CASS GRIMSHAW--HORSE-THIEF
Lowering himself over the edge, Cass Grimshaw dropped to the floor of
the coulee, where he squatted with his back to the cutbank, and rolled a
cigarette. "Seen the smoke, an' come over to see who was campin' here,"
he imparted, "then I run onto McWhorter's roan, an' I knowed it was
you--seen you ridin' him yesterday. So I slipped over an' tuk a front
row seat--you sure worked him over thorough, Tex--an' if anyone needed
it, he did. Set down an' tell me what's on yer mind. I heard you'd
pulled yer freight after that there fake lynchin' last year."
The Texan squatted beside the horse-thief. "Be'n over on the other
side--Y Bar," he imparted briefly. "Cass, I need your help."
The other nodded: "I mistrusted you would. Name it."
"In the first place, is Purdy one of your gang? Long Bill said so--but I
didn't believe him."
"Why?"
"Well--he ain't the stripe I thought you'd pick."
The outlaw grinned: "Make a mistake sometimes, same as other folks--yup
I picked him."
The Texan frowned: "I'm sorry, Cass. You an' I've be'n friends for a
long while. But--Cass, I'm goin' to get Purdy. If I've got to go to your
hang-out an' fight your whole gang--_I'm goin' to get him!_"
"Help yerself," Grimshaw grinned, "an' just to show you there's no hard
feelin's, I'll let the tail go with the hide--there's three others you
c'n have along with him."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean if you don't get him before supper, I'll have to. The four of
'em's got tired of the horse game. Banks an' railroad trains looks
better to them. I'm too slow fer 'em. They're tired of me, an' tonight
they aim to kill me an' Bill Harlow--which they're welcome to if they
can git away with it."
An answering grin twisted the lips of the Texan: "Keep pretty well
posted--don't you, Cass?"
"Where'd I be now, if I didn't? But about this woman business--I told
Purdy to let the women alone--but you can't tell that bird nothin'. He
knows it all--an' then some. Is she your woman, an' how come Purdy to
have her?"
"No, she ain't mine--she's the wife of the pilgrim--the one we didn't
lynch, that night----"
Grimshaw shook his head: "Bad business, Tex--mixin' up with other men's
wives. Leads to trouble every time--there's enough single ones--an' even
then----"
Tex interrupted him: "It ain't that kind of a mixup. This is on the
level. She an' I was on Long Bill's ferry, an' the drift piled up
against us so bad I had to cut the cable. We drifted ashore this side of
Red Sand, an' while I was gone to get some horses, Purdy come along an'
made off with her. I followed an' lost Purdy's trail here in the bad
lands--I was half crazy yesterday, thinkin' of her bein' in Purdy's
clutches--but, today, it ain't so bad. If I find her quick there's a
chance she's safe." He paused and drew from his pocket the folded
hand-bill. "The pilgrim offered a reward, an' Purdy aims to get it."
The other glanced at the bill: "I seen one," he said, gruffly. For a
moment he puffed rapidly upon his cigarette, threw away the butt, and
looked the Texan squarely in the eye: "There's a couple of things about
that bill I've wanted to know. You've told me about the woman part. But
the rest of it? What in hell you be'n doin' to have a reward up fer you?
You spoke a mouthful when you said we'd be'n friends--we're friends yet.
It's a friend that's talkin' to you now--an' one that knows what he's
talkin' about. You're a damn fool! A young buck like you, which if you'd
stay straight could be foreman of any outfit on the range--an' mebbe git
one of his own started after while--goin' an' gittin' hisself outlawed!
Fer God's sake, man--you don't know what you've gone up
against--but--me--I know! How bad be you in?" The Texan started to
speak, but the other interrupted. "If it ain't bad--if a matter of a
thousan' or so will square it--you go an' fix it up. I've got the
money--an' it ain't doin' me no good--nor no one else, cached out in an
old iron kettle. You take it an' git straight--an' then you stay
straight!"
The Texan laughed: "There ain't nothin' against me--that is nothin' that
amounts to anything. I got a few drinks in me, an' cleaned out the Red
Front saloon over in Timber City an' because I wouldn't let Hod Blake
arrest me an' shove me in his damned little jail, he stuck up the
reward. I'll just ride over when I get time, an' claim the reward
myself--an' use the money to pay my fine with--that part's a joke."
As Grimshaw joined in the laugh, the Texan leaned over and laid his hand
on the man's shoulder: "But, I won't forget--Cass."
The man brushed away the hand: "Aw, hell! That's all right. You'd of
made a hell-winder of an outlaw, but the best of 'em an' the worst of
'em--there's nothin' ahead of us--but that." He jerked his thumb in the
direction of the body of Long Bill that lay sprawled where it had fallen
and changed the subject abruptly. "The woman's safe, all right--she's
over to Cinnabar Joe's."
"Cinnabar Joe's!"
"Yes, Cinnabar an' that there Jennie that used to work in the Wolf River
Hotel, they married up an' started 'em a little outfit over on Red
Sand--couple hundred head of dogies. Purdy's got somethin' on Cinnabar,
an'----"
"Somethin' on him!" exclaimed Tex, "Cinnabar's white clean through! What
could Purdy have on him?"
Grimshaw rolled another cigarette: "Cinnabar's be'n in this country
around six years. Him bein' more'n six year old, it stands to reason he
done quite a bit of livin' 'fore he come here. Where'd he come from?
Where'd you come from? Where'd I come from? Where'd anyone you know come
from? You might of be'n ornery as hell in Texas, or New Mexico, or
Colorado--an' I might of be'n a preacher in California, or Nevada. All
we know is that 'long as we've know'd him Cinnabar's be'n on the
level--an' that's all we're entitled to know--an' all we want to know.
Whatever Cinnabar was somewhere's else, ain't nobody's business.
Nobody's, that is, but Purdy's. He made his brag in the hang-out one
night that when the time come, he'd tap Cinnabar fer his pile----"
"The damned dirty hound!"
"That's sayin' it ladylike," grinned the outlaw, "I told him Cinnabar
was a friend of mine an' he was to keep off him, but Purdy, he's plumb
disregardful of advice. Anyways, the woman's safe. Purdy's figurin' on
leavin' her there while he dickers fer the reward."
The Texan rose to his feet: "Where did you say I'd find Purdy?" he
asked. The other consulted his watch. "It's nine-thirty. At noon he'll
be at the water hole, four mile north of the hang-out. Up till then
they ain't no hurry. We'll plant _him_ first, an' then I'll go along--me
an' Bill Harlow----"
The Texan shook his head: "No Cass, this is my job. It's a long score
I've got to settle with Purdy--startin' back a year. It leads off with a
cut cinch. Then, there was the booze that Cinnabar Joe doped----"
"Cinnabar?"
"Yeh, when he was tendin' bar. I can see through it, now--since you told
about Purdy havin' somethin' on him. Purdy got him to do it----"
"I don't believe Cinnabar'd of done that no matter what Purdy had on
him."
"But he did, though. Then he switched the glasses, an' drunk it
himself----"
"Some man!"
"I'll tell a hand! An' that same night Purdy took the pilgrim's girl out
on the bench, an' dragged her off her horse----"
"I heard about it."
"An' then, yesterday, he found her unconscious there by the river." The
Texan paused and when he continued his voice was low. "An' you know, an'
I know what would have happened, if Long Bill hadn't showed up with
those bills--an' then signin' my name to that letter to the pilgrim
demandin' five thousan' dollars--an' last of all I owe him one for
ridin' Cinnabar the way he's doin--I ain't forgot those switched
drinks."
Cass Grimshaw nodded: "Quite a score to settle, take it first an' last,"
he paused, and the Texan noticed a peculiar twinkle in his eye.
"What's the joke?" he asked.
"There ain't no joke about it--only I was thinkin', mebbe you'd left out
somethin'."
"Left out somethin'?"
"Yeh. What you think would of happened, an' what would of happened out
here in the bad lands, if Long Bill hadn't come along is two different
things. I was trailin' Purdy from the time he hit the bad lands with the
girl. I wanted to find out what his game was an' when he run onto Long
Bill I snuck up an' listened to their powwow. When I found out he aimed
to take her to Cinnabar's, I figured, like you did, that she'd be safe,
so I kind of loafed around to see if you wouldn't be along."
"You keep awful close cases on Purdy."
"Yeh--couple of pretty good reasons. I knew he was plottin' to bump me
off, an' I kind of had some curiosity to find out when they figured on
pullin' the job. But, mostly, it was on account of McWhorter's gal----"
"McWhorter's girl!" cried Tex, "what's McWhorter's girl got to do with
it?"
"Nothin'--except that Purdy's be'n buzzin' around tryin' to get her--an'
I don't mean marry her, neither--an' when he found out they wasn't
nothin' doin'--that he didn't stand snake-high with her, he figured on
gittin' her, anyway----"
"_God!_" The single spoken word ground between the Texan's tight-drawn
lips, and as Grimshaw looked he noted that the gloved fists were
clenched hard.
The outlaw nodded: "That's what I meant about leavin' out an' item--main
item, too--I hope. You see, I seen you two ridin' together
yesterday--when you sent her back home at the edge of the bad lands. An'
that's what made me so damn mad when I thought you'd gone an' got
outlawed, an' was mixin' it up with this here other woman. The man that
gits McWhorter's gal don't want his trail tangled up with other men's
wives. Marry her, Tex--an' take her out of this damn neck of the woods!
Take her across to the other side."
The Texan met the man's eyes squarely: "I'm goin' to," he answered,--"if
she'll have me."
"Have you, man! Make her have you!"
"I aim to," smiled the Texan, and Grimshaw noted that behind the smile
was a ring of determination. "So you've be'n kind of--of lookin' out fer
her, Cass?"
"Who the hell was they to do it, but me?" answered the man, roughly,
"McWhorter's busy up to the lambin'-camp, miles away--an' she's there
alone." The man paused, his face working strangely, "By God! If Purdy'd
laid a finger on her I'd of--of _tore him to pieces_!" The Texan
stared--surprised at the terrible savagery of the tone. The man
continued, his voice dropped low: "It was that that outlawed me, years
ago--killin' the damn reptile that ruined my little girl. I stood by the
law, them days. He was arrested an' had his trial--an' they give him a
year! _One year for that!_ She died before he was out--her, an' the baby
both. An' he died _the day he got out_--an' I was outlawed--an' I'm damn
proud of it!"
The Texan reached out and gripped the man's hand: "I'm goin' after Purdy
now," he said quietly. "But first, I'll help you with him."
It was but the work of a few moments to raise the body of Long Bill to
the bench by means of a rope, carry it to a nearby mud crack, drop it in
and cave a ton of mud onto it. As they raised him from the coulee
Grimshaw had removed his guns: "Better take one of these along," he
cautioned, "Purdy packs two--one inside his shirt--an' the dirty hound
carries a squeezer in his pocket--don't play him fer dead till he's damn
good an' dead, or he'll git you. Better let me an' Bill go
along--there's four of 'em--we'll leave Purdy fer you--he's the only one
that kin shoot right good--but the others might edge in on you, at
that." The Texan shook his head as he examined the guns, carefully
testing them as to action and balance. He selected one, and handed the
other to Grimshaw.
"No, Cass, this is my job an' I'm goin' through with it."
The outlaw gave minute directions concerning the lay of the land, and a
few words of excellent advice. "I've got a little scoutin' around to do
first," he concluded, "but sometime along in the afternoon me an' Bill
will drift around that way to see how you're gittin' along. If they
should happen to git you don't worry--me an' Bill, we'll take care of
what's left of 'em."
The Texan swung into the saddle: "So long, Cass."
"So long, boy. Good luck to you--an' remember to watch Purdy's other
hand."