Robber's Roost (1989) Read Free Page A

care if I do."
    "Wal, let's go out an' talk before we join the other fellers," suggested Hays. They returned to the big room. It was empty except for Red, who was filling a lamp.
    "They've all gone down to meet the stage. It's overdue now."
    "Stage!--From where?"
    "West, so set easy," laughed Hays. "Thet one from East won't git in till--wal, now, let me see what day this is."
    "Saturday."
    "Wal, so it is. THEN NEXT WEDNESDAY. By thet time you won't be here."
    "No? Where will I be, since you seem to know?"
    "You may be in the Garden of Eden, eatin' peaches," retorted Hays.
    "See here, Wall, you're a testy cuss. Any reason why you can't be a good feller?"
    "Come to think of thet, yes, there is," returned Wall, thoughtfully.
    "All right. Thanks for thet much. I reckon I understand you better. An' I don't want to know why," he said, with deliberation.
    He kicked the smoldering fire, and picking up a chip, he lighted his cigar, puffing clouds of smoke. "Aahh! Makes me think of a store I used to run in West Virginia, years ago. . . . What were you, Wall, once upon a time?"
    Wall laughed musingly. "A country-school teacher once, for a while, before I was twenty."
    "Wal, I'll be dog-goned! You ain't serious?" ejaculated Hays, incredulously.
    "Yes, I am. It's funny. I wouldn't have remembered that before supper."
    "It do beat hell what a man can be, at different times in his life.
    But I'm concerned with now. An' I'd like to ask you some questions."
    "Fire away."
    "You didn't hold it ag'in' me thet I held up the old geezer at the ferry?"
    "No. He was about the stingiest man I ever ran across."
    "All right. Would you have done thet yourself?"
    "Possibly."
    "All right. I'd have done it without provocation. Does thet make any particular difference to you?"
    "Not any--in particular. It's none of my business."
    "Wal, make it your business."
    "Hays, you're beating around the bush," returned Wall, deliberately. "Come clean with it."
    "I reckoned so," mused Hays, eying his cigar and flicking off the ashes with a slow finger. Then he veered his gaze to the brightening embers in the fire.
    Wall felt that this was the first really unguarded moment Hays had shown, although he had appeared nothing if not sincere. It somehow defined his status, if not his caliber.
    "You said you was broke?" Hays began again.
    "I will be when I pay for this night's lodging."
    "Thet's on me. I'll stake you to some money. You'll want to set in the game with us?"
    "Any strings on a loan?"
    "Hardly thet. With me, it's come easy, go easy."
    "Thanks then. I'll take fifty dollars. That'll do me until I can get located."
    "Wal, friend, the string is thet I want to locate you."

    Chapter 2
    "Bend over here, so I can get your ear," went on Hays, confidentially, and when Wall had complied he said: "I run true to form today when I held up thet Mormon. But it was a blunder, considerin' the iron I have in the fire. If he wasn't a Mormon, I'd feel uncomfortable about thet. . . . Now listen. Lately I've got in with a rancher over here in the Henry Mountains. He's an Englishman with more money than sense. Fact is, he's rich an' crazy as a bedbug. It's beautiful country an' he got stuck on it.
    Bought ten thousand head of cattle an' a lot of hosses. There's some tough cowboy outfits over there, an' more'n one real rustler outfit. Wal, this Englishman--his name is Herrick--got the idee of hirin' all the hands available, cow-punchers, range-riders, gun- toters, an' plain out-an'-out bad men. An' to throw this select outfit ag'in' the whole country. What do you think of the idee?"
    "Original, to say the least. But not practical, unless he can reform bad men," replied Wall, much interested.
    "Wal, exactly. But I'm not concerned with the practicability of it. Herrick took a shine to me, made me what he calls his superintendent, an' sent me off all over, lookin' for hard- shootin', hard-ridin' men. An' thet's how you happened to run into me. I call it good luck for us both."
    "You've taken