THE WOLF SHOWS HIMSELF
On the following day, about eleven o'clock, a great shout went up from
the crowd before the courthouse. The jury had brought in a verdict of
first-degree murder against Pete Cable.
On Thursday night, after dinner, Tim Lynch, the Hogg brothers, and the
sheriff met in the judge's house. They had been there but a short time
when Ace Cutts, followed by Anderson, strolled into the room. The
sheriff frowned when he saw them, but he realized that it would be
better to keep them here now than to allow them to go away. They must
suspect something about the gathering.
"Dad told me that little fake, Jim Allen, was coming here to-night, so
I thought I'd drop in and look him over," Ace said sneeringly.
Sam Hogg bounced to his feet. "You promised to tell no one!"
"Ace is really my son, and it just slipped out," the judge apologized.
He looked sternly at Ace. "You kept your word?"
"Sure thing. Bill, here, never heard a word about the Wolf until we
came in here," Ace replied.
"That's true, gentlemen," Anderson corroborated him.
The sheriff doubted both of them. He considered swiftly. He could not
reach Allen now and warn him not to come. Dutchy had gone downtown. If
he himself left to find Allen he might miss him. Better to remain here
and help the Wolf when he came.
Bill Anderson regarded the waiting circle sardonically. "I've always
been curious to see Jim-twin Allen," he said. "You'll forgive me if I
mention that an alliance between a judge, a sheriff, and an outlaw has
its humorous side."
"You're quite right," said the judge thoughtfully. "But if he can help
us we are justified in allying ourselves with him."
"If he was the devil and could lead us into the lava fields I'd follow,
hanging onto his tail," said the sheriff.
"If what I hears is true, that he can follow trail like an Apache or a
bloodhound, I'm bettin' he can lead us through them lava fields," Sam
Hogg cried warmly.
"You fellows are wastin' your time," Ace Cutts put in. "He ain't got
nerve enough to come here."
"Yuh mean he ain't big enough fool to come into a town filled with
gents what is longin' to plug him," Jim Hogg corrected.
"Call it that if yuh like."
"I am afraid I agree with Ace; whether it is fear or caution which
keeps him away, he won't come to-night," the judge said heavily.
"He will come, because he said he would," affirmed a girl's voice.
Snippets had entered the room in time to hear the last remarks.
Anderson laughed tolerantly. "That sounds like a schoolgirl's
admiration for Robin Hood."
"Robin Hood--huh! Allen's rep is made by fools, girls, and old men,"
Ace snapped. "I'm tellin' yuh he ain't no good and he won't come. And
we're wasting our time not havin' a rider beatin' it to Texas to get
Cupid Dart, the gent I was tellin' you of."
His words held a word of hate. The other men looked at him curiously.
Jim Hogg scratched his head. The judge looked questioningly at the
others.
"I think Ace is right," Bill Anderson said judiciously. "We have all
heard of Cupid Dart. Why not send for him? Even if Allen does come, it
is a question if we can trust him."
"Trust him? Of course you can't trust him! He's a bushwhackin' killer,
who kills men by shootin' them in the back. I know men who have seen
him do it." Ace's face was pale with rage.
"Why do you hate him?" the girl asked quietly.
"Because you are a sorta cousin of mine, and I hate to think of you
having truck with a man like him," Ace replied bitterly.
"I have no truck with him; I have never heard one word from him since
the day he rode away after saving my father. He told me then that
friendship between a girl like myself and a man like him was
impossible."
The girl's face was flushed. In spite of herself her voice trembled.
But her eyes were steady as she looked into Ace's angry brown ones.
"Darn it, the girl's in love with the little runt," Sam Hogg whispered
to his brother. He went over and placed an arm about the girl's
shoulder.
"Ace, yuh got Allen wrong," he said defensively. "When I was in the
Rangers and he hung out in Texas, I chased him plenty. And he had the
rep then, among bad hombres, of bein' square. An' I don't believe he
killed any gent what didn't need killin' bad."
"Only men who fear him hate him," the girl said softly.
Ace Cutts took a step toward her, but Anderson grasped his arm.
"You fool!" he exclaimed in a whisper.
His back was toward the others. His lips formed a sentence that could
be read only by Ace. The young man nodded sullenly and made an effort
to recover his composure.
"When he comes," Snippets said anxiously to Tom Powers, "remember you
promised there will be no shooting."
"Are you scared I'll drop your hero?" Ace jeeringly asked.
"There's going to be no gun play," Tom Powers cut in sharply.
"Make him give you his word," she insisted.
The worry in her voice was apparent to all. Ace was triumphant.
"I promise you I won't----" he began.
Sam Hogg read the reason correctly for the girl's anxiety and he
interrupted sharply.
"Yuh idiot! She ain't scared for the Wolf. But she's worried that
yuh'll make a fool play so's the Wolf will have to drop yuh before the
judge."
Ace Cutts jeered and slapped his holstered gun. The little cattleman
looked meaningly toward Tom Powers, who nodded, crossed to Ace Cutts,
and slipped the gun from its holster. Snippets smiled gratefully at the
grizzled ex-Ranger. Ace Cutts lapsed into sulky silence.
Then a noise at the rear of the room made them turn. The door that led
to the kitchen swung open. Just outside the doorway stood a shadowy
figure. It moved forward into the lamplight.
"You bum, what you doing here?" Jim Hogg rasped.
The newcomer was the hobo they knew as Jim Anson.
"Howdy, gents," he said. "Yuh sent for me?"
He removed the blue glasses and tilted back his battered hat. As he
advanced farther into the room they saw the two big Colts strapped at
his thighs. His loose mouth split in a broad grin, and his big, uneven
teeth flashed white.
The clock on the wall ticked loudly in the silence. The assembled men
stared wonderingly at the undersized boy. It was Snippets who broke the
silence.
"Uncle, this is Jim-twin Allen."
The judge coughed and said foolishly: "I thought you were Jim Anson."
Jim Allen grinned again. That contagious grin made the two Hogg
brothers chuckle aloud, and even the judge and the sheriff smiled in
return.
"No, I ain't Jim Anson. I knows there was gents in this town longin'
for my scalp, so I sorta disguises myself. And as there was gents
sneakin' around in the bushes out there, I had to pretend to still be
Jim Anson. I reckon some one of yuh gents talked, 'cause the Toad's got
all of his killers out there waitin' for me. I told the Yuma Kid I had
a message for the judge, so he let me pass," Allen explained.
The men were amazed. It seemed unbelievable. Jim Anson, the cowardly,
whining little bum! Jim-twin Allen! Their glances traveled from his
shapeless moccasins to his boyish, freckled face. But from his strange,
animallike eyes, there could be no doubt he was the man for whom they
were waiting. They also understood how he had come by the name of the
Wolf.
Ace Cutts' face was ghastly white. With an effort he switched his eyes
from Allen to Bill Anderson. The latter was licking his dry lips and
staring at the famous outlaw, hypnotized. The realization that Jim
Anson was Jim Allen had stunned the politician. Desperately he tried to
figure what this would mean. At all costs Allen must not leave that
room. He shot a glance to Ace Cutts. The latter began to slide
unobtrusively toward the front door.
"I'm right glad to meet yuh, Jim Allen," Sam Hogg cried heartily.
His brother, Jim, chuckled. "An' you tole me yuh chased this feller
ragged when yuh was in the Texas Rangers."
"I sure did," the cattleman said ruefully. "I bet the Rangers winded a
hundred horses chasin' yuh when yuh was hangin' around lower Texas. An'
we never got close enough to throw lead at yuh. Yuh still got them
grays yuh had then?"
Allen's face clouded as he glanced quickly at Snippets.
"I got one of 'em--but Queen is dead. I got her son, though."
The ex-Ranger had heard that story. Snippets had told him how Allen had
ridden his favorite horse to death in order to save her father. He
understood what a sacrifice that had been--for to men who ride the long
trail, horses become more than horses. They are friends, companions,
and the only living things to be trusted. Sam Hogg cleared his throat.
"Heard about that," he murmured. "It was sure a fittin' end for a grand
ol' hoss. When my time comes I hopes I go out like that. I hears the
whole town turned out unanimous and planted Queen in style."
"Yeah," Allen murmured dully. The others watched the little rancher and
the even smaller outlaw in wonder. Bill Anderson glanced at Ace Cutts,
who was close to the door now. Then his eyes once more sought Allen,
and he sneered. A man who could sentimentalize over the death of a
horse could hardly be as redoubtable an antagonist as rumor painted him.
Allen stepped away from the girl, who had laid her hand on his arm. He
looked at Anderson and grinned once more.
"Let's get down to business," Tom Powers spoke.
"Sure, we're wasting time," Anderson snapped. "Allen, we think, because
you are an outlaw, you may know the whereabouts of the Lava Gang. If
you will lead us to them we will pay you well."
There was something intolerably offensive in the way Bill Anderson
spoke. Jim Hogg opened his lips to protest--but the expression on
Allen's face did not change. There was nothing there to indicate he had
noticed the veiled insult in Anderson's words; if anything, his grin
grew broader.
"Yuh mean, I, bein' on the dodge, maybe knows some of the Lava Gang and
will give up my friends if yuh pays me enough?" he asked gently.
"No, we don't mean that," the judge cried.
"Not at all," Tim Lynch added.
Allen ignored the judge, glanced meaningly at Tom Powers, then faced
Bill Anderson, who was lounging against the fireplace. This maneuver
placed Ace Cutts behind the little outlaw. Anderson had expected Allen
to grow angry, to bluster, and this calmness disconcerted him. However,
he had gained his objective, which was to concentrate Allen's attention
on himself; and Allen's back was now toward the door.
"We are not asking you to betray your friends, but if you will lead us
to them, we will pay you well." The explanation was even more offensive
than the original statement.
"Yuh aimin' to get me mad?" Allen asked. He grinned at Bill Anderson
and shook his head.
"Mister, I never get mad, 'cause things might happen if I did, and me
not notice 'em. I let yuh talk 'cause I wasn't sure--now I'm certain."
Only one of the bystanders, Powers, understood the significance of
Allen's words. The others glanced curiously from Allen to Anderson. The
politician's face flushed, and he shot a quick glance at Ace Cutts, who
had reached the door, then he glanced over his shoulder into the mirror
behind him. At once he understood that Allen had been watching Ace
Cutts reflected there, and was fully aware of the foreman's attempt to
gain the outside, where he could give the alarm to the Yuma Kid and the
others waiting there.
"Yuh gents gave me yuhr promise no one was to leave the room while I
was here," Allen reminded.
"We sure did," Jim Hogg cried.
"Get away from that door, Ace," Tim Lynch snapped.
"Ace, don't leave this room," the judge commanded.
Ace Cutts had his hand on the doorknob. Now he paused.
"If he turns that knob I'll drop him," Allen said.
All expression had left the little gunman's voice. It was flat,
toneless. But its very flatness made Ace hesitate. He glanced at
Anderson, who nodded to him to go. Then realization came to him that
Allen had been watching him in the mirror and that Anderson knew it.
Even if he failed to get clear of the door before Allen fired, Anderson
would have gained his objective, for a shot in that room would bring
the Toad's killers on the run. Anderson was deliberately trying to
sacrifice Ace. He dropped the doorknob as if it had suddenly grown
red-hot, threw himself into a chair, and stared fixedly at his neat
boots.
"I am given to understand that you know the members of the Lava Gang,"
the judge said.
"Yeah, I knows them," Allen replied softly.
"You can trust every one here. Will you give me their names?"
"I came here to tell yuh, but I've changed my mind."
"But why?" the judge insisted.
"Judge, if yuh'll have the sheriff leave town after dinner to-morrow
night and ride straight toward Jaw Tooth Mountain, I'll pick yuh up and
show yuh where yuhr cattle is," Allen said.
Argument was vain. Allen refused to mention even one member of the Lava
Gang.
Slowly the little outlaw backed toward the door by which he had entered.
"Good night, gents," he called. Then his eyes caught and held those of
Snippets for a moment. "So long, kid," he said softly. The door was
empty and he was gone.
Allen had said that his enemies had learned he was to come there that
night and were waiting for him outside. For a long moment those in the
room waited, waited for the shot that would announce he had been
discovered. Bill Anderson was the first to move. He picked up his hat
and walked toward the front door, but Tom Powers reached it ahead of
him. The sheriff shook his head.
"We promised before he came, that no one was to leave until he had been
gone for ten minutes," the sheriff explained.
For the fraction of a second Anderson held his ground before the
sheriff. The impulse came to him to shout, then discretion gained the
upper hand; he shrugged and returned to his place by the fireplace.
"He's certainly a careful little cuss and doesn't trust people," he
said with a laugh.
"Maybe if yuhr carcass was worth ten thousand you wouldn't neither,"
Sam Hogg snorted.
Slowly the minutes ticked away. When the time was up Anderson was the
first to leave. The moment the door had closed behind him, Tom Powers
seized Sam Hogg by the shoulder and whispered:
"Follow him and see where he goes."
To Sam Hogg it seemed impossible that the good-natured, affable
politician could be mixed up with the Lava Gang, but his training in
the Rangers had taught him that all things were possible, so he nodded
and slipped out after Anderson.