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

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  Speaker 1: Smalley hop Along Cassidys round Up by Clarence Edward Mulford,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter nineteen, Hopolong's decision. Shortly afternoon, Hopolong, who had ridden
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  Speaker 1: with his head bowed low in meditation, looked up and
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  Speaker 1: slapped his thigh. Then he looked at red and grinned.
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  Speaker 1: Look a here red, he began. There ain't no rustlers
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  Speaker 1: with their headquarters on this god forsaken sand heap, and
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  Speaker 1: there never was. They have to have water, and lots
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  Speaker 1: of it too, And the nearest of any account is
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  Speaker 1: the Pey Coast, or some of them streams over in
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  Speaker 1: the Panhandle. The Panhandle is the best place. There are
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  Speaker 1: lots of streams and lakes over there, and they're right
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  Speaker 1: in a good grass country. Why an army could hide
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  Speaker 1: over there and never be found unless it was hunted
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  Speaker 1: for blamed good. Then again, it's close to the railroad
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  Speaker 1: up north, always is the south branch of the Set Trail,
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  Speaker 1: and it's far enough away not to bother anybody in
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  Speaker 1: the middle Panhandle. Then there's Fort Worth pretty near, and
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  Speaker 1: other trails. Didn't Buck say he had all the rest
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  Speaker 1: of the country searched. He meant the Pecos Valley and
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  Speaker 1: the Davis Mountains country. All the rustlers would have to
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  Speaker 1: do if they were in the Panhandle would be to
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  Speaker 1: cross the Canadian and the Cimarron and hit the trail
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  Speaker 1: for the railroad. Good fords, good grass, and water all
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  Speaker 1: the way, cattle fat when they are delivered, and plenty
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  Speaker 1: of room. The more I thinks about it, the more
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  Speaker 1: I cottons to the Panhandle. Well, it sure does sound good,
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  Speaker 1: replied Red reflectively. Do you mean the Cunningham Lake region
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  Speaker 1: or farther north, just the other side of this blasted desert,
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  Speaker 1: anywhere where there's water, responded hop long enthusiastically. I've been
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  Speaker 1: doing some hot reckoning for the last two hours, and
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  Speaker 1: this is the way it looks to me. They drives
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  Speaker 1: the cows up on this skillet for a ways, then
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  Speaker 1: turns east and hits the trail for home and water.
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  Speaker 1: They can get around the chaon near Thatcher's Lake by
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  Speaker 1: a swing of the north. I tell you that's the
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  Speaker 1: only way out in this Who could tell where they
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  Speaker 1: turned with the wind raising the deuce with the trail?
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  Speaker 1: Didn't we follow a trail for a ways? And then
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  Speaker 1: what why there wasn't none to follow? We can ride
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  Speaker 1: north till we walk behind ourselves and never get a
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  Speaker 1: peek at them. I'm in favor of heading for the
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  Speaker 1: Sulfur Spring Creek district. We can spend a couple of
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  Speaker 1: weeks if we has to, and prospect that whole region
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  Speaker 1: without having to cut our water down to a smell
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  Speaker 1: and a taste and live on jerked beef. If we
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  Speaker 1: investigates that country, we'll find something else than sandstorms, poisoned
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  Speaker 1: water holes and blisters. Ain't the panhandleful of nesters farmers,
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  Speaker 1: inquired Red, doubtfully, along the Canadian and the edges. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: in the middle, No, explained hop. Long they hanged close
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  Speaker 1: together on account of the war. Whoops, and they like
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  Speaker 1: the trails pretty well because of there all is being
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  Speaker 1: somebody passing. Buck ought to send some of the Panhandle
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  Speaker 1: boys up there, suggested Red. There's Pie Willis and the Jordans.
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  Speaker 1: They knows the Panhandle like you knows. Poker. Frenchie had
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  Speaker 1: paid no apparent attention to the conversation up to this point,
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  Speaker 1: but now he declared himself. You heard what Buck said,
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  Speaker 1: didn't you? He asked, We were told to search the
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  Speaker 1: staked plains from one end to the other, and I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to do it if I can hold out long enough.
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  Speaker 1: I ain't gonna pullaver with you, because what you say
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  Speaker 1: can't be denied as far as wisdom is concerned. You
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  Speaker 1: may have hit it plumb center, but I knows what
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  Speaker 1: I was ordered to do, and you can't get me
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  Speaker 1: to go over there if you shouts all night when
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  Speaker 1: Buck says anything, she goes. He wants to know where
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  Speaker 1: the cards are stacked and why he can't holler keno,
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  Speaker 1: And I'm going to find out if I can. You
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  Speaker 1: can go to Patagonia if he wants to, but you
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  Speaker 1: go alone. As far as I'm concerned, well, it's better
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  Speaker 1: if you don't go with us, replied pop Along, taking
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  Speaker 1: it for granted that Red would accompany him. You can
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  Speaker 1: prospect this end of the game, and we'll be taking
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  Speaker 1: care of the other. It's two chances now, where we
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  Speaker 1: only had one of four. You'll go east and I'll
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  Speaker 1: hunt around, is ordered, responded Frenchy East Nothing, replied hop Along.
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  Speaker 1: You don't get me to wallow in hot Alkali and
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  Speaker 1: lose time riding in ankle deep sand when I can
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  Speaker 1: hit the South Trail, skirt the white sand hills and
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  Speaker 1: be in God's country again. I ain't going to wrestle
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  Speaker 1: with no can this here trip none whatever. I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to travel in style. Get to Big Spring by ridin
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  Speaker 1: two miles to where I could only make one on
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  Speaker 1: this stove. Then I'll head north along Sulfur Spring Creek
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  Speaker 1: and have water and grass all the way. Barn a
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  Speaker 1: few stretches while you are beIN prick asied, I'll be
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  Speaker 1: streakin through cottonwood groves and ridin' in the creek. You'll
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  Speaker 1: have to go alone, then, said Red resolutely. French He
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  Speaker 1: ain't a goin to die of lonesomeess on this desert.
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  Speaker 1: If I knows what I'm about, and I reckon, I
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  Speaker 1: do so. Me and him will follow out what Buck said,
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  Speaker 1: hunt around for a while, and then Frenchy can go
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  Speaker 1: back to the ranch to tell Buck what's up, and
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  Speaker 1: I'll take the trail you're scared of and meet ya
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  Speaker 1: at the east end of Cunningham Lake three days from now.
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  Speaker 1: You'd better come with me. Coaxed Top along, not liking
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  Speaker 1: what his friend had said about being afraid of the
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  Speaker 1: trail past the cairn, and wishing to have some one
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  Speaker 1: with whom to talk on his trip I'm going to
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  Speaker 1: have a nice long swim tomorrow night, he added, trying bribery,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm going to try to keep from hittin my blisters.
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  Speaker 1: Responded Red, I don't want to go swimming in no
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  Speaker 1: creek full of moccasins. I'd rather sleep with rattlers or
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  Speaker 1: copper heads. Every time I see a cotton mouth that
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  Speaker 1: feels like I had just sit down on one, I'll
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  Speaker 1: flip a coin to see whether you comes or not,
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  Speaker 1: proposed hop Along. If you wants to gamble so bad,
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  Speaker 1: I'll flip you up to see who draws our pain
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  Speaker 1: next month. But not for what you said, responded Red,
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  Speaker 1: choking down the desire to try his luck, hop Alone,
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  Speaker 1: grinned and turned toward the south. If I seize Buck
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  Speaker 1: afore you do, I'll tell him you and Frenchy are
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  Speaker 1: growing watermelons up near last stand rock and are waitin
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  Speaker 1: for rain. Well so long, he said, you tell Buck,
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  Speaker 1: we're obeying orders, shouted Red, sorry that he was not
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  Speaker 1: going with his bunkie. Frenchy and Red rode on in silence,
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  Speaker 1: the latter feeling strangely lonesome, for he and the departed
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  Speaker 1: man had seldom been separated, when journeys like this were
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  Speaker 1: to be taken, and when in search of pleasure, they
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  Speaker 1: were nearly always together. Frenchie, while being very friendly with Hopolong,
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  Speaker 1: a friendship that would have placed them side by side
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  Speaker 1: against any odds, was not accustomed to his company and
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  Speaker 1: did not notice his absence. Red looked off toward the
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  Speaker 1: south for the tenth time, and for the tenth time,
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  Speaker 1: thought that his friend might return. He's a son of
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  Speaker 1: a gun, he soliloquised. His companion looked up. He sure is,
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  Speaker 1: and he's right about this rustler business too. But we'll
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  Speaker 1: look around for a day or so, and then you
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  Speaker 1: raise dust for the lake. I'll go back to the
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  Speaker 1: ranch and get things primed, so there'll be no time lost.
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  Speaker 1: When we get the word, I'm sorry, I went and
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  Speaker 1: said what I did about me taking the trail he
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  Speaker 1: was as scared of, confessed Red, after a pause. Why
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  Speaker 1: he ain't as scared o nothin. He got back at
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  Speaker 1: ya about them watermelons. So what's the difference, asked Frenchie.
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  Speaker 1: He don't owe you nothin. An hour later, they searched
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  Speaker 1: the Devil's Rocks, but found no rustlers filling their canteens.
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  Speaker 1: At a tiny spring, and allowing their mounts to drink
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  Speaker 1: the remainder of the water, they turned toward hell Arroyo,
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  Speaker 1: which they reached at nightfall. Here, also their search availed
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  Speaker 1: them nothing, and they paused in indecision. Then Frenchy turned
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  Speaker 1: toward his companion and advised him to ride toward the
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  Speaker 1: lake in the night, when it was comparatively cool. Red considered,
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  Speaker 1: and then decided that the advice was good. He rolled
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  Speaker 1: a cigarette, wheeled and faced the east, and spurred forward.
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  Speaker 1: So long he called, So long, replied Frenchie, who turned
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  Speaker 1: towards the south and departed for the ranch. The foreman
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  Speaker 1: of the bar twenty was cleaning his rifle when he
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  Speaker 1: heard the hoof beats of a galloping horse, and he
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  Speaker 1: ran around the corner of the house to meet the newcomer,
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  Speaker 1: whom he thought to be a courier from the Double Arrow.
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  Speaker 1: Frenchie dismounted and explained why he returned alone. Buck listened
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  Speaker 1: to the report, and, then, noting the fire which gleamed
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  Speaker 1: in his friend's eyes, nodded his approval to the course.
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  Speaker 1: I reckon, it's trendly, Frenchie. I've heard a few things
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  Speaker 1: since you left and you can bet that if hop
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  Speaker 1: along in Red have gone for him, he'll be found.
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  Speaker 1: I expect action any time now, so we'll light the
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  Speaker 1: signal fire. Then he hesitated. You light it. You've been
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  Speaker 1: waiting a long time for this. The balls of smoke
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  Speaker 1: which rolled upward were replied to by other balls at
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  Speaker 1: different points on the plane, and the bar twenty prepared
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  Speaker 1: to feed the numbers of hungry punchers who would arrive
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  Speaker 1: within the next twenty four hours. Two hours had not
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  Speaker 1: passed when eleven men rode up from the three Triangle,
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  Speaker 1: followed eight hours later by ten from the O Barrow.
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  Speaker 1: The outfits of the Star Circle and the Barred Horseshoe
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  Speaker 1: eighteen in all, came next and had scarcely dismounted when
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  Speaker 1: those of the C eighty and the Double Arrow, fretting
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  Speaker 1: at the delay, rode up with the sixteen from the
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  Speaker 1: Bar twenty. The force numbered seventy five resolute and pugnacious cowpunchers,
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  Speaker 1: all aching to wipe out the indignities suffered. End of
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  Speaker 1: Chapter nineteen