Bar-20 Days, Clarence E. Mulford [world best books to read .TXT] 📗

cartridge belt so the empty loops were behind and out of the way. “But I shore knowed what we ought to do, all right.”

“Well, mebby you also know how many’s headed this way; do you?”

“You’ve got me stumped there; but there’s a round dozen, anyway,” Red replied. “You see, the three that chased me were out scouting ahead of the main bunch; an’ I didn’t have no time to take no blasted census.”

“Then we’ve got to hit the home trail, an’ hit it hard. Wind up that four-laigged excuse of yourn, an’ take my dust,” Hopalong responded, leading the way. “If we can get home there’ll be a lot of disgusted braves hitting the high spots on the back trail trying to find a way out. Buck an’ the rest of the boys will be a whole lot pleased, too. We can muster thirty men in two hours if we gets to Buckskin, an’ that’s twenty more than we’ll need.”

“Tell you one thing, Hoppy; we can get as far as Powers’ old ranch house, an’ that’s shore,” replied Red, thoughtfully.

“Yes!” exploded his companion in scorn and pity. “That old sieve of a shack ain’t good enough for me to die in, no matter what you think about it. Why, it’s as full of holes as a stiff hat in a melee. Yo’re on the wrong trail; think again.”

Mr. Cassidy objected not because he believed that Powers’ old ranch house was unworthy of serious consideration as a place of refuge and defence, but for the reason that he wished to reach Buckskin so his friends might all get in on the treat. Times were very dull on the ranch, and this was an occasion far too precious to let slip by. Besides, he then would have the pleasure of leading his friends against the enemy and battling on even terms. If he sought shelter he and Red would have to fight on the defensive, which was a game he hated cordially because it put him in a relatively subordinate position and thereby hurt his pride.

“Let me tell you that it’s a whole lot better than thin air with a hard-working circle around us—an’ you know what that means,” retorted Mr. Connors. “But if you don’t want to take a chance in the shack, why mebby we can make Wallace’s, or the Cross-O-Cross. That is, if we don’t get turned out of our way.”

“We don’t head for no Cross-O-Cross or Wallace’s,” rejoined his friend with emphasis, “an’ we won’t waste no time in Powers’ shack, neither; we’ll push right through as hard as we can go for Buckskin. Let them fellers find their own hunting—our outfit comes first. An’ besides that’ll mean a detour in a country fine for ambushes. We’d never get through.”

“Well, have it yore own way, then!” snapped Red. “You allus was a hard-headed old mule, anyhow.” In his heart Red knew that Hopalong was right about Wallace’s and the Cross-O-Cross.

Some time after the two punchers had quitted the scene of their trap, several Apaches loped up, read the story of the tragedy at a glance, and galloped on in pursuit. They had left the reservation a fortnight before under the able leadership of that veteran of many war-trails— Black Bear. Their leader, chafing at inaction and sick of the monotony of reservation life, had yielded to the entreaties of a score of restless young men and slipped away at their head, eager for the joys of raiding and plundering. But instead of stealing horses and murdering isolated whites as they had expected, they met with heavy repulses and were now without the mind of their leader. They had fled from one defeat to another and twice had barely eluded the cavalry which pursued them. Now two more of their dwindling force were dead and another had been found but an hour before. Rage and ferocity seethed in each savage heart and they determined to get the puncher they had chased, and that other whose trail they now saw for the first time. They would place at least one victory against the string of their defeats, and at any cost. Whips rose and fell and the war-party shot forward in a compact group, two scouts thrown ahead to feel the way.

Red and Hopalong rode on rejoicing, for there were three less Apaches loose in the Southwest for the inhabitants to swear about and fear, and there was an excellent chance of more to follow. The Southwest had no toleration for the Government’s policy of dealing with Indians and derived a great amount of satisfaction every time an Apache was killed. It still clung to the time-honored belief that the only good Indian was a dead one. Mr. Cassidy voiced his elation and then rubbed an empty stomach in vain regret,—when a bullet shrilled past his head, so unexpectedly as to cause him to duck instinctively and then glance apologetically at his red-haired friend; and both spurred their mounts to greater speed. Next Mr. Connors grabbed frantically at his perforated sombrero and grew petulant and loquacious.

“Both them shots was lucky, Hoppy; the feller that fired at me did it on the dead run; but that won’t help us none if one of ‘em connects with us. You gimme that Sharps—got to show ‘em that they’re taking big chances crowding us this way.” He took the heavy rifle and turned in the saddle. “It’s an even thousand, if it’s a yard. He don’t look very big, can’t hardly tell him from his cayuse; an’ the wind’s puffy. Why don’t you dirty or rust this gun? The sun glitters all along the barrel. Well, here goes.”

“Missed by a mile,” reproved Hopalong, who would have been stunned by such a thing as a hit under the circumstances, even if his good-shooting friend had made it.

“Yes! Missed the coyote I aimed for, but I got the cayuse of his off pardner; see it?”

“Talk about luck!”

“That’s all right: it takes blamed good shooting to miss that close in this case. Look! It’s slowed ‘em up a bit, an’ that’s about all I hoped to do. Bet they think I’m a real, shore-‘nuff medicine-man. Now gimme another cartridge.”

“I will not; no use wasting lead at this range. We’ll need all the cartridges we got before we get out of this hole. You can’t do nothing without stopping—an’ that takes time.”

“Then I’ll stop! The blazes with the time! Gimme another, d’ye hear?”

Mr. Cassidy heard, complied, and stopped beside his companion, who was very intent upon the matter at hand. It took some figuring to make a hit when the range was so great and the sun so blinding and the wind so capricious. He lowered the rifle and peered through the smoke at the confusion he had caused by dropping the nearest warrior. He was said to be the best rifle shot in the Southwest, which means a great deal, and his enemies did not deny it. But since the Sharps shot a special cartridge and was reliable up to the limit of its sight gauge, a matter of eighteen hundred yards, he did not regard the hit as anything worthy of especial mention. Not so his friend, who grinned joyously and loosed his admiration.

“Yo’re a shore wonder with that gun, Red! Why don’t you lose that repeater an’ get a gun like mine? Lord, if I could use a rifle like you, I wouldn’t have that gun of yourn for a gift. Just look at what you did with it! Please get one like it.”

“I’m plumb satisfied with the repeater,” replied Red. “I don’t miss very often at eight hundred with it, an’ that’s long enough range for most anybody. An’ if I do miss, I can send another that won’t, an’ right on the tail of the first, too.”

“Ah, the devil! You make me disgusted with yore fool talk about that carbine!” snapped his companion, and the subject was dropped.

The merits of their respective rifles had always been a bone of contention between them and one well chewed, at that. Red was very well satisfied with his Winchester, and he was a good judge.

“You did stop ‘em a little,” asserted Mr. Cassidy some time later when he looked back. “You stopped ‘em coming straight, but they’re spreading out to work up around us. Now, if we had good cayuses instead of these wooden wonders, we could run away from ‘em dead easy, draw their best mounted warriors to the front an’ then close with ‘em. Good thing their cayuses are well tired out, for as it is we’ve got to make a stand purty soon. Gee! They don’t like you, Red; they’re calling you names in the sign language. Just look at ‘em cuss you!”

“How much water have you got?” inquired his friend with anxiety.

“Canteen plumb full. How’re you fixed?”

“I got the same, less one drink. That gives us enough for a couple of days with some to spare, if we’re careful,” Mr. Connors replied. New Mexican canteens are built on generous lines and are known as life-preservers.

“Look at that glory-hunter go!” exclaimed Red, watching a brave who was riding half a mile to their right and rapidly coming abreast of them. “Wonder how he got over there without us seeing him.”

“Here; stop him!” suggested Hopalong, holding out his Sharps. “We can’t let him get ahead of us and lay in ambush—that’s what he’s playing to do.”

“My gun’s good, and better, for me, at this range; but you know, I can’t hit a jack-rabbit going over rough country as fast as that feller is,” replied his companion, standing up in his stirrups and firing.

“Huh! Never touched him! But he’s edging off aplenty. See him cuss you. What’s he calling you, anyhow?”

“Aw, shut up! How the devil do I know? I don’t talk with my arms.”

“Are you superstitious, Red?”

“No! Shut up!”

“Well, I am. See that feller over there? If he gets in front of us it’s a shore sign that somebody’s going to get hurt. He’ll have plenty of time to get cover an’ pick us off as we come up.”

“Don’t you worry—his cayuse is deader’n ours. They must ‘a’ been pushing on purty hard the last few days. See it stumble?—what’d I tell you!”

“Yes; but they’re gaining on us slow but shore. We’ve got to make a stand purty soon—how much further do you reckon that infernal shack is, anyhow?” Hopalong asked sharply.

“‘T ain’t fur off—see it any minute now.”

“Here,” remarked Hopalong, holding out his rifle, “stencil yore mark on his hide; catch him just as he strikes the top of that little rise.”

“Ain’t got time—that shack can’t be much further.”

And it wasn’t, for as they galloped over a rise they saw, half a mile ahead of them, an adobe building in poor state of preservation. It was Powers’ old ranch house, and as they neared it, they saw that there was no doubt about the holes.

“Told you it was a sieve,” grunted Hopalong, swinging in on the tail of his companion. “Not worth a hang for anything,” he added bitterly.

“It’ll answer, all right,” retorted Red grimly.