Free The Desperate Deputy of Cougar Hill by Louis Trimble Page A

brought him the pain, the humiliation, the defeat.
    A narrow trail led Larabee from the wagonroad into a box canyon. Here the Dondees had their shack and their mine. Fresh dirt scattered on a pile of weed grown tailings testified that they were actually working. Larabee was pleased and surprised to see this. He was more surprised to hear sounds of a pick and shovel coming from the large hole that was the entrance to the old mine the Dondees had taken over.
    He whistled shrilly and in a few moments Jupe Dondee appeared. He tossed down the shovel he was carrying and hurried down the path to where Larabee waited.
    “This is Sunday,” Larabee said. “You don’t have to overdo the business of being a miner.”
    Jupe Dondee grinned behind his straggle of beard. “Hell,” he said, “look at this!” He pulled a poke from his pocket and opened it. He shook glittering flakes into the palm of his hand. “Look!”
    Larabee looked. He took the poke and upended it, letting a glittering stream fall to the ground. “What the hell you think you’re doing? That’s a week’s hard work!” Jupe cried angrily.
    “These are iron yprites,” Larabee said disgustedly. “Fool’s gold. Your week’s work is worth less than that poke. Now stop wasting my time and call Hale down here. We’ve got business to take care of.”
    Jupe Dondee stared from the mineral in his palm to the pile on the ground. He lifted his head and carefully studied Larabee’s expression. His suspicion was obvious, but after a moment it faded reluctantly away.
    He emptied his palm and brushed his hands. “I guess you ought to know,” he said grudgingly. Turning aside, he shouted for his brother.
    Hale Dondee came out of the hole and down the short, steep trail. He was carrying a good-sized sack and showing his broken teeth in a wide grin. “I guess you out-foxed yourself, Larabee, when you said we could keep anything we made mining. Look at this!” He slapped the sack with his free hand.
    Jupe Dondee grabbed the sack from his brother and upended it, spilling the glittering pyrites onto the pile. “Larabee says this is fool’s gold,” he grunted. “It ain’t worth as much as the dirt it’s laying on.”
    Hale swore loudly. He stomped around, accusing Larabee of trying to cheat them. But after a time, he calmed down and shrugged philosophically.
    “There’ll be plenty of the real stuff come Saturday night,” he said finally. He laughed. “How’s the lawman today? You think he’ll bother us when we make our hit?”
    “Cameron won’t bother us,” Larabee assured him. He frowned. “But you gave him more of a beating than I wanted. If I hadn’t stopped you when I did, he’d be in that hospital for a month. As it is, we’ll be lucky if he’s up and around by Saturday.”
    Jupe stared at him in open amazement. “Lucky! You gone crazy? What do you want the law up and around for?”
    Larabee turned on him savagely. “I know what I’m doing. I told you before that I want him alive and on his feet when we make the hit.”
    Jupe rubbed his knuckles. “That still don’t make no sense to me. Cameron’s a wildcat. The next time I tangle with him, I want an army behind me and a gun in my hand.”
    Larabee started for the small shack. “Make me some coffee and I’ll try to get the idea through your head.”
    Inside, the cabin’s one room was fairly neat. At least, Larabee thought, it didn’t stink like Rafe Arker’s place. He dropped onto one of the two chairs and stretched his booted feet in front of him. “Here’s the plan,” he said. “Get it clear and don’t try to change it. The army will be here at the end of the week. They’ll look over the stock Beggs and his crews are bringing down from the hills and buy what they want. From what I hear, they’re hungry for horses and mules and the ranchers have some good stock for them. That means there’ll be even more money than I thought at first. Stedman, that banker, estimated between eighty