THE GENTLEMAN FROM NEW MEXICO
Thornton returned rather early that night to the ranch cabin. That he
came in at all, instead of remaining far out upon the range border as
his men were doing, was because tomorrow he planned on riding to Dry
Town where he would raise the four thousand five hundred dollars for
Henry Pollard, and he wanted to make an early start.
He left his horse at the barn, passed the bunk house and was crossing
the little footbridge which spanned Big Little River, going straight to
his cabin upon the knoll, when he saw that while the bunk house was dark
there shone a light from his cabin window. Wondering who his guest might
prove to be he strode up the knoll. The cabin door was open, he could
see his lamp burning upon the table, and sitting upon his chair, hands
clasped behind head and cigar smoking lazily, was a man he had never
seen before.
He came on, still wondering, until his tall form passed through the
doorway and stood over the smoker. The man turned a little, watching him
as he drew near.
"Howdy, Stranger," Thornton said quietly.
"Mr. Thornton?" smiled the other. "You see I've been making myself at
home."
He rose and put out a hand, a small, hard, brown hand which the cowboy
accepted carelessly and released marvelling. Its grip was as strong as
his own, the muscles like rock.
The man was of medium stature, looking small beside the towering form of
his host. He was dressed quietly and well, trousers still preserving the
lines left by the tailor's iron, his coat fitting closely about the
compact muscular shoulders, his soft shirt white and clean. He was a
sandy haired man of forty, perhaps, clean shaven, square jawed, with
very bright, very clear brown eyes.
All this Thornton saw at one swift glance. He tossed his hat to the
table, pulled another chair toward him, and sat down.
"Glad you made yourself at home," he said then, "Find anything to eat?"
The stranger nodded.
"I've been here three hours, and I was hungry. So I raided the bunk
house."
"That's right." He brought out his paper and tobacco, making his
cigarette slowly, his eyes alone asking the other his business.
"I want a little talk with you, Mr. Thornton. But maybe I'd better wait
until you've eaten?"
"Had my supper an hour ago," Thornton replied. "Made camp with the boys
before I came in. Fire away, Stranger."
"All right. First thing, my name's Comstock."
The keen eyes which had measured the cowboy as he came through the door
were very bright upon him now. Thornton nodded. The name meant nothing
to him.
"Don't get me?" laughed Comstock. "Well, well, it's a shock to vanity,
but after all one's fame is a poor crippled bird that doesn't fly far."
He paused a moment, then added quietly, as though this other information
might help his bird "to fly." "My stamping ground's New Mexico."
Thornton's look showed nothing beyond a faint curiosity; one would have
said that he was as little interested in this man's stamping ground as
in his name.
"One more try," laughed Comstock easily, "and I'll give up. Two-Hand
Billy Comstock.... Aha, I get you now!"
For now Buck Thornton started and his eyes did show interest and a
sudden flash of surprise. For fifteen years Two-Hand Billy Comstock,
United States Deputy Marshal, had been widely known throughout the great
South-west, a man who asked no odds and gave no quarter, one whose name
sent as chill a shiver through the hard hearts of the lawless as a sight
of the gallows would have done. And this man, small, well dressed, quiet
mannered, as dapper as a tailor's dummy....
"If you are Billy Comstock," grunted Thornton, "well, I'm damn' glad to
know you, sir!"
"If I am?" grinned Comstock. "And why should I lie to you?"
"I'm not saying that you are lying," returned the cowboy coolly. "But
I'm getting in the habit these days of being suspicious, I guess. But if
you are that Comstock and want to see me, I'd come mighty close to
guessing what you want. But before I do any talking I want to know."
"Sure," Comstock nodded. And then, smiling again "Only, Mr. Thornton,
I'm not in the habit of carrying around a trunk full of
identifications."
"You don't need them."
Billy Comstock's name he had made himself, and it had carried far. There
were few men in half a dozen States in this corner of the country who
did not know why he was called "Two-Hand Billy" and how he had earned
his right to the nickname. His fame was that of a man who was absolutely
fearless, and who carried the law where other men could not or would not
carry it. To him had come the dangers, the sharp fights against odds
that had seemed overwhelming, and always he had shot his way out with a
gun in each hand, and no waste lead.
"I never saw the man who could beat me to my gun," went on Thornton
quietly, no boastfulness in his tone, merely the plain statement of a
fact. "If you are 'Two-Hand Billy Comstock' you ought to do it."
The two men were sitting loosely in their chairs at opposite sides of
the room, the table with the lamp between them. Comstock's hands were
again clasped behind his head. Thornton lifted his arms, clasping his
own hands behind his head.
Comstock smiled suddenly, brightly, seeming to understand and to be as
pleased as a child with anew game.
"I'll count three," said Thornton. "We'll both go for our guns. If I get
the drop on you first," with a smile which reflected the other's, "I've
a notion to shoot you up for an impostor!"
"If you get the drop on me first," grinned Comstock, "and don't shoot me
up, I'll make you a present of the best gun you ever saw."
Thornton counted slowly, with regular intervals between the words.
"One," and neither man moved, both sitting in seeming carelessness,
their hands behind their heads. "Two," and only their eyes showed that
every lax muscle in each body grew taut. "Three," and then they moved,
the two men like two pieces of the same machine driven unerringly by the
same motive power.
Not the hands alone but the entire bodies, every muscle leaping into
action in a swiftness too great, too accurate for it to have been fully
appreciated had there been a third man to see. Thornton slipped sideways
from his chair, dropping to his knees upon the floor, and his two hands
flashed downward. The left hand sped to the opening at the left hip of
his chaps, and to the pocket beneath; the right hand into the loose band
at his stomach. And the hands seemed not to have disappeared for a
fraction of a second when they were flung out in front of him, and two
heavy double action revolvers looked squarely into Comstock's smiling
face.
Comstock had scarcely seemed to move. He still sat loosely in his chair,
its front legs tilted back supported by his heels. But his hands had
gone their swift, unerring way to the pockets of his coat, and into the
barrels of the revolvers looked the blue steel barrels of two big
automatics. And both men knew that, had this been no play, but deadly
earnest, there would not have been the tenth of a second between the
pistol shots.
"Pretty nearly an even break," laughed Comstock, dropping his guns back
into his pockets.
Thornton rose and stood frowning down into the uplifted eyes of his
visitor.
"It doesn't take a bullet long to go ten feet," he said a little
sternly. "One man doesn't have to get his gun working half an hour
before the other fellow." He came around the table and put out his hand.
"Shake," he said. "You could have got me. And I guess you're Two-Hand
Billy, all right."
Comstock's eyes were bright with frank admiration.
"I don't know so well about getting you," he answered. "I played you to
slip out on the other side of your chair. And," with his frank laugh, "I
wouldn't care for the job of going out for you, Mr. Thornton."
"Real name, Buck," laughed the cowboy. "And now, let's talk."
"First name, Billy," returned Comstock. "And we'll talk in a minute.
First thing though, there's some mail for you!"
Thornton's eyes went the way of Comstock's, and saw a piece of folded
notepaper upon the table, held in place by the lamp. He took it up,
wondering, and read the few words swiftly. As he read the blood raced up
into his face and Comstock smiled.
"I must see you," were the hastily written words. "I have wronged you
all along. I haven't time to write, I am afraid to put it on paper. But
there is great danger to you. Come tonight. I will be under the pear
trees in the front yard, at twelve o'clock.
"WINIFRED WAVERLY."
Thornton whirled about, confronting Comstock.
"Where'd this come from?" he demanded sharply.
"Special delivery," smiled Comstock. "A young fellow, calling himself
Bud King from the Bar X, brought it."
"When?"
"About an hour ago. He said he couldn't wait and couldn't take time to
look you up, and I told him that I'd see that you got it."
Thornton read the short note again, frowning. This girl, only a few
nights ago, had called him a liar, had angered him as thoroughly as she
knew how, had sent him from her vowing that he was a fool to have ever
thought of her, and that he'd die before he'd be fool to seek again to
see the niece of Henry Pollard. And now this note, speaking of having
wronged him, telling him that she was afraid to write all that she
wanted to tell him, warning him of danger to him, asking him to meet her
in Hill's Corners ... at her uncle's house ... at midnight!
He knew nothing of the danger to which she referred, but he did know
that for him there was danger in going into Dead Man's Alley even in
broad daylight. There came to him a swift suspicion that this note had
never been written by the girl whose signature it bore, that it had been
dictated by a man who sought to lure him to a spot where it would be an
easy matter to put a bullet in him in safe, cowardly fashion. Suppose
that he went, that he entered Pollard's place, and at such an hour?
Pollard, himself, could kill him, admit the deed and claim that he was
but protecting his own premises. Any one of the Bedloe boys could shoot
him and who would know?
Another suspicion, allied to this one, came and darkened the frown in
his eyes. Was it possible that Winifred Waverly had written it, acting
at Pollard's command? that she was but doing the sort of thing he should
look to one of Pollard's blood to do?
Comstock, saying nothing further, now seemed entirely engrossed in his
cigar. Thornton, the note in his fingers, hesitated. A third time he
read the pencilled words. Then he folded the paper and slipped it into
his pocket.
"If a man wants to know anything real bad," he said at last, "it's up
to him to go and find out, huh, Billy Comstock?"
Comstock, turning his cigar thoughtfully, answered:
"That's right, Buck."
Thornton glanced at his little alarm clock. It was not yet half past
eight.
"I've got to be in the Corners by twelve o'clock," he said as he went
back to his chair. "I'll ride Comet, though, and can make it handily in
two hours. Now, what's the line of talk?"
Comstock's look trailed back to his cigar.
"I'm after a man," he volunteered.
"That's a safe bet. What man?"
"Not poor little Jimmie Clayton," smiled Comstock. "He's only a weak
little fool at the worst, and wouldn't be a bad sort if he had somebody
around all the time to steer him right."
"Who is he?" retorted Thornton steadily ... remembering.
"He's the man you owe a debt of gratitude to," laughed Comstock. "He put
some bullets through you one night down Texas way, found that he'd
slipped up and that you'd put your money into a check, and then played
safe by nursing you through it! The man who broke jail a month or so
ago, and beat it up here to you to see him through. I'm _not_ after
him."
"You seem to know a whole lot," answered Thornton noncommittally neither
voice nor face nor eye showing a hint of surprise or other emotion. And
yet he was thinking swiftly, that if this man spoke the truth he had a
score to settle with Jimmie Clayton.
"Oh, it's my business to know a whole lot," resumed Comstock, answering
the look in Thornton's eyes. "I just say that I'm not after Jimmie
Clayton as I don't want you to think that you'll be giving away anything
on a friend. The man I want," and he tilted his chair back a little
farther, drew up his carefully creased trousers with thumb and
forefinger and crossed one leg over the other, "is a man who got away
from me seven years ago. Down in New Mexico."
"Name?" asked Thornton bluntly.
"His name doesn't matter, I guess. He had three during the time that I
knew him, and I suppose he's had half a dozen since."
"Before you go any further," interrupted Thornton, "tell me why you came
to me at all?"
"Banker Templeton of Dry Town is a friend of mine. We went to school
together. He's the man who led me to believe, to hope," he added softly,
"that the man I want is working this country now. I told Templeton that
I wanted to make a little visit to this neck of the woods. And he gave
me your name."
"I see. Now, about your man?"
"I'm going to ask you a string of questions, Thornton. We haven't over
much time and any way there wouldn't be any use now in my stopping to
explain just what I'm driving at and why I want to know this and that.
If you'll just answer what I ask..."
"Fire away."
For a little they smoked on in silence, Two-Hand Billy Comstock's
expression suggesting that he was planning precisely the course his
inquiries were to take before beginning.
"Let's start in this way!" he said at last. "What men around here do you
know real well, well enough to call friends?"
"I've been here only a year," Thornton told him. "I don't know many men
here real well. Friends? Outside Bud King and the boys working for me I
don't know any I'd call friend."
"Then," placidly suggested, "how about enemies? A man can make a good
many enemies in a year and not half try."
"If you'll change that to men I know pretty well and don't like, and who
don't like me, I can name a name or two."
"Let's have 'em."
"There's Henry Pollard, to begin with."
"The man you're buying from. First, how old a man is he and what does he
look like? Next, what do you know about him?"
Thornton described the man, guessed at his age, and told what he knew of
"Rattlesnake" Pollard. Comstock seemed interested in a mild sort of a
way, but neither now nor later, as Thornton spoke of other men, did he
give any sign of more than mild interest.
"Who are Pollard's friends?" was the next question.
Thornton named Ben Broderick, two other men who do not come into the
story, and Cole Dalton, the sheriff. And as he named them, Comstock
asked him to give an estimate at their ages, to tell what he knew of
them and to give as close a personal description as he could.
Having finished with Pollard and his friends he spoke of the Bedloe
boys. And United States Deputy Marshal Comstock listened throughout with
the same mild interest, merely asking questions, offering no opinions.
"One last question," he said finally. "If you had a guess who'd you say
was the bad man this county wants?"
"If any stock's missing from my range," was the blunt answer, "I'd look
up the Bedloe outfit."
Comstock, offering no opinion, smiled and sank into a thoughtful
silence.
At half past nine o'clock Thornton got to his feet and took up his hat.
"I'd better be riding," he said, putting out his hand. "Make yourself at
home."
But Comstock came to the door with him.
"If you don't mind I'll ride along," he offered carelessly. "I think my
trail runs into Dead Man's, too. And by the way, Thornton," he added a
little sharply, "my name's just plain Richard Hampton for the present.
And my business right now is ... my business!"
Thornton nodded that he understood and together they left the cabin.