Fifteen Western Tales, March 1954 — page 90: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

_-* > 2 ‘ - z * ts nl ‘ - w “ea a — ) to, Ee eee Oi SS Ce - ? ee 90 Si FIFTEEN WESTERN TALES © Beaver Smith. “That’s dirt cheap, consid- erin,’ Piloting a wagon train is worth ten times that... .” - Dan counted over two hundred dollars. Beaver Smith put it in an already stuffed buckskin pouch. which he carried inside his shirt by a heavy thong looped around his unwashed neck. _ “Ts your ma ailin’?” he asked, his small bloodshot eyes peering from under -over- hanging brows at Dan’s mother. who was dgzing, her back to the wagon wheel, her. toil-worn hands clutching the little bundle of baby clothes. ‘““She’s wore out,” said Dan shortly. “You got your money. ‘Good night, I'll be gittin’ my“sleep.”’ Beaver Smith uncoiled his crossed legs and lit the foul-smelling Indian trade pipe. He filled the air with smoke—a mixtute of tobacco and kinni-kinnik which the Sioux smoke. “You belong to the wagon train now, sonny. I’m your captain and you take my orders or draw out of the train, forfeitin’ your ante. Saddle your horse and go on guard at midnight, standin’ your regular two-hour watch.” Dan said nothing. The firelight showed the leering grin on the buckskin man’s bearded face, and the glint in his greenish bloodshot eyes. Eyes that reminded Dan of the Harbisons. Beaver Smith left as silently as he had come. Dan had a feeling of defeat, a premoni- tion of trouble and danger that was to come, and he knew that he had made a crafty, dangerous enemy in Beaver Smith. Beaver Smith, who was to be their only guide across the great unknown wilderness to the north. | De WYETH stood third guard that night, riding around the cavvy of work horses and saddle stock. Letting them graze, throwing back those that were trying to quit the remuda and hit the trail from their home range. It was a hard bunch of horses to hold and it took constant riding by Dan and the three other men on guard to keep the cavvy from scattering too far. ; J “We need some bells,” Dan said to one of the other men on guard. “If we put bells on the leaders that are bound to drift and lead the others, we could keep track of ’em in the dark. There ain’t a bell amongst ’em. And there ain’t any twenty-five head out of | this cavvy that come from the same place. Till they get used to the trail and grazin’ together of a night, they’re goin’ to scatter like dust in a norther. We need about ten bells in this cavvy.” “So I told Beaver Smith. And he cussed me out. Said there’d be no bells to attract Injuns on the trail and guide ’em to the re- muda. He said we’d hold these horses with- out bells and spend what time -we had to huntin’ what we spilled. Bells attract Injuns, Wyeth.” He chuckled. “T don’t savvy Injuns like Beaver Smith does,” replied Dan, “but from what I’ve heard from old-timers, and from what com- mon sense tells me, almost any Injun.could locate a cavvy of two hundred head of horses without bein’ guided by bells.” ‘““Meanin’ Beaver don’t savvy his busi- ness?”’ said another rider who had joined Dan and the other men on guard. He was a young cowboy and Dan looked at him hard, wondering if he could have been one of the three who had stolen his wallet. ““Meanin’,” said Dan hotly, “that I wasn’t talkin’ to you. And that if you’re pickin’ a quarrel you kin have it—when we git off guard. Is that what you’re askin’ for?” “Lordy, ain’t you a fightin’ cock? I ain’t talkin’ fight. But I kin tell you this much. You can’t win every fight like you did that first ’un. There’s better men than you in this outfit. And you won’t be long finding it out.” He rode off, whistling. “Be careful how-you talk around this out- fit, Wyeth,” said the cowboy who had been talking to Dan. He was an older man who had a family and two wagons. “Beaver Smith Eomicbooks: co