Oliver Strange - Sudden Westerns 07 - Sudden Rides Again(1938) Read Online Free PDF

and sideways, stepping on the balls of his feet in case
retreat became necessary. Sudden watched him edging closer, wondering what the
game was. A cry from Black Sam told him.
                 “Min’ de knife, sah.”
                 So
that was it? The curious crab-like approach had enabled the ruffian to keep his
right hand out of sight, so concealing the six-inch blade gripped in it.
                 The
warning came only just in time, for at the very moment it was uttered, Scar flung himself forward and struck. A swift
snatch and Sudden caught the descending wrist with his left hand, thrusting it
upwards, while his right fist impacted on the other’s chin with the force of a battering-ram.
The knife sang on the boards, the owner’s head swayed on his shoulders, and
another raking right sent him down in an untidy heap. The negro ,
his eyes like saucers, came from behind the bar to survey the battlefield.
                 “Sam,
a little more an’ I’d ‘a’ lost my temper,” the victor confessed.
                 “My
lan’, sah, I done think yo’ kill ‘em all,” Sam said, in an awed tone.
                 “Shucks,
they ain’t hurt—much,” Sudden replied, returning to his belt the guns the
saloon-keeper had brought him. “They’re comin’ round a’ready, but I figure
they’ve had enough. Well, seein’ I made the mess, I s’pose I gotta clear it
up.”
                 The
prostrate forms on the floor were showing signs of life, and the man whose
internal economy had been so rudely assailed had already climbed slowly to an
upright position. He had no more than achieved this when he felt himself seized
by collar and belt, propelled to the door, and hurled down the steps into the
street, the soft sand of which he ploughed with his face, a feat which evoked
ironical cheers from a group of loungers who witnessed it.
                 The
applause brought others, popping out of their holes like rabbits, to learn what
was happening. They arrived in time to see a second form catapulted from the
saloon entrance.
                 “Black
Sam has hired a bouncer, an’ boy, does he know his job?” one of them exclaimed
admiringly.
                 A
third figure thudded into the sand, then a fourth, and when this last scrambled
to his feet and shook a furious fist, he was recognized and the enjoyment of
the onlookers gave way to an expression of unease.
                 “Scar
Roden,” the blacksmith, Naylor, muttered. “That fella can’t know what he’s
takin’ on. This’ll mean trouble for Dugout.”
                 The
puncher had appeared, standing in the doorway, his thumbs hooked in his belt.
The saloon-keeper was hovering fearfully in the background. Sudden had a word
to say:
                 “I’m
stayin’ in this neck o’ the woods a piece an’ I’m givin’ notice that if
anythin’ unpleasant happens to Sam here, I’ll send yu four misfits to hell so
fast yu’ll singe on the way. Now, beat it.”
                 He
watched until they disappeared among the low hills which masked the western
approach to the town, and then turned to his host.”I reckon I’ve lost yu four
customers,” he said, but his grin was anything but repentant.
                 “Yo’
done save me money, sah,” Sam replied. “Dem Imps neber pay nobody.”
                 Men
were heading for the saloon, eager for information, and Sudden slipped away to
his room, leaving the negro to make what explanations
he chose.

  Chapter
IV
                 His
apartment was not luxurious, for it contained only a pallet-bed, a chair, a
bucket of water, soap and towel, but it was spotless. He smiled as he
remembered Frosty’s attempt to mislead him.
                 “An’
me a stranger,” he said reprovingly, though it was the very thing he would have
done