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“We made a mistake, hoss,” he muttered, “in not remembering to hunt up Mike Eagen first thing.”
In the quick moves following his sudden momentous decision, he had forgotten Eagen. This fact now bothered him. He had a score to settle with Eagen on general principles. This did not mean that he necessarily would have to shoot Eagen down; but he wanted Eagen to hear straight out what he thought of him. It might be a long time before he could gratify that desire after the events of this day.
Slowly he proceeded, not once venturing upon a high spot until he had investigated by crawling to a vantage point on his hands and knees. It was sundown when he saw the first riders. Two were farther down the slopes to westward, and several more were far to eastward. It was true then that Long had thrown a cordon about the section of the mountains which he had been seen to enter the day before.
However, Rathburn’s knowledge of the range and the secrets of the mountain trails gave him a distinct advantage over the inexperienced members of the posses. True, there were deputies and some others who were experienced; but they were in the minority.
Rathburn realized that the sheriff must have been released some hours before, and that his escapade of the morning would stimulate the man hunt. The rewards would be increased, and every able-bodied man in Hope would doubtless join in the scramble for the reward money. He was satisfied that Sheriff Long’s order would be to “shoot on sight!”
On the very crest of the range he paused in the shelter of the rocks. There still was a fair chance for him to get away clean to eastward. The sheriff had not had time to get more men over there, and by making a break into the southeast229and then cutting straight to the east, there was a strong possibility that he would succeed in circling around the posse and effect his escape.
But something was drawing him to Joe Price! He did not quite understand that it was the desire to confide in and confess to his friend what had actuated his choice of moral trails. But the yearning was there, and he was yielding to it. He conjectured shrewdly that Long might not dream that he would have the temerity again to enter the very district where he was being sought. It was his belief that the best place to hide from a posse was in the midst of it!
It was this confidence, almost as much as his skill in trailing, which enabled him to gain a point above Joe Price’s cabin in the early twilight. He waited patiently until the curtain of night had fallen, and the stars had replaced the fading banners of the sunset, before he slipped down a steep slope and walked his horse into the cañon below the old miner’s abode.
230CHAPTER XXXIVTHE COMPASS WAVERS
Joe Price regarded Rathburn with a curious look in his eyes when he beheld him in the doorway of his cabin. He stepped swiftly to the one window, which was over the table, and dropped the burlap shade. Then he closed the door.
“So they’ve been here?” asked Rathburn.
“What else could you expect?” replied Price testily. “They’re combin’ these hills for you.” He looked at Rathburn keenly, but Rathburn only smiled.
“That’s not news to me,” he said quietly; “I’ve percolated through their lines twice.”
“Stay here,” said Price, “and I’ll look after your horse––or were you hidin’ up all day?”
“No such luck,” answered Rathburn grimly.
The old man looked at him curiously; then he went out of the door, closing it carefully after him.
Rathburn found cold food, put it on the table, and sat down to eat. When Price returned he had finished. The old miner sat down in a chair opposite Rathburn.
“Now, out with it,” he said. “Something has happened. I can see it in the way you look an’ act. What’s up?”
Rathburn carefully rolled a brown-paper cigarette, snapped a match into flame, and lit it before he replied. He was half smiling.
“I held up the State Bank of Hope this mornin’ an’ extracted a bag of perfectedly good bills,” he announced. “Didn’t bother with the counter money. Made ’em serve me from the vault.”
231
Joe Price’s eyelids did not even flicker.
“Any idear what you got?” he asked.
“Not whatsoever,” replied Rathburn coolly; “but the smallest I saw on top of the package was a fifty.”
Price nodded. “You got plenty,” he said.
Rathburn scowled. He had expected some kind of an outbreak––at least a remonstrance from his old friend. He glanced about uneasily and then glared defiance at Price.
“It had to come, Joe,” he asserted. “There wasn’t any way out of it. What’s more, I killed that greased pard of Eagen’s, Gomez.”
“How so?” queried Price.
“Well, I’ll tellyou, Joe, but I don’t expect it to go any further. He said something about Laura Mallory an’ a man named Doane, an’ I didn’t like it. I slapped him. Then he went for a knife he had in his hat.”
The old man nodded again. “I see,” he said simply. “You shot him. Not a bad riddance. How did you come to rob the bank, Rathburn?”
Rathburn’s gaze again shifted uneasily. Then he rose with a burning look at Price, walked up and down the slanting length of the cabin, and halted before the old miner.
“Joe,” he said in a tremulous voice, “it’s the last ditch. I can’t get away from it. I thought I could tell you––an old friend––the whole story, but I can’t, Joe. That’s the devil of it! There’s something wrong with me. I reckon I’m one of those fellows who just had everything mapped out for him. I had some trouble, Joe, an’ it’s started something––something I can’t control. Theyhadto remember me, an’ I gave them something to remember me by!”
“Who do you mean by ‘they,’ Rathburn?” asked the miner.
232
“Sheriff Long an’ the others,” said Rathburn quickly. “There wasn’t a chance for me. Why, I was thinking of giving myself up only this morning. Joe, it ain’t in the pictures––not after I let Gomez have it. Even after I stopped Gomez I had an idea that I could face the music. Besides, Joe, there’s more to this than you think. They call me The Coyote, an’, Joe, so help me, from now on I am!”
“Did you stop at the Mallory place?” asked Price quietly.
Rathburn did not reply at once. With agony in his eyes he looked at his old friend, and suddenly he bristled:
“I might as well never have gone there,” he flung out. “I see now I wasn’t wanted. I found out as much from Gomez. He told me about Laura’s affair with that fellow Doane. But what could I expect? I wasn’t entitled to no thought from her, an’ I should have known as much. I’m just a plain fool––a worse one now than I was before.”
Joe Price’s faded blue eyes glowed with comprehension.
“You thought Laura had put you off, so you gave in an’ robbed the bank, Rathburn, an’ just naturally made a mess of things when you had a chance,” said the old man stoutly. “That ain’t actin’ with a lick of sense. You wasn’t gettin’ square with anybody, an’ you wasn’t doin’ that girl right by takin’ the word of Gomez.”
“I saw the two of them, her an’ Doane, in Hope this morning, walkin’ down the street, arm in arm, laughing––probably over me,” Rathburn replied bitterly. “I’ve got eyes, and I can put two an’ two together. I’m only The Coyote with her, and I’llbeThe Coyote. She took my gun an’ then gave it back when Mike Eagen showed up, thinkin’ maybe there’d be gun play, an’ I’d get mine.”
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“Now you shet up!” shrilled Price. “I reckon you’ve lost all the brains you ever did have? Do you think Laura would keep your gun, knowin’ there might be trouble, an’ you wouldn’t have any way to protect yourself? Don’t you suppose she knows you’re as fast as Eagen? She’s no fool, if you are. But, if you’ve got to stay the fool, you better be lightin’ out with your winnings. An’ you’re not takin’ the bank’s money, either.”
“What do you mean by that?” scowled Rathburn, who had been thoughtful while his friend was speaking.
“I had money in that bank, Rathburn, an’ so did Mallory, an’ there’s a lot more of us–––”
“I’ll give you back your money,” Rathburn growled. “Anyway, they’re protected by insurance, an’ the insurance people can hunt me till doomsday––I guess.” He was cooling off rapidly.
“Maybe they are,” said Price, “an’ maybe they ain’t. But it ain’t goin’ to help you none the way you’re goin’ to feel about it later, no matter who loses it.”
Rathburn was pacing the room, frowning. Twice he started to speak, but the words failed to come. Then he put a question. “Who is this man Doane? He knew me, for I met him when I was comin’ out of the bank, an’ he called me by name.”
“Doane is cashier of the bank down at Hope. He was likely just comin’ to work when you met him.”
Rathburn stared with an incredulous expression. “You’re sure?” But even as he put the question, Rathburn placed his man.
“I’m dead certain on it,” declared Price.
Rathburn sat down heavily and took his hat in his hand.
“That makes it different,” he said dully, as if to234himself. “Maybe she’s stuck on him for his money, an’ maybe she’s stuck on him because he’s a good guy. Maybe this thing would hurt him.”
“Oh, I don’t think they’d blame him,” said Price with a note of consolation in his voice; “an’ he probably wouldn’t lose nothin’.”
“But she might think––it might be that she–––” Rathburn swung his hat to his head and rose. He walked toward the door, but Joe Price got in his way.
“Where you goin’?” he asked.
“To the Mallory ranch!”
“You can’t get there!” said Price hoarsely, pushing him back.
“I’ve got to get there!” answered Rathburn grimly, pushing the old man aside. “I must see Laura.”
“You got here just by luck,” Price pointed out. “An’ there’s more men in by now. Maybe they know you’re here. But wait till I get your horse––he’s hid.”
“Get him,” Rathburn commanded.
After a moment’s hesitation Price went out the door, and he returned almost instantly. He walked to the table and blew out the light. “Go to the door an’ see,” he urged in an excited voice.
Rathburn hurried out. High on the mountain above the cañon a fire was burning.
“It’s the signal,” Price whispered in his ear.
“Joe, do me a last favor,” said Rathburn in a queer voice. “Get me my hoss before it’s too late!”
The old man obediently slipped into the shadows behind the cabin.
235CHAPTER XXXVGUNS IN THE NIGHT
When Joe Price returned, leading Rathburn’s horse which he had fed and watered, and turned over the reins, he spoke swiftly in a low voice:
“They’ll be watchin’ hard for you down the cañon, boy. Bob Long’s sure to mean business this ’ere time.”
“Well, I know it,” said Rathburn with a low, mirthless laugh. “I locked him in his own jail this mornin’ to get a clean chance to decide to give myself up. Then, when the chance came––well, he surely thinks now that I put him away to cover my tracks. I expect the boys have got their shootin’ orders.”
“Listen!” whispered Price excitedly. “Wait till I get my own horse, an’ I’ll strike east across the hump. That’ll start ’em after me maybe––sure it will, Rathburn! They’ll think I’m you, see, an’ light right out after me.”
Rathburn laid one hand on the old man’s shoulder and put the other over Joe’s mouth.
“Joe, you’re all excited––plumb unreasonable excited. You know I wouldn’t let you do that. Now don’t hand me more worries than I’ve got. Be good, Joe.” He patted Price’s shoulder, then swung into the saddle.
The old miner looked up at him, his face showing strangely white in the dim starlight, pierced by the fire on the peak.
“I didn’t tell ’em you’d been here, Roger; don’t forget that!”
236
“I knew that, Joe,” Rathburn chuckled. “So long.”
Swiftly he rode down the little meadow below the spring into the deep shadows of the cañon which led down a steep trail to the desert. Presently he checked his pace until he was walking the gallant dun. He wished to avoid as much noise as possible, and to save the horse for a final spurt down nine miles of desert to the Mallory ranch from the mouth of the cañon––providing he got out.
For two reasons he had deliberately chosen this route: it was shortest, and it offered the best going. He must save the dun’s strength. Rathburn knew the limits of his splendid mount; knew they had almost been reached; knew there was just enough left in the horse to make the ranch without killing him. The Coyote would surrender before he would kill his horse to effect his escape or gain an objective!
Thus they slipped down the narrow cañon, with the desert stars gleaming white above the lava hills of Imagination Range, while the fire glowed on the peak above Joe Price’s cabin. Rathburn’s face was pale under his tan; his thoughts were in a turmoil, but his lips were pressed into a fine line that denoted an unwavering determination. Had Sheriff Bob Long seen his face at this time he might have glimpsed another angle of Rathburn’s many-sided character––an angle which would have given him pause.
Rathburn looked behind, and his eyes narrowed. Two fires were burning on the peak.
Already the watchers were cognizant of his latest move and were signaling to those who might be below. He wondered vaguely why they had not surrounded Joe Price’s cabin while he had been there. Then he realized he had been there hardly long237enough for his pursuers to get there in any number. Suddenly his thoughts were broken into by a streak of red in the cañon depths below him. He swerved close against the rock wall, drew his gun, and, speaking to the dun, drove in his spurs.
A short distance below he could see the faint glow of the starlight night and knew he was near the cañon’s mouth. There were more streaks of red, and bullets whistled past him. Then Rathburn raised his gun and sent half its deadly contents crashing down into the trail ahead.
There followed a few moments of quiet, broken only by the harsh, ringing pound of his mount’s hoofs. Rathburn could see open country just ahead. Then a flash of fire came from almost under him, and the big dun lunged into the air, half twisting, and came down upon some object under its hoofs. The dun bounded on in great leaps, literally flying through the air, as Rathburn thrilled with the knowledge that the horse had knocked down the man who had sought to kill him.
From above came sharp reports, and the blackness of the high cañon walls was streaked with spurts of flame. Leaden death hurled itself into the rock trail behind him. Then he was out of the cañon, riding like mad through the white desert night toward his goal––the Mallory ranch!
Laura Mallory stood on the porch of the little ranch house, staring out across the dimly lit spaces of desert. A worried look appeared in her eyes. The front door was open, and in the small sitting room her father was reading under a shaded lamp at the table. At times the worried look in the girl’s eyes would change to one of wistfulness, and twice the tears welled.
Presently she straightened and listened intently,238looking into the south instead of northwest. Her ears, keen as are those of the desert born, had caught a sound––a succession of faint sounds––in the still night air. Gradually the sound became more and more distinct, and the worried expression of her face increased. She hurried into the sitting room.
“Father, Fred Doane is coming out from town,” she said breathlessly. “Do you suppose they’ve got him?”
“Maybe so, girlie,” said the old man. “It was a bold business, an’ what could you expect?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I can’t seem to understand. All this trouble is coming so suddenly. Father, are you sure you heard Roger refuse to aid that man Eagen in some shady scheme last night?”
“Ab-so-lutely,” declared Mallory. “I’ve been wondering, daughter, if he didn’t turn Eagen down because he had this scheme of his own.”
The purr of a motor came to them from outside, and Laura, hastily wiping her eyes with a small handkerchief, went slowly out.
“Laura!” cried Fred Doane, as he came up the steps, holding out his hands.
“What––what is it, Fred?” she faltered. “Have they caught–––”
“Not yet,” said Doane briskly, as Mallory appeared in the door. “An’ they probably won’t get him. He’s clever, that fellow.”
The bank cashier indulged in a frown, but he was plainly nervous.
“Then what news do you bring here?” Mallory demanded. “Did you come to tell us he’d got away clean?”
“Why, not––not exactly,” said Doane. “I meant to tell you that, of course, but I also want to have a little talk with Laura. Can I see you alone, Laura, for a few minutes?”
239
“Oh,that’sit,” snorted Mallory, as he stamped back into the house.
“You have something to tell me you don’t want father to hear?” asked the girl in a worried voice.
“Laura, there’s something I must tell you right away,” said Doane nervously, leading her to the shadow of the far end of the porch. There he turned and faced her, taking her hands.
“Laura, you must have seen it for a long time. You could hardly help but see it. I love you, Laura––I love you with all my heart, and I want you to be my wife.”
The girl drew back in astonishment.
“But why do you have to tell me this so suddenly?” she asked, her color coming and going.
“Because I want you to marry me, Laura, to-night!” he said.
Again he reached for her hands. “Please, Laura,” he pleaded. “It means so much to me. Don’t you care for me, sweetheart? I’ve been led to think you did, and I intended to tell you soon, but all this trouble––this terrible trouble to-day––has nearly driven me mad. I’m afraid I’ll go mad, Laura, if I don’t have something else to think about. Oh, Laura, marry me and help me out of this big trouble.”
“Fred!” exclaimed the girl, startled by his passion of pleading. “Fred, I’ve never tried to make you think I cared for you. And now––well, I’d have to have a long time to think it over. How would it help you out of trouble, Fred? Tell me that.”
“By helping me forget––by helping me forget that our bank is ruined! By saving my mind! By keeping me from going mad! By–––”
“Fred you must not talk so. That robbery has unnerved you for the time being, that’s all. You’re excited and so–––”
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“I’m more than excited,” he declared, trying to put his hands on her shoulders. “I’m about––about––gone! Laura, marry me to-night, and we’ll go somewhere––we’ll go somewhere right from here, from this ranch––go a long way and get married in the morning. Then we can stay away for a short time till I get to be myself again.”
“No, Fred,” replied the girl in convincing tones, “I can’t. It would be asking too much even if I loved you. Come inside, and I’ll make you some strong tea. You can talk to father and me and regain control of yourself.”
There was a moment of silence. Mallory with the lamp had come to the door at the sound of Doane’s loud voice. He was looking at them. Then out of the night came the pound of hoofs. There was no mistaking the sound.
Doane whirled around, as a rider came out of the sea of mesquite and greasewood and flung himself from the saddle in front of the porch. The bank cashier turned toward Mallory. His face was haggard. He seemed to sway, as the rider came stamping up the steps. He darted for the door, but had hardly got inside before the rider caught him and made him face about. Mallory hurried in with the lamp, followed by the girl.
Doane was quailing before the new arrival. Both cried out, as they saw it was Eagen who had broken out so suddenly. Eagen towered above the shrinking Doane.
“So you thought you’d double cross me, did you, eh?” came Eagen’s harsh voice, and he slapped Doane in the face.
Doane went red, then white. For a moment intense hatred and anger flashed in his eyes, but he made no move to avenge the insult. Slowly the light in his eyes died again to fear, as he241realized his inability to cope with this man of strength.
“Here, Eagen, you can’t come into my house and act like that,” said Mallory stoutly, putting the lamp on the table.
Laura still stood in the doorway, stunned by the rapid and extraordinary turn of events. Eagen turned on Mallory with a snarl.
“Shut up, you old fool! Don’t butt in where you ain’t wanted, an’ on something you don’t know anything about.”
“I know you’re in my house!” Mallory retorted sternly.
“I’ll only be here a minute,” said Eagen with a sneer. “I’m goin’ out of your house, an’ I’m goin’ to drag this sneaking cur out with me––out on the solid ground an’ give him what’s comin’ to him. An’ then,” he added in a terrible voice; “I’m goin’ to go out an’ get his pardner––Rathburn, The Coyote––get him when the others can’t come within a mile of him!”
“You can’t take this man out of my house when he is my guest!” thundered Mallory.
“No?” asked Eagen contemptuously. “Well, you watch an’ see! If you try to stop me you’ll stop lead!”
He leaped forward and grasped Doane by the shoulder, jerked him forward, and stepped backward himself. He turned, dragging his victim, then stopped dead in his tracks with a hissing intake of breath. Rathburn was standing quietly in the doorway.
242CHAPTER XXXVITHE LOOT
In the heat of the threats and counterthreats which had been in progress, none of the occupants of the room had heard the newest arrival thunder up to the porch and leap from the saddle to the steps.
Eagen was dumfounded by Rathburn’s sudden appearance. He saw that the girl was standing now in a front corner of the room, with her hands crossed on her breast, a look of horror in her eyes. Slowly Eagen recovered and loosed his hold on Doane, who staggered weakly to the table and leaned upon it. Eagen’s sneer returned to his thick lips, and his narrowed gaze traveled quickly to a sack which Rathburn held in his left hand. Eagen’s eyes shone with fury.
“Come here to fix up the divvy!” he choked. “I knew it was a put-up job between you an’ Doane, an’ I figured you’d maybe meet aroun’ here where Doane would be sure to come to try an’ take this woman with him.”
Rathburn eyed him calmly. There was something of a deadly calm in his very posture, as he stood just within the threshold. He looked past Eagen to Doane. Then he tossed the sack on the table.
“Here’s the money I took this morning, Doane,” he said in matter-of-fact tones. “I came here to turn it over to you.”
With bulging eyes Doane stared at him.
Eagen laughed loudly. “That’s rich! Tryin’ to make me think you was goin’ to give itallto him? Don’t you figure, Mr. Coyote, that I can throw243my rope aroun’ a simple scheme like you an’ that shivering rat over by the table cooked up? That’s why you turned down my little proposition last night. It was this same deal––only,me, an’ Doane there was goin’ to put it over. You figured I’d cut you out of your divvy, an’ you figured right; he suspected I might double cross him, an’ maybe he was right, too. So he cooked it up with you to pull the robbery, thinkin’ you’d be more likely to go through an’ give him his end. But the pair of you figured too many points when you thought I wouldn’t catch on.”
“That was what your proposition was to be, was it?” asked Rathburn pleasantly. “Rob the bank? Why, I didn’t need a gang to rob the bank, Eagen, an’ I didn’t have anybody in with me. The trouble with you is that you’ve got too much imagination.”
The drawl in which Rathburn concluded his speech drove Eagen to a frenzy.
“You lie, Rathburn!”
Rathburn smiled. “I might as well tell you that I intended to get away with that money that’s on the table, Eagen. That’s what I took it for. I’m making this little statement because something’s liable to happen to one, or both of us. I didn’t know Doane was cashier of the bank when I took it. I only recently learned that fact. Then I brought it back to turn over to him, not so much on his account as on account of Miss Mallory. I understand Doane is a very good friend of Miss Mallory. I wouldn’t want his bank hurt for that reason.”
It was Laura Mallory who cried out at this. She walked toward Rathburn, although he did not look at her.
“Why did you do it, Roger?” she asked in a trembling voice.
“I can’t tell youthat, ma’am,” he said.
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“But I know!” she cried. “I’ve guessed it. You saw Mr. Doane and me together in Hope to-day and remembered he was at the ranch last night, and–––”
“Don’t say any more, Laura!” Rathburn commanded sternly.
“Be still, daughter; it’s best,” said Mallory.
“Neither she, nor you, nor Doane, nor all of you together can talk me out of it!” roared Eagen. “It was a frame-up!”
In the deadly stillness that followed, Laura Mallory shrank back from the sight of two gunmen looking steadily into each other’s eyes, their hands ready for the lightning draw––each waiting for the merest suggestion of the beginning of a move on the part of the other to get his weapon into action. But the draws did not come. The pregnant silence was broken by the thundering roll of many horses galloping into the yard about the house.
“There!” yelled Eagen in a voice of triumph. “There’s your sweet little posse, Coyote!”
“I expected to see Bob Long when I came down here!” said Rathburn coolly, looking at Laura Mallory for the first time.
245CHAPTER XXXVIITHE TEST OF A MAN
Several men stamped across the porch to the jingle of spur chains. Others broke in through the back door and entered the kitchen. Sheriff Bob Long appeared at the door, with two guns leveled.
“You’re covered from both doors and all the windows, Rathburn!” he said sharply.
“That’s almost just what I thought, sheriff,” Rathburn drawled.
Long stepped into the room, shoving his guns into their holsters. Many other guns were covering Rathburn.
“What’s the meaning of all this, anyway?” demanded Long with a puzzled expression on his face. His eyes widened, as he saw the bag of money on the table. “Is that the money that was taken from your bank this morning Mr. Doane?” he asked sharply.
Doane nodded weakly. The sheriff looked at Rathburn curiously.
“You brought it back? You was up to Joe Price’s place.”
“Yes, I brought it back, sheriff,” said Rathburn cheerfully.
“Well, I’ll be frank and tell you, Rathburn, that if you expect leniency after what happened this morning you might just as well give up that idea. Any man can change his mind when he sees he can’t get away.”
“That’s up to you, sheriff,” replied Rathburn, taking tobacco and papers from his shirt pocket.246“As I was just tellin’ our friend, Mr. Eagen, I brought it back on purpose, an’ I expected to see you when I got here. I came near not gettin’ here at that.”
“You took a long chance,” scowled Long. “But it won’t get you much now at this stage of the game––especially after the way you led me to believe this morning that you were thinking of giving yourself up.”
Eagen’s laugh startled them.
“He brought it back to give it up an’ himself, too?” he jeered. “He brought it back, sheriff, because he an’ that rat of a Doane planned this thing. Coyote got away with the money an’ came back here to divvy up with Doane. Didn’t Doane make the same kind of a proposition to me? Didn’t he tell me he was short in his accounts, an’ it could be covered up if the bank was robbed, for then he could say more money was took than really was? I’ll say he did. An’ I was goin’ to see if he’d go through with it, an’ then I was going to wise you up so we could get him cold.”
With knitted brows the sheriff stared at Eagen, then looked at the white-faced Doane.
“Tell him I’m tellin’ the truth!” shouted Eagen at the shaking bank cashier. “You can’t get out of it.”
There was a tense moment.
Doane shook his head weakly; he was a picture of guilt.
“He got scared I wouldn’t go through with the play, sheriff,” Eagen continued. “Thought maybe I’d make off with all the kale. So he framed it with Rathburn, an’ I caught ’em about to divide it here.”
“He lies!” screamed Doane. “I didn’t frame it with Rathburn. I can prove it. That man”––he247pointed a shaking finger at Eagen––“has come to me with threats and made me take securities I knew were stolen. There’s some of them in the bank now. Some of the stuff he took from the stage driver yesterday is there! He’s pulled job after job–––”
Eagen, recovering from his amazement at the man’s outbreak, leaped and drove his powerful fist against Doane’s jaw, knocking him nearly the length of the room, where he crashed with his head against the stones of the fireplace. Eagen turned quickly. His eyes were blazing red.
“You’re the man!” he yelled wrathfully. “You’re the yellow Coyote–––”
His right hand went to his gun, as there came a crashing report. He staggered back, trying to get out the weapon which had not left his holster. He sank down to his knees, still glaring death at the man above him, still fumbling at his gun. Then he lurched forward on his face.
Rathburn flipped his smoking pistol so that its barrel landed in his hand. Then he tendered it, butt foremost, to Sheriff Bob Long. Long took it and threw it on the table, looking first at Rathburn, then at the dead man on the floor. He waved toward the doors and windows.
“You boys can draw back,” he ordered.
Mallory stepped to the fallen Doane. The man’s face had set in a white cast. He felt his heart.
“He did for him,” he said, rising.
Laura Mallory came walking slowly up to the sheriff. Her face was ghastly after what she had witnessed.
“Sheriff Long,” she said in a voice strangely calm, “we heard Eagen”––she shuddered, as she mentioned the name––“ask Roger––ask Mr. Rathburn last night to help with some job that would248get them a lot of money. It may be that––that––Fred did plan such a thing. I’m sorry to say it, but Fred had seemed awfully nervous lately, and to-night he came to me and asked me to run away with him––at once. He seemed horribly afraid of something. Anyway, Roger refused to go in with Eagen, and an examination of Fred’s books will tell all.”
She hesitated. Then she spoke slowly and softly.
“I know why Roger robbed the bank and–––”
“Stop, Laura!” cried Rathburn.
“No,” said Laura firmly; “you may be going to prison.”
He put out one hand in protest.
Turning again to the sheriff she said:
“Roger did go to town last night, intending to give himself up. I knew he was going to do it by the way he looked at me. But to-day he saw me with Mr. Doane, and maybe he’s heard things for which there was no warrant. Anyway, I know he thought I––I––was in love with Fred.”
“Laura––please!” Rathburn pleaded.
“And to-night,” said the girl in triumph, “he heard Fred was cashier of the bank he’d robbed, and he brought the money back because he thought the robbery would hurt Fred and in that way hurt me!”
Rathburn turned appealingly to the sheriff. “Let’s go,” he urged.
“He robbed that bank because he thought I had betrayed his trust, Sheriff Long!” cried Laura, her eyes shining.
“Are we going, Long?” cried Rathburn in an agony.
The sheriff stepped to the door and called to some of his men who entered and bore the bodies of Doane and Eagen out of the sitting room. Then he took the money sack from the table and indicated to Rathburn to follow him, as he went out of the249door. Rathburn went after him quickly, and the girl ran to the porch. Rathburn drew back with a cry, as he reached the porch. Just beyond the steps a horse was lying on its side.
“My––my hoss!” he cried wonderingly.
He leaped down beside the dead beast. Then he saw crimson upon the animal’s shoulder, as a little gleam of light came from the door.
“That was why he jumped on the trail. He was hit. He carried me all this way with a bullet in him an’ then dropped! One of Long’s men shot him.”
Rathburn looked about vacantly. Then he sank down and buried his face on the shoulder of the dun, as Sheriff Long turned away. Laura Mallory stepped quickly to the side of the sheriff and touched his arm.
“Is he as bad as you think, sheriff?”
Long scowled at her in the dim light from the door, took out a thick, black cigar, bit the end off savagely, and began to chew it. He walked abruptly out to where some of his men were standing by their horses, and he said something in an undertone. When he returned, Rathburn had taken the saddle and bridle off the dead horse and was throwing the leather on the porch.
“Yours, dad,” he called to Mallory; “I wouldn’t use ’em again if I could.” Then he turned to the sheriff. “All right, Bob.”
“Come inside,” said Long gruffly.
250CHAPTER XXXVIIITEN MILES’ START
When they were in the sitting room the sheriff confronted Rathburn.
“This has been a queer case for me,” he said slowly, with an attempt at harshness. “I knew Eagen was up to a lot of dirty work, but I never could fasten anything on him till to-night. I’ll get some of the rest of the gang now. Doane showed in his face that he was guilty. Those things don’t worry me none. Butyouare the hardest character I ever had to handle, Rathburn!”
“I don’t figure on givin’ you any more trouble, sheriff,” Rathburn assured him, smiling.
“That’s the puzzle of it!” Long exploded. “That puts it up to me. I know you had reason for giving Gomez his, and I know this girl wouldn’t lie about the other. But––well, I don’t get you a-tall, Rathburn, and that’s a fact. Something tells me I’ve got to give you a chance, and if I knew what tells me this I’d wring its neck!”
He stepped close to Rathburn and looked him straight in the eye.
“Take one of Mallory’s horses. He’s got some good ones. I give you ten miles in any direction. If you can make it––it’s your candy. But remember, Rathburn, I’m going to try to stop you!”
He walked swiftly out of the door, leaving Rathburn staring at the smiling girl.
Laura stepped close to him and nodded. Rathburn shook his head.
“I can’t see where I’ve got the right to give Long any more trouble.”
251
“But he isn’t letting you go, Roger. He’s putting it up to you, and he means what he says when he declares he’ll try to get you.”
“If he does, he’ll probably get me,” mused Rathburn.
“But maybe he won’t getus, Roger.”
“Us?”
“You and I, Roger. Listen! There’s a land ’way up north, Roger. I’ve read about it. It’s past the desert and the mountains and the plains––in another country! And there’s a river there, Roger––a river they call Peace River. I’ve always loved the name. We’ll go there, Roger, you and I––and father can come later.”
She looked up at him with shining eyes and put her arms about his neck, and she saw the unbelievable wonder in his face. The man trembled. Then he took her and held her and kissed her, time after time.
“Joe Price said I could never be satisfied away from the desert unless I took along something that was of it,” he muttered hoarsely; “I wonder–––”
“Yes, Roger, he meant me.”
“We can’t make it,” he said softly. “Not the two of us––but Laura, girlie,thisis worth the game!”
“Yes we can, Roger,” she said eagerly. “Think! We can be married when we’ve left the desert. It’s not quite ten miles to Boxall Cañon. We can go up Boxall over the range and cross Death Flat.”
“I was thinking of that, sweetheart,” he replied. “But no horse can get up Boxall, an’ if he did he couldn’t get across Death Flat. Few men have crossed that stretch. It’s well named. I might try it alone; but you––no, Laura. It just ain’t in the pictures!”
“We don’t need horses, Roger. You’ve forgotten the burros. They’ll kill any horse on the desert,252won’t they? We can take two or three loaded with food and water.”
“But it’s miles and miles an’ then some––an’ it all looks alike.”
“But when we’ve reached the other side, Roger?”
He drew away from her and stepped to the door. He could not see or hear anything. When he turned and again approached her, his face was white. He looked at Mallory, who was standing with a look of stupefaction on his lined face.
“Wait!” he said and stepped into another room. In a few moments he was back, holding a money belt in his hands. He took out gold and bills and deposited the money on the table.
The others stared.
“There’s about six thousand there, Mallory. It’s gamblin’ money. Turn it in to the bank to make or help out Doane’s shortage. I’ve got just twenty-five hundred left which I earned in a better way.”
“Daddy, get the burros!” cried the girl. “We’re going!”
Sheriff Bob Long looked down from a ledge above a narrow, deep, boulder-strewn, awe-inspiring cañon and drew in his breath sharply. Below he saw two human beings and three animals.
“I knew he’d try it,” Long said wonderingly to himself. “I thought he’d try it afoot. But the girl! And they’re going to try to cross Death Flat!”
His look of wonder increased, and he made no move toward the weapons in his holsters.
“I wonder now,” he mused. “Can they make it? I wonder–––”
He scowled and looked about with a frowning stare. His gaze again shifted downward. Suddenly he shrugged and put the wrong end of his unlighted cigar in his mouth.
253
“That’s the queerest cigar I ever had,” he growled, as he made his way to his horse. “It won’t stay lit because it wants to be swallowed.”
He mounted and rode slowly back toward the far-reaching stretches of desert. Once he halted and turned in his saddle for a backward look.
“He had the makings of the worst bad man this country ever saw,” he muttered aloud. “Now, if that woman and another country––but first they’ve got to get across.”
On the western edge of a great, ghastly plain of white, in which a deceiving, distant glow was mirrored in the desert dawn, two figures, a man and a girl, stood hand in hand. Three shaggy burros, heavily laden, stood behind them. The burros saw not the Death Flat ahead, for they were asleep.
And the man and the girl saw not the frightful white, as of powdered skulls, bare, sinister, sunbaked, but a vision of a little house in a fragrant green meadow, with golden fields on either side of a peaceful river, and forests ranging up to distant hills.
THE END
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