by B. M. Bower
CHAPTER TWENTY: "PICK YOUR FOOTING!"
The three sat irresolutely on their horses at the tunnel's end of theGap, staring out over the valley of the Redwater and at the mountainsbeyond. Bud's face was haggard and the lines of his mouth were hard. Itwas so vast a country in which to look for one little woman who had notgone back to see Jerry's signal!
"I'll bet yuh Sis cleared out," Eddie blurted, looking at Bud eagerly,as if he had been searching for some comforting word. "Sis has got lotsof sand. She used to call me a 'fraid cat all the time when I didn'twant to go where she did. I'll bet she just took Boise and run off withhim. She would, if she made up her mind--and I guess she'd had about asmuch as she could stand, cookin' at Little Lost--"
Bud lifted his head and looked at Eddie like a man newly awakened. "Igave her money to take home for me, to my mother, down Laramie way. Ibegged her to go if she was liable to be in trouble over leaving theranch. But she said she wouldn't go--not unless she was missed. She knewI'd come back to the ranch. I just piled her hands full of bills in thedark and told her to use them if she had to--"
"She might have done it," Jerry hazarded hopefully. "Maybe she did sneakin some other way and get her things. She'd have to take some clothesalong. Women folks always have to pack. By gosh, she could hide Boiseout somewhere and--"
For a young man in danger of being lynched by his boss for horsestealing and waylaid and robbed by a gang notorious in the country,Bud's appetite for risk seemed insatiable that morning. For he added theextreme possibility of breaking his neck by reckless riding in the nexthour.
He swung Sunfish about and jabbed him with the spurs, ducking into thegloom of the Gap as if the two who rode behind were assassins on histrail. Once he spoke, and that was to Sunfish. His tone was savage.
"Damn your lazy hide, you've been through here twice and you've gotdaylight to help--now pick up your feet and travel!"
Sunfish travelled; and the pace he set sent even Jerry gasping now andthen when he came to the worst places, with the sound of galloping hoofsin the distance before him, and Eddie coming along behind and liftinghis voice warningly now and then. Even the Catrockers had held the Gapin respect, and had ridden its devious trail cautiously. But caution wasa meaningless word to Bud just then while a small flame of hope burnedsteadily before him.
The last turn, where on the first trip Sunfish lost Boise and balked fora minute, he made so fast that Sunfish left a patch of yellowish hairon a pointed rock and came into the open snorting fire of wrath. He wentover the rough ground like a bouncing antelope, simply because he wastoo mad to care how many legs he broke. At the peak of rocks he showedan inclination to stop, and Bud, who had been thinking and planningwhile he hoped, pulled him to a stand and waited for the others to comeup. They could not go nearer the corrals without incurring the danger ofbeing overheard, and that must not happen.
"You damn fool," gritted Jerry when he came up with Bud. "If I'd knowedyou wanted to commit suicide I'd a caved your head in with a rock andsaved myself the craziest ride I ever took in m' life!"
"Oh, shut up!" Bud snapped impatiently. "We're here, aren't we? Nowlisten to me, boys. You catch up my horses--Jerry, are you coming alongwith me? You may as well. I'm a deputy sheriff, and if anybody stops youfor whatever you've done, I'll show a warrant for your arrest. And bythunder," he declared with a faint grin, "I'll serve it if I have toto keep you with me. I don't know what you've done, and I don't care. Iwant you. So catch up my horses--and Jerry, you can pack my war-bag androll your bed and mine, if I'm too busy while I'm here."
"You're liable to be busy, all right," Jerry interpolated grimly.
"Well, they won't bother you. Ed, you better get the horses. TakeSunfish, here, and graze him somewhere outa sight. We'll keep going, andwe might have to start suddenly."
"How about Sis? I thought--"
"I'm going to turn Little Lost upside down to find her, if she's here.If she isn't, I'm kinda hoping she went down to mother. She said therewas no other place where she could go. And she'd feel that she had todeliver the money, perhaps--because I must have given her a couple ofthousand dollars. It was quite a roll, mostly in fifties and hundreds,and I'm short that much. I'm just gambling that the size of made herfeel she must go."
"That'd be Sis all over, Mr. Birnie." Eddie glanced around him uneasily.The sun was shining level in his eyes, and sunlight to Eddie had longmeant danger. "I guess we better hurry, then. I'll get the horses downouta sight, and come back here afoot and wait."
"Do that, kid," said Bud, slipping wearily off Sunfish. He gave thereins into Eddie's hand, motioned Jerry with his head to follow, andhurried down the winding path to the corrals. The cool brilliance of themorning, the cheerful warbling of little, wild canaries in the bushesas he passed, for once failed to thrill him with joy of life. He waswondering whether to go straight to the house and search it if necessaryto make sure that she had not been there, or whether Indian cunningwould serve him best. His whole being ached for direct action; his hearttrembled with fear lest he should jeopardize Marian's safety by hisimpetuous haste to help her.
Pop, coming from the stable just as Bud was crossing the corral, settledthe question for him. Pop peered at him sharply, put a hand to the smallof his back and came stepping briskly toward him, his jaw working like asheep eating hay.
"Afoot, air ye?" he exclaimed curiously. "What-fer idea yuh got in yorehead now, young feller? Comin' back here afoot when ye rid two fasthorses? Needn't be afraid of ole Pop--not unless yuh lie to 'im and tryto git somethin' fur nothin'. Made off with Lew's wife, too, didn't ye?Oh, there ain't much gits past ole Pop, even if he ain't the man he usedto be. I seen yuh lookin' at her when yuh oughta been eatin'. I seenyuh! An' her watchin' you when she thought nobuddy'd ketch her at it!Sho! Shucks a'mighty! You been playin' hell all around, now, ain't ye?Needn't lie--I know what my own eyes tells me!"
"You know a lot, then, that I wish I knew. I've been in Crater all thetime, Pop. Did you know Lew was mixed up in a bank robbery yesterday,and the cashier of the bank shot him? The rest of the gang is dead or injail. The sheriff did some good work there for a few minutes."
Pop pinched in his lips and stared at Bud unwinkingly for a minute."Don't lie to me," he warned petulantly. "Went to Crater, did ye? Cashedthem checks, I expect."
Bud pulled his mouth into a rueful grin. "Yes, Pop, I cashed the checks,all right--and here's what's left of the money. I guess," he wenton while he pulled out a small roll of bills and licked his fingerpreparatory to counting them, "I might better have stuck to running myhorses. Poker's sure a fright. The way it can eat into a man's pocket--"
"Went and lost all that money on poker, did ye?" Pop's voice was shrill."After me tellin' yuh how to git it--and showin' yuh how yuh could beatBoise--" the old man's rage choked him. He thrust his face close toBud's and glared venomously.
"Yes, and just to show you I appreciate it, I'm going to give you what'sleft after I've counted off enough to see me through to Spokane. I feelsick, Pop. I want change of air. And as for riding two fast horses toCrater--" he paused while he counted slowly, Pop licking his lips avidlyas he watched,--"why I don't know what you mean. I only ride one horseat a time, Pop, when I'm sober. And I was sober till I hit Crater."
He stopped counting when he reached fifty dollars and gave the rest toPop, who thumbed the bank notes in a frenzy of greed until he saw thathe had two hundred dollars in his possession. The glee which he triedto hide, the crafty suspicion that this was not all of it the returningconviction that Bud was actually almost penniless, and the cunningassumption of senility, was pictured on his face. Pop's poor, miserlysoul was for a minute shamelessly revealed. Distraught though he was,Bud stared and shuddered a little at the spectacle.
"I always said 't you're a good, honest, well-meaning boy," Pop cackled,slyly putting the money out of sight while he patted Bud on theshoulder. "Dave he thought mebby you took and stole Boise--and if I wasyou, Bud, I'd git to Spokane quick as I could and not let Dave ketch ye.
Dave's out now lookin' for ye. If he suspicioned you'd have the gall tocome right back to Little Lost, I expect mebby he'd string yuh up, youngfeller. Dave's got a nasty temper--he has so!"
"There's something else, Pop, that I don't like very well to be accusedof. You say Mrs. Morris is gone. I don't know a thing about that, orabout the horse being gone. I've been in Crater. I'd just got my moneyout of the bank when it was held up, and Lew was shot."
Pop teetered and gummed his tobacco and grinned foxily. "Shucks! I don'tcare nothin' about Lew's wife goin', ner I don't care nothin' much aboutthe horse. They ain't no funral uh mine, Bud. Dave an' Lew, let 'em lookafter their own belongin's."
"They'll have to, far as I'm concerned," said Bud. "What would I wantof a horse I can beat any time I want to run mine? Dave must think I'mscared to ride fast, since Sunday! And Pop, I've got troubles enoughwithout having a woman on my hands. Are you sure Marian's gone?"
"SURE?" Pop snorted. "Honey, she's had to do the cookin' for me an'Jerry--and if I ain't sure--"
Bud did not wait to hear him out. There was Honey, whom he would verymuch like to avoid meeting; so the sooner he made certain of Marian'sdeliberate flight the better, since Honey was not an early riser. Hewent to the house and entered by way of the kitchen, feeling perfectlysure all the while that Pop was watching him. The disorder there wassufficiently convincing that Marian was gone, so he tip-toed across theroom to a door through which he had never seen any one pass save Lew andMarian.
It was her bedroom, meagrely furnished, but in perfect order. On thegoods-box dresser with a wavy-glassed mirror above it, her hair brush,comb and a few cheap toilet necessities lay, with the comb across anail file as if she had put it down hurriedly before going out to servesupper to the men. Marian, then, had not stolen home to pack thingsfor the journey, as Jerry had declared a woman would do. Bud sent alingering glance around the room and closed the door. Hope was stillwith him, but it was darkened now with doubts.
In the kitchen again he hesitated, wanting his guitar and mandolin andyet aware of the foolishness of burdening himself with them now. Foodwas a different matter, however. Dave owed him for more than three weeksof hard work in the hayfield, so Bud collected from the pantry as muchas he could carry, and left the house like a burglar.
Pop was fiddling with the mower that stood in front of the machine shed,plainly waiting for whatever night transpire. And since the bunk-housedoor was in plain view and not so far away as Bud wished it, he wentboldly over to the old man, carrying his plunder on his shoulder.
"Dave owes me for work, Pop, so I took what grub I needed," he explainedwith elaborate candor. "I'll show you what I've got, so you'll know I'mnot taking anything that I've no right to." He set down the sack,opened it and looked up into what appeared to be the largest-muzzledsix-shooter he had ever seen in his life. Sheer astonishment held himthere gaping, half stooped over the sack.
"No ye don't, young feller!" Pop snarled vindictively. "Yuh thinkI'd let a horse thief git off 'n this ranch whilst I'm able to pull atrigger? You fork her that money you got on ye, first thing yuh do! it'smine by rights--I told yuh I'd help ye to win money off 'n the valleycrowd, and I done it. An' what does you do? Never pay a mite ofattention to me after I'd give ye all the inside workin's of thegame--never offer to give me my share--no, by Christmas, you go steal ahorse of my son's and hide him out somewheres, and go lose mighty nearall I helped yuh win, playin' poker! Think I'm goin' to stand for that?Think two hundred dollars is goin' to even things up when I helped ye towin a fortune? Hand over that fifty you got on yuh!"
Very meekly, his face blank, Bud reached into his pocket and got themoney. Without a word he pulled two or three dollars in silver from histrousers pockets and added that to the lot. "Now what?" he wanted toknow.
"Now You'll wait till Dave gits here to hang yuh fer horse-stealing!"shrilled Pop. "Jerry! Oh, Jerry! Where be yuh? I got 'im, byChristmas--I got the horse thief--caught him carryin good grub rightouta the house!"
"Look out, Jerry!" called Bud, glancing quickly toward the bunk-house.
Now, Pop had without doubt been a man difficult to trick in his youth,but he was old, and he was excited, tickled over his easy triumph. Heturned to see what was wrong with Jerry.
"Look out, Pop, you old fool, You'll bust a blood-vessel if you don'tquiet down," Bud censured mockingly, wresting the gun from the clawing,struggling old man in his arms. He was surprised at the strength andagility of Pop, and though he was forcing him backward step by step intothe machine shed, and knew that he was master of the situation, he hadhis hands full.
"Wildcats is nothing to Pop when he gets riled," Jerry grinned, comingup on the run. "I kinda expected something like this. What yuh want donewith him, Bud?"
"Gag him so he can't holler his head off, and then take him along--whenI've got my money back," Bud panted. "Pop, you're about as appreciativeas a buck Injun."
"Going to be hard to pack him so he'll ride," Jerry observed quizzicallywhen Pop, bound and gagged, lay glaring at them behind the bunk-house."He don't quite balance your two grips, Bud. And we do need hat grub."
"You bring the grub--I'll take Pop--" Bud stopped in the act oflifting the old man and listened. Honey's voice was calling Pop, withembellishments such Bud would never have believed a part of Honey'svocabulary. From her speech, she was coming after him, and Pop's jawsworked frantically behind Bud's handkerchief.
Jerry tilted his head toward the luggage he had made a second trip for,picked up Pop, clamped his hand over the mouth that was trying to betraythem, and slipped away through the brush glancing once over his shoulderto make sure that Bud was following him.
They reached the safe screen of branches and stopped there for a minute,listening to Honey's vituperations and her threats of what she would doto Pop if he did not come up and start a fire.
She stopped, and hoofbeats sounded from the main road. Dave and his menwere coming.
In his heart Bud thanked Little Lost for that hidden path through thebushes. He heard Dave asking Honey what was the matter with her, heardthe unwomanly reply of the girl, heard her curse Pop for his neglectof the kitchen stove at that hour of the morning. Heard, too, herquestioning of Dave. Had they found Bud, or Marian?
"If you got 'em together, and didn't string 'em both up to the nearesttree--"
Bud bit his lip and went on, his face aflame with rage at thebrutishness of a girl he had half respected. "Honey!" he whisperedcontemptuously. "What a name for that little beast!"
At the rocks Eddie was waiting with Stopper, upon whom they hurriedlypacked the beds and Bud's luggage. They spoke in whispers when theyspoke at all, and to insure the horse's remaining quiet Eddie had tied acotton rope snugly around its muzzle.
"I'll take Pop," Bud whispered, but Jerry shook his head and once moreshouldered the old fellow as he would carry a bag of grain. So theyslipped back down the trail, took a turn which Bud did not know, andpresently Bud found that Jerry was keeping straight on. Bud made anIndian sign on the chance that Jerry would understand it, and with hisfree hand Jerry replied. He was taking Pop somewhere. They were to waitfor him when they had reached the horses. So they separated for a space.
"This is sure a great country for hideouts, Mr. Birnie," Eddie venturedwhen they had put half a mile between themselves and Little Lost, andhad come upon Smoky, Sunfish and Eddie's horse feeding quietly in atiny, spring-watered basin half surrounded with rocks. "If you know thecountry you can keep dodgin' sheriffs all your life--if you just havegrub enough to last."
"Looks to me as if there aren't many wasted opportunities here," Budanswered with some irony. "Is there an honest man in the whole country,Ed? I'd just like to know."
Eddie hesitated, his eyes anxiously trying to read Bud's meaning and hismood. "Not right around the Sinks, I guess," he replied truthfully. "Upat Crater there are some, and over to Jumpoff. But I guess this valleywould be called pretty tough, all right. It's so full of caves andqueer places it kinda attracts the ones that want to hid
e out." Then hegrinned. "It's lucky for you it's like that, Mr. Birnie, or I don't seehow you'd get away. Now I can show you how to get clear away from herewithout getting caught. But I guess we ought to have breakfast first.I'm pretty hungry. Ain't you? I can build a fire against that crack inthe ledge over there, and the smoke will go away back underneath soit won't show. There's a blow-hole somewhere that draws smoke like achimney."
Jerry came after a little, sniffing bacon. He threw himself down besidethe fire and drew a long breath. "That old skunk's heavier than what youmight think," he observed whimsically. "I packed him down into one ofthem sink holes and untied his feet and left him to scramble out bestway he can. It'll take him longer'n it took me. Having the use of yourhands helps quite a lot. And the use of your mouth to cuss a little.But he'll make it in an hour or two--I'm afraid." He looked at Bud, ahalf-shamed tenderness in his eyes. "It sure was hard to leave him likeI did. It was like walking on your toes past a rattler curled up asleepsomewhere, afraid you might spoil his nap. Only Pop wasn't asleep."He sat up and reached his hand for a cup of coffee which Eddie wasoffering. "Anyway, I had the fun of telling the old devil what Ithought about him," he added, and blew away the steam and took anothersatisfying nip.
"He'll put them on our trail, I suppose," said Bud, biting into a raggedpiece of bread with a half-burned slice of hot bacon on it.
"When he gets to the ranch he will. His poison fangs was sure loadedwhen I left. He said he wanted to cut your heart out for robbing him,and so forth, ad swearum. We'd best not leave any trail."
"We ain't going to," Eddie assured him eagerly. "I'm glad being withthe Catrockers is going to do some good, Mr. Birnie. It'll help you gitaway, and that'll help find Sis. I guess she hit down where you live,maybe. How far can your horse travel to-day--if he has to?"
Bud looked across to where Sunfish, having rolled in a wet spot nearthe spring and muddied himself to his satisfaction, was greedily at workupon a patch of grass. "If he has to, till he drops in his tracks. Andthat won't be for many a mile, kid. He's thoroughbred; a thoroughbrednever knows when to quit."
"Well, there ain't any speedy trail ahead of us today," Eddie vouchsafedcheeringly. "There's half-a mile maybe where we can gallop, and the restis a case of picking your footing."
"Let's begin picking it, then," said Bud, and got up, reaching for hisbridle.
By devious ways it was that Eddie led them out of that sinister countrysurrounding the Sinks. In the beginning Bud and Jerry exchanged glances,and looked at their guns, believing that it would be through CatrockCanyon they would have to ride. Eddie, riding soberly in the lead, hadyet a certain youthful sense of his importance. "They'll never think offollowing yuh this way, unless old Pop Truman gits back in time to tell'em I'm travelling with yuh," he observed once when they had penetratedbeyond the neighborhood of caves and blow-holes and were riding safelydown a canyon that offered few chances of their being observed save fromthe front, which did not concern them.
"I guess you don't know old Pop is about the ringeader of theCatrockers. Er he was, till he began to git kinda childish abouthoarding money, and then Dave stepped in. And Mr. Birnie, I guess you'dhave been dead when you first came there, if it hadn't been that Daveand Pop wanted to give you a chance to get a lot of money off of Jeff'sbunch. Lew was telling how you kept cleaning up, and he said right alongthat they was taking too much risk having you around. Lew said he betyou was a detective. Are you, Mr. Birnie?"
Bud was riding with his shoulders sagged forward, his thoughts withMarian--wherever she was. He had been convinced that she was not atLittle Lost, that she had started for Laramie. But now that he was awayfrom that evil spot his doubts returned. What if she were still in theneighborhood--what if they found her? Memory of Honey's vindictivenessmade him shiver, Honey was the kind of woman who would kill.
"I am, from now on, kid," he said despondently. "We're going to ridetill we find your sister. And if those hell-hounds got her--"
"They didn't, from the way Honey talked," Jerry comforted. "We'll findher at Laramie, don't you ever think we won't!"