The Lawless West Read Online Free Page B

clean-shaven, bright, and eager, a superb figure. Tex had been lucky enough to have a gun with him one day when a rattlesnake frightenedthe schoolteacher and he had shot the reptile. Miss Stacey had leaned against him in her fright; she had been grateful; she had admired his wonderful skill with a gun and had murmured that a woman always could be sure with such a man. Thereafter Tex packed his gun unmindful of the ridicule of his rivals.
    “Miss Stacey, come for a little ride, won’t you?” he asked eagerly.
    The cowboys had already taught her how to handle a horse and to ride, and, if all they said of her appearance and accomplishment were true, she was indeed worth watching.
    “I’m sorry,” replied Jane. “I promised Nevada I’d ride with him today.”
    “I reckon Nevada is miles an’ miles up the valley by now,” replied Tex. “He won’t be back till long after dark.”
    “But he made an agreement with me,” protested the schoolmistress.
    “An’ shore he has to work. He’s ridin’ for Springer, an’ I’m foreman of this ranch,” said Tex.
    “You sent him off on some long chase,” averred Jane severely. “Now, didn’t you?”
    “I shore did. He comes crowin’ down to the bunkhouse…about how he’s goin’ to ride with you an’ how we-all are not in the runnin’.”
    “Oh, he did. And what did you say?”
    “I says…‘Nevada, I reckon there’s a steer mired in the sand up in Cedar Wash. You ride up there an’ pull him out.’”
    “And then what did he say?” inquired Jane curiously.
    “Why, Miss Stacey, I shore hate to tell you. I didn’t think he was so…so bad. He just used the mostawful language as was ever heard on this heah ranch. Then he rode off.”
    “But was there a steer mired up in the wash?”
    “I reckon so,” replied Tex, rather shame-facedly. “’Most always is one.”
    Jane let scornful eyes rest upon the foreman.
    “That was a mean trick,” she said.
    “There’s been worse done to me by him, an’ all of them. An’ all’s fair in love an’ war…Will you ride with me?”
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    “Because I think I’ll ride off alone up Cedar Wash and help Nevada find that mired steer.”
    “Miss Stacey, you’re shore not goin’ to ride off alone. Savvy that?”
    “Who’ll keep me from it?” demanded Jane with spirit.
    “I will. Or any of the boys, for that matter. Springer’s orders.”
    Jane started with surprise, and then blushed rosy red. Tex, also, appeared confused at his disclosure.
    “Miss Stacey, I oughtn’t have said that. It slipped out. The boss said we needn’t tell you, but you were to be watched an’ taken care of. It’s a wild range. You could get lost or thrown from a horse.”
    “Mister Springer is very kind and thoughtful,” murmured Jane.
    “The fact is, this heah ranch is a different place since you came,” went on Tex as if emboldened. “An’ this beatin’ around the bush doesn’t suit me. All the boys have lost their haids over you.”
    “Indeed? How flattering,” replied Jane with just a hint of mockery. She was fond of all her admirers, but there were four of them she had not yet forgiven.
    The tall foreman was not without spirit.
    “It’s true all right, as you’ll find out pretty quick,” he replied. “If you had any eyes, you’d see that cattle raisin’ on this heah ranch is about to halt till somethin’ is decided. Why, even Springer himself is sweet on you.”
    “How dare you!” flashed Jane, suddenly aghast.
    “I ain’t afraid to tell the truth,” declared Tex stoutly. “He is. The boys all say so. He’s grouchier than ever. He’s jealous. Lord, he’s jealous! He watches you…”
    “Suppose I told him that you dared to say such things?” interrupted Jane, trembling on the verge of strange emotion.
    “Why, he’d be tickled to death. He hasn’t got nerve enough to tell you himself.”
    This cowboy, like all his comrades, was hopeless. She was about to attempt to change the