Essential Western Novels - Volume 4. Max Brand

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      "HE IS BUCK MASON"

      AS they mounted and rode away, Cory Blaine was looking down upon Bryam's shack from the summit of the ridge near the head of Mill Creek Canyon. His horse, blowing and trembling, faltered at the edge of the steep trail pitching down into the canyon. As Blaine urged him forward, the animal took a few faltering steps, then he swayed and dropped in his tracks.

      "Hell !" muttered Blaine. "Now I got to hoof it to the bottom and pack my saddle to boot."

      Trudging down the steep trail beneath the weight of his heavy saddle, he caught occasional glimpses of Bryam's body lying where he had left it. Above, on ragged wings, great black birds swung in easy, majestic circles. Occasionally one of them would swoop lower; but four bristling, growling hounds kept them at bay.

      In the shade of a tree near the shack, Bryam's hobbled horse stood patiently, switching his tail in perpetual battle with the flies, while he rested in the shade during the heat of the day before going out to graze again on the meadowland below the shack.

      Two of the hounds came menacingly toward Blaine as he approached; but he circled them; and when they saw that he was not coming nearer to their dead master, they stopped and stood watching him as he saddled and bridled the horse, removed its hobbles and rode away down the valley.

      The guests of the TF Ranch were at breakfast when Cory Blaine rode into the corral and unsaddled. No one had seen him arrive, and he went directly to the bunkhouse. When he entered he saw Butts just pulling on his boots, the other men having already gone to their breakfast.

      The two men eyed one another. "Did you get the girl?" demanded Butts.

      "Hell, no," replied Blaine.

      "Where is she?"

      "That damn dude beat me to it," replied Blaine. "He got her."

      "You don't mean that Marvel feller?" demanded Butts.

      "Yes."

      "You seen him and didn't plug him?"

      "I didn't see him."

      "Then how do you know he got the girl?" asked Butts.

      "He killed Bryam."

      "The hell you say."

      "Yes. And Hi lived long enough just to tell who killed him. Then I followed the dude's trail to where he come up with Eddie and Mart and the girl."

      "He took her away from them?" asked Butts.

      "He plugged Mart; and I reckon he got the drop on Eddie, for I seen where the three of 'em rode off; but they took the wrong trail, and I reckon they're lost somewhere in the hills."

      Butts looked worried. "They may be lost," he said, "and they may not; but they'll get here sometime, and when they do here's one bozo's goin' to be missin', and you better come with me."

      "Don't be a fool, Butts," replied Blaine. "When they hear my story they won't never hang it on us. I got it all figured out; and, believe me, that fellow Marvel is goin' to swing for the murder of Bryam and Mart, to say nuthin' of what he'll get for abductin' the girl."

      "You sure you can do it, Cory?" asked Butts.

      "I know I can. You come along with me now. I'm goin' up to the house and give 'em some facts that'll make their eyes pop out. I aint killed one horse and damn near killed another to get here ahead of Marvel for nuthin'."

      "All right," said Butts, "but I'd feel a whole lot safer if I was headin' for somewhere's else."

      "That'll be just like tellin' 'em you was guilty," said Blaine.

      The two men approached the veranda of the big house just as the guests were coming out from breakfast.

      "There's Cory!" exclaimed Dora Crowell.

      John White stepped forward as the two men came up the steps. "Have you any news, Blaine?" he asked.

      "A lot of it, sir," replied Cory. The other guests clustered about, eager and attentive.

      "Tell me what you know," said White.

      "I trailed the abductors as far as Bryam's cabin. They was three of 'em. I guess Hi must have tried to interfere with 'em, because Marvel shot him."

      "Marvel!" exclaimed two or three of them simultaneously.

      "Yes, Marvel," replied Blaine. "I was always afraid of that fellow. That's why I kicked him out. I knew right along that he was after Kay."

      "How do you know it was Marvel ?" demanded Dora Crowell.

      "Hi told me just before he died. The deputy sheriff and the posse were there at the same time. They heard him. Then the posse rode one way and I rode the other, lookin' for trails; and I found their trail leadin' down toward Sonora. I rode all night, and in the mornin' I came on their camp. They weren't no one there except one feller who was shot through the chest. He was still livin', and he told me how it happened.

      "He said his name was Mart and that he and another guy had been hired by Marvel to work for him, but he hadn't let 'em in on what he was goin' to do till the last minute. When they got to this camp this feller Mart said he wouldn't have nuthin' more to do with it. He told Marvel he was goin' to quit and go back, and the other feller wanted to quit, too; and then Marvel shot this feller Mart.

      "He said he was unconscious for a long time and didn't know what happened after he was shot. He didn't know whether Marvel killed the other feller, too, or made a prisoner of him, or finally persuaded him to come along with him; but before the shootin' Marvel said he was goin' right back and claim the reward. He even got Kay to promise not to accuse him by threatening to kill her and her father if she did. I tell you he's a bad one, and he's comin' in here with a story of how he rescued Kay. I tell you it was a lucky thing I come on that Mart when I did."

      "What happened to him?" asked Dora. "Where is he?"

      "He died right after he told his story to me," replied Cory.

      "One would have thought that such a desperado would have made sure that both his victims were dead before he left them," said Dora.

      "I reckon he thought they was dead," said Blaine.

      "What do you suppose has become of the posse?" asked White. "Could it be possible that they may have overhauled Marvel?"

      "No," replied Blaine. "They went in a different direction. Aint they back yet?"

      "No. I wish that some of them might be here when Marvel came in, so that they could make the arrest, but the sheriff is back from his trip and I'll telephone him at once."

      "I reckon you better do that," said Blaine.

      "I just can't believe it," said Birdie Talbot as White stepped into the house to telephone. "Bruce was such a nice young man."

      "It just doesn't seem possible," said Miss Pruell. "It doesn't seem possible at all."

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