Chapter X
Bud Proctor Lends a Hand
After the doctor had dressed the wounded shoulder he ordered Clanton togo to bed at once and stay there. "What he needs is rest, proper food,and sleep. See he gets them."
"I'll try," said Billie dryly. "Sometimes a fellow can't sleep when he'sgot a lead pill in him, doctor. Could you give me something to help himforget the pain an' the fever?"
The doctor made up some powders. "One every two hours till he gets tosleep. I'll come and see him in the morning. You're at the Proctor House,aren't you?"
"Yes."
"Is Roush goin' to live?" asked Jim.
The professional man looked at the boy speculatively. He wondered whetherthe young fellow was suffering qualms of conscience. Since he did notbelieve in the indiscriminate shooting in vogue on the frontier, he waswilling this youngster should worry a bit.
"Not one chance for him in a hundred," he replied brusquely.
"That's good. I'd hate to have to do it all over again. Have you got themakin's with you, Billie?" Clanton asked evenly.
"I've got a plain and simple word for such killings," the doctor said,flushing. "I find it in my Bible."
"That's where my dad found it too, doctor."
With which cryptic utterance Clanton led the way out of the office to thehotel.
Jimmie lay down dressed on the bed of their joint room while his friendwent down to the porch to announce to sundry loafers, from whom the newswould spread over town shortly, that Clanton had gone to sleep and was onno account to be disturbed till morning.
Later in the afternoon Billie might have been seen fixing a stirrupleather for Bud Proctor, the fourteen-year-old heir of the hotelproprietor. He and the youngster appeared to be having a bully time onthe porch, but it was noticeable that the cowpuncher, for all his mannerof casual carelessness, sat close to the wall in the angle of an L sothat nobody could approach him unobserved.
In an admiring trance Bud had followed the two friends from the office ofthe doctor. Now he was in the seventh heaven at being taken intofriendship by one of these heroes. At last he screwed up his courage torefer to the affair at Tolleson's.
"Say, Daniel Boone ain't got a thing on yore friend, has he? Jiminy, I'dlike to go with you both when you leave town."
Billie spoke severely. "Get that notion right out of your haid, Bud.You're goin' to stay right here at home. I'll tell you another thingwhile we're on that subject. Don't you get to thinkin' that killers arefine people. They ain't. Some of 'em aren't even game. They take allkinds of advantage an' they're a cruel, cold-blooded lot. Never forgetthat. I'm not talkin' about Jim Clanton, understand. He did what hethought he had to do. I don't say he was right. I don't say he was wrong.But I will say that this country would be a whole lot better off if we'dall put our guns away."
Bud sniffed. "If you hadn't had yore guns this mornin' I'd like to knowwhere you'd 'a' been."
"True enough. I can't travel unarmed because of Indians an' bad men.What I say is that some day we'll all be brave enough to go without ourhog-legs. I'll be glad when that day comes."
"An' when you two went up Escondido Canon after the Mescaleros that hadcaptured Miss Roubideau? I heard Dad Wrayburn tellin' all about it atsupper here one night. Well, what if you hadn't had any guns?" persistedBud.
"That would have been tough luck," admitted Prince, holding up theleather to examine his work. "Learn to shoot if you like, Bud, butremember that guns aren't made to kill folks with. They're for buffaloesan' antelope an' coyotes."
"Didn't you ever kill any one?"
"Haven't you had any bringin' up?" Billie wanted to know indignantly"I've a good mind to put you across my knee an' whale you with thisleather. I've a notion to quit you here an' now. Don't you know betterthan to ask such questions?"
"It--it slipped out," whimpered Bud. "I'll never do it again."
"See you don't. Now I'm goin' to give you a chance to make good with mean' my friend, Bud. Can you keep a secret?"
The eyes of the boy began to shine. "Crickey. You just try me, Mr.Prince."
"All right. I will. But first I must know that you are our friend."
"Cross my heart an' hope to die. Honest, I am."
"I believe you, Bud. Well, the Snaith-McRobert outfit intend to lynch mean' my friend to-night."
The face of the boy became all eyes. He was too astonished to speak.
"Our only chance is to get out of town. Jim is supposed to be so bad Ican't move him. But if you can find an' saddle horses for us we'll slipout the back door at dusk an' make our get-away. Do you think you can getus horses an' some food without tellin' anybody what for?" asked thecowboy.
"I'll get yore own horses from the corral."
"No. That won't do. If you saddled them, that would arouse suspicion atonce. You must bring two horses an' tie 'em to the back fence just as ifyou were goin' ridin' yourself. Then we'll take 'em when you come intothe house. Make the tie with a slip knot. We may be in a hurry."
"Gee! This beats 'Hal Hiccup, the Boy Demon,'" crowed Bud, referring to afamous hero of Nickel Library fame. "I'll sure get you horses all right."
"I'll make arrangements to have the horses sent back. Bring 'em roundjust as it begins to get dark an' whistle a bar of 'Yankee Doodle' whenyou get here. Now cut your stick, Bud. Don't be seen near me any more."
The boy decamped. His face, unable to conceal his excitement at thisblessed adventure which had fallen from heaven upon him, was trying tosay "Golly!" without the use of words.
During the next hour or two Bud was a pest. Twenty times he askeddifferent men mysteriously what o'clock it was. When he was sent to thestore for pickles he brought back canned tomatoes. Set to weeding onions,he pulled up weeds and vegetables impartially. A hundred times he cast alonging glance at the westering sun.
So impatient was he that he could not quite wait till dusk. He slippedaround to the Elephant Corral by a back way and picked out two horsesthat suited him. Then he went boldly to the owner of the stable.
"Mr. Sanders sent me to bring to him that sorrel and the white-foot bay.Said you'd know his saddle. It doesn't matter which of the other saddlesyou use."
Ten minutes later Bud was walking through the back yard of the hotelwhistling shrilly "Yankee Doodle." It happened that his father was anex-Confederate and "Dixie" was more to the boy's taste, but he enjoyedthe flavor of the camouflage he was employing. It fitted into his newrole of Bud Proctor, Scout of the Pecos.
The fugitives slipped down the back stairway of the Proctor House andinto the garden. In another moment they were astride and moving out tothe sparsely settled suburbs of town.
"Did you notice the brand on the horse you're ridin', Jim?" asked Princewith a grin.
"Same brand's on your bay, Billie--the Lazy S M. Did you tell that kid tosteal us two horses?"
"No, but you've said it. I'm on the bronc Sanders rides, and you an' Iare horse-thieves now as well as killers. This certainly gets us in bad."
"I've a notion to turn back yet," said Jim, with the irritability of asick man. "How in Mexico did he happen to light on Snaith-McRobert stock?Looks like he might have found somethin' else for us."
"Bud has too much imagination," admitted Prince ruefully. "I'd bet astack of blues he picked these hawsses on purpose--probably thought itwould be a great joke on Sanders an' his crew."
"Well, I don't like it. They've got us where they want us now."
Billie did not like it either. To kill a man on the frontier then in fairfight was a misdemeanor. To steal a horse was a capital offense. Many abronco thief ended his life at the end of a rope in the hands ofrespectable citizens who had in the way of business snuffed out the livesof other respectable citizens. Both of the Flying VY riders knew that ifthey were caught with the stock, it would be of no avail with Sanders toplead that they had no intention of stealing. Possession would be _primafacie_ evidence of guilt.
"It's too late to go back now," Prince decided.
"We'll tra
vel night an' day till we reach the old man an' have him sendthe bones back. I hate to do it, but we have no choice. Anyhow, we mightas well be hanged for stealin' a horse as for anything else."
They topped a hill and came face to face with a rider traveling townward. His gaze took in the animals carrying the fugitives and jumped tothe face of Billie. In the eyes of the man was an expression blended ofsuspicion and surprise. He passed with a nod and a surly "'Evenin'."
"Fine luck we're havin', Billie," commented his friend with a littlelaugh. "I give Sanders twenty minutes to be on our trail."