Read Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 07 - Sudden Rides Again(1938) for Free Online Page A

boy.”
                 “She’s
pretty enough to please most men,” the puncher said.
                 “A
mighty sweet gal,” the saloon-keeper agreed, “an’ if de 01’ Man hadn’t showed
his han ’ so plain …”
                 Sudden
nodded. “Ever been to this Heil City?” he asked.
                 “Lordy,
no sah,” Sam said. “I don’ want no truck with dal outlaw trash. ‘Sides, a fella
snoopin’ roun’ dere is li’ble to catch a bullet.”
                 The
obvious warning had no effect. “I must have a look at it,” Sudden smiled. “I’m
curious, an’ I might wanta join up with Mister Satan, after all.”
                 He
left his host scratching his woolly poll in perplexity over this last
disturbing proposition.
                 Sudden
had just finished his morning meal in the parlour when he heard a loud and
cheerful voice in the bar.
                 “‘Lo,
Sam, yu got a cow-person stayin’ here—tall fella with hair as
black as yore hide— who looks like a rustler an’ probably is one?”
                 “Mistah
Green, sah,” the saloon-keeper began.
                 “That’s
the name,” chimed in the cheerful one. “Yu go tell the gent that the sheriff o’
Dugout needs him right away.”
                 “How
long dis town own a sher’ff?” Sam queried. “‘Bout ten minutes—I just bin
app’inted a-purpose, an’see, if he tries to leave by the back window, smoke him
up.”
                 “De debbil! What he wanted foh, Frosty?”
                 “Just
murder, arson, robbery with violence, cheatin’ at cyards, desertin’ his wife
an’ kids, an’—”
                 “Consortin’
with a low character by the name o’ Rud Homer,” put in a quiet voice from the
doorway leading to the rear of the premises. “Howdy.”
                 Frosty
stared at him open-mouthed. “Musta bin romancin’ —yu ain’t marked,” he
muttered, and then, “Told Naylor just now that I’d come in to git yu an’ he
advised me to fetch the rest o’ the outfit. Said yu fought four o’ Satan’s toughs yestiddy an’ threw ‘em out on their ears.”
                 “He
was stringin’ yu,” Sudden said, and added, “I hope there’s somethin’ yu do
better than lyin’.”
                 “Shore
there is,” Frosty said eagerly. “Set ‘em up, ol’timer.” He dived into a pocket
and a look of dismay followed the action. “Hell, I won’t have a nickel till
pay-day.”
                 “Yu
can hock yore gun,” Sudden suggested, with a sly wink at the man behind the
bar. “That’s the rule, ain’t it, Sam?”
                 “Suah
is, gents,” was the reply.
                 Frosty
turned belligerently upon him. “An’ who in blazes is goin’ to fall for that in
this country?” he asked.
                 “Scar
an’ three of his friends fell for it,” Sudden said. “Fell considerable hard,
too.”
                 Light
came to the Double K rider. ‘Then Naylor told the truth—yu did mix it with them
scallawags?”
                 “There
was a li’l argument,” Sudden admitted. “They left in a hunry an’ forgot their
shootin’-irons.”
                 Frosty
grinned and slammed his gun down. “Trot out the pain-killer, Sam,” he said.
“The new rule goes.”
                 The
saloon-keeper pushed the weapon back. “Not foh mah fren’s, sah,” he corrected.
“Dey’s on de house.”
                 “Well
sheriff,” Sudden began.
                 -Aw,
forget it,” the other smiled. “Dugout’s got no use for one anyways, she’s dead,
an’ on’y needs an undertaker.” Later, as they rode in the direction of the
Double K ranch, Sudden said bluntly, “What’s Keith want with