Daredevil Riders

A Call of Duty

Chapter 2.  A call of Duty

Mr. Green call for action on his own part, but he knew well enough that it was best to leave decisions and com mands to the outstanding man of the party, and that man was certainly the famous Birdman. So Bates said noth ing but, like his companions, kept two steady guns turned toward the crowd.

He had never done anything like this before. To face a g**g in this manner was very much like facing a vast, a dangerous, but a witless monster. If it knew its strength, it would be heedless of the small harm that could happen to it and would instantly take revenge. For what would be the death of two or three of its members-to the rest of the crowd?

By a pretense, by a sham, they were holding back the others. And, in that way, they came to the cluster of trees around the bridge at the end of the main street of Jumping Creek. ThereBirdman at last gave the word and, with a rush, they galloped their horses around the curve, and thunder boomed from the planks as they rushed over the bridge.

A storm of bullets followed them. The bullets crackled like hail through the trees, whistled like invisible, incred ible birds through the air. By the thickness with which they flew, the numbers of the crowd could be esti mated, but already there was a rising shoulder of ground which gave the low-stooping fugitives shelter, and now they could sit erect, well down the winding road.

Mr. Green looked back at the saddlebags that jumped at the sides of the led horses. There must be five hundred pounds, or thereabouts, between the pair. And another hundred pounds of the gold had been given to each rider. Say almost eight hundred pounds in all. Eight hundred pounds of gold nuggets and dust!

Well, it was not a very difficult bit of arithmetic to work the thing out. Somewhere around a hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars, at least. Split back one third to Pop Dickerman who had suggested the job and who had fixed the cashier in order to find out when the great est available sum would be in the safe of the bank. That left about a hundred and twenty thousand. And this carved up into forty thousand bucks per man. Forty thousand dollars-and all in gold!

There was an ache in the head and a pull across the eyes of Mr. Green that had come there from facing out the crowd, so long. This ache began to pass away. He wanted to laugh. He saw that Birdman and Henry were already laughing. They were good fellows, thought Bates. Quinn was something of a brute, at times, andBirdman was always something of a wildcat. But in a time of necessity you want a man who knows his job and can do it. This pair knew their work and they could do it. The heart of Bates swelled.

He did not even have to be troubled about the rather dim worry of having robbed poor men. The miners had been paid. There were only the great, million-headed corporations to consider, and to Mr. Green they were not worthy of consideration. He felt, almost, that he had honestly earned forty thousand dollars! Other men had found it and grubbed it. He had earned it by en dangering his life!

As they pulled up the road,Birdman swung into the lead, from the rear, and when they came to a cross trail,Birdman without hesitation took the dimmer way, forcing his horse up steep rocks along the slope of a hill. This seemed a dubious policy to Mr. Green. The point of it, however, was clear. Far behind them could be heard the hoofs of many horses, rolling like the rolling of drums, and it was probable that the blind mob of riders from Jumping Creek would pour heedlessly up the wider road, looking for no sign, heads high to catch a glimpse, around a bend, of the three riders and the five horses that they wanted. Therefore, instead of heading straight on toward the mountain wilderness which would give them sure covering, Birdman intended to dodge the first rush of the pursuit, save the strength of the five horses, and angle off at a new direction, even though the mountains in this quarter were farther away.

In fact, when they got over the head of the hill,Birdman actually brought the horses back to a walk.

Considering the necessity which spurred them all for ward, this seemed to Bates like standing still. He would not complain about it, however. To complain, in a time of need, of what is actually being commanded by the leader, is a foolish thing, as a rule. However, it was all right to ask questions about the past.

"Look here, Birdman," he said. "What happened in there? You started the shooting?" "Aw," saidBirdman, "there was a fool of a red-headed

kid hanging around. Kind of like a chore boy. And after I'd got the g*n on the cashier, the redhead pulls a gat out of a drawer. I let him have it. A funny thing aimed for his head, because I wanted to put him out quick. It's better to put 'em out quick, in a time like that.

Just a wound don't do so much good. They gotta flop and stay down, dead. That sort of discourages the rest of the boys a little. Well, redhead seen the trouble com ing, and while he swings up his g*n, he puts a hand out before him. Imagine trying to ward off a bullet, ch? Anyway, that slug of mine went right through his hand and his wrist.

"The funny thing was that it did seem to turn my bul let a little. It just ripped along the side of his head, and he falls down and starts moaning over his hand. And then he starts screeching. You could 'a' heard him in the street."

"You could 'a' heard him in hell," said Mr. Green sincerely. "He sure raised the hair on my head, and he

raised a crowd, too." "You handled that crowd fine," said Henry.

"Yeah, you done your job," remarked Birdman, who rarely praised others.

"Then you turned loose three more," said Bates.

"That was for the cashier," saidBirdman. "Pop Dicker man, you remember, said for us to cover him up pretty good, if we could manage it. So, since I'd already heard the crowd gathering, I thought that a little more noise wouldn't do any harm, and I turned loose on the cashier. Like I wanted to drop him. I put three bullets all around him in the air, and he curled up on the floor and died

-he was scared to death, pretty near!"Birdman began to laugh, rather guardedly.