BUCKY FOLLOWS A HOT TRAIL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 April 1939, Page 12

BUCKY FOLLOWS A HOT TRAIL

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT. COPYRIGHT.

BY

WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE.

CHAPTER VI. (Continued). A rifle cracked, and a bullet whined over their heads. “We know that already,” the foreman said grimly. “Get yore horses, boys, and find cover in the rocks. We’re bunched too close.” Bucky gave sharp orders. “We’re not looking for a fight. They’ll do the crowding, if any is done. But if they attack, 1 shoot to kill.” The riders scattered, each finding his own cover. Occasionally a rifle cracked. Once some one, two hundred yards away, lifted his voice in a yell of derision. But the Red Rock man came no closer.

Bucky passed the word for a slow withdrawal. The CC riders had to get out while the darkness still held, or run the chance of a pitched battle in the morning. This Cameron did not want. He knew a garbled story would be given out to the public, one in which all the blame would be laid on him. Since any lie circulated would be Relieved, he could not afford even a victory with casualties. The CC men, most of them leading their horses until they were out of range, headed toward home by the most direct route. There was no longer any need for secrecy. Four or five miles below Dolores Canon they turned up a small creek, following it until they came to an open meadow. “We’ll camp here,” Bucky said.

There was not a chance in a thousand that their enemies would find them in the darkness —not one in a hundred that the Red Rock men would be looking for them now the trap had failed —but Bucky set guards to protect the party in the event of a surprise.

As the sun was coming up over a notch in the hills, they caught and saddled. Bucky and Tim rode in the van as they moved down the creek towards the junction. Just before they reached the point where the brook emptied into the larger creek Murphy dragged his horse to a stop abruptly. “Look who’s here.”

Six men were riding down the Dolores Canon trail. Bucky recognised them as the leading spirits of the Red Rock outlaw tribe. Among the group were West and Quinn and Davis. Another was Big Bill Savage an immense hairy man all brawn and bone. Beside him rode a twisted wizen-faced old chap known as Tuffy Arnold. Usually Tuffy was credited with being the brains of the outfit, a sly slippery customer not to be trusted out of sight. In another twenty-five yards the two parties would have come together. Brad Davis ripped out a sudden oath and pulled up his mount. “Here are the dirty killers!” he cried. Bucky had not stopped his sorrell gelding. He: rode to the edge of the creek separating the two parties.

Tim called back to his men in a low voice. “Don’t jam too close. Kinda scatter along the bank.”

. “You came a long way to kill poor Dutch, Cameron!” West cried.

Bucky looked the Red Rock contingent over coolly. ’“Dieter asked for what he got, West. He tried to lead - us .into the trap you had set. When he saw he would, have to go in too he tried to shoot his way out. You ought to do better than that when you fix up an ambush. Tuffy must be getting old and rusty if that is his best.”

“You’re a damned liar,” West snarled. “You murdered Dutch.” “He fired twice at Curly before we lifted a hand,” Murphy cut in. “He was aiming at Bucky when two of the boys cracked down on him. “Which two?” demanded Quinn.

“Never mind which two, Pete. It was self-defence.”

“Charge it to me,” drawled Bucky, stroking his little moustache. “And me.” Curly added. “I was in it.”

“Grass will grow over your grave for that, Curly,” West told him. Bucky watched closely Quinn and Davis. Tuffy Arnold would be for peace, at least until he was out of the danger zone. The giant Big Bill, would take his cue from West, who despite his reputation as a dangerous gunman preferred the odds to be in his favour. The sixth man was a nonentity. It was Bucky’s opinion that there would be no battle now unless Quinn or Davis started it in impulsive anger. “You came up here lookin’ for fight, did you?” challenged Davis. Cold-eyed, Bucky met his angry glare. “You know why we came — because you set a trap you expected us to walk into like fools. Don’t tell your lies to us, you scoundrel. Keep them for Toltec. You brought us here to be murdered.” He stopped for a moment, and moved the sorrel into the shallow water at the edge of the creek as if he were afraid they could not all hear what he said unless he was near enough for his voice to drown the rippling of the watetr. When he spoke again it was in an even monotone that made the scabrous epithets with which he blasted them more telling. He searched his vocabulary for long-drawn blistering words, and not once did he repeat himself. His mouth hardly moved. The muscles of his face did not alter a line. Both hands rested on the horn of the saddle, but there was a catlike litheness in his body that might awake instantly to violent eruption.

They listened to him. held by some dominant force in him that compelled attention. They felt the urge of a spirit full of fire and passion, but controlled by a masterful will. His audacity was amazing. It brought back memories of other Camerons, his father and his uncle, men who had walked with bleak faces into deadly peril. “You can’t talk that way to me! cried Davis, face black with rage. “I won’t stand it from any man alive, let alive a little girl-faced dude like you.” ' “I am talking that way,” corrected Bucky. “I’m telling you that you’re a thief, a liar, a coward, and a murderer. The only reason you don’t draw now is that you’re afraid I’ll kill you in your tracks.” Turff Arnold pushed forward his horse. He laid a restraining hand on Davis’s knee. lJ Hard words don’t break any bones, Cameron,” he said shaking his head reprovingly. “You’ve got us all wrong. I don’t know what you’ve got in your nut, but there’s nothing to it. If Dutch was alive he would tell you so. And this talk about shooting folks in their tracks isn’t going to do

you any good. We got past those days.”

Davis brushed the old man’s hand aside impatiently, but West’s heavy voice bore him down when he started to talk.

“We’re not looking for war, Cameron,” West boomed, “And we’re not ducking it either. All of us have got your number. You’re one of these bully puss fellows who go around with a chip on their shoulder. Only reason your bluff hasn’t been called is because the men like to pick some one of their size.”

“Come on, boys,” Tuffy advised. “We’re peaceable citizens going about our own business. No use getting upset over what this fellow says. This country has done made up its mind about him. He’ll have to do some fast talking to explain away this Dutch Dieter business.

He turned his horse and started down the trail. West followed, Big Bill at his heel. The other members of the party hesitated, but after a moment took the trail after them. CHAPTER VII.

Tim Murphy looked at his dapper little chief oddly, reappraising him in his mind. He had thought he knew the young man pretty well. In the public mind Neil Cameron had been accepted until recently as a wild youngster born with a silver spoon in his mouth, one with a flair for clothes and for gay comradeship. He had a reputation as a gambler and because of it had won even as a boy the nickname of Bucky. Tim could have told any one wno wanted to know that he was a chip off the old block, fearless, trustworthy, and sound at bottom. Now the foreman began to think the lad had the same capacity for leadership that had marked his father and uncle. His intrepid challenge ,to the Red Rock gang had been a stroke of genius. It had enhanced him tremendously with his own men and it had correspondingly diminished the bad men who had bullied the riders of the CC ranch.

“You sure read them their pedigrees, Bucky,” Tim said with a laugh. “I don’t reckon you left much unsaid. Didn’t know you had such a flow of language. We’ll have to elect you to Congress.” “Have to talk turkey to ruffians like them,” Bucky answered carelessly. He swung his horse into the trail. “All aboard for the CC, boys.”

Murphy rode beside him. “Those scoundrels killed Cliff,” he said bluntly. “No doubt about it.” “Not proven,” Bucky excepted. "But one thing is sure. He is not a prisoner in the hills. If he were, they wouldn’t, have invited us to this party. They wouldn’t have dared make a play that they had him cached. That is one idea they wouldn’t have promoted.” He added, gloomily, “I’m about ready to give up, Tim. Uncle Cliff is dead. If he isn’t hidden up here, where could he be?”

“I knew all the time he was dead,” Murphy said 1 harshly, to hide his feeling. “They took him up into the hills and killed him in some gulch that first night.” Bucky reserved an opinion. He still had Clem Garside in .the back, of his mind.

When they reached the ranch house, Julia came out to the porch. “Where have you been?” she cried, her eyes shadowed with worry. “Mike Andrews has been calling on the wire for you or Tim. He says Sheriff Haskell is getting together a posse to arrest you for killing a man.” The girl looked at him piteously. “It is true, Bucky? Has there been more trouble?”

Bucky nodded. “Yes. We had to kill a man up in the hills —after he tried to shoot down Curly Teeters and me. There was no other way.”

Already his mind was busy with the problem before him. Tuffy Arnold and his companions had lost no time in telephoning’ their side of the- story to town. They were on their way to reinforce it by word of mouth. Haskell of course was a dummy, and would do as he was told. Bucky wondered what position Garside would take.

“Where was it? How did it happen?” Julia asked. “At the mouth of Dolores Canon. A man named Dieter came to us last night with the story that he had seen men taking a prisoner intd the hills the night of the bank robbery. We had to find out if it was true. But it was only a trap to lead us into an ambush. They were waiting for us at Dolores. This man Dieter gave it away. He tried to leave us, and when he prevented him he began shooting. ’ “You didn’t find out anything about father?”

“No.” Bucky looked at his cousin gravely, pity in his eyes. “He isn’t a prisoner in the hills. If he had been, they wouldn’t have told us he was there.”

Tears killed the eyes of Julia. “I’ve known in my heart all the time that he is dead,” she said. Bucky did not attempt to deny that she was right. “I’ll have to go to ton,” he told her. "to face this charge. We don’t want to wait till they come and get us.” <To be Continued).