“‘Red. Red. Red,’” snarled the big man, who plainly was feeling the effects of the beating Ralph had given him. “I’m sick of your crawling and fawning. Why weren’t you at Window Rock tonight when the whole town ganged up on me?”
“When Andy quit today, you told me to stay here and take care of the beam, Red,” Pepper answered patiently. “I’m sorry, Red.”
“From now on, call me Mister Cavanaugh,” his boss raged.
“Yes,MisterCavanaugh ... sir.” Pepper’s voice still was soft but Sandy could see his fists clench.
“And stop that confounded record. Highbrow music gives me the willies. Always has! Call Elbow Rock and see if the message has come through.”
“Yes, sir. At once, sir.” The door slammed and the voices became a mumble.
Sandy tried to still the beating of his heart as he whined canine terror at this outburst. The “other” dogs whimpered uncertainly. Finally they crept back to their sleeping places. Evidently their master didn’t approve of their warning. In that case.... Sandy could almost feel them relax as they turned round and round in their nests, trying to find the most comfortable spots for slumber.
Carefully he edged forward until he was lying among them. Then he turned the switch that fed power from a series of flashlight batteries into the transistors mounted on the “ear,” adjusted the headphones, and listened.
“Calling Elbow Rock. Calling Elbow Rock. Over,” he heard Pepper say.
There was no answer.
“Calling Elbow Rock. Window Rock calling Elbow Rock. Over,” Pepper repeated.
Still no answer.
“Come in, Elbow Rock!” Cavanaugh’s voice barked through the phones. “Why don’t you answer, Elbow Rock?”
“I read you, Window Rock,” a faraway voice answered at last. “Something’s coming in from Gallup. Stand by.”
“This is it!” Cavanaugh’s yell almost split Sandy’s ears. “Get out of the way, can’t you, Pepper? I’ll take this. Go to bed or something. It makes me sick just to look at your silly face.... All right, Elbow Rock. I’m ready when you are.”
The minutes slid by while only the mutter of static filled Sandy’s earphones. Beside him, he felt the Dobermans flinch and shiver in their restless sleep. The cold night wind seeped under the bottom of the trailer and set his teeth to chattering uncontrollably. Now he knew what the phrase “a dog’s life” really meant.
“Elbow Rock calling Window Rock.” The phones clattered into life. “Over.”
“I read you loud and clear, Elbow Rock,” Cavanaugh’s voice replied. “What is the message from Gallup?”
“You want it coded, like it was relayed from Washington, or straight?” the distant voice inquired.
“Straight, you fool. Nobody listens in on a light beam.”
“You never know,” said the man at Elbow Rock. “Well, here’s your message, as well as I can dope it out. It’s from your ‘keyhole man,’ Mr. —”
“Never mind his name,” Cavanaugh snapped. “Just give me the message.”
“O.K.! O.K.! Take it easy, will you, boss? Here ’tis: Quote: Have picked up leak from strictly official source. Next month U.S. government starts buying uranium ore from all comers again. Expanding space ship and power reactor program has increased demand for atomic fuels to such an extent that existing mills no longer can supply it—Are you reading me all right, boss?”
“Clear as a bell,” Cavanaugh crooned. “This is wonderful. Go on. Go on.”
“Here’s the rest of it: Quote: Announcement of policy change withheld until middle of next month so it won’t upset bids to be opened tomorrow at Window Rock and similar places. Happy hunting. Unquote. Over.”
“Whoopee!” Cavanaugh yelled the word into the microphone so loudly that Sandy’s earphones rattled. “Boy! This came through just in time. Otherwise, I’d have had to cancel all of those high bids I made today or go bankrupt tomorrow. Now I’ll be in clover with most of the good leases sewed up at rock-bottom prices before the boom starts. Thank you, Elbow Rock. There’s a bonus for you in this. Over and out.”
“Roger!” came the delighted answer.
“Did you hear all of that, Pepper?” Cavanaugh asked.
“Was I supposed to, Mister Cavanaugh ... sir?” Pepper answered off-mike. His voice was bitter.
“Oh, don’t be sore, boy.” Cavanaugh roared with laughter. “If you’d taken the beating I took tonight from Hall’s gang of toughs, you’d have been grouchy, too. And no more of that ‘Mister Cavanaugh’ stuff. Just call me ‘Red.’ We’re pals.”
“Are we?”
“Sure we are. We’ll both get rich out of this. And even better, we’ll do the Indian Agency and the whole Navajo nation in the eye. If they accept my bids—and they’ll have to, because they’re higher than those of anyone else—we’ll get those leases for a half, or even a third, of what’d they’d sell for next month when the policy change is announced.”
In his hiding place under the trailer floor, Sandy was boiling with fury. Momentarily he had forgotten all about being a dog. The Dobermans sensed the difference instantly. Perhaps they caught a subtle change in his body odor. His anger was making him perspire despite the cold.
The lead dog barked sharply and scrambled to its feet. The others followed suit. Sandy tried to croon reassurance to them, but failed. They were becoming thoroughly aroused and making an awful racket. He had to get out of there—and quickly—before Cavanaugh came to investigate.
He scrambled from under the trailer and sprinted for the jeep. The dogs broke into full cry now, and streaked after him. This was a human! And an enemy human too! They were out to make him pay dearly for his deceit.
The trailer door banged open as the bedlam rose. Moments later, a spotlight picked up the running boy and the dogs that leaped and snapped at his bare heels.
“Stop, thief!” Cavanaugh yelled. “Stop or I’ll fire!”
At that moment, Sandy tripped over a branch, flung up his arms as he fell headlong. The rifle bullet meant for his head merely creased him instead, from shoulder to elbow.
He scrambled behind a large rock, managed to get to his feet, and faced the gleaming eyes of the oncoming dogs. Something that Quiz once had read to him out of a sports magazine flashed through his mind: “If attacked by vicious dogs, hold out some object, such as your hat, at waist height. They will hesitate while they decide whether to leap over it or under it, thus giving you an advantage.”
His left arm was numb from the shock of the bullet, but he managed to use it to rip the dog skin from around his waist and hold it forward. As the dogs whined and tried to make up their minds as to the best method of attack, he tore the board on which the “ear” was mounted from his chest with his good hand. Thank heaven, one end of the plank had been whittled down into a sort of handle, for easier carrying.
Then he charged, swinging the improvised club like a demon.
Luckily, his first blow landed squarely on the snout of a leaping dog!
Sparks flashed. Pieces of equipment flew in all directions. The animal howled and rolled on the ground, holding its nose with both paws. Its companions backed away.
Sandy followed up his advantage. He struck again and again. The dogs fled, howling, to a safe distance.
To the right of him, the boy now heard the pounding of human feet. Cavanaugh had abandoned a frontal attack for the moment and was sprinting to cut him off from the road leading back to the village.
“Don’t kill him, Red,” Pepper was shouting. “It would be murder.”
“Nobody’s going to kill anybody—yet,” Cavanaugh yelled as he ran. “But we can’t let him get away, after what he may have heard. Rig another floodlight. Then come over here and help me.”
Forgetful of the thorns that tore his skin and the rocks that cut his knees, Sandy wriggled, Indian fashion, into a darker spot. In his bare feet, he had no chance of reaching the road ahead of Cavanaugh, or even of staying out of his way. Keeping a wary eye on the dogs that still followed, whining with uncertainty, he ripped Maisie’s hide into pieces and bound them under his feet. There. That would be better!
He made a feint for the road now—and ducked as another bullet whispered overhead and smacked into a nearby tree.
He was in a real spot! If he tried to cross the bare top of the natural bridge that arched over the hole in Window Rock, he would make an ideal target, silhouetted against the moon. (Thank all the little Navajo gods and demons that Cavanaugh’s right eye must be swollen shut from the beating Ralph had given him. He was in no condition to shoot accurately even if he disregarded Pepper’s warning.)
Sandy decided that his best strategy lay in hiding among the mesquite and sagebrush thickets under the pine trees that covered the side of the rock nearest the village. Kitty must have heard the racket. Perhaps she would understand what was happening and head for town to get help.
A whoop of delight, followed by several quick shots, made his heart sink.
“That jeep will never move again,” he heard Cavanaugh yell. The next words made him feel much better. “Come on out of the woods, driver, and give yourself up. I’ve got you cut off from the road.”
Sandy dithered in his hiding place. He was feeling decidedly queer all of a sudden. The fact that his left hand felt wet and slippery brought him up short. He was bleeding steadily from that wound in his shoulder. He tried dabbing sand on the crease, but it didn’t stop the flow. Another fifteen or twenty minutes and he would be so weak, that he would fall easy prey to his pursuers.
“Bring flashlights out here,” Cavanaugh was shouting to Pepper now. “We’ll beat the woods for the driver first.”
Sandy bit his cold lips. Time was running out. He had to act, and act fast, before he keeled over from loss of blood. Should he throw himself on Pepper’s mercy? But, even granted that his old rival wouldn’t betray him, what good would that do? Cavanaugh had the gun!
The sight of the blond boy walking reluctantly into the woods through the floodlight glare, with a heavy flashlight in either hand, gave him an idea.
Or was it Quiz who told him what to do? He shook his head dazedly. Almost, he could hear Quiz saying: “Where would Professor Moriarty least expect to find you, Sherlock Holmes?”
“Elementary, my dear Dr. Watson,” he whispered in reply. “In the trailer, of course.”
Gripping the breadboard in both hands, he made a last weak lunge at the circling Dobermans. They fled, yelping, from this blood-spattered terror.
Then he crawled frantically toward the open trailer door.
Safe inside, and with the door locked behind him, he hung onto a table and stared about him with eyes that were beginning to go out of focus.
He should find a cloth with which to bind up his wound, he knew. But he had no time.
The glittering light-beam mechanism caught his attention. That was the key to the whole situation! It must project a million candle-power, at least, to be seen at Elbow Rock. If he could turn it on Window Rock it would light up the village as bright as day.
There must be a wheel or something by which the light could be moved.... There it was! On the control board to the right!
He twisted the little chrome wheel frantically, watching through a window as he did so. At first his aim was wild. Then, every street and building in Window Rock leaped into view, as though outlined by a lightning stroke.
There! That would tell them something was wrong up here.
He was sleepy and tired after all that effort. So sleepy! He sank into a chair in front of the beam console and pillowed his head on his bloody arms.
But something nagged him. What he had done wasn’t enough. Kitty was out there alone in the woods. Cavanaugh might come pounding on the trailer door at any moment. He had to tell them ... tell them ... tell them what? Why, where he was, and what was happening, naturally!
He jerked himself upright and started tearing at the mass of wiring that ran to the light beam modulator. Finally he got down to the heavy insulated lead-in wires ... tore them loose.
The beam illuminating the village died away.
He slapped the leads together. The light blinked on.
“SOS,” he heliographed in Morse code remembered from Scouting field trips. “SOS. May Day. May Day.”
Surely somebody at Window Rock would know the code. Certainly Ralph did. He repeated the international distress calls again and again.
“SOS. May Day!” he spelled out, his cold fingers making many mistakes. “Sandy Steele and Kitty on the Rock. Cavanaugh trying to kill us. Send help. SOS. May Day! Sandy Steele and Kitty on the Rock. Cavanaugh....”
He fell forward across the console.
The smash of some heavy object against the door brought him back to semi-consciousness.
“Stop that!” Cavanaugh was yelling. “Stop it or I will kill you. Stop it. Stop it!” The man sounded completely insane now.
The door bulged, then broke loose from its hinges under a rain of blows.
Cavanaugh stood in the entrance, his good eye wild and rolling, his rifle pointed. Behind him, Pepper appeared, still holding one of the heavy flashlights.
“An Injun,” Cavanaugh gloated without recognition as he took in Sandy’s dirt-smeared, blood-caked body. “One of Hall’s dirty, stinking Injuns. This will teach you!”
His finger tightened on the trigger.
“Pepper!” Sandy gasped with the last remnant of his strength. “Don’t let him kill me, Pepper!”
He slid to the floor as the gun went off.
Sandy fought his way up from unconsciousness like a diver rising from the bottom of a dark sea. For a long time he lay without moving as he tried to sort out the sounds around him. He was dead, of course, he reasoned. Nevertheless, some of the voices he seemed to hear sounded familiar.
He opened one eye experimentally, prepared to snap it shut if he didn’t like what he saw. Mrs. Gonzales was bending over him with one of her eternal compresses. So was a man with a goatee who had a stethoscope clipped around his neck.
Sandy opened the other eye and turned his head, which seemed to weigh a ton.
He found that he was in bed and bandaged right up to his chin. Kitty, her pretty face badly scratched, was watching him too. So were John Hall and ... yes, it was Pepper!
“But Ioughtto be dead,” Sandy whispered in great surprise. “What happened?”
“I conked Cavanaugh with his own flashlight,” Pepper said with pride. “Knocked him out. His shot went wild.”
“Thanks a lot, Pepper. Shake.” Sandy tried to hold out his hand but found he couldn’t quite make it.
“Easy,” said the doctor.
“Am I badly hurt?” Sandy managed to say.
“Nothing worse than loss of a lot of blood. I’ve pumped you full of plasma. You’ll be all right in a few days, but you mustn’t exert yourself for a while,” said the doctor as he started packing instruments into his little black bag.
“But I’vegotto know what happened,” Sandy said fretfully. “For Pete’ssake!”
“I called Kitty out of the woods after I hit Cavanaugh,” Pepper explained. “We got you into his car and brought you home as fast as we could.”
“And you’re all right, Kitty?” Sandy persisted.
“Just a few scratches and bruises.” She came forward to prove it and patted his bandaged shoulder.
“And ... and Cavanaugh?”
“The crazy fool is still up there,” Hall spoke up. “Look.” He pointed through the bedroom window.
Sandy worked his head around in that direction. The great hump of the Window Rock was lit up as bright as day.
“Floodlights,” Hall explained as he saw the boy’s surprise. “They’re set up permanently to illuminate the Rock on Frontier Day and for other tourist events.”
“But....”
“The Navajo police turned them on. The whole force, as well as most of the Indians who attended the joint Council meeting, are up there trying to flush Cavanaugh out of hiding.”
“Ralph too?” Sandy’s eyes were shining.
“Yes.”
“Did the Council meeting come to anything, Mr.—John?”
“It broke up before any formal agreement was signed when we got your message, but....”
“Gee, I’m sorry about that.”
“Forget it. I only had the chance to say a few words to Ralph while they were organizing the posse, but he told me the tribes understand each other’s position now. It’s just a matter of ironing out details before they agree to put those boundary-line leases up for bids.”
“That’ll be great for you,” Sandy said, “but I sure wish I hadn’t had to....”
“Forget it, I said.” Hall patted his shoulder too. (Why did everybody have to pat him as if he were a dog? Sandy wondered crossly. Then he burst out laughing, although to do so hurt his face and chest. Why, he almostwasa dog, wasn’t he?)
“Young man, you’re getting much too excited,” the doctor warned as he approached the bed, hypodermic needle in hand. “I’d better put you to sleep for a while.”
Sandy pushed him away.
“There’s something else,” he cried. “John, did Pepper tell you about the message Cavanaugh received from Washington?”
“I told him there had been a message, and what Cavanaugh said to Elbow Rock,” Pepper spoke up. “But I couldn’t hear the message itself. Cavanaugh was wearing the earphones.”
“Better forget all this for a while and go to sleep, Sandy,” said Hall. His face was gaunt with worry.
“No! You must listen now.”
Sandy wanted desperately to go to sleep, but he wouldn’t let himself give in. Slowly, forcing each word out of his mouth as though it weighed several pounds, he repeated the message to Cavanaugh as well as he could remember it.
“Good Lord!” Hall gasped. “This changes the whole picture. I must call Ken!”
He rushed to the telephone while Sandy’s eyelids closed in spite of his efforts to keep them open. He justhadto have a few minutes’ sleep.
White’s arrival at the cottage jerked him awake again. The Agent was wearing heavy boots and carried a pair of binoculars slung over his pudgy shoulder.
“What’s all this, John?” he demanded. “I was just leaving from the Rock when you called. I sent off an inquiry to the Department of Interior immediately, of course. Then this message came in from San Francisco. That’s what took me so long getting here. The message is for you, Sandy.”
“Read it to me, please,” the boy said. “I’m too weak to lift a finger.”
White ripped open the yellow envelope, got out his glasses, and read:
FINALLY GOT HERE STOP NEWSPAPER FILES SHOW THERE WAS CAVANAUGH ON STATE TEAM IN 1930 WHO MADE ALL-AMERICAN STOP BUT HE WAS CALLED BRICK NOT RED STOP ALL SPORTS PAGE STORIES ON BIG GAME SAY HE MADE FOUR TOUCHDOWNS REPEAT FOUR TOUCHDOWNS AGAINST CALIFORNIA STOP QUIZ TAYLOR
FINALLY GOT HERE STOP NEWSPAPER FILES SHOW THERE WAS CAVANAUGH ON STATE TEAM IN 1930 WHO MADE ALL-AMERICAN STOP BUT HE WAS CALLED BRICK NOT RED STOP ALL SPORTS PAGE STORIES ON BIG GAME SAY HE MADE FOUR TOUCHDOWNS REPEAT FOUR TOUCHDOWNS AGAINST CALIFORNIA STOP QUIZ TAYLOR
“Aw shucks,” Pepper said disgustedly. “That proves our Cavanaugh isn’t an impostor after all.”
“Wait a minute! Wait a minute!” Sandy dragged himself up on one elbow despite Mrs. Gonzales’ efforts to make him lie still. “It proves no such thing!”
“But if he did make those three touchdowns he was always bragging about....” Pepper started to protest.
“Fourtouchdowns, the telegram says,” Sandy panted. “Now look, all of you. Maybe a real football player mightadda touchdown to his record if he thought no one would catch him at it. But who wouldsubtracta touchdown? Nobody. That’s who!
“Cavanaugh is a phony, I tell you. Whoever he really is, he wanted to impress people, and keep them from asking too many personal questions when he went to Valley View and started building his lab with the money he had stolen from Mr. Gonzales. He remembered that there was another Cavanaugh on the State team, so he took his identity. But the game had been played so many years ago that he got the details wrong, see? I’ll bet that, if we start digging into his past, we’ll find lots of other queer things.”
“We’ll need to do a lot of digging, too, to make any charges stick against him after we catch him,” White said grimly.
“What do you mean?” Hall exploded. “He’s guilty of attempted homicide, defrauding the Indians, disturbing the peace, and I don’t know what all else.”
“Oh, he’s guilty all right,” the Agent agreed, “but could you prove that to a jury, particularly out here where so many people still think that the only good Indian is a dead Indian?”
“Oh, you’re being an old woman, Ken,” the oilman snapped.
“Maybe so, John. Maybe so. But I’ve been in this business a long time. If Cavanaugh or whoever he is hadn’t lost his head, he would have come right down here and given himself up. Then his lawyers could have claimed that he was only defending his property from a prowler. No. No. Shut up and listen to me. People are awful touchy about property rights out here. Remember what they used to do to cattle rustlers—still do, for that matter, on occasion.
“And now about this message that Sandy heard: Cavanaugh’s lawyers would say ‘Prove it!’ And what real proof have we got? We’d be putting up the word of a minor whodidprowl—I’m not blaming you, Sandy. You did the only thing possible and your idea of using the light beam to call for help was a stroke of pure genius—but, as I say, the word of a minor against the word of an established businessman who has a lot of friends in these parts.”
“Then you don’t think....” Hall was really shocked.
“Ithinkwe have a chance of making our charges stick with the help of the information Quiz has dug up, but I’m not even sure of that. Frankly, if the government doesn’t act faster than it usually does, I’m afraid all of Cavanaugh’s uranium lease bids may have to be accepted tomorrow. He can claim, you see, that he put them in before the time that he is evenaccusedof having received his illegal tip.”
“Wow!” Sandy stared at his employer with round eyes. “Well anyway,” he added, “the change in policy will give you a chance to develop your own uranium strike on the San Juan.”
“Fat lot of good that will do me if Cavanaugh ties us up with a libel and defamation suit,” Hall grunted. “Well, Ken, it looks as if we’re all in trouble unless ... what was that?”
They all whirled toward the window.
Far up near the top of Window Rock, pinpoints of light were flashing. The clean, thin sound of rifle shots came down to them through the still desert air.
White snatched at his binoculars and trained them on the mountain. Long moments passed as he fiddled with the focus.
“The idiot!” he almost whispered at last. “The poor scared, hysterical fool. He’s making a run for it across the top of the natural bridge!”
Hall snapped off the room light. Somehow, Sandy managed, with Kitty’s help, to sit up where he could get a view of the bare slab of rock where he had almost been tempted to do what Cavanaugh was now trying.
They all held their breath in the darkness as they strained their eyes.
There he was! A tiny black shadow, bent nearly double as he raced madly through the floodlight glare.
“He’s going to make it. He’s going to make it!” Pepper shouted, his old loyalty to his boss coming to the fore. “Run, Red.Run!”
The fleeing man stumbled. He threw up his arms and reeled to the edge of the narrow rock bridge. Almost, he recovered his balance....
Then he fell, turning over and over slowly, for a thousand miles, it seemed.
Kitty and her mother screamed together.
“It’s better so,” White murmured at last as he put his glasses back in their case. “A clean death. Cavanaugh made that fourth touchdown after all.”
SANDY STEELE ADVENTURES1. BLACK TREASURESandy Steele and Quiz spend an action-filled summer in the oil fields of the Southwest. In their search for oil and uranium, they unmask a dangerous masquerader.2. DANGER AT MORMON CROSSINGOn a hunting trip in the Lost River section of Idaho, Sandy and Mike ride the rapids, bag a mountain lion, and stumble onto the answer to a hundred-year-old mystery.3. STORMY VOYAGESandy and Jerry James ship as deck hands on one of the “long boats” of the Great Lakes. They are plunged into a series of adventures and find themselves involved in a treacherous plot.4. FIRE AT RED LAKESandy and his friends pitch in to fight a forest fire in Minnesota. Only they and Sandy’s uncle know that there is an unexploded A-bomb in the area to add to the danger.5. SECRET MISSION TO ALASKAA pleasant Christmas trip turns into a startling adventure. Sandy and Jerry participate in a perilous dog-sled race, encounter a wounded bear, and are taken as hostages by a ruthless enemy.6. TROUBLED WATERSWhen Sandy and Jerry mistakenly sail off in a stranger’s sloop instead of their own, they land in a sea of trouble. Their attempts to outmaneuver a desperate crew are intertwined with fascinating sailing lore.PUBLISHED BY SIMON AND SCHUSTER
1. BLACK TREASURE
Sandy Steele and Quiz spend an action-filled summer in the oil fields of the Southwest. In their search for oil and uranium, they unmask a dangerous masquerader.
2. DANGER AT MORMON CROSSING
On a hunting trip in the Lost River section of Idaho, Sandy and Mike ride the rapids, bag a mountain lion, and stumble onto the answer to a hundred-year-old mystery.
3. STORMY VOYAGE
Sandy and Jerry James ship as deck hands on one of the “long boats” of the Great Lakes. They are plunged into a series of adventures and find themselves involved in a treacherous plot.
4. FIRE AT RED LAKE
Sandy and his friends pitch in to fight a forest fire in Minnesota. Only they and Sandy’s uncle know that there is an unexploded A-bomb in the area to add to the danger.
5. SECRET MISSION TO ALASKA
A pleasant Christmas trip turns into a startling adventure. Sandy and Jerry participate in a perilous dog-sled race, encounter a wounded bear, and are taken as hostages by a ruthless enemy.
6. TROUBLED WATERS
When Sandy and Jerry mistakenly sail off in a stranger’s sloop instead of their own, they land in a sea of trouble. Their attempts to outmaneuver a desperate crew are intertwined with fascinating sailing lore.
PUBLISHED BY SIMON AND SCHUSTER