CHAPTER VII.THE DOOMED OUTLAW.
In a cabin of stout logs, with floor and roof of the same solid material, to make escape impossible, narrow apertures in either end for windows, and a door of heavy timber, barred with iron, sat a man under sentence of death.
Before his door, his beat being from corner to corner of the cabin, paced a sentinel on duty.
The cabin stood apart from the regular guard-house, and was so situated that all approaching and leaving it could readily be seen from the soldiers’ barracks which it fronted.
The prisoner was heavily ironed with manacles about his ankles, and they were chained to the floor, though he had length enough to walk to the door and to his cot.
The man sat in an easy chair facing the door, which was partially open, giving him a glimpse of the plains and mountains beyond.
The chair, a cot, table, and some books were all that there was in the room to add to his comfort.
The face of the man, though pale, was not despairing, and upon it rested no look of anxiety, though but too well he knew that there was no help for him; that he was doomed to die upon the gallows.
Dressed in border costume, clean-shaven, and neat in appearance, he looked almost contented with his lot.
The prisoner was the outlaw chief, Silk Lasso Sam, he who held up the coach and killed the driver and a passenger, afterward playing his game so boldly as Austin Marvin, and being received into the fort with every hospitality, until he could kidnap, with the aid of his band, Miss Clarice Carr, to hold until she paid a large ransom for her release.
There were others of his band in the fort as prisoners, but these were kept apart, as the outlaw chief had asked to be alone. He had faced his accusers at the trial without flinching, had not quailed under the gaze of those whom he had wronged, and had appeared really interested in the testimony given by Miss Carr as to what he had done after their being captured by the men of his band.
When he arose to receive the sentence of the military tribunal, he did not show the slightest sign of emotion, and some said that he even smiled serenelywhen the judge-advocate told him that his doom was to be death upon the gallows.
From his position the prisoner was watching through his cabin door the sun nearing the horizon. Suddenly he started, for he saw an officer and a lady approaching his prison.
They drew nearer, the sentinel halted, faced them, and came to a present, as the officer of the day said:
“Sentinel, you are to permit this lady to enter the cabin to visit the prisoner, and you are to walk your beat thirty paces from the cabin.”
The door opened then to admit the lady, as the officer walked away, and the sentinel stepped off his thirty paces, so as to be out of hearing of what was said.
“Well, Nina, you have come,” said the prisoner, as he rose from his chair and motioned to her to sit down, while he took a seat upon his cot.
“Yes, at your bidding, for Colonel Dunwoody sent for me and said that you had certain things you wished done, and asked if you might not communicate them to me. What is it you would have me to do?”
The girl spoke calmly and coldly. The man smiled, and replied:
“There is much that I would have you do.”
“Let me know what it is?”
“I have a letter here, written in cipher, to one in Pocket City. It is most important that it should be delivered, for it concerns the happiness of more than one.”
“Well?”
“You must see that it is delivered.”
“I cannot.”
“You can and you must.”
“I know not how, for I would not do one act to bring suspicion upon myself.”
“There are a dozen officers here desperately in love with you, and willing to do your bidding.”
“That may be.”
“You must tell one of them that you wish to send a letter to Pocket City for me, to one there whom I am interested in, and he is to get a courier, one of the cowboys about the post, to take it.”
“I cannot.”
“You must, I say.”
“I will not compromise myself.”
“There is nothing to compromise you, but it might did you ask Colonel Dunwoody to send the courier for you.”
“No.”
“I say yes, and, if you refuse, I shall simply ask to see Colonel Dunwoody, and tell him that you are my wife.”
“No, no, no!”
“Then do as I say.”
The woman was silent a moment, and then said:
“I will do it. Where is the letter?”
“Here, already written and addressed.”
Nina de Sutro looked at the address, and read aloud:
“To Bonnie Belle,“The Frying pan Hotel,“Pocket City,“Yellow Dust Valley.”
“Another victim, I suppose, of your treachery?” she said, with a sneer.
“She is one I love.”
“Ah! so you once told me.”
“Are you jealous?”
“Thank God, no!” was the emphatic rejoinder.
“You will prove that by sending the letter?”
“I will,” she replied, and she placed it in her bosom.
“Is this all?” she asked, as she turned toward the door, as though to end the interview.
“No.”
“What else have you to say?”
“I am under sentence of death.”
“I am well aware of that.”
“I am to die upon the gallows.”
“So I know.”
“That will disgrace you.”
“In what way, pray, will it affect me?”
“I am your husband.”
“Alas, yes!”
“And you will, then, feel the dishonor.”
“It will not be known.”
“It might leak out.”
“I shall take good care that it shall not.”
“Well, that is all the sympathy you show.”
“For you, yes.”
“I who saved your life.”
“Yes, and then wrecked it.”
“You are a very beautiful wreck.”
“Thank you.”
“You have grown more beautiful since I saw you last.”
“My heart is not seen.”
“Then it is hurt, is it?”
“It was cruelly hurt, yes, and by you, as well you are aware, Silk Lasso Sam, the outlaw. But I got over the wound, the sting of dishonor of becomingyour wife, and I shall bury the past in the grave with you. If I am bitter, seemingly heartless now, your cruelty made me so; but you did not destroy my whole trust in manhood, thank Heaven, and I may yet find new happiness in life.”
“In wedding Colonel Dunwoody?” sneered the man.
He expected to see her start at his words. But she did not even change color, and answered most serenely:
“Yes, if I can win him, when, by your death upon the gallows, I become a widow.”
“Why observe such formalities as my being alive?”
“Because you have not made me so vile as you are, embittered though my life has been,” was the stern response.
“Well, I am sorry to block your game, but I must.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean simply that I cannot find it in my heart to die just to make you a widow.”
“I do not yet understand.”
“I must be more explicit. I do not intend to die.”
“You mean that you will not die on the gallows?”
“Yes, about that.”
“But you are sentenced.”
“Yes, and have stood under the shadow of death a hundred times, yet live.”
“This time there will be no escape for you.”
“Oh, yes, there will.”
“Do you intend to commit suicide?”
“Oh, no, I do not intend to hand in my checks yet, but to live.”
“There is no pleading for pardon that will save you.”
“I do not intend to plead.”
“And nothing that I could say would be of avail.”
“I do not ask you to say anything.”
“What, then?”
“To act.”
“What can I do?”
“Much.”
“I can do nothing for you, nothing whatever.”
“Let me tell you that, unaided, from this place I could not escape. I am sorry, very sorry, not to make a widow of you in a few weeks, so that you could wed the colonel, but I cannot die just to oblige you, and so I call upon you to save me. A moment’s thought will prove to you that you are to-day in command of about half the officers in the fort, married and single, while Miss Clarice Carr divides the honorswith you, and I will admit, for candor urges me to do so, that she holds perhaps a trifle more power.”
“Then get her to aid you.”
“I would gladly do so were it possible, which it is not, as I am not bound to her as I am to you, so cannot force obedience from her.”
“You were a fool to come here as you did, and kidnap her.”
“I would have been considered deuced clever had I gotten a big ransom for her return and escaped from harm’s way.”
“But you did not?”
“That is owing to Buffalo Bill and Surgeon Powell hanging so persistently upon my trail, and having me under suspicion, aided by that miner, Deadshot Dean, running me to earth as he did. Luck was against me in spite of my holding trumps.”
“Well, as you have put your head in the noose you must abide the consequences.”
The man laughed, and then replied:
“I am one never to yield to odds, and they are heavy against me now. Feeling as I do, I have sent for you that I might ask you to aid me to escape.”
“I cannot.”
“I say that you shall.”
“I could not do so.”
“You must find a way, for you are as ingenious as you are beautiful, and you have money, and that is half the victory won. If you refuse, then I shall, at the last moment, before ascending the steps of the gallows, ask to speak a word and will name you as my wife. You know me, so doyouabide the consequences, Nina, my wife.”
The woman’s face became pallid, and she gasped for breath; but quickly recovering herself she said:
“I will do all in my power to save you, for Iknowthat you will carry out your threat.”
The man gazed at the woman with a malicious smile as she turned upon her heel and walked toward the door.
“I have triumphed,” he said.
“Over a weak woman,” was her fierce reply, as she turned upon him, her face now glowing with anger and hatred.
“A woman, but never a weak one. Are you going?”
“Yes.”
“Good-by.”
“We shall not meet again.”
“I do not mind that, only if I go to the gallows do you remember to be there to hear my last words.”
“They will never be uttered.”
“That means that I will be aided to escape?”
“Yes.”
“I thank you for your unintentional kindness, and I regret that my love of life will not permit me to prove my appreciation by making you a widow. Good-by, Nina.”
“Good-by, Silk Lasso Sam, the outlaw,” and with a little laugh she glided out of the door, not hearing his muttered words:
“Now with my sister to aid me, as she surely will, and Nina de Sutro, the gallows will never see me its victim.”
“You can return to your post, sentinel, close to the cabin,” said Nina, as she passed the soldier, who gave her an officer’s salute and obeyed.
Straight to headquarters went Nina de Sutro, and sent her name in to Colonel Dunwoody, asking an interview. The colonel came out himself to receive her, and, walking with her to the end of the piazza, apart from the sentinel on duty, placed a chair for her.
“This is an unexpected honor,” he said pleasantly.
“I have come on business, Colonel Dunwoody.”
“I am at your service, be the motive of your visit what it may, Miss Nina.”
“Thank you, sir.
“You know that I went with your permission to visit the prisoner this afternoon?”
“I gave orders that you should be allowed to do so, Nina.”
“Of course, Colonel Dunwoody, I feel for that unfortunate man, in spite of his having been proven an outlaw, a most kindly feeling.”
“I can understand that thoroughly, Miss Nina, in that you owe to him your life, not to speak of having seen him afterward in Mexico win honors that only a hero could. It is a terrible misfortune that such a man as he was capable of becoming should allow his moral character to be broken utterly and sink to the level of a common criminal.
“Brave I admit him to be, a genious in his way, one whose deeds would make him a splendid commander, and with his good looks, accomplishments and courtly manners, the wonder in my mind was that you did not fall desperately in love with him, for few girls, circumstanced as you have been, Miss Nina, could have held their hearts in their keeping. Youare made of very stern and sterling material, my dear Miss Nina de Sutro.”
“I thank you for saying so, Colonel Dunwoody, but as to this unfortunate man.”
“Yes.”
“You said that he had asked to see me that I might serve him in some way, as he wished to trust me with certain business to transact for him?”
“Such was the communication that Captain Caruth brought me from him.”
“Well, sir, I went to see him, and I was there fully an hour. Though he did not say as much, he is most deeply interested in a young woman in Pocket City, and he has written her a letter which he wished me to send to her by courier.”
“Indeed?”
“I, of course, would do nothing without consulting you, and so said to him that I would take the letter and send it through if possible.”
“You have the letter, Miss Nina?”
“Here it is, sir.”
The colonel glanced at the address and said:
“It is to Bonnie Belle, one of the most remarkable characters in this land of strange people.
“She is a young and very beautiful girl, I have heard, for I have never seen her; but I have heard much of her through Surgeon Frank Powell, Captain Caruth and Buffalo Bill, who know her well.”
“What do they say of her, sir?”
“That she is a young lady scarcely twenty, of great loveliness of form and face, accomplished and refined, yet one who has killed her man, as they have it out here, runs a hotel and gambling-den and is beloved by every man in the mines.”
“Can she be this man’s wife?” asked Nina in a low tone, and she would not look the colonel in the face as she asked the question.
“It may be so, though I cannot believe that she knows him as he really is, for she is not one, from all I have heard, to be the ally of such a man, his confederate in crime.”
“Well, colonel, he wishes this letter sent through to her, and I promised to do so for him, so I appeal to you for your consent.”
“I cannot refuse the appeal, Miss Nina, for I can really see no harm in the letter, and it would be hard to refuse a favor asked by a man in his position, wicked as he is.”
“Oh, I thank you, Colonel Dunwoody, for you are always kind and just.”
“I will send my aide with the letter to a courier to take it at once to this strange woman.”
And so it was that the letter that overtook Bonnie Belle on the eastward trail was sent.