REAL NEWS AT LAST
“Was you lookin’ for your brother Joe?”
For the moment the casualness of that question robbed Dorothy of her
power of speech. It was Tavia who answered for her.
“Looking for him!” she repeated. “I should say we were! Half across the
continent, and no luck yet.”
“Have you seen him, Lance?” Dorothy’s voice was breathless and pleading
and Lance had turned in his seat to look at her as he drove the Ford
over the bumpy road.
“I certainly did! And he wasn’t keepin’ no good company, either.” There
was hearty disapproval in the last part of this observation, but Dorothy
was too interested in the first part to notice.
“Did he look well, Lance?” she cried.
“Well, as to that, I can’t hardly say,” returned the cowboy, with
maddening deliberation. “Seein’ as I didn’t see him ’cept in passin’, as
you might say.”
“Where was he going?” cried Dorothy, almost frantic with suspense. “At
least you can tell me that, can’t you?”
“Don’t be so slow and palaverin’,” Susan Petterby adjured her husband.
“You can be the most aggravatin’ person when you wants to, Lance
Petterby. Takin’ so long to think and puttin’ a body off so. Can’t you
see the young lady is worried nigh to death?”
“Guess that’s so, though you’re always the one for seein’ things, Sue,”
said Lance penitently. “Your brother Joe was going to Garry Knapp’s
ranch when I saw him, Miss Dale.”
“Oh, then everything is all right,” cried Dorothy, with a great sigh of
relief. “Once he gets to Garry all my worries will be over.”
“Yes, if we was only sure he got where he was goin’,” said Lance
gloomily, adding hastily in response to his wife’s sharp nudge in the
ribs: “Though it’s more than likely he got there all right, anyway.”
In spite of his clumsy attempt to cover a slip of the tongue, the
mischief had been done. Fear leaped into Dorothy’s heart again as she
said quietly:
“Please tell me what you meant by that, Lance. Please don’t try to keep
anything from me.”
“Well,” complied Lance reluctantly, always keeping an eye on his plump
and pretty wife, “I sure don’t mean to scare you, Miss Dorothy, because,
as I said before, everything is probably all right. But the lad was in
company with a fellow that ain’t no friend of Garry’s, nor yet of any
decent man’s in these parts. You may be sure I didn’t trust him, and
when I heard who the lad was I did my best to get him to go with me.”
“And he wouldn’t?” interposed Dorothy swiftly and in surprise.
Lance shook his head.
“Larrimer—that’s the man he was with—didn’t give him much chance.
Whisked him off almost before I had finished speakin’. Ain’t got no
manners, that guy ain’t.” He chuckled reminiscently, but Dorothy was
very far from seeing any joke in what he had said.
“But I don’t understand, Lance,” she said, bewildered. “Why was my
brother—why was Joe in the company of this man?”
“Picked him up, probably, Miss Dale,” returned Lance, his voice
softening to a tone of sympathy. “The boy was probably hungry——”
“Probably he was!” Dorothy interrupted, with a half sob.
“When I first saw them they was comin’ out of Hicks’ chop house and the
lad was wipin’ his mouth on his handkerchief. After that your brother
Joe probably thought Larrimer was a mighty slick feller—which he is,”
the cowboy added, with another of his slow chuckles.
“Who is Larrimer, if you don’t mind relieving our curiosity?” asked
Tavia who, up to this time, had been too interested in the conversation
to join it. “You needn’t keep all your jokes to yourself, Lance.”
“He ain’t no joke, Larrimer ain’t,” retorted Lance, suddenly grim. “He’s
the meanest guy that ever busted an honest broncho. Yes, ma’am, Larrimer
is worse than the plague, him and his swell pals, Stiffbold and
Lightly.”
“Stiffbold and Lightly,” repeated Dorothy thoughtfully, then added, with
another swift rush of apprehension. “Oh, those are the two men who have
been making so much trouble for Garry. After his land—and everything.”
“You said it, Miss Dale. His land and everything,” returned Lance, his
tone still grim. “First they was all for tryin’ to prove that Garry
ain’t got no land—which was about the same as tellin’ Garry he ain’t
been born. Then, when all the law sharpers they got on their string
couldn’t prove nothin’ to nobody’s satisfaction—’ceptin’ maybe
Larrimer’s—they tried drivin’ Garry to sell.”
“Oh!” gasped Dorothy. “As if he would!”
“That’s just it, Miss Dale,” agreed Lance Petterby approvingly. “Garry
would just as likely sell his right arm off’n him as to part with any of
his land. And after that they tried different tactics, and I must say
for them that they’ve been pretty thorough—haven’t left one little stone
unturned, as you might say.”
Susan Petterby again nudged her husband as though to tell him he had
gone far enough. But Dorothy’s insistence was not to be denied.
“What did they do, Lance? Please tell me. I will find out from Garry,
anyway, when I see him. So you might as well.”
“Well, I ain’t no diplomat,” said Lance ruefully. “What with Sue here
cavin’ in my ribs every time I open my mouth and with Miss Dale
clamorin’ for information——”
“Please let him tell me, Mrs. Petterby,” coaxed Dorothy, while Tavia
giggled delightedly. “I’ve known all along that Garry was having a good
deal of trouble—he told me that himself. So really, you see, Lance is
only filling in the details.”
“Well, when he gets to talkin’ there generally ain’t no stoppin’ him,”
the young wife warned amiably. “But as long as you don’t mind——”
Lance took advantage of this permission to launch immediately into a
rambling account of the unremitting persecution Garry Knapp had suffered
ever since he came into possession of his Uncle Terry Knapp’s property.
When he had finished Dorothy’s cheeks were hot and in her heart was a
tremendous indignation. And the thought of Joe in company with the
despicable Larrimer was maddening.
“How did you know Joe was going to Garry’s ranch when you met him with
Larrimer?” she asked suddenly.
“The lad told me himself,” said Lance. “And when he did, Larrimer gave
him a look that was as full of p’ison as a rattlesnake’s bite. Only he
took great care the boy didn’t see it.”
“But if you knew Joe was in danger, why didn’t you take him away—why
didn’t you make that horrible man give him up?” cried Dorothy, half wild
with anxiety. “Then you could have taken him to Garry yourself.”
“I didn’t know he was in danger, Miss Dale. I was only guessin’,” the
Westerner reminded her gently. “And probably my guess was dead wrong at
that. Probably Larrimer didn’t have no intention to do nothin’ but what
he said. It’s dollars to doughnuts your brother Joe is safe and snug at
the Knapp ranch this minute.”
“And that’s the reason I didn’t want you to go fillin’ her head with
unpleasant thoughts, Lance Petterby,” said Sue, with a vehemence that
was rather startling coming from so placid and amiable a person. “I do
believe you like to be scarin’ people.”
“Now, you ain’t got no call to talk thataway, little hon,” Lance
complained gently. “I ain’t never scared you none, have I? Always been
kind and gentle, ain’t I?”
“That all depends on what you call kind and gentle,” retorted young Mrs.
Petterby, but the girls saw that her eyes were very soft as she looked
at Lance.
Tavia’s young namesake chose that moment to let out a pathetic wail and
Tavia reached out her arms impulsively.
“Do let me take her,” she begged. “You must be tired carrying her so
far, and I really don’t believe she will hate me so much if she takes a
longer look.”
The young woman surrendered her burden with obvious relief.
“She’s a right bouncin’ young un,” she sighed, but there was a world of
pride beneath the complaint. “You would think she was nigh on a year old
instead of only a few months.”
The infant almost immediately surrendered to her godmother’s
blandishments and in no time at all the two were the best of chums.
Dorothy tried to take an interest in the baby, but she could not keep
her anxious thoughts from Garry and Joe.
Had Joe reached the Knapp ranch in safety? Why had not Garry come to
meet the train? What influence had that man Larrimer over Joe?
“Lance,” she said, suddenly, “did you see those two men at the
station—the two who got off the train at the same time Tavia and I did?”
“The tall guy and the little feller?” queried Lance. “You just better
believe I did. Those two was what me and Sue was lookin’ for. We had
advance information that they was due on this train, but we had a
hankerin’ to make sure.”
“Who are they?” asked Dorothy, while Tavia stopped playing with Octavia
Susan to listen.