. As
he said, ‘Nobody’s goin’ to wonder about a lawyer nosin’ around,
but if anyone sees me, it’ll give the game away, an’ I ain’t ready
yet.’

‘
Rely on me,’ Pringle told the Slash 8 man. ‘I’ll do everything
I can.’ The two men shook hands and parted, and Green mounted up
and rode down the broad, busy street of South Bend, through the
town, and out on to the deserted trail towards Thunder Ravine. The
afternoon was already gone, and lights were beginning to twinkle in
the windows of houses up on the hill. Sudden’s mind was busy, for
forming in his mind were the glimmerings of a pattern of evil so
fantastic that he could not properly bring himself to believe it.
But if he were right, there was going to be an explosive show-down
in the not too distant future. ‘An’ the sooner the better,’ he told
himself.

He was
not hurrying; he did not want to reach the gloomy

Thunder
Ravine before full darkness fell, and so he allowed Midnight to
pick his own way and his own speed. Dark indeed it was inside the
inky confines of the ravine. To his left he could hear the hiss and
tumble of the Sweetwater as it rushed across the canyon’s jagged
floor. Midnight stepped daintily along the narrow trail, the sound
of his hoofs echoing from the dripping canyon walls. Without
warning, a voice broke into Sudden’s apparent reverie, and he
looked up to see two shadowy figures blocking the trail ahead of
him.

‘
Stick ’em up, pronto!’ came the barked order.

The
Slash 8 man could just about discern in the darkness the shapes of
the two men, their faces concealed behind bandannas, pistols in
their hands with the muzzles unwaveringly trained upon him. Sudden
raised his hands and, at another command, kicked his feet free from
the stirrups and slid down to the ground. The two men stepped
apart, covering him from both sides; their figures became more
distinct as they came closer.

‘
All right, Green, hand it over!’

‘
Hand what over?’ asked Sudden innocently.

‘
Don’t play dumb,’ snapped the masked man on the right who was
doing all the talking. ‘Hand over the dough yu got for sellin’ yore
herd!’

Sudden
laughed aloud, a sound which caused the two hold-up men to flinch
slightly, and eye their prisoner warily. ‘I ain’t got the money,’
Sudden told his inquisitor. ‘I sent it back with one o’ the
men.’

‘
A likely yam,’ snapped Talker. ‘Frisk him, Ray!’

The man
on the left gritted an oath at his companion. ‘Ain’t yu got more
sense?’ he snarled. .

‘
Get on with it,’ ordered Talker. ‘What diff’rence does it
make, anyway?

‘
None at all,’ agreed Sudden. ‘Pleased to meetcha again, Ray.
How’s yore head?’

The man
Ray did not answer, but with a muttered imprecation, sheathed his
gun and made a rapid, but thorough search of the prisoner. Finding
nothing, he went quickly over the horse: saddle bags, poncho,
everywhere money might have been hidden. There was nothing and he
told his companion so.

‘
I done told yu that already,’ Sudden said reasonably. ‘I guess
yu just been told so many lies in yore life yu wouldn’t know the
truth if it walked up an’ kicked yu.’

Ray
growled beneath his mask, and with an angry gesture turned and
thrust his revolver into Sudden’s face.

‘
Shut yore yap!’ he threatened. ‘I owe yu already—it won’t take
much to talk me into blowin’ out yore light!’

His
movement was a mistake. With a lightning move, Sudden flung his
left arm forward and across, knocking Ray’s gun muzzle wide of his
body. At the same moment, his right hand came up in a short,
jolting arc that caught the bandit Hush on the jaw. Under the
weight of this wicked punch the recipient was hurled backwards,
blundering into his companion, whose hastily fired shot at the
Slash 8 man went wide and whined off the canyon wall. Sudden’s hand
flashed towards his own guns and he drove a bullet into the dark
mass of the outlaw’s body before the man could pull the trigger
again. The man folded down into the darkness of the canyon floor as
Sudden turned, and leaping towards Midnight, was into the saddle
and pounding away to safety before the reeling Ray could realize
what had happened.

Sudden
pushed his horse hard from then on, and reached the ranch without
further incident. Dave met him at the corral where he had been
waiting anxiously for his friend’s return.

‘
I figgered somethin’ o’ the sort was likely,’ Sudden told him
after describing the events in the canyon. ‘I was pretty shore that
word would have been passed to the Shadows that we was makin’ our
drive. I imagine they holed up for us at Thunder Ravine: they musta
got a nasty shock when we didn’t turn up.’

‘
Yeah, but how did they know yu’d be comin’ back that way?’
Larry put in, puzzled.

‘
I told them,’ Sudden smiled. Dave’s blank expression made him
laugh, and he explained. ‘Remember I told yu to spread the word
among the boys about me comin’ back that way?’

‘
Yu mean—one of us passed the word to the Shadows?’

‘
That I do,’ said Sudden, his tone turned grim. ‘Let’s go talk
to him.’

With
these words, the foreman headed with long strides towards the
bunkhouse, where lights in the windows indicated that the Slash 8
crew was not yet abed. There was a chorus of greeting as Sudden
entered the long room, but it died quickly as those present saw the
expression on their foreman’s face. Sudden wasted no time; he
confronted Parr, whose shifty eyes failed to meet the icy gaze
boring into him.

‘
What become o’ yu at the mine, Parr?’ asked Sudden
softly.

‘
I left early,’ was the sullen reply. ‘Figgered my hoss might
go lame again—which it did. The boys got home afore me, in the
end.’

‘
Not surprisin’,’ was the cold comment. ‘Yu took the long way
home.’ Green looked at Parr levelly. ‘I told yu on the drive yu was
through, an’ that goes. Now I’m tossin’ in somethin’ extra. Get off
the Slash 8 an’ don’t come back.’

‘
Yu’ll regret this, Green,’ Spat Parr, meeting Sudden’s gaze
defiantly.

‘
I doubt it,’ was the reply. ‘I ain’t never regretted riddin’
myself o’ liars an’ cowards,’ and then, as Parr made an abortive
move towards his gun, he snapped ‘Don’t go near that unless yu want
to stay here—permanent.’

For a
few seconds, the two men faced each other; there was an astonished
silence in the bunkhouse as the rest of the crew watched the
half-crouched figures in the center of the room.

Then
Parr’s gaze flickered away from the foreman’s. Green had tested him
and found him wanting.

‘
Like I said—yeller,’ sneered Sudden, half turning as if to
walk away.

‘
Damn yu, Green!’ screeched Parr, ‘I’ll—’

He did
not finish the threat, if such it was to have been.

Before
his clutching hand could curl around the butt of his six-gun,
Sudden had whirled like a panther. His left hand clamped upon the
other’s right wrist like a band of steel, while his right seized
Parr’s throat. He shook the man the way a terrier shakes a rat,
back and forth, sinking his steely grip deeper into Parr’s neck.
The other, his face purpling, eyes bulging as Sudden’s grip cut off
his wind, was near suffocation when, with a contemptuous thrust,
the foreman Hung Parr headlong upon the floor. The cowboy lay
there, wheezing and gasping, his tortured lungs laboring for
oxygen. It was some moments before he could stagger to his feet, by
which time Green had counted out some money from the roll which
Dave had handed to him in the corral. He tossed the money at Parr’s
feet.

‘
There’s a month’s pay,’ he snapped, ‘which is forty dollars
more’n yo’re worth. Get yore gear an’ punch the breeze.’

With an
evil look, Parr collected his scant belongings and slouched out,
with Sudden behind him, ready for any further show of resistance.
But the man was beaten; he saddled his horse and disappeared into
the darkness without another word.

Back in
the bunkhouse the crew were discussing the fracas. Dave had told
them quickly of how their foreman had trapped the spy in their
midst.

‘
Holy cow!’ breathed Dobbs. ‘I couldn’t believe I was seein’
it. That Green was actually grinnin’ while he was chokin’
Curt?’

‘
Grinnin’?’ retorted Shorty. ‘I’m bettin’ Parr didn’t find ·it
so funny. Green looked like he was about to pull out Curt’s
windpipe an’ make him eat it!’

‘
I reckon hangin’ won’t be nothin’ new to Parr after that,
hazarded Gimpy. ‘The more I see o’ that feller Green, the gladder I
am he’s on our side.’

‘
Amen to that,’ echoed Shorty, as they put out the lights and
turned in

THE next
morning, Sudden announced to the Slash 8 crew that he was planning
on doing what he called ‘a little pokin’ around’, and without
further elaboration he saddled his black horse, packed a bedroll
and some food, filled a canteen of water, and set out alone towards
the river trail. He had not gone very far, however, when the
thunder of hoofs behind him caused him to pull Midnight to a stop
and await the arrival of a defiant-looking Dave who pulled
alongside him and, with a grin, pointed out that he was coming
along.

‘
Shucks, no tellin' what might happen to yu alone,’ he told his
foreman. ‘I figgered yu’d need a wet-nurse, au’ I done elected
myself.’

Sudden
argued with his young friend for a few moments, but truth to tell,
found himself not sorry to have company. He explained his feelings
to Dave as they rode together along the banks of the
Sweetwater.

‘
I got to thinkin’ about them Shadow
hombres
,’ he explained.
‘All this time everyone’s been figgerin’ they was a big outfit.’
:

‘
So?’ queried Dave.

‘
So use yore noddle and think some,’ retorted Sudden. ‘So far
as I know, nobody’s ever seen more’n four of ’em together in one
place at one time.’

‘
That’s true,’ admitted the younger man, ‘but it don’t prove
nothin’.’

‘
I know,’ said his companion. ‘I’m just playin’ a
hunch.’

‘
Yu figger they could run that kind o’ sandy on the whole
valley, Jim?’

‘
Could be,’ was the non-committal reply. ‘If we don’t find
nothin’, we shore ain’t lost anythin’ by lookin’.’

Dave
nodded his agreement and the two men pushed on along the river. It
was a bright sunny morning, and skylarks warbled brightly from the
grama grass which grew lushly on the floor of the valley. In the
far distance, the rolling peaks of Thunder Mesa thrust blue into
the sky, and, here and there, small bunches of Slash 8 cattle
grazed peacefully. In due course the two men reached the point on
the river where the burbling little stream, which Dave had once
told Sudden was called the Bonito, joined the larger river. Just
above this confluence was a well-marked ford across the river, and
the two men splashed across it and up the far bank. Here, a roughly
painted notice board met their gaze.

BOX B LAND

STAY OFF

THIS MEANS YOU.

‘
Friendly cusses, ain’t they?’ remarked Sudden.

‘
Very. An’ they mean it. Couple o’
hombres
that thought they
didn’t wound up pickin’ lead out o’ their
anatomies.’

‘
Don’t yu fret, little man—we ain’t pickin’ no Box B daisies.
Our trail lies over yonder.’ He gestured towards the left, where a
shifting shimmer of bright heat played across the
horizon.

‘
The Badlands!’ Dave exclaimed. ‘Yu aimin’ to go in
there?’

‘
Shore as yo’re slow on the uptake,’ grinned Sudden. ‘Of
course, if she sounds too much like hard work, yu can allus roll
yore tail back home.’

Dave
shook his head grimly. ‘Nope. I reckon if yo’re fool enough to ride
in there, the least I can do is come with yu to make shore yu don’t
break yore toe or somethin’.’

‘
Right friendly o’ yu,’ grinned Sudden. ‘If I feel faint, I’ll
holler.’

The two
riders moved on, skirting the trail which would have led them down
to the Barclay place, and in a short while were in the barren sandy
wastes of the Badlands. Here, Nature changed her face, and it did
not seem possible that this savage landscape could exist so close
to the pleasant rolling range that they had so recently crossed.
The sun hit the two men like a blow, and bounced off the sparkling
desert floor with the tangible heat of an oven. Dave, glancing at
his companion, saw that the foreman’s face was set in
concentration, his eyes bent downwards in an intense survey of the
faint traces of a trail beneath the feet of the horses.