“BUCKY FOLLOWS A HOT TRAIL.”

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 128, 13 March 1939, Page 7

“BUCKY FOLLOWS A HOT TRAIL.”

(Copyright).

By WILLIAM MacLEOD RAINE :: A Thrilling Mystery Romance with a Hard-riding, Two-gun Background.

CHAPTER V. “I’m not saying you arc wrong, Tim,” Bucky replied. “We’ve been fighting these thieves ever since I was a kid. If they could get either Uncle Cliff or me they wouldn’t hesitate a second. What I do say is that this isn’t quite their kind-of job after all. They would have dry-gulchecl my uncle, but Dan West would never have thought of getting rid of him and at the same time throwing the burden ol this crime on him and ine. That took brains. Whose?” “You don’t hate Clem half as much as X do, but there’s no sense in letting some half-cocked idea lend us on the wrong trail. Guess somebody else.” “All right. What about that socalled real estate man—that little grinning, gumshoeing scoundrel Judi Richman. He has hat'' .„ncle Cliff ever since he was slapped by him in the post office before a dozen people. The tied Rock crowd always have come to him to front for them. You can’t tell me lie isn’t in on some of their dirty deals.” “Nor me, but you’ll have a hell of a time proving it on him. And I don’t think he has the nerve for anything as big as this. His size is getting rid of rustled stock, I’d say.” “What were he and Haskell doing round the First National at half past one in the morning, just after it had been robbed?” Bueky wanted to know. Murphy squinted his sun-bleached eyes at the younger man. “For that matter, what were Cliff and Buchmann doing down at the bank ip the middle of the niglit? Must have been a reason.. Something got them there. Something they had heard —or knew.” “If we knew that we’d probably have the answer to the whole mystery,” Bucky said'. “One thing is reasonably sure. They were there because they thought the bank was in danger. But I’ll admit that doesn’t tie up with what wo know of Uncle Cliff. It would not be like him to bo caught napping after ho had been warned. Buchmann was different. Not much good in a fight, 1 would guess. This young fellow Ferrill, who helped put the pay roll money away—what about him?” “He’s a bit of a high roller, I’ve heard. Spends a good deal for a hun-dred-fifty-dollar a month teller. But 1 don’t know anything against him.” “I’ll look him up . . . It’s good to bo back at the ranch.” When the car stopped at the porch of the big house Julia came flying out to meet her cousin: She flung her arms around his neck. “Olx, Neil, I’m so glad you’ve come!” she cried, a sob in her throat. “It’s been terrible—alone.” Bucky knew what sho meant. He held her soft body close for a moment after he had kissed her, then stroked her fair hair gently. But there was no use feeding false hope about her father. The girl was rather small, like her father, and her tired blue eyes held the weariness of exhaustion after long fear. She was a pretty young thing, very feminine and clinging, as graceful as a butterfly. > “I’m going to stay here and look after you,” her cousin promised. - * * * * Bucky was busy trying to analyze the foreman’s elementary balance sheet for the O C when Bud Keller came to him with a message. '■ “Tim wants you should come down to the barns and meet a guy,” the cowboy said. Bud was a lean lanky man whoso overalls did not come down much more than halfway on the legs of his high-heelecl boots. Ho was frecklefaced and brindle-thatched, and his unfinished face wore perpetually an amiable smile. “Has the guy. got a name?” Bucky asked. Keller rubbed his unshaven chin. “1 reckon he has, but I didn’t catch it.” Bucky walked down to the barns with Bud. The foreman drew Cameron aside. “This Dutch Dieter hero claims the Red Reck gang have a man cached in the hills and are holding him prisoner.” “Great news, if it’s true,”’ Bucky said, “If it’s true. I thought wo could go to my cabin and you could talk with him.” , Bucky sat down in the foreman’s quarters opposite a heavy-set man of Teutonic appearance. He was rough and unkempt, anc). Ho had shifty shallow eyes. Young Cameron had seen him before. His small mountain ranch was in the hills back of the C C. 0 The ranchman told his story. He had been up with a sick cow one night and had seen four men riding the ridge road above his place. Three of the men were armed, the fourth was not. His hands were tied behind him, and one of the others was leading his horse'. “Recognise any of them?” Bucky asked. Dieter hesitated'. “I thought one of ’em looked like Brad Davis,” he said at last. “Couldn’t swear to him.” “Clear night?” “Pretty clear. There was a moon.” “But they weren’t very close. How far would you say?” “Maybe seventy-five yards—a hundred.” “What night was it?” The answer carno pat. “Night of .Tilly seventeenth.*”

“How do you happen to remember tlio date so well?” . “Next day I heard about the bank robbery.” “And you associated these rnen with the robbery?” Bucky asked. “I wouldn’t say that.” The man’s shallow eyes shitted to the ioreman and back again. “I thought, it kinda tunny. So late in the night you might, almost call it. morning.” “Were you in town to-day, Dieter?” Bucky asked casually. “No. What you getting at?” . the rancher demanded. “And it I was, what then?” “Not important,” admitted Bucky. “Took you quite a while to get down to us with the news, didn’t it, Dieter? Seven days to cover fourteen miles. “I didn’t decide to come till I heard you were here,” the hillman said resentfully. “1 don’t have to mix myself up in other folks’ business unless 1 want to And I’ll say right damn now I don’t, caro whether you believe me or not.” “Who told you I was back?” Bucky’.s careless question almost threw the ranchman off guard. He opened his mouth to answer, then closed it abruptly and glared at the young man. “I clunno who tolcl me,” he said at last. “Yes, Ido too. It was Cad Fuller, on his way back from town.” Bucky knew that however 'Dieter had learned tho news it, had not been from Cad Fuller. Groping for a name, the man had seized on that of one ol his neighbours. Apparently Bucky brushed aside suspicion. “I expect you’re after that thousand-dollar reward my cousin posted for 1 information leading to the finding of her father. I certainly hope you get it. If this man they’re holding prisoner turns out to be my uncle and’ wo rescue him alive we shall always bo grateful to you. We’ll start soon as we can get a bunch of the boys together.” To Murphy lie suggested, “Dieter must be hungry nfte. his ride. How about asking Jim Wong to fix him up some supper? A bottle ol bee? might go' well.” While horses were being run up at? 1 saddled, Bucky and the foreman examined available weapons. It was on the cards that there alignc be a baffle in the hills. t “Do you swallow Dutch’s sto?yr’ Tim asked. “It’s full of holes, yet it may be true in the main,”'Bucky said. “He couldn’t recognise for sure any of the men ho saw on the ridge because it was too dark, but there was. light enough for him to tell that one rider had his hands tiell behind him and his horse was being led. He wasn’t in town today, but he knew I was back and lied about who told him. Maybe he is a decoy, or maybe he is just frightened because lie is betraying the Red 1 Rock outfit for tho reward. We’ll know which later.”

“Hmp!” grunted Tim. “We may not know it if he leads us into an ambush and we’re wiped out.” I “Dutch is going to ride between you and me. We’ll watch him every loot of the way. If and when we get close to a. trap he’ll show it by his nervousness. He’ll have to arrange his own getaway before the band begins to play. Probably he’ll want to drop hack for a minute or two. That will be a signal for us to look out.”

“He’s no good,” the foreman said sourly. “Betraying either us or his neighbour thieves. If he isn’t a rustler, preying on C C stuff, I’m a Mexican. * We’ve known it for years, but wo can’t provo it.” Bucky broke a .45 and examined it. “Because he’s that kind of‘treacherous scoundrel his story may bo true. The thousand dollars would tempt him, even though he knows the risk of giving away Brad Davis and his crowd. On the other hand ” “On the other hand,” Murphy-fin-ished for him dryly, “we -won’t, be sitting on any horseshoes, since likely enough we’re the lambs being led to the slaughter.” “Maybe we’ll turn out wolves in sheep’s clothing,” Bucky amended. “Dieter’s story may be bait to draw us into an ambush. I grant you that. These Red Rock scoundrels know that I think Uncle Cliff has been either killed or kidnapped. So they feed us a little eome-on stuff. That’s a possibility. We’ll have to take a chance, as siiglit a one as we can.” “One tiling is sure,” the. foreman said harshly. “They’re guilty as hell of the First National crime, whichever way the cat jumps. If Dieter’s story is true, they took Cliff. If it isn’t they are trying to wipe you and me out because they’re afraid wo will hang the goods on them if they don’t.” “You go too fast for me, Tim,” his friend demurred. “Couldn’t it be this way? Cliff has gone. Hisi name is under a cloud. So is mine. Some people may even suspect you, because you have been so close to us. Now would be the time to rub us out. Without a leader left on the C C, they could raid our range and run off thousands of cattle ; and in addition to that by destroying us pay all debts in full.” “Hmp!” snorted Murphy. “It might. None the less I’m of the same opinion still.” Eight of them took the road, not counting Dieter.' After five miles, they wound up into the hills. Most of the men moved in single file, not too close together. Dieter was flanked by Bucky and the foreman, except when the path was too narrow. Then one of them went in front of him, the other just behind. “We’re going all ‘round Robin Hood’s barn,’ ” complained the hillman. “We’d ought to cut up past Gillespie’s.” “Afore scenery this way,” Bucky told him briefly. Dutch slid a suspicious look at him but dropped the subject. In the. darkness it was rough going. The horses clambered through greasewood, flung aside scrub oak. Boulders filled the beds of dry streams as- they plowed up gorges. Great hills surrounded them. After the moon came out fantastic shadows made nerves jumpy. It was possible that at any moment the blast of" gunfire would shatter the stillness. Possible, but not probable. Bucky took pains to explain that they were working into the Red Rock country by a flank movement. If the hillman were

looking for them, it would not be by this approach. “What you mean, looking for you?” ■Dieter blustered. Murphy explained, eyeing him coldly. “Some of them may be mind readers and may know you’re giving them away, Dutch.” “You’ve acted all along like I’m lying to you,” the ranchman protested sulkily. “We know you wouldn’t do that, Dutch, not one with a heart of gold like yours,” the foreman jeered. “Especially since you know we’d get excited right away if there was trouble and pour a pint of lead into you.” The man was shaken. His grey face twitched. “I wisli I’d never come down to toll you what I know. I’m quitting you here. You can go on, or you can go back. I don’t care, which.” “You're staying with us,” Bucky told him curtly. “Looky here,” the man whined. “I’m not looking for trouble. I came down to do you a service and you treat mo like I’m a hydrophobia slamk.” “You’ve got a just complaint, if you’re really trying to do us a service,” Bucky admitted. ‘ ‘Put it in the bill, Dieter. One hundred dollars extra for hurting your filings . . . All right, boys. The horses have quit blowing. We’ll ge on our way again.” (To be Continued.)