Part 13 (2/2)

Inspector Fyles's eyes twinkled, but his sunburned face remained serious.

”Yes, I'd say it's lonesome--at times. You see, it isn't easy locating their tracks. And when you do locate 'em maybe you've got a long piece to travel before you come up with 'em. They get mighty wild running loose that way, and, hate being rounded up. Some of 'em show fight, and things get busy. No, it's not dead easy--and it doesn't do making mistakes. Guess a mistake is liable to snuff your light out when you're up against 'strays.'”

A sudden enthusiasm lit Bill Bryant's interested eyes.

”That sounds better than ranching,” he said quickly. ”You see, I've lived a soft sort of life, and it kind of seems good to get upsides with things. I've got a notion that it's better to hand a feller a nasty bunch of knuckles, square on the most prominent part of his face, than taking dollars out of him to pay legal chin waggers. That's how I've always felt, but living in luxury in a city makes you act otherwise. I've quit it though, now, and, in consequence, I'm just busting to hand some fellow that bunch of knuckles.” He raised one great clenched fist and examined it with a sort of mild enthusiasm.

”I'm going to ranch,” he went on simply, while the police officer surveyed him as he might some big, boisterous child. ”My brother's got a ranch at Rocky Springs. He's done pretty well, I guess--for an artist fellow. He's making money--oh, yes, he's making good money, and seems to like the life.

”The fact is,” he went on eagerly, ”Charlie was a bit of a bad boy--he's a dandy good fellow, really he is; but I guess he got gay when he was an art student, and the old man got rattled over it and sent him along out here to raise cattle and wheat. Well, when dad died he left me most of his dollars. There were plenty, and it's made me feel sick he forgot Charlie's existence. So I took a big think over things. You see it makes a fellow think, when he finds himself with a lot of dollars that ought to be shared with another fellow.

”Well, I don't often think hard,” he went on ingenuously. ”But I did that time, and it's queer how easy it is to think right when you really try--hard. Guess you don't need to think much in your work--but maybe sometimes you'll have to, and then you'll find how easy it comes.”

He turned abruptly in the saddle and looked straight into the officer's interested face. His eyes were alight, and he emitted a deep-throated guffaw.

”Say,” he went on, ”it came to me all of a sudden. It was in the middle of the night. I woke up thinking it. I was saying it to myself.

Why not go out West? Join Charlie. Put all your money into his ranch.

Turn it into a swell affair, and run it together. That way it'll seem as if you were doing it for yourself. That way Charlie'll never know you're handing him a fortune. Can you beat it?” he finished up triumphantly.

Stanley Fyles had not often met men in the course of his sordid work with whom he really wanted to shake hands. But somehow this great, soft-hearted, simple giant made him feel as he had never felt before.

He abruptly thrust out a hand, forgetful of the previous handshakes he had endured, and, in a moment, it was seized in a second vice-like grip.

”It's fine,” he said. Then as an afterthought: ”No, you can't beat it.”

The unconscious Bill beamed his satisfaction.

”That's how I thought,” he said enthusiastically. ”And I'll be mighty useful to him, myself, too--in a way. Don't guess I know much about wheat or cattle, but I can ride anything with hair on it, and I've never seen the feller I couldn't pound to a mush with the gloves on.

That's useful, seeing Charlie's sort of small, and--and mild.”

Suddenly he pointed out ahead. ”What's that standing right up there?

See, over there. A tree--or--something.”

Fyles abruptly awoke to their whereabouts. Bill Bryant was pointing at the great pine marking Rocky Springs.

”That's the landmark of Rocky Springs,” he told him. This stranger had so interested and amused him that he had quite lost reckoning of the distance they had ridden together.

”I don't see any town,” complained his companion.

”It's in the valley. You see, that tree is on the shoulder of the valley of Leaping Creek.”

Bill's eyes widened.

”Oh, that's a valley, eh? And Charlie's ranch is down below. I see.”

The man's eyes became thoughtful, and he relapsed into silence as they drew on toward the aged signpost. He was thinking--perhaps hard--of that brother whom he had not seen for years. Maybe, now that the time had come for the meeting, some feeling of nervousness was growing.

Perhaps he was wondering if he would be as welcome as he hoped. Had Charlie changed much? Would his coming be deemed an impertinence?

Charlie had not answered his letter. He forgot his brother had not had time to answer his impulsive epistle.

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