by Fran Striker
Chapter XVIII
A GAMBLER TALKS
The masked man studied Vince and then the others in turn. He could feelthe electric tension in the room. The killers were motionless andsilent, returning his gaze with crafty eyes, watching for the slightestrelaxation that would give them the split second required to drop a handand fire from the hip. The Lone Ranger knew this type, and didn'tunderestimate them. They were expert gunmen who would kill withoutcompunction. When he spoke, his voice was low, but every word was sharpand distinct.
"It's something of a surprise to learn that three men who are wanted sobadly by the law have stayed close by. You might have done better tohave gotten out of Texas."
None of the men replied. Penelope watched the masked man as ifhypnotized. Twice now he had arrived at a crisis. In spite of herself,she found that she was trusting him.
"Of course, you felt secure here," the Lone Ranger went on. "You knewthat Thunder Mountain would make a fine hideout in case any law menmanaged to get through the Gap. You cleared out a trail and a campsite,and then concealed it. You felt pretty safe, or you wouldn't have stayedhere."
"Won't yuh cut us loose?" pleaded Vince.
"Where are the rest of the men who work here?" asked the masked man.
"They went tuh town," said Vince, "right after the buryin'. They made asort o' holiday of it. They'll be comin' back."
The masked man turned slightly toward Penny, still however watching theothers. He would ask later about the burial.
"How many of those other men are wanted by the law?"
"I don't know. I don't know but the whole pack of them are crooked. Theymust be. If they weren't, they'd get out, like Yuma did."
"Yuma?"
"He tried to persuade me to leave here. I wish to Heaven I could have. Ithought I could depend on Uncle Bryant, but now--" Penny broke off indoubt.
The Lone Ranger, realizing that the girl could add a great deal to hisunderstanding of events, pressed her for more details.
"There's time to talk later," she said.
"Talk now. Tell me more about this man, Yuma."
Penny explained how she had trusted her uncle in spite of all that hadbeen said, how she had tried to account for his unconcern in the face ofevents, by thinking that his eyes must be failing. Yuma, she explained,had tried to tell her that she was mistaken in her trust. Yuma had beenfired at by Bryant; had fought with him, and finally had left the Basin.She explained that it was Bryant's belief in Mort's thin alibi formurdering Rebecca that had finally showed her her mistake, and now theclincher was the paper Bryant had left for her to sign.
The Lone Ranger broke in from time to time with questions that broughtout the story of Rebecca and the children upstairs. Penny told him thatshe felt compelled to remain for the sake of the children until Walliereturned. Gimlet, she said, was too old to take the responsibility.
"So you believe in Yuma?"
Penny nodded, her eyes bright with unshed tears.
"I--I must."
"The last time we met," the masked man said, "I offered you somethingthat you refused. I'm going to offer it again, and what I said thenstill goes." He reached one hand into a pocket, then dropped a silverbullet on the table. The men looked at it curiously. Penny glanced atit, then at the steady, level eyes behind the mask. For a time she saidnothing. Then, "It means a lot to you to find out who killed those TexasRangers, doesn't it?"
The Lone Ranger nodded. "Please," he said, "pick up that bullet. Youmight need it. Remember what I told you to do with it. You mentioned anold man named Gimlet."
"Yes?"
"Gimlet is dead."
The announcement was an obvious surprise to everyone. And to Penny itwas much more. It was a severe shock.
"He was stabbed," the masked man explained. "I was with him when he diedin the bunkhouse."
"But what was he doing there? He slept in the house here."
"I don't know why he went to the bunkhouse, but that's where I foundhim. He gave me the name of the man."
"_Who?_"
The Lone Ranger spoke slowly. "He named a fellow you mentioned a fewminutes ago. He said, 'Yuma.'"
"I don't believe it!" declared Penny hotly. "Yuma was Gimlet's friend.Yuma was my friend too. He tried to reason with Uncle Bryant, and whenhe couldn't he left here. Oh, no, no, no! Yuma wouldn't murder anyone,least of all old Gimlet." Penny picked up the silver bullet and clutchedit in her tiny fist. "There must be a mistake," she sobbed.
"If Yuma didn't kill him," said the Lone Ranger, "we'll soon know whodid. In the meantime, I'll take this paper to Bryant to see what he hasto say about it."
Lonergan, the gambler-lawyer, spoke.
"D'you mind," he drawled in a cocksure manner, "if I have a few words tosay?"
"Well?"
"It strikes me, stranger, that you're in a hell of a spot right now, andyou don't know just what to do about it. You're like the gent that had awildcat by the tail and didn't dare let go."
"Go on," snapped the masked man.
Lonergan's lean fingers, resting on the table, beat a soft rhythm. Hespoke with an assurance that was annoying, to say the least.
"You've ravaged the privacy of this ranch and illegally entered aprivate home without permission. You've flaunted that gun in our facesand asked a lot of questions. You've stolen a legal form that isn'tyours by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it's none of yourdamned business what goes on here."
"Any more to say, Lonergan?"
"Plenty. You can't stay here from now on. You don't know when the restof the men will come back and make it hot for you. You can't prove anyof the charges you've made or hinted at, or anything that the girl hassaid. Besides, I don't expect the law would listen to you while you'rewearin' that mask. You'd like to turn us all over to the law and collectsome rewards, but that'd be downright hard to handle because there'squite a few of us here and you'd have to take us through the Gap and runthe risk of meeting our friends. You can't very well take the girl andthe four youngsters away with you for the same reason. You leave herealone, and we'll simply make out another form like the one you've stuckin your pocket and have the signatures made all over again. When youleave, there's a damn good chance that one of us will drill you."
Penny thought she saw uneasiness in the masked man. She glanced from himto Lonergan while she too wondered what could be done. She wantednothing less than to be left there with those killers, especially afterwhat she had heard about Gimlet and Yuma. Now there would be no one towitness whatever might transpire.
"Have you," asked the masked man, "any propositions?"
Penny saw the wink that Lonergan showed Sawtell; she wondered if themasked man saw it too.
"Maybe so," the gambler said. "You seem to know a lot about things here.Now just forget what you know, take off that mask, and let us see whoyou are, and then either join up with us or ride away and keep yourmouth shut."
The tall stranger seemed to be considering. Penny wanted to scream out awarning that he would never be allowed to leave the place alive. Hewould be killed, no matter what his decision might be.
Lonergan went on.
"You must have brains enough to realize that you wouldn't be able toprove that any of us had a hand in murdering those Texas Rangers. Why,we could even prove we _didn't_ do it, by the footprints of an Indianaround the place where they've been buried."
So the graves had been found. The masked man added this minute detail tohis stored-up knowledge.
"Anyone can see," went on Lonergan, "that they must have been ambushedby Indians. Maybe old Gimlet, who took a message in to town for CaptainBlythe, had a hand in framing them for murder. Gimlet might have had anold grudge he wanted to settle with Texas Rangers. He's been around herefor a good many years, you know."
"I admit," the masked man said, "it would be pretty hard to prove whokilled those men, but cattle-stealing is a different matter.Furthermore, the law wants you men for other things."
"As for _us_," Lonergan argued, "t
he law'd have to find us first. As forthe cattle-stealing, when we sell cattle the brands are _right_. Wehaven't sold a head that hasn't had the Cavendish brand."
Penny felt the world fall still further apart when the man she had begunto trust said, "What if I join up with you?"
Lombard and Sawtell looked admiringly at Lonergan and more than everappreciated his glib tongue.
"In that case, you'd split the proceeds like the rest of us."
"But what about the stolen cattle?"
Lonergan shook his head.
"Never can be traced here," he said. "We bring them down the mountaintrail from the top of Thunder Mountain; we shove them in with older cowsand run a new brand. We got a dozen brands recorded to work with. Wekeep the cattle here until the scar has healed to look old; meanwhile wetake cattle from the last batch up the trail and sell them. We don'thave no trouble at all."
Penelope could see Lonergan's purpose. He was a gambler and playing athis game. He told everything that would occupy time, knowing that at anyminute some of the men would be returning from Red Oak. He was bettingthat the masked man could never use that information.
She saw the tall stranger apparently considering the offer to join thegang. Why, in the name of Heaven, couldn't this masked man realize whatLonergan was doing? Why didn't he come here with some concrete planinstead of bungling in to find himself so helpless, even though he helda gun on the others?
"You have a pretty well-greased machine for stealing cattle," the LoneRanger said in admiration, "and as you say, it would be almostimpossible for me to do much in fighting against you."
"That's right," agreed Lonergan. "Now put up that gun and take off themask, an' we'll talk."
"But first tell me who I'm taking orders from."
"Sawtell."
The masked man shook his head.
"There's someone giving him orders; who is that?"
A crafty look came into Lonergan's cadaverous face.
"You mentioned his name a while ago." He glanced at Penny, and said,"Yuma."
Hoofs clattered close outside the house. Penny felt that now theresurely would be a climax of events, and she was right. The masked man'smanner changed abruptly. He listened for a moment as the hoofbeatsstopped. A trace of a smile showed on his lips. His uncertainty gave wayto grim and vigorous speech.
"You've wondered and asked," he snapped, "what I was going to do here.Now you'll find out."
Something about the transformation in the masked man made Penny want toshout. She felt that her trust in him had not been misplaced after all.The Lone Ranger shoved the table back, then kicked a hooked rug awayfrom its place on the plank floor.
"This house has stood here a good many years," he said. "Before Bryantcame here, it was used as a hiding place for army supplies when theIndians were bad. I've been told by a lot of old timers that there's avault beneath this floor."
Penny knew about the vault. The trap door in the floor that led to ithad been hidden by the carpet, but now it was exposed.
"That vault," continued the masked man, "was also used to hold prisonerswhen it wasn't convenient to move them. Well, it's going to be used tohold prisoners again."
Watching the men, still holding his gun on them, he threw back the trapdoor with a bang.
Lonergan's poker face was changed. Baffled fury showed in his black,snapping eyes. Lombard swore and Sawtell squinted grimly while his lipscompressed to a thin line.
"Get down there," commanded the masked man. "All of you."
Lonergan went first, very slowly, dragging his steps until the maskedman prodded him hard with his gun, after disarming him.
"You two can take those men you've tied up," the Lone Ranger toldSawtell and Lombard, as he drew their guns from the holsters and tossedthem aside.
Despite their pleas, Vince and Jeb were hauled down the steep androtting ladder to the damp windowless vault, walled in by stone, beneaththe floor.
"At least untie us," cried Vince.
"Your pals can do that."
"It's unholy," cried Jeb. "Yuh can't put me with them killers. Thisain't the will o' the Lord fer me tuh suffer sech company."
"At least," yelled Lombard from the depths, "give us a light down here."
The Lone Ranger dropped the door in place and bolted it.
"It'll be hard for them to open it from down below," he told Penelope,"but just to make sure they stay there for the time being, we'll braceit."
He moved the heavy table over the trap door, and on this piled a chair.Five-foot lengths of firewood were stacked near the fireplace, and oneof these reached from the chair to the rafter of the room.
"If they want to push their way out of that," commented the masked man,"they'll have to push the roof off this house."
"But Yuma, I know he isn't--"
The Lone Ranger gripped the trembling hand of the girl firmly.
"Please don't jump to conclusions," he admonished her. "We're not goingto take a thing for granted."
"But everything else they said was true. That _must_ be what they'vebeen doing to steal the cattle. The stock here haven't increased innumbers a great deal. Lonergan told the truth about everything else."
"We'll see."
"And that horse that came up. Someone has returned from Red Oak."
The masked man shook his head. "No one has come from Red Oak yet. Thathorse you heard was Silver. I sent him after my friend."
"Me come."
Penny turned sharply and saw Tonto standing in the doorway.
The Indian looked troubled. "You come quick," he told the Lone Ranger."There plenty trouble. Tonto tell you."
The man in the mask nodded quickly. "Remember that bullet," he toldPenny. "Don't worry and take good care of those kids upstairs. You haveplenty of loaded weapons here. If those men below make trouble, shoot awarning through the floor."
The Lone Ranger left the room and went outside with Tonto.