Part 25 (1/2)

”Harry's played the hand of a real man to-night,” Kid Wolf put in for him.

”I'm through as a gambler,” said Harry. ”Boys, will yuh take me for a friend?”

”Well, I should say we will!” Lathum cried, and all three shook his hand warmly.

”Yore mother will be mighty proud, son--and glad,” old Anton said.

”Now, men,” said The Kid, ”get those steers movin' toward the S Bar.

Yuh ought to have 'em across the Rio by sunup. Theah won't be any pursuit. Don Floristo isn't in any position to ordah it. I'll see yo'-all at Ma Thomas' dinnah table.”

”Where are you goin', Kid?” Lathum asked in astonishment.

”Harry will help yo' get the cattle home,” said The Kid. ”I'm ridin'

like all get-out to make Mistah Goliday, Esquiah, a social call.”

”But why----” Wise began.

”I've just remembahed,” drawled The Kid, ”wheah I saw a pair of low-heeled, square-toed ridin' boots.”

Anton gave a low whistle.

”By golly, boys. He's right! I remember now, too.”

”So do I!” e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Lathum.

”How about lettin' us go, too?” asked Wise. ”Goliday has some hard hombres workin' for him, and----”

”Please leave this to me,” begged The Kid. ”Yo' duty is heah with these cattle. All mah life I've made it mah duty to right wrongs--and not only that, but to put the wrongdoers wheah they can't commit any mo' wrongs. Goliday is the mastah mind in all this trouble. Is theah a sho't cut to his ranch?”

Anton knew the trails of the district like a memorized map, and he gave The Kid detailed instructions. By following the mountain chain to the westward he would reach a dry wash that would lead him to a point within sight of Goliday's hacienda.

”Still set on it?”

The Kid nodded. ”Adios! Yuh'll probably get through to the S Bar in good time. Good-by, Harry.”

”Good luck!” they shouted after him.

At the crest of a mesquite-dotted swell of white sand, several hours later, The Kid paused to look over the situation that confronted him.

Ahead of him, to the westward, were the buildings of the Goliday ranch.

Strangely enough, there was no sign of life around it--save for the horses in the large corral and the cattle meandering about the water hole.

Was the entire ranch personnel in San Felipe? Impossible! And yet he had seen no one. The Kid hoped that Goliday was not in town.

A desert wash led its twisting way to one side of him, and he saw that by following its course he could reach the trees about the water hole un.o.bserved.

”Easy, Blizzahd,” he said softly.

The sand deadened the sound of the big white horse's hoofs as it took the dry wash at a speedy clip. Kid Wolf crouched low, so that his body would not show above the edge of the wash. At the water hole he drew up in the shelter of a cottonwood to listen. His ears had caught a succession of steady, measured sounds. They came from one of the small adobe outbuildings. Inside, some one was hammering leather. This was the ranch's saddle shop evidently.