The Lawless West Read Free

letter has explained away much that was vague and perplexing in your other letters.
    It has inspired me with hope and anticipation. I shall not take time now to express my thanks, but hasten to get ready to go West. I shall leave tomorrowand arrive at Beacon on June 19 at 4:30 p.m. You see I have studied the timetable.
    Yours very truly, Jane Stacey
    Profound silence followed Tex’s perusal of the letter. The cowboys were struck dumb. But suddenly Nevada exploded.
    “My Gawd, fellers, today’s the Nineteenth!”
    “Wal, Springer needs a schoolmarm at the ranch,” finally spoke up the practical Andy. “There’s half a dozen kids growin’ up without any schoolin’, not to talk about other ranches. I heard the boss say this hisself.”
    “Who the hell did it?” demanded Tex in a rage with himself and his accomplices.
    “What’s the sense in hollerin’ aboot thet now?” returned Nevada. “It’s done. She’s comin’. She’ll be on the Limited. Reckon us’re got five hours. It ain’t enough. What’ll we do? ”
    “I can get awful drunk in thet time,” contributed Panhandle nonchalantly.
    “Ahuh! An’ leave it all to us,” retorted Tex scornfully. “But we got to stand pat on this heah deal. Don’t you know this is Saturday an’ thet Springer will be in town?”
    “Aw, Lord! We’re all goin’ to get fired,” declared Panhandle. “Serves us right for listenin’ to you, Tex. Us can all gamble this trick hatched in your head.”
    “Not my haid more’n yours or anybody,” returned Tex hotly.
    “Say, you locoed cowpunchers,” interposed Nevada. “What’ll we do?”
    “Shore is bad,” sighed Andy. “What’ll we do?”
    “We’ll have to tell Springer.”
    “But, Tex, the boss’d never believe us about not followin’ the letters up. He’d fire the whole outfit.”
    “But he’ll have to be told somethin’,” returned Panhandle stoutly.
    “Shore he will,” went on Tex. “I’ve an idea. It’s too late now to turn this poor schoolmarm back. An’ somebody’ll have to meet her. Somebody’s got to borrow a buckboard an’ drive her out to the ranch.”
    “Excuse me!” replied Andy. And Panhandle and Nevada echoed him. “I’ll ride over on my hoss, an’ see you-all meet the lady,” Andy added.
    Tex had lost his scowl, but he did not look as if he favorably regarded Andy’s idea. “Hang it all!” he burst out hotly. “Can’t some of you gents look at it from her side of the fence? Nice fix for any woman, I say. Somebody ought to get it good for this mess. If I ever find out…”
    “Go on with your grand idea,” interposed Nevada.
    “You-all come with me. I’ll get a buckboard. I’ll meet the lady an’ do the talkin’. I’ll let her down easy. An’ if I cain’t head her back, we’ll fetch her out to the ranch an’ then leave it up to Springer. Only we won’t tell her or him or anybody who’s the real Frank Owens.”
    “Tex, that ain’t so plumb bad,” declared Andy admiringly.
    “What I want to know is who’s goin’ go do the talkin’ to the boss?” queried Panhandle. “It mightn’t be so hard to explain now. But after drivin’ up to the ranch with a woman! You-all know Springer’s shy. Young an’ rich, like he is, an’ a bachelor…he’s been fussed over so he’s plumb afraid of girls. An’ here you’re fetchin’ a middle-aged schoolmarmwho’s romantic an’ mushy! My Gawd, I say send her home on the next train.”
    “Pan, you’re wise on hosses an’ cattle, but you don’t know human nature, an’ you’re daid wrong about the boss,” rejoined Tex. “We’re in a bad fix, I’ll admit. But I lean more to fetchin’ the lady up than sendin’ her back. Somebody down Beacon way would get wise. Mebbe the schoolmarm might talk. She’d shore have cause. An’ suppose Springer hears about it…that some of us or all of us played a low-down trick on a woman. He’d be madder at that than if we fetched her up. Likely he’ll try to make