Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round-Up Part 21

"I don't know, but I wants to ask yu how yu got mine," replied Mr.

Travennes.

"Yu tell me how mine got out an' I'll tell yu how yourn got in,"

countered Mr. Ca.s.sidy.

Mr. Connors added another to his collection before the captain replied.

"Out in this country people get in trouble when they're found with other folks' cayuses," Mr. Travennes suggested.

Mr. Ca.s.sidy looked interested and replied: "Yu sh.o.r.e ought to borrow some experience, an' there's lots floating around. More than one man has smoked in a powder mill, an' th' number of them planted who looked in th' muzzle of a empty gun is scandalous. If my remarks don't perculate right smart I'll explain."

Mr. Travennes looked down the street again, saw number five added to the line-up, and coughed up chunks of broken profanity, grieving his host by his lack of courtesy.

"Time," announced Mr. Ca.s.sidy, interrupting the round. "I wants them cayuses an' I wants 'em right now. Yu an' me will amble off an' get 'em. I won't bore yu with tellin' yu what'll happen if yu gets skittish.

Slope along an' don't be scared; I'm with yu," a.s.sured Mr. Ca.s.sidy as he looked over at Mr. Connors, whose ascetic soul pined for the flapjacks of which his olfactories caught intermittent whiffs.

"Well, Red, I reckons yu has got plenty of room out here for all yu may corral; anyhow there ain't a whole lot more. My friend Slim an' I are sh.o.r.e going to have a devil of a time if we can t find them cussed bronchs. Whew, them flapjacks smell like a plain trail to payday. Just think of th' nice maple juice we used to get up to Cheyenne on them frosty mornings."

"Get out of here an' lemme alone! 'What do yu allus want to go an' make a feller unhappy for? Can't yu keep still about grub when yu knows I ain't had my morning's feed yet?" Asked Mr. Connors, much aggrieved.

"Well, I'll be back directly an' I'll have them cayuses or a scalp. Yu tend to business an' watch th' herd. That shorthorn yearling at th'

end of th' line"--pointing to a young man who looked capable of taking risks--"he looks like he might take a chance an' gamble with yu,"

remarked Mr. Ca.s.sidy, placing Mr. Travennes in front of him and pus.h.i.+ng back his own sombrero. "Don't put too much maple juice on them flapjacks, Red," he warned as he poked his captive in the back of the neck as a hint to get along. Fortunately Mr. Connors' closing remarks are lost to history.

Observing that Mr. Travennes headed south on the quest, Mr. Ca.s.sidy reasoned that the missing bronchos ought to be somewhere in the north, and he postponed the southern trip until such time when they would have more leisure at their disposal. Mr. Travennes showed a strong inclination to shy at this arrangement, but quieted down under persuasion, and they started off toward where Mr. Ca.s.sidy firmly believed the North Pole and the cayuses to be.

"Yu has got quite a metropolis here," pleasantly remarked Mr. Ca.s.sidy as under his direction they made for a distant corral. "I can see four different types of architecture, two of 'em on one residence," he continued as they pa.s.sed a wood and adobe hut. "No doubt the railroad will put a branch down here some day an' then yu can hire their old cars for yore public buildings. Then when yu gets a post-office yu will sh.o.r.e make Chicago hustle some to keep her end up. Let's a.s.say that hollow for horse-hide; it looks promisin'."

The hollow was investigated but showed nothing other than cactus and baked alkali. The corral came next, and there too was emptiness. For an hour the search was unavailing, but at the end of that time Mr. Ca.s.sidy began to notice signs of nervousness on the part of his guest, which grew less as they proceeded. Then Mr. Ca.s.sidy retraced their steps to the place where the nervousness first developed and tried another way and once more returned to the starting point.

"Yu seems to hanker for this fool exercise," quoth Mr. Trayennes with much sarcasm. "If yu reckons I'm fond of this locoed ramblin' yu sh.o.r.e needs enlightenment."

"Sometimes I do get these fits," confessed Mr. Ca.s.sidy, "an' when I do I'm dead sore on objections. Let's peek in that there hut," he suggested.

"Huh; yore ideas of cayuses are mighty peculiar. Why don't you look for 'em up on those cactuses or behind that mesquite? I wouldn't be a heap surprised if they was roostin' on th' roof. They are mighty knowing animals, cayuses. I once saw one that could figger like a schoolmarm,"

remarked Mr. Travennes, beginning sarcastically and toning it down as he proceeded, out of respect for his companion's gun.

"Well, they might be in th' shack," replied Mr. Ca.s.sidy. "Cayuses know so much that it takes a month to unlearn them. I wouldn't like to bet they ain't in that hut, though."

Mr. Travennes snickered in a manner decidedly uncomplimentary and began to whistle, softly at first. The gentleman from the Bar-20 noticed that his companion was a musician; that when he came to a strong part he increased the tones until they bid to be heard at several hundred yards.

When Mr. Travennes had reached a most pa.s.sionate part in "Juanita" and was expanding his lungs to do it justice he was rudely stopped by the insistent pressure of his guard's Colt's on the most ticklish part of his ear.

"I sh.o.r.e wish yu wouldn't strain yoreself thataway," said Mr. Ca.s.sidy, thinking that Mr. Travennes might be endeavoring to call a.s.sistance. "I went an' promised my mother on her deathbed that I wouldn't let n.o.body whistle out loud like that, an' th' opery is hereby stopped. Besides, somebody might hear them mournful tones an' think that something is th'

matter, which it ain't."

Mr. Travennes subst.i.tuted heartfelt cursing, all of which was heavily accented.

As they approached the hut Mr. Ca.s.sidy again tickled his prisoner and insisted that he be very quiet, as his cayuse was very sensitive to noise and it might be there. Mr. Ca.s.sidy still thought Mr. Travennes might have friends in the hut and wouldn't for the world disturb them, as he would present a splendid target as he approached the building.

CHAPTER XIV. The Tale of a Cigarette

The open door revealed three men asleep on the earthen floor, two of whom were Mexicans. Mr. Ca.s.sidy then for the first time felt called upon to relieve his companion of the Colt's which so sorely itched that gentleman's thigh and then disarmed the sleeping guards.

"One man an' a half," murmured Mr. Ca.s.sidy, it being in his creed that it took four Mexicans to make one Texan.

In the far corner of the room were two bronchos, one of which tried in vain to kick Mr. Ca.s.sidy, not realizing that he was ten feet away. The noise awakened the sleepers, who sat up and then sprang to their feet, their hands instinctively streaking to their thighs for the weapons which peeked contentedly from the bosom of Mr. Ca.s.sidy's open s.h.i.+rt. One of the Mexicans made a lightning-like grab for the back of his neck for the knife which lay along his spine and was shot in the front of his neck for his trouble. The shot spoiled his aim, as the knife flashed past Mr. Ca.s.sidy's arm, wide by two feet, and thudded into the door frame, where it hummed angrily.

"The only man who could do that right was th' man who invented it, Mr.

Bowie, of Texas," explained Mr. Ca.s.sidy to the other Mexican. Then he glanced at the broncho, that was squealing in rage and fear at the shot, which sounded like a cannon in the small room, and laughed.

"That's my cayuse, all right, an' he wasn't up no cactus nor roostin' on th' roof, neither. He's th' most affectionate beast I ever saw. It took me nigh onto six months afore I could ride him without fighting him to a standstill," said Mr. Ca.s.sidy to his guest. Then he turned to the horse and looked it over. "Come here! What d'yu mean, acting thataway? Yu ragged end of nothin' wobbling in s.p.a.ce! Yu wall-eyed, ornery, locoed guide to Hades! Yu won't be so frisky when yu've made them seventy hot miles between here an' Alkaline in five hours," he promised, as he made his way toward the animal.

Mr. Travennes walked over to the opposite wall and took down a pouch of tobacco which hung from a peg. He did this in a manner suggesting owners.h.i.+p, and after he had deftly rolled a cigarette with one hand he put the pouch in his pocket and, lighting up, inhaled deeply and with much satisfaction. Mr. Ca.s.sidy turned around and glanced the group over, wondering if the tobacco had been left in the hut on a former call.

"Did yu find yore makings?" He asked, with a note of congratulations in his voice.

"Yep. Want one?" Asked Mr. Travennes.

Mr. Ca.s.sidy ignored the offer and turned to the guard whom he had found asleep.

"Is that his tobacco?" He asked, and the guard, anxious to make everything run smoothly, told the truth and answered:

"Sh.o.r.e. He left it here last night," whereupon Mr. Travennes swore and Mr. Ca.s.sidy smiled grimly.

"Then yu knows how yore cayuse got in an' how mine got out," said the latter. "I wish yu would explain," he added, fondling his Colts.

Mr. Travennes frowned and remained silent.

"I can tell yu, anyhow," continued Mr. Ca.s.sidy, still smiling, but his eyes and jaw belied the smile. "Yu took them cayuses out because yu wanted yourn to be found in their places. Yu remembered Santa Fe an'

it rankled in yu. Not being man enough to notify me that yu'd shoot on sight an' being afraid my friends would get yu if yu plugged me on th'

sly, yu tried to make out that me an' Red rustled yore cayuses. That meant a lynching with me an' Red in th' places of honor. Yu never saw Red afore, but yu didn't care if he went with me. Yu don't deserve fair play, but I'm going to give it to yu because I don't want anybody to say that any of th' Bar-20 ever murdered a man, not even a skunk like yu.

My friends have treated me too square for that. Yu can take this gun an yu can do one of three things with it, which are: walk out in th' open a hundred paces an' then turn an walk toward me--after you face me yu can set it a-going whenever yu want to; the second is, put it under yore hat an' I'll put mine an' th' others back by the cayuses. Then we'll toss up an' th' lucky man gets it to use as he wants. Th' third is, shoot yourself."

Mr. Ca.s.sidy punctuated the close of his ultimatum by handing the weapon, muzzle first, and, because the other might be an adept at "twirling,"

he kept its recipient covered during the operation. Then, placing his second Colt's with the captured weapons, he threw them through the door, being very careful not to lose the drop on his now armed prisoner.

Mr. Travennes looked around and wiped the sweat from his forehead, and being an observant gentleman, took the proffered weapon and walked to the east, directly toward the sun, which at this time was halfway to the meridian. The glare of its straight rays and those reflected from the s.h.i.+ning sand would, in a measure, bother Mr. Ca.s.sidy and interfere with the accuracy of his aim, and he was always thankful for small favors.

Mr. Travennes was the possessor of accurate knowledge regarding the lay of the land, and the thought came to him that there was a small but deep hole out toward the east and that it was about the required distance away. This had been dug by a man who had labored all day in the burning sun to make an oven so that he could cook mesquite root in the manner he had seen the Apaches cook it. Mr. Travennes blessed hobbies, specific and general, stumbled thoughtlessly and disappeared from sight as the surprised Mr. Ca.s.sidy started forward to offer his a.s.sistance.

Upon emphatic notification from the man in the hole that his help was not needed, Mr. Ca.s.sidy wheeled around and in great haste covered the distance separating him from the hut, whereupon Mr. Travennes swore in self-congratulation and regret. Mr. Ca.s.sidy's shots barked a cactus which leaned near Mr. Travennes' head and flecked several clouds of alkali near that person's nose, causing him to sneeze, duck, and grin.

"It's his own gun," grumbled Mr. Ca.s.sidy as a bullet pa.s.sed through his sombrero, having in mind the fact that his opponent had a whole belt full of .44's. If it had been Mr. Ca.s.sidy's gun that had been handed over he would have enjoyed the joke on Mr. Travennes, who would have had five cartridges between himself and the promised eternity, as he would have been unable to use the .44's in Mr. Ca.s.sidy's .45, while the latter would have gladly consented to the change, having as he did an extra .45. Never before had Mr. Ca.s.sidy looked with reproach upon his .45 caliber Colt's, and he sighed as he used it to notify Mr. Travennes that arbitration was not to be considered, which that person indorsed, said indors.e.m.e.nt pa.s.sing so close to Mr. Ca.s.sidy's ear that he felt the breeze made by it.

"He's been practicin' since I plugged him up in Santa Fe," thought Mr.

Ca.s.sidy, as he retired around the hut to formulate a plan of campaign.