Fifteen Western Tales, March 1954 — page 98: what you’re looking at

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

mightn’t work. Better think up a better ’un.- o eeetieeeNae TONES TERCN TALES ~ "77 orvore woe eT hae . He’d believe you if you’d kinda hint that you’d slipped off in a coulee to meet Lee Con- way. Don’t hit me, you hot-headed idiot! Don’t, Dan!” “That kid’s like my own sister,” said Dan, releasing his hold on the young cow- boy’s shirt ‘collar, “and I’ll beat the head off any man’s shoulders that says a word about ~ Lee.” “Hell, don’t I know it? Don’t every man in camp know it? Here comes that monkey flea-picker of Beaver’s. Keep your temper. I'll do the talkin’ for you. Now tuck in your shirt tail.” , When they met the rider, an older hand who hung around the Whiskey Wagon a lot, Dan’g companion spoke first. “Got anything on your hip? Beaver’s tarant’lar juice? Dan’s got a bad case of cramps from the alkali water. And he thinks he’s too proud to drink Beaver Smith’s cure-all. Let’s have the loan of your fire-water. Wyeth, quit bein’ sullen like a whipped bull and take a stiff snort. It won’t pizen you.” He took the bottle the cowpuncher had reluctantly produced, pulled the cork with his teeth and shoved the bottle at Dan. Dan- took a drink. The suspicion in the man’s eyes gave way to resentment. “Needn’t take it all because it’s ‘free, Wyeth. You’re too high an’ mighty to buy it yourself, but plenty willin’ to guzzle it when it don’t cost nothin’. Cramps? You ain’t the only one that’s got ’em. But we don’t go off in a coulee and lay down on account of a belly ache. If you want more likker, you know where to buy it.” “T’ll pay you for it with a new bottle,” said Dan, silently thanking his quick-think- ing companion for inventing the ruse that had worked so well. The man with the bottle rode on. Dan grinned at his companion. The young cow- puncher grinned back. “You got more friends in this outfit than you figure on, Dan,” he said. “Before long Any of. there’s goin’ to be trouble. A lot of us are about sick of Beaver Smith. We'd like to count on you.” . “You all know where I stgnd,” said Dan cautiously. He was trusting nobody, falling into no trap. “I’m obliged to you for what you just did. That was fast thinkin’.” — “The dirty flea-picker,” said the cowboy, using the term by which the unsavory Beaver Smith’s followers were known, “has his own suspicions just the same, and he only half believes the excuse about cramps. You’d tear his head off for what he sus- pects. Don’t git hot, Dan. You can’t go killin’ men for what they’re thinkin’ in their snake brains.” But as they to COWBOY was right. parted and Dan rode alone he scowled into the shadows. He hadn’t thought of Lee as a girl. And she had tagged him around like a kid sister or younger brother, in his way sometimes and taking his rebuffs getting. as a matter of course when she made mis- — takes and he talked to her as he’d talk to a younger boy. No, Dan hadn’t ever treated Lee as a girl. But she was a girl, neverthe- less. And if Dan didn’t realize it, other men did. And some of these men were as coarse in their manner of thought as they were in their way of living. _ But in a few moments Lee was gone from his mind. Dan was thinking of Duke Harbi- son and what he had overheard Duke tell- . ing Beaver Smith. It was Duke who was trailing the Bar R herd. Duke and his Mexican renegades. Duke had cussed out Beaver Smith but they were in cahoots. Duke had said he’d let Beaver Smith know in a week or ten days, when the sign was right, and the attack would be made. Dan would get word to Red Riley. But the next morning when the horses were being caught out of the remuda, Dan saw Beaver Smith talking to the Whiskey Wagon guard and the man who had given -him the drink, last night. . Their covert . : glances kept sliding toward Dan and he — Gomiuck JOO iS (E@) “ _-