Bug Eye Sings
The small group of riders in that clearing in Thunder Canyon sat silent on ponies that pawed the ground restlessly. The old woman who stood before them, gun in hand, whistled shrilly. Out of the cabin bounded a dog, a huge mastiff.
“Kind of thinkin’ things over now, ain’t ye?” the woman cackled. “You fellers jest keep yer hands on the pommels of yer saddles—no lower. What’s the idee, scarin’ peaceful folks outen their sleep?”
“Well, ma’am,” Gus drawled, “course we didn’t know you was restin’. But it seems to me like we didn’t have no band playin’ when we rode up. An’ if it’s all the same to you, keep an easy finger on that trigger. She might be loaded, an’ accidents will happen.”
“You bet she’s loaded! Heavy buckshot, too! Don’t make no mistake about that! What you-all want?”
“Nothing, of you,” Roy spoke up loudly. “We didn’t even know you were here. We were riding up the canyon, and just happened on your place.”
“Ye did, hey?” The woman considered this, but did not lower the rifle. “Don’t sound likely. There’s not many folks ride by here nowadays. What’s yer business?”
“Sellin’ seed catalogs,” Nick answered.
“Seed catalogs? Ain’t never heard mention of ’em. But let me tell you—this here canyon ain’t healthy fer strangers, especially them that carry guns in saddle-holsters. If I was you, I’d turn right around and ride the other way. The scenery is fine at the other end.”
“We’re not looking at scenery,” Teddy said shortly. “And we’re anxious to get on. So if you’ll just depress that cannon of yours, we’ll be on our way.”
“In a powerful hurry, ain’t ye? Sol—” this to the dog—“jest you do a little investigatin’.”
To the surprise of the boys, the dog walked forward, stiff legged, and sniffed loudly at the ponies and their riders. The horses watched him with suspicious eyes, but made no attempt to bolt. The inspection over, the dog returned to his mistress and casually flopped down at her feet. Then, and not till then, did the rifle butt rest upon the ground. The woman leaned on the barrel, her eyes glittering strangely.
“Lucky fer ye my dawg gives ye a clean bill,” she said, with a little laugh. “Sol, here, is my outpost, an’ nothin’ goes by here that he don’t give the once over—not nothin’!” She spat energetically. “Now, if you-all have a mind to, ye can ride on. But stay clear of the cabin. Sol don’t like strangers.”
Bug Eye cast a quick look at Teddy.
“Maybe we ain’t in such a hurry as we was,” he stated carelessly. “Kind of hot, ridin’.” He dismounted slowly, and gave the reins of his mount to Gus to hold. “I guess you won’t mind if I go around back an’ help myself to a little water outen the pump, ma’am?”
“Hold up!”
The rifle barrel menaced the figure on foot. Bug Eye started in simulated surprise. “You’re goin’ to stay right where you air,” the woman said viciously. “Don’t you come snoopin’ around me! Sol, watch him!” The dog trotted forward, teeth bared, growling menacingly. “Puncher, if you want to stay whole, don’t move! My dawg ain’t had a workout in two weeks, an’ he sure craves action!”
Bug Eye looked down at the animal, thrust out his hand experimentally, and then quickly withdrew it.
“I ain’t exactly aimin’ to take on no dog,” he muttered. “I guess you don’t like visitors, ma’am, from the looks of things. Well, I stay thirsty, I can see that.” Keeping an eye on the dog, he remounted. “You ain’t never heard of the book of etiquette, I reckon. Ought to get it, ma’am. Do you a lot of good. It says in there to always treat a guest with the utmost consideration.”
While he was talking, Bug Eye glanced rapidly toward the cabin. He gave an almost imperceptible jerk to his head, and the others gradually worked their horses a bit nearer the hut and in a wider circle. “You must be right lonely here, all alone. Got a radio? You ought to get one. Heard a new song on the radio only last night. Goes something like this:” He threw back his head, and raised his voice almost to a shout:
“Come out o’ the kitchen, Mary darlin’,
Come out o’ the kitchen, Mary Ann.
Come out—”
“Stop that yellin’!” the woman cried fiercely. “Stop it, I tell ye! If you don’t—” She raised the gun, her face twisted into a snarl of rage.
“I’m stoppin’,” Bug Eye said quickly. “I thought you might like to hear it. No need to get nasty. An’ that gun makes me nervous. Snakes, you sure are touchy, ma’am! Objectin’ to a little singin’!”
Once more his eyes roved in the direction of the cabin. The interior was dark and the windows gave no indication of what was within. Bug Eye waved his hand expressively, so that it would be visible to any one who might be watching.
“With all this canyon to fool around in, you oughtn’t to be so touchy over a song,” the puncher went on.
“Well, I am!” the woman snapped. “I don’t like noise—especially that kind. I think you-all mentioned somethin’ about ridin’ on, a ways back. If I was you, I’d do jest that. Soon be dark, an’ it ain’t nice to be alone in the canyon at night,” and the woman snickered.
“No, I reckon not,” Gus drawled. He winked at Teddy. “Is there any place we could stop if we didn’t make the end by night?”
“Don’t know.” The woman backed into the doorway and glanced swiftly behind her. Then she faced the riders again. “Good-bye. Don’t come no closer as you go along. My finger ain’t as steady as it once was, an’ this gun might go off.”
Roy whispered to the others:
“Come on, let’s be going. We’re wasting time here. She’d just as soon pepper us as not. I’d like to come by here later, when she isn’t so lively.”
Teddy chirped to Flash. Slowly the five riders filed past the cabin. Their last vision of the woman was as she stood in the doorway, her rifle held in the crook of her arm, her lips compressed tightly. As they turned their backs to her, each felt a prickly sensation run up his spine, as if those black eyes were boring into him.
When they rounded a bend, out of sight and hearing of the cabin, Roy called a halt.
“Well,” he said, laughing shortly. “That’s that! What a friendly customer she was! What the mischief do you suppose she was afraid of? I wonder—” His face flushed, as an idea came to him suddenly. “Do you suppose—”
“I was supposin’ that all along,” Bug Eye answered dryly. “The girls! It sure looked like a likely place to hide ’em. But they’re not there—not now, anyways. I made sure of that. Unless they was tied up tight an’ couldn’t move,” he added, his face serious.
“I kind of thought you had an idea behind that crazy song of yours,” Teddy remarked. “And when you waved, too. But I couldn’t see a thing through those windows. I’m afraid there’s not much to it, Bug Eye. If I thought there was a possibility of Belle being hidden in there, I’d rush it, woman or no woman! But what’s the use? We’d only get into trouble and maybe some one would have his head blown off. That was a powerful gun she had there. Besides, if the girls were there, there’d be men about to prevent any rescue or escape. What do you think about it, Roy?”
“I’m willing to admit I didn’t get it at all,” his brother answered. “But now you speak of it, there’s nothing more likely than that the girls would be taken to some such place as that. Then with that old woman and all—you remember what Ike Natick said about the woman? There she was, as big as life, and then some. But I reckon it was another woman. That was a clever idea of yours, that song, Bug Eye. It proved one thing to me—that the girls are not there now, whether they will be later or not. Even if they were bound, they would have made some noise when they heard us. We came up too suddenly to allow that gunwoman any time to gag them. But it looks suspicious! As soon as we come into her yard, she’s out with her rifle and tells us to make ourselves scarce. What for? She must have had some reason!”
Teddy shook his head, and Nick said:
“She’s too many for me. But there’s something in the wind besides the smell of fryin’ onions, or I’m a ring-tailed dodo-bird. That hag’ll bear watchin’. It ain’t natural for a woman to be as suspicious as she was without havin’ something on her mind, an’ I’d give a lot to know what it is. I’ll bet if we knew, we wouldn’t have so far to go to find Belle Ada and the others! But—” He shrugged his shoulders expressively. “You can’t go over an’ threaten to shoot her unless she tells all she knows. It ain’t bein’ done this season.”
“Nope, boys, we got to ride on to the caves. Maybe when we get there we can discover somethin’ to go by. This Ike Natick—he’s with our outfit, you know—strikes me as a level-headed cow puncher. Besides that, there ain’t no ribbons tied on him, he’s all man. When he says a thing, I listens. An’ he said he’s got a hunch the rustlers headed for Sholo Caves. That’s enough fer me. What do ya say, Roy—do we go?”
“We do, Bug Eye. Dad might be waiting for us when we get near Gravestone Falls. I hope so, anyway. Hit it up, boys, it’s getting dark.”
Once more the riders, single file, made their way up the canyon. The sun threw its slanting rays on the brown stone walls, streaking them with gold. Below them the stream gurgled over the rocks. Back of them, in a small clearing an old woman stood in the doorway of a cabin, leaning on the barrel of a rifle, her eyes fixed toward them in a malevolent glare.