yuh been all week?” Windy asked.
“Me? Fellow, I’ve been playin’ the messenger of destiny.” Toothpick grinned over his shoulder as he headed his horse toward the livery stable.
“Darn idiot!” Jim Hogg spluttered as the four lined up at the bar of the Lone Star. “I’m plumb sick of this here mystery. My brother Sam is packin’ a gun under his vest and another on his hip. The sheriff is nutty with worry, an’ if yuh ask him anything he looks sick and scared. Tough hombres drift into town, and the sheriff gets him more deputies. I hear gents betting the judge don’t dare come back to town, and now I hears he’s due to arrive. I’m bettin’ Sam sent yuh boys to town to help guard him when he comes in.”
“Safe bet,” Windy admitted, “for he sure enough told us plain to stay sober and meet him at the depot.”
“Why for, did he tell yuh? Not any!” Jim Hogg continued his complaint. “Yuh can’t talk natural without some gent sayin’, ‘Hush!’ Toothpick disappears and comes back an’ says he’s the ‘messenger of destiny.’ What in blazes did he mean by that, and where’s he been for the last six days? Lava Gang! Why, this town is gettin’ so scared it’s going to drop dead of heart failure, an’ if yuh ask some one what he thinks, he looks over his shoulder and says, ‘Hush.’ Maybe yuh boys knows what it’s all about.”
Windy put his finger to his lips, looked over his shoulder, then whispered: “This here town is goin’ to have its sins wiped out, like Sodom an’ Gomore.”
“Yuh dang fool!” Hogg spluttered.
Here the bartender cut in. “I ain’t boastin’ that I knows anything, but I’ve kept bar all over this here territory, an’ I’m tellin’ yuh I never see so many tough gangs gathered together as they is in this town. Hell is sure goin’ to pop.”
“Why? How? When?” The irate little storekeeper shot out his questions like a machine gun. “What makes yuh think so?”
“Feel it in my bones,” the bartender hedged mysteriously.
They left the bar and headed toward the station.
The arrival of the Limited was a big event in Cannondale, and a large group of loafers always watched it hurl itself across the prairie and come to an impatient stop at the little station. On this night the three riders found nearly a hundred people lounging there. Sam Hogg was walking up and down impatiently and talking to Tim Lynch, owner of the Lone Star Saloon. The three punchers found perches on a baggage truck, rolled their cigarettes, and looked about for some one to annoy.
They saw Toothpick and the sheriff whispering together in the shadow of the freight house, but the lanky cow-puncher was too quick on the come-back for their taste, and Sheriff Tom Powers was touchy these days, so they continued to search for easier prey. Tad Hicks jerked his thumb toward Dutchy and Silent Moore, leaning against the wall.
“Wish I’d thought of tellin’ Jim Hogg to go question them hombres,” he grinned.
The others chuckled and then grew glum at this lost opportunity, for Dutchy and Silent had the reputation of being morose and taciturn.
Mrs. Ransom, the judge’s wife, her daughter, Mary, and Snippets McPherson strolled by.
“Howdy, ladies,” Kansas called.
Mrs. Ransom nodded, Mary giggled, and Snippets smiled.
“Hello, boys,” she cried. “Kansas, when are you going to bring me over that dun horse to break for you?”
Kansas flushed and the others guffawed. The week before, the said dun had set him afoot ignominiously, where he had been found by Snippets.
“Never mind, Kansas. I was only funnin’. I know your cinch broke, ’cause I found your saddle,” she added contritely.
“Now, yuh darned tadpoles, will yuh believe what I tole yuh? Yuh know darn well that girl don’t lie!” Kansas cried. He gazed after Snippets gratefully, for, if the truth be known, his cinch had not broken; that had been his alibi for the greatest disgrace that can happen to a puncher – to have a broken horse throw him and leave him afoot.
“She’s sure a swell gal,” Tad Hicks said admiringly.
“She’s more like a fellow than a gal, an’ she sure rides like one,” Windy agreed.
The three women passed on down the platform. When they reached Toothpick and the sheriff, Snippets stopped and stared at the tall cowboy.
“Why, Snip,” Mary giggled. “Are you in love with Toothpick? You’re blushing.”
Snippets did not heed her. When Toothpick failed to see her she plucked at his sleeve.
“Toothpick?” Her greeting was a question.
The lanky cow-puncher swung about and snatched off his hat. He had known Snippets ever since she was a child. Then he had worked for her father up North.
“’Lo, kid,” he greeted.
“Did yuh see him?” she asked in an eager whisper.
“See who?” Toothpick feigned ignorance.
“Don’t tease. You know,” she pleaded.
“Yuh can spill it to her,” Tom Powers said as he went over to join Mrs. Ransom and Mary.
“Yeh, I seen him,” Toothpick told the girl.
She waited for him to go on. Her dark eyes, wistfully eager, were fixed upon him.
“I goes to El Crucifixo, like yuh tells me to,” drawled Toothpick. “An’ I’m tellin’ yuh I seen there a million dollars’ worth of outlaws, ’cause a gent down there ain’t known socially unless he carries a thousand, dead or alive. I ambles into the Palace Saloon, and the gents look hard at me, an’ that bunch can sure look hard. A couple slid up to me and ask me bluntlike who I am. I tell ’em quick I’m huntin’ Jim-twin Allen. At that they eye me different. Then I spots Jim sittin’ at a table by his lonesome, and I calls him. He’s darned glad to see me. Fie tells those hard hombres I’m his friend, and they get soft, pronto.”
His deliberation irritated the girl.
“But is he coming?” she demanded impatiently.
“Sure is.”
Snippets’ eyes lighted with joy.
“I tell him about the Lava Gang, and he won’t come. Then I tell him yuh want him to come, and still he refuses. He gets sorta bitter an’ says he ain’t no cow-thief catcher – that’s his brother Jack’s job. I plead with him and tell him how your uncle’s in danger. He says he’s not comin’ up here to help your uncle hang a man. By accident I tell how the Lava Gang now and then runs off gals across the border fer ransom and how they murdered that Courfay woman. At that he says quicklike he’ll come a-runnin’.”
“When is he coming?” she asked quickly.
He shook his head. “I dunno.”
“And when you told him I wanted him to come, he wouldn’t?” she asked softly.
“Positively not,” Toothpick said bluntly.
Another
