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Page 90
Poor Billie had been Show Low's bunkie on many a long drive.
That veteran now paid this last tribute to his friend. "Billie,
who ain't never done no harm to no one--"
"He reached for his gun--" began Peruna. Sage-brush would not
let him finish his lame defense.
"You shet up!" he cried. "We don't want your kind on this range,
an' the quicker that's published the quicker we'll get shet of
ye. We're goin' to take the law in our own hands now--come on,
boys."
Two of the boys seized Peruna, dragging him toward his horse.
Echo halted them, however, with the query: "What are you going
to do with this man?"
"Take him down to the creek and hang him to that big
cottonwood--" cried Show Low savagely.
Before Echo could answer, Peruna demanded a hearing. "Hol' on a
minute, I got something to say about that!"
"Out with it," growled Sage-brush.
"Las' time there was an affair at that cottonwood the rope broke,
an' the hoss-thief dropped into the creek, swum acrost, and got
away."
Sage-brush glared grimly at Peruna. "Well, we'll see that the
rope don't break with you."
In all seriousness Peruna replied: "I hope so. I can't swim."
Polly, glancing down the valley, saw Buck McKee with a half-dozen
of his outfit, riding furiously to the rescue of Peruna.
"Look out, boys, here comes Buck McKee now!" she shouted.
Unconsciously the men laid their hands on their guns and assumed
offensive attitudes.
Allen cried sharply: "Keep your hands off your guns, boys. One
bad break means the starting of a lot of trouble."
Buck and his band threw themselves off their horses, ranging
themselves opposite Sage-brush the Sweetwater boys.
Swaggering up to Sage-brush, the half-breed insolently demanded:
"Who's the boss of this yere Payson outfit?"
"I reckon you are talkin' to him now," coolly replied the
foreman.
"You've got one of my boys over here," bellowed Buck, adding with
the implied threat: "an' we've come for him."
Sage-brush was not bluffed by Buck's insolence or his swaggering
manners. "I reckon you can't have him just yet."
"What's he been doing?" demanded Buck.
"He killed Billie Nicker--that's one thing."
"Self-defense," loftily replied Buck. "He was 'tendin' to his
own business when your two men come up and begin pickin' on him."
Bursting with anger, Parenthesis strode up to Buck, and shouted:
"He was brandin' one of our yearlin's, that's what his business
was."
Sage-brush suggested, in addition: "Perhaps you mean that
brandin' other folks' cattle is the reg'lar business of the Lazy
K outfit."
"Anythin' with hide and no mark is Lazy K to you all--" growled
Show Low.
"Your goin' strong on reg'lar proceedin's, I see," said Buck to
Sage-brush. "You ain't sheriff of this yere county, air you?"
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