15 Western Short Stories — page 52: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

4 some trees—on their side of the lake.” The surveyor moved to the south- west end of the lake, tacked a notice to a cottonwood. He walked along the west side of tae lake to the northwest corner, tacked a similar notice—which stated that a resurvey now legally es- tablished that this lake, well, and property east of the two notices, and by extension for more than a mile, belonged to Henry and Peter Smath- ers. This done, the surveyor rejoined Hank and Larribee and the sullen Jacoby atop the middle of the east wall. Larribee wondered what Pete Smathers was thinking about now... looking at him, Larribee, from con- cealment. Pete must be slightly con- fused—if Pete happened to be a re- cent acquaintance, that was. They fadn’t long to wait. Under- wood could see them clearly through his telescope from the ranchhouse. A few minutes later three riders, prod- ding their mounts to top speed up- hill, came out of the woods at the north end of the lake near the big ar- tesian pipe. Underwood and son and daughter, eyes narrowed, came off their horses in a hurry. The son was about 20. Evidently he’d been at work far from the house yesterday. Audrey had the rifle in the crook of her arm. The two males kept their guns in the holsters at this point. “What the devil’s goin’ here?’ Underwood roared. “My name’s Meade. I’m the county surveyor.” He pointed at the two no- tices. “My recent resurvey shows there was a big mistake in the original survey of this section. All the land on up east of the two notices is the rightful legal property of Henry and Peter Smathers. Such land includes the well and lake, sir.” Underwood beetled. “You swind- lers!” he roared. The .44 came out of the hoslter into his hand. He crouched and pointed the weapon at Hank’s big belly in particular. “T’m willin’ to be reasonable,’ Hank stated. “I’ll give you enough water for your stock and even a little for irriga- tion when I can spare it. Nothin’ tightfisted about me.” “Hightail it before I blow the whole lot of you to hellangone!” the fierce- natured Underwood shouted. WESTERN SHORT STORIES Hank shrugged. “Gonna be tough about it, huh? I hope you realize 2 99 youre trespassin’. AUDREY, with both pert eyes slit- ted, was glaring contemptuously at Larribee. “So you’re one of ’em.” Scathing. “Looks that way, doesn’t it, sugar- plum?” Larribee said. At that moment Pete Smathers stepped out of his concealing bushes, .45 in hand. He was at a slight angle behind the three Underwoods. Pete calmly squeezed the trigger and the slug nicked the crown of Underwood's big white hat. “Drop all three guns!” Pete or- dered. Underwood started to whirl, thought better of it—and dropped the 44 at his feet on the top of the wall. Audrey and the youth jerked their heads around for a quick look, and dropped their own weapons. Each Underwood was obviously afraid of getting one of the others shot need- lessly. “Move out to the middle of the wall!” Pete commanded. Larribee’s eyes started narrowing at the sight of Pete. Yesterday Pete Smathers’ name, for convenience, had been Dave Upton. All the facts fell into place for Larri- bee suddenly: Pete had stolen those horses from Underwood the night be- fore and headed north to sell them... to get some money to make a down payment to this surveyor...so the surveyor would swindle the Under- woods out of their water legally. Neat! Hank and Jacoby and Larribee backed to the south end of the wall. The Underwood trio moved slowly from the north end to the middle, looking enraged but bewildered too. Larribee’s range-trained ears heard a faint hissing sound to the north- east. He looked toward the shrubbery where Pete had lain in wait. Sure enough. Pete had lighted the fuse. It was about 30 feet long. Larribee esti- mated it would take maybe two min- utes for the fuse to burn to the sticks. When those sticks exploded beneath the trio, perhaps the explosion wouldn’t kill them outright. But it COMIC|OOKS CO