Oh, You Tex! | Page 5

"I've been away too long, but now I'm back I mean to bring you
up right. Now I'll leave you to your business."
The eyes of the girl rested for a moment on those of the line-rider as
she nodded good-bye. Jack had never before seen Ramona Wadley, nor
for that matter had he seen her brother Rutherford. Since he had been in
the neighborhood, both of them had been a good deal of the time in
Tennessee at school, and Jack did not come to the ranch-house once in
three months. It was hard to believe that this dainty child was the
daughter of such a battered hulk as Clint Wadley. He was what the
wind and the sun and the tough Southwest had made him. And she--she
was a daughter of the morning.
But Wadley did not release Ramona. "Since you're here you might as
well go through with it," he said. "What do you want?"
"What does a woman always want?" she asked sweetly, and then
answered her own question. "Clothes--and money to buy them--lots of
it. I'm going to town to-morrow, you know."
"H'm!" His grunt was half a chuckle, half a growl. "Do you call

yoreself a woman--a little bit of a trick like you? Why, I could break
you in two."
She drew herself up very straight. "I'll be seventeen, coming grass. And
it's much more likely, sir, that I'll break you--as you'll find out when the
bills come in after I've been to town."
With that she swung on her heel and vanished inside the house.
The proud, fond eyes of the cattleman followed her. It was an easy
guess that she was the apple of his eye.
But when he turned to business again his manner was gruffer than usual.
He was a trifle crisper to balance the effect of his new foreman having
discovered that he was as putty in the hands of this slip of a girl.
"Well, you know where you're at, Roberts. Deliver that herd without
any loss for strays, fat, an' in good condition, an' you won't need to go
back to line-ridin'. Fall down on the job, an' you'll never get another
chance to drive A T O cows."
"That's all I ask, Mr. Wadley," the cowboy answered. "An' much
obliged for the chance."
"Don't thank me. Thank York's busted laig," snapped his chief. "We'll
make the gather for the drive to-morrow an' Friday."
CHAPTER III
TEX TAKES AN INTEREST
Jack Roberts was in two minds whether to stop at the Longhorn saloon.
He needed a cook in his trail outfit, and the most likely employment
agency in Texas during that decade was the barroom of a
gambling-house. Every man out of a job naturally drifted to the only
place of entertainment.
The wandering eye of the foreman decided the matter for him. It fell

upon a horse, and instantly ceased to rove. The cow-pony was tied to a
hitching-rack worn shiny by thousands of reins. On the nose of the
bronco was a splash of white. Stockings of the same color marked its
legs. The left hind hoof was gashed and broken.
The rider communed with himself. "I reckon we'll 'light and take an
interest, Jack. Them that looks for, finds."
He slid from the saddle and rolled a cigarette, after which he made
friends with the sorrel and examined carefully the damaged foot.
"It's a li'l bit of a world after all," he commented. "You never can tell
who you're liable to meet up with." The foreman drew from its
scabbard a revolver and slid it back into place to make sure that it lay
easy in its case. "You can't guess for sure what's likely to happen. I'd a
heap rather be too cautious than have flowers sent me."
He sauntered through the open door into the gambling-house. It was a
large hall, in the front part of which was the saloon. In the back the side
wall to the next building had been ripped out to give more room. There
was a space for dancing, as well as roulette, faro, chuckaluck, and
poker tables. In one corner a raised stand for the musicians had been
built.
The Longhorn was practically deserted. Not even a game of draw was
in progress. The dance-girls were making up for lost sleep, and the
patrons of the place were either at work or still in bed.
Three men were lined up in front of the bar. One was a tall, lank person,
hatchet-faced and sallow. He had a cast in his eye that gave him a
sinister expression. The second was slender and trim, black of hair and
eye and mustache. His clothes were very good and up to date. The one
farthest from the door was a