CHAPTER VTHE WISDOM OF THE WOLF
THE Wolf was still in hiding with the screen of foliage sheltering him. There was not a movement in him beyond the tumultuous beating of his heart. He was thinking with all the rapidity of a mind driven to feverish activity. And the speed of his thought left his subconscious mind free to become aware of the glowing sunlight out there in the open, and the cloud of flies and mosquitoes besetting the restless cattle in the corrals.
He turned at last to the horses grazing with their mouths full of cumbersome bits, and their forelegs entangled in trailing reins. Then the red coat of the second policeman obtruded itself, and he considered the murdered man. It was at that moment he became aware of movement in the bush behind the hay. And he turned to discover Pideau’s dark face thrust beyond it, peering.
It was the cue which brought the boy to sharp decision. This time, with a jerk, he flung the breech of his rifle open and emptied its magazine of cartridges. Then, his tall body erect he moved out from his cover, and advanced towards the man to whom his loyalty, if not his affection, was bound.
Pideau was gazing down at the dead man on the hay. His brutish face expressed no emotion whatever, not even satisfaction. His gimlet eyes were fiercelybright and evil. That was all. He stooped, caught the body in his strong arms, and flung it over in the same rough fashion which he might have used in handling a heavy sack.
Lying face upwards the body revealed the thing the slayer sought. There it was. A minute puncture in the red jacket, with the dark ooze of blood staining the scarlet cloth. Pideau sucked in a breath of extreme satisfaction. It was a shot of which he felt he could be reasonably proud.
“A swell shot, Pideau.”
The half-breed straightened up with a jerk. He swung about to look into the smiling eyes of the Wolf. He stared, startled beyond words. Then, in a moment, fury leaped.
“You?” he cried fiercely. Then, with malevolent savagery: “You—you spyin’ swine! I’ll kill you!”
Pideau’s rifle came up with his threat. Murder, more murder, was in his gimlet eyes. The dusky flush of his cheeks further added to his threat.
The Wolf remained unmoved. He simply shook his head.
“You’d be crazy to make a third killing, Pideau,” he said, ignoring the gun, but remaining watchful. “You need help. My help—now. You’ve killed two red-coats, an’—more’ll come.”
Pideau’s gun lowered. It was a hardly perceptible movement. But the quick eyes of the boy saw it, and he snatched his advantage.
“I ain’t spyin’,” he went on quietly. “I don’t have to spy on you, Pideau. I’ve no need. I came right here because my crazy dogs led me this way. They hita trail. I guessed it to be a wolf trail. But it wasn’t. It was Rene. Maybe she figgered you’d need my help.”
“You’re lyin’!”
Pideau’s snarl was ugly enough. But his anger was abating, and the Wolf realized it.
“No,” he said. “I haven’t need to lie, either.” He glanced significantly down at the body of the dead policeman. Then he looked at the corrals behind him. And farther on at the grazing horses, and the other of Pideau’s victims. “Not till more police get around, anyway.”
Pideau’s gun had come to rest with its butt on the ground.
“What d’you mean?” he cried roughly. “Ther’ ain’t more red-coats to come. Ther’s only them two on Maple Coulee post. An’,” he laughed harshly, “they’re both mutton dead.”
“Sure.” The Wolf’s gaze came back to the gloating face of the man who was the father of Annette. “They’re dead. That’s the reason more’ll come. The red-coats don’t let up. That’s how you always say. We got to make it so ther’s no trail for them to hunt. We got to make it so they think these boys have just quit. Maybe lit out across the border. An’ we can do it.”
The half-breed’s face was a study. As the boy talked, his smiling eyes containing nothing but seeming good humor, the man’s eyes lost their cruel sparkle. The flush of fury completely faded from his cheeks. Surprise, and then amazed incredulity took possession of him. In the end there was the dawning of satisfaction on his unsmiling face.
“How?” he asked, with a contempt that could not conceal his curiosity.
“We’ll need to strip ’em first,” the Wolf said, eyeing the body on the hay. “Then we’ll need to bury ’em—deep.” A little frown of concentration drew his finely marked brows together. “Then we’ll have to burn their clothes—all of ’em.”
“An’ their cayuses?”
“We can turn ’em loose. The wolves’ll get ’em before sunup to-morrow.”
“An’ the saddles?”
“Burn ’em, too. We ken sink the iron trees in the muskeg ’way back. An’ their guns. An’ everything else that won’t burn. We ken just cover your tracks right up so an Injun couldn’t smell it out.”
“Gee!”
The half-breed’s exclamation was an involuntary expression of admiration. If the Wolf understood it he made no sign. He simply gazed at the father of Annette with unfathomable eyes.
“We best get to it before—— You see, Pideau,” he went on, in his quick way, “you just can’t tell what message these boys left behind ’em. I’ve heard you say you haven’t any sort of use for ’em, but you’ve always allowed they’re slick. Maybe they sent word to their headquarters. Maybe they’d hit your trail. Maybe they passed word for folks to foller right along. See?”
Pideau nodded. And the boy watching him saw at last that which lay beneath the surface. The narrowed eyes had lost their confidence. There was fear in the swift movement of the furtive glancethat swept over the clearing and finally came to rest at the entrance to it.
And as the Wolf realized the truth, boy as he was, he would have been less than human had he not experienced a thrill of contempt. Pideau! Pideau, the ruthless tyrant who had never more than tolerated his presence in their mountain hiding, was afraid! He was scared! Scared like a pitiful gopher!
Rene had done him good service that day in bringing him there. Never again would he submit to the bully. Never again would he tolerate even the man’s authority. Pideau was just a murderer. Something of which he had no personal fear.
No. In future they would be equals. Equals in council and in the traffic that gave them livelihood. Partners. Yes. He would even be a partner if it suited him. But——
He suddenly dropped on his knees and began to strip the body of the dead policeman.
The half-breed was still watching the entrance to the clearing with thoughts of pursuit troubling him. But at last he became aware of the boy, and the work he was engaged upon.
The Wolf looked up as a harsh laugh jarred the quiet of the summer day.
“You got hell beat a mile, kid,” Pideau cried, as their eyes met. “You certainly have. Of all the cool—— Say, you surely are the Wolf! Gee!”
The boy went on with his work.
“Sure,” he replied indifferently. “That’s how you always said.”