THE CHINA. MAIL FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, JULY 22, 19838
"SIX-GUN JUSTICE”
(Continued : from Page 11
Again El Toro laughed. He. walked away in good humour. This Manuel had wits as well as wit, but he would take getting used to; Sanchez was more ob vlous.
Manuel pushed the girl inside. his hut and slammed the door shut. He pushed a bar across it, and lit á smoky lamp.
Then he walked across to the girl and removed the bandage. '
Indignation stormed in her
eyes,
He placed a warning finger to his lips.
"Not loud, Barbara. There may be ears outside these walls."
"But, Buck, why did you do it? If you are found out El Toro will torture you
31
And don't you think I haven't been tortured already, wondering what was happening to you? 1. had to find out, to take a chance. Besides, there's a big debt owing. Your father and brother, and the boys. The herds are up here in the Sierras. We've got to get them down--"
"But, Buck, this is crazy talk." "Not from El Toro's new lieu- tenant, Barbara."
Buck Hawking” - teeth_flashed. The cheering crowds in a packed rodeo had never sent his heart beating as that look of surprised gratitude on the girl's face,
"El Toro's' lieutenant, Buck!”
"Sure!"
He told her how he had tinted his face and made his way alone into the Sierra Indios, intent on finding. El Toro's hide-out and offering himself as a recruit.
..
"And you weren't found out, Buck?"
Thanks to my dark hair and good Spanish no. El Toro's no fool. If my hair had been dyed it would have shown when he blasted that bit from my scalp. But you'd better hear the rest. Barbara.".
He told her the remainder of the story. A blush crept up from her throat when he explained why she was in his hut,
I didn't get a chance to let you know I was here, Barbara, but I was around
in case, you really wanted me."
She pressed his hand. "Buck, I don't know how to to -"
She stopped in confusion, and Buck "Hawkins, foreman of the Bar Y until El Toro had laid it. waste, became very business-like,
I've got it all doped out," ho explained. "To-night I'll start a brush-fire, stampede the herds, They'll take a trail across & coulee above this hide-out, and sweep through an arroyo to the right the east. Follow?"
She nodded.
"Right. I'll have a bronch saddled, with a rifle and food, behind this hut: When the herd has gone through, high-tail it pronto down the arroyo and head in the general direction of Pine Notch. Get it?"!
Yes,
you ???
Buck, but what about
"Don't worry, I've got another score to settle.'
"El Toro?"
"It'll mean twenty thousand bucks, and that'll put the old Bar Y back on its feet, won't
They sat in the amoky light from the lamp, waiting for dark- ness to fall.
When the first stars came out over the northern peaks of the mountain chain Buck slipped out of the hut and out of the camp. Nearly an hour passed, before look-out saw the first fierce ton- gues of fire flickering over, the mountain sage. Warning shots: rang out, and Mexicans sprang t their horses as the bellowing of a large herd of frightened and stampeding steers swept through. the night. El Toro rushed from hut to hut shrieking for Manuel,
Above the black shapes flicker- ed, the rising tongues of fire. Buck had done his work well, and a westerly wind was carrying the fire round in ́ ́ a half-circle that would cut off the bandits' retreat south over the mountains. into Mexico.
Spurring his willing cayuse, he rode after the stampeded herd into the arroyo, but there was no sign of Barbara, and he was as- sailed by a sudden misgiving.. Had something happened? If so
what?
Dashing aside all caution, he rowelled his bronch's flanks, and swept into the broad square cleared of stones and boulders where the camp was situated, to be met by a broken volley from
the men with El Toro. In the weird light of the leaping brush- fire he saw El Toro on a black horse holding Barbara Yelland across his saddle-horn. The Mexi- cans were bunching themselves for a dash across the stream, to outflank the rushing tide of cattle.
Buck could not risk a shot at that distance, but as he galloped his horse forward he uncoiled his riata, slipped it over one horn of his high-peaked Mexican saddle. Then, grasping a six-gun in each hand, he swept forward, blazing and blasting to right and left. Shadows reared and fell. Men cried in mortal agony and horses shrilled.
A bullet found Buck's shoul- der, and he felt the blood" pour- ing down his arm. But in those wild tense moments nothing could- stop his headlong, mad rush. He brust through the group of Mexi- cans like a plough through soft soil, throwing them to each side. His right hand reached out, the -riata snaked up and down, and fell across the shoulders of El Toro and the girl. Buck's bronch, used to range-work among the Bar Y herds, took the strain like a well-trained cow-pony, the noose ran tight, and before the Mexicans could grasp what had happened Buck was plunging for- ward towards the arroyo again,, dragging El Toro and Barbara Yelland, tied together, with him. El Toro, knowing that if he lost his saddle-seat he would be drag- ged to death, rode as he had. never ridden before, hampered by the weight of the girl across his saddle-horns, his arms lashed' to his sides....
It was a terrible ride for Bar- bara Yelland, but she called to Buck to keep up the pace, and Buck, hating to do it, rowelled his bronch, and pushed down the mountain trail through the sage- brush and scrub. Only when he was well beyond the head of the stampeded herd did he rein in
He approached the lashed Mexican, covering him with a gun.
“El Toro, you're back in Texas, and you're gonna get, hombre, the sort of justice you've asked for six-gun justice. But you're hightailin' it into town with me.
GOING OR COMING?—Two fair bathers at Repulse Bay last Sun-
day favour the cameraman.
("Mail" photo).
"I may be difficult
I've reached an
age when it pays to dis-
criminate.. When one's younger it's rather differ ent; but at my time of life I'd rather do without than
put up with second best.
You've heard me insist
on White HorseWhisky,
Well, when I can obtain a whisky with such a delicate bouquet, one
as soft and smooth
as a fine liqueur, why
should L'accepr ́anything else? So do you blame me if I always insist on White Horse ? ”
WHITE HORSE
WHISKY
You can tell it blindfold!
Sole Agents for South Ching A
Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd.