The Strategy Of Mr Peters
: Hopalong Cassidy's Rustler Round-upHopalong and his companion rode into Muddy Wells at noon, and Red Connors,
who leaned with Buck Peters against the side of Tom Lee's saloon, gasped his
astonishment. Buck looked twice to be sure, and then muttered incredulously:
"What th' heck!" Red repeated the phrase and retreated within the saloon,
while Buck stood his ground, having had much experience with women, inasmuch
as he had narrowly escaped marrying. He thought that
the information possible, and waited for an introduction. It was in vain,
however, for the two rode past without noticing him.
Buck watched them turn the corner and then called for Red to come out, but
that person, fearing an ordeal, made no reply and the foreman went in after
him. The timorous one was corraling bracers at the bar and nearly swallowed
down the wrong channel when Buck placed a heavy hand on his broad shoulder.
"G'way!" remarked Red. "I don't want no introduction, none whatever," he
asserted. "G'way!" he repeated, backing off suspiciously.
"Better wait `til yu are asked," suggested Buck. "Better wait `til yu sees
th' rope afore yu duck." Then he laughed: "Yu bashful fellers make me plumb
disgusted. Why, I've seen yu face a bunch of guns an never turn a hair, an'
here yore all in because yu fear yu'll have to stand around an' hide yore
hands. She won't bite yu. Anyway, from what I saw, Hopalong is due to be her
grub-he never saw me at all, th' chump."
"He shore didn't see me, none," replied Red with distinct relief. "Are they
gone?"
"Shore," answered Buck. "An' if they wasn't they wouldn't see us, not if we
stood in front of them an' yelled. She's a hummer-stands two hands under him
an' is a whole lot prettier than that picture Cowan has got over his bar.
There's nothing th' matter with his eyesight, but he's plumb locoed, all th'
same. He'll go an' get stuck on her an' then she'll hit th' trail for home
an' mamma, an' he won't be worth his feed for a year." Then he paused in
consternation: "Thunder, Red: he's got to shoot to-morrow!"
"Well, suppose he has?" Responded Red. "I don't reckon she'll stampede his
gun-play none.
"Yu don't reckon, eh?" Queried Buck with much irony. "No, an' that's what's
th' matter with yu. Why, do yu expect to see him to-morrow? Yu won't if I
knows him an' I reckon I do. Nope, he'll be follerin' her all around."
"He's got sand to burn," remarked Red in awe. "Wonder how he got to know
her?"
"Yu can gamble she did th' introducing part-he ain't got th' nerve to do it
himself. He saved her life, or she thinks he did, or some romantic nonsense
like that. So yu better go around an' get him away, an' keep him away, too."
"Who, me?" Inquired Red in indignation. "Me go around an' tote him off? I
ain't no wagon: yu go, or send Johnny."
"Johnny would say something real pert an' get knocked into th' middle of
next week for it. He won't do, so I reckon yu better go yoreself," responded
Buck, smiling broadly and moving off.
"Hey, yu! Wait a minute!" cried Red in consternation. Buck paused and Red
groped for an excuse: "Why don't you send Billy?" He blurted in desperation.
The foreman's smile assumed alarming proportions and he slapped his thigh in
joy: "Good boy!" he laughed. "Billy's th' man-good Lord, but won't he give
Cupid cold feet! Rustle around an' send th' pessimistic soul to me."
Red, grinning and happy, rapidly visited door after door, shouted, "Hey,
Billy!" and proceeded to the next one. He was getting pugnacious at his lack
of success when he espied Mr. Billy Williams tacking along the accidental
street as if he owned it. Mr. Williams was executing fancy steps and was
trying to sing many songs at once.
Red stopped and grabbed his bibulous friend as that person veered to
starboard: "Yore a peach of a life-preserver, yu are!" he exclaimed.
Billy balanced himself, swayed back and forth and frowned his displeasure at
this unwarranted action: "I ain't no wife-deserter!" he shouted. "Unrope me
an' give me th' trail! No tenderfoot can ride me! "Then he recognized his
friend and grinned joyously: "Shore I will, but only one. Jus' one more, jus'
one more. Yu see, m'friend, it was all Jimmy's fault. He-"
Red secured a chancery hold and dragged his wailing and remonstrating friend
to Buck, who frowned with displeasure.
"This yere," said Red in belligerent disgust, "is th' dod-blasted hero
what's a-goin' to save Hopalong from a mournful future. What are we a-goin'
to do?"
Buck slipped the Colt's from Billy's holster and yanked the erring one to
his feet: "Fill him full of sweet oil, source him in th' trough, walk him
around for awhile an' see what it does," he ordered.
Two hours later Billy walked up to his foreman and weakly asked what was
wanted. He looked as though he had just been released from a six-months' stay
in a hospital.
"Yu go over to th' hotel an' find Hopalong," said the foreman sternly. "Stay
with him all th' time, for there is a plot on foot to wing him on th' sly. If
yu ain't mighty spry he'll be dead by night."
Having delivered the above instructions and prevarications, Buck throttled
the laugh which threatened to injure him and scowled at Red, who again fled
into the saloon for fear of spoiling it all with revealed mirth.
The convalescent stared in open-mouthed astonishment:
"What's he doin' in th' hotel, an' who's goin' to plug him?" He asked.
"Yu leave that to me," replied Buck, "All yu has to do is to get on th' job
with yore gun," handing the weapon to him, "an' freeze to him like a flea on
a cow. Mebby there'll be a woman in th' game, but that ain't none of yore
funeral-yu do what I said."
"Blast th' women!" exploded Billy, moving off. When he had entered the hotel
Buck went in to Red.
"For Pete's sake!" moaned that person in senseless reiteration. "Th' Lord
help Billy! Holy Mackinaw!" he shouted. "Gimme a drink an' let me tell th'
boys."
The members of the outfit were told of the plot and they gave their
uproarious sanction, all needing bracers to sustain them.
Billy found the clerk swapping lies with the bartender and, procuring the
desired information, climbed the stairs and hunted for room No. 6.
Discovering it, he dispensed with formality, pushed open the door and
entered.
He found his friend engaged in conversation with a pretty young woman, and
on a couch at the far side of the room lay an elderly white-whiskered
gentleman who was reading a magazine. Billy felt like a criminal for a few
seconds and then there came to him the thought that his was a mission of
great import and he braced himself to face any ordeal. "Anyway," he thought,
"th' prettier they are th' more dust they can raise."
"What are yu doing here?" Cried Hopalong in amazement.
"That's all right," averred the protector, confidentially.
"What's all right?"
"Why, everything," replied Billy, feeling uncomfortable.
The elderly man hastily sat up and dropped his magazine when he saw the
armed intruder, his eyes as wide open as his mouth. He felt for his
spectacles, but did not need them, for he could see nothing but the Colt's
which Billy jabbed at him.
"None of that!" snapped Billy. "`Nds up!" he ordered, and the hands Went up
so quick that when they stopped the jerk shook the room. Peering over the
gentleman's leg, Billy saw the spectacles and backed to the wall as he
apologized: "It's shore on me, Stranger-I reckoned yu was contemplatin' some
gun-play."
Hopalong, blazing with wrath, arose and shoved Billy toward the hail, when
Mr. Johnny Nelson, oozing fight and importance, intruded his person into the
zone of action.
"Lord!" ejaculated the newcomer, staring at the vision of female loveliness
which so suddenly greeted him. "Mamma," he added under his breath. Then he
tore off his sombrero: "Come out of this, Billy, yu chump!" he exploded,
backing toward the door, being followed by the protector.
Hopalong slammed the door and turned to his hostess, apologizing for the
disturbance.
"Who are they?" Palpitated Miss Deane.
"What the deuce are they doing up here!" blazed her father. Hopalong
disclaimed any knowledge of them and just then Billy opened the door and
looked in.
"There he is again!" cried Miss Deane, and her father gasped. Hopalong ran
out into the hall and narrowly missed kicking Billy into Kingdom Come as that
person slid down the stairs, surprised and indignant.
Mr. Billy Williams, who sat at the top of the stairs, was feeling hungry and
thirsty when he saw his friend, Mr. Pete Wilson, the slow witted,
approaching.
"Hey, Pete," he called, "come up here an' watch this door while I rustles
some grub. Keep yore eyes open," he cautioned.
As Pete began to feel restless the door opened and a dignified gentleman
with white whiskers came out into the hall and then retreated with great
haste and no dignity. Pete got the drop on the door and waited. Hopalong
yanked it open and kissed the muzzle of the weapon before he could stop, and
Pete grinned.
"Coming to th' fight?" He loudly asked. "It's going to be a shore `nough
sumptious scrap-just th' kind yu allus like. Come on, th' boys are waitin'
for yu."
"Keep quiet!" hissed Hopalong.
"What for?" Asked Pete in surprise. "Didn't yu say yu shore wanted to see
that scrap?"
"Shut yore face an' get scarce, or yu'll go home in cans!"
As Hopalong seated himself once more Red strolled up to the door and
knocked. Hopalong ripped it open and Red, looking as fierce and worried as he
could, asked Hopalong if he was all right. Upon being assured by smoking
adjectives that he was, the caller looked relieved and turned thoughtfully
away.
"Hey, yu! Come here!" called Hopalong.
Red waved his hand and said that he had to meet a man and clattered down the
stairs. Hopalong thought that he, also, had to meet a man and, excusing
himself, hastened after his friend and overtook him in the Street, where he
forced a confession. Returning to his hostess he told her of the whole
outrage, and she was angry at first, but seeing the humorous side of it, she
became convulsed with laughter. Her father re-read his paragraph for the
thirteenth time and then, slamming the magazine on the floor, asked how many
times he was expected to read ten lines before he knew what was in them, and
went down to the bar.
Miss Deane regarded her companion with laughing eyes and then became
suddenly sober as he came toward her.
"Go to your foreman and tell him that you will shoot to-morrow, for I will
see that you do, and I will bring luck to the Bar-20. Be sure to call for me
at one o'clock: I will be ready."
He hesitated, bowed, and slowly departed, making his way to Tom Lee's, where
his entrance hushed the hilarity which had reigned. Striding to where Buck
stood, he placed his hands on his hips and searched the foreman's eyes.
Buck smiled: "Yu ain't mad, are yu?" He asked.
Hopalong relaxed: "No, but blame near it."
Red and the others grabbed him from the rear, and when he had been
"buffaloed" into good humor he threw them from him, laughed and waved his
hand toward the bar:
"Come up, yu sons-of-guns. Yore a cussed nuisance sometimes, but yore a
bully gang all th' same."
More
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