SAD END VALLEY

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13239, 15 January 1941, Page 3

SAD END VALLEY

“Go on!” Garrick said impatiently. Barker leaned forward and said quietly: “They’re yours, if yuh want them Garrick glared at him in bewilderment. “What's the game? Why d’yuh come to me with your bonds? I ain’t no receiver for stolen goods. What yuh tryin’ to put across on me. stranger?” “Cal Barker’s the name,” said the gambler silkily. “An’ I’m stringing nobody. I said yuh could have that twelve thousand bucks, if yuh wan t it —an’ that still goes. But it stands to reason yuh don t get it for nothin’.” “I figured that out for myself. What d’yuh want me to give yuh for that stuff.” “Mighty little —just bed an’ board for a couple months.” “You're lookin’ for a hide-out, eh?” “Yeah, that about fits. I heard of this place from a feller back East an’ he figured it was just about what I was lookin’ for. I’m plumb exhausted 'with —money-makin’— an’ I need somewhere quiet for a rest-cure. Get it?” “I get it. But, say, who was tellin’ yuh about Bad End Valley back East?” “A sort of a business colleague of mine called Maloney. He was out here about fifteen months back, an’ he allowed you was the kind of hombre who wouldn’t mind a guy takin’ a rest-cure around your ranch l lOUse —an’ wouldn’t try pullin’ any double-crosses.” At the mention of Maloney’s name, Garrick had frowned abruptly. “Maloney, huh?” he repeated, “j remember that feller. He came snoopin’ around on everybody else’s business but his own, an’ I threw him outa the valley. So you’re a side-kick of that hombre’s?” “Wouldn’t say a side-kick—sort of an acquaintance. He told me about this valley long before I collected all this dough, an’ I remembered it when I was ookin’ for peace bered it when I was lookin’ for peace right now, mister. I got a hundred grand cached, so I reckon 1 can afford to pay twelve hundred for my spell of quiet.”

“Reckon you’d better. Yuh need a hide-out, all right, an’ it’s a hell of a long way to Mexico.” “I see yuh got the position clear. Well, I’m ready to pay for services rendered, ain’t I? Yuh get six hundred bucks now, an’ six when I leave the valley—that’s my terms. An’, say: don’t imagine I’m gonna take yuh walkin’ round that cache of mine—l’m not sharin’ that hundred thousand dollars, an’ I got it hidden pretty deep.” At that, Garrick’s ready scowl appeared, but with a typical change of mood, he laughed suddenly, and thumped Barker on the back. • “I oughta poke yuh in the eye for givin’ me that line o’ talk, but I ain’t mad,” he declared noisily. “I like straight talkin’, stranger, an’ yuh sure give it straight. Okay, Barker, it’s a deal. Yuh can stick around here till you’re ready to beat it. You’ll get all the peace an’ quiet yuh want in the Valley. Strangers don’t come this way. We don’t encourage them.” “That's what Maloney told me. That’s why I picked oh this place,” Barker said calmly. Garrick shot another glance of Suspicion at him, then he laughed again. “C’mon, we’ll have a drink on this.” he said. CHAPTER V DANNY SEES YELLOW “YuliTie a close ole coyote. Seth. Closer'n a clam,” Garrick declared, leaning back in the rickety chair and surveying old Seaton with a look in which assumed jesting barely concealed irritation. Seth sniggered. “Yeah, guess nobody ever called me jest exactly talkative,” he agreed, It was the day after Cal Barker’s arrival in Bad End Valley, and Garrick was paying one of his frequent visits to the old man. Almost daily he came thus, and his object was always the same—to try and get Seth to give away the secret of where his supposed hoard of gold was hidden.

I bat object had become almost an obsession with Garrick. Even now, cunning-was Seth, he was not absolutely certain whether or not that i-ourd actually existed. Although

BY W. B. B A.NNERMAN

Seth had never admitted anything one way or the other about his legendary store of money, it was taken for granted that there was such a store, and Garrick was plagued night and day by the thought that it was probably lying buried somewhere near, ready for his hands to dig it up—if only he could get old Seaton to say where the hiding-place was. But Seaton, half crazy though they called him in the valley, had always been too smart for Garrick. So skilfully had he kept Garrick’s curiosity and greed alive and yet unsatisfied that the latter had kept him in idleness here for nearly twenty years. Crazy though he might be, he was one of the few men who had managed to get something for nothing out of. King Garrick. Garrick tried a new approach. He leaned forward confidentially and said:

“See here, Seth, yuh ain’t jest a kid right now, not by a lonj? way. Ain’t yuh never thought yuh might die so quick one of them days that yuh won’t have no time to prepare for passin’ over? Think of it now: yuh wouldn’t like to see all that dough of yourn jest lyin’ rustin’ there for ever, when yuh might’ve handed it to some good friend of yours before yuh went —would yuh?” Seth shook his head. “I sure wouldn’t, but ”

“Then why don’t yuh . tell me where yuh got it cached?” Garrick broke in eagerly. “Yuh know yuh can trust me, don’t yuh, Seth? I been a good friend to yuh, ain’t that right? Weil, jest you tell me what yuh want done with that money if yuh was to die, an’ I’ll promise to see it gets done. Tell me that, an’ where yuh got it hidden, an’ yuh can rest easy about what’ll happen to it after you’ve gone.” The old man’s wrinkled parchment skinned face creased in a grin.

“That's mighty big of yuh, King,” he cackled. “Sure I trust yuh. I’m a trustin’ kind of a mam—it’s always been said of me. But I told yuh before that nobody but myself knows whether I got a single dime or not in the world. You’re sure jumpin’ to conclusions there, an’ so’s everybody else who thinks I’m rich. All I’m saying is what I said before; I made a big strike all right back in Californy, an’ then I lest a lot of dough. Only me knows how much I got left —an’ only me’s gonna know.”

“But, Seth—yuh don’t want that money to go to waste. Yuh wouldn’t like to take that there secret of yourn with yuh, when yuh pass out of thisyer world ?” Seth waved the argument aside with a claw-like hand, his eyes glittering cunningly.

“How d’yuh know I got a red cent? I asked yuh that before, too.” Garrick’s patience came to the end of its tether. He sprang up, his face red with fury, knocking over the frail chair with a crash. “Yuh darned old crook!” he shouted. “Yuh got as much red blood in your body as a rattlesnake! By God, you’ll talk pretty soon —I’ll see to that! I’ll make yuh talk.” Seth smiled unpleasantly. “How?” he inquired simply.

With difficulty, Garrick took a grip of himself. He looked at the old man intently for a second or two —not his usual furious glare, but a cold, murderous look. “I’ve stood for yuh long enough, Seth Seaton,” he said hoarsely. “I’ve let yuh play me up about that money of yourn—but I ain’t standin’ for it much longer. I’m warnin’ yuh: if yuh don’t spill it mighty quick, you’re gonna be sorry.” The old man laughed, enjoying the advantage he held over the other. “Don’t tell me you’re threatenin’ to kill me, King. I ain’t afeared of yuh. Yuh ain’t forgettin’ that, If yuh did, you’d never know whether I got that money or not. An’ yuh want pretty bad to know—don’t yuh. King. . . ?” Stung uncontrollably, King snarled and took a step towards the old man, drawing back his great fist to strike. “Don’t you hit me, Canuck,” Seth warned him. his darting black eyes both wary and mocking. ‘I figure that jest one wallop from that there fist of yourn would be enough to kill an old sourdough like me. Jest think that over afore yuh hit me. , n For an instant, King stood poised there, like a statue; then he let his arm drop.

‘Right,” he said, breathing hard to keep his voice under control. “Right. I’ll be wise, yuh old swine. I’ll play yuh at your own game. But don’t forget about that warnin’ I.gave yuh —it still holds good. . . With a final meaning glare, he turhed' and stamped out of the shack. With peering, reflective eyes, Seth watched him go. His brow was puckered in thought. Danny hardly looked up ,at her when Ruth came to join him in their meeting-place in the mesquitethicket. He was staring sullenly at the ground between his bent knees. (To be continued)