CHAPTER XV
AN ESCAPE
Rhoda sprang away from Kut-le and they both ran to the other side ofthe rampart. Billy Porter, worn and tattered but still looking verywell able to hold his own, stood staring into the cave where the squawseyed him open-mouthed and Alchise, his hand on his rifle, scowled athim aggressively. Porter's eye fell on Injun Tom.
"U-huh! You pison Piute, you! I just nacherally snagged your littlegame, didn't I?"
"Billy!" cried Rhoda. "O Billy Porter!"
Porter jumped as if at a blow. Rhoda stood against the rock in herboyish clothes, her beautiful braid sweeping her shoulder, her facevivid.
"My God! Miss Rhoda!" cried Billy hoarsely, as he ran toward her withoutstretched hands. "Why, you are well! What's happened to you!"
Here Kut-le stepped between the two.
"Hello, Mr. Porter," he said.
Billy stepped back and a look of loathing and anger took the place ofthe joy that had been in his eyes before.
"You Apache devil!" he growled. "You ain't as smart as you thought youwere!"
Rhoda ran forward and would have taken Porter's hand but Kut-lerestrained her with his hand on her shoulder.
"Where did you come from, Billy?" cried Rhoda. "Where are the others?"
Billy's face cleared a little at the sound of the girl's voice.
"They are right handy, Miss Rhoda."
"I'll give you a few details, Rhoda," said Kut-le coolly. "You see heis without water and his mouth is black with thirst. He started totrail Injun Tom but got lost and stumbled on us."
Rhoda gave a little cry of pity and running into the cave she broughtBilly a brimming cup of water.
"Is that true, Billy?" she asked. "Are the others near here?"
Billy nodded then drained the cup and held it out for more.
"They are just around the corner!" with a glance at Kut-le, who smiledskeptically.
"Oh!" exclaimed Rhoda. "What terrible trouble I have made you all!"
"You made!" said Porter. "Well that's good! Still, that Apache devildoesn't seem to have harmed you. Just the same, he'll get his! If Ishot him now, the other Injuns would get me and God knows what wouldhappen to you!"
"Whom do you call an Apache devil?" asked Kut-le. Rhoda never had seenhim show such evident anger.
"You, by Judas!" replied Porter, looking into the young Indian's face.
For a strained moment the two eyed each other, hatred glaring athatred, until Rhoda put a hand on Kut-le's arm. His face cleared atonce.
"So that's my reputation now, is it?" he said lightly.
"_That's_ your reputation!" sneered Billy. "Do you think that's _all_?Why, don't you realize that you can't live in your own country again?Don't you know that the whites will hunt you out like you was a rat?Don't you realize that the folks that believed in you and was fond ofyou has had to give up their faith in you? Don't you understand thatyou've lost all your white friends? But I suppose that don't meananything to an Injun!"
A look of sadness passed over Kut-le's face.
"Porter," he said very gently, "I counted on all of that before I didthis thing. I thought that the sacrifice was worth while, and I stillthink so. I'm sorry, for your sake, that you stumbled on us here. Weare going to start on the trail shortly and I must send you out to belost again. I'll let Alchise help you in the job. As you say, I havesacrificed everything else in life; I can't afford to let anythingspoil this now. You can rest for an hour. Eat and drink and fill yourcanteen. Take a good pack of meat and tortillas. You are welcome toit all."
The Indian spoke with such dignity, with such tragic sincerity, thatPorter gave him a look of surprise and Rhoda felt hot tears in hereyes. Kut-le turned to the girl.
"You can see that I can't let you talk alone with Porter, but go aheadand say anything you want to in my hearing. Molly, you bring the whiteman some dinner and fix him some trail grub. Hurry up, now!"
He seated himself on the rampart and lighted a cigarette. Porter satdown meditatively, with his back against the mountain wall. He wasdiscomfited. Kut-le had guessed correctly as to the circumstances ofhis finding the camp. He had no idea where his friends might have gonein the twenty-four hours since he had left them. When he stumbled onto Kut-le he had had a sudden hope that the Indian might take himcaptive. The Indian's quiet reception of him nonplussed him and rousedhis unwilling admiration.
Rhoda sat down beside Porter.
"How is John?" she asked.
"He is pretty good. He has lasted better than I thought he would."
"And Katherine and Jack?" Rhoda's voice trembled as she uttered thenames. It was only with the utmost difficulty that she spokecoherently. All her nerves were on the alert for some unexpectedaction on the part of either Billy or the Indians.
"Jack's all right," said Billy. "We ain't seen Mrs. Jack since the dayafter you was took, but she's all to the good, of course, except she'sbeen about crazy about you, like the rest of us."
"Oh, you poor, poor people!" moaned Rhoda.
Porter essayed a smile with his cracked lips.
"But, say, you do look elegant, Miss Rhoda. You ain't the same girl!"
Rhoda blushed through her tan.
"I forgot these," she said; "I've worn them so long."
"It ain't the clothes," said Billy, "and it ain't altogether your finehealth. It's more--I don't know what it is! It's like the desert!"
"That's what I tell her," said Kut-le.
"Say," said Billy, scowling, "you've got a nerve, cutting in as if thiswas a parlor conversation you had cut in on casual. Just keep out ofthis, will you!"
Rhoda flushed.
"Well, as long as he can hear everything, it's a good deal of a farcenot to let him talk," she said.
"Farce!" exclaimed Billy. "Say, Miss Rhoda, you ain't sticking up forthis ornery Piute, are you?"
Rhoda looked at the calm eyes of the Indian, at the clean-cutintelligence of his face, and she resented Porter's words. Sheanswered him softly but clearly.
"Kut-le did an awful and unforgivable thing in stealing me. No oneknows that better than I do. But he has treated me with respect and hehas given me back my health. I thank him for that and--and I dorespect him!"
Kut-le's eyes flashed with a deep light but he said nothing. Porterstared at the girl with jaw dropped.
"Good Lord!" he cried. "Respect him! Wouldn't that come and get you!Do you mean that you want to stay with that Injun?"
A slow flush covered Rhoda's tanned cheeks. Her cleft chin lifted alittle.
"At the very first chance," she replied, "I shall escape."
Porter sighed in great relief.
"That's all right, Miss Rhoda," he said leniently. "Respect him allyou want to. I don't see how you can, but women is queer, if you don'tmind my saying so. I don't blame you for feeling thankful about yourhealth. You've stood this business better than any of us. Say, thatsquaw seems to be puttin' all her time on making up my pack. Can't Inegotiate for something to eat right now? Tell her not to put pisoninto it."
Kut-le grinned.
"Maybe Miss Tuttle will fix up something for you, so you can eatwithout worrying."
"Well, she won't, you know!" growled Porter. "_Her_ wait on me! Sheain't no squaw!"
"Oh, but," cried Rhoda, "you don't know how proud I am of my skill! Ican run the camp just as well as the squaws." Then, as Porter scowledat Kut-le, "He didn't make me! I wanted to, so as to be able to takecare of myself when I escaped. When you and I get away from him," shelooked at the silent Indian with an expression of daring that brought aglint of amusement to his eyes, "I'll be able to live off the trailbetter than you!"
"Gee!" exclaimed Porter admiringly.
"Of course, in one way it's no credit to me at all," Rhoda went on,stirring the rabbit stew she was warming up. "Kut-le--" she paused.Of what use was it to try to explain what Kut-le had done for her!
She toasted fresh tortillas and poured t
he stew over them and broughtthe steaming dish to Porter. He tasted of the mess tentatively.
"By Hen!" he exclaimed, and he set upon the stew as if half starved,while Rhoda watched him complacently.
Seeing him apparently thus engrossed, Kut-le turned to speak toAlchise. Instantly Porter dropped the stew, drew a revolver and firedtwo rapid shots, one catching Alchise in the leg, the other Injun Tom.Before he could get Kut-le the young Indian was upon him.
"Run, Rhoda, run!" yelled Porter, as he went down, under Kut-le.
Rhoda gave one glance at Injun Tom and Alchise writhing with theirwounds, at Porter's fingers tightening at Kut-le's throat, then sheseized the canteen she had filled for Porter and started madly down thetrail. The screaming squaws gave no heed to her.
She ran swiftly, surely, down the rocky way, watching the trail withsecondary sense, for every other was strained to catch the sounds fromabove. But she heard nothing but the screams of the squaws. The trailtwisted violently near the desert floor. She sped about one lastjutting buttress, then stopped abruptly, one hand on her heaving breast.
A man was running toward the foot of the trail. He, too, stoppedabruptly. The girl seemed a marvel of beauty to him. With the curlyhair beneath the drooping sombrero, the tanned, flushed face, theparted scarlet lips, the throat and tiny triangle of chest disclosed bythe rough blue shirt with one button missing from the top, and thebeautiful lithe legs in the clinging buckskins, Rhoda was a wonderfulthing to come upon unexpectedly. As John DeWitt took off his hat, hishaggard face went white, his stalwart shoulders heaved.
"O John! Dear John DeWitt!" cried Rhoda. "Turn back with me quick! Iam running away while Mr. Porter holds Kut-le!"
DeWitt held out his shaking hands to her, unbelieving rapture growingin his eyes.
The Heart of the Desert Page 15