IN A GOOD CAUSE.
The limp form in the saddle was untied and carried into the hotel.
The clerk proffered the use of a room--the same room in which Dunbar
had talked with Isaacs--and Hawkins was borne in there and laid down
on the bed. A doctor was sent for.
“He’s got his gruel, that’s my opinion,” announced Wild Bill,
surveying a wound in Hawkins’ breast.
“This,” said Jordan, in a voice that throbbed with deep feeling, “is
my friend--the very man who came from Benner’s ranch and told me that
trouble was brewing for Perry and Dunbar.”
“And he’s the man, parson,” added Wild Bill, “who helped me out of
Benner’s adobe house. Red Steve and his White Caps were standing
guard around the house to see that I didn’t make a getaway; and it
was Hawkins, here, who came down the chimney, took the ropes off me,
and helped me get out and find my horse. He said he had helped me
because he was a friend of yours, and that you had brought him to
see where he had been going wrong. When I left Hawkins, he was just
starting off with Red Steve and the other White Caps. The scoundrels
must have found out he helped me to get away--and paid him for it.”
Wild Bill, with sadness and regret in his face, looked down on the
unconscious man.
“It was in a good cause, a good cause,” murmured the sky pilot.
“Although a brand snatched from the burning, yet Ace Hawkins is
nevertheless sure of his reward.”
The minister bent over and parted the tangled hair from Hawkins’
forehead; then, gently, he began chafing his temples.
Buffalo Bill had laid a hand on his heart.
“He’s alive yet,” said he.
At that moment the doctor came.
“A shooting, eh?” said he, looking down at the man on the bed with
merely professional interest. “Pretty bad, but I’ll see what I can
do.”
The most the doctor could do was to revive Hawkins. The man opened
his eyes, and stared around.
“Whar’s Buffler Bill?” he asked feebly.
“Here!” said the scout, pushing close to the bed.
“Yer pard, Hickok----”
“Here, too, Hawkins,” cut in Wild Bill, stepping to the scout’s side.
Hawkins lifted a hand, and brushed it across his forehead.
“The little hoss brought me ter town, eh?” he muttered. “I was purty
nigh fagged when I got that thar rope around me an’ tied ter the
saddle horn. I reckon I’m about done an’----” He paused abruptly, a
faint gleam coming into his eyes as they rested on the sky pilot.
“That you, parson?”
“It’s I, Ace,” said Jordan, coming up on the other side of the bed
and taking Hawkins by the hand. “Who did this?”
“Red Steve. I reckoned he might.”
“Because you helped me?” asked Wild Bill.
“Nary,” said Hawkins, a faint smile hovering around his lips, “the
White Caps hadn’t found that out yit. This was done bekase I tried
ter help Perry.”
“Perry?” gasped Nate Dunbar.
“Yes, Perry,” went on Hawkins. “I got ter be muy pronto if I git you
fellers headed right. Remember when I left ye, Wild Bill?”
“Yes.”
“Well, the White Caps rode ter the Star-A ranch. I was afeared we
might see ye thar, but we didn’t. A trick was played on Perry.”
“Trick?” echoed the scout. “What sort of a trick?”
“Why, Red Steve had Shorty Dobbs take off his white fixin’s an’ ride
up ter the ranch house. Shorty asked for Perry. When Perry come out,
Shorty told him that Nate Dunbar had been arrested in Hackamore for
stealin’ dimings from Isaacs, that Buffler Bill had gone to town,
and that Buffler had sent him--Shorty--arter Perry. Perry wasn’t ter
tell anybody what had happened ’r whar he was goin’. He sneaked out
ter the c’ral, got onter his hoss, an’ started with Shorty. When them
two come ter whar the rest of us was waitin’ fer ’em, in the timber,
Perry was nabbed. I tried ter help Perry, an’ then’s when Red Steve
let me have it. I knowed right off I’d got my whatfer, but I wanted
ter make Hackamore an’ tell the facts ter Buffler Bill.”
Hawkins’ strength failed at this point, and the doctor had to give
him a stimulant to enable him to rally. Presently he went on.
“They chased me, Red Steve, Shorty, an’ the rest, but the little hoss
was too fast fer ’em. I tell ye what, that buckskin kin go! I was
afeared, though, that I’d play out afore we reached town, an’ that
the hoss would kerry me back ter the Circle-B. But he didn’t. He
brung me hyer.”
“What about Perry, Hawkins?” asked the scout.
“It’s long odds whether ye save him er not. They’ve took him ter
Crowder’s c’ral--they--they----”
Hawkins’ head fell back, and his eyes closed. Jordan threw a
questioning, startled look at the doctor, but the doctor shook his
head.
“Not yet, parson,” said he; “it won’t be long, though.”
“They’ve bagged Dick Perry--the scoundrels!” muttered Nate Dunbar.
“What’re they going to do with him?”
“If they follow out the plan as I got it from Red Steve,” said
Wild Bill, “they’re going to stake Perry out and head a drove of
stampeding longhorns his way.”
The sky pilot’s face went white.
“They couldn’t be so inhuman!” he declared. “They wouldn’t dare do
such a murderous thing!”
“You don’t know Red Steve, parson,” said Wild Bill. “Even Lige Benner
balked at that game--but his brother Jerry stood for it, and Red
Steve is going to do this unknown to Lige.”
“We’ve got to do something,” cried Dunbar. “We can’t stand here like
this.”
“That’s right, Nate,” agreed the scout; “we’ve got to make a quick
move for Perry. The three of us can manage it, I reckon. It’s a fight
against long odds, for Red Steve and his White Caps have several
hours the start of us, but we’ll do what we can. Do you know where
Crowder’s corral is?”
“Yes. The corral ain’t used now, except for an occasional round-up.”
“Well, that’s our destination. Spurs and quirts, friends!”
As they started from the room, the scout turned and looked back.
Jordan was just laying a blanket over the silent form on the bed. He
caught the scout’s look, and nodded.
Buffalo Bill hurried on after Dunbar and Wild Bill. In ten minutes
they were slashing along the trail toward the Brazos, Dunbar laying a
course that was to bring them to Crowder’s old corral by the shortest
route.
“This is a bad job for Red Steve,” remarked Buffalo Bill, as they
galloped along.
“It’s not the only notch Red Steve has on his guns,” said Dunbar.
“That Ace Hawkins was plumb white!” declared the Laramie man. “He did
what he thought was right, and it seems hard that he’s got to pay for
it like this.”
“Hawkins and the sky pilot must have been pretty good friends, Pard
Hickok. If they hadn’t been, Hawkins would never have gone to the
parson, as he did, and told him that trouble was hatching at the
Circle-B ranch.”
“Human nature is a queer country,” mused Wild Bill. “No Apache Injun
could have thought up a worse scheme than Red Steve concocted for
putting Perry out of the way. Hawkins looked to be on a par with
Steve, Shorty Dobbs, and the other White Caps, but, from the way he’s
acted, is easy to see you can’t always judge a man by his looks. I
take off my hat to Ace Hawkins! He was a whole man.”
Dunbar’s mind was running on Perry--as was quite natural, in the
circumstances.
“Red Steve decoyed Perry away from the ranch,” said Dunbar, “and got
him to leave without telling Hattie, or any of your pards, Buffalo
Bill, where he was going. It was my trouble that was getting Dick
away--and the whelps downed him in the trail, and by now must have
him at Crowder’s corral. If we can save Dick, well and good; if we
can’t, I’ll camp on Red Steve’s trail, and stay there until I get him
or he gets me, one or t’other.”
“If I get a good chance,” cried Wild Bill, “I’ll camp on Red Steve’s
trail myself, just on account of Ace Hawkins. Hawkins, while he was
with Steve’s gang, was playing a part, same as I was. He did it well,
too; so well that he fooled me. But, talking of snakes, that Jerry
Benner is the most venomous rattler loose in this cattle country.
Lige can’t hold a candle to him.”
The horses were none too fresh, especially Beeswax; but they
stretched themselves gallantly to their work. Dunbar set the pace.
The scout had brought Bloom’s rifle with him. He had taken it from
the jail, in order to be on the safe side; and when the start for
Crowder’s corral was made it seemed good business to keep the gun in
hand against possible emergencies.
After two hours of rapid travel, the three riders topped a “rise”
that gave them a distant view of the Brazos.
“Over there,” announced Dunbar, pointing with his quirt, “is
Crowder’s corral.”