The Collected Westerns of William MacLeod Raine: 21 Novels in One Volume

by Unknown

  His sentence hung suspended in air, but the young woman understood its significance.

  "No. The letter's just a--a wail of despair. She--talks of suicide. Kirby, I've got to get to Denver on the next train. Find out when it leaves. And I'll send a telegram to her to-night telling her I'll fix it. I will too."

  "Sure. That's the way to talk. Be reasonable an' everything'll work out fine. Write your wire an' I'll take it right to the office. Soon as I've got the train schedule I'll come back."

  "You're a good pal, Kirby. I always knew you were."

  For a moment her left hand fell in his. He looked down at the small, firm, sunbrowned fist. That hand was, as Browning has written, a woman in itself, but it was a woman competent, unafraid, trained hard as nails. She would go through with whatever she set out to do.

  As his eyes rested on the fingers there came to him a swift, unreasoning prescience of impending tragedy. To what dark destiny was she moving?

  CHAPTER IV

  NOT ALWAYS TWO TO MAKE A QUARREL

  Kirby put Wild Rose on the morning train for Denver. She had escaped from the doctor by sheer force of will. The night had been a wretched one, almost sleepless, and she knew that her fever would rise in the afternoon. But that could not be helped. She had more important business than her health to attend to just now.

  Ordinarily Rose bloomed with vitality, but this morning she looked tired and worn. In her eyes there was a hard brilliancy Kirby did not like to see. He knew from of old the fire that could blaze in her heart, the insurgent impulses that could sweep her into recklessness. What would she do if the worst she feared turned out to be true?

  "Good luck," she called through the open window as the train pulled out. "Beat Cole, Kirby."

  "Good luck to you," he answered. "Write me soon as you find out how things are."

  But as he walked from the station his heart misgave him. Why had he let her go alone, knowing as he did how swift she blazed to passion when wrong was done those she loved? It was easy enough to say that she had refused to let him go with her, though he had several times offered. The fact remained that she might need a friend at hand, might need him the worst way.

  All through breakfast he was ridden by the fear of trouble on her horizon. Comrades stopped to slap him on the back and wish him good luck in the finals, and though he made the proper answers it was with the surface of a mind almost wholly preoccupied with another matter.

  While he was rising from the table he made a decision in the flash of an eye. He would join Rose in Denver at once. Already dozens of cars were taking the road. There would be a vacant place in some one of them.

  He found a party just setting out for Denver and easily made arrangements to take the unfilled seat in the tonneau.

  By the middle of the afternoon he was at a boarding-house on Cherokee Street inquiring for Miss Rose McLean. She was out, and the landlady did not know when she would be back. Probably after her sister got home from work.

  Lane wandered down to Curtis Street, sat through a part of a movie, then restlessly took his way up Seventeenth. He had an uncle and two cousins living in Denver. With the uncle he was on bad terms, and with his cousins on no terms at all. It had been ten years since he had seen either James Cunningham, Jr., or his brother Jack. Why not call on them and renew acquaintance?

  He went into a drug-store and looked the name up in a telephone book. His cousin James had an office in the Equitable Building. He hung the book up on the hook and turned to go. As he did so he came face to face with Rose McLean.

  "You--here!" she cried.

  "Yes, I--I had business in Denver," he explained.

  "Like fun you had! You came because--" She stopped abruptly, struck by another phase of the situation. "Did you leave Cheyenne without riding to-day?"

  "I didn't want to ride. I'm fed up on ridin'."

  "You threw away the championship and a thousand-dollar prize to--to--"

  "You're forgettin' Cole Sanborn," he laughed. "No, honest, I came on business. But since I'm here--say, Rose, where can we have a talk? Let's go up to the mezzanine gallery at the Albany. It's right next door."

  He took her into the Albany Hotel. They stepped out of the elevator at the second floor and he found a settee in a corner where they might be alone. It struck him that the shadows in her eyes had deepened. She was, he could see plainly, laboring under a tension of repressed excitement. The misery of her soul leaped out at him when she looked his way.

  "Have you anything to tell me?" he asked, and his low, gentle voice was a comfort to her raw nerves.

  "It's a man, just as I thought--the man she works for."

  "Is he married?"

  "No. Going to be soon, the papers say. He's a wealthy promoter. His name's Cunningham."

  "What Cunningham?" In his astonishment the words seemed to leap from him of their own volition.

  "James Cunningham, a big land and mining man. You must have heard of him."

  "Yes, I've heard of him. Are you sure?"

  She nodded. "Esther won't tell me a thing. She's shielding him. But I went through her letters and found a note from him. It's signed 'J. C.' I accused him point-blank to her and she just put her head down on her arms and sobbed. I know he's the man."

  "What do you mean to do?"

  "I mean to have a talk with him first off. I'll make him do what's right."

  "How?"

  "I don't know how, but I will," she cried wildly. "If he don't I'll settle with him. Nothing's too bad for a man like that."

  He shook his head. "Not the best way, Rose. Let's be sure of every move we make. Let's check up on this man before we lay down the law to him."

  Some arresting quality in him held her eye. He had sloughed the gay devil-may-care boyishness of the range and taken on a look of strong patience new in her experience of him. But she was worn out and nervous. The pain in her arm throbbed feverishly. Her emotions had held her on a rack for many hours. There was in her no reserve power of endurance.

  "No, I'm going to see him and have it out," she flung back.

  "Then let me go with you when you see him. You're sick. You ought to be in bed right now. You're in no condition to face it alone."

  "Oh, don't baby me, Kirby!" she burst out. "I'm all right. What's it matter if I am fagged. Don't you see? I'm crazy about Esther. I've got to get it settled. I can rest afterward."

  "Will it do any harm to take a friend along when you go to see this man?"

  "Yes. I don't want him to think I'm afraid of him. You're not in this, Kirby. Esther is my little sister, not yours."

  "True enough." A sardonic, mirthless smile touched his face. "But James Cunningham is my uncle, not yours."

  "Your uncle?" She rose, staring at him with big, dilated eyes. "He's your uncle, the man who--who--"

  "Yes, an' I know him better than you do. We've got to use finesse--"

  "I see." Her eyes attacked him scornfully. "You think we'd better not face him with what he's done. You think we'd better go easy on him. Uncle's rich, and he might not like plain words. Oh, I understand now."

  Wild Rose flung out a gesture that brushed him from her friendship. She moved past him blazing with anger.

  He was at the elevator cage almost as soon as she.

  "Listen, Rose. You know better than that. I told you he was my uncle because you'd find it out if I'm goin' to help you. He's no friend of mine, but I know him. He's strong. You can't drive him by threats."

  The elevator slid down and stopped. The door of it opened.

  "Will you stand aside, sir?" Rose demanded. "I won't have anything to do with any of that villain's family. Don't ever speak to me again."

  She stepped into the car. The door clanged shut. Kirby was left standing alone.

  CHAPTER V

  COUSINS MEET

  With the aid of a tiny looking-glass a young woman was powdering her nose. Lane interrupted her to ask if he might see Mr. Cunningham.

  "Name, please?" she parroted pertl
y, and pressed a button in the switchboard before her.

  Presently she reached for the powder-puff again. "Says to come right in. Door 't end o' the hall."

  Kirby entered. A man sat at a desk telephoning. He was smooth-shaven and rather heavy-set, a year or two beyond thirty, with thinning hair on the top of his head. His eyes in repose were hard and chill. From the conversation his visitor gathered that he was a captain in the Red Cross drive that was on.

  As he hung up the receiver the man rose, brisk and smiling, hand outstretched. "Glad to meet you, Cousin Kirby. When did you reach town? And how long are you going to stay?"

  "Got in hour an' a half ago. How are you, James?"

  "Busy, but not too busy to meet old friends. Let me see. I haven't seen you since you were ten years old, have I?"

  "I was about twelve. It was when my father moved to Wyoming."

  "Well, I'm glad to see you. Where you staying? Eat lunch with me to-morrow, can't you? I'll try to get Jack too."

  "Suits me fine," agreed Kirby.

  "Anything I can do for you in the meantime?"

  "Yes. I want to see Uncle James."

  There was a film of wariness in the eyes of the oil broker as he looked at the straight, clean-built young cattleman. He knew that the strong face, brown as Wyoming, expressed a pungent personality back of which was dynamic force. What did Lane want with his uncle? They had quarreled. His cousin knew that. Did young Lane expect him to back his side of the quarrel? Or did he want to win back favor with James Cunningham, Senior, millionaire?

  Kirby smiled. He guessed what the other was thinking. "I don't want to interfere in your friendship with him. All I need is his address and a little information. I've come to have another row with him, I reckon."

  The interest in Cunningham's eyes quickened. He laughed. "Aren't you in bad enough already with Uncle? Why another quarrel?"

  "This isn't on my own account. There's a girl in his office--"

  A rap on the door interrupted Kirby. A young man walked into the room. He was a good-looking young exquisite, dark-eyed and black-haired. His clothes had been made by one of the best tailors in New York. Moreover, he knew how to wear them.

  James Cunningham, Junior, introduced him to Kirby as his cousin Jack. After a few moments of talk the broker reverted to the subject of their previous talk.

  "Kirby was just telling me that he has come to Denver to meet Uncle James," he explained to his brother. "Some difficulty with him, I understand."

  Jack Cunningham's black eyes fastened on his cousin. He waited for further information. It was plain he was interested.

  "I'm not quite sure of my facts," Lane said. "But there's evidence to show that he has ruined a young girl in his office. She practically admits that he's the man. I happen to be a friend of her family, an' I'm goin' to call him to account. He can't get away with it."

  Kirby chanced to be looking at his cousin Jack. What he saw in that young man's eyes surprised him. There were astonishment, incredulity, and finally a cunning narrowing of the black pupils.

  It was James who spoke. His face was grave. "That's a serious charge, Kirby," he said. "What is the name of the young woman?"

  "I'd rather not give it--except to Uncle James himself."

  "Better write it," suggested Jack with a reminiscent laugh. "He's a bit impetuous. I saw him throw a man down the stairs yesterday. Picked the fellow up at the foot of the flight. He certainly looked as though he'd like to murder our dear uncle."

  "What I'd like to know is this," said Lane. "What sort of a reputation has Uncle James in this way? Have you ever heard of his bein' in anything of this sort before?"

  "No, I haven't," James said promptly.

  Jack shrugged. "I wouldn't pick nunky for exactly a moral man," he said flippantly. "His idea of living is to grab all the easy things he can."

  "Where can I see him most easily? At his office?" asked Kirby.

  "He drove down to Colorado Springs to-day on business. At least he told me he was going. Don't know whether he expects to get back to-night or not. He lives at the Paradox Apartments," Jack said.

  "Prob'ly I'd better see him there rather than at his office."

  "Hope you have a pleasant time with the old boy," Jack murmured. "Don't think I'd care to be a champion of dames where he's concerned. He's a damned cantankerous old brute. I'll say that for him."

  James arranged a place of meeting for luncheon next day. The young cattleman left. He knew from the fidgety manner of Jack that he had some important business he was anxious to talk over with his brother.

  CHAPTER VI

  LIGHTS OUT

  It was five minutes to ten by his watch when Kirby entered the Paradox Apartments. The bulletin board told him that his uncle's apartment was 12. He did not take the self-serve elevator, but the stairs. The hall on the second floor was dark. Since he did not know whether the rooms he wanted were on this floor or the next he knocked at a door.

  Kirby thought he heard the whisper of voices and he knocked again. He had to rap a third time before the door was opened.

  "What is it? What do you want?"

  If ever Lane had seen stark, naked fear in a human face, it stared at him out of that of the woman in front of him. She was a tall, angular woman of a harsh, forbidding countenance, flat-breasted and middle-aged. Behind her, farther back in the room, the roughrider caught a glimpse of a fat, gross, ashen-faced man fleeing toward the inner door of a bedroom to escape being seen. He was thrusting into his coat pocket what looked to the man in the hall like a revolver.

  "Can you tell me where James Cunningham's apartment is?" asked Kirby.

  The woman gasped. The hand on the doorknob was trembling violently. Something clicked in her throat when the dry lips tried to frame an answer.

  "Head o' the stairs--right hand," she managed to get out, then shut the door swiftly in the face of the man whose simple question had so shocked her.

  Kirby heard the latch released from its catch. The key in the lock below also turned.

  "She's takin' no chances," he murmured. "Now I wonder why both her an' my fat friend are so darned worried. Who were they lookin' for when they opened the door an' saw me? An' why did it get her goat when I asked where Uncle James lived?"

  As he took the treads that brought him to the next landing the cattleman had an impression of a light being flashed off somewhere. He turned to the right as the woman below had directed.

  The first door had on the panel a card with his uncle's name. He knocked, and at the same instant noticed that the door was ajar. No answer came. His finger found the electric push button. He could hear it buzzing inside. Twice he pushed it.

  "Nobody at home, looks like," he said to himself. "Well, I reckon I'll step in an' leave a note. Or maybe I'll wait. If the door's open he's liable to be right back."

  He stepped into the room. It was dark. His fingers groped along the wall for the button to throw on the light. Before he found it a sound startled him.

  It was the soft faint panting of some one breathing.

  He was a man whose nerves were under the best of control, but the cold feet of mice pattered up and down his spine. Something was wrong. The sixth sense of danger that comes to some men who live constantly in peril was warning him.

  "Who's there?" he asked sharply.

  No voice replied, but there was a faint rustle of some one or some thing stirring.

  He waited, crouched in the darkness.

  There came another vague rustle of movement. And presently another, this time closer. Every sense in him was alert, keyed up to closest attention. He knew that some one, for some sinister purpose, had come into this apartment and been trapped here by him.

  The moments flew. He thought he could hear his hammering heart. A stifled gasp, a dozen feet from him, was just audible.

  He leaped for the sound. His outflung hand struck an arm and slid down it, caught at a small wrist, and fastened there. In the fraction of a second left him he realized, beyond
question, that it was a woman he had assaulted.

  The hand was wrenched from him. There came a zigzag flash of lightning searing his brain, a crash that filled the world for him--and he floated into unconsciousness.

  CHAPTER VII

  FOUL PLAY

  Lane came back painfully to a world of darkness. His head throbbed distressingly. Querulously he wondered where he was and what had taken place.

  He drew the fingers of his outstretched hand along the nap of a rug and he knew he was on the floor. Then his mind cleared and he remembered that a woman's hand had been imprisoned in his just before his brain stopped functioning.