The Andre Norton Megapack - 15 Classic Novels and Short Stories

report.”
    “You kinda shoved him into that out-of-bounds order for th’ Jacks, didn’t you now?” Nye pushed his hat to the back of his head and lit a cigarillo.
    “Muller and most of the boys can be counted on not to cause any more than the normal pay-night disturbances. But there’re some.… What did happen here today, Kirby?”
    Drew told it straight and flat in as few words as possible. And Topham’s face was sober when he had finished. The gambler brought the top book of the pile down on the bar with a thud.
    “I don’t like it!”
    “Jus’ ornery meanness, warn’t it? There’s always a few hombres in any outfit as tries to push when they gits a slug or two under their belts,” Nye observed.
    “True. Only Helms went out of his way this time. And I’d like to know what triggered him into it. I can understand some roughhousing on his part—Stevens, too—providing these boys were on the prod in the beginning. But this book business was too deliberate. Books—” He held up the volume he was still fingering. “Where’d these come from anyway, Kirby?”
    Drew retailed the story he had heard from Stein. Nye walked over to lookat the display of reading matter, his interest plainly aroused.
    “Lutterfield brought ’em in, eh? Now that’s somethin’. Trunk in a cave…Sounds like these might belong to one of them mine men—a super, maybe. They pulled out fast in ’61, right after th’ army left. Except for Hodges, an’ th’ Rebs threw him in jail after they took his business an’ what cash he had on hand.”
    “Could be,” Topham agreed. “But where they came from doesn’t matter as much as why Helms chose to use them the way he did. However—and now I’m giving it to you straight, Kirby—this is once I’d follow Bayliss’ orders. You and your cousin here had better make yourselves scarce.”
    “An’ jus’ why?” Anse demanded. “We ain’t givin’ you any double-tongue wag over this—”
    “I’m not saying you are. I’m just saying that Bayliss and probably Helms—maybe others—will be waiting, just as the captain promised. You can be easily suckered into just such another fight. And they’d be smarter about it next time, so you won’t have anyone to call their bluff in your favor. Once they get you into the camp stockade, it might be difficult to get you out. And this is something else, stranger, you went for your gun a few minutes ago. Kirby stopped you, but next time that could lead to real trouble.”
    “I can’t see why—” Drew began.
    “Well”—Anse was on the defensive—“a man can take jus’ so much pushin’, an’ we had more’n that! Next time anybody lays his dirty hands on me, he’s gonna know he’s had him trouble, all right!”
    “I don’t mean that.” Drew waved Anse’s retort aside. “I don’t see why we were jumped in the first place. Unless it was because we happened to be here at a time when they wanted to start trouble?” Hemade that into a question and looked to Topham for the answer.
    “Could be,” the gambler admitted.
    “Only you’re not sure?” Drew persisted.
    “Could be you were handy and they had some kind of a hint to start a ruckus just to show there ain’t any proper law here. Could be that they knew you ride for Hunt and that made you just the game they wanted.”
    “Helms’s kinda dumb to play any cute game,” Nye protested. “An’ th’ sarge, he’s always been a good guy, I don’t see him bitin’ happy on any such backhand orders.”
    “Not orders, no. Captain Bayliss is still too army to give any such orders. Helms’s always been a troublemaker; he wouldn’t need much more than a suggestion or two of the right sort. Helms, Stevens, Danny Birke, and that kid Mitchell. You’re right so far, Nye.” Topham grinned. “Like as not, I’m imaginin’ things—a greenhorn huntin’ Apaches behind every bush. None of that crew has the brains to see anything beyond the tip of his nose. No, I guess we can take it that you were handy and they had too much red-eye on empty stomachs. Only, I mean it, Kirby, you walk soft and get back to the Range as quick as you can.”
    “That suits me,” Drew agreed.
    “Come on over an’ let Doc take a look at that face of yours,” Nye ordered. “You look like you came up behind a mule an’ the critter did a mite of dancin’ backwards! You come ’long, too,” he extended the invitation to include Anse.
    His face patched up after a fashion, Drew lay full