Read Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 03 - The Marshal of Lawless(1933) for Free Online

passed over the open range. At one point, however, it cut
through a strip of broken country which jutted out like a great finger into the
grassland, dipping down between the tree and brush-clad walls of a ravine.
After the scorching sunshine of the open, the shade of the overhanging foliage
was a welcome relief, and, therefore, Bordene was astonished when his companion
spurred her mount and rocketed through the gorge at full speed. Wondering what was the matter , he did likewise, catching her up just as she
emerged on the open plain again. She slowed down and turned to him, a somewhat
shamed expression on her flushed face.
                 “I’m
sorry, Andy,” she said. “I dread that place, and I just cannot dawdle through
it. If you hadn’t been here I’d have gone round, though it’s miles out of the way. Cowardly, I know, but you understand, don’t you?”
                 He
nodded, and his eyes were suddenly tender. Of course he understood, and it was
not difficult, remembering that less than a twelvemonth before, Anthony Sard,
her father, had been foully done to death somewhere in the ravine. Both he and
Tonia had been away at college, but he knew that the rancher had been
bushwhacked—shot in the back from ambush—and his slayer had never been
discovered. The girl had returned home to find Reuben Sarel, her father’s only
brother, in charge of the ranch. For some time they rode in
silence and then, as though she had been screwing up her courage, Tonia turned
impulsively to her companion.
                 “Andy,
would you be hurt if I asked you not to spend so much time at the Red Ace?” she
asked.
                 “Who’s
been talkin’?” he countered.
                 “Oh,
little birds chirp, you know,” she replied lightly.
                 “Some
little birds oughta have their little necks twisted,” he replied. “Just because
a fella drops into a place now an’ again for a drink an’ a game they figure
he’s headin’ for hell right away.”
                 “Is
it only now and again, Andy?” she queried. “And isn’t it true you have lost a
lot at poker lately?”
                 “I’ve
dropped a bit,” he admitted. “Dad keeps me pretty close-hauled, but I’ll get it
back, an’ Seth ain’t in no hurry.”
                 “I
don’t like that man—he makes me shudder,” she said. “Whenever I meet him I
think of something I saw years ago when I was a kid.”
                 “Not
so awful many years ago,” smiled the boy.
                 She
refused to be put off. “I was out riding with Dad and we came upon a poor
little dead calf,” she went on. “Perched on the carcase was a great black bird,
its claws embedded in the body and its cruel beak tearing away the flesh. Ugh!
It was horrible!”
                 Bordene
laughed at her. “Well, they call him The Vulture, but he ain’t a bad old
scout,” he replied. “Fella can’t help his looks, yu know, an’ he’s too big a
man in these parts to tangle with. Yore uncle thinks a lot of him.”
                 “I
know, but—”
                 She
left the sentence unfinished, loth to admit distrust of her only relation, even
to Andy.
                 For
the truth was that though she was fond of Reuben Sarel, and believed that he
sincerely cared for her, she recognized his limitations, knew that he was weak,
and that his great bulk inclined him to laziness. In the
hands of a man like Raven…
                 Presently
they reached the long, easy slope which wound up to the top of the little mesa
where stood the Double S. It was a big place, the
bunk-house, barns, store-houses, and corrals all constructed on a generous
scale. The ranch-house, though of one storey only, was roomy. Solidly built of
shaped logs and adobe bricks, it had a broad, covered veranda which