110
A man was lighting the hanging lamps, and Rathburn looked about through a haze of tobacco smoke at a cluster of crowded gaming tables, a short bar, cigar counter, and at the motley throng which jammed the small room.
He grinned as he read the sign over the cash register:
FREE DRINKS TO-MORROW
“Swiped in broad daylight from the grand old State of Texas,” he murmured aloud to himself.
Then he noticed a small restaurant in the rear of the place, separated from the main room by a partition, the upper part of which was glass.
He made his way back, passed through the door, and took a seat at the counter which afforded him a view of the resort through the glass. He ordered a substantial meal and, while waiting for it to be served, studied with calculating eyes the scene in the next room.
The men were mostly of the hills––miners constituting the majority. Of professional gamblers there were many, and there was also a plentiful sprinkling of that despicable species known as “boosters” whose business it is to sit in at the games in the interest of “the house;” to fleece the victims who occupy the few remaining seats.
But now he saw a man who apparently was not a miner, or a prospector, nor yet a member of the professional gambling tribe. This was a tall man, very dark, sinewy. He wore a gun.
At first Rathburn thought he might be a cow-puncher, for he wore riding boots, and had something of the air and bearing of a cowman; but he finally decided that this classification was inaccurate. An officer at one of the mines, perhaps; a forest111ranger––no, he didn’t wear the regalia of a ranger––Rathburn gave it up as his dinner was put before him on the counter.
He fell to his meal eagerly, for he had had nothing to eat since early morning when he had broken camp high in the mountains to westward. Steak and French “fries” began quickly to disappear, along with many slices of bread and two cups of steaming coffee. Then Rathburn looked up, and to his surprise saw that the tall, dark man was standing near the glass, studying him intently out of scowling, black eyes.
Rathburn looked at him coolly and steadily for a few moments and resumed his meal. But the other was inquisitive and Rathburn sensed, without again looking up, that he was being watched. Was this man, then, an aide of Mannix, the deputy? He doubted it.
He finished his meal, paid his score with an added cheery word for the counter jumper, rose, entered the main room of the resort, and walked directly up to the dark man who still was observing him.
“Was you thinking I was an old acquaintance of yours?” he asked pleasantly.
The other’s eyes narrowed, and Rathburn thought he detected a glow of recognition and satisfaction.
“Did you have your bath?” sneeringly inquired the man.
Rathburn’s brows lifted. Then he smiled queerly. “I sure did. Why? Did I maybe keep you waiting? Was you next?”
The other’s eyes blazed with wrath. “Let me give you a tip, my friend; you ain’t right well acquainted in this here locality, are you?”
Rathburn now noted that they had attracted immediate attention. The tall, dark man, then, was a personage of importance. He noted another thing,112too––rather, he realized it by instinct as well as by certain mannerisms. The man before him knew how to use the weapon which hung low on his right thigh.
“If you mean was I born here, or do I live here, I’d say no,” Rathburn drawled; “but I happen to be here at this precise time so I’d say I’m right well acquainted with it.”
A hush had come over the place. Interested faces were turned in their direction, and Rathburn sensed an ominous tremor of keen expectancy. The fine wrinkles at the corners of his eyes tightened a bit.
“This is a poor time for strangers to be hanging around,” said the dark man in a loud voice. “The Dixie Queen pay-roll has been taking wings too often.”
The implication and the murmur from the spectators was not lost upon Rathburn. His lips tightened into a fine, white line.
“Whoever you are, you’ve got more mouth than brains!” he said crisply in a voice which carried over the room.
The effect of his words was electric. There was a sharp intaking of breath from the spectators. The dark man’s face froze, and his eyes darted red. His right hand seemed to hang on the instant for the swoop to his gun. Rathburn appeared to be smiling queerly out of his eyes. Then came a sharp interruption.
“Just a minute, Carlisle!”
Rathburn recognized the voice of Mannix, and a moment later the deputy stepped between them.
“What’s the idea?” he asked coolly.
“This gentleman you just called Carlisle seems to have appointed himself a reception committee to welcome me into the enterprising town of High Point,” drawled Rathburn, with a laugh.
Mannix turned on Carlisle with a scowl, and Carlisle113shrugged impatiently, his eyes still glaring balefully at Rathburn.
The deputy again confronted Rathburn. “Had your supper?” he asked.
“Best steak I’ve had in two months,” Rathburn replied cheerfully.
“Horse taken care of?”
“First thing.” There was a note of derision in Rathburn’s tone. “Service at the hotel barn is high grade.”
Mannix’s eyes hardened before he spoke again. He hesitated, but when his words came they were clear-cut and stern.
“Then come with me an’ I’ll show you where to sleep.”
“You mean in jail?” queried Rathburn.
Mannix nodded coldly.
“Sheriff,” said Rathburn, in a peculiar tone, addressing the deputy but looking over his shoulder directly into Carlisle’s eyes; “if there’s one thing I’m noted for, it’s for being a good guesser!”
114CHAPTER XVITHE DIXIE’S BOSS
If Mannix expected any resistance from Rathburn he soon found that none was to materialize. The deputy, a short, rather stout man of perhaps thirty-nine, with bronzed features, clear, brown eyes, and a protruding jaw covered with a stubble of reddish-brown beard, was nevertheless wary of his prisoner. He had not yet obtained Rathburn’s gun, and he recognized the unmistakable signs of a seasoned gunman in the lounging but graceful postures of his prisoner, in the way he moved his right hand, in the alertness of his eye. He frowned, for Rathburn was smiling. There was a quality to that smile which was not lost upon the doughty officer.
“I take it you’ve got sense enough to come along easylike,” he said, with just a hint of doubt in his voice.
“Yes, I’ve been known to show some sense, sheriff; now that’s a fact.”
“I’ll have to ask you for your gun,” said the deputy grimly.
“I’ve never been known to hand over my gun, sheriff,” drawled Rathburn. “Now that’s another fact.”
Again the tension in the room was high. Others than Mannix, and probably Carlisle, had readily discerned in the gray-eyed stranger a certain menacing prowess which is much respected where weapons are the rule in unexpected emergencies. The crowd backed to the wall.
The deputy wet his lips, and his face grew a shade115paler. Then suddenly he went for his gun, as Rathburn dropped, like a shot, to the floor. There came the crack of Carlisle’s pistol and a laugh from Rathburn. The deputy, gun in hand, stared at Rathburn who rose quickly to his feet. Then he thought to cover him. Rathburn raised his hands while Carlisle returned his own smoking weapon to its holster. Mannix turned and glared at Carlisle in perplexity.
“I don’t know what his game is, Mannix; but he could have drawn down on you in a wink and shot you in your tracks if he’d wanted to,” said Carlisle.
“So you were taking the play in your own hands,” Mannix accused.
The deputy looked at Rathburn angrily. Then he advanced and took the prisoner’s six-shooter from him. He brought handcuffs out of his pockets.
Rathburn’s face went white. “If what Carlisle says is true, it doesn’t look as if I was trying to get away, does it, sheriff?” he asked coldly.
Mannix was thoughtful for a moment. “Well, come along,” he ordered, thrusting the steel bracelets back into his pocket.
“I’ll go with you,” Carlisle volunteered.
“That’s up to you,” snapped out the deputy. “I ain’t asking you to.”
The trio left the place as the spectators gazed after them in wonder. There was a hum of excited conversation as the deputy and his prisoner and Carlisle passed through the door.
No word was spoken on the way to the small, two-room, one-story structure which served as a detention place for persons under arrest until they could be transferred to the county jail in the town where the railroad touched. Petty offenders served their sentences there, however.
In the little front office of the jail, Rathburn looked with interest at some posters on the walls.116One in particular claimed his attention, and he read it twice while the deputy was getting some keys and calling to the jailer, who evidently was on the other side of the barred door where the few cells and the “tank” were.
This is what Rathburn read:
REWARDTwo thousand dollars will be paid for the capture of the bandits who are responsible for the robberies of Dixie Mine messengers in the last few months.Dixie Milling & Mining Co.,George Sautee, Manager.
REWARD
Two thousand dollars will be paid for the capture of the bandits who are responsible for the robberies of Dixie Mine messengers in the last few months.
Dixie Milling & Mining Co.,George Sautee, Manager.
Rathburn now knew exactly what Carlisle had meant when he had referred to the Dixie pay-roll taking wings. He had, however, suspected it. The holdup of the truck driver also was explained. Rathburn smiled. It was a peculiar ruse for the mines manager to resort to. Could not the pay-roll be sent to the mines under armed guard? Rathburn’s eyes were dreamy when he looked at the deputy.
“All right, in you go,” said Mannix, as the jailer unlocked the heavy, barred door from the inside.
He led Rathburn to one of the single cells, of which there were six on one side of the jail room proper.
“Maybe you’ll be ready to talk in the morning,” he said, as he locked his prisoner in.
“Morning might be too late,” Rathburn observed, taking tobacco and papers from his shirt pocket.
“What do you mean by that?” Mannix asked sharply.
“I might change my mind.”
“About talking, eh? Well, we’ll find a way to make you change it back again.”
117
“You’re a grateful cuss,” said Rathburn, grinning.
Mannix scowled. It was plain he was not sure of his man, although he was trying to convince himself that he was.
“I don’t get you,” he said growlingly.
“No? Didn’t you hear that fellow Carlisle say I saved your life by not drawing?”
“He’d have got you if you’d tried to draw. That’s what he thought you was going to do. You saved your skin by grabbing the floor.”
Rathburn wet the paper of his cigarette and sealed the end. “I’m wondering,” he mused, as he snapped a match into flame, with a thumb nail and lit the weed.
“It’s about time,” said the deputy grimly.
“I’m wondering,” said Rathburn, in a soft voice, exhaling a thin streamer of smoke, “if he’d have got me.”
Mannix grunted, looked at him curiously, and then turned abruptly on his heel and left. Rathburn could not see the door, but he heard the big key grate in the lock, and then the jail room echoed to the clang of hard metal and the door swung shut again.
Rathburn sat down on the bunk which was to serve as his bed. He smoked his brown-paper cigarette slowly and with great relish while he stared, not through the bars to where the dim light of a lamp showed, but straight at the opposite steel wall of his cell. His eyes were thoughtful, dreamy, his brow was puckered.
“An’ there’s that,” he muttered as he threw away the stub of his smoke and began to roll another. “Somebody’s been playing the Dixie Queen for a meal ticket. That sign said ‘robberies.’ That means more’n one. The truck driver was the last. Two thousand reward. An’ me headed for the desert118where I belong. What stopped me? I reckon I know.”
He smiled grimly as he remembered the insolent challenge in Carlisle’s eyes and the reference to the bath.
After a time Rathburn stretched out on the bunk, pulled his hat over his face, and dozed.
He sat up with a catlike movement as a persistent tapping on the bars of his cell reached his ears. Blinking in the half light he saw Carlisle’s dark features.
“Well, now’s your chance to smoke me up good an’ plenty an’ get away with it,” said Rathburn cheerfully. “I’m shy my gun which the sheriff has borrowed.”
“You figure he’s just borrowed it?” sneeringly inquired Carlisle.
Rathburn rose and surveyed his visitor. “I reckon I’ve got to tolerate you,” he drawled. “I can’t pick my company in here.”
“I’ve got your number,” snarlingly replied Carlisle in a low voice.
Rathburn sauntered close to the bars, rolling a cigarette.
“If you have, Carlisle, you’ve got a winning number,” he said evenly.
“Whatever your play is here, I dunno,” said Carlisle; “but you won’t get away with it as easy as you did over the range in Dry Lake.”
Rathburn’s eyes never flickered as he coolly lit his cigarette with a steady hand. “You’re plumb full of information, eh, Carlisle?”
“I was over there an’ heard about how you stuck up that joint an’ tried to blame it on some kid by the name of Lamy,” said Carlisle, watching Rathburn closely.
119
“You sure that was the way of it?” asked Rathburn casually.
“No,” replied the other. “I know the kid stuck up the joint an’ you took the blame to keep him under cover. I don’t know your reasons, but I guess you don’t want the facts known. You broke jail. They ain’t forgotthatover in Dry Lake. There’s a reward out for you over there, an I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some money on your head in Arizona, Coyote!”
Rathburn’s eyes were points of red between narrowed lids.
“The Coyote!” said Carlisle in a hoarse voice of triumph. “An’ the way it looks I’m the only one hereabouts that knows it.”
“I told you you was plumb full of information,” said Rathburn.
“The Coyote has a bit of a record, they tell me,” Carlisle leered. “There’s more’n one sheriff would pay a pretty price to get him safe, eh?”
“Just what’s your idea in tellingmeall this, Carlisle; why don’t you tell what you know to Mannix, say?”
“Maybe I’m just teasing you along.”
“Not a chance, Carlisle. I know your breed.”
The other’s face darkened, and his eyes glittered as he peered in through the bars.
“What’syourbreed?” he asked sneeringly.
“I don’t have to tell you that, Carlisle. Youknow!” said Rathburn with a taunting laugh.
Carlisle struggled with his anger for a brief spell. Then he shrugged his shoulders.
“I ain’t going to poke at you in a cage,” he said in a more civil tone; “an’ I ain’t going to tell anybody what I know. Remember that.”
“I ain’t the forgetting kind,” Rathburn flung after him as he walked swiftly away.
120
Again Rathburn sat on the edge of the bunk and smoked and thought. After a time he went to sleep. The opening of his cell door woke him. It was Mannix.
“Come to let me out, sheriff?” inquired Rathburn sleepily.
The deputy looked at him keenly, opened the cage, and motioned to him to follow. Rathburn went with him out into the little office. It was broad day. Mannix picked up a pistol from his desk and extended it to Rathburn.
“Here’s your gun, Rathburn. You can go,” he said, pressing his lips close together.
“Well, now, sheriff, that’s right kind of you,” Rathburn drawled, concealing his astonishment.
“Don’t thank me,” snapped out Mannix. “This gentleman asked me to set you loose.”
For the first time Rathburn looked squarely at the other man in the office––a thin man, with a cropped mustache, beady eyes, and a narrow face.
The man was regarding him intently, and there seemed to be an amused expression in his eyes. He turned away from Rathburn’s gaze.
“I don’t believe I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting the gentleman,” said Rathburn agreeably.
“That’s George Sautee, manager of the Dixie Queen,” said the deputy with a shrug.
121CHAPTER XVIIA COMMISSION
Sautee rose and extended his hand with an affable smile. “Will you come to breakfast with me, Mr. Rathburn?”
Rathburn took the hand with a curious side glance at Mannix. “I’m powerful hungry,” he confessed; “an’ I don’t reckon I’d be showing the best of manners if I balked at havin’ breakfast with the man that got me out of jail.”
“Quite right,” admitted Sautee, winking at the deputy. “Well, perhaps I have my reasons. All right, Rathburn, let’s be going.”
They walked out of the jail, and as they progressed up the street they were the cynosure of many wondering pairs of eyes; for the report had spread that the stranger who had been jailed was the bandit who had made away with the Dixie Queen pay-roll on several occasions, and that he was a gun fighter and a killer.
They entered a restaurant just below the hotel, and Sautee led the way to a booth where they were assured comparative privacy.
“Ham an’ eggs,” said Rathburn shortly when the waiter entered.
Sautee smiled again. He was covertly inspecting the man across the table from him and evidently what he saw caused him to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion.
He gave his order with a nod and a mild flourish of the hand, indicating that he would take the same.
122
“Oh––waiter,” called Rathburn. “Four eggs with mine.”
Sautee laughed. It was a peculiar laugh in that it seemed to convey little mirth. It was perfunctory.
He gazed at Rathburn quizzically. “They tell me you’re a gunman,” he said in a low voice.
Rathburn’s brows shot up. “They? Who’s they?”
Sautee waved a hand impatiently. “I am the manager of the Dixie Queen. I have been around a bit, and I have eyes. I can see. I know the signals. I witnessed the play in the Red Feather last night.”
“That ain’t a bad name for the place,” Rathburn mused.
“Just what do you suppose was my object in getting you out of jail?” Sautee asked seriously, leaning over the table and looking at Rathburn searchingly. “You said last night you were a good guesser.”
“But I didn’t say I was good at riddles,” drawled Rathburn.
Sautee leaned back. For a moment there was a gleam of admiration in his eyes. Then they narrowed slightly.
“The Dixie Queen has been robbed four times within the last year,” he said soberly. “That represents considerable money. Yesterday I resorted to a ruse and sent the money up with a truck driver, but whoever is doing this thing must have got wise somehow, for the truck driver was held up, as you know, and the money taken.”
“Why not put an armed guard on that truck?” asked Rathburn with a yawn.
“I had full confidence in that ruse, and I knew the man who drove the truck could be trusted. Besides, he didn’t know what was inside the package.”
123
“How much did they get?” asked Rathburn sharply.
“Twenty-two thousand eight hundred and seventy dollars in cash.”
Rathburn stared at the mine manager and whistled softly. “What’s the sense in sending it up there at all?” he asked suddenly. “Why not pay off down here in town?”
Sautee sighed with an air of resignation. “That’s been argued several times,” he complained. “The men demand their pay in cash. They want it at the mine, for more than half of them have refused to come down here for it. It is twenty-nine miles up there to the mine, and it would take all the trucks we’ve got and two days to bring them down here and take them back. Besides, if we got them down here it would be a week before we could get half of them back up there and at work again.”
“But why won’t they take checks?” Rathburn demanded.
“It would be the same proposition,” Sautee explained. “There is a little village up there––pool room, soft-drink parlor, lunch room, store, and all that––and the men, or a large number of them, would want their checks cashed to make purchases and for spending money, and the cash would have to be transported so the business places could cash the checks. Then, there’s another reason. All the mines over on this side of the mountains, clear down into the desert, have always paid in cash. This is an old district, and the matter of getting paid in cash has become a tradition. That’s what the company is up against. We can refuse to do it, but all the other mines do it, and the Dixie Queen would soon have the reputation of being the only mine in the district that didn’t pay in cash.124The tradition is handed down from the old days when men were paid in gold. There was a time when a miner wouldn’t take paper money in this country!”
The waiter entered with the breakfast dishes and they began to eat.
“Your mine owned by a stock company?” Rathburn inquired.
“Certainly,” replied Sautee. “All the mines here are. What mine isn’t?”
Rathburn ignored the question. “Stockholders live aroun’ here?” he asked, between mouthfuls.
“Oh––no, that is, not many,” replied Sautee with a quick glance at his questioner. “This district is pretty well worked out. Most of our stockholders live in the Middle West and the East.” He winked at Rathburn.
“Any other mines been robbed?” Rathburn persisted.
“No, that’s the funny part of it. Still––no, itisn’tfunny. We’re working on the largest scale, and our pay-roll is, naturally, the largest. It furnishes the biggest incentive. In addition, the Dixie Queen is the farthest out from town, and there are many excellent spots for a holdup between town and the mine. Oh, don’t look skeptical. I’ve tried trusted messengers by roundabout trails, and guards and all that. They even held up a convoy on one occasion. I’ve set traps. I’ve done everything. But now I’ve a new idea, and I believe it’ll work.”
He finished his breakfast and stared steadily at Rathburn who didn’t look up, but leisurely drank a second cup of coffee. Sautee noted the slim, tapered right hand of the man across the table from him, the clear, gray eyes, the unmistakable poise of a man who is absolutely and utterly confident125and sure of himself. The mine manager’s eyes glowed eagerly.
“Yes?” asked Rathburn calmly.
“I’m going to hire, or, rather, I’m going totryto hire a man I believe is just as tough, just as clever, just as quick with his gun as the men who’ve been robbing the Dixie Queen. I’m going to hire him to carry the money to the mine!”
“Sothat’swhy you got me out of jail,” said Rathburn, drawing the inevitable tobacco and papers from his shirt pocket.
“Yes!” whispered Sautee eagerly. “I want you for the job!”
“You ain’t forgetting that I was suspected of that last job, are you? That’s why I went to jail, I reckon.”
“You didn’t have to go to jail unless you wanted to. You didn’t have to stop in this town and invite arrest. Mannix let you go up there yesterday because he felt sure he could get you when he wanted you again, and he figured you’d make some break that would give him a clew to your pals, if you had any. You went to jail because you knew he didn’t have anything on you.”
Sautee grinned in triumph.
“How do you know I won’t beat it with the money?” asked Rathburn.
“I don’t,” said Sautee quickly. “But I’m taking a chance on it that you won’t. I don’t care who you are, what you are now, or what you’ve been; I don’t care if you’re an outlaw! I figure, Rathburn, that if I come out square and trust you with this mission and depend upon you to carry it out, that you’ll play square with me. That’s what I’m banking on––your own sense of squareness. You’ve got it, for I can see it in your eyes.”
“Who’s Carlisle?” Rathburn asked dryly.
126
Sautee frowned. “He’s a––well, I guess you’d call him a sort of adventurer. I knew him down in Arizona. He follows the camps when they’re good, and this one happens to be good right now, for we’re improving the property. That’s how he happened to come up here about a year ago. Then, when the first robbery occurred, I engaged him as a sort of special agent. He didn’t make any progress, so I let him go. Since then he’s been out and in, gambling, prospecting, anything––he’s a fast man with his gun, and he has some claims here which he is developing on a small scale and trying to sell.”
Rathburn nodded but made no comment.
“Will you take the job?” Sautee asked anxiously.
“What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to carry a sum of money to the mine. I’m not going to tell you how much, but it will be considerable. The money which was stolen yesterday was for the pay-off to-day. I’ve got to get the cash for the men up there quick. They all know about the holdup, so there’s no grumbling––yet. But there will be if they don’t have their money pretty quick. We want to pay off to-morrow. I could go with a guard, but to tell you the truth, Rathburn, it’s got to a point where I can’t trust a soul.”
“Why not Mannix?” asked Rathburn sharply.
Sautee shook his head; his beady, black eyes glowed, and he stroked his chin.
“There’s another sorrowful point,” he explained. “I tell you we’re up against it here, Rathburn. The Dixie Queen people and most of the other mines are fighting the present county administration as a matter of policy. They want certain changes, and––well, keep this to yourself––privileges. Mannix has been instructed by the sheriff of this county that he127is not here to act as a guard for the Dixie Queen. See?”
Rathburn frowned and built another cigarette.
“If you’ll carry this package of money up to the Dixie Queen for me, Rathburn, I’ll pay you five hundred dollars. Then, if you want to stay and act as our messenger right along, we’ll make a deal. But I’d like to have you do this this time––make this one trip, anyway, I mean. They may try to stop you. If they do I don’t believe they can get away with it. I’m banking on your ability to get through, and I think the proposition will appeal to you in a sporting way if for no other reason. Will you do it?” Sautee’s eyes were eager.
“Yes,” said Rathburn shortly, tossing away his cigarette.
Sautee held out his hand. “Go to the hotel and engage a room,” he instructed. “Be in your room at nine o’clock to-night. Do not tell any one of our deal. I’ll get your room number from the register. I’ll bring the package of money to you between nine o’clock and midnight. Now, Rathburn, maybe I’m mistaken in you; but I go a whole lot by what I see in a man’s eyes. You may have a hard record, but I’m staking my faith in men on you!”
“I’ll be there,” Rathburn promised.
He left Sautee at the entrance to the restaurant and strolled around the hotel barn to see that his horse was being taken care of properly. He found that the barn man was indeed looking after the dun in excellent shape. Rathburn spent a short time with his mount, petting him and rubbing his glossy coat with his hands. Then he took his slicker pack and started for the hotel.
As he reached the street he saw a girl on a horse talking with a man on the sidewalk. The girl128was leaning over, and the man evidently was delivering a harangue. He was gesticulating wildly, and Rathburn could see that the girl was cowering. He paused on the hotel porch as the man stepped away from the horse and looked his way. He recognized Carlisle.
Then the girl rode down the street and Rathburn started with surprise as he saw she was the girl from the cabin up the road who had directed him to town the day before. He remembered the two objects he had picked up in the road after the holdup and felt in his pocket to make sure they were there. Then he entered the hotel.
“Have you a room?” he asked the clerk pleasantly.
“Yes. More rooms than anything else to-day since the Sunday crowd’s gone.”
Rathburn wrote his name upon the register.
129CHAPTER XVIIIIN THE NIGHT
Rathburn avoided the Red Feather resort during the morning. Instead of walking about the streets or sitting in the hotel lobby or his room, he cultivated the acquaintance of the barn man, and because he knew horses––allabout horses––he soon had the man’s attention and respect.
Although Rathburn suspected that he already had a reputation in the town, he did not know that Carlisle was steadily adding to that reputation through the medium of veiled hints dropped here and there until a majority of the population was convinced that a desperate man was in their midst, and that Mannix had permitted him to go free for certain secret reasons.
Thus a web of mystery and suspicion was cleverly woven about Rathburn’s movements.
It was not until afternoon, however, that Rathburn began to realize on his intimacy with the barn man. Then they began to talk of trails, and for more than an hour the barn man, caught in the spell of Rathburn’s personality, divulged the secret of the trails leading to and from the Dixie Queen.
“The best trail, an’ the straightest, if you should ever want to go up there an’ look at the mine like you say,” said the barn man, “hits into the timber behind the first cabin to the left above town.”
Rathburn nodded smilingly. It was the cabin where he had first seen the girl.
“It’s ’bout twenty-nine miles to the mine by the130road,” the man explained; “but that trail will take you there in less’n twenty. Well, maybe twenty or twenty-one. Or you can go up the road till you get to the big hogback––that’s where they held up the truck driver yesterday––and cut straight up the hill from the south end.”
“I guess those are the best trails from what you say,” was Rathburn’s yawning comment.
“Them’s the best,” the other added. “There’s another trail going out below town that follows southeast along a big ridge, but that trail’s as far as the road. When you goin’ up?”
“I dunno,” replied Rathburn noncommittally. “Say, I guess I know where that cabin is on the left side of the road going up. I stopped at a cabin up there coming down an’ asked a gal how far it was to town–––”
“That’s it,” said the barn man. “That’s the one. Trail starts right back of that cabin.”
Rathburn yawned again. “Smart-lookin’ gal,” he observed, digging for his tobacco and papers. “Who is she?”
“That’s Joe Carlisle’s sister. Anyway, he says she is. There’s been some talk. Carlisle lives there when he ain’t out in the hills or on a gamblin’ trip to some other town.”
“I see. Well, old-timer, I ain’t hung on the feed bag since morning, an’ I’m going on a still hunt for some grub.”
Rathburn went to the Red Feather for his dinner. He was thoughtful through the meal and kept an eye out for Carlisle, but didn’t see him. During the remainder of the afternoon he hung about the Red Feather and other resorts, but did not see Carlisle.
That evening, as he was returning to the hotel, he met Mannix. The deputy looked at him with131a scowl in which there was a mixture of curiosity. Rathburn suddenly remembered what Sautee had said about his company being on the outs with the county administration. If such was the case, Rathburn reflected, how did it come that Sautee had been able to effect his release so easily?
He stopped as he drew alongside of the deputy. “This man Sautee,” he drawled, looking Mannix square in the eye; “he must have a good drag with the county seat, eh?”
The deputy’s scowl deepened. “He didn’t get you out by word of mouth alone,” he said sharply. “I haven’t got anything on you, Rathburn––yet.”
Rathburn smiled. “I reckon you’re a sheriff after my own heart,” he said enigmatically, and moved on.
Mannix looked back after him for a moment, then continued on his way.
Rathburn had dinner that night at the hotel, and it was during the course of a number of pleasantries with the waitress, who thought he was looking for work, that he ascertained that Sautee had a little two-room building at the lower end of the street, the front half of which served as an office and the rear half as living quarters.
At nine o’clock he went to his room. He lighted the oil lamp, pulled down the window shade, sat down in a chair to one side of the door to wait. An hour passed with no sound save occasional footfalls in the hall and the drone of the wind in the trees outside.
Another hour had nearly been consumed in waiting when Rathburn heard some one coming up the stairs. The footfalls were soft, catlike. He could hardly hear them, and it was this fact which made him instantly alert. The footfalls now sounded in the hallway. They were nearer his room. He rose;132stepped close to the side of the door. Then came a soft knock.
Rathburn suddenly opened the door, and Sautee started back, blinking his eyes. The mines manager peered about the room, then entered swiftly.
“You rather startled me,” he accused with a forced smile.
Rathburn closed the door softly and turned the key in the lock.
“I’m just taking natural precautions,” he explained.
Sautee shook his head and put a finger to his lips. “Not so loud,” he warned. “These walls”––he waved a hand about––“are all ears.”
He took a package from beneath his coat and handed it to Rathburn. “Put it in your shirt,” he instructed. “Deliver it to the office at the mine and take the bookkeeper’s receipt. Then report to my office here in town. I wish you luck, and I want you to know that I have the utmost confidence in you.”
“You keep such large sums on hand all the time?” Rathburn asked, putting the package in his shirt. He was mindful of the fact that a similar sum had been stolen the day before from the truck driver.
“There’s a private bank here,” answered Sautee frowningly. “He let me have it, but he’s already sent to the county seat for more cash which will come by auto express to-morrow, probably. Anyway, the bank’ll get most of this back, so their cash won’t be short long.”
Rathburn nodded. “Let’s see,” he suggested. “There was a little item of five hundred between us for my serving––am I right?”
“There is such an item,” snapped out Sautee; “when you’ve delivered.”
133
“Of course,” replied Rathburn. “I couldn’t expect to be paid in advance. I’m to deliver the money at the mine and report to you for the five hundred.”
“Exactly,” said Sautee. “Which way you figure on going up?” he asked curiously.
“Don’t know much about the trails,” Rathburn answered. “An’ it mightn’t attract suspicion if I just struck right out on the road.”
Sautee shrugged. “Well, that’s up to you,” he said. “Keep your eye peeled. I don’t think any one knows I drew that money from the bank, but I didn’t think any one knew I stuck that package under the truck driver’s seat, either.”
He turned toward the door.
“There’s just one other little matter,” said Rathburn softly. “You see nobody knows anything about this deal but you an’ me. Maybe it would be best for my own protection that you scribbled something on a piece of paper to show what our arrangement is.”
Sautee scowled again, hesitated, then smiled. He drew an envelope from a pocket, extracted its contents, tore it open at each end, and wrote on the blank side:
Due Rathburn five hundred dollars when he has delivered package intrusted to him by me at the Dixie Queen mine office.George Sautee.
Due Rathburn five hundred dollars when he has delivered package intrusted to him by me at the Dixie Queen mine office.
George Sautee.
Rathburn nodded in satisfaction as he took the slip of paper and tucked it into his shirt pocket. The wording of the note was a bit complicated, but it bore Sautee’s signature. It was at least evidence that therehadbeen an agreement.
“Everything set?” asked Sautee.
134
“All cinched up an’ ready to go,” replied Rathburn.
“How soon you going to start?” asked Sautee as he unlocked the door.
“By midnight,” Rathburn answered.
Sautee held out his hand before he slipped out of the door and was gone.
Rathburn quickly busied himself with his slicker pack. He took out a gun which he changed for the gun in his holster. Then he stuck his regular gun into his waistband on the left. He took out the package and examined it. It was sealed at each end. Then Rathburn did a queer thing. He cut the string and paper near the seals and removed the small box within. He next emptied the box of its paper-wrapped contents and substituted the first thing of equal weight which he could lay his hands on––a moleskin glove which was among the things in the slicker pack. He replaced the box in its wrappings and drew from one of his pockets a small bottle of glue.
“First time I ever stole anything from a hotel desk,” he muttered to himself as he glued the paper back into place; “but I sure had the proper hunch when I grabbed this.”
Next he retied the string, adding a piece from his slicker pack to offset the shortness where it had been cut. When he had finished the package looked exactly as it had in the first place. It would take a close inspection to learn that it had been tampered with. The original contents of the package he thrust into his hat and pulled the hat well down on his head.
Then he extinguished the light and made his way downstairs and out the lobby into the street. He went quickly around to the barn where he astonished the man in charge by saddling his horse135and riding out without a word of explanation other than to toss him a five-dollar bill from the saddle.
“See you again to-morrow––maybe,” he called, grinning, as he rode into the night.
When Rathburn had passed behind the hotel and several other buildings on the same side of the street and gained the road leading westward toward the hogback, a slim shadow darted out of the trees, mounted a horse concealed some distance behind the barn, and slipped into a worn trail which nearly paralleled the road going west.
136CHAPTER XIXQUICK TURNS
As he rode westward along the road at a swinging lope, Rathburn made no apparent effort to conceal his movements. The night sky was bright with stars, and, although the moon was not up, the road was clearly outlined through the marching stands of timber as he swung upward past the cabin where he had met the girl said to be Carlisle’s sister.
Rathburn could not forget the look on the girl’s face when she had asked him about the activities of the officer in the automobile. Nor could he forget the expression in her eyes during her altercation with Carlisle that day.
After he had passed the cabin, Rathburn checked his pace and proceeded more slowly up the long stretches of road to the hogback. On the hogback he began to take advantage of the screen of timber on the lower side of the road, and to ride more cautiously. However, to any one who might have been watching, his movements still would have been easily discernible, and it would have appeared that he wasn’t quite sure of himself. Twice he turned off at what he appeared to think was the beginning of a trail, and both times he again turned back to the road.
Then, as he reached the south end of the hogback where the trail left the road and cut straight across to the mine, two horsemen broke from the timber, and Rathburn reined in his horse as the guns which covered him glinted.
The taller of the pair of night riders kept him137covered with two guns while the other rode in close and jerked the weapon from his holster.
“C’mon with the package!” said this man in a hoarse voice. “We won’t take a chance on you. If you make any kind of a break you’ll get it where it’ll do most good.”
There was a sneering inflection in the voice.
Rathburn’s hand, as it moved downward toward his shirt, hovered an instant above where his good gun was stuck in his waistband, out of sight under the skirt of his coat; then it moved to the open shirt at his throat. He drew out the package and held it out toward the other.
The man closed in and snatched the package, glancing at it in the dim starlight.
“Now back the way you came an’ don’t invite no shootin’!” was the brief command.
Rathburn whirled his horse and drove in his spurs. As he fled from the scene a harsh laugh came to his ears from behind. Then utter silence save for the pounding of his horse’s hoofs in the hard road back down the hogback.
“Jog along, hoss,” Rathburn crooned as he sped down the long slopes toward town; “maybe we’re peggin’ things wrong, an’ if it turns out that way we’ve a powerful long ways to go.”
It lacked a few minutes of being two hours after midnight when he reached the Carlisle cabin. There he reined in his horse, dismounted in the shadow of the timber, and crept to a window. The moon had risen and was bathing the hills in a ghostly light in which every object stood out clear-cut and easily distinguishable. Rathburn peered into the two front windows, but could see nothing. Then, from a side window into which the moonlight filtered, he made out a bedroom. It was not occupied.138From the other side of the cabin he saw another bedroom, and it, too, was unoccupied.
“Nobody home,” he muttered cheerfully as he ran for his horse.
In another minute he was again speeding down the road toward town. He slacked his pace as he reached the upper end of the short main street. The street was dark save for two beams of yellow light, one of which shone from a window of the jail office and the other from the front of the Red Feather resort.
He walked his horse down the street past the jail and the resort and almost to the end of the line of buildings where he arrived before the small, one-story, two-room structure which was Sautee’s office and abode.
The place was dark. Rathburn dismounted and led his horse into the dark shadow at the side of the little building. Then he went around to the front, and, drawing his gun from his waistband, he rapped smartly on the door with its butt and dropped it into his holster.
There was no movement within, and Rathburn rapped again and tried the door. It was locked.
A match flared into flame somewhere beyond the front room. A glow of light followed. Rathburn, looking through the front window, saw a door open wide and made out the form of Sautee as the mines manager came forward to the front door.
“Who is it?” Sautee called cautiously.
“Rathburn.”
After a moment a key turned in the lock and the door opened part way. Rathburn pushed his way in.
“Why––didn’t yougo?” asked Sautee in excited tones.
“Lock the door an’ come in the other room,”139whispered Rathburn. “I’ve got something to tell you that’ll knock you for a goal.”
Sautee hurriedly locked the door, and, as he turned to lead the way into the other room, Rathburn deftly extracted the key.
In the light from the lamp in the bedroom Sautee swung on his visitor and looked at him keenly. The mines manager was fully dressed, and the bed was made. It was evident that he had merely dozed on top of the covers with his clothes on. These things Rathburn noted even as Sautee surveyed him with a frown.
“Well, what is it?” snapped out Sautee.
Rathburn blinked in the light. “I––I was held up,” he said sheepishly.
The mines manager stared. First he stared into Rathburn’s eyes, and then he glanced to the gun in the holster on his thigh.
“Couldn’t have been very much afraid of you,” he said sneeringly. “I see they didn’t even take your gun.”
“It all come from my not knowin’ enough about the trails, I guess,” Rathburn explained lamely. “Got me on the far end of the hogback. Two of ’em. Had their guns in my face before I knew it. Couldn’t have drawed if I wanted to. They’d have shot me out of the saddle in a wink. All I could do was hand over the package an’ beat it.”
“And they said you were a gunman,” said Sautee in derision. “How doIknow anybody stopped you and robbed you? Maybe you’ve come back here with that story to cover up the theft of the money. I guess I made a mistake in ever thinking of trusting a man of your caliber.”
“I was afraid of that,” said Rathburn. “I was afraid if anything like this was to happen you might think I was lying and was taking the money140myself. But I fooled ’em, Mr. Sautee,” he finished in triumph.
“What’s that?” Sautee asked sharply.
“Look here,” cried Rathburn excitedly as he took off his hat and recovered the package he had put in it before starting toward the mine.
He held up the package. “I was scared they might get wise an’ get the drop on me,” he said. “So I opened the package an’ took out what was in it and put it in my hat. They got the original package, all right, but it was stuffed with an old glove of mine. Here’s the money. I didn’t go right on to the mine for fear they’d find out their mistake an’ pot me from the timber. This is the money you gave me, minus the seals an’ the string an’ box. I wanted you to see that I was on the square.”
Sautee’s eyes were bulging. “Give me that,” he gulped out.
“Why––don’t you want me to take it to the mine?” asked Rathburn in surprise.
“Hand that over,” ordered Sautee, reaching for the package.
Rathburn drew away. “All right, Mr. Sautee,” he said in a complaining voice. “If you don’t want me to go through with the job you can back down, I guess. We’ll just make sure the money’s here, though.”
Sautee leaped toward him.
“Give me that package!” he cried angrily. “Do you hear me?”
Rathburn warded him off, keeping the package at arm’s length away.
“Just hold your horses,” he said coldly. “I reckon I know what I’m doing. You don’t trust me now, an’ I ain’t goin’ to take any chances with you. I’m goin’ to open this an’ show you that141the money’s there, that’s all; I’m goin’ to show you that I’m giving you back what you gave me all fair an’ square.”
Sautee’s face was ashen. His voice trembled as he spoke again: “Hand it over and get out of here. I’ve had enough trouble with you. I’ll take your word for it.”
But Rathburn was undoing the paper wrappings.
Again Sautee made a leap, but this time he met Rathburn’s left fist and staggered back, dropping into a chair. Rathburn looked at him coldly.
“Funny you’re so anxious to take my word for things now, when a minute ago you said you couldn’t know but what I’d told that holdup story for a blind so’s I could get away with––this!”
The wrappings fell away, revealing a wad of blank paper.
Rathburn’s face froze. Sautee stared white-faced at what the other held in his hand. Then a peculiar glint came into his eyes and he looked at Rathburn narrowly.
“So that’s the way of it,” he said sarcastically.
Rathburn stuffed the paper into a pocket. Then he pulled a chair in front of the mines manager and sat down. He took out paper and tobacco from his shirt pocket and began to fashion a cigarette.
“It sure looks bad for me, doesn’t it, Mr. Sautee?” he asked as he snapped a match into flame.
“I thought you were going to return the money,” Sautee said sneeringly.
“It looks bad two ways,” Rathburn went on as if he hadn’t heard the other’s comment. “First, if that package the holdups got had contained the money you could have swore it was a put-up job. I’d have had to beat it fast. Now, when I find that the package you gave to me was full of blank paper, you can say that I framed the holdup142story and changed the money for paper in the bargain.”
Sautee’s eyes were glowing. “An’ you’ll have to beat it, after all,” he jeered.
“So it would seem,” mused Rathburn. “I fooled ’em, an’ to all appearances I fooled myself, although maybe Ididtake a peep into that package when I changed it in my room, Mr. Sautee.”
The mines manager shifted in his chair; but he stared defiantly at Rathburn.
“You’d have a hard time proving anything,” he said grimly.
“That’s the trouble,” Rathburn admitted. “I’d sort of have to depend on you. I was thinkin’ maybe you double crossed me to make ’em thinkIwas carrying the money while you sneaked it up some other way, Mr. Sautee.”
“You can think what you want to,” said Sautee. “But you better start moving. If I was you, I’d get as far away from this town and Mannix as I could by daylight.”
Rathburn’s manner underwent a lightning change as he threw away his partly finished cigarette.
“You’re right,” he said crisply. “It’s time to start moving, Sautee.”
He rose, and his right hand moved incredibly fast. Sautee gasped as he looked into the bore of Rathburn’s gun. He could hardly realize that Rathburn had drawn.
“I fooled the night riders twice,” explained Rathburn with a peculiar smile. “First, when I let ’em get the wrong package, an’ again when I let ’em get the wrong gun. This gun an’ I work together like clock ticks when necessary. I’ll have to ask you to fork over the money that you drew from the bank an’ that should have been in that package, Sautee.”