by B. M. Bower
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
"I COULDA LOVED THIS LITTLE GIRL"
A chill wind that hurried over Bear Top ahead of the dawn brought Swanand Jack clattering up the trail that dipped into Spirit Canyon.Warfield rose stiffly from the one-sided warmth of the fire and walked afew paces to meet him, shrugging his wide shoulders at the cold andrubbing his thigh muscles that protested against movement. Much ridingupon upholstered cushions had not helped Senator Warfield to retain thetough muscles of hard-riding Bill Warfield. The senator was saddle-soreas well as hungry, and his temper showed in his blood-shot eyes. Hewould have quarreled with his best-beloved woman that morning, and hebegan on Swan.
Why hadn't he come back down the gulch yesterday and helped track thegirl, as he was told to do? (The senator had quite unpleasant opinionsof Swedes, and crazy women, and dogs that were never around when theywere wanted, and he expressed them fluently.)
Swan explained with a great deal of labor that he had not thought he waswanted, and that he had to sleep on his claim sometimes or the law wouldtake it from him, maybe. Also he virtuously pointed out that he had comewith Yack before daylight to the canyon to see if they had found MissHunter and gone home, or if they were still hunting for her.
"If you like to find that jong lady, I put Yack on the trail quick," heoffered placatingly. "I bet you Yack finds her in one-half an hour."
With much unnecessary language, Senator Warfield told him to get towork, and the three tightened cinches, mounted their horses and preparedto follow Swan's lead. Swan watched his chance and gave Lone a chunk ofbannock as a substitute for breakfast, and Lone, I may add, droppedbehind his companions and ate every crumb of it, in spite of his worryover Lorraine.
Indeed, Swan eased that worry too, when they were climbing the pineslope where Al had killed the grouse. Lone had forged ahead on John Doe,and Swan stopped suddenly, pointing to the spot where a few bloodyfeathers and a boot-print showed. The other evidence Jack had eaten inthe night.
"Raine's all right, Lone. Got men coming. Keep your gun handy," hemurmured and turned away as the others rode up, eager for whatever newsSwan had to offer.
"Something killed a bird," Swan explained politely, planting one of hisown big feet over the track, which did not in the least resembleLorraine's. "Yack! you find that jong lady quick!"
From there on Swan walked carefully, putting his foot wherever a printof Al's boot was visible. Since he was much bigger than Al, with acorrespondingly longer stride, his gait puzzled Lone until he saw justwhat Swan was doing. Then his eyes lightened with amused appreciation ofthe Swede's cunning.
"We ought to have some hot drink, or whisky, when we find that girl,"Hawkins muttered unexpectedly, riding up beside Lone as they crossed anopen space. "She'll be half-dead with cold--if we find her alive."
Before Lone could answer, Swan looked back at the two and raised hishand for them to stop.
"Better if you leave the horses here," he suggested. "From Yack I knowwe get close pretty quick. That jong lady's horse maybe smells thesehorse and makes a noise, and crazy folks run from noise."
Without objection the three dismounted and tied their horses securely totrees. Then, with Swan and Jack leading the way, they climbed over theridge and descended into the hollow by way of the ledge which Skinnerhad negotiated so carefully the night before. Without the dog they neverwould have guessed that any one had passed this way, but as it was theymade good progress and reached the nearest edge of the spruce thicketjust as the sun was making ready to push up over the skyline.
Jack stopped and looked up at his master inquiringly, lifting his lip atthe sides and showing his teeth. But he made no sound; nor did Swan,when he dropped his fingers to the dog's head and patted himapprovingly.
They heard a horse sneeze, beyond the spruce grove, and Warfield steppedforward authoritatively, waving Swan back. This, his manner saidplainly, was first and foremost his affair, and from now on he wouldtake charge of the situation. At his heels went Hawkins, and Swan sentan oblique glance of satisfaction toward Lone, who answered it with hishalf-smile. Swan himself could not have planned the approach more to hisliking.
The smell of bacon cooking watered their mouths and made Warfield andHawkins look at one another inquiringly. Crazy young women would hardlybe expected to carry a camping outfit. But Swan and Lone were treadingclose on their heels, and their own curiosity pulled them forward. Theywent carefully around the thicket, guided by the pungent odor of burningpine wood, and halted so abruptly that Swan and Lone bumped into themfrom behind. A man had risen up from the campfire and faced them, hishands rising slowly, palms outward.
"Warfield, by----!" Al blurted in his outraged astonishment. "Trailingme with a bunch, are yuh? I knew you'd double-cross your own father--butI never thought you had it in you to do it in the open. Damn yuh, whatd'yuh want that you expect to get?"
Warfield stared at him, slack-jawed. He glanced furtively behind him atSwan, and found that guileless youth ready to poke him in the back withthe muzzle of a gun. Lone, he observed, had another. He looked back atAl, whose eyes were ablaze with resentment. With an effort he smiled hisdisarming, senatorial smile, but Al's next words froze it on his face.
"I think I know the play you're making, but it won't get you anything,Bill Warfield. You think I slipped up--and you told me not to let myfoot slip; said you'd hate to lose me. Well, you're the one thatslipped, you damned, rotten coward. I was watching out for leaks. Istopped two, and this one----"
He glanced down at Lorraine, who sat beside the fire, a blanket tiedtightly around her waist and her ankles, so that, while comfortablyfree, she could make no move to escape.
"I was fixing to stop _her_ from telling all she knew," he addedharshly. "By to-night I'd have had her married to me, you damned fool.And here you've blocked everything for me, afraid I was falling down onmy job!
"Now folks, lemme just tell you a few little things. I know mylimit--you've got me dead to rights. I ain't complaining about that; aman in my game expects to get his, some day. But I ain't going to letthe man go that paid me my wages and a bonus of five hundred dollarsfor every man I killed that he wanted outa the way.
"Hawkins knows that's a fact. He's foreman of the Sawtooth, and he knowsthe agreement. I've got to say for Hawkins that aside from stealingcattle off the nesters and helping make evidence against some that's injail, Hawkins never done any dirty work. He didn't have to. They paid_me_ for that end of the business.
"I killed Fred Thurman--this girl, here, saw me shoot him. And it waswhen I told Warfield I was afraid she might set folks talking that hebegan to get cold feet. Up to then everything was lovely, but Warfieldbegan to crawfish a little. We figured--_we_ figured, emphasize the_we_, folks,--that the Quirt would have to be put outa business. We knewif the girl told Brit and Frank, they'd maybe get the nerve to try andpin something on us. We've stole 'em blind for years, and they wouldn'tcry if we got hung. Besides, they was friendly with Fred.
"The girl and the Swede got in the way when I tried to bump Brit off.I'd have gone into the canyon and finished him with a rock, but theybeat me to it. The girl herself I couldn't get at very well and make itlook accidental--and anyway, I never did kill a woman, and I'd hate itlike hell. I figured if her dad got killed, she'd leave.
"And let me tell you, folks, Warfield raised hell with me because BritHunter wasn't killed when he pitched over the grade. He held out on mefor that job--so I'm collecting five hundred dollars' worth of fun rightnow. He did say he'd pay me after Brit was dead, but it looks like he'sgoing to pull through, so I ain't counting much on getting my money outaWarfield.
"Frank I got, and made a clean job of it. And yesterday morning the girlplayed into my hands. She rode over to the Sawtooth, and I got her atThurman's place, on her way home, and figured I'd marry her and take achance on keeping her quiet afterwards. I'd have been down the Pass inanother two hours and heading for the nearest county seat. She'd havemarried me, too. She knows I'd have killed her if she didn't--
which Iwould. I've been square with her--she'll tell you that. I told her, whenI took her, just what I was going to do with her. So that's allstraight. She's been scared, I guess, but she ain't gone hungry, andshe ain't suffered, except in her mind. I don't fight women, and I'llsay right now, to her and to you, that I've got all the respect in theworld for this little girl, and if I'd married her I'd have been as goodto her as I know how, and as she'd let me be.
"Now I want to tell you folks a few more things about Bill Warfield. Ifyou want to stop the damnest steal in the country, tie a can onto thatirrigation scheme of his. He's out to hold up the State for all he canget, and bleed the poor devils of farmers white, that buys land underthat canal. It may look good, but it ain't good--not by a damn sight.
"Yuh know what he's figuring on doing? Get water in the canal, sell landunder a contract that lets him out if the ditch breaks, or something sohe _can't_ supply water at any time. And when them poor suckers getstheir crops all in, and at the point where they've got to have water orlose out, something'll happen to the supply. Folks, I _know_! I'm areliable man, and I've rode with a rope around my neck for over fiveyears, and Warfield offered me the same old five hundred every time Imonkeyed with the water supply as ordered. He'd have done it slick;don't worry none about that. The biggest band of thieves he could gettogether is that company. So if you folks have got any sense, you'llbust it up right now.
"Bill Warfield, what I've got to say to _you_ won't take long. Youthought you'd make a grand-stand play with the law, and at the same timeput me outa the way. You figured I'd resist arrest, and you'd have achance to shoot me down. I know your rotten mind better than you do. Youwanted to bump me off, but you wanted to do it in a way that'd put youin right with the public. Killing me for kidnapping this girl wouldsound damn romantic in the newspapers, and it wouldn't have a thing todo with Thurman or Frank Johnson, or any of the rest that I've sent overthe trail for you.
"Right now you're figuring how you'll get around this bawling-out I'mgiving you. There's nobody to take down what I say, and I'm just a mean,ornery outlaw and killer, talking for spite. With your pull you expectto get this smoothed over and hushed up, and have me at a hanging bee,and everything all right for Bill! Well----"
His eyes left Warfield's face and went beyond the staring group. Hisface darkened, a sneer twisted his lips.
"Who're them others?" he cried harshly. "Was you afraid four wouldn't beenough to take me?"
The four turned heads to look. Bill Warfield never looked back, for Al'sgun spoke, and Warfield sagged at the knees and the shoulders, and heslumped to the ground at the instant when Al's gun spoke again.
"That's for you, Lone Morgan," Al cried, as he fired again. "She talkedabout you in her sleep last night. She called you Loney, and she wantedyou to come and get her. I was going to kill you first chance I got. Icoulda loved this little girl. I--could----"
He was down, bleeding and coughing and trying to talk. Swan had shothim, and two of the deputies who had been there through half of Al'sbitter talk. Lorraine, unable to get up and run, too sturdy of soul tofaint, had rolled over and away from him, her lips held tightlytogether, her eyes wide with horror. Al crawled after her, his eyespleading.
"Little Spitfire--I shot your Loney--but I'd have been good to you,girl. I watched yuh all night--and I couldn't help loving yuh.I--couldn't----" That was all. Within three feet of her, his face towardher and his eyes agonizing to meet hers, he died.