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Updated: May 17, 2025
Then he told her of the warning he had received from Leviatt, and when he saw her lips curl at the mention of the Two Diamond range boss's name he smiled. "I thought the same thing that you are thinking, Mary," he said. "And I didn't want to shoot Ferguson. But as things have turned out I wouldn't have been much wrong to have done it." She raised her head from the coverlet.
Then came Ferguson's voice again, dry, filled with a quiet earnestness: "I ain't goin' to hurt you you're still tenderfoot with a gun. I just wanted to show these boys that you're a false alarm. I reckon they know that now." Leviatt sneered. There was a movement behind Ferguson. Tucson's gun was half way out of its holster. And then arose Rope's voice as his weapon came out and menaced Tucson.
Pretty good sort though." She was pleased over Ben's brief estimate of the stray-man. It vindicated her judgment. Besides, it showed that her brother was not averse to friendship with him. Leviatt she saw with her brother often, and occasionally he came to the cabin. His attitude toward her was one of frank admiration, but he had received no encouragement.
A curse writhed through Leviatt's lips. "Why, you damned " "Don't!" warned Ferguson. He coolly stepped toward Leviatt, holding by the thongs the leather tobacco pouch from which he had obtained the tobacco to make his cigarette. When he had approached close to the range boss he held the pouch up before his eyes.
He rode on again, his lips straightening into serious lines. He mentally catalogued the names he had heard since coming to the Two Diamond. None answered for the initials "D. L." It was evident that the pouch could belong to no one but Dave Leviatt. In that case what had Leviatt been doing on the ridge? Why, he had been watching the rustler, of course. In that case the man must be known to him.
Leviatt said shootin' at a can would be a good way to find a man who could take Radford's measure in case it was necessary," he added quickly. Ferguson's face was a mask of immobility. "Where's Leviatt now?" he questioned. "Up the Ute with the outfit." "How far up?" "Thirty miles." Ferguson's eyelashes flickered. "Has Leviatt been here lately?" he questioned. "Not since the day before yesterday."
It was the end of things for them, and for him the end of his hopes. When he had drawn his guns he had thought of merely wounding Leviatt, intending to allow the men of the outfit to apply to him the penalty that all convicted cattle thieves must suffer. But before that he had hoped to induce Leviatt to throw some light upon the attempted murder of Ben Radford.
Other men in the group, besides Leviatt and Tucson, had seen the stray-man coming, and as he came nearer, the talk died and a sudden silence fell. Ferguson came to a point within ten feet of the group of men, who were ranged along the wall of the bunkhouse. Stafford had come up rapidly, and he now stood near a corner of the bunkhouse in an attitude of intense attention.
"Well, now, Mustard," he said, "I wasn't reckonin' on takin' my spite out on you. You don't expect I thought you was Leviatt." And he patted the flank again. He rode down the long slope of the rise and struck the level, traveling at a slow lope through a shallow washout. The ground was broken and rocky here and the snake-like cactus caught at his stirrup leathers.
Rope Jones had gone with the wagon, and therefore Ferguson was deprived of the companionship of a man who had unexpectedly taken a stand with him in his clash with Leviatt and for whom he had conceived a great liking. With the wagon had gone Leviatt also.
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