J. Frank Davis

“ Campbell,” said Detective Graney unctuously, “is a guy from Texas that used to be a Roughrider. And him and me is going to do some more roughridin’—with a certain know-it-all gent to be rode—along about court time in the mornin’.”
“Moore was right at that, in a way,” murmured the ex-ranger as the patrolman left to ring for the patrol. “‘Look for the woman;’ that’s as good a rule in some killin’s in Texas as it is here in the East. And I followed his hunch and did the same thing. But down in my part of the country we use words some different. When we say women, we usually don’t mean ladies.” ”

“ Miller’s right hand went back to the weapon high on his hip with what might have seemed fair speed to the eyes of some Easterner unversed in the technique of pistol drawing, but a fatal slowness by the standards of the Southwest. Captain Carmichael covered the distance between them in two flying steps and his own pistol leaped into his hand while he was taking the first of them; he easily could have killed the Argentinian where he stood but he did not find it necessary. Miller had not got the new gun clear of his waistband when the Ranger came within arm’s reach. ”

“ A shadow fell upon them and Pres Campbell, ex-Texas Ranger, quietly wheeled his horse. His voice was level but authoritative.
“If you boys got any quarreling to do, wait till after the show. You know the rule about rowdyism. Well, I’ll enforce it against both of you if I have to. What’s it all about? If you’re kicking about your bulldogging time, Marling, you’re plumb wrong. I fined you five seconds because there wa’n’t no daylight showing between you and the steer at the dead line, but that didn’t change the result; even if you hadn’t lost that five seconds Bratton still beat you.” ”

“ The biggest thing in a man’s life and I’ve had to be dumb for twenty-two years! Twenty-two years without a word from home—although after a while it stopped seeming like home. Buenos Aires is my home now. People down there don’t think badly of me at all. If it wasn’t for the girl—and yet, until I got into Mexico there, so close to Texas, I never really intended to look her up in person. ”

“ But as a man gets older——”
Suddenly the grim stoicism with which he had been speaking departed. His face distorted and his voice broke, as he implored:
“Carmichael! Can’t I have that gun and settle it the easiest way? Is it necessary she should ever know? She’s going to marry that young Locke, and all day I’ve been checking him up, and he’s a regular man, just the kind I’d want her to marry, but if he and she knew that her father—— She’s never dreamed that I was alive. Is there any need for her to know? ”

“ In the detective room at police headquarters, while Taylor remained discreetly silent, Pres Campbell met a character new in his experience—the plain-clothes man promoted from pounding a beat, who had never been outside a big city, never wanted to be, and oozed contempt for every one and everything that was not metropolitan.
“You bozos with big hats,” he remarked heavily, “think you can get away with murder. Nothing to it, mister; nothing to it. This Bratton guy did it and we’ve got him. You and your gang of cowboys can’t come into this town and pull your rough stuff.” ”

“ Out on the street again, Campbell said to Graney:
“What sort of place is that Monaco Cabaret?”
“Bum!” the detective answered. “But prosperous. The gang that hangs out there has plenty money, these days.”
“Bootleggers among ’em, maybe?”
“And hijackers and a few other things. And sports that like to travel with ’em.”
“Just between ourselves, did you ever hear of a young lady named Pearl Florrine?” ”

“ That man Bristow, of Sarran’s gang, had a good reputation compared to most of the rest of them. He hadn’t ever killed a man—at least it never had been proved that he had—and maybe Gater and Sarran had that in their minds when they set him to get me. I suppose the scheme had been all worked out for some time, waiting for the cards to fall just right. Anyway, he and I met one evening along about dusk near the post office—and there wasn’t one single man in sight that didn’t belong body and soul to Gater. And Bristow said fighting words to me and went after his pistol and I beat him to it. ”

“ West comes East—and proves that its own methods for crime detection work as well in the big city as they do in the God’s country. That star rodeo performer, but as bad an egg as ever moonlit a bronc, the “Oklahoma Kid,” wrestled his steer to a quick fall, and the voice of “Foghorn” McNamara, holding his horse quiet to face the crowded grand stand at Speedway Park, came booming across the field to where Millie Wayne, in her cowgirl clothes, stood waiting to participate in the next event on the program.
“That bulldogger was Jack Marling, the Oklahoma Kid. Time, seventeen seconds flat. ”

“ Carmichael succeeded in concealing his surprise that Miller knew him.
“Go to it,” he said. He, too, took a seat, his pistol resting on his knee. “You won’t be fool enough to start anything more,” he said, moving it significantly. “If you do, you won’t get away with it. All right. Suppose you tell me——”
Miller interrupted him. He was staring at his own wrists, as though puzzled.
“I thought there’d be handcuffs on them,” he said. “Much obliged. I’d hate to go out through that lobby handcuffed.”
“What did you go to pull a gun on me for, that a way?” the Ranger demanded. ”

“ Me, I went in at the front—tonight and the other two times I’ve been there. I went there the first time with Pearl—I mean Miss Florrine——”
“Got real well acquainted for three days, didn’t you, son? Quite a few folks must have noticed it, one place and another. And it never occurred to you, I s’pose, that when Millie said she wa’n’t going to supper with you, it might be because she thought prob’ly you’d rather be out again with the new girl. I don’t know that, but I don’t guess it’s a bad shot in the dark.
“Girls are fussy that a way about dividing their time with new ladies,” he went on. ”

“ These new folks I met are right nice folks, but I didn’t really—— I don’t s’pose anything can be done to square it, but sitting here I’ve been thinking that our own kind o’ folks is our own kind o’ folks. If Millie could sort o’ forgive——”
“Curly,” said the older man, “Millie’s daddy and me were friends as long as he lived—such good friends that she’s been callin’ me ‘uncle’ ever since she was old enough to talk. I aim, when she gets married, to do anythin’ an old-timer like me can do to see she gets a fairish sort of husband. ”

“ Captain Carmichael frowned as he studied the situation that had suddenly developed. Certain facts which aligned themselves in his mind seemed to have a bearing on one another and on the very assignment from the governor on which he was engaged.
Texas, as the next-door neighbor to Mexico, has many business relationships with the southern republic and Texans believe they understand Mexico and Mexicans better than do the residents of most other States. ”

“ Some city lady, is it?”
“She’s sat in the same place in the grand stand every day, wearing a red hat——”
“Me, I don’t notice ladies’ hats much,” Pres said. “Maybe, if you could give me a better description——”
“I was introduced to her, at the same time Curly was. Miss Florrine, her name is. She’s—she’s very pretty and well-dressed and city-acting.”
“H’mph!” grunted the ex-ranger. “And boys don’t have sense enough to know when they’re well off. Any more,” he conceded, “then they did when I was one. Who is she?” ”

“ Captain Carmichael considered briefly.
“If he’s come here on some errand with Locke for that Tarbox outfit—and those questions look like he wants to know when and where to find him at bed hours,” he said, “he isn’t likely to lose any time. And with a gun hung on him——”
The captain crossed to where his own holstered pistol had been laid on the bed while he made his toilet, strapped it on, and reached for his coat.
“I reckon the time has come to ask Mister Miller what his game is,” he said. “Him toting a pistol that-a-way without any permit to do so gives me a good excuse. ”

“ She’s a fine-looking young woman, Carmichael. Just to think that until day before yesterday I didn’t even know whether she had lived or died! A man doesn’t have much affection for a little bit of a baby, less than a year old—especially if its mother died when it came. ”

“ Because I’m sure Curly Bratton ha’n’t got any gun except a .45. All the pistols in our outfit are that caliber. And there ain’t any way of proving it without that piece of lead, because bullets don’t always act just the same in all cases—but I’d gamble the best hawse I’ve got that this hole wasn’t made by any Colt. ”

“ The man’s papers were in perfect order and he bore in his big British bag or on his person nothing dutiable and no firearms. His name was Andrew Miller, and he was a citizen of Argentina, of English birth. This was his first visit to the United States. He had had business in Mexico and wished to see a portion of the big northern republic. He expected to return to South America within a month or two.
The train rolled on to San Antonio, where the scar-lipped Argentinian left it. ”

“ Time, eleven and two fifths seconds. The world’s record is seven and two fifths seconds. Curly Bratton wins today’s bulldogging. Jack Marling, second. Billy Toms, third. The next event is the cowgirls’ trick-riding contest. The ladies taking part——”
Millie’s teeth shut tightly over her lower lip. Curly had not looked at her at all. He had waved his hand toward the stand—toward one spot in the stand, the same spot he had waved to yesterday afternoon, the spot where a brilliant toque hat made a splash of violent red. And under the crimson splash a feminine hand waved back. ”

“ Presently, nodding as though in thanks for some information, he left the desk and went to a chair, not the one he had vacated with its full view of the entrance, but another in a far corner. Seated in it he paid no more attention to the throng but fell into deep thought. ”

“ Her folks are kinda old-fashioned and don’t like her to go round to dance halls where it’s lively——”
“Lots of old folks are that a way. Did you say they were father and mother both?”
“I didn’t say. I don’t know as I ever heard her mention. What difference does it make? I didn’t find her tonight.”
“That’s so; so you didn’t. Well, I’m sorry to leave you here, son, but I’ve got to. We’ll be doing all we can.”
“A habeas corpus and reasonable bail and——” Curly began, but Campbell shook his head.
“This ain’t Texas. Up in this country they don’t fix reasonable bail for homicide. But keep smilin’. ”

“ The captain had it safely out of reach and had satisfied himself that Miller bore no other arms when the man opened his eyes, groaned, touched his head gently with his fingers and made a dizzy effort to sit up.
“Steady, hombre!” Carmichael warned him gruffly. “I’ve got your gun. Take it easy. When your brain gets cleared a little we’ll talk.” ”

“ And this”—he touched the long ragged scar on his upper lip—“you never saw that. Nobody in Texas did. Nobody in Texas ever saw me without a mustache; I had it all raised when I came here. Not a living soul in the State knew I had this mark under it except my wife—and she never saw it. I got it falling off a shed onto a harrow back there in Kentucky when I wasn’t twelve years old. Just as soon as I was able to raise hair over it, I hid it. Then I raised whiskers, too. I was twenty when I came to Texas, you know.”
“So you thought I didn’t recognize you there on the train?” ”

“ The village children of ages from five to a dozen—a swarm of them—were not with the men whose backs rested against the station walls or the women in their doorways or about the fires, but were strung along the track for the length of the train, trotting beside the Pullmans as they slowed. ”

“ Pres replied. “But time and good fruits of repentance has given her confidence in many a hawse that was a right bad bronc when she first forked him. So long, son! Don’t go to frettin’ too much—about anything.” ”

“ Campbell, but one of your men’s been killed, downtown, and the police have just come and got another one for doing it.”
“What’s that?” Millie heard Campbell’s feet hit the floor, his room door open. “Who’s killed? How?”
“Marling. Curly Bratton did it, it seems. Shot him. The cops came out and found the pistol in his room. Recently fired. ”

“ Miller did not groan again, although his head must have ached terribly. Once he had gained full control of his faculties he did not even wince, and Carmichael noted this with approval; he admired men who could take what punishment came to them without whining. ”

“ Fighting the political ambitions and desires of the combination of which the Tarbox outfit was a member was another combination. Wallace Locke was a member of it. Notwithstanding his youth, because of connections with the governor and other strong men of Texas, he was powerful. ”