Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 07 - Sudden Rides Again(1938) by Oliver Strange Page A

And
Joan, you’d better hear what I have just learned before you decide to fall in
love with Green.”
                 “I
haven’t the remotest intention of doing so,” she laughed. “It would break
Martin’s heart.”
                 “Shore
would,” the fat man agreed. “I’d have to shoot him up, an’ I’m admittin’ that’s
a task I wouldn’t fancy.”
                 “You’ll
fancy it less presently,” Keith said sardonically. During the meal, he told his
news. The Twin Diamond owner nodded his head, as though not surprised.
                 “A
gunman, huh?” he commented. “Guessed he warn’t just an ornery
cowpunch. Sudden! Seem to have heard of him some time, but … What arc yu
goin’ to do, Ken?”
                 “Watch
him,” the rancher replied, “an’ if he’s straight, use him to clean up that den
of infamy in the hills.” Merry looked at the girl, whose face was now pale; he
knew of what she was thinking. His own expression belied his name.
                 “A
clean-up means on’y one thing to such a man,” he stated. “Does
he know about—Jeff?”
                 Keith’s
aristocratic features might have been carved in white marble. “Yes,” he said,
in a cold, passionless tone which effectually closed the subject.
                 In
the bunkhouse, Sudden soon sensed an air of restraint in regard to himself. He
caught some of the outfit eyeing him furtively, and, while no one deliberately
avoided him, even the men he knew best appeared to be afflicted with a feeling
of awkwardness utterly foreign to their care-free souls. Evidently the
purloiner of the placard had lost no time in making use of it. Frosty was not
there, having gone to Dugout, and Sudden speculated, rather bitterly, whether
the new friendship would stand the strain. Presently the foreman threw back the
door and called him outside.
                 “They
figure I’m goin’ to be fired,” he reflected.
                 Lagley
went to the point at once. “The 01’ Man sent for me,” he began. “Someone has
told him that yo’re a Texas outlaw named Quick, no, that ain’t it—Sudden—knowed
it was somethin’ to do with speed. He’s mighty sore, said for me to give yu
yore time, pronto.”
                 The
darkness hid the cowboy’s smile; he knew the man was lying, and had his answer
ready. In an aggrieved tone, he said: “So that’s his sort? All right, I’ll take
the trail straight away; Black Sam’ll put me up.”
                 This,
as he had expected, was not to Lagley’s liking. “Hold on,” he cried. “Hell,
they got yu named right. I spoke up for yu—told Ken he was doin’ a damn-fool
thing, seein’ yo’re the kind o’ fella we can use. He give in—usually does, when
I stand up to him,” he concluded boastfully.
                 “Why,
that’s mighty good o’ yu, Steve. Who put him wise?”
                 “I
dunno; all he said was that one o’ the boys reckernized yu, an’ that don’t tell
much—we git ‘em from all over.”
                 Sudden
nodded. “I’m obliged to yu. I warn’t honin’ to travel; this is a good ranch.”
                 “It
would be a better one if young Jeff was in charge,” the foreman said meaningly.
“Some of us would like to see it. Keith has changed a lot of late; goin’ loco,
I’d say. If anythin’ happened to him, well, I don’t fancy bein’ bossed by a
gal.”
                 “Wouldn’t suit me neither,” Sudden replied. “Yu figure the
boy ain’t such a hard case, huh?”
                 “Oh,
he’s tough all right, an’ yu can’t wonder. But he’s a swell leader
an’—generous. I ain’t askin’ yu to take my word; go see for yoreself.”
                 The
puncher laughed grimly. “I guess I wouldn’t be very popular in Hell