Novel 1966 - Kid Rodelo (v5.0) Read Free

The butt stroke with his rifle was chopping, vicious, and it caught Harbin coming in. He was knocked to his knees, blood flowing from a split scalp.
    Backing off, Perryman looked at Badger. “What about you?”
    “We were havin’ an argument, Perryman. Don’t blame Joe—the heat got him.”
    Perryman hesitated, but Tom Badger was smiling deprecatingly. “Joe’s feelin’ the heat. He’s Montanaborn, y’ know, and can’t take it like you an’ me.”
    Mollified, Perryman stepped back. “All right. I’ll make no report on him this time. But if you’re a friend of his, you keep him in line, d’you hear?” He mopped his forehead. “It is hot, damn it! I can’t scarcely blame him.”
    He walked away, and Badger helped Harbin to his feet. The blood was not much more than a trickle, but Harbin was still glassy-eyed. “You saved my bacon,” he said.
    “Why not? Ain’t we partners?”
    Harbin still hesitated. “What about those ideas you got?”
    “I can put you in Mazatlan…with that gold…in ten days.”
    “All right—partner.”
    “Here,” Badger held out the drill. “You turn the drill. And by all that’s holy, don’t get that guard sore. If they separate us now, I’ll go out of here alone.”
    Joe Harbin settled down glumly to his work. All right, if that was what it took, that was what he would do. He would work so hard they would pay no more attention to him. His head was throbbing, but he had been knocked down before, and always within him was the thought of the money that awaited, and of beating Rodelo to the cache.
    When Turkey came up he scarcely saw him, or even realized his presence until the guard spoke. “Don’t you ever get tired, Joe?”
    “Not me.”
    “Your friend Rodelo signed out this morning. Look what he gave me.” He showed them the gold coin, watching their expressions. There was something behind all this, Turkey felt sure, and he was curious. “This was his eating money until he found himself a job. I can’t figure that man.”
    When Harbin offered no comment, Turkey walked away, and Badger took over holding the drill on the new hole. “If Dan doesn’t need that money,” he said, “he must have a good idea where he can get more.”
    “I got to get out of here.” Harbin’s eyes were wild. “Tom, we got to get out.”
    “We’ll get out. We’ll get out tonight.”
    Harbin’s head jerked up in astonishment. “Tonight?”
    “You be ready. About sundown.”
    Joe Harbin’s tongue touched his lips, and he glanced at the sun…a couple of hours to go. He could feel cold sweat inside his shirt. Was he scared? Well…maybe. But he was going through with it, no matter what. He could already taste that cold Mexican beer…or the tequila. Now, there was a drink!
    As they worked, the sun’s heat was thrown back by the sandstone, and it was fierce, blistering, turning the bottom of the quarry into an oven. The careless touch of an ungloved hand to a steel drill would sear the flesh, and across the quarry two men had dropped from the heat, but Joe Harbin continued to work steadily. Tom Badger, a slower, more methodical worker, nevertheless accomplished as much. Badger had no lost motion, no wasted effort. He had worked enough to know all the knacks and tricks that made hard work easier.
    Miller, the nearest guard toward the end of the long, blistering afternoon, walked down to them. They were completing the last hole of their round, well ahead of any of the others.
    “You fellows outworked every team on the job. Go turn in your tools. You’ve done enough for today.”
    Badger straightened up, rubbing his back. “Thanks, sir. I guess you’re right. We’d best save something for tomorrow.”
    Badger picked up the drills one by one while Joe Harbin shouldered the double-jack. During a moment when the guard’s attention was distracted, Badger kicked one drill away among the rocks, then slowly the two walked off. Glancing back, Badger saw the powder-monkey was already