2-Gun Western, February 1954 — page 34: what you’re looking at

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

34 of final escape. If this should be the caravan the Judge was going Westward with, and the jurors had been drawn from, the worse for him if he were seen by them. On the other hand, he likely could find something to do with such an outfit that would at least give him grub. If he’d been on the river he would have had no problem. He’d have caught a catfish, knocked it in the head, and cooked and ate it. The ways of landlubbers got him down. He hid in the tall grass on the sand hills till the outfit caught up. At sunrise the wagons parked. Frying food and hospitable laughter and talk tolled Windy down to pass the time of day with the nearest wagon. “Howdy. Headed West?” “More or less,” the man answered. “Kind of mosying in that direction myself. Who’s headman of this out- fit?” He looked about to see if he recognized anybody. “Ain’t elected no headman yet. Hold elections today, apt as not.” “Know anybody could use a likely hand?” “If you ain’t gunshy of sweat you'll have no trouble getting all the work ye want. What you good at?” “W-well, mostly I’ve run the riv- ers. But I reckon I could drive cows.” They shared breakfast with him. He mingled with other travelers. More than one eyed his horse and several wanted to trade. Windy looked the girls over and found a likely choice of red-cheeked, buxom females, but not one that might have © slipped to his calaboose window and whispered “Nine o'clock.” These seemed shy. He made himself handy helping a man fix a wagon wheel, and was not held in less esteem for the service. When he made bold and asked for work a driver said, “With that beastie of yourn you'd be good minding the cattle. You could chase up strays.” It was the lowliest job of all but Windy figured it would grubstake him and at the same time keep him away from the people a safe distance. This horse was going to be his un- doing if he didn’t watch out. The people slept, lying on the 2-GUN WESTERN ground or under the wagons snoring. The women and girls washed clothes at the nearby river. There was some politicking for the job of headman, but everything seemed to be suspend- ed, waiting. Windy understood when about nooning a light spring wagon drawn by three roans that matched the one he had, and a flea-bitten gray that outraged the matching, drove up and Judge Bradshaw tossed the lines to the girl on the seat beside him, getting out. “Where’s my wagons?” he boomed. Two wagons, big and heavily load- ed, were shown him. Windy shrank to microscopic size but he couldn’t hide the horse. “You ridin’ late, Jedge,” said a voice. “It was that blamed horse thief. He’d escaped. I waited to sentence him this morning, just te show I’m not the hard man they say I am, and the dirty son had got out of jail, heav- en knows how. The sheriff swore the chain lock hadn’t been touched, he’d stood watch all night.” Windy turned his disturbed atten- tion to the girl. It was the same face- he had seen for a flash when the jury foreman spoke the verdict. It was this girl that decided him to stick around, for a spell anyway. She climbed into one of the wagons and when she came out she had changed her traveling dress to a homespun that made Windy’s head swim. He could think of only her as the one who had freed him. She could have bribed the sheriff's wife, or even the law itself, seeing as Judge Bradshaw was leaving for Oregon. A little gold would grease a big palm. And there was the roan. It all added up. It put Windy in the middle of a devil of a fix. He couldn’t leave and he couldn’t stay. He couldn’t keep the horse and he couldn’t sell it. He did smear the brute with mud, and he himself withdrew to graze the kine. One thing in his favor: Judge Bradshaw was no longer the law. He was just a citizen heading West. The Judge placed a higher valua- tion on himself. After refreshing his ample belly with buffalo steak he shouted for the men folk to gather around his wagon. “I have some re- EOMICLOOKS 1€O