BUCKY FOLLOWS A HOT TRAIL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 April 1939, Page 12

BUCKY FOLLOWS A HOT TRAIL

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT. COPYRIGHT.

BY

WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE.

CHAPTER XV. (Continued). “You can’t get away with this, Cameron,’’ burst out Davis angrily, his hand on his gun. “We’ve come here to arrest you, and we aim to take you with us. Hiding behind a woman’s skirts won’t do you any good.” “How about hiding oe'nina a Colt's .38 army special” Bucky wanted to know sauvely. “Get that girl outa the way,” Quinn ordered. “A good idea,” Bucky admitted. “Nancy, beat it. You’ve done all you can for me. I’ll play the six full dealt me.” “No!” she cried, her calm gone, and flung her desperate challenge at the hill men. “I won’t have it. If you kill him you’d better kill me, too, or I’ll testify you murdered him.” Bucky rose, watching his foes steadr ily. “If you won’t leave me I’ll have to leave you. Don’t push on the reins, fellows. We’ll adjourn this business to the corral.’

Above the clip-clop of a horse’s hoofs an unmelodious voice sounded. Bucky, the three hillmen, Nancy, all listened to the song of the approaching rider, their eyes fastened on one another. “We’ve lived in the saddle and ridden trail, Drink old Jordan, boys; We’ll go whooping and yelling, we’ll all go helling! Drink ” Abruptly the song died. The singer had topped the little rise and was taking in the scene. He was Bud Keller, just returning from fence repairing. He slid from the saddle and came forward, a lean lanky unimpressive man. His freckled face was an amazed question mark. That hostility was in the air he could see, but he could not understand what West and his associates were doing here. For the moment that was not important. He pushed tne perplexity out of his mind and focussed on one fact. He had ridden into trouble and meant to take a hand in it. . Bucky laughed, jubilantly. Things were breaking his way. “Glad to see you, Marshal Blucher,” he said. “We’re just starting to shoot out a little difficulty down at the corral. We’ll let you in, if you like.” “I’m in,” Keller said. “Red Cowan and Dud Spiller will be here in two—three minutes,” Bucky went on. “They will be sore if we don’t wait for them, Bud. How about it?” Keller rubbed his bristly chin. “Why, I dunno, Bucky. What’s on the minds of these gents, anyhow?” “This is a law and order committee. They’ve come to arrest me for robbing the Valley Bank.” “The Valley Bank!” Bud ejaculated. “When was ?” “An hour and a half ago. Can’t give you the exact time, since I wasn’t present. Maybe the members of the committee can. 1 wouldn’t know about that yet.” “If it’s your idea to finish this now,” Quinn snarled, his bowed legs wide apart, his bullet head thrust forward, “you can’t come a-shooting too sobn to suit me.” “I have only one idea, and that is not to leave here as your prisoner,” Bucky answered. “The rest is up to you.” West did not like the way this visit was working out. It was their own fault. If they had hustled Cameron to the corral the moment they arrived, by this time they would have been in the saddle. “We’ll let him go this time, boys,” he said thickly. “We’ve found out he’s in this business. He’s scared to go to town with us.”

“You’re right about that last,” Bucky assented. “Well, you have your hats. Don’t let me hurry you, but if your business is concluded ” “You won’t hurry us,” Davis interrupted angrily. “Don’t think it for a minute. You never saw the day you could hurry me.”

West swung to the saddle. “Come on, Brad. We know this fellow is guilty as hell. That’s enough.” He turned his horse and rode away. The others followed, reluctantly. They were spoiling for a fight. It was their opinion that West was too cautious. This insolent whippersnapper had to be bumped off some day. The sooner the better.

Nancy looked at Bucky, queerly. The soft colour had been driven from her cheeks. She felt strangely weak. “They meant to—kill you,” she said, a quaver in her low voice. He met her troubled blue eyes steadily. “If it hadn’t been for one brave girl they would have done it. 1 never saw anything like the way you walked out with the revolver, as cool as could be, and handed it over to me.” Nancy felt the colour beating back into her face. “I saw them when they rode up,” she replied, to escape the embarrassment of silence. “So I thought maybe’you’d better have your gun.” “And that you had better sit down close to me so they would hardly dare shoot at me.” "You’re my patient, you know. She showed her strong beautiful teeth in a laugh. "I didn’t want to have to start nursing you all over again. Her young beauty was like spring, he thought, so fresh and tender and vivid. "I reckon they didn t want any ol your game, Bucky,” said Keller admiringly to his. chief. "If you’ll excuse me I’ll go in and finish packing.” Nancy walked toward the house. “Packing for what?” Bucky asked. "Thought you were staying a few days more.” , . She flashed a glance at him over her shoulder. "I’ve changed my mind. I’m going in when you do.” “Girl, you’ll get me a reputation as a sissy if you don t quit clucking ovei me like a hen with one chick. “I’ll get off the case as soon as we reach town,” she promised. But its not my fault you’re always getting into 3 They' did not start till dusk. Bucky drove fast. Near the willows Curly Teeters waved him to a halt, moving out of the blackness of the trees to find out who he was. . -Any news, Curly?” the man in the car inquired. -Not much. Tufl’y Arnold came along in his old flivVer. with Big Bill Savage beside him. We stopped them end

searched the car. Nothing doing. Tuffy admitted they had been in Toltec during the robbery, but he claimed he could prove an alibi. I asked him about some of the other Red Rock gents —whether they had been in town today. Said he didn’t know —hadn’t seen any of them.” “We had a little visit from’ some of them at the ranch,” Bucky mentioned. “Looking for bandits, they said.” “Any trouble?” Curly asked. “No. They thought they would take me to town, and then Miss Nancy gave me my medicine, and they thought they wouldn’t.” Curly knew there was some hidden meaning in the explanation. “Maybe they figured you were too sick to travel,” the CC rider said, for a lead. “That must have been it,” Bucky agreed dryly. “I was so nervous my finger twitched. Probably they noticed it . . No use you boys staying here any longer. Better get back to the ranch. While I’m away see that Miss Julia is never left alone. Ask Tim to sleep in the big house.” A thin moon crescent was in the sky. Later there would be stars, millions of them, to flood the desert with a silvery light, but as yet the shadows on either side of the road gave them a background vague and obscure. At times mesquite pressed close, and through the foliage a soft wind stirred. To Nancy it seemed that anything might happen. A tremor fluttered in her breast. It was not fear. The girl’s spirit courted this adventure. She told her companion, as they travelled through the darkness, “I love it.” He said, smiling down at her, “You would.” ”Tt’s grand to be alive, isn’t it?” “When you are with Nancy it is,” he agreed. “I wonder if he’s going to start his line,” she murmured to the night. He drew up for a moment to listen, letting the engine run, A car was coming up behind them, moving fast.” CHAPTER XVI. “Some one in a hurry to get to town,” Bucky said. “Let’s not be in their way.” He drove into the brush, winding in and out among the mesquite. Opening the door, he stepped to the ground. “Wait here a minute,” he told Nancy, and vanished. She heard the car roar past. Presently Bucky rejoined her. He recited, as if reading from a newspaper: “Mr Daniel West and friends paid a short visit to town Thursday evening. The good citizens of the’Red Rock district have organised themselves into a law and order committee. We understand they have volunteered to help run down the bank robbers.” “What are they going to town for?” Nancy asked. He stepped into the car but did not at once start the engine. “I’m wondering that myself. Would it be for a bluff, to cover up guilt? Or just because they always have to be milling around where trouble is?” “Or to work up public opinion .against you?” she offered. “Anyhow, you’ll have to be awf’ly careful. Don’t let them know you are in town.” “I’ll not put it in the News,” he promised. But he knew that word of his arrival in town would reach his enemies’ inside of half an hour. “Your friends would be . . unhappy ... if they hurt you.” “I hope so.” He put an arm around the girl’s waist, drawing her near, so that her face was against his. She made no objection, unless it was one to say, “I thought you were going to be an exception.” “I am an exception. I’m the only man whose life you have more or less javed twice under the fire of the enemy.” „ , “Oh, well, that just nonsense,’ she dissented. “I happen to be around at the hospital and the ranch and butted in.” , J , “When a girl does that for you, what is the proper conduct?” he asked very much aware of the fresh softness of the girl close to him. “Page Dorothy Dix,” she suggested, mirth in her face. He took her chin and tilted it toward him then kissed the warm willing lips. She looked at him and murmured with a smile, “No amateur. But after a short interlude she became briskly businesslike. “Now you’ve paid me for more or less mixing in your war. I’m on my way to town, fir, if you please.” “I’d pay in that coin very generously,” Bucky told her as he started the From the summit of a hill they lookcd down on the lights of Toltec. The excitement died in Nancy. In a few minutes the adventure would be over. He would leave her at her fathers house and drive down into the city where danger always lay lurking io him. The muscles beneath her heait seemed to collapse and let it down. He was so foolhardy, so careless ol peril, that his enemies would very likely get another chance soon. During the past days they had become good friends. They had shared a lot of jokes and spilled a lot of laughter together. Nancy was no sentimerttaDst but a realist. A few kisses did not mean anything. He was no more in love with her than she was with him But when she thought ol a world without Neil Cameron it brought an ache to her heart. In front of the house she sat foi a moment without leaving the car. After tonight she would pass out of his “I’ve had a swell time being bossed bv vou,” he said. . “I’ve liked it too,” she answered in her cool friendly manner Id feel better if something didn’t keep whispering to me that Miss Garside is right about you.” _ -About my being Toltecs Numbei One fool?” , “About the danger you are always walking into. It doesn’t matter what I think, of course. But—l wish you wouldn’t.” “You’ve been lucky. Next time be you wouldn’t be. They can’t all be bad shots all the time . . Good night. She got out and walked into the h Bucky drove to the cottage where Judge Lewis lived alone except for the old negro who looked after him. All the curtains in the living room had been Lewis was not inviting a shot from the darkness outride, (Ta be Continued).