BUCKY FOLLOWS A HOT TRAIL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 April 1939, Page 10

BUCKY FOLLOWS A HOT TRAIL

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

COPYRIGHT.

BY

WILLIAM MACLEOD RAINE.

CHAPTER XVIII.

(Continued)

Bucky whipped open the living room door. Backed up against a large stain-ed-glass window with leaded panes stood Kathleen. She was facing a bigbodied slouching man who barred the path of escape. At the sound of the door opening the man whirled. His thin-lipped ugly mouth tightened, when he caught sight of Bucky. The dead slate-coloured eyes narrowed. A hand started to slide under the lapel of the open coat. “Drop your hand, West,” ordered Bucky curtly.

The hana halted.. Kathleen moved to leave the room, but stopped. Bucky was moving forward evenly, his gaze on the hill man: She watched him, breathlessly. “Don’t come any nearer,, fellow,” West warned. His fingers were not six inches from the butt of his bolstered .45. Bucky stopped, about six feet from him. “Beat it, West muy pronto,” he said quietly. “You own this house?” West demanded.

“I don’t like the way you talked to Miss Garside.” Bucky’s voice exploded suddenly like the crack of a whip, n’t spoken to you four times in your “You can’t talk thataway to me!” West cried venemously. ■ His hand leaped toward the revolver. At the same instant Bucky launched- himself forward like a released spring. His shoulder caught the big man in the midriff. West went through the leaded panes of the coloured window as if they had been made of paper, his heavy body striking the ground below with smashing force. Bucky ran into the conservatory and through an open French window. West lay Puddled on the ground. Swiftly Bucky found the revolver in the holster. He made sure West had no other weapon. The dull eyes of the man on the ground glared hatred at him. “You took advantage of me when I wasn’t expecting it,” he said, half in a whine, half threatening. . “Get. up and get out,” Bucky told him. The man rose shakily. “I’ll remember this, fellow,” he growled. Bucky- watched him go before he returned to the house. “Afraid I’ve littered your lawn with glass,” he told Kathleen. “He was reaching for a gun.” “What will ha do?” the girl asked. “Isn’t he dangerous?’,’ “So he claims.” Bucky spoke carelessly. “What’s it all about?” Garside demanded. harshly. “Why come to my house for your rowdy fights?” “This man West was insulting me,” Kathleen told her father in a low voice. “I don’t get it,” the banker snapped. “Why was he insulting you? He hasn’t spoken to your four times in your life, has he?” “No . . I started out of the room when he came in, but he wouldn’t let me go.” , “You must have misunderstood what he said,” Garside said doggedly.' “It wasn’t what he said. It was the way he looked.” “Why pay any attention to him?” “That’s what annoyed him, Dad. He had notions I should be nice to him. Keep him out of this house after this, please.” The girl’s level eyes challenged her father. “What was he doing here anyhow?” Garside asked, annoyed both at Kathleen and West. “Said he came to see you on business. I told him you did your business at the bank.” ’ “Wouldn’t have hurt you to be pleasant to him? Do you have to come the Queen of Sheba on him because he’s a plain cowman from the hills?” “I don’t choose, to have anything to do with scoundrels whose eyes insult me,” she answered hotly. “We’ll talk about that later.” Garside turned to Bucky. “If you’re through wrecking my house we won’t detain you any longer, sir.” Kathleen said to Bucky in a stiff formal voice, her colour high, “I thank you for your help. I hope you won t get into trouble on account of it.” “I won’t.” His smile was grim. “I'm in trouble up to the neck already. A little more doesn’t matter . . I hope you’ll excuse me if I go now.. This is one of my busy days.” Bucky bowed himself out of the room. Garside glared angrily. The look in Kathleen’s eyes was a strange one. It held hunger and wistfulness and pride.

Dr Raymond met Bucky in front of lhe post" office. “I suppose I owe you a commission for sending me a patient.” ne said, manifestly amused.

“Did I recommend you to somebody?” Bucky asked. “He didn’t say you recommended me. You made him a patient—flung him out of a window .when he wasn’t looking, he says.” “That’s probably true. He was reaching for a gun when I ruined a perfectly good window in the living room of our leading citizen.” “Somebody is always reaching for a gun when you're around. Why not go to the ranch and stay there?" “They follow me there. This fellow West and two of his fellow wolves showed up at the CC yesterday to pick on me." “And when you come to town they attack you." Raymond added, more seriously: "One of them will never attack you again.” “No,” Bucky said. “But West will. Look , out for him. The man was sputtering threats while I dressed the cuts in his hands and head. Don’t take this lightly. Mr Cameron. He says he always hated you. Now this hatred is inflamed by wounded vanity. For heaven’s sake, look out, man.” , . “Trn going back to the ranch this morning,” Bucky said. “West will have to run the gauntlet 01. a dozen good men before he gets to me. That won’t be so easy.” ... Bucky found Tim Murphy waiting for him at the Toltec. . “Boy, you’re making me grey-hair-ed before my time,” the protested. “Whyfor did you have to come to town without letting me know? Seems you go around asking to be shot. Tell me about it.” “Didn’t you read about it in the

“News?” Judge Lewis and I lay in wait for some honest citizens from the Red Rock district. I gather from the paper that they returned our fire.” “Oh heck!” Tim brushed this persiflage aside. “How many of them were there? How come you to get out of the trap alive?” “They picked the wrong place. We ducked into the Holden Building and when Davis came in after me I let him have it.” “Did he come alone?”

“Big Bill Savage was with him. There was another fellow outside, but he didn’t come in with the others. I’ve a notion it was West. By the way, I had a little run-in with him this morning.” ‘Where? When?”

Bucky told the story of the adventure at the Garside place. “I’m going to ger you outa town and keep you locked up in l your room, fellow,’ Murphy said. “I wanted to ask Clem a question or two.”

“You could have gone to the bank.” “All right.” Bucky smiled. “I wanted to see his daughter too, if you will have it.”

“What do you suppose West wanted to see Clem about?” Murphy said. “They're in some of this devilry together.” He added, after a moment, “Maybe Garside hired his outfit to bump you off.” “Might be. After talking with Garside I still think he was in the First National robbery. That’s not all. I suspect he fixed it to have the Valley held up. She looked scared when I hinted at it. And that dead pan poker face of his gave him away when I mentioned Mitchell to him. Probably suspects he is a government man. And k certainly got to him to learn that Mitchell and I are more or less friendly.” “Does Haskell mean to do anything about Big Bill?” “He’ll probably make a bluff. I’ve talked with the district attorney. He is willing to commission me an officer to arrest Savage. Big Bill is thick in the head. If we get him under lock and key he is likely to give away something when Ashley third degrees him.” \“So we’re going into the hills to drag out Savage?” “I am,” Bucky corrected. “It’s a one-man job.” Murphy began at once to protest, offered to substitute for him, but Cameron would not have it. “I’ll tell you why,” he said. And he did. CHAPTER XIX A wafer moon crescent was riding over the hills and stars filled the sky. The slopes of the first range rose before Bucky vague and shadowy. His buckskin was an old-timer in this country, and picked the easiest way into the mountains with a certainty the rider did not attempt to improve upon by guiding. This land was as well known to Bucky as a primer is to a first grade teacher. As a boy he had hunted over it with his father and uncle. He had ridden circle here on beef round-ups. Once he and Tim Murphy, with two other men, had followed rustlers slipping away with CC stock, and after a battle had taken back the bunch of cows and one of the thieves. But as he penetrated the canyon slashes that cut into the high hills familiar features grew more seldom. The country became rugged. More than once he had to turn back and swing around to find a possible way to ascend overhanging rim rocks or to make a circuit in order to avoid impassable mountains. Ever since he could remember, this region had been the refuge of outlaws. Wrinkled cowmen told of the old days when stage coach robbers had fled for the shelter of these pockets. Killers wanted by the law had led fugitive lives in the deep recesses, and always rus.tlers had ridden by night to collect the stock of honest settlers. Tuffy Arnold had been here for forty years, driven by a crime long since forgotten and wiped off the blotter. West and Quinn and Big Bill had come in later, successors of the first reckless men who had ridden this tangle of canyons and breakneck heights. The first crop had come and gone. Many had died young, trapped at their nefarious work or cut down by the bullets of men as ruthless as themselves and for the moment more lucky. Very likely, Bucky reflected, the lives of West and most of his associates would be snuffed out unless the walls of a penetentiary gave them enforced protection. Not all these outlaws were wholly bad. Driven to the wall, they showed a flinty courage. And he had seen generosity flame out unexpectedly, but it was true that in the worst of them whatever goodness may once have been had gone to seed and been blown away. Bucky made a cold camp in a timber pocket jutting out from a small mountain park. The chill wind bit through his blankets to the bone. He tell into troubled sleep and woke when the first streaks of light were sifting into the sky. He ate two beef sandwiches and drank water from the ice-cold creek. While it was still dark he saddled the buckskin. From a ridge he looked down into a mist-filled valley. The Duckskin picked its wav down lhe steep shale slope. The nnst was thinning, and in the blur Bucky made out lhe vague outline of a cabin. Tying the buckskin, Bucky moved toward the house. He saw smoke begin to rise from the chimney. A man came_out, bucket in hand, without coat or vest, and walked to the creek. Swiftly Bucky slipped forward. He was gambling on the chance that Savage was alone. Revolver in hand, he stepped lightly through the door and swept the room with a quick glance. Nobody was in it. A fire was crackling in the stove. Hanging on the wall was a belt, a gun in the holster. Bucky emptied the cartridges from the chamber of the .45 and dropped them in his pocket. The weapon he put back. (To be Continued.)