the Rustlers Of West Fork (1951) by Louis - Hopalong 03 L'amour Page A

with his eyes.
    "When your dad wakes up, tell him I want to see him. I know Hopalong will want to see him, too, but he'd better be prepared for it. We don't," he said carefully, his eyes cold upon hers, "want him needlessly excited."
    When she was gone, Hopalong started in on the food that had been placed before him, glad of the chance not to talk while he gave time to thinking this out. In the past few minutes he had acquired a new respect for Sparr.
    Whatever the man was planning here, he was not to be stampeded into hasty action that he might regret later. Hopalong had not missed the covert warning to Pamela and her father, and he could guess what Sparr might say when he had that brief talk with Dick Jordan before Hopalong entered.
    The situation was in his favor, he knew that. Had Sparr planned to kill him, he would have gambled at once, so obviously there was some reason why he would not be hurried. Too old in the ways of men to be fooled, Hopalong knew that Avery Sparr was not the man to be afraid. He was confident of his own gun skill and had the battles behind him to warrant that confidence. That he had kept his head this morning showed him to be a thinker as well as a man of action. It is not every man who can be faced with such a situation and not give rein to his first impulse. Avery Sparr knew the value of restraint, of calculation.
    Soper was yet an unknown quantity, and of that Hopalong wanted to know more. Above all, he was curious. Why had Soper lied to Sparr? For he had lied. The man had come down the trail at the same time Hopalong had come, yet for two nights he had been somewhere. And he had not mentioned turning off the trail. What was it that lay against or in the north wall of the Elks that interested Soper? Where had he been on those two nights? The man was unreadable. He was pleasant, and he knew how to make conversation, as he was doing now, talking smoothly and easily of range conditions, growing cattle in high altitudes, and the benefit of late rains on mountain grass. There was no false note in the man anywhere. A big, tough, hard-cased man, old in the ways of the West and of crime, a man cunning as a fox and vicious as a lobo wolf, a man who was definitely out for himself and afwhat?
    There was no sign of neglect on the ranch.
    Hopalong had noticed that from the time he crossed the river. The few cattle he had seen looked good, and the stables and corrals were all in good shape. Nothing loose lay around the ranch yard. It gave no evidence that Sparr was planning a quick cleanup and getaway. No, the big gunman planned to stay.
    Hopalong sat back from his meal. "Good grub," he said, smiling a little. "This country seems to favor good cooks. Sim Thatcher has a good one." "Couldn't say," Sparr said. "We aren't exactly neighborly. Been cattle missin', we've lost our share, too, an' some of the small outfits figger we're responsible. Nothin' to it."
    "You say "our"-you mean you're foreman here now?" "No." Sparr put it to him bluntly:
    "Partner."
    "Noticed a lot o' young stuff wearin' a Circle S. Your brand?" "Yeah." Sparr felt irritation grow in him. "My brand."
    "This partnership--any papers on file? Any notice given?" "Should there be?" Sparr shrugged.
    "Plenty of time for that. I'm still in this fairly small. Sort of runnin' the show for Jordan."
    "I see."
    Hopalong reached for the pot then, and filled his coffee cup once more, taking his time. He would have a chance to talk to Jordan, but Sparr would be present.
    They would give him no chance to be alone with the man, and to insist would only be to precipitate trouble.
    If he was correct and the whole ranch was what they wanted, they would be trying to give the thing an appearance of being legitimate. Therefore they would probably wait until he was off the ranch to attempt his death. Their excuse in that could lie with the killing of Barker. They would send Mowry against him, and someone else, probably the same double tactics that killed Char- ley