Read Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 02 - Sudden(1933) for Free Online

‘a’ been good friends. I give yu my word, Purdie, I had nothin’ to do with his death.”
                 Sudden,
watching him closely, believed he was speaking the truth, but the cattleman’s
face expressed nothing hut incredulity.
                 “O’
course yu’d say so,” he sneered. “I wouldn’t take the word of a Burdette at the
Throne of Heaven.” His eyes, mad with misery, glared at this lad who had all
his own son had lost—youth, vigour, the vista of life—and a savage spate of
anger swept away his control. “Pull yore gun, yu cur, an’ we’ll settle it here
an’ now,” he cried.
                 The
boy’s face flushed at the insult, but he made no move towards his weapon. His
gaze did not waver as he replied :
                 “If
yu want to kill me, Purdie, go ahead; there’s a reason why I can’t draw on yu.”
                 The
elder man’s lips twisted into a furious snarl. “Yu bet there’s a reason—yo’re
yellow, like the rest o’ yore scaly, shoot-from-cover family,” he rasped.
“Well, yu get away with it for now, but paste this in yore hat: I’m goin’ to
find the fella who murdered my boy, an’ when I do—he dies.”
                 “I’ll
help yu,” Luce replied, and walked slowly away. Purdie looked at the puncher.
                 “What
d’yu make o’ that?”
                 “I
don’t think he did it.”
                 “Yu
don’t know the breed—lyin’s as natural as breathin’ with them,” the rancher
replied.
                 “I’m
backin’ my judgment, seh,” the puncher persisted.
                 “Weil,
mebbe, but I’m bettin’ it was a Burdette anyways,” the old man said. “What I was
goin’ to ask yu when that houn’ showed up was to see me before yu make any
plans. Will yu do that?”
                 “Pleased
to,” Sudden said.
                 It
was agreed that he should ride over to the C P on the following morning, and
the cattleman departed. Sudden went in search of a meal, his mind full of the
encounter he had just witnessed. He liked Purdie, recognized him for a white
man, and admired the sturdy pluck with which he was facing a crushing
misfortune. Regarding Burdette his mind was in a curious condition. As at their
first meeting, he felt attracted to the boy, and found it difficult to conceive
him guilty of a cowardly murder. Certainly it was not lack of courage that made
him refuse the older man’s challenge, at the risk of being shot down where he
stood. If all the Burdettes were like this one…
                 Meanwhile,
the subject of his speculations had gone straight to the marshal’s office.
                 Slype,
lounging in a tilted-back chair, his heels on his desk, chuckled inwardly when
he saw the visitor’s pale, furious face.
                 “‘Lo,
Luce, what’s bitin’ yu?” he inquired.
                 “I’ve
just seen Purdie, an’ he’s accusin’ me o’ shootin’ Kit,” the boy blurted out.
                 The
marshal grinned. “Well, didn’t yu?” he asked.
                 “Yu
know damn well I didn’t,” Luce retorted hotly. “An’ yu gotta get busy an’ find
out who did; I ain’t goin’ to have a thing like that pinned on me.”
                 “Orders,
huh?” the officer sneered. “Well, I ain’t takin’ ‘em. Ol’ Man Purdie has served
notice that him an’ his outfit is goin’ to handle the
job, an’ that lets me out. Sabe?”
                 His
little eyes squinted at the youth in malignant enjoyment; he would not have
dared to take that tone with any other of the Burdettes.
                 “Playin’
safe, huh?” Luce said scornfully. “They shore don’t call yù Slippery’ for
nothin’,” and stamped out of the office before any adequate reply