CHAPTER XVI.
OUT WEST.
As the stranger approached Smithers had an opportunity of observing that he was about the middle age, bronzed by exposure to the weather, and attired as befitted a raiser of stock or a farmer.
"Good-day," exclaimed Smithers. "What's the good word?"
"Good-day to you, stranger," answered the horseman. "I've nothing that I'd like to tell you, but whether it scares you or not, I reckon it's my duty to put you on your guard."
"Against what?"
"A thieving son of a gun who keeps in Dead Snake Canyon, which isn't more than three miles ahead of you."
"Is he a robber?"
"You bet he is," was the answer. "Though I didn't think he'd rob me, as I'm one of the boys myself. There isn't a man this side of the Rocky Mountains who doesn't know Joe Brady, the gambler."
"But, Mr. Brady," exclaimed Smithers, "did he try to stop you?"
"All he knew. He and two others must have heard that I was leaving Silver for Virginia City, and had considerable money about me, for they rode out from behind a bluff and commenced shooting free."
"And you escaped?"
"I did. A bullet carried off my hat, but I turned in the saddle, dropped one man, killed another's horse and the third turned tail and fled."
"Is it possible?" gasped Smithers.
"Then I made the running at a two-twenty pace, you bet, for I thought there might be more of them, and I never drew rein till I saw you in the distance."
Mrs. Smithers regarded her husband blankly, and the trepidation which this news caused the whole party to feel was written in their faces, Alice and Harold becoming particularly pale.
"Can the sheriff and his posse do nothing in the premises?" inquired Smithers.
"I guess neither the sheriff, nor the selectmen, nor the vigilance committee care to attend to business which is so far from them."
"Do they know of it?"
"Indeed they do. This fellow—Capt. Jordan, as he calls himself—has infested Dead Snake Canyon for a week or more, and has stopped a dozen travelers; but hemay stop a dozen more before he gets up the dander of the Silver citizens. I was told of him, and that's what made me take the disguise of an honest farmer."
"Perhaps they'll stop us," said Mrs. Smithers.
"That's a dead sure thing," answered Brady.
"Is there no other road, sir, that we could take to avoid this desperado?" asked Smithers.
"None that I know of."
"What will we do?" said Smithers, with a groan of despair.
"Put your money in your boots and appeal to the fellow's generosity to let you go on with your stores. Maybe he'll be after playing at higher game than robbing a poor emigrant."
"Some of those men," remarked Smithers, "are said to have some generosity."
"Oh, yes!" answered Joe Brady. "There was a fellow that practiced in California, who would never rob a woman."
"Is it any use showing fight?" inquired Smithers, displaying a new rifle and a brace of pistols.
"If you want your brains blown out on the prairie. No, no," answered Brady. "Don't anger them. You're not strong enough. Who knows how many there may be in the gang. What can one man do. Think of your wifeand children, and if you can't save your property, at least try to preserve your life for their sake. And now, good-day and good luck to you," cried Joe Brady.
"The same to you," answered Smithers.
"Remember, I warned you."
"I'm not likely to forget."
The stranger made an inclination of the head to Mr. Smithers, and putting spurs to his horse, was soon out of sight.
Smithers put the team in motion again, and the oxen labored along over the rough, uneven road.
He had traversed two-thirds of the Dead Snake Canyon without meeting with any human being, and was congratulating himself upon his escape from Capt. Jordan.
But his congratulations were premature.
The canyon narrowed toward the extreme end, and certain cavernous fissures in the rocks on the left-hand side seemed to indicate a sure and safe hiding place for marauders.
A huge mass of rock lay directly in the path. It appeared as if it had been detached from the parent basalt by some tremendous convulsion of nature.
Finding it necessary to make a slight detour to avoid the obstacle, Smithers turned the heads of the oxen.
Scarcely had he turned a dozen yards before two men on foot stepped out from behind the rock. This had been their hiding place.
Crape masks covered their faces, and served effectually to conceal their features.
The foremost, who appeared to be the leader, exclaimed, in a commanding voice:
"Halt!"
Smithers, who was by no means a brave man, trembled in every limb.
Both men were armed with pistols, which, as if to increase the man's terror, they leveled at his head, and with such an accuracy of aim that he could see by the direction of the muzzle that he was completely covered.
Mr. Smithers halted the oxen, Mrs. Smithers and the children crouched down in the wagon and furtively watched the actions of the robbers.
"Hold up your arms!" commanded the captain.
Smithers did as he was directed, and extended his arms in the air.
"Where are you from, and what have you got?" was the next question.
"From Jersey City, and last from Omaha," replied Smithers. "I have a few stores in the wagon, and very little money. It is all I have to keep my wife and twochildren. Gentlemen, for pity's sake, don't deprive us of our only means of gaining a livelihood!"
"Oh, drop on yourself!" answered the captain, impatiently. "Play light! What are you?—a ranting preacher?"
"I was a dry-goods clerk, sir."
"What made you quit Jersey City? No lies now!"
"I—I robbed my employers, sir, and had to leave," replied Smithers, in some confusion.
The other laughed.
"That's a good joke!" he exclaimed. "You steal all you can lay your hands on, and then object to being robbed in your turn. Turn and turn about's a square deal, you know."
He advanced to the wagon.
"Get out of there! Hurry up!" he commanded.
The children hastened to comply with this order, for the man's appearance was so fierce, and the tone of his voice so brutal, that they were afraid he would shoot them without mercy.
Mrs. Smithers was the last to alight.
The captain extended his hand to assist her, but started back as soon as he beheld her face.
"Je-rusalem!" he muttered.
She stood before him calmly, and said, in a voice that trembled with emotion:
"Pray spare us, sir! We are very poor, and——"
"Stop that chinning!" cried the man, in a voice somewhat gruffer, if possible, than that he had formerly employed, and which afforded a presumption that he was striving to disguise it.
She was silent instantly.
"Ben," said the captain, "take this woman away and place her—you know where. I'll attend to the bloke and the kids."
Mrs. Smithers shrunk to the side of her husband, as if to demand that protection which she nevertheless knew he could not afford to give her.
Smithers, however, ventured to lower one of his arms, which he put around her waist.
Scarcely had he done so than a bullet whizzed over his head.
"What did I tell you?" cried the captain. "Up with that hand!"
He was fain to do as he was told, and the hand was removed from his wife's waist, to point once more toward the sky.
Ben, as the captain had called his companion, now seized Mrs. Smithers by the arm.
She resisted his attention, and uttered scream after scream; but her strength was unavailing to cope with the superior force of the ruffian, and she was gradually dragged from the spot toward one of the cavernous recesses formed in the rocks to which we have previously alluded.
When she had finally disappeared from view, the captain turned his gaze upon Smithers.
"Are these two all your children?" he inquired.
"Yes," replied Smithers. "That is, my wife had a child by a former husband, a sort of vagabond fellow, and——"
"What do you say?" cried the captain, his eyes flashing angrily through his mask.
"I beg your pardon, sir, if he is any friend of yours; but the man pretended to be dead; he turned up, however, and is now, I am informed, in prison."
"So that woman is not your wife?"
"I account her so, because we all thought this Thompson dead."
"If her first husband lives, as you state, she belongs to him, as does the child."
"The child is a soft creature, and he is welcome to him, if he can find him, though it would be difficult to do so, as he has gone on a trip to Europe."
"Go!" exclaimed the captain; "I shall not touch your stores or your money, on condition that you say nothing about being robbed when you reach Silver City."
Smithers was silent.
"What!" cried the robber, angrily; "will you not purchase your life and your property at so cheap a price?"
"I want my wife, whom you have no right to detain. Take all I have, and give me her!" exclaimed Smithers.
"By your own admission, all you are entitled to are these children," said the captain. "Do you comply with my conditions, or shall I shoot you where you stand?"
"No, no!" exclaimed Smithers, shrinking back from the uplifted pistol. "Life is sweet! life is precious!"
"Swear!"
"I do!"
"Then get along with your wagon and your brats. Recollect that if anyone breaks faith with me, I will follow him to the end of the world and square accounts with him."
"You shall have no cause."
"Git!" said the captain, in a contemptuous tone.
Harold and Alice once more climbed into the wagon and Smithers caused the oxen to resume their journey.
He was glad to have escaped so easily, but he felt very mean and contemptible when he thought that he had allowed his wife to be carried off before his eyes without raising a finger to help her.