“It’s a bit of Joan’s handkerchief—she must have dropped it in the hope that someone would follow.”
“Smart of her to leave a signpost,” Sudden remarked, and smiled as he saw the boy slip the said “signpost” into a pocket. “It’s a safe bet Satan is on his way to join her.”
Frosty was enjoying a private joke. “We are now leavin’ the place where I staged my on’y hold-up an’ got away with thirty thousand cold, belongin’ to the Bosville bank,” he stated, with a sly look at Dealtry.
“Best tell a straight story, or the sheriff will pull yu in,” Sudden bantered. “An’ keep agoin’ while yo’re doin’ it.”
The Double K rider obliged, telling the tale in a whimsical way which made two of his hearers laugh; Dealtry listened with grave intentness, his gaze on the man pounding along a pace ahead of him.
“Yo’re an odd number, Jim,” he said. “If ever you take the crooked trail, I hope it don’t lead you to these parts; you’d get us all guesin’—wrong.”
The compliment brought a sardonic smile to the puncher’s lips; the sheriff did not know that the man to whom he paid it had already a price on his head.
Chapter XXVI
Some eight miles past the Devil’s Bowl was a similar but smaller hollow, one side of which sloped gently to the sagebrush plain which rose and fell unendingly to the horizon, while the other climbed abruptly to a jagged ridge. At the farther end, hedged in by pines, stood a great tooth of rock, streaked and splashed with reds, greens, and yellows. At the foot of it, some ten yards apart, were a couple of caves, and in front of them, a level expanse of scorched grass.
The place was known as Painted Valley, and it was here that Silver and his charges were waiting. The women, after a night passed in one of the natural shelters, were sitting in the shade of the trees. The man was squatting on a big boulder a little distance away, watching. The horses, still saddled,were tied to the pine-trunks. Joan regarded the animals wistfully. “Can’t we reach them and escape?” she ventured.
“I have no wish to,” Belle replied. “Even if it were possible, wandering in this wilderness without supplies doesn’t appeal to me. Moreover, Silver has a gun.”
The spoke seldom after this, for Belle seemed to have become infected with her companion’s moodiness. The hours crept slowly by and the afternoon was well advanced when Silver, who had left his post only to prepare a meal or water the ponies, scrambled clumsily down and ran towards them. “He’s a-comin’ an’ ain’t losin’ no time neither,” he rumbled.
Joan retired to their cave; she would not be there to welcome him. Silver’s throaty laugh followed her.
“Gone to prink up, I s’pose,” he said. “She’s a good-looker, but I knows a better.”
His meaning ogle incensed the woman. “Guard that tongue or your master shall cut it out,” she replied fiercely. Ordinarily the threat would have made him cringe, but this time she saw the mammoth shoulders quivering with silent mirth.
Swiftly the black horse swept along the valley to pull up, panting. Bloody wounds, dust-caked, where the spurs had bitten too deeply, showed it had been cruelly ridden. The rider too was breathing heavily, and below the mask, his face was white. He staggered a little as he alighted.
“What has happened?” Belle asked.
“Hell City is captured,” he told her. “I got away, but they are on my heels, three of them, and one is the sheriff of Red Rock.”
“Why is he in it?”
“I shot his son. Curse it, they can’t be more than two miles away, and there’s nowhere to hide here.”
“If we start at once … “
Impatiently he shook his head. “They would run us down —we couldn’t blind our tracks.”
Belle stepped to him, her eyes eager. “I’ve an idea, Jeff. We can trick them, and gain time. It’s you they want.”
He listened avidly. “It’s clever, damned clever, and should serve,” he said. “You would do this for me?”
“Even more, as you will learn,” she murmured. “Now, send Silver to the spring—he will be out of sight there—give me your mask, and put Pluto at the entrance to the second cave. A whistle will tell me when to act.”
“You have a head, Belle,” he complimented. “I shall make for Willow Bend, California. Meet me there, and we’ll conquer the world—together.”
He handed her the disguise and turned quickly away to complete the preparations. The black was placed at the mouth of the cave, but not until he had changed the costly saddle for that on one of the other ponies. This occupied precious moments, and he had but just finished and concealed himself when three horsemen appeared on the far rim of the valley. He gave the signal, and at once a figure, dressed like himself, the turned-back brim of the soft hat clearly showing the red mask, darted out, leapt into the saddle of the black, and shot away towards the plain. The new arrivals saw it, too, and with a shrill yell, set off in pursuit. Satan’s expression was one of triumphant derision.
“Run, you mud-heads,” he muttered. “By the time you catch Pluto, tired as he is, I shall be out of your reach. It will be a pity if they shoot you down, my Belle, but it will save you a disappointment at Willow Bend, if there is such a place.”
When the riders had vanished, he entered the second cave and called softly, “Joan.” The girl in the shadow turned, and he fell back as though he had encountered an unseen obstacle.
“You?” he gasped. “You—have dared—to play this prank?”
“Yes, I dared,” Belle repeated steadily, but her heart was hammering. “I had the courage to do that—for you.” The face she was seeing for the first time in its entirety was that of a fiend. The right hand, fingers spread, moved slowly towards his gun and she knew that death was very near. Her voice did not falter. “Hear me, Jeff: the Double K is lost, and that girl could not bring it back. What use would she be to you? I am different—your kind, the wolf-breed—ready to war with the world. You have lost this throw, but such a man as you is never beaten, he plays again—and wins.”
The sinister hand had stopped. She drew herself up, stamped her foot, and cried, “Am I not as desirable as that prim madam of whom you would tire in a month?” The challenging charm of her brought a flash of life into the flinty eyes, and she added softly, “Once you told me, `Love is all-powerful; it will find a way, and it forgives.’ Well, I love, I have found a way, but it is for you to forgive.”
She stood with bent head, as in submission, but she felt that she had won. And so it proved; her beauty, spirit, and subtle flattery had fired his imagination, and wiped out—for the moment—his defeat. Impetuously he took her in his arms.
“By Heaven, you’re right, girl,” he said. “I’ve been blind—”
The low growl of a wild beast cut him short and he turned to see Silver at the entrance, head down, long arms swinging.
“That’s my woman,” the dwarf said thickly. “you promised if I treated ‘em fair I should have her.”
Belle recoiled from her lover with a look of loathing. “You —did—that?” she whispered. “you would have given me to a —monster?”
“It was a pretence, for your sake, Belle,” Satan protested. “I never meant to …” He saw that she did not believe, and swung round on the intruder. “Get out,” he ordered.
“I want my woman,” Silver grunted. “I’m takin’ her—now.”
He moved forward, dogged, threatening, teeth bared, the great paws of him opening and shutting; desire had destroyed dread of his master, and he was blind to everything but the prize he had been promised.
This second defiance fanned Satan’s fury to a white heat. Snatching out a gun he sent a bullet into the broad breast. Silver wavered, but came on. Again the bandit fired, and this time the stricken man stopped, head swaying uncertainly from side to side. Then, with glazing eyes and lips which moved soundlessly, the ponderous body collapsed as though the puny legs could no longer support it. Ashen-faced, the woman stared at it.
“You—murdere
r,” she breathed.
Ere the man could reply there came a voice from without: “Lander, I’m waitin’ for yu.”
The flush of passion on the killer’s face faded, leaving it ghastly. Sudden! What freak of Fortune had brought him to bar the way to liberty and life? The swift advent of peril found him unprepared. Instinctively he looked at Belle.
“What can I do?” he muttered.
“Play the man—for once,” she replied harshly, and he knew that his infamy had turned her love to hate.
Into his craven heart crept a cold despair. Wantonly, without a qualm, he had sent others into the Great Unknown, and now … It seemed incredible; he was young, strong, and yet, out there in the sunlight, death awaited him. His numbed senses could not realize it.
“Lander!”
The one word carried a threat. Motionless as a statue, the woman watched the man fight his fear, and heard the horrible croaking laugh as the actor in him came to the surface.
“I believe that is my cue,” he said, and stepped, with leaden feet, into the open.
The puncher was standing about fifteen paces distant, hands hanging by his sides. He was alone, and this brought the bandit a faint hope, and a regret—that he had slain Silver.
“What do you want with me?” he demanded. “Payment,” Sudden said sternly. “Yu forced me to take the life of one I had been sent to save—Dolver.”
As the full import of this statement seeped into Satan’s brain, tempestuous rage took the place of terror. This fellow, emissary of the Governor he had derided, had outplayed him at every point and wrought the ruin of his plans. He, the clever schemer and born leader, had been deceived and defeated by this—cowboy. The shock to his abnormal vanity bred only one craving—to kill. After all, they were man to man, and he was a fine shot.
“So you’re a dirty spy, too?” he jeered. “Well, why don’t you shoot?”
“I’m giving’ yu what yu never gave—a chance,” Sudden replied. “We’ll walk towards each other, an’ at the word `Three,’ go for yore gun.”
He took a pace and called, “One,”; a second, “Two”; and then it happened: with an inarticulate curse, the other man whipped a weapon from his belt and fired. Incredibly fast as the movement was, Sudden had seen it, yellow flame jetted from his right hip, and Satan stumbled to fall headlong, his fingers clawing convulsively at the grass. Out of the swirling smoke, Sudden advanced gun in hand; Silver might still to be reckoned with. But instead of the stunted, uncouth figure, it was Belle Dalroy who appeared. Gazing dry-eyed at the body, she said: “Crooked to the last.”
“Where is Miss Keith?” the puncher asked, and when she had told him, added, “We owe yu somethin’ for that.”
“No, I wanted her out of the way,” she said sharply. Somewhere in her warped nature was a streak of honesty. “What are you going to do with me?”
He pointed to the plain; two riders were approaching. “One o’ those fellas is sheriff o’ Red Rock. In yore place, I’d climb a hoss an’ beat it.”
Her set features softened. “You’re a good sort,” she murmured. “I wish—”
“They’ll be here mighty soon,” he said meaningly. “Take the pony with the pretty saddle.”
She understood; that had been Satan’s, and he would not have left Hell City empty-handed. By the time the horsemen arrived, the trees had hidden her from view. Dealtry jumped down and turned the corpse over; the bullet had entered between the eyes.
“That’s Lander, shore enough,” he remarked with grim satisfaction. “Lucky, after all, yore bronc went lame—he’d ‘a’ got away; it was one damned smart dodge. You see—”
“I had’ it from Miss Dalroy,” Sudden said. “It was her notion, not his. Dressed as he was—a woman’s whim—and with the hoss and the mask, it looked a cinch. He thought she was takin’ the ride, but she swapped duds with Miss Keith.”
“Yeah, an’ a nice chase she gave us. That black can run, I’m tell n’ you; we’d still be admirin’ his hind-quarters if Jeff hadn’t fired. Shore he missed, but I s’pose it scared her, for she stopped an’ faced round. You oughta seen him when we rode up, three growed men with guns drawed on that slip of a gal, but mebbe we looked as sick as he did. Frosty an’ me gits the same idea—that we’d important business elsewhere. We left Jeff to do the explainin’ an’ I reckon he’s still doin’ it. What’s come o’ that Dalroy woman?”
“A pony is missin’ but I didn’t see her go,” the puncher replied, omitting to add that he was looking the other way at the time.
“How did yu know Lander was here, Jim?” Frosty enquired.
“Crossing the valley, I saw Silver enter one o’ the caves an’ heard a shot,” was the reply. “I figure we shall find him.”
They did, and the sheriff pointed to the heavy Colt’s revolver thrust through the waistband of the dead dwarf.
“Just—plain—murder,” he pronounced.
Sudden nodded. “He killed the man who might have saved him; he shorely had `lost his medicine.’ “
“We’ll plant this one, but the other goes back with us—folk has to see him,” Dealtry decided. “Pity we ain’t got the mask.”
“We have,” Frosty told him, and produced it from a pocket. “I scooped her up as we came away; Miss Joan must ‘a’ dropped it.”
So, hanging limply across the back of a pony, the Boss of Hell City returned to his shattered kingdom.
Out amongst the sagebrush, two young people who had so much to say, sat tongue-tied. The girl, painfully conscious of her masculine attire, kept her head bent, or the warm admiration in the boy’s eyes might have reassured her. He was the first to speak.
“Thank Heaven you are safe, Joan. But why are you here?” Falteringly she told of Belle’s offer. “I had no choice; she would have gone herself if I did not, and that would have left me alone with … I knew I was helping him, but my one thought was to get away. I had to ride hard—Belle said they would shoot.”
“I shall never forgive myself for that. God! I might have killed you.”
“You could not know,” she reminded gently.
“Dealtry and Frosty will be too late,” he said moodily. “That devil has slipped through our fingers, and now …”
She read his thought. “Your friends will believe, Jeff,” she consoled.
“There will always be some to doubt,” he replied bitterly, and then forced a smile to his lips. “I’m an ungrateful cuss, Joan. After all, you have escaped from that dog, and I am free of one horrible suspicion; Dealtry knows now that it was Lander who shot his son.”
“Oh, Jeff, I am so glad,” she cried. “Of course, I never believed …” She broke off breathlessly, and then added, “you will come back to the Double K now?”
“Yes, I must take my medicine,” he replied.
“I don’t think it will be a very bad dose,” she smiled happily. “Let’s go at once.”
He was turning his horse when an exclamation of dismay arrested him.
“Not that way, Jeff; I can’t be seen in these awful clothes.”
“But you make the prettiest kind of boy, Joan,” he protested. “The outfit will be falling in love with you all over again, and I’ll have to lick the lot of them.” He paused, fearing he might have offended, but her downcast eyes and flushed cheeks did not indicate anger. “I’ve no right to talk like this, but while I was in that living tomb, I used to have visions of you as the wife of another man, and it was torment. Tell me, dear, is there …?”
Joan Keith was no coquette. She shook her head, and said softly, “It was always you, Jeff. Even when I could not but believe—the worst, I—still—cared.”
Perhaps the horses understood, or had also something to say to one another, for without either rider being conscious of movement, they were side by side. Jeff had but to stretch out his arms.
When Sudden and his companions reached Hell City again they were met by Mart Merry, who surveyed the red-masked, gruesome burden they brought with callous complacency.
“So yu got him?” he said. “Where’s Joan?” The information produced a hoarse chuckle. “Durn that boy; we get him outa one scrape an’ right off he tumbles into another,” quoth the hardened bachelor. “It looks like Ken will have his own way after all.” He turned to the sheriff. “Mighty near straightened up here. A few made their getaway, but we’ve some prisoners for yu. Come an’ look ‘em over.”
Apart from the shattered gate, and the fact that men were digging holes in the corral, the bandit town wore its customary appearance. Near the whipping-post was a group of bound men, among them Squint.
“Where’s Roden?” Sudden asked.
“He stopped a slug an’ it stopped him,” the ruffian replied. Dirk too was there. The puncher pointed to him. “He warn’t one o’ the gang—just ran the saloon—got a wife an’ kids, too,” he said.
The sheriff looked at the other prisoners. “Did this fella fight against us?” he enquired, and when several of them growled a sullen negative, gave orders for his release.
The moment he was free the saloon-keeper looked for his benefactor, but Sudden had vanished; he did not like being thanked. Moreover he wanted Nigger, so he and Frosty used the secret exit and having regained their own steeds, set out for the Twin Diamond.
“Satan’s saddle warn’t on the black nor any o’ the other hosses,” Frosty remarked. “D’yu reckon the Dalroy woman hived it?”
“Likely,” his friend replied.
“Bet it was worth takin’,” the Double K rider ruminated, and with a sly glance, “Why didn’t yu go with her, Jim? She’s as pretty as a picture, an’ she’ll have a wad—now.”
“When a man marries he wants more’n a picture, even if it does have a gold frame,” Sudden told him. “I got somethin’ to do before I start fussin’ around females.”
And Frosty, who knew what that “somethin’ ” was, had nothing to say.
Chapter XXVII
The day following the fall of Hell City was one of rejoicing tempered with regret, for casualties had not been confined to the conquered; there were gaps in both outfits, Dugout and Red Rock had lost citizens, and the wounded were many. But the job was done, thoroughly.
Sudden: Rides Again Page 25