CHAPTER IX. RIDERS IN THE BACKGROUND
Luck, as explained elsewhere, was sweating and swearing at the heatin Bear Canon. The sun had crept around so that it shone full into acertain bowlder-strewn defile, and up this sunbaked gash old Appleheadwas toiling, leading the scrawniest burro which Luck had been able tofind in the country. The burro was packed with a prospector's outfitstartlingly real in its pathetic meagerness. Old Applehead was pickinghis way among rocks so hot that he could hardly bear to lay his barehand upon them, tough as that hand was with years of exposure to heatand cold alike. Beads of perspiration were standing on his face, whichwas a deep, apoplectic crimson, and little trickles of sweat weredropping off his lower jaw.
He was muttering as he climbed, but the camera fortunately failed torecord the language that he used. Now and then he turned and yankedsavagely at the lead rope; whereupon the burro would sit down upon itshaunches and allow Applehead to stretch its neck as far as bone andtough hide and tougher sinew would permit Someone among the grouproosting in the shade across the defile and well out of camera rangewould laugh, and Luck, standing on a ledge just behind and above thecamera, would shout directions or criticism of the "business."
"Come on back, Applehead," Luck yelled when the "prospectorp" had turneda corner of rock and disappeared from sight of the camera. "We'll dothat scene over once more before the sun gets too far around."
"Do it over, will ye?" Applehead snarled as he came toiling obedientlyback down the gulch. "Well, now, I ain't so danged shore about thatthere doin' over--'nless yuh want to wait and do it after sundown. Ain'tnobody but a danged fool It would go trailin' up that there gulch thiskinda' day. Them rocks up there is hot enough to brile a lizard--now,I'm tellin' ye!"
Luck covered a smile with his moist palm. He could not afford to bemerciful at the expense of good "picture-stuff," however, so he calleddown grimly:
"Now you're just about fagged enough for that close-up I want of you,Applehead. You went up that gulch a shade too brisk for a fellow that'sall in from traveling, and starved into the bargain. Come back down hereby this sand bank, and start up towards camera. Back up a little, Pete,so you can 'pam' his approach. I want to get him pulling his burroup past that bank--sabe? And the close-up of his face with all thosesweat-streaks will prove how far he's come--and then I want the detailof that burro and his pack which you'll get as they go by. You see whatI mean. Let's see. Will it swing you too far into the sun, Pete, if youpick him up down there in that dry channel?"
"Not if you let me make it right away," Pete replied after a squint ortwo through the viewfinder. "Sun's getting pretty far over--"
"Ought to leave a feller time to git his wind," Applehead complained,looking up at Luck with eyes bloodshot from the heat. "I calc'late mebbyyou think it's FUN to drag that there burro up over them rocks?"
"Sure, it isn't fun. We didn't come out here for fun. Go down and waitbehind that bank, and come out into the channel when I give the word.I want you coming up all-in, just as you look right now. Sorry, but Ican't let you wait to cool off, Applehead."
"Well now," Applehead began with shortwinded sarcasm, "I'm s'posed to beouta grub. Why didn't yuh up In' starve me fer a week or two, so'st I'dbe gaunted up realistic? Why didn't yuh break a laig fer me, sos't I kinshow some five-cent bunch in a pitcher-show how bad I'm off? Danged ifI ain't jest about gettin' my hide full uh this here danged fool REELISMyou're hollerin' fur all the time. 'F you send me down there to comehaulin' that there burro back up here so's the camery kin watch me sweat'n' puff my danged daylights out--before I git a drink uh water, I'llmurder ye in cold blood, now I'm tellin' ye!"
"You go on down there and shut up!" Luck yelled inexorably. "You candrink a barrel when I'm through with this scene--and not before. Getthat? My Lord! If you can't lead a burro a hundred yards without settingdown and fanning yourself to sleep, you must be losing your grip forfair. I'll stake you to a rocking-chair and let you do old grandpaparts, if you aren't able to--"
"Dang you, Luck, if you wasn't such a little runt I'd come up there andjest about lick the pants off you! Talk that way to ME, will ye? I'llhave ye know I kin lead burros with you or any other dang man, heat erno heat Ef yuh ain't got no more heart'n to AST it of me, I'll haul thishere burro up 'n' down this dang gulch till there ain't nothin' left of'im but the lead-rope, and the rocks is all wore down to cobble-stone!Ole grandpa parts, hey? You'll swaller them words when I git to ye,young feller--and you'll swaller 'em mighty dang quick, now I'm tellin'ye!"
He went off down the gulch to the sand bank. The Happy Family, sprawledat ease in the shade, took cigarettes from their lips that they mightchortle their amusement at the two. Like father and son were Appleheadand Luck, but their bickerings certainly would never lead one to suspecttheir affection.
"Get that darned burro outa sight, will you?" Luck bawled impatientlywhen Applehead paused to send a murderous glance back toward camera."What's the matter--yuh PARALYZED down there? Haul him in behind thatbank! The moon'll be up before you get turned around, at that rate!"
"You shet yore haid!" Applehead retorted at the full capacity of hislungs and with an absolute disregard for Luck's position as director ofthe company. "Who's leadin' this here burro--you er me? Fer two centsI'd come back and knock the tar outa you, Luck! Stand up there on arock and flop your wings and crow like a danged banty rooster--'n' I wasleadin' burros 'fore you was born! I'd like to know who yuh think youBE?"
Pete Lowry, standing feet-apart and imperturbably focussing the camerawhile the two yelled insults at each other, looked up at Luck.
"Riders in the background," he announced laconically, and returnedto his squinting and fussing. "Maybe you can make 'em hear with themegaphone," he hinted, looking again at Luck. "They're riding straightup the canon, in the middle distance. They'll register in the scene, ifyou can't turn 'em."
"Applehead!" Luck called through the megaphone to his irritatedprospector. "Get those riders outa the canon--they're in the scene!"
Applehead promptly appeared, glaring up at luck. "Well, now, if I've gotto haul this here dang jackass up this dang gulch, I cal'clate that'llbe about job enough for one man," he yelled. "How yuh expect me t' gotwo ways 't once? Hey? Yuh figured that out yit?" He turned then for alook at the interrupting strangers, and immediately they saw his mannerchange. He straightened up, and his right hand crept back significantlytoward his hip. Applehead, I may here explain, was an ex-sheriff, andwhat range men call a "go-getter." He had notches on the ivory handle ofhis gun--three of them. In fair fights and in upholding the law he hadkilled, and he would kill again if the need ever arose, as those whoknew him never doubted.
Luck, seeing that backward movement of the hand, unconsciously hitchedhis own gun into position on his hip and came down off his rock ledgewith one leap. Just as instinctively the Happy Family scrambled outof the shade and followed luck down the gulch to where Applehead stoodfacing down the canon, watchfulness in every tense line of his lankfigure. Tommy Johnson, who never seemed to be greatly interested inanything save his work, got up from where he lay close beside the cameratripod and went over to the other side of the gulch where he could seeplainer.
Like a hunter poising his shotgun and making ready when his trainedbird-dog points, Luck walked guardedly down the gulch to where Appleheadstood watching the horsemen who had for the moment passed out of sightof those above.
"Now, what's that danged shurf want, prowlin' up HERE with a couple uhdepittys?" Applehead grumbled when he heard Luck's footsteps crunchingbehind him. "Uh course," he added grimly, "he MIGHT be viewin' thescenery--but it's dang pore weather fur pleasure-ridin', now I'm tellin'ye! Them a comin' up here don't look good to ME, Luck--'n' if theyain't--"
"How do you know it's the sheriff?" Luck for no reason whatever felt asudden heaviness of spirit.
"Hey? Think my eyes is failin' me?" Applehead gave him a sidelong glanceof hasty indignation. "I'd know ole Hank Miller a mile off with m' eyesshet."
By then the three
riders rode out into plain view. Perhaps the sight ofLuck and Applehead standing there awaiting their arrival, with thewhole Happy Family and Big Aleck Douglas and Lite Avery moving down ina close-bunched, expectant group behind the two, was construed ashostility rather than curiosity. At any rate the sheriff and hisdeputies shifted meaningly in their saddles and came up sour-faced andgrim, and with their guns out and pointing at the group.
"Don't go making any foolish play, boys," the sheriff warned. "Wedon't want trouble--we aren't looking for any. But we ain't taking anychances."
"Well now, you're takin' a dang long chance, Hank Miller, when yuh comeridin' up on us fellers like yuh was cornerin' a bunch uh outlaws,"Applehead exploded. But Luck pushed him aside and stepped to the front.
"Nobody's making any foolish play but you," he answered the sheriffcalmly. "You may not know it, but you're blocking my scene and thelight's going. If you've got any business with me or my company, get itover and then get out so we aim make this scene. What d'yuh want?"
"You," snapped the sheriff. "You and your bunch."
"Me?" Luck took a step forward. "What for?"
"For pulling off that robbery at the bank today." The sheriff could bepretty blunt, and he shot the charge straight, without any quibbling.
Luck looked a little blank; and old Applehead, shaking with a very realanger now, shoved Luck away and stepped up where he could shake his fistunder the sheriff's nose.
"We don't know, and we don't give a cuss, what you're aimin' at," hethundered. "We been out here workin' in this brilin' sun sense nineo'clock this mornin'. Luck ain't robbed no bank, ner he ain't the kindthat DOES rob banks, and I'm here to see you swaller them words 'fore Ihaul ye off'n that horse and plumb wear ye out! Yuh wanta think twicet'fore ye come ridin' up where I kin hear yuh call Luck Lindsay a thief,now I'm tellin' ye! If a bank was robbed, ye better be gittin' out afterthem that done it, and git outa the way uh that camery sos't we can gitt' work! Git!"
The sheriff did not "git" exactly, but he did look considerablyembarrassed. His eyes went to Luck apologetically.
"Cashier come to and said you'd called him up on the phone about eleven,claimin' you wanted to make a movin' pitcher of the bank being robbed,"he explained--though he was careful not to lower his gun. "He swore itwas your men that done the work and took the gold you told him to pileout on the--"
"_I_ told him?" Luck's voice had the sharpened quality that causedlaggard actors to jump. "Be a little more exact in the words you use."
"Well-l--somebody on the phone 't he THOUGHT was you," the sheriffamended obediently. "Your men--and they sure WAS your men, becausethree or four fellers besides the cashier seen 'em goin' in and comin'out--they gagged the cashier and took his keys away from him and cleanedthe safe, besides taking what gold he'd piled on the counter for y--for'em.
"So," he finished vigorously, "I an' my men hit the trail fer the ranchand was told by the women that you was out here. And here we are, andyou might just as well come along peaceable as to make a fuss--"
"That thar is shore enough outa YOU, Hank Miller!" Applehead explodedagain. "I calc'late you kin count ME in, when you go mixin' up withLuck, here. I'm one of his men--and if he was to pull off a bank robberyI calc'late I'd be in on that there performance too, I'm tellin' you!Luck don't go no whars ner do nothin' that I AIN'T in on.
"I've had some considerable experience as shurf myself, if you'll takethe trouble to recolleck; and I calc'late my word'll go about as fur asthe next. When I tell ye thar ain't goin' to be no arrest made in BearCanon, and that you ain't goin' to take luck in fer no bank robbery, youkin be dang shore I mean every word uh that thar!" He moved a step ortwo nearer the sheriff, and the sheriff backed his horse away from him.
"Ef you kin cut out this here accusin' Luck, and talk like a white man,"Applehead continued heatedly, "we'd like to hear the straight uh thishere robbery. I would, 'n' I know Luck would, seein' they've gone t'work and mixed him into it. His bunch is all here, as you kin see feryourself. Now we're listenin' 's long's you talk polite--'n' you kintell us what men them was that was seen goin' in and comin' out--and allabout the hull dang business."
The sheriff had not ridden to Bear Canon expecting to be bullied intocivil speech and lengthy explanations; but he knew Applehead Furrman,and he had sufficient intelligence to read correctly the character ofthe group of men that stood behind Applehead. Honest men or thieves,they were to, be reckoned with if any attempt were made to place Luckunder arrest; any fool could see that--and Hank Miller was not a fool.
He proceeded therefore to explain his errand and the robbery as thecashier had described it to the clerks who returned after lunch tofinish their Saturday's work at the bank.
"Fifteen thousand they claim is what the fellers got. And one of yourmen that runs the camera was keeping up a bluff of taking a pitcher ofit all the time--that's why they got away with it. Nobody suspicionedit was anything more'n moving-pitcher acting till they found the cashierand brought him toy along about one o'clock. It was that Chavez fellerthat you had working for yuh, and Luis Rojas that done it--them and acouple fellers stalling outside with the camera."
"I wonder," hazarded Pete Lowry, who had come down and joined the group,"if that wasn't Bill Holmes with the camera? He was a lot more friendlywith Ramon than he tried to let on."
"The point is," Luck broke in, "that they took advantage of my holdupscene to pull off the robbery. I can see how the cashier would fallfor a retake like that, especially since he don't know much aboutpicture-making. Gather up the props, boys, and let's go home. I'm goingto get the rights of this thing."
"You've got it now," the sheriff informed him huffily. "Think I beenloading you up with hot air? I was sent out to round you up--"
"Forget all that!" snapped luck. "I don't know as I enjoy having youfellows jump at the notion I'm a bank-robber--or that if I had robbed abank I would have come right back here and gone to work. What kind ofa simp do you think I am, for gosh sake? Can you see where anyone but alunatic would go like that in broad daylight and pull off a robberyas raw as that one must have been, and not even make an attempt at agateway? I'll gamble Applehead, here, wouldn't have fallen for a play ascoarse as that was if he was sheriff yet. He'd have seen right away thatthe camera part was just the coarsest kind of a blind.
"My Lord! Think of grown men--officers of the law at that--beingsimple-minded enough to come fogging out here to me, instead of gettingon the trail of the men that were seen on the spot! You say they came ina machine to the bank and you never so much as tried to trace it, or toget the license number even, I'll bet a month's salary you didn't! Itwas a moving-picture stall, and so you come blundering out here to theonly picture company in the country, thinking, by gravy, that it wasall straight goods--oh, can you beat that for a boob?" He shook back hisheavy mane of gray hair and turned to his boys disgustedly.
"Pete and Tommy, you can drive the wagon back all right, can't you?We'll go on ahead and see what there is at the bottom of this yarn."