The Return of the Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs (best motivational books of all time txt) đ
- Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs
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He should have been glad to pay his respects to El Orobo Rancho and its foreman; but the fact that Anthony Harding owned it and that he and Barbara were there was sufficient effectually to banish all thoughts of revenge along that line.
âMaybe I can get his goat later,â he thought, âwhen heâs away from the ranch. I donât like that stiff, anyhow. He orter been a harness bull.â
It was four oâclock in the morning when Billy dismounted in front of Joseâs hut. He pounded on the door until the man came and opened it.
âEh!â exclaimed Jose as he saw who his early morning visitor was, âyou got away from them. Fine!â and the old man chuckled. âI send word to Pesita two, four hours ago that Villistas capture Capitan Byrne and take him to Cuivaca.â
âThanks,â said Billy. âPesita wants you to send Esteban to him. I didnât have no chance to tell you last night while them pikers was stickinâ arounâ, so I stops now on my way back to the hills.â
âI will send Esteban tonight if I can get him; but I do not know. Esteban is working for the pig, Grayson.â
âWotâs he doinâ fer Grayson?â asked Billy. âAnd what was the Grayson guy doinâ up here with you, Jose? Ainât you gettinâ pretty thick with Pesitaâs enemies?â
âJose good friends everybody,â and the old man grinned. âGrayson have a job he want good men for. Jose furnish men. Grayson pay well. Job got nothinâ do Pesita, Villa, Carranza, revolutionâjust private job. Grayson want senorita. He pay to get her. That all.â
âOh,â said Billy, and yawned. He was not interested in Mr. Graysonâs amours. âWhy didnât the poor boob go get her himself?â he inquired disinterestedly. âHe must be a yap to hire a bunch oâ guys to go cop off a siwash girl fer him.â
âIt is not a siwash girl, Senor Capitan,â said Jose. âIt is one beautiful senoritaâthe daughter of the owner of El Orobo Rancho.â
âWhat?â cried Billy Byrne. âWhatâs that you say?â
âYes, Senor Capitan, what of it?â inquired Jose. âGrayson he pay me furnish the men. Esteban he go with his warriors. I get Esteban. They go tonight take away the senorita; but not for Grayson,â and the old fellow laughed. âI can no help can I? Grayson pay me money get men. I get them. I no help if they keep girl,â and he shrugged.
âTheyâre cominâ for her tonight?â cried Billy.
âSi, senor,â replied Jose. âDoubtless they already take her.â
âHell!â muttered Billy Byrne, as he swung Brazos about so quickly that the little pony pivoted upon his hind legs and dashed away toward the south over the same trail he had just traversed.
THE Brazos pony had traveled far that day but for only a trifle over ten miles had he carried a rider upon his back. He was, consequently, far from fagged as he leaped forward to the lifted reins and tore along the dusty river trail back in the direction of Orobo.
Never before had Brazos covered ten miles in so short a time, for it was not yet five oâclock when, reeling with fatigue, he stopped, staggered and fell in front of the office building at El Orobo.
Eddie Shorter had sat in the chair as Barbara and Billy had last seen him waiting until Byrne should have an ample start before arousing Grayson and reporting the prisonerâs escape. Eddie had determined that he would give Billy an hour. He grinned as he anticipated the rage of Grayson and the Villistas when they learned that their bird had flown, and as he mused and waited he fell asleep.
It was broad daylight when Eddie awoke, and as he looked up at the little clock ticking against the wall, and saw the time he gave an exclamation of surprise and leaped to his feet. Just as he opened the outer door of the office he saw a horseman leap from a winded pony in front of the building. He saw the animal collapse and sink to the ground, and then he recognized the pony as Brazos, and another glance at the man brought recognition of him, too.
âYou?â cried Eddie. âWhat are you doinâ back here? I gotta take you now,â and he started to draw his revolver; but Billy Byrne had him covered before ever his hand reached the grip of his gun.
âPut âem up!â admonished Billy, âand listen to me. This ainât no time fer gunplay or no such foolishness. I ainât back here to be tookâget that out oâ your nut. Iâm tipped off that a bunch oâ siwashes was down here last night to swipe Miss Harding. Come! We gotta go see if sheâs here or not, anâ donât try any funny business on me, Eddie. I ainât a-goinâ to be taken again, anâ whoever tries it gets his, see?â
Eddie was down off the porch in an instant, and making for the ranchhouse.
âIâm with you,â he said. âWho told you? And who done it?â
âNever mind who told me; but a siwash named Esteban was to pull the thing off for Grayson. Grayson wanted Miss Harding anâ he was goinâ to have her stolen for him.â
âThe hound!â muttered Eddie.
The two men dashed up onto the veranda of the ranchhouse and pounded at the door until a Chinaman opened it and stuck out his head, inquiringly.
âIs Miss Harding here?â demanded Billy.
âMlissy Hardie Kleep,â snapped the servant. âWally wanee here flo blekfas?â, and would have shut the door in their faces had not Billy intruded a heavy boot. The next instant he placed a large palm over the celestialâs face and pushed the man back into the house. Once inside he called Mr. Hardingâs name aloud.
âWhat is it?â asked the gentleman a moment later as he appeared in a bedroom doorway off the living-room clad in his pajamas. âWhatâs the matter? Why, gad man, is that you? Is this really Billy Byrne?â
âSure,â replied Byrne shortly; âbut we canât waste any time chinninâ. I heard that Miss Barbara was goinâ to be swiped last nightâI heard that she had been. Now hurry and see if she is here.â
Anthony Harding turned and leaped up the narrow stairway to the second floor four steps at a time. He hadnât gone upstairs in that fashion in forty years. Without even pausing to rap he burst into his daughterâs bedroom. It was empty. The bed was unruffled. It had not been slept in. With a moan the man turned back and ran hastily to the other rooms upon the second floorâBarbara was nowhere to be found. Then he hastened downstairs to the two men awaiting him.
As he entered the room from one end Grayson entered it from the other through the doorway leading out upon the veranda. Billy Byrne had heard footsteps upon the boards without and he was ready, so that as Grayson entered he found himself looking straight at the business end of a sixshooter. The foreman halted, and stood looking in surprise first at Billy Byrne, and then at Eddie Shorter and Mr. Harding.
âWhat does this mean?â he demanded, addressing Eddie. âWhat you doinâ here with your prisoner? Who told you to let him out, eh?â
âCan the chatter,â growled Billy Byrne. âShorter didnât let me out. I escaped hours ago, and Iâve just come back from Joseâs to ask you where Miss Harding is, you low-lived cur, you. Where is she?â
âWhat has Mr. Grayson to do with it?â asked Mr. Harding. âHow should he know anything about it? Itâs all a mystery to meâyou here, of all men in the world, and Grayson talking about you as the prisoner. I canât make it out. Quick, though, Byrne, tell me all you know about Barbara.â
Billy kept Grayson covered as he replied to the request of Harding.
âThis guy hires a bunch of Pimans to steal Miss Barbara,â he said. âI got it straight from the fellow he paid the money to for gettinâ him the right men to pull off the job. He wants her it seems,â and Billy shot a look at the ranch foreman that would have killed if looks could. âShe canât have been gone long. I seen her after midnight, just before I made my getaway, so they canât have taken her very far. This thing here canât help us none neither, for he donât know where she is any moreân we do. He thinks he does; but he donât. The siwashes framed it on him, anâ theyâve doubled-crossed him. I got that straight too; but, Gawd! I donât know where theyâve taken her or what theyâre goinâ to do with her.â
As he spoke he turned his eyes for the first time away from Grayson and looked full in Anthony Hardingâs face. The latter saw beneath the strong character lines of the otherâs countenance the agony of fear and doubt that lay heavy upon his heart.
In the brief instant that Billyâs watchful gaze left the figure of the ranch foreman the latter saw the opportunity he craved. He was standing directly in the doorwayâa single step would carry him out of range of Byrneâs gun, placing a wall between it and him, and Grayson was not slow in taking that step.
When Billy turned his eyes back the Texan had disappeared, and by the time the former reached the doorway Grayson was halfway to the office building on the veranda of which stood the four soldiers of Villa grumbling and muttering over the absence of their prisoner of the previous evening.
Billy Byrne stepped out into the open. The ranch foreman called aloud to the four Mexicans that their prisoner was at the ranchhouse and as they looked in that direction they saw him, revolver in hand, coming slowly toward them. There was a smile upon his lips which they could not see because of the distance, and which, not knowing Billy Byrne, they would not have interpreted correctly; but the revolver they did understand, and at sight of it one of them threw his carbine to his shoulder. His finger, however, never closed upon the trigger, for there came the sound of a shot from beyond Billy Byrne and the Mexican staggered forward, pitching over the edge of the porch to the ground.
Billy turned his head in the direction from which the shot had come and saw Eddie Shorter running toward him, a smoking sixshooter in his right hand.
âGo back,â commanded Byrne; âthis is my funeral.â
âNot on your life,â replied Eddie Shorter. âThose greasers donât take no white man offân El Orobo, while Iâm here. Get busy! Theyâre cominâ.â
And sure enough they were coming, and as they came their carbines popped and the bullets whizzed about the heads of the two Americans. Grayson, too, had taken a hand upon the side of the Villistas. From the bunkhouse other men were running rapidly in the direction of the fight, attracted by the first shots.
Billy and Eddie stood their ground, a few paces apart. Two more of Villaâs men went down. Grayson ran for cover. Then Billy Byrne dropped the last of the Mexicans just as the men from the bunkhouse came panting upon the scene. There were both Americans and Mexicans among them. All were armed and weapons were ready in their hands.
They paused a short distance from the two men. Eddieâs presence upon the side of the stranger saved Billy from instant death, for Eddie was well liked by both his Mexican and American fellow-workers.
âWhatâs the fuss?â asked an American.
Eddie told them, and when they learned that the bossâs daughter had been spirited away and that the
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