CHAPTER XXV
MILLER TALKS
A man stood in the doorway, big, fat, swaggering. In his younger days hisdeep chest and broad shoulders had accompanied great strength. But fathad accumulated in layers. He was a mountain of sagging flesh. His breathcame in wheezy puffs.
"Next time you get your own--"
The voice faltered, died away. The protuberant eyes, still cold andfishy, passed fearfully from one to another of those in the room. It wasplain that the bottom had dropped out of his heart. One moment he hadstraddled the world a Colossus, the next he was collapsing like apunctured balloon.
"Goddlemighty!" he gasped. "Don't shoot! I--I give up."
He was carrying a bucket of water. It dropped from his nerveless fingersand spilt over the floor.
Like a bullet out of a gun Crawford shot a question at him. "Where haveyou hidden the money you got from the stage?"
The loose mouth of the convict opened. "Why, we--I--we--"
"Keep yore trap shut, you durn fool," ordered Shorty.
Crawford jabbed his rifle into the ribs of the rustler. "Yours, too,Shorty."
But the damage had been done. Miller's flabby will had been braced bya stronger one. He had been given time to recover from his dismay. Hemoistened his lips with his tongue and framed his lie.
"I was gonna say you must be mistaken, Mr. Crawford," he whined.
Shorty laughed hardily, spat tobacco juice at a knot in the floor, andspoke again. "Third degree stuff, eh? It won't buy you a thing, Crawford.Miller wasn't in that hold-up any more'n I--"
"Let Miller do his own talkin', Shorty. He don't need any lead from you."
Shorty looked hard at the cattleman with unflinching eyes. "Don't get onthe peck, Em. You got no business coverin' me with that gun. I know yougot reasons a-plenty for tryin' to bluff us into sayin' we held up thestage. But we don't bluff worth a cent. See?"
Crawford saw. He had failed to surprise a confession out of Miller by thenarrowest of margins. If he had had time to get Shorty out of the roombefore the convict's appearance, the fellow would have come through. Asit was, he had missed his opportunity.
A head followed by a round barrel body came in cautiously from thelean-to at the rear.
"Everything all right, Mr. Crawford? Thought I'd drap on down to see ifyou didn't need any help."
"None, thanks, Mr. Thomas," the cattleman answered dryly.
"Well, you never can tell." The prospector nodded genially to Shorty,then spoke again to the man with the rifle. "Found any clue to thehold-up yet?"
"We've found the men who did it," replied Crawford.
"Knew 'em all the time, I reckon," scoffed Shorty with a harsh laugh.
Dave drew his chief aside, still keeping a vigilant eye on the prisoners."We've got to play our hand different. Shorty is game. He can't bebluffed. But Miller can. I found out years ago he squeals at physicalpain. We'll start for home. After a while we'll give Shorty a chance tomake a getaway. Then we'll turn the screws on Miller."
"All right, Dave. You run it. I'll back yore play," his friend said.
They disarmed Miller, made him saddle two of the horses in the corral,and took the back trail across the valley to the divide. It was here theygave Shorty his chance of escape. Miller was leading the way up thetrail, with Crawford, Thomas, Shorty, and Dave in the order named. Daverode forward to confer with the owner of the D Bar Lazy R. For threeseconds his back was turned to the squat cowpuncher.
Shorty whirled his horse and flung it wildly down the precipitous slope.Sanders galloped after him, fired his revolver three times, and after ashort chase gave up the pursuit. He rode back to the party on the summit.
Crawford glanced around at the heavy chaparral. "How about off here abit, Dave?"
The younger man agreed. He turned to Miller. "We're going to hang you,"he said quietly.
The pasty color of the fat man ebbed till his face seemed entirelybloodless. "My God! You wouldn't do that!" he moaned.
He clung feebly to the horn of his saddle as Sanders led the horse intothe brush. He whimpered, snuffling an appeal for mercy repeated over andover. The party had not left the road a hundred yards behind when a manjogged past on his way into the valley. He did not see them, nor did theysee him.
Underneath a rather scrubby cedar Dave drew up. He glanced it overcritically. "Think it'll do?" he asked Crawford in a voice the prisonercould just hear.
"Yep. That big limb'll hold him," the old cattleman answered in the samelow voice. "Better let him stay right on the horse, then we'll lead itout from under him."
Miller pleaded for his life abjectly. His blood had turned to water."Honest, I didn't shoot Harrigan. Why, I'm that tender-hearted I wouldn'thurt a kitten. I--I--Oh, don't do that, for God's sake."
Thomas was almost as white as the outlaw. "You don't aim to--youwouldn't--"
Crawford's face was as cold and as hard as steel. "Why not? He's amurderer. He tried to gun Dave here when the boy didn't have asix-shooter. We'll jes' get rid of him now." He threw a rope over theconvict's head and adjusted it to the folds of his fat throat.
The man under condemnation could hardly speak. His throat was dry as thedesert dust below. "I--I done Mr. Sanders a meanness. I'm sorry. I wasdrunk."
"You lied about him and sent him to the penitentiary."
"I'll fix that. Lemme go an' I'll make that right."
"How will you make it right?" asked Crawford grimly, and the weight ofhis arm drew the rope so tight that Miller winced. "Can you give him backthe years he's lost?"
"No, sir, no," the man whispered eagerly. "But I can tell how itwas--that we fired first at him. Doble did that, an' then--accidental--Ikilled Doble whilst I was shootin' at Mr. Sanders."
Dave strode forward, his eyes like great live coals. "What? Say thatagain!" he cried.
"Yessir. I did it--accidental--when Doble run forward in front of me.Tha's right. I'm plumb sorry I didn't tell the cou't so when you was ontrial, Mr. Sanders. I reckon I was scairt to."
"Will you tell this of yore own free will to the sheriff down at Malapi?"asked Crawford.
"I sure will. Yessir, Mr. Crawford." The man's terror had swept away allthought of anything but the present peril. His color was a seasick green.His great body trembled like a jelly shaken from a mould.
"It's too late now," cut in Dave savagely. "We came up about this stagerobbery. Unless he'll clear that up, I vote to finish the job."
"Maybe we'd better," agreed the cattleman. "I'll tie the rope to thetrunk of the tree and you lead the horse from under him, Dave."
Miller broke down. He groveled. "I'll tell. I'll tell all I know. DugDoble and Shorty held up the stage. I don' know who killed the driver.They didn't say when they come back."
"You let the water into the ditch," suggested Crawford.
"Yessir. I did that. They was shelterin' me and o' course I had to dolike they said."
"When did you escape?"
"On the way back to the penitentiary. A fellow give the deputy sheriffa drink on the train. It was doped. We had that fixed. The keys to thehandcuffs was in the deputy's pocket. When he went to sleep we unlockedthe cuffs and I got off at the next depot. Horses was waitin' there forus."
"Who do you mean by us? Who was with you?"
"I don' know who he was. Fellow said Brad Steelman sent him to fix thingsup for me."
Thomas borrowed the field-glasses of Crawford. Presently he lowered them."Two fellows comin' hell-for-leather across the valley," he said in avoice that expressed his fears.
The cattleman took the glasses and looked. "Shorty's found a friend. DugDoble likely. They're carryin' rifles. We'll have trouble. They'll see westopped at the haid of the pass," he said quietly.
Much shaken already, the oil prospector collapsed at the prospect beforehim. He was a man of peace and always had been, in spite of the valiantpromise of his tongue.
"None of my funeral," he said, his lips white. "I'm hittin' the trail forMalapi right now."
He wheeled his horse and jumped it to a gallop. The roan plunged throughthe chaparral and soon was out of sight.
"We'll fix Mr. Miller so he won't make us any trouble during the rookus,"Crawford told Dave.
He threw the coiled rope over the heaviest branch of the cedar, drew ittight, and fastened it to the trunk of the tree.
"Now you'll stay hitched," he went on, speaking to their prisoner. "Andyou'd better hold that horse mighty steady, because if he jumps fromunder you it'll be good-bye for one scalawag."
"If you'd let me down I'd do like you told me, Mr. Crawford," pleadedMiller. "It's right uncomfortable here."
"Keep still. Don't say a word. Yore friends are gettin' close. Let achirp outa you, and you'll never have time to be sorry," warned thecattleman.
The two men tied their horses behind some heavy mesquite and chose theirown cover. Here they crouched down and waited.
They could hear the horses of the outlaws climbing the hill out of thevalley to the pass. Then, down in the canon, they caught a glimpse ofThomas in wild flight. The bandits stopped at the divide.
"They'll be headin' this way in a minute," Crawford whispered.
His companion nodded agreement.
They were wrong. There came the sound of a whoop, a sudden clatter ofhoofs, the diminishing beat of horses' feet.
"They've seen Thomas, and they're after him on the jump," suggested Dave.
His friend's eyes crinkled to a smile. "Sure enough. They figure he's thetail end of our party. Well, I'll bet Thomas gives 'em a good run fortheir money. He's right careless sometimes, but he's no foolhardy idiotand he don't aim to argue with birds like these even though he's arip-snorter when he gets goin' good and won't stand any devilin'."
"He'll talk them to death if they catch him," Dave answered.
"Back to business. What's our next move, son?"
"Some more conversation with Miller. Probably he can tell us where thegold is hidden."
"Whoopee! I'll bet he can. You do the talkin'. I've a notion he's morescared of you."
The fat convict tried to make a stand against them. He pleaded ignorance."I don' know where they hid the stuff. They didn't tell me."
"Sounds reasonable, and you in with them on the deal," said Sanders."Well, you're in hard luck. We don't give two hoots for you, anyhow, butwe decided to take you in to town with us if you came through clean.If not--" He shrugged his shoulders and glanced up at the branch above.
Miller swallowed a lump in his throat. "You wouldn't treat me thataway,Mr. Sanders. I'm gittin' to be an old man now. I done wrong, but I'm sureright sorry," he whimpered.
The eyes of the man who had spent years in prison at Canon City were hardas jade. The fat man read a day of judgment in his stern and somber face.
"I'll tell!" The crook broke down, clammy beads of perspiration all overhis pallid face. "I'll tell you right where it's at. In the lean-to ofthe shack. Southwest corner. Buried in a gunnysack."
They rode back across the valley to the cabin. Miller pointed out thespot where the stolen treasure was cached. With an old axe as a spadeDave dug away the dirt till he came to a bit of sacking. Crawford scoopedout the loose earth with his gauntlet and dragged out a gunnysack. Insideit were a number of canvas bags showing the broken wax seals of theexpress company. These contained gold pieces apparently fresh from themint.
A hurried sum in arithmetic showed that approximately all the gold takenfrom the stage must be here. Dave packed it on the back of his saddlewhile Crawford penciled a note to leave in the cache in place of themoney.
The note said:
This is no safe place to leave seventeen thousand dollars, Dug. I'mtaking it to town to put in the bank. If you want to make inquiries aboutit, come in and we'll talk it over, you and me _and Applegate_.
EMERSON CRAWFORD
Five minutes later the three men were once more riding rapidly across thevalley toward the summit of the divide. The loop of Crawford's lariatstill encircled the gross neck of the convict.
Gunsight Pass: How Oil Came to the Cattle Country and Brought a New West Page 25