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17 - Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round-Up by Clarence Edward Mulford · Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round-Up

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  Speaker 1: Long Cassidy's Rustler Roundup or Bar twenty by Clarence Edward Moulford,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen. Mister Trendley assumes added importance that the wrestlers
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  Speaker 1: were working under a well organized system. Was evident that
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  Speaker 1: they were directed by a master of the game. Was
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  Speaker 1: ceaselessly beaten into the consciousness of the association by the diversity, dash,
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  Speaker 1: and success of their raids. No one save the three
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  Speaker 1: men whom they had destroyed, had ever seen them, but
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  Speaker 1: like Tomali Jose, they had rated once too often. Mister Trendley,
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  Speaker 1: more familiarly known to men as Slippery, was the possessor
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  Speaker 1: of a biased conscience, if any at all. Tall, gaunt
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  Speaker 1: and weather beaten, and with cold black eyes set deep
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  Speaker 1: beneath hairless eyebrows, he was sinister and forbidding into his
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  Speaker 1: forty five years of existence, he had crowded a century
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  Speaker 1: of experience and on savory. Rumors about him existed in
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  Speaker 1: all parts of the Great West, from Canada to Mexico,
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  Speaker 1: and from Sacramento to Westport. His name stood for brigandage.
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  Speaker 1: His operations had been conducted with such consummate cleverness that
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  Speaker 1: in all the accusations there was lacking proof. Only once
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  Speaker 1: had he aired, and then in the spirit of pure deviltry,
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  Speaker 1: and in the days of youthful folly, and his mistake
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  Speaker 1: was a written note. He was even thought by some
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  Speaker 1: to have been concerned in the Mountain Meadow massacre. Others
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  Speaker 1: thought him to have been the leader of the band
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  Speaker 1: of outlaws that had plundered along the Saturfay Trail in
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  Speaker 1: the late sixties in Montana and Wyoming. He was held
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  Speaker 1: responsible for the outrages of the band that had descended
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  Speaker 1: from the whole in the Wall territory, and for over
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  Speaker 1: a hundred miles carried murder and theft that shamed as
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  Speaker 1: being weak the most assiduous efforts of zealous Cheyennes. It
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  Speaker 1: was in this last raid that he had made the mistake,
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  Speaker 1: and it was in this raid that Frenchie meccallister had
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  Speaker 1: lost his wife. When Frenchie had first been approached by
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  Speaker 1: Buck as to his going in search of the rustlers,
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  Speaker 1: he had asked to go alone. This had been denied
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  Speaker 1: by the foreman of the bar twenty because the men
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  Speaker 1: whom he had selected to accompany the scout were of
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  Speaker 1: such caliber that their presence could not possibly form a hindrance.
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  Speaker 1: Besides being his most trusted friends, they were regarded by
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  Speaker 1: him as being the two best exponents of gunplay that
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  Speaker 1: the West afforded. Each was a specialist, hop along expert
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  Speaker 1: beyond belief with his cold six shooters, was only approached
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  Speaker 1: by Red, whose winchester was renowned for its accuracy. The
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  Speaker 1: three made a perfect combination, as the rashness of the
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  Speaker 1: two younger men would be under the controlling influence of
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  Speaker 1: a man who could retain his coolness of mind under
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  Speaker 1: all circumstances. When Buck and Frenchy looked into each other's eyes,
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  Speaker 1: there sprang into the mind of each the same name,
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  Speaker 1: slippery triendly. Both had spent the greater part of a
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  Speaker 1: year in fruitless search for that person, the foreman of
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  Speaker 1: the Tin Cup, in vengeance for the murder of his wife,
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  Speaker 1: the blasting of his prospects, and the loss of his herds,
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  Speaker 1: Buck out of sympathy for his friend, and also because
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  Speaker 1: they had been partners in the double Why now that
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  Speaker 1: the years had passed and the long sought for opportunity
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  Speaker 1: was believed to be at hand, there was promised either
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  Speaker 1: a cessation of the outrages or that Buck would never
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  Speaker 1: again see his friends. When the three mounted and came
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  Speaker 1: to him for final instructions, Buck forced himself to be
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  Speaker 1: almost repellent in order to be capable of coherent speech.
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  Speaker 1: Hamp Along glanced sharply at him and then understood read
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  Speaker 1: was all attention and eagerness, and remarked, nothing but the
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  Speaker 1: words have you ever heard of slivery triendly, harshly, inquired
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  Speaker 1: the foreman. They nodded, and on the faces of the
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  Speaker 1: younger man a glint of hatred showed itself, but Frenchy
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  Speaker 1: wore his poker countenance. Buck continued. The reason I asked
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  Speaker 1: you was because I don't want you to think you're
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  Speaker 1: going on no picnic. I ain't sure it's him, but
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  Speaker 1: I've got some hopeful information. Besides, he's the only man
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  Speaker 1: I knows of who's capable of the plays that have
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  Speaker 1: been made. It's hardly necessary for me to tell you
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  Speaker 1: to sleep with one eye open and never to get
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  Speaker 1: away from your guns. Now I'm going to tell you
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  Speaker 1: the hardest part. You're going to search the staked plane
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  Speaker 1: from one end to the other. And that's what no
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  Speaker 1: white man's ever done to my knowledge. Now, listen to
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  Speaker 1: this and don't forget it. Twenty miles north from Last
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  Speaker 1: Stand Rock is the spring. Ten miles south of that
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  Speaker 1: bend in hel Royo is another. If he gets lost
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  Speaker 1: within two days from the time you enters the plane,
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  Speaker 1: put your left hand on the cactus sometime between sun
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  Speaker 1: up and noon, move around until you're over at shadow,
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  Speaker 1: and then ride straight ahead. That's south. If he goes
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  Speaker 1: Loco beyond Last stand Rock, follow the shadows made before noon.
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  Speaker 1: That's the quickest way to the Pekos. You all knows
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  Speaker 1: what to do in a sandstorm, so I won't bore
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  Speaker 1: you with that. Repeat all I've told you. He ordered,
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  Speaker 1: and they complied. I'm telling you this, continued the foreman,
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  Speaker 1: indicating the two auxiliaries, because you might get separated from Frenchy. Now,
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  Speaker 1: I suggest that you look around near the Devil's Rocks.
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  Speaker 1: I've heard that there are several water holes among them,
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  Speaker 1: and besides, they might be turned into fair corrals. Mind you,
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  Speaker 1: I know what I've said sounds damned idiotic for anybody
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  Speaker 1: that has had as much experience with the Steak Plane
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  Speaker 1: as I have. But I've had every other place searched
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  Speaker 1: for miles around. The men of all the ranches have
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  Speaker 1: been scouted, and the plane is the only place left them.
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  Speaker 1: Rustlers has got to be found if we have to
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  Speaker 1: dig to hell for them. They've taken the pots so
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  Speaker 1: many times that they reckons they owns it, and we've
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  Speaker 1: got to at least make a bluff at drawn cards.
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  Speaker 1: Maybe they're at the bottom of the pagos here, he
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  Speaker 1: smiled faintly. But wherever they are, we've got to find them.
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  Speaker 1: Want to holler Keino if he finds where they hangs out,
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  Speaker 1: come away instant here, his face hardened and his eyes narrowed.
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  Speaker 1: Or it'll take more than ye three to deal with
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  Speaker 1: them the way I'm a hankering for. Come right back
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  Speaker 1: to the Double Arrow. Send me word by one of
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  Speaker 1: your punchers, and get all the rest you can afore
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  Speaker 1: I gets there. It'll take me a day to get
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  Speaker 1: the man together and to reach you. I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: use smoke signals to call the other ranches so there
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  Speaker 1: won't be no time lost. Carry all the water you
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  Speaker 1: can pack when you leave the Double Arrow, and don't
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  Speaker 1: depend none on cactus juice. You better take a pack
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  Speaker 1: horse to carry it, and you grub you can shoot
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  Speaker 1: it if you have to hit the trail real hard.
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  Speaker 1: The three riders, felt of their accouterments, said so long,
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  Speaker 1: and cantered off for the pack horse and extra ammunition.
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  Speaker 1: Then they rode toward the Double Arrow, stopping at Cowan's
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  Speaker 1: long enough to spend some money and reach the Double
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  Speaker 1: Arrow at nightfall. Early the next morning, they passed the
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  Speaker 1: last linehouse, and, with the profane well wishes of its
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  Speaker 1: occupants ringing in their ears, passed onto one of nature's
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  Speaker 1: worst blunders, the staked plane. End of Chapter seventeen. Recording
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  Speaker 1: by John Brandon