The Coyote Read online

  CHAPTER III

  THE LAW

  Night had descended when Rathburn came in sight of the little town onthe edge of the foothills. He rode slowly toward it, staring moodilyat the flickering lights between interlaced branches which waved andweaved in the wind blowing down from the mountains. In all thedistance he had traveled from the lonely ranch where he had met thegirl and the boy he had encountered no one. He surmised that the trailto the desert hills to eastward was not a popular one.

  As he neared the town he saw that it consisted of one main street withbuildings clustered about it, and numerous shacks scattered in the leeof the hills. There were trees close to the eastern end of the streetwhich he was approaching, and when he reached these trees hedismounted, led his horse into the shadows, and tied it.

  He walked down the main street, which was illuminated only by thestars and the yellow gleams of light from windows on either side.

  There were several resorts, and one in particular seemed the mostpopular. Rathburn glanced in through the door of this place as hepassed and saw that it consisted of a bar and numerous tables, wheregames were in progress. He did not stop but continued on his way.

  Few people were on the street; none of them took any especial noticeof him. Several doors below the largest resort which he had socasually investigated, he came to a small, one-story, white-paintedbuilding, which, save for the door and window in its front, lookedlike a huge box.

  Across the glass in the door was lettered in gold:

  JUDSON BROWN Justice of the Peace Notary Public

  A dim light shone within, and, peering through the window, Rathburnsaw that this light came from a lamp in a second room behind thelittle front office.

  He looked up and down the street and saw but two pedestrians, bothwalking up the other side of the thoroughfare with their back to him.He tried the door stealthily, found it unlocked, and stepped quicklyinside. Three strides took him to the door of the inside room.

  A man looked up from a small table where he was engaged in writing. Hewas a stout man, large of countenance, with small black eyes underbushy brows which were black, although his hair was gray. He scowledheavily at the intruder who failed to remove his hat, and who stood,with feet well apart, in the doorway, a whimsical smile playing on hislips.

  In a sweeping glance Rathburn saw that the room contained a bed,wardrobe closet, several chairs, and other articles of furniture anddecoration of a bedroom and living room. His eyes flashed back to theburly man sitting at the table, pen poised, coolly surveying him witha frown.

  "Your name Jud Brown?" he asked, stepping inside the room and to theside of the door toward the table where he could not be seen from thestreet.

  "I'm _Judge_ Brown," replied the large man testily. "You should haveknocked before you came in, but now you're here, state your businessas quickly as possible."

  "That's a businesslike tone that I admire to hear, Brown," drawledRathburn. "You'll excuse my not callin' you judge. I'm afraid when youfind out who I am you'd think I was kiddin' you!"

  He smiled amiably while the justice glared angrily.

  "You're drunk!" flared Brown. "The best thing you can do is get out ofhere--quick."

  Rathburn looked pained. "First you ask me to state my business an' nowyou tell me to get out," he complained. "You might as well know that Inever touch likker," he added convincingly.

  Brown was studying him intently with a puzzled look on his face."Well," he said finally, with a show of irritation, "what do youwant?"

  "I want you to tell me the why an' the wherefores of this document,"said Rathburn sternly as he drew a folded piece of paper from a pocketand spread it out on the table before the astonished gaze of thejustice.

  "That's one of a number I saw tacked on trees on the east trail out ofhere," continued Rathburn, frowning. "What's it all about, Brown?"

  The pen in the hand of the justice suddenly began to waver as the handtrembled. Then Brown dropped it, squared away his chair, and lookedgrimly at his nocturnal visitor. For some moments his gaze wasconcentrated on Rathburn's face. Then he slowly read the posteroffering a reward of five hundred dollars for The Coyote. He wet hislips with his tongue.

  "So I was right!" he exclaimed. "You _were_ headed in this direction.I'm assuming that you're The Coyote!"

  "And you're assuming what's the bare, untarnished truth," saidRathburn. "I'm The Coyote you've offered five hundred for, an' who'llbring another five hundred in several counties in Arizona, not tomention five thousand that the State of Arizona has tossed into thepot. I suppose I'm worth at least ten thousand as I stand here."

  "That would be cheap for a man of your reputation!" said the justicebravely. "We don't want you across the line in California, Coyote. Wewon't put up with your depredations, and if you murder one of ourcitizens you'll hang!"

  Rathburn's chilling laugh hung upon the justice's words. "You'reside-stepping the point," he said suddenly in crisp tones that werelike the crack of a whiplash. "You're anticipating events, Jud. That'smy complaint--that's my business here with you." He brought his rightpalm down upon the table smartly.

  "An' now that I'm here, Jud, you're sure goin' to listen!"

  "Don't threaten me!" cried the justice. "There are a hundred menwithin call and they'd make short work of you if they got their handson you. Darn your ornery hide, I'm holding the winning cards in thisgame!" he concluded excitedly.

  Rathburn was smiling at him; and it was not his natural smile. It gavethe justice pause as he looked up into those narrowed gray eyes, shotwith a steel-blue light. Rathburn's right hand and wrist moved withincredible swiftness, and Brown found himself staring into the blackbore of a six-gun. Still he saw the eyes above the weapon. His faceblanched.

  "There are six winning cards in my right hand," Rathburn said slowly."You can start shoutin' for those hundred men you mentioned just assoon as you want. Brown, it's you an' your kind that's made medesperate--dangerous, like you said in that printed notice. I won'tfool with you or any other man on earth!"

  "What--what did you come here for?" stammered the justice.

  "To get away from--from back there in that cactus-bordered country ofblack, lava hills where I was born an' where I belong!" said Rathburngrimly, sliding into a chair on the opposite side of the table fromBrown.

  "Listen to me! I was driven out. I've ridden for a week with the ideaof gettin' where I wasn't known an' where I could maybe get a freshstart, and here I find a reward notice staring me in the face from thetop of the first hill I cross after leaving Arizona. I've never beenhere before; I've done nothing to molest you or your town; but you sicthe pack on me first off an' hand-running, without any reason, exceptthat you've _heard_ things about me, I reckon."

  Brown nodded his head as Rathburn finished. A measure of composurereturned to him. His eyes gleamed with cunning as he remembered thathis front door was unlocked and some one might by chance come in. Buthe again felt troubled as he conjectured what might happen in suchevent.

  "You cannot blame me," he said to Rathburn. "You've robbed, and you'rea killer----"

  "That's what you _hear_?" thundered Rathburn. "I admit severalrobberies--holdups of crooked, gambling joints like you've got in thistown, an' petty-larceny bankers who robbed poor stockmen with sanctionof the law. I've killed one man who had it coming to him. But I'veshouldered the blame for every killing an' every robbery that's beenstaged in the desert country for the last three years. 'The Coyote didit,' is what they say, an' the crooks an' gunmen that turned the dealgo free. I'm talking to you, Brown, as man to man--a thing I've neverdone with any mouthpiece of the law before. I'm trying to show youhow you an' your kind can make a man an outlaw an' keep him one tillsomebody shoots him down. I'm sore, Brown, because I know that one ofthese days I'm going to get it myself!"

  The justice saw that the man was in deadly earnest. He saw the handresting on the table tighten its grip upon the gun.

  "I
didn't know all these things," he said hastily. "I had to judge bywhat I heard--and read. Why didn't you make all this known to theArizona authorities?"

  Rathburn laughed harshly. "Because I'd be framed clear across theboard," he said jeeringly. "It's the law! It's as much of a crime torob a thieving gambler or a snake of a whisky runner or peddler as itis to rob a home! I've had to rob to live! An' all the while there'sbeen the makings of one of the hardest-lookin' bad men that thisSouthwest country ever saw in me. And, now that I think of it, why thedevil I've held off I don't know!"

  Brown was moved by the sincerity of the man. He saw in Rathburn's eyesthat he was speaking the gospel truth. He saw something else in thoseeyes--the yearning of a homeless, friendless man, stamped with thestigma of outlawry, rebelling against the forces which were againsthim, relentlessly hunting him down.

  "You say you came here to start over?" he asked curiously. "How do Iknow you won't walk right out of this office and turn a trick righthere in this very town?"

  "You don't know it, that's the devil of it!" exclaimed Rathburn. "An'there's no use in my telling you I won't, for you wouldn't take myword for it. You've got me pegged for a gun-fightin' bandit of firstwater an' clear crystal, an' I won't try to wise you up because itwouldn't do any good. Now that you know I'm in this country, you'llblame the first wrong thing that happens on to me. I've got nobusiness here talking to you. I'm wasting my breath. You'll have tofind out from somebody besides me that I was telling you the truth,an' I reckon that coincidence ain't in the pictures. Where's yourhandcuffs?"

  The justice stared at him, startled.

  "Where's your handcuffs?" insisted Rathburn angrily.

  "In the drawer of my desk out in front," replied Brown.

  "Go an' get 'em an' bring 'em here," Rathburn commanded. "I'll keep mydrop on you under cover."

  Brown rose and went to his desk in the front room while Rathburnwatched him in the doorway with his gun held under his coat.

  When the justice returned to the inside room Rathburn moved a chairclose against one of the bedposts. He compelled Brown to sit in thechair, put his hands around between the supports in the back, andabout the bedpost. He handcuffed him in that position.

  Drawing a bandanna handkerchief from a pocket he swiftly gagged thejustice. Then he rummaged about the room until he found a piece ofrope tied about a pack in the bottom of the wardrobe. With this hesecured Brown's ankles to the front legs of the chair.

  "There!" he said, standing back to view his handiwork. "You're prettywell trussed up. I ain't trusting you any more than you'd trust me,an' I don't figure on you raising any hue an' cry before I can getalong on my way."

  The eyes of the justice were rolling as he struggled in vain tospeak.

  "Never mind," said Rathburn. "I reckon I know what you want to say.Under the circumstances, the same being so much on my side, you'd sayyou believed me an' all that. But I took a chance in coming here totell you what I did an' I never aim to take more'n one chance in aday. So long."