CHAPTER VI
CLINT WADLEY'S MESSENGER
Outside the door of the commandant's office Arthur Ridley stood for amoment and glanced nervously up and down the dirt road. In a hog-leatherbelt around his waist was six thousand dollars just turned over to himby Major Ponsford as the last payment for beef steers delivered at thefort according to contract some weeks earlier.
Arthur had decided not to start on the return journey until nextmorning, but he was not sure his judgment had been good. It was stillearly afternoon. Before nightfall he might be thirty miles on his way.The trouble with that was that he would then have to spend two nightsout, and the long hours of darkness with their flickering shadows castby the camp-fires would be full of torture for him. On the other hand,if he should stay till morning, word might leak out from the officers'quarters that he was carrying a large sum of money.
A drunken man came weaving down the street. He stopped opposite Ridleyand balanced himself with the careful dignity of the inebriate. But thegray eyes, hard as those of a gunman, showed no trace of intoxication.Nor did the steady voice.
"Friend, are you Clint Wadley's messenger?"
The startled face of Ridley flew a flag of confession. "Why--what do youmean?" he stammered. Nobody was to have known that he had come to getthe money for the owner of the A T O.
"None of my business, you mean," flung back the man curtly. "Goodenough! It ain't. What's more, I don't give a damn. But listen: I was atthe Buffalo Hump when two fellows came in. Me, I was most asleep, andthey sat in the booth next to me. I didn't hear all they said, but I gotthis--that they're aimin' to hold up some messenger of Clint Wadleyafter he leaves town to-morrow. You're the man, I reckon. All right. Lookout for yourself. That's all."
"But--what shall I do?" asked Ridley.
"Do? I don't care. I'm tellin' you--see? Do as you please."
"What would _you_ do?" The danger and the responsibility that had fallenupon him out of a sky of sunshine paralyzed the young man's initiative.
The deep-set, flinty eyes narrowed to slits. "What I'd do ain'tnecessarily what you'd better do. What are you, stranger--high-gradestuff, or the run o' the pen?"
"I'm no gun-fighter, if that's what you mean."
"Then I'd make my get-away like a jackrabbit hell-poppin' for its hole.I got one slant at these fellows in the Buffalo Hump. They're bully-pusskind o' men, if you know what I mean."
"I don't. I'm from the East."
"They'll run it over you, bluff you off the map, take any advantage theycan."
"Will they fight?"
"They'll burn powder quick if they get the drop on you."
"What are they like?"
The Texan considered. "One is a tall, red-headed guy; the other's asawed-off, hammered-down little runt--but gunmen, both of 'em, or I'm aliar."
"They would probably follow me," said the messenger, worried.
"You better believe they will, soon as they hear you've gone."
Arthur kicked a little hole in the ground with the toe of his shoe. Whathad he better do? He could stay at the fort, of course, and appeal toMajor Ponsford for help. But if he did, he would probably be late forhis appointment with Wadley. It happened that the cattleman and the armyofficer had had a sharp difference of opinion about the merits of theherd that had been delivered, and it was not at all likely that Ponsfordwould give him a military guard to Tascosa. Moreover, he had a feelingthat the owner of the A T O would resent any call to the soldiers forassistance. Clint Wadley usually played his own hand, and he expectedthe same of his men.
But the habit of young Ridley's life had not made for fitness to copewith a frontier emergency. Nor was he of stiff enough clay to fight freeof his difficulty without help.
"What about you?" he asked the other man. "Can I hire you to ride withme to Tascosa?"
"As a tenderfoot-wrangler?" sneered the Texan.
Arthur flushed. "I've never been there. I don't know the way."
"You follow a gun-barrel road from the fort. But I'll ride with you--ifthe pay is right."
"What do you say to twenty dollars for the trip?"
"You've hired me."
"And if we're attacked?"
"I pack a six-shooter."
The troubled young man looked into the hard, reckless face of thisstranger who had gone out of his way to warn him of the impendingattack. No certificate was necessary to tell him that this man wouldfight.
"I don't know your name," said Ridley, still hesitating.
"Any more than I know yours," returned the other. "Call me Bill Moore,an' I'll be on hand to eat my share of the chuck."
"We'd better leave at once, don't you think?"
"You're the doc. Meet you here in an hour ready for the trail."
The man who called himself Bill Moore went his uncertain way down thestreet. To the casual eye he was far gone in drink. Young Ridley wentstraight to the corral where he had put up his horse. He watered and fedthe animal, and after an endless half-hour saddled the bronco.
Moore joined him in front of the officers' quarters, and together theyrode out of the post. As the Texan had said, the road to Tascosa ranstraight as a gun-barrel. At first they rode in silence, swiftly,leaving behind them mile after mile of dusty trail. It was a brown,level country thickly dotted with yucca. Once Moore shot a wild turkeyrunning in the grass. Prairie-chicken were abundant, and a flight ofpigeons numbering thousands passed at one time over their heads andobscured the sky.
"Goin' down to the _encinal_ to roost," explained Moore.
"A man could come pretty near living off his rifle in this country,"Arthur remarked.
"Outside o' flour an' salt, I've done it many a time. I rode through thePecos Valley to Fort Sumner an' on to Denver oncet an' lived off theland. Time an' again I've done it from the Brazos to the Canadian. Ifhe gets tired of game, a man can jerk the hind quarters of a beef.Gimme a young turkey fed on sweet mast an' cooked on a hackberry bushfire, an' I'll never ask for better chuck," the Texan promised.
In spite of Ridley's manifest desire to push on far into the night,Moore made an early camp.
"No use gauntin' our broncs when we've got all the time there is beforeus. A horse is a man's friend. He don't want to waste it into asorry-lookin' shadow. Besides, we're better off here than at PaintedRock. It's nothin' but a whistlin'-post in the desert."
"Yes, but I'd like to get as far from the fort as we can. I--I'm in ahurry to reach Tascosa," the younger man urged.
Moore opened a row of worn and stained teeth to smile. "Don't worry,young fellow. I'm with you now."
After they had made camp and eaten, the two men sat beside theflickering fire, and Moore told stories of the wild and turbulent lifehe had known around Dodge City and in the Lincoln County War that wasstill waging in New Mexico. He had freighted to the Panhandle from ElMoro, Colorado, from Wichita Falls, and even from Dodge. The consummateconfidence of the man soothed the unease of the young fellow with thehogskin belt. This plainsman knew all that the Southwest had to offer ofdanger and was equal to any of it.
Presently Arthur Ridley grew drowsy. The last that he remembered beforehe fell asleep was seeing Moore light his pipe again with a live coalfrom the fire. The Texan was to keep the first watch.
It was well along toward morning when the snapping of a bush awakenedRidley. He sat upright and reached quickly for the revolver by his side.
"Don't you," called a voice sharply from the brush.
Two men, masked with slitted handkerchiefs, broke through the shin-oakjust as Arthur whipped up his gun. The hammer fell once--twice, but noexplosion followed. With two forty-fives covering him, Ridley, white tothe lips, dropped his harmless weapon.
Moore came to life with sleepy eyes, but he was taken at a disadvantage,and with a smothered oath handed over his revolver.
"Wha-what do you want?" asked Ridley, his teeth chattering.
The shorter of the two outlaws, a stocky man with deep chest andextraordinarily broad shoulders, growled an an
swer.
"We want that money of Clint Wadley's you're packin'."
The camp-fire had died to ashes, and the early-morning air was chill.Arthur felt himself trembling so that his hands shook. A prickling ofthe skin went goose-quilling down his back. In the dim light thosemasked figures behind the businesslike guns were sinister with thethreat of mystery and menace.
"I--haven't any money," he quavered.
"You'd better have it, young fellow, me lad!" jeered the tall bandit."We're here strictly for business. Dig up."
"I don't reckon he's carryin' any money for Clint," Moore argued mildly."Don't look reasonable that an old-timer like Clint, who knocked thebark off'n this country when I was still a kid, would send a tenderfootto pack gold 'cross country for him."
The tall man swung his revolver on Moore. "'Nuff from you," he orderedgrimly.
The heavy-set outlaw did not say a word. He moved forward and pressedthe cold rim of his forty-five against the forehead of the messenger.The fluttering heart of the young man beat hard against his ribs. Hisvoice stuck in his throat, but he managed to gasp a surrender.
"It's in my belt. For God's sake, don't shoot."
"Gimme yore belt."
The boy unbuckled the ribbon of hogskin beneath his shirt and passed itto the man behind the gun. The outlaw noticed that his fingers were coldand clammy.
"Stand back to back," commanded the heavy man.
Deftly he swung a rope over the heads of his captives, jerked it tight,wound it about their bodies, knotted it here and there, and finishedwith a triple knot where their heels came together.
"That'll hold 'em hitched a few minutes," the lank man approved after hehad tested the rope.
"I'd like to get a lick at you fellows. I will, too, some day,"mentioned Moore casually.
"When you meet up with us we'll be there," retorted the heavy-weight."Let's go, Steve."
The long man nodded. "_Adios_, boys."
"See you later, and when I meet up with you, it'll be me 'n' you to afinish," the Texan called.
The thud of the retreating, hoofs grew faint and died. Already Moore wasbusy with the rope that tied them together.
"What's the matter, kid? You shakin' for the drinks? Didn't you see fromthe first we weren't in any danger? If they'd wanted to harm us, theycould have shot us from the brush. How much was in that belt?"
"Six thousand dollars," the boy groaned.
"Well, it doesn't cost you a cent. Cheer up, son."
By this time Moore had both his arms free and was loosening one of theknots.
"I was in charge of it. I'll never dare face Mr. Wadley."
"Sho! It was his own fault. How in Mexico come he to send a boy tomarket for such a big stake?"
"Nobody was to have known what I came for. I don't see how it got out."
"Must 'a' been a leak somewhere. Don't you care. Play the hand that'sdealt you and let the boss worry. Take it from me, you're lucky not tobe even powder-burnt when a shot from the chaparral might have done yorebusiness."
"If you only hadn't fallen asleep!"
"Reckon I dozed off. I was up 'most all last night." Moore untied thelast knot and stepped out from the loop. "I'm goin' to saddle thebroncs. You ride in to Tascosa and tell Wadley. I'll take up the trailan' follow it while it's warm. We'll see if a pair of shorthorns can runa sandy like that on me." He fell suddenly into the violent, pungentspeech of the mule-skinner.
"I'll go with you," announced Ridley. He had no desire to face ClintWadley with such a lame tale.
The cold eyes of the Texan drilled into his. "No, you won't. You'll goto town an' tell the old man what's happened. Tell him to send his posseacross the _malpais_ toward the rim-rock. I'll meet him at Two BuckCrossin' with any news I've got."
A quarter of an hour later the hoofs of his horse flung back faintechoes from the distance. The boy collapsed. His head sank into hishands and his misery found vent in sobs.