Bar-20 Days by Clarence E. Mulford (best black authors TXT) đ
- Author: Clarence E. Mulford
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When he saddled his mount at the corral he was not aware that two of the three remaining horses had taken advantage of their opportunity and had walked out and made off in the darkness before he replaced the bars, and he was too drunk to care if he had known it.
The night air felt so good that it moved him to song, but it was not long before the words faltered more and more and soon ceased altogether and a subdued snore rasped from him. He awakened from time to time, but only for a moment, for he was tired and sleepy.
His mount very quickly learned that something was wrong and that it was being given its head. As long as it could go where it pleased it could do nothing better than head for home, and it quickened its pace towards Winchester. Some time after daylight it pricked up its ears and broke into a canter, which soon developed signs of irritation in its rider. Finally Hopalong opened his heavy eyes and looked around for his bearings. Not knowing where he was and too tired and miserable to give much thought to a matter of such slight importance, he glanced around for a place to finish his sleep. A tree some distance ahead of him looked inviting and towards it he rode. Habit made him picket the horse before he lay down and as he fell asleep he had vague recollections of handling a strange picket rope some time recently. The horse slowly turned and stared at the already snoring figure, glanced over the landscape, back the to queerest man it had ever met, and then fell to grazing in quiet content. A slinking coyote topped a rise a short distance away and stopped instantly, regarding the sleeping man with grave curiosity and strong suspicion. Deciding that there was nothing good to eat in that vicinity and that the man was carrying out a fell plot for the death of coyotes, it backed away out of sight and loped on to other hunting grounds.
Stevenson, having started the fire for breakfast, took a pail and departed towards the spring; but he got no farther than the corral gate, where he dropped the pail and stared. There was only one horse in the enclosure where the night before there had been four. He wasted no time in surmises, but wheeled and dashed back towards the hotel, and his vigorous shouts brought Old John to the door, sleepy and peevish. Old Johnâs mouth dropped open as he beheld his habitually indolent host marking off long distances on the sand with each falling foot.
âWhatâs got inter you?â demanded Old John.
âOur broncs are gone! Our broncs are gone!â yelled Stevenson, shoving Old John roughly to one side as he dashed through the doorway and on into the room he had assigned to the sullen and bibulous stranger. âI knowed it! I knowed it!â he wailed, popping out again as if on springs. âHeâs gone, anâ heâs took our broncs with him, the measly, low-down dog! I knowed he wasnât no good! I could see it in his eye; anâ he wasnât drunk, not by a darn sight. Go out anâ see for yoreself if they ainât gone!â he snapped in reply to Old Johnâs look. âGo on out, while I throw some cold grub on the tableâwonât have no time this morning to do no cooking. Heâs got five hoursâ start on us, anâ itâll take some right smart riding to get him before dark; but weâll do it, anâ hang him, too!â
âWhatâs all this here rumpus?â demanded a sleepy voice from upstairs. âWhoâs hanged?â and Charley entered the room, very much interested. His interest increased remarkably when the calamity was made known and he lost no time in joining Old John in the corral to verify the news.
Old John waved his hands over the scene and carefully explained what he had read in the tracks, to his companionâs great irritation, for Charleyâs keen eyes and good training had already told him all there was to learn; and his reading did not exactly agree with that of his companion.
âCharley, heâs gone and took our cayuses; anâ thatâs the very way he cameââround the corner of the hotel. He got all tangled up anâ fell over there, anâ here he bumped inter the palisade, anâ dropped his saddle. When he opened the bars he took my roan gelding because it was the best anâ fastest, anâ then he let out the others to mix us up on the tracks. See how he went? Had to hop four times on one foot afore he could get inter the saddle. Anâ that proves he was sober, for no drunk could hop four times like that without falling down anâ being drug to death. Anâ he left his own critter behind because he knowed it wasnât no good. Itâs all as plain as the nose on your face, Charley,â and Old John proudly rubbed his ear. âHee, hee, hee! You canât fool Old John, even if he is getting old. No, sir, bâ gum.â
Charley had just returned from inside the corral, where he had looked at the brand on the far side of the one horse left, and he waited impatiently for his companion to cease talking. He took quick advantage of the first pause Old John made and spoke crisply.
âI donât care what corner he came âround, or what he bumped inter; anâ any fool can see that. Anâ if he left that cayuse behind because he thought it wasnât no good, he was drunk. Thatâs a Bar-20 cayuse, anâ no hoss-thief ever worked for that ranch. He left it behind because he stole it; thatâs why. Anâ he didnât let them others out because he wanted to mix us up, neither. Howâd he know if we couldnât tell the tracks of our own animals? He did that to make us lose time; thatâs what he did it for. Anâ he couldnât tell what bronc he took last nightâit was too dark. He must âaâ struck a match anâ seen where that Bar-20 cayuse was anâ then took the first one nearest that wasnât it. Anâ now you tell me how the devil he knowed yourn was the fastest, which it ainât,â he finished, sarcastically, gloating over a chance to rub it into the man he had always regarded as a windy old nuisance.
âWell, mebby what you said isââ
âMebby nothing!â snapped Charley. âIf he wanted to mix the tracks would he âaâ hopped like that so we couldnât help telling what cayuse he rode? He knowed weâd pick his trail quick, anâ he knowed that every minute counted; thatâs why he hoppedâwhy, yore roan was going like the wind afore he got in the saddle. If you donât believe it, look at them toe-prints!â
âHâm; reckon yoâre right, Charley. My eyes ainât nigh as good as they once was. But I heard him say something âbout Winchester,â replied Old John, glad to change the subject. âBet heâs going over there, too. He wonât get through that town on no critter wearing my brand. Everybody knows that roan, anâââ
âQuit guessing!â snapped Charley, beginning to lose some of the tattered remnant of his respect for old age. âHeâs a whole lot likely to head for a town on a stolen cayuse, now ainât he! But we donât care where heâs heading; weâll foller the trail.â
âGrub pile!â shouted Stevenson, and the two made haste to obey.
âCharley, gimme a chaw of yore tobacker,â and Old John, biting off a generous chunk, quietly slipped it into his pocket, there to lay until after he had eaten his breakfast.
All talk was tabled while the three men gulped down a cold and uninviting meal. Ten minutes later they had finished and separated to find horses and spread the news; in fifteen more they had them and were riding along the plain trail at top speed, with three other men close at their heels. Three hundred yards from the corral they pounded out of an arroyo, and Charley, who was leading, stood up in his stirrups and looked keenly ahead. Another trail joined the one they were following and ran with and on top of it. This, he reasoned, had been made by one of the strays and would turn away soon. He kept his eyes looking well ahead and soon saw that he was right in his surmise, and without checking the speed of his horse in the slightest degree he went ahead on the trail of the smaller hoof-prints. In a moment Old John spurred forward and gained his side and began to argue hot-headedly.
âHey! Charley!â he cried. âWhy are you follering this track?â he demanded.
âBecause itâs his; thatâs why.â
âWell, here, wait a minute!â and Old John was getting red from excitement. âHow do you know it is? Mebby he took the other!â
âHe started out on the cayuse that made these little tracks,â retorted Charley, âanâ I donât see no reason to think he swapped animules. Donât you know the prints of yore own cayuse?â
âLawd, no!â answered Old John. âWhy, I donât hardly ride the same cayuse the second day, straight hand-running. I tell you we ought to foller that other trail. Heâs just cute enough to play some trick on us.â
âWell, you better do that for us,â Charley replied, hoping against hope that the old man would chase off on the other and give his companions a rest.
âHe ainât got sand enough to tackle a thing like that single-handed,â laughed Jed White, winking to the others.
Old John wheeled. âAinât, hey! I am going to do that same thing anâ prove that you are a pack of fools. Iâm too old to be fooled by a common trick like that. Anâ I donât need no helpâIâll ketch him all by myself, anâ hang him, too!â And he wheeled to follow the other trail, angry and outraged. âYoung fools,â he muttered. âWhy, I was fighting all around these parts afore any of âem knowed the difference between day anâ night!â
âHard-headed old fool,â remarked Charley, frowning, as he led the way again.
âHeâs gittinâ old anâ childish,â excused Stevenson. âThey say warnât nobody in these parts could hold a candle to him in his prime.â
Hopalong muttered and stirred and opened his eyes to gaze blankly into those of one of the men who were tugging at his hands, and as he stared he started his stupefied brain sluggishly to work in an endeavor to explain the unusual experience. There were five men around him
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