Slim Evans and His Horse Lightning

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Trapped

  The freight train clanked to a stop while a quarter of a mile away thecattle churned restlessly. Slim was impatient for the break that wouldmean action, the break that he hoped would mean the end of the rustlersin the Creeping Shadows country.

  While the train crew unloaded the portable chute, the rustlers drove thecattle nearer. Slim looked around at the riders grouped nearby.Impatiently Joe was fingering his six gun and behind him Al Bass satcalmly, his face tense and a little white. Three other horsemen wereready to sweep out and cut off the escape of the rustlers.

  Watching the approach of the cattle and the riders, Slim was notsurprised to recognize the squat, heavy form of Hack Cook, owner of theDiamond Dot.

  "I'm taking Cook," muttered Joe, who recognized the Diamond Dot ownerjust as Slim did. The cowboy detective nodded. He'd let Joe have thefirst chance, for after all it was a feud between the ranches of thevalley. If Joe failed to get Cook, Slim knew that with Lightning underhim he could overtake anything in the country.

  The rustlers whirled around the cattle, keeping them in a compact massas they neared the train. Suddenly there was a burst of gunfire. Theriflemen hidden in the bushes had blazed away.

  A horse and rider went down. In another blast of lead a second rustlerthrew up his hand and pitched from the saddle to lie inert upon theground.

  Guns leaped into the hands of the remaining rustlers and they opened arapid fire on the riflemen. Joe spurred his horse, and the riders sweptout from behind the rock. Slim was riding easily, cautiously, ready totake the trail of the first rustler who made a break for liberty.

  "Get 'em all," shouted Joe. "It's the Diamond Dot outfit."

  The gunfire was savage, ripping the silence and hurling echoes againstthe boxcars. The astonished train crew scurried for shelter.

  The rustlers knew they were up against tremendous odds, for thecattlemen far outnumbered them and were shooting from shelter.

  Hack Cook whirled to meet the menace of the riders. He was using twoguns, both of them spouting flame and smoke. A Double O rider who hadleaped ahead of Slim slumped in his saddle and his fright-crazed horsepitched him to the ground.

  Another Diamond Dot rider went down before the hail of lead. There wereonly three rustlers left, Hack Cook, one of his cowboys and Newt Bemis,whom Slim knew as a henchman of Hal Titzell's.

  Slim saw Bemis shooting at Joe. He opened fire with his own six gun andthe second shot sent Bemis tumbling out of his saddle.

  The remaining Diamond Dot cowboy made a dash for the train while HackCook whirled his cayuse and rode straight toward Al Bass. Al didn'tflinch, his own gun blazing away steadily at the two-gun desperado. ButAl never had a chance. Cook's heavy bullet caught him in the shoulderand he spun to the ground.

  Slim had been too far away to get a draw on Cook, and the rustler brokethrough the cordon of riders and dashed away up the trail leadingthrough the Cajons.

  The cowboy detective paused only long enough to make sure that the otherrustler would be captured. Then he spoke to Lightning and set out inpursuit of Cook.

  The great sorrel could have overtaken the Diamond Dot owner within amile, but Slim had other plans. There was a fair chance that Cook,ridden by fear, would lead him to the mountain hideout of the rustlersand there Slim felt that he would find Chuck. He didn't dare think thatanything had happened to Chuck, that he wouldn't find his companionalive.

  Lightning struck an easy pace, keeping within sight of the fleeing Cook,and Slim carefully reloaded his gun. Behind him the sound of firing diedout and he knew that the last Diamond Dot cowboy had either been broughtdown by the blazing guns of the cowboys or had surrendered.

  Slim looked down at the trail ahead and something in one of thehoofprints made him pull Lightning to a sudden halt. He slid out of hissaddle. The left rear hoofprint of Cook's horse was marked by a V-shapednick. There was no doubting it now. Cook was the man who had ambushedthe owner of the Box B. He was the rider who had directed the raids onthe Box B and the Double O in an attempt to get those outfits fightingeach other in a finish battle.

  When Slim remounted, he rode with new determination. The rustlingmystery was near its solution.