CHAPTER XXIV
MISSING
From all over the Malpais country, from the water-sheds where Bear andElk and Cow creeks head, from the halfway house far out in the desertwhere the stage changes horses, men and women dribbled to the Frying Panfor the big dance after the round-up. Great were the preparations. Manycakes and pies and piles of sandwiches had been made ready. Also therewas a wash boiler full of coffee and a galvanized tub brimming withlemonade. For the Frying Pan was doing itself proud.
Phil and his sister drove over together. The boy had asked Bess to gowith him, but Cuffs had beaten him to it. The distance was onlytwenty-five miles, a neighborly stroll in that country of wide spacesand desert stretches filled with absentees.
When Phyllis came into the big room where the dancing was in progress,her dark eye swept the room without finding him for whom she looked.There were many there she knew, not more than two or three whom she hadnever met, but among them all she looked at none who was a magnet forher eyes. Keller had not yet arrived.
Before she had taken her seat she had three engagements to dance. JimYeager had waylaid her; so, too, had Slim and Curly. She waltzed firstwith Phil, and after he had done his duty he left her to the besiegingsof half a score of riders for various ranches who came and went and cameagain. She joked with them, joined the merry banter that went on,laughed at them when they grew sentimental, always with a sprightlydevotion to the matter in hand.
Nevertheless, though they did not know it, her mind was full of him whohad not yet appeared. Why was he late? Could he have missed the way byany chance? And later--as the hours passed without bringing him--couldanything have happened to him? More than once her troubled gaze fellupon Brill Healy with a brooding question in it. The man had receivedonly the day before his party's nomination for sheriff, and he was doingthe gracious to all the women and children.
He had many of the qualities that make for popularity, even though hewas often overbearing, revengeful, and sullen. When he chose he could behail fellow well met in a way Malpais found flattering to its vanity.Now he was apparently having the time of his life. Wherever he moved aneddy of laughter and gayety went with him. The eyes of men as well aswomen admiringly followed his dark, lithe, picturesque figure.
Phyllis had declined to dance with him, giving as an excuse a fullprogramme, and for an instant his face had blazed with the suppressedrage in him. He had bowed and swaggered away with a malicious sneer. Herjudgment told her it was folly to connect this man with the absence ofher lover, but that look of malevolent triumph had none the less shakenher heart. What had he meant? It seemed less a threat for the futurethan a gloating over some evil already done.
When she could endure them no longer she carried her fears to JimYeager. They were dancing, but she made an excuse of fatigue to dropout.
"First time I ever knew you to play out at a dance, Phyl," he ralliedher.
"It isn't that. I want to say something to you," she whispered.
He had a guess what it was, for his own mind was not quite easy.
"Do you think anything could have happened, Jim?" she besought pitifullywhen for a moment they were alone in a corner.
"What _could_ have happened, Phyllie? Do you reckon he fell off hishawss, and him a full-size man?" he scoffed.
"Yes, but--you don't know how Brill looked at me. I'm afraid."
"Oh, Brill!" His voice held an edge of scorn, but none the less itconcealed a real fear. He was making as much concession to it as to herwhen he added lightly: "Tell you what I'll do, Phyl. I'll saddle up andtake a look back over the Bear Creek trail. Likely I'll meet him, andwe'll come in together."
Her eyes met his, and he needed no other thanks. "You'll lose thedance," was her only comment.
Jim followed the road until it branched off to join the Bear Creektrail. Here he deflected toward the mountains, taking the zigzag paththat ran like a winding thread among the rocks as it mounted. Now forthe first time there came to him the faint rhythmic sound of a gallopinghorse's hoofs. He did not stop, and as he picked his way among the rockshe heard for some time no more of it.
"Mr. Hurry-up-like-hell kept the road, I reckon," Jim ruminated aloud,and even as he spoke he caught again the echo of an iron shoe striking arock.
He stopped and listened. Some one was climbing the trail behind him.
"Mebbe he's a friend, and then mebbe he isn't. We'll let him have thewhole road to himself, eh, Keno?"
Yeager guided his pony to the left, and took up a position behind somehuge bowlders from whence he could see without being seen. The pursuertoiled into sight, a slim, wiry youth on a buckskin. He came forward outof the shadows into the fretted moonlight.
Yeager gave a glad whoop of recognition. "Hi-yi, Phil!"
"You're there, are you? Did I scare you off the trail, Jim?"
"That's whatever, boy. What are you doing here?"
"Sis sent me. She got worried again, and we figured I'd better joinyou."
"I reckon there's nothing serious the matter. Still, it ain't like Larryto say he would come and then not show up."
"Brill is back there bragging about it." Phil nodded his head toward thelights of the Frying Pan glimmering far below. "Says he knew the waddywouldn't show his head. You don't reckon, Jim, he's turned a trick onKeller, do you?"
"That's what we have got to find out, Phil."
"Looks funny he'd be so durned sure when we all know how game Kelleris," the boy reflected aloud.
"I don't expect you're armed, Phil?" Jim put the statement as aquestion.
"Nope. Are you?"
"No, I ain't. Didn't think of it when I started. Oh, well, we'll makeout. Like enough there will be no need of guns."
A gray light was sifting into the sky, and still they rode, winding uptoward the peaks of the divide. Jim, leading the way, drew rein andpointed to a cactus bush beside the trail. Among its spines lay a grayfelt hat. From it his eye wandered to the very evident signs of astruggle that had taken place. Moss and cactus had been trampled down byboot heels. To the cholla hung here and there scraps of cloth. A bloodsplash stared at them from an outcropping slope of rock.
Jim swung from the saddle and rescued the hat from the spines. Insidethe sweat band were the initials L.K. Silently he handed the hat toPhil.
"It's his hat," the boy cried.
"It's his hat," Jim agreed. "They must have laid for him here. He put upa good scrap. Notice how that cholla is cut to ribbons. Point is, whatdid they do to him?"
They searched the ground thoroughly, and discovered no body hidden inthe brush.
"They've taken him away. Likely he's alive," Yeager decided aloud atlast.
"Brill couldn't have been in this. He was at the Frying Pan before Iwas."
"I reckon he ordered it done. If that's correct they will be holdingLarry till Brill gets there to give further orders."
Phil entered an objection. "That doesn't look to me like Brill's way.He's not scared of any man that lives. When he squares accounts withKeller he'll be on the job himself."
"That's so, too," admitted Yeager. "Still, I figure this is Healy'swork. Maybe he gave out there was to be no killing. He was at the ranchhimself, big as coffee, so as to be sure of his alibi."
"What does he care about an alibi? When he gets ready to go gunnin'after Keller he won't care if the whole Malpais sees him. There'ssomething in this I don't _sabe_."
"There sure is. We've got to run the thing down _muy pronto_. No useboth of us going ahead without arms, Phil. My notion is this: You burn ashuck back to the Frying Pan and round up some of our friends on theq.t. Don't let Brill get a notion of what's in the air. Better makestraight for Gregory's Pass. I'm going to follow this trail we've cutand see what's doing. Once I find out I'll double back to the Pass andmeet you. Bring along an extra gun for me."
"I don't reckon I will, Jim. What's the matter with me going on insteadof you? I can follow this trail good as you can. I announce right herethat I'm not going back. I've got first call on thi
s job. Keller wentinto the fire after me. I'm going to follow this trail to hell if I haveto."
Yeager tried persuasion, argument, appeal. The lad was as fixed asGibraltar.
"I'm not going to go buttin' in where I'm not wanted any more than youwould, Jim. I'll play this hand out with a cool head, but I'm going toplay it my ownself."
"All right. It's your say-so. I'll admit you've got a claim. But youwant to remember one thing--if anything happens to you I cayn't squareit with Phyl. Go slow, boy!"
Without more words they parted, Jim to ride swiftly back for help, andyoung Sanderson to push on up the trail with his eyes glued to it. Eversince he could swing himself to a saddle he had been a vaquero in thecow country.
He was therefore an expert at reading the signs left by travellers. Whatwould have been invisible to a tenderfoot offered evidence to him asplain as the print on a primer. Mile after mile he covered with a minutescrutiny that never wavered.
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